THE RIGHTEOVS MANS HOPE IN HIS DEATH IN A SERMON AT THE Funerall of Mr WILLIAM CONYE of Walpoole Justice of Peace and Captain over the Trained Band in Marshland PREACHED By JOHN HORNE Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ at Soushlyn in Norfolke 2 do May 1648. 2 SAMUEL 14.14 For we must needs die and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again neither doth God respect any person yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him ISAIAH 57.1 2. The righteous is taken away from the evil to come He shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds each one walking in his uprightnesse Cum constet deresurrectione mortuorum vacat dolor mortis vacat impatientia doloris Tertul. de Patientia Quinto major fides tanto morsest imbecillior Luth. LONDON Printed for Tho. Vnderhill 1649. To the Author of the Sermon IN Achor's vale Thou op'st a Door of Hope The Heart enlarg'd may well behold Thy scope The strong Devourer is by Thee made sweet We see the Eater is become mans meat The Faithfull die their fear of death is past In hope they live These dead thou lead'st to rest J.A. On the death of William Conye Esq Justice of the Peace and Captain at Wars Who being dead yet speaketh Heb. 11.4 OH living man would'st by death gain Learn Christ who did thy death sustain That so when Death Thy Life shall end Thou maist in Life with Christ Ascend Thy losse of friends becomes thy gain When God thy friend thou do'st obtain Then Pattern-like Be taught of me Let Christ thy life yet living be By sin came death yet liveth he Who conquer'd death to succour thee J.A. Or Thus. The Bush on fire is still preserv'd Mans life in death is yet conserv'd The Angels food Mans bread Christ is This Captain slew our death by his His bonds makes free his death brings life Our shame through Christ works glory rife Christ's Grace gains Faith Man hopes glory Sure 's God 's word myst'ry and stlory Vain man I Why fearest death in vain Christ is risen Beleeve and reign J.A. The CONTENTS Doctrines 1. That Righteous men die 1. The leverall kindes of death 1. Eternall which is a perishing from the presence of the Lord The second death 2. Spirituall Dead in sins strangers from the life of God Taken in an ill sease Dead to the Law to a mans self Thus taken in a good sense 3. Temporall see sin Inchoate In deaths often The shadow of death Censummate An utter sepatation of the soul from the body 2. The reasons of the Righteous mans dying 1 From the frail and mortall nature about them 2 From Satan and this world haters of them 3. From sin that cleaves so fall to them 4. From the Ordinance of God upon them That all men must die 5. For right ends to them 1. To humble the righteous by death 2. To make them seek salvation out of death through Christ 3. That the glory of Christ in raising them out of death may appear 4. That death may put an end to all their evils 5. That dying the righteous may enter into life and glory 2. That the Righteous hath hope in his death And therein consider 1. The difference of the Righteous mans hope from other mens hopelesse of life or senselesse of death 2. Who is the Righteous man 3. Divers sorts of Righteousnesse 1. Of a mans own and of works Morall Legall 2. Of God Of saith 4. Gods goodnesse done for man and his truth said to man cals for mans trust and hope towards God 5. What is this hope of a Righteous man 1. The severall objects of his hope Christ And other things through Christ 2. The grounds of his hope 1. Christs sufferings for man the ground of mans righteousnesse with God 2. Christs resurrection out of death the ground of mans hope of life 3. The efficacy of his hope the Righteous mans hope dies not It lives in his death 6. The blessed memory of this deceased Righteous man and of his hope in his death Application 1. The Righteousnesse of God is to be taken notice of and not to be slighted 2. All men ought to fellow this righteousnesse of God and not faint for sufferings 3. These followers are to go on in the way of righteousnesse The righteous not to die in their affections for death it self but to have hope in their death THE RIGHTEOVS MANS HOPE IN HIS DEATH The Text. PROV 14.32 The Righteous hath hope in his death NOt to spend time in unnecessary prefacing because we shall finde matter enough in the words to take up all this little time allotted us There are two Propositions couched in the Text to which I shall desire as briefly and yet as clearly as I may to speak viz. 1. That even Righteous men also are liable to death 2. That the Righteous have hope in their death The truth of the former of these is not only a matter of faith but is evident to sense also as the Scriptures tell us Heb 9.17 It 's appointed to man once to die So we see the wise and the foolish the righteous and the wicked both are subject thereto and in that regard all things come alike to all The most famous for righteousnesse have yielded unto death Abraham is â—â—nd and the Prophets are dead yea Christ himself yielded up the Ghost and died so that we shall not spend time about the proof of that point only I shall desire to unfold the severall acceptions of the word death and see in which of them this is found true that the righteous comes unto death and so see the latitude in which this Text may be taken and then shew whence and upon what grounds it comes to passe that the righteous also die and so proceed to the next particular The word death is diversly used in Scripture As We reade of a second death Rev. 20 6. 