will come certainly shortly uncertainly suddenly and irresistibly 1. That it will come certainly There is an oporte◠for it We must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ c. There is nothing certain in life but death 2. That it will come very shortly It is not long but we must all go down to the house of rottennesse This life is but as an hand-breadth as a vapor c. swifter than a post and passeth away as the swift ships and as the Eagle that hasteth to the prey it is nothing else but a salve vale 3. Uncertainly as to the time when the place where and the manner how Your Almanacks will tell you when the next Eclipse of the Sunne and Moone will be But there is no Almanacks will tell you when the Eclipse of your lives will be This comes uncertainly And therefore uncertainly to provoke us to be always ready because we know not in what hour the Son of man will come Matth. 24. 42 44. 4. That oftentimes it comes suddenly like a thiefe in the night 1 Thef. 5. 2. Like an evil net in which the fishes of the sea and a secret snare in which the birds of the aire are suddenly caught Eccles. 9. 12. Luk. 21. 35. Psal. 73. 19. 5. That it comes irresistibly like paine upon a woman with childe 1 Thes. 5. 3. Death will not tarry till we be ready for it The young man as Gregory the great relates it when he saw he must die cried out Inducias Domine usque ad mane Lord tarry till to morrow but God would not heare Death comes unavoidably and if it findes us unprovided it sends us to hell without remedy Adde to this 6. It comes but once It is appointed for all men once to die When once dead no living againe to provide better for death And therefore we had need be careful ut semel pie moriamur as Paraeus saith that we may once die well for we cannot live again upon earth to live better 7. That after death comes judgement and after judgement everlasting happinesse or everlasting misery Death is nothing else but a passage to judgement A thorough-fare to heaven or hell Did we consider these things and consider them seriously as we ought to do it would work very many gracious and most glorious effects in us Therefore Moses saith very emphatically O that men were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end and prayeth very earnestly So teach us O Lord to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom The very heathens have been much in the meditation of death Plato tells us that true Philosophy is nothing else but a meditation of death The Egyptians in all their great feasts had a deaths-head served in as one dish to teach them sobrietie and temperance in eating and drinking This meditation if sanctified will be 1. A soveraign antidote against all sin Sume hoc remedium contra omnia peccata Would you have a preservative against all sin Remember thy latter end and thou shalt never do amisse As a copy is then safest from blotting when dust is cast upon it so are we from sinning while we remember that we are but dust Jerusalems filthiness was in her 〈◊〉 because she remembred not her latter end Lam. 1. 9. 2. It will marvellously weane us from the love of the world It is the Apostles argument 1 John 2. 15 16 17. Love not the world nor the things in the world for the world-passeth away It passeth away as Jonas his gourd when he had most need of it And as Absoloms mule which passed from under him and left him hanging on the tree To what purpose do we provide multum viatici when we have but parum viae much victuals when we have but a short journey The like argument is used 1 Cor. 7. 29. 30 31. 3. It will make Jesus Christ and his righteousness very pretious to us For it is Christ only that can unsting death and sweeten it and make it comfortable and desirable And therefore the Apostle accounts all things dung and drosse that he might gaine Christ and be found in him at that great day not having his own righteousnesse but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousuesse which is of God by faith And St. John saith Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord for they rest from their labours c. He that dies in Christ shall certainly go to Christ 4. It will exceedingly quicken us to provide effectually and to speed and hasten our provisions for heaven There is nothing will more provoke us to labour for that life which never shall have an end than the serious consideration that this life will shortly have an end These all died This is the first inference The second Doctrine That the best of men must die as well as the worst of men These all died These godly persons died as well as others Abraham the Father of the faithful and Sarah the Mother of the faithful Godly Isaac 〈…〉 Jacob These all died The husband and the wife The father the child and grandchild all godly and yet all these died The first that ever tasted of death was a godly man even godly Abel For the godly have the same principle of mortality within them which others have They dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust And they have the same remainders of sinne in them to make them liable to death which others have They have idem fundamentum mortis idem demeritum But besides these there are proper and peculiar reasons why the godly must die not only as well but rather than others For 1. They shall never be freed from sicknesse sorrow and laborious employments They shall never have all teares wiped from their eyes till they die 2. They shall never be free from the persecutions of wicked and ungodly men and from the temptations of the devil till they die 3. They shall never be rid of the body of sin till they put off the body of the flesh 4. They shall never be perfected in grace till they die 5. They shall never see God face to face never be with Christ in glory till they die They shall never be cloathed with the house which is from above till they be uncloathed of their earthly Tabernacle Therefore blessed be God that they must die For if they had hope only in this life they were of all people most miserable O that I could perswade the people of God to look upon death with a paire of Scripture-spectacles Death in it selfe considered is the King of terrors and of all terrible things most terrible It is as a fiery serpent with a biting and destroying sting But to you that are in Christ 〈…〉 all comfortable things most comfortable It is as a 〈◊〉 without a sting
