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
be said he straight-way dyed As a condemned person is called a dead man though he be respited for a time Besides the Messengers and Sergeants of death presently took hold of him and arrested him for sin as hunger and thirst and cold and diseases daily wasting of the natural moysture to the quenching of life Indeed God suffered him that the sentence was not presently executed so to commend his own patience and to give to Adam occasion of salvation the promise of Christ being after made and he called to repentance by that means to attain a better life by Christ then he lost by sin It is objected again Christ redeemed us from all sin and all the punishment thereof but he did not redeem us from bodily death from temporal death for the faithful we see die still even as others do therefore it is concluded by some that temporal death is not the wages of sin for then when we were free from sin by Christ we should be freed from that Our answer to this is that Christ hath freed all his elect not only from eternal but even from temporal death though not from both in the same manner From temporal death first in hope of which the Apostle speaking 1 Cor. 15. saith The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death meaning temporal death at last then it shall be destroyed mortal shall put on immortality as the Apostle speaks but in the mean time it is destroyed in hope though it remain indeed and must be undergone even of the faithful in this life Howbeit to them Christ hath changed the nature of it and now they no longer undergo it as the wages of sin but for other causes As first the exercise of their graces their faith and hope and patience and the rest all these are exercised as in other afflictions so even in the death of Gods Children Secondly the total removal and riddance of the reliques of sin from which they are not freed in this life but when they die then all sin is taken away for as at the first sin brought death into the world so to the faithful now death carries it out again Thirdly their entrance into heaven and to be at home with the Lord from whom we are absent as long as we are at home in these bodies Fourthly to prepare their bodies for renuing at the last day that is done by death for as a decayed Image or statue must first be broken that it may be new cast so these bodies of ours must be broken by death that they may be cast into a new mould of immortality at the general resurrection But here as some sin remains so death remains though we be in Christ yet we are still in that estate wherein it is appointed to all men once to die Thus even temporal death is left to the Children of God to be undergone before they come to heaven It is left to them I say and that justly in respect of the remnants of sin yet they undergo it no other way but for their own good and benefit However temporal death in its own nature to an unbeleever is the wages of sin And as temporal so eternal death for when God told man that in the day he finned he should die the death he meant not only temporal but eternal death he meant that principally as I shewed before in that the Apostle opposeth it to eternal life in the next clause of the sentence Now Christ hath freed all beleevers actually from eternal death But how eternal death should be the wages of sin may be doubted because between the work and the wages there must be some proportion that seems not to be between sin and eternal death for sin is a finite a temporal thing committed in a short time and that death is eternal Now to punisha temporal fault with an eternal punishment it seems that it is to make the punishment to exceed the fault and that is against justice But for an answer to this doubt we must know that however sin considered in the act and as it is a transcient action it is finite yet in other respects it is infinite and that in a threefold consideration First in respect of the object against whom it is committed for being the offence of an infinite Majesty it deserves an infinite punishment for we know oftences are reckoned of for their greatness according as the greatness of the person is against whom they are committed If he that clips the Kings coyn or deface the Kings Arms or counterfeit the broad Seal of England or the Princes privie Seal ought to die as a traytor because this disgrace tends to the person of the Prince much more ought he that violates the law of God die the first and second death too because it tends to the defacing of the Image and the disgracing of the person of God himself who is contemned and dishonoured in every sin Secondly sin is infinite in respect of the subject wherein it is the soul of man Seeing the soul is immortal and of an everlasting substance and that the guilt of sin and the blot together stain the soul as a crimson and skarlet die upon wooll and can no more be severed from the soul then the spots from the Leopard it remains as the soul is eternal and as that is everlasting so sin is infinite in durance and continuance and deserves an infinite wages and punishment which is eternal death Thirdly it is infinite also in respect of the tie between the desire and endeavour of an impenitent sinner for his desire is to walk on still in sin and except God cut off the line of life never to give over sinning but he would run on infinitely committing sin even with greediness And it is reason that as God accepts the will for the deed in godliness so he should punish the will for the deed in wickedness if we sin according to our eternity in our will and purpose to sin God will punish us according to his eternity it is just that they that would never be without sin if they might have their own will should never be without punishment Thus we see eternal death is the wages of sin though sin be committed in a moment though it be a transcient action in it self yet it is just with God to give it the wages of eternal death So you see Death both temporal and eternal is the wages of sin We come to the Use of the point being thus declared First it teacheth us contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome that original lust and concupiscence in the regenerate is a sin for how else should God be just in inflicting temporal death upon infants that are regenerate actual sins they have none and if they have no original sin neither then God should inflict the wages of sin where there were no sin which connot be because there is no
iniquity with God Therefore certain it is that after regeneration this original lust though the guilt of it be taken away yet as sin it remains the substance of it still remains and will as long as we live in this world For it is in us as it is well compared as the Ivy is in the wall which having taken root so twines and incorporates it self that it can never be quite rooted out till the wall be taken down so till body and soul be taken a sunder by death there will be no total riddance of Original corruption and the depravation of our nature it is still in us as appears by the temporal death even of the best Saints of those that are most sanctified in this life it shews there is remainders of corruption in them still for if there were not sin there would not be the wages of sin there would not be death if there were not sin Secondly the Use of it is to take away a fond Popish distinction of mortal and venial sin they teach some sins to be venial that is such sins as in their own nature deserve not death whereas the Apostle here speaking of all sin in general he saith the wages thereof is death And how can it be otherwise when all sin is the transgression of the Law and Saint John defines it and all transgression of the Law deserves and is worthy of the curse which is both the first and second death for Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are witten in the book of the Law to do them There is no sin then but it is worthy of death therefore there is no such venial sin as they dream of We deny not but that some sins are venial and some mortal in another sence not in respect of the nature of the sin but of the estate of the person in whom the sins are so we say all the sins of the Elect are venial because they either are or shall be pardoned And all the sins of reprobate persons are mortal because they shall never be pardoned It is the mercy of God and not from the nature of the sins that makes them venial for otherwise every sin in it self considered be it never so small is mortal for if it work according to its own nature it works death of body and soul It is a foolish exception that they bring against it that thus we make all sins equal and that we bring in with the Stoicks a parity of sin because we say all are mortal It is a foolish cavil for it is as if one should argue because the Mouse and the Elephant are both living creatures that therefore they are both of equal bigness Though all sins be mortal they are not all equal some are greater and some are lesser according as they are extended and aggravated by time and place and person and sundry other circumstances Suppose one should be drowned in the middest of the Sea and another in a shallow pond in respect of death all were one both are drowned but yet there is great difference in respect of the place for depth and danger So there is great difference in this though the least sin in its own nature be mortal as the Apostle saith here the wages of it is death Thirdly seeing the wages of sin is death it should teach us what Use to make of death being presented before our eyes at such times as this hereby we should call to remembrance the grievousness of sin that brought it into the world by the woful wages we should be put in mind of the unhappy service Had there not been sin there would have been no death upon the death of the soul came in the death of the body first the soul died in forsaking God and then the body died being forsaken of the soul the soul forsook God willingly therefore it was compelled unwillingly to forsake the body This is the manner how death came into the world by sin therefore death must put out sin That housholder when he saw tares grow among his wheat he said to his servants the envious man hath done this So whensoever thou feest Death seize upon any say to thy self sin hath done this this is the wages of sin and if man had never sinned we should have seen no such thing Fourthly this must deter us from sin since it gives such wages Indeed the manner of sin is for the most part if not alwayes to promise better but it is deceitful and this is the wages it payes thee The wages of sin is death The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated wages some take it quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the evening because wages are paid in the evening So the morning of sin may be fair but the evening will be foul when the wages come At the first sin may be pleasing but remember the end the end of it is death Like to a fresh River that runs into the salt Sea the stream is sweet but it ends in brackishness and bitterness Or like to Nebuchadnezzars Image the head was gold but the feet were of clay Or sin may be compared to that Feast that Absalom made for Amnon there was great chear and jollity and mirth for a while but all closed in Death in bloudshed and murther It deales with men as Laban dealt with Jacob he entertains him at the first with great complements but used him hardly at the last Or as the Governour of the feast said Joh. 2. All men in the beginning set forth good wine and then that which is worse so sin gives the best at the first but the worst it reserves for the last This should keep us from every sin though it seems never so pleasing and never so sweet to us remembring that the worst is still to come We read that when the people saw that Saul forbad them to eat though they were exceeding hungry yet not one of them durst touch the honey for the curse though they saw it so the pleasures of sin may drop as honey before our eyes but we must not adventure to taste of them because they are cursed fruit and because of the wages that will follow Never take sin by the head by the beginnings as the greatest part do but take it as Jacob took Esau by the heel look to the extream part of it Consider thy end and thou shalt not do amiss Jezabel might have allured a man when having painted her face she looked out of the window but to look upon her after she was cast out eaten of doggs and nothing remaining but her extream parts her scull and the palms of her hands and her feet it could not be but with horrour so sin may allure a man looking only on the painted face in the beginning but if a man cast his eye upon the extream parts it would then affright and deter him for the wages the end of
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
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
the Stage by Death You will say this is a hard condition for so Noble a creature as Man is to be folded up in the grave for so fair a beauty as the life of man is to be closed up in eternal darkness that man should turn to the acquaintance of dust and worms and make his habitation with rottenness and loathsomeness that Death should have the victory of so excellent a Creature it is a hard condition The Apostle thinks not so he thinks otherwise Death faith he ver 54. is swallowed up in victory As if he should say It need not trouble you to think so of Death the condition of it is not so strange and hard as men take it to be It is swallowed up in victory If a man have a strong enemy to deal with it might trouble him but it is no great matter to deal with a conquered enemy Christ hath overcome Death hath conquered that strong enemy Death is swallowed up in victory Therefore Saint Paul in the precedent and subsequent verses of this Chapter seemeth to insult and triumph over Death Oh Death faith he where is thy sting Oh grave where is thy victory As if he should say before Christ came and conquered thee Death thou wert victorious so it was there was a sting in it before Christ sweetned the grave there was something that was terrible in the Grave but now because Christ is come and hath gotten the victory over the one and sweetned the other therefore Saint Paul breaks forth thus into an insultation and triumph But how can this be Why doth the Apostle thus triumph The reason is insinuated in the verse I have read to you the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But this is the occasion of trouble to Christians No it is not thanks be to God that hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord As if he should say I will shew you the reason of my triumphing over Death there was a sting in Sin and Sin is the sting of Death and the Law is the strength of sin but Christ hath took away sin and hath satisfied the Law sin being taken away Death cannot hurt me the Law being satisfied Sin cannot prejudiceme This was the cause of the Apostle and in him of every Christians insultation over Death The words I have read contain two parts First the sting of Death Secondly the strength of Sin First the sting of death is sin Secondly the strength of sin is the Law If there were no law there would be no sin and if there were no sin there would be no death Sin is the transgression of the Law and sin is the sting of death I shall only at this time insist upon the first of these from whence I shall deliver that which if it please God to accompany with his Spirit may be useful to you The proposition shall be the very words of the Text. Sin is the sting of death This Proposition I would not have you understaud in this sense only that death came in by sin meerly in a habit though that be true too But understand it in this sense That all the horrour and terribleness of Death all the power and rage it hath whatsoever makes it fearful to a man it receiveth it all from sin It is sin that armeth Death against a man if Death have any weapons against a man Sin puts those weapons into the hands of Death if Death have any poyson against a Christian the sin of that person putteth that poyson in it Death may be considered two wayes either as Christ hath made it or as we make it Death as Christ hath made it is a medicine to a Christian a passage and entrance to happiness it is a day of redemption and refreshing and so we need not be afraid of it Death as we by sin have made it is the Pale horse Saint John speaks of in the Revelation it is as a fearful arrest to the debtor it hath a sting in it and so it is feareful But that I may open this point more profitably we will inquire into these particulars First what death the Apostle speaks of here Secondly of what sin he speaks of Thirdly in what respect sin is called the sting of death And then we will make the use and application of all this First of what death doth the Apostle here speak of that sin is the sting of For answer hereunto there is a double death corporal and spiritual Corporal death is the privation of the soul when the soul is severed from the body Spiritual death when God and grace are severed from the soul The Text speaks of the corporal death Sin is not the sting of the spiritual death for the spiritual death is sin it self And hear I will not contend with any man if he be full of enquiry but I will distinguish two parts of spiritual death and I grant in one of them is this sting In spiritual death therefore there are two parts or two degrees The first is called the first death That I take to be the death of the soul in sin The second part is when soul and body are for ever closed up in Hell And in this part sin is the sting And remember this by the way Sin is not only a sting now but it will be a sting to men in Hell the sting the deadliness the exreamity of punishment that is in Hell it is received all from sin for the damned in Hell when they come there as they cease not to sin so the sting of sin ceaseth not to be with them and it may be delivered by conjecture I think Hell were no Hell if there were not the sting of sin there So then you see what death the Apostle speaks of principally of corporal death but it may be extended to the second part of spiritual death for their sin continueth and so the sting remaineth The next question is what sin the Apostle speaks of when he faith the sting of death is sin This is not a time to stir controversies therefore those ancient controversies and such as are lately stirred up about original sin how far it is the sting of death I let them go In a word to let you see what sin is the sting of death remember this Sin may be considered two wayes either as it is intire untouched uncrushed Let that sin be what it will be whether it be original only or whether it be any actual sin streaming from original whether it be a sin of ignorance or knowledg whether it be of pleasure or of profit A sin immediately that respecteth God or immadiately respecteth our neighbour whatsoever the sin be if it be not touched if it be not crushed if it scape uncontrouled if it be in its native power and keeps in his kingdome if it rule in a man that sin will certainly be the sting of
