THE vngodly as captiues are haled to deaths prison and Iayle of hell Sect. 1. The ioy of the wicked endeth in heauinesse 2. Their whole life is a miserable bondage of feare 3. The wicked once awakened out of the sleepe of sinne doe end their dayes like barking dogs 4. Who can put to silence the voyce of Desperation 5. Sinne is a make-bate betweene God and man and betwixt a man and himselfe 6. A wicked mans heart bleedeth when his countenance smileth 7. The Conscience cannot be pacified when sinne is within to vexe it 8. The wicked are in hell yet liuing vpon earth 9. Death is the Lords Serieant to apprehend a wicked man and to hale him to hell 11. The vnrepentant with as great violence are pulled from the earth at Ioab from the hornes of the Altar 12. The trembling estate of the reprobate 13. Hell is as fit for the reprobate as heauen for the righteous 14. The second BOOKE CHAP. I. WIcked men without Christ haue hell for their prison and are locked from God and his Saints in the dungeon of death Sect. 1. No creature could possibly redeeme vs from death with the reason why 2. Take hold of Christ and take hold of life In the flesh of Christ there it resteth Death hath raigned in all the world beside 3. God became man that he might be a Redeemer as before hee was a Creator 4. The dignitie of Christs person gaue such worth to his satisfaction that what hee suffered in short time might satisfie beyond all times 5. None can purchase our saluation but he onely that hath paid the price of our redemption ibid. None but Christ saueth and he will be alone in all his courses without mixture without medley 6. There is no God without Christ he created alone and he will redeeme alone 7. If our case were not desperate and past hope of recouery our redemption should not be so precious 8. Christ is Lord-Treasurer of heauen and Steward of all Gods graces 9. The Church in it selfe most vncleane and in Christ most beautifull 10. Christs humiliation in the worke of our Redemption 11. It was the fire of Loue to mankinde and the sharpe knife of Gods Iustice that put the Sonne of God to death 12. Excellent types and allusions of Christ our Redeemer 13. CHAP. II. THe compleat worke of our redemption performed by Christ alone and his onely meanes Sect. 1. Why Christ our Redeemer must needes be God and man 2. Christ his manner of proceeding in the worke of our redemption 3. The wonderfull wisdome of God in making the death of Christ as an Antidote against the death of man and so to bring life out of death 4. Christ suffered in soule as well as in body for our redemption 5. 6. The vse of Christs suffering in soule as well as in body 7. Death lost his sting in Christs death 8. Death tasted of Christ but it could not deuoure him 9. The death of Christ is the death of Death 10. Christs gall was our honie and his bitter death the sweet life of all beleeuers 11. The ready way to goe to heauen is to swim through the sea of Christs sufferings 12. Christ his death is the secret den of our deliuerance from Death and Hell 13. Christians onely ouercome by the bloud of the Lambe 14. The grace of Christ must be our onely clothing before Gods Tribunall 15. God will be knowne by his mercy and we by our deserts that so all glory may returne to him alone 16. Christs power is made perfect through our weaknesse he is all things to vs which are nothing in our selues 17. Christ is a mutuall help to God the Father and to vs without whom wee cannot possesse any good thing eyther in grace or glory 18. The Law and Christ are as the Physitian and Surgeon to a sicke man 19. It is absurd to seeke for iustification by the Law 20. To trust to our owne merits is the reioycing of Sathan 21. Christ conquered death and diuell being nailed to the crosse 22. CHAP. III. AS there is no life in the body but as it is vnited to the head so in Christ our head consisteth our life being vnited to him by his holy Spirit Sect. 1. By our spirituall vnion we are interessed in all that eyther God hath promised or Christ hath performed 2. Gods Spirit sheweth vs our nakednesse and the wardrobe of Christs righteousnesse to clothe vs. 3. There is no saluation nor sanctification for vs but as our nature is vnited to the person of Christ 4. This spirituall coniunction we can neuer comprehend till wee know God as he is 5. Christ is not onely God with his Elect in nature but in person the reprobate are of the same nature with him yet he is not God with them but against them 6. God punishing Christ in our person and iustifying vs in his he neither punisheth the innocent nor iustifieth the offenders 7. Christ washeth his children from their sinnes whom he ioyneth to himselfe 8. Whole Christ is his God-head and humanitie is our head and Sauiour 9. Whole Christ is coupled with whole man a mysterie vnspeakable ibid. Euery Christian man hath a portion of flesh in the body of Christ and where my flesh is there I hope to be 10. The God-head of Christ is the fountaine of all good things and his flesh is the Conduit-pipe by which they are deriued vnto vs. 11. We must goe by Iesus Christ that is God to Iesus Christ that is man 12. In our flesh he hath dyed risen and ascended that faithfull man may be crowned with glory ibid. God doth communicate nothing with vs but by the flesh of Christ in it he wrought our Redemption 13. Our soule is ioyned to the soule of Christ and our flesh with the flesh of Christ which quickneth both by the vnitie of his person 14. Christ vniteth himselfe to vs by the communication of his Spirit and we by faith are ioyned to him 15. The singular vse of our spirituall vnion with Christ 16. In the person of Christ all our blemishes are couered and his righteousnesse and sanctification imputed 17. The sinnes of the faithfull are not imputed to them but vnto Christ 18. The punishment of them are forgiuen to them but not to Christ ibid. If we be ingrafted into the body of Christ we are his and hee liueth in vs and his victory ouer all is ours 19. By this spirituall vnion Christ is our brother which are borne of God by the same spirit 20. The vncleannesse of our birth is washed away in the sanctification of Christs nature 21. Death can make no diuorce betwixt Christ and the faithfull though their bodies rot in the graue yet still they remaine true members of his body 22. Christ our head is able to restore that which nature hath destroyed 23. Christ and Christians are made one indiuisible body by the bond of Gods spirit and he being the head will raise vp his
procurement of life but by suffering of death Now when God commeth to obay hee must needes be humbled and when hee comes to deserue he must needes serue which God alone could not doe and when he comes to dye hee must needes be mortall which God could not be therefore hee was man to be bound himselfe and God to free others Man to suffer God to vanquish Man to become mortall God to triumph ouer death Christ thus fitted to be our Sauiour proceeded to the worke of our redemption Now in our sins from which hee saueth vs wee must consider three things first our disobedience to the Law secondly our originall corruption thirdly our condemnation for this corruption The first of these is double eyther in breaking the Law or not fulfilling it The second is the originall cause of this disobedience which is the euill inclination of our heart and our corrupt affections The third is the punishment of this disobedience hell fire itselfe These being as three running soares are healed and cured by three running streames in Christ For our rebellion to the Law is satisfied in him who not onely paid the penaltie for that wee had broken it but actually fulfilled euery poynt thereof to the full For the second which is our originall corruption wee haue the holinesse and sanctification of his nature which was euer seperate from all vncleannesse so that now in Christ our redeemer our estate is farre better then euer it was in Adam in his first creation for though he was made good yet was he changeably good as hath beene said before but those that are in Christ are absolutely good and vnmoueable euen as the strongest mountaines that cannot be stirred Thirdly wee haue Christ by his passion to deliuer vs from condemnation Euen as in the sacrifice vnder the Law the blood of the innocent beast was shed for him that had sinned who worthily by sinne deserued to dye himselfe so we by the shedding of Christs blood that immaculate Lambe are purged from the guilt of all our sinnes for by his stripes we are healed and by suffering in his flesh hee hath prepared a ready way for vs to heauen hauing rendred in the same most perfect obedience for vs and by his death fully satisfied his Father for our sinnes and through the remission thereof obtayned righteousnesse and by righteousnesse the grace and fauour of God and by grace euerlasting life that wee may boldly present our selues before the throne of God But here obserue the wonderfull wisedome of God in the worke of our redemption prouiding such remedy which none could haue deuised but God alone for what else is death but the power of the Diuell and the vtter euersion of all the world Now to make the death of Christ as an antidote against the death of man and the very meanes to vanquish Diuell and Hell as also the high way to heauen and happinesse it selfe what was it else but the excellent vertue and admirable wisedome of him alone who calleth all things that are not as though they were bringing light out of darknesse good out of euill and death out of life And surely if all men and Angels should haue conspired together in study and deuise to wish a plague to haue fallen vpon Diuell and Death it selfe they could not haue determined such another course to wit that their glory should be their shame their power should be their plague and their kingdom of pride their vtter confusion What could the Prophet Dauid in all the hottest zeale he boare to God wish more against the wretched reprobates so traiterous to Christ his sonne and to his Gospell then to pray that their dainty tables might be as snares to take themselues withall and that their great prosperitie might be their greatest ruine Euen thus hath Christ ouercome the Diuell and Death and albeit they still doe warre against the Church yet their strength is so weakened and their power so abated that they cannot hurt it And where the Apostle saith that by death Christ ouercame him that had the power of death it is clearely manifest what manner of death our Sauiour Christ sustayned euen that ouer which the Diuell had his power the same death which is the reward of sinne by bearing it he ouercame it and hee conquered no more then hee submitted himselfe vnto for by death hee ouercame death If hee suffered no more but a bodily death hee ouercame also but a bodily death and so though wee all rise againe yet should wee arise in the condemnation of the sinne of our soules or if hee haue ouercome death and the power of it both in our bodies and soules then Christ hath suffered the paines of it both in body and soule that wee might rise againe from the bands of death and liue with him for euer for hee hath broken the force of it no further then hee hath felt the sting of it himselfe Therefore let vs beleeue that Christ both body and soule was made a sacrifice for our sinnes for so hee said himselfe My soule is exceeding sorrowfull euen vnto death And Marke saith Hee beganne to be astonished with his griefe and was ouerwhelmed with his sorrow And S. Luke declareth that in his Agonie his sweate was as droppes of bloud distilling from his face and that God sent an Angell from heauen to comfort him And can wee thinke that all this was for the feare of bodily death which many of Gods children yea many wicked men haue desperately despised Did the Apostles sing in Prison and went away reioycing being whipped and scourged Did Paul glory in so many tribulations which hee reckoneth vp and should our Sauiour Christ in the like paine with a fainting heart cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me No no if could not be saith a godly man but that which hath made Christ to tremble would haue torne his Apostles and dearest Saints a sunder that which made him to sweat blood so plentifully would haue made all other creatures to haue sunke to the bottome of hell most sodainly and that which forced him to cry would haue held both men and Angels in euerlasting woe and hellish howlings without all end Which comfortable poynt serueth to confute the hereticall doctrine of all such which say that the soule of Christ suffred nothing but only for the bodies sake as our soules suffer when our bodies are weake sicke or a dying But how then should wee be saued from the death of sinne and condemnation Doe they know that hee bore our sinnes in his body and submitted himselfe to the death of the Crosse and that by the wounds of his stripes wee are healed And did our sinnes deserue onely a bodily death and not a spirituall also which is the wrath of God holding body and soule in the euerlasting fire of hell This also maketh for the exceeding comfort
the flesh the law of the members the nourishment of sinne the feeblenesse of nature and the food of death Oh grieuous necessitie and fearefull state of man before wee can sinne wee are lincked to sinne and before we offend we are bound with offence By one man sinne entered into the world and through sinne death hath gone ouer all Did not our Fathers eate the sowre grapes and are not the teeth of their children set on edge CHAP. IIII. Of the originall and entrance of Death and how iustly it was imposed vpon Adam and all his brood by the propagation of Sinne deriued vnto them THE Nature of man being thus wholly corrupted by Adams sinne Death presently followed him at the heeles to pay him his hyre As Death at first was threatned so speedily vpon his fall was it executed both vpon him and his Yet touching the originall of Death though the cause thereof be iust it seemeth doubtfull from whence it came and what author it had For although the issues thereof be in the hand of God and that it is his handmaide to execute his will as hee also fetters the very Diuels themselues who can doe nothing without him yet all the creatures that God did make were very good and as he is the very goodnesse it selfe so nothing but good proceedes from God Since therefore Death and the Diuell be enemies to God and goodnesse destroyers and corrupters of Nature which he hath made they are none of his creatures hee is neyther their author nor they of his off-spring All things which were made were made by the word and all things which were made by the word were exceeding good Euill then in generall and Death in particular which is euill in it selfe were not made of God and nothing can be good without the soueraigne goodnesse which is God himselfe And whereas good is not there is euill which in effect is nothing else but the priuation of good as death is the want of life and blindnesse the want of sight Lord saith Augustine thou hast not made death neyther hast thou pleasure in the destruction of the liuing therefore suffer not that which thou hast not made to haue dominion ouer me whom thou hast made God made not Death but man after hee fell to sinne receiued the sentence of his disloyaltie and reuolt that he should returne to dust of which he was framed The Diuell hath the power of Death that is hee is the author of Death who by his malicious nature brought it into the world for God made it not neyther hath any delight therein neyther is it good in his eyes nor euer mentioned amongst his workes but from the Diuell and of the Diuell and in the Diuell it beganne and is and abideth and therefore his name is rightly giuen him Abaddon that is a destroyer And as death is of him so for this cause also hee is said to haue the power of it because through his manifold temptations hee maketh men sinne by which Death raigneth For so saith S. Paul of Adam seduced by the Diuell Christ then vanquished him that had the power of Death that is hee abolished sinne and the condemnation of sinne which was the Kingdome of the Diuell and thereby triumphed ouer him For this cause saith S. Iohn the Sonne of God appeared that he might loose the workes of the Deuill that is Sinne and Death which are both of the Diuell for Sinne God condemneth and of Death hee saith I will be thy destruction protesting thereby that hee is author of neyther If God had made Death why did Christ weepe for Lazarus his death for he ought not to mourne for that himselfe had made but by this sorrow hee shewed that those that God had made to liue the Diuell by sinne had made to dye and therefore he raised him from the graue that Sathan might know he should little gaine by mans death I will not the death of a sinner saith the Lord. If God were the author of Death how could hee but be the willer of the same Not God then but the Diuell is the author of Death God made Adam without corruption and created him after his owne Image yet thorow enuy of the Diuell came Death and they that hold of his side proue it so that the Father of Death is the Diuell and as he is euill by nature so likewise is Death in it selfe issuing and proceeding from such a fountaine The Diuell is the author of Sinne and consequently of Death for by Sinne Death entered and Death is the wages thereof Hee that committeth sinne is of the Diuell for the Diuell sinneth from the beginning hee is a murtherer from the beginning hee is both a lyer and the father thereof not by creation but by corruption God made him an Angell hee made himselfe a Diuell so falling from God hee fell from goodnesse and became the father of sinne and wickednes Non stetit in veritate he stood not in the truth Hee that caused Sin caused Death for sinne The third part of the waters became Wormewood and many men dyed of the waters because they were made bitter Bitternes caused death but whence came the bitternesse from the Starre that fell into the waters called by the name of Wormewood And albeit that Death proceeded of the Diuell as wee haue heard yet is it also attributed vnto man himselfe to leaue him inexcusable as plainely appeareth by Paul his comparison betweene Christ and Adam As by the offence of one man saith hee death raigned ouer all and sinne came ouer all to condemnation so by Christ which is one the benefit of grace abounded towards all men to Iustification of life In which Antithesis wee may see Death seazing vpon all men through Adam and that very iustly so that Man and Diuell are partners in sinne and so in death Here two things concurre together the tempter and the obeyer Sathan tempted and man consented He tempted and perswaded of enuy intermingling the matter with belying and slandering of the truth to haue man breake Gods commandement notwithstanding all this Sathan had nothing preuailed had man resisted and not consented to his temptation Therefore wee may conclude that in respect of Sathans enuy lying and other euill attempts tending all to mans destruction hee may be called as hee is indeede the author of death yet in regard of mans consent in transgressing Gods Law Death may duely be imputed to himselfe although there were none other cause for that he was created to the likenesse of God himselfe and flourished with Free-will which as then hee possessed The Diuell then is not the proper and absolute cause of sin because that the nature of the absolute proper cause is such that it going before the effect cannot choose but follow after But it falleth not out so alwayes in man prouoked of the Diuell who
abhomination to the Lord and his very soule abhorreth them vse 3 Lastly it maketh for the consolation of all such that with faith and knowledge call vpon his name as relying thereon euen such as haue the testimony of a good conscience howsoeuer they shall be censured as Hannah was of Ely yet powring out their soules and calling vpon Gods name in the confidence of his power they shall be relieued though their faith be weake yet if true and assuredly grounded vpon Gods name and power they shall be heard euen out of the dungeon of extremities Out of the dungeon he called vpon Gods name Which also may teach vs doctrine 4 That there is no outward condition of life so miserable or affliction so grieuous which the dearest Children of God are not subiect vnto in this world Ieremie was in the myrie dungeon where he stucke fast and his life was shut vp casting a stone vpon him Daniell in the Lyons denne The three Children in the fiery furnace Israel a bondslaue in Egypt So was Ioseph imprisoned slaundered and disgraced Paul Peter and the faithfull stocked fettered imprisoned and many other murthered and massacred as we may see a whole Catalogue of them mustered by the Apostle all of them so excellent that the world was not worthy of their companie Ioyne to these Abraham for his vncertaine dwelling Dauid for his manifolde enemies Iob for inward and outward miseries of all sorts All these with the rest whose pilgrimage is ended and many that now liue and still remaine to the worlds end must goe the same high way to Heauen drinke of the same whip and bitter cup. All kinde of crosses and calamities attend vpon them in the world vntill they be at rest with God in Heauen The reason hereof is that since the same corruption of reason 1 nature and guilt of sinne spreadeth ouer all alike without exception needs it must follow that all be iustly inwrapped in the outward punishment and mulct thereof since all kinde of miseries follow sinne with death it selfe as the shadow doth the body Sinne is the worke and these are the wages And God in iustice must needes shew his anger against sinne in this life euen vpon his owne seruants Here they must be iudged that hereafter they be not damned with the world Secondly God vseth them as scourges purges and reason 2 wholesome medicines to heale recouer and reforme our sinnefull sicke and disordered nature Here wee must be weined with the wormewood of calamities from the brests of the world which we alwayes would be lugging that so we may be brought in loue with heauen and heauenly things The vse is first for our instruction to make vs wise in the vse 1 vse and end of the manifolde miseries that betide Gods dearest children to moderate our affections and to suspend our iudgements for our selues and brethren when wee or they are so strangely and diuersly handled Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him in thy law these tryals must hasten vs to Gods Sanctuary to stay our violent passions and bring vs our resolutions in such doubtfull cases Secondly it reprooueth all such as iudge according vse 2 to the outward estate of any of GODS seruants what fauour and credite they are in with the Lord. Since an outward condition is here to all men alike All things come alike to all and the same condition is to the iust and to the wicked to the good and to the pure and to the polluted as is the good so is the sinner he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath For although it be most certaine that God hath a speciall care for the saluation of the faithfull yet such is the course of things falling out vnto men in this life that it cannot be iudged by the outward shew and appearance whom God loueth or whom he hateth Such a certaine infinite and endlesse confusion is cast before the eye of man and therefore Gods children must not promise themselues any immunity from troubles or worldly successe but rather to looke alwaies for the contrary and labour still to subdue their inordinate passions in thinking their case to be singular censuring God to bee too rigorous and so calling his iustice into question which is neere vnto blasphemy Stop not thy eare from my sigh and from my cry As if he should say we pray and thou hearest not nay thou art angry with our prayers and stoppest thy eares speaking after the manner of men and shewing by effects that it was as good for sinners not at all to pray to God as to pray in vaine doctrine 5 Let vs note from hence The fruit and effect of sinne it stops the passage of our prayers and keepes Gods blessings from vs it maketh GOD as it were deafe and dumbe and blinde that he will neither heare helpe nor respect vs. The Lords hand is not shortened that hee cannot saue neither is his eare heauie that it cannot heare but your iniquities haue seperated betweene you and your God and your sinnes haue hid his face from you that hee will not heare Sinne makes God as a stranger that hee will not tarrie among his owne people and though hee bee most strong yet it so astonieth him that hee cannot helpe reason 1 them Such is his hatred to sinne that hee will not heare nor helpe hee disclaymeth their seruice and cannot abide their prayers Their persons are odious and how shall their actions be acceptable His Will and Word is against them remaining sinnefull hee will not owne them for his but excludes and excommunicates them from his presence and Church GOD heareth not sinners Such as bee wicked cannot stand in his sight Will you steale murther and commit adultery and sweare falsly and come and stand before mee in this house wherevpon my name is called Is this house become a denne of theeues This must make vs carefull to holde vp pure hands when wee pray vnto God praying him first to purifie our hearts by faith which may manifest it selfe by vnfeined repentance That so when wee draw neere vnto God in our seruice and worship and would haue him draw neere to vs in the acceptance thereof wee may both clense our hands and purge our owne hearts from all kinde of sinne and hypocrisie Wash you make you cleane cease to doe euill learne to doe well Come now let vs reason together If iniquity bee in thy hand put it farre away and let no wickednesse dwell in thy Tabernacle Then truely shalt thou lift vp thy face without spot thou shalt bee stable and shalt not feare and thou shalt bee bolde because there is hope Being in the dungeon He not onely called but sighed and cryed vnto God Afflictions not onely stirre vp men to prayer but make doctrine 6 them also more seruent and
world euen so long there is betweene them a certaine equalitie in the flesh though alwayes an euident distinction in the spirit So that vntill this mortall body hath put on immortalitie and the spirit of Christ which dwelleth in Gods children hath brought them to God in heauen all discommodities and casualties with Death it selfe must needs be incident to all men alike Besides that our earthly prosperitie so dulleth our spirituall senses and our great imployments in the world so carry away our affections and so hinder the remembrance of our latter end that the greatest men many times both for place and gifts doe mightily forget themselues herein and knowing it to be so haue had their speciall Memorandums I omit to speake of the preparing of their Sepulchres in their life time and the purposed placing of them in their common walkes with their set salutations of some seruant to that purpose Thus most humbly supplicating your Honour to be well pleased with this my honest purpose and christian indeuour in the fauourable acceptance thereof I commend your Honour to the gracious protection and direction of the eternall and euer liuing God who euer guide you with his spirit in all your weighty imployments to his glory and the good of his Church c. From my poore Study at Shearsbie in Leicestershire February 21. 1616. Your Honours in all Christian duties wholy deuoted in the Lord Iesus IOHN MOORE AN ABRIDGEMENT OF THE WHOLE Bookes substance OR A GENERALL TABLE of the principall poynts thereof according to the CHAPTERS and SECTIONS The first BOOKE CHAP. I. GOD in his incomprehensible Wisedome Goodnesse and Loue created man at the first as a Chrystall glasse of his glory and a liuely resemblance in a sort of his Maiestie Section 1. Mans body a briefe map and abridgement of the whole worlds perfection 2. Mans excellency and maiestie in his first Creation ibid. Man in his body resembled his Maker and in his seuerall members expressed the varietie of his perfections 4. The very Pagans admired the portraiture of mans body and preferred it before the worlds curious creation ibid. Man especially in his soule resembled God with the manner how 5. Gods Image in man appeared especially in the regiment of the creatures 6. It consisteth principally in righteousnesse holinesse and knowledge ibid. The Image of God in man is to haue the same Will Knowledge Iudgement and Reason with God in humane and heauenly things in a measure with the reason thereof 7. The difference betwixt the Image and Similitude of a thing 8. Christ is the very ingrauen forme of God and the true patterne and type of our first created image ibid. Reason and Will as two wings to the Soule did at the first guide it aright to God that so it might soare aloft with her affections to heauen and heauenly things 9. The excellent harmony in all the faculties of the Soule before Adams fall with the exquisite reason and knowledge thereof 10. CHAP. II. GOD alone is vnchangeable and all creatures haue their being standing and vpholding by him who onely is Sect. 1. Gods name and nature ibid. Adam was mortall by creation yet had he not sinned he neuer had dyed 2. Man was made of a mutable nature in power of standing and possibilitie of falling 3. The reason why God alone is vnchangeably good and all other creatures subiect to decline ibid. Three things requisite for Adam and the Angels to perseuere in goodnesse 4. Why the good Angels fell not but keepe still their standing ibid. Adam if hee would had grace sufficient to haue kept himselfe from sinne and death illustrated by examples 5 6. Adam could fall of himselfe but hee could not stand or rise againe with the vse thereof 7. Why man was made of a changeable nature 8. Man was subiect to death by nature but not of necessitie with the reason 9. CHAP. III. SAthan enuying at mans glorious estate laboured by temptations to supplant him and so preuailed Sect. 1. The manner and degrees of Sathans proceeding 2. Adam by yeelding procured his fall and so sold himselfe to Sinne and Sathan to the iust destruction of himselfe and all his seede ibid. The greatnesse of Adams sinne and the equitie of Gods Iustice in the manner of punishment 3. See the further inlargement of Adams rebellion by the degrees thereof 5. God not onely commanded his obedience but threatned his rebellion 6. Adam by his fall lost Gods Image and contemning life hee found out death ibid. The cursed fruits and effects of his fall 7. Adam procured the practise of euill before he could attaine to the knowledge thereof 8. In searching for knowledge he met with error and blindnesse both of soule and body ibid. Originall sinne as a pestilent poyson infected euery part of man 9. It is deriued from Adam by propagation and by imitation confirmed and multiplyed in all mankinde ibid. The fruits and effects of originall sinne ibid. It maketh man more degenerate then all the rest of the creatures 10. Mighty is the power and raging is the strength of originall sinne ibid. Though sinne be the greatest bondage yet wee are willingly led to the practise and obedience thereof 11. Sinne breedeth in our hearts as wormes in the wood ibid. Concupiscence the fruit of Adams transgression is the Tyrant of the flesh the Law of the members the nourishment of Sinne the feeblenesse of Nature and food of Death 12. Before wee can sinne we are lincked to sinne and before wee offend we are bound with offence ibid. CHAP. IIII. THough the cause of death be iust yet the originall thereof seemeth doubtfull Sect. 1. God is not the author of Death with the reasons why 2. The Diuell is the author of Death proued at large 3. Sathan was created an Angelicall Spirit by sinne hee made himselfe a Diuell and falling from God hee fell from goodnesse 4. Causa causae est causa causali Sathan being the cause of Sinne caused Death ibid. Man and Diuell are partners in Sinne and so in Death 5. Sathan tempted and man consented ibid. The Diuell is not the absolute cause of Sinne and Death with the reasons why 6. Sollicite he may to sinne but force he cannot ibid. Man by nature might haue declined and should in himselfe haue had the cause of sinne and so of death 7. Death hath no proper efficient cause but rather deficient 8. It is a priuation of life onely hauing a name and no nature and substance with the vse thereof ibid. Sect 9. Adams sinne was hereditary to his posteritie and so the punishment proued at large from 10. to 13. The naturall condition of mans soule by originall sinne 13. Though in the iust iudgement of God mens soules be defiled with sinne being ioyned to their bodies yet it is not of compulsion 14. God doth incline the wils of men eyther to good or euill according to his mercy and their iust deserts 16. The children of the regenerate
are as corrupt by nature as the rest vntill they be reformed by the santified meanes ordained of God 15. Mans sinne maketh his life a due debt to death 17. The Diuell is the father of Sinne and Sinne the mother of Death ibid. The corruption of our flesh did not make our soules sinfull but the sinne of our soule did make the flesh corruptible ibid. CHAP. V. DEath is threefold corporall spirituall and that which is common both to body and soule Sect. 2. The description of Death according to the seuerall parts 3. The soule cannot properly dye being life it selfe illustrated by examples 4. How the soule is said to dye 5. The seperation from God is the death of the soule as the departing of the soule is the death of the body ibid. The nature of Death 6. Gods Spirit is the soule of our soules ibid. Man by sinne lost his life and found out death 7. It is agreeable to Gods iustice that a spirituall death should beget a corporall ibid. So soone as man had sinned so soone did the armies of death besiege his life 8. The very life of sinners is a death 9. Gods spirit must quicken and reuiue the soule or else it must needes dye and be damned 10. The degrees of the spirit in Gods elect 11. The wicked in this life doe liue in death and conuersing in earth they are bondslaues of hell 12. An effectuall faith in Christ is the life of the soule 13. What it is to be dead in sinne 14. Death is diuersly deriued with the reasons thereof 15. CHAP. VI. IT is enacted in heauen that all men must dye Sect. 1. The Registers of the death and buriall of men from the beginning witnesse the execution of Gods decree herein 2. Death is the way of all the world and the house of all men liuing ibid. Death is the Lady and Empresse of all the world 3. Balthasers Embleme is written vpon euery mans wall 4. Death respecteth no mans person place or qualities 3. Dayes and yeares and times no plea against the graue but a fitter prey for Death ibid. Death as Dan the gathering hoast sweepes all away 4. Mercilesse Death doth exercise her cruelty vpon all alike 5. Nothing can preuaile against Death or ransome our life 6. Gods hand a man may escape but Deaths dart no man can shunne 7. No force can resist it nor meanes preuent it ibid. Death is the common road-way of all the world 8. We must needes yeeld our selues to the law of Death ibid. Men may be distinguished by times but all are equall in the issue 9. As we grow our life decreaseth This whole life is but a death ibid. Man cannot be ignorant of his death since all creatures and actions proclaime his mortalitie 10. Experiments of death on euery side most apparant 11. The law of Nature conuinceth it amongst all nations 12. Our liues as our garments weare of themselues they are eaten with the Moaths we with the Time ibid. The course of our life runneth without pause to the period and end 13. An exclamation against Death most hideous and pittifull 14. 15. The Christian vse of our mortalitie with a reproofe of the carelesse Christian 16. 17. Death to the faithfull is as an hackney to carry and hasten them from earth to heauen ibid. CHAP. VII SInne brought in a sea of miseries Sect. 1. Life and misery are two twinnes which were borne together and must dye together 2. A description of infancy and old age with their miseries 3. The miserie of all estates Here death is liuing and life dying 4. There is no contentment in this wretched life 5. A description of mans sinfull mortall body 6. The frailty and brittlenesse of mans body with the reason thereof 7. See the manifold dangers of our life and how easily it is lost 8. The mutabilitie and inconstancie of mans life 9. This life is little better then hell were it not for the hope of heauen 10. This world is an Ocean sea of troubles See how fitly it resembleth it hauing a mercilesse maw to swallow vp all 11. It is a dungeon of ill sauours and a puddle of vices 12. Mans life is short and swift like a poste a ship and a shadow ibid. Our dayes passe swiftly as the Eagle to her prey and all mortall men are a prey to death 14. We are as flowers and grasse and Death in the hand of God as a sythe to cut vs downe ibid. All things dye but our sinnes which reuiue and grow young againe in despight of nature ibid. The cares of this life are like the Flyes of Egypt which giue men no rest neither day nor night 15. They are like mercilesse Tyrants which take away our peace ibid. Man and his labour are fitly resembled to the Spider and her web 16. All things are as snares to sinners to draw them to destruction 17. The meanes for Christians to auoid the snares of this life 18. It is as naturall for corrupt man to sinne as for water to run downe the channell or a Coach downe a hill 19. The best men liuing amongst the wicked are aptly resembled to Colliers and Millers ibid. The manifold engins of Sathan to enthrall vs. 20. No man can liue peaceably in this world among so many enemies of peace ibid. The warfare of Christians both outward and intestine with the occasions thereof 21. 22. Our life is as a tempestuos sea and death the onely port of tranquilitie and rest 23. CHAP. VIII MEN by dying proue they had sinned and sinne conuinceth there is a Law Sect. 1. The Law conuinceth man of sinne who without it knew not sinne 2. Sinne by the Law grew out of measure sinful with the reason thereof 3. The Law detecteth sinne as a hidden sicknesse that so we may seeke to Christ the Physitian 4. It is holy and righteous in it selfe though an occasion of euill to those that are corrupt ibid. How sinne is said to be dead without the Law 5. The Law anatomiseth sinfull man and setteth him out in his colours 6. The Law slayeth the sinner before Gods Spirit quicken him 7. Sinne and the Law are the strength and sting of Death 8. The Law not onely conuinceth man of sinne but iustifieth God in the punishment thereof 9. The horror of death with the reason thereof 10. CHAP. IX GReat and heauy was the tribute which God imposed vpon man for sinne Sect. 1. The death of the body is nothing to the damnation of body and soule in hell 2. As diseases are the maladies of the body so death is the maladie of diseases ibid. The death of the reprobate is a liuing death and a dying life 3. The life of the damned is an immortalitie of torments and euill 4. The torments of hell are vnspeakable 5. They are euerlasting and endlesse 6. Death to the vnregenerate is the very gate of hell 7. Death cannot be so feared as it ought of wicked men 8. CHAP. X.