It is as the brazen Serpent was to the Isralites not a hurting but a healing Serpent It is your birth-day The birth-day of heavens eternity It is not an annihilation or utter extinction of you but an {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Apostle Peter calls it A going out of Egypt into Canaan An {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Apostle Paul calls it An hoysing up as it were of the sailes for heaven a letting out the soul as a bird out of the cage of the body that it may fly to heaven An {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as old Simeon calls it a departure from earth to heaven a going from your own houses to your Fathers house a putting off of the ragges of mortalitie that you may be cloathed with the robes of immortality In a word It is an out-let to all misery and an in-let to perfect and perpetual happinesse It is sepultura laborum vitiorum lachrymarum The burying of all troubles sins and teares When a godly man dies homo non moritur sed peccatum hominis The man doth not die but the mans sins Nothing dies in him totally and finally but sin For the soul doth not die at all but goes to live with God in endlesse happiness And the body though turned to dust shall rise againe unto the resurrection of life and be made glorious like unto the glorious body of Jesus Christ But the bloody issue of sin is totally and finally dried up by death in every true childe of God Let all that feare the Lord comfort themselves against the feare of death with these considerations This is the second inference Doctrine 3. That rich great noble and honourable persons must die as well as others These all died Abraham a Lord and a mighty Prince or a Prince of God as he is called Gen. 23. 6. One who had three hundred and eighteen trained servants in his family Gen. 14. 14. One who was very rich in silver and gold and in cattel Gen. 13. 2. even he died And Isaac his Sonne and heire a person not only grâ—â—â— but very great even to the envy of those who dwelt near him as it is Gen. 26. 13 14. even he died And so did Jacob the grandchilde a man of honour and great renown one who is called a Prince and as a Prince had power with God and with men and prevailed over both These all died The Cardinal of Winchester commonly called the rich Cardinal who procured the death of the good Duke of Glocester in the raign of King Henry the sixth and was shortly after struck with an incurable disease when he understood by his Physitians that he could not live murmuring and repining thereat cried out Fie will not death be hired will money do nothing must I die that have so great riches If the whole realme of England would save my life I am able either by policy to get it or by riches to buy it But yet all would not availe to keep him from dying of the same disease What man is he that liveth saith David and shall not see death The Hebrew is What strong man liveth and shall not see death shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave What 's become of Alexander the great Pompey the great Charles the great Are they not all dead This day we have a sad example before us of the death of a very great and most Noble person Wise men die saith David as well as fools and great as well as small The mortal sithe saith one is Master of the Royal Scepter and it moweth down the lillies of the Crown as well as the grasse of the field These all died And die they must though never so unwilling I could tell a doleful story of a great man who when he saw there was no remedy but he must die cried out in a lamentable manner let me live the life of a toad rather than dye But yet he died And of another who when he saw he must die caused himselfe to be carried to the place where his baggs of gold and silver were and taking them up in his armes and hugging them was heard to say must you and I part but part they did though unwillingly Rich men and Noble-men must die whether willing or unwilling And when they die they must carry nothing out of the world with them Naked they came out of their mothers wombe and naked they must returne thither They brought nothing into this world and it is certaine they can carry nothing out And therefore when a rich man dies the ordinary saying is what hath he left behind him for he cannot carry any thing with him There is a famous story of Saladine the great Sultan of Egypt who when he was dying caused his coffin to be carried thorough the campe where all his souldiers were with this saying Saladinus totus Asiae Dominator ex tanto imperio tantisque opibus c. Saladine the great Ruler of all Asia of all his Empire and all his wealth carrieth nothing out of the world with him but his coffin and his winding