continual readiness that which may furnish us abundantly with meditations in this kind It was a custome in former times for men to make their Sepulchres in their Gardens to mind them of death in the midst of the pleasures of this life This present Work may not unfitly be termed a Garden wherein whosoever takes a dayly walk may gather in the several beds thereof those wholsome flowers and hearbs which being distilled by serious meditation will prove water of life to a fainting spirit in some he shall find instruction in some incitation in others consolalion in all profit Here thou shalt find that Lethall Gourd sprung up by Adam his trausgression that makes all his posterity cry out There is Death in the Pot. There thou mayst gather Hearbs of Grace as a counterpoyson against the malignity of death in a third there is the spiritual Heliotropium opening with joy to the Son of Righteousness the hope of a blessed Resurrection Do the glittering shews of outward things make thee begin to over-fancy them here thou shalt find how little they will avail in death the consideration whereof will make them like that precious stone which being put into the mouth of a dead man loseth its vertue art thou over-burthened with afflictions here thou art supported in the expectation of a far more exceeding weight of glory art thou ready to faint under thy labours here thou shalt find a time of rest and of reaping doth the time seem over-long that thy patience begins to flag here thou hast a promise of thy Saviours speedy coming In a word be thy estate and condition what it will be here thou mayst have both directions to guide thee and comforts to support thee in thy journey on earth till thou arrive at thy Country in Heaven Certainly there is no man can sleight and undervalue so deserving a Work but he shall discover himself either to be ignorant or idle or ill affected especially when so judicious and learned men have thought it a fit concomitant for their several Labours which they have added for the accomplishment of it Therefore take it in good worth improve it for the good of thy Soul that being armed and prepared for death when it shall approach thou mayst have no more to do but to die and mayst end thy dayes in a stedfast assurance That thy sins shall be blotted out when the time of Refreshing shall come from the presence of the LORD Thine in Him who is the Resurrection and the Life H. W. THE TABLE THE Stewards Summons Page 1. TEXT LUKE 16.2 Give an Account of thy Stewardship for thou mayst be no longer Steward The Praise of Mourning Page 17. ECCLESIASTES 7.2 It is better to go to the House of Mourning then to the House of Feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart Deliverance from the King of Fears Page 33. HEBREWS 2.14 15. 14. For as much then as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil 15. And deliver them who through the fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage The Perfection of Patience Page 47. JAMES 1.4 But let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing A Restraint of exorbitant Passion Page 61. 2 SAM 12.22 23. 22. And he said while the Child was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the Child may live 23. But now he is dead wherefore should I fast Can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me The Sting of Death c. Page 73. 1 COR. 15.56 The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law The Destruction of the Destroyer c. Page 81. 1 COR. 15.16 The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death The Worlds Losse and the Righteous Mans Gain Page 91. ISAIAH 57.1 And merciful men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come The Good-Mans Epitaph c. Page 107. REVEL 14.13 I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their Works do follow them The Christians Center c. Page 117. ROM 14.7 8. 7. For none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself 8. For whether we live we live to the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords The Improvement of Time c. Page 129. 1 COR. 7.29 30 31. 29. But this I say Brethren the time is short it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none 30. And they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as if they rejoiced not and they that buy as though they possessed not 31. And they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away Security Surprized c. Page 143. 1 THESSAL 5.3 For when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape A Christians Victory or Conquest over Deaths Enmity Page 159. 1 COR. 15.26 The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death The great Tribunal or Gods Scrutiny of Mans Secrets Page 171. ECCLES 12.14 For God will bring every work into Jungement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evill A Tryall of Sincerity c. Page 181. ISAIAH 26.8 9. 8. Yea in the way of thy judgments O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee 9. With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early for when thy judgments are in the earth the Inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness The Expectation of Christs Coming c. Page 195. PHIL. 3.20 21. 20. For our conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ 21. Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Christs Precept and Promise or Security against Death Page 211. JOHN 8.51 Verily verily I say unto you if a man keep my saying he shall never see Death The Young-mans Liberty and Limits c. Page 223. ECCLESIAST 11.9 Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the dayes of thy youth and walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these
things God will bring thee into Judgment Abrahams Purchase c. Page 233. GEN. 23.4 I am a stranger and a sojourner among you give me a possession of a burying place with you that I may bury my dead out of my sight Gods Esteem of the Death of his Saints Page 243. PSAL. 116.15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints The desire of the Saints after immortal Glory Page 251. 2 COR. 5.2 For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven The Careless Merchant c. Page 265. MAT. 16.26 What is man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul Christs second Advent c. Page 273. REVEL 22.12 Behold I come shortly and my reward is with me to give every man according to his works The Saints longing for the great Epiphany Page 263. TITUS 2.13 Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Lifes Apparition and Mans Dissolution Page 291. JAMES 4.14 For what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away Saint Pauls Trumpet c. Page 303. ROM 13.11 And that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep The Righteous Mans resting-place c. Page 313. GEN. 15.1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abraham saying Fear not Abraham I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward The righteous Judge c. Page 323. JAM 2.12 So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty Sins Stipend and Gods Munificence Page 335. ROM 6.23 For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Profit of Afflictions c. Page 343. HEB. 12.10 For they verily for a few dayes chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness Spiritual Hearts-ease c. Page 355. JOHN 14.1 2 3. 1. Let not your hearts be troubled believe in God believe also in me 2. In my Fathers house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you 3. And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there you may be also Faiths Triumph over the greatest Tryals Page 367. HEB. 11.17 By Faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up his Son Isaac and he that had received the promise offered up his only begotten Son The Priviledge of the Faithful c. Page 377. IPET 3.7 As Heirs together of the grace of life Peace in Death c. Page 387. LUKE 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word The Vital Fountain c. Page 399. JOHN 11.25 26. 25. Jesus said unto her I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live 26. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die Death in Birth c. Page 411. GEN. 35.19 And Rachel died The Death of Sin and life of Grace Page 419. ROM 6.11 Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Hopes Anchor-Hold c. Page 433. 1 COR. 15.19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable The Platform of Charity c. Page 445. GAL. 6.10 As we have therefore opportunity let us do good to all especially to them that are of the houshold of faith Death prevented c. Page 463. JOB 14.14 All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my change shall come Iter Novissimum or Man his last Progress Page 473. ECCLESIAST 12.5 Man goeth to his long home and the mourners go about the streets Tempus putationis or the ripe Almond gathered Page 485. GEN. 15.15 And thou shalt go to thy Fathers in peace thou shalt be buried in a good old age Io Paean or Christs Triumph over Death Page 493. 1 COR. 15.55 O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory Fato Fatum The King of Fears frighed c. Page 501. HOS 13.14 O Death I will be thy plagues Vox Coeli The Deads Herauld Page 509. APOC. 14.13 And I heard a voyce from Heaven saying unto me Write blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth c. Victoris Brabaeum or The Conquerours Prize Page 517. APOC. 14.13 So saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them Faith's Eccho or The Souls AMEN Page 527. REVEL 22.19 AMEN Even so come Lord Jesus Deaths Prerogative Page 539. GEN. 3.19 For dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return The Patriarchal Funeral Page 549. GEN. 50.10 And he made a mourning for his Father seven dayes The true Accountant Page 559. PSAL. 90.12 So teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdome The Just-Mans Funeral Page 575. ECCLES 7.15 All things have I seen in the dayes of my vanity there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness The Righteous Mans Service to his Generation Page 587. ACTS 13.36 For David after he had served his own Generation after the will of God fell asleep c. The Crown of Righteousness c. Page 597. 2 TIM 4.7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto them also who love his appearing THE STEVVARDS SUMMONS SERMON I. LUKE 16.2 Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou maist be no longer Steward IN the Chapter going before our blessed Lord and Saviour had preached the Doctrine of the Free Grace of God in the Remission of Sin and receiving of Repenting and Returning Sinners in the Parable of an indulgent Fathers receiving of a prodigal Son The Pharisees were a People that hardned their own hearts and scoffed at every thing that Christ delivered therefore now in this Chapter he cometh to summon and warn them to appear before God the great Master of the world to give an account of their stewardship that by the consideration of Gods proceeding in the day of Judgment they might know the better how to prize the Remission of Sins in the day of Grace This he doth by presenting to them a Parable of a certain rich man that had a steward who was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods calleth him to an account and to the end that the Pharisees might not think that it was a matter to be jested withal and that such considerations
of whatsoever else it be this is even the very reason of all because even those that professe themselves to be the people of God and to give God the glory of his attributes in all his works yet they lay not to heart the death of those that are before them Men durst not they could not passe away their time in such unprofitablenesse and unfruitfulnesse as they do if they did seriously consider and lay to heart the death of others before them Again secondly As it condemnes the general neglect that is amongst men of this duty so it serves to reprove that sinful laying to heart of the death of others that is too frequent and common in the world That is first when men with too much fondnesse and with too great excesse and distemper of affection look upon their dead friends as if God could never repair the losse nor make amends for that he hath done in taking of them away Rachel mourneth and will not be comforted David mourneth and will scarce be comforted Oh Absalom my son my son would God I had died for thee What is all this but to look on freinds rather as Gods then men as if all sufficiency were included in them only Men look on their freinds as Micah did upon his Idol when they had bereaved him of it they took away all his comfort and quiet You have taken away my Gods saith he and what have I more or as Laban that when his Idols were stoln away his heart was dead he could not stay in his house he could not enjoy himselfe wherefore have you stollen away my Gods saith he So I say men look on their dead freinds as they should look upon the Creatour and not as upon the creature they take their death to heart but not in a right manner This is the very reason why God many times makes your Christian freinds so unprofitable to you when they live because you idolize them you advance them above God This is the reason also why you are so unable to bear the losse of them when they die God beating you now with your own rod and making you feel the fruit and effect of your own folly This now is an ill taking to heart the death of freinds to mourn as men without hope Secondly there is a taking to heart and considering of the death of men but it is an unrighteous considering an unrighteous judging of the death of others If men see one die it may be a violent death then they conclude certainly there is some apparent token of Gods judgment on such a one If they see another die with some extremity of torment and vehement pains certainly there is some apparent evidence of Gods wrath upon this man If they see another in some great and violent tentation strugling against many tentations they conclude presently certainly such are in a worser case then others I may say to all these as Christ said once to those that told him of the eighteen men upon whom the Tower in Siloe fell think you that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem Or rather as Solomon saith All things come alike unto all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath Learn to judge righteous judgment to judge wisely of the death of others take heed of condemning the generation of the just But rather in the last place Make this use of the death of every one Doth such a man die by an ordinary sicknesse having his understanding and memory continued to the end Doth such a man die in inward peace and comfort with cleare and evident apprehensions of Gods love so that he can with Simeon say Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace What use shouldest thou that livest make of this now Certainly let the sweetnesse of their death make thee in love with the goodnesse of their lives That is the only way to a happy death to a comfortable end indeed the leading of a fruitful and profitable life Again dost thou see the Children of God full of temptations full of fears and disquietnesse of spirit in their death Sometimes so overcome with the violence of the disease as that it may be they speak impertinently and idely it may be sinfully What use shouldest thou make of this now Certainly let the terribleness of the example of such a mans death let it be a terrour to thee and a means to stir thee up to more carefulnesse of making good use of thy time in this life Nabal dieth and his heart is in him as a stone If ever God quicken thee if ever God breath upon thy soule or enliven thee by the inward motions of his Spirit embrace those opportunities and seasons of grace lest God smite thee with an everlasting deadnesse Again hath God caused the light of his countenance to shine upon thy heart Doth he offer a gracious message of peace to thy soule Doth he speak peace at any time by the ministery of his Word Imbrace those offers yeeld to those conditions of peace lest thou be deprived of peace at the end Againe hath GOD given thee any strength over temptations Hast thou prevailed over the assaults of Sathan and other of thy enemies Hath he made thee a conquerour take heed how thou insnarest thy selfe againe how thou inthrallest thy self in yeelding to Sathans yoke lest he buffet thee by him in a worse manner at thy end Thus I say thou canst see nothing befal any of Gods servants in their death or in the manner of their death whether in be more pleasing or more sorrowful more calm and quiet or more tempestuous and full of trouble whether it be more comfortable or more lamentable but it may be useful unto thee If it be good it may be it shall be so with thee if it be bad it may be it shall be so with thee too The main businesse that a man hath to do is to make sure of himself in this life It was the question that Saint Austin made to those that told him of a violent death that seized upon one But how did he live saith he He made no matter how he went out but how he carried himself in the world And truly this is the great Question that every man should put to his soule I must out of the world how have I lived when I was in the world had GOD any glory by me had men any good by me have I furthered my account against the day of reckoning that I may give it up with joy it makes no matter how I go out of the world I am sure if my life have been serviceable to God and beneficial to men my departure shall be for gain and advantage it is
for a better world Thus much shall serve briefly for the opening of these words and for that that is appliable from them For the present occasion a word Funeral Sermons are not intended for the praise of the dead but for the comfort of the living Therefore I have chosen such an argument to handle at this time as might be of use and profit to you that live Besides that I am in particular and by particular order debarred of speaking any thing concerning our deceased Sister though I might have spoken much and that very useful to you The best use that you can make will be this to consider the life that she led amongst you She was a pattern and example of holinesse of a wise and upright carrirge in her wayes follow her in that Mark the Godly and upright man the end of that man is peace There was none that knew her but upon good assurance are perswaded of her happinesse now Would you then have the same happinesse after take the same course that she did be much in prayer and dependance upon the ordinances and in fellowship with the servants of God be profitable in doing good profitable in receiving good mannage the opportunities and times well that God giveth you as she did gaining much in little she did much work in a short space let that be your care and then this will be your comfort in the end Thus if you make this use of the death of others before you you shall prepare for your own death and that shall be only a passage for you to Eternal life DELIVERANCE FROM THE KING of FEARS OR FREEDOME FROM THE FEAR OF DEATH SERMON III. HEBR. 2.15 For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through the fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage IN these words that I have read to let pass other parts of the Chapter the Apostle sets down the humiliation of Christ with the fruit of it His humiliation in his Incarnation and death The fruit of it in subduing him that had the power of death and delivering those that were kept under the fear of death in bondage all their life At this time we will speak only of the last part the fruit of Christs death in delivering those that were kept under the fear of death The persons that are kept under this fear are said to be the children Gods own children those for whom Christ died yet they were kept under the fear of death and that not at some particular time when tentation had got some special advantage over them but it was a trouble and a burden to them all their life long and that not a small burden or an easie trouble but such as kept them as in bondage The words you see are easie There are two points that arise from them First that Gods children those for whom Christ died are many times hold strongly under the fear of death Secondly that Christ by his death freeth them from those fears I shall onely insist at this time principally on the first That Gods own children the Children that were partakers of flesh and bloud it is taken either for the humane nature or the infirmities of that nature even these children were held under the feare of death I will shew the grounds of it The fear of death in the children of God ariseth either from some causes without or from somewhat within them From without them and so the fear ariseth from God an act of his providence upon his children Or from Sathan a work of his malice These are the causes from without For the first God in his providence and that in his special and fatherly providence whereby he doth order all things for the good of his children for the present increase of their grace and the fitting them for glory hereafter He I say in his providence ordereth it thus that they shall be kept many of them a great while under the feare of death and this he doth for special good ends The first is to humble them Adam as soon as he had sinned against God as his fall was by pride he would have had a higher condition then he was in so when God would bring him back again he beginneth first to humble him and how doth he that Dust thou art saith he and to dust thou shalt return he sheweth him that he was a dead man by sin and so would have the meditation of death to humble Adam and in him all his posterity after him So David when he desired that some means might work upon his enemies for their good he prayeth Put them in fear that they may know that they are but men He doth not onely pray that mortality might be presented to them but so presented that it might leave an impression of fear upon their affections that they might know what they are that they have not their beeing or the power of subsisting in themselves but that they must look for it above themselves to him that hath the issues of life and death in his own hand And this is necessary that all the servants of God should be kept humble by some means or other The Apostle Paul you see he had attained a great measure of grace yet he standeth in need of something to humble him therefore the messenger of Sathan was sent to buffet him that he should not be exalted above measure that he might be kept humble God intendeth to raise up his children to a glorious estate therefore as men lay a low foundation when they intend to erect a high building so God layeth the foundation of all grace and comfort in his servants in humiliation therefore he will not only have them mortal but he will have them apprehend their mortality and dying condition with fear that they may be humbled by this fear That is the first thing Secondly God aymeth at the strengthening of faith in his servants While a man looks to sense and is upheld by sensible comforts there is not that exercise of faith now every grace is strengthened by exercise that God therefore may have faith exercised and so strengthened in his servants he will expose them to the fear of death The Apostle Paul found this we received saith he the sentence of death that we might not turst in our selves but in him that raiseth us up from the dead He doth not onely say thus we acknowledge this to be a truth that we must die but we received the sentence of death received it as a man receiveth a sentence of death from a Judge received it so as it made some impression upon our hearts received it with some inward sense with some inward feare which was a violent work such a work as knocks us
off of all holds and takes us off from all sensible and visible props and humane supports and makes us to see nothing in the creature to do us that good we look for to make us eternal happy therefore we were taught saith he not to trust in our selves if a man trust any he might trust himselfe first yea but we are dying and cannot enjoy our selves long therefore we trust in him that raiseth us up from the dead Thirdly another end that God aymeth at in holding his servants many times under the fear of death is that he may make them more watchful and holy in the course of their lives This our Saviour expresseth under two parables the one of the Virgins that were to watch for the coming of the Bridegroom they knew that he would come but they knew not when therefore they were alwayes to keep their watch with oyle in their lamps And the other of a Master that left Talents with his servants he told them that he would come but he told them not when that they might be sure to employ them to the best advantage And the Apostle Peter raiseth an exhortation to this purpose on this very ground Since saith he that all these things must be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse looking for and hastning to the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ We know that the Lord Jesus Christ will come but he hath concealed the particular time of his coming that we might alwayes keep our watch and be prepared for him whensoever he cometh Now this is necessary for all the servants of God for they are apt to be secure and to be carried away with worldly business and delights and to neglect that which concerns their eternal good and therefore God will affect them with the fear of death that they may be stirred up to more watchfulnesse and holinesse in a godly course of life Fourthly God doth it that by the fear of Death they may be better prepared for death that it may not come upon them as a stranger that they never thought on before that it may not come as an armed man upon them therefore is it that God will have thim not onely to have thoughts of it but fear of it fear you know is an affection that quickneth a man to action keeps him to a constant observing of God Jehosaphat when God did not onely bring a multitude of enemies upon him but also sent the report of them to him and that in such a manner as he might be affected with fear What did all this work in him The text saith Jehosaphat did seek the Lord with all his heart and proclaimed a fast in Judah and provided such other defence as was necessary he saw nothing but fear and danger in the creature We know not what to do with this great company that cometh against us this set him awork to seek the Lord with all his heart and to make other provision against them So the Lord will have his servants apprehend death as an Armed enemy coming upon them that they may be better prepared to receive it that they may get evidences of comfort and assurance of heaven and so may be fitted upon good grounds to entertain death with joy when it cometh And this the servants of God have need of because if there be not somewhat to quicken to this there are other things enough to pervert them from it and then when men are most weak and full of pain and wearinesse the divel takes advantage to cast them off from all comfort so that at the least we shall die uncomfortably if not miserably if they be not prepared beforehand to receive Death and have gotten assurance and evidence of a better condition afterward Thus you have the first thing that is Gods act and for what reasons he keepeth his servants in this bondage of the fear of death Again secondly another cause from without is from the malice of Sathan His main aim is to keep men from a Christian course altogether if that cannot be done his next work is to make men go on as uncomfortably in it as he can possible therefore he will present them with as many fears as may be and because that this is that that nature most abhorreth for it is the most natural desire of man to preserve his beeing I say because nature most abhorreth this this dissolution and destruction of it self therefore the striveth to affect them with the fear of death especially and above all other I say this is Sathans malice Saint Paul when he came to Macedonia that he might do the work of the Lord with lesse diligence and comfort saith he We had fears on every side horrors within and terrors without It was Sathans devise that the Apostle might do the work of the Lord with lesse strength and comfort to afflict them with as many fears and horrors as he could And he hath the same malice still and still getteth much advantage of men making men to go on with lesse comfort in a godly life adorning their profession of religion lesse with unchearful walking because they have been held under the fear of death These are the causes that are from without Secondly there are some causes from within from the servants of God themselves And these causes whence the fear of death ariseth are either natural or sinful First the natural causes of it are The apprehension of Death as a thing contrary to nature and according to the strength of mens apprehension so is there fear Now Death in this natural respect is fearful to every man whether we consider the object or the subject the thing or the person in whom it is we shall find a natural cause of this even in the servants of God First for the object look upon Death it self it hath all that in it which makes it a fit object of fear There be three things which makes a thing the object of fear which makes a thing affect the heart with fear First when it is considered as an ill Secondly when it is considered as an ill difficult and hard to be avoided Thirdly when it is considered as an ill to come For if it be not conceived a thing that is ill but good it is not feared but rather desired And then again if it be but a slight ill such as hath but a weak strength in it which a man may easily master it is not fearful but disdained And then thirdly if it be an ill that hath strength in it and can hardly be resisted and overcome if it be present it is not feared but grieved for It must be evil apprehended as future appreheneed as difficult and apprehended as ill if it be a thing that is to be feared Now all these things are in Death in the apprehension of Gods servants while they live First I say they apprehend
it as Ill. Ill is twofold either that which is contrary to mans will and so it is called Malum tristitivum or else contrary to mans nature and so it is Malum corruptivum Now Death is contrary to man in both these senses both to his nature and to his will It is a thing he would not have because it is contrary to his nature and that is contrary to his nature that seeks the destruction of nature Now when a man apprehendeth Death as a thing that would destroy nature that would overthrow and dissolve and break in pieces that goodly Fabrique as he conceiveth it and make that something to become nothing it is a thing that nature cannot bear it abhorreth So the servants of God as they have nature in them they have this natural affection to preserve their beeing and this in it self is not simply sinful but so far as it exceedeth the rule Therefore you see that because men apprehend Death as an Ill contrary to nature they prefer other things that are Ill in a lesse regard in a lesse degree before that A man would rather part with his wealth then part with his life as we see in Psal 49. A man would give God a ransome for his soul if he could he would give all his goods to ransome his life He would rather be poor then not at all Nay a man will part with his ease with his health rather then with his life he will be in paine rather then he will not be Skin for skin and all that a man hath will be give for his life Nay a man will part with his credit and estimation rather then with his life he will rather be disgraced then not be A living dog is better then a dead lyon this is the speech of a man naturall he preferreth a dog that hath life in him before a Lyon that is dead he would rather be a mean living man then a dead Prince That is ths first thing men naturally conceive Death as a thing contrary to nature So it is a natural Ill. Secondly as a man conceiveth Death an Ill contrary to nature so he apprehendeth it an Ill not easily overcome When Goliah looked on David on the meannesse of his stature and the slendernesse of his prepartation to fight he considered him as an enemie but as a weak one and therefore instead of fearing he disdained him Dost thou come to me as a dog I will give thy flesh to the fowles of the heaven and to the beasts of the earth he scorned him But when the Host of Israel looked on Goliah as a mighty enemy that they could not easily resist much lesse overcome the Text saith they were full of fear because of Goliah the strength of the adversary was that that filled them with fear So when a man looks upon Death and seeth it come as a mighty armed man provided with all weapons of war seeth it come in to the most populous Cities as in the pestilence and slayeth ten thousand before it seeth it come on the most strong and valiant men and breaks their bones and destroyeth them Who can stand before this Goliah he that defieth the Host of God the host of Israel not only the wicked but the servants of God are overcome by this enemy I say thus nature discourseth and thus a natural man apprehendeth Death and therefore he conceiveth Death to be a fearful Ill because it is a thing that he cannot easily overcome That is the second Thirdly he conceiveth it as a thing Future as an Ill to come I am yet living and in health but how soon this health may turn to sicknesse and this life to Death 〈◊〉 know not this is that that holdeth down the spirit under fear As David said I shall sall one day by the hand of Saul one day so saith a man that liveth now in the multitude of his businesse in abundance of strength and ability every way I shall one day fall into the Grave I shall one day fall into the hands of Death Peter we know how he affected Saphira with telling her of the death of her husband and saith he the feet of those that carried out thy husband shall carry thee out this affected her with fear so that she fell down dead upon the apprehension of it Thus I say if we look upon the object Death considered as an Ill that is a thing contrary to nature Death considered again as a strong and mighty Gyant that none can overcome but it overcometh them And then considered again as a thing coming upon men now in the approach and we know not how soon he will grasp a man in his hands and seize upon him this is that I say that causeth that natural fear that is in the children of God Then again consider the Subject the person in whom the apprehension of such an object is and so likewise we shall see somewhat in the dispositions of men or in their state and condition here that may affect them with a natural fear of Death The first is some men by constitution are more melancholy and are naturally of a more fearful temper indeed distemper The brain is distempered the heart is distempered The brain apprehends things and looks upon them through a false glass through a deluded fancie and so makes a false report to the heart presenteth things more terrible then they are so sometimes the heart is ill affected by the misreport that is brought to it by the understanding sometimes both are distempered as that humor prevaileth more strongly in the body So also there are sometimes raised up turbulent and disquieting and voilent passions that make some full of fear as we see in Belshazzar whose knees did smite together and all through the apprehension of death and so Felix when he heard of death and judgement to come he trembled Though the fear of these men did not rise from melancholy but from inward guilt of conscience yet the effect sheweth that when men are affected with the apprehension of Death in the worst sight and opprehension of it it causeth fear and terrour Secondly it cometh in others and generally in all from weakness of nature which in some is more then others according to their different constitutions and educations so the rich many times are more fearful of death then the poor because they have more to lose so likewise voluptuous persons are more fearful of Death then those that are more temperate because by voluptuousness they have dis-joynted and weakned their spirits So young men many times are more fearful of Death then those that are old as we see in the story Judg. 8.20 Jether the sonne of Gideon when he should have killed Zeba and Zalmunna the Text saith He was afraid because he was a young man but Gideon that was elder did it willingly as a man better accustomed and experienced with observations of changes and varieties of accidents amongst