members 24. CHAP. IIII. THE life of Christians is a continuall warfare nothing but death can end the combat Sect. 1. 2. Sathan especially assaulteth Christ and his members with the reasons why 3. The Diuell as a cunning fisher fitteth his baites as he findeth men affected 4. Out of the nature of mens qualities he worketh his malignities 5. Sathan most eagerly assayleth the faithfull at the houre of death and why 6. Sathans arguments from the Law of God against the faithfull 7. 8. The answere of Sathans obiections 9. All the breaches of the Law are made vp in Christ who perfectly fulfilled the same for all beleeuers 10. The Law being fulfilled Sathan Sinne and Death must needs be vanquished 11. The particular conflicts of Sathan with the faithfull with their comfortable conquest 13. 14. Soueraigne Antidotes of comfort against afflictions 15. Such we are by imputation with God as we are in purpose and affection 16. An excellent course to silence Sathan in his varietie of temptations 18. We must send him to Christ our aduocate who both pleadeth and defendeth our cause 19. Wee must shew him our generall acquittance sealed by God himselfe and proclaymed from heauen 20. Men cannot be more sinfull then God is mercifull 21. As Death entred by Sinne so it extinguisheth Sinne and endeth our warfare 22. CHAP. V. DEath must giue vs our last purgation and end our corruption Sect. 1. The dearest Saints of God are here subiect to all afflictions and Death it selfe as the vilest sinners with the reason thereof 2. The nature of Death is altered through Christ to the faithfull 3. Sinne brought in Death and Death must driue out Sinne. 4. There is no prescription against Death earth cannot redresse that which is enacted in heauen 5. Paine sicknesse c. with Death it selfe are as Gods Souldiers to come and goe at his pleasure 6. Afflictions are preuentions of sinne to the godly and plaisters to cure the sores thereof ibid. God doth diet his children in this world that they surfet not vpon pleasures and profits ibid. Wee as children cannot order our selues Gods wisedome and will are our best guides 7. Our worldly desires and lusts are inordinate and endlesse except the Lord restraine them 8. The excellent fruits of afflictions when they are sanctified to Gods elect 9. Afflictions are necessary trials of our Christian estate 10. Afflictions in this life are both punishers and purgers of Gods elect 11. They are both sufferings and instructions 12. Christ is the true patterne of Christians to whom they are conformable by their sufferings 13. Crosses and calamities are the Harbingers and Purueyers of Death 14. Whom God most loues those he most proues 15. The fire tryes the gold and misery men of courage ibid. The troubles of Gods children shall neuer cease till the world be without hatred the Diuell without malice and our nature without corruption 16. Afflictions may tire the flesh but neuer be able to extinguish the hope of a Christian 17. Sinne and Death haue lost their sting in Christs death 18. They cannot separate vs from God though they be fearefull to the flesh ibid. Death through Christ is the key of Gods Kingdome and gate of glory 19. CHAP. VI. CHristians are strangers in the world the bread of aduersitie and water of affliction is commonly their dyet Sect. 1. Being strangers they must be content with their vsage and prepare for their iourney 2. This world is restlesse there is no contentment in it 3. The world deales with men as the Rauen with the Sheepe picking out the eye that it may not see her tyranny 4. See the Anatomie of the World 5. The world is no proper element to Christians it rather feedeth then slaketh their appetites as oyle doth the fire 6. All Creatures haue their rest from God he is the centre of the faithfull 7. God hath set the earth vnder our feet that it should not be too much esteemed 8. Euery Christian with his crosse must be content to accompany Christ to his kingdome 9. Whilest we set our affections on earthly things we seeke for no better for we looke no higher 10. God giues his children here but an assay of his goodnesse the maine sea of his bountie and store is hourded vp in heauen 11. CHAP. VII AS man rebelled against his maker so all things while he liueth rebell against him euen man against himselfe the flesh against the spirit Sect. 1. Our manifold infirmities are as gyues and fetters about our legs to shew our guilty condition 2. The flesh as a subiect should obay the soule as her soueraigne 3. Though it be infused into the body it must not be confounded therewith ibid. Worldly and fleshly imployments dull the soules edge 4. Death to the faithfull is the funerall of their vices and the resurrection of their vertues 5. How we may discerne the state of our soules 6. Death endeth the combat of Christians when the flesh shall be dead and the spirit fully liue our passions buried and our reason freed in perfection 7. The body is but the barke and shell of the soule which must needes be broken if we will truly liue and see the light 8. The nature of the earth and earthly men 9. Sinne in the regenerate hath a deadly wound but in the wicked it hath a full and violent course 10. The Lord cureth our grosse sinnes by our infirmities ibid. Great are the troubles of the faithfull but saluation will one day make ameds for all 11. The glorified body shall obay the soule with admirable facilitie 12. The difference betweene a mortall man liuing and the faithfull deliuered by death 13. Sinne with all misery affliction and Death it selfe shall hereafter be shut vp in hell as in their proper place 14. This world to all Gods Israel is an Egypt of slauery 15. See the royall exchange of the faithfull who for a mortall and miserable life shall enioy a blessed and immortall 16. As the sufferings of Christ doe abound so doe the consolations increase to Gods elect 17. CHAP. VIII THE faithfull redeemed by Christ grow euery day to be spirituall and heauenly Sect. 1. Prayer and holy deuotion as precious perfumes take away the euill sauour of sinne and vncleannesse 2. There is no Iustification without the vnfayned sanctification of Gods spirit 3. The way to become spirituall and diuine 4. The nearer we approach to death the more we should be inflamed with the loue of God and all good workes 5. If wee will dye the death wee must liue the life of the righteous 6. Our deuotion must not be like the morning dewe and leaues of Autumne 7. The soule without grace is as the ground without moysture 8. Christians should not feare death but accustome themselues to hope for it 9. Death to the godly is no end of their liues but an end of their sinnes and miseries 10. The graue of the faithfull is sweetned by Christs funerall 11. When wee
draw neare to death wee approach to the very gate of life 12. The faithfull departing see their Sauiour with Simeon eyther in soule or spirit 13. The hope of eternitie is the reuenge of iniquitie ibid. CHAP. IX THe ioyes of heauen are vnspeakable and farre beyond our thoughts Sect. 1. They farre exceede our prison-ioyes on earth 2. There is neyther end number nor measure of them being infinite and endlesse 3. The glorious estate of Gods Saints with their happinesse what it is 4. Gods Saints shall haue fulnesse of ioy which they shall still affect and in affecting shall be satisfied and yet neuer be cloyed with fulnesse or feeling of want 5. The sight of God is the full beatitude and totall glory of the Saints 6. The soule is made capable of God and therefore whatsoeuer is lesse then God cannot suffice it 7. The ioyes of heauen are ioyes aboue all ioyes besides which there is no ioy 8. Wee may sooner tell what there is not in that blessed life then what there is 9. If the ioyes of heauen be so great let vs lift vp our eyes to heauen our eares to God and our hearts to Paradise ibid. Hee which is in loue with heauen is neyther proud with prosperitie nor cast downe with aduersitie for as hee hath nothing in this world that hee loueth so is there no losse of any thing in this life that he feareth 10. CHAP. X. IT is not the bare knowledge of heauen and happy estate but the assured euidence thereof that bringeth comfort to the conscience Sect. 1. So sure as there is a God so sure there is another life in which he will reward the good and punish the wicked 2. As our Faith reioyceth in Gods fauour so our Hope reioyceth in Gods glory 3. God giueth his children the plaister of Patience to support their Hope for he is sure that hath promised 4. The ground of Faith and Hope is Gods word and promise 5. A faithfull heart is furnished like a shippe of warre against all hellish Pirots and worldly force ibid. We can haue no certaine knowledge of heauenly things but by Faith 6. God alone is to be beleeued touching himselfe as wee credit a mortall man with his owne secrets ibid. We can desire nothing which we know not and this knowledge of heauenly things is onely by faith grounded vpon the word of God 7. Our saluation in Christ is alwayes fresh and new sure and certaine 8. Our Faith is not extinguished our Loue cannot be quenched nor our Hope faile vs nor the holy Spirit taken from vs which sealeth our saluation ibid. The wicked shall be as well able to saue themselues without God as to hurt vs hauing God and the worst they can doe is but to send vs to God 9. God doth not choose the worthy but in choosing them maketh them worthy 10. The head will haue his members God his elect and Christ his redeemed and where will hee haue them but in heauen where he is ibid. The third BOOKE CHAP. I. THE crowne of glory will not be got without conquest Sect. 1. Wee must striue to enter in at the narrow gate we must so run that we may obtaine 2. Wee ought to liue in such sort as at the day of death wee wish we had for looke how death leaueth a man so shall the last day finde him 3. It is too late then to beginne to liue well when we must leaue the world 4. With this penalty a sinner is punished that when he dyeth he forgetteth himselfe who in his life time neuer thought vpon God 5 Many men are ready to take their farewell of the world before they know of their condition in the world 6. As our whole life is a passage to death so should we make it a preparation to death 7. Wee ought still to be prepared and watchfull not knowing the time of death 8. Sathan laboureth by his subtilty to make vs to forget our latter end 9. Some count it death to meditate of death ibid. Wicked men cannot abide to heare of death because they liue a sinfull life 10. Remembrance of death to Christians must serue as a sounding bell to awaken them from the sleepe of sinne 11. Christians must take the time and good opportunitie to prouide against death 12. Wee then best know our selues when we haue throughly learned our mortall estate 13. There is nothing so glorious as to order aright the vpshot of our time 14. Who feares God feares not death for what can he feare whose death is his hope 15. Since death watcheth for vs on euery side let vs watch for him that he take vs not tardy 16. Death to Christians should serue as a key to open the day and shut the night ibid. Christians must be as birds on a bough to remoue at Gods pleasure 17. It is absurd to feare that which we cannot shun 18. Christians must haue temporall things in vse but eternall in desire ibid. Mans life is a small thing but the contempt of life is a great thing 19. The manifold commodities of death to the faithfull ibid. See the folly and absurditie of men so to hate death and to loue this sinfull life 20 21. The presumption of long life causeth the greater negligence of our death 22. Selfe-loue causeth men to hate and abhorre Death ibid. Death bringeth an equall law ouer all for the chiefest point of equitie is equalitie 23. CHAP. II. CHristians knowing Death with his forces ought throughly to be prepared against it Sect. 1. Death is so farre from the destruction of a Christian that it brings him to perfection 2. No man knoweth in what place Death attendeth therefore in all places we must be prouided 3. If we prouide not before death there is no prouision after 4. When we seeme to stand in greatest securitie we then doe dwell in greatest danger and when we least feare we soonest fall 5. It is a dangerous course neuer to begin to liue well till we be a dying 6. He that repenteth when he can sinne no longer leaueth not sinne till his sinne leaue him 7. Many neuer thinke of death nor their sinnes till they cannot liue Sicke they are but their repentance is sicker 8. CHAP. III. SAthan hath an host and armie of enemies to hinder vs in our Christian voyage towards Death Sect. 1. Through Christ alone we get the conquest ouer him and his forces 2. The felicitie of the world is fained his loue counterfeit and his promises deceitfull to Gods children 3. There are no worldly comforts but may be kept and desired so that God being aboue all things be not lost 4. Comforts against losse of friends and kinsfolkes 5. Our life is very short for all good things but too long we may thinke in regard of our miseries 6. All worldly delights finish their course in the salt brine sea of sorrowes 7. How much better is it to want a little hony then to be swolne vp with
a venemous sting 8. Comforts of riches flye from vs in our crosses as vermine from a house on fire 9. When men forsake their owne wils and submit themselues to Gods what can be hard 10. Worldly fauours honours c. as snowbals against the beames of the sunne dissolue and come quickly to nothing 11. He that is great with God shall haue quietnesse in earth and blessednesse in heauen 12. The pompe of the world is like a blazing starre presaging ruine ibid. He is vnworthy of Gods fauour that thinketh it not happinesse inough without the world 13. The Trinitie which the wicked worship is the diuell the world and the flesh ibid. CHAP. IIII. THis wicked world is Sathans kingdome a very Edome and Egypt to the Israel of God Sect. 1. It is a sea of sorrowes and our liues as new sayling ships vnacquainted with the water 2. It is Sathan forge and stythie wherein he frameth a thousand chaines of impieties ibid. A discription of couetousnesse the worlds factour and the couetous 3. God maketh this world loathsome to his children that they should not loue it 4. This barren land wherein we liue after all our drudgerie yeeldeth nothing else but a crop of cares troubles feares c. 5. Our Christian loue must be as a iust ballance our worldly lusts are vnequall in valuing earthly things 6. If our life be no more then the dreame of a shadow what must we thinke of the glory of this world which is of shorter continuance then mans life 7. All worldly glory is no more certaine then calmenesse in the sea still subiect to a storme 8. Worldly men are better sighted then the children of the light but Ieremie wondreth how he should be a wise man that is not a godly man ibid. We must put our trust in God not in our goods on whose pleasure they depend 9. He is the richest that coueteth the least and is content with the least 10. Contentment consisteth not in much yet he hath much which hath it ibid. CHAP. V. GOd made all things and gaue them vnto man who sinning forfeited all againe into his hands and so sent him out of the world with as much as he brought at first Sect. 1. We haue our goods to liue the end ceasing the meanes also cease 2. All worldly goods are ebbing and flowing neither possesse we them as we should vnlesse at all times wee be ready to forgoe them when God pleaseth 3. We must not make a rent-charge of these outward blessings which God giueth of his free liberalitie they are but lent and borrowed 4. Vaine confidence in wealth be-commeth not onely poison to humilitie modestie and faith but transformeth them into pride arrogancie and infidelitie 5. We must vse our riches as our raiment such as are fit for couetousnesse groweth with riches as the Iuye with the Oake 6. God is to be loued aboue all things and all things for him ibid. Good men vse the world and the things thereof that they may inioy God and wicked men so vse God as that they may inioy the world 7. If we loue our friends too much and not God aboue all things then hath our sorrow no measure as it ought 8. Carnall parents and friends are to be loued but the creatour of all is to be imbraced and preferred 9. Loue him that thou canst not loose euen Christ thy redeemer ibid. CHAP. VI. IT is naturall to all men to feare death and how it may lawfully be feared of the faithfull Sect. 1. Faith and a religious feare are alwaies friends in a Christian man 2. Affections of nature are not simply euill but lawfull and tollerable when they are rightly ordered by Gods spirit 3. Christians haue greater cause to imbrace Death then to feare it 4. None are simply to be censured for their manner of Death 6. Gods dearest children are subiect to most fearefull deaths yet an euill Death can neuer follow a constant good life 7. Death cannot properly be called sudden which euery day manifesteth it selfe to all our sences ibid. We must not be curious either to know the time or to choose the manner of our death 8. It is madnesse to desire to know our end of such as are ignorant of their owne 9. We must seeke to mortifie the flesh in vs and to cast the world out of vs but to cast ourselues out of the world is in no sort permitted vs. 10. Gods children alwaies waite in their tryals vntill Death open the doore for their deliuerance 11. We must neither hate our life for the toyles nor loue it for the delights 12. CHAP. VII THe dearest children of God are subiect to the agonie of death by meanes of the weakenesse of nature and guiltinesse sinne Sect. 1 2. Christian meanes to mittigate the horrour of death 3 4. We run away by committing euill and we must returne againe by suffering euill 5. It is God that knoweth the perils of our death and can onely deliuer vs by his power ibid. The sweet spices of Christs buriall expell the strong scent of our rotten graues 6. It is the remainder of life not of death that tormenteth a man 7. Such a death is neuer to be deplored which is seconded with immortalitie and a blessed life 8. Death and the graue are a fould to the faithfull and a shambles to the wicked 9. Death doth prune as it were the feathers of the soule to flye more swiftly to heauen ibid. By death and the graue the faithfull are fitted and by Gods spirit renewed for his kingdome and glory ibid. CHAP. VIII IT is most conuenient for Christians to dispose of their goods and make their testament in time of their health Sect. 1. and 2. The best furniture against death are faith hope and a conscience vndefiled 3. Men without hope are as a ship without a sayle and anchor tossed with euery tempest and in danger of ship-wracke 4. A sauing faith and an vnmoueable hope are alwaies accompanied with a Christian life and conscience vndefiled 5. As there is no saluation without faith so there is no true faith without repentance 6. Faith is euer alone in iustifying but neuer alone in the person iustified 7. God iustifieth none whom he doth not also sanctifie ibid. The conscience of Christians is bathed and rinsed in the bloud of Christ from the guiltinesse and corruption of sinne 8. The comforts and commodities of a good conscience 9. Thou canst not be friends with thy selfe till thou be with God if thy conscience accuse thee it will kill thee 10. He that hath a hope to liue when he is dead must dye while he is a liue to sinne and wickednesse 11. If the day of our death finde vs a sleepe in sinne we shall hardly awake 12. Many by deferring their amendment shut themselues out of all time and send themselues to paine eternall without time 13. He that will liue without repentance must looke to die without repentance 14. The world
had not perished with the floud if the flouds of teares for sinne had flowed from mens eyes 15. Hope is the piller sustaining the building of our faith which fainting our faith falleth into the gulfe of dispaire 16. All things are possible to him which beleeueth ibid. Hope to a Christian is as a staffe to a traueller who resteth vpon it shall hardly fall 17. Despaire is a bottomelesse gulfe out of which none returneth that fall into it ibid. CHAP. IX WIthout the vndoubted hope of the resurrection Christ died in vaine our faith hope and all religion is in vaine Sect. 1. Infallible proofes of the resurrection by scriptures which are of God and cannot lie 2. Reasons drawne from the Scripture to confirme the same 3. Naturall reason and experience of the creatures conuince the truth hereof 4. Why should not our bodies rise againe from the dust as well as the seede sowne harrowed and hidden in the ground 5. Excellent resemblances and allusions of the resurrection of our bodies 6. Christ hath caried our flesh into heauen to put vs in possession and giuen vs his spirit as an earnest to seale his promises that we shall raigne with him in glory 7. Our bodies in the graue shall againe be quickned in Christ and rise againe to life carrying with them the warmenesse of Gods spirit which cannot die 8. Though our flesh doe rot yet shall the spirit of God deliuer it from corruption by the vertue of him that raised vp Christ from the dead 9. CHAP. X. THe godly groane that this mortalitie may be swallowed vp of life Sect. 2. They loath this wretched life to be vnloden of their sins 3. Our life is like a stage on which men play their parts and passe away ibid. A Christian needeth not feare the violence of death whose force is broken in Christ 4. Death as a Tailor putteth off our ouer-worne rags to apparell vs with the royall roabes of immortalitie incorruption and endlesse glory 5. A description of this sinfull wretched and miserable life 6. 7. Euery mans life is like a rocke in the Sea beaten vpon with waues on euery side and like vnto a Butt or marke at which sorrow c. shootes and at last Death that most sure Archer shootes and strikes it dead 8. The state and condition of all flesh is to be miserable and mortall 9. All kinde of miseries hunt after sinfull man and Death at length doth greedily deuoure him 10. Very fit resemblances of this wretched life 11. While we reside in the world death euery where lyeth in ambush for vs but when wee are in heauen it shall haue no place ibid. The comfortable death of Christians through Christ 12. 13. It is better to dye alwayes to liue then to liue to dye euer 14. If wee looke for our felicitie here wee are deceiued Eliah must goe to heauen in a whirle-winde 15. When we are borne we are mortall but when wee are once dead we become immortall 16. Death is as it were the birth of a blessed soule after a great trauell 17. Death and life are two twinnes inseparable vntill the diuision of soule and body ibid. It is a deliuerance from all sinne and the accomplishment of sanctification ibid. All the inhabitants of heauen weare crownes of glory sit in thrones of maiestie and possesse a Paradise of infinite pleasures 18. All glorified bodies shall shine as so many Sunnes and lamps in Gods kingdome 19. The incomparable ioyes of the kingdome of heauen shadowed out ibid. What heauenly societie and company of Saints are in Gods Kingdome 20. If we will make our death ioyfull and easie we must thinke of the glorious life that followeth it 21. If we would despise this world we must thinke of heauen ibid. Christ himselfe dyed that we might dye with more patience and pleasure ibid. It is a token of little loue to God to be so loath to goe vnto him 22. God reacheth out his hand to conduct vs but we draw backe our owne and runne away ibid. If God be our guide we must follow him to arriue in his house 23. FINIS THE FIRST BOOKE What DEATH is in it selfe CHAP. I. Of mans Creation and excellent estate before his Fall OVr most gracious God infinite in section 1 wisedome and incomprehensible in loue towards mankinde hauing before all worlds decreed to make himselfe most glorious in his Creation did in his appointed time effect the same For hauing made the world in wonderfull manner and furnished it with all varietie of creatures both for profit and pleasure deuising in his wisedome and vnspeakable loue a perfection of happinesse for man vpon the earth at last after a most exquisite manner consulted with himselfe for the shape of man and finding no creature fit enough for a patterne of his portraiture concluded with himselfe to make mankinde as a Chrystall glasse of his glory and a most liuely resemblance after a sort of his Maiestie section 2 And that not onely in the frame of his body to be as it were a briefe Map and abridgement of the whole worlds perfection which hee made as a most glorious Theatre fully replenished with most admirable sights of all sorts but which is more both in body and soule to represent his Creator as his Vicegerent and petty Monarch on the earth and seating him here as it were in his Throne and putting his owne Scepter into his hand and his Crowne of glory vpon his head gaue him dominion and rule ouer all the workes of his hands so that well may the Prophet with wonder exclaime and cry out Lord what is man that thou art so mindefull of him c. section 3 Now that this Image of God was liuely expressed in whole man resembling his Maker both in his body and in his soule doth plainly appeare by the renuing of man in Christ who is not onely sanctified in the one alone but in the other section 4 And first for mans Body it did resemble God in that immortalitie wherein it was first created as also in the seuerall members thereof expressed the varietie of his perfections and therefore in respect of Gods diuers employments in a borrowed speech are ascribed to him as the hands and armes to shew Gods omnipotencie and power his eyes and eares his piercing prouidence and sight c. I omit mans face and comely countenance in which principally doth shine a certaine imperious maiestie and grace most conspicuous causing all liuing creatures to stoupe vnto him and besides the goodly order of all his outward parts set and disposed in admirable sort a glorious beauty spreading it selfe throughout with wonderfull strength agillitie and nimblenesse of all his members made him most famous that very Naturalists and Pagans anatomizing his very body not onely preferred the frame thereof before the worlds whole curious creation but rauished in their senses with the consideration of the same deified and preferred it aboue all measure
a man vpon easie conditions should gaine an high estate to him and his for euer and yet should wittingly and wilfully forfeite it againe to the owner who would either moane the heire or blame the giuer Euen so God hauing made the soule of man good righteous and faire as from himselfe yet knitting it to the body to make the man which man is Adams heire he may iustly withdraw his graces from it as his owne being forfeited and lost by traiterous man Thus Gods grace most iustly fayling the soule it falleth to sinne and declineth to naught which pronenesse of euill is our naturall sicknesse which we call Originall sinne So that the soule of man is not now created with that strength to perseuere in goodnesse and resistance of euill and other excellent graces which it should haue had if Adam had not sinned and albeit it be pure and vnspotted as it proceedeth from God yet is it no sooner ioyned to the body but it is presently polluted euen as the purest wine and best quintessence when it is powred into a filthy pot poysoned and vnsauory doth in a moment loose their naturall taste and tallage so doth the sweet soule loose her fragrant smell of grace and goodnesse so soone as it is sent into this filthy vessell the body of sinne Neither is the soule of man subiect onely to weakenesses and infirmities in resisting of corruptions but hath many other defects both of minde and will being destitute of spirituall life and light blinde by nature and not so much as inclinable to holy desires and sanctified workes as God her Creatour by his law requireth And although in the iust iudgement of God as we haue already heard mens soules be now made in such sort as that of necessitie they must be defiled being ioyned to these bodies of sinne yet are they not thereby to be excused from the guilt of sinne for though it be of a iust necessitie yet is it not of any compulsion that they should sinne as we see by experience Iron and Stones and such like graue and heauie substances though neuer so softly let downe into a brooke doe of necessitie yet not by any violence sinke downe to the bottome thereof Bodies depriued of foode and flesh in time doe putrifie of necessity yet neither the one nor the other by any compulsion God of necessitie is good and the Diuell is euill yet can we not say that either goodnes in God or iniquity in the Diuell doe proceede of compulsion So our soules being ioyned to our bodies are of necessitie sinfull yet willingly also and of their owne accord Neither yet is it or can be otherwise now with the best regenerate and holiest men renewed in Christ towards their children then it was in Adam at the first touching the propagation of originall sinne they can conuey no more vnto their posteritie but that which by nature they are possessed of for grace comes from heauen and our new birth is not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God If we winnow any Wheate or graine neuer so perfectly and purge it neuer so throughly by the fanne from the chaffe and dust yet when it is sowne againe it will not bring forth cleansed corne but with the graine yeelde huskes and hawnes which also must it selfe be threshed with the flayle and cleansed with the fanne vpon the floore As this clensed Corne I say can giue no more but what it had by nature and looke what it had by the art industry of man the same meanes must be vsed to it againe before it be cleane and fit for our vse Euen so the faithfull though they be washed iustified and sanctified by Gods spirit and the blood of Christ yet can they giue no more to their children then what themselues haue had by nature being the children of wrath and as for any grace or goodnesse it must come from the same Author and by the same meanes which their parents had to worke it in them or else it can neuer be effected God doth worke in the hearts of men to incline their wills which way hee pleaseth either to good things according to his mercy or to euill according to their owne desert and that by his iudgement sometime manifest sometime secret but alwayes iust A worke-house must needes decline and also fall when the vnder-proppes are remoued Darkenesse must needes ensue when the Sunne and light is departed away Those bright beames of all light and happy life which were giuen to our first parents are remoued and other excellent gifts and graces of God are in his iust iudgement so long withholden from our soules vntill by his holy spirit as the worker and by his holy word as the instrument God in his good time doe againe enlighten our mindes and purifie our hearts by faith and confirme and strengthen vs in euery good word and worke Sinne to mankinde will alwaies be a Iebusite a false borderer yea a ranke traitour rebelling against the spirit which makes the life of man to be saith Chrisostome a debt as it were owne and due to death for the diuell is the father of sinne and sinne is the mother of death Hereupon saith S. Iames that Sinne being finished trauaileth in childe-birth like a mother to bring forth Death and Dauid calleth sinne the gate of death because as a man commeth into a house by the dore or gate so death came into the world by sinne The corruption of our flesh did not make our soule sinfull but the sinne of our soule did make the flesh corruptible Whereupon Lactantius calleth sinne the reliefe or foode of death and as a fire goeth out when all the fuell is spent but burneth as long as it lasteth so death dieth when sinne ceaseth but where sin aboundeth there death raigneth CHAP. V. Of the Nature of Death what it is and how manifold and whence Deuines haue deriued it DEath thus iustly deriued from Adam as the stocke to all and euery one of vs his line and race as to the boughes and branches the leprosie of his sin cleauing fast to all his seede we are further to consider the nature thereof for our better humbling which cannot more plainely appeare then by the true describing and diuiding of the same by and into his seuerall parts properties and effects as they are laid out vnto vs and gathered from the Scriptures As man therefore in his nature consisteth of two principall parts a humane body and a diuine soule which vnited together make but one person so there is a Death of the body and a Death of the soule and a death that is common both to body and soule Death then in it selfe is not onely a killing of the body but also a slaying as it were of the soule not onely a separation of the soule from the body but a diuision and cutting off both of
life Onely in name to professe him is the part of dead men for as whosoeuer beleeueth not remaineth in death and hath the wrath of God still staying vpon him so none beleeueth in Christ that loues him not and none loueth him that keepeth not his commandements Hereof saith Saint Iohn to the Angell of Sardis thou hast a name that thou liuest but thou art dead so Christ called the Scribes and Pharisees painted sepulchers whose soules were dead in their bodies for want of faith Hence it was that he said to the young man let the dead burie their dead and Paul of the wanton Widdow that being aliue she was but dead Awake thou that sleepest and stand vp from the dead and Christ shall giue thee light you hath he quickned that were dead in your trespasses and sinnes As the soule infused into the body quickeneth a massie piece of flesh which had no motion before so the soule to make it a liuely and a good soule must haue as it were a soule powred into it that is the Spirit of God and if this Spirit be absent wee are but dead from all holy motions as the body naturall is from outward actions by absence of the soule So that a man may liue a life in the flesh and yet be dead in respect of the life of God Againe as the body while it hath a soule is but a naturall body wasting it selfe like oyle in the Lampe and cannot choose but in the end to dye yet after this life shall be called a spirituall body not in substance but in qualitie because in the resurrection it shall be quickened by the spirituall power of Christ So a man that hath but simply a soule if hee haue not the true soule of the soule which is the Spirit of God to quicken and reuiue it hee is but a meere naturall man and must needes be damned Furthermore as a body raised vp and quickened by the power of God can neuer dye againe so the soule of a faithfull man being a spirituall soule hauing once receiued the earnest of Gods Spirit and a measurable power of true Sanctification from the holy Ghost can neuer dye Now the life of Gods Spirit hath three degrees in Gods elect Regeneration in this life when we are renued in our affections and doe feele a true change of minde within vs the second after this life when the soule shall be separated from the body which being once as it were released from the fetters of the flesh shall swiftly take her flight to heauen and then shall the soule liue indeede a heauenly life being altogether freed from the temptations of the Diuell and all allurements of the flesh But the highest degree of all of the soules estate is at the generall day of resurrection when the world with the lusts thereof shall passe away like a cloud and be sodainely wrapped vp like a scrole for then both the body and soule of man shall not onely enioy the presence of God but liue also with him for euer in heauenly blisse So likewise the reprobate in this life and in the life to come haue double miseries coupled to their double deaths For first while they liue they want Gods grace and fauour being strucken with terrour in their conscience as Cain that runnagate and vagabond not onely fearing their liues but being frighted at their shadowes And they haue the Diuell who is the God of this world possessing them and still leading them captiues by the cords and chaines of all manner of wickednesse towards hell and damnation and in the life to come they are not onely depriued of the presence of God but suffer and endure all endlesse and vnspeakable torments with the Diuell and his Angels As Gods Children therefore being crucified to the world and the flesh haue the life of God liuing in them which will most perfectly appeare and shew it selfe at Christs comming so all fleshly and wicked men who haue giuen themselues to the Flesh World and Diuell doe presently liue the life of hell which they carrying about in their bodies will clearely shew it selfe to their shame and confusion at the latter day So that the wicked in this life doe liue in death and conuersing in earth they are the bond-slaues of hell And as Faith in Christ as I said before is the life of the soule in Gods elect so no faith can quicken vs which is not liuely in it selfe which apprehendeth not Christ aright which worketh not by loue which flourisheth not with fruits for Faith without good workes is dead And therefore to the end wee may be reuiued being dead and buryed in our sinnes we must first beleeue in Christ which is our life and if our beliefe be liuely wee must shew it forth by our fruits otherwise we may haue a name to liue and yet be dead Now to vnderstand this poynt the better let vs obserue what it is to be dead in sinne They are said to be dead in their sinnes whom Death still holdeth in the cords and bonds thereof such as are strangers from the life or God that haue neyther sense nor feeling of their sinnes nor any motion to godlinesse to whom all goodnesse is vnsauory whose bodyes and soules are holden captiue of the Diuell whom they serue as slaues such as are void of Gods Spirit wedded to their owne wicked wils whom the God of this world hath blinded that they can neyther see nor beleeue the truth whose conuersion is as hard as to raise vp Sonnes of Stones vnto Abraham Who is more dead then hee that carryeth fire in his bosome sinne in his Conscience and doth neyther feele it nor shake it out nor tremble at it for Sathan hath gotten quiet possession and hee is carelesse in assaulting of such in whom he hath gotten a quiet dwelling Hence we may learne to loath our selues for our sinnes which bring vs into such thraldome to Death and Diuell which cut vs off from God shut vs out of heauen rob vs of saluation and bring the euerlasting wrath of God vpon vs which is vnmeasurable infinite and vnportable neuer able to be sustained of any but of Christ our infinite God and Sauiour who in maiestie and power is equall with his Father Thus we haue heard the nature of death common vnto all by the meanes of sinne without exception Well therefore is Death deriued from a word that signifies to to diuide not onely for that it maketh diuision where it comes but that without exception it equally diuides to all alike Some thinke that it proceedes from bitternesse for that the sweetnesse of the forbidden fruit proued bitter to Adam and his brood And Augustine not vnwittily deriueth Mors à morsu for that our first parents in biting the Apple were bitten of death Whence hee also alludeth to that of Osea 15. O death I