sheet Death is the greatest of Levellers It levels the mountains with the valleyes The Skeletons and bones of great men have no inscriptions or titles of honour put upon them Diogenes told Alexander that he could finde no difference between the bones of his Father Philip and other mens bones When the Chesse-men are put into the bagge they are all alike There is no difference between the dust of an Earle and of a beggar The only use I shall make of this is To beseech those who are great in estate and in honours to remember that they must die as well as others Though they be as Gods upon earth yet they must dye like men It is no easie matter to perswade rich and noble persons to remember their mortality Lewis the eleventh King of France in his last sicknesse commanded his servants not to name the word Death unto him But when he saw there was no remedy he sent for the Holy water from Rhemes together with Aarons rod as they called it and other holy reliques thinking therewith to stop deaths mouth and to stave him off but it would not be O miser saith one thereupon hoc assidue timés quod semel faciendum est hoc times quod in tuä manu est ne timeas Pietatem assume superstitionem omitte mors tua vita erit quidem beata aeterna O miserable wretch why doest thou daily fear that which one day must come to passe why doest thou feare that which is in thy power not to feare leave off thy superstitions labour after true piety and then thy death will become life yea a most blessed and eternal life If I be not mistaken this was one reason why Ahashueroah would not suffer any cloathed with sackcloath
sufficient to prove that according to the mind of St. Austin none but the elect of God are in time effectually called and really justified and pardoned and made partakers of the holy Ghost and become real members of Christs body and therefore the effectually called and justified c. can no more fall away than the elect which all confesse to be under an impossibility of Apostacy in St. Austins judgment 2. Let me perswade you not only to beleeve but to practise the doctrine of perseverance For there are Divers learned men that are so much scandalized at the great Apostacy of some eminent professours in our unhappy dayes that they begin to be stagger'd and to doubt of the truth of the doctrine of Perseverance But these men forget the saying of the Apostle They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us For my part I conceive that these Reverend and learned men should rather doubt of the truth of their graces whom they see thus foully to A postatize than of the truth of the Doctrine of Perseverance But howsoever let us take heed of laying this stumbling block least by our practical Apostacy men should begin to turne Doctrinal Apostates Let us labour to dye well as well as to live well to continue and persevere in wel-doing It is the great commendation of the Saints in the text That they died in the faith These all dyed in faith Remember what Christ saith No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdome of God And what the Apostle Paul saith If any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him but we are not of them who draw back unto perdition c. And what the Apostle Peter saith It had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousnesse than after they have known it to turne from the holy commandment delivered to them c. Remember also Lots wife She did only look back she did not go back and yet she was turned into a pillar of salt As God hath fire and brimstone for a Sodomite so he hath a pillar of salt for an Apostate But why do you exhort us to persevere when as you tell us that if we be true Saints we cannot but persevere 1. We do not say it is simply and absolutely impossible for a Saint not to persevere For if you consider the Saints as they are in themselves and the mightinesse and multitude of their spiritual enemies it is impossible for them not to fall away But we say it is impossible upon supposition Considering the unchangeable nature of God and the unchangeable decree and purpose of God and the unchangeable Covenant promises and Oath of God in this respect we say it is impossible 2. Scripture exhortations are divine motives and meanes to perswade and enable the Saints to persevere and they are so farre from interfering with or nullifying of the promises of faith and perseverance that they are many of them built and grounded upon them Phil. 2. 12 13. 2 Cor. 7. 1. What meanes must I use that I may hold out and continue unto the end and not only live in the faith but also dye in it 1. Dig deep in humiliation The stony ground fell away for want of depth of earth Humility is the best preservative of grace The lower the foundation the surer the building Spiritual pride paves a causey to Apostacy A chesnut put whole into the fire will fly out It is the broken heart only that will persevere 2. Labour for sincerity and uprightness of heart As the firmnesse of a pillar is in the uprightnesse of it if once it begins to bow it will quickly break So the firmnesse and stability of a Christian is in his sincerity and uprightnesse Rottenness of heart betrayeth a man into Apostacy A rotten apple will quickly appeare so outwardly So will a rotten Christian If ever you would persevere take heed of making use of Religion for the promotion of your carnal interest He that serves God for an earthly Kingdome when he bath got what he sought for will forsake God as Jehu did He that followeth Christ only for the loaves will leave