the market-place when hee should be working in the Vineyard Would you be feasting when God would have you mourning you shall see some that have beene taken away when they little thought of it Belshazzer he was in his feasts and then commeth the sentence of death against him and other the like examples you may see in the Scripture Consider therefore the particular actions that you doe whether they bee such as hold agreement with the state of a dying man So for the manner of doing holy duties Would you be found praying perfunctorily and carelesly Would you be found comming to the Sacrament unprepared What though you doe holy actions that are good for the matter would you be found doing of them with unfit and unprepared hearts You see what the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 11. For this cause many are sicke and weake and many sleepe they slept they were dead for this even because they came unworthily to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Would you therefore bee found doing of holy duties and not in a right manner The serious consideration of this that Death is the end of all men with the particular application of it to a mans selfe that as it is the state of all men so it is mine in particular I must die and I may die now it hath an influence into all the actions of a mans life To conclude In the last place This point is of use to us also in the death of others First to moderate the mourning of Christians for the death of others Why It is the end of all men it is that that is the common condition of all men it should not be too grievous nor too dolefull to any man Wee would not have our friends to bee in another condition in their birth then others wee would not have them have more fingers or more members then a man and would wee have them have more dayes Let this serve as a briefe touch upon that Secondly it teacheth us to make good use of our fellowship while we are together Not only we may die but those that are usefull to us may die also let us make good use of one another while we live therefore This will make the death of others bitter and will be worse then the death and losse of our friends the guilt upon a mans conscience that hee hath not made that use of them while they were alive that he might have done let us therefore make the death of our friends easie by making good use of them while they live It did smite the heart of those Ephesians that they should see the face of Paul no more specially above the rest it grieved them that they should see him no more how would it have grieved them thinke you if they had alwayes hardned themselves against his ministrie before Thinke with your selves seriously here is such a Minister such a Christian friend that husband and wife that parent and child a time of parting will come let us make it easie now by making good use of one another while we live that when friends are tooke away we may have cause to thanke God that we have had communion and comfort of their fellowship and societie the benefit of their graces the fruit of their lives and not sorrow for the want of them by death So much for that I come now to the second and principall reason why it is better to goe to the house of mourning then to the house of feasting it is this because the living shall lay it to his heart What shall hee lay to his heart That that is the end of all men hee shall lay the death of men to heart The point I observe from hence is thus much It is the dutie of those that live to lay to heart the death of others That is seriously to consider and make use for themselves of the death of others You see the Text is cleare for the point And there is good reason why it should be so First in respect of the glory that commeth to God Secondly in respect of the good that commeth to our selves by it First God is glorified by this when wee lay to heart the death of others there is a dishonour done to God when wee slight the death of others good or bad It is a dishonour to God to slight any of his actions this is one of Gods workes in the world the death of men this is a thing wherein Gods hand is seene he saith to the sonnes of Adam Returne The spirit returneth to God that gave it It is hee that hath the power of life and death If a sparrow fall not to the ground without the providence of God much lesse the servants of God the precious ones upon the earth the excellent ones as David calleth them I say God is seene much in these workes and it is a great dishonour to God when men doe not consider the workes of his hands David by the spirit of Prophesie in Psal. 28. 5. wisheth a curse upon ungodly men and for this reason among the rest because they consider not the operation of his hands this is that that puts men into a curst estate and exposeth them to the wrath of God when they regard not the workes of the Lord. The actions of Princes and great men upon earth every man considereth of them and weigheth them It is that wherein wee give God the glory of his wisedome and of his truth of his power of his justice of his mercy of his soveraigntie and dominion and Lordship over the whole earth when wee labour to draw to a particular use to ourselves the workes of God in the world specially the death of men of all men good and bad for we must give it the same latitude and extent and scope that the Text doth here he speakes here of the death of men in generall and he saith of all men that their death shall bee laid to heart by the living Secondly as there is reason that we should take to heart the death of others in respect of the glory that commeth to God thereby so in respect of ourselves also much benefit commeth to ourselves by laying to heart the death of other men There be three speciall things considerable in the death of any one that is matter of profit and benefit to those that live and survive after them Therein we see the certainty nature cause and end of Death First therein we see the certainty of death For now we have not only the word of God that tels us that we shall die but the workes of God taking others before us that as the Sacraments are called Visible instructions because they teach by the eye and the outward senses so the death of others are visible instructions to the living it teacheth by the eye a man is guided by the eye to see his owne condition and as it were in a glasse there
is represented to him his owne state what we are they were once the time was that they converst with men as we doe that they spake for Gods glory upon earth as we doe and what they are now we shall be there will come a time when our workes shall cease as theirs doe when we shall be in the place of silence as they are I say it confirmeth to us the former certaintie and assurance of our death when we see others fall before us And there is great profit and benefit that ariseth out of this This is necessary to awaken mens drowsinesse and to quicken up mens dulnesse to a serious consideration of that that is so usefull to themselves A man would wonder that in the Wildernesse where so many thousands died for the hand of God was out against them for their murmuring and rebellion and they were destroyed by the destroyer as the Apostle speakes 2 Cor. 10. that there Moses should pray Lord teach us to number our dayes that wee may apply our hearts to wisedome though they had a sight of so many dying before them and that continually yet they needed to bee stirred up to pray that God would teach them to make use of it So it is with us Wee have seene not only one or two die before us but there was a time not long since and you cannot forget it wherein the destroying Angel did walke at libertie about the Citie and kill thousands in our streets yet when so many died what securitie was there even among those that lived insomuch that after a while the sicknesse grew common and usuall and so unregarded Have we not need then as much as ever Moses had in the Wildernesse to crie to God to teach us to number our dayes that wee may apply our hearts to wisedome Nay much more now when there is scarce one or none in comparison of those multitudes that were swept away in that visitation we have need of such helpes as these are and to joyne our prayers with them too that we may be stirred up to a serious application of it to our selves That 's the first thing it is necessary for living men to take to heart the death of those that are departed that they may see and be brought seriously to thinke of the certainty of their owne death Secondly therein also wee see the nature of death what the proper worke of it in the world is It is of singular use too The nature of death the proper worke of it is to disunite to separate to dis-joyne things here you have the soule separated from the body the estate separated from the man the man separated from his friends and all by Death First I say yee have the body separated from the soule and this is a usefull consideration The soule and the body while they keepe together in a man they may be helpfull and usefull one to another the time will come when they must be separated Alas the not considering of this is the cause of those great errours that are in the lives of men that they bestow so much time upon their bodies that they so much minde the present things of this life and their outward welfare as if they had no soules at all to regard as if there never should bee a separation of body and soule one from another What is the reason that there is all that care tooke for food for the body for apparell for the body for health for the body and such an utter neglect of the soule but because that men doe not dreame doe not thinke of a time of separation of a time of dis-junction of a time of parting these two All the worke of a mans life should now be to make a good use of the faculties of his soule that the body may be happy by it the soule will draw the body after it to its owne estate Now they are together if they joyne now in sinne after their separation there shall come a time when they shall be joyned in punishment if they joyne now in the service of God after they have beene separated a while by death there will come a time when they shall be againe joyned in glory and happinesse That is the first There will bee a