will be thy sting O hell I will be thy biting The Grecians also deriue it from a word importing to looke vpwards because it brings vs to God and they tearme it Initiation or Perfection because in ending this life it entereth vs or rather perfecteth our life in heauen And the Latines take the name thereof from mora which signfieth delay or tarrying for a thing because it waiteth and expecteth for all men of all sorts and conditions And this may suffice for the dedescription of Death and declaration of the nature thereof CHAP. VI. At Death is due to all mankinde by the meanes of Sinne so all creatures actions and experience it selfe preach and proclaime the same AS the wages of Sinne is Death so all Adams sonnes hauing sinned must needes dye the death As in Adam saith the Apostle all men dye so in Christ shall all beleeuers be made aliue It is Gods Statute enacted in heauen that all must dye euen this were enough to cast a cloud ouer all our fayrest delights but there is more behinde and after that comes the iudgement The perswasion whereof possessing our hearts should one would thinke more then all penall Lawes deterre vs from impietie Ashes saith one are wont to keepe the fire the remembrance whereof wee beare about in our bodies But I would to God that the knowledge of these ashes I meane our fraile estate would keepe in our hearts the fire of Gods grace that we might neuer forget our graue And as the Law of dying was enacted at the first for sinne so hath it beene and shall be executed vpon all men without repeale vnto the end Neyther saith the Apostle any more then hath beene confirmed by a continuall course from the first creation as the registers of the death and buryals recorded in the Scripture doe declare Adam liued saith the holy Ghost by Moses nine hundred and thirty yeares and so hee dyed Seth liued nine hundred and twelue yeares and after dyed c. And is not this a true table most liuely representing our mortalitie and death Of some others it is said that they were gathered to their fathers of others to their people c. but of none that hee euer escaped For what man liueth and shall not see death shall bee deliuer his soule from the hand of the graue Therefore Iosuah calleth Death The way of all the world David The way of all the earth Iob The house of all men liuing He calleth it also The heape whereupon the liues of all men shall be powred where Kings and Counsellors are great and small Captaines and Souldiers bond and free Wee see how the best and happiest dayes of man slide swiftly away after come diseases and dolefull age and last comes cruell Death the lodge of all estates All must dye without distinction wee came by the wombe and wee must goe by the graue Before wee come to the sweet running waters of Shilo which runne softly we must passe the rough waters of Iorden that runne most swiftly Death is the Lady and Empresse of all the world her seizure is without surrender and from her sentence there is no appeale It is not the Maiestie of the Prince nor the holinesse of the Prophet nor grauitie of the Prelate that shee respecteth Strength of body feature or comelinesse of face or other parts learning riches or any such secular regard can plead against Death or priuiledge any person against the graue be thy dayes neuer so few or thy yeares neuer so full be they many or be they few all is one Dayes and yeares and time are no plea against the graue but a fitter pray for Death The Decree is out All must dye Balthasars embleame is written vpon euery mans wall God hath numbred thy dayes he hath laid thee in the ballance thou art found too light though not thy Kingdome which thou hast not yet thy life which thou possessest is diuided and giuen to death All Princes and the basest Peasants yea all persons whatsoeuer may say with Iob Corruption thou art my father Rottennesse thou art my mother Wormes and Vermine yee are my sisters yee are my brethren All men may truely say Graue thou art my bed Sheete thou art my shrine Earth thou art my couer Grasse thou art my carpet Oh Death therefore demand thy due and thou gathering hoast Dan come last and sweepe all cleane away Death is not partiall but dealeth vprightly with all making the state and condition of all men alike that none can repine for as well died righteous Abell whose sacrifice God accepted as enuious Cain whose seruice he reiected as well Abraham the father of the faithfull as Abimelech the infidell as well Isaack as Ismael as well Iacob whom God loued as Esau whom God hated as well chast Ioseph as incestuous Ammon as well meeke Moses as rayling Rabsheka as well Dauid a man after Gods owne heart as Saul from whom God tooke his spirit as well tender-hearted Iosiah as hard-hearted Pharaoh as well Salomon the wise as Nabal the foole as well poore Lazarus as the rich Glutton as well Iohn the beloued Disciple as Iudas the Traitor as well Simon Peter as Simon the Sorcerer mercilesse Death doth exercise her crueltie vpon all alike Notable is that saying of Agesilaus to diuers Captaines counselling him to walke to the hill Olimpus where hee should see such store of wealthy Merchants vttering a world of riches and precious Iewels If I could saith he buy and sell or exchange there sorrow for mirth sicknesse for health death for life I would then goe thither and spend all that I haue but I see that the buyers and sellers yea and the very things themselues are condemned to dye and to perish Wherefore neyther the sight of any thing there can better my estate or help me at the houre of death when I must creepe into my graue For although honour wealth and riches beare here a great sway amongst men yet can they nothing at all preuaile against the graue and Death it selfe Men by wisedome haue found out how the hardest stones may be broken and softened how wilde beasts may be tamed c. but nothing could be inuented whereby Death might be auoyded Gods hand saith one may a man escape but for Deaths dart no man can shunne it Against bodily enemies there may Fortresses be made Castles and Bulwarkes builded but to Death and his forces all men lye open as vnfenced Cities In other dangers power money flight counsell and policie may serue our turne but as for Death it can neyther be banished with power bought with money nor escaped with flying away nor preuented with counsell nor turned backe with policie All I say without redresse must hasten vnto Deaths home Hee therefore that thinketh it strange to dye forgetteth himselfe and his owne nature complaineth of the God of heauen that suffered him to be
borne a man and not an Angell Death is the common road-way of all the world there is no by-paths any nearer or nearer way no not for Kings and Emperours themselues What worlds of men are gone before vs yea how many thousands out of one field How many Crownes and Scepters lye pyled vp at the gates of Death Men are here as in a voyage the which wee must one day finish yesterday we came into this vale of teares and to morrow if our Maker will we shall goe out One goes before another followes one man rots in the graue and makes it empty that he which is yet aliue may haue place therein Or if we should continue here long yet can wee not escape for that all mortall men are enclosed in Deaths Parke Whether wee goe softly or runne swiftly whether wee dye willingly or end our dayes grudgingly when the appointed time is come wee must yeeld our selues to the Law of Death Doe wee flye Death yet followes vs and catcheth vs behinde in retyring backe shee approacheth neare vs turning from her shee surpriseth vs sodainely and ceaseth not like a greedy Beare and hungry Lyon vntill shee hath broken our bones and torne our flesh in sunder Death equally drags away all men which haue beene are or shall be We are distinguished by times but made equall in the Issue Some are sent before others come after but all goe the same way without exception In all these reuolutions of humane things there is nothing certaine but Death and yet euery one complaineth of that which neuer yet failed any Wee dye hourely and as we grow our life decreaseth for what is the beginning of Youth but the death of Infancie the entrance of Manhood but the end of Youth and what is the beginning of to morrow but the death of to day Wee are no sooner entered into the earth but wee are constrained to returne to the earth againe as it were from one sepulchre to another euen from the wombe to a beginning to liue and die together so as the most part of the time Death giues vs no warning but by the blow it selfe Many thinke they neuer dye but when they yeeld vp the last gaspe of Death but if wee marke it wee dye euery day and moment for our very liuing as I said is a continuall dying wee no sooner set a step into life but wee enter a step into death Of our life all the time past is dead the present liues and dyes at once and the future likewise shall perish The time past is no more the future is not yet the present onely is and no more This whole life I say is but a death It is like a candle lighted in our bodies in one the winde maketh it melt away in another blowes it cleane out ere halfe it be burned in others it endureth vnto the end but looke how much soeuer it shineth so much it burneth her shining is her burning her light a vanishing smoake her last fire her last wyke and her last drop of moysture So is it in the life of man his life and death are all one But how should man be ignorant of his death vnto whom all creatures and actions preach his mortalitie We see it by experience that all earthly things haue their end our yeares are limited God hath measured out our months the daies of our liues are dated how long wee haue to liue so that the first lesson that we haue to learne is to think of our end We see that the longest day passeth and the night succeedeth how Sommer followeth Winter and Winter Sommer the Sunne hath both his rising and his setting his shining and his shading the Spring couers and cloathes the ground with fruits Sommer ripeneth them Haruest gathers them and Winter spends them Thus one thing followes another and both one and another passe swiftly to their end The generation of one thing is the destruction of another and the death of one thing is the life of another First is our generation then our conception after comes our birth in wonderfull weakenesse The cradle at the first is our castle when we are crept out of that we come to a little strength yet long is the time ere we come to our ripenesse And here behold we neuer continue in one state for as our strength increased at the first so by little and little it diminisheth at the last as Youth succeedeth childehood and age youth so childehood youth and age haue all their end Wee see by obseruation that the freshest and sweetest flower soone fadeth our garments waxe olde be they neuer so gay our buildings become ruinous be they neuer so stately and as our life is vpholden by the death of Gods creatures so death shall be the end as well of vs as of them The Sunne towards his setting and the Moone towards her wayning haue dimmer beames and light And this is the vniuersall sentence of the world and Gods decree which needes must stand that all things flourishing shall fade all things of force and might shall be feebled all great things lessened and so by little and little being weakened shall at the last dissolue into the first substance and matter whereof it came as the cloudes in the skie into dewes and showers Ice and Snow into water all earthly things that are of the earth shall turne to earth againe and they that are of the waters shall turne into the sea So shall Adam being dust to dust againe returne with all his brood The law of Nature established amongst all nations and people of the world is this that all men come into the world with condition to retire out of it againe He is no great man saith one that thinketh it a great matter for Trees and stones to fall and for mortall men to die I knew saith Anaxagoras hauing intelligence of the death of his sonne that hee was mortall and subiect to die For as it is impossible for any man to die that liued not before so none can possibly liue that shall not die hereafter Our life is as a garment that weares of it selfe and by it selfe for we weare out our life in liuing the more we liue the lesse we haue to liue and still approach nearer death whatsoeuer we are cloathed with is a mortall and perishing merchandise our garments weare vpon our backs and we in our garments they are eaten with mothes and wee with time So in our meates as in a looking-glasse we may learne our owne mortalitie for let vs put our hand into the dish and what doe we take but the foode of a dead thing which is either the flesh of beasts or of birds or of fishes with which foode wee so long fill our bodies vntill they themselues be meate for wormes All this we see by experience we feele it and we taste it daily we see death as it were before our eyes we feele it betwixt our teeth and yet can wee
not cast our accompt that we must die There is no action without pause no warre without truce the weary workeman hath his day of rest Musicke hath her stops the Scriuen or his points we do not alwayes eate and drinke we doe not alwaies walke nor sleepe yea we doe not alwaies breath although we cannot liue without breathing but concerning our life there is no truce no pause no rest no delay but hourely yea euery moment in all places and actions we hasten to our end Whether we eate or drinke or sleepe or wake or goe or stand still the course of our life runnes out as the houre-glasse and neuer rests till it hath finished his course They which come hereafter shall march vpon our graues as we doe now vpon the sepulchers of our fathers they shall remaine in our houses as we doe now in theirs that were before vs they shall possesse our goods our lands our gold and siluer our Iewels and treasuries as we at this day enioy theirs whom we haue succeeded But I will hasten to an end though the experience be endlesse which confirmeth this point One rufully thus exclaimeth of Death How quickly and sodainely stealest thou vpon vs how secret are thy paths and waies how doubtfull is thy houre how vniuersall is thy kingdome The mighty cannot escape thy hands the wise cannot hide themselues from thee and the strong are weakened before thy face Thou accountest no man rich for that no man is able to pay the ransome for his life Thou goest euery where thou searchest euery where and thou art euery where Thou witherest the hearbes thou wastest the windes thou corruptest the aire thou dryest the waters thou changest the ages thou alterest the water and suppest vp the sea All things doe decrease and diminish but thou still remainest and raignest in the world Thou art the hammer that alwaies striketh the sword that neuer blunteth the snare that alwayes catcheth Thou art the prison whereinto euery man entreth thou art the sea wherein euery one drowneth thou art the paine that euery one suffereth O cruell Death thou snatchest vs away in our ripest age thou many times interruptest our best affaires thou robbest vs in one houre of all the gaines we euer got Thou cuttest off succession of kinreds and families thou bereauest kingdomes of their naturall heires thou fillest the world with widowes and orphanes thou breakest off the studies of the learnedst Clearks thou ouerthrowest the finest wits and best conceits in the ripest age thou ioynest the end with the beginning without giuing place to the middle thou art such a meanes as God neuer created but thy comming was by the Diuels enuie and malice Now that wee may profit by this experience of our mortall estate and not forget our selues so grosely vpon euery occasion as we doe it is necessary to haue this holy Meditation still fixed in our mindes that since we liue moue and haue our being of God that therefore our liues are not our owne but lent vs for a time we must remember that we are borne to die and must liue to die for the forgetfulnesse of Death and hope of long life makes vs so secure and carelesse as that we desire no other heauen but earth Many make a couenant with Death and clap hands with the graue hoping thereby to escape or for a time to solace themselues in the forgetfulnesse of their latter end and so bathe themselues in their fleshly pleasures and wallow like fatted Swine in the filthy stie of all vncleanenesse still following things apparant to their eyes and neuer regarding the time to come till death preuent them on a sodaine and summon them to appeare before their Iudge So it commeth to passe that as they liued wickedly they die most fearefully their hope is as the winde and their confidence like the cobwebbe Death is a terrour and a torment both to their soule and body and this is the reason they haue not learned to die Death is strange vnto them he seemes an vgly monster they dare not once behold him True it is that Death in it owne nature as partly wee haue heard is most terrible to behold that the horror thereof amazeth all our senses yet he that is armed with faith is well assured that it is sent for his profit to be as his hackney to carry and conuey him from earth to heauen from paine to pleasure from misery vexation griefe and woe to endlesse mirth melody and ioyes vnspeakeable with God for euer And seeing the sentence of death is gone forth against vs and that our soules remaine in our bodies attending the day of execution let vs detest to heare of our former wicked life as prisoners condemned to die and humble our selues in prayer vnto God reprouing the vanities of this wicked world and aduertising our friends and familiars to doe the like c. CHAP. VII Of the miserable life and wretched state of man by the meanes of Sinne and Death INfinite are the miseries of mortall men their sinne brought in a sea of euils and iust is Iobs complaint that man borne of a woman is full of wretchednesse from the day of his birth till the day of his death a whole armie of euils besiege him Tormented he is in his soule and afflicted in his body in euery part from the crowne of the head to the sole of the foote he is full of infirmities sores and maladies no place is free The first day of the life of man is a beginning of conflicts Our ingresse and egresse and whole progresse of life is set about with seuerall signes of sorrow The tender babe new borne and not yet able to speake saith Augustine doth by his teares prophesie and foretell the manifold sorrowes that are incident to this miserable life of man We enter this life with teares we passe it in toyle and end it in sorrow and torment Great and little rich and poore not one in the whole world that can pleade immunitie from this condition Life and misery saith one are as two twinnes which were borne together and must die together From the wombe to our winding-sheete our life is a warfare vpon earth no age no condition of life no day no night but brings his enemy with him as well against the man of an hundred yeares olde as against the babe new borne How full of ignorance is the time of our infancie how light and wanton are wee growing to be striplings how rash and headlong in the time of our youth how heauy and vnweildy when we come to olde age What is an infant but a bruit beast in the shape of a man and what is a young youth but as it were a wilde vntamed Asse-colt vnbridled and what is an aged heauy and crooked old man but euen a sacke and fardell stuffed with griefes and diseases He is forsaken of the world his kinsfolk friends and acquaintance his owne members and
senses faile him yea hee forsaketh as it were himselfe in that the very vse of reason forsaketh him Hee is accompanied with painfull aches griefes and diseases his company and conuersation is combersome in the Family where hee dwelleth This is the marke for sooth at which euery one shooteth vpon which the eyes of all are fixed This is the happy estate so greatly desired this I say is the end of the greedy ambition of long life Take thy Counters into thy hands see what reckoning thou canst make of life what is past frighteth thee with remembrance of it because so much of thy light is spent what is present burdeneth thee with the weight of it because in sweate and sorrow thou doest waste and spend thy time what is to come troubleth thee with the vncertainty of it least the graue doe swallow thee before thou see it what booteth it thee so vnseasonably to ripen thy cares for the tares of this life To conclude childehood is but a foolish simplicitie Youth a vaine heate Manhood a painefull carefulnesse and old age a noysome languishing Our playes are but teares our pleasures feauers of the minde riches are but rackes and torments honours heauie vanities our rest vnresty and so passing from age to age we passe from euill to worse from the lesser to the greater Thus one waue of trouble and affliction driueth vpon another vntill wee be arriued at the hauen of Death Here life is dying and death liuing whiles it increaseth it decayeth all this present life is but a wishing of the future a bewailing of the past a loathing of that we haue and a longing for that we haue not tasted a vaine memory of the state past and a doubtfull expectation of the state to come Nothing in this life is certaine nothing assured but the certainty and vncertainty of Death If any man be long a dying and paying Deaths debt Nature like a rigorous creditour that will be paid at the iust day sueth out an execution against her debtor taking from one his sight from another his hearing and both from some and he that tarrieth longest in the world shee foundreth maymeth and vtterly disableth in his limbes Is not this a goodly place where teares and cares make their residence where pale sicknesse and sad old age haue taken vp their habitation and where of necessitie we must passe our daies with such companions Doe wee not see how many discommodities we vndergoe and how ill this body of ours befitteth vs One while wee complaine of our bellies another time of our breasts and then of our throates sometimes our sinewes and then our feete torment vs Now we haue too much blood anone too little Thus are we haled and harried hither and thither for so it ordinarily falleth out with him that dwelleth in another mans house here teares sooner faile vs then iust cause of complaint with teares and cries we entred and with the same we must passe ouer and end our dayes What other thing is the body of mortall man but a corrupt and tainted vessell which infecteth the soule and soureth incontinently whatsoeuer precious or wholesome liquor is powred into it It is a filthy dunghill couered with snow faire without and foule within What channell is so filthy what sinke auoideth out such loathsome geare as doth mans body by sundry meanes waies The trees hearbes and many beasts doe yeeld forth pleasant smels and wholesome sauours onely Man doth yeelde most loathsome stuffe so that he seemes to be no other thing then a fountaine of filthinesse One fell a weeping that he was here a feeding vpon corruptible meate being created to liue in the company of Angels to feede on heauenly food What glasse is so brittle and subiect to knockes and breaking as is this body of ours Sometimes the very aire and heate of the Sunne is able to bereaue vs of life It shall not neede to draw the sword or to vse any weapon to take it away for the very aire and looke of an infected man is able to doe it Consider the strength of this Castle wherein the treasure of our life is kept seeing the beholding of it a farre off is able to batter the wals thereof to the ground Neither is it to be wondred that Man is so fraile and brittle of himselfe considering the moulde whereof he is made being dust but rather we may admire that being of such fraile mettall and making as hee is yet can endure so long Why is a Clocke so often disordered and out of frame the reason is because it hath so many wheeles and points of curious worke that though it be made of Iron yet euery little thing is able to distemper it but how much more nice is the artificiall composition of our body and how much more fraile is the matter of our flesh then is the mettall of a Clocke Why then should we wonder if some one point or other among so many peeces haue some impediment by meanes of which defect this clocke of our life is stopped course ended for what firmenesse can be in the matter of flesh or what strength consisteth in such a weake subiect Now considering we liue in such a fraile estate as wee doe our time is euer neere saith Augustine because we are mortall nearer because we liue among so many dangers If we were of a glassie matter our feare were the lesse for being kept from knockes there were hope of continuance but keepe we our selues as charily as wee can we shall away Doe we ouercome enemies without diseases within will also surprise vs Can we auoide the stroake of weapons the dart of Death we cannot shunne Mortall man is like a snow-ball in the Sunne his life is soone dissolued He is like an apple hanging on a tree corrupted inwardly by wormes though outwardly beautifull to the eye Man is the bondslaue of Death as a guest in his dwelling as a wayfaring man in his Inne for a night but quickly gone and forgotten Wheresoeuer hee dwelleth or whatsoeuer hee doth Death continually waiteth for him as a sergeant at his gates Oh miserable life how many deceiuest thou which when thou art knowne and learned art nothing when thou art exalted art but as smoake bitter to the wise sweet to the foolish who so seeketh thee knoweth thee not who so knoweth thee flyeth from thee It is reported that the Chamelion changeth himselfe in one houre into many and diuers colours and the Sea called Euripus for the often changing is accounted famous the Moone hath likewise for euery day a seuerall forme and shape But what Proteus was euer changed into so many formes as man altereth euery houre sometime hee is sicke sometime sound sometime angry sometime pleased sometime in hope anone in despayre hee willeth and hee willeth not c. yea many times hee knowes not himselfe what hee would haue Hee altereth and changeth euery houre he tosseth and tumbleth hee
one of the greatest to be tormented with the cares of this life which as Flyes by no deuice can be expelled They rush vpon them in the morning as soone as they awake they accompany them in the day they follow them in the night they forsake them not to bed they let them from their sleepe they afflict them in their rest they trouble them in their dreames and they are like to those fierce and mercilesse tyrants threatned to the wicked which shall giue them no rest neyther by day nor night For I haue taken away my peace from this kinde of people saith the Lord I haue taken away my mercy and compassion from them The very bruite beasts are fed and prouided for without their care but man is constrayned to sweate day and night and with sorrow to torment himselfe by sea and land to get a poore liuing Our dayes consume away like the Spiders webbe who laboureth night and day in spinning wasting euen her bowels and consuming her selfe to bring her web to an end and what is her worke but to make a fine and tender net to catch poore Flyes So miserable man doth toyle and trauell like a hireling both his body and minde to catch the Butter-flyes of this world euen needlesse toyes and trifles froath and vanities and many times in the end doth come the blustering winde of Death that carryeth away both web and workeman in a moment As our life is full of care so it is fraught and set with many snares God saith Dauid shall raine snares vpon sinners teaching vs how infinite snares are set in this world being as plentifull as the drops of raine For euery thing almost is a deadly snare vnto a carnall man Euery sight that he seeth euery word that he heareth euery thought that hee thinketh his youth his age his friends his foes his honour his disgrace his riches his pouertie his solitarinesse his societie his prosperitie his aduersitie his meate his drinke his apparell that hee weareth all are snares to draw him to destruction that is not watchfull in the Lord. Now to auoid these snares that wee be not caught there is no better refuge then that of the Birds who by the benefit of their wings mount vp into the ayre to flye aloft for the net is laid in vaine before the eyes of such as haue wings and can flye The Spyes of Iericho though many snares were laid for them yet they escaped them all for that they walked by hils and hid them in mountaines If wee lift vp our eyes to the hils with Dauid whence all our aide and assistance commeth to auoid the dangers of this life then likewise may wee say with him Our soule is deliuered as a bird from the snare of the Fowler If wee can truely say with S. Paul Our conuersation is in heauen then shall wee little feare all these deceits and dangers vpon earth for as the Fowler hath no hope to catch the birds except he can allure them to his pitch and to come downe to his lure so hath the Diuell no way to intangle vs but to say as hee did to Christ Throw thy selfe downe come to the baites which I haue laid eate and deuoure them tye thy affections to earthly things c. But King Dauid was past them all when he said to God Whom haue I in heauen but thee and there is none in earth which I desire before thee c. And so was Paul when hee accounted all things dung for though he liued in the flesh yet he walked not after the flesh I haue a whole army of traitors within mee saith Augustine who vnder colour of friendship are mine enemies and yet behold with them haue I liued from my youth vp them haue I pleased them haue I beleeued as the friends whom I loued as the Masters whom I obeyed the Lords whom I serued the Counsellors whom I trusted c. That the Adamant draweth Iron vnto it is a secret in Nature but for the World and Flesh to draw vs is a matter as naturall as for the water of a riuer to runne downe the channell and as for a Coach to runne downe a hill for being naturally giuen to the corruptions of the flesh wee neede no soliciting the onely sight of the thing we loue is sufficient to hale vs forward As the wanton harlot allures her louers the baite vpon the hooke the fishes the call of the Fowler the foolish Birds so is this World and Flesh with their baites and allurements They are like a violent streame that carryes away the highest and tallest trees not sufficiently rooted yea the best men are rightly resembled to those that liue among Colliers and Millers who hardly can shunne defiling and deforming of coale and meale The Diuell setteth before our eyes enticing pleasures that by the sight of them hee may supplant our chastitie hee tempteth our eares with the sweetnesse of Musicke that hee may weaken our Christian strength hee moueth our tongues by bitter words and by iniurious deeds prouoketh our hands to fight and slay hee offereth vnrighteous gaine to induce vs to fraud and pernicious profits to kindle couetousnesse in our soules hee promiseth temporall honours wherby to defeat vs of celestiall ioyes he sheweth falshood that hee may seduce vs from the truth hee practiseth cunning in time of peace and violence in persecution In this wicked world who can liue peaceably among so many enemies of peace where the mother is against the daughter and the daughter against the mother yea manifold are our foes in our owne families yea in our owne selues and soules Reason against the Will and Will against the Reason yea which is more euery man is two men the Flesh against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh the Law of the members against the Law of the minde And this conflict is not for a time but so long as wee continue in this body of sinne Perfect peace here we cannot possibly haue seeing the Flesh which euer rebelleth is in this world as one that is planted in his owne Countrey Cast downe this enemy may be cast out hee cannot be vntill this mortall hath put on immortalitie yet we must endeuour that though it be inhabitant yet that it be not regnant The Flesh is strong yet Grace is stronger in Gods Children to subdue the rigour thereof the Flesh is as the elder Grace as the yonger but in this Gods Children haue a promise also that the elder shall obey the younger Wee may not thinke our selues safest when wee seeme to be freest from the buffettings of Sathan for bearing in our bodies a diuided Kingdome betweene the Flesh and the Spirit represented vnto vs in the wrestling of Rebeccaes twinnes in her wombe if wee haue peace with God wee shall haue warre with the Dragon and hauing forsaken Egypt yet in the way to our
heauenly Canaan wee shall haue a spirituall Pharaoh with his Captaines like Grassehoppers to feed vpon vs yea the libertie which wee haue in Christ the corruption of our heart will labour to inuert to voluptuousnesse the sweetnesse which wee taste in his word the vanity of our mindes will endeuour to ouer-cast with drowsinesse the Faith which we ground on his promises the subtiltie of the Serpent will seeke to vndermine with doubtfulnesse the conscience wee make to offend the lusts of our flesh will contend for to couer with hypocrisie the detestation wee haue of sinne the concupiscence of our eyes will striue to ouer-reach with prophanenesse and the interest wee haue to heauen the pride of our liues will perswade vs to change for trifles Being freed from outward warre ciuill and intestine ariseth vp against vs our Affections against Reason and Will Earth troubleth Heauen and the World in our selues although wee greatly shunne it doe what wee can will haue a pauilion and tent in our hearts Yea those oftentimes who with tragicall and vehement words seem most to detest it are yet made so blinde with the glory thereof that the very shadow of ambition affecteth them Many I dare boldly say seeme to defie the World which meet and welcome the same with the kindest embracings This masking World in her strange disguised vizour not seldome flourisheth among such as seeme most to ahhorre her For alas wee are resident in the World and the World in vs so that wee cannot be free from the World except wee depart from our selues and what is this departure but death Some in flying the contagion of others are corrupted of themselues and in with-drawing from the societie of men yet deny not the olde man possessing them In the great deluge of this life Gods Children are tossed with raging stormes on euery side where no good footing or high place can be found for the Doue of Christ to rest her selfe Here is no sure peace nor secure quietnesse but warres on euery side and in all places contention and deadly foes The tempestuous sea torments vs wee are grieued at the heart and desirous to vomit and to be discharged thereof we remoue out of one ship to another from a greater to a lesse wee promise vnto our selues rest in vaine they being alwayes the same windes that blow the same waues that swell the same humours that are stirred to all there is no other port no other meanes of tranquilitie but onely death See the foolishnesse of the world and the infirmity of our flesh When God saith trouble shall come they say wee would haue ease when God saith be merry and reioyce in trouble wee lament and mourne as though wee were cast-awayes But this flesh which is neuer merry with vertue nor sorry with vice which neuer laugheth with grace nor weepeth with sinne holdeth fast with the world and giueth God the slip Thus wee may see our wretched estate in the flesh still crossing God and the saluation of our soules All our affections and wils with the whole force of Nature helpeth forward our destruction fightings without and terrours within World Flesh and Diuell ioyne together with Death for our damnation CHAP. VIII Of the power strength and sting of Death by meanes of the Law whose nature is here vnfoulded THe originall of Death we haue heard as also what it is who be subiect to it with the fearefull estate wherein they stand Now let vs further obserue that as the Diuell and man together brought in Death by sinne so it now being entred is become the very kingdome of the Diuell wherein hee raigneth By Death he triumphed ouer man whom hee seduced holding him fast in his owne fetters and shackles of sin which himselfe first found out and so leadeth him as his slaue and ruleth ouer him as his head for God did renounce man although hee created him and cast him off by meanes of sinne whom first he had made like vnto himselfe In that men die it proues they had sinned and sinne proues there is a law which law being broken bringeth Death for the wages of sinne is Death Now to conuince sinfull man the better of this his cursed estate God renewed his law first ingrafted in his nature but blotted out by his fall in Tables of Stone to shew the hardnesse of his heart that so as in a glasse hee might see his fearfull fall For amiddest the heapes of all other sins pride so possessed his heart that although he was nothing else but sin yet stil he deemed himselfe as innocent and righteous He was so blinded in his corruption that he knew not sinne in his colours vntill the law descried it And this is the common error of all his lynage that without the publishing of the law wee had not knowne our sinne I knew not sinne saith Paul but by the Law I had not knowne lust except the law had said thou shalt not lust but sinne tooke occasion by the Law and wrought in me all manner of lust so sinne by the Law grew out of measure sinnefull Such is the corruption of mans nature that it most eagerly desireth things that are most straightly denied which if they had not beene mentioned should not so much as haue beene dreamed of For though the flame of concupiscence be restrained by the damme and wall of Gods law yet is it not dryed vp in our mortall nature When the law was giuen to man in whom there is no grace sinne abounded three waies first seeing the law of God giuen vnto him as an helpe sinne laboureth to turne it to his hurt whom it securely before possessing lesse assaulted secondly Man naturally desireth liberty and freedome and flyeth seruitude and bondage by nature mans minde is crosse and peeuish and is swayed to contraries Stolne waters are the sweetest hid bread is pleasant So that by the prohibitions of the law charity in man being decayed the desire of euil increased which once increased made the things forbidden by the law more sweet and pleasant Thirdly for that the inhibition of euill things puts them more in remembrance of the things forbidden which very remembrance to nature corrupted is a prouoker and stirrer vp of filthy lust and desire Againe in that sinne abounded when the law entred it is to be vnderstood by an accidentall consequent for God sent not his law in cruelty and rigour but vpon good aduise and sound iudgement Sometime man seemeth to be whole and is sicke and because he feeleth not the sicknesse hee seeketh not for the Physition but the disease increasing with the griefe the Physition is sought by whose meanes the sicke and sore body may be cured So the law was giuen to such as were infirme and sicke in sinne that so they may seeke to the Physitian Iesus Christ to be healed Againe it entred the better to discouer sinne which without the light thereof