Christ when he hath got them 3. Labour for a tender conscience This will keep us from the least degree of Apostacy As hot water grow's cold by degrees first it is luke-warme before it is starke cold So a Christian declines into Apostacy by degrees Lots wife first lingred and then afterwards lookt back first we slack our pace in Religion then we stand still and at last turne back But now a tender conscience will keep us from the least abatement of zeale and forwardnesse in Religion 4. Be not high minded but feare I speak not of a feare of diffidence and distrustfulnesse but of a feare of diligence and watchfulnesse He that would be secure from feare let him feare to be secure Mr. Saunders by his feare of falling away kept himselfe from Apostacy whereas Dr. Pendleton by his notorious presumption and over-bold confidence fell away 5. Take heed least there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} will end in {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Apostacy is the child of unbelief Faith will set us upon a rock higher than us even such a rock against which the gates of hell shall never prevaile 6. Take heed of the inordinate love of the world and of the base feare of men The love of mony is reckoned by the Apostle as the root of all evil in general and more especially of Apostacy 1 Tim. 6. 10. Which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith c. And the base feare of men was the cause which made thousands Apostatize in Queen Maries bloody dayes And therefore if ever you would persevere you must labour to love God above your corruptions relations and possessions and to feare sin more than the losse of estate or life He that loves God above the world will never forsake God to gaine the world He that feares sin more than death will rather dye than sin 7. Pray unto God the Father Son and holy Ghost that they would uphold you and enable you not only to live but to dye in the faith Pray to the Father that he would keep you by his power through faith unto salvation that he would uphold you by his mighty hand and keep you from falling as it is Psalm 37. â—4 Psalm 94. 18. That he would put his feare in your hearts that you may never depart from him Pray to the Son that he would apprehend you and hold you so fast in his armes that none may pluck
A PATTERNE for all especially for Noble and Honourable Persons To teach them how to die Nobly and Honourably Delivered in a SERMON Preached at the solemne interment of the corps OF THE Right Honourable ROBERT EARLE of Warwick Who aged 70 died April 19. And was Honorably buried May 1. 1658. At Felsted in Essex By Edmund Calamy B. D. and Pastor of the Church at Aldermanbury Psal. 82. 6 7. I said Ye are Gods and all of you are children of the most High but you shall dye like men and fall like one of the Princes Rev. 14. 13. I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord c. Illius est nolle mori qui nolit ire ad Christum Aug. Nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus De imperatore Theodosio fertur magis se gaudere quod membrum Ecclesia Dei esset quam caput imperii Aug. Ultima verba morientis Grynnaei Ut nunc triste mori est sic dulce resurgere quondam Christus ut in vitâ sic quoque morte lucrum In terris labor est requies sed suavis in urnâ In summo venient gaudia summa Die LONDON Printed for Edward Brewster at the Crane in Pauls Church-yard 1658. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ROBERT EARLE of WARWICK Baron of Leeze Right Honourable THe noble favours which I received from your deceased father are so many that I can never sufficiently expresse them and I hope shall never be so ungrateful as to forget them The chiefest requital I can now make for them is to pray for your Lordship That as you are his heire and inherit his estate so you may also inherit his virtues And that whatsoever was good in him may live in you For as it is a happinesse when a sonne is descended from religious Ancestors he being hereby made partaker of their good counsels prayers and pious examples so also it is an invaluable blessing when a father hath religious and virtuous children It was a sad complaint of Augustus O that I had lived a Bachelor or dyed childlesse And concerning Marcus Aurelius Antoninus that he had been perfectly happy had he not begotten such a wicked sonne as Commodus was And that he did injure his country in nothing but in being the father of such an ungodly child Hoc solo patriae quod genuit nocuit Some children are blots and blemishes to their Parents as Manasseh was to Hezekiah My prayer for your Lordship is that you may be an honour glory and crown of rejoycing to your Family and by your godly and virtuous life make your Father though dead to enjoy a kind of happiness upon earth while you live And that you may embalme his memory to posterity by the spices and sweet odours of your godly life and conversation It ought not to be forgotten but for ever to be remembred That your Lordship may not unfitly be called the Lords Passeover For when he took away by death your only sonne and heire he passed over you and instead of the Father took to himselfe the Grand-father This remarkable Providence is alone sufficient to teach you to pass the time of your sojourning here in feare and to purge out the old leaven of sinne and iniquitie that you may be a new lump of sincerity and truth and thereby have an undoubted interest in Christ your Passeover who was sacrificed for you This ensuing Sermon was preached at your Fathers funeral and it is now