yet Abel was the first that died Adam committed the transgrestion the elder son was Cain the second Abel in the course of nature the eldest should have gone first but Abel righteous Abel that was the moyty the half of his comfort and the greater half though the younger Adam sinneth first and yet righteous Abel dieth first He gives the reason to be this because God would let us see in the Portal of death the table of the Resurrection he would shew us the linnaments of the Resurrection in the first man that dieth that righteous Abel is took away that we should be assured that he was but translated there was hope of the Resurrection confirmed even in his death But yet that is not all the reason I conceive that is more proper to this is righteous Abal dieth first to shew that even righteous and merciful men must not expect immunity from death and from suffering tribulation in this world it is the condition that befalleth Abel the righteous as well as Cain the Pharisee It belongeth to faithful Abraham as well as to Apostatizing Gemas to beloved Jacob as well as to rejected Esau to meek Moses as well as to cursing Shemei to Deborah the Prophetess as well as to usurping Athaliah to devout Josiah as well as to impious Ahab to tender-hearted David as well as to churlish Nabal to the humble Publican as well as to the vaunting Pharisee It is the law and rule that is set to all there is no exemption righteousness piety and works of mercy then do not exempt Eor if they could exempt how should piety have the reward when should godliness come to the full recompence It is death that makes way to the hope of reward And if it be so that righteousness excuseth not then neither honour nor strength nor beauty nor riches can excuse in the world for these are of far less prevalency with God then piety So the Argument standeth strongly If Job died that was a merciful man if Abel was taken away that was a righteous man look to other conditions then Casar that is the Princes of the world shall be cut off their state and pompe shall not keep them then Cressus that is the rich men of the world shall die their purse and plenty shall not excuse them then Socrates that is the prudent and learned men of the world their wisdom shall not prevent it then Helena that is the Minnions of the world the decking of their bodies and their beauty and painting shall be setched off they will expose them to death they shall not free them then Sampson that is the strong men of the world those that are healthy of able parts likely to out-live nature their strength shall not excuse them that no man should glory in any thing without Neither the strong man in his strength nor the wise man in his wisdom or the rich man in his wealth but if he glory in any thing to glory in the Lord. Though we must not boast our selves of piety yet as the A postle saith yea have compelled me If a man may boast of any thing it is of piety that is rejoyce in this If God have made a man a vessel of mercy and an instrument of doing any good but otherwise to boast of it even that shall be the stain and further disgrace of it for righteousness it self excuses not from death all are subject to the same law that is the first observation Mercifull men are taken away as well as others Secondly there is a difference in the manner though they be subject to death yet it is a subjection under another subjection Death is made subject to them they conquer Death So both stand together they die and not die because their death is but a translation but a removing There are two persons two men in every penitent and godly man there is somewhat of a righteous man and somewhat of a sinner somewhat of the flesh and somewhat of the spirit so according to these two both laws are kept the Law of commination that is kept thou shall die the death there is the reward of sin the law of promise that is kept thou shall live for ever there is the reward of righteousness Mortality giveth the reward to sin immortality to piety Though they die they are but taken away The word implies these two things First it implies that their death is but a temporary death Taking away is not a final translation it doth not implie a nullity Death though it cut the knot of nature yet not grace It is true there is the sharp Axe of death there is no knot so Gordian but it will cut it a funder It is a great knot that was first knit between the body and the soul it cutteth that asunder It is a sure knot which is the Conjugal knot between man and wife it cutteth that asunder There is a natural bond and union between Parents and children it cuts that asunder There is a civil union between friend and friend it cuts that knot asunder it takes one friend from another But there is the mystical union between the head and the members between Christ and the Church it cannot cut that knot asunder But look as Christs body in the Grave it was not deprived of the Hypostatical union so likewise the body of a Saint when it lies in the grave in corruption it is mellowing for immoratlity and eternity yea then it enjoyeth the benefit of the mistical Union there is somewhat of a member of Christ that lies in the grave that dust that the body of a Saint is resolved into it is holy Dust because that mistical Union is not cut asunder Death cutteth not that knot It perfecteth the misticall Union in respect of the soul and it is but an interruption of the manifestation of the union in respect of the body it is never severed As the Husbandman hath some corne in his ground and some in his Barn the Corn in his ground is of no less value and account then that in his house and Barn Nay it is of more for that that is in his Barn shall not multiply so many bushels he putteth up and so many he receiveth but that which is in the ground multipiles therefore it is in as great account So it is with God There are many bodies of the Saints walking on the earth and those that are laid in the grave that are sowen as the Apostle faith for immortality The bodies of the Saints in the grave are of no lesse account with God then those which walk up and down in the world and glorisie him with works of piety why the body is sown to immortality there is still somewhat of Christ That is the first thing it implies They are taken away it argues that their death is temporary Secondly it sheweth it is deliberate that their death is not sudden For there is a difference between these two to be snatched away
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
is called His because by it he bringeth life and immortality to light as I said before which in former times was hid as it were in the dark and not made known so publikely to the sons of men The Gentiles knew little or nothing of it The Jewes knew what they knew with much darkness and obscurity He that was almost the first Preacher of this Gospel in clear terms without any vail or darkness John Baptist who was as it were between both he did delives this doctrine not so darkly as the Prophets before him nor so clearly as after it was by our blessed Saviour and those that succeeded him Therefore I say it is the Saying of Christ by an excellency because he did in a manner first begin to teach and declare the same in the cleareness and sweetness thereof and he sent his Apostles abroad to make it plain and manifest to all the world that a man may run and read it And His likewise it is called because he is the Author of it for he is the worker of that salvation which it declareth to us Now his Doctrine of the Gospel hath two parts The first acquainting us with our misery The second with the Remedy For as the Bond and Acquittance specific the debt but to different purposes the one to 〈◊〉 the Debtor to the payment the other to absolve and acquit him even so the Law and the Gospel both declare the misery of man the one to tye it fast upon him the other to help him the better to lease it from him The Physitian intreateth of the sickness as well as the Cure but of the sickness alone for the cures sake The Judge passeth a sentence of condemnation and then largly rehearseth the crime and punishment due to the offender the Pardon likewise makes mention of the fault and the punishment but in a different manner and to a different end So the Gospel declareth mans misery and borroweth so much of the Law that may lay down our wretched estate in our selves and so draw in that which is the main and principal part of it the remedy of our souls And this part of the Gospel the Apostle St. Paul succinctly delivereth in a few words Rom. 3.23 All have sinned and are come short of the glory of God All have sinned and All have sinned in such a short and measure and degree that they are fallen short of the glory of God by which the Apostle I think meaneth life Eternal that Glory that had it not been for sin he would have bestowed upon the sons of men by vertue of the first Covenant he made with them The second part of the Gospel the words of Christ is concerning the Remedy whereby a man may be helped against this misery And for that purpose it sheweth us Who helpeth us And how he helps us And what is to be done by our selves that we may obtaine and enjoy this help The Person that helpeth us is the Son Manifest in the flesh the Son of God taking our nature upon him and cloathing himself in the similitude of sinful flesh the Eternal Son of the Father assuming I say the very nature of man into the unity of his Person so becoming God and Man in the same Person he is the sole Redeemer neither is there any other name under heaven by which we can be saved but by his alone Again it sheweth us by what means he saveth us as the Apostle speaks plain enough in the next verse to that I spake of before being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ To the intent that he might free us from the Curse of the Law and wrath of God and the danger of eternal Death he vouchsafed to be made sin for us to satisfie the justice of his Father by enduring the Curse of the Law and to accomplish the Righteousness of the Law by being made in our stead under the Law so he became a Propitiation for the sins of the sons of men as the Apostle saith in that place Thus Christ by his perfect satisfaction made to his Father and by that perfect Righteousness whereby he was subject to the Law for our sakes hath absolutely and fully delivered us from the power of sin and of Death and performed the work of our Redemption by vertue whereof by the merit and worth and value whereof we are delivered and saved and Redeemed from this Death and from all other evils that crosse our eternal happiness And thirdly the Gospel sheweth us by what means we may become partakers of this happiness and Redemption in Christ and telleth us of three things as it were Conditions of the Covenant of Grace of the New Covenant which is ratified by the bloud of Christ I say of three things the Conditions on our parts of that Covenant which if we do we shall certainly be saved by the Redemption in Christ. The first is Repentance The second is Beleeving The third is our New obedience All and each of these plainly exprest in the word of God As for Repentance it is that where with John the Baptist began his Preaching It is that that our Saviour commanded his Apostles to declare to the Jewes Repent for the kingdome of heaven is at hand It is that which himself preached at the first as Saint Mark witnesseth chap. 1.15 It is that which Saint Paul began with when he came to the Athenians Acts. 17. and now he admnisheth all men every where to repent It was the first of the foundations of the Doctrine of the beginning of Christ that was wont to be taught in the Ancient Church as withesseth the Authour to the Hebrewes chap. 6. not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and then he proceedeth to the rest This Repentance is that which the Lord requireth absolutely of the sons of men as a condition of the new Covenant the Covenant of Grace without which they cannot possibly be made partakers of the same And this Repentance hath four parts every one of which is so needful that without it the rest is little worth First lamenting for our sins and being sorry for our iniquities as David said of himself Psal 38. I will declare my iniquity and be sorry for my sins And so the Apostle Saint James expresseth it chap. 4.9 Afflict your selves mourn and weep let your laughter be turned into sorrow and your joy into tears Therefore Christ you know was sent to Preach glad tydings to the Prisoners and Captives and the opening of the prison to the prisoners and to bring the oyle of gladness to those that mourned in Sion A man must first be a Mourner in Sion one that simiteth on his thigh and saith with Jeremy Woe to me because I have sinned Secondly to this Sorrow must be joyned acknowledgement and confession of sin to Almighty God
there shall be a Judgement For let a man commit secret sins that none knoweth but God and he yet many times he feeleth hellish horrour which is a manifest proose that conscience seeth and apprehendeth God as the supream Judge that will call all men to an account for their sins Thus you hear the reasons why there must be a Judgement The manner of this Judgment consisteth in these particulars First it shall be the last Judgment after which there shall be no other which declareth the terribleness of it In this life while there is life there is hope Let the wicked forsake his wayes and turn to the Lord he will be gracious to him But then the sentence shall not be reverst then there can be no appeal from that Judg and judgment Again it shall be a General Judgment which is the second thing God judgeth in this world and that both in life and in death He judgeth in life by chastising his children for their faults and avenging himself upon his enemies He judgeth every man at death But then there shall be a General Judgment of all 2. Cor. 10. We must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ In the third Place It shall be a manifest Judgment Sometime the Lord Judgeth men secretly by raising up in them fears and horrours in their hearts causing his curse in theâ—… as water in their bowels and oyl in their bones But then God shall open his wrath against the children of wrath before a world of men and no eye shall pitty them Fourthly it shall be a sudden Judgment Even as the flood came upon the old World when they were sporting themselves and deriding Noah that preached to them of the flood so shall the fire come upon the World that shall pass before the face of Christ when he shall judg the quick and the dead As asnare saith Christ shall it come upon all that dwell upon the earth When the Fowler layeth a snare to take a Bird he giveth not warning to the Bird but surprizeth it suddenly so will Christ Jesus surprize the sons of men suddenly beyond their expectation The Evangelist faith he shall come as a theef in the night A theef knocks not he giveth not warning so Christ Jesus beyond the thoughts of men will be on them suddenly before they are aware by his dreadful Judgement Fifthly it shall be a most righteous Judgment Then God as the Apostle saith Rom. 2. will render to every man according to his deeds He will not regard the face of any He will not be bribed by wealth or reward He will not heare the testimony of the world for the wicked or against the godly but deal impartially and give to every one according to his doings Lastly It shall be an Eternal Judgment So saith the Apostle Heb. 6.2 The meaning is not that God shall sit for ever sifting matters and surveying causes but it is so called from the effect for the conclusion shall be this the Eternal weale and happiness of the godly and the eternal wo and misery of the wicked that shall be plunged by the justice of God into the severest torments The Use of this Doctrine First it serveth as a preservative against temptation for so Solomon hath made it in the Text a preservative and bridle to young men God will bring thee to judgment saith he and let me make it so to you When Sathan tempteth you to sin remember God will call you to Judgement even for those faults for which you may possibly escape the