men We shall see the servants of God themselves have discovered this weakness of spirit specially upon sudden apprehensions of things Abraham upon the sudden and violent apprehension of Death was put to a sinful shift I thought saith he the fear of God is not in this place and they will slay me for my wives sake therefore I said this is my sister So Samuel when God sent him to anoynt David he discovered this weakness If Saul should know what I am a doing he will slay me therefore he desired to have some other message under the colour whereof he might put Saul off So Peter out of a sudden apprehension of death and fear of it he denyed his Master This weakness of spirit is in man naturally Further there is another thing that causeth this natural fear and that is the unacquaintedness men have with Death there is somewhat in this matter that is strange to men notwithstanding they hear and see many die before them daily they hear things spoken of by the Minister and they read the Scripture many excellent comforts but who hath seen these what becometh of these men they see Death the strict Porter of the world let men out of the earth but he locks the door of the Grave upon them and none cometh back again to tell what is done in that place of silence to tell what is become of men when they are in the Grave how they speed in that world of souls there is no man returneth from the dead to report these things to them Now this affecteth the natural man nay all men naturally are affected with the fearful apprehension of death because they know not what will come after as the natural man speaks in Ecclesiastes When Joram set out a watch-man to see what was abroad and spied an army coming he sent a servant but Jehu biddeth him go behind him he sendeth another and he goeth behind him still saith he I see the men go but they come not back the Text saith he was afraid Make ready the Chariot saith Joram If this be the issue that men go but never come back again it is high time to look about us Certainly beloved such are the apprehensions of death We see men saith the natural man go down to the Grave and not come back again we see that a man ceaseth to be and to do those actions that we do when we are upon the earth therefore let us consider the matter more seriously When the Captain of the fifty that came to the Mount to Elijah saw the two former Captaines and their companies consumed saw that they were all dead that they ceased to be but he saw not what became of them afterward therefore he cometh with fear to the Prophet and intreateth him that his life might be precious in his sight All strange things we know affect men and every thing as it is more strange so it more affecteth man naturally Let there but come a beast out of the Wildernesse assoon as ever he cometh unto a man and seeth him he flieth from him because he is not used to the sight of man it is strange to him but now take a beast that is brought up in the pasture in the field he will come to a man without fear because he is used to the sight of him So it is here Death is apprehended as a strange thing as a thing that a man never knew by experience Men have seen thus much that people have died but they never heard of any that came back again to tell them how it fared with them after death This I say that men should go to the place of silence and have all matters hushed all things kept secret down there there cometh no report thence this affecteth men with fear These are the natural causes Secondly there are other causes within that affect men with the fear of death and those are sinful causes First the want of the fear of God and as this is lesse so the fear of death is more Therefore we shall find that wicked men that cast off the fear of God in their lives they are slavishly held under the fear of death this you shall see in those examples of Belshazzar a man that set himself with a high hand against God went on in a contemptuous course against God and prophaned the holy vessels when there was a hand writing upon the wall some terrible thing presented to him his knees smote together he could not hold his joynts still And so Felix a man that lived without the fear of God when he heard of judgment and other things the text saith he trembled and so likewise Cain and divers others I need not stand on it It was one of the Judgments threatned in part Deut. 28. Because thou dost not fear the the Lord thy God therefore wheresoever thou goest thou shalt find no ease neither shall the sole of thy foot have any rest but the Lord shall give thee a trembling heart and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee that is thou shalt be in continual fear of death and thou shalt fear day and night and shall have none assurance of thy life in the Morning thou shalt say would God it were Even and at even thou shalt say would God it were morning because of the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see This is the first thing Secondly another thing is this when mens hearts are too much glued to the world and mark it according as there is worldly affections and worldly-mindedness in the the hearts of Gods servants so the feare of Death is more in them according to the strength of the one is the fear of the other What is it that disquieteth men ordinarily and makes them that they cannot think of Death with comfort but this now they must lose their company part with all their freinds when they die once Hezekiah complained of that I shall see man no more saith he with the inhabitants of the world This I say is that that affecteth the heart exceedingly that they must lose all their freinds specially when husband and wife must part parents and children must part and familiar and deare acquaintance must part this causeth the fear of death because the heart is too much set upon the creature So likewise worldly business when a man loveth much employment much business he cannot abide to think of death Why so because all work all enterprises cease in the grave as Job saith A man hath neither the works of his hands nor the enterprises of his head in the grave all actions cease both of the mind and body there So when a mans heart is set upon pleasures below there is neither love nor hatred in the grave saith Solomon That is those things that affected the heart that men love they cease there all his pleasures and
comforts are gone So if a man love honour and applause amongst men it ceaseth in the grave all honour there is laid in the dust contempt is cast upon Princes this is that that affecteth men exceedingly that they shall lose their honours and pleasures and acquaintance and business and all when they come to the grave and that because mens hearts are set too much upon these things That is the second reason There is a third thing which is a sinful cause of this fear of Death and that is the want of Assurance There be two things that a man not being assured of makes him fear Death and these may be in the children of God and as they are more in any one so the fear of death is more in them The first is when they are not assured of reconciliation with God that God is at peace with them pleased with them in Christ The want of this assurance makes death fearful for now they look upon Death as a Sergeant as a Jaylor either it is a Sergeant to take them off their present comforrs or as a Jaylor to hold them under those bonds and fetters that they would fain escape Now when a man looks upon Death either way it is terrible As a Sergeant so the rich man in the Gospel This night they shall fetch thy soul from thee they shall come to thee as a Sergeant to a Debtour to require a debt they shall require thy soul of thee Now we all know that a man that is in debt and either hath not to pay or is unwilling to part with that he hath such a man cannot indure the sight of a Sergeant above all men because he cometh to fetch that from him that he would not part with Or if he look upon Death as a Jaylor so Christ saith Agree with thy adversary quickly lest he deliver thee to the Judg and he give thee to the Jaylor and then he holdeth thee in prison from whence thou shalt not go out till thou hast paid the utmost farthing Now when a man looks on Death as a Jaylor that holdeth all in the grave till the great Judg of heaven and earth calleth for them at the generall day of Assizes that great day of appearance when all the world shall be gathered together and every prison shall give up their prisoners The sea and the grave shall give up their dead I say when a man standeth thus as unreconciled to God or at least as one that doth not apprehend this reconciliation is not perswaded of this that God is reconciled to him it is no marvel if Death be terrible to him Therefore in the sixth of the Revelation The Kings and Captains and the great and mighty men they cryed to the mountains to fall upon them and to hide them from the presence of the Lamb because the great day of wrath was come and who could stand So we see in 33. Isa 14. there is crying out concerning the coming of God the sinners in Sion the hypocrites are afraid what is their fear who shall dwell with everlasting burnings and who shall remain with cousuming fire when they shall see nothing but terrour and wrath in God fire and consumption when they see nothing but such terrible things then feare cometh upon them Now mark hypocrites stand all together unreconciled and therefore it is no marvel if they be afraid and the Saints of God so farre as they are defective in the assurance of Gods love so farre they conceive themselves in the state of Hypocrites and therefore they are so full of fears Again a second thing that they stand unresolved of is concerning the future estates of their souls and bodies after death they are not sure of this that there is a better condition afterwards this is that great question Whither go we I go now out of the body and whither then I go out of the world and whither then I am going out of the company of men and whither then shall I go to Angels and Saints or to divels shall I go to Heaven or to Hell shall I have a beeing or not in misery or in happiness They know not what shall become of them they are unresolved of this point of their own state to come whether they shall be in happiness or horrour after death and therefore Death is terrible You have the point opened I will answer an objection or two and then come to the use It may be objected It seemeth the servants of God are not kept under the fear of death all those that are in the state of grace have faith faith that spendeth these fears and therefore since they are in the state of beleevers how can they be held under the fear of death To this I answer briefly there is faith in all the children of God that are effectually called but we must know that Faith is considerable two wayes first as it is in conflict and secondly as it is out of conflict Now the Faith of Gods servants in conflict so sometime it is in conflict with fear and sadness of spirit Why art thou cast down oh my soul why art thou disquieted within me c. Sometime it is in conflict with reason and sense thus the people of Israel when they came into the Wilderness they looked for nothing but dying and destruction of nature for sense presented it to them therefore saith Moses which is the voice of faith Stand still and see the salvation of God c. Now in this conflict the success is doubtful sometime as it was between Amalek and Israel fighting together Amalek prevailed and Israel had the worst sometime Israel prevailed and Amalek had the worst so somtime Faith prevaileth against sense and those fears that arise from sense and sometime again carnal fears and Sense prevaileth against Faith now accordingly are those effects in the hearts of Gods children But secondly sometime Faith is out of conflict it now triumpheth in assurance it is come now to full assurance of Faith as it is called in the Scripture and then there is nothing so comfortable and desirable as death it self to the servants of God So we see David in the 23. Psal Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear none ill for thou Lord art with me And so the Apostle Saint Paul triumpheth over all things Nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ neither principalities nor powers nor life nor death nor things to come nothing shall do it the Apostles faith now was out of conflict it had got the field the day of Sense and now he looks on Death with comfort So that I say in that measure that Faith works in that measure fear of death ceaseth Secondly it may be objected But we see the servants of God are said to love the appearance of our Lord Iesus Christ and the Apostle Paul is said to
desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ How can these stand with the fear of death under which Gods servants are held To this I answer briefly Gods servants must be considered in their desires two waies First in their general desires Secondly in a particular state wherein they are In their general course their desire is most for the appearing of Christ they most desire to be with him as best for them but take them in some particular state wherein they are less provided and less fitted and prepared then they may be at a stand in their desires they may have the fear of death in them As a wife her general desire is for nothing so much as for the presence of her husband yet she may be under some particular unfitness there may be something or other in the way that she would not have him come in at that instant though her desire be for nothing so much as for his company So it may be the case of the servants of God they may say somtimes Lord spare me a little before I go hence to strengthen my faith to perfect my repentance and holiness to do some particular work and the like David considered this that there was something that he might doe that he had not done and that he would faine doe before he went and so Hezekiah and the rest of the servants of God The point is clear I come to the Application It shall be a word of exhortation to cut of other uses and that is this To stir up the servants of God that if they be disposed to distempers under which they are held that they are afraid to die that therefore they labour by all good meanes to shake off the feare of death Why Consider and note well those two things that are in the Text. The first is this that it is an uncomfortable state to be held under the feare of Death you see it is called a Bondage here and that is enough to show the uncomfortableness of it he saith by the feare of death they were held in bondage all their life long Now the fear of Death is a bondage principally in these two respects first because it is with them as it is with a Bond-slave A Bond-slave is afraid to looke on him that hath the command of him he apprehendeth him as no freind therefore he doth not love to looke on him so it is in this case when a man lookes upon Death as a thing that is no freind to him he cannot abide to look on him every thought of Death is a presenting of death to him and it is a miserable bondage when a man cannot present Death to himself without fear Secondly there is this in it that makes it a bondage it holdeth downe the spirit of a man A bond-slave you know is bound with fetters and chaines in his captivity so that he hath neither freedome of spirit nor freedome of action So it is with a man that is held under the fear of death he cannot doe what he would he cannot rejoyce in God he cannot delight in the apprehension of glory to come he cannot entertain a thought of parting with things present with that security and comfort of heart that he should doe and all because this fear as the setters bindeth his hands and his feet and keepeth him in bondage This is the first thing the fear of death to be held under it it is an uncomfortable state Secondly as it is uncomfortable so it is possible that the servants of God may be free from these fears under which they are held We see the text sheweth it Christ came for this end that having destroyed him that hath the power of death that is the devil he might deliver those that for fear of death were held under bondage Did Christ come for this end then it is possible to be had for certainly Christ would not lose his end he came for this was his end not only to deliver them from eternal death but also from the fear of temporal death It is possible therefore The servants of God have found it and therefore you shall see them brought in insulting and triumphing and glorying over Death Oh death where is thy sting Oh Grave where is thy victory thanks be to God that hath given us victory through Christ our Lord When they looked upon Death through Christ they looked on it without this fear the sting and power is took out the very nature of it is changed and it is made now every way beneficial I say it is possible for we are regenerate and begotten again to a lively hope to an inheritance immortal and undefiled and in what measure the hope of heaven is in the heart of man in that measure the fear of death falleth in that heart now it is possible that we may attain this fulness of hope and therefore it is possible that we may be freed quite from the fear of Death This may suffice by way of motive A word or two by way of direction If this be possible to be had how shall the servants of God get it you see some of Gods servants are held under the fear of death and that all their life long how shall we be freed from this fear I should now orderly take up the particulars laid down as causes and shew that by these it is cured as for instance Doth God do this for this end that he may humble a man then the more humble thou art the less thou shalt be in the fear of Death for God layeth these fears upon men to humble them therefore labour for perfect humiliation and thou shalt perfectly rid these fears out of thy heart as we see plainly the servants of God the more humble they have grown the less careful they have been of life and the less fearful of Death And so those servants of God that have been brought to deny themselves and to renounce all their worldly expectation and advancements they have alwaies been ready to die Saint Paul was grown humble and the Lord had prevailed upon him kept down his spirit from being exalted above measure and now faith he my life is not dear to me he was content to lay down his life and all when he was humbled Beloved pride in some outward excellencies or other setteth a man above his place therefore when a man is took off from all that puffs up the spirit of a man he will be content to lay down any of those things even life it selfe if need be Again secondly Doth God do it to strengthen faith in a man then the more thou strengthenest faith the more thou shalt be freed from these fears you know faith looks upon Christ as the proper object of it and the more a man interesteth himself in Christ the more by Christ he is freed from the fear of Death Christ hath redeemed us from the Grave and from
Death and therefore when by faith he looks upon Christ and through him upon Death he looks upon that as a thing made instead of poison a medicine instead of a destroyer a Saviour and deliverer as a means to free him from the bondage of sin and misery and afflictions c. Thirdly Doth God do this that he may make men more holy and watchful in their course then certainly the more thou canst purge out thy sin in the course of thy life the less thou shalt fear death The sting of Death is sin then if thou wilt have Death comfortable let thy life be conformable to Gods rule and word or else every sin will present it selfe in death before thee specially those sins thou allowest thy self in will make Death as bitter as Hell Fourthly Doth God do it for this end that he may make thee better prepared for death Then the more thou art prepared for Death beforehand the less thou shalt fear it when it cometh upon thee it will not come as a stranger but thou wilt be ready to receive it as one with whom thou art acquainted already It is a great matter if men could learn this wisdome to die daily that is be every day imployed as dying daily I mean for the manner of your carriage not for the matter for the substance of the duty If a man were sure to die this day he would lay aside all business and set himself to be prepared for judgment and would lay aside the use of any other comforts and delights But this is not the meaning but this that we carry our selves in business every day as if death should seize upon us in that business that we might be found well-doing that is when a man followeth his earthly business with a heavenly mind when he keepeth to the rule of righteousness and truth in his ordinary calling when he is doing or receiving good in his company when he useth his pleasures and recreations as the whet-stone to the Sithe to make him fitter for God I say when thus we do things to a right end and in a right manner if Death now should seize upon us in such an action it should find us well-doing And this is that we perswade you to if you would have death comfortable and not tertible be so imployed as that your actions may be good both for matter and forme that you are now about because Death may stricke you in such an action But I cannot stand on these particulars Again for the causes in our selves If you would be freed from the terrours of Death then rectifie your apprehensions and opinions of Death think of it as it is as it is I say to beleevers to those that are in Christ It is not the destruction of nature and so a natural Ill as you account it It is rather a cure of nature for assoon as ever we live we are dying and all our life it is but a living death a continual decaying and dying Now when death cometh it putteth an end to all the decayes of nature and setteth all right again It is but a sleep and sleep it is not a destruction but a help of the body and that which inableth to vigour and strength and fitnesse to action Again it is not the distruction of any part of a man the body it self is not destroyed indeed it is in the Grave but it is in the grave as in a bed of peace They shall come and rest in their beds saith the Prophet The grave is but as a bed wherein the body lies asleep and no man you know is troubled with fear that he goeth to bed The grave is but as Gods chest to keep in all his Treasure whereof the bodies of his servants are a part precious to him even in the grave in death Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints and God will open this Cabinet and the Chest of the Grave in the great day of the Resurrection and bring the body out again and then it shall be as good as ever it was nay I say not only as good but much better too for our vile bodies shall be made like the glorious body of Christ Phil 3. No man when he goeth to bed thinks much to have his old cloathes taken off that they may be mended and made better against morning When we sleep in the Grave it is no more but this the garment of the soul the body the old apparel that is taken off that it may be made better and a more glorious body this is all we lose nothing by it but our estates even our bodily estate is bettered by it And for the Soul Death doth not destroy that neither for know this the soul liveth for ever the bodie indeed returneth to the Earth as it was but the soul returneth to God that gave it The soul I say liveth that is the thing that Christ himself proveth in 22. Mat. Abraham is alive why so for God is not the God of the dead but of the living for God said I am the God of Abraham c. How can this be that God is the God of Abraham and yet he is dead Indeed he is dead if we looke to the separation of the soul and body in the cessation of bodily actions but if we looke to the better part of Abraham his soul that continueth the everliving God hath made an everlasting Covenant with him and therefore he dieth not Again it is not only not the destruction of nature but not of your actions neither Death doth not destroy them neither Indeed there is a cessation of bodily actions but it is that the body may have better strength and be the fitter instrument of holiness after But for those actions of the soul that depend not upon the body they are as perfectly done when we are dead as when we are alive and better too When a man liveth upon the earth you see his soul is much hindered by the body A distempered sick crazie body or a full well-fed body is a hinderance to the soul because of that tie that is between the body and the soul and the spirit so there is a simpathy the soul is affected somewhat in this sense But it is not so then the soul shall be loosed from the body and so freer for spiritual actions then now it is The souls under the Altar they crie How long Lord holy and just wilt thou not revenge our bloud upon them that are upon the earth The souls of Gods servants you see then are glorified when they are out of the body and therefore shall glorifie God more prefectly and enjoy God more freely and fully then now while their souls are in these mortal bodies And at that very instant when the soul of Cods servant is carried out of the body to heaven it more perfectly injoyeth Christ and is more sensible and more fit to answer the love
of Christ to him then ever when it was in the body So then here is a cessation of baser actions and imployments to give place to more noble and heavenly and excellent actions wherein the soul shall be employed in heaven There is then no losse of actions neither Again there is no losse of company This is a thing that troubleth men husband and wife to part friends to part But we lose no company by death howsoever we lose the company of men that we cannot assure ourselves friends indeed for of all the friends we speak of in the main point when they come to be tryed there are few to be found to be friends But then we go to them whose love is perfect than you may be sure of and have the truth of their love Again how little comfort nay how little have you company with those friends you desire Is not much part of our life spent without any sight of our friends Is not half of it spent in sleep in the night and the other half in businesse and pleasure Alas how little time have we to enjoy our friends we rest on But then we shall perfectly enjoy them when there shall be no need of sleep when there shall be perfection of love and freedom from distraction and imployment when the servants of God shall fully and freely and sweetly and comfortably enjoy one the other Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the meanest of the Saints shall meet in the expression of love in such a perfection as we cannot speak of And this is certain you shall go to many Who can tell the dvst of Jacob Now you have some one or two or three or a few men or women that you account friends and dote much upon but then you shall have ennumerable company a world of friends of men and women multitudes they cannot be numbred they are as the stars of heaven for number I say there is no losse of company by this means Again you shall lose no pleasures by death it may be you shall lose some few sensual bruitish pleasures a few mixed corrupt pleasures pleasures that have the mixture of sorrow and fear in them that imbitters them to the soul of a man but it shall not be so then you shall be freed from imperfect pleasures and have perfect ones at Gods right hand for evermore pure pleasures Again you lose no necessary convenience neither the rich man loseth no riches by death he loseth his money doth he lose his riches therefore No The Angels are rich but they have no money the Saints are rich they want nothing but they have no money It may be thou losest a child thou shalt find a Father it may be thou losest a weak friend that loveth not long or it may be not so truly as thou thinkest he doth and thou findest friends that are many and perfect and pure in their love that love with a perfect heart And what then are all those losses when you enjoy that which shall make the soul happy for ever Thus I say you shall rectifie your opinions concerning Death look upon it aright have true apprehensions of it Get an intrest in Christ and look on death through him get faith and then all these things that I have spoken shall be your advantage so the Apostle concludeth Christ is to us in life and in death advantage If we live he is gain to us in life and if we die he is advantage to us in death And death is reckoned amongst the special favours and priviledges Christ hath given to his Church All are yours what all life and death things present and things to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods So we see that Death is amongst the priviledges that Christ hath given his Church therefore rectifie your opinions concerning Death make good that I spake before and you shall find this good that I now speak And for the last the unacquaintance with Death let not that trouble you none come from the dead to tell you what is done there but look on the servants of God before and when they die and you shall find enough how they apprehended Death when they have looked on it in the glasse of the Gospel Look upon them before death Jacob being to close up his dayes with blessing of his children Lord saith he I have maited for thy salvation He looked upon Death through Christ the Saviour of the world that he should be saved by him and though it be true that there is a further meaning for the Tribes in those words of Jacob yet this was proper to Jacob himself he looked upon Death now approaching as that that he was delivered from and set into that freedom purchased by Christ So old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Jacoh accounted it his salvation old Simeon a departure from a worse place to a better from worse company and comforts to a better A change for the better still and a departing in peace Again secondly look on the servants of God in death see what they have said too Josiah a man that was upright in heart he went to the grave in peace he was gathered to his fathers in peace that he should not see the evill that should come upon his people here is all it was but a peaceable taking of him away from a more troubelous condition if he had lived longerâ—… Beloved he died in war yet it is said he was gathered in peace he had inward peace with God though he failed in that particular action And the Apostle in the 2 Cor. 5.4 This is our desire that we may be clothed upon not that we would be unclothed but clothed upon that mortality may be swallowed up of life A strange speech he counteth death life to him he counteth the death of this life to be the death of mortality by laying aside this earthly tabernacle as he said in the first verse mortality is swallowed up of life And therefore you give wrong names to things for while you live you die because your life it is a dying condition and while you die you live because then the cessation of life it is as the river Jordan to the people of Israel no more but a passage to Canaan not a floud to drown them so it is with the servants of God death is but a passage to heaven it is not destructive to them So that if men did but rectifie their opinions of Death as I told you before when their hearts are right set when they are humbled and not lifted up with worldly things when their faith is strengthned and setled in them when they are made watchful in a holy course looking for Death when they are established with the assurance of Gods favour then I say they may find that all these natural fears of death were upon mistake they did
