never a one of their children but expired in a day Though this be spoken of the Year which hath twelve months and every month thirty dayes yet their expiring so soone may well put us in mind of ours seeing the shortness of our life is such that we are not sure we shall live a year no not a month nay though we be now wel for ought we know yet for ought we know we may be dead before to morrow How many have we known that have been well and lively in one houre and yet dead the next how many are there in this Land that were alive this morning and dead before noon Nay how many are there in the World that are now alive and since thou hast read these words are now alive are now dead who no doubt made reckoning as many now do that they should have lived a long time But the Scripture teacheth us to make another account by joyning together as many times it doth the day of our birth and the day of our death Eccles 3.2 without making any mention of the time of our life as if our lifetime were so short that it were not worth the naming So Solomon Eccles. 7. Eccles 7.1 Job 14.2 The day of death is better then the day of mans birth So Job Man that is borne of a Woman is of few dayes and full of trouble he comes up like a flower and is cut down Upon which words Bernard saith thus In ipso statim introitu de exitu quoque admonemur In the very beginning and entrance into life we are put in mind of the end of our life as if there were no distance between them both And hence it is that we are often in the Scripture compared to those things which are of the shortest abode and continuance So our bodies are compared to vessells of earth we have 2 Cor. 4.7 saith the Apostle this treasure in earthen Vessells He compares them not to Vessells of brasse or Iron which will last long but to earthen Vessells which are soone broken In the Potters shop there are Vessels ye know of divers sorts some lesse some greater some made for one use and some for another but all so brittle that a little force will break any of them to peeces And such is the frailty of our mortall bodies some are stronger and more durable then other but yet none so strong but that a little sickness will soone pull him down and bring him to nothing Nay earthen Vessells howsoever they be brittle yet if we let them alone if we set them up safe and keep them from falling they will continue the same for a longtime but such is our frailty that we never continue in one stay but though we look never so carefully to our selves though we avoid all occasions of coming into danger yet before it be long even age will consume us So we are compared by St. James to a vapour that appeares for a while and presently vanishes so by Job to a Weavers shuttle that makes no stay in the Webbe but passeth in a trice from one side to the other So to a Garment that is soon worne out to a tale that is soone told to a span which is soone measured and here to the grasse and flowers of the field which are soone withered The field we see hath variety of flowers but none of them all do continue long but come up and are cut down and others grow up in their roome So it is likewise with the owners of those fields they are soon gone and others succeed them There is not any field that hath had such variety of flowers in it as owners of it the same field which thou holdest hath been held by thousands before thee who held it for a while one after another and lest it to thee as thou must leave it to others after thee and thou dost not know whether thy self or the flowers which spring up in thy field shall be gone soonest for thy dayes are but as grasse and as the flowers of the field so thou flourishest If you aske why God hath made our life so short the answer is that it is his goodness and mercy towards us to shorten our dayes For though Theophrastus the Philosopher complained at the time of his death that nature had given to Harts and Ravens a long time of life but a short time to man who could better have imployed the benefit of time yet indeed it is his mercy towards us that we live not so long because he saw that a short life would be better for us in divers respects First That we might the sooner be freed from the miseries of this life Gen. 47.9 Few and evill saith Jacob have the dayes of the years of my life been If the dayes of our life be evill it is well they be few for for if they were more they would be more evill Man saith Job that is borne of a Woman Job 14.1 is of few dayes and full of trouble So full of trouble that one of the wisest among the Heathen could say Nemo vitam acciperet si dare turscientibus Seneca If life were not given us before we had knowledge of it there is no man but would refuse it Herod Tap. Therefore the Tracians as Herodotus writes were wont according to the Custome of their Country to mourne and lament when their Children were borne reckoning up the calamities which they were to undergoe through the whole course of their lives but when they died they followed them to their graves with mirth and rejoycing because they were freed from a World of miseries Our bodies are subject to labour and weariness to sickness and paine and a thousand Diseases our soules besides the grief and sorrow which they are subject unto they are continually assaulted with strong temptations and alwayes in danger of many powerfull enemies for we