penalty of men yet not withstanding is is impossible for you to avoid the righteous Judgment of God If Sathan would have thee do any thing that the word of God and thy own conscience sheweth thee to be hateful and wicked in the sight of God say to him No no God will bring me to Judgment This is the pollicy of our Adversary when he induceth us to evil he makes sin sweet and pleasant to us but it should be our wisdome to make sin bitter and loathsome even in this meditation God will bring us to Judgment for the same The Apostle saith Resist the divel and he will fly from you But how must we resist him not by arguments of our own making but by arguments of the word of God and amongst other weapons remember to list up this when Sathan would have thee sin say No no God will bring me to Judgment When the Divel solicited Eve and circumvented her she spake in the Serpent to Sathan concerning the Judgment of God We may eat saith she of all the trees of the Garden but not of the tree in the middest of the Garden least we die here she brought an argnment from the judgment of God but here was her weakness she presently let it fall It should be otherwise with us when Sathan tempts us let us say we shall die and be condemned for sin say so and continue in it If any revolt from the truth he professeth he shall die in his sin If any man disquiet the people of God by vexation or oppression he shall die in his sin If any man be a drunkerd or Epicure he shall die in his sin If any man be a whoremonger or adulterer he shall die in his sin If any man be a swearer God hath vowed he will not hold him guiltless he shall die in his sin If any man be an ignorant person disobeying godliness and obeying unrighteousness he shall die in his sin If any man continue in gross wickedness in any wickedness without repentance he shall die in his sin Oh remember this Judgement of God this death that God will inslict on sinners for sin For the wages of sin is death and arm your selves with this when Satan tempteth you if you forget Death and Judgement you are naked and unarmed your spiritual Adversary may hit you on the bare and spoil you as he will The second use is for instruction Will God bring us to Judgment for our sins Oh then let us hast to repentance Beloved this is one of the last things that God will do and this is the greatest thing that Ministers can say God will judge you for your sins The Apostle Saint Paul he moveth the Atheniaus Acts 17.31 to repentance upon this very ground because God hath appointed a day in which he will Judge the world in righteousness And surely if this will not awaken us nothing will nothing can What do we mean beloved to suffer our sins to stand upon the score Where is our wisedome Our grace Are we able to stand before God when he is angry with us Why do we not take off our sins by godly sorrow If a Judge should say to a Malefactour except thou mourn for thy offence thou shalt die and be execnted Doe we not think he would mourn to save his life Behold God faith to you except you mourn for your
before Christ so in judgment If not repent of thy guilt in this kind that thy sins may be done away when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of Christ And in the mean time set thy self in a contrary course to that thou hast been do as one that would have Death find thee in a good course for as death leaves thee judgment shall find thee If Death find the in a state of repentance in a course of reformation of thy evil wayes judgment shall find thee so too Let Death therefore find thee as a man interest in Christ as a man humbling thy soul abhoring thy self for thy former sins let Death find thee as a man reforming all those evils that are condemned in the Word and in thy conscience Now when I say let Death find the so I mean set about it presently for how soon Death may set upon thee thou knowest not whether to night or no and if this be not now done if thou set not about it now it may be too late thou shalt have no more time therefore do that now and go on constantly after knowing that Death may find thee every moment Therefore it is that God keeps from us upon purpose as it were the certain knowledge of the time of Death that we may be alwayes prepared for Death SINNES STIPEND AND GODS MUNIFICENCE SERMON XXIX ROM 6.23 For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. THe latter part of this Chapter from the 12 Verse to the end is spent in a grave and powerful dehortation of the faithful from security in sin against which the Apostle useth sundry arguments That which he presseth most is drawn from the several ends to which sin and righteousness doth lead men The end of sin is death verse 21. therefore that is not to be served The end of righteonsness is life everlasting verse 22. therefore that is to be imbraced Because there is now difference in the manner of the proceeding of these two ends Death coming from sin as from the meritorious cause but life from Righteousness another manner of way therefore the Apostle adds this Epilogue and Conclusion in the last Verse plainly shewing and more clearly expressing the manner of them both For the wages saith he of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In which words we have a description of a twofold service Of sin in the former clause And of God or righteousness in the latter And how both these are rewarded The one with death it payes us well And the other with life which is bestowed by the free gift of God through Christ These are the two parts the two general points that we are to consider First the wages of sin is death saith the Apostle Of sin That is of the depravation and corruption of our nature and so consequently of every sin that being not only it self sin but the matter and mother of all sin when sin hath conceived it bringeth forth death when sin is put forth whereby he signifieth the general depravation and corruption of our nature from whence all sin flowes So it is here The wages The word in the original signifieth properly victuals because victuals was that that the Roman Emperours gave their souldiers as wages in recompence of their service but thence the word extends to signifie any other wages or Salary whatsoever The wages of sin is death by death here is signified and meant both temporal and eternal death especially eternal death for it is opposed to eternal life in the next clause of the sentence therefore that is that that is principally meant The wages of sin is death that is eternal death This for the exposition of the terms The point to be observed from this first part of the Text is this that Death is due to sin as wages to one that earns it To such a one wages is due in strict justice if a man have a hired servant he may bestow a free gift on him if he will if he will not he may choose but his stipend or his wages he must pay him unless he will be unjust for it is the price of his work and so is due to him that he cannot without injustice with-hold it After such a manner is death due to sin the very demerit of the work of sin requires it as being eraned God is as just in inflicting death upon sinners for their sins as any man is in paying his labourer or hired servant their wages for this is the general plain scope of the Apostles words here So in the beginning God appointed Gen. 2.17 where he told Adam concerning the forbidden fruit in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shallt die the death As if he should have said when thou sinnest death must be thy wages The same is repeated Ezck. 18.20 where it is said the soul that sinneth shall die expressing the wages of sin it is death that is the recompence of sin if sin have his due then death must follow So the Apostle had shewed before in this Epistle Rom. 5.12 that by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin so death went over all men for as much as all men had sinned All had sinned therefore all are payed with death And Saint James shews the consequence and connexion between these two the work and the wages he tels us Jam. 1.15 that when sin hath conceived it bringeth forth death All these places are evidences that death by Gods ordinance by his appointment is the due of sin as due to it even as wages is to a hired servant or one that hath earned it What death is it that is due to sin Both temporal and eternal death I say both deaths concerning both which the truth is to be cleared from some doubts It was the Pelagians errour to think that man should have died a natural death though he had never sinned so they thought that the natural temporal bodily death was not the wages of sin Contrary to the Apostle in the place I speak of Rom. 5. where he makes that death that goes over all men which must needs be natural death to enter by sin sin brought in death no sin no death at all But it may be objected when God told Adam in the day that he eat the forbidden fruit he should die the death he meant not temporal death there as the event shewes for such a death was not inflicted upon Adam in the day that he sinned for after he sinned he lived still in the world naturally he continued living many years after I answer not withstanding all this Adam may be said to die a natural death as soon as he sinned because by the guilt of his sin he then presently became subject to it and God straight-way denounced upon him the sentence of death therefore it may
it is death What a world of people run blindly and desperately on they turn to the race of sin as the horse to the battel without fear as if the Psalmists Tremble and sin not were rather sin and tremble not Whereas we have great cause every one to tremble at the least motion of sin in our selves to which so dreadful and woful wages is due Lastly for this point so many of us as have repented and have already left the service of sin we must hence learn as to be humbled in our selves considering what danger and misery we have escaped so to be more thankful to Christ that hath freed us from so wretched wages due to our sins and that by taking the whole punishment upon himself For we must know beloved that the best of us by nature are children of wrath as well as others the stipend that we have earned is eternal death and surely it hath been payed to us nothing could have kept it from us but only the satisfaction of Christ coming between Gods justice and us Think we then if we can what misery it is that we have escaped as many of us I mean as be in the state of grace we have escaped death the hurt of temporal death we have escaped eternal death What is that a separation from the blessed presence and glory of God destruction of body and soul for ever unutterable torments company with the divel and his angels and the rout of reprobates darkness blacker and thicker then that of Egypt Weeping and wayling and gnashing of teeth in the infernal lake that worm that never dies and the fire that never goeth out This is the wages of all sin and that it is not rendred to all sin and to all sinners the cause is only this that the payment hath been already exacted of Christ in the behalf of all true beleevers therefore in their own persons they are discharged how infinitely are we bound in thankfulness to him and how careful should we be to walk worthy of it resolving never to return to the service of sin again but to make it our whole study that we may please and honour such a Redeemer that hath redeemed us from such misery as this that we may please him for we had deserved eternal death as well as others and he hath not only freed us from that that we had most worthily deserved but most freely also bestowed that upon us that we could never deserve for so it followes in the next point The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is the second thing to be considered the reward of the service of God You have heard of the reward the wages of sin Now the reward of the service of God is eternal life it is called life There is a twofold life belongs to men The one is natural and is common to all good and bad in this world The other spiritual proper to the faithful begun by the union of God and the soul and maintained by the bond of the spirit and this life hath three degrees The first is in this life unto death and it begins when we begin to beleeve and repent and come to a saving knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ as it is said This is eternal life to know thee to be the very God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ Joh. 17.3 The second degree is from our death to our resurrection for in that time our souls being freed from our bodies are withal free from all sin original and actuall Thirdly after the Resurrection when body and soul shall be reunited we shall have immediate communion and fellowship with God and so enjoy a more perfect and blessed life then ever 〈◊〉 could here And this spiritual life with all the three degrees of it is the life here spoken of especially the last degree the perfection of it in heaven It is called eternal life because it shall never end For a thing is said to be eternal three wayes First which hath neither beginning nor end so God alone is eternal and none but he Secondly which hath no beginning and yet shall have an end so Gods decree is eternal for it never had a beginning yet when all things decreed are fulfilled it shall have an end Thirdly which hath a beginning but never shall have end and so the life of Gods Saints had a beginning as all created things have but it shall never have an end and this eternal life it is called here The gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Because we cannot deserve it but it is given and bestowed on us freely for Christ So then the point of observation from the latter part of the words is this that Our salvation it is the free gift of God given us only for the merits of Christ For observe I beseech you the Apostles words when he had said The wages of sin is death he doth not add and say but the wages of righteousness is eternal life but he calls that the gift of God To make us understand saith Damascene that God brings us to eternal life meerly for his own mercy not for our merits or else surely the Apostle would have made the latter part of the sentence answerable to the former But here perhaps some may ask why eternal life should not be the wages of righteousness as well as death the wages of sin I answer because there is not the same reason between sin and righteousness For first sin is our own it merits it but righteousness is none of our own it is the holy Ghosts and it is due to God Then again sin is perfectly evil and so it deserves death but our righteousness inherent is not perfectly good it is imperfect in this life and nothing that is imperfectly good can merit as wages eternal life therefore the Apostle makes such a manifest difference between them he calls death the wages of sin but eternal life the gift of God it is the free gift of God through Christ Indeed eternal life sometimes many times in Scripture is called a reward But there is a reward of mercy as well as of justice Nay God is said sometimes to reward his children in justice How is that Though the reward come originally from mercy yet accidentally it comes to be justice thus because God hath tyed himself by promise to reward now promise is debt from a just man Thus the Lord may be accounted a debtor How saith Saint Austin as a promiser if he had not promised eternal life otherwise he ows us nothing at all much less eternal life which is so great a thing Yet it may be doubted how eternal life is the free gift of God seeing it is given for the merits of Christ as it is here exprest the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord that is for the merits of Christ now a