euerlasting Death in particular and of the horrour thereof GReat and heauie was the tribute that the eternall God as a most iust iudge imposed vpon man for sinne The Death of the body is fearefull in our eyes when wee consider with our selues how strangely the condition thereof is altered when the body that a fleshly man makes so much of his belly which he esteemeth for his God his mouth for whose delight the sea and land sufficed not his flesh that was wont to be cloathed with costly garments of silke and gold curiously wrought shall now sodainely be haled into a filthy hole and pit where it shall be trod vpon yea and eaten with wormes where in stead of gorgeous apparrell he must now onely enioy his winding sheete and instead of his perfumes and maskes filthy fauours and rottennesse and in lieu of his varietie of delicate dishes and seruing men to attend him to haue a company and infinite number of crawling vermine to feede vpon him What man I say now liuing and enioying sence and reason but will maruell to thinke of the base condition that so noble a creature comes vnto who in his life time had no fellow nor equall Is it not a wonder that so excellent a myrrour of nature should come to such a dishonourable base and loathsome estate The euerlasting Iudge knew well enough what penance he enioyned sinfull man when he said thou art dust and to dust thou shalt returne but what is this death and disgrace of the body to the death and deformity of body and soule in hell it is but as the byting of a flea to the stinging of a Scorpion a shadow to the substance If diseases which doe but make the way to death be so dreadfull what must the end and perfection of diseases be since as the diseases are the malidies of the body so Death it selfe the maladie of disease for there are that feare not so much to die as to be dead If the pang be bitter yet it is but short but the comfortlesse state of the dead strikes some farre deeper that could well be resolued otherwise for the act of their passage The very not being is sufficiently abhorred of nature if Death had no more to make it fearefull but those that haue liued vnder such shining beames of light to shew them the darke dungeon of hell after their straight passage thorough the gates of Death and such as haue learned that Death is not onely horrible for their not being here but for their abode and being infinitely and eternally miserable in the world to come not so much for the dissolution of life as the beginning of torment such I say cannot but extreamely feare to die and hellishly tremble to be dead indeede But if it be such paines to die what shall be the torture and torment to be euer dying and neuer dead And if the strayning of one Ioynt can so afflict vs as experience teacheth what shall the racking of the whole body and tormenting of the soule be whose animation alone maketh the body feele and complaine of smart And if our momentany sufferings seeme long how long shall that be which is eternall If so extreme sorrowes be incident indifferently to Gods dearest children vpon earth to driue them sometimes within the sight of despaire what shall those be that are reserued onely for those that hate the Lord and are hated of him There is nothing great that hath not an end as it is in the prouerbe but to be tormented in most horrible paines in all the parts of body and soule without remorse that shall neuer haue end nor ease nor mitigation nor declination nor change nor alteration nor hope of end in the sufferer or tormentour this euill is beyond all the thoughts of man this is the dying life and liuing Death full of endlesse horrour and torment where the damned are not before Death or after Death but alwayes in Death therfore neuer liuing nor euer dead but alwaies dying and it shall be neuer be worse to the wicked in Death then when their Death it selfe shall be without Death And it is great iustice in God that they neuer want the paine of hell who all their life time had all their pleasure set on sinne Who if they could faine would haue liued for euer but neuer left their sinne for he that forsaketh not his sin in this life seemeth alwaies for sinnes sake to liue euer From this Death therefore there is no returne it groweth by continuance and by continuing groweth from hell there is no redemption It is a gulfe deuouring all things that come into it neuer restoring any thing againe It is the pit of perdition and house of despaire It is the second Death farre exceeding the first beyond all conceits of man for what life haue the damned where there is nothing but immortality of torments and euill where there is nothing but the fellowship of Diuels and the damned where there is fire vnquenchable to which ours is but Ice Continuall burning there is the least yet this is not all for though the euils be most great and continuall yet here hope bringeth some ease as a little Starre in the night but in hell with those greatest torments and horrour of euils is the greatest despaire without hope of any ease or recouery This horror is most horrible far exceeding all worldly sorrow and feare better it were neuer to haue beene then not to be deliuered from that dying life which is indeede an immortall death In this life all the paines which fall vpon man are but particular and not vniuersall as we see one man pained in his eyes another in his backe another in his teeth another in his belly c. which particular paines notwithstanding sometime are so extreame as that life is not able to resist them and a man would not endure them so long for the gaining of many worlds But suppose now a man were tormented in all the parts of his body together and at once in his head eyes tongue teeth throat stomacke belly backe heart sides thighes and in all his ioynts besides without ease or intermission what thing could be more miserable then this what sight more lamentable yet consider further what difference there is betweene abiding these paines for a weeke or for euer and all eternitie in suffering of them vpon a soft bed or vpon a burning gridiron and boyling furnace amongst a mans friends comforting him or amongst the Furies of hell tormenting him Now therefore if a man would endure a great deale of labour rather then abide the one in this life how carefull and diligent should we be to hate our sinnes and serue the Lord while we liue rather then to incurre the other tortures and torments in the life to come The wicked shall be tormented for euer so long as God is God so long shall they burne in hell neyther shall the tormenter nor the tormented dye but both liue
for euer and together eternally Oh saith a godly Father if a sinner damned in hell did know that hee had to suffer those torments there no more thousands of yeares then there be sands of the sea and piles of grasse on the ground or no more thousand millions of ages then there be creatures in heauen and in earth hee would greatly reioyce thereof and comfort himselfe with this poore cogitation that once yet his torments would haue an end but now saith hee this word Neuer breakes his heart when hee thinketh on it and that after a hundred thousand millions of worlds there suffered he hath as farre to his end as he had at the entrance for no water can quench this fire no time can end these torments Death in it selfe to the vnregenerate man is the very gate of hell and wicket-dore of damnation for whomsoeuer it findeth vnrenued by Gods Spirit lying still in the filth of sinne it sendeth them straight to Gods Iudgement seat for speedy vengeance such therefore cannot choose but loathe and abhorre it being the messenger of Gods wrath the wages for their sinne and the fearefull fore-runner of their eternall damnation to ensue For shall it hale them forward to hell like an executioner and they not dislike it Shall it arrest them as a Serjeant to appeare before their Iudge and they not regard it Fearefull no doubt are their fits and furies before their end and grieuous and vnspeakable are their pangs before they come to the full possession of their endlesse paines And what a sorrowfull day will death be to such when Iustice shall set such a fyne vpon their heads that will for euer decay their former wealthy estate in the world and leaue them in a desperate case It is no maruell therefore that wicked reprobates doe so shake and tremble at the remembrance of death for there is cause of more feare then they can feare For the power of Gods wrath which now in death the wicked and vngodly men presently expect to feele cannot be feared as it ought For who knoweth the power of thy wrath There is no feare no suspition no thought which may sufficiently expresse the terrour of it Horrendum est it is a horrible thing so saith the Author to the Hebrewes but how fearefull no creature can tell but they that feele it and lye vnder it in the flames of hell as Diues did Aske no question saith one concerning them that perish concerning the death of the vngodly seeke not neither enquire there is no comfort to be giuen vnto it CHAP. X. The fearefull condition of the reprobate and all wicked men without Christ WHen the wicked and vngodly men shall ponder with themselues vpon the knowledge of the former poynts how sinfull they are and how by meanes of their vnrepentant hearts they are holden in the cords of their sinne and as malefactors apprehended and found guilty are ready to be haled to deaths prison there to lye vntill their arraignment and appoynted time of iudgement speedily to be executed vpon them They cannot choose hauing the sentence of condemnation written in their consciences but tremble and quake at the remembrance thereof If the hand-writing against Balthasar once read vpon the wall caused his very heart to shake and his knees knock together when hee heard that God had numbred his dayes and weighed him in the Ballance how fearefully shall the vngodly be affected with the continuall expectation of the wrath and vengeance of God assuredly decreed sodainly and in a moment to fall vpon them And albeit they striue to put away the euill day from their thoughts and cogitations yet haue they many fits and feuers of feare euen in the middest of their delights When Pharaoh the proud Tyrant had hardened his heart and boasted exceedingly against the people of God yet he no sooner saw the death of the first borne but he feared and trembled as the leaues in the Wildernesse There is indeede a way as Solomon saith that a man thinketh straight and pleasant when yet the issues thereof lead to death but what pleasure is that and what delight Surely in that laughter the heart is sorrowfull and that mirth doth end in heauinesse True it is that such men strengthen themselues and striue to vanquish feare sometimes with one pleasure and sometimes with another but if they would violently cast it out as the Cannon doth her shot yet would it euermore returne againe and vexe their heart And though they would neuer so faine haue their conscience seared as with a glowing Iron to make them senslesse yet sometimes it awakeneth them as out of a sleep and then they see most fearefull sights of horrour and torment and when they feele it least their state is no better then that of the stalled Oxe not knowing being so fat that then he is the fittest for the slaughter All their life is a miserable bondage in feare and terrour of their iust condemnation to ensue They haue the spirit of slauery and feare being the children of the handmaid Hagar borne in the bondage of her wombe they dwell in the Desart of Ambia and are in mount Sinai where is the burning of fire and blacknesse and darknesse and tempest and sound of Trumpet at which they tremble for they are without Christ and therefore must needes be in the horrour and feare of death all their dayes And though through the custome of sinne they come to a slumbring spirit and are cast into a numbnesse of conscience brawned through a senslesse blockishnesse as men hewed out of hard Oakes or grauen out of Marble hauing flinty hearts and adamant soules altogether destitute of true feeling of their sinnes and feare of God yet when the Lord shall let loose the cord of their consciences and shall set their sinnes before their face some of them depart this life like bruitish Swine and others of them surcharged with sinne doe end their dayes like barking dogges The sting of an ill conscience is called a worme that neuer dyeth a searing with an hot iron a sea that alwayes rageth a violent fire to deuoure the aduersary An euill conscience is a heauy burden it will make the wicked grieue at the losse of that he neuer loued for vertue hath this triumph ouer vice that they which hate her most shall be grieued at her absence If a man languish in sicknesse so his heart be whole his sicknesse doth not so much grieue him if he be reproached so he be precious in the sight of God and his Angels what losse hath hee but if his soule be disquieted who dareth meete with the wrath of the Lord of hoasts Who can put to silence the voyce of desperation Who can make agreement with Hell and Diuels In all other afflictions a man may haue some comfort against sinne but this is euer accompanied with the accusation of sinne then a man suspecteth all
his wayes feareth all his sinnes hee knowes not what sinne to beginne with And where all other euils pursue men but to death an ill conscience not cured endeth not in death but becommeth eternall It is the profession of sinne although fayre spoken at the entrance to be a perpetuall make-bate betwixt God and man yea betwixt a man and himselfe and this enimitie though it doe not continually shew it selfe for that the conscience is not clamorous but somewhile is silent otherwhiles with still murmurings bewrayeth her mislikes yet it doth euermore worke secret vnquietnesse to the heart The guilty man may haue a seeming truce a true peace hee cannot haue The galled spirit doth after the manner of sicke Patients seeke refreshing in varietie and after many tossed and tumbled sides complaines of remedilesse vnabated torment Such a one may change his bed-chamber and remoue his place but not his paines his furies euer attend him are euer within him and as parts of himselfe And what auayles it to seeke outward reliefe when thou hast thy executioner within thee If thou couldest shift from thy selfe thou mightest haue hope of ease for thou shalt neuer want frettings so long as thou hast thy selfe yea what if thou wouldest run from thy selfe thy soule may flye from thy body thy conscience will not flye from thy soule nor sinne from thy conscience the conscience leaues not where the Fiends beginne but both ioyne together in torture Some are of so hard and obdurate fore-heads that in their resolution they can laugh their sinne out of countenance they haue so long and able gorges that in their conceit they can swallow and digest any manner of sinne without complaint But beleeuest thou that such a mans heart laughes with his face Will not hee dare to be an hypocrite that durst be a villaine These Glow-wormes when a night of sorrow comes make a lightsome and fiery shew of ioy when if thou vrge them thou findest nothing but a cold and crude moysture Such as count it no shame to sinne yet count it a shame to be checked with remorse especially to be espyed of others Repentance to them seemes base mindednesse vnworthy of him that professeth wisedome and valour Such a man yet can grieue when none sees it but himselfe can laugh when others see that himselfe feeles not but assure thy selfe that that mans heart bleedeth when his countenance smileth he weares out many waking houres when thou thinkest he resteth As his thoughts afford him no sleepe so his very sleepe affords him no rest but while his senses are tyed vp his sinne is loose vgliest shape and frighteth him with hellish dreames The fire of the conscience may lye for a time smothered with a pile of green wood that it cannot be discerned whose moysture when it hath once mastered sendeth out so much the greater flame by how much it had the greater resistance Hope not to stop the mouth of the conscience from exclaiming whiles thy sinne continues that endeuour is both vaine and hurtfull which is as one should stop the nosthrill in hope to stay the issue when the bloud hindered of the former course breaketh out of the mouth or findes a way downe into the stomacke farre more dangerous The conscience cannot be pacified when sinne is within to vexe it no more then an angry swelling can cease throbbing whiles the thorne of corrupt matter lyes rotting vnderneath Time that remedies all other euils of the minde encreaseth this which like to bodily diseases proues worse with continuance and groweth vpon vs vvith our age Thus wee see that the wicked are in hell liuing yet vpon the earth but what is this to their hell hereafter All their sufferings here are but as their summons to their euerlasting tortures after death all their troubles in this life but a taste of their endlesse torments in the life to come These be but the beginnings of their miseries the dregges of Gods wrath they shall drinke hereafter All their anguish here is but as the porch of hell after comes the maine sea of all their sorrowes for though they haue in this life wallowed in their delights which sometimes through a hardnesse of heart hath delayed their sorrowes yet then they must be turned off as Princes Mules are wont to be at their iourneyes end their treasure taken from them and their galled backes left vnto them For as wee see those Princely Mules goe day by day laden with treasure and couered with fayre cloathes but yet at night bereaued of coyne and couer are turned out into a sorry stable much wearyed bruised and galled so shall this glutted sort with galled consciences bereaued of worldly helpes be thrust to hell Man saith Bernard though thou hast lost all shame if thou feele no sorrow as carnall men doe not yet loose not feare also which is found in very beasts Wee vse to load an Asse and to weary him out with labour yet he careth not for it because he is an Asse but if thou wouldest thrust him into the fire or fling him into a ditch hee would auoid it as much as hee could for that hee loueth his life and feareth death Feare thou then and be not more senslesse then a beast feare Death feare Iudgement feare the endlesse paine of Hell Is it not a grieuous thing for a man beloued and of credit in the world and making merry with his friends and companions to be sodainly apprehended by a Serjeant or officer for a traitor theefe or murtherer and presently without bayle or main-prise to be taken from his companions to be carryed to the Gaole and from thence to the place of execution More grieuous and fearefull is it for a wicked man that liues in the pleasures of his sinne to be taken away by death which is the Lords Serjeant to apprehend and bring him to the prison of hell As his entrance into the world was euill and his continuance in the world worse so his taking away by Death is the worst of all Balaams wish is vsed by many Let me dye the death of the righteous yet they will not liue a righteous life but few of these obtaine their desire Such are taken from the practise of sinne to the punishment of sin from ease to torments from men to Diuels from death to hell At the houre of death Sathan will bring all the sinnes of a wicked man done in his former life like a squadron of enemies all ready set in battell-aray to assault him No Serpents sting doth so pricke and vexe a man as the dreadfull remembrance of his wicked life past shall doe at his latter end Therefore they feare Death as much as the malefactor the Gaoler that leades him with gyues vnto prison till the day of execution They are like the Gibeonites content with any condition to enioy their liues to be bondmen and slaues hewers of wood and drawers of water They are pulled from the
earth with as great violence as Ioab from the hornes of the altar whither he fled for a refuge to saue his life What will the wicked doe in the extremity of Gods iudgement whither will they turne them whose helpe will they craue when all things shall cause them to feare and proclaime open vengeance against them Aboue them shall be their Iudge offended with their sinnes beneath hell gaping to deuoure them on their right hand shall be their sinnes accusing them on the left hand the Diuels as tormentours ready to receiue them within them their conscience grieuing without them infinite damned soules wailing weeping and gnashing their teeth Good Lord what will wretched sinners doe inuironed with all these miseries how will their hearts sustaine these anguishes what way will they take to goe backe is impossible to goe forward is intollerable What then shall they doe but as Christ foretold desperately seeke for Death and shall not finde it cry to the Mountaines to couer them who yet shall not stirre to hide them they shall stand forlorne as miserable caitifes to their dreadfull and deadly doome Goe yee cursed into euerlasting fire prepared for the Diuell and his Angels For in that man offendeth the Lord and creatour of all things he offendeth also all the creatures together in him whither therefore may he goe for as much as he hath made all things become enemies vnto him There is nothing now left to take his part euen so much as his owne conscience within him barketh out against him yea it is the duetie also of the faithfull to reioyce in the damnation of the wicked as well as to be glad for the saluation of Gods elect and howsoeuer to magnifie the righteousnesse of God The Rauens must haue Hogges garbages Partridges must be set vpon the board before Lords and great men A Murtherer must be laid vpon a Hurdle And it is as meete for Iudas to sit in Hell as for Saint Peter to sit in Heauen And vessels of dishonour are as necessarie for the glory of Gods house as precious vessels of gold for the honour of his seruice Yet this is the height of their horrour when the wicked had rather be tormented in hell then to see the face of Christ their fearefull Iudge wishing the very Mountaines to hide them and the Hils and Rockes to couer them from the glory of his presence Hitherto what Death is in it selfe Now it followeth to shew what it is through Christ to the faithfull The end of the first Booke THE SECOND BOOKE What DEATH is in Christ CHAP. I. Christ alone and none other can and doth redeeme vs from death and damnation WHat our fearefull estate is without Christ we haue heard before being holden in the shadow of death by the chaines of our sins the weight and burthen whereof is the law of God laid vpon vs Hell is our prison and Death is our Gaolor to hold vs. See how fast we are locked from God and his Saints in the dungeon of Death by the meanes of sinne which is a sword to the heart a serpent in the bosome poyson in the stomacke a thiefe in the house It woundeth Nature stingeth the conscience killeth charitie and depriueth vs of Gods fauour which is the worst of all Now in this distresse Christ came to visite vs in his due time euen God and man a right redeemer for vs he tooke our cause vpon him and wrestled with the Diuell that held vs by our sinnes in Death This mighty Sauiour tooke flesh and blood to take our part none could be our Mediatour but he alone none amongst the Angels for they are no men not any amongst the Saints for they were all sinners neither any amongst the other creatures for they were all corruptible so that we can neither giue gold nor siluer for the redemption of our soules neither can wee trust in the merits of Angels and Saints who all want vertue for this worke but onely in Christ the Sonne of God and man a meete redeemer for vs who is our Priest alone abiding for euer because he liueth for euer neither can his Priesthood be translated to another and as the sacrifice is his owne so hee is Priest alone to offer it to his Father which he did once for all vpon the Crosse for all belieuers All promise and hope of life is in Christ alone who hath alone the word of life who is alone the bread of life the water of life the author of life yea life it selfe he that beleeueth in him hath euerlasting life and hee that dwelleth not in him shall neuer see life but abideth still in death Take hold of Christ and take hold of life if thou reach out thy hand to any other thing thou catchest for the winde Looke not for life but where it dwelleth in the flesh of Christ alone there it resteth Death hath reigned in all the world beside and ledde euery creature into bondage If thou lookest to the heauens there is but clouds and darknes if to the earth there is but sorrow and sadnesse If thou callest to Abraham he knoweth thee not if thou cry to Angels they cannot comfort thee if thou looke into thy workes they are vncleane if thou trust in thy prayers the Lord hath no pleasure in them call for the helpe of all creatures they are subiect to vanitie there is no life nor rest but in Christ alone The elders and Angels the beasts and all creatures they giue this honour vnto Christ alone Saluation is to him that sitteth vpon the throne and of the Lambe and they all shoute together and say Amen He that would not wander and goe astray should know both whither and which way to goe Now both of those we haue in Christ alone very God and very man for in that he is God and consequently life to him wee must goe and in that he is man by him wee must come vnto God and be vnited with him that we may obtaine euerlasting life and be freed from death If he be the life then is he the place to whom we must goe if he be the way by him we must trauell to attaine eternall life and if he be the truth that is the accomplishment of the law and Prophets concerning both the shadowes and substance of Gods promises then also is he the onely meanes of our redemption God was so gracious and mercifull vnto mankinde that he bestowed not onely his goods but himselfe to redeeme vs and that not so much for his owne sake as for mans behoofe That man might be borne of God God was first borne of Man Who can hate man whose nature and likenesse hee beholdeth in the humanity of God Doubtlesse who so loueth not man hateth God and so abideth in death God became man for mans sake that he might be a redeemer as he was before a creatour that men not
Things present things to come Life Death the world it selfe all is ours and we are Christs Christ in regard of this our vnion with him is not ashamed to call vs Brethren who yet made heauen and earth section 20 and is an immortall and glorious God one with his Father to whom all Angels doe obeysance and the most glorious Princes are but dust and ashes It was a rare thing in Moses being so high in fauour with Pharao that hee would vouchsafe to visite his poore brethren such slaues and bond-men It was singular loue in Ioseph being next to the King in honour and place yet not to be ashamed of his Fathers house being herd-men and sheepe-herds But this is nothing to the kindenesse of Iesus Christ the very shining brightnesse of that most glorious God and his onely begotten Sonne before all eternitie who yet was not ashamed of vs miserable wretched sinners but of his free grace acknowledged vs that were his very enemies in whose person he should suffer a most shamefull and slanderous Death And is it not trow you a iust condemnation if wee wretched men should be ashamed of him who being the God of glory was not ashamed of vs And as they are naturall brethren which are borne of the same Parents so all wee are brethren with Christ which are borne of God through the same spirit by which we cry Abba Father and exercise our loue one towards another in the vnitie of Christian faith section 21 Wee wrastle here with sin as though the steppes of our strength were restrained and looke euen fully vpon death as the Ialour that committeth vs to our graue as a dungeon how be it euen in this doth the Lord reach forth a most approued cordiall to reuiue the faintnesse of our hearts for through the vnion and communion we haue with Christ the vncleanenesse of our birth is washed away in the sanctification of his nature Our transgression remoued in his innocencie our rebellion discharged in his obedience and the vtmost farthing paid in his sufferings And hauing the Image of God which we lost in Adam not renewed onely but a fairer and deeper stampe thereof ingrauen and set vpon vs we may in a Christian resolution challenge at the gates of Hell and Death that nothing can be charged vpon vs as a debt and therefore nothing can light vpon vs as a punishment Wherefore though we mingle here our bread with care and drinke with weeping and haue our lodging in the bed of darkenesse and discomfort it is but to weane vs from the flesh-pots of Egypt till in the heauenly land of Canaan we haue our hearts desire section 22 And though our bodies seeme to perish for euer in in the iudgement of men yet still they haue a being in the sight of God and are members of Christ For the vnion as I haue said betweene Christ and the faithfull is not onely of our soules but of our bodies also all the bodies of the faithfull being vnited to the bodie of Christ And this is such a coniunction as Death can neuer dissolue For though it doth breake the knot betweene Man and Wife yet cannot it infringe the bond betwixt Christ and the faithfull As Death did not make a separation betwixt the two natures of Christ at the time of his suffering though his soule and body were then farre distant in regard of place the one being in heauen and the other in the graue yet were they at that time and in that case personally vnited vnto his god-head no more can Death make a diuision betwixt Christ and the faithfull though there bodies putrifie and rot in their graues yet still they remaine true members of his body And as the Husbandman doth make as great reckoning section 23 of that corne which he hath sowen in his Field and lieth vnder clods as hee doth of that which lieth safe in his barne or garner because he assureth himselfe it will come vp againe and yeelde encrease So Christ our Sauiour doth as highly esteeme of those bodies which are dead and buried as of those which remaine aliue because hee knowes that one day they shall rise againe in honour Their life is but hid for a time and will be found out againe for Christ is able to restore that which nature hath destroyed And God doth deale herein no otherwise with the bodies of his children then Goldsmiths with their old peeces of plate long agoe out of fashion who cast them in the Furnace to refine them and to bring them to a better forme according to his minde Therefore let not the wofull condition of our bodies discourage vs any whit or lessen our hope being ready to die For though the graue deuoure them wormes doe eate section 24 them fire consume them or sea swallow them vp yet being ioyned to Christ in his death and resurrection as Christ and Christians are made one indiuisible body by the bond of Gods spirit they can neuer be seuered from him And although their bodies be as it were rent from the soule by the violence of Death yet in regard of this coniunction with Christ their head neither death nor the graue can separate them from their head For though our bodie be buried in the earth yet our head is in heauen And as one that swimmeth though his body diue and sinke vnder the water yet his head being aboue the streames the whole man is sure and safe from perishing So sure are the faithfull from euerlasting death and destruction though their bodies be entrenched and enterred in their graues being members of their head Iesus Christ ascended aloft aboue the highest heauens to whom they are vnited still by an inseparable bond of his spirit which death can neuer breake CHAP. IIII. The combat and conflict of Christians with Sinne Flesh Death Law and Diuell with their heauenly conquest and triumph ouer them all through Iesus Christ section 1 SVch is the enmitie of the old Serpent in the iust iudgement of God set betweene him and Adams seede that though his head be broken yet still he will labour to bruise their heele Like a coward ouercome he lags behinde for aduantage and not daring to shew his face any more in the field hee dragges in the way and lieth aloofe vpon euery occasion to take them in a trappe Though he cannot preuaile yet prouoke vs still hee will to fight and try our manhood neither can wee otherwise be conquerours then was Christ our Captaine and head who by dying in the field recouered life both for himselfe and his Souldiers for nothing but Death can end this combat Our life is a warfare and that most strange for any section 2 other warre may haue an end either by a conclusion of peace with the enemie or by flying farre from him or by ouercomming him in fight But in this spirituall warre we cannot lawfully make any peace with these our enemies the
Diuell World and Flesh c. For so it would proue our ouerthrow and destruction they being vnto vs so many traitours and irreconcileable murtherers It would be worse for vs then for the silly Sheepe to make peace with the Wolues Neither yet can we flee and so get from them for the Diuell will pursue vs into euery place with his whole armies and huge hoasts of his olde tryed and trayned Souldiers to inuade vs within vs are our corrupt affections and couetous lusts as his hirelings And wheresoeuer we become in this life these our enemies will finde vs out therefore we must fight or be foyled wee must ouercome or be conquered This warre resembles the battels of the Israelites against the Kings and inhabitants of Canaan they must destroy them peace they might not make or admit them tributaries yet Gods people were commanded not to feare them nor to retire into Egypt therefore of necessitie they must fight to ouercome them True it is considering our owne nature that wee haue iust cause to feare so strong and mighty enemies but as God in old time encouraged Iosuah that he should not be affraide in assuring him of his presence so must we manfully stand in this combat and in Christ our true Iosuah and captaine Iesus wee shall be more then conquerours And as the Diuill with his armies maketh war against all mankinde so especially he fighteth against Christ the section 3 head and his faithfull members The woman with her Son he seeketh to drowne and ouerwhelme with a flood sea of temptations As Sathan tempted Christ when hee was baptised and filled with the holy Ghost so will hee still pursue the best Christians which haue receiued of God the greatest graces and gifts As Theeues rob not beggers but rich men and Pyrats pursue those Ships the most that are of dearest prise so the Diuell would make a prey of such especially as are furnished with faith and other heauenly pearles of greatest value In any commotion whom doe rebels most indeauour to kill and spoyle but those especially that are faithfull to their Prince and will fight for their Country Now the Diuell is a rebell in the Lords kingdome whom then will hee most trouble but the godly which are Gods faithfull souldiers to fight his battels against him He that will raigne with Christ in heauen must ouercome the Diuell on earth The Diuell is a Peripateticke saith one alwaies walking section 4 and going about seeking whom he may ensnare and all is fish that comes to his net Our hearts being as deepe riuers and the Diuell being no more able to discerne the thoughts thereof then the Angler can descry what fish is in the water for the secrets of all hearts are onely knowne to God hee baiteth a hooke for vs and by the going downe of the line he knoweth we are sped If he see any couetously giuen he setteth riches before him if any be ambitious he offereth titles and preferments c. He hath manifold nets of temptations sometimes besetting vs with vaine pleasures and sometimes incirkling vs with inordinate sorrow and care now fetching vs in with feare and anone pricking vs forward with pride and presumption As he findeth vs affected so he fitteth his baites and by our ready and greedy apprehension of his temptations he effecteth our destruction And as a cunning Fisher knowing how to hold the fish he hath hooked he will giue them line and libertie but yet they shall walke no further then he list that he may draw them backe againe at his pleasure as the childe playeth with the bird tyed by the legge not suffering her to flye but the length of the thread Therefore the baite that he layeth for vs being our bane let vs not come within the length of his line or within the compasse of his nets Let Gods word rather be our baite and hooke to catch vs which being taken taketh vs and happy is he that is taken therewith no to his slaughter with the fish but to the saluation of his soule with the faithfull section 5 The Diuell wayeth well our old wants the course of our cares the fashion of our affections and out of the nature of our qualities worketh his malignities like a subtile Souldier trayned vp in the warres that layeth siege to that place of the wall that is weakest He obserueth our infirmities and taketh aduantage of them As a man when he would strike fire out of a flint marketh which end of it is fittest for the stroake of the Iron that it may sparkle the sooner So this subtile Serpent obserueth that affection that leaneth to sinne and that he smiteth with his iron of temptation that a sparke of our consent thereunto being added the flame of sinne may sooner be kindled to consume the whole man Hee seeth euery ones complection and so accordingly applyeth his temptation One man is giuen to solace another to sorrow one to feare another to pride c. Let vs therefore be as wise for our saluation as hee is wily to worke our damnation Sathan by worldly baites and sleights leadeth many thousand sinners blindefold to perdition as a Faulken or carryeth his Hawkes quietly on his fist being hooded which otherwise he could not so easily doe if they had they se and sight of their eyes And as Sathan assayleth vs all the dayes of our life section 6 so is hee and will be most busie at the houre of death who dealeth as Tenants doe when their Leases are ready to expire then they racke and take all things to the vtmost they make money of any commoditie they scrape to themselues by hooke and by crooke whatsoeuer they can so fareth it with Sathan The time of death is the last houre of the world and then hee playeth reakes hee ruffleth it apace as though hee were wood And no maruell why hee taketh the greatest aduantage at our death for then hee must ouercome at that instant or not at all then his rage is great because his time is short Thus being acquainted with Sathans wylinesse and watchfulnesse to doe vs hurt especially at our latter end let vs now further display his manner of fight in the field and his Souldiers and weapons that hee imployeth in this warre against vs. Now the Diuell in his Plea against vs for our iust condemnation section 7 and death bringeth in the Law euen the most righteous Law of God which man hath transgressed and by transgression thereof challengeth to hold him in his kingdome From whence he thus reasoneth against our saluation Whosoeuer breaketh the Law of God shall dye the death But euery man hath broken the Law of God Therefore shall euery man dye the death And by the vertue of the Law saith Sathan I will hold him in death The Law is according to Gods nature good holy and righteous and therefore the death of man ponounced by the Law is iust and his condemnation