wrestle not saith St. Paul Ephes 6.12 against flesh and blood but against Principalities and powers and the Prince of darkness from all which we are not freed till this life be ended and therefore God in mercy hath shortned our life that we might the sooner be freed from the miseries thereof and that in the mean time we might have this comfort that though our life be miserable yet withall it is short Secondly God hath shortned our life that we may the sooner come into his presence and inherit the Kingdom he hath prepared for us Ye know when Absolon lived in exile and was kept for a time from the sight of his Father it grieved him so much that he wisht rather to die if he had deserved it 2 Sam. 13.32 then to be kept any longer from his Fathers presence God knowes how his Children while they live here in this World the place of their banishment do long to be with him saying with David Psal 42.2 Phil. 1.23 when shall I come to appear before the
pardon and forgivenesse of them FINIS The Eighteenth SERMON 1 THES 5.2 For you your selves know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night THe first coming of Christ may well put us in mind of his second coming his coming as a Lambe of his coming as a Lion his coming in humility of his coming in glory The day of his first coming ye know is past and yet so past as that we are still to call it to mind and must never forget it the day of his second coming is yet to come yet so to come as that it will come we know not how soone and we must alwayes expect it And therefore as it hath been a Custome in some Countries that when they kept a feast after other dishes a deaths head was brought in and set upon the Table before the guests to teach them while they were feasting to remember their ends So I thought it not unfit at the time of this feast which we celebrate in remembrance of Christs first coming to bring in as it were a deaths head among you by choosing such a Text as may put you in mind of his second coming at the day of judgement because that is a day which is alwayes to be expected whereof the Apostle in the words which I have read gives a double Reason First because it is certain that this day is coming For you your selves saith he know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes Secondly because it is uncertain when it will come For it so saith he comes as a thief in the night whose coming is uncertain and upon the sudden So that the points to be handled in these words are these the day it self and the coming of it and in the coming of it that it is certain that this day will come though when it wil come it is uncertain And first concerning the day it self The day of judgement is here called the day of the Lord sometimes in the Scripture the great notable day of the Lord. It is called the day of the Lord to put a difference between that day and all the dayes while we live in the world While we live in the World the dayes in the Scripture are called ours For though all dayes indeed be the Lords because he made them as the Prophet David saith Psal 74.16 The day is thine and the night is thine thou hast prepared the light and the Sunne yet in the Scripture they are said to be ours because they were made for our use Therefore God speaking of the time of mans life Gen. 6. His dayes saith he Gen. 6.3 shall be an hundred and twenty years Thus Job speaking of the prosperity of the wicked They spend saith he their dayes in welthinesse Job 21.13 Psal 90.12 Thus David speaking of the uncertainty of this life Psal 90. Teach us saith he to number our dayes Thus the dayes while we live in this world are called ours But the day of judgement is alwayes called Esay 13.7 Joel 2.1 2 Pet. 3.10 the day of the Lord. So Esay 13. Behold the day of the Lord comes So Joel The day of the Lord comes and is nigh at hand So St. Peter 2 Pet. 3. The day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night Thus still it is called the day of the Lord because though all other dayes be ours yet this day he hath wholly reserved to himself to call us to an account of all our dayes To some of us he hath given ten thousand dayes to some twenty thousand to some thirty thousand and all the dayes from the beginning of the World to the end thereof he hath divided amongst us giving more unto some and sewer to others to himself he hath reserved but one day onely and the last of all yet such a day as wherein he will call us all to an account of all things that we have done in all our dayes At this day the Drunkard shall be called to an account of all the dayes he hath spent in drunkennesse At this day the idle person shall be called to an account of all the dayes he hath spent in idlenesse At this day the voluptuos liver shall be called to an account of all the dayes he hath spent in pleasure For this is the day which the Lord hath appointed for the examination of all our dayes The dayes which he hath given us are dayes of mercy wherein he offers grace unto all and invites them to repent this day is onely a day of judgement wherein he will execute his justice on those that are impenitent Therefore it is that the time of this life is called in the Scripture Esay 49.8 Dies salutis the day of salvation as Esay 49. I have heard thee saith God in the time accepted in the day of salvation have I succoured thee Which the Apostle expounds 2 Cor. 6. 