not rightly apprehend the thing Other things I should have added but I am loth to hold you too long A word for the occasion and so I will conclude the departure of our Sister here was the occasion as of this meeting here so of this Text in particular She gave good evidence to those that knew her more inwardly that she was in Christ that the was delivered not onely from eternal death but from fear of tempor all death too It pleased God to exercise her a great while under the fear of death the apprehension of it was of some terrour to her but neverthelesse when God called her to it indeed then the fear of death was hid from her and Christ then applied the fruit of his death in freeing her from those fears She was not freed from them out of a Stoycal Appethy or want of natural affection and passion but out of a spiritual and faithful application of Christ to her selfe upon good grounds She looked upon God as her Father and much delighted to expresse her apprehension of him under that notion and she very often manifested her rejoycing in that interest she had in God as his child no marvel then if the fear of death were taken away we see here in the text that they are children that are delivered from the fear of death When we are in the state of Gods children by adoption and grace then there is rather a desire then a fear of death It is but as our Fathers white Horse so it is called in the Revelation A child at school when he seeth one riding post through the streets as if he would run over him or tread upon him he cryeth out But if he sees that it is his fathers man sent to bring him from school to his Fathers house all his fear is past and he laugheth and rejoyceth So when we are the sons and daughters of God by adoption we apprehend Death as our Fathers pale Horse sent by him to bring us from a place of prison on earth home to our Fathers house a place of liberty in heaven So it was with her She looked upon Christ as her Husband and though she left a husband upon earth yet it was her owne expression she was to go to her Husband in heaven which was farre better for her And therefore I say having these apprehensions of God as her Father and that she was adopted to the estate of a child by grace and looking upon Christ as her husband no marvel she was freed from the fear of Death And that these were upon good grounds those that knew her course best knew that she expressed it by her abundant care to please God by her desire to serve God by her endeavour to mortifie and subdue ill in her selfe by her growth in grace in her latter times these good evidences did shew that it was not a rash and groundlesse perswasion but a true and real apprehension of God and Christ that freed her from this Fear of death Beloved many times the life of Gods servants is uncomfortable to them because for some of those reasons I have spoken of before they are afraid of Death and they apprehend it not with comfort and this they doe because they see not the interest they have in better comforts then Death can take from them I have the rather therefore spoke this of her that you may take notice of it and apply it to your selves And to conclude make this use of all to grow more humble and watchful and holy to strengthen faith more and by dying daily to prepare more for Death For faith is the rectified apprehension of things Death it is not so fearful as you think it is you lose not so much as you think you lose Nay again because this trouble and this fear dishonoureth God therefore when God calleth us to Death he hideth these fears from us as he did from this servant of Christ at this time before us though she were fearful before yet she was exceeding comfortable all the time when the apprehension of Death approached upon her So it shall be with thee if thou be careful to use the means to prepare for Death mind thou the dutie that God enjoyneth thee in thy life and leave the event and issue to him either he will glorifie himself by thy fears or else he will glorifie himself by delivering thee from thy fears THE PERFECTION OF PATIENCE OR THE COMPLEATE CHRISTIAN SERMON IV. JAMES 1.4 But let Patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and intire wanting nothing IN the second verse of this Chapter the Apostle perswadeth the distrest servants of God to bear their afflictions chearfully My Brethren saith he count it all joy when you fall into divers tentations This Exhortation he presseth in the third verse by shewing the gracious effects of tentations when God sanctifieth them Knowing this that the tryal of your faith worketh patience Yea but if this be all the fruit of our afflictions and tentations that we shall be made patient what great matter is that what great advantage cometh by patience It is but a dull grace it is meerly passive He telleth them that it is such a grace as is necessary to the beeing and perfection of a Christian in the words that I have now read to you Let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and intire wanting nothing I shall speak something for the explication of the terms and phrases used here and then come to elect such points as shall offer themselves to us from them First I will shew what is meant by patience Secondly what is meant by Patience having her parfect work Thirdly what is meant by this that doing of this they shall be perfect and intire wanting nothing Patience in a word it is a grace or fruit of Gods spirit whereby the heart of a beleever willingly submiteth it self to the will of God in all afflictions and changes in this life I say it is a work or fruit of Gods spirit In respect of this work the efficient is called The God of Patience and long suffering which is the same with Patience is made a fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 The subject of this is the heart The act of this Patience is to submit a mans self willingly to God in afflictions I say willingly for there is a submission which is by force when God subjects a man to himselfe not by a gratious and sweet inclining of the will but by a powerful subduing of the person Now when I say there is such a willing submission to God in afflictions the meaning is thus That there may be in a believer in a child of God a Velietie an inclination of the will a natural desire to be freed from Afflictions yet nevertheless there is in him that willingness that is here the Patience of a Christian There may be a willingness an unwllingness in one
beyond and short and above and below us in those that are elder and younger and richer and poorer all forts he will strike us at last this thing I say should stirr us up to prepare for our own dissolution A man would think that there were no need of such a thing the very bare sight of a Corse or a Hearse the bare sight of a deed corpse the bare ringing of a bell or a Funeral Sermon should be warning enough to the living to tell him of death When a man sees a company carrying a dead body to the grave he should say to himself It may be the feet of these may carry me next But how cometh it to pass hat it is not thus Certainly there is not power in all examples to work this it is the work of Gods spirit Though a man observe the death of never so many before him yet his cannot work in him a serious care to make preparation for his own death except God adde a further work to it We may see this in the expression of Moses when so many died in the Wilderness Lord teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdom As if he should have said Though so many thousands died in the Wilderness and that by so many several kinds of death yet we shall never apply our hearts to wisdom by those examples except God teach us that wisdom Therefore we should pray to God to teach us by his Spirit to make use of Examples Men must give account for examples as well as for rules men must give account for examples of mortality as well as for Sermons of mortality therefore let the example of others mortality stir you up to prepare for your own and that you may do so be much in calling upon God Lastly He shall not return to me that is in this sense to converse on earth as he had done before I shall return to him but he shall not return to me He doth but reitterate and repeat what he had said before in effect This is the thing then that Parents must make account of both for themselves and their children For their children It should make them moderate therefore in their sorrow for them God now hath shewed his purpose and declared his will therefore we should rest in that will of God This is the thing that David aymed at Gods will was not only to take away his child but so to take him away as never to return to him again in that manner Now God had declared his will and therefore Why should I fast saith he as if he should say I will now rest in the will of God In all the things which we account crosses and losses in children and friends c. The main business of a christian is not to expresse sorrow but submission and subiection to God to exercise and inure his heart to patience and to rest in Gods good pleasure and will As Eli though he failed in his carriage to his sons yet he shewed a dutiful respect to God his heavenly father When Samuel told him the judgement of God that should come upon his house It is the Lord saith he let him do what seemeth him good in his own eyes though it were a heavy judgement such as whosoever should hear of it both his eares should tingle yet it is the Lord let him do what seemeth him goad As if he should say I have nothing to do in this business but to subject my self with patient submission and contentedness to his will it is the Lord it becometh not me to contend with him and to reason with God concerning his work I confess he is righteous let him do what see meth him good in his own eyes And so Aaron There was a heavy judgement befallen him his sons were consumed with fire yet the text saith Aaron held his peace When God manifested so great wrath to his house in wasting and consuming and burning his sons for offering of strange fire yet Aaron held his peace that is he did only mind how to glorifie God by a contented submission to his will So Job he heard not only of the losse of his children but that he lost them in such a manner by a violent death by a house falling on their heads yet the Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Whereas a carnal worldly man would have fallen to strugling and contending and quarrelling against God and so trouble and perplex his own spirit We do exceedingly imbitter Gods cup by mingling with it ingredients of our own passions and so make the affliction more heavy and grievous then God intends it Here is the reason we possess not our souls with Patience When we are sensible of the losse of friends and children c. let us learn to make it our business to think I have a greater work to do to prepare for my own death God in the death of this man speaks to me to prepare for my own And then to glorifie God by submission to his will make it appear that thou acknowledgest a power in God to dispose of thy house to do every thing by patiently resting in his will And yet this comfort is added though children be took away that they shall not return in an earthly manner yet they shall in a better manner Parents are contented to part with their children for a time for their preferment Children though they are very young that are commended by the prayers of the godly Parents into the hands of God these whose hearts God hath inlarged and quickned fervently and faithfully to pray in the besalf of their children they may rest in this assured that they shall meet at the Resurrection in a better manner their children shall be better preferred then if they were on earth and shall be raised up to perfection Here you see there is not a tooth bred in a child without a great deal of pain and every tooth cost some pain but this mortal body shall put on immortality and this corruption shall put on incorruption This weak body shall be made strong weak children strong without pain Death endeth these things and the Resurrection shall present him in a perfect measure of strength in a glorified estate So much for this text and for this time THE STING OF DEATH OR THE STRENGTH OF SINNE SERMON VI. 1 COR. 15.56 The Sting of Death is Sin and the Strength of Sin is the Law SOlomon telleth thus that there is a season for every thing there is a time to be born and a time to die These two are the two great seasons of all men we are as sure to die as we are sure we have lived and every degree of our life is but a step to our death Every man of us hath but a part to act here in the world when we have done that that God hath appointed us we are drawn off from
respect of the metaphor the Apostle aludeth unto it is taken from the sting of a Serpent and so Sin is a sting in a double respect First in respect of the fearfulness and then in respect of the hurtfulness of it First in respect of the fearfulness It is Sin that makes Death fearful to a man Indeed I confess that in the best Christian though Christ have pulled out the sting of death yet there are natural grudgings and shruglings As to a Serpent though the sting be pulled away yet there are some abhorrings and dislikes in a man But then how terrible is Death when it cometh in a compleate Armour as it doth against a person in whom Sin remaineth in its full power it must needs then be terrible See the differences between two persons the one is afraid of every one he meeteth the other is not what is the reason the one is greatly indebted and ingaged the other is free So it is with a Christian and another man the one cannot hear of Death but his heart breaks he is full of fear and horrour the other heareth of Death and is only somewhat affected in the hearing of it but not possessed with that fear as is the other what is the reason the sting of death remaineth in one and not in another Sin therefore is a sting in that respect Secondly it is a sting in respect of hurtfulness The sting of the Serpent is a hurtfull thing it poysoneth the vitall parts it takes away life it self All the evill that cometh to us by death cometh by sin Man need not complain of the ilness of the prison so much as of his own folly that he ingaged himself in debt whereby he is cast into prison Why complainest thou of the misery in Hell rather labour to break off thy sins that are the cause of all that misery all the hurtful quality and miserable condition that befalleth a person in Death and Hell is for Sin the eternal separation of the soul from God and all punishment that follows after in Hell are the fruit of mans sin Hell had not been Hell without Sin it is Sin that causeth it to become hurtfull Thus I have explained these inquiries Now I come to make Use and application and so conclude the Point The first Use of this point shall be this If Sin be the sting of death let it be our wisdom to get this sting pulled out in the time of our life Oh that this people were wise faith God then would they consider their latter end If you were wise that hear me this day you would consider that Death will come and if it be not taken away before-hand with a sting upon the soul My brethren we have many enemies to deal with even now at this very instant but there is yet an enemy as the Apostle faith The last enemy to be subdued is Death he his behind and here is the difference betwixt Death our last enemy and some other of our enemies some other of our enemies cannot be subdued but by their presence but let me tell you this Death is such an enemy as is never subdued but by his absence thou canst never overcome Death in death thou must not reserve this combat till thou come to the field but thou must overcome this enemy before he cometh thou must overcome him in thy life How is that Pull out the sting of him now then Death is conquered How will you disarm the tongues of malicious slanderous persons and deprive them of their viperous speech by an innocent life So how will you take away the sting of death watch against Sin take away sin and you take away the power from Death set upon Sin and Death is overcome so much sin as is now dead so much is Death conquered I beseech you seriously consider these particulars First that it will not be long ere Death knock at these doors of ours these houses of clay must shortly be ruinated we must certainly be resolved into dust What is this life of ours but as a ship that is driven by a gale of breath When the breath of man ceaseth the ship lieth in a dead calm Man goeth to his long home saith Solomon and the mourners follow in the streets Death is our long home we all are the mourners we follow in the streets This dead carcass is an example that leads us to our home and a sermon to tell us that we must follow we follow now in a charitable expression but we shall follow one day in paying of the same debt Look over all the times of the world and the dispositions of persons look over learning and folly greatness or poorness find me a man that escaped Death Die we must and we have need to have this much pressed upon us for it is a hard matter to beleeve that we must die that I must be the man that must die common notice of Death are granted but that I must die and lie in the dust and stand before God it is a hard matter to beleeve this And consider this secondly that Death will be terrible to thee if he knock and find a sting in thee Thou that now wilt not be reclaimed from swearing Alas what will become of that blaspheming soul of thine when death shall come and find a sting of blasphemy in thee How darest thou think of giving up that swearing soul of thine to the Judge of heaven and earth Thou unrighteous person that wilt not sanctifie the Lords day how darest thou give up that unholy soul of thine to the holy God Dost thou think to have an eternal rest in heaven and wilt not give God a rest here So I might say for all kind of sinners Think of this take heed lest Death find a sting in thee for all the sting that Death hath it findeth in thy self look to it thy condition will be fearful if Death come and find Sin unmortified unrepented of in thee God will certainly bring thee to judgment for every thought and word and action Thirdly consider this that naturally we are so tempered that if Death come he shall find his weapons and strength in us in every man of us I mean considered naturally But how shall I know whether Death when he cometh shall find a sting in me or no I will only give you two tryals you shall know it thus First if thy conscience now sting thee for some approved sin if thou repent not Death will assuredly meet thee with a sting that approved sin of thine will be the â—…ting of death Conscience will sting a man either for the act done or for the approbation of the act if conscience sting a man for his approbation of a sinful quality or for a sinfull course if a man continue in that course surely that will be the sting of death to his soul therefore look to thy self perhaps thou art convicted of such a sin perhaps thy
conscience hath so wrought on thee that it hath stung thee for such a sin thou yet approvest thy self in it and thou wilt go on in thy pride still in such and such sins stil thou wilt do so do but know this that stand thou never so much upon thy resolution Death will certainly come and if he find thee in such a sin against thy conscience thou hast reserved in thy self a sting for Death Secondly a man shall know if Death come with a sting by this trial that Solomon giveth us in Ec. 11.9 Rejoyce oh young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the dayes of thy youth and walk in the wayes of thy heart and sight of thine eyes but know that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment If thou live a voluptuous life Death will certainly come with a sting Dives he lived a voluptuous life had he not a sting for it So others in Scripture did not their plentiful tables and voluptuous courses bring a sting on them A voluptuous life makes a sting for Death When a poor wretch is a dying and shall begin to reflect back on his life what have I done how have I lived so much time I have spent or mispent in apparel in vanity in eating in drinking in swaggering What comfort is this to his soul how can he answer this before God this is the very thing that will sting him at such a day when he can read nothing in his life but barrenness and unfruitfulness nothing that hath honoured God in all his life Certainly my brethren if there be an Epicurious voluptuous life this life will provide a sting for Death Alas you will say Is it so then we may fear that Death will seize on us thus for we confess we have gone on in a voluptuous life gone on in sin that our conscience hath condemned us for how shall we do to pull out this sting I would to God you were thus affected that you were convicted what a fearful thing it will will be if sin remain But wouldest thou have the sting of death pulled out before death come I. How shall I disarme it that I may look death in the face with comfort I. shall give you some wayes and means remember them and practise them First get but a part in Christ and the sting of death is gone thanks be to God saith the Apostle here that hath given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ It is he that in the Revelation is said to have the keyes of Hell and of death they are under his command and subjection he is victorious over them he hath vanquished them so that if a man have Christ he hath victory and power over Hell and Death I told you in the beginning that that which giveth a sting to Death is the guilt of sin It is so and it is a fearful sting Now that which takes away the guilt of sin is Christ If Christ be mine I have enough to answer the guilt of sin Therefore the Apostle saith Death cannot separate from the love of God in Christ What shall then Indeed nothing it is not the guilt of his sins Christ hath satisfied from them So that if thou wilt have the sting of death out get faith in Christ if thou be not hidden in the clefts of that Rock in the blood of Christ if Christ be not thy Justification and thy righteousness what hast thou to answer the Justice of God you must die and stand before God and how can you stand before God in your sins you cannot without Christ why do you not then study more for Christ Why do you not labour for faith in him It will be your wisdom to labour earnestly to make sure of him if you have him the sting of death is gone Death cannot hurt a person that hath Chriâ—… Get faith in Christ therefore that is the first Secondly 〈…〉 would not have Death terrible and fearful to you labour for sincerity 〈◊〉 â—â—ethren it is a marvellous thing and yet the truth uprightness and sincerity 〈…〉 is an enabling grace All the particular things that we account particulaâ—â—â—â—â—â—wise they have not an inabling vertue in them Some persons have a great dâ—â—â— of learning and wit and many friends much riches and the like yet there cometh an occasion sometimes that puzzleth all these there cometh an occasion sometimes that a mans learning is of no use and natural parts and wit cannot help and riches cannot inable him What time is that The time of death the heart of a man is put to it at such a time and now these shrink nothing can inable a man agaiâ—â— fear so much as sincerity and uprightness When the Prophet Isaiah told 〈◊〉 from God that he must die he flieth to this Lord remember how I have 〈◊〉 fore thee with an upright heart and done that which was good in thy sight When Death cometh to a wicked voluptuous person and telleth him I am here come for thee thou must appear before God what can this man say Lord I have lived before thee a voluptuous proud wretched life I was a scorner of thy Word a contenâ—…er and persecutor of thy people a swearer c. What though perhaps he can say Lord I have heard so many Sermons I have been so much in conference and the like will this inable a man against the fear of Death No nothing but this that he hath a sincere heart that his heart is unmixed that sin is not affected in his soul that there is no sin that he would live in no duty that he wonld not do Lord remember I have walked before thee uprightly I say nothing will inable a man more against fear then sincerity and nothing disgraceth perplexeth the soul in an exigent more then 〈◊〉 It is sincerity that takes away the sting of Death The Apostle in Râ—…m 14. saith he No man liveth to himself but if he live he liveth to the Lord and if he die he dieth to the Lord whether we live or die we are the Lords Here is the comfort we are the Lords saith he How proveth he that We live unto him That is the work of a sincere heart A true Christian liveth not to himself but to Christ Now if thy conscience give thee this testimony I have lived unto Christ then whether I live or die I am the Lords the Apostle concludeth it So right is that of Solomon Riches availeth not in the day of wrath but righteousness delivereth from death Thy righteousness and sincerity delivereth thee not from dying but from death It takes away the sting and power of Death Death shall not be death to thee it is only a passage to thee Therefore remember as to get a part in Christ so to get a perfect and sincere heart and then the sting of death is gone But a hypocritical divided heart a heart and a heart that will
sting a man That is the second Thirdly wouldest thou have the sting of death pulled out now Then mortisie thy sins now do it presently Remember what Saint Paul saith but I think he speaks it in respect of afflictions I profess by our rejoycing in Christ Jesus I die dayly If it be meant of afflictions yet it should be verified of us in respect of sin die dayly to sin and then the sting of death is gone Oh beloved our condition will be sad and discomfortable when at once we must enter into the field with Death and Sin he that dieth daily to Sin he hath nothing to do with Death when it cometh Death may come to such a party but cannot hurt him he may rest quietly when it cometh And observe it so much sin as thou now sparest so much sting thou reservest for Death and is it not folly in a man to spare sin that giveth a sting to Death But now as a man is to crucifie evey sin let me put in this caution and remember this advise As the sting of every sin is to be pulled out so pull out especially the sting of that Sin that now stingeth thy conscience that now lieth upon thy conscience for if it work now it will work fearefully at death Death doth not lessen the work of sin but inrageth it God will then present and set thy sins in order before thee perhaps God hath brought thee here to day to hear this Word get thee home and set thy soul in order The love of Sin and the fear of Death seldome part and where Sin is much loved Death will there be much feared Death is never more terrible then where sin is most delighted in Therefore crucifie sin if thou wilt have the sting of death taken away It may be thou thinkest it is a troublesome work but remember that those sins which thou now so much delightest in and lovest and livest in will then prove the sting of death to thee If a man would spend his time in the mortisication of sin when death cometh he should have nothing to do but to let his soul loose to God and to give it up to him as into the hands of his most faithfull Creator and Redeemer And is it not an excellent thing for a man to have nothing to do with Death when it cometh Lastly here is a use of comfort If it hath pleased God to give any of us the grace to pull out the sting of death it is a great comfort But Death is approaching you will say Oh but Death is disarmed the sting of it is taken away what a singular comfort is it then to you that Death is coming Indeed all the comfort that the soul is capable of is this that the sting of death is took away Now when Death cometh upon such a man it doth but free him from all that state of misery he is in here from all that extremity of condition that he is put into from all those diversities of occasions pressing occasions of tumbling about in the world Death doth but put an end to all And which is an excellent comfort to a Christian Sin is ended with Death what afflicteth the soule of a Christian but that he carrieth about him a body of sin and of death This was a trouble to Saint Paul and is to every true Christian Now when Death cometh there is an end of this Body of sin thou shalt never sin more thou shalt never grieve the Spirit of God more thou shalt never be clogged with such imperfections and infirmities in duty that death that cometh to thee shall pass thee to the fruition of eternal glory and what canst thou desire more then to be happy in eternal glory with God THE DESTRUCTION OF THE DESTROYER OR THE OVER THROW OF THE LAST ENEMY SERMON VII 1 COR. 15.26 The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death DEATH is a Subject that a Christian should have in his thoughts often and neither the hearing nor thinking nor speaking of it can be unseasonable for any place or person We have heard that the life of Philosophers is nothing but a meditation of Death and certainly the life of a Christian much more should abound in such meditations No man can live well till be can die well He that is prepared for Derth is certainly freed from the danger of death neither is there any so fit a way to be ready for it as to be osten minded of it Therefore I have made choice at this time to speak of this verse wherein ye see the Apostle declareth and leadeth us to treat of four things First that there is a Death Secondly that this Death is an Enemy Thirdly that this Enemy is the last Enemy Lastly that this last Enemy shall be destroyed A word or two of each of these parts First Death is Ye know that well enough your eyes shew it you daily our senses declare it so plainly that no man is so senseless that knoweth it not It is agreed upon by all Only for your better furtherance to make use of this point let us acquaint you with that which nature will teach ye concerning Death Secondly with that which Scripture will teach you above and better then Nature Nature sheweth ye concerning Death first what it is And then Secondly what Properties it hath It telleth us this That Death is in absence from life a ceasing from beeing when one was beeing to be thrust as it were out of the present world and be cast some where This is all that Nature informeth us concerning the Essence and Being of Death Death is a deviding of us from this life and from the things of this life and sends us abroad we know not where Secondly Nature teacheth us three Properties concerning Death One that it is universal It hath tied all to it high and low rich and poor Death knocks at the Princes pallace as well as at the poor habitation of the meanest man It is a thing that respects no mans greatness it regardeth no wealth nor wit nothing Death takes all before it That Nature teacheth too Secondly Nature teacheth that Death is inevitable If a man would give all the world he cannot thrust it out of doors It takes whole Armies as well as one man It scorneth to be resisted by the Phisitians there is no words no means to escape it It is such an enemy as we must grapple with and it will conquer This Nature teacheth Again Nature teacheth that death is uncertain A man knoweth not when Death will come to him or when it will lay hold on him or by what means it will setch him out of the world It may fetch him out of the world at any time or in any place and by such occasion as it is impossible for any wit to think of before This is in substance all that Nature teacheth And the knowledg of this
me shall never see death He meaneth to hurt himselfe Again This is the message that God hath given us life and this life is in his Son And He that hath the Son hath life Our Saviour Jesus Christ came into the world as the Apostle telleth us that he might destroy him that had the power of death and so set them at liberty that all their life-time were in bondage under the fear of death And Saint John saith He came into the world to destroy the works of the devil which are sin and death So that now Death hath lost his sting because Christ overcame it in dying he slue Death and was the death of Death this man Christ God and Man he offered himself to his Father as a Sacrifice for the sins of the world and dying a cursed death upon the Cross so satisfied the justice of God on the behalf of all those that are in him that death can do them no harm It is nothnig else but a passage to eternal blessedness Oh blessed be the name of God that hath been pleased to provide so perfect a remedy against so mortal an enemy and to lay it open so clearly and plainly in the Gospel Ye have heard of those things that I thought to put you in mind of concerning Death and so I have done with the first point The second is That Death is an enemy Therefore the Apostle Paul telleth us of a certain sting it hath Oh death where is thy sting It is an armed enemy it cometh as a Serpent with a sting that entreth into a mans soul putteth it to exream perplexity if he taks not order to disarm this enemy An enemy ye know is a person that setteth himself wilfully to hurt a man may hurt his neighbour either through indiscretion or unadvisedness against his will or he may lay wait to do him hurt intending misceif and seeking to peforme somewhat that shall be injurious to him We call not him an enemy that we receive a little hurt from against his will contrary to his purpose and intention but he that studieth and before-hand desireth to be an enemy Now Death as we may say studieth our hurt in all extremity before-hand There is but two sorts of hurt that can come to a man One is to deprive him of that which is beneficial and comfortable to rob him of all that is contentful to him in this life As when a company of Foes break into a Nation they burn their goods and spoyle their houses and rob and take away all that is comfortable to them so much as they can Death is such an enemy It desireth to bereave a man of that necessary contentment he hath When it meeteth with a learned man it takes away all his learning at one blow assoon as he is dead he ceaseth to be a great scholler It cometh to a rich man and robs him of all his goods at one blow too though he have millions Death causeth all to be another mans When it cometh to a King it pulleth him beside his Throne takes his Crown off his head and casteth both him and it into the dust he is King no longer when he is dead And so in all the benefits of this life it takes away the pleasure and contentments of a man it takes away the husband from the wife and the wife from the husband it devideth children from Parents and Parents from children all the benefits that this life afford Death strippeth a man of them all and turnes him naked out of the world just as he came he must goe and carry nothing in his hand Death will not admit him to take one farthing or any thing else with him So he is an enemy for he spoileth us of whatsoever is desirable in this life But he is an enemy also in inflicting a great deal of ill upon men So death bringeth torment for the present It is a terrible thing to wrestle with it makes a man bleed and sweat as it were No man can incounter with death but he feeleth anxiety and vexation of body and mind unless he have comfort from above to enable him to wrestle with it but in his own proper nature it is so furious an enemy that it doth not cease till it hath dragged the soul into the presence of God and after from his Tribunal to the torment of eternal fire in Hell That succeedeth death for naturally of its own nature it tendeth to the destruction of man because it is a fruit of sin and therefore must needs he the perdition and overthrow of the soul For sin bringeth destruction in regard it makes God angry with us and separateth from him and by consequence from all manner of comfort and in regard it separateth from him it bringeth all manner of ill his wrath his hatred and ill will the greatest of all Death I say properly and of it selfe intendeth and seeks to draw all those that it layes hold on to a state of everlasting unhappiness therefore it is an enemy So you see the second point opened The third is that Death is the last enemy after which there shall be no more But I must tell you to whom it is the last not to all For there are a generation of men that shall feel death to be the last of enemies and in a manner the first But to the Saints and those that are prepared for death and those that will use the remedy to these and these alone death is the last enemy after once they have grappled and fought and encountred with this enemy they are at peace and rest as he saith Happy are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours There is no more toyl and misery to a good man after death And why Because death separateth sin from his soul as well as the soul from the body and so taking away the cause of unrest it must needs take away misery and unhappinesse it self Indeed properly Death doth it not but the Lord Jesus Christ by death For it pleaseth him when his servants leave this world then they are fit to enter into a place of happiness in another world which they could not be except they were freed from sin Death is the daughter of sin and with a happy patricide as it were at once it destroyeth it self and sin and therefore it takes away all misery because it takes away all sin Therefore it is the last enemy because it killeth the worst of our enemtes for when we are dead there shall be no more enmity between God and us and so no more enemy This is the third point The last is that this enemy shall be destroyed A thing is destroyed abolished when its self ceaseth to be and it took out of the way and when all the ill effects that it would produce and effect or hath are removed So the Lord Jesus Christ abolisheth Death he destroyeth it that it