man that gives a thing upon merit he gives it not freely I answer it is free in respect of us whatsoever Christ hath done we did not merit it If it be replyed Christs merits are made ours and we merit in him and so it cannot be free I answer this reason were of force if we our selves could procure the merits of Christ for us but that we could not do but that also was of free gift Ioh. 3. God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that he that beleeves in him should not perish he gave him freely of free gift so that though eternal life be due to us by the merits of Christ yet it is the free gift of God I will stand no longer in proving the truth of the Doctrine I come to the application and use to conclude with the time First it serves to confute our adversaries of the Church of Rome in the point of merit They look for heaven and eternal life as wages we see the Apostle teacheth us otherwise that eternal life is not given in that manner but another manner of way It is not given as wages it is the free gift of God And in Rom. 8. he saith that the sufferings of this life is not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed all our sufferings all our works they are not worthy of the glory of God we connot properly merit them This was the constant Doctrine of the primitive Church that a good life when we are justified and an eternal life when we are glorified they all grant that all that is good in us is the gift of God that eternal life is not a retribution to our works but the free gift of God When God crowns our merits he crowns nothing else but his own free gift these and many other sentences we find among the ancient Fathers plainly convincing our adversaries that in this point they swerve not only from Scripture but from all sound antiquity Secondly then to come to our selves this should humble us in respect of our own deservings do all the good thou canst take heed it do not puff thee up think not to merit heaven alas thou canst not do it for what is it to the Almighty as it is said in Job that thou art righteous Thy well doing extends not to him thou canst do him no good therefore thou canst look for nothing at his hands since thou canst do him no good but all that thou dost in his service it is not for his but for thy good yet he commands thee and thou art bound to do it but all thou canst do is no more then thou art bound to do Therefore when thou hast done all that thou canst acknowledge thy self to bean unprofitable servant and thou hast done no more then thy duty If thou hast many good works yet thou hast more sin and the least sin of thine in the rigour of justice will deprive thee of thy interest in God Therefore thy appeal must be to the throne of grace and thy only plea must be that of the Publican every one of us God be merciful to me a sinner when we have done all we can it must be mercy and not any merit of ours that must bring us to heaven Thirdly here is comfort for the children of God in that this inestimable treasure of eternal life is not committed to our keeping but God hath it in his keeping It is his gist it is not committed to the rotten box of our merits then we could have no certainty of it the devil would easily pick the Lock yea without picking he would shake in pieces the crazy joynts of the best work we do he would steal it from us and take it away and deprive us of this excellent benefit but the Lord hath dealt better for us he hath kept it in his own hands he hath laid it up in the Cabinet of his own mercy and love that never fails for with everlasting mercy he hath compassion on us Isa 54. he loves us with an everlasting love It is his mercy that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not and whom he loves he loves to the end It is laid up in the mercy of God he will have it his gift lest we should keep it and it should be lost he hath reserved it in his own hands Therefore in temptations when they drive us to doubt of our attaining of eternal life let us cast our eye upon the keeper of it it is the Lord he is wary to discern and faithful to bestow it therefore let us comfort our selves and say every one of us as Saint Paul 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have trusted and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day Lastly seeing eternal life is the free gift of God it must make us thankful to him for it which we should never do if we deserved it doth a master thank his servant for doing his duty So if we did think heaven were our due we should never be thankful for it Pride is a great enemy to thankfulness therefore the way is to humble our selves and to consider that we deserve no good thing at Gods hands then we will take this great benefit at Gods hands most thankfully Especially when we consider it is all that God requires of us as he saith Psal 50. Call upon me in the day of trouble I will hear thee and deliver thee and what shalt thou do Thou shalt glorifie me Glorifying God and being thankful to him is all the tribute we are to pay to this our royal Lord and shall we deny him this It is a small benefit that is not worth thanks We set eternal life at too low a rate if we forget to be thankful There was never a precious Jewel afforded so cheap as eternal life for our thankfulness If we did know what it were to want it we would give ten thousand worlds rather then be without it Therefore as Naamans servants said to him concerning his washing in Jordan if the Prophet had commanded thee a greater thing wouldest thou not have done it So if God had commanded us a great matter for eternal life we should have done it how much more when he saith take it and be thankful be but thankful Thus I have described to you this twofold service the wages of sin that is death temporal eternal The service of righteousness the wages and reward of that eternal life which is not wages but the gift of God So that I may now say to you as Moses did to Israel Deut. 30.19 Behold I have set before you life and death cursing and blessing Therefore choose not cursing chuse not sin nor the wages thereof it is death but choose life that you and your seed may live If we follow sin the wages will be death if we apply our selves to righteousness in the
many things there are which we shall never see Every man cannot see that which one man doth but there is one thing which every man shall see he must see death There are many enemies from whom we can deliver our selves and many more from whom we may be delivered but yet there is one enemy from which we cannot desend our selves nor be defended by others he will be too strong for every man let him strive repine order his dyet intreat do what he will or can No faith the Psalmist none shall deliver his soul from the hand of the grave And he puts a Selah a note of observation at the end of the verse That all the sons of men are subject to this change by death will appear to you by these familiar Arguments The First may be taken from the quality of our lives which is sweetly set out in the Scripture under the terms of changeable things all which point out unto us the certainty of death Sometime our life is compared to a shew Psal 39.6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew In a shew you know there is some devise or other opened carryed a-while about but at length it is shut up so it is with our lives Sometime again it is compared to a shade or a shadow Job 8.9 Our dayes upon earth are a shadow a shadow is but an imitation of a substance a kind of nimble picture which is still going and coming and will set at last perhaps it is suddenly ecclipsed so is our life Sometimes again it is compared to a vapour James 4.14 What is your life it is even a vapour that vanisheth away like a poor cloud sometimes looking white sometimes black sometimes quiet and settled sometimes again tossed up and down with every wind and at last consumed and brought to nothing so it is with our lives Sometimes also compared to a Tale Psal 90.9 We spend our years as a tale hat is told a meer discourse of this thing and that thing and indeed but a very parenthesis of a more tedious discourse and many times it is broken off in the very telling so it is with our lives Sometime again it is as grass as in Isa 46. The voyce said cry aloud what shall I cry all flesh is grass and the goodliness thereof as the flower of the grass And verse 7. The grass withereth and the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it And Job in this chapter calleth it a Flower He cometh forth faith he like a flower and is cut down A flower is a sweet thing but of an earthly breed sed with showers at its best when it is in all its glory it is but to day and to morrow it withereth and is fit for nothing but the Oven so it is with our lives Many expressions of the like nature might be added the Scripture is plentiful in these comparisons comparing our life to the Spiders web to a Weavers shuttle to the breath of a candle to a pilgrimage to a journey to the dayes of an hireling c. all of them things of a changeable and variable nature The second argument may be taken from the quality of our Natures and there in there are two things considerable both which imply a certainty of death First our composition and matter whereof we are made we are reared out of a mouldering and wasting principle our bodies are therefore stiled an earthly house 2 Cor. 5.1 A house though of Iron will in time be cankered but a house of earth as it is most impotent against assaults so it is of its own nature most apt and subject to dissolution And in this respect also they are termed Tabernacles Now a Tabernacle you know is a thing of no perpetuity made only to be soon set up and that in a mans passage and then as soon taken down again Secondly beside this there is in our nature sin and corruption and this is it that doth put us to the sword and cause this deadly change this tears our lives with a continual consumption The tree breeds the worm which will destroy the life of the tree we in Adam gave leave to sin and now it is that sin gives leave to death In the day that thou shalt eat there of thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 and Rom. 5.12 By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed over all men in that all have sinned The shadow doth not so neerly attend the body of man as Death doth the body of sin And Rom. 6.23 the very wages of sin is death God should do that man wrong that hath hired out his soul all his dayes to sin if he did not at night pay him with the wages of death The third Argument may be drawn from the certainty of the Resurrection we all believe the resurrection of our bodies and therefore we must needs conclude a change of our bodyes for what is the Resurrection but life from death for the dead to hear the voyce of Christ and live What is it but a breathing in of the soul again the lighting of the candle again the body could never be raised if it were not first changed Thou fool faith Saint Paul 1 Cor. 15. that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die The fourth Argument is from the infalibility of Gods decree it is appointed unto men once to die and after death to come to Judgment Heb. 9.27 Thou maiest sooner expect that the course of the heavens shall be altered and the Center of the earth be dislocated then that the purpose of God concerning mans mortality should be reversed any that may be for heaven and earth shall pass away but this shall never be not one jot of the word of God shall fall to the ground God hath purposed it and none shall dissanul it nay he hath established his purpose with a word of confirmation Gen. 2. in the day thou eatest therefore thou shalt surely die As if he should have said Do not deceive thy self but build upon it I have spoken it and will not alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth as sure as thou livest if thou eatest thou shalt die Thus you see the first assertion cleared unto you I will address my self now to the second of which brieffy too and then make Application of them both together As there is a certainty of our change so we should alway wait till it doth come There are two things which I will here inquire of for the fuller illustration of this point First what this continual waiting may import Secondly why there should be such a constant waiting for the day of our mortal change First this continual waiting mainly imports two things one a certain axpectation of death for waiting is an act of Hope expecting something If we do hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it saith the
Apostle Rom. 8.15 a man is then said to wait for death when he is looking for it at every turn as a Steward waits for his Master when he continually expects his return when upon every voyce he hears or upon every knock at the door he saith oh my Master is come this is he that knocks So a man is said to wait for death when in every action of his life in every motion of his estate in every passage of his courses saith well I must die when though his bones are full of marrow yet I must die when though riches come in like a flood yet I must die when changes appear upon himself or others yet I must die I have no abiding here I am but a sojourner and a stranger as all my fathers were I must not enjoy my Wife for ever Children for ever Friends for ever Lands for ever these comforts for ever my life for ever it is but a lease which may soon expire I am but a steward and I must be called to an account such a one is gone before and I must follow after the writ of Habeas Corpus hath seized on him and for ought I know the next may be for me so when death comes I am ready to answer it as Abraham did his Son Isaac here I am it comes not upon me as a thief in the night when I am asleep and think not of him but as Jonathans arrow to David who stayed in the field and expected when it should be shot and then he rose up and embraced him Yee brethren faith Paul in 1 Thes 5.4 are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a theif ye are all the children of the light therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober This is the first thing that waiting imports Another thing it imports is a serious preparation for the day of our change for it is not a naked expectation of a change arising from the certainty of death but it is also a religious preparation improving the intrim of time for the best advantage for a mans soul before the day of change doth come which is here implyed in waiting Solomon calls it a remembring Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth whiles the evil dayes come not and the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them what is this remembring of the Creator but a care to know him a fear to offend him a study to obey him and when is that to be done Now now remember there must be a present acting of this Moses calls it a numbring of our dayes Psal 90.12 and more then that such a numbring as is joyned with an applying of our hearts to wisedome and the reason is because wisedome it directs to the choyce of such particular actions and works as tend to happiness so should a man after his serious consideration of death apply himself to such wayes and such actions by which he may comfortably close up his life with death it is a great point of wisdome to sute actions with their ends to sit and square the wood before we build the house to learn and discipline a troop before they go to battel to rig and trim and furnish the ship before we launch to sea this is preparation indeed Now this preparation for death consists in two things First in an undoing of that which unsits us to die Brethren he who is not fit to live he is not yet fit to die and that which ever masters the life will be of greatest force in death The Father spake it boldly on good grounds I am not ashamed to live nor afraid to die now that which unfits a man to die is sin it makes him find a bitter enemy of death Oh when this Kng of terrours shall present himself by thy bed side with his arrows in his hands I mean thy sins he will wound thee with infinite amazement and horrour the sting of death is sin faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. Thou dost not prepare thy self for death if thou dost not undo thy sins which thou hast done in thy life the which consists First in a narrow search of thy sinfulness both of nature and practice Secondly in a secret humbling of thy soul for them Thirdly in an unfeigned repentance and forsaking of them Fourthly in a constant imploring and obtaining of mercy for them in the blood of Christ If thy soul doth give sin its discharge now death shall give thy soul a discharge hereafter Secondly in the qualifying our persons for the conquest of death there are three things by which we shall be able chearfully to meet and assuredly to conquer death First by having interest in the Lord Jesus the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God who hath given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ If thou hast gotten Christ into thy arms by faith thou carriest thy peace strength and advantage both through life and death For we are â—…ove then conquerors through him that loved us saith the Apostle Rom. 8.37 And to me to live is Christ and to die is gain faith the same Apostle Phil. 11 21. If thou hast a good Christ thou maist be consident of a good death Secondly renewedness of our nature What Saint John spake of he Martyes as some conjecture Blessed and happy is he that hath part in the first 〈◊〉 on such the second death hath no power that say I of a person renewed by the sanctifying quality of Gods Spirit I happy is he he shall have power even over the first death The Spirit and the Bride saith come if a man hath gotten the heavenly Spirit which beautifies the soul with the ornaments of Grace as the Bride is with her ornaments he is a fitted person he may well say to Death come and to Christ come Lord Jesus come quickly Thirdly uprightness of conversation Righteousness delivers form death saith Solomon and the righteous hath hope in his death if a mans work be Christs service if he have a heart enclined to keep a good conscience in all things to keep himself exact to the rule and to walk with God Blessed is that servant which his Master when be cometh shall find so doing that man that hath looked to Gods Word to guide his life may confidently look up to Gods mercy to comfort him in death Remember O Lord saith Hezekiah Isa 39. how I have walked before thee intruâ—…h and with a perfect bea rt Now all this doth the waiting for our change import in the Text to wit a serious expectation of it first by undoing those sins of ours which else for eyer will undo us and by interesting our persons into Christ from whom we must likewise receive the Spirit to change our hearts and uprightness to form a new our conversation But then you will say