dedicated to your Lordship as yours by birth-right and by many other obligations It will much conduce if put in practice for the encouraging of you in wayes of holiness and righteousness For it teacheth wherein true Nobility doth consist and that nothing makes a man truely noble but pietie and godlinesse Sinne defiles a person and makes him vile and loathsome though otherwise never so honourable David calls a sinner a vile person and his sonne Solomon calls him a loathsome person Antiochus the great because of his wickednesse is stiled by Daniel a vile person Sinne makes us not only like unto dogs vipers and swine but unto devils Nay Sin makes us devils Christ himselfe calls Judas a devil and saith Revelations◠10. The devil shall cast some of you into prison c. meaning thereby wicked and devilish men He that is a slave to his lusts is base and ignoble though a King or Emperour Nobilitie without virtue is but as a scarlet roabe upon a leaprous body A true Christian is of a noble extraction He is the adopted Sonne of God brother to Jesus Christ heire of God and co-heire with Christ He is partaker of the divine nature and without all controversie the Noblest man in the world The Lord give you grace to believe this that as you are nobly borne in reference to your earthly extraction so you may be borne from above and borne of God in reference to your heavenly original This Sermon will likewise instruct your Lordship how to dye nobly and honourably And that is to dye in the faith He that dyes in his sinnes must of necessity be condemned for his sinnes but he that dyes with a true faith in Jesus Christ shall certainly live for ever in heaven with Christ It will teach you to build your Sepulchre in your earthly Paradises and in the midst of your pleasures to remember your latter end This will be a golden bridle to keep you from unlawful and to moderate the use of lawful pleasures It sets before you a double patterne for your imitation The lives of the ancient and religious Patriarcks and many commendable and praise-worthy things in your Fathers life And if your Lordship will endeavour to write after these excellent copies and live as they lived you will be happy both in life and death which that you may be is and shall be the prayer of My Lord Your humble servant in Christ Jesus EDMUND CALAMY A SERMON Preached at the Funeral OF THE Right Honourable ROBERT EARLE of WARWICK Heb. 11. 13. These all dyed in Faith THese words are a description of the constancy and perseverance of the Old Testament Saints in holinesse notwithstanding all the difficulties and discouragements they met with They did not only live in the faith but they continued in it till death and dyed in the same faith in which they lived All these dyed in the faith In the words we have two parts First The persons mentioned Secondly The things mentioned concerning these persons 1. The persons mentioned these all That is as some would have it all the forementioned Saints Abel Noah Abraham Sarah c. except Enoch who dyed not and yet continued in the faith and in that faith was taken up These all But I conceive that the Holy Ghost principally and directly intends only such of the forenamed Saints who were heirs of the land of promise and sojourned in Canaan as in a
strange Country These all That is all those who lived in the second world after the flood Abraham and Sarah Isaac and Jacob the Husband and the Wife the Father the Son and the Grandchild These all 2. The things mentioned concerning these persons 1. It is said they dyed These all dyed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Though they lived long and many score of years longer than we now do yet they dyed at last Though they were very godly and religious persons though very noble and honourable persons yet they dyed These all dyed 2. It is said That they dyed in faith {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} They died according to the faith in which they lived {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is here put for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as ver. 9. 11 17. They died according to the faith that is in the faith in â—ide seu â—ide seu per fidem If you would know what this faith was in which they died you must take notice of what followeth in the text not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that c. God had promised that the Messias should come of their seed and that in him all the nations of the world should be blessed God had promised that he would give them the land of Canaun and not only an earthly but an heavenly Canuan Now all these died perswaded of the truth of these promises embracing or as the Greek word signifieth kissing them They saw them afar off and beleeved them Even as a Mariner that hath been long at sea when he seeth afar off the desired haven claps his hands and skips for joy So did these holy men By the prospective glasse of faith they saw the performance of that which came not to passe till foure hundred years after and rejoyced in it as if already fulfilled They died in the faith of the Messias beleeving not only that he should come in the flesh but expecting salvation and life everlasting by him only They died perswaded of salvation by Christ and embracing saluting and kissing the Lord Jesus They died in the faith of the promised land of Canaan and they died looking waiting and resting upon God in Christ for a better country which is an heavenly ver. 16. In a word they died beleeving they should go to that City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God ver. 10. This was that blessed happy and noble close and end of daies which these godly and honourable Patriarks made These all dyed in faith From the words thus expounded I shall gather these following inferences Doctrine 1. That though a man liveth never so long yet he must die at last These all dyed though they lived long Abraham lived one hundred seventy five years Isaac one hundred eightie Jacob one hundred fourtie seven and yet died at last Before the flood some lived seven hundred others eight hundred others nine hundred years but it is added as the common Epitaph of them all Mortuus est he dyed Gen. 5. 