find it out What a sort of diseases we are subject to you may imagine how many Nay yea cannot imagine how many when the very eye as some Occolists observe have above sixty diseases What a many casualties there are every moment when as oft as we step over the threshold we cannot tell whether ever we shall come home again The fire saith Death is in me and the water saith Death is in me the earth we tread on hath Death in it the Ayre we breath in that which we continually take in and put out at our nostrils hath death in it Death dwelleth with us in our houses it walketh with us in the streets it lyeth down with us in our beds it is wrapped about us in our cloaths that stick to us Benhadad is slain in his Bed Ammon at his Table Zachariah in the Temple Joah at the Altar The disobedient Prophet is torne with a Lyon The unbeleeving Prince is trod to Death in the croude Abimelech slain with a Mill-stone and Pyrrhus with the fall of a Tyle Adrian is choaked with a flie Victor is poisoned with Wine And one of the Emperours with the bread he received in the Sacrament Thus Death waiteth every where and yet we spie it not It is a secret Enemy and therefore the more dangerous Thirdly it is a Spiritual Enemy And it is the more dangerous for that Spiritual I call it First because it is invisible for the spirits are invisible they cannot be seen Such an enemy is Death though we must all feel it yet we cannot see it were it any way discernable we might think of some way how we might shift and shun it but it is beyond the ken of our eyes we are no more able to see that then the Ayre being therefore out of sight it is out of our reach we know not how to grapple with it we know not with what weapons to encounter it And a Spiritual Enemy I call it because though it seize on the body it strikes at the soul By Gods decree the death of the soul is a concommitant of the death of the Body and were it not by Gods mercy reverst they wouldstill come like lightning and thunder and strike both together Again it is a spiritual enemy because it fighteth against us in the strength of sin It cometh armed with a Sting the sting of de ath is sin Some make question whether if Adam had never sinned he should ever have died But me-thinks the Apostle Saint Paul putteth it out of question By one mans disobedience sin came into the world and by sin death All those Death 's that S. Austin reckoneth up First when the soul is deprived of God separated from him Secondly when the body is separated from the soul Thirdly when the Soul is separated from the body and from God and suffereth torments for a time Lastly when the soul is separated from God and rejoyned to the body to suffer torments eternally All these are the recompence and reward of sin Therefore Death coming and being an Enemy thus armed whatsoever kind of death it be we may well say it is a spiritual enemy and the more spiritual the more dangerous Fourthly and Lastly it is a continual enemy And it is the more dangerous for that It laies hold of us in the womb and never leaves us till it hath brought us to the Grave Beloved we do not only die when we die but all the time we live assoon as we begin to live we begin to die As Seneca saith Every day we die because every day some part of our life is gone As a candle it is no sooner lighted but presently it begins to waste as an hour-glass it is no sooner turned but presently the sand begins to run out So our life it is no sooner breathed but presently it begins to vapour out As the Sea what it gaineth in one place it loseth in another so our life what we gain one way we lose it in another look what is added to it so much is took from it the longer a man liveth the less he hath to live Death doth by us as Jacob did by Esau catcheth us in the wombe and never leaveth us So we see it is a Common a Secret a Spiritual a Continual Enemy Next we are to consider How and wherein Death sheweth it self an Enemy What Death deserveth at our hands to be thus accounted and seared Fearful and terrible it is that is certain So Aristotle It is the most terrible of all terribles Bildad in Job calleth it the King of terrours What doth Death bring with it to make it fearful I answer Death hath sundry concomitants and companions that attend it that make it a formidable Enemy First the Harbingers that come along with it Sicknesses and diseases infirmities old age and difficulties These are all fearful to nature and through fear of these Death keepeth men all their life in bondage They make our lives as it were a life rather like a life then a life indeed So that howsoever the Apostle said in another place as it were dying and behold we live There Death hath the tanquam and life the Ecce yet here we may say as it were living and behold we die here life hath the tanquam and Death the Ecce Life is but as it were a life it is but the shadow of a life that man walketh in Man walketh in a vain shadow and disquieteth himself in vain It it true it lighteth not on all alike some it cometh on as a Lyon and breaking their bones from morning to evening it makes an end of them to others it is as a Moth in the garment secretly in their lives by degrees insensibly pining and consuming them Howsoever what Harbinger soever it bringeth it visiteth us with many touches and twitches before it come falling pell-mel thick and three-fold on us when they come In respect of these it may be said to be an enemy Secondly the dissolution that Death bringeth For it dissolveth the frame of nature It divorceth and separateth the Soul from the Body those two companions that have lived so lovingly together and perhaps have lived a long time together This is another thing that makes Death look like an Euemy Friends and companions that have lived long together are loath to part we see in experience old folk commonly are more loath to part when they are old then when they are young Now there is none neerer then the soul and body there is none have lived so long or so loving it must needs be tedious for these to part and be an affliction and vexation when neither the body can longer retain the fleeting soul or the soul longer sustain the drouping body Therefore in respect of this also Death being the cause of this no marvel though nature reluctate and we look upon it as on the face of an Enemy Thirdly the horrour of the Grave
shall he no more As there shall be no more sorrow and pain so there shall be no more death and sin All tears shall be wiped from our eyes I will ransom them from the power of the grave and redeem them from death More then this This yet addeth to our comfort Christ will so destroy Death as be will not only subdue him for us but also reconcile him to us not only foil him as an Enemy but propitiate and make him our friend We have all our enemies subdued to us but some are so subdued that they are reconciled Death is one of them it is a reconciled as well as a subdued enemy Instead of bringing forth children for bondage it becometh a purchaser of our freedom it is so far from plucking us from Christ as rather it letteth us into Christ so far from being a loss as it bringeth gain so far from being a dammage that it is part of our Dowry therefore the Apostle reckoneth it as a prerogative as he saith that the world and life and Christ is ours so Death is ours Indeed if Death were not ours life were not ours for our only way to life now is by Death Such a friend is this Enemy become that it is a Bridge to pass to heaven the Chariot that we are took up to heaven in What we get of life toward life we lose in death but what we get in death toward life we never lose Now for the Application and conclusion of all Something I have to say by way of comfort and something by way of counsel First by way of comfort Against the fear of Death or against over-much sorrow for those that Death takes away It is true Death is an Enemy But to whom only to the wicked that are out of Christ to those that have no benefit at all by his Death and Resurrection and Ascension When Death cometh and findeth out these they may say as Ahab did to Eliah and more truly a great deal hast thou found me oh mine Enemy It is the worst Enemy they have in the world It is a cruel Sergeant that catcheth them by the throat and arresteth them for a debt that they are never able to pay It draggs them to the Jayl casteth them into the Dungeon to the chains of Darkness I have not a word of comfort to say to them They have no more comfort in Death then they have in Hell where though they shall lie in torments and pain they shall not have a drop of water to cool their tongue But to the saithful in Christ there is comfort upon comfort For though Death be an Enemy yet remember first it is a subdued Enemy Secondly a reconciled Enemy Thirdly and lastly an Enemy that one day shall not be at all It is a subdued Enemy that is one comfort The strength and sting of it is gone When a Bee hath lost his sting and is a Droan it can hurt no more So Death is a Droan to a Christian it hums and buzzeth it doth no hurt it cannot sting the sting is gone Against all those Enemies that I formerly told ye of that are attendants on Death here is comfort First it is true Death cometh with ill Harbingers it bringeth sicknesses and aches and pain but there is comfort against this For when God sendeth pain remember he promiseth to send patience too that he will put his hand under to help His left hand shall be under us and his right hand over us to catch us he hath promised comfort upon our sick beds to make our bed in our sickness We need not make such an Allegory as Ambrose doth this sweet flesh of ours the Bed of our soul it is under infirmities and weaknesses God helpeth us he makes our bed he saith to the sick of the Palsey Take up thy bed he turneth our bed in our sickness either he sends us health so some exponds it he turns the bed of sickness into a bed of health or God turneth our bed for us in our sickness that is he refresheth us giveth us ease when we lie upon our sick beds It is a Metaphor borrowed from those that attend sick persons that help to make their Beds easie and soft and turn them that they may lie at ease So God hath promised his children in the painfull time of sickness to make their Beds easie and soft to cause them to lie at ease by the Patience that he will give them Secondly it is true Death bringeth dissolution and dissolveth the frame of nature it separateth and divorceth those two loving companions the Soul and the Body But there is comfort in this For though it divorce the Soul and the Body yet it cannot destroy the soul and the body even the body is in the hand of god when it is rotting in the earth as the Soul is translated to heaven Again though they be separated yet it is but for a time one day they shall meet more joyful and glorious then ever before and after that they shall never be separated again Lastly though he separate the soul from the body and the body from the soul yet neither from Christ nor Christ from them Nay it is so far from separating that it helpeth to unite us to Christ as I said before the dssolution of those shall be the conjunction with him I desire to be dessolved and to be with Christ Thirdly it is true the horrour of the Grave attendeth Death and the putrifaction of this flesh of ours that must turn to corruptness it makes it terrible and fearful But there is comfort against this For after that time of putrifaction there shall be a time of restitution and though the worms devour this flesh of ours yet in thâ—… very flesh of ours we shall see God another day These eyes shall see him There is comfort in that that when God shall come to restore us with himself what the Grave hath cloathed with corruption he will cloath with glory these vile bodies he will make them like the glorious body of Christ without all corruption Fourthly it is true Death depriveth us of worldly friends of worldly imployments this makes it terrible Yet there is comfort against this Though we be deprived of worldly friends it carries us to heaven to better company to Angels to the spirits of just and perfect men to God the Judge of all to Jesus the Mediatour of the New Testament Nay besides one day he will restore again those very friends of which here we are deprived though we lose them for a time in heaven we shall meet again and there renew a perpetual league of society and love So though it deprive us of worldly benefits it cannot of heaven and those are better they are not pleasures of sin that last for a season but at the right hand of God that endure for ever So though it deprive us of worldly
services it carrieth us to heaven to those that are better that are high and proper to the Church triumphant such as befit the Church to sing Hallelujahs and such as are profitable to the Church Militant by the memory of good examples and by the prayers they offer to God not in particular for they know no mans particular wants yet for the general and common good of all Fifthly and lastly It is true the consideration of sin and of Judgement and our uncertain estate after death makes it terrible like the face of an Enemy Yet there is comfort against these For sin I told you that though there be a sting in the Serpent yet Christ hath drawn out that sting so that being a Serpent without a sting we may do as Moses take it in our hand put it into our bosome and it will never do us hurt to them that die in the Lord Death rather came by sin then for sin It is not between sin and damnation but between sin and salvation For judgement It is true Death presenteth judgement but it presenteth it with comfort for the day of judgement is the day that the godly look for and long for as the day of redemption not of confusion when they shall receive the sentence by which they shall be absolved and not condemned For they know when God shall come to be their Judge he shall come to be their Saviour And so for the uncertainty of our future estate after death It is true the eâ—…t ate of the dead in regard of natural understanding it may be a thing uncertain and obscure yet from the secret revelation of Gods Spirit the Saints in some measure know how it will be with them after death We know though our earthly tabernacle be destroyed we have a building given us of God All these things are helps to give us comfort against the fear of Death and those Enemies that Death comes attended with that though it be an Enemy yet it is a subdued Enemy Secondly it may comfort us to consider that death is not only a subdued but a reconciled Enemy of an Enemy it is made to be a friend it is so to all the faithful such a friend as they have not a better in the world It is most certain the wicked have not a worse enemy in the world then death and the godly have not a better friend so ye should see if I had leisure to shew you on the one side from what labour and care and misery it helpeth to free them and on the other side to what comfort and rest and peace and joy it helpeth to bring them Lastly it may comfort us to consider that as death is an enemy a subdued enemy a reconciled enemy so it is an enemy that at last shall be destroyed The time shall come when death and Hell shall be cast into the lake of fire the meaning is I think they shall be shut up in the bottomless pit where they shall only have leave to exercise their power on the Divel and damned reprobates that lie there in torments Death on the one side still gnawing of them that they ever die and yet Hell on the other side still preserving of them that they shall everlastingly live But the godly and the faithful shall have their part and portion given them in the resurrection to life where they shall never taste of death more What the Apostle saith of Christ is true of all those that are in Christ when they are once dead they shall die no more Death hath no more dominion over them But I cannot enlarge those comforts Yet beloved I have a word or two of counsel I pray harken to it Birefly thus Christ though he have overcome and destroyed both death and sin for us for ever yet notwithstanding he will have us exercised also in subduing and overcoming them Christ hath not so fought for us but he will have us also fight for our selves as he hath over come death so must we for our parts that we may have he comfort of that that Christ hath done death being an enemy to us we must prepare and arm our selves against it that it may not be an Enemy too strong And for your better direction take these few heads First Remember that death is the wages of sin It is sin that lead death into the world it is in respect of that that death is an Enemy to us and were it not for that it would be no Enemy at all Now then beloved if ye will not die in your sins let your care be to die to sin labour to have sin die in thee and then thou shalt not die in that When thou hast committed drunkenness or prophaneness c. think with thy self this is pleasant and sweet now but how will this taste another day when I shall come to lie upon my death-bed and my soul shall set on my pale lips ready to take her flight and be brought before the Judgement seat of Christ What fruit will these things bring then What comfort and peace and joy will it procure to the conscience then Oh saith Abner to Joab knowest thou not that this will be bitterness in the end It will be as gall and wormwood therefore if ye would not have death be bitter then let not sin be sweet now part with sin betime That is the first Secondly learn to walk humbly with God betime and betime put your selves in a way of repentance and new obedience take heed of dallying with God and procrastinating and putting off the time What is the reason why a sort die as Pline saith some do that are stung with the Serpent Colemion some laughing some raging some sottish and secure others hoping some dispairing They have not been careful to walk with God while they lived because they wanted care then they want comfort now They that remember not God in their life saith S. Austin it is just with God to forget them in death The Apostle S. Peter would have us look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness But never look thou to dwell in that heaven where righteousness dwelleth except righteousness dwell in thee And he exhorteth us that we be found of God in peace at that day that is sweet and comfortable indeed but remember Peace and holiness go together if we would be found of God in peace we must be found of him in holiness Walk in holiness and uprightness and then peace shall kisse thee on thy death-bed Mark the upright and just man the end of that man is peace Thirdly the better to subdue Death be willing to meditate and think oft of Death learn the Art of dying practise the way of it betime learn to die daily How shall we do that I will shew you Consider we have many little deaths to undergoe in the world as whave many delights Learn to inure and acquaint thy self
and that this is it that makes him careful to mortifie his secret lusts that this is it that makes him careful to purge himself from worldly affections that this is it that makes him industrious to avoid evil courses that this is it that makes him diligent in good actions that this is it that makes him constant and to persevere to the end in all holy wayes and in avoiding of all evil because he looks for and waites for the coming of Christ Now then take this for a main tryal of your selves concerning the former point Whether you can with comfort looke for the coming of Christ or no There shall be abundance at that day that shall hang down their heads I saw saith Saint John the Divine the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief Captaines and the mighty men and every bond-man and every free-man men of all sorts hide themselves in the dens and in the rock of the mountians and said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand Would you therefore hold up your heads with comfort and with joy that when you hear a Funeral Sermon it might comfort you to think It will not be long before my time shall come before my time shall be would you in truth have freedome from the fear of death which Christ hath purchased for he tooke upon him the same nature because the children were partakers of flesh and blood that he might free them who for fear of death were hold in bondage all their life Would you have comfort in Christs coming to Judgment See how effectually this works in you Is it thus effectual that because you look for Christs coming therefore you prepare your selves therefore you purge out your lusts and corruptions because there shall be nothing then when the secrets of all bearts shall be manifest that shall be displeasing to him when he shall come Are you careful to let fall worldly affections because you have a comfortable apprenension of heavenly joyes Are you careful to turn your course from sin because you would not lie open to the judgement of condemnation Are you careful to do good to persevere in the practise of godliness because he that shall come will come and will not tarry If it be thus with you then you may with comfort think of that day then you may with chearfulness look upon the day of death the day of death then is better then the day in which thou wert borne It is better to thee then the day of thy marriage it is the day of that great Marriage that shall be made between Christ and thy soul to all eternity It is better then the day that thou obtainest thy freed one then the day that thou comest out of thy Apprentiship it is the day wherein thou art set free and brought unto the glorious liberty of the sons of God It is a day that is better then the day of the enjoyment of the greatest comforts of this life because it sets thee in the possession of pleasures that are at Gods right hand for evermore Take this consideration therefore to heart and that you may walk in a holy course the better and with more constancy keep the object alwayes close to your eye Think with your selves and say If we would walk as Saints in heaven we must live as Saints on earth But how shall we do this Be often thinking of the coming of Christ often put this question to your souls What if Christ should now come If he should come now I am in the Church am I hearing the Word with that affection that I ought to here it with If he should come now I am in my calling in my world business do I follow it with a heavenly disposition as I ought to do What if he should come now while I am feasting should he take me as one feasting with fear lest I should sin against God in my mirth What if he should come and take me asleep have I made my peace with God before I went to rest Work these considerations upon thy soul When the morning cometh think it may be Christ will come and take me away before evening how shall I walk this day that I may have comfort in the coming of Christ When the Evening is come think it may be I shall never see morning before the great day of the Resurrection what now shall I do that if I die in my sleep I may rest in the Lord and so may have comfort in his appearance Either this moment either this minute settle thy comfort and peace with Christ or it may be the next hour it will be too late And remember that if ever you will live a holy life if ever you will have a heavenly conversation on earth you must be much and seriously settled in this meditation slight it not pass it not in your thoughts as a matter of discourse but let it be a working meditation let it be effectual to produce somewhat in you that may warm and heat your hearts and to set on fire the whole soul and to purge out the dross of corruption that remains in you Thus you see what it is that the Apostle here undertakes for himself and for as many as walked as he did they had a heavenly Conversation and that which made them have a heavenly conversation was the looking for the coming of Christ This was the fruit of their looking for the coming of Christ it made them walk in a heavenly conversation on earth There is another fruit of this by their looking for Christ they shall find him to be a Lord and Jesus We look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Which word sheweth that all that Christ did for the purchase of our redemption he did it by price and by power He did it by price he satisfied his Fathers Justice and so he is a Saviour We wait saith the Apostle 1 Thes 1.10 for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come And by power to over Sathan so he is a Lord the Lord of might Thou shalt find at the day of Christs that he will both be Saviour and Lord to thee A Saviour to free thee from sin and condemnation A Lord to bestow upon the heaven and glory with the Saints This is another benefit of our looking for Christs coming in the manner before spoken of we shall find him then to be a Lord and Jesus one that will save us from our sins and one that hath power to bestow heaven upon us Wouldest thou then have this comfort at that day Let him be so here to thee in this life let him be thy Lord and commander of all thy
affections of the whole man yeeld obedience now to his will and thou shalt find him a Jesus then He is not a Jesus a Saviour except he be a Lord and Commander also But you see I cannot stand to insist upon this The occasion of our meeting at this time is to commit to the Earth the body of our Sister departed She hath now the termination and conclusion of all her waiting and expectation And after so long a waiting there remaineth a sleeping in the Grave awhile when the soul resteth in the hands of Christ and waiteth for that great day when body and soul shall be joyned together I perswade my self well of her that She was one of the number of those waiters that shall have joy at the coming of Christ I had not much knowledg af her only I observed in her sickness a good purpose and desire of new and better obedience and performing better service to Christ then she had done if God should have spared her longer And she expressed also a great desire of Christs second coming a desire that he would receive her to himself and that these dayes of sin might be finished Much she was in these desires and she had good warrant for it for she was careful as I am informed to set up the kingdome of Christ in her Family It is the duty of a good Wife to be a help to her Husband especially in matters of piety and the worship of God and therein her example should teach wives to strive herein She was alwayes stirring him up to prayer in his Family to a more careful sanctifying of the Lords day herein She was frequent She was much mortified to the world for some late years as it was observed in her daily course by those that knew her Thus she laboured to fit her self and her Family that she might have comfort in the great Day of the appearing of the Lord Jesus I speak upon information for your edification to stir you up to labour to fit your selves for Christ by purging out of sin in your hearts and lives Labour to fit your Families for Christ that when you and your servants and children shall appear before him you may look on them and look on Christ with comfort as men that before have prepared themselves for the coming of Christ and as those that then shall lift up their heads because the day of their redemption draweth nigh CHRISTS PRECEPT AND PROMISE OR SECURITY AGAINST DEATH SERMON XVII JOHN 8.51 Verily verily I say unto you if a man keep my saying he shall never see Death IT is not long men and brethren since Death rode in triumph thorow this City and did bear down all before him he locked up your houses pulled down your windows and made the wealthiest among you put upon them the semblance of Banckroutness by locking up their doors and turning their backs to their houses and running away so it plaid the Tyrant then there died thousands a week and the Grave that alwaies cryeth Give give was almost cloyed with carkasses Death served himself so fast that the Prison could scarse hold the Prisoners It might almost have been said then of this City as once it was of AEgypt There was scarse a house wherein some were not dead at least where there was not the fear of Death Now it hath pleased God to shew you more favour and men now die but by scores Death goeth his old pace and takes away a few secretly without observation But Death is amongst you still and still will be so long as sin is among you and therefore it will not be unseasonable upon this occasion for me to speak and you to hear somewhat that may arme you against this last and worst Enemy Death which though he make not such a stir in these times of less Mortality yet he will certainly take us all away one by one And who can tell but he may be amongst the number of the hundred or fewer hundreds that die now as no man could tell wether he should be amongst the number of the thousands then Since Death therefore is alwayes an enemy and alwayes fighteth against us though not alwayes with like fury and violence it is a part of wisdome in us alwayes to hear and to practise that which may secure us against the danger of death And that is taught in this Text. Verily verily I say unto you If a man keep my saying he shall never see death Wherein not to speak any thing of the Context I pray take notice who speaks the words The Author of truth the Death of Death he that can best tell by what means a man may shun the hurt of it he that hath vanquished it and overcome the uttermost of his assaults Our Lord Jesus Christ that hath slain death and brought life and immortality to light He giveth us this direction for the avoyding of the hurt of Death Then observe the manner of his speaking Verily verily I say unto you with an affirmation earnest and redoubled He never affirmed any thing unture therefore that which he speaks is an undoubted verity He never spake any thing rashly therefore that which he affirmed so earnestly is a weighty thing and of great consequence And lastly observe that which I only shall insist upon the matter of his direction here comprehended in a hypothetical proposition which hath as all such have two parts An Antecedent and a Consequent In the one he sheweth the Duty to be done as a necessary condition for the obtaining of that which is specified in the other The first hath the Duty The second the benefit that floweth from the Duty These two are knit together in a most necessary consequence If a man keep my word he shall never see death You see now the only and perfect remedy against the evil of Death that is to keep the saying and word of Christ If any would know by what means he may be secured against the terrible of all terrible things as one calleth Death here is a sure and certain rule for him and he need not doubt of it it cometh from the mouth of Christ let him keep his saying and then Death shall never do him harm I will first interpret these words unto you and then make them good by Scripture and Reason and then apply them and commit my self and you and all at last to the blessing of God First then when our Saviour Christ saith If a man we must conceive him to mean generally at least indefinitely If any man whatsoever for so it pleaseth him to in large his promise in the redoubling of the word that no man may have cause to say he is excluded except he exclude himself Keep my sayings Here first I must shew you what is meant by sayings and then what it is to keep those sayings The Saying or words of Christ is the doctrine of the Gospel the Covenant of Grace which by an excellency