his Aph. Secondly the rule of the Region of darkness or prince of Hell so Hesiod taketh it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hes op dies Thirdly the state and condition of the dead or death it self so Homer taketh it Il. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Language of Canaan it is either taken for the place of torment of the damned And in hell he lift his eyes being in torments and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosome Secondly for the Grave and that most frequently in the Seventy Interpreters as namely I will go down into Hades to my son that is the Grave and let not his hoary head go down into Hades that is the grave in peace and in death there is no remembrance of thee and who will give thee thanks in Hades that is the Grave and what man is he that liveth and shall not see death and shall he deliver his soul from the hands of Hades that is the Grave and Hades that is the Grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee and so it must be here taken For though Hell in regard of the Elect be conquered yet it eternally possesseth the reprobate men and Devils neither shall it be destroyed at the day of judgment or emptied but inlarged rather and replenished with the bodies of all the damned whose fouls are there already But Hades that is the Grave shall lose all her captives and prisoners for the earth and sea shall cast up all their dead We have the parties to be examined let us now hear the Articles upon which they are to be examined First Death is to answer to this Interrogatory where is thy sting these words may be understood two manner of wayes 1 Actively 2 Passively 1 Passively where is thy sting that is the sting thrust out by Death in which sence the sting of Death is no other then the present sence of the desert of death and guilt of conscience and a dreadful expectation of damnation and hell to ensue upon it take away this sting from the death of the body that it is a punishment for sin and an earnest as it were of eternal death and it can hurt no man This sting Christ hath plucked out of the death of all his Saints and of a curse made it a blessing of a torment an ease of a punishment of sin a remedy against all sin of a short and fearful cut to eternal death a fair and safe draw-bridge to eternal life 2 Actively where is thy sting that is the sting which causeth and bringeth Death In this sence the sting of death is sin non quem mors fecit sed quo mors facta est peccato enim morimur non morte peccamus as Saint Austin most accutely and eloquently Sin is said to be the sting of Death as a cup of poison is said to be a potion of death that is a potion bringing death for we die by sin we sin not by death sin is not the off-spring of death but death the off-spring of sin or as the Apostle termeth it the wages of sin And it is just with God to pay the sinner this wages by rendring death to sin and punishing sin with death because sin severeth the soul from God and not only grieveth and despightfully entreateth but without repentance in the end thrusteth the spirit out of doors And what more agreeable to Divine justice then that the soul which willingly severeth her self from God should be unwillingly severed from the body and that the spirit should be expelled of his residence in the flesh which expelleth Gods grace and excludeth his Spirit from a residence in the soul This sting of death is like the Adders two forked or double for it is either original or actual sin original sin is the sting of death in the day thon eatest of the Tree of knowledge thou shalt surely die and as by one man sin came into the World and death by sin and so death passeth upon all men for that all had sinned Secondly actual sin is the sting of death the soul that sinneth it shall die the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father nor the father the iniquity of the son the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him Howbeit if we speak properly original sin as it is a proness to all sin so it maketh us rather obnoxious to death then dead men but actual sin without repentance slayes out-right Adam did not die the day he eat the fruit but that day became mortalis or morti obnoxius guilty of death or liable to it original sin alone maketh us mortes but actual mortuos dead men The Devil like to a Hornet sometimes pricks us onely but leaveth not his sting in us sometime he leaveth his sting in us and that 's far the more dangerous He is pricked only with this sting who sinneth suddenly and presently repenteth but he who the Devil bringeth to a habit or custome in sin in him he leaveth his sting Now we know what the sting is let us enquire where it is The answer is if we speak of the reprobate men or Devils it remaineth in their consciences if we speak of the Elect it is plucked out of their souls and it was put in our Saviours body and there deaded and lost for he that knew no sin was made sin for us to wit by imputing our sin to him and inflicting the punishment thereof upon him That we might be made the righteousness of God in him for the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes were we healed who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree Athanasius representeth the manner of it by the similitude of a Wasp losing her sting in a Rock Vespa acculeo fodiens petram c. as an angry Wasp thrusteth her sting into a rock cannot pierce or enter far into it but either breaketh her sting or loseth it all so Death assaulting the Lord of life and striving with all her might to sting him hurt not him but disarmed her self of her sting for ever The first interrogatory is answered we know where Deaths sting is let us now consider of the second interrogatory concerning the victory of the Grave O grave where is thy victory If the Grave as she openeth her mouth wide so she could speak she would answer My victories are to be seen in Macpelah Golgotha in all the gulphs of the Sea and Caves and pits of the Earth where the dead have been bestowed since the beginning of the world My victory is in the fire in the water in the earth in all Churnels and Caemitaties or dormitories in the bellies of fish in the maws of beasts in holy shrines Tombs and sepulchers wheresoever corpses have been put and are yet reserved Of all that ever Death arrested and they by order of divine Justice have been
fear is Kinds off fear 1 Natural 2 Carnal fear 3 Servile fear Act 2. 4 Filial fear Isa 8 12. Reas We are delivered from our enemies either Luke 1.47 1 By reconciliation 2 By conquest Vse 1. The power of grace must reflect on a mans self Vse 2. Possible to live without fear Psalm 23 Vse 3. Reproof for inordinate fear 1 We fear too soon 2 Too much 1 It brings a great deal of ill Isa 66.4 2 It unfits the heart to bear evils It hurts the body It doth hurt to the soul 1 Natural 2 Spiritually Fear the ground of most sins Vse 4. To sence our hearts against it No cause of fear 1 Of spiritual enemies 2 Of worldly evils Ier. 46.28 Object Answ Object Answ Quest Answ How to get the conquest of fear 1 Labour for the spirit 2 Keep covenant with God 3 Strengthen faith 4 To place our love aright August Simile Doctr. Both words and actions shall be called to account Matth. 5.22 Iude 13.14 Reas 1. The Law binds men in speeches Reas 2. Words injure God and man Levit. 24.11 Act. 8. Vse To condemn those that make light account of words Pal. 39. Psal 131. Doctr. God will proceed in judgement according to his Law Ioh. 12.48 Object Answ All men judged by the Law The Law not alike expressed to all Rom. 2 14. Reas 1. The Law is Gods scepter that he ruls by Reas 2. Because the law is a rule Vse 1. Reproof of those that neglect the law Quest Answ To despise Gods commandement what Matth. 25.41 Vse 2. Admonition to observe the Law 1. For direction 2. For tryal Doctr. The consideration of the day of Judgment should move to holiness 1 It hath drawn some to obedience Eccles 11.9 1 To forsake the world Phil. 3.7 2 Disposing the heart to obedience Eccles 12.10 Heb. 12. Rev. 14â—… 2 It quickens to actions of obedience 1 Of particular calling 2 General calling 3 It confirms in obedience Vse Shewing the cause of the worlds prophaness and the Saints dejectedness 2 Pet. 3. Vse 2. To strengthen faith of the judgment Jerome Parts of the Text. Meaning of the words Doctr. Death due to sin as wages Quest Answ What death due to sin 1. Temporal Object Answ How Adam died a natural death as soon as he sinned Object Answ How Christians freed from temporal death Christians undergo temporal death why Simile 2 Eternal death Answ Sin infinite three wayes 1 In respect of the object 2 The subject 3 The sinners desire Vse 1. Original lust a sin Basile Vse 2. Confuration no sin in it self venial 1 Joh 3.5 Sins mortal and venial how Vse 3. In spectacles of death to see the heinousness of sin Vse 4. To deterre us from sin Similles Joh. 2. 1 Sam. 14. Vse 5. To be humble and thankful Life twofold 1 Natural 2 Spiritual 1 In this life Job 17.5.2 In deathy 3 Afterth e Resurrection A thing eternal three wayes Doct. Salvation the feee gift of God Quest Answ Austin Quest Answ Joh. 3. Vse 1. Confutation of merit Rom. 8. Vse 2. To humble us Vse 3. Comfort Vse 4. Thankfulness Isa 45 24. The Analysis of the Chaper Propos 1. God is pleased to set himself to procure the profit of his people Proved by instances 1 In his instituting Ordinances in the Church 1 The preaching of the Word Act. 26.18 2 Tim. 3.16 2 The Sacrament of the Supper 3 Prayer Unprofitable living under the ordinances a taking the name of God in vain 4 Sending of Christ into the world in our nature 2 In his command and injunction Deut 10 13. Matth. 5.29 3. In his several administrations 1 Permitting sin to remain 2. To prevail 3. Withdrawing his presence 4. Suspending his answer to their prayers 5. Denying their particular suites 6. Deprives them of their dearest blessings James 5.11 Use of exhortation Vse 2. Of instruction Propos 2. Gods aim in afflicting his children is their profit Gen 41.52 Afflictions they are profitable The blessed fruit of afflictions 2 Chron. 33.12 Deut. 8.15 Isa 27.9 Hab. 1.12 The Saints of God have walted for the profit of afflictions 2 Sam. 16.12 2 Sam. 16.12 Isa 37.4 Vse 1. For reproof Gods children prone to misconster the intent of God in their afflictions 1 Sam. 27.1 Esa 6.5 Lam. 3.16.18 Isa 49.14 Vse 2. For comfort Isa 10.57 Simile Isay 12.12 Vse 3. Exhortation to a patient expectation of the fruit of affliction Object Answ Iob 17.4 The sum of the words Division Explication Simile Doct. 1. Ground 1 From God Psal 84. Why God withdraws the light of his counâ—eâ—ance from his people 1 For correction of their former abuse of his mercies 2 Of the neglect of their duty Cant. 5. 3 Of their carnal security 3 To teach them wherein their present comsort and happiness consifts Simile 3 For prevention 1 Of pride 2 Of considence in the creature or in habits of grace Ground 2 From Satan How Satan causeth trouble in the hearts of Gods servants 1 By stealing out of thest hearts the promises of the Gospel Heb. 12. Matth. 13. 2 By presenting to the soul the truths of God in false glosses Ground 3. From our selves From some distemper of the body 2. Prevailing of some strong lust Heb. 12.1 3 Inordinate passions Heb. 1. Vse 1. To teach us compassion toward those that are in trouble Isa 53.4 God suffers his servants to be in inward distress and why Doctr. 2. Faith is a special means to quiet the soul 2 Cron. 20.20 2 Tim. 1 12. Vse Doctr. 3. Faith that quiets the soul must be pitched upon God in Christ Doct. 4. Vse Quest Answ What it is to believe in Christ What it is to receive Christ as a Prophet As a King As a Priest Quest Answ Object Answ Quest Answ Quest Answ Quest Answ Devision of the words Doct 1. Strong trials befall strong Christians 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Job 1.8 Wherein the strength of a trial consists Why God laieth strong tryals on strong Christians Reas 1. Reas 2. Doct. Faith acquits a man in great tryals Reas 1. Reas 2. Reas 3. Reas 4. Reas 5. Vse 1. 1. 2. Vse 2. The sum of the words Parts of the Text Coherence The first branch of the Text Explication 1 What life it is that is here meant Eternal life proper to the Saints Begun in this world Gal 2.20 Heb 2 3. Consummated in the world to come Phil 1.21 1 Thes 4.17 Joh. 5.26 Joh. 6 33. Vse 1. For instructiou Vse 2. For demonstration 1 Tim 5.6 Ephes 2.1 Vse 3. For consolation 2 Tim 3.12 Act 14.22 Mark 5.26 Eccles 9 4. Job 2.4 Phil. 1.7 Rom. 14.17 2 Cor. 12.2 1 Cor. 2.9 Rom. 8.18 2 Cor 4.17 The second branch of the Text. Eternal life cometh from divine grace Tit. 3.7 Eph. 2.8 Reas 1. Reas 2.2 Cor. 3.5 Vse 1. For confutation Vse 2. For Consolation Vse 3. For Instruction Vse 4. For exhortation The third branch of the Text. The
there will be no mercy there is no mercy where there are the fruits of uncharitableness and if there be no mercy there will be no piety Let this therefore be the touch-stone of piety love and peace with men as the Apostle speaks As much as is possible have peace with all men I will speak no more of the meaning of the first part Marciful men are taken away It is the Commentary upon the former The second is the Predicate of the Proposition they are taken away that hath reference to this they perish It is great wisdom in the Spirit of God thus to expound one word by another That as in the body of a man those parts that are of most use God in wisdom hath made them double hath made them pairs two eyes two hands two ears c. because these are parts of great use that if one part fall away and miscarry the other part may supply if one eye be out a man loseth not his sight he hath another and so in other parts so it is in the Scripture if we mistake one word here is another that is more plain to lead us right in the meaning of the Scripture for else men would have been offended Godly men perish That is more then to die that that perisheth is lost But it is plain they are not lost in death Perishing is one step beyond death If it had been predicated of merciless impenitent unrighteous men it might have been said so they perish they not only die But what hath the righteous done who ever perished being innocent Who ever suspected and dreamed that it was possible for merciful men to perish Here cometh in the interpretation No be not deceived It is a word frequently used in the world carnall men think so but they perish not they are but took away Ye see how one word helpeth the other so this word giveth us assurance of the meaning of this Scripture and of the state and condition of a merciful man he perisheth not though the Atheists of the world think so he perisheth not to himself for then beginneth his happiness when death cometh though they perish to mens memorial and remembrance there is no remembrance of the wise man more then of the fool saith Sollomon that is worldly men that mind the world and their bellies they take no more to consideration when a righteous man a wise man dieth then a fool that is an impenitent man though I say they perish to the memorial of the world they perish not to God not to the fruition of his happiness for Death is but a porter a bridge to everlasting life then beginneth their glory Heaven that was begun before in a mistery then it is set open to them literally and personally They perish not because they are taken away there is the proof of it A man that is removed only from an Inn no man will say that he is lost That that is transplanted from one soil to another doth not perish A grast or syens though it be cut off and it is to have a more noble plantation It is so far from perishing that it is more perfect it is stablished in its nature it is set into a better There are but one of these two interpretations of perishing and neither of them can befal a godly merciful man Either it is a passage from a beeing to a not beeing and so the Beasts when they die perish because their souls are mortal as well as their bodies it is no more a living creature there is no more life it it it resolveth to its first principles the soul it is nourshed as well as the body there was a beeing before but now there is a nullity of beeing in respect of a living creature there is nothing liveth Here is a perishing from a beeing to a not beeing Again perishing may be a passage from a beeing to a worse beeing so an impenitent man when he dieth he passeth from life to death yea to an eternal death to a worse beeing that is a perishing and a proper perishing that is worse then to be lost It is better to have no beeing then to have either of these But in neither of these senses the righteous man perisheth he hath a beeing and a well-beeing after death His soul hath a eral beeing with God in happiness his body hath a beeing of hope though it be in the grave Nay it hath a real beeing of happiness as it is a member of Christ in regard of the mystical union So in no sense he perisheth he is but took away he is but removed it is but Exodus but transitus his death is not a going out of the Candle it is but a translation a removing of it to a better frame it is set upon a more glorious table to shine more bright The word is well expounded in Heb. 11. concerning Enoch whereas in the fifth of Genesis the Scripture saith Enoch walked with God and God took him in the Hebrews it is said he was translated In the one he was took away that is in respect of the world In the other he was translated that is in respect of heaven They are tock away that is from the place of misery the Dungeon the prison to a place of glory and happiness They are took away from the house of clay to the house Eternal not made with hands in the heavens they are translated upward that is meant in this So that there are two observations in this First That Piety and Mercy excuseth not from death Godliness it self freeth not a man from death Death it is that end that is propounded to all men The bodies of godly men are of the same mould and temper of the same frame and constitution as other men their flesh is as frail their humours as cholerick their spirit as sading their breath as vanishing they owe the same debt to nature to sin to God to themselves and their own happiness They are bound under the weight of the same Law the statute law is It is appointed to all men to die once It is well said to die once for the impenitent man dieth twice he dieth here by the separation of his soul from his body that is the first death and there is the second death that succeedeth that the death of the soul by a separation of it from God which is far worse But righteous and merciful men die once the first death seizeth upon them It is appointed to all It is the end of all flesh In one place It is the end of all the earth in another place It is the end of all living the end of all men even merciful and godly men are brought within the compass of this law of Nature to yeeld up this debt and due Righteousness excuses not it frees not It is a law that bindeth one as well as another As Basil of Seuleucia observeth though Adam was the first that finned