〈◊〉 Thes 17.8 9 Mâ—â—â— 25 4â— a perishing from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power a being thrown into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his Angels But of this death the text is not to be understood for this is none of the righteous mans death it 's not appointed for him nor he for it nor shall he come into it nor is it a death in which any hope may be had this is indeed the righteous mans hope that he shall not see this death but be preserved and kept from it as it is said Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection for on such the second death shall have no power Rev. 20.6 And of this that saying of our Saviour is to be understood that he that beleeves in him shall not taste death Joh 8 52. 2. Death is sometimes taken for a more spirituall death or a death in the spirit of a man only not in the body as when men are said
then other things so will it be a brighter demonstration of the wisdom and power of God and that in which he shall be more admired then in other things When I have opened your graves and brought you out from them and put the spirit of life into you that looked upon your selves as dry ones past all hope of life saith God to the house of Israel Ezek. 7.11 12 then shall you know that I am the Lord then emphatically then more fully and clearly so as to acknowledge and to admire it and give glory to me c. 4. That they might not be alwaies under evill he orders this for their good as well as for his own glory for his glory in their good and great mercy and goodnesse it is to them to be taken away from the face of evill as the phrase is in Isa 57.1 2. Mipna baragna◠2 Pet. 2.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a facie mali here they live amongst an evill generation of wicked men that vex and disquiet their righteous souls as the Sodomites did righteous Lot men that oppose and blaspheme God in his way truth spirit c. and daily plot and conspire the ruine of the just and these evill men make the times evill and dangerous partly by corrupting the truth of God and bringing in dangerous errours and partly by their oppressions cruelties malice fraud and other enormities which provoke God to send plagues pestilences famine and sword and such like sore judgements for such things the godly mourn and sigh and their lives are full of bitternesse now though God see it good to try and exercise his people with these things as in a furnace yet these are not his peoples portion out of very love and faithfullnesse therefore he will take them from the face of these evils either before judgements come that they may not see and be perplexed with them as he intimates unto Hezekiah 2 King 2.28 2 when he threatned sore judgements upon the people he would first take him away and he should have peace in his daies or else out of them that they be not overburthened with them here they are tossed too and fro with troubles hated reproached persecuted wearied out almost with labours and sorrows in and for the Gospel and name of Christ and for their just conversations with men and therefore God out of compassion will take them away by death in due season and give them rest as it follows they shall enter into peace Isa 57. ◠they shall rest in their beds each one walking in his uprightnesse Should any man be here alwaies continued his life would be a very unsupportable burthen to him how much more the righteous who have usually a deeper share in troubles here then other men 5. He orders death to them that putting off this earthly mashy tabernacle they might be brought to a more full enjoyment of Jesus Christ and so of himself in him here their enjoyments of God are lower and more intermixt they are letted by this bodily grossenesse from seeing or receiving so much of him as their spirits in more spirituall bodies are capable of no man can see God and live and yet the happinesse of the soul stands in the sight and fruition of God which that they might have more fully he takes them out of these bodies to his Son 2 Cor. 5.6 while we sojourn in the body we are absent from the Lord we are here as strangers in a forraign countrey where we have no city to continue in Heb. 13.14 2 Cor. 5.8 but when we are taken out of the body we shall be at home we shall be nearer to Christ and have a greater enjoyment of him whence death is great advantage to the righteous and Paul desired it rather then life I desire saith he to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1.21 23. for that is far better for me c. For these and such like good and gracious ends God hath ordered death to the righteous which I have but briefly spoken to desiring to passe to the main thing in the text