overcoming of all sin and by the vertue of Christ he shall prosper in this I beseech you therefore set your selves awork about this great business to get Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it is much more needful then sleep then meat then attire there is nothing in the world so requisite for thy welfare as these things Scrape thou riches together in the same quantity that Solomon did and ten thousands times more yet thou shalt see Death once within a hundred or half a hundred years Get wisdome yet thou shalt see Death after a few years Take pleasure with as much greediness as he did once when he forgat himself for a space yet thou shalt see death These things that the foolish world hunts after with so much earnestness of desire will not secure thee from the sight of the King of feares Death as Job calleth it But if thou once get Faith and Repentance and new obedience then thou hast obtained that that all the riches and honour and pleasures and learning or whatsoever seemeth desirable in the world will not help their possessors to What will you do brethren Grovel still on the earth and still be mad after back and belly Or will you now begin to think I must die I must shake hands with that dismal enemy pale-faced Death that is able to strike terrour into the strongest heart and amazement into the stoutest soul that is not well confirmed and if this Death find me destitute of true Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it will seize upon me and dragg me before the Judgement seat of God where I shall be Henced away with a malediction and curse and be forced to take my place with the Divel and his Angels in unquenchable flames Oh what shall I do then to secure my self from the great from the strong arme of death I will repent now I will begin Lord draw me help me that I may do it I will beleeve now Lord do thou work Faith that requirest it I will obey Lord inable me to preform such needful duties as thou commandest me Shall this be your practice when you come home Will you thus study to practise Repentance and Faith and Obedience and study to cry and call for it and use all your endeavour Or what will you do will you be as idle and careless as negligent and slothful in making after these graces as before Will you be as greedy of the transitory vanities of this life as in former times Oh abuse not the word of God If thou go out of the Church without a full purpose to apply thy self from hence forward either to begin or to proceed in the practise of the saying of Christ Cursed be thou in thy hearing cursed be that hour that thou hast spent and cursed be thy misbestowed labour thou dissembling hypocrite But if thou labour to practise this of Christ namely to keep his sayings the Doctrine of the Gospel to repent to beleeve and to obey blessed art thou in thy hearing and in thy doing and in thy obedience happy is the time and the place and all things that concur together to draw thee to so needful a work I pray Brethren set not your labour upon gold and silver and money and trash not upon the pleasures and delights and contentments of the world not on any other thing but mainly and principally above all things let your chief care be for Faith and Repentance and Obedience If you strive for these things earnestly and heartily and constantly as sure as the Lord is in heaven he will bestow them upon you and with them the benefit of benefits Freedome from Death And now I shall speak comfort to those few that are in the world that keep these sayings of Christ Let them be of good comfort if their capital enemy the King of fears and the King of Afflictions be held from a possiblity of doing them harm nothing can harme them He that Death cannot hurt paine cannot hurt poverty and disgrace cannot hurt nothing can hurt him You know if the King of an Army be reconciled to a place he will keep his Souldiers from spoyling and burning and destroying that place If Death be put out of power to do thee hurt and God be reconciled in Christ because thou keepest the saying of Christ nothing can hurt thee thou art the happiest man under the Sun Why should the poor sad afflicted grieved mourning lamenting Saints of God envie them that are rich and jolly and merry worldlings any of their pleasures and profits any of those things wherewith they like Idiots make themselves laugh at What hath not God given thee better things then he that thou shouldest murmure and whine and weep for want of them art thou still complaining for want of them Remember what Saint James faith Let the brother of low degree that is abased and dispised in the world rejoyce yea rejoyce with great boasting and glory in his Exaltation This is the exaltation of the Saints Christ writing his sayings in their hearts and inclining them through the operation of his Spirit and the powerful work of his Word to repent and beleeve hath freed them from the danger of Death and interessed them into eternal happiness and that blisse that no tongue can expresse nor no heart conceive This is thy happiness it is not to be rich or to be great for these cannot deliver the owner from the hurt of Death natural nor from the danger of Death eternal But to have Faith and Repentance and Obedience this is riches and exaltation for he that hath them shall not alone escape the Dungeon of eternal darkness but be advanced to the Palace of everlasting felicity The Saint is the happy man the penitent beleever and true practiser of Christian obedience he is the sole and only happy man under the Sun for whatsoever storme he suffereth in this present world he shall certainly escape Death and obtaine Glory Blesse God and bless thy self in God magnifie him rejoyce in him take comfort in thy lot and portion Death that devoureth Kings that destroyeth Emperours that conquers Captaines and men of valour shall not be able to approach thee for thy hurt for thou keepest the saying of the Lord Jesus Christ Rejoyce I say in this magnisie him that is the Authour of it and account thy self happy that thou hast receâ—…ed from him so excellent a gift as to be in some measure inabled to keep his saying Yea if it were so may some Christian heart object then I should esteem my self the happiest man alive â—… but alas where is this Repentance you describe where is this New Obedience in me that still still find my self captive and thral to passion to this and that and the other lust and divers corruptions Where is I say that Repentance when I find so much fin Where is that Faith when I find so much wavering and quaking so much aptness to distrust and almost
Christ was placed in the summity and height of their souls and the desire of the full fruition of him caused that fainting that earnest longing in their spirits You will say if this be so what will become of the greatest part of Christians who are afraid to die who are so far from groaning to depose this Tabernacle that they groan at the least intimation of dissolution It is true that all men receive not this saying neither is it for every one to attain to this perfection As there are two forts of faith so there are two forts of Christians there is a strong faith and a weak faith and there are strong Christians and there are weak Christians the strong Christian is willing to die and patient to live the weak Christian is willing to live and patient to die he goes when God calls but he could wish that God would defer his calling he hath good hopes of heaven but he desires a little more to enjoy the earth he loves God more then all yet his affections are not fully taken off from all he is not perplexed with the fears of Hell yet he is not ravished with the joyes of Heaven he hath much strength but knows it not as many a Spectator of a prize is better able to performe it then he that undertakes it but either through faintness of heart or ignorance of his own strength dare not put it to the hazard but had rather commend another mans valour then trie his own whereas a strong Christian a man grown in Christ sends a challenge to this Gyant Death singles him out as a fit object of his valour grapples with him not as with his match but as his underling insulteth over him setteth his foot on the neck of this King of terrours and by conquering him captivates with great facility all other petty fears of ignominy poverty and the like which therefore are dreadful because they tend to Death the last the worst the end the sum of all feared evills this is the unconquerable crown of Faith this is the glory of a Christian this is the Diadem of honour wreathed about his Temples advancing him above all other men whatsover But you will say may a man desire death Is this now a question what means the agony of the Apostle I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ What means the earnest longing of the Spouse Apoca. 22. The Spirit faith come and the Bride faith come and let him that hears say come What means her fainting in the Canticles I am sick of love let him bring me into his chamber Let me see his face I am sick unto death Let me dy lest I dy that I may see him for ever What means the Character of a true Christian As many as love the appearance of the Lord which cannot be without death What means the incredible contempt of death in ancient Christians insomuch that it was a received Maxime with the Heathen Omnis Christianus est contemptor mortis What means the heroical incouragement of old Hilarion Egredere anima egredere quid times Go out my soul go out why tremblest thou What means the words of old Simion in the flames Thus to dy is to live What means the rapture of Saint Chrysostome that he would thank that man that would kill him as transmitting him more speedily to those unconceivable Joyes What means this groaning and thirsting in my Text Do not these demonstrate that it is lawful to desire death Not simply in it self or for it self it is the separation of those two whom God hath coupled it is a cessation of being it is an evil of punishment the daughter of sin to desire it simply were to desire evil which is abhorrent to nature much less ought we to hasten our death by violent means Let their memories be buried in perpetural silence as the botches and ulcers of Christianity who out of impatience have perpetrated this heinous sin a sin against God and man against nature against grace against the Church against the common-wealth against all things The Heathen man could say that we are the possession of God to be disposed of by him not by our selves the body is the structure of God the work of his hands the Tabernacle which he hath made and not to be removed or to be taken down but by his command while we live we may advance the glory of God the good of others we may impeople heaven make up the ruines of Angels to hasten our death were to envy this glory to God this good to others In that distraction of our Apostle between two good things his own glory and the good of others you know which way the scales inclined to the good of others as if he had said let my glory be deferred so Gods glory be increased let my joy be increased let my joy be sulpended so the joy of Angels and of the Court of heaven be intended by the conversion of sinners Nay more this is a small thing Let me be an Athema so Israel be blessed let me be blotted out of the book of life so thousands be inserted let the bowels of Christ be streightned to me so they be enlarged to others this is life indeed this is the end of our life this will comfort us in this life and crown us in the life to come He that can truly say that while he lived he lived to God not to himself that he sincerely propounded the glory of God and the good of others unto himself this man may write upon his Tombe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have lived take this out of the life of man and what is it but a meer death if not worse though it be protracted to the years of Methusalem twice told Thus simply to desire death is not good but cloath this with some circumstances and then to desire death is not only warrantable but commendable when we have done all the good we can when our lives will be no more serviceable to Church or Common-wealth when we have with all fidelity done our Masters work when we have the testimony of a good conscience that we have fought a good fight that we have kept the faith that we have finished our race then may we say with old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace then may we with our Apostle lift up our eyes to the crown of righteousness which the righteous Judge hath laid up for them that fear him then we may expect the Euge of the good servant Well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy of thy Master Again when we are called to be Holocausts or sacrifices oblations of sweet savours the Frankincense of the Church to perfume others to deliver up our lives unto God to seal his Truth with our bloud to encourage others then we ought to run unto death with all alacrity rejoycing that we are counted worthy to suffer for his Name to triumph to boast
therefore he cannot but with amazement and fear continually tremble before God and he desires if it were possible that there were no God at all that he might never be called to account for his doings But now the child of God a faithful Abraham that is in covenant with God he may in the middest of all evils lift up his head with joy and comfort even when wicked men are at their wits end and know not whether to turn themselves It is I say a point needful to urge in these times wherein we hear abroad of wars and rumors of wars and so many distractions and what they feel we have cause to fear but now it is seasonable at this time when we see the King of fears act his part before our eyes he that the Philosophers call the most terrible of all terribles that is Death that tends to the extirpation and abolition of nature in regard of our being here I say there cannor be a better argument treated of then somewhat that may fence us against the fear of this evil Now for the opening of this point First consider what fear is And then what fear a Christian should be freed from And then how it comes to pass that a Christian is exempted from all slavish and inordinate fear And then come to make some Use of it to the present occasion First that we may know the point the better let us consider what fear is in general And fear beloved is such An affection or passion of the soul that is stirred up with a through apprehension of some future evil that is very difficult to be resisted by the party or patient It is an affection or passion of the soul for it makes a real transmutation in the man It is such an affection as is stirred up with the apprehension of evil for evil is properly the object of fear we do not primarily fear any thing that is good axcept the loss of it and it is ill to lose any good thing Again it is evil future for if the evil be present we grieve and not fear And it is such an evil as is difficult and hard to resist an overcome with patience for if it be a small evil that is easily conquered you contemn it you fear it not You see then what fear is in general Is all fear prohibited Not the fear of God c. Fear is oft commanded in Scripture know then there are divers kinds of fear First natural fear and that is called natural either in regard of the material or efficient cause When the party that doth fear is phlegmatick or melancholly and so is naturally inclined to fear this may be called a natural sear Or in regard of the object when there is somewhat in that which is destructive to nature and therefore the fear of death it is natural to man and so whatsoever may prejudice nature Now this natural fear is an affection that Almighty God concreated with the soul it is naturally good it is morally neither good nor evil but according as it is determined by circumstances Again there is a carnal evil fear namely when a man fears the evil of punishment more then the evil of sin a corporal evil more then a spiritual a temporal more then an eternal He is afraid of losing something he enjoyes or of not getting something he desires c. In either regards there may be a carnal fear as I shall explain it to you more anon and this so far as it is carnal is ever to be condemned Thirdly there is a servile fear and this is such a fear as looks at the punishment only and not at the sin when a man is afraid of the judgements of GOD and never fears sin that is the cause of it And so withal when this fear is only servile and is retained in the heart that man desires still to sin there is a love of sin a wishing that God would give him leave to sin and let loose the reins to him that if it were possible there were no God no Devil no Heaven nor Hell that he might sin were possible there were no God no Devil no Heaven nor hell that he might sin freely And if he abstain from sin at any time the cause is that there is this punishment that is the consequent of sin and not out of love to God or obedience to his commandements Now this servile fear though in it self it be not savingly pleasing to God yet it is a thing that is good as S. Austin observes for that man that fears servily he doth that which is good though he doth it not well because that is a thing that depends upon the disposition and will of him that doth the thing though the thing be good as far as it goes It is good for the restraining of evil men from outrages in the world and it is a preparative in the way to conversion as it is Act. 2. Lastly there is a filial son-like fear that ariseth out of the consideration of the greatness and especially of the goodness of God whereby a man so hates punishment as he hates sin also the cause of it Now there are divers degrees of filial fear One degree we call innitial fear in this World And a degree of perfection in the world to come In this world the fear we have hath one eye upon the punishment and another eye upon the commandement or love of God And here many make a doubt whether they are to do that which is good having an eye to the recompence of reward or to abstain from evil out of the fear of punishment For answer briefly And thing almighty God hath made a motive to us to incourage us to do well or to deter us from evil we may make a motive to our selves and as long as we do so we do well It was so with Adam in Paradice this was propounded as a motive In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die Then to abstain from the forbidden fruit partly out of fear of punishment If Adam did so he did well So every one of us in regard of any evil we may have an eye to the punishment that will be the consequent of the thing for Christ urgeth this to his own Disciples Fear not him that can kill the body c. And to do things meerly without any respect to punishment at all I know no reason why any man should aspire to that perfection For God while we are here hath given us these motives to stir us up to avoid evil and it is well if we can heartily and truly out of love to God do it by all the motives that God hath propounded To have a fear meerly for punishment and still to retain the love of sin and no respect or love to the commandement of God this is not acceptable to God in a saving manner but to have an eye to God and to abstain from sin
partly out of love to God and partly out of fear of punishment this is acceptable to God For a man must love himself in subordination to the love of God and therefore he may look to the avoiding of evil and to the getting of good eternal to soul and body Now these fears we may consider of them thus The natural fear may be accompanied with the Spirit but it comes not from the Spirit that must be ordered by the word of God Secondly carnal fear comes not from the spirit nor is accompanied with it this is ever to be mortified this we must take heed of and this fear Abraham is exhorted against here Thirdly the fear that is servile it comes from the spirit but it is not accompanied with the spirit As the dawning of the day the Sun is the cause of it yet the Sun is not present when the day dawns but some glimps goes before him this we must cherish so as we bring it to filial fear and then we deal aright in that Lastly for filial fear we must cherish that at all times we must labour to get still a more reverent respect of the Majesty of God So I have briefly shewed you what fear is And what fear we must labour to be freed from all slavish and carnal fear in regard of the world or any thing in the world any ill that may befall us or any good that may be taken from us Now you see that a Christian is such a man as may live without all fear that is carnal Fear not them that can kill the body And in Isaiah 8.12 Fear not their fear What is the ground of this I will tell you briefly Christ came into the world to deliver us from all our enemies that we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness Luke 1.47 So then the ground is this that man that hath no enemies that man that cannot possibly be molested with any evil what need he fear For there is no evil in the world that can surprize a man that is in covenant with God that labours to keep his covenant but by the power of the Spirit he may conquer it For only evil and evil future is the object of fear Now if there be no evil that can befall a child of God but such as may be conquered he should contemn it and not fear it Now all the enemies of a Christian are either reconciled or conquered and foyled and what then need he fear them For God that is an enemy to every man naturally he is reconciled Christ hath made our peace with God he hath made our attonement we need not fear him slavishly though we may and must fear him with a filial fear we must not be afraid of him with horrour as to run from him but we must so love him as to reverence before his foot-stool Again in regard of the evils of the world they are enemies too but how Christ hath been pleased to sweeten these to us all things in the world saith the Apostle speaking of afflictions Rom. 8. they work for good to them that fear God Shall a man be afraid of his own good Nay there is nothing in the world that more works our good then afflictions and losses and crosses we might spare any thing better then them shall we be afraid of that that works our good Death it is reconciled and made our friend It was the greatest enemy Christ hath pulled out the sting and changed the nature of it he hath made it the birth-day of eternity a sweet passage to a better life Death brings not evil to a man that is in covenant with God but rather terminates all evil that he is molested with in the world So then some enemies are reconciled and made our friends and these we have no reason to fear Again there are some that are irreconcileable and they are conquered and overcome The Divel will never be friends with us therefore Christ hath spoyled principalities and powers and trampled Satan under-feet and now if he walk about yet he is in his chain he can bite but he can hurt none but those that willingly betray themselves into his hands For sin it is of a condemning nature but those that are in covenant with God and walk with him it is removed as far from them as the East is from the West it is thrown into the bottomeless sea of Gods mercy so that it shall never anger God or hurt us any more then if we had not committed it Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect Nay more God hath bestowed his Spirit whereby he hath freed our hearts and whereby if a man labour to stir up the grace of God in him and to walk comfortably as he might in the presence of God he might through the power of God free his heart from these horrours and fears for faith the Apostle ye have not received the Spirit of bondage to fear again but ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father The Spirit of bondage casts down the soul mith horrour and fear but we have the Spirit of God to assure us that we have God for our Father reconciled in Christ and so by consequent that our sins are pardoned that death is overcome that Principalities and powers are spoyled and all things in the world though contrary in themselves yet they shall work for our good So you see the ground of it a Christian hath no enemies some enemies are reconciled and others are trampled under foot that they cannot hurt him And we receive this freedome by the Spirit of God that if we would stir it up and labour to walk as becometh Christians we may make our lives very comfortable Briefly for Application First let us all take notice of the command that God gives to Abraham of this incouragement and make use of it to our selves and know that the power of grace and Religion must reflect upon a mans self He beloved shall be accounted the best Christian before God and in the sight of judicious men whose Religion is practicall and reflects upon himself Now there are many busie ones in the world that meddle with the conversations of others and are still talking and complaining of things without themselves but surely he is a happy man that reformes himself and that sets in tune his own affections and passions as this in particular to labour to be without slavish and inordinate fear Alas we may complain of many that find fault with many things but if they look within there is a combustion of a great many unruly affections and passions and these are the things we never complain of we find not fault with our selves as we should we should take notice of the Law of God that it is spiritual to set in order our hearts and minds and souls as well as our tongues and hands The law of man reacheth but
to the outward man if a man keep himself in order in regard of these thought is free and the Law doth not take hold of a man for his affections but the Law of God doth therefore you know that lusting after a moman in Gods account is reputed adultery the hating of a mans brother in his heart is accounted manslaughter he is accounted a murtherer that hates his brother so he that is angry unadvisedly you know what he is in danger of and that man is accounted guilty before God that cannot order his affections in regard of those unruly passions that are within him This I observe by the way God in Scripture takes especial notice of it and I am perswaded it is an infallible distinguishing character between an hypocrite and a sincere child of God an hypocrite labours to wash the outside he hath a demure countenance clean hands smooth language c. these things are good but he goes no further he makes no conscience of secret contemplative wickedness of the lusts of his heart and the thoughts of his mind these things he never enters into himself to mortifie But that man that is conscionable so walks with God as that a wrie affection an inward lust after somewhat that is evil troubles him and humbles him before God the vanity of his thoughts in secret cause him to mourn before God this is a sign of a man that walks before God and accounts God a Spirit that searcheth the hearts and tryeth the rains and therefore if ever we will approve our selves to God let our Religion be practical and reflect upon our selves and among other things upon our inward man to set that in order Secondly by way of instruction we see what happy men and women we might be if we were not our own foes if we could attain this pitch to live without fear that nothing should trouble us were it not a happy condition surely it is a thing feazable some Saints have attained it in a great measure you know David when Ziglag was taken his wives gone all the spoyl taken and the people were ready to stone him what did poor David he can incourage himself in the Lord his God notwithstanding this So it may be with a poor Christian his friends may forsake him perhaps the world is gone riches take to themselves wings it may be his body is crazy and all things are out of order yet this man can incourage himself in the Lord his God he can say to himself fear not Saith David though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death a doleful condition yet I will fear none ill Psal 23. And in another place though ten thousand should compass me in on every side I would lay me down and rest Though the Apostles were watched by souldiers laid in the stocks and for ought they knew the next day they should be brought to execution yet they sing as merrily and sleep as heartily as if they had been on a Throne and had been Kings in a Pallace Thus a good conscience will make a Christian happy if he be not his own foe but our hearts are intangled with the world and worldly things that for the most part we see not this priviledge But I leave that Next it may serve to reprehend and chide the most of us yea all in that we are distracted with fears unnecessary such as spend our spirits and consume our precious time such things as make our lives uncomfortable and dishonour God and our Religion and profession and all to no purpose Some things we fear a great while before we need perhaps that we need not fear at all One faith Lord what would become of me if I should loose my wife if I should loose my children or loose my estate What would become of me if the times should be hard if there should be a dear year I can scarse bring both ends together now Another faith what shall I do when I am old and cannot take pains for my living thus men fear a thousand inconveniences What need we meet evils half way what need we create to our selves such troubles sufficient for the day are the troubles of it But in regard of carnal fear all things make us afraid more then we need and the fear of ill oft-times perplexeth a man more then the ill it self that lights upon him And men of a melancholly disposition they frame to themselves such strange Chimera's Imaginations of things that perhaps shall never come to pass and so trouble themselves with a great deal of fear Thou art afraid of such and such losses perhaps thou maist die first and such things perhaps shall never befall thee labour to prepare thy heart before hand and then fear them not I will shew you the inconveniences of this briefly First of all these fears of losses and crosses and the like they often bring a great deal of ill to men nay it brings a great deal of ill as the natural event and consequent of it partly by the judgement of God Isa 66.4 I will bring their fears upon them And that that wicked men fear shall come upon them This is the way to bring ill upon them when men will needs be miserable is it not just with God they should The Romans will come and take away our Empire and so it was Saul was afraid that David should succeed him and so he did When men will not learn to live by faith it is just with God to bring that that they fear upon them because they dishonour him by unbelief In the second place it not only brings ill but it makes the heart unfit for ill when it comes In the fear of man their is a snare but in the confidence of the Lord there is a sure reward In the fear of man there is a snare what doth fear do It insnares a man it binds a man hand and foot and layes him flat before his enemy when he comes and then his enemy tramples upon him It so weakens the Spirits and disheartneth a man before it comes that when it comes he is no way able to bear it For the fear takes away all the joy and content that a man may take in the present good that he enjoyes at the hand of God that he cannot enjoy that because he fears I know not what ill that may come and then when that ill comes he is not able to bear it his spirit is so weak I might shew much hurt that this fear doth both to the soul and to the body of man To the body of man how doth it weaken and contract the Spirits and bring diseases and some times death it self Fear doth much hurt to the soul Naturally Spiritually Naturally it weakens a man in regard of the operations of his sonl that the body is not a fit instrument for the soul to work by It makes a man do divers things
of protection on the right hand and on the left That then that was the ruin of the Egyptians it was the protection of the Israelites So it is in regard of death that that is the entrance to the doleful misery of evil men that is the most blisseful and joyful day to a child of God that can be for then he rests from his labours and his works follow him But notwithstanding all this it is hard to live without fear I enjoy many things I am afraid to lose them and my children are afraid and loath to part with me my heart wavers and is full of perplexity how shall I be freed from this I know fear is a natural thing deeply rooted in nature think not to get the conquest wholly but by little and little Labour to get the Spirit of God that is supernatural that must overcome this for the strongest resolution of the most resolved spirit in the world will not overcome it it must be by a power that is stronger then our own namely by the Spirit of GOD that we being assured by the Spirit that God is our portion and living the life of faith we may not fear any thing in regard of this world Secondly labour to keep our covenant with God there is an admonition Numb 14.9 Only faith God remember you do not rebel against God and then fear not this people for God is with you but he hath for saken them The righteous is bold as a Lyon but the wicked fears and oft-times where there is no fear What is the reason we are so faint-hearted that we fear the loss of the things of this world because we are not assured that God is our portion for if a man were assured that what he loseth here God would make up in regard of his presence that he would be All in all instead of wife and goods and children and honours c. it is impossible that this man should fear the loss of any thing for he possesseth all in God and he cannot be lost In particular labour to strengthen faith make God our strong Tower and live by faith he shall not be afraid of ill tydings why his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord Psal 1.12 When men make the things of this world their portion when they make riches and the arme of flesh their portion that they must rely upon here is a reed that will either break or pierce a mans hand No wonder that this man fears in all occasions and extremities because he forsakes the Lord and cleaves to the creature But that man that lives by faith is without fear As Peter when he began to sink faith Christ Why dost thou fear O thou of little faith The reason he did sink was fear and why did he fear because his faith failed him he did not lay hold upon God and Christ Lastly let us remember to order our selves aright in regard of our love and this will keep us from inordinate fear For we must conceive that love is the fountain of all other affections we love things and therefore we desire them if they be absent and we rejoyce in them if they be present and we fear the loss of them to be abridged of them Now let us order our love aright in regard of the things of this world and we shall never fear much for it is the observation of S. Austin we fear to lose somewhat that we have attained or not to enjoy somewhat that we desire so it ariseth from love somewhat that we love and affect we are afraid of the loss of it and this is the cause of fear Now in regard of wealth a man is afraid he shall not have enough he shall not have a competency it is because he loves the things of the world too much A man is afraid of Death why because he loves his body too much A man is afraid he shall lose his children or his Friends what is the reason he loves them too much too inordinatly We should labour to love them only in and for God and then we shall not be afraid of the loss of them but shall be content to be disposed in them and in our selves as God shall see convenient in his heavenly wisdom A word for the occasion and that I will dispatch in a word You know the occasion of our meeting at this time and in this place it is to perform this last rite to the body of a Child that God hath taken lately to his mercy You see how Almighty God is pleased to dispose it sometimes even ost-times from the Cradle to the Grave out of the Swadling-bands to the winding-sheet God will have it so sometimes and when it is so we must lay our hands upon our mouths and be content with the will of God For those that are Parents let all learn this lesson not to dote too much upon their children not to be enamoured too much upon such flowers you know how soon God takes them away before you be aware It is not their wit or their comliness or agility and nimbleness or healthy constitution or any thing that can award them from the stroak of death when God sends it Therefore learn to love them in and for God for his sake and you shall have no cause to fear the loss of them or grieve immoderately when they are taken away why because they are all alive still to God and this tender Babe is not lost he is but sent before he is alive still in the presence of God the soul stillives and the body shall live and is in Gods account Christ hath the charge of it and will raise it at the last day That man can lose no friend that loves his friend in and for God because they live with God and he shall enjoy them at the last day Again as we may mourn for the loss of our friends and children or else we were without natural affection so we must rejoyce that they have gained as we have lost them as they are taken from us so they are taken from the evils of the world from a great deal of sin and misery and what that might have been the Lord only knows therefore we have cause to be thankful And beloved be thankful too if God spare any if he take one he might have taken all and prepare for it too be thankful for them that are lest And remember labour betimes to instruct your children in the fear of God let it be the first thing we infuse into them as soon as they be capable namely the elements of Christian Religion holy and heavenly things why because they may be taken away before we are aware It may be we have but a little time but a few opportunities to do good to them I tell you what our conscience will tell us else that we have not been so careful to instruct our children as they have been capable