separation of soule and body therefore make good use of them while they are together let the body be serviceable to the soule by all its senses and members let the soule rule and order the body by its understanding and affections c. that both body and soule may bee made blessed in an eternall conjunction together after death and in an everlasting union in the sight of God Secondly Death makes a separation betweene a man and all his outward estate in the world The rich man in Saint Luke 12. thought not upon this Soule thou hast much goods layed up for many yeares hee thought his soule and his goods should never have parted therefore take now thine ease saith he See what the end of it was Thou foole saith the Lord this night they shall fetch away thy soule and then whose shall these things bee The time is comming that these things shall bee none of thine they shall bee another mans they shall be some bodies else they shall be taken from thee How necessary is this consideration to take off mens affections from the world and to stirre them up to use their wealth and their estates while they have them so as may make for the glory of God A time shall come that they shall not have it to use that nothing shall be left them but a bare account to be given up Give an account of thy stewardship Luke 16. The maine businesse is now to be done while a man and his wealth are together while a man and his estate continueth together to use it to Gods glory otherwise it will be a woefull and heavy parting when death shall come to make a separation The young man went away sorrowfull when Christ would have his wealth from him because he had great possessions How sorrowfull will a man goe out of the world when he hath a great deale of wealth but he hath not prepared his account he cannot give up a reckoning of his getting of it of his using and imploying of it It is necessary therefore I say that men take to heart the death of those that die before them that when they see the bodies and soules of men parted men and their estates parted they may learne how to use their bodies and soules themselves and their estates while they are yet joyned together Thirdly Death doth not only part a mans body and soule a mans selfe and his wealth but it parteth a man from his friends from all his worldly acquaintance from all those that he tooke delight in upon earth Deathmakes a separation betweene husband and wife see it in Abraham and Sarah though Abraham loved Sarah dearely yet Death parted them
and after both soule and body and presents them before his owne Tribunall and there searcheth into every mans life ransacks his conscience lookes deepe into his conversation and inquireth into his secrets openeth his actions and whole carriage from his infancie to his last breath and findeth out the things that hee hath done and passeth sentence according to that he hath done This Judgement hath two degrees First assoone as a man dieth No sooner is the soule separated from this case as it were the bodie but instantly it is presented before the Lord Jesus Christ and there he passeth sentence either that it is a true beleever a godly liver a person united to Christ that walked as becommeth the Gospell of Christ and then it receiveth glory and joy and blisse for the present more then tongue expresse Or else it findeth against him that he was a sinfull man a wicked man a hypocrite a dissembler one that named Christ with his tongue but did not depart from iniquitie nor live according to the Gospell of Christ and then he is delivered up to Sathan to bee hurried downe to Hell and there to suffer the wrath of God according to the desert of so great wickednesse This particular judgement passeth upon every soule assoone as it leaveth the Body Then followeth the great universall Judgement when soule and body shall be reunited and stand before God every particular man that ever hath beene is or shall be every man shall appeare in their owne persons their whole lives shall be laied open all secret things shall bee made knowne for God saith the Apostle shall judge the secrets of all hearts by Iesus Christ according to my Gospell This is the third thing that the word of God informeth us concerning death that nature could never doe The last that is the best the Scripture giveth us a remedie against the ill of Death It is a pittifull thing to heare of mortallity and sicknesse if there were not a good Potion or Phisicke prescribed to escape the ill of it To heare tell of Death and so tell as the Scripture saith that it is a going to another world of weale or woe and not to heare of a remedie it is wofull tydings and would wring teares from a hard heart But the Scripture makes report of death not onely tollerable and easie but comfortable and gladsome to a Christian heart for it sheweth by whom and by what meanes we may infallibly and certainly escape all the hurt that Death can doe Nay by what meanes we may order our selves so that Death may be beneficiall to us What is that In one short word It is Christ I am the resurrection and the life hee that beleeveth in mee shall never see death Hee meaneth to hurt himselfe Againe This is the message that God hath given us life and this life is in his Sonne And Hee that hath the Sonne hath life Our Saviour Jesus Christ came into the world as the Apostle telleth us that hee might destroy him that had the power of death and so set them at libertie that all their life-time were in bondage under the feare of death And Saint Iohn saith Hee came into the world to destroy the workes of the divell which are sinne and death So that now Death hath lost his sting because Christ overcame it in dying hee slue Death and was the death of Death this man Christ God and Man hee offered himselfe to his Father as a Sacrifice for the sinnes of the world and dying a cursed death upon the Crosse so satisfied the justice of God on the behalfe of all those that are in him that death can doe them no harme It is nothing else but a passage to eternall blessednesse Oh blessed be the name of God that hath beene pleased to provide so perfect a remedie against so mortall an enemie and to lay it open so clearely and plainly in the Gospell Yee have heard of those things that I thought to put yee in mind of concerning Death and so I have done with the first point The second is That Death is an enemie Therefore the Apostle Paul telleth us of a certaine sting it hath Oh Death where is thy sting It is an armed enemie it commeth as a Serpent with a sting that entreth into a mans soule putteth it to extreame perplexitie if he takes not order to disarme this enemie An enemie yee know is a person that setteth himselfe wilfully to hurt a man may hurt his neighbour either through indiscretion or unadvisednesse against his will or hee may lay waite to doe him hurt intending mischiefe and seeking to performe somewhat that shall bee injurious to him Wee call not him an enemie that we receive a little hurt from against his will contrary to his purpose and intention but he that studieth and beforehand desireth to be an enemie Now Death as we may say studieth our hurt in all extremitie before-hand There is but two sorts of hurt that can come to a man One is to deprive him of that which is beneficiall and comfortable to robbe him of all that is contentfull to him in this life As when a company of Foes breake into a Nation they burne their goods and spoile their houses and robbe and take away all that is comfortable to them so much as they can Death is such an enemie It desireth to bereave a man of that necessarie contentment hee hath When it meeteth with a learned man it takes away all his learning at one blow assoone as he is dead hee ceaseth to bee a great scholler It commeth to a rich man and robbes him of all his goods at one blow too though he have millions Death causeth all to be another mans When it commeth to a King it pulleth him beside his Throne takes his Crowne off his head and casteth both him and it into the dust hee is king no longer when hee is dead And so in all the benefits of this life it takes away the pleasure and contentments of a man it takes away the husband from the wife and the wife from the husband it divideth children from Parents and Parents from children all the benefits that this life afford death strippeth a man of them all and turnes him naked out of the world just as hee came hee must goe and carry nothing in his hand Death will not admit him to take one farthing or any thing else with him So he is an enemie for hee spoileth us of whatsoever is desirable in this life But he is an enemie also in inflicting a great deale of ill upon men So death bringeth torment for the present It is a terrible thing to wrestle with it makes a man bleed and sweat as it were No man can incounter with death but he feeleth anxietie and vexation of body and minde unlesse hee have comfort from above to enable him to wrestle with it but in his owne proper nature it is so furious