the second thing observed which is indeed the full expression of the text it self viz. That the righteous hath hope in his death Propos 2. That is he sinks not under it but lives in death his spirit lives when his body dies he is saved from the terrour of death by the hope he hath of a better life and so not only sees not the second death or comes not into it but misseth also the sting and bitterness that many through ignorance and unbelief meet with in the first death he feels a spirituall life in the midst of a spirituall and in the midst of a corporall death too When his spirit dies to himself and to the world so that it findes nothing in the one nor in the other to support comfort or chear him but sees all in himself polluted and sinfull his very works of righteousnesse too short and scanty to cover him from wrath and vengeance and all in the world vain yea vanity it self and full of bitternesse and vexation in both nothing but death yet even then in Christ he findes sweetnesse life and satisfaction he findes him living bread and feeds upon him as the most ample glorious witnesse and manifestation of Gods love and in feeding there he lives I am crucified with Christ saith the Apostle that is to himself and to his own best endeavours though after Law and to the world with all its excellencies and yet saith he I live and yet that was passively he not actively but Christ lives in me and the life that I live in the flesh is by the saith of the Son of God c. As for other men take away their comforts in the world and confidence they have in themselves and you undoe them they die despair and perish but the just shall live by faith and so it is with him in the midst of dangers and of bodily death he hath such a hope as saves supports him and bears him up in the worst times and conditions he hath hope in death and in that he hath hope he differs from two sorts of people as in the nature and quality of his hope he differs from others from these two 1. From those that are driven away in their wickednesse with wrath Pro. 14 3◠as in the former part of the verse such as the guilt of sin in their consciences and sence of vengeance hurries away to desperation and makes them like the chaff driven away with the winde Psal 1.4 so that they cannot stand in death when they apprehend Gods hand lifted up against them but sink down into hell unbelief and terrour 2. From those that though they are not so hurried away in a tempest as being past hope yet when they die they are like stones as was Nabal or as it 's to be ferred some do that the people use to say die
rightly fetcheth in all this good to the soul the ground of it being of that pretiousnesse in it self and acceptablenesse with God as doth cause these fruits to spring from it and put an everlastingnesse into them the vertue and goodnesse of the righteousnesse of mans hope in God springs from the goodnesse of the spring and rise of it The Pharisee hoped for great things from God Luk. 18.9 10. as that God would accept him and account him righteous and deal with him as a righteous man ah but his hope was naught because it sprung from a wrong foundation it sprung from his own goodnesse and good performances which he conceived to be the effects of Gods love towards him he knew nothing of love to him in God before his good performances to spring them up in him but he concludes now that God did love him from his good performances God I thank thee that I am not as other men are he thought that he could not have been so good as he was if God had not had speciall and eternall love and favour towards him But the righteous mans hope grows upon another root he first heard of and was perswased of Gods love towards him in the promised seed the gift of Jesus Christ for him while a sinner and ungody and the belief of this Gods love in him brings him in to beleeve in him and hope in him he therefore hopes and expecteth that God will support and carry him through death and bring him to such glorious injoyment of eternall life as hath been mentioned yea to greater glory then can be mentioned because he sees and beleeves that he hath already in Christ prevented him with his love in whom death is abolished life and immortality brought to light sin satisfied for law fulfilled eternall redemption obtained God well pleased that man should have eternall life and to that end hath put it in his Son and put it upon his Son to bestow and give it to every one that leans upon his grace and submits to beleeve on him for it to which end also he sees in the Gospel and in his heart beleeves that God hath given his Son infinite glory power and authority to subdue whatever in the Beleever or without him would hinder him of his glory appointed him judge of quick and dead to forgive and pardon all sins to all that by his goodnesse are brought to him to give them his good Spirit preserve them in trials come again and raise them out of death and make their vile bodies like his own glorious body and in the issue possesse them with himself and of his own glory for the effecting all which in and for him the righteous