be made righteous through him wayting for eternall life He hath opened the eyes of the blinde and brought the prisoners from the dungeon and him that sate in darknesse hath hee placed in light To conclude by his triumph on the Crosse hee destroyed section 12 Sinne and so was Death in the same victory maimed For Sinne as was said is the sting of Death and when Death had lost his sting and was conquered in Christs resurrection from death Sathan also lost his strength and power which rested vpon them which through sinne were in danger of death Finally because Hell onely deuoureth them which through Sinne and Death are slaues to Sathan it followeth that the other three by Christ being so mightily vanquished that hell also with all the torments thereof were vtterly subdued and the faithfull deliuered And so according to the saying of Zachary God hath performed the Oath which hee sware to deliuer vs from our enemies that wee might serue him without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life Now then all wee which beleeue are freed from the slauery of Sinne kingdome of the Diuell gulfe of Hell and chaines of Death so that henceforth Death is no death to Gods Children through Christ but great aduantage and appoynted for a passage to a better life And therefore though cursed reprobates may tremble at the name of Death and Diuell to whom they are in thraldome yet Gods Children being conquerours through Christ may well triumph for now through him wee haue an entrance made to heauen and Death is the very doore of life a passage out of this world to the Father a freedome from the prison of this body to goe to Christ It is a returning to our heauenly Countrey from which wee were exiled This is the cause why the godly sigh and sorrow to be loosed and to be with Christ section 13 If Sathan therefore charge vs as surely hee will with the greatnesse of our crimes then turning to God let vs pray that hee will turne away his face from our sinnes and not looke vpon vs as wee are in our selues but in the face of Iesus Christ that redeemed vs from our sinnes If hee say that our sinnes are more then the sands of the sea let vs consider that his mercies are more and most infinite and looke what sinne can doe against Christ so much can it doe against me which beleeue in Christ for I am in him and hee in mee and therefore am righteous through Christ who is a condemning sinne to condemne thee O Sathan which art a condemned sinner If hee say it is absurd for an vniust and wicked man to expect the reward of righteousnesse let vs answere that Christ is our righteousnesse and redemption and that we shall neuer be without merits so long as Christ is not without mercies But from whence hast thou this hope Because I haue a good Lord an exorable Iudge and a gracious Aduocate But thou shalt be swallowed vp of death No my Redeemer liueth and my head is in heauen who I am sure will draw mee to him Christ hath ouercome Death and opened to mee the gate of Life O Death thou wouldest haue killed him with the sting of sinne but being of no force thy strength hath failed and hee being my life is become thy death And though Death like a proud Goliah dareth the whole world to match him with an equall Champion and whilest the whole hoast of worldlings shew him their backes for feare yet the true and humble Christian with Faith and resolution in Christ dare shew his face and stand to the fight till hee haue foyled him and wounded him in the fore-head as Dauid the great Gyant euen the wonted seate of terrour and feare and trampling him vnder foot can cut off his head with his owne sword victoriously triumphing ouer him A most admirable victory we dye and are not foyled yea we are conquerours in dying for we could not ouercome Death if we dyed not But thou shalt be damned saith the Diuell Sathan section 14 thou art a false accuser and no vpright Iudge one that art damned thy selfe and not a condemner of others But the Law of thy God accuseth and condemneth thee Sathan Christ hath fulfilled it and giuen his satisfaction vnto mee to him I onely cleaue who hath fulfilled it so that I my selfe haue nothing to doe with it I haue another Law which striketh it downe euen the Law of libertie which through Christ maketh mee free For my Conscience which henceforth serueth the Law of Grace is as a glorious Prince to triumph ouer the Law of Wrath. But see how many Legions of Diuels looke for thy soule as Death for thy body I denye it not and should therefore despayre but that I haue a strong protector who hath vanquished their tyrannie and hellish hatred against mee Yea but God is vniust if hee bestow eternall life vpon malefactors Nay hee is rather iust in keeping his promise and I haue long agoe appealed from his Iustice to his Mercy But thou flatterest thy selfe with vaine hope No the Truth cannot lye to mee Sathan and it is thy propertie to deceiue Oh but thou seest what thou leauest in the world but what after this life thou shalt inioy thou knowest not I tell thee Sathan these things that are seene are temporall and momentany but the things which as yet I see not yet hope assuredly to inioy are eternall and pearlesse Againe hee doth more then see which firmely beleeueth But alas thou goest hence laden with euill deedes and destitute of good Yet will I intreat my Christ to vnburden mee of the euill and to cloath mee with his good But God heareth not sinners I know hee heareth penitent sinners and for such hee dyed But thy repentance is too late No it is neuer too late in this life to turne to God as we truely learne by the theefe vpon the Crosse But thy Faith is weake and ready to fayle thee Yet I will pray to God for the increase and strengthening of it and then it shall neuer fayle mee section 15 But how canst thou be perswaded of Gods fauour who doth thus torment thee with sicknesse God doth it in fauour and loue Sathan as the good Physitian giueth the bitter Potion to cure his Patient and wee see that for the obtayning of bodily health we are content not onely to admit any loathsome Pils and vnsauory Receipts but also if neede require to spill and spare some part of our bloud how much more should wee hazard for the recouery of the eternall health and saluation of our soules But this cup of teares tribulations shall be so tempered in measure by our heauenly Physitian as that no man shall taste thereof aboue his strength This dose of Aloes and other bitter ingrediences I meane the very cup of death itselfe shall be qualified with heauenly Manna and sufficient sweetnesse of ioy and
within the lists of heauen he neuer came thither to assaile any since he was first cast out Death therefore is the day of triumph to the faithfull ouer all their foes section 22 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death to shew vs that till Death be commed and gone an end of enemies will neuer come When we see so many fall in the field by fight we perceiue there is no peace to be looked for with this enemie but blessed be the dead which die in the Lord they rest from their labours as if the Saints neuer rested vntill rest and blessednes and dying in the Lord meete together Here fraile nature is the field wherein we must be euer toyling and Death as it entred by Sinne so is it the end of Sinne for for feare lest if life had beene prolonged sinne might haue more increased the Lord suffered Death to enter into the world that Sinne might cease and to preuent that nature might not end in Death God hath set downe a day when all shall rise againe so that Death in the end doth extinguish Sinne endeth our warfare and maketh our nature durable CHAP. V. The faithfull redeemed by Christ are still subiect to corporall Death and all other crosses of this life yet being sanctified vnto them they are furtherances and helpes to a blessed life section 1 NEither yet are Gods elect so redeemed from Death as that they shall not taste thereof at all for though Christ hath drunke the dregs of that cup yet euery one must haue his draught It was enacted of old as we heard that all men must die that all must goe to deaths prison without bale or maine-prise No remedy can begot no dispensation purchased Death must giue vs all our last purgation But his strength and sting is gone there is our comfort Death now is but a Physition to cure our maladies and all Deaths factours as crosses and afflictions shall but further and fit vs to a better life And why should this poynt seeme so strange and so section 2 mightily moue and amaze so many millions of men as it doth that mortalitie and death crosses and all calamities in this world are common to good men as well as to bad to the dearest Saints of God as to the vilest sinners for besides the common guilt of sinne which is cause sufficient what thing in this world haue they not common with other men with whom they haue a communitie of flesh and blood Barrennesse and penurie dearth and famine drougth and deluge warres and hostilitie shipwracke and sinking dolours and diseases with all other miseries and maladies in this world doe betide them yea many times here they shall weepe when the wicked laugh till hereafter that their sorrowes be turned into ioy and their teares wiped away Herein is the patience of the Saints the tryall of their faith and exercise of their hope seene and approued of God Christ indeede hath altered the nature of the first Death section 3 to the faithfull but not taken it quite away first it was ordeined as a punishment for sinne now it is made a passage into heauen then it was inflicted as a curse now Christ hath turned it to a blessing It did at the first depriue men of good but now it putteth them in possession of eternall happinesse Iacob not long before his death pronounced this as a curse from the Lord vpon the tribes of Simeon and Leui for their crueltie against the Shichemites that they should be diuided in Iacob and scattered in Israel yet when the children of Leui shewed their zeale and obedience in killing the Idolaters at Moses commandement the Lord turned this curse into a blessing This scattering was a furtherance vnto them to make them more fit to teach the people in euery citie and so to receiue the Tithes of euery Tribe So at the first the Lord threatned death as the punishment of sinne but by faith in Christ it is made the end of sinne and the beginning of glory He that could at the first bring light out of darknes could after bring a blessing out of a curse If Physitians by their art can extract an Antidote or preseruatiue against poyson out of poyson it selfe why may not God by his infinite wisedome and power draw good out of euil mercy out of iudgement and a blessing out of a curse Death saith a learned Father as yet remaineth for the righteous to exercise their faith withall for if immediately vpon remission of sinne there should follow immortalitie of the body faith should be abolished which wayteth in hope for that which is not yet enioyed yea the Martyrs could not testifie their faith and patience their courage constancie and loue to Christ in suffering Death for his sake section 4 Nothing is more grieuous to a Christian heart then the practise of sinne but death destroyeth them all Sinne brought in Death and Death must driue out Sinne. After death our Sanctification shall be perfect and not as here in part Faithfull men shall be like Angels in heauen readily willingly and chearefully to doe the will of God As hearbs and flowres breede wormes by nature yet wormes at length doe kill both hearbs and flowres So Sinne breedeth Death in it selfe and Death at last shall proue the bane of Sinne. As Sampson could not kill the Philistims but by his owne death no more can Christians get the conquest of sinne but by the losse of their liues At the first as was said before Death vvas ordayned as a punishment for sinne now God doth vse it as a meanes to stop the course of sinne It was said there vnto man If thou sinne thou shalt dye the death but now it is decreed thou must dye lest thou continue in sinne That which then was to be feared that men might not sinne must now of necessitie be suffered that they may be freed from sinne Sinne hath taken such a deepe roote in our bodies that it cannot be destroyed without the destruction thereof Like the Leprous houses strongly infected nothing would serue to purge them but needes they must be pulled downe Our corrupt flesh and nature must quite be plucked vp by the rootes lest any spur or sprig remayning the buds of sinne doe sprout afresh from the same our olde house must be plucked downe that so they may be built againe as new Temples to the Lord. Sinne saith one neuer ceaseth to be in our bodies vntill we come to be blessed with a shuffle If there could any humane receipt be prescribed to auoid all crosses and afflictions with death it selfe it would section 5 be purchased of some at any rate but both it is impossible that earth should redresse that which is sent from heauen and if it could be done yet the want of miserie would proue miserable vnto vs For the minde of man being cloyâ—d with continuall prosperity would grow
same Thus are the bodies of the Mariners hardened vnto the Sea thus come knobs in the poore labourers hands so are the souldiers armes strengthened for the Speares and Darts and the members of those that runne made nimble for the race And in very deed that part in any man is the stronggest that most is exercised by paines and toyle There is none so firme and solid a tree as that which the windes oftnest beate vpon for being thus beaten and ballasted it knitteth together and spreadeth the rootes more firmely in the ground The fire tryes the gold and misery men of courage There is no peace without war no rest without toyle no crowne without crosses no raigning without suffering no glory without shame and shaking in this wofull world section 16 Many would feed vpon manchet and alwayes tread vpon Roses I meane in seruing God they would be freed from all afflictions They loue Canaan with the Israelites but they loath the wildernesse The running waters of Shilo they would taste but the rough streame of Iordane they cannot tallage Iames and Iohn would haue the seate of honour but they would not drinke of the bitter cup. But wee must know that the way to heauen is not strewed with flowers but set with thorns yet is it both the straight and the right path to immortall glory The persecutions and troubles of Gods Children shall neuer cease till the World be without hatred the Diuell without enuy and our Nature without corruption Euen the sweetest of all flowers hath his thornes and who can determine whether the scent be more delectable or the pricks more perillous It is enough for heauen to haue absolute pleasures which if they could be found here below certainly that heauen of heauens which is now not enough desired would then by such meanes be altogether feared God here compoundeth our pleasures to the fashion of our selues so as the best delights we haue may still sauour of the earth thus God doth weary vs in the world to weane vs from it section 17 And for Death it selfe which by nature wee so much abhorre God hath mitigated and broken the sorrowes thereof that though they tyre the flesh and amaze it for a season yet they cannot extinguish the hope of a Christian for what can Sinne the sting of Death preuaile against vs being pardoned in Christ The abundance thereof causeth abundance of grace and the greater remission of sinne procureth the greater loue of God What therefore can Sathan gaine by his assaults but to multiply the reward and make the Crowne of Gods Saints farre more glorious by their sufferings Death may put out our carnall eyes yet Sathan hath not whereof to reioyce so long as Faith inlighteneth the minde neuer remouing her eyes from Christ Iesus crucified So forcible and effectuall is the spirituall contemplation and insight of Christ crucified that it turneth despayre into hope and hope into ioy most glorious and vnspeakable The humbing Bee hauing lost her sting in another section 18 doth still notwithstanding make a grieuous noyse by her often buzzing about our eares yet wee know she cannot hurt vs So Sinne and Death hauing lost their sting in Christ doe not as yet leaue their murmuring but with furious stormes of temptations seeke still to terrifie our soules though not able to wound vs to euerlasting death Indeede Death may fray vs at the first sight as Moses rod turned into a Serpent made him flye from it for the present but through confidence in God who hath willed vs not to feare wee shall finde it a blessed meanes to diuide the waters of many tribulations to make vs a passage from the Wildernesse of this world vnto the heauenly Land of eternall rest Neyther can Death separate vs from God though it be fearefull to the flesh to see his prefixed end nay nothing hath greater power to ioyne vs to God through the death of him that conquered Death And must it not needes be ioyfull to a Christian to be freed from this wicked life wherein euery day is the messenger of fresh sorrowes and wherein hee findeth his corruption so burdensome and therefore he is ready most chearefully to imbrace it as the Souldier that commeth after his valour shewed in the field to be made a Knight or the King that goeth to his Coronation for then they shall not haue Reeds but Palmes in their hands to shew their triumph and not to be crowned with thornes as Christ in this world with his members are in mocking but with immortall glory with God and his Angels in the highest heauens section 19 To conclude Death is the key of the King of heauen which in mercy he sendeth to deliuer those that loue him from the irkesome prison of this body of sinne It is the gate through which Gods friends escape from whole troupes and swarmes of euils This whole wretched life rightly considered is nothing else but a continuall crosse and death of the olde man that being once mortified in all our members hee may most gloriously be transformed into the Image of God For like as there can be no generation without corruption for so much as that thing which is must perish that that thing may be made which is not so this spirituall regeneration and transformation of man into God cannot be effected vnlesse the old man be first destroyed by death CHAP. VI. Gods Children in this world as strangers and Pilgrims haue hard entertainment their true heauen and happinesse commeth hereafter section 1 BVt for as much as the faithfull while they liue in this world are as poore strangers in their voyage and passengers by the way in their iourney they must fit themselues for all assayes regarding neyther the winde nor the weather foule nor faire Such as they finde they must take in good part There is small prouision for strangers vnlooked for as they come they must be accounted of Happy sometime they thinke themselues if they may haue any lodging in their Inne if it be but bare house-roome it must serue their turne for the tlme The best lodgings are here taken vp for great States Christ and his Mother must be glad of a Stable The dainties and delicates are prouided for the Nobles and great men the bread of aduersitie and water of affliction are commonly the diet of Gods dearest children vntill the time of their refreshing come in a better life Here for a little they shall weepe and mourne till hereafter God send them such exceeding ioy that none can take away And when Gods children are well vsed in their hosteries section 2 yet no allurements can make them stay long but that after their baite they haste on their iourney Neither will they much be discouraged with their lets and impediments but still comfort themselues hoping this day that to morrow will be better howsoeuer they still lagge on that they were at home And because the
time is but short they weepe as they wept not and so likewise they square out their mirth that nothing may long stay them in their trauell or much either allure or disturbe them As Trauellers therefore that haue a long iourney to goe prepare for the speedy and happy expedition thereof so must Christians saith one make ready the chariots of good consciences the horses of feruent prayer the oyle of holinesse for their Lampes the sword of the spirit which is the word of God and the shield of faith that so they may resist and ouercome all their enemies and constantly proceede to their iournyes end Inquire and you shall scarse finde out one faithfull man section 3 to haue had sound ioy or contentment in this world All his promises saith a Father are lyings like the false Prophets of Ahab his oathes manifest periuries of Iesabels false witnesses The loue of the world is like Dalilahs to Sampson his friendship a Iudas kisse his imbracing the deceiptfull murdering of Ioab his wine is gall his meate venemous poyson He that doubteth let him stand a farre off and view the world for they that approach neare can neither see God nor know themselues and hee shall see with Abraham a filthy smoake ascending from the world as it were from Sodome ready to strangle him if he flie not from it This deceitfull world saith one is like to wretched Laban which promised poore Iacob faire Rahel for his seauen yeeres seruice and in the end deceiued him with bleare-eyed Leah Like vnto Saul that promised Merab to Dauid yet must he be pleased with Micoll or goe without And what false and faire promises doth it daily make of long life health wealth and promotion and yet cuts some off in the midst of their daies and bringeth others to beggerie and disgrace Goe ye if it were possible ouer the whole world behold Countries and view Prouinces looke into Cities and harken at the doores and windowes of priuate houses of Princes Pallaces secret chambers c. and you shall heare and see nothing but lamentable complaints one for that he hath lost another for that he hath not wonne a third for that he is not satisfied ten thousands for that they are deceiued of the world Can there be a greater deceit then to promise renowne and memoriall as the world doth to her followers and yet to forget them as soone as they are dead Who doth remember now one of many thousands that haue beene famous Captaines Souldiers Counsellours Dukes Earles Lords Ladies Kings Queenes and mighty monarches in the world hath not their memory perished with their sound and is not their remembrance as ashes vnder foote section 4 The shewes of the world are glorious in appearance but when they come to the proofe they are in effect as light as feathers when they come to waight they are but smoake when they come to opening they are but rags The propertie of the world is to blinde those that come to her that they cannot know their owne estate euen as a Rauen that first picketh out the eyes of a sheepe to dassell her from seeing what way to escape her tyrannie To be short it hath all the deceits all the dissimulations all the flatteries all the treasons that possibly can be deuised It hateth them that loue it it deceiueth them that trust it it afflicteth them that serue it it forgetteth them most that trauell for it damneth them that follow it It will requite vs as Nabal did Dauid Who is the Sonne of Ishai that I should know him c. This whole world is nothing else but a maine Ocean Sea of infinite troubles and calamities and scarsely cansts thou finde any house in all this land of Egypt free from sighing mourning griefe and sorrowes Wherefore seeing this world is such a thing as it is so vaine so deceitfull so troublesome and so dangerous seeing section 5 it is a professed enemie to Christ and Christians and therefore excommunicate and damned to the pit of Hell since it is an Arke of trauell a Schoole of vanities a seate of deceit a laberinth of horrour since it is nothing else but a barren wildernesse a stonie field a dyrtie swines-sty a tempestuous Sea a groue of thornes a medow full of Scorpions a flourishing garden without fruit a dungeon of Serpents and poysonable Basiliskes Seeing it is a foundation of miseries a vaile of teares a fained fable a delectable fancie Seeing as S. Augustine speaketh the ioy of this world hath nothing else but false delights true asperitie certaine sorrow vncertaine pleasure trauelsome labour fearefull rest grieuous miserie vaine hope of felicitie Since it hath nothing in it saith Chrisostome but teares shame repentance reproach sadnesse negligence labours terrours sicknesse sin and death it selfe Since the worlds repose is full of anguish his securitie without foundation his feares without cause his trauels without fruit his sorrowes without profit his desires without successe his hope without reward his mirth without continuāce his miseries without remedies Seeing these a thousād thousand euils more are in it no one good thing can be had from it who would be deceiued with this vizard or allured with this vanitie hereafter who would be staied from the noble seruice of God by the loue of so fond a trifle as this world is If the world were our proper Element as the water for section 6 Fish we had more reason to be so worldly minded but seeing Christ hath said ye are not of the world for the loue of Christ we must forsake the world as Mathew his gainefull receipt of custome when he was called away It is commodious to the life of the Fish to liue wholly in the water but it is hurtfull to the soule of man to be giuen wholly to the world For to get worldly gaine the body would faine liue but the desire of heauenly glory must make it glad to die Worldly cares make a man very vnresty with himselfe but the comforts of Gods spirit are a Supersede as to them all and giue him his absolute quietus est So that as the holy Ghost filleth the house so grace peace and ioy in the holy Ghost fulfilleth the heart And as he that walketh in the warme Sun neuer desireth the light of the Moone so he that walketh in the way to heauen will neuer so much respect his affaires vpon earth The world rather feedeth then slacketh our appetites as Oyle doth the fire Man laboureth to labour and careth to take care plowing vpon the rockes and rowling euery stone for his gaine and is neuer at rest likened by one to a people in Africa that are at warres with the winde section 7 But all creatures haue their rest from God He is God of all saith Bernard not that all things are of his nature but because of him by him and in him all
passe with speede to him that gaue it The spirituall body raised vp from the graue by the spirit of Christ shall againe being vnited to the soule obay it with admirable facilitie all sense of trouble being taken away and all corruption and slownesse remoued when all frailtie and earthly pollution is conuerted and changed into heauenly puritie and stedfastnesse which shall not neede eyther meate or drinke but liue for euer by the quickening spirit of Christ Man of woman is borne in trauell to liue in misery Man section 13 through Christ doth dye in ioy to liue in felicitie Hee is borne into the world with cryes vttering at his entrance his miserable estate Straight as hee departeth with ioyfull songs hee prayseth God for euer Hee is scarcely in his Cradle but deadly enemies assault him yet after death no aduersaries can annoy him Whilest he is here he displeaseth God when hee is departed he fulfilleth his will In this life hee dyeth through sinne in the life to come hee liueth in righteousnesse Through many tribulations on earth is hee still tryed as gold in a furnace but with holinesse vnspeakable in that heauenly life is he indowed for euer Here he dyeth euery houre there hee liueth continually Here is sinne there is righteousnesse here is time there is eternitie here is mortall hatred there is heauenly loue here are paines and perils there is pleasure and safety here is misery there is felicity here is corruption there is immortalitie here wee see vanitie there shall wee behold the Maiestie of God with triumph and vnspeakable ioy in glory euerlasting Seeke we therefore the things that are aboue where Christ Iesus our Sauiour sitteth in his Maiestie to receiue vs. Gods Children in this world are cast as it were into section 14 a sea of melting glasse to seethe for a time and boyle in and in great perplexitie to shift for themselues but at length God will dragge them out to the shoare and giue them ease in that blessed life to come Sinne with all misery afflictions and death it selfe shall be shut vp in hell as in the proper place and the passing from death to life doubles the ioyes of eternall life As those that haue escaped many dangerous shipwrackes on the sea greatly exulte when they come to shoare Mans habitation here is in houses of clay he leades his section 15 life in vile and irkesome sort here is no firmenesse of iudgement nor constancie in actions yea well-nigh no faith to be found amongst men In the day many an afflicted soule desires the night and when it is night they wish for day Bitter mourning they haue instead of meate and salt bryne teares in stead of drinke No ease from troubles nor release from afflictions is here to be found so that many desire deaths company and cannot haue it they sue to her for rest and peace as tyred sea-men for the port and hauen This world to all Gods Israel is an Egypt of indurable slauery here for a poore liuing they make brickes and pots without straw or stubble they toile and labour for Onions and Garlicke here they lye amongst rusty and filthy pots and are made as Scullions Their poore soules are sold for shooes and cut to pieces as flesh to the pot they are as bread and meate to vngodly men and are daily swallowed vp Their backes are broken with burdens and their hands feebled with immoderate labours None in comparison here regardeth the misery of poore Ioseph though his feete be hurt the stockes and the heauy gyues doe peirce his soule This is the guerdon of the world and the reward that the wicked ones repay to Gods elect as naked they came into it so naked they shall leaue it for all their toyle section 16 What comfort therefore may it be to the faithfull children of God to be freed from this thraldome and by Death as Gods messenger to be sent for of the King of heauen with him to rest from their trauell and to be blessed for euer for their houses of clay and earthly tabernacles to take possession of heauenly habitations glorious and eternall mansions with the liuing God himselfe To haue perfect libertie and freedome for their miserable slauery and bondage all fulnesse of ioy and comfort in stead of their former sorrowes and calamities neuer to hunger and thirst againe being still fully fed and fraught with the pleasures of Gods house and fully replenished with the dainties and delicates prouided for the marriage of the Lambe c. Is not this a royall exchange and happy Mart And therefore true is Pauls Positions that Death is the faithfull mans aduantage and that to be with Christ is best of all If Peter and Iohn hauing but a glimpse of Christs glory in the mount could speedily be resolued that it was best for them to dwell there what shall we then iudge of the fruition of happinesse and substance of glory when the very shadow thereof is so beautifull and glorious why therefore should we feare the sorrowes of death and graue being fully assured of the comfortable presence and protection of God himselfe Therefore we reioyce saith Paul of himselfe and the section 17 faithfull in all our tribulations and afflictions and why doe they reioyce because the loue of God is spread abroad in their hearts through the holy Ghost For as the sufferings of Christ doe abound so doe the consolations increase in Gods elect to their exceeding ioy Thus will the Lord when sicknesse sorrowes and death it selfe approach to his children comfort and visite them vpon their death beds ministring most sweet refreshing to their soules With his right hand will hee hold vp their heads and with his left hand will he imbrace them in his loue he will couer them with his wings and they shall be safe vnder his feathers his faithfulnes and truth shall be their shield and buckler who now would not hasten to the fruition of such ioy and continuall gladnesse of heart And what man in miserie desireth not to rid himselfe from the daily sorrow and sadnesse of spirit And since videre Christum sit gaudere as Cyprian saith to see Christ be the reioycing of Christians and that without the sight of him it is impossible for vs soundly to reioyce what blindnesse and madnesse is it in mortall men so to loue and embrace this vale of teares and not rather hasten to that perfect ioy that they can neuer loose Wherefore hidest thou thy face saith Augustine to God happily thou wilt say no man shall see me and liue Oh then Lord that I were dead so I might see thee Oh let mee see thee that I may die euen here I will not liue die I would yea I desire to be loosed and to be with Christ I refuse to liue that I may liue with Christ CHAP. VIII The