2 Cor. 6.2 of the time of this life while grace is offered Behold saith he now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation But the day of judgement is called in the Scripture dies irae the day of wrath Zeph. 1.15 Zeph. 1.15 That day saith the Prophet is a day of wrath And Revel 6. The great day of the wrath of the Lord is come And therefore God who for the time of this lise is called by the Apostle the father of mercies yet after this life when he shall judge the World Psal 49.1.2 he is called by the Prophet David a God of revenge For be that is so mercifull to all in this life that he makes the Sun to shine and the rain to fall both on the good and the bad yet after this life at the day of judgement he will rain snares on the wicked fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest this shall be their portion for ever to drink Psal 11.6 We see then the reason why it is called the day of the Lord because in that day he will call us all to an account of all our dayes that such as in their days have done their own will might therefore in his day suffor his will because they would not imbrace his mercy while he offered them grace in stead of mercy they might feel his justice His power had a day when he created the World all things therein and by speaking the word made them all of nothing His mercy had a day when he redeemed the world by giving his only Son to suffer death for man that had so highly offended him And his justice shall likewise have a day when he shall judge the World at which day he will appear so terrible to the wicked Revel 6.16 that when they see him they shall cry to the mountains to fall upon them and to the rocks to hide them from the presence of him that sits upon the Throne from the wrath of the Lamb. But all in vaine because as they in
that we dedicate it wholly to Gods service But I will passe this over and come to the fourth difficultie difficulty fourth The fourth difficultie in this Commandement is in regard of the place where he must sacrifice his Sonne namely in the land of Moriah upon one of the mountaines which God would shew him Morti destinatum citò occidere misericordia genus est It is a kinde of mercie if a man be condemned to die to dispatch him quickly and the reason is because the punishment is much augmented through the expectation of it the expectation of any evil being as ill or worse then the evil it selfe But God here the more as it may seeme to torment Abraham Commands him not onely to Sacrifice his Son but injoynes him a long and tedious journey before he must do it God might have appointed him First to go with his Son into the Land of Moriah and being come thither then he might have told him the cause of his coming But first he commands him to sacrifice his Son and then sends him to the place where he must perform the same and what is the Reason but onely this as Origen saith ut dum ambulat dum iter agit per totam viam cogitationibus discerpatur that all the while he is travelling with his Son he might ruminate upon that which he went about and be confounded in a manner with the remembrance of it Now concerning this place where Abraham was appointed to sacrifice his Sonne some of the Jewes report that Cain and Abel had offered their offrings upon the same Mountain St. Jerome writes that he had heard it for certain of some ancient Jewes that Isaac was offered in the very same place where afterwards our Saviour Christ was crucified St. Augustine addes that he had heard it reported that Christ was crucified in the very same place where Adam had been buried and therefore that it was called Calvaria locus the place of a dead mans skull quia caput humani generis ibi dicitur esse sepultum because the head of mankind lieth there buried The Saracens who will needes borrow their name from Sarah though they came of Hagar to make it more profitable that they sprang from Isaac they faine that the land of Moriah is a part of their Country and therefore when any stranger comes to their City of Mecha to see Mahomets Sepulcher hard by the City they do shew him the Mountain where on Abraham as they say did sacrifice his Sonne But the truth is that the Land of Moriah where Isaac was to be offered was the same which was afterward called Jerusalem as we may plainly gather out of the second of the Chronicles 2 Chron. 3. the third Chapter for there it is said in the first verse that Salomon built the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem in Mount Moriah So that the place where Isaac was to be offered was either the same or very near to the place where our Saviour was afterwards to be crucified And indeed it was not unfit that Isaac should be offred where our Saviour was to suffer because Isaac was a type and figure of our Saviour So saith St. Augustine Abraham quando filium suum obtulit typum habuit Dei Patris Isaac typum gessit Domini Salvatoris Abraham when he offered his Sonne represented God the Father Isaac when he was offered represented our Saviour the Son of God For many things which wore shadowed forth in Isaac were afterwards verefied in our Saviour Christ As the promises of God unto Abraham concerning his Son were often renewed and his birth foretold so were the promises and the birth of the Messias As Isaacs was named before he was borne so was also Christ As Isaacs