man judges and beleeves him both able and faithfull in which hope he is confirmed by the experiments of the divine grace calling and quickning him and from this free-grace in Christ which brings the soul to do righteousnesse in beleeving on him and so leads it to the enjoyment of Christ for righteousnesse with God springs up in his most dying condition this hope of the glory and further grace before expressed And so we have done with the explication of those two things propounded and so with the explicatory work about the proposition It remains that we come next to the confirmation of it For confirmation of this point I shall only do these two things 1. Shew that it hath been so with righteous men in former ages such as the Scripture mentions and 2. Shew that this our deceased Friend and Brother as others of this place before him found it so 1. Scripture instances of the cloud of witnesses produced therein prove this to be true That the righteous hath hope in his death It mentions a large catalogue of Worthies that lived and died in faith though they received not the promises I never see the righteous faith David forsaken Psa 37.25 Why then not in death neither God hath given them hope in that too How sweetly sung old Jacob when he breaths forth this confession in the midst of his blessings Gen 49.18 I have waited O Lord for thy salvation So David when in great danger of death many conspiring to take away his life see how his heart then hoped in God I said O Lord thou art my hope my times are in thine hand Psal 31.15.19 And a little before his giving up of the Ghost how sweet are his expressions 2 Sam. 23.3 4 5. These are the last words of David David the son of Jesse said the man that was raised up on high The anointed of the God of Jacob and the sweet Psalmist of Israel said the spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue the God of Israel said the Rock of Israel spake to me He that ruleth over men must be just ruling in fear of God and he shall be as the light of the morning when the sun rises a morning without cloud as the tender grasse springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow Sweet expressions of assured confidence flowing from Gods love in his covenant with him whereof Christ is the Mediator if not rather the summe and contents of it and yet these were the expressions of a dying righteous man Act. 13.3 4. Job 19.25 26 27. What should I mention Job whose voice it was in the midst of distresse I know that my redeemer liveth and he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God Whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my reins be consumed within me A glorious triumph over death in the midst of deaths 2 Tim 4.8 I shall add no more from Scripture but that of Paul Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of life which God the righteous Judge shall give me All which instances are evident witnesses of this truth That the righteous hath hope in his death To which I might also have added the constant confessions and sweet hopefull expressions of many Martyrs but I passe them over for brevity and so come 2. To this our Friend and Brother decased he was another instance of and witnesse to this truth as all that were eye and ear witnesses of his carriage in his sicknesse will affirm For though he was known and noted to be a man naturally of a timerous and fearfull disposition afraid of dangers yet such the more abundant operation of the grace of God in him in his sicknesse and at his death he was nothing at all afraid of death though the king of terrour nay so far was he from fearing it that it was his desire to be dissolved and to
not you have great encouragement in the consideration of what hath been said to persevere to the death and not shrink back because of persecutions reproaches threatnings or the fear of death It is true indeed you are exposed to the wrath and malice of men there are many especially at this time that conspire and plot against us we may see and hear how they band themselves together and strengthen themselves in mischief to root out from the earth if it were possible those that fear God and desire to walk with him it is at such their aim is most and their envy and all their plots and designs are most against such persecutions of the tongue you meet with and should do of the hand too if they might have their will they thirst after our bloud and perhaps the sight of this might almost strike a damp into some spirits that have begun to look to God and make them begin to think of going back again from him but O my friends let it not be so with you you have no cause for all these things to be affrighted for your lives are not in their hands that are your enemies they may talk great things this they will do and that they will do cut our throats knock us on the head be our deaths but we see God permits them not to do so they did so conspire against David but he comforted himself in this my times are in thine hand Psal 31.11 O Lord and so may we till our times be come they can do no hurt as it is said of Christ when they lay in wait