all the Angels and Saints in Heaven the spirits of just men made perfect to Abrahams bosome to be with Christ Et quanta 〈◊〉 felicitas What greater happiness It was much that Moses obtained to see the back-parts of God but how much greater favour is it to see him face to face to have eternal fellowship with God the father with Christ the Redeemer with the Holy Ghost the sanctifier The knowledg of this benefit of Death makes the face of it comfortable to Gods servants and causes them to strive with their own natural weakness that so they may even long for their day of dissolution But now against this point divers Objections may be alledged For first the Apostle Paul sayes that Death is the wages of sin And else-where he stiles it Christs enemy the last enemy that he shall subdue is Death How should not death then be rather a day of misery to be trembled at then a day of happiness to be longed for To this I answer that we are to distinguish touching Death for it must be considered two wayes First as it is in its owe nature Secondly as it is altred by Christ in the first sence it is true that Death is the wages of sin and the very suburbs and the gates of hell But in the second taking of Death it ceases to be a plague and becomes a blessing inasmuch as it is even a door opening out of this world into Heaven Now the godly look not upon Death simply but upon Death whose sting and venome is plucked out by Jesus Christ and so it is exceeding comfortable But then secondly it is objected that we read of many that have prayed against death as namely first David Return O Lord faith he and deliver my soul oh spare me for thy mercies sake for in death there is no remembrance of thee Secondly Hezekiah when the message of death was brought to him Thirdly Christ himself Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me To all these I answer first touching David that when he composed that sixt Psalm he was not only grievously sick but also exceedingly tormented in mind for he wrastled and combated in his conscience with the wrath of God as appears by the first Verse of that Psalm therefore we must know that he prayed not simply against Death but against death at that time in asmuch as the coming of it was accompanied with extraordinary apprehensions of Gods wrath for at another time he tells us that he would not fear though he walked through the valley of the shaddow of Death And the like I say touching Hezekiah that his prayer proceeded not from any desperate fear of Death but first that he might do more service to God in his Kingdom And with such a kind of thought was Saint Pauls desire of dissolution mingled Secondly he prayed against Death then because he knew that his death then would be a great cause of rejoycing to evil men to whom his reformation in the State was unpleasing Thirdly because he wanted issue God had promised before to David that there should not fail a man of his seed to sit upon the throne of Israel so that his children did take heed to their wayes Now it was a great discomfort to him to die chidless for then he and others might have thought that he was but an Hypocrite in as much as God had promised issue to all those Kings that feared him and for this cause God heard his prayer and after two years gave him a son Manasseh by name And so I say the same touching our Saviour Christ that he prayed not against Death as it is the separation betwixt Body and Soul as appears by what the Apostle faith that he was heard in that he feared for he stood in our room and became a Curse for us it was the Curse of the Law which went with Death and the unspeakable wrath and indignation of God which he feared and from this according to his prayer he was delivered But thirdly we see in most good men a fear of Death and a desire of life and I my self may some godly man say do feel my self ready to tremble at the meditation thereof and yet I hope I belong unto God I answer that there are two things to be considered in every Christian Flesh and Spirit Corruption and Grace and the best have many inward perplexities at times and doubtings of Gods favour Now it is a truth which our Saviour delivers that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak And as in all other good purposes there is a combate betwixt the flesh and the spirit so is there in this betwixt the fear of Death and the desire of Death sometime the one prevails and sometimes the other but yet alwayes at last the desire of Death doth get the victory Carnal respects do often prevail far with the best care of wise children and the like These are their infirmities but as other infirmities die in them by degrees so these also at last are subdued and the servants of God seeing clearly the happiness into which their Death in Christ shall enter them do even sigh desiring to be clothed upon with their house which is from Heaven Here then is a good Mark by which we may know our selves to be Gods servants viz. by the state of our thoughts and meditations touching Death I will so deliver it as may be most for the comfort of those that truly fear God I demand therefore of thee Dost thou know that the confident and comfortable expectation of Death is the work of the Holy Ghost in Gods servants Dost thou desire unfeignedly that the same may be wrought in thy heart Dost thou labour to know what happiness comes by Death to those that feare the Lord Dost thou grieve at thine own weakness to whom the thought of Death is sometime troublesome and unsavory Dost thou pray the Lord so to assure thee of his favour in Christ that death may be desired before it comes and welcome when it is come Dost thou when thou hearest this speech of Simeon wish that thou wert able to use the like words with the like resolution Surely these things shew that thou art Gods servant and that by Death the Lord will draw thee to a place of rest If these thoughts which I have now named be strangers to thy heart and thou dost not love to trouble thy self to study about Death it is an evil sign The servants of God are not wont to be so secure in matters of this quality And thus much for the first particular in the first general part the desire in the godly of death the second is their care for it the point thence is that It is the care of Gods servants to be alwayes so prepared for death as at what instant soever the Lord shall send it they
that are such as I have now said think in your consciences what would you die if God should now stop your breath and ascite you by Death presently to appear before his Majesty being thus full of ignorance of security of presumption of unsanctified of vicious of malicious of covetous thoughts could you find in your hearts to say Lord now let us depart Sure we could not but Death must needs be to us as it is said to be to the wicked Rex terrorum the King of terrours if it should come upon us and find us in this case And yet what know we how soon how suddenly we may be overtaken some of us drop away daily some young some old some lie sick longer some lesser time and how soon it will be our turn we cannot tell Our hreath is in our nostrills we are all as grass If the breath of the Lord blow upon us we do suddenly wither as the slower of the field and return again to our first Earth Why will we not labour to be now ready sith it may be alwayes truly said We may now depart either while we are here or in our way home or in our beds or at our meat Who can truly say to himself I am sure I shall not die this hour It may be now thou wilt demand of me What shall I do that I may be ready To insist upon particulars would be too long onely therefore in a word The best preparation for death is a reformed life He that lives religiously cannot but die preparedly And it is a thousand to one if a wicked liver make a gracious end The Scripture makes mention of a double Death and so likewise of a twofold Resurrection the first Death is the death of the body which is the separation of it from the soul The second death is of the soul which is the separation of it from God The first Resurrection is the rising from the Death of sin to a new life the second is that which shall be of the body out of the Grave at the day of Judgment Now what faith the Scripture Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power Wouldest thou then be freed from the second Death hell destruction when thou art dead Now that thou art yet alive labour to have a part in the first Resurrection Note what Saint Paul faith of the wanton widdow that she is dead whilst she lives So he that lives in the pleasures of sin and in the wayes of his own heart and after his own lust he is dead in soul though he be alive in body and if he seek not to come out of this grave eternal death shall be his portion Well then wouldest thou prepare for Death wouldest thou be able alwayes to say Lord now now I am ready labour to know God out of his Word that is eternal life Labour to feel Christ live and raign in thee by his Spirit labour to renounce every sin do not go on in any known sin against conscience renew thy repentance daily and still survey the state of thy soul that wickedness may not get dominion over thee Let Death come when it will though the Lord should so visit thee that thou shouldest drop down suddenly yet it shall not find thee unprepared thou hast a part in the first Resurrection there is no fear of the second Death But if thou wilt cherish thy heart in evil thou wilt go on in thy ignorance in thy careless worship of God in thy prophaning the Sabbath in thy whoredom oppression malice drunkenness excess voluptuousness thou makest ready for hell and it is not thy Lord save me or I cry God mercy c. that shall serve thy turn I will tell thee who thou art like unto even to a man appointed after a year or two to be burned and in the mean space must carry a stick daily to the heap so thou heapest up wrath against thy self and makest thy score so great that when Death comes thou shalt not know how to be prepared And thus have I finished the first general part of my Text touching the disposition of the godly in respect of Death I proceed now in a word to the second the ground rule or warrant of this desire and preparation for death according to the word as if Simeon had said this desire that I have now to end my dayes proceeds not from any carnal discontentment because I am now old and can take no great comfort in worldly things but the ground of it is thy word and Promise thou Lord hast revealed unto thy servant that I should not die before I had seen my Saviour This word is now fulfilled and the sweetness thereof hath given me that encouragement that I do even long to be dissolved and to be united unto thee Or again thus Oh Lord this care that I have had to provide thus for Death and to be alwayes in a readiness it hath not come from my self nature never taught it me but thy Word hath instructed me If I had not proceeded according to thy Word I should never have known how to have prepared my self to the time of dissolution This is the meaning of the words and so the Doctrine is plain viz. that Men ignorant in Gods word can never take comfort in death nor be truly prepared to undergo it This is plain if we consider the Exposition which I have already given of that part of Simeons speech It is a general Rule that of our Saviour Ye err not knowing the Scripture A man ignorant in the Scripture can never rightly perform any spiritual duty Hence was that of David Thy testimonies faith he are my delight and my counsellors If any matter came in hand that concerned his soul straight to the word of God went he to know thence how to do it as a man for his Lease or conveyance goeth to a Counsellor for direction So again he confesses that if Gods Law had not been his delight he should have perished in his afflictions And so no comfort no true quiet in any trouble much more at Death without the guidance and information of the Word The assurance that the sting of Death is plucked out that Gods wrath is appeased that sin is pardoned that Heaven gate is opened whence shall we fetch these but from the Scripture the directions for a holy life which is the best preparation for Death where shall we find them but in the Scripture Here then we see is a Caveat to all that have no will nor desire to be acquainted with the Scripture Divers think they should have done well enough though we had no such Book as we call the word of God To be a Scripture-man is a by-word a reproach a matter of disgrace and sooner will men listen to some idle Pamphlet then to a matter of Scripture Well beguile
and yet there is none of his coming Wilt thou still retain thine integrity right Jobs Wife as she speaks to him wilt thou still retain thy trust to what purpose is it It is in vain to serve the Lord as those wicked ones speak in Malachy Now if Hope will come in and say notwithstanding all these things yet pass by bad report and good report be of Davids mind I will yet be more vile before the Lord that chose me before thee and thy fathers house and I will stand it out notwithstanding all the mockings of men Here is a manifest sign that there is Hope Thus you may seek to find this grace in your selves and you shall find it by many such kind of assaults as these which Faith meeteth withall Now as you are to find it so you are to fight against the hindrances of this Hope And the hindrances of a mans hope are sometimes slavish fear sometimes an impatient spirit and sometimes even Death it self and that is a tedious affront indeed that Hope meeteth withall First Fear a kind of passion and perturbation of the spirit of a man that makes his grief begin before his affliction comes upon him this same Fear hath a great deal of painfulness in it Where the fearful are they are shut our with the unfaithful and without shall be dogs with those that are subject to this fearfulness Now Hope cometh to a man and faith Though I sometime be afraid yet put I my trust in God and therefore I will not fear what man can do unto me I will not be danted with any kind of slavish terrour Hold out thou that faist thou hast faith and be not afraid of the Arrow that flies by day nor of the terrour by night Here is the hindrance of this hope taken away Then there is an impatient spirit that many times possesseth men An impatient spirit and a hopeful heart they are both as contrary as can be You shall have many a man so touchy that he cannot endure any delay he must have things come according to his own mind or he loseth his patience presently Oh but I will patiently wait for the Lord saith hope And here is the opposition that must be made for the maintenance of this hope against all kind of impatiency In patience possesse your souls The last hindrance is death The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death We have many enemies in this world our very life is a warfare but amongst all the fightings and combates we meet with in the world there is none comparable to this last single combate we must undergo with death it self this is a terrible assault that betideth the hopeful faithful man to know that notwithstanding all his faith and all his hope and all his love and all his patience what grace or vertue soever he hath else yet not withstanding he must go down to the grave make his bed in the darkness and lie down in the dust and when he hath fought all that he can yet not withstanding he must down he must yeeld he must take the foyl the fall in the body howsoever the soul escapeth Now here is a kind of dismaidment of hope But I will tell you how it is spoken of the faithful and so of the hopeful The faithful are said to endure as seeing him that is invisible how do they endure by the supply of hope for this hope is it that makes the faithful against all hindrances to fight it out so as that they would not be delivered as it is spoken in the Epistle to the Hebrews And shall death separate us from that we hope for No faith the hopeful man it shall not Yea so far he is from being unwilling to submit himself to this way as knowing it to be the way whereby he cometh to that he hopeth for as that he is very ready and greedy of death it is the way to that I hope for saith he therefore it is sweely spoken of an Ancient and you will acknowledge it to be a sweet sentence of that Father Saint Austin He that desireth to be dissolved according to that of the Apostle and to be with Christ Non patienter moritur He doth not die patiently See here is a faithful a hopeful man and yet doth not die patiently what would the Father say He liveth saith he patiently the very life he liveth putteth him to his patience when he cometh to die he dyeth pleasantly he goeth away with his hope and his hope is full of immortality And no more for that point The next thing I observe is concerning the Object of this hope and this is it that Christ is Object of the Christians hope We have hope in Christ Hear it in the general hear it in the speciall In the general 1. Tim. 1.1 Saint Paul he beginneth his Epistle with Christ our hope Col. 1.27 The riches of the mystery of Gods grace to the Gentiles is Christ in you the hope of glory Here is Christ our hope and Christ your hope in the general In the special hear it in Saint Paul hear it in the prophets and others Saint Paul to me to live is Christ to die is gain Christ is to me in life and death advantage living or dying I am Christs I have hoped in the Lord faith the Prophet David And God is my hope and hath been my help even from my youth This is the general song of the whole Church God is our hope and therefore the Prophet Jacob made an excellent Ejaculation in those blessings he gave his sons when he said Oh Lord I have waited for thy salvation Here was his waiting his hope for the salvation of God from the God of his salvation And so let him slay me if he will saith holy Job yet not withstanding I will still trust in him Thus the faithful have hope and their hope is in Christ No more of it for the enlargement of it It sheweth to us in the first place this Note that A Christians wings do mount him above all means What are his wings his hope Whither slyeth his hope It takes its flight up to heaven to God to the right hand of God to Christ there is his hope So then he that hath this hope being poor he flyeth not to riches for they make themselves wings and fly away from him Being weak he flyeth not to the arm of flesh for in man there is no hope nor no confidence to be put in Princes in the Ballance they are lighter then vanity it self faith the Psalmist Being sick he flyeth not to the Physitian he fleeth to these as the means not to rest in them to make it the main of his aim the scope of his hope he doth not fly thus to them but he goeth to God that commandeth all that worketh above all against all and without all
this life yet in death thy hands must open â—…emselves and let it go thou must not hold the world above thy life nor thy life beyond the day of death no we cannot alway have that which we desire we must certainly part with what we most esteem of Secondly what comfort is this to a good soul If we had hope only in this life faith Saint Paul we of all men are most miserable 1 Cor. 15. Death is a happy change to a holy person First it is a change which shall put a period to all his changes in this life his outward condition how oft doth it change sometime by joy and sorrow sometime by comfort and misery by health and sickness by abundance and want but when Death comes all sorrow shall fly away for ever thou shalt never be more troubled with a sick body with a sad estate with common losses but the change of a temporal life shall set thee in a full and settled possession of an heavenly His inward condition how oft doth it change sometime free anon distressed now a sweet view of heaven anon darkned with fear now rejoycing in Christ anon buffeted with Sathan now blessing God for grace anon distracted with the insolent workings of remaining corruptions but when death comes then comes a change of all this it will release thee for ever of sin and Sathan after death sin shall be a burden no more and Sathan shall be a tempter no longer but thou shalt be as happy as thou canst desire and shalt enjoy thy God and thy Christ without fear of trouble in glory in felicity in eternity all the cruel insolencies of tyrants shall come short of thy soul thou shalt be above their malice and beyond thy self Secondly it is a change and no worse then a change just as Joseph changed his garments and went into Pharaoh so thou shalt put off thy body and go into glory put off thy mortality and go into immortality Oh what terrour to wicked men a day of change will befal them Why didst thou say Oh David there is no bands in their death and they are not in changes like other men Verily I should have checked thee hadst thou not recanted it presently thy self Psal 73.4,17,18,19 and reported it to us that they are set in slippery places and are brought into desolation and cast down into destruction in a moment and utterly consumed with terrour Good Lord what a change is that to them they judged with insolent and unrighteous judgment the Children of God now but death will change this the unjust steward shall be called to a an account and he that beat his fellow servant shall be eternally judged by a righteous God and their honour shall sinck in the dust neither shall their riches deliver them from wrath but they shall see him whom they have peirced and persecuted and shall not be able to escape his presence A dismal thing will this be that a man shall have his honour die and the great God put disgrace upon him a dismal change indeed when a man shall see all his power changed into impotency his pleasures into torment and wrath put upon his soul when God shall seperate thee from his presence thou shalt not have a drop of ease nor any friend to assist thee nor any hope of comfort thou shalt be stript of them all in a monent shall a change of all this be O consider this if there be any here that forget God least he tear you in pieces and there be none to help remember and consider your latter end and apply your hearts to wisdome Last of all shall there be a change that shall befal every son of man then Oh that this people were wise as Moses faith that they would remember their latter end all the dayes of our appointed time to wait till our change come What do you think of servants to whom you had committed servile imployments till you came home and if when you come home they were absent and you found one in the street drunk another in a chamber with a strumpet how would you take this Brethren think upon it we are Gods servants or should be two things are imposed upon us one to honour God another to save our own souls if he find us doing the works of the Devil and the flesh and find us in the works of the world how will he take this Come faith God I have lent you a life thus many years I told you what you should be and what you should do and what have you been doing all this life what have your works been what courses have you taken are these the fraits of your wayes to have a life run over with ignorance with prophaness c. Alus when a man at that time shall have nothing to say but Loâ—…d I have lived in such a sin all my dayes I have fulfilled my own desires thou hast for me in this World and I have laboured to get a great estate all my dayes Another may say I have spent my time in 〈◊〉 society c. What will God say to these men are these the endings of thy life the fruits of thy opportunities where is the repentante I called for at thy hands where is that godly sorrow that I called for for the sins of thy life did not I send thee into the world for this end to get Grace to get Faith to make up thy accounts with me thy God and hast thou no regand to it Well thou hast been foolish inconsiderate for the time that is past yet now understand that a day of change will besal thee O let us be perswaded I beseech you be perswaded to it in this our day to know the things that concern our peace whilest it is called to day not to hearden our hearts whilest it is called to day not to deser our repentance thou art not assured of any more time then present Death may meet with thee as thou sittest in thy feat as thou goest out of the Church doer and thou knowest thy heart hath been wicked oh why wilt thou set thy eternal estate upon so small a point as it were the cast of a Die Remember what Daniel said to Nabuohadnezzar let it have acceptance with thee break off thy sine by repentance c. Seeing we must die and appear before the judgment feat of God what manner of persons ought we to be in all holiness of life and conversation as soon as we are we begin to sin and as soon as we are we begin to die let us look upon our account and be faithful to our souls perhaps thy accounts are yet to make oh be sure to let it be the first thing thou doest and give thy self no rest till thou hast done it and when thou hast done this labour to clear it with the bloud of Christ labour by humble confession and hearty repentance to turn unto the Lord go on
the Almond-tree but the Cypress nor think of the Grashopper but of the worm because they are far on in their way to their long home and the mourners are already in the streets marshalling as it were their troops and setting all in equipage for their funeral no dilectable objects affect their dull and dying sences but are rather grievous unto them as the Sun and Rain are to old stumps of trees which make them not spring again but rot them rather and dispose them to putrifaction And so I have past the first and am come to the second Post or standing The right Coherence When they shall be afraid of that which is high and fear shall be in the way and the Almond trce shall flourish and the Grashopper shall be a burthen and desire shall fail because man goeth to his long home If this Consequence be firth the Coherence must needs be good but if this be infirm and lame that must needs be out of joynt let us then Consider of the Consequence Surely Aristotle seemeth to be of another mind whose observation it is old men that have their foot on Deaths threshold would then draw back then leg if they could at the very instant of their dissolution are most desirous of the continuance of their life and seeing the pleasures of sin like the Apples of Tuntales running away from them they catch at them the more greedily for wants is the whestone of desire and experience offereth us many instances of old men in whom Saint Pauls old man grows young again who according to the corruption of nature which Saint Austin bewaileth with tears malunt libidinem explers quam extingai they are so far from having no lust or desire of pleasures as being cloyed therewith that they are more insatiable in them then in youth the flesh in them like the Peacocks 〈◊〉 coct a recrudescit which after it is sod in time will grow raw again so in them after mortification by diseases and age it reviveth Sophocles the Heathen Poet might pass for a Saint in comparison of them for he thanked God that in his old age he was free from his most Imperious Mistris lust these men on the contrary desir 〈◊〉 inthral themselves again in youthly pleasures and concupiscence in them is kindled even by the defect of fewel it vexeth them that their sins for sake them that through the impotency of their limbs and faculties they cannot run into the like excess as in former times their few dayes before death are like Shrovetide Before Lent they take their fill of flesh and fleshly desires because they suppose that for ever after they must fast from them Thus they spur on their jadish flesh now unable to ran her for met Stages saying let us crown our selves with Rose-buds for they will presently wither let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die To reconcile the seeming difference between the miracle of humane wisdome Aristotle and the Oracle of divine Solomon two distinctions may be made use of Of old Age. 1 In the entry when it is vigorous 2 In the exit when it is decrepit et ne ad mala quidem bona Of old Men. 1 As they ought to be 2 As they are When Euripides was taxed as too great a favourer of the semale Sex because in all his Tragedies he brought in vertuous women and fitted them with good parts to Act whereas Sophocles and other Poets of that Age brought lewd and immodest women upon the Stage and put odious parts upon them he made this Apology for himself others faith he in their Poems set forth women as they are but I such as they should be Solomom words are capable of a like construction desire faileth because man goeth to his long home that is it doth in the best and should in all for what a preposterous thing were it for a man that hath one foot already in the grave and is drawing the other after to desire to cut a cross caper and dance the morice or for him that is neer his eternal Mansion house to hanker by the way and feast and revel it in an Inn. Moreover Solomon here speaketh of a Bâ—…rzillai who hath no taste of his meat no sence of delight no use in a manner of sense to whom dainties are no dainties because he cannot taste them musick is no musick because he cannot hear it sweet odours are no sweet odours because he cannot small them precious stones are no precious stones because he cannot value them the fairest becaues are no beauties because he cannot discern them In a word he speaketh of an old man in whom all carnal lusts are either quite extinct or happily exchanged into spiritual or swallowed up with sorrow and fear of death and a horrible apprension of judgment And so I come to the third Stage which is the litteral sence and genuine interpretation of the words As in Origen his Hexapla every word almost had an Asterisk or star upon it so there needs a star or some other light to be put upon every word of this Text for there is a mist of obscurity upon each of them and a man may well miss his way if he know not exactly who is here the man what 's meant by his going or gate where is his long home and whence are these Mourners First whether man be taken Collectivè for the whole kind or Species as the Logicians speak or Distributivè for every man in particular we shall seem to be at a loss Man taken Collectivè stirs not a foot to his long home for Philosophy reprieveth universal natures from death or dissolution and true it is though single men every day die yet mankind dieth not If man be taken Distributivè for all particular men of what rank or quality soever we shall have much to do to distinguish the men in the former part of the Text from the mourners in the latter If all are attended with mourners to their funeral then mourners themselves must have mourners and so either the train will be infinite or the lag will be destitute of mourners Secondly why useth he this phrase of going if it import death sith some expect death and move not at all towards it some run to it to some it is sent some leap into it as Cleombrotus some ride to it in state as Antioches Epiphanes some are tumbled down into it as S. Purius Melicus some are dragged to it as Seinus In a word when death surprizeth most men and that in all postures of the body why is dying here called going man goeth Thirdly where is this long home in Heaven or in earth Purgatory or Hell If we speak of Heaven or Hell the Epithet long fals short for they are eternal habitations of Purgatory or the grave suppose there were any Purgatory yet neither of them may be properly termed a long home fith neither the body stayes long in