service of God our reward shall be eternal life not that we deserve it but that it is the pleasure of our heavenly Father to bestow it upon us For the wages of sin is death and the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. THE PROFIT OF AFFLICTIONS OR GODS AIM IN HIS CORRECTIONS SERMON XXX HEB. 12.10 For they verily for a few dayes chastned us after their own pleasure but He for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness THere are two things among many others eminently in Jesus Christ which declare him to be an all-sufficient Saviour of his people and these the Scripture frequently setteth forth unto us in a most sweet conjunction Righteousness and strength So the Prophet Surely shall one say in the Lord have I Righteousness and strength There are two things likewise in a Christian which are of eminent sufficiency in order to his salvation and his possession of the Glorious Inheritance purchased by this Saviour Faith and Patience often spoken of severally and in particular but withal jointly and together as might be manifested by the allegations of Scripture as be not slothful but be ye followers of them that by Faith and Patience inherit the promise c. Concerning these two which are so eminent in the called of God and are sufficient in order to their possession of the purchased inheritance as the Scripture abundantly treateth of so most frequently in the Epistle and more especially in the 10 11 and 12. Chapters In the latter end of the tenth Chapt. you have the Apostle there first dogmatically handling the doctrine of Faith as the necessary means to attain everlasting life and as the principall conducement to the possession of glory and to the saving of the soul The just shall live by Faith In the beginning of the eleventh Chapter he sheweth the absolute necessity of Faith to an acceptable walking and well-pleasing of God For without faith vers 6. it is impossible to please God and the whole Chapter is further spent in setting down the glorious Examples of Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and the rest of the Elders eminent for then Faith by which saith he they received a good report All whom did worthily in their dayes and are now become famous to posterity standing out to this day also many living voyces calling upon us to become followers of them that we might together with them be at length made partakers of the glorious inheritance of the Saints in light The Apostle have spoken much to this purpose goeth on to that other grace we spake of so necessary to the constitution of a Christian and to the enabling of him to a well and faithful managing of his Calling and condition and that is Patience Propounded by way of exhortation in the first part of this twelfth Chapter and urged with respect to the necessary uses of it both concerning duties done and afflictions to be endured in the verses following First with respect to duties which the Apostle propoundeth under the Metaphor of running in a race for such is the course of a Christian life which the Saints of God are called to the finishing of Let us run the race that is set before us and run with Patience Secondly it is urged with respect to sufferings and that of two sorts from men from God From men from whom the faithful are to make account of sufferings in divers kinds in shame and derision in proud and insolent contradictions and according to their power and opportunity in bloudy persecutions You have not yet resisted unto bloud vers 4. From God and here the Apostle is more large urging his exhortation to Patience and a quiet applying of our selves to God according to all the states and conditions he is pleased to bring us unto and according to all his several administrations towards us very strongly labouring to fasten it in the hearts of the Saints of God as a nayle in a sure place first alledging that same passage of Solomon in the Proverbs My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord. And then he further strengthneth his exhortation by invincible arguments I do but touch upon these things hast ening on to the main thing I intend only desiring to give you a plain and brief Analasis of this Scripture with the context of it The Apostle I say driveth on this exhortation by strength of argument And that first of all by propounding to the godly that whereas the Lord is pleased to exercise them with afflictions to make them drink many times of a cup of bitterness yet they have reason to be quiet and patient because this way the Lord giveth a proof of his love to his children and those that are wise and godly will be glad they have reason so to be that God should take such a course with them as whereby he may give them a demonstration of his dear love and affection Now herein the Lord evidenceth his love and affection to his people for all the afflictions and chastisements that he exerciseth them withall flow from his love and are as fruits thereof For saith he whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth vers 6. Secondly he propoundeth it to their consideration as a course wherein the Lord giveth an evidence of his peoples adoption For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not But if ye be without chastisement whereof all his children are partakers then are ye bastards and not sons vers 78. Now the godly should be glad to have the Lord take such a course with them and so to order out his administrations concerning them as that they may have some comfortable evidence to their souls that they are his adopted ones and such as he will one day acknowledge for to be his children But thirdly and that which more concerneth our present purpose the Apostle urgeth his exhortation by a comparison that he frameth between God the Father of spirits and men that are fathers of our flesh we have had fathers of our flesh and they verily for a few dayes chastened us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live they chastened us for their pleasure but He for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness Wherein you see the comparison is laid out in several particulars and the preheminency the advantage of the comparison is given to God for so is the scope and intent of the Text. It lieth thus briefly First We have had fathers of our flesh and God is the Father of Spirits if we have been contented to undergo the discipline of our earthly fathers much more have we reason quietly and patiently to submit our selves to the proceedings of the Father of our spirits Secondly They for a few dayes chastened us and we gave them reverence it is but a few dayes neither that the Father of
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
not your souls with these vain conceits with your Popish and carnal imaginations I say and testifie from this place that that man or woman which careth not to be taught out of Gods book cannot die like a Christian Who can teach thee the way to die well but God And where doth God teach but in the Scripture If our thoughts of Death if our provision and preparation for Death be not warranted and guided by Gods word it is all in vain Lord faith Simeon my desire of dissolution is according to thy Word my care to be prepared hath been ordered by thy Word he cannot die with comfort that cannot make the like profession And this may serve for the next general part the ground of this desire and preparation for Death it is Gods word Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart according to thy Word The third and last part follows the nature and quality of the death of the Righteous A departure in peace or a peaceable dismission Here are two things first a dismission secondly a dismission accompauied with peace The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Let thy servant depart may well be Englished thus let thy servant loose Lord free me enlarge me set me at liberty Hence we learn that The servants of God do by Death receive a final discarge from all manner of misery This is evident out of the force of the phrase here used Simeon knew that so long as he lived his soul was as it were imprisoned in his body and in it he was held in bondage under the remnants of Original corruption subject to the assaults and temptation of Satan in continual and daily possibility to trespass and sin against Cod beside other afflictions and grievances in the body and estate but he had withal this knowledge and understanding of the nature of Death that it was an enlargement to the soul and a freeing of it utterly and finally from all those and the like incumbrances The same may be gathered from the phrase used by Saint Raul I desire faith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be dissolved and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read the time of my departure the words shew that there coms a liberty by death to the souls of Gods servants The phrase that Saint Peter useth is worthy our observation for this purpose First he terms death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laying down of a burden and by that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laying down of a burden and by that means the soul is lightned and eased Secondly he terms it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a going out from a place and condition of hardship The second book of Moses which relates the dyparture of the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage hath the same name Exodus As for the point it self namely that the death of the Righteous is to them a discharge from all misery the Scripture bears witness to it Blessed said he are the dead which die in the Lord even so faith the spirit that they may rest from their labours As long as they live here they are diversly troubled when they die their labours are at an end and they are received into rest Saint John tels us that in his vision he saw the souls of them that were slain lye under the Alter Now the Alter in the time of the law was a place of resuge and safety and thence it appears that by death the servants of God are est-soons received into a place of holy security where there is no expectation of any further misery They are said to be received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into Abrahams bosome into the fellowship of the same happiness with Abraham the Father of all true believers The Doctrine in the first place makes against those of the Church of Rome which maintain a place of torment even for the servants of God after this life where they must be tryed for a time before they can enter into Rest and happiness This place they term Purgatory the torment here they hold to be unspeakable far surpassing any torment which the wit of man is able to devise But this place among others is sufficient to overthrow this dotage for how were death to the Righteous a dismission a loosing a freedom from misery if there followed after it a torment of far greater extremity then at any time before was ever tasted of So that the death of the servants of God being as I have proved it to be an enlargment from misery certainly the soul is not bound in any new Prison whence it must expect and wait and pray for a second dismission In the next place this Doctrine makes much for the comfort of Gods servants the face of Death to the wicked is very dreadful the day of it is to them the beginning of sorrows their souls are instantly arrested by the damned spirits and kept in everlasting chains of darkness but to those that are the servants of God it is otherwise I may by way of allusion to the phrase of my Text compare their day unto that which happened unto Joseph in which he was brought out of prison to be Ruler over all the land of Egypt So is their death unto them a day of Bailment out of prison a day in which all tears shall be wiped away In which they shall have beauty for ashes and the oyl of gladness for the spirit of heaviness and the long white robes of Christs Rightcousness by which they shall be presented blameless unto God That day shall be to them even as was the day of escape to the Jewes a feast and a good day in which they shall see God as he is and know him as they are known of him But happily thou maist say how shall I know that the day of Death is the day of dissolution and this kind of dismission A very necessary quaere indeed this is for every man almost is ready to challenge to himself a part of this happiness and it is a matter presumed upon by many which shall never enjoy it I will therefore give you one certain mark by which we may know assuredly that the day of our death shall be to us a day of enlargment and of final discharge from all both former and following miseries and that is this if in the time of our life here our being subject to corruption and sin hath seemed unto us the greatest burden and bondage They which have groaned and mourned under their own natural corruptions as it were under some heavy and tyrannous yoak or as the Israelites mourned under their Egyptian Task-masters to them only shall the day of death be a day of freedome If sin be not a burden to thee if thou dost not many times lament and even mourn to think how thou art carried captive unto evil if thou dost not with griese feel how thou art clogged with corruption
first degree of his exaltation so this spiritual Resurrection that we have spoken of it is the first degree of a Christians exaltation therefore get this in the first place yea get this and all will follow If thou attain this thou maist be assured of the second Resurrection also to the life of glory Remember that Christ by raising himself from the dead by his own power declared himself to be the eternal Son of God He was declared mightily to be the Son of God by his Resurrection So if thou canst by a power and vertue drawn from Christ rise out of the grave of thy sin then thou shalt declare thy self to be the member of Christ the Son of God the daughter of God therefore labour to attain this first Resurrection But here this question may be demanded but by what means now doth Christ convey this spiritual life to his children and how shall I get to be partaker of this Resurrection by what means shall I attain this first Resurrection to this spirituall life To this I answer briefly that by the same means by which Christ works faith in the soul by the same means he raiseth a sinner to life for he that beleeveth liveth and he that liveth beleeveth he that beleeveth is raised to life therefore by the same means that Christ works faith by the same means he raiseth a sinner to life Therefore the outward means is the Preaching of the Word the inward the Spirit of grace By such means as Christ will raise the bodies of the dead at the last day by the like means he now raiseth the souls of those that are dead in sin Now Christ will raise the bodies that are now dead in the Grave at the last day First by his voyce John 5.28.29 and by the sound of the Trumpet 1 Cor. 15.52 The Trump shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible And he shall raise them by his quickning Spirit So by the like means Christ now raiseth our souls that are dead in sins therefore if thou desire to be raised out of the grave of sin let me counsel thee First to attend diligently to the word of God upon the preaching of the Gospel The word of Christ is a quickning word as Christ saith Joh. 3.63 My Word is spirit and life The voyce of Christ is a quickning voyce as Christ by his voyce raised Lazarus out of his Grave when Christ said to Lazarus Come forth presently Lazarus quickned and came forth so the voyce of Christ in the ministery of the Word hath a quickning power to raise sinners from the death of sin therefore when the Ministers cry aloud and the Prophets lift up their voyce as a Trumpet then hearken Secondly be frequent and fervent in Prayer for the Spirit of grace and of Christ before thou hear pray and after thou hast heard pray that the Spirit of Christ may accompany his Word that so this may be a means to awaken and to quicken thee out of thy natural estate and to raise thee out of the death of sin Thou must pray to God to give thee a hearing ear and a believing heart that so the sound of the Word may not be as the sound of a Trumpet in the ears of a dead man but that thou maiest be quickned by the voyce of Christ And though thou have continued a long time in thy sins yet be not altogether discouraged remember that Christ is able to raise thee though thou have continued never so long in thy sins for he that was able to raise Lazarus that was dead and buryed and now stinking in the Grave he is able to raise up thee also In the last place in one word if upon examination thou find thou have attained to this spiritual Resurrection then here is a ground of exhortation To humility To thankfulness Here is a ground of Exhortation to Humility and Thankfulness to