stand together they die and not die because their death is but a translation but a removing There are two persons two men in every penitent and godly man there is somewhat of a righteous man and somewhat of a sinner somewhat of the flesh and somewhat of the spirit so according to these two both lawes are kept the Law of commination that is kept thou shalt die the death there is the reward of sinne the law of promise that is kept thou shalt live for ever there is the reward of righteousnesse Mortalitie giveth the reward to sinne immortalitie to pietie Though they die they are but taken away The word implies these two things First it implies that their death is but a temporarie death Taking away is not a finall translation it doth not implie a nullitie Death though it cut the knot of nature yet not of grace It is true there is the sharpe Axe of Death there is no knot so Gordian but it will cut it asunder It is a great knot that was first knit betweene the body and the soule it cutteth that asunder It is a sure knot which is the Conjugal knot between man and wife it cutteth that asunder There is a naturall bond and union betweene Parents and children it cuts that asunder There is a civill union betweene friend and friend it cuts that knot asunder it takes one friend from another But there is the misticall union betweene the head and the members betweene Christ and the Church it cannot cut that knot asunder But looke as Christs body in the Grave it was not deprived of the Hypostaticall union so likewise the body of a Saint when it lies in the grave in corruption it is mellowing for immortalitie and eternitie yea then it enjoyeth the benefit of the misticall Union there is somewhat of a member of Christ that lies in the grave that dust that the body of a Saint is resolved into it is holy Dust because that misticall Union is not cut asunder Death cutteth not that knot It perfecteth the misticall Union in respect of the soule and it is but an interruption of the manifestation of the union in respect of the body it is never severed As the Husbandman hath some corne in his ground and some in his Barne the Corne in his ground is of no lesse value and account then that in his house and Barne Nay it is of more for that that is in his Barne shall not multiply so many bushels he putteth up and so many hee receiveth but that which is in the ground multiples therefore it is in as great account So it is with God There are many bodies of the Saints walking on the earth and those that are laid in the grave that are sowen as the Apostle saith for immortalitie The bodies of the Saints in the grave are of no lesse account with God then those which walke up and downe in the world and glorifie him with workes of pietie why the body is sowne to immortalitie there is still somewhat of Christ. That is the first thing it implies They are taken away it argues that their death is temporary Secondly it sheweth it is deliberate that their death is not sudden For there is a difference betweene these two to be snatched away and to be taken away Impenitent men when they are taken away in judgement they are snatched away in displeasure The godly man God takes him away removes him it is as gentle a word as could be used there cannot be a better word to expresse it in our translation then for God to take him away Iob and Moses expressed it so and so Isaiah here to shew that Death is never sudden to the mercifull and righteous man why because he is alwaies prepared It may bee sudden in respect of others but not to himselfe The stroke of Death may be the same to a righteous man as to an impenitent man they may both fall by the prevalencie of the same disease the same duration of sicknesse the same warning given them the same sympathy but there is a difference in regard of the suddennesse If it be a sudden stroke that overtakes an impenitent man then it is two wayes sudden even a premeditated death is sudden to him because he is not prepared sudden death commeth not to a prepared man because he lookes for it it may as I said be sudden to others but it is not to himselfe why because he expects Death he dieth daily hee dieth in his thoughts before hee dies in act he dies in meditation before he dies in passion I die daily saith the Apostle Death when it came to the Apostle it found him dying it could not come suddenly to him Death findes him setting open the dores therefore though it seeme sudden death it cannot be sudden because he is taken away the stroke of Death may be sudden but the issue of death is not sudden the stroke may be sudden to his body but not to his mind because he fitteth himselfe still for it There is the deliberation implied in the word his death is not sudden in that he is prepared God awaketh his heart to make him looke for it therefore when Death commeth though sooner or later it doth but take him it snatcheth him not away that is the meaning of the second The third word is the extent of this act from the evill to come that is a word that is not specified in the former part it makes both this and that the more full it makes a greater demonstration of Gods goodnesse hee is not only mercifull in taking away but he takes away from that that is evill hee takes from a bad estate to a better An evill that is present that is simply so an Evill for the time to come God takes righteous and mercifull men from both That I may lay a fit path for my proceeding in it Saint Austin devideth the nature of Evill well to those two heads there is the Evill of doing and the evill of suffering that is the evill of sinne and of punishment The first of these the Evill of sinne is opposite saith Aquinas to the increated good The second the Evill of punishment is opposite to the created good God takes away mercifull men from both these First from the Evill of suffering Two wayes he is tooke from that Hee is tooke away from the Evill of suffering that hee shall not see it and that he shall not undergoe it and endure it First that he shall not see it that he shall not bee a spectatour that is one part of taking away For righteous and mercifull men have tender affections and yearning bowels when they see Gods judgements extended over any place or person they sympathize with them they weepe with those that weepe and mourne with those that mourne God takes them from this sorrow and mourning It hath alwayes beene accounted one part of the happinesse of a godly man to be taken from
him and lie in his Bosome And that man cannot for his life when hee seeth the sweetnesse of the grace of God in Christ but resolve to obey him and determine to walke in the wayes of holinesse and take paines and use industrie for the overcomming of all sinne and by the vertue of Christ he shall prosper in this I beseech you therefore set your selves aworke about this great businesse to get Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it is much more needfull then sleepe then meat then attyre there is nothing in the world so requisite for thy welfare as these things Scrape thou riches together in the same quantitie that Solomon did and ten thousand times more yet thou shalt see Death once within a hundred or halfe a hundred yeares Get wisedome yet thou shalt see Death after a few yeares Take pleasure with as much greedinesse as he did once when he forgate himselfe for a space yet thou shalt see death These things that the foolish world hunts after with so much earnestnesse of desire will not secure thee from the sight of the King of feares Death as Iob calleth it But if thou once get Faith and Repentance and new obedience then thou hast obtained that that all the riches and honour and pleasures and learning or whatsoever seemeth desireable in the world will not helpe their possessors to What will you doe brethren Grovell still on the earth and still be mad after backe and belly Or will you now begin to thinke I must die I must shake hands with that dismall enemie pale-faced Death that is able to strike terrour into the strongest heart and amazement into the stoutest soule that is not well confirmed and if this Death find mee destitute of true Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it will seize upon me and dragge me before the Judgement seat of God where I shall bee Henced away with a malediction and curse and be forced to take my place with the Divell and his Angels in unquenchable flames Oh what shall I doe then to secure my selfe from the great from the strong arme of death I will repent now I will begin Lord draw mee helpe me that I may doe it I will beleeve now Lord doe thou worke Faith that requirest it I will obey Lord inable me to performe such needfull duties as thou commandest me Shall this be your practice when you come home Will you thus studie to practise Repentance and Faith and Obedience and studie to cry and call for it and use all your indeavour Or what will you doe will you be as idle and carelesse as negligent and slothfull in making after these graces as before Will you be as greedy of the transitorie vanities of this life as in former times Oh abuse not the word of God If thou goe out of the Church without a full purpose to apply thy selfe from hence forward either to begin or to proceed in the practise of the saying of Christ Cursed bee thou in thy hearing cursed be that houre that thou hast spent and cursed be thy misbestowed labour thou dissembling hypocrite But if thou labour to practise this of Christ namely to keepe his sayings the Doctrine of the Gospell to repent to beleeve and to obey blessed art thou in thy hearing and in thy doing and in thy obedience happy is the time and the place and all things that concurre together to draw thee to so needfull a worke I pray Brethren set not your labour upon gold and silver and money and trash not upon the pleasures and delights and contentments of the world not on any other thing but mainly and principally above all things let your chiefe care bee for Faith and Repentance and Obedience If you strive for these things earnestly and heartily and constantly as sure as the Lord is in heaven hee will bestow them upon you and with them the benefit of benefits Freedome from Death And now I shall speake comfort to those few that are in the world that keepe these sayings of Christ. Let them bee of good comfort if their capitall enemie the King of feares and the King of Afflictions be held from a possibility of doing them harme nothing can harmethem Hee that Death cannot hurt paine cannot hurt povertie and disgrace cannot hurt nothing can hurt him You know if the King of an Armie be reconciled to a place hee will keepe his Souldiers from spoyling and burning and destroying that place If Death be put out of power to doe thee hurt and God bee reconciled in Christ because thou keepest the saying of Christ nothing can hurt thee thou art the happiest man under the Sunne Why should the poore sad afflicted grieved mourning lamenting Saints of God envie them that are rich and jolly and merry worldlings any of their pleasures and profits any of those things wherewith they like Idiots make themselves laugh at What hath not God given thee better things then hee that thou shouldest murmure and whine and weepe for want of them art thou still complaining for want of them Remember what Saint Iames saith Let the brother of low degree that is abased and despised in the world rejoyce yea rejoyce with great boasting and glory in his Exaltation This is the exaltation of the Saints Christ writing his sayings in their hearts and inclining