I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was naked and you clothed me I was sick and in prison and you visited me or an Allegory as Where the body is there the Eagles will be gathered or an Apostrophe as Hear O heavens and hearken O earth or an Exclamation Oh that they were wise then they would understand this Oh that my people would have hearkned io my voyce and that Israel would have walked in my wayes In other passages a conjunction and combination of many figures and ornaments of speech as in that Text of the Prophet Jeremy Is there no balm in Gilead no Physitian there Why then is not the health of my people restored In which one verse you may note four figures First an interrogation for more emphatical conviction Secondly a communication for more familiar instruction Thirdly an Allegory for more lively expression Fourthly an Aposiopesis for safer reprehension and the like we observe in our Saviours exprobration O that thou knewest in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace O Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest those that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children as a hen doth her chickens and thou wouldst not Here is a posie of rhetorical flowers an Exclamation O si câ—…gnovisses a reticentia at least in this thy day saltem in hoc die tuo A repetition Jerusalem Jerusalem an interrogation how oft would I quoties volui And lastly an Icon or lively expression to the eye sicut galina congregat pullos suos As the hen gathereth her chickens under her wings Where are now our Anabaptists and plain pack-staff methodists who esteem of all flowers of Rhetorick in Sermons no better then stinking weeds and of all elegancies of speech then of prophane spells For against their wills at unawares they censure the holy Oracles of God in the first place which excell all other writings as well in eloquence as in Science doubtless as the breath of a man hath more force in a Trunk and the wind a lowder and sweeter sound in the Organ-pipe then in the open ayr so the matter of our speech and the theam of our discourse which is conveyed through figures and forms of Art both sound sweeter to the ear and pierce deeper into the heart there is in them plus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more evidence and more efficacie they make a fuller expression and take a deeper impression secondly where are our prophane criticks who delight in the flesh-pots of Egypt and loath Manna admire carnal eloquence in Poets and heathen Oratours and task the Scriptures for rude simplicity and want of all Art and eloquence It is true the Scripture is written in a style peculiar to it self the elocution in it is such as Lactantius observeth that it befitted no other books as neither doth that we find in other books befit it As the matter in Scripture so the form is divine nec vox heminum sonat which consisteth not in the words of mans wisdome but in the evidence of the Spirit Yet is there admirable eloquence in it and far surpassing which we find in all other writings Wherefore Politian the Grammarian who pretended he durst not touch any lease in the Bible for fear of defiling the purity of his language or slurring the gloss of his style is condemned as well by learned humanists as Divines And Theopompus who went about to cloath Gods word with gay and trim phrases of heathen Orators and Poets was punished by God with loss of his wits Thus have we viewed the form let us now have an eye to the matter our Lords conquest over Death and the Grave There are two things most dreadful to the nature of man Death and the Grave the one severeth the soul the other consumeth the body and resolveth it into dust the valiantest conquerours that with their bloody flags and coulors have struck a terrour unto all Nations yet have been afrighted themselves at the displaying of the pale and wan coulours of Death the most retired Philosophers and Monks who have lived in Cells and Caves under the ground yet have been startled at the sight of their Grave How much then are we indebted to our Christian saith that not only overcometh the world but also conquereth the fear of Death and the grave and dareth both in the words of my Text O death sting me if thou canst O grave conquer me if thou be able O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory In which words the Apostle like a Cryer calleth Death and the Grave into the Court and examineth them upon two Articles first concerning the sting of the one secondly concerning the victory of the other Will it please you then to fix the eye of your observation upon the parts of this Text as they are laid before you in terms of Law 1 A Citation 2 An Examination In the Citation upon 1 the manner of it 2 the parties cited 1 Death 2 Grave In the Examination 1 Upon the first Interrogatory put to Death touching the ledging of his sting 2 Upon the second Interrogatory put to the Grave touching the field of his victory First for the manner of Citing it is by an Apostrophe a figure often accurring in holy Scripture as in the book of Kings O Altar Altar O ye mount ains of Gilboa and of the Psalmes lift up ye gates and be ye lift up you everlasting doors and of the Canticles Arise O North and blow O South and in the Prophets O earth earth earth In imitation of which strings of rhetorick the Auncient Fathers in their funeral Orations many times turned to the dead and used such compellations as these audi Constantine vale Paula hear O Constantine farewel O Paula From which passages our advesaries very weakly if not ridiculously infers the invocation of Saints departed making weapons of plumes of feathers and arguments of ornaments and which is far worse Divinity of rhetorick and articles of faith of tropes of sentences By a like consequence they might conclude that hills and trees and the earth and gates and death and hell have eyes to look upon us or ears to hear us or that we ought to invocate them because the holy Ghost maketh such Apostrophes to them as the Fathers do to the souls of Saints newly departed out of their bodies Secondly for the parties here cited and called in their order first Death and then the Grave Death goes before the Grave because men die before they are buryed and the Grave is properly no Grave till it be possessed by a dead body before it is but a hole or pit O Death In Hebrew Maveth from Muth whence mutus in Latine is derived and mute in English because Death bereaveth us of speech and for a like reason the Grave is termed Domus silentii a house of silence In Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either
committed to my custody never any but one escaped whom the heaven of heavens could not contain much less any earthly prison he might truly say and none but he O grave where is thy victory all save him I keep in safe custody that were ever sent to me Yet may all that die in Jesus and expect a glorious Resurrection by him even now by faith insult over the Grave for Faith calls those things that are not as if they were it looketh backward as far as the Creation which produced all things at the first of nothing and as far forward to the resurrection which shall restore all things from nothing or that which is as much as nothing Faith with an eye annointed with the eye-salve of the spirit seeth death swallowed up into victory and the earth and sea casting up all their dead and upon this evidence of things not seen triumpheth over Death and Hell saying O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victory We have spoken hitherto of Death and the Grave let us now hear what they have to say to us Death saith fear not me the Grave Weep not immorderately for the dead Death bids us die to sin the Grave Bury all thy injuries and wrongs in the pit of oblivion both say to us slie sin and neither of us can hurt you both say to us Give thanks to him who hath given you victory over us both the sting of death pricks you not but if you die in the bosome of Christ rather delights and rickles you Death is no more Death but a sleep the Grave is no more a grave but a bed Death is but the putting off of our old rags the Grave is the Vestry and the Resurrection the new dressing and richly embroydering them Enough hath been said to convince us that Death which before was like a Serpent armed with a deadly sting is now but like a silly flie that buzzeth about us but cannot sting Yet as long as there is sin in us we cannot but in some degree fear Death and as long as natural affection remains in us take on for them that are taken away Neither doth Christian religion pluck out these affections by the root but only prune them All that my exhortation driveth unto is but to moderate passion by reason fear by hope grief by faith and nature by grace Let love express it self yet so that in affection to the dead we hurt not the living Let the natural springs of tears swell but not too much overflow their banks let not our eyes be all upon our loss on earth but our brothers gain also in heaven and let the one counter-ballance at least the other The parish hath lost a great stay his company in London a special ornament his Wife a careful Husband her Children a most tender Father the poor a good friend for besides that which his right hand gave in his life-time which his left hand knew not of by his Will he bequeathed certain sums of money for a stock to those Parishes wherein he formerly lived and to the poor of this twenty pounds to be distributed at his Funeral Many shall find loss of him but he hath gained God and is found of him no doubt in peace for there were many tokens of a true child of God very conspicuous in his life and death He loved the habitation of Gods house and the place where his honour dwelleth He was just in his dealings and sought peace all his life and ensued it he forgot nothing so easily as wrongs and though he enjoyed the blessings of this world in abundant measure yet he joyed not in them his heart was where his chief treasure lay in heaven he foretold his own death and the manner thereof that it should be sudden and sudden it was yet not unexpected nor unprepared for for three dayes before he set his house in order and desired to converse with Divines and all his discourses was of the kingdome of God and the powers of the life to come When the pangs of death came upon him he prayed most earnestly and desired if it so stood with Gods good pleasure to be eased yet uttered no speech of impatiency but being asked how he did answered that he was in Gods hands to whom he committed his soul as his faithful Creatour and so died as quietly as he lived wherefore sith he lived in Gods fear and died in his favour and shall rise again in his power though the loss of him be a great cut unto us as the loss of their children were to Pericles and Horatius Pulvillus yet as the one hearing of their death as he was at a solemn sacrifice kept on his Crown the other as he was at a dedication held still the pillar of the temple in his hand till the whole Ceremony was performed So let us continue our devotion notwithstanding this Parenthesis of sorrow and make an end of our evening sacrifice concluding with the words of the Apostle immediately following my Text Thanks be unto God who hath given unto our brother and will give unto us all victory over Death and the Grave yea and Hell to through Jesus Christ c. FATO FATVM OR THE KING OF FEARES FRIGHTED AND VANQUISHED SERMON XLIV HOSEA 13.14 O Death I will be thy plagues THe Rose is fenced with pricks and the sweetest Flowers of Paradice as this in my Text are beset with thorns or difficulties which after I have plucked away the Holy Spirit assisting me I will open the leaves and blow the flowers in the Explication of this Scripture and in the Application thereof smell to them and draw from thence a savour of life unto life The Thorn groweth upon the diversity of Translations for Rabbi Shelamo larchi reads the words Ego ero verba tua ô mors I will be thy words O Death Aben Ezra ero causatuoe mortis I will be the cause of thy death Saint Jerome Ero mors tua ô mors O Death I will be thy death O Hell I will bite thee and he conceiveth that when our Saviour descended into Hell and his flesh in the Grave saw no corruption he spake these words to Death and Hell O death I will be thy death for therefore I dyed that thou mightest be slain by my death O hell I will bite and devour thee which devourest all things in thy chops The Septuagint render the Hebrew ubi causa tua ô mors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where is thy plea or thy indictment what hast thou now to say against the chosen of god Saint Paul ubi stimulus tuus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O death where is thy sting that is faith Saint Austin where is sin wherewith we are stung and poysoned Is not this Ghius ad Choum do not these Translations as well agree as harp and harrow neither can it be answered to salve the repugnancy and solve the difficulty that
the sum agreed upon for his ransome and the person in whose power the captive is and who accepteth of the ransome Which of these is the Redeemer you will all say he that is at the cost of all so it is in our redemption from spiritual thraldome the holy Spirit draweth the condition sealeth the Bonds the Father receiveth the ransome the Son both mediateth for the ransoming and layeth down the sum For we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb withouâ— blemish he took part of our nature that through death he might destroy him that had tthe power of death that is the devil and deliver them who through the fear of death were all there life-time subject to bondage Hence we gather that he that destroyed death must die but to affirm that the immortal and eternal Spirit of God expired is blasphemy and to say that the Father suffered is heresie long ago condemned in the Patro-passions we conclude therefore with the Apostle that the second person Christ Jesus hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel And so I fall upon my last Observation the judgment here mentioned Davorica 3. Thy plagues there is no tittle or iota in holy Scripture superfluous some mystery therefore lyeth in the number plagues in the plural not plague in the singular which I conceive to be this that Christ put Death to many deaths and foyled and conquered it many wayes first in himself secondly in his members First in himself by destroying sin the sting of Death Secondly by breaking the bonds thereof in his powerful Resurrection wherewith it was impossible that he should be held Secondly in his members by changing the nature of it to them and making it of a curse a blessing of a loss a gain of a punishment either a great honour or a special favour or a singular advantage a great honour as to the Martyrs who thereby acquired so many Rubies to their crown of glory as they shed drops of blood for their Saviour A special favour as to Abraham Josiah and Saint Austin who were taken away that they might not see and feel the misery that after their death fell on the posterity of the one the subjects of the other and the diocess of the third A singular advantage to all the faithful who thereby are discharged from all cares fears sorrows and temptations and presently enter into their Masters joy For blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them Now the means whereby Christ conquered death utterly destroyed it are diversly set down by the learned some argue a contrariis contraries say they are to be destroyed by their contraries as heat by cold moysture by drought sickness by health Death therefore must needs be destroyed by life as the contrary but Christ is the resurrection and the life in him was life and life was the light of men Saint Austin declareth it after this manner Life dying contended with Death living and got a glorious and signal victory Nysscen thus the Devil catching at the flesh of Christs humane nature as a bate was cought by the hook of his divine Saint Leo and Chrysologus thus if a Bayliff or Sergeant arrest the Kings son or a priviledged person and lay him up in a close prison without commission he deserveth to be turned out of his place for it So Death Gods Serjeant seizing upon his Son in whom there was no fault without warrant or commission was justly discharged of his office Is Death thus discharged hath Christ changed the nature of Death and freed all his Members from the sting of the temporal and fear of eternal death hath he of a postern made it a street-door of an out-let of mortal life an in-let of immortality why then are we so much afraid of death which can no more hurt us then a hornet or wasp after her sting is plucked out Christ fought with a living death we with a dead death which doth not so much sever our souls from our bodies as joyn them to Christ not so much end our life as our mortality not so much exclude us out of the Militant as render us to the Triumphant Church Nothing is more dreadful I confess to the natural man then Death which dissolveth the soul and body and the Grave which resolveth the body into dust and ashes To cure this malady of the mind there is no vertue in any Drug of nature the Philosophers in this case are Physitians of no value they tell us that sickness and death are tributa vivendi and the Grave the common house of the dead But what of this what comfort is here doth this speculation discharge us from the tribute or make the payment thereof the easier doth it inlighten the darkness of these prisons of nature or take away the stench from these under-ground houses no whit Yet God be thanked there is a magazine in Scripture to pay these tributes there is light in Goshen to enlighten these houses there is Specknard to perfume these dankish rooms there are Cordials in holy Scripture to strengthen the heart not only against deadly maladies but also against death it self for there we hear of a voyce from heaven not only affirming the happiness of the dead but confirming it with a strong reason for they rest from their labours and their works follow them we hear of Tabernacles not made with hands but eternal in the Heavens we hear that when we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord we hear the Lord of life opening the ears and chearing the heart of the dead and saying I am the resurrection and the life whosoevor believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live There we hear death not only disarmed of his sting but also slain down right O death I will be thy death O grave I will be thy destruction Secondly hath Christ destroyed Death and hath he both the keyes of Death and of Hell then beloved when we lie on our death-bed let us not have recourse after the Popish manner to any Saint or Angel no not to the blessed Virgin her self but to her Son who is the Lord of life who satisfying for our sins at his death thereby plucked out the sting of death and after his resurrection quite destroyed this serpent In which regard he is stiled stella matutina the Morning star because he ushereth in the day of eternity and primitiae dormientum the first fruis of them that slept because in him the whole lump is sanctifyed When therefore the fiery Serpent hovereth over us to sting us to eternal death let us look upon the Brazen Serpent and the other shall not hurt us Lastly hath Christ conquered Death and Hell and that for us let us then
believe faith he that every noble soul which is in grace and favour with God presently as soon as she hath shaken off the body which kept down her wings flyeth joyfully streight up to her Lord and Saint Cyprian Death to the godly is not a departure but a pass from a temporal to an eternal life and no stay by the way as soon as we have finished our course here we may arrive at the goal there And S. Bernard The infidels call the parting of the soul from the body Death but the believers call it the Passeover because it is a pass from death to life For they die to the world that they may perfectly live to God To strike sayl and make towards the shoar if all that die in the Lord are blesfed from the very moment of their death and this blessedness is confirmed by a voyce from heaven let us give more heed to such a voyce then to any whisper of the flesh or devil Whatsoever Philosophy argueth or Reason objecteth or sense excepteth against it let us give more heed to God then man to the spirit then the flesh to faith then to reason to heaven then to earth although they who suffer for the testimony of the Gospel seem to be most miserable their skins being fleyed off their joynts racked their whole body torn in pieces or burned to ashes their goods confiscate their arms defaced and all manner of disgraces put upon them yet they are most happy in heaven by the testimony of heaven it self the malice of their enemies cannot reach so high as heaven it cannot touch them there much less awake them out of their sweet sleep in Jesus Secondly if the dead are blessed in comparison of the living let us not so glue our thoughts and affections to the world and the comforts thereof but that they may be easily severed for there is no comparison between the estate of the godly in this life and in the life to come for here they labour for rest there they rest from their labour here they expect what they are to receive there they receive what they expected here they hunger and thirst for righteousness there they are satisfied here they are continually afflicted either for their sins or with their sins and they have continual cause to shed tears either for the calamities of Gods people or the stroaks they themselves receive from God or the wounds they give themselves there all tears are wiped from their eyes Here they are alwayes troubled either with the evils they fear or the fear of evil but when they go hence Death sets a period to all fear cares sorrows and dangers And therefore Solon spake divinely when he taught Crasus that he ought to suspend his verdict of any mans happiness till he saw his end Thirdly if those dead are blessed that die in the Lord let us strive to be of that number camus nos moriamur cumeo Let us go and die with him and in him And that we may do so we must first endeavour to live in him For Cornelius a Lapida his collection is most true As a man cannot die at Rome who never lived at Rome so none can die in Christ who never lived in him and none can live in him who is not in him first then we must labour to be in him and how may we compass this Christ himself teacheth us I am the Vine and my Father is the Husbandman every branch that beareth not fruit in me he taketh away and every branch that breareth fruit he purgeth that it may bring forth more fruit as the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in me Hence we learn that we cannot bear fruit in Christ unless as branches we be ingrasted into him now that a graft maybe inoculated 1. There must be made an incision in the tre 2. The graffe or syence most be imped in 3. After it is put in it must be joyned fast to the tree The incision is already made by the wounds given Christ at his death many incisions were made in the true Vine that which putteth us in or inoculateth us is a special faith and that which binds us fast to the tree is love and the grace of perseverance If then we be engrafted by faith into Christ and bound fast unto him by love we shall partake of the Juice of the stock and grow in grace and bear fruit also more and more and so living in the true Vine we shall die in him and so dying in him we shall reflourish with him in everlasting glory Fourthly if we are assured by a voyce from heaven that none but they are blessed who die in the Lord all Infidels Jewes and Turks yea and such hereticks too as deny all special faith in Christ are in a wretched and lamentable case for it is clear that unbeleevers cannot live in Christ for the just liveth by faith and though hereticks and among them our Adversaries of Rome have a general faith yet because they want a special faith in Christ whereby they are to be ingrafted into him and made members of his mystical body they can make no proof to themselves or others at least unless they renounce some of the Trent Articles that they live or die in the Lord. Lastly if all that die in Christ are blessed as a voyce from heaven assureth us we do wrong to heaven if we account them miserable we do wrong to Christ if we count them as lost whom he hath found if we shed immoderate tears for them from whose eyes He hath wiped away all tears to wear perpetual blacks for them upon whom he hath put long white robes Whatsoever our losses may be by them it cometh far short of their gain our cross is light in comparison of their super-excellent weight of glory therefore let us not sorrow for them as those that have no hope Let us not shew our selves Infidels by too much lamenting the death of beleevers Weep we may for them or rather for our loss by them but moderately as knowing that our loss is their gain and if we truly love them we cannot but exceedingly congratulate their feasts of joy their rivers of pleasures their Palmes of victory their robes of majesty their crowns of glory Water therefore your plants at the departure of your dearest friends but drown them not For whatsoever we complain of here they are freed from there and whatsoever we desire here they enjoy there they hunger not but feast with the Lamb they sigh not but sing with Moses having safely passed over the glassy sea they lie not in darkness but possesse inheritance of Saints in light They have immunity from sin freedome from all temptations and security from danger they have rest for their labours here comfort for their troubles glory for their disgrace joyes for their sorrowes life for their death in Christ and
rest with trouble nor reward with punishment but all that die in the Lord are blessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a tempore mortis from the time of their death as venerable Beda and other expound the words and so blessed are they that they rest from all pain and pains and so rest that their works follow them that is as I shall declare hereafter the reward of their works If this lave not out the Romish fire which scareth the living more then the dead and purgeth their purses and not their soul we may draw store of water to quench it out of divers other Texts of holy Scripture as namely First If the tree fall towards the South or towards the north in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be Which Text Olympiodorus thus illustrateth in whatsoever place therefore whether of light or of darkness whether in the work of wickedness or of vertue a man is taken at his death in that degree and rank doth he remain either in light with the just and Christ the King of all or in darkness with the wicked and Prince of the world To little purpose therefore is all that is or can be done for the dead after they have taken their farewel of us after we are gone from hence there remains no place for repentauce or penance no effect or benefit of satisfaction here life is either lost or obtained but if thou O Demetrian saith Saint Cyprian even at the very end and setting of thy temporal life dost pray for thy sins and call upon the only true God with confession and saith pardon is given unto the confessing thy sins and saving grace is granted to thee by the divine piety or mercy and at the very moment of death thou hast a passage to immortality Secondly Eccles 12.5 Man goeth to his long home and the Mourners go about the streets Which words Gregorius of Neocesarea thus paraphraseth The good man shall go to his everlasting house rejoycing but the wicked shall sill all with lamentations And S. Cyprian alluding to this passage resolveth that after this temporal life is ended we are diversly bestowed at the Innes of death or immortality at neither of which hangeth any sign of Purgatory as any man may see Thirdly Luke 16.22 The beggar died and was carried by Angels into Abrahams bosome This beggars case Machareus a learned Monk of Egypt maketh a president for all the servants of God who when they remove out of the body the quires of Angels receive their souls into their own side into the pure world and so brings them unto the Lord. And Saint Jerome raiseth a strong fort of comfort upon the ground of this parrable Let the dead be lamented but such a one whom he doth receive for whose pain everlasting fire doth burn but let us whose departure a troup of Angels doth accompany whom Christ cometh forth to meet account it a grievance if we do longer dwell in this tabernacle of death And as Machareus and Saint Jerome so Saint Hillary also draweth a general rule from their example that as soon as this life is ended every one without delay is sent over either to Abrahams bosome or to the place of torment and in that state are reserved till the day of Judgment Fourthly Luke 23.43 This day thon shalt be with me in Paradise and Philip. 1.23 I desire to be dessolved and to be with Christ and 2 Cor. 5.18 If our earthly tabernacle be dissolved we shall have an eternal in the Heavens and when we are ab sent from the body we are present with the Lord From whence Justine Martyr inferreth After the departure of the soul our of the body there is presently made a distinction betwixt the just and unjust for the souls of the righteous are carried by Angets into Paradise where they have commerce and sight of Angels and Archangels but the souls of the unjust to hell and Tertullian colletcteth that it is an injury to Christ to hold that such as be called from hence by him are in a state that should be pittied whereas they have obtained the chief aim of their desires If we repine at this that others have obtained this their desire by this our grudging at it we seem to be unwilling to obtain the like and his schollar S. Cypriam censureth them yet more severely who either fear death or leave this world in dis-content it is for him to fear death who is not willing to go to Christ it is for him to be unwilling to go to Christ who doth not beleeve that he beginneth to reigne with Christ if thou dost truly beleeve in God and art secure of his promise why doft thou not embrace the message that thou art called to Christ why dest thou not rejoyce that thou shalt be rid of the devil Fifthly 1 John 1.7 the blood of Christ purgeth us from all sin no sin is therefore left for Purgatory fire to burn out Were there sins to be purged yet after the night of this present life there is no place left saith Gregory Nazianzen for purging it is better to be corrected and purged now saith he then to be sent to torments there where the time of punishing is and not of purging But to leave other springs this in my Text affordeth store of water to extinguish Purgatory sire and therefore our adversaries seek to dam it up two manner of wayes First by restraining this Text to Martyrs onely who die in the Lords quarrel though their souls flie to heaven their wings being not singed with this fire yet others say they are not saved but after some time of abode in it Secondly by cooling the heat of this fire and making it not only tollerable but also comfortable bearing us in hand that they that are in Purgatot may be said to be blessed because they rest from the labours of this life and they are secure of their eternal estate they are sure to feel no other hell From the first starting-hole I have beaten them already by demonstrating that all that beleeve in Christ are ingrafted by faith into his mystical body and consequently that as they live in him so they die in him in which regard the Apostle speaking of all that depart in the faith of Christ saith they sleep in the Lord and die in Christ Their second starting-hole is less safe then the former for to say that this blessedness and Purgatory pains may subsist in the same soul is an affertion neither politique nor reasonable First it is not politique for if they cool Purgatory fire in such sort they will stop the Popes Mint from going perswade the vulgar that the souls in Purgatory are in a tollerable nay in some sort in a blessed estate because they rest from their labours and their works follow them and the Priests may set their heart at rest for gaining any remarkable sums for Dirges and the Popes tole-gatherers also for sucking
of the Benediction If Esau lift up his voyce and wept because he was defeated of the blessing while Isaac lived Joseph might well have made a mourning had he been prevented of the Benediction by an unexpected or a distant death But Jacob blessed them and with his blessing gave order for his burial and with that blessing and that order dyed And as his death was no way prejudicial to the spiritual so was it not at all disadvantageous to the temporal condition of his Son He suffered loss of no enjoyments by his Fathers death Jacob had lived long by the favour and the care of Joseph his filial gratitude alone preserv'd his life but no such narrow thoughts abated the freeness of Joseph's forrow And he made a mourning for his Father If none of these considerations which work so powerfully on other persons did move this Mourner to express such sorrow what were the Motives then which caus'd so deep a sense what meditations wrought so powerfully on the heart of Joseph I answer they were but two Mortality and Paternity the one supposed the other expressed in the text Jacob was the Father of Joseph and that Father dead and therefore Joseph mourned for him Mortality is a proper object to invite our pity and privation of life alone sufficient to move compassion in the living Weep for the dead faith the Son of Sirach for he hath lost the light If for no other reason yet because a man is dead and by death deprived of those comforts which those that live enjoy they which survive may providently bewail their future privation in his present loss Thus every Grave-stone bespeaks or expects a tear as if all those eyes which had not yet lost their light were to pay the tribute of their waters to the dead Sea This Fountain Nature never made in vain nor to be alwayes sealed up that heart is rock which suffers it never to break forth and be it so yet if the rod of Moses strike an affliction sent from God shall force it Let us therefore be ready with our sorrowful expressions when we are invited by sad occasions especially when a Father who may command them calls for them as that Wise man did My Son let tears fall down over the dead And if paternal authority demands them at the death of others it is no filial duty which denies them to attend upon a Fathers Funeral Joseph a man of a gracious and a tender heart moved with common objects of compassion had a vulgar forrow arising from the consideration of mortality Joseph a Son full of high affection and of filial duty and respect was touched with a far more lively sense by the accession of paternity And he made a mourning for his Father he made a mourning for his Father which begat him for his Father which loved him for his Father which blessed him for his Father which had mourned for him for his Father which came down to die with him First he made a mourning for his Father who begat him had there been no other but that naked relation it had carryed with it a sufficient obligation There is so great an union between the Parent and the Child that it cannot break without a deep sensation He which hath any grateful apprehension of his own life received cannot chuse but sadly resent the loss of that life which gave it If the fear of the death of Croesus by a natural miracle could unty the tongue of his Son who never spake before that man must be miraculously unnatural the flood-gates of whose eyes are not open'd at his Fathers Funerals though he never wept before The gifts of grace do not obliterate but improve nature and it is a false perswasion of Adoption which teacheth us so far to become the sons of God as to forget that we are the sons of men Joseph a person high in the esteem of Pharaoh higher in the favour of God great in the power of Egypt greater in the power of the Spirit yet he forgets not his filial relation yet he cannot deny his natural obligation but as a pious Son he payes the last tribute of his duty to Jacob And he made a mourning for his Father who begat him Secondly he made a mourning for his Father who loved him Love when in an equal commandeth love and this is so just that fire doth not more naturally create a flame In this the similitude is so great that there is no difference in the nature of the love produced and that which did produce it But when it first beginneth in a superior person the proper effect which it createth in an inferior is not of a single nature but such a love as is mingled with duty and respect The love of God to man challengeth love from us but that of such a nature as cannot be demonstrated but by obedience and that of a Father to his Son is of the same condition though not in the same proportion The Father loveth first with care and tenderness with a proper and a single love the Son returns it with another colour mingled with duty blended with respect Now Jacob had many children and as an eminent example he lov'd them all but among the rest there was one clearer and warmer flame for be loved Joseph more then all his children the off-spring of Rachel the Son of his old age the Heir of his Vertues the Corrector of his Brethren the Beloved of God had a greater share in Jacobs affection then the rest of his issue He did not so much prefer his wives before his hand maids he did not so highly value Rachel before Leah as he did esteem Joseph before the off-spring of them all This was the paternal love of Jacob and this was answered with as high a filial respect in Joseph which after death could not otherwise be expressed then in tears And therefore he made a mourning for his Father who loved him Thirdly he made a mourning for his Father who had blessed him Blessing is the soveraign act of God and the power of benediction like the power of God He delegateth this power unto his Priests who stand between God and Man and bless the Sons of men in the name of God He derives the same upon our natural Parents that children honoring them may expect his blessing upon their desires and prayers And what greater favour could we ask of God then that those persons who have the most natural affection toward us should also have the greatest power to bless us Now when the time drew nigh that Israel must die when his body drew nearer to the Earth and his soul to Heaven when his desires were highest and his words of the greatest efficacy he called unto his Sons and blessed them every one according to his blessing he blessed them But as he loved Joseph more then all his Brethren so he blessed him above them all he made one Tribe of every