joyn them both together because they usually go together the proud person is alway unthankful and the humble man is alway a thankful man Now if thou have attained to the Resurrection thou hast great cause to be humble and to be thankful First thou hast great cause to be humbled because thou hast nothing but that thou hast received thou hast great cause to be humbled because thou puttest not any hand to this work no more than the dead body of Lazarus could help to the raising of him No more then a creature being nothing can help to its own creation no more can a sinner help forward this mork of his Resurrection therefore thou hast cause to be humbled for not puting the least helping hand to this work it is wholly supernatural Therefore let not any one arrogate any thing to the power of his free will but remember the work is wholly supernatural Secondly as we have cause to be humbled so to be thankful too do but consider the desperate and dangerous estate of sin whence thou art raised and then make thy humble confession with the Israelites when they brought their first fruits before God Deut. 26.5 A Syrian ready to perish was my father he went into Egypt with a few and become a Nation mighty and populous and the Lord brought him out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm with terrour and signs and wonders and hath brought us to this place and hath given us this Land even a Land flowing with milk and honey The like deliverance the Lord hath wrought for thee therefore be thankful and make thy thankful acknowledgment with the Psalmist Psal 115. Not unto us but to thy name give the glory And then desire God as he hath by his mercy brought thee to the Kingdome of grace so by his power to preserve thee to the Kingdome of glory And desire Christ as he by his quickning Spirit hath made thee partakers of the first Resurrection to the life of grace so to make thee partaker of the second to the life of glory DEATH IN BIRTH OR THE FRUIT OF EVES Transgression SERMON XXXVI GEN. 35.19 And Rachel died IT is a Statute law of God that all both Men and Women must die The causes for which it pleased Almighty God to leave the bodies even of his dearest Children under the power of Death to be returned to dust are many First for the manifesting his truth according to that ancient threatning mentioned Gen. 3.19 Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Secondly for the manifestation of his power that by death he may translate his chosen servants to life Sin it was that brought death into the world and God will shew his strength in this that death shall be the utter abolishment even of that very thing which brought it first upon us and made us all lyable to it If there had not been sin there should not have been death and now God will that in those that are his the kingdom and being of sin shall utter
â—…he destroyed the head of Goliah shall be cut off with his own sword and sin shall be extinguished by that which it self first procured Thirdly God subjects his children to this course that by it they may the better conceive what inestimable benefit they reap by Jesus Christ When they do think 〈…〉 they cannot chuse but fear it Nature affecting a con 〈…〉 cannot chuse but loath and abhor it Now then if 〈…〉 fearful well may we conclude that it would have exâ—â—â—â—â—â— if it continued as at the first it was that is a gate and passage to everlasting torment in hell fire If the very sight of the Serpent afright us now the sting is out what would it have done if the sting had still remained Hereby the Almighty God would have us learn how deeply we stand ingaged to him for his meâ—cy w 〈…〉 o by his Son Jesus Christ hâ—â—h freed us from so great mâ—â—ery Lastly thâ— law of Death seizeth upon the very elect children of God that they may he thereby made conformable to their head Christ He was as the wheat-corn which except it fall into the ground and die abideth alone Death was his passage the same must be ours also The way of the tree of life is kept with the blade of a sword shaken under the stroak whereof we must first come before we can hope for any entranâ—â— into Paradise as we see here it is said of Rachel she dyed And Rachel diâ—d I will not stand upon any division of the words but will God willing unite them together at this time in this discourse I conceive it is not altogether impertinent in the handling of these words of my Text to shew you the occasion of Rachels death what the was and for what she stands recorded in the sacred Scriptures Rachel was one of Labans Daughters and one of the Wives of Jacob. Questionless she was a good woman though in some things faulty But the imperfections of the holy people of those times are neither to be blazed abroad as though we took pleasure in discovering their shame nor to be followed neither as though by their doing this or that were a sufficient plea for us that were to draw bloud not milk out of the brests of the sacred-Scriptures and is a thing which for my own particular were the cause never so just I do from my soul abhor and detest First of all then she is recorded to have been fruitful by whom Jacob had two sons Joseph and Benjamin and by her and Leah his other wife God accomplished his promise that He made to Abraham that his seed should be as the stars of Heaven which teacheth us that The fruitfulness of the wife is to be reckoned as a blessing and to be earnestly sought by prayer from Almighty God It is that blessing which God promiseth to the man that fears him and puts his trust in him That his Wife should be as a fruitful Vine and his Children they shall stand 〈…〉 round about his table Psal 128.3 And in the precedent Psalm Loâ—… Children are an her stage froâ—… the Lord and the fruit of the womb are his reward happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them In former times barrenness was accounted for a shame and reproach When God would punish Abimelech about Abraham and Sarah his Wife it is said that he closed up all the wombs in the house of Abimelech Gen. 20.18 And when God would bless Jobs last dayes more than his first he gave him seven sons and three daughters as an addition to his happiness and as so many emblems of his grace and favour towards him In there hearsing of the lives of the Fathers before the Flood you shall find especially in Gen. 5. sundry times thus such and such a one lived so many years and begat sons and daughters What was the blessing upon the first couple was it not this be fruitful and multiply Gen. 1.28 What blessing gave the friends of Rebecca at her departure was it not this be the mother of thousands and millions Gen. 24.60 What was the manner of Gods blessing the Jewes after their return from the captivity was it not this that their streets should be full of boyes and girls Zech. 8.5 This being so it may serve for a twofold Use First it discovers the wretchedness of their fault who grudg and repine at the increase of children as a burthen Some there are that prescrbe to God how many children he should bestow upon them and would set him down a stint that they would not by any means have him exceed which argues a most miserable and a most faithless mind For whence is this fear of increase before it come and whence is this repining at it when it is come but from some distrustful opinion or other that they conceive either of their inability to maintain them c Let me say to you beloved of your children as our blessed Saviour said of his Disciples touching themselves they are of more value then sparrows yet the Lord feeds them together with the young Ravens that cry how much more will he give supply to those creatures that are stamped with his own Image Neither is it only a reward and blessing upon the rich that they are fruitful but it is even a reward and blessing to the poor that they have children for it is specified in Psal 107.41 that God will make them a family like a flock of sheep and comfortable it is that they shall have a family like a flock of sheep because this may well be intended they shall prosper and thrive with a little maintenance as sheep will grow fat albeit the lees are but very short Secondly it serves to direct all that desire this blessing of increase that they may know of whom to seek it it is God that must make thee fruitful like Rachel it is he that makes the barren to dwell with the family and to be a joyful mother of Children There are five special keyes that God reserves in his own power The first is the key of the Rain the Lord shall open his good treasure and the Houvens to give Rain to the land Deut. 28.12 Secondly the key of food thou openest thy hand and fillest all things living with thy plenty Psal 104.28 Thirdly the key of the grave he bringeth down to the grave and raiseth up again 1 Sam. 2.6 Fourthly the key of the heart it is said Acts 16.14 the Lord opened the heart of Lydia Fifthly and lastly the key of the wombe God remembred Rachel and opened her wombe Gen. 30. Abraham therefore being childless he makes his moan to God Isaac prayed to God for his Wife because she was barren Hanna Samuels mother poured out her soul to God in hearty prayer when she had no child As also Zachary and Elizebeth the parents of John Baptist This is the true course first to God and then to the means Rachel was in a
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
to me seemeth a witty foolish one though by some highly approved it is said say they Psal 90.4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past and as a watch in the night Thus taking one thousand years for one day according to the computation Stilo Dei Adam dyed in the same day he sinned as whose life though exceeding the ninth century never attained to a full thousand But this by some is justly censured not for expounding but abusing the word of God First Answer Waving therefore this mock-answer I present two sollid ones to the readers choice to prefer which he pleaseth or if so disposed to twist them both together the first is that sentence of God Gen. 2.17 is not desinitive but comminatory parallel to that Jonah 3.4 Yet forty dayes and Nineveh shall be destroyed such comminatory sentences alwayes run with a clause of revocation concealed though not expressed in case God conceiveth the contrary more conducing to his glory I say these comminatory sentences done adterrorem are not so conclusive but that they are still coinclusive admitting of a revocation at Gods pleasure and mans repentance as our first parents no doubt were true Penitents for their offence Second Answer Adam became mortal from that very instant that he eat the forbidden fruit Sickness then arested him though he was not imprisoned in the grave till many years after before his full natural heat and radical moisture knew and kept their respective bounds in his body without the least mutual encroachment since his fall they are turned fierce foes lying at the catch and waiting advantages to invade one another since the very minute of his preverication his body sickness-proof before was subject to be drowned with the dropsie burnt by the seaver swelled by the Gout shrivelled by the Consumption in a word he carried in his Soul the seeds of all sins in his body of all diseases In common discourse we date a Malefactor dead though not naturally legally form the sentence of condemnation passed upon him It is but a dead life which he leads after that time such being the Chancery as I may say of Common Law to allow him a few dayes to dispose himself for death in the same sence we behold Adam as no man of this World as Dead and defunct though respited and reprieved for some years from the time that he eat the forbidden fruit We must not forget that Saint Jerome in whose mouthing languages departing confusedly from Babel met methodically then in any other Father highly commendeth the translation of Simacus reading these words Gen. 2.17 Morieris thou shalt die Mortalis eris thou shalt be mortal herein if he rendred not the letter like an exact Translator thereof he hath given in the true sence of the word as a judicious commentator thereon And now we may march on with becoming confidence to collect some Doctrines from the words being secured from any ambush to surprize us on our backs We may say with Isaac Gen. 26.22 Rehoboth now the Lord hath made room for us These two grand objections thus satisfied come we now to the place whence all man-kind starteth Dust thou art Doctrine All man-kind derive their original from dust Adam immediately Gen. 2.7 And the Lord God formed man of the Dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living Soul Eve mediately made of flesh made of dust and so all man-kind since being one remove further from dust in their composition but at the same degree of distance from dust at their Desolution Dust thou art c. First Use to retrench our Pride at the serious consideration of our mean original Virgil tells us Georgicks the fourth that when Bees fiercely fight in the Air the speediest way to part them is by casting dust upon them Hi motus animorum atque hac certamina tanta Pulveris exigui jactu compost a quiescunt But when Swarms of lusts in our proud Souls fight one against another and all against the word and will of God the quickest means to compose them is by throwing some dust pouring meditations of mortality upon them Second Use to confute the curiosity of such who expend so much precious time care and cost in pargoting painting pouldering patching and perfumeing of their bodies which came from and go to the dust Here first I allow a necessary neatness due to our bodies least otherwise we antedate our own stench least otherwise before our time this our dust turn dirt and become offensive to our selves and others Secondly I allow for God allows an ornamental decency proportionable to the condition and estates of persons and I find Gen. 24.22 Eare-rings in the ears and bracelets in the hand of Rebeckah though to any judicious eye those hands seemed more beautiful for the Buckets she did bear then for the Bracelets she did wear But blame-worthy their pride and vanity who spend about their bodies time and cost to the neglect of their Souls It is reported of Queen Katherine Dowager first Wife to King Henry the eighth that she accounted no time worse spent then what was wasted in dressing of her indeed seeing nature was not over bountiful of beauty unto her and having a humorous Husband to content art might the more excusably be indulged unto her but how many are there who esteem no time well laid out but what is spent in tricking trimming decking and adorning themselves The Commoedian could complain dum moliuntur dum comuntur unus est but the Divine may complain dum precantur vix semihorula est To tell that Sex of their faults in that language they best understand too much time is lost by them in their dressing to little in their devotions Here let me humbly tender a motion to the Gallants of our time and may it but meet reception and entertainment sutable to the seasonableness thereof when they do curiously powder their Hair how welcome is the meal of old age of mans unwelcome of Gods besprinkling let them even then call to mind this is but anticipating the work and words formerly used at mens burials Dust to dust for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return Third Use of comfort Of comfort may some say that is impossible to arise naturally from this Text can meat come from the devourers can any good come out of a Gallilee Behold the Text is hung about on all sides with mourning and therefore little chearfulness and less comfort can thence rationally be expected however most clarified and distilled consolation may be extracted from the Text and it is pitty to express it in any other than in Davids words Psal 103.14 For he knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are but dust and therefore of his gratious goodness will not expect Golden performances from dusty Performers He will be pleased to accept dusty Prayers and dusty Preaching dusty Reading and dusty Alms-giving from