Birth was strange and miraculous in regard that he was borne of Sarah that was barren so was also Christs being borne of a virgin As Isaac was Abrahams onely Son whom he so dearly loved so Christ was the onely begotten Son of God in whom alone he was wel pleased As Isaac was causeless to be put to death so was Christ being innocent As Isaac bore the wood wherewith he was to be sacrificed so Christ bore the Tree whereon he was to be crucified In a word as Isaac by yielding himself to be offred did testifie his obedience unto his Fathe and his Father his wonderful love unto God so Christ by submitting himself to the death declared his wonderfull obedience unto God and God his unspeakable love towards us And indeed beloved this is the most excellent use that can possibly be made of this whole History when we hear how Abraham did offer his Son we stand amazed at it we wonder how it was possible for a Father to do it And may we not much more admire the infinite love of God unto us in giving his onely begotten Son to be crucified for us When we hear how Isaac yielded himself to be bound and offered we cannot but wonder at his strange obedience and may we not much more wonder at the infinite obedience of our blessed Saviour who being equall with God yet humbled himself and became obedient â—ven to the death of the Crosse Abraham when he offered his Sonne unto God he did but restore unto God that which God had given him he might wel the rather be moved thereunto because God had been alwaies so gracious to him But when God gave his Son to be offered for us we were so far from having deserved any thing at his hands that we were his open and profest enemies Isaac when he yielded himself to be offered yet he yielded himself into his Fathers hands who was to present him for a sweet savour unto the Lord and so to put him to a kind of death which of all other might seene the most glorious But Christ when he yielded himself to be offered he yielded himself into the hands of his persecutors who he knew would not onely put him to the most ignominious death but for his further vexation even deride him in his torments When Abraham was to sacrifice his onely Sonne God was so moved with compassion and pitty that instead of his Sonne he provided a Ramme Indeed it was fitter that a Ram should dye if the death of a Ramme might ransome a Sonne But when Christ was to be offered the case was altered the Ramme was spared and the Sonne was sacrificed Nay the Sonne was therefore sacrificed that the Ram might be spared Read over all the Histories of Heathen Authours examine their writings search out all their antiquities and see if there were ever the like example of love For a man to die for his friend it is no small matter and but few have done it but if one should offer to dye for a stranger we would wonder at it O but for a man to dye for his enemy nay the Sonne of God to come down from Heaven even from his Fathers bosome to dye a most accursed death
for his enemy this is that love of God which passeth all understanding and can never be sufficiently exprest either by men or Angels And yet that we may in some measure conceive a little better of this infinite Love of God suppose with thy self that thou being a poor and a silly creature shouldst live under the Dominion of some mighty Emperour who had made this Law That whosoever should be found guilty of high Treason should be put to the most exquisite torments that could be imagined and that thou afterwards having received many favours from him shouldst give eare notwithstanding to some of his Nobility and willingly joyne with them in Treason against him And being both convicted of the same he should execute the utmost of his fury upon his Nobility but cast with himself how he might save thee And finding no other meanes for thy deliverance he should give his onely beloved son the sole Heir of his Kingdom to suffer the must shamefull and accursed death of all other for thy ransome who willingly taking the same upon him should never speak so much as one word in the behalf of his Nobility but onely plead and sue for thee that thou by his death mightst not onely be forgiven but likewise mightest be made Heir of his Fathers Kingdom What now wouldst thou think of his love unto thee How wouldst thou wonder at it How would thy soule be ravisht when thou thoughtest upon it Beloved such and farr greater is the love of God unto thee if thou canst apply it The Angels that were farre more glorious creatures made to attend upon God and to be in his presence yet God spared not them when they had but once and that onely in thought rebelled against him but as for thee though thou hadst often rebelled against him yet God hath given his onely begotten Sonne to dye in thy roome that thou mightest inherit the Kingdom of Heaven And this was that reall sacrifice which was here prefigured by Abrahams offâ—ing his onely Sonne And therefore when Abraham was come to the place appointed and had already stretcht forth his hand to have sacrificed his sonne God presently forbad him because onely the death of our blessed Saviour and not Isaacs death was a price sufficient for our redemption But â—et we are to remember that Abraham knew not but that his Sonne should die and therefore no doubt all the while that he was travelling to the Mountaine he was distracted