holy life heauenly conuersation chearefull death and blessed daparture of the faithfull redeemed by Christ section 1 GOds children now being redeemed from Sinne and Death and truely vnited to Christ by his spirit whom they apprehend by an vnfained faith cannot chuse but shew forth the fruits of this their high calling to the glory of him that hath chosen them And being partakers of the diuine nature they flye from the corruptions of the world and giue all diligence to ioyne vertue with their faith and with vertue knowledge and with knowledge temperance and with temperance patience and with patience godlinesse and with godlinesse brotherly kindenesse and with brotherly kindenesse loue and these things being among them and abounding will keepe them from being idle and vnfruitfull The grace of God to them appeareth not in vaine but teacheth them to denie all vngodlinesse and worldly lusts to liue soberly righteously godly in this present world c. and being risen with Christ from the graue of corruption they euery day more and more seeke those things which are aboue setting their affections where Christ sitteth and not on the things that are on the earth for they are dead to the world and their true life is hid with God in Christ therefore they labour to be holy as he that hath called them to his kingdome and glory is holy They daily imploy themselues in reading and meditating of the word of God in prayer and religious exercises of holy deuotion loathing still this world and sinfull life daily growing to be spirituall and heauenly hauing their affections and zeale inflamed with the loue of God They say with Augustine O Lord I delight to heare of thee to talke of thee to write of thee to deuise of thee and in my heart to print whatsoeuer I learne of thee So must wee walke in these holy paths with all Gods Saints Godly deuotion and holy meditations saith one are section 2 as brine and pickle to keepe and preserue this corruptible flesh of ours from the euill scent that breedeth in our nature by originall sinne They are as faggots and firebrands that enkindle and inflame the loue of God in our hearts And as the fish out of the water die forthwith and the drops of raine distilling from the clouds vpon the ground doe quickly dry and drench vp and the fire without fuell is soone extinguished So our faith and loue c. without these sanctified meanes doe suddenly decrease They are as precious perfumes burnt in a polluted house and sick-mans chamber The sweet incense of prayer and the sauory smell of that odorifferous balme of a liuely faith and effectuall knowledge of God purge and clense the corruption of our liues and vncleane desires God hath chosen vs to be his glorious temple in whom hee dwelleth by his spirit therefore wee must haue our hearts purified by faith and clense our selues from all filthinesse and vncleanenesse both of bodies and soules and so adorne the place of his presence and habitation with all vertue and holinesse Hee that destroyeth the Temple of God him will God destroy for the Temple of God is holy which you are Saint Peter willeth vs to gird vp the loynes of our mindes teaching vs that as they which weare long garments when they come in the foule wayes doe take and gird them vp lest they should tag in the way So we whose mindes and affections doe traile as it were vpon the earth trudging through this foule and filthy world must heaue them vp towards heauen lest they should touch the damnable filth of sinne and wickednesse It is in vaine to boast of iustification without the vnfained sanctification of Gods spirit For as there can be no fire section 3 without warmth and light so neither can God by his spirit be in vs of with any of vs but he will also purifie vs from vice and corruption therefore wee must follow peace and holinesse without the which no man can see the Lord. Christ hath crucified our old man and put to death our vice and corruption and shall wee reuiue the same Shall we maintaine our Sauiours enemies and giue life againe to these deadly poysons of our soules If wee will be Burgesses of heauen we must be strangers to the earth Where is the house of our Father but in heauen and there dwelleth our eldest brother Iesus Christ and all our christian friends and kindred Heauen then is our true Country and on earth we are but trauellers section 4 When Moses had conuersed with God but fortie daies vpon the Mount-Oliue at his comming downe his face shined and glistered with heauenly glory So must we beholding in a mirror the glory of our Lord Iesus Christ in his word and Gospell as it were with open face and not with a vaile as did Moses be changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord. If I say but this short time while we liue we be conuersant in heauen by our most holy faith and fruits thereof in all holy affections thoughts words and meditations we shall in the end become heauenly and spirituall both in word and deede As wee see by experience when a country-man hath beene trayned vp sometime in the Court he forgetteth his clownish kinde of life and becommeth a Courtier Let vs therefore leaue the speaches habit fashions and manners of this wicked world wherein we liue and inure our selues with the customes and course of the court of Heauen Let all our thoughts words and communication testifie that in spirit wee are already there section 5 Christ Iesus whom all true Christians haue put on by baptisme as a garment is a most royall robe of grace holinesse and sanctification and shall we be so sloathfull to traile and trample him in the dyrt of filthinesse and sinne or putting him off to put on the vile and spotted garment of the flesh by following the lusts thereof When winter is once ouer the nearer that the Sunne draweth vnto vs the more doth the earth being warmed with the heate thereof fructifie and increase and the longer the daies are the more worke we may doe euen so the nearer the kingdome of heauen doth approach vnto vs by the comming of Iesus Christ the sonne of righteousnesse or the nearer we draw to death the more we should be inflamed in the loue of God and all good workes As the Sunne beames doe come to the earth and yet are in the region from whence they are sent so the mindes and soules of Gods children though conuersant in the earth are truely seated and setled with God in heauen from whence they came Let vaine-glorious worldlings who with the Camaelion section 6 liue by the ayre and therefore are alwaies found gaping and who haue with the Moone but a borrowed light in the world and no true light of
new couenant it is an euerlasting couenant I was not taken vnder condition of time nor no time shall preuaile against mee Our Christian state and condition is not changeable as Adams was in Paradise but it is made sure in the body of Christ vnited with the person of the godhead so are the waies in which wee are led into it immutable Our faith is not extinguished our loue cannot be quenched our hope faileth not nor the holy spirit can euer be taken from vs but still they are new to vs to eternall life section 9 And as for the wicked they shall be as well able to saue themselues without God as to hurt vs hauing God and the worst they can doe is but to send vs to God And for Sathans darts cast out against vs they are turned aside in the armour of Christ his flouds can neuer drowne vs and his buffetings shall be as our preseruatiues against presumption Christ our head was wounded for our sins and is healed againe raigning and triumphing in heauen why then should we which beleeue in him haue our hearts heauie in earth as though the head had forgotten the body or any part thereof No let vs not doubt that he will suffer a haire thereof to perish which he so dearely purchased Michael I meane our captaine Christ hath conquered that dreadfull red dragon and subtill serpent with his leaders and liuetenants death and hell why should we be so much moued with any force of flesh and bloud or any mischiefe the world can worke vs section 10 Be of good cheare saith Christ I haue ouercome the world Seeing hee hath broken the head of our enemie what should his taile so much trouble vs Seeing hee hath taken away our sinnes what should any sorrow remaine amongst vs God doth not choose them worthy but in choosing them maketh them worthy He hath all in himselfe which hath himselfe and hee hath himselfe which hath God and he hath God who beleeueth and confesseth his creatour but he that hath lost his faith hath nothing else to loose Christ hath said it and it is a warrant to our wearied soules that those that his father hath giuen him may be where he is to behold his glory This is his will and who dare wrest it the head will haue his members the Bridegroome his spouse God his elect and Christ his redeemed and where will he haue them but where he is and that is in heauen So much what Death is in Christ Now followeth our preparation thereunto The end of the second Booke THE THIRD BOOKE Of preparation vnto DEATH CHAP. I. The necessitie of preparation with the motiues the remembrance of Death much auaileth thereunto to the godly and the carelesnesse of most men herein FOr as much as the best things are section 1 not easily attained vnto being so precious and excellent in themselues without the hardest labour and greatest attempt vile and easie things being vsually most common and these so rare Our most wise and prouident God to whet our affections and to sharpen our desires to heauen and heauenly things hath inioyned vs a taske to be performed before we can aspire to our happy perfection For hauing the sumptuous tower of our saluation to build we must first sit downe and reckon our costs it will stand vs in The crowne of glory being proposed wee must first fight the battaile of faith without being foyled And the garland of saluation being hung vp as it were before our eyes we must striue to run the race without tyring vntill we come to the goale where we must receiue the prize of our paines with endlesse profit section 2 The dominions of heauen I confesse are great and large but the way thither is narrow and straight and we must striue to enter in the wicket-doore is small and the throng great therefore we must vse a godly violence to thrust our selues in if we will be saued Now the way wee haue heard already and the doore of our entrance which is death hath sufficiently beene described It onely remaineth that we be christianly fitted and prepared for the entrance Constant therefore we must be in our course condition of life enioyned vs of God for what auaileth it the Sea-faring man to haue sailed safely through the surging Seas to haue escaped dangerous syrts and sands the craggie rockes and rough passages if yet he be sunke or sustaine Shipwrake in the hauen What profiteth it the Souldier or most corragious Captaine to haue giuen many on-sets in the battaile and foyles to his foes if yet he be killed before he ouercome It booteth not to run ourselues breathlesse in the race if we get not the goale and we shoote but at Rouers if wee misse the marke This world therefore being as a Sea a field a race and a marke to all Gods elect Let them so saile therein as they may come safely to the shoare so fight in this field that they may ouercome so runne that they may obtaine and so shoote that they misse not the marke that is that they may after this life come to the expectation of their hope end of their trauell euen the blessed immortalitie of euerlasting life section 3 We all with our lips confesse that we must die and that death is the gate either to heauen or hell and yet not one of vs amongst milions of men so religiously spend and passe their daies as hoping to goe to heauen or fearing the way to hell If we be once resolued that in extremitie of sicknesse we cannot escape with life there is none of vs that is not very sorry that euer he offended God liuing in drunkennesse adulterie deceit riot or in any such excesse or bad course of life without Gods feare then will euery one wish that he had better serued God c. Such are vaine mens complaints and late lamentations Yet now whiles God vouchsafeth meanes and time to liue why doe we not prepare our selues in time Why hasten wee not to liue in such sort as at the day of death wee wish we had For looke how Death leaueth a man so shall the last Iudgement finde him In this life there may be changes and conuersions from euill to good but after death there can be none at all for looke where the tree falleth there it lyeth whether towards the North or towards the South Neede wee haue ro gird vp our loynes and to get Oyle for our Lampes at all assayes for the sodaine and vncertaine comming of the Bridge-groome Our corrupt and cursed nature will still make vs carelesse section 4 of our end naturally wee are giuen to cocker our selues with fleshly dreames of continuall peace and securitie and there is none so olde but hee hopeth still to liue longer as though he were in league with Death and Graue But it is too late to beginne then to liue when wee must
leaue our worldly beeing therefore to know our selues well we had neede to make some tryall and who can doe this that neuer came to proofe Vertue desires danger and obserues to what it tends what the scope thereof is and not what shee must endure for to attaine to the same for euen her very endurance is a great part of her glory A Pilot may be well knowne in time of a tempest a Souldier in the heate of battell It is alwayes best fighting with a knowne enemie and what shall an vnskilfull warriour doe that knowes not the nature subtilly weapons and policie of his aduersary A good House-holder maketh prouision for himselfe section 5 and family and buyeth before hand all necessary prouision according to his power much more ought a Christian to prepare before for that life that endureth to all eternitie Some doe as the wife that would giue none of her pottage to any till her pot was ouer-throwne and then calleth in the poore With this penaltie saith Augustine is a sinner punished that when hee dyeth hee forgetteh himselfe who in his life time thought not vpon God If a theefe be brought from the prison eyther to the Barre to be arraigned before the Iudge or to the place of execution hee will bewayle his misdemeanour past and promise reformation of life if so be hee might be deliuered In this case we are as fellons for wee are euery day going to the barre of Gods Iudgement-seate there is no stay or standing in the way Euen as the ship in the sea continues in her course day and night whether the Mariners be sleeping or waking therefore let vs prepare our selues betimes that in death we may make a happy end section 6 Many thousand soules as rockt asleepe in the cradle of securitie in this seducing world doe sodainly finde themselues within the gates of hell yet liuing on earth before they be aware For they are led through the vale of this present life as it were blindefolded with the vizard of sensuall lusts like beasts to the slaughter-house and neuer espie their dangerous estate before it be too late And most men are ready to take their farewell of the world before they thinke of their condition in the world and then they would beginne to direct their course aright when the time requireth them to make an end But one saith otherwise of himselfe drawing towards the period of his life When I was a young man my care was how to liue well since age came on my care hath beene how to dye well In this life said Augustine nothing is so sweet vnto me as to prepare for my peaceable passage from this pilgrimage of sinne to life and happinesse Alas wee encumber our selues with many things as Martha did not regarding as wee should that onely needfull thing to serue our God in life and death The tempest before expected doth lesse amaze vs when the storme shall arise Hee that leaues the world before the world leaues him and thinkes of his death as the sicke man harkneth to the clock shall say with Simeon Now let thy seruant depart in peace That which foolish men would gladly doe in the end section 7 should wise men doe in the beginning It is best with Noah to build an Arke while the season is faire and calme with prouident Ioseph to lay vp store of prouision in the dayes of plenty before the time of dearth and penury come to pinch vs while the weather is faire to thinke of a strome and when opportunitie is offered to follow our thriuing husbandry still sowing the seede of godly actions in the field of a repentant heart that so in the Autumne and end of our age we may reape the fruit of euerlasting comfort for our happy haruest and prouision to come It falleth out to vaine men many times in their death as to Pages and Seruitors in the Court who being allowed a candle to light themselues to bed doe spend it in playing and vngodly sports are afterwards constrained to goe to bed darklings So wicked men do waste the light of life by sinne and vanitie and at last are void of comfort and knowledge at the houre of death Therefore as our whole life is a passage to death so should wee make it a preparing for death that how soone soeuer the body returneth to the earth the soule may be as sure to goe to heauen Let vs doe that before death which may doe vs good after death and then sooner or later death shall not hurt vs which is only euill to the euill and good to the good If God offer grace to day thou knowest not whether he will offer the same to morrow and therefore now vse it if thou wilt be sure to vse it at all The light will shine when we shall not see the closing in of the day the euening will come when we shall not see againe the breaking forth of the morning light It behooueth euery one not so much with Ezekiah to set section 8 his houshold in order for that hee must dye as to set his soule in order his conuersation in order for that after death there is somewhat more behinde and that is called a time of iudgement Elisha could say to his seruant Is this a time to take rewards and amidst the pangs of death is that a time to thinke of amendment of life Saint Peter saith Be sober and watch for your aduersary the Diuell goeth about like a roaring Lion c. As if hee should say Watch for you haue a watchfull aduersary if yee respect his old experience hee was in Paradise if his nature a Lion if his cruelty a roaring Lion if his diligence hee seeketh if his intent that is to deuoure we had need then to watch hauing so watchfull an enemie Watch saith Christ because yee know not the houre when the Sonne of man will come As if he had said Because yee know not the houre watch euery houre because yee know not the month watch euery month because yee know not the yeare watch euery yeare Why doe wee not then keepe a continuall watch ouer our soules since we know not at what houre Death will assaile vs section 9 Carnall men are so inchanted with the harlot-like allurements of sinne and so carryed away by the violent streame of sensuall securitie as that they quite and cleane forget all remembrance of their end and become worse then Idols which haue eyes and see not yea a reasonable soule and vnderstand not But this is Sathans slight whose businesse was and is at and since the fall of the first man with this bloudy sword to slay mens soules Tâ—sh you shall not dye at all As if hee would haue vs to thinke the remembrance of death but a melancholy conceipt and lest it should make too deepe an impression of the feare of God in mans heart hee will haue the
and strange to doe his feate Wherefore since all must runne this race and trauerse this course of death which is so long and large reaching from earth to heauen considering withall the danger that whosoeuer faileth in the way and goeth not vpright shall tumble headlong into the pit of hell it requires our best diligence and endeuour to the vtmost To guide the ship along the seas is a poynt of skill but at the very entrance into the Hauen it selfe then to auoyd the dangerous rockes and to cast our anchor skilfully in a safe Roade is the chiefest cunning To runne the race in a good order is the part of a stout and valiant Champion but so to runne that wee may obtaine the crowne is the very perfection of al his paines What more Christian-like then a good and holy life but after this life finished to dye in the Faith and feare of God what more diuine Wherefore there is nothing so glorious as to order aright the vpshot of our time and farewell from this world To end well this life is onely to end it willingly following with full consent the will and direction of God and not suffering our selues to be drawne by meere necessitie To end it willingly is to hope for and not to feare our death appoynted of God To hope for it wee must certainly looke after this life for a better To looke for it we must feare God whom who so well feareth feareth indeed nothing else in this world and hopes for all things in the world to come section 15 To one well resolued in these poynts Death can be but sweet and agreeable to his minde for what can hee feare whose death is his hope Thinke wee to banish him his Countrey hee knowes hee hath a Countrey elsewhere from whence none can exile him and that all these Countries are but Innes out of which hee must depart at the will of his Host Thinke wee to imprison him a more strait prison he cannot haue then his owne body none more filthy or more darke c. Will we kill him and take him out of this world that is it he hopes for It is all one to him at what gate or at what time he passeth out of this miserable life for his businesses then are for euer ended his affayres all dispatched and by what way hee shall goe out by the same hee shall enter into a most happy and an euerlasting life The threatnings of Tyrants are to him promises the swords of his greatest enemies are drawne in his fauour for as much as hee knowes that threatning him death they threaten him life and the most mortall wounds can make him but immortall for who feares God feares not death and who feares it not feares not the worst of this life Why doe we daily pray that Gods Kingdome may come section 16 seeing we take such delight to remaine in the prison of this world Why heape we prayers vpon prayers that the generall restauration of all things may approach if our greater and more affectionate desires would rather serue here below the enemy of our soules then to raigne aboue with Iesus Christ It belongs to him that taketh all his pleasure in the world who is caught with the baits of earthly delights and the flatteries of the flesh to desire to tarry long in this world But seeing it hateth the Children of God why loue they such an enemy why followest thou not rather Iesus Christ thy Redeemer who so ardently loues thee Let euery day be to thee as the last day since thou knowest not whether thou shalt liue till to morrow or no. For still wee carry death about in our mortall bodies and our life in a continuall motion stil hastneth to an end And yet no man marketh how his time passeth S. Paul saith Idye daily for euen in the midst of life wee are in death and the whole time of our life is but a running vnto death Therefore seeing Death watcheth for vs on euery side wisedome it is to watch for him that he take vs not tardy The remembrance of our end must be as a Key to open section 17 the day and shut in the night this will make young men more heedfull in their waies and old men more fearefull of their works and all men more prouident of the time to come There is no meanes more effectuall to make vs shake off the allurements of this life as Paul did the Viper into the fire then the daily meditation of our end God leads Ieremie into a house of clay before hee instructeth him in his message to teach vs that we are best lessoned where our fraile estate may be best considered Did wee but somtimes behold that pale horse whose name is Death in our musing disposition it would make vs trample vnderfoote many alluring occasions of vanitie and sinne which we pursue fast Die we must needes because our bodies are full of sinne and so die we must willingly that we may be deliuered from this body of sinne Die we must because we are full of corruption and must be changed and die we must willingly as desirous to put on incorruption that so we may behold our God Die we must needs because we beare the image of earthly men die we must willingly that we may be like the new and heauenly man Christ Iesus Die we must needes because God hath so ordained and let vs die willingly to shew our obedience to his wil. Christians must be as Birds on a bough to remoue at Gods pleasure and that without resistance when the section 18 Lord shall visite them Vpon this condition we entred this world to goe out of it againe and this is the law of Nations to restore and pay that which wee haue borrowed and retained for a time Our life is a pilgrimage or iourney when here we haue trauelled much and long at length needes wee must returne to our home Againe it is absurd to feare that which we cannot shun thou art neither the first nor the last thousands haue gone before thee and all that are to come shall follow thee Wee are but Tenants at will in this cleyie farme the foundation of this building is weake in substance alwayes kept cold by an entercourse of aire the piller whereupon the whole frame and building doth stand is the passage of a little breath the strength of it some few bones tyed together with dry strings or sinewes and howsoeuer we repaire patch this simple cottage it will at last fall into our land-lords hands we must surrender it when Death the Lords Bailiefe shall say this or that mans time is come Therefore Christians must haue these temporall things in vse but eternall things in desire It is written of those Phylosophers called Brackmani that they were so much giuen to thinke vpon their end that they had their graues alwaies open before their gates that
and all assaults It will oppose to this our deadly foe life for death holinesse for sinne obedience for the Law yea all Christs satisfactions to make the whole summe But of this poynt wee haue sufficiently discoursed Then commeth the World and will set abroach his section 3 baites What wilt thou dye O man I pray thee behold thy goodly buildings and stately roomes thy lands and reuenues thy rents and treasures thy credit wealth and fame thy pleasures and delights and all that thy heart desireth But alas O World this thy felicitie is fayned thy loue is counterfeit and thy promise is deceitfull These things I confesse to be good in their kinde and for my vse so long as they stand with Gods fauour Kept they may be so that wee loose not God who now doth call vs and therefore may not keepe vs from him Yet I know O World the vanitie of thy pleasures the frailty of thy glory and the ficklenesse of thy goods and that all these are nothing in respect of the riches of heauen and happy life which after death I am sure to haue wherefore I desire to be dissolued and to be with Christ in whom indeede are hid all the treasures of God who also is the keeper of our true life for this our wretched life which now we lead is no life indeede but a very death For we are dead and our life is hid with God in Christ wee walke by faith and not by sight yea so long as wee are at home in this body wee wander and goe astray from God our Lord. And thou O World which bewitchest so many to loue this life what should I gaine if I should serue thee I am sure to be a foe to Christ who loues thee not who prayeth not for thee whose Kingdome is not of thee and therefore to loue thee is to hate my God which to doe is worse then death Thy reward I know is nothing but nakednesse for naked I came vnto thee and naked I shall goe from thee therefore I am willing to forgoe thee and desire to be freed to dwell with Christ section 4 Lastly comes the Flesh with trembling and quaking Why wilt thou dye O man see here thy friends and thy family thy Wife and thy Children thy Father thy Mother weepe and waile cry and call vnto thee and wilt thou thus depart wilt thou needes goe from them It is good no doubt to tarry still among our friends with Gods good will and there is nothing vnder God but it may be kept so that God being aboue all things which we haue be not lost For hee that loueth father or Mother Wife or Children c. better then Christ is not worthy of his presence And though my friends lament the losse of my life yet can they not redeeme it for what man is hee that liueth and shall not see death and shall hee deliuer his soule from the hand of the graue No no neyther riches nor strength neyther power nor policie can preuaile in this poynt Death neyther spareth pouerty nor regardeth wealth it esteemes neyther manners age nor time but walketh in the gates of old men and setteth snares continually for young men no worldly practise can escape the bands of death It alwayes pursueth vs and wheresoeuer we goe it layeth hands vpon vs And though men labor to liue long and desire that they might neuer come to the terme of their dayes yet indeede it is no other thing to liue then to make haste to death Wherefore men doe walke whither they would not come and willingly runne to the end of that course which euermore they haue abhorred for death is the punishment of all men the tribute of all men the rule of all men and the receiuer of all men God hath set vs our bounds which wee cannot passe section 5 And as the greene leaues in a thicke tree some fall and some grow so is the generation of flesh and bloud one comes to an end and another is borne Wee came not altogether neyther must wee goe altogether therefore O Flesh be content O my friends be quiet needes wee must depart though to meete againe wee are full sure And in going from you my earthly friends I shall not yet be destitute of friends but make a good exchange for I goe to the Saints of heauen to the liuing God who is Iudge of all to Iesus Christ my Redeemer to the celestiall Ierusalem to my abiding Citie to the company of Angels to the Congregation of the first borne to the spirits of the righteous and to ioyes vnspeakable beyond all mans conceit Such be the comforts the rewards heritages and exceeding priuiledges that God hath before all worlds prepared and alwayes had in store for his elect And therefore still I desire to be freed from the flesh to liue with Christ Wee haue here no continuing Citie wee looke for one of God And I know that so long as I am in the flesh I cannot please God and that if once this earthly house of this tabernacle were destroyed I shall haue a building giuen me of God a house not made with hands but euerlasting with God in the heauens Not to liue said one but to passe the life well is life section 6 indeede Our life is very short for all good things yet long enough and too long may we thinke it in regard of our miseries A dangerous straite in which the lesse time thou hast to passe the more perill and danger thou hast in the passage But this is a miserie of miseries that being in such a miserable case we liue like men in a phrensie not knowing our misery Heraclitus and Democritus could better discerne this poynt then many Christians of whom it is reported that the one past his life in laughing and the other alwayes in weeping seeing as it seemeth that all our life is nothing else but ridiculous vanitie and lamentable misery Moreouer if this life be a vale of teares a prison of guilty persons and a banishment of them that be condemned how canst thou place such great pompe and pride such gay ornaments and stately furniture of houses and families in such a wretched place how canst thou take here thy pastimes and pleasures how canst thou delight thy selfe in feasting and banketting how canst thou desire so greedily to gather the prouision of this world and be so forgetfull for the life to come As though thou wert onely borne to liue alwayes here with bruite beasts and hadst no portion with the Angels in heauen Such wretchednesse sheweth of what a miserable stocke thou commest if nothing can perswade thee to behold this thy great and palpable blindnesse section 7 Wee maruell much at the rude and ignorant Indians who for glasses and trifles are said to part from their purest gold but wee neuer thinke of our owne folly who forgoe the treasures of heauen for very bables
and sell our birth-right and blessing for Esaus broath Men looke vnto pleasures as they are comming to them not as they are going from them when they are wont to leaue trouble and vexation behinde for the sting of the Scorpion is in his tayle Wee sell our hearts to the world for very chaffe and God offers vs millions for them nay to haue our custome hee giues vs an assay of merchandise peace of conscience and ioy of the holy Ghost Who would not traffique with so good a Chapman that meanes no other but to doe vs good indeed and will giue vs heauen when we haue giuen him our hearts who is in heauen As all the waters of the Riuer runne into the Sea so all worldly delights finish their course in the salt brine sea of sorrowes The peaceable dayes of the wicked their immunitie from the rod their dancing to the Instruments of Musicke haue their present period and in a moment they goe downe to hell Such lusty-guts in the prime of their pride and raging madnesse are sure of a Iudgement The gurmandizing Epicure holloweth not so loud whilst hee walloweth in his sensuall life as the Swine in their styes but hee shall howle as much when hee is in hell It was but a dumpish delight that Saul tasted in his mad melancholy moode in the sweet notes of Dauid sung vpon the harpe We must mistrust worldly benefits and baits couering section 8 the hooke for the fish we must not feede so hungerly on then their pleasings are leasings and their friendships fallacies they are as false witnesses against thy soule such as Iezabell suborned to kil innocent Naboth After the manner of Egyptian theeues they imbrace vs that they may slay vs They are as goblets of gold sugered with poyson This deceiptful Dalilah of delights speaketh thee faire but in the end she will bereaue thee of thy strength of thy sight yea of thy selfe These waspes flye about thy eares and make thee musicke but euermore they sting ere they part Sorrow and repentance is the best end of pleasure paine is yet worse but the worst of all is despaire How much better is it for thee to want a little hony then to be swolne vp with a venemous sting Wee must vse them without trust and want them without griefe still thinking while we haue them that we possesse a benefit with a charge If crosses once befall vs the comfort of riches flie from vs like vermine from a house on fire leauing vs to our ruine But he that hath placed his refuge aboue is sure that the ground of his comfort cannot be matched with any earthly sorrow cannot be moued with any worldly thought but is infinitely aboue all hazards Let the world tosse and tumble how it list as euer it doth the rest of Gods children is pitched aloft aboue the spheare of changable mortalitie O the broken reede of humane confidence who euer trusted in friends that euer could trust to himselfe who was euer more discontented then the wealthy Friends may be false wealth cannot but be deceitfull trust thou therefore to that which if thou wouldest cannot faile thee The Elephant being coursed casteth her precious tooth section 9 and so escapeth so must we forsake the flesh and dearest friends the world greatest pleasures to be with Christ If men forsake their own will submit themselues to Gods what can be hard But if we follow our owne appetites and delicate nicenesse reiecting Gods pleasure what can be easie Therefore not ours but thy will be done God hath a care ouer vs our life is in his hand yet scarce the hundreth man hath this fastned in his heart for euery one searcheth a way and meanes to saue his life as though there were no power and care in God And yet in his hands are the issues of death Death seemeth to consume all things but God deliuereth out of that deuouring gulfe whom he pleaseth therefore let vs leaue it at his pleasure either to deliuer vs from present danger or to take vs to a better life A wise man ought alwaies to keepe himselfe from sorrow section 11 and inordinate care for this worldly and transitory life and the things thereof Not to doe as the Doue which breeding her Pidgeons about the house maketh them familiar with the same And albeit they are monthly taken from her and killed yet she returneth to her old nest and breedeth young againe Worldly fauours honours temporall goods c. are but as bals of snow which by the beames of the Sunne dissolue and come to nothing What cost doe wee bestow vpon the haires of our head and beard which when the Barber once clippeth off are despised and swept away A man should neuer trust this foolish life it is but as a fire kindled on the coales which consuming it selfe giueth heate to others God hath made the beasts with their faces towards the earth thither they looke for from thence they haue their life and reliefe but man is erected with two standards with his head face and breast to looke to heauen Let not our hearts therefore differ from our faces haue not thy face aboue and thy heart below but lift vp thy heart as thou professest lest thou lie to the Church before God and his Angels section 12 The pouertie of a Christian doth forerunne the riches which he hath in heauen The loue of the world is an exemption from the life of God the allurements thereof are like the crying of a Lapwing that traineth vs the furthest from that we seeke The pompe of the world is like a blazing Starre that dreadeth the minde by presaging ruine and the temptations to pleasure are like canded worm-wood that coosen the taste and kill the stomacke To be vnknowne in the world we neede not care so be it we be in credit with God for hee that is great with God shall haue quietnesse in earth and blessednesse in heauen When it ceased to be with Sara saith one after the manner of the world she conceiued Isaac the Sonne of promise her exceeding ioy so when our worldly desires once wither heauenly will ensue Let vs therefore care little for the world that careth so little for vs. Let vs crosse saile and turne another way vnto our long home and looked-for abode from a life subiect vnto death to a deathlesse life euen as neare as wee can with a still and peaceable passage Am I contemned of the world it is inough for me that section 13 I am honoured of God of both I cannot the world would loue me more if I were lesse friends with God He is vnworthy of Gods fauour that cannot thinke it happinesse enough without the worlds The diuell playeth the Host in this world and will serue our turne with any delights that flesh desireth but he noteth all in a booke and at the day of reckoning which is our death it will be to our cost if