exceeding great The Jailor hearing her cry out in her pangs If you cry said he to day I will make you shreek worse to morrow when you are to be burnt at a stake The woman replied Not so to morrow my pain will be abated for to day I suffer as an offender for the punishment justly imposed by God on our sex for our disobedience and breach of his law but to morrow I shall die for the testimony of the truth in the defence of Gods glory and his true Religion Thus it is strange to see what alacrity a good cause insuseth into arighteous man deriving comfort into his heart by insensible conveyances so that he imbraceth even death in self with a smiling countenance seeding his soul on the continual feast of a clear conscience Besides this it clears divine Justice and comforts the righteous man perishing temporally in his righteousness that his cause shall be heard over again and rejudged in another world If one conceive himself wronged in the Hundred or any inferiour Court he may by a cretiorari or an accedas ad curiam remove it to the Kings Bench or Common Pleas as he is advised best for his own advantage If he apprehendeth himself injured in these Courts he may with a Writ of Errour remove it to have it argued by all the Judges in the Exchequer chamber If here also he conceiveth himself to find no justice he may with an Injunction out of the Chancery stop their proceedings But if in the Chancery he reputeth himself agrieved he may thence appeal to the God of heaven and earth who in another world will vindicate his right and severely punish such as have wilfully offered wrong unto him And so much to assert Gods justice in suffering the righteous man to perish in his righteousness Now on the other side God may without any prejudice to his justice suffer wicked men for a time to thrive in this world and not suddenly surprise them with punishment so giving them a space to repent if they would but make use thereof Indeed David saith Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him But God is a fair hunter he might in the rigour of his justice knock wicked men down as he finds them sitting in their forms But God will give them fair law they shall for a time run yea sport themselves before his judgements ere they are pleased to overtake them Know also to the farther clearing of his justice that wicked men notwithstanding their thriving in badness for a time are partly punished in this world with a constant corrosive of a guilty conscience which they carry about them The Probationer-Disciple said to our Saviour Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest what is promised by him is preformed by a guilty conscience that Squire of the body alwayes officious to attend a malefactour Fast and I will follow thee and thy empty body shall not be so full of wind as thy mind of dismal apprehensions feast and I will follow thee and as the hand on the wall bring in the sad reckoning for thy large bill of fare stay at home and I will follow thee or else meet thee in the way with my naked sword as the Angel did Balaam Wake and I will follow thee sleep and I will follow thee and affright thee with hideous fancies and terrible dreams as I did King Richard the third the night before his death I have read of one who undertook in few dayes to make a fat sheep lean and yet was to allow him a daily and large provision of meat soft and easie lodging with security from all danger that nothing should hurt him This he effected by putting him into an Iron-grate and placing a ravenous wolf hard by in another alwayes howling fighting scenting scratching at the poor sheep which affrighted with this sad sound and worse sight had little joy to eat less to sleep whereby his flesh was suddenly abated But wicked men have the terrors of an affrighted conscience constantly not onely barking at them but biting of them which dissweetens their most delicious mirth with the sad consideration of the sins they have committed and punishment they must undergo when in another world they shall be called to account This thought alone makes their souls lean how fat soever their bodies may appear And as sores and wounds commonly smart ake and throb most the nearer it is to night so the anguish and torture of a guilty conscience increaseth the neerer men apprehend themselves to the day of their death Now not onely wicked men but even the children of God because of the corruption of their hearts too often make bad uses to themselves of the righteous mans perishing in his righteousness These may be divided into three ranks 1. Such as fret at Gods proceedings herein 2. Such as droop under Gods proceedings herein 3. Such as argue with Gods proceedings herein The first are the Fretters for if the perishing of the righteous cometh to the serious observation of a high-spirited man one of a stout and valiant heart he will scarce brook it without some anger and indignation fuming and chasing thereat Thus David we know was a man of valour of a martial and warlike spirit and he confesseth of himself that beholding the prosperity of the wicked his heart was grieved and he was pricked in his reins Nor was it meer grief possessed him but a mixture of much impatience as appears by that counsel which in like case in one Psalm he gave himself three several times Fret not thy self because of evil doers and again fret not thy self because of him who porspereth in his way and the third time fret not thy self in any wise Our Saviour observeth that there are a sturdy kind of Devils that will not be cast out save by fasting and prayer But this humour of fretting and repining at Gods proceedings herein which he understood not could not be ejected out of David but by prayer no doubt and that very solemnly not at home but in Gods temple When I thought to know all this it was too painful for me until I went into the Sanctuary of God there understood I their end O let them of high spirits and stout hearts not lavish their valour and mis-spend their courage to chase and fume at such accidents venting good spirits the wrong way but rather reserve their magnanimous resolutions for better services and besides their private devotions address themselves with David to Gods publike worship in his house who in his due time will unriddle unto them the equity of his proceedings But if men be of low and mean spirits pusillanimousand heartless natures and if these narrow souls in them meet with melancholly and heavy tempers such fall a drooping yea despairing at the perishing of the righteous they give all over for lost concluding there is no hope they rather languish then live walking
we found it let it not be said that we willingly let the fair Fabrick of Faith and good life to run to ruine in our so that the next Age may justly sue us for Dilapidations When our Saviour said unto his Disciples Mat. 26.21 Verily I say unto you that one of you shall betray me they were exceeding sorrowful and began every one of them to say unto him Lord is it I yea Judas himself lagging at last with his Is it I Lord and was returned with Thou saist it Thus at the last day of judgment shall all generations be arraigned before God But to confine our Application only to those three within the last sixscore years if God should say unto them One of you have betrayed my truth how would it put them all upon their particular purgation Is it I Lord saith the first generation in the reign of King Edward the sixt surely they shall be acquitted who in the Marian dayes sealed the truth with their blood Is it I Lord saith the second generation lasting all the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to the middle of King James That also will be cleared as publickly preserving the purity of true Doctrine in the thirty nine Articles What a shame shall it be if when our age shall ask with Iudas Is it I we shall be returned thou hust said it Yours is the Age that hath betrayed my Truth to Errour Unity to Faction Piety to Prophaness sad when such a Fact shall be so clear that it cannot be denied and yet so foul that it cannot be defended However this my too just fear may consist with hope of better things of you and such as accompany salvation I must conclude with you Reverend Fathers whom my loyalty cannot pass by without doing my due homage to the Crown of your Age especially if it be found in the way of truth Give me leave to tell you belong to that generation which is passed out of this world not only the Van or Front and also the main body and battel of your Army are marched to their graves and their souls I hope to heaven whilst Divine Providence for reasons best known to himself hath reserved you to bring up as I may say the very rear of the rear of your generation O do not mistake this Reprieve for a Pardon and here give me leave to use a plain but expressive Similitude Have you never seen a wanton child run a firebrand against the Hearth or back of the Chymney and so on a suddain make a skie of sparks of which sparks some instantly expire others continue a pretty time and then go out others last a little longer whilest one or two as having a greater stock of soot to feed them hold out a good while but at last are extinguisht Man is born to labour as sparks do fly upward some presently go out wasted from the womb to the winding-sheet others live to ripe men others to be old men some whose temper and temperance are more signal then in others to be counted wonderous old but all at last die and fall to the earth We read Rev. 10.2 of an Angel who had his right foot on the Sea and his left on the earth This may seem a strange stride save that it abateth the wonder because Angels when pleased to assume bodies may extend themselves to a vast though finite proportion But you though meer men and weak men must stride a greater distance having your left foot already in the Grave endeavour to have your right foot in Heaven and waving all love of this world set your minds and meditations alone on God and godliness In a word whatever our Age be rising shining or setting Men Brethren or Fathers let us endeavour with David in my Text according to the will of God to serve our own Generation Come we now to the sad occasion of our present meeting to perform the last Christian Office to our Deceased Brother well known to many of you and to none better then to my self A child is like a man in the similitude of parts though not of degrees and in some measure he did sincerely with David serve his Generation He was a dutiful Son unto his aged Mother as she cannot but confess and will I hope as occasion is offered remember and reward it to his wife and children A loving Brother a kind Husband and I doubt not but his widdow will discharge her mutual affection to him in his relations Bathsheha thus describeth a good wife Pro. 31.12 She will do her Husband good and not evil all the dayes of her life It is not said all the dayes of his life but of her life What if he should chance to die and she to survive him yea after to marry again as God forbid any should be debarred marrying in the Lord especially for their own and childrens advantage yet still she would do good unto him all the dayes of her life To him that is to his memory mentioning with respect to him that is to his children and friends careful over the one and curteous over the other He was a tender Father and faithful Friend witness the many volunteer mourners an unusual proportion for a person of his quality who at their own charge have habited themselves that the outward sadness of their cloaths might express the inward sorrow of their hearts He was an excellent Master having bred many good workmen in his Vocation and I hope they will prove good husbands too Let me add he was an excellent subject for according to that which his conscience with many others conceived to be loyalty he lost much of and hazarded all his estate Lastly and chiefly he was a good Saint having more piety then he shewed and as daily he consumed in his body he was strengthened in his soul in Faith through Christ whereof he gave many testimonies before towards and at his death What shall I speak of his parts of Nature so far above his education and profession that he might have past for a Scholar amongst Scholars for his wit and pleasant expressions But God now hath made him his free-man and paid him his wages for so well serving his Generation THE CROVVNE OF RIGHTEOUSNES OR The glorious Reward of FIDELITY In the Discharge of our DUTY SERMON LIII 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 I Shall not detain you by any impertinent Preface sith the shortness of time for this Service together with the indulgence of this so Learned an Auditory anticipates an Apology and gives hope of much Candor under so manifold Imprâ—…parations And so I address my self to the serious business of my Text The scope whereof amounts to
3.11 1 Pet. 3.4 Prov. 31.29 Coherence Division The person judging God Opera Triditatis ad extra suns indivisa Opera Trinitatis ad intra suns divisa cuique persona incommunicabiliter propria Object 2 Cor. 5.10 1. Cor. 6.2 Answ How Christ is said to be the Judg. Rom. 2.16 Joh. 5. Why God hath committed the power of the execution of Judgment to Christ Three properties requisit in a Judg. 1. Knowledg to discern Heb. 4. 2. Power to execute Psal 149. Rev. 15. 3. Justice in the Execution Gen. 18. The Judgment 1. It shall be Types of the last Judgment Luk 17. Rule 1. Reas 2. Reas 3. Act. 1731. Reas 4. 2. In what manner it shall be 1. The summons Job 5.28 Matt. 24.31.1 Cor. 15. 1 Thes 4 16. 2. The Appâ—…arance 2 Cor. 5 10. Rom. 14 12. 1 Cor. 1.7 3. The seperaration 4. The tryal Rev. 20.12 The books that shall be opened at the day of Judgment 5. The Sentence The general things observable in the words 1. The duty 2. The motives The duty exprest 1. Generally 2. Particularly The general duty expressed 1. In the Object 2. In the Acts that are exercised on the Object 3. In the manner of exercising The Object 1. God Simile Simile 2. The name of Cod. The Acts that are exercised on the Object 1. Of the understanding Memory 2. Of the will and affections Desires Desires an argument of a gracions heart Joyned with endeavours Desires without endeavours false The manner of exercising these acts 1. They must come from inward principles 2. They must he sincere Simile Simile 3. They must be pitched on God alone 4 They must be universal 5. They must be constant Simile The particular duties In times of mercy 1. Chearfulness 2. Fruitfulness In times of judgment Simile 1. Perseverance Simile 2. Diligent exercise of our graces Simile 3. Patience 4. Prosiciency The Motives to the duties God seeth and Judgeth all our wayes 1. This alone differenceth the godly from the wicked Division of the words Obser 1. The Saints on earth have a heavenly conversation What it is The priviledges thereof 1. Their names are written in heaven Luk. 10.20 2. They are governed by the law of God 3. They are safety kept 4. They have interest In God Mat. 6 32. Chap 7 11. In Christ Dan 12 1. In the holy Ghost 2 Cor 13 10. In the Angels In the Saints that are in heavenâ—… That are on carte 5 They are Inriched with heavenly treasure Mat 13. Isa 55 1. The traffique of a Christian what How to know whether our conversation be in heaven By our affections Note Obser 2. While the Saints are on earth they are stated in heaven 1. In respect of right and title 2. In respect of present possession John 14. Presumption to hope for heaven without union with Christ first on earth Ezra 2.62 Christ in respect of his bodily presence is only in heaven Transubstantiation Cell 3.1 Obser 3. Expectation of Christs coming to Judgement the best means to work a man to a holy conversation The continual expectation of the Saints is for Christ coming A threefold coming of Christ Proved 2 Tim. 4.8 Heb. 6.8 Vse For tryal How to know whether our expectation of Christ coming be right 1. By the ground of it Heb. 11.1 2. By the companions of it Which are 1. Patience 2. Love Manisested in secret longings Care to walk in Christ 3. delight in the ordinances 3 By the effects and fruits of it The expectation of Christs coming the best means to procure a heavenly Conversation Proved 1. It is the worker of Mortification Collos 3.17 1 Joh. 3.2 3. Guilt of sin causeth the apprehension of death to be terrible 2 Subdues out worldly affections Collos 3 1. 3. Keeps us from sinful actions Act. 3 â—…8 Acts 17 30. 4 Quickness to holiness of life 2 Pet. 3 11 12. 5 Furthers our perseveranâ—…e in godliness 1 Iohn 2.28 Rev 6. Vse For tryal Rev. 6.15 Heb. 2.14 1 Thes 1 10. Division 1 The duty commanded Meaning of the worsd What is meant by the saying of Christ viz. The Doctrine of the Gospel Two parts of the Gospel 1. Shewing out raisery Rom. 3.63 2. The remedy against this misery 1 The Redemer 2. The manner how we are redeemed Rom. 3.24 3. The means how to enjoy the remedy 1. The Conditions of the Covenant of Grace 1 Repentance Mark 1.15 Heb 6. The parts of Repentance Godly sorrow for sin Psal 38. Jam 4.9 Confession of sin Pro 28. Psal 32 4. 1 Joh 1 9. Firme purpose of amendment Joh 5. Petition for pardon in the name if Christ Hos 14.2 Repentance only taught in the Gospel Mans repentance tends to the honour of Gods justice 2 Faith John 6 29. Desinit on of Faith Faith only taught in the Gospel 3. New obedience How differenced from that required under the Law 2. The benefit What it is to see Death What Death is here meant Joh. 6.68 Act 5.20 Acts 11.14 Reas 1. 1 Joh. 2.24 Reas 2. Vse 3. Incitatton to thankfulness Vse 2. Reprehension Vse 3 Exhortation Vse 4. Consolation Obiect Answ Coherence Division of the words 1. The sin of young men 2. The Cure Doct. 1. It is the sin of young men to rejoyce inordinately Gen. 6.11 Isa 22.14 Eccles 12.1 1 Tim 2.22 Tit. 2.6 Job 1. Reas 1. Natural corruption Reas 2. Forgetfulness of Judgement Deut 32 29 Reas 3. Freedome from crosses Jer 31. Reas 4 Want of spiritual joy Vse 1. For Admonion 1. To take notice of their carnal joy Young mens rejoycing proved to be inordinate 1 Because it is not placed there where it should be 2 Because it is placed there where it should not be 3 Because it is excessive in lawful things 4 Because it terminates not in God 2 Of their walking after their own heart Hosea 7. 3 Of their walking after the sight of their eyes Iob 31.1 Ier 9. Heb 11. Vse 2. For Fxhortation 1 To abandon carnal joy Luke 6.26 Iob 20.6,7 Directions how to avoid carnal joy 1 To labour for sorrow for sin 2. Consider the vanity of things 1. Of humane wisdome Eccles 1 13. Eccles 1 15. 1 Cor 1 19. Eccles 9 10. 2 Of worldly honour and cred it Eccles 1 16. John 5 44. John 10 43. Gal. 5 26. 3 Of worldly pleasures Eccles 2 2. Vers 4. 1 Cor 7 19. Luke 8 4. 4 Of riches Jer 5 27. Eccles 5 12. Rev. 18.18 2 Tim. 1.16 Luk. 12.25 5 Of friends and Allies Psal 62 9. Psal 49 7. 3 Labour for spiritual joy Rom 5 1. A twofold ground of spiritual joy 1 The good things exhibied 2 The good things promised The second Exhertation not to walk after their own heart The third Exhortation not to walk after the sight of their eyes Joshu 7 21. 2 Sam 11 1. Vse 3. To old men Doct. 2. God will bring men to judgement for all their sins Masa 3 18. Eccles 12 14. 2 Cor 5 10. 2 Thes 4