as wisely continued upon a presumption and as an encouragement of the same vertures in their Successors Your Honor knows how long the greatness of your Family hath been preserved acknowledg first the vigilant providence and infinite goodness of God in the preservation of it while so many glorious Titles have been lost so many Noble Families cut off Next study to preserve and advance it further by the exercise of those vertues upon which it was first built and hath been since continued endeavour to uphold not only your own but the very name of Honor in this Age in which partly the want of such vertues as are necessary to support it partly the weakness of that power which first gave life unto it partly the unreasonableness of foolish men who endeavour to cast a dis-esteem upon it have too much eclipsed the glory of it Lastly as I have advised you with the Son of Sirach to let tears fall upon the dead and to use lamentation as he is worthy so I shall conclude with his following advice when that is done then comfort thy self for thy heaviness that is not only be comforted after sorrow that consolation may succeed your griefs this is the common revolution of the world not only be comforted in lieu of your sorrow that consolation may recompense your griefs that were but a vulgar compensation but take comfort in your sorrow and rejoyce in your self that you have been so happy as to be truly sad There is so much deceitfulness in the heart of man so much hypocrisie in Funeral mourning that you may bless God for your own assurance of the sincerity of your natural affection and religious respect to your Parents and take delight in a just expectation that it will be rewarded by the future respect of your children So having performed the duty of Joseph who made a mourning for his Father you may expect the blessing of Joseph given by the mouth of Jacob for whom he mourned Joseph is a fruitful bough even a fruitful bough by a Well whose branches run over the Wall That this Benediction may be your Honors portion shall be my constant prayer By the God of thy Father who shall help thee and by the Almighty who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above blessings of the deep that lyeth under blessings of the breasts and of the womb Amen Amen THE TRUE ACCOUNTANT SERMON L. PSAL. 90.12 So teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts unto wisdome SUch is the pravity of our natures ever since the first fall of Adam as that we prove very apt Scholars to learn that which is ill but we are very dull and backward to mind any thing that is good We want no teaching to set us forwards in the wayes of wickedness but in the performance of the least good we are not able to move one step without the guidance and direction of the holy Spirit of God Therefore it is a good prayer of David for every one of us Psal 143.10 Teach me to do thy will for thou art my God thy Spirit is good lead meinte the land of uprightness There are many Teachers abroad in the world and more than know how to teach aright and there are many Doctrines which are dayly prest and intruded upon the weak and simple and more than are useful and saving But there is but Unum necessarium one thing that is needful one thing in special to be minded and looked after even so to live as that we may become wise for Eternity so to walk on earth as that we may be fitted for Heaven This is the main Doctrine we are to learn and our Instructer is God We have none to teach us but God and we have no other way to implore this favour of God but by our prayers in the words of Moses So teach us c. You know the Penman of this Psalm by the Inscription A Prayer of Moses the man of God and I think it is safer to keep to the letter of the Text than to busie your thoughts with the various and doubtful conjectures we meet with in ancient and modern Expositors The Text is a Prayer to God to teach us the true Art of Arithmetick to make us true Accountants for Heaven how we may know to number our dayes aright In this Prayer we meet with two things First what he begs of God 1. To number his dayes 2. To be taught this duty 3. To be taught it in such a manner So teach us Secondly the end wherefore he begs this of God That we may apply c. The end is the gain of true wisdome to make us wise for Heaven And here we have 1. The kind and nature of this wisdome what this wisdome is of which Moses here speaks and that is in making the best provision we can for the eternal welfare of our Souls 2. The subject of it our Hearts 3. The means of obtaining this wisdome and that is by the consideration and thought of Death By the careful numbring of our dayes we attain this wisdome The meditation of Death makes us truly wise Before we fasten upon the Text we will take a survey of the Context which stands thus 1. Observe Moses having spoken of the wrath of God in the foregoing verse Who knoweth the power of thine anger even according to thy fear so is thy wrath of the sudden he betakes himself to prayer The thought and consideration of Gods anger makes us to pray 2. Observe here after that Moses had given us a description of the wrath of God presently his thoughts are taken up with the meditation of Death The wrath of God thought on makes us to think of Death First of the first the anger of God meditated upon makes us to fly to our prayers The fear of this quickned the devotion of Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 20.3 And Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord. He feared therefore he prayed The thought of Gods anger may well bring us upon our knees and when danger approacheth it is high time to seek the Lord. The Romans made Fear a god and worshiped it for a god the Indians worship the Devil for fear he should hurt them and all this shews us what a command fear hath over the hearts of men to make them to pray They that never think of God in the day of prosperity will hasten to call upon him in the day of trouble The text sayes When the ship was ready to sink the marriners were afraid and every man cryed unto his God Joh. 1.5 A man will never sooner acknowledg a Deity then in the midst of his fears Such is the base spirit of man as that the long-sufferance and patience of God makes some men turn meer Atheists Therefore it is that so many believe there is no God saith Tertullian quia seculo iratum tam diu nesciunt because they do not see that God is
angry with the World they feel not the wrath of God therefore they conclude he is no God and as long as God holds off from punishing they hold off from praying His Judgments prove him a God when his Mercies cannot perswade the world so much Every man hastens to seek the Lord when he is angry his Justice terrifies us his Mercy hardens us his Goodness makes us to rebel his Anger teacheth us to pray we forget God when he is gracious and fly amain to him when he threatens Let us often think of the wrath of God and let the thought of it so far work upon us as to keep us in a constant awe and fear of God and let this fear drive us to God by prayer that fearing as we ought we may pray as we are commanded and praying we may prevent the wrath of God If our present sorrows do not move us God will send greater and when our sorrows are grown too great for us we shall have little heart or comfort to pray Let our fears then quicken our prayers and let our prayers be such as are able to avercome our fears so both wayes shall we be happy in that our fears have taught us to pray and our prayers have made us to fear no more Now is the time for us to pray before grief wax too strong for us for the time may come when we shall not be able to pray by reason of the sense and feeling of the wrath of God upon us Now our prayers in the time of health may be as Incense before the Lord as a sweet odour in the nostrils of God but if we neglect to offer up this Incense we must look for the Incense of Vengeance to fall down upon us Apoc. 8.5 If God take the Cenfer in his hand and fill it with the fire of his wrath then follows nothing but thundrings lightnings and terrible commotions in the Soul Vespasian Gonzaga gave for his Symbol three Flashes of Lightning the first did touch the second did burn the third did rend and tear in pieces The first affliction haply may lightly touch and affect us the second may scare us and stir up the fire of devotion in us but the third will prove so terrible as that it will tear asunder all our prayers so terrifie our spirits as that we shall not be able to pour out our complaints before the Lord or acquaint him w th our troubles The anger of God at the first may be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a little Cloud as big as a Mans hand but if we neglect it it may break out upon us with that fierceness violence as that it may interrupt our prayers and hinder the ascent of them to the Throne of Grace Therefore before the wrath of God break forth upon us let us seriously think of it and prevent it by our prayers Let a timely fear incite our prayers and quicken our devotion This holy fear will kindle an holy devotion in our hearts and as a watchful keeper of the heart shall suffer no thoughts to break forth but such as shall amount alost to Heaven As cold water makes the fire more fierce and vehement so does this fear make our prayers more earnest and servent And this is our first Observation The fear of Gods wrath drives us to our prayers and makes us the more importunate with God for mercy The second Conclusion now follows which ariseth from the Context after the prophet had given us a description of the wrath of God he pitcheth his next thoughts upon Death And this brings in our next Observation The wrath of God thought upon makes us to think of Death He that ruminates upon the wrath of God which he hath incurr'd by sin must needs think of Death the sad effect of sin When I remember how far I have provoked the anger of a just God by Sin I cannot choose but think of Death This was Jobs case who while he was under the wrath of God and felt not the comfort of the pardon of his Sins he did imagine there was no other way but death with him Job 7.21 Why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquities for now shall I sleep in the dust and thou shalt seek me in the morning but I shall not be As if he had said Deliver me O Lord from thy wrath and grant me the pardon of my sins otherwise I am but as a dead man before thee Solomon speaks of the wrath of a King Pro. 16.14 that it is as messengers of death Surely then the wrath of God may very well be a Messenger sent from God to put us in mind of Death If the Wrath of man be so fierce what is the wrath of God if the frown of a King strike a man dead what power is there in the looks of an angry God to bring us to nothing If the smoke of mans anger can do this what cannot the flame of Gods wrath do even consume us to very ashes Does the fear of Gods Wrath put us in mind of Death 1. This discovers our own guilt what a weight of sin lies upon our Souls otherwise what reason had we to tremble at the denunciation of Gods wrath against us if we were not conscious to our selves of a world of wickedness which harbours in our breasts Were we not privy to a masse of Corruption lurking within us the fear of death would never affright us A strong wind is able to shake and bend the strongest tree and the wrath of God will make the most godly man alive to quake and tremble Imagine the easiest death that is it cannot be but that Nature will have some struglings with it It is impossible to die such a death as shall have no pangs to attend upon it Thus it is even in the death of the greatest Saints there must needs be some strivings and wrestlings in the Conscience with the wrath of God The heart of no Christian is so far quieted and appeased at the hour of death as that all fear is banished out of it and a man hath not the least remembrance of sin and of the wrath of God due to sin lodging in his breast This holy fear is in the best of Gods children and proves as an excellent preparative for death He is best fitted for Death that meditates of tenof the wrath of God due to sin We see we have many occasions presented to us to put us in mind of Death we are never without some Watchword or other to beat the remembrance of Death into our thoughts David had Death ever in his eye Psal 119.109 My soul is continually in my hand like a Souldier he carried his life in his hand and was prepared for the next encounter and made ready for it In all the Judgments of God Death like the ashes which Moses sprinkled is scattered and cast over all our heads Death like
wounded afresh with some gross act of sin this made David afraid yea to roar out and to make a noyse through the disquietness of his spirit Psal 38.8 Psal 55.2 and under that state of soul to begg earnestly to be spared that he might recover strength in Gods favour before he went hence and was no more Psal 39.13 or else when the Lord shall for divers ends and reasons surcharge the soul and conscience with the sins of youth for which perhaps men have not as became them been sufficiently humbled thus dealt he even with his servant Job writing bitter things against him Job 13.26 see also Job 16.4 But out of those cases it is proprium quarto medo onely the Saints love it all such love it and alwayes and no marvaile sith by this second coming and appearance of Christ in the day of the last Judement they receive very great and inestimable benefits such as are final Redemption of the Body from corruption Rom. 8.23 Freedom from the society of the wicked which here afflict the godly by their violation of Gods Law and Precepts Deliverance not onely from the raign and dominion but even from the inhabitation and being of sin which here they find as a clogg and a burthen too heavy for them and so long to be rid of it Rom. 7.24 and lastly the beatifical vision and perfect fruition of the ever-blessed and all-glorious Trinity in the Heavenly Hieru salem among the innumerable company of Angels being admitted to the general Assembly and Church of the first-borne which are enrolled and written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore And thus my brethren after my measure as I could upon so short notice of about a day though not so full after my desires as I would in so great so learned and serious an Auditory have I dispatched my discourse upon the Scripture your candour will I hope connive at the want of polishing and entertain it as it is according to the weight and importance off the matter of it And may the God of grace reap the Total glory Amen FINIS The coherence Devision of the words Prospos Every man in the world is Gods Steward Proved 1. By what every one receiveth from God 2. By what God expects from every one Psal 24 1. Men do not waste his goods 2. That they do not abuse them to ill ends Luke 19 27. James 4 3. 3 To do him Homage Acts 10 33. 4 To return him fruit Matt. 21.33 Vse Two things required of a Steward 1. Dispensation Rom 13 4. Rom 1 14.1 Tim 5 8. 2. Right ordering of his dispensations Luk. 12.42 1. Faithfully Heb. 3.5 Exod. 32.19 2. VVisely Rom. 3.7 1 Tim. 3.17 Gen 18.19 Propos 2. All Gods stewards must give an account Two dayes of reckoning 1. In this life By the VVord Gen 3.11 1 King 19. Matt 3. Acts 2. By the rod. Job 33.14 Mic 6.9 Job 33.19 1 Cor 11.30 Psal 31.5 2 After this life A necessitie of a day of judgement 1. In respect of God his decree Acts. 17.31 Isa 46.10 His honour Eccles 3.16 2. In respect of the Saints 2 Thes 1.5 For the manifestation of their innocency For the reward of their works Mal. 3.17.18 3. In respect of the wicked For the manifestation of Gods righteous proceeding against them Rom. 2.5 For the perfecting of their punishment Why God is said to call all men to an account 1. Because he will proceed in particular Job 27.18 Jam. 5.1.2 James 4.3 Mat. 16. Mat. 5 22. Mat. 15.19 2. Because he will proceed by me hod and order Psal 50. Psal 51. Rom. 7. A direction in the exercise of repentance 3. Because he will proceed by books Dan. 10. Rev. 20. John 12.48 Jer. 17.1 4. Because God will exact of every one according to what he hath been trusted with Luke 12.48 Vse 1. For confutation Atheists in the Church 2 Pet. 3. Vse 2. For instruction 2. Not to judge others Rom. 14.10 1 Cor. 4.5 2. To judge our selves here A two sold reckoning to be made here 1. Reckon with out selves Jer. 8.6 Lam. 3.39 Psal 4. 2. Reckon with others 2. Sam. 12.3 Acts 20.26 Iames. 5.3 3. To Exercise daily repentance Acts 17.31 4. To get an interest in Christ Rom 8.1 Exod. 25.21 5. To lead a holy conversation 1 Pet. 3.11 2 Cor. 5.9 Acts 26.15 16. Vse 3. For Comfort James 5. Heb. 9.27 The Coherence The meaning of the words The devision of the words Observat 1. The death of others is a just occasion of Mourning Gen. 23.2 Gen. 27.41 Gen. 50.10 2. Sam. 25.1 Zach. 12.10 John 11. Act. 20.38 Reas 1. Reas 2. Ier. 5.3 Vse Object Answ A twofold distempe In mens affections 1.2 1 These 4.13 Deut. 14. Observat 2. Death the end of all men Iob 3.14 Zach. 1.5 Reas 1. In regard of Gods decree Reas 2. In regard of the matter whereof men are made Iob 13 12. Reas 3. In regard every man in him hath the cause of death Object Heb 11.5 2 King 2.11 Answ Object Answer Rom. 8.28 Matt. 22. Vse 1. Make account of it for our selves The benefit of the particular application of death to a mans selfe 1. Sin will be made more odious Rom. 5.11 2. The truth and justice of God will bee the more acknowledged 3. Death will be the b 〈◊〉 prepared for Job 14.14.5 Three things wherein here is oâ—… a particular application of â—…h to a man 1. In matter of sinning Acts 5. 2. In redeeming of the time of life 1 Cor. 10.35 Heb. 3 13. Gal. 6.10 3. In the manner of our conversation Vse 1 In respect of the death of others 1. To moderate our mourning for the death of others 2. To improve he life of others Observat 3. It is the duty of the living to lay to heart the death of others Reas 1.1 God is glorified hy it Psal 28.5 Reas 2. Our selves are benefited by it 1. Thereby we come to see the certainty of death 2. Thereby we come to see the nature of death The proper worke of death 1. To separate the body from the soule 2. To separate a man from his estate 3. To separate a man from his friends Gen. 23. 2 Sam. 1. â—… 1 Cor. 7.19 3. Thereby we come tosee the end and cause of death 1 Kings 14.13 2 Chro. 34.18 Isa 57.1 Ezek. 9.4 5. Vse 1 For reproof of the generall neglect of this duty Vse 2. For reproof 1. Of the excess of sorrow for dead freinds Judg. 8.24 Gen 31.30 2. Of the rash censuring of the manner of others death Luke 13.4 Eccles 9.2 Vse 3. For Instruction Luke 2.29 Observat Gods children are subject to the fear of death The outward causes of the fear of death 1. God
To humble his children Psal 9.20 2. Cor 12. To strengthen their faith 2 Cor. 1.9 10. To encrease their watchfulnesse Mat. 25. 2 Pet. 3.1 1. To prepare them for death 2 Chro. 20.3 2. Sathan 2 Cor. 7.5 The inward causes of the fear of death 1. Natural In respect of the object it self death The apprehension of death as an Ill. Eccles 9.4 The apprehension of death as an ill unavoidable The apprehension of Death as an ill future In respect of the subject men Judg 8.20 Gen. 201 1. Sam 16. 2. Inward causes sinful 1. The want of the fear of God Deut. 28.65 66 c. 2. In ordinate love of the world Isa 38.11 Eccles 9. 3. Want of the assurance of Gods favour Luke 16. Mat. 6. Rev 6. Isa 33.14 Object Answer Psal 42. Exod. 14 11. Psal 23. Object 2. Answer Vse For exortation To be under the fear of death an uncomfortable estate The fear of death a bondage in two respects 2. It is possible to be freed from the fear of death Means to be freed from the fear of death 1. Humility 2. Faith 3. watchfulness 4. Preparation 5. Right apprehension of Death Phil. 3. Assurance of Gods favour 1 Cor. 3.23 2 Cor. 5.4 Coherence Definition of Patience Rom. 15.5 Gal. 5.22 Mat. 25 VVhat I is to let patience have her perfect work Rom 15.13 Collos 1.11 VVhat is meant by intire and wanting nothing 1. Sam. 30.6 The parts the text 1. A duty exhorted to 2. An Argument to Inforce it Conclus 1. Conclus 2. Conclus 1. A Christian not perfect without patience Mat. 5.48 Reas 1 A twofold perfection of a Christian Perfection of parts what it is 2 Pet. 1.5,6 Reas 2. Luke 21.19 Reas 3 No dutie can be rightly performed without patience Not Prayer Matth. 15. 2 Cor. 11. Not hearing Luk. 8.15 Rev. 3.10 Heb. 10.36 James 1.21 Reas 4. Heb. 10.36 Heb. 12.1 Conclus 2. Christian must labour for perfection in Patience Coll. 1.11 Mat. 5 48. Reas 1. Eph 5 Exod. 34.7 Rom. 11. 1 Pet. 3.2 Pt. 2 Rom. 8.29 Luke 9. James 5.10 verse 11. Rom. 15.4 Reas 2. Acts 14.22.2 Tim. 3.12 Psal 73.27 Vse 1. For reproofe VVayes how men increase Impatience in themselves 1. By aggravating their afflictions Lam. 1.12 2. By giving liberry to their passions 3. By resusing comfort Gen. 37.34 4. By looking only on afflictions present not on mercies Est â—… 13 5. By looking on the instrument and not on God Psal 55.12.13 Plal. 39.9 6. By looking on the smart and not on the benefit of affliction Heb. 12.11 1. Cor. 11.32 Vse 2. For exhortarion How to exercise patience In present crosses 1. Cosider God the orderer of all conditions Therefore give him the glory of his soveraignty 1 King 20 3. Job 1.21 2 Sam 15 25 O his wâ—…sedome Of hâ—…s mercy Lam. 2. Ier. 45.5 2. Consider the desert of siu Dan. 9. Eâ—…â—… 9. Lam. 3. 〈…〉 of 〈◊〉 born 〈◊〉 Patience Rev. 3.10 How to exercise patience in Gods delaying of mercies 1. Consider that delayes are not denyals 2. That delaies increase mercies Isa 61.7 2. Cor. 4. 2. Cor 1. 3. That delaies are but short compared to eternitie Coherence Division 1. Davids carriage durlâ—…g his childs sickness Meaning of the words 1. Cor. 3.8 Rom. 14.17 Davids Fast a religious fast Davids teâ—…rs proceeded nor from a natural but from a spiritual principle Gen. 32. Hso 12. Isa 38. 2. The reason of Davids carriage Gods absolute sentence implies condition Isa 38. Jonah 3.4 1 Sam. 15. Verse 35 Chap. 16.1 Num. 14. Vse 1. For instruction Jer. 18 7. Vse 2. For inconragement Ezek. 33.10 11. Gen. 3. Joel 2.12 13. Observe first Davids piety Mat 15 22. Comfort to Gods children Psal 103. Isa 63.9 2. Observe Davids piety Parents in their childrens miseries should remember their own sins 1. King 17. Object 1. Deut. 24.16 Ezek. 18.20 Answ Object 2. Answ Quest Answ Pro. 31. 1. Sam 2 29 chap. 3.12.13 Vse 1. To parents The sins that bring judgments upon mens posterity Vse 2. To children 2. Davdis carriage when his child was dead The reasons of it Observation from the first reason Psal 44. The way to order our affections is to reduce them to the principles of rectified reason Job 14.14 Observation from the second reason Vse Encles 1 2. Observation from the third reason Observation from the fouth reason Eccles 3.2 Coherence Division Pâ—…pos Sin is the sting of death A double consideration of death What death is here meant Corporall death Principally Two parts of spiritual death What sin is the sting of Death Sin two wayes considered Sin unmortified proves the sting of death 1. In respect of the guilt 2. In respect of the filth How sin is said to be the sting of Death Sin stings before death A death After death At the day of Judgement After the Judgement Sin makes death fearful Sin makes death hurtful Vse Bâ—…cles 11. How a man shall know whether Death shall come with a sting to him Eccles 11.9 How to get the sting of Death pâ—…lied out 1. Get a part in Christ Rev. 1.18 Rom. 8. 2. Get sincerity of heart Isa 38. 3. Practise Mortification 1 Cor. 15. Vse 2. Division of the text 1. Death is Nature teacheth 1. what death is 2. The properties of death That it is 1. Universal 2. Inevitable 3. Uncertain The Scripture teacheth 1. what death is 2. what are the causes of death 3. what are the consequences of death Heb. 9.17 The particular judgment The general Judgment 5. what is the remedy against the evil of death 2. Death is an enemy 1. Depriving a man of all that is benefitial or comfortable 2. Inflicting misery upon a man 3. Death the last enemy Not to all But to the Saints 4. Death shall be destroyed Vse 1. For Examination How a man may be fitted for death 1. Get death disarmed now 2. Get armour against death Vse 2. For reprehension Vse 3. For Exhortation Vse 2. For comfort The division of the text The first part of the Text. The meaning of the words 1. Of the subject Merciful men 1 Joh. 4.20 Rom. 12.18 2. Of the predicat they perish Eccles 3. Observat 3. Of the extent from the evil to come 1 From the evil to suffering That he shall not see it That he shall not endure it Ezek 9 Exod. 12. 3. From the evil of finning That he shall not see sin com mitted by others That he shall not commit sin himself Vse Quest Answ The loss of a godly man a great punishment to a place The second part of the Text. Inconsideraton a great sin A frui of sin A cause of sin Isa 40.6 Luk. 1.4 Psal 90.10 Exod. 17.14 Isa 8.1 Ezek. 24.2 Rom. 14.1 The division of the words Observation 1. Aust lib. 19. de Civit. Dei. A double blessedness Phil 3.21 2. Cor. 5.7 Phil. 1 23. 1. Cor. 15.19 Eccles 9.4 Job 2 4 Job 6.3 Psa 119.175 psal 39.13 Isa 38.18,19 Job 7.15
Num. 11.15 1. King 19.4 Jonak 4 3. Job 3.20 Quest Answ Five causes of self-murther Observat 2. What it is to â—…ie in the Lord Rom. 16.1 1. Thes 4. 1. To die in obedience Phil. 1. 2. In repentance 3. In faith 4. With prayer Luke 23.46 Act. 7.59 5. In charity Luke 23.34 Act. 7.60 6. In peace How to come to die in the Lord. The sum of the words Division Explination None of us liveth to himself Observat A beleever is not to make himself the end in his actions Object Answ A double consideration of our selves How a man may seek himself Selfe-love lawful The Observaon proved by reason Reas 1. It is dishonourable to God Reas 2. It is injurious to Christ Phil. ver 19. 1. Cor 6.20 1. Pet. 1.18 Luk. 1.74 Reas 3. It is dangerous to a mans self 1. A man in seeking himself I seth his happiness That which he gaâ—…ns is but a shadow of gain 3. He loseth himself Mat. 16.26 Mark 10 Vse 1. For Couviction 1. That there are many that prosesse the msâ—…lves Christians yet live to themselves Complained of Phil. 2.21 Forbldden 1 Cor. 10.24 How a man shall know whether he liveth to himself Rule 1. Instance 1. Joh. 6.10 Hos 7. Deut. 23. Instance 2. Jnstance 3. Rule 2. Rom. 1. 2. That it is an evil thing for a man to live to himself Mat. 6.22 A single eye what Jam. 1. Vse 2. For Exhortation Helps 1. Our good is in God and not in our selves Ier. 9.24 2. Exercise the grace Of knowledge Cant. 5.1 Sam. 1. Of Faith Of Love 1 Cor. 5. Vse 3. For instruction 1 Cor. 14. Eph. 4.9 The Coberence Division of the Text. 1 Presace 2. Exhortation In the Exhortation 1. The ground of i. 2. The Exhortation it self 3. The motive In the Preface Obseavation 1. Observat 2. In the Ehortation 2 The ground of it The meaning of the words Obser 1. Obser 2. The meditatlon of the shortness of our lives a special means to take us off of the world Reas 1. Reas 2. What is the principall thing we have to do in the world Vse The ground of all our neglect of heaven is he want of the consideration of the shortness of this life Sathan labours above all thing to make men put off the consideration of the brevity of their lives 2. The exhortation it selfe The meaning of the words What is meant by having wives and yet to be as having none 2. By weeping as if they weept not 3 By rejoycing as if rejoyced not 4. By buying as If possessed not 5. By using the world as not abusing it Observat Opened A beleever is to be to the world as a worldly man to the things of heaven Proved by Scripture 1 John 4.10 Col 3.1 By reason Reas 1. The things of the world are emptle things to a beleever Reas 2. The things of the world are none of a beleevers Note Simile Reas 3. The things of â—…he world hinder a beleever in the service of God Simile Vse Reprehension Particular instances How to know whether we use the things of the world as if we used them not How a man may come to use things as if he used them not 3. The Apostles Motive or spurre Obser 1. The things of the world but a shew without a substance Obser 2. The shew of the world is suddenly gone Grace is onely substantiall The Coherence The meaning of the words 1. What is meant by peace 2. What by destruction The manner of the destruction 1. Sudden 2. Painful 3. Unavoidable In the words a double description Zich 1 11â—… Observat In the greatest security the greatest danger A double security 1. Holy and spiritual Spiritual security what Psal 4.8 Isa 26.20 2. Sinful and carnal Carnal security a fore-runner of Judgement Proved 1. By particular examples of particular persons 1 Sam. 15.13 Dan. 5.3 Luke 12.19 Job 21.13 2. By general examples of Nations and States Luke 7. Jer. 6.14 15. Zeph. 1.12 Isa 47.8 9. Rev. 18.7 Confirmed by Reason 1. In respect of the causes of security Infidellty Heb. 11.7 Isa 61. Heb. 3. Deut. 29.19 Isa 6 9 10. 2. In respect of the concomitants of security Disrespect of God in all his Attributes Rom 2 4 5. Eccles 8 11. 3 In respect of the fruit and consequences of security Gen 15 16. Note Vse 1. For examination Signs of security 1. Profiting not by the judgments of God on our selves or others Dan. 5. Ier. 31.9 Amos 4. 2. Contempt of the Ordinances Amos 6. Ier. 9.13 Ier. 23.33 3. Vain considence Jer. 7.11.12.13 Numb 11.13 Jer. 46.16 Isa 48.15 4. Continual increase of sin Vse 2. For exortation Motives to watchfulness 1. The watchfulness of our enemies 1. Sathan 2. The flesh 3. Heretiques Mot. 2. The evil of security In it self a spiritual lethargy 2. In the effects 1. It drives away the spirit of God 2. It lets in Sathan 3. Hinders our Communion with Christ 4. Bringeth judgemenâ— prosiâ—ive Future Makt 24. Ezek. 9. Mala. 3. Helps to watchfulness 1. Sobtiety Eph. 51 2. Spiritual exercise 3. Continual fear 4. Good company Eccless 4. 5. Be alwayes as in Gods presence Psal 139. Jer. 23 23. 6. Consider â—…y latter enâ—… Revel 3.2 Bccks 11.9 Prov. 16.7 Plal. 9.6 The parrs of the Text. Obser 1. Death is an enemy What kind of enemy 1 A common enemy 1 King 22 31 Gen 16 12. Psal 89 48. Object Answ Josh 23 14. Job 30 23. 2 A secret enemy 3 A spiritual Enemy Rom 5 12. 4 A continual Enemy Wherein Death is n Enemy Jeb 18 18. In respect of its attendants 1 sickness c. Heb 2 15. 2 Cor 6. Plal 39 6. 2 Dissolution of the frame of nature 3. The Grave Ezek. 24.16 Isa 14.11 4. Loss of worldly contentments and actions Psal 49.9 Isa 38.11 Psal 6. 5. Consciance of sin and certainty of Judgment and uncertainty of salvation Heb. 9.27.2 Cor 5.10 Isa 33.14 Why Death called the last enemy 1. Because it is the last that shall assault us Therefore we have more enemies than Death The Devil The world The flesh Psal 27.11 Therefore likely to be the worst enemy 2. Because it is the last that shall be destroyed Who it is that destroyeth Death Rev. 5.3.5 1. Sam. 17.23 Hos 13.14 Act. 3.15 When Death shall be destroyed At the day of the Resurrection Comfort in the mean time 2. Cor. 15.57 Rev. 7 17. Hos 13.14 1 Cor. 3 22. Vse 1. Death an enemy only to the wicked 1 King 21.20 Death to the beleever is 1. A subdued Enemy Gant 8.3 Psal 41.3 Phil. 1.23 Job 19.27 Phil. 3.21 Heb. 12.23 Psal 16.11 2. Cor. 5. 2. A reconciled Enemy 3. An Enemy that at last shall be destroyed Rev. 20. Rom. 6.9 Vse 2. For instruction How to be prepared for death 1. Die to sin 2. Live to God 3. Be oft in the meditation of death 4. Settle all things before hand that concern the outward man The inward Tit.