8 14 17 20 31. Death is the haven of every man whether King or beggar rich or poor Death is the gulfe which will swallow us all up Length of time cannot prescribe against death The longest day will have a night and the longest life a death This life is nothing else but prolixitas mortis as one saith or tendentia ad mortem A lingring kind of death or a pacing or journeying to death Some have a longer journy than others but all must come to their journies end at last There is a statute in heaven for it Heb. 9. 27. It is appointed for all men once to dye And death is called the house appointed for all living Job 30. 23. And the way of all the earth 1 King 2. 2. All flesh is grass Isa. 40. 6. Now then if they who lived so long died at last much more must we who are dwarfes in years in comparison of them and who are nearer death when first borne than some of them were when an hundred years old Let me beseech you frequently solemnly and seriously to consider That though we live never so long and labour by physick and temperate diet and wholesome aire to prolong our lives yet we must die at last As the King of Persia told Constantine the Emperour when he had shewed him all the wealth of Rome These are indeed saith he wonderful things which you shew me but I plainiy see that as in Persia so in Rome also men are subject to death For dust we all are and to dust we must all returne We must say to corruption thou art my Father and to the worme thou art my Mother and my sister We have here no abiding City As we had a day to come into the world so we shall have a day to go out of it The nature of man is wonderful prone to dreame of an eternal abode and of a lasting happiness here upon earth Saint Austin tells us of certain hereticks called Aeternales because they held the world to be eternal We have many such Eternalists who phancy to themselves a kind of eternitie here upon earth and are ready to say with the rich foole in the Gospel Soul take thy ease eat drink and be merry thou hast goods laid up for many years and in the mean time forget what God said to him Thou foole this night thy soul shall be required of thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided It is said of wicked men Psalm 49. 11. Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling places to all generations c. They are ashamed to utter any such thing but their inward thought is that they shall abide for ever Then it followeth ver. 13. This their way is their folly yet their posteritie approve their sayings Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not c. Though he thinks he shall abide yet neither he nor his heires shall be continued but he shall be like the beasts that perish Therefore we had all need to pray Davids prayer Lord make me to know mine end and the measure of my dayes what it is that I may know how fraile I am There are few who know practically and applicatively how fraile they are Most men say they are mortal magis usu quam sensu more out of custome than feeling for they live as if their lives were riveted upon eternitie and as if they should never come to a reckoning Heu vivunt homines tanquam mors nulla sequatur Aut velut infernus fabula vana foret Let us supplicate unto God That he would teach us effectually to remember our frailtie and to consider that there will come a dying time and that it
to enter his Courtgates least his excessive mirth and jollity should be damped and interrupted by the sad thought of death The wise man tells us O death how bitter is thy memory to one who hath great possessions And indeed if the not thinking of death could free you from the stroak of death it were worth the while not to think of death But whether you think of it or not death will come and by not remembring of it your lives prove to be full of abominations and death is made a trap-door to let you down into eternal damnation And therefore let me beseech you to imitate Philip King of Macedon who appointed a boy every morning to come to him and to say to him Remember thou art a man and must die And the Emperors of Constantinople who on their Coronation day had a Mason appointed to present unto them certaine marble stones using these ensuing words Elige ab his saxis ex quo invictissime Caesar Ipse tibi tumulum me fabricare velis Choose mighty Sir under which of these stones Your pleasure is ere long to lay your bones Or if you will have a Scripture-example Let me beseech you to imitate that rich and great person Joseph of Arimathea who built his Sepulchre in his garden In the midst of all your pleasures and pastimes remember you must shortly leave them It was a wise speech of Charles the fifth to the Duke of Venice who when he had shewed him the glory of his Princely Palace and earthly Paradise instead of admiring it or him for it only returned him this grave and serious memento Haec sunt quae faciunt nos