we take not heede in time This is the trinitie that wicked men saith one doe worship the Diuell the world and the flesh instead of the Father Sonne and holy ghost The lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life are the idols that the world doe make their Gods But the minutes that hackney at the heeles of time runne not so fast away as doth this world with his pleasures and fleshly ioyes Let vs therefore alwaies detest the eye-pleasing baits of carnall desires and wholly delight our selues with heauenly ioyes He which once haue drunke of the floods of Paradise one drop whereof quencheth the thirst sooner then the ocean Sea shall quickly haue the desires of this world and fleshly lusts extinguished in him CHAP. IIII. Of the allurements of the world in particular and the remedies thereof section 1 BVt for as much as this wicked world is Sathans kingdome wherein hee ruleth in the iustice of God ouer the children of disobedience blinding the eies of Infidels with a false glory glistring shewes thereof that they should not beleeue the truth of Gods word for their further assurance of that incomparable glory blessed state to come it is expedient more fully to disclose this dangerous place wherein Sathan pitcheth his camp against Gods elect And so much the rather because it is the passage of their pilgrimage which possibly they cannot shun Israel must needs go thorow Edom where cruell Esau dwels and passe along this dangerous wildernesse full of sauage beasts fiery Serpents Tygers and Scorpions Yet goe hee must thorow the red sea of all fearefull hazards and temptations that spirituall Tyrant Pharo following him fast to the heeles with all possible violence before they can arriue at the heauenly hauen and blessed land of rest section 2 This world is a Sea of sorrow and our life resembleth the new sailing Ship not acquainted with the water but fleeting to the bottomelesse swallow of tempestuous waues alwaies threatning the sinking of our life It is as a course of a most vehement running streame but yet not appearing to haue any perill of drowning to him that passeth It is shallow by the sides but deepe and very dangerous in the midst aboue it runneth very quietly couering the water with great riches and wares of an inualuable price by meanes whereof it deceiueth couetous men that run and enter it Some wade shallow wetting onely their feet and take a few others goe vp to the knees and catch for more a third sort with an insatiable desire doe plunge their whole body into the water others trusting to swim so wrestle with the violent streames and finding it deepe being wearied sinke to the bottome which is most swift and raging We daily pray that God would not lead vs into temptation yet still we feede our couetous humor which drowneth vs therin And the Diuel doth daily pitch his nets to compasse vs therewith to hale vs into hell couetousnes causeth vs to stumble and tumble thereinto It ingendereth such noysome lusts that drowne men in perdition It is Sathans forge and stithie saith one where he fashioneth and frameth a thousand chaines of impieties to pull men into hell and a thousand fiery darts to wound mens soules with all sorts of vices it is the metropolitane citie of all corruption and sinne All other vices saith Hierome doe with age waxe old section 3 onely couetousnesse groweth young with age and getteth head It lurketh in the raynes and is tyed vnto the bowels neither can it be pulled vp by any strength of men The greatest rauening beasts are sometime satisfied purses and coffers may be filled but an insatiable minde is a bottomlesse pit and a gulfe deuouring all yet neuer replenished It resembleth a spring whose riuer is small yet by receiuing other brookes and streames groweth strong and violent Such are like men in a dropsie still drinking their thirst increasing Bernard compareth it to a Lady in a Chariot whose wheeles are contempt of God in humanitie forgetfulnesse of death and mistrust whose horses are niggardlinesse and rauin and whose carter is desire to haue Chrisostome calleth the couetous man an enemie to all men imagining all others to be cast out for a pray for him to rob and spoyle He putteth all things to sayle hee laboureth to haue all and hath the vse of nothing he filleth his Cellers Garners Coffers but Lady couetousnesse layeth vp the Keyes and locketh from him the vse of all like Horses and Mules going laden with the gold and siluer of others eate nothing but hay themselues such a mans wealth is but as a faire Tapestrie that couereth foule and broken wals The higher such a man clymeth saith Ambrose and the higher he goeth the greater is his fall Before he gaineth he hath lost himselfe saith Augustine Such beasts are these misers that they know not this life yet can they not deny but they must die What pleasure therefore can they take in cutting the wood and making the faggots wherewith in hell without repentance they shall be burnt for euer The customers of this world saith one who haue got their wealth with fraud and deceipt they sleepe like the Nightingale with a pricke against their breast so doe such slumber with a pricking conscience and liue in horrour of Death section 4 God therefore in his prouidence and wisedome hath fraught this life with so manifold miseries to make them as medicinable punishments for our fleshly desires he hath laid such bitter wormewood on the breasts of this flattering world to waine vs from it hee hath made it loathsome to his children that they should not loue it but willingly forsake it and sigh for the blessed life to come For if we be so vnwilling to forsake this life so irksome if wee be euer whimpring and whining for the fruits and flesh-pots of this slauish Egypt what would wee doe if all our life were sweet what would we doe if it were wholy to our tast and tallage who would then contemne it for Gods cause who would exchange it for heauen it selfe When Iacob was hasting into his owne country Laban in his great hast pursuing him said why didst thou not tell mee of thy departing that I might haue let thee goe with mirth and melodie when his meaning was to haue kept him still in drudgerie But as Iacob did well seeing Labans countenance set against him so should Christians finding the world to frowne vpon them be ready to packe from the world it being no fit place for them to tarry in Lots wife setting her minde vpon her substance in Sodome and other pleasures there shee looked backward but neuer looked forward againe She is turned into a Piller of Salt a Piller and so standeth for an example of Salt and so should season our vnsauorie desires of this world and worldly things Small cause had the Isralites
to care to continue among section 5 the task-maisters of Aegipt no more haue Christians to dwell in this world as in a wildernes among many wolfes Surely this barren light land wherein wee liue after all our drugery excessiue paines yeeldeth nothing else but a crop of cares troubles feares vexations of minde How acceptable therefore may death be when in dying we sleepe in sleeping we rest from all the trauels of this toylesome life Loue the world saith one it will deuoure thee for it knoweth better how to swallow vp her louers then to support them There is no trusting to this worlds security for in one moment the sea ouerwhelmes the same nauies which a little before plaied sported vpon it Now that this world is a sea the small number of safe passingers the great company of such as perish therein doth proue Here we are placed as it were betweene heauen hell section 6 our danger is so much the greater by how much it is easier to desend downeward then to aspire clyme vpward Facilis discensus Auerni c. Learne not to loue the world that thou maiest learne to imbrace thy God turne away from it that thou maiest turne to him Powre out the dreggs that thou maiest be filled with pure wine thou art to be fild with good powre out the euill dost thou thinke that God will fil thee with hony if thou beest full of gall Our loue must be as a iust ballance affording euery man his owne but the weights of worldly lusts are vnequall valewing earthly things to be most pretious whereas with the christian they should be estemed as dung These make that to be of weight great with man which is most vile and abhominable in Gods account Such are the deceitfull scoales of cursed Canaan Amongst the Iewes for that their contracts and bargaines had by a prescript law a day of determining and of being voide therefore the shorter the time was the lesse and slight was the price and valuation of the thing And therefore how much more vile and of lesse account should all these momentanie and earthly things be reputed subiect to such losse which though they were not yet Death it selfe dispatcheth vs of all section 7 They which runne in a race looke what ground they haue rid behind and how farre they haue to the goale before And they which looked for the yeare of Iubilee knew how long they might possesse their bargaines But there is no mortall man that can be assured to liue a day Indeede we run yet hauing deaths shackles on our legs yea carrying him about in our whole bodies and liues The glory of this world being grounded vpon the life of man as the subiect and foundation can no longer endure then the substance it selfe Now if the life be no more but a dreame of a shadow what must we thinke of the glory of this world which is shorter of continuance then mans life What account would one make of a stately building if in case it should stand vpon a false foundation What reckoning would one make of an image of waxe very curiously wrought in case it should be set against the Sunne where presently being molten it should loose both forme and fashion Why doe we make so little account of the beautie of a flower but because it beginneth to fade so soone as it flourisheth for being nipt from the stalke it presently looseth the pleasant glosse and hew And albeit glory doe continue after the end of our life yet what shall it auaile thee man that hath no sence What profiteth it Homer that now thou praise his Iliads euen as Ierome speaketh of Aristotle that he was praised in the world where he was not and condemned in hell where hee was indeede Therefore well said Euripides that men fall into a frenzie to vse pride after Death section 8 The tempter saith Ambrose shewed the glory of the world in the twinckling of an eye which likewise shall vanish in a moment like Nabuchadnezzers Image that had ahead of gold brests and armes of siluer c. and yet one dash with a stone out of the rocke brought all to ruine All worldly glory is no more sure and certaine then calmenesse in the Sea which is still subiect to a storme O world saith one most vnworthy to be affected where are the riches that pouerty hath not decayed where is the beauty that age hath not withered where is the strength that sickenesse hath not weakened where is the pompe that time hath not wasted I say not of men but of Cities and Empires themselues Those that so eagerly seeke after the things of this world and so seldome and sleightly after heauen and heauenly things are not vnfitly resembled to children that esteeme more of Apples and Nuts then the assurance of rents and reuenues And indeede most men and those the wisest in the world doe not so much as vnderstand the Kingdome of heauen and the righteousnesse thereof so farre are they from seeking it rather then the riches of the world Such men as they say set the Cart before the Horse first seeking things for the body before they take any care for the soule These men yet are wiser in their generation then the children of the Kingdome and haue eyes as broad as the Moone in her full but such aduantage hath the Owle of a man whose sight is better at midnight then mans Such Owle-faces are better sighted then the children of light In wily craftinesse the rudest Rusticke easily circumuenteth the cunningst Christian yet hee is but an Asse in the shape of a man who hath not learned Christ and Ieremy wondreth how hee should be a wise man that is not a godly man These doe not so much as wet their lips at the well-spring of wisedome and hauing not so much as a smacke of Gods Word how should they not but be fooles Such are fooles in graine and a burthen to the earth setting vp mans folly as a monarchy in the world displaying as with a banner their owne worldly fooleries section 9 But sith our life dependeth not vpon the world or the goods thereof but vpon God alone let vs put our trust not on our goods but vpon God on whose pleasure our goods depend who also hath promised neuer to forsake any faithfull men that put their trust in him Wee may not be as sawcy Children who when they know their Father will not please them in their foolish appetites will prouide for themselues but our duety is to be pleased with our daily bread Many that make this prayer to God would be very loath hee should take them at their word and daily giue them bread but for a day at once yet such men in vsing this prayer doe nothing else but scorne their prouident God but let good Christians learne to cast their care on God that they
may the better moderate their desires section 10 Learne not so much saith Plato to increase thy possessions as to diminish thy lusts for the high-way to be rich is to be poore in coueting and hee is the richest that coueteth the least and is content with a little Now the way to cure this Feuer which causeth such a thirst of the world and worldly things is not to giue vs drinke and fill of our desires which increaseth the disease but by diminishing the immoderate loue and liking of the same Now one speciall meanes hereunto is to trust in God since the roote of this sinne is distrust in God Before the creation of man the world was made and replenisht with all things requisite for his vse and before the soule the body was created to receiue it Sith then God prouided for man before his creation and nourished the body in the wombe before it was borne and giueth care to the mother of sustayning and cloathing it before the birth shall wee call into question his fatherly care ouer vs Let not these things therefore hinder vs in the high-way to heauen but casting all our care vpon God let vs be packing on our iourney Let the messengers of death be welcome vnto vs and Death himselfe be imbraced when God doth send it For though they depriue vs of the world with his wealth and pleasures yet they put vs in possession of heauen itselfe and happy treasures And for these transitory things which are but as vapours and exhalations of the world A godly man saith Augustine neuer so fully enioyeth his desire as when hee is willing nothing at all to desire them Contentment saith one consisteth not in much yet he hath much that hath it and this is soone obtayned of God in a low estate Nature wee say is content with a little and onely contentation ministreth rest and peace vnto our mindes The Sea of this world saith a holy Father freezing vnto vs it hardeneth that wee may safely walke vpon it as Peter on the water CHAP. V. Of the great griefe of forsaking our wealth and worldly estate and leauing of our manifold friends and acquaintance in the world with the remedies thereof FEarefull is the consideration to flesh and bloud section 1 not indued with the comforts of Gods holy Spirit to thinke of our poore and naked estate at our latter end Death waiting vpon vs not onely to depriue vs of our life and beeing but of all such comfortable meanes and helpes which formerly wee enioyed taking from vs our houses goods and friends which Iob beganne to feele and confesse in his tryals with lowd exclamation Naked I came into the world and naked shall I returne God indeede made all these things for man yea the whole world it selfe of which hee tooke possession yet forgetting his homage to God and chiefe-rent of obedience hee forfaited all againe into his hands and from whence hee came thither sent he him againe giuing him iust as much with him as hee brought at first Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt dissolue And indeede this prouision is sufficient enough for the place whither hee goeth For what great matters should we looke for in the graue where rottennesse is our father and wormes are our mother When our breath once vanisheth and we shall be turned out of the house-roomes of this world repayring to our doomes-day house where the wormes the dead mens Lawyers shall take their fees out of vs their graue-clyents and our bodies with our bowels shall be their bread to satiate their hunger Then happy I say are those that by the wings of a liuely faith haue their soules flying vp to the heauenly habitations section 2 Hither we came as Iacob to Laban onely by Gods prouidence wee are that wee are If God will giue vs food to eate and cloathes to put on God shall be our God These heards and droues about vs they are from the mercy of God not plants growing in our owne soyle not vapours that did arise from vs but of the nature of influences from heauen are come vpon vs. Euery one sueth to God in forma pauperis for things necessary wee are poore Publicanes receiuers onely God is the giuer of all Wee cannot call any thing ours but Time While we haue time let vs doe good Nay this time it selfe is not in our hands but in the Lords All these temporall things come from the great store-house of heauen We may not say as the Tempter did All these are mine no all is Gods who is the best Land-lord Hee requires no more but our acknowledgement of his blessings with thankefulnesse in our obedience Wee may haue them wee must not be had of them wee haue had them to liue the end ceasing the meanes also cease concurring to the end Wee must not make Idols of them as the Egyptians did of their treasure section 3 Is it possible to forget whither wee are going Where should the members be but where the head raigneth where should the heart be but where our heauenly treasure is placed Christ who is our treasure is in heauen whither first our affections must ascend and then we follow after Riches saith the Wise-man helpe not in the time of neede they take them to their wings and flye away they are but straw and stabble no sure foundation to build on For all worldly goods are ebbing and flowing like the Sea and wee doe not possesse them as wee ought vnlesse at all times we be ready and willing when God seeth it good to forgoe and leaue them Let vs consider that when we dye wee depart from the world and therefore worldly affections should now depart from vs. Let vs betake our selues wholy to a better habitation better societies to better ioyes and so desire chearefully to be dissolued and to be with Christ God many times punisheth our ouer-louing of earthly things with their losse or great hinderance because he thinkes them vnworthy riuals to himselfe who challengeth all height of loue as his onely right So that the way to loose them is to loue them much and the largenesse of affection maketh an open way to dissipation The fayrer and higher in the world our estate shall be the fayrer marke hath mischiefe giuen vnto it and which is worse that which maketh vs so easie to hit maketh our wound more deepe and grieuous Neyther must wee thinke that wee hold any thing of section 4 right which wee enioy of Gods free mercy and grace neyther in our conceit to binde the Lord at his owne cost and charges as it were by Obligation to finde vs. And notwithstanding wee be but beggars as at whose gate of mercy wee receiue all our maintenance yet to make a rent-charge of all that which he giueth of his free liberalitie Thus proud men many times make a breach into the Lords possession and prouoke him to proue
vse God as that they may inioy the world If we loue God lesse then we ought when we loue many section 8 things besides him which we loue yet for his sake how much then a greater sinne is it when wee shall loue our goods and friends not for Gods sake but euen in spight of God in that we loue them more then God that calleth vs from them such Christ pronounceth not worthy of his glory Therefore happy is hee O Lord which loueth thee and his friends in thee and his enemies for thee for he can neuer be destitute of friends who inioyeth God which is neuer lost and esteemes all as friends Gods children and chosen can neuer be poore that are ioyned to so rich and glorious a head euen Iesus Christ the Lord Treasurer of heauen in whom all the riches of Gods wisedome mercy goodnesse c. are hid and god-head it selfe doth corporally dwell But alas thou wilt say it is hard to forgoe our sweet children and deare wiues our trusty and best beloued friends our pastures and tillage our grounds and sumptuous buildings our mannor-houses rents and reuenewes our great treasures and Iewels and other worldly wealth And what of all this to him to whom all things are counted losse and esteemed as dung in regard of Christ And haue not the true souldiers of Christ learned long agoe to despise all these assaults whose soules still watch in the ward and tower of this body expecting euery moment to heare the sound of the trumpet to follow their Captaine Christ Therefore they vse this body not as a home or strong hold but as a Tabernacle and pitched tent for a time to serue their turne in this field of their warfare They hoord not their treasures here but are content with their daily pay alwayes watching in the campe harnessed for the fight The souldiers of the world lie sleeping and snorting Christs souldiers are alwayes watching and waiting for his comming If we loue our friends too much and not God aboue all things then hath our sorrow no measure as it ought section 9 He cannot be said to flit that neuer changeth his host God alone is as a thousand companions hee alone is a world of friends and though we depart from our friends here we goe to more better and more louing As Iacob said when hee should die I shall be gathered to my people hereby declaring that death is a passage to many more folkes and greater friends then we leaue behinde There is God our Father his Sonne our brother his heauen our inheritance and all his Angels and Saints as our brethren sisters and kinsfolkes with whom we shall inioy eternall blisse That man neuer throughly knew what it was to be familiar with God that complaines of the want of his home and friends while God is with him If the Sonne naturally loue his Father of whom he hath his body how much more should the children of God loue him of whom they haue both bodies and soules Carnall Parents and friends are to be loued but the Creator to be preferd and double imbraced Loue him therefore most of all which thou canst not loose euen thy Redeemer who to draw thee vnto his loue and to deliuer thee from the loue of the world stretched out his armes vpon the crosse and suffered a most vile and cursed death to purchase for thee not an earthly but a heauenly and an euerlasting life CHAP. VI. Now Death is and may be feared of the faithfull and how of wicked Infidels No man is to be censured simply for the manner or suddennesse of Death We may not couet to know our death or for any thing to shorten our life THere is no one greater hinderance to the section 1 cheerefull resolution of our death and departure then the fore-conceiued feare of flesh and blood against the same And this is common to all men without exception of any in a measure and degree for so long as wee remaine in this body of sinne wee cannot choose but feare death the wages thereof which followeth and pursueth the sinner to his graue as the shadow doth the body till the Sunne be set And indeede it is both naturall in all to desire their being and so to hate Death depriuing them thereof in this world as also lawfull in Gods children for their true humiliation before they be exalted in the highest heauens It may be feared in regard it is the destruction of nature in a mans owne selfe and others and in this respect Christ feared it himselfe without any sinne But wee must not feare it otherwise then sicknesse pouertie famine with other calamities of body and minde which God will not haue vs to despise or lightly regard but to feele the paine thereof because they are sent as punishments for sinne and he doth therefore lay paines and torments vpon vs that they may be feared and eschewed and that by eschewing them wee may further learne to hate the causes of them which are our sinnes and by our experience in feeling paine to acknowledge that God is a iust Iudge and an enemie to sinne And albeit I grant that the most faithfull men haue their fits of feare yet are they euer free from the bondage section 2 and state of those that haue no hope For although they die in body yet are they free from eternall death And this is their blessing indeede not that they shall not die but that the snares of death cannot hold them not that they shall not feare but that feare shall not conquer them and he is a true christian man that neither refuseth to die nor yet fainteth for any feare of death Before iudgement it is good to be afraide that thou maist finde fauour at the tribunall of the Iudge Faith and a religious feare are alwaies friends in a Christian man The feare of Gods iudgement is as a needle the loue of God as a thread first the needle entreth and then followeth the thread Faith striketh Gods children with feare and terrour and anone vanquisheth and ouercommeth the same it feareth vs with the greatnesse of him whom we offend and yet ouercommeth the same by leading vs to Christ our attonement to God section 3 And as it is sometime no fortitude or man-hood to be afraide to die but a stupor and stoicall obstinacie So to feare death approaching is not alwaies a note of infidelitie and mistrust of Gods loue seeing feare many times proceedes from the infirmitie of nature or sexe Ezechiah was an vpright man yet feared he the sentence of Death his very bones did shiuer and all his ioynts did quake yea his tongue did chatter like a Swallow and Christ himselfe had his agonies and wrestlings The affections of nature are not simply euill in themselues but lawfull and tollerable when they are ordered by Gods spirit But if we feare death let vs seeke out the cause of this feare
are our sinnes the cause let vs repent and amend Is it the loue of this world let vs hate it Is it for want of faith let vs pray Lord helpe our vnbeliefe section 4 But what speake I so much to true Christians concerning the feare of Death they hauing so many causes rather to imbrace the same First to shew their subiection and obedience to Gods will by the example of Christ Father not my will but thy will be done Secondly for as much as by death all sinne is abolished and wee for euer cease to offend our God any more Our bodies likewise are brought to a better condition then euer they were in our liues for by death they are made insensible and so freed from all the miseries of this life ceasing to be the instruments of sin any more Againe it giues the soule passage to rest life and heauenly glory in which we shall see our God as he is perfectly know him and praise his name keeping an eternall Saboath in the celestiall places And lastly it executeth Gods iudgement vpon the wicked and purgeth his Church from such filthy dung and drosse Let Pagans therefore saith Cyprian and Infidels feare Death who neuer feared God in their life but let Christians goe as trauellers vnto their natiue home and as children to their Father willingly gladly Balaam would faine haue comforted himselfe with riches honour which he esteemed so much yet was he not without feare which at last brake out and forced him to wish that his soule might die the death of the righteous and that his latter end might be like vnto theirs So I beleeue it is with all wicked reprobates they know it and euen as Iosuah saith withall their hearts and withall their soules they know it that the righteous mans life is better then theirs and tremble and quake at the remembrance of their owne death which is farre worse then theirs desiring to die the death of those who in their life and practise they vtterly detest True it is that wicked men in appearance die quietly section 5 in their beds hauing as Iob speaketh no bonds in their death But iudge such a one no more by his death then by his birth for many women may haue more easie trauell of a reprobate then some of an elect childe of God Hypocrisie it may be hath put the conscience to silence here that they may more suddenly and fearefully roare out in hell It may be a crust is growne vpon their hearts that they rot and fester within and feele it not whereas the elect haue the wound of their sinne kept alwaies open neither can they flye the least breach of the Lords displeasure but are anguished neither can they thinke that they euer feare inough which tender heart of a Christian is like the Adamant as it to draw the iron so this to draw the oyle of grace into his soule for his solace If a man die like a Lamb and passe out of the world like a bird in a shell the sottish sort say that certainly hee is saued although neither holinesse was in his life nor God in his mouth grace in his heart nor yet repentance faith or feeling at his death Such men saith one excepting their feather-beds and pillowes die liker beasts then Christians For they shall neuer haue their sinnes forgiuen which first or last doe not vndergoe a holy despaire for them acknowledging nothing to remaine in themselues but matter of iudgement and euerlasting death and comfort and eternall life to flow alone from Iesus Christ For thorow him we see our sinnes purged the diuell vanquished death and condemnation abolished our selues established and infranchised into the libertie and freedome of the Saints in heauen Are we ready to goe out of this world as the Israelites out of Egypt let vs sprinckle our hearts with the blood of the Lambe and the destroyer shall not enter nor haue power to hurt vs. Let vs call to minde Gods loue who spared not his Sonne but gaue him to death for vs and how shall he not giue vs all things with him section 6 The steps of Saints saith one and the state of sinners their liues I meane and deaths are here equally bound vp with the coards of corruption yet vnequally matched in the ioy of their seperation the one falling away like a flower transplanted to a better soyle the other rushing vpon the rocke of Gods wrath either shamefully deiected with the horrour of iudgement while they liue or else fearefully entangled with the feare of torment when they die Yet may we not in conscience censure any man simply for his manner of death or sudden departure for many sicknesses slay men suddenly euen while they haue meate in their mouthes and are full merry Many are sharpe and of long continuance as the Palsie Sciatica or Hipgoute as Physitions best doe know Some take away the vse of the tongue and other members as the Apoplexie and falling euill Some the wits as the Phrensie and burning feauer and other strange and vnknowne diseases as experience it selfe doth proue and therefore it is good to be prepared in our Christian estate But in all these strange assaults of our brethren we must iudge the best for there neuer can be an euill death where a constant good life hath gone before For as many amidst these torments doe suddenly passe to the Paradise of Gods Saints so many dying peaceably in their beds are swiftly translated from earth to hell yet still precious in Gods sight is the death of his Saints Elie was a Priest and a good man yet brake he his neck section 7 with falling backward from his seat Ionathan a godly man and a faithfull friend to Dauid yet was he slaine in battell by the vncircumcised Philistimes The Prophet that came from Iuda to Bethel to speake against Ieroboam and his Alter was a good man yet killed by a Lyon So was Iosiah slaine in the valley of Megiddoe Iobs children so well brought vp by their Godly Father were slaine by the ruine of a house in a violent winde Wee must not therefore iudge so much of men by their manner of death as by their life for though sometimes a good death may follow an euill life yet an euill death can neuer follow a constant good life Correct therefore thy euill life and feare not an euill death for he cannot die ill that liues well So that sudden death is onely euill to them which lead an euill life it finding them vnprepared carrieth them suddenly to hell But it cannot be euill to them which liue well for finding them prepared it freeth them from paine which others indure by long and lingring sicknesse and brings them forthwith to the place of happy rest Some pray against sodaine Death which yet can neuer come sodainely to Gods Saints whose whole life is a continuall meditation of Death We ought rather
to pray to be deliuered from a bad and wicked life which maketh the death of the reprobate so sodaine and fearefull And with what reason can we name Death sodaine which euery day manifesteth it selfe to all our sences For what else doe we heare from the cradle then lamentations mourning for the dead What doe we oftner see with our eyes then exequies and funerals of the departed mourners weedes and monuments of men deceased Now if we regard not the burials of others Death commeth home to our owne doores and houses to our friends and kinsfolkes Yea how often are we our selues remembred in our owne persons by the messengers of Death Who hath not sometime or other bin in danger of the same by sea or land by storme or tempest by warre or famine by theeues or Pyrots by sicknesse or some disease or other Wheresoeuer thou turnest thee Death still pursueth thee Euery mans house is as his refuge and Castle yet how many are ouerwhelmed with the ruines thereof how many hath the earth swallowed vp and the ayre choaked Famaine and thirst without continuall reliefe are as Deaths Souldiers still ready to strike vs to the heart What shall I say Man can no sooner be named but his mortalitie is sounded out Death therefore can be sodaine to none but to wilfull ignorant secure and carelesse sots who although they liue a hundred yeares and are daily warned thereof will be still vnprepared section 8 Againe some are so foolishly curious that they would choose their kinde of Death Some require a certaine space and time in their sicknesse for to repent and amend Some desire quickly to be rid out of paine that they be not tormented in themselues or troublesome to their friends but these be notes of our infirmitie and weakenesse True faith maketh a Christian carelesse of these circumstances and constantly to commit both kinde manner space and time of sicknesse and death it selfe to the wise disposing of their almighty and mercifull maker Neither may we be moued as many vniustly are for that the time and houre of death is hidden from vs for herein God manifesteth his goodnesse to keepe vs from presumption to sinne and that we should not deferre our repentance to the latter end By this meanes he cheereth vs and freeth from that griefe sorrow which we should too truely receiue of our death graue Thus he restraineth the wicked that they do lesse hurt to the godly and the godly themselues are feared from doing euill as those that may die to morrow or if God will in a moment and withall inforceth them to doe well as those that should liue for euer section 9 Man knoweth not his end but as fishes are taken with the baite birds with the snare so death commeth vpon them vnexpected Which point condemneth such as will seeke to Palmisters Pythonists to star-gazers and Physiognomists to Calculators birth-Wizards no better then very Witches to Babilonicall or rather Diabolicall Southsayers and Inchanters to know their end and age But what madnes is this to desire to know our end of such as are ignorant of their owne Such are like to King Saul who sought to the Witch at Endor like to Ahazia that sent to Baalzebub but what auayled this but to double their death in hazarding the saluation both of body and soule And as wee may not vse any vnlawfull meanes for the preseruation of life or be too curious in searching out section 10 our death So must none for any distresse be weary of their life or by any wicked course procure their death God hath giuen no man leaue to depriue himselfe of the least space of time allotted vnto him for his repentance nor to shorten the benefit of life which hee hath granted him to gaine an eternall state Hee that brought vs into the world hath onely the calling of vs out againe and when hee calleth thee and not before must thou depart Abridge the time wee may not wee must not for all the crosses and losses this world can lay vpon vs. We must seeke to mortifie our flesh in vs and to cast the world out of vs but to cast our selues out of the world is in no sort permitted vs. A Christian ought willingly to depart but not cowardly to runne away Hee must fight therein as a Souldier in the field but he may not leaue his place without shame and reproach If it please the Generall to recall him let him take the retraite in good part and with good will obay it for hee is not borne for himselfe but for God of whom he holds his life in farme as his tenant at will to yeeld him both house and rent It is in the Land-lord to take it from him not in him to surrender it when a conceit or sullen dislike ouer-takes him We must not twine a-two the little twist of our mortalitie vntill our clew be ended but pray to our God for the thread of his grace to lead vs out of the labyrinth of such a troubled minde ready to destroy our soules Wee should not seeke death death should rather come to vs then wee goe to it before our time Life is precious and it is great impietie to bring it into perill For a man to see the greatnesse of his sins finally and not the greatnesse of Gods grace in the remission thereof is Caines disease and a fruit of Iudas kisse Will God require bloud at the hand of man and beast and shall he not require it at thine owne hand Thou maist not kill another therefore not thy selfe Holy Iob would rather endure in his flesh all extremities then to procure his deliuery by an vntimely death to be free from his miseries section 11 Gods Children alwayes waite in their trials vntill death open the doore for their deliuerance Let no Christian therefore be cast downe by distrustfull thoughts The tempest may rage but stay a while and the calme will follow The Sunne may be ouer-cast for a season but the weather will be fayre againe Christ may hide him a little time as it were behinde the Curtaines but his Spouse at last shall see his chearefull face I will not feare in the euill day saith the Prophet Is not the euill day the day of our end This euill day by the hope of the resurrection is made a good day The wickednesse which our mortall enemy casteth at our heeles is now remoued by him who hath broken his head Christ told Peter that when hee was old they should binde and lead him whither hee would not to shew that hee should suffer of another and not of himselfe God giueth to euery one their hyre in their due time and turne But hee who leaues his worke before God cals him looseth his wages and who importunes him before the time is destitute of reward Wee must rest then in his will who in the midst of our troubles