them through the operation of his Spirit and the powerful worke of his Word to repent and beleeve hath freed them from the danger of Death and interessed them into eternall happinesse and that blisse that no tongue can expresse nor no heart conceive This is thy happinesse it is not to be rich or to be great for these cannot deliver the owner from the hurt of Death naturall nor from the danger of Death eternall But to have Faith and Repentance and Obedience this is riches and exaltation for he that hath them shall not alone escape the Dungeon of eternall darknesse but bee advanced to the Palace of everlasting felicitie The Saint is the happy man the penitent beleever and true practiser of Christian obedience he is the sole and only happy man under the Sunne for whatsoever storme hee suffereth in this present world hee shall certainly escape Death and obtaine Glory Blesse God and blesse thy selfe in God magnifie him rejoyce in him take comfort in thy lot and portion Death that devoureth Kings that destroyeth Emperours that conquers Captaines and men of valour shall not be able to approach thee for thy hurt for thou keepest the saying of the Lord Iesus Christ. Rejoyce I say in this magnifie him that is the Authour of it and account thy selfe happy that thou hast received from him so excellent a gift as to bee in some measure inabled to keepe his saying Yea if it were so may some Christian heart object then I should esteeme my selfe the happiest man alive but alas where is this Repentance you describe where is this New Obedience in mee that still still find my selfe captive
hee was in publicke but what was hee in private wee have seene him in the Sunne how demeaned hee himselfe in the shade True Religion is like the precious stone Garamantites which casteth no great lustre outwardly but semper intus habeat aurâ—…as gâ—…ttus but wee may discerne as it were golden drops within Three of these after I have presented to your view I will then set free your patience and give your sorrow full scope to vent it selfe in teares The first of these was tendernes of conscience which is one of the most infallible tokens and markes of the Child of God so tender was hee that he would undertake no businesse before hee was fully perswaded of the lawfulnesse thereof both by cleare texts of Scripture and the approbation of most learned and conscientious Divines hee made scruple not onely of committing the least knowne sinne but of imbarking into any action which was questionable among those that love the truth in sinceritie And therefore although God blessed him with great wealth and store of coyne yet hee never put it to Usurie or Interest thereby to increase it for he held the tolleration of the Law in this Kingdome to bee no sufficient warrant for any violation of the divine Law the distinctions lately coyned of toothlesse and biting Usurie hee no way allowed judging truly that all Usurie according to the Hebrew Etymologie is biting and hath not onely teeth but Adders teeth envenomed for all Usurie if it biâ—…e not our Brother as per accidens sometimes it may not yet it biâ—…eth the conscience of all such who have any remorse of sinne The second aurea gutta was Christian compassion whereby he tooke to heart the afflictions of Ioseph and miserie of Lazarus whose sores hee cured with the most precious balsamum hee could buy for his money What Plinie writeth lib. â—…2 c. 8. Attalus usus est Thynni recentiores adipe ad ulâ—…era on the Fish in Latine Thynnus that it is a soveraign remedie against many diseases and cureth all kinde of ulcers was truly verified in him for hee furnished himselfe with the best cordialls and the rarest medicinall receipts and when hee heard of any poore sicke or hurt hee not onely sent them money but Bezar and balsamum thinking nothing could cost him too deare whereby he might save the life or recover the health of the poorest member of Christ Jesus In the yeares of dearth and sicknesse he sent provision to all the Parishes about him and thrice a weeke relieved a hundred atleast at his gate neither did his compassion dye with him for in his Will and Testament confirmed by him the day before his death hee bequeathed divers Legacies to the poore whereof these following came to my notice To Saint Margarets in Westminster 10. pound To Kempsford 60. pound To Cosley 60. pound To Froome and the Woodlands 100. pound To Warmester 100. pound To Deverill and Mounten 100. pound The last aurea gutta which I shall present to your view at this time was his fervencie of zeale for the truth of the Gospell in all the Benefices which hee bestowed hee tooke speciall care to make choice of men sound in the Faith no way warping either to Popish superstition or 〈◊〉 seperation as he made greatest accompt of those Ministers of the Gospell who were serveâ—… iâ—… spirit zealous for the truth so hee hated none more then 〈◊〉 and luke-warme Laodicaâ—… he â—…eldome spake of any Romanist without expressing a great deteâ—…tation of their idolatrie and superstition the night before he changed this life for a better after an humble confeâ—…ion of his sinnes ingenerall and a particular 〈◊〉 of the Articles of his beliefe in which hee had lived and now was resolved to die he added I renounce all Popish superstition all mans merits trusting only upon the merits of the Death and passion of my Saviour and whosoever trusteth on any other shall finde when hee is dying if not before that hee leaneth upon broken reedes Here after the benediction of his Wife and Children being required by me to ease his mind and declare if any thing lay heavie upon his conscience he answered nothing he thanked God yet like an obedient child of his Mother the Church of England both heartily desired and received her absolution and now professing that hee was most willing to leave the world he besought all to pray for him and himselfe prayed most â—…ervenely that God would enable him patiently to abide his good will and pleasure and to goe through this last and greatest worke of faith and patience and the pangs of Death â—…oone after comming upon him he fixed his eyes on Heaven from whence came his helpe and to the last gaspe lifted up his hand as it were to lay hold on that Crowne of righteousnesse which Christ reacheth out to all his children who hold out the good fight of Faith to the end and conquer in the end Which crowne of righteousnesse the Lord who hath purchased with his blood after we have finished likewise our courses of his infinite bountie bestow upon us all Cui c. FINIS TEMPVS PVTATIONIS OR THE RIPE ALMOND GATHERED A SERMON APPOINTED to be Preached at the Funeralls of the Right Honourable the Earle of EXETER in the Abbie Church at Westminster SERMON XLII GEN. 15. 15. And thou shalt goe to thy Fathers in peace thou shalt bee buried in a good old Age. IT was the manner of the Egyptians and Greekes to embalme the dead bodies of great Personages and anoynt them all over with Honey which kept them a long time from corrupting and putrifying in their Sepulchres Thus the Macedonians preserved the Corpes of Alexander as some Historians report above a hundred yeares from rotting in his Coffine But Gemistus Phleton being to performe a like Rite to Agesâ—…laus for want of Honey layd his Corpes in Waxe made of Honey-combes I am sorâ—…e I am at this time to give the Motto to this Embleme A Person of qualitie a Person of wealth a Person of noble birth a Person of Honour a Person of fame and renowne whose soule is alreadie bound up in the bundle of life is now to hee brought with Honour to his long home and though not his Bodie yet his name to bee embalmed and preserved as it were in honey in the sweet Commemoration of his Vertues and the first Standard-bearer of Religion under his Majestie and the great Master of these sacred Rites and Ceremonies was designed to doe this office and hee richly provided for it of whom I may truely say as Homer of Nestor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cujus ex ore melle dulcior fluebâ—…t oratio But siâ—…h it hath pleased the Divine Providence whose footsteps are not knowne to take away for a time the use of his feete who should at this time have stood on this holy Mount Bounden dutie and service hath layd upon mee Genistus Phletons taske and I am constrained as hee was in-apia
which may furnish us abundantly with meditations in this kind It was a custome in former times for men to make their sepulchres in their gardens to mind them of death in the midst of the pleasures of this life This present worke may not unfitly be tearmed a Garden wherein whosoever takes a dayly walke may gather in the severall beds thereof those wholsome flowers and hearbs which being distilled by serious meditation will prove water of life to a fainting spirit in some hee shall finde instruction in some incitation in others consolation in all profit Here thou shalt finde that Lethall gourd sprung up by Adam his transgression that makes all his posterity cry out There is death in the Pot. There thou mayst gather hearbs of grace as a counter-poyson against the malignity of death in a third there is the spirituall Heliotroâ—…ium opening with joy to the Sunne of righteousnesse the hope of a blessed resurrection Doe the glittering shewes of outward things make thee begin to over-fancie them heere thou shalt finde how little they will availe in death the consideration whereof will make them like that precious stone which being put into the mouth of a dead man loseth it's vertue are thou over-burthened with afflictions here thou art supported in the expectation of a farre more exceeding weight of glory art thou ready to faint under thy labours here thou shalt finde a time of rest and of reaping doth the time seeme over-long that thy patience begins to flag heere thou hast a promise of thy Saviours speedy comming In a word be thy estate and condition what it will be heere thou mayst have both directions to guide thee and comforts to support thee in thy journey on earth till thou arrive at thy Countrey in Heaven Certainely there is no man can sleight and undervalue so deserving a Worke but hee shall discover himselfe either to be ignorant or idle or ill affected especially when so judicious and learned men have thought it a fit concomitant for their severall labours which they have added for the accomplishment of it Therfore take it in good worth improve it for the good of thy soule that being armed and prepared for death when it shall approach thou mayst have no more to doe but to die and mayst end thy dayes in a stedfast assurance That thy sinnes shall be blotted out when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of the LORD Thine in him who is the Resurrection and the life H. W. THE TABLE THe Stewards Summons Page 1. TEXT LVKE 16. 2. Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou mayst be no longer Steward The praise of Mourning Page 29. ECCLESIASTES 7. 2. It is better to goe to the house of Mourning then to the house of Feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart Deliverance from the King of feares Page 55. HEBREVVES 2. 14. 15. 14 For asmuch then as the Children are partakers of flesh and bloud hee also himselfe likewise tooke part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Divell 15 And deliver them who through the feare of death were all their life time subject to bondage The perfection of Patience Page 79. IAMES 1. 4. But let patience have her perfect worke that you may bee perfect and intire wanting nothing A Restraint of exorbitant passion Page 101. 2 SAM 12. 22. 23. 22 And he said while the Child was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the Child may live 23 But now he is dead wherefore should I fast Can I bring him back againe I shall goe to him but he shall not returne to me The sting of Death Page 121. 1 COR. 15. 56. The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law The destruction of the Destroyer Page 135. 1 COR. 15. 16. The last enemie that shall be destroyed is death The Worlds losse and the righteous mans gaine Page 151. ESAY 57. 1. And mercifull men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evill to come The good mans Epitaph Page 177. REVEL 14. 13. I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their workes doe follow them The Christians Center Page 193. ROM 14. 7. 8. 7 For none of us liveth to himselfe and no man dyeth to himselfe 8 For whether we live we live to the Lord and whether wee die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords The improvement of Time Page 213. 1 COR. 7. 29. 30. 31. 29 But this I say Brethren the time is short it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none 30 And they that weepe as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not and they that buy asthough they possessed not 31 And they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away Securitie surprized Page 235. 1 THESSAL 5. 3. For when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction commeth upon them as travaile upon a woman with child and they shall not escape A Christians victory or conquest over deaths Enmitie Page 263. 1 COR. 15. 26. The last Enemie that shall be destroyed is death The great Tribunall Gods scrutinie of Mans secrets Page 283. ECCLESIAST 12. 14. For God will bring every worke into judgement with every secret thâ—…ng whether it be good or whether it be evill A Triall of Sinceritie Page 299. ESAY 26. 8. 9. 8 Yea in the way of thy judgements O Lord have wee waited for thee the desire of our soule is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee 9. With my soule have I desired thee in the night yea with my Spirit within me will I seeke thee early for when thy judgements are in the earth the Inhabitants of the world will learne righteousnesse The expectation of Christs comming Page 321. PHIL. 3. 20. 21. 20. For our conversation is in Heaven from whence we looke for the Saviour the Lord Iesuâ—… Christ. 21. Who shall Change our vile body that it may bee fashioned like unto his glâ—…rious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himselfe Christs Precept and Promise or security against death Page 345. IOHN 8. 51. Verily verily I say unto you if a man keepe my saying he shall never see death The Young-mans liberty and limits Page 367. ECCLESIAST 11. 9. Rejoyce O young-man in thy youth and let thy heart cheare thee in the dayes of thy youth and walke in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into
to heart they consider not the causes wherefore God takes away those good men A Land a Kingdome a State a People a place is much weakned when those that are righteous and mercifull men when those that stand in the gappe and use their endevours to prevent judgements are taken away The house will certainly fall when the pillars are removed They are the people of God only that hold up a state that hold up the world Assoone as Noah is put into the Arke presently commeth the deluge upon the World Assoone as ever Lot was got up to Zoar presently the Lord rained downe fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah Assoone as ever the mourners are marked presently commeth the destroying Angell upon the rest Beloved when wee see those that are mourners for the evils of the times and places where they live tooke away we should lay it to heart and consider it as a signe of Gods displeasure as a signe that hee is a going and departing when he takes away his jewels as a signe that he is a comming to judge the world when hee beginneth to separate to take to himselfe his owne Certainly as soone as ever that number of the elect shall bee accomplished when the company of those that God hath determined to eternall life shall be fulfilled when the sheepe of Christ that are yet to be brought into his fold are gathered together when the fulnesse of the Gentiles is come in and the nation of the Iewes added then the world shall bee burnt with fire and the day of Iudgement shall come nothing shall hinder that generall destruction that shall be the end of all things here below As it is with the generall Iudgement of the world so with particular Iudgements upon Nations when God takes away his people when the Saints goe out of Ierusalem to Pila then commeth the sword of the enemie upon Ierusalem when God drawes out his owne people presently commeth judgement upon the rest It is good to observe Gods method and order that he takes in governing of the world at this day that in the death of the servants of God wee may consider our owne time that wee may prepare for those evils that are a comming and for those greater judgements that are hastning Thus you see what use may bee made of laying to heart the death of others God is much glorified thereby For all his attributes are seene in all his workes and the glorifying of God is a declaring of God to be as glorious as hee hath revealed himselfe to be in his attributes which is by shewing of them forth in his workes When men can see the wisedome the justice the power the mercie the truth the soveraigntie of God and all in the death of others then they glorifie God in taking to heart the death of others You see likewise what good commeth to a mans selfe by laying to heart the death of others He sees thereby the certainty of his owne death He sees the nature of death and what the proper worke of it is viz. to separate betweene him and all those outward comforts all those props and staies whereupon his heart rested too much on earth in the daies of his vanitie And lastly he sees the end and cause why God sendeth Death into the world sometime in judgement that men should take heed of sin sometime in mercie in mercy to the men themselves and in mercy also to those that live that they seeing the servants of God lodged up before the tempest may learne to feare and to hide and secure themselves under Gods speciall providence who can either hide them amongst the living or the dead in the worst times Now let us conclude with some application to our selves In the first place it serveth for the just reproofe of that great neglect that is in the world at this day that men lay not to heart the death of others I wish that this were only the sinne of worldly men I know to a worldly man it is of all things the most unpleasant thought that can be to thinke of death hee cannot endure to heare this they shall fetch thy soule from thee It is as unpleasant to him as it is to a bankrout to heare of a Sergeant comming to arrest him as unpleasant as it is to a malefactour to heare of being brought before the Iudge And that is the reason why men in the time of feasting cannot endure such discourses at their Tables as might put sad thoughts of death into them oh these are to melancholy thoughts Yea but in the meane time it is thy folly thy want of wisedome Hee that was guided by the spirit of wisedome and had now bought some wisedome at a deare rate by wofull experience of his former follies hee now seeth that it was farre better to goe to the house of mourning that is seriously to consider of that which men account the most ordinary cause of mourning that is the death of others and of themselves then to goe to the house of feasting that is to sport a mans selfe in the pleasures of the world and to give libertie to a mans selfe to all manner of delights But I say I wish that this were their fault onely and that it may die with them But it is too much the fault of Gods owne people Moses is faine to pray for Israel in the Wildernesse where they saw so many die before them that God would give them wisedome to number their dayes And Ministers have still the same cause to pray for the people and Christians to pray one for another that God would give them wisedome to lay to heart the death of other men Have you well considered of Death when you can only discourse that such a one that was profitable in his instruction is dead such a one by whom we have had good in conversing with is dead such a one that was young and likely to live many yeares longer is dead What of all this this is but idle and emptie discourse What use makest thou of this to thy selfe dost thou gather from thence the certaintie of thy owne death Dost thou consider what Death will doe to thee when it commeth how that it will separate betweene thee and all things in the world as it hath done them Dost thou consider for what cause God sendeth Death abroad into the world Dost thou consider this with thy selfe as thou oughtest to doe This is an act of wisedome This is that wee call due consideration when the soule reflects upon it selfe it is their case now and it will be mine and mine in the same manner therefore it is good for me to set my accounts straite with God When thou accompaniest another to the grave dost thou conclude thus with thyselfe the very next time that any death is spoken of it may bee mine or as Saint Peter speakes to Saphira after the death of Annanias The feet of those that have buried