invitos mori These are the things which make us unwilling to die To prevent this unwillingnesse build your Sepulchres in your earthly Paradises and remember that you must very shortly die and that after death comes judgement And that you must all appeare before the tribunal seat of Christ to give a strict and impartial account of whatsoever you have done in the flesh whether it be good or evil Let great men remember That great and small must stand before the great God of heaven and earth at the great day of judgement and that their greatnesse will nothing at all availe them at that day Greatnesse without goodnesse will be but as a great fagot to burne them the more in hell They that are great in place and greater in sin shall have great damnation Where God hath bestowed great benefits if they be accompanied with great iniquities God will plague them with great punishments It is said Rev. 6. 15 16. The Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captaines and the mightie men c. hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains And said to the mountains and rocks Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb c. Therefore let rich men labour to be righteous as well as rich and great men to be good as well as great for riches without righteousnesse is but as a golden jewel in a swines snout and greatnesse without goodnesse is but as the greatnesse of a man sick of the dropsie which is not his happiness but his disease Remember Abraham who though he was a Lord and a mightie Prince yet he was also a friend of Gods and the Father of the faithful Though he was rich in gold and silver yet he was richer in faith and obedience And though he had three hundred and eightteen trained servants in his house yet he was exactly carefull to traine them all up in the wayes and Commandements of God And remember Jacob and how God himselfe changed his name and called him Israel because he wrestled with God and as a Prince had power with God and man and by prayers and teares prevailed over them When greatnesse and goodnesse meet together it is like apples of gold in pictures of silver It is as an embroidery upon an embroidery And therefore let great men labour to be good men The more you have of holiness the fitter you will be for happiness The more you have of grace the fitter you will be for glory This is the third inference Doctrine 4. That it is not enough for a Christian to live in the faith but he must also die in the faith This text takes notice of the constancy and perseverance of these holy men They persevered in the faith unto the end maugre all oppositions and temptations to the contrary They did live in the faith and continued living in the faith and as they lived so they died These all dyed in faith Perseverance in grace is maximum donum Dei saith Austin the greatest of Gods gifts or graces without which no other gift or grace will availe unto salvation Therefore Christ saith he that endureth to the end shall be saved And be thou faithful unto the death and I will give thee the crown of life No grace will make us worthy to obtaine the crown of glory but perseverance he that would go to heaven must not only live well but die well Though a man continue never so long in holinesse yet if he fall away before his death all his righteousnesse that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his trespasse that he hath trespassed and in his sin that he hath sinned in them shall he dye If Methuselah who lived nine hundred sixty nine years had fallen away from grace the last year of his life he had been undone for ever Wherefore my beloved brethren let me beseech you not only to beleeve but to persevere in beleeving not only to be holy but to persevere in holinesse and as the Apostle saith To perfect holinesse in the feare of God The Greek word is to finish holinesse The beauty glory and goodness of every thing is when it is finished A garment till it be finished is of no use nor a shop nor a house till finished A house halfe built and halfe unbuilt is good for nothing The excellency of a Christian is not only to be holy but to finish holinesse not only to have a good beginning but a happy closure and conclusion of his life This is a necessary lesson in this Apostatizing age wherein so many sons of the morning and children of high illumination are fallen into the darknesse of sin and errour and many who in outward appearance were as fixt starres are now proved falling starres in so much that if Mr. Fox were alive againe he would see cause rather to write a book of Apostates than a book of Martyrs And there are also some risen up amongst us who being many of them Apostatized themselves begin to preach the Doctrine of the Apostacy of the Saints Give me leave therefore to perswade you 1. To be rooted and established in the