between faith and affection between his love unto God and his love to his Sonne the one still pulling him backward and telling him what an unnaturall act he went about the other putting him forward because it was God that had commanded him to do it Doct. 4 Now whereas God here commands Abraham to go and sacrifice his Sonne in the land of Moriah which was as I told you distant from him three dayes journey We may learne from hence That while we are to performe any service to God no journey ought to seem tedious unto us For he that coÌ„mands Abraham to go so farre to sacrifice his Son he requires of us that we refuse no labour while we are about to perform that which God commands us But I will likewise passe this over and proceed to the last difficulty dif ∣ ficulty fifth The last difficulty in this commandement is in regard of the time when he must sacrifice his Sonne Take now thine onely Son namely now when he was old and his wife past Bearing and therefore hopelesse of having any other children now he must sacrifice his onely Sonne We read in Herodotus Herod Thalia that when Intaphernes one of the privy Councell of King Darius had offended the King the King commanded that both he and his whole family should be put to death but being moved with the complaints of his wife he both spared her and withall gave her the choice which of them all she would choose to deliver She having a while deliberated upon it resolved in the end to make choise for her brother and the King demanding why she sued not rather for her husband or children she made this answer that though her husband or children should dye yet she being young might marry again and so might have more but if her brother were put to death now that her parents were dead she was sure she should never have any other brother If God had given Abraham a child while himself and Sarah his wife had been young had then commanded him to have put him to death yet his losse had been the lesse in that he might have hoped to have had more children but they both being old when he was to sacrifice Isaac they could not hope for any other after him Fathers saith Philo when they come to be old of all their children they make most of their youngest Philo lib. de Abraham and he giveth this reason because being old they expect no more now nature being spent and decayed in them But Abraham as I told you before Joseph lib. 1. Antigen was a hundred yeare old and Sarah was ninety before Isaac was borne Isaac was now as JOSEPHUS writes five and twenty yeare old when he was to be offered and therefore they being struck so far in years might well imagine that as Isaac was their first so he was like to be their last that they should have between them So that Abrahams grief must needs be the greater in regard of the time when he was commanded to sacrifice his Sonne But to come more directly to the time it is said in the former verse that after these things God did prove Abraham and said unto him Take now thine onely Sonne namely after that God as we see in the former chapter had had notable experience of Abrahams obedience by calling out Jshmael his first begotten now he layes a new task upon him far more grievous then the former was Now saith he Take thine onely Son as though he should have said I have made heretofore some tryall of thine obedience in smaller matters I commanded thee to leave thy native Country and thou hast left it I bad thee to cast Jshmael out of dores with his mother and thou hast done it deest adbuc vnum yet there is one thing wanting now that thou hast done all this now thou must sacrifice thine onely Sonne We see then how many tryalls God layeth upon Abraham and how many difficulties are couched together in this one tryall to be deprived of his onely Sonne whom he so dearly loved himself to become his Sons executioner to put him to so violent and horrible a death to undertake so long a journey to perform the same and then to do it when himself wâ—â— so old and his wife past bearing The least of these tryalls was very hard to be overcome yet Abraham like a Gyant that rejoyceth to run his course rose up early in the morning went about it and having a
they that suffer persecution for righteousnesse sake it is not their suffering but their suffering for righteousnesse that makes them blessed Therefore the Apostles did not simply rejoyce in their sufferings Acts 5.41 but that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christs sake This was that which made Saint Paul so willing to suffer that being fore-told by Agabus Acts 21. That at Jerusalem he should be in bonds and be delivered into the hands of the Gentiles and being therefore intreated by the brethren that Acts 21.13 he would not go to Jerusalem What mean ye saith he to weep and to break my heart for I am ready not onely to be bound but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus And this was that which here imboldened Steven because it was for the Testimony of Christ that he suffered Martyrdome And so leaving the first point the person that was martyr'd I come to the second the kind of his Martyrdome and that was stoning They stoned Steven Our Saviour ye know fore-told his Disciples of the great persecution which they were to suffer Luke 9.23 Mat. 10.22 Mat. 10.16 Mat. 10.17 Mat. 23.34 That if any man would be his Disciple he must take