thy husband are at the doore and shall carrie thee out also This is the reason of all that worldly-mindednesse of all that earnestnesse and intention to gaine the favour of men by indirect meanes this is the reason of all that immoderate care about our businesse with the neglect of our soules this is the reason of all that carnall securitie of all that forgetfulnesse of God and the account that shall be made at the day of Iudgement this is the reason of the unfruitfulnesse of our lives of our unprofitable spending of our times or of whatsoever else it be this is even the very reason of all because even those that professe themselves to be the people of God and to give God the glory of his attributes in all his workes yet they lay not to heart the death of those that are before them Men durst not they could not passe away their time in such unprofitablenesse and unfruitfulnesse as they doe if they did seriously consider and lay to heart the death of others before them Againe secondly As it condemnes the generall neglect that is amongst men of this dutie so it serves to reproue that sinfull laying to heart of the death of others that is too frequent and common in the world That is first when men with too much fondnesse and with too great excesse and distemper of affection looke upon their dead friends as if God could never repaire the losse nor make amends for that he hath done in taking of them away Rachel mourneth and will not bee comforted David mourneth and will scarce bee comforted Oh Absalom my sonne my sonne would God I had died for thee What is all this but to looke on friends rather as Gods then men as if all sufficiencie were included in them only Men looke on their friends as Micah did upon his Idoll when they had bereaved him of it they took away all his comfort and quiet You have taken away my Gods saith hee and what have I more or as Laban that when his Idols were stolne away his heart was dead hee could not stay in his house hee could not enjoy himselfe wherefore have you stollen away my gods saith hee So I say men looke on their dead friends as they should looke upon the Creatour and not as upon the creature they take their death to heart but not in a right manner This is the very reason why God many times makes your Christian friends so unprofitable to you when they live because you idolize them you advance them above God This is the reason also why you are so unable to beare the losse of them when they die God beating you now with your owne rodde and making you feele the fruit and effect of your owne folly This now is an ill taking to heart the death of friends to mourne as men without hope Secondly there is a taking to heart and considering of the death of men but it is an unrighteous considering an unrighteous judging of the death of others If men see one die it may bee a violent death then they conclude certainly there is some apparent token of Gods judgement on such a one If they see another die with some extremitie of torment and vehement paines certainly there is some apparant evidence of Gods wrath upon this man If they see another in some great and violent tentation strugling against many tentations they conclude presently certainly such are in worser case then others I may say to all these as Christ said once to those that told him of the eighteene men upon whom the tower in Siloe fell thinke you that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Hierusalem Or rather as Solomon saith All things come alike unto all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the cleane and to the uncleane to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath Learne to judge righteous judgement to judge wisely of the death of others take heed of condemning the generation of the just But rather in the last place Make this use of the death of every one Doth such a man die by an ordinary sicknesse having his understanding and memorie continued to the end Doth such a man die in inward peace and comfort with cleare and evident apprehensions of Gods love so that he can with Simeon say Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace What use shouldest thou that livest make of this now Certainly let the sweetnesse of their death make thee in love with the goodnesse of their lives That is the only way to a happy death to a comfortable end indeed the leading of a fruitfull and profitable life Againe dost thou see the children of God full of temptations full of feares and disquietnesse of spirit in their death Sometimes so overcome with the violence of the disease as that it may be they speake impertinently and idlely it may bee sinfully What use shouldest thou make of this now Certainly let the terriblenesse of the example of such a mans death let it bee a terrour to thee and a meanes to stirre thee up to more carefulnesse of making good use of thy time in this life Nabal dieth and his heart is in him as a stone If ever God quicken thee if ever God breath upon thy soule or enliven thee by the inward motions of his Spirit embrace those opportunities and seasons of grace lest God smite thee with an everlasting deadnesse Againe hath God caused the light of his countenance to shine upon thy heart Doth hee offer a gracious message of peace to thy soule Doth hee speake peace at any time by the ministerie of his Word Imbrace those offers yeeld to those conditions of peace lest thou bee deprived of peace at the end Againe hath GOD given thee any strength over temptations Hast thou prevailed over the assaults of Sathan and other of thy enemies Hath hee made thee a conquerour take heed how thou insnarest thy selfe againe how thou inthrallest thy selfe in yeelding to Sathans yoke lest hee buffet thee by him in a worse manner at thy end Thus I say thou canst see nothing befall any of GODS servants in their death or in the manner of their death whether it bee more pleasing or more sorrowfull more calme and quiet or more tempestuous and full of trouble whether it bee more comfortable or more lamentable but it may be usefull unto thee If it bee good it may bee it shall bee so with thee if it be bad it may bee it shall bee so with thee too The maine businesse that a man hath to doe is to make sure of himselfe in this life It was the question that Saint Austin made to those that told him of a violent death that seized upon one But how did he live saith hee He made no matter how he went out
but how he carried himselfe in the world And truly this is the great Question that every man should put to his soule I must out of the world how have I lived when I was in the world had GOD any glory by mee had men any good by me have I furthered my account against the day of reckoning that I may give it up with joy it makes no matter how I goe out of the world I am sure if my life have beene serviceable to God and beneficiall to men my departure shall be for gaine and advantage it is for a better world Thus much shall serve briefly for the opening of these words and for that that is appliable from them For the present occasion a word Funerall Sermons are not intended for the praise of the dead but for the comfort of the living Therefore I have chosen such an argument to handle at this time as might bee of use and profit to you that live Besides that I am in particular and by particular order debarred of speaking any thing concerning our deceased Sister though I might have spoken much and that very usefull to you The best use that you can make will bee this to consider the life that shee led amongst you Shee was a patterne and example of holinesse of a wise and upright carriage in her wayes follow her in that Marke the Godly and upright man the end of that man is peace There was none that knew her but upon good assurance are perswaded of her happinesse now Would you then have the same happinesse after take the same course that shee did be much in prayer and dependance upon the ordinances and in fellowship with the servants of God be profitable in doing good profitable in receiving good mannage the opportunities and times well that God giveth you as she did gaining much in little she did much worke in a short space let that be your care and then this will be your comfort in the end Thus if you make this use of the death of others before you you shall prepare for your own death and that shal be only a passage for you to Eternall life FINIS DELIVERANCE FROM THE KING OF FEARES OR FREEDOME FROM THE FEARE OF DEATH PSAL. 55. 4. My heart is sore pained within mee and the terrours of death are fallen upon mee PROV 3. 25. Bee not afraid of sudden feare LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. DELIVERANCE FROM THE KING OF FEARES OR FREEDOME FROM THE FEARE OF DEATH SERMON III. HEBR. 2. 15. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and bloud he also himselfe likewise tooke part of the same that through death hee might destroy him that had the power of death that is the divell and deliver them who through the feare of death were all their life-time subject to bondage IN these words that I haue read to let passe other parts of the Chapter the Apostle sets downe the humiliation of Christ with the fruit of it His humiliation in his Incarnation and death The fruit of it in subduing him that had the power of death and delivering those that were kept under the feare of death in bondage all their life At this time we will speake onely of the last part the fruit of Christs death in delivering those that were kept under the feare of death The persons that are kept under this feare are said to bee the children Gods owne children those for whom Christ died yet they were kept under the feare of death and that not at some particular time when tentation had got some speciall advantage over them but it was a trouble and a burden to them all their life long and that not a small burthen or an easie trouble but such as kept them as in bondage The words you see are easie There are two points that arise from them First that Gods children those for whom Christ died are many times held strongly under the feare of death Secondly that Christ by his death freeth them from those feares I shall onely insist at this time principally on the first That Gods owne children the Children that were partakers of flesh and bloud it is taken either for the humane nature or the infirmities of that nature even these children were held under the feare of death I will shew the grounds of it The feare of death in the children of God ariseth either from some causes without or from somewhat within them From without them and so the feare ariseth from God an act of his providence upon his children Or from Sathan a worke of his malice These are the causes from without For the first God in his providence and that in his speciall and fatherly providence whereby he doth order all things for the good of his children for the present increase of their grace and the fitting them for glory hereafter Hee I say in his providence ordereth it thus that they shall be kept many of them a great while under the feare of death and this he doth for speciall good ends The first is to humble them Adam as soone as he had sinned against God as his fall was by pride he would haue had a higher condition then he was in so when God would bring him backe againe he beginneth first to humble him and how doth he that Dust thou art saith he and to dust thou shalt returne he sheweth him that he was a dead man by sinne and so would have the meditation of death to humble Adam and in him all his posteritie after him So David when he desired that some meanes might worke upon his enemies for their good he prayeth Put them in feare that they may know that they are but men He doth not onely pray that mortalitie might be presented to them but so presented that it might leaue an impression of feare upon their affections that they might know what they are that they have not their beeing or the power of subsisting in themselves but that they must looke for it above themselves to him that hath the issues of life and death in his owne hande And this is necessarie that all the servants of God should bee kept humble by some meanes or other The Apostle Paul you see he had attained a great measure of grace yet he standeth in need of something to humble him therefore the messenger of Sathan was sent to buffet him that hee should not bee exalted above measure that he might be kept humble God intendeth to raise up his children to a glorious estate therefore as men lay a low foundation when they intend to erect a high building so God layeth the foundation of all grace and comfort in his servants in humiliation therefore he will not onely have them mortall but he will have them apprehend their mortalitie and dying condition with feare that they may be humbled by this feare That is the first thing Secondly God aymeth at the
carefull that they had no sinfull thought they would be patternes of the strangest expressions of conformitie to the rule that can be imagined if it were possible to be granted You may easily be perswaded of this doe you that now which they wish for and wish in vaine make use of the time of grace now there is no comming backe againe afterward Thirdly A third reason is this I shall goe to him As if hee should have have said I have another businesse in hand now the child is dead it is not for me to stand blubbering and spending my time for a dead Child I am going to him The word here is I shall returne to him Returne signifieth to goe backe to a place where one was before So David shall returne to his Child for he was there before there in respect of his body the principles of that is in the earth where the Child is and in heaven in respect of his soule where the Child is The Body returneth to dust whence it was taken and the soule to God that gave it The body is of the dust and returneth to dust the soule commeth from God and returnes to God againe Therefore he saith here I shall returne to him because I came from him When things are reduced to their first principles the body to the earth and the soule to God they are said to returne Yee see the phrase then The point briefly is this That the greatest care of a mans life the greatest businesse he hath to doe on earth is to prepare for death His businesse is not to care for his children that are dead and to spend unprofitable sorrow for them the maine businesse of my life is how I shall make my peace with God and bee fitted for death for I am going thither Wee should observe the death of others to stirre us up to a serious preparation for our owne death the Father should be stirred up by seeing his Child dead before him the elder by seeing the younger die before them we see how death hath shot his arrowes beyond and short and above and below us in those that are elder and younger and richer and poorer all sorts he will strike us at last this thing I say should stirre us up to prepare for our owne dissolution A man would thinke that there were no need of such a thing the very bare sight of Corse or a hearse the bare fight of a dead corpse the bare ringing of a bell or a Funerall Sermon should be warning enough to the living to tell him of death When a man sees a company carrying a dead body to the gaave he should say to himselfe It may bee the feet of these may carrie me next But how commeth it to passe that it is not thus Certainly there is not power in all examples to worke this it is the worke of Gods spirit Though a man observe the death of never so many before him yet this cannot worke in him a serious care to make preparation for his owne death except God adde a further worke to it We may see this in the expression of Moses when so many died in the Wildernesse Lord teach us to number our dayes that wee may apply our hearts to wisedome As if hee should have said Though so many thousands died in the Wildernesse and that by so many severall kinds of death yet we shall never apply our hearts to wisedome by those examples except God teach us that wisdome Therefore we should pray to God to teach us by his Spirit to make use of Examples Men must give account for examples aswell as for rules men must give account for examples of mortalitie as well as for Sermons of mortalitie therefore let the example of others mortality stirre you up to prepare for your owne and that you may doe so be much in calling upon God Lastly Hee shall not returne to mee that is in this sense to converse on earth as he had done before I shall returne to him but hee shall not returne to mee He doth but reitterate and repeat what he had said before in effect This is the thing then that Parents must make account of both for themselves and their children For their children It should make them moderate therefore in their sorrow for them God now hath shewed his purpose and declared his will therefore wee should rest in that will of God This is the thing that David aymed at Gods will was not only to takeaway his child but so to take him away as never to returne to him againe in that manner Now God had declared his will and therefore why should I fast saith he as if he should say I will now rest in the will of God In all the things which we account crosses and losses in children and friends c. The maine businesse of a Christian is not to expresse sorrow but submission and subjection to God to exercise and inure his heart to patience and to rest in Gods good pleasure and will As Eli though he faild in his carriage to his sonnes yet he shewed a dutifull respect to God his heavenly father When Samuel told him the judgement of God that should come upon his house It is the Lord saith he let him doe what seemeth him good in his owne eyes though it were a heavy judgement such as whosoever should heare of it both his eares should tingle yet it is the Lord let him doe what seemeth him good As if he should say I have nothing to doe in this businesse but to subject my selfe with patient submission and contentednesse to his will it is the Lord it becommeth not me to contend with him and to reason with God concerning his worke I confesse hee is righteous let him doe what seemeth him good in his owne eyes And so Aaron There was a heavy judgement befallen him his sonnes were consumed with fire yet the text saith Aaron held his peace When God manifested so great wrath to his house in wasting and consuming and burning his sonnes for offering of strange fire yet Aaron held his peace that is he did only mind how to glorifie God by a contented submission to his will So Iob hee heard not only of the losse of his children but that he lost them in such a manner by a violent death by a house falling on their heads yet the Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed bee the name of the Lord. Whereas a carnall worldly man would have fallen to strugling and contending and quarrelling against God and so trouble and perplex his owne spirit We doe exceedingly imbitter Gods cup by mingling with it ingredients of our owne passions and so make the affliction more heavy and grievous then God intends it Here is the reason wee possesse not our soules with patience When we are sensible of the losse of friends and children c. let us learne to make it our businesse to thinke I have a