to hell instead of lifting him up to heaven It is faith unfaigned the faith of Gods elect the faith which worketh by lovâ— which will make the houre of death desireable and comfortable And let me adde That you must not only labour to die with a true faith but with a full assurance of faith not only to die belâ—eving but fully assured that your faith is of a right stamp This is a heaven upon earth This will put you into heaven before you come to heaven This will cause you to die rejoycingly and triumphantly as Stephen did when he saw the heavens opened and Christ standing at the right hand of God ready to receive him And as old Simeon did with Christ in your spiritual armes and singing a Nunc dimittis Now Lord let thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation This then is thy great work O Christian industriously to endeavour that when thou comest to die thou mayest die in the true doctrine and true grace of faith and in the full assurance of faith that so thou mayst have an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ But what must I do that I may be able to make this gallant and noble end He that would die in the faith must first live in the faith For if you observe it it is not said in the text that all without limitation died in faith But all these that is all those who lived in the faith died in the same faith in which they lived These blessed Patriarks had not their faith to get when they came to die but they had got it in health They lived a holy life and died a happy death Life and death for the most part are like the voyce and the echo the body and the shadow Such as the voyce is such is the echo Such as the body is such is the shadow Qualis vita finis ita If we would die happily we must live holily If we would die gloriously we must live graciously If we would go to Christ when we die we must get into Christ while we live If we would die with assurance we must while we live labour to get assurance Woe be to those who have their faith to get when they are dying that begin to amend their lives when they are putting an end to them Woe be to those who begin to serve God when they can do him no service That begin to live when they are ceasing to live And sad is the condition of those who have their evidences and comforts to seek when they are going out of the world And yet I will not absolutely deny as some rashly do but that it is possible for a man to live a thiefe and die a Saint to live wickedly and to repent at death We have one and but one example of this But this is not Gods ordinary way and if I had ten thousand souls I would not adventure one of them upon a death-bed repentance We must not think to dance with the Devil all day and to sup with Christ at night To live all our life-time in Dalilah's lap and to go to Abrahams bosome when we die The ordinary way to die well is to live well In a word If you would die as Abraham did you must live as he did you must imitate Abrahams faith obedience and heavenly-mindednesse If you would die as Jacob did you must wrastle with God in prayer as he did If you would partake of their happinesse when you die you must be followers of their holinesse while you live This is the fifth inference Doctrine 6. That it is an unvaluable blessing when husband and wife Father and child and childs child live and die in the true faith These all died in faith Not only some of them but all Abraham the husband and Sarah his wife Abraham the Father and Isaac his Son and Jacob his Grand-child All these died in the faith Behold a true noble blood a holy kindred a blessed generation Worthy is Abraham of all honour who was the roote of such a noble and blessed brood And worthy are Isaac and Jacob of so good a Father who stained not their blood by forsaking their faith but held it as they received it and lived and died in the true faith handed to them by their Father Behold here you that are great in place and birth behold I say wherein true Nobility and Gentry doth consist and what is the fountaine of all true honour It is to live and die in the true faith In this faith Abraham died and Isaac his son and heire did not only inherit his fathers estate but his fathers Religion also And Jacob the Grand-child follows both his father and grand-father and dieth in the same faith with them Behold here Jacob a true Gentleman in blood His holinesse and Religion is in the third descent Let great men learn to adorne their Gentility and Nobility with these ensignes of true honour It is a rare blessing when there is a succession of godlinesse in a family when godlinesse is entailed upon children and childrens children When a man can say to God as Moses O God thou art my God and my Fathers God and my Grand-Fathers God There are many families in which there is a succession of drunkards swearers and adulterers c. in which sin and iniquity is entailed of whom it may be said my father was an adulterer a drunkard a scoffer at Religion so was my grand-father and so am I This is a sad pedegree O labour for a holy succession Let Parents write a faire copy to their children let them live and dye in the true faith and let children learne to follow such a copy Let husbands be patternes and examples of godlinesse to their wives and let wives follow their good examples Let wives imitate Sarah Parents Abraham and children Isaac and Jacob Let us and ours so live that when we come to die it may be said of us not that we died in our sins but as it is in the text that we died in the faith These all died in faith I have done with the text But there is another text of which I must of necessity speak something And that is concerning the sad occasion of our meeting here this day Give me leave to speak to you in the language of David concerning Abner Know you not that there is a Prince a great man fallen this day in Israel and in the language of the children of Seth concerning Abraham A Lord and a mighty Prince is this day to be buried One who had so much worth and excellency in him that whosoever will undertake to speak of him needs not feare as Nazianzen saith of his sister Gorgonia least he should speaâ— too much but rather least he should speak too little and by coming so farre beneath his due deserts should dispraise him even