for him and sought to kill him they were many a time frustrated and put by because his hour was not yet come though they may have opportunities to harm us yet God ties their hands and strikes a fear into their hearts not a hair of our heads shall they pluck from off us Mat. 10 30. till God give them permission Therefore fear not for the threats of men nor for the wickednesse of those that in stead of receiving the grace of God preached by us seek to reward our good will with mischieving us Luk. 21.18 plot to destroy us in doing righteousnesse we have God on our sides who will faithfully protect us we have seen him many a time befooling them and sometimes taking them in their own snares blowing them up when they had subtilly undermined us and thought to have destroied us How many times have they thought themselves sure of our downfall when they themselves have fallen we have risen and stood upright though we have been so imperfect in righteous doing that for our unbelief and follies God might most justly have given us up to their rage yet such hath been his goodnesse and faithfullnesse to us that to break us off from our waies more and to encourage us to righteousnesse he hath known us in our adversities and evermore stood by us to defend us and we have cause to hope in him yet that whatsoever their hopes and expectations are however great their power and however subtle their policies however strong their confederacies and combinations to do wickednesse God will yet defeat them and preserve us Well but suppose he should leave us to their hands as there may be an hour for the power of darknesse over us Luk. 22 53. Rev. 11 7 8. as well as there was to Christ yet what of that shall we turn from our righteousnesse sure there would be no cause for that for what can they do unto us They can but kill the body and the body must die Eccles 8.8 And though for righteousnesse sake it do not die so soon as probably it might yet such have all died who to avoide death have turned from righteousnes Neither shall wickednes deliver those that are given to it And truly friends to die in and for righteous doing is far better then to die in denying it and without it you see righteousnesse gives hope in death and delivers from the sting and poyson that some meet with in it Alas if you turn from righteousnesse you turn from God and from Christ and from hope of eternall life Ezek. 33.12 and what is then to be met with but guilt and horrour of conscience in death despair and after death eternall vengeance what advantage is it to live a little longer in this world and in the mean time to have the soul dead to hope and dead to God Therefore hold fast your righteousnesse be not ashamed of God and Christ and of his name and truth while you cleave to righteousnesse God will be sure to cleave to you and support you so that death shall be but as a dream to you the hope your souls meet with in and from God shall render death little or nothing fearfull or dreadfull to you yea in him your souls shall finde joy in death God whom ye beleeve on and confesse will be your God and guide unto death and his grace embraced by you will fill you with joy and gladness with peace and quietness in the midst of death you shall experiment with this our brother and all the Saints of God that have abidden in faith and held fast their confidence the truth of what you have now heard that the righteous hath hope in his death For that hopes sake go on couragiously in the path of righteousnesse and fear not what persecutions and death can do unto you Consider what hath been said and the Lord give us all understanding in all things Laus Deo
beleeve and close with his sayings that they being intertained Christ himself to whom they bear witnesse and whom they set forth may be beleeved on come to and received into the heart he may be entertained into the fouls affection desire delight confidence c. that so he that is Gods righteousnesse provided for us and given unto us being received and entertained thou mai'st in him be presented righteous to God and filled with the fruits of righteousnesse both toward God and men that so thou having of the spirit of Christ within thee it may lead teach support and comfort thee and in the midst of dangers yea and of death it self fill thee with a lively hope of life and glory Friends do righteously in beleeving the word of God and looking to Christ by faith be not enemies to your selves by heeding lying vanites put not away from you your own mercies run not desperately through a spirit of envy or malice or through worldlinesse pride presumption Atheisme loosenesse into your own destruction What good will you get to your selves in the issue by being wicked by being envious against the Gospel and grace of God by quarrelling against and resisting the truth by scorning contemning hating and reproaching them that out of love and good will preach and hold it forth to you by rejecting the testimony of God and closing with every vain phantasie by which you think your selves strengthened against it whom do you fight against in opposing the word of