up his Crosse every day and follow him that they should be hated of all men for his names sake that he sent them as sheep among wolves that they would be brought before the Councels and be scourged in their Synagogues that some of them should be slaine some stoned and some crucified All which not long after began to be accomplished To begin with the Apostles whom Christ vouchsafes the name of his friends John 15.15 John 15.7 Revel 1.9 John 21.17 Saint John the Disciple that Christ loved was condemned to banishment by the Emperor Domitian was banished into the Isle of Pathmos where he wrote the Book of the Revelation Saint Peter the Disciple that loved Christ was condemned by Nero to be crucified and was hanged on the Crosse as Saint Jerome writes with his head down-wards affirming himselfe unworthy to be crucified in the same manner that his Lord was Saint Andrew Peters brother was likewise crucified imbracing the Crosse saith Bernard and saying Per te me recipiat qui per te me redemit Let him receive me by thee who by thee redeemed me and hanging on the Crosse three dayes before he died converted many in the mean time to Christ Saint James the elder the Son of Zebedec and Saint Johns brother was killed with the sword and the person as Clemens Alexandrinus writes that had accused him when he saw him condemned was so moved therewith that he profest himself to be a Christian and having asked forgivenesse of Saint James was beheaded with him Saint James the younger the son of Alpheus and Bishop of Jerusalem because he would not deny Christ to be the Son of God was thrown down headlong from the battlements of the Temple and being still alive though both his thighes were broke his braines were dashed out as Egesippus writes with a Fullers club Saint Thomas who would not believe that Christ was risen from the dead except he might put his hand into the wound which the launce had made was afterwards in India as some Authours report thrust through with a launce because he would not worship the image of the Sun which was worshipt by them Saint Paul was beheaded in Rome by Nero on the same day as some do write that Peter was crucified and so that may not unfitly be applied to them which David said of Saul and Ionathan They were lovely in their lives and in their deaths they were not devided 2 Sam. 1.23 I might further instance in the rest of the Apostles and in the bloudy persecutions which afterwards followed wherein there was made such havock of the Church that if Ievemie or David had lived in those dayes there had been matter for the one to have made new Lamentations and for the other to sit weeping by the walls of Babylon when he remembred Sion Thus in these was verefied what our Saviour fore-told concerning the persecution which they were to suffer and the first of them all which brake as it were the ice and led the way to the rest was Steven here who was stoned to death A kind of death which was appointed by God for idolaters blasphemers and malefactors that others seeing what punishment they suffered might be kept from committing the like sins for fear of undergoing the like punishment So we see Deut. 13. That the idolater that inticed the people to serve other gods Deut. 13.10.11 was by Gods commandement to be stoned to deat that all Israel might hear and fear and the like might not be done any more in Israel So he that blasphemed the Name of the Lord Levit. 24.23 Levit. 24. was stoned to death by the whole Congregation as God commanded I might instance in others So that stoning was a punishment appointed by God for wicked persons yet Steven that was a holy man was here stoned Here then we may observe from the kind of his Martyrdome which was stoning That we are not to judge of a man by the kind of his death because sometimes the godly die the same kind of death that the wicked do 1. King 16. Ahab ye know was a most wicked King that served Baul and polluted the worships and service of God so that it is said of him that he did more to provoke the Lord to anger then all the Kings of Israel that were before him Josiah on the contrary was a most religious King that brought Iudah and Ierusalem from their idolatry and restored Gods service so that it is said of him That like unto him there was no King before him 2. King 23. that turned to the Lord with all his heart neither after him arose there any like him Yet these two brethren that were so unlike in their lives were alike in their deaths both were slain in the warres by the hands of their enemies The like may be said of Ionathan and Saul a good Son of a bad Father yet both of them slain in the field together So seditious Sheba that conspired against David died the same kind of death that Iohn the Baptist did for they were both beheaded and Steven here dyed the same kind of death that Achan did for they were both stoned Doct. In a vvord There is hardly any death that can be names but some of the godly have been put thereunto as well as the wicked And therefore vve are not to judge of any by the kind of his death that he died vvell or ill because that kind of death vvhich befalls one may befall an other We commonly judge the vvorse of a man if his death be sudden and count sudden death a fearfull thing as indeed it is especially if it be a violent death vvithall It vvas a fearfull kind a death which Charles