will set vs all at rest in his due time section 12 Wee must therefore neyther hate this life for the toyles therein for that is sloath and cowardlinesse nor loue it for the delights for that is folly and vanitie but serue our selues of it to serue God in it who afterward shall place vs in ioyfull rest and replenish vs with pleasures which shall neuer more perish Againe to flye it is childish and in flying from it wee meete it Much lesse ought wee to seeke it for that is temerâ—tie nor euery one that would dye can dye It is enough that constantly wee waite for deaths comming that shee neuer finde vs vnprouided Wee must not fall sodainely vpon death but march valiantly towards the same by little and little wee must not rashly or vnaduisedly leaue our life like one that takes his runne to fetch the better rise CHAP. VII Consolations against the agony of Death and horrour of the Graue and Corruption THE very remembrance of Death is bitter section 1 enough to frayle and mortall man but the agonies and bickerings wee haue in the flesh are farre beyond the conceit of men For such is the weaknesse of our nature and the guiltinesse of sinne making warre in our flesh that without especiall aide and helpe from heauen wee shall be swallowed vp of griefe And what man is hee so strong in Faith that can contayne himselfe in this pittifull tryall of deaths combat It made Christ himselfe to sweat and cry and pray before he got the victory Although I confesse the burden of our sinnes and Gods wrath were importable to any but himselfe yet was hee fitted with grace and power without measure and for all that felt this horrour and therefore the best and strongest regenerate men cannot goe free but are made conformable to the sufferings of Christ in a measure Besides the corruption of sinne remayning in vs which finally must be purged by the bitter pill of death Ezechiah after the sentence of death pronounced section 2 against him by the Prophet complayneth how his dayes were cut off that he should goe to the gates of the graue to the pit of corruption where hee could not see the Lord any more in the Land of the liuing nor the inhabitants of the world to confesse and prayse God as the liuing doe and hope for his truth He cryes out that his habitation is remoued like a Shepheards Tent and his life cut off as the weauers webbe that God brake all his bones like a Lyon and so made an end of him This made him in his prayer to chatter like a Swallow and mourne like a Doue Hee saith hee was oppressed and walked to his graue in the bitternesse of his soule c. What should I speake of many other of the faithfull which cry out aliue as men free among the dead drawing neere to the graue and going downe to the pit who are remembred no more but cut off by Gods hand lying in a place of darknesse and in the deepe feeling Gods wrath lying vpon them being vexed with all his waues and stormes How doe they stretch out their hands with lamentable complaints saying Shall thy louing kindnesse be declared in the graue or thy faithfulnesse in destruction Shall thy wondrous workes be knowne in the darke and thy righteousnesse in the land of obliuion I omit to speake of Iob of Ionah and many of Gods children who haue rufully complained in this case section 3 If the parting company of one way-faring man with another when they haue trauelled but for a time together doe cause such sorrow and solitarinesse what a griefe then will it be to thinke that two such friends as the Soule and Body haue beene shall be separated and singled one from another which so long haue trauelled together euen from the mothers vvombe vntill the instant moment of death Betweene whom there hath beene so many knots and bands of mutuall loue O Death how imperious art thou to carnall mindes aggrauating their other miseries not onely by expectation of future payne but by the remembrance of wonted ioyes not suffering them to see ought but what may torment them Great no doubt are the horrours of death when the sicke man shall see the world his friends and all earthly things forsaking him but farre greater is the horrour of iudgement to consider hee is now going to answere for all that hee hath done in his body whether it be good or ill If the countenance of an earthly Iudge be fearefull to a guilty prisoner how much more shall the beholding of an eternall Iudge amaze all such who finde a thousand witnesses in themselues to giue in euidence against them But as hee that is to passe ouer some great and deepe Riuer vpon a narrow plancke and straite passage must not looke downeward to the streame of the water but for preuenting of feare must set his foote sure and cast his eyes to the bancke on the further side So must hee that draweth neare to death as it were looke ouer the waues thereof and fixe the eye of Faith vpon eternall life If in the time of temptation wee looke to sayle a right course neyther sincking nor slipping into the gulfe of desperation neyther battering our Barke against the rocke of presumption let vs in a contrite spirit cry to the Lord our God and say Heale my soule for I haue sinned against thee for thou healest those that are broken in heart and bindest vp their soares I see and that with ioy how my flesh must decay for looke what freshnesse soeuer was in it at the first diminisheth day by day And I neede not goe farre to seeke for death for I feele not so small an infirmitie in my body but the same is vnto mee a messenger of dissolution Yet for all this I shall see my God and when I am couered in the belly of the graue I am assured hee will reach mee his hand to raise me vp againe to immortalitie and life so that this base cottage and shade of leaues being brought to dust shall yet in the end be conuayed vnto my incorruptible house in heauen That dissolution is well bestowed that parts the soule section 4 from the body to vnite them both to God All our life here is but a vitall death How gainefull therefore is that death that determines this false and dying life and beginnes a true and happy life Hee that hath Stephens eyes to looke into heauen cannot but haue the tongue of the Saints to say Come quickly Lord Iesus Such a man seeing the glory of the end cannot but contemne the hardnesse of the way but who so wants these eyes though hee say and sweares hee feares not death beleeue him not But is thy soule sorrowfull vnto death Remember Christs prayer in his Agonie Father not my will but thine be fulfilled Teaching vs what to doe in the time of distresse what wee should thinke
how wee should speake whom wee should inuocate In his temptation hee withstood the Tempter to shew vs how to come out of temptation In his Agonie hee prayed to teach vs how and what to pray section 5 Let vs call to minde how wee lost happinesse in seeking to saue ourselues and iust it is that by induring sorrowes wee should recouer what wee haue lost Wee ranne away by committing euill and wee must returne againe by suffering euill Once wee sinned by transgressing righteousnesse and now wee must humble ourselues by induring for righteousnesse Great were Iobs crosses which he endured none of his Sonnes and Seruants were left but onely foure messengers to bring him tidings of sorrow and those not altogether but one after another to increase the same All Iobs comforts goe away together and Sathan was perswaded that this trayne of troubles would haue blowne vp the strongest fort but he is deceiued Iob is the same man still For hee that did truly serue God in time of prosperitie did also blesse him in his greatest aduersitie Here was patience with thankfulnesse well met together Sathan tooke away many things from him but God he could not take away that gaue him all his resolution was too strong for that Though he kill mee yet will I not be kept from trusting in him It is God that knoweth the perils of thy death and can onely defend thee Through his power shalt thou get thorow and drinke the bitter draught Though wee dye yet liueth God before vs with vs after vs and is able to preserue vs for euer Death as one speaketh is euen as a darke caue in the section 6 ground but who so taketh Christs true light and candle in beleeuing on him and goeth into that dimme and darke hole the mist flyeth before him and the darknesse vanisheth away The sweet spices of Christ his buriall expelleth the strong scent and ill sauour of our rotten graues He is our hope our safeguard our triumph our crowne wee may be dead but our life is hid with God in Christ Our true life then is not in this world but laid vp with God in heauen and shall in time through Christ be gloriously reuealed And although after our departure from our soft lodgings and beds of Downe our bodyes must be placed for a time in darke dungeons and loathsome graues there to rot in the earth and be consumed of wormes yet Christians looking vpon them in this so vile estate as they appeare with the Chrystall eyes of Faith and considering them aright as now altered and changed by Christ who hath vanquished Death and pursued her to her denne we neede not to bewayle our euill exchange or thinke our bargaine hard for that our bodies hereafter shall become most beautifull and precious and euen conformable to the glorious body of Christ himselfe And albeit the gate of death be so narrow and hard a passage yet our heauenly Father shorteneth it and though the paines thereof should passe all that wee haue felt vpon the earth it endureth not long but maketh quicke dispatch and when the paine is greatest of all then is it nearest an end and God can then more comfort vs then the most horriblest death with the pangs thereof are able to disturbe or torment vs. Such is the state of this world that one euill cannot be section 7 cured but by another To heale a contusion or bruise must be made an incision All the paines that our life yeeldeth vs at the last houre we impute to death not marking that as our life beganne and continued in all sorts of griefe and sorrow so necessarily must it end in like afflictions Wee marke not as one saith that it is the remainder of our life not of death that tormenteth vs The end of our nauigation that paineth vs not the hauen wee are to enter which is nothing else but a sure refuge against all stormes And thus wee complaine of death when wee should indeed complaine of life as if one hauing beene long sicke and now beginning to be well should accuse his health of his former paine and not the reliques of his disease For what is it else to be dead then to be no more aliue in the world Now simply not to be in the world is it any paine did we then feele any paine when we were not section 8 Nothing better resembleth death then our sleepe and when doe wee euer better rest then at that time Now if this be no paine why accuse we death of the paines our life yeeldeth vs at our departure vnlesse wee will fondly accuse the time when as yet wee were not of the paines wee felt at our birth If our comming in be with teares is it a wonder that our going out be answerable If the beginning of our being be the beginning of our paine is it any maruell that such should be our ending Death is no wayes hurtfull to those that be liuing and for the dead they are out of his reach Such a death is neuer to be deplored which is seconded with immortalitie and euerlasting life Wilt thou feare that once which is alwayes acted Fearest thou to dye once when thou dyest euery day by little and little Death which wee so feare and flye taketh not from vs our life but giueth it truce and intermission for a time Neyther children nor mad-men feare Death and how absurd is it that reason and wisedome should not be as able to furnish vs with securitie as they are fortified by their simplicitie and fury section 9 What hurt is it to the inhabitant to pull downe an old ruinous house to build it vp againe and make it more glorious Now our bodies are as old rotten houses for our soules to dwell in if God cause our soules to depart then out of our bodies for a time and so destroy them to build them vp againe and make them fitter habitations for our soules haue we any cause to mourne Nay rather if we looke not so much on the present condition of our bodies after death as vpon their glorious estate at the day of resurrection by the eye of faith wee haue great cause to praise our God for this our good exchange And why should the faithfull be affraide of Death by which they are deliuered from the slauery of sinne For when Death hath made vs all euen leuell with the ground the graue shall be to vs as a fould vntill our Shepheard come and to the wicked as a shambles till the destroyer of their soules shall haue receiued an endlesse commission to torment them What cause haue wee then to shut our gates against the gaspe of Death Or like trembling leaues to entertaine the gale and blast of sicknesse which doth but prune our feathers to flye both faster and swifter towards heauen itselfe For if neither the waight of our corruption though it sorely presse vs nor the
violence of affliction though it soundly beat vs can separate vs from the loue of God nor the league with his creatures Into what fond vanities are we fallen if we would still be hedged in and enthralled in this vale of teares and not desire to ascend on that ladder which Iacob knew to be the gate of heauen the skirts whereof but seene and felt of the Apostles did so rauish all their sences with delight as that they onely vaunted in the crosses of Christ which was also their preseruatiue against the feare of death and their spurre and preparatiue to set the houses of their hearts in order before they descended to the graue We may learne by the very foode that nourisheth vs section 10 euen our meates and drinks to what loathsomnesse they come before they worke their perfection in vs. From life they are brought to death being dead to the fire so clean altered from that they were aliue from the fire they come to the trenchers and knife all to hackt and cut and from the trencher to the mouth and there be ground as small as the teeth can make them and so from the mouth to the stomacke there to be boyled and dressed before they be fit for our nourishment Is it then any maruell if Christians who are to be as Gods delicates and dainties in the life to come be now so defaced and deformed in this world as in a Kitchin and Mill to boyle and grinde them should by death and the graue be quite altered and changed for a time till they atchiue their happie perfection in the world to come And as we looke for no nutriment of our meate before it be digested So must we not expect for our happy state of heauenly blisse before the corruption of the world and flesh be first swallowed vp of immortalitie Raw flesh is not fit meate for the stomack nor vnmortified men meete for God and heauen till by death and graue they be altered and by Gods spirit renewed as fit Citizens for his kingdom Let vs therefore waite for sicknesse as the fore-runner of sleepe and welcome death as the sickle of the Lords haruest beholding our graue as the faithfull treasurie of our bodies and look vp to heauen as the vndoubted Paradise of our soules CHAP. VIII In what things our Christian preparation to Death doth chiefely consist section 1 HAuing indeauoured to remoue such impediments as hinder preparation and warned Gods children to auoide some dangerous rocks in this their narrow nauigation towards the hauen of death it seemeth now as necessarie for their better encouragement to set downe some safe directions to guide them in this perillous way that chearefully they may passe on without any stay till they ioyfully arriue at the land of heauenly rest Great prouision I confesse would be made for this long and waightie voyage but so many things being obserued by others I will briefely passe by them and come to the principall prouision it selfe And as for the disposing and well ordering of our goods section 2 and worldly state it is best to dispatch this businesse in the time of our strength and health before we be bound to our beds and haue to deale with sicknesse which troubleth all our senses with Physition with Death and Sathan himselfe which then will be most busie to molest vs neither will this so short a time suffice for so many waightie imployments Remember thy Creatour in the daies of thy youth saith the wise man Much more then ought we wholy to thinke on him in the time of sicknes when euery day is suspected to be the last day we haue to liue Many are affraide to make their Testaments betime as things infortunate and presaging euill but this is their ignorance and infidelitie For the disposing of our worldly goods and exempting our selues from earthly cares maketh none die more quickly but more quietly So had Ezechiah counsel from God to put his house in order Abraham deuided his goods to Isaac the rest of his Sons So Isaac dim sighted yet in good and perfect health tooke order for his children before his death So did Iacob for his Sonnes after his Fathers example Which duetie is very fit to be seasonably performed of euery Christian of any state or wealth for the cutting off of contention betweene brethren and kinsfolkes Besides that many diseases are so sharpe and sodaine they giue men small leasure to dispose of themselues much lesse so large a time as to order their goods and familie As he that dreamed of long life had suddenly his answere thou foole this night shall they take away thy soule Sodainely came the flood vpon the wicked world being eating and drinking and sodainely was Sodome consumed with fire amidst their fleshly pleasures Sodainly fell the Tower vpon the eighteene men in Syloah not expected and sodainely will Christ come in the cloudes as a theefe in the night But because all men for the most part are prouident inough for these worldly matters and meanes of state family friends Physicke c. I come to more necessarie matters concerning the soule against the time of neede section 3 The chiefest furniture and best prouision therefore for a Christian man against his death and departure out of life are faith hope and a conscience vndefiled Faith in Christ is as Noahs Arke to saue vs from drowning in the flood of our sinnes and from the deuouring of the dangerous gulfe of death amidst the proud waues and bottomelesse sea of our innumerable transgressions able to sinke and swallow vs vp with the wicked world And hope in God is as the vnmoueable anchor fastned to the almighty power of God as to the most strong and vntwineable cable ready prepared to keepe vs from Shipwrack of our soules in all the raging stormes fearefull tempest and rough passages of Death and Hell For albeit Death be a fray-bug to all faint-harted Souldiers and faithlesse men not built vpon Christ the corner stone by a liuely faith and vndoubted hope threatning and fearing them with the losse of life worldly wealth and all things else Yet the flocke of Christ doe scorne and despise her who account all the world with his wealth and pleasures but dung and drosse yea all things losse to win the loue of Christ Their riches and treasures are placed on high whither their affections and delights were sent before not basely groueling and crawling vpon this filthy earth below but aspyring and climing to the heauen of heauens whither long before they were ascended and setled All earthly things to them are but as toyes and trifles their inheritance is in heauen there is the true portion of their cuppe there be the Iemmes and Iewels that they affect euen such as are safe from rust and free from corruption And thither they are assured by death to be speedily conuayed section 4 He that hath not
out of heauen saith one as goe thither thy selfe in this wicked kinde of life What then wilt thou forgoe heauen and yet escape hell This is lesse possible whatsoeuer the Atheists of this world perswade thee Wilt thou deferre the matter and thinke of it hereafter Thou shalt neuer haue more abilitie to doe it then now and it may be neuer halfe so much againe If thou refuse it now thou maist greatly feare to be refused thy selfe hereafter There is nothing then so good as to take this good occasion while it is offered Breake from those tyrants which detaine thee in seruitude section 14 the Diuell Sinne World and Flesh shake off their shackles cut all their bands and chaynes asunder free thee from their gyues and irons and runne violently to Iesus Christ who standeth with open armes ready to imbrace thee make ioyfull all the Angels and Saints with thy conuersion strike once the stroke with God againe and returne to thy Father Who would be so base minded with the Prodigall Sonne in this world rather to eate huskes with the Swine then to turne home with him againe to be so honourably receiued haue such good cheare and banketting and heare so great melody ioy and triumph for his returne Hee that will liue without repentance must looke to dye without repentance The sparing of the Theefe on the Crosse at the last gaspe was set out as a medicine against desperation and not as a matter of imitation God saith one spared one that no man might despaire and hee spared but one that no man might presume The Lord hath promised pardon to him that repenteth but to liue till to morrow hee hath not promised section 15 The heauenly dewe of Repentance neuer fals but the Sunne of righteousnesse draweth it vp Repentant eyes bedewed with teares for sinne are the cellers of Angels and penitent sighes and sobs the sweetest wines which the sauour of life perfumeth the taste of grace sweetneth and the purest colours of returning innocencie highly beautifieth O that our hearts were euermore such a Lymbecke distilling so pure a quintessence of godlinesse drawne from the weedes of our offences by the fire of true Faith and vnfayned contrition of spirit Heauen would mourne at the absence of such precious waters and earth lament the losse of such fruitfull showers Surely till death close vp those fountaines they should neuer fayle running which if they had alwayes issue we neede not doubt of our saluation but that God would wash away all our filthinesse and sinne The world saith Bernard had not perished with the Floud if the flouds of teares for sinne had euer flowed from mens eyes section 16 To conclude if thou shalt see thy selfe to floate in the sea of temptations in the agonies of death leaue not the Anchor-hold of hope before thou enter the hauen of rest This is the sure Anchor indeede of the soule which lyeth deepe and is not seene and yet is the stay of all euen the soule of our life And because wee cannot plead the plea of Innocencie Faith bids vs boldly plead the plea of Mercy and telleth vs the Iudge is reconciled But this is no Palsie-faith as wee haue heard but firme and constant vnto the end which still concludes through Christ to the Conscience that liuing and dying we are the Lords Hope is the piller sustayning this building of our Faith which fayling our Faith falleth into the gulfe of Despayre And there is nothing maketh more cleare the mighty power of the Word and of Gods promise then that it makes men so mighty that hope and trust in God for all things are possible to him that beleeueth When wee seeme as it were in the whirle-pit of Despayre and are carryed by a violent streame of trouble wee know not whither and are constrayned to diue and plunge downe the water of affliction running ouer our soules yet the Lord will recouer vs and set our feet in a steady place If wee be cast downe so that wee can but scrawle vp againe if wee be so tyred of Sathan by temptations that yet wee can but kicke against him in affection if we can but open our lips and accuse him of malice before the Lord there is yet some hope of comfort to be found And in all our tryals and temptations wee must haue recourse to faithfull prayer that so the burthen thereof may eyther be remoued or at the least eased or wee better strengthened and inabled to sustaine the same Hope to a Christian in this life is as a staffe to a traueller section 17 in his iourney who leaneth to it and resteth vpon it shall hardly fall but shall flye aloft as the Eagles It is giuen to Hope to enter the garden of pleasures and thence to fetch all fragrant smels to season the bitternesse of our sorrowes whose nature is to glory in tryals It ouer-floweth with dainties in the pining Desart of this world Who is this that ascendeth from the Desart flowing with delights It esteemes not the losse of temporall goods for it is said of the Saints that they had sustayned with ioy the spoyling of their goods And whom haue I in heauen but thee and there is none in earth with thee It bringeth rest in labour a shadow against the heate of tribulation ioy in mourning it sheweth vs life in death and heauen as it were in hell Hee may boldly giue saith one that hath so good a pawne and hee may be sure of heauen that hath the pledge of an assured Hope But Despayre is as a tree pulled vp by the rootes it is a bottomlesse gulfe out of which few or none returne that fall into it CHAP. IX The true knowledge and assured perswasion of the Resurrection of our bodyes much furthereth our chearefull resolution to Death section 1 NOW for as much as the fairest frame and building with all the prouision and preparation thereunto is nothing worth if the ground-worke and foundation be not sure and vnmoueable besides the abuse of the time costs and persons imployed about the same frustrating the purpose and end of the builder with the ruines of despayre So all that hath hitherto beene spoken of Life and Death of Heauen and Hell of Christians and Infidels of Faith and Hope and other furniture and prouision for the assured fruition of a blessed life is but spoken in the ayre and a fighting with our shadow if there be no sure demonstration of the vndoubted resurrection of our bodies For then saith the Apostle Paul our Preaching is in vaine our Faith in vaine Christ dyed in vaine all Religion in vaine the persecutions and sufferings of Gods children in vaine nay then let vs scoffingly conclude with Epicures and Atheists Let vs eate and drinke for to morrow wee shall dye But such euill words corrupt good manners I will therefore endeauour as much as in me lyeth to make it plaine
of all misery and the beginning of all blessednesse It is the very bed of Downe saith one and therefore well compared to a sleepe for the dolefull bodies of Gods seruants to rest on out of the which they shall arise and awake most fresh and lusty to euerlasting life It is a passage to the Father a chariot to heauen the Lords messenger a leader vnto Christ a going to our home a deliuerance from bondage and prison a dimission from warre a securitie from all sorrowes and a manumission from all miseries It is the fulfilling of our pilgrimage the laying downe of our burden being loaden the lighting from a wilde and furious horse a dispossessing of our selues from an old ruinous house it is the escaping of all dangers the wasting and diruption of all euils the payment of our naturall debt the end of our race and iourney and our entrance into glory Wherefore though Death in it selfe be as a fiery Dragon section 13 venemous Cockatrice and stinging Serpent for poore Christians to behold in outward shew and shape yet now through Christ who hath conquered it it can neuer preuaile against vs to ouercome vs. For as a Bee without a sting may be put into the bosome so need wee not to feare to meete with death Serpent still shee may seeme in sight to the outward man yet voyd of poyson shee is to the man of God Fight it may against vs but neuer be able to foyle vs nay rather it deliuereth vs from a thousand dangers The Souldier though hee be neuer so expert in his weapons yet still hee desireth the end of warre to inioy the triumph of his fight and alwayes preferreth the comfortable league of peace before the Pikes The Mariner though hee delight and loue to saile on the seas yet still hee perswadeth himselfe the shoare to be the safest and there is no Countrey so comfortable to the traueller as is his natiue soyle If a man were shut vp in a miserable darke prison with condition hee should not come forth till the wals of the tower were fallen downe would hee not reioyce to see them ruinous and ready to fall Now our soule is kept in the body as in a prison in captiuitie and bands and when by death it beginnes to be shaken and cannot choose but fall shall we be sorry For then indeede approacheth our deliuerance and freedome from all sinne and misery and presently wee are brought to the ioyfull fruition of God himselfe and all happinesse So that this day of death is better then the day of birth yea this day which thou fearest to be thy last shall be thy natiuitie to euerlasting life And indeede we cannot make the world to dye in vs section 14 except we dye our selues Sinne which is in vs liueth in vs and fighteth against vs vntill we dying it also dye with vs and by death alone the deadly assaults of Sathan our chiefe enemy dye forthwith Yet for all this the last day of our life is vnto vs alwayes the first day to life though we neuer account the first day to be the last The things that God will haue come to passe saith one are alwayes springing and things present doe alwayes decay and perish Those things that are past are cleane dead and consumed We then are dying while we liue and then doe we cease from dying when we doe cease to liue Therefore it is better to dye alwayes to liue then to liue to dye euer One saith well to this purpose that life and death haue deceiuable vizards but let vs cast them off and wee shall change our mindes when vnder the fayre forme of life there is nothing but matter of griefe and vnder the foule and hideous maske of death such beauty and felicitie as we shall presently be taken with her loue The way of this life is straite and narrow full of thornes section 15 and bryers that we cannot escape scratching The way to Canaan is cumbersome ouer hils and mountaines and lyeth through the wildernesse where we shall finde many wants yet may we not be discouraged but the rather be assured wee are going to the promised Land We must all arriue at the port of death and land at his stayres when wee passe from this life to our graues where the body abideth the time of the restauration of all things that with all the coheyres of Christ we may enter into the Land of promise And who being a traueller in forraine parts would not gladly hasten homewards who would not willingly sayle to his friends and desire a lusty gale of winde to speede him that he might sooner see the faces of his dearest kindred If wee looke for our felicitie here we are deceiued Elias must goe to heauen in a whirle-winde God will send Iacob an Angell of comfort in his iourney after all his troubles with Laban and God will bring him home with abundance of increase at the last When old Iacob saw the chariots of Egypt then he perceiued section 16 his sonne Ioseph was aliue then his fainting spirit reuiued I will goe see him said hee before I dye Our true Ioseph liueth euen Iesus our Sauiour and seeing wee can not see him liuing let vs willingly goe by the chariots of death Since man cannot see God and liue let me dye O Lord that I may see thee When we are borne saith one wee are mortall but when wee are once dead wee become immortall We are aliue in the wombe to die in the world but wee are dead in the graue to liue in heauen Here the soules of Gods children are pent and pind within the clayie wals of their corruptible bodies where they may looke as it were thorow the yron grates of their busie thoughts but can neuer quite be released till that God who gaue vs our Mittimus into this layle send vs our deliuery with a Returne yee sonnes of Adam To be short what other thing is this death but after a section 17 long conflict the day of victory the birth of a blessed soule after a great trauell as it were in childe-birth the healing of all wounds and sicknesses the deliuerance from all feare the accomplishing of our sanctification the day of our marriage with the Lambe and the enioying of our desires Who is it then among vs who feeling with S. Paul the bondage of sin would not also cry out with him Who shall deliuer mee from this body of death And feeling the good that death bringeth vnto vs will not also desire to be dissolued and to be with Christ Death and Life are as two twins vnited and knit together vntill the seperation of the soule and the body which seperation is called Death and is rather indeede the deadly stroake of death the body being then exempted from paine and the soule from corruption and sinne waiting vntill the remnants of death be swallowed vp in victorie at the day of
A MAPPE OF MANS MORTALITIE Clearely manifesting the originall of DEATH with the Nature Fruits and Effects thereof both to the Vnregenerate and Elect Children of GOD. Diuided into three Bookes and published for the furtherance of the wise in practise the humbling of the strong in conceit and for the comfort and confirmation of weake Christians against the combat of DEATH that they may wisely and seasonably be prepared against the same Whereunto are annexed two Consolatory SERMONS for afflicted Christians in their greatest Conflicts BY IOHN MOORE Minister of the Word of God at Shearsbie in LEICESTER-SHIRE HEBR. 9.27 Booke 1. It is appoynted vnto men that they shall once dye and after that commeth the Iudgement REVEL 4.13 2. Then I heard a voyce from heauen saying vnto mee Write the dead which dye in the Lord are fully blessed euen so saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them ECCLES 9.10 3 All that thy hand shall finde to doe doe it with all thy power for there is neyther worke nor inuention nor knowledge nor wisedome in the graue whither thou goest LONDON Printed by T.S. for GEORGE EDVVARDS and are to be sold at the signe of the Greyhound in Paules Church-yard 1617. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE Sr. FOVLKE GREVILL Knight Chancelor of his Highnesse Court of Exchequer and one of his Maiesties most Honourable Priuie Councell the assurance of Gods loue in all outward blesings of this life with the vndoubted euidence of Gods Spirit for the fruition of Heauen and happinesse in the life to come be daily more and more increased and confirmed through Iesus Christ c. Right Honourable SVch is the force of Vertue and of the very shadow of Godlinesse that as it were naturally it draweth mens loue and affection and after a speciall manner vniteth mindes together farre distant and different in calling and condition The very Heathen hauing experience hereof both by their writing confessed and also practised the same one towards another who for the loue of morall vertues embraced those whom they neuer saw How much more then should Gods Children rightly informed by Gods Word and reformed by his Spirit most highly value the incomparable worth of sincere Religion and the holy profession thereof by the meanes and ministery whereof men are as it were newly created and restored to the Image of the eternall God which maketh them most amiable in the sight of God and honourable in the account of his children who doe know that they are translated from death to life by louing the brethren For as God in himselfe the very fountaine of all goodnesse is loue and properly to be loued of all being the very obiect and subiect of all Christian affection as hauing in himselfe all the causes both motiue and attractiue to draw them vnto him So they whosoeuer of Gods elect which most resemble him in grace and goodnesse doe next deserue our loue not that we should diuide the same from God the very Ocean of goodnesse but rather to make it knowne that we truly loue the Lord our God in them who cannot possibly loue God whom wee haue not seene except wee loue his Children which represent his person and in whom hee will proue our loue towards himselfe Hence arise so many good occasions to make Gods children acquainted which otherwise would be strangers many poore Christians and despised Ministers in the world to write and speake seeke and sue for the countenance and acquaintance of eminent personages sincerely professing and patronizing Gods truth and with Luke to looke for some noble Theophilus and with S. Iohn some honourable and Elect Lady vnto whom they may consecrate their labours The consideration of which premises Honourable Sir may somewhat qualifie my present boldnesse in this my seeming rash attempt Neyther is it strange indeede that poore men in the valley looke to the Beacon on the hill and that such spreading fruitfull trees should be in view and knowne for shelter and reliefe against a storme Hee which seeketh fonsuch friends seeketh to God his assignes for are they not his Deputies to doe good to his Church and Children Are they not eyes to the blinde and feet to the lame Are they not fathers to the poore and in so being procure their blessing I minde not here to blaze out your iustly deserued praises but rather in dutie be earnest in my prayers to God for the increase and continuance of Gods graces bestowed vpon your Honour for the good of our Church and Common-wealth And I hope you haue learned that continuance in well-doing getteth the greatest praise and prize with God and all good men And my particular prayer shall be that still you may exceede your selfe in the performance of all Christian duties to God our Prince and Countrey euer tending to that perfection which leadeth to eternall life Moreouer let your Honour be throughly perswaded that God will haue all his children humbled here before they can aspire to the top of the highest glory which they hope for hereafter and that the way hereunto is rightly to know our selues by our fraile condition and mortall estate May it please you therefore with other sorts and rancks of Gods people to take some view thereof in this Discourse Feare not Honourable Sir to read some lines thereof at your leasure the receipt whereof I doubt not will proue more wholsome then toothsome to the flesh which still would make vs play the Gyants against our God yet mortified it must be in some measure For as raw flesh is not fit for the stomacke no more are vnmortified men for God Euen Nichodemus himselfe must be borne againe if he will come to an assured hope of that heauenly inheritance I prescribe here no Lawes nor Rules to be obserued with the Franciscans Dominicks and other Fryers to this or that sect or sort of men I say with the Apostle There is one Law for all men enacted in heauen without repeale that they must dye And for as much as God hath sanctified this Physicke for the saluation of our soules let the wholesomnesse thereof qualifie the bitternesse And since the death of the faithfull hath lost her sting in Christ his death let vs neuer feare the humbing of this Bee nor being able to hurt vs. But for these Cordials of Comfort with many moe soueraigne Antidotes against Deaths poyson and dangerous Symptomes I leaue your Honour to a larger discourse thereof in the proper place Now for offering to your Honour such mournfull matter of humiliation and as it may seeme distastfull to Courtly senses let these few words suffice That as there is a communitie of flesh and bloud and a generall infection of sin in all Adams heires that so likewise Death which is the wages thereof is and must needes be common vnto all without exception of any And so long as the godly and wicked liue together in this