God is it not against God himself and is it not against your own good Do you not endeavour thereby to pervert your own waies to make his grace and goodnesse questionable as concerning your selves and so put your selves from having the word of God the ground of your faith to fetch the ground of it from some blinde conjectures and good conceits of your selves Oh stand not in your own light neglect not so great salvation as is set before you nor rest in such a notion all profession of truth as leaves the soul destitute of the power of truth such a consent to it and profession of it as yet leaves the soul unrighteous brings it not into Christ nor receives not the power and Spirit of Christ into it Let not love of the world and worldly vanities keep you out either from attending to and receiving truth nor from submitting to and walking out in the power of truth perhaps you are rich some of you and injoy much in the world you can fill and satiate your selves with the profits advantages and delights of it you finde a great deal of satisfaction in your own waies some in coveteousnes others in pride and others in voluptuousnes c. But oh consider the emptinesse and vanity of all these satisfactions will the world and the things thereof last for ever is not God even now powring out whole vials of his wrath upon it and is he not staining the pride of all glory and bringing to contempt all that 's honourable in the earth Is he not marring the form of it and casting bitternesse into all the comforts of the earth and what will your riches profit you if God come to plead with you with sword famine and his sore judgements do you think to bribe his wrath or make an agreement with hell and death do you think that his hand will not finde you out or do you think your riches honours pleasures accomodations in the world will then fill your souls with hope O no beloved these things will then prove more empty vanties you may live as richly and sumptuously and in as great pleasure as the rich man in the Gospel Luk. 16. yea and perhaps to have as honourable a buriall and yet the next news may be that that was his unhappy portion that you are in hell tormented what then will all these things you here set your hearts upon advantage you what will it profit you could you get and enjoy the whole world and to lose your souls in the getting it die like stocks or blocks without God and without Christ and without hope or to die howling out with vexation and despair Alas what good would all his riches and places or great funerall c. have done this gentleman if he had died without faith in God and without the hope of his glory and so before his body had been interred his soul had been in hell Be you willing to follow his steps in owning the truth of God and the grace of God therein declared and in so laying down your selves to the Crosse of Christ and cordially desiring the knowledge and enjoyment of Christ that so your end may be as hopefull as his you may not be afraid of death and faint under it but hope in it and rejoice over it for the righteous man is he that hath hope in his death 3. To conclude let me speak one word to you that do follow after righteousnesse even the righteousnesse of God you that have received the record of God concerning his Son beleeved his love and therethrough are brought to appreach unto him to have good thoughts of him and have cast your souls upon him and set your hope in him what hath been said may be usefull unto you for your encouragement and consolation I shall say this to you my brethren hold fast your integrity follow on yet after righteousnesse Rev. 22.11 be not weary of well doing nor saint in the way he that is righteous let him be righteous still and be that is holy let him be holy still let him continue and increase in holinesse and righteousnesse serving God in them all the daies of his life abide in Christ and in his way attending to the grace of God and submitting thereto to be acted and led thereby to deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts Tit. 2.11 12. Heb. 13 1â— 16 and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking diligently that none fail of the grace of God that none be prophane as Esau to sell the hope set before him the birthright given you for a messe of pottage for any worldly carnall transitory vanities take heed of consulting with flesh and bloud lest you be turned aside from the word of God to other doctrines or to be corrupted to worldly waies and evils take heed that the cares of this life and the deceitfullnesse of riches or love of other things in this world do not by little and little steal in upon your spirits to cheak the good seed of the word of God and so to make you content your selves with a barren profession of Christ without power and fruitfullnesse Hold fast your hope and confidence in Christ Heb. 10.35 and hold fast your good conversation according to Christ knowing that your confidence hath a great recompense of reward 1 Cor. 15 18. Gal. 6 7. and your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord in due time ye shall reap if ye faint