greater worke to doe to prepare for my owne death God in the death of this man speakes to me to prepare for my owne And then to glorifie God by submission to his will make it appeare that thou acknowledgest a power in God to dispose of thy house to doe every thing by patiently resting in his will And yet this comfort is added though children be tooke away that they shall not returne in an earthly manner yet they shall in a better manner Parents are contented to part with their children for a time for their preferment Children though theyare very young that are commended by the prayers of the godly Parents into the hands of God these whose hearts God hath inlarged and quickned fervently and faithfully to pray in the behalfe of their children they may rest in this assured that they shall meet at the Resurrection in a better manner their children shall be better preferred then if they were on earth and shall be raised up to perfection Here you see there is not a tooth bred in a child without a great deale of paine and every tooth cost some paine but this mortall bodie shall put on immortalitie and this corruption shall put on incorruption This weake body shall be made strong weake children strong without paine Death endeth these things and the Resurrection shall present him in a perfect measure of strength in a glorified estate So much for this text and for this time FINIS THE STING OF DEATH OR THE STRENGTH OF SINNE ROM 5. 12. By one man sinne entred into the world and by death sinne ROM 7. 9. When the Commandement came sinne revived and I died LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE STING OF DEATH OR THE STRENGTH OF SINNE SERMON VI. 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of Death is Sinne and the strength of Sinne is the Law SOlomon telleth thus that there is a season for every thing there is a time to bee borne and a time to die These two are the two great seasons of all men we are as sure to die as we are sure we have lived and every degree of our life is but a steppe to our death Every man of us hath but a part to act here in the world when wee have done that that God hath appointed us we are drawne off from the Stage by Death You will say this is a hard condition for so Noble a creature as Man is to be folded up in the grave for so faire a beautie as the life of man is to be closed up in eternall darknesse that Man should turne to the acquaintance of dust and wormes and make his habitation with rottennesse and loathsomnesse that Death should have the victorie of so excellent a Creature it is a hard condition The Apostle thinkes not so he thinkes otherwise Death saith he ver 54. is swallowed up in victorie As if he should say It need not trouble you to thinke so of Death the condition of it is not so strange and hard as men take it to be It is swallowed up in victory If a man have a strong enemy to deale with it might trouble him but it is no great matter to deale with a conquered enemie Christ hath overcome Death hath conquered that strong enemie Death is swallowed up in victory Therefore Saint Paul in the precedent and subsequent verses of this Chapter seemeth to insult and triumph over Death Oh Death saith he where is thy sting oh grave where is thy victorie As if he should say before Christ came and conquered thee Death thou wert victorious so it was there was a sting in it before Christ sweetned the Grave there was something that was terrible in the Grave but now because Christ is come and hath gotten the victory over the one and sweetned the other therefore Saint Paul breakes forth thus into an insultation and triumph But how can this be Why doth the Apostle thus triumph The reason is insinuated in the verse I have read to you the sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law But this is the occasion of trouble to Christians No it is not thankes bee to God that hath given us victory through Iesus Christ our Lord As if he should say I will shew you the reason of my triumphing over Death there was a sting in Sinne and Sinne is the sting of Death and the Law is the strength of sinne but Christ hath tooke away sinne and hath satisfied the Law sinne being taken away Death cannot hurt me the Law being satisfied Sinne cannot prejudice me This was the cause of the Apostles and in him of every Christians insultation over Death The words I have read containe two parts First the sting of Death Secondly the strength of Sinne. First the sting of death is sinne Secondly the strength of sinne is the Law If there were no law there would bee no sinne and if there were no sinne there would be no death Sinne is the transgression of the Law and sinne is the sting of death I shall only at this time insist upon the first of these from whence I shall deliver that which if it please God to accompany with his Spirit may be usefull to you The proposition shall be the very words of the Text Sinne is the sting of death This Proposition I would not have you understand in this sense only that death came in by sinne meerely in a habit though that be true too But understand it in this sense That all the horrour and terriblenesse of Death all the power and rage it hath whatsoever makes it fearefull to a man it receiveth it all from sinne It is sinne that armeth Death against a man if Death have any weapons against a man Sinne puts those weapons into the hands of Death if Death have any poyson against a Christian the sinne of that person putteth that poyson in it Death may bee considered two wayes either as Christ hath made it or as we make it Death as Christ hath made it is a medicine to a Christian a passage and entrance to happinesse it is a day of redemption and refreshing and so we need not be afraid of it Death as we by sinne have made it is the Pale horse Saint Iohn speakes of in the Revelation it is as a fearfull arrest to the debtor it hath a sting in it and so it is fearefull But that I may open this point more profitably wee will enquire into these particulars First what death the Apostle speakes of here Secondly of what sinne he speakes of Thirdly in what respect sinne is called the sting of death And then we will make the use and application of all this First of what death doth the Apostle here speake of that sinne is the sting of For answer hereunto there is a double death corporall and spirituall Corporall death is the privation of the soule when the soule is severed from
is that The time of death the heart of a man is put to it at such a time and now these shrinke nothing can inable a man against feare so much as sincerity and uprightnesse When the Prophet Isaiah told Hezekiah from God that he must die he flieth to this Lord remember how I have walked before thee with an upright heart and done that which was good in thy sight When Death commeth to a wicked voluptuous person and telleth him I am here come for thee thou must appeare before God what can this man say Lord I have lived before thee a voluptuous proud wretched life I was a scorner of thy Word a contemner and persecutor of thy people a swearer c. What though perhaps he can say Lord I have heard so many Sermons I have beene so much in conference and the like will this inable a man against the feare of Death No nothing but this that he hath a sincere heart that his heart is unmixed that sinne is not affected in his soule that there is no sinne that hee would live in no duty that he would not doe Lord remember that I have walked before thee uprightly I say nothing will inable a man more against feare then sinceritie and nothing disgraceth perplexeth the soule in an exigent more then hypocrisie It is sinceritie that takes away the sting of Death The Apostle in Rom. 14. saith he No man liveth to himselfe but if hee live hee liveth to the Lord and if hee die hee dieth to the Lord whether wee live or die wee are the Lords Here is the comfort wee are the Lords saith he How proveth hee that Wee live unto him That is the worke of a sincere heart A true Christian liveth not to himselfe but to Christ Now if thy conscience give thee this testimony I have lived unto Christ then whether I live or die I am the Lords the Apostle concludeth it So right is that of Solomon Riches availeth not in the day of wrath but righteousnesse delivereth from death Thy righteousnesse and sincerity delivereth thee not from dying but from death It takes away the sting and power of Death Death shall not be death to thee it is onely a passage to thee Therefore remember as to get a part in Christ so to get a perfect and sincere heart and then the sting of death is gone But a hypocriticall divided heart a heart and a heart that will sting a man That is the second Thirdly wouldest thou have the sting of death pulled out now Then mortifie thy sinnes now doe it presently Remember what Saint Paul saith but I thinke hee speakes it in respect of afflictions I professe by our rejoycing in Christ Iesus I die daily If it be meant of afflictions yet it should be verified of us in respect of sinne die daily to sinne and then the sting of death is gone Oh beloved our condition will be sad and discomfortable when at once we must enter into the field with Death and Sinne he that dieth daily to Sin hee hath nothing to doe with Death when it commeth Death may come to such a party but it cannot hurt him he may rest quietly when it commeth And observe it so much sinne as thou now sparest so much sting thou reservest for Death and is it not folly in a man to spare sinne that giveth a sting to Death But now as a man is to crucifie every sinne let me put in this caution and remember this advise As the sting of every sin is to be pulled out so pull out especially the sting of that Sin that now stingeth thy conscience that now lieth upon thy conscience for if it worke now it will worke fearfully at death Death doth not lessen the work of sin but inrageth it God wil then present and set thy sins in orderbefore thee perhaps God hath brought thee here to day to heare this Word getthee home and set thy soule in order The love of Sin and the feare of Death seldome paâ—…t and where Sinne is much loved Death will there be much feared Death is never more terrible then where sin is most delighted in Therefore crucifie sinne if thou wilt have the sting of death taken away It may be thou thinkest it is a troublesome worke but remember that those sinnes which thou now so much delightest in and lovest and livest in will then prove the sting of death to thee If a man would spend his time in the mortification of sinne when death commeth he should have nothing to doe but to let his soule loose to God and to give it up to him as into the hands of his most faithfull Creatour and Redeemer And is it not an excellent thing for a man to have nothing to doe with Death when it commeth Lastly here is a use of comfort If it hath pleased God to give any of us the grace to pull out the sting of death it is a great comfort But Death is approching you will say Oh but Death is disarmed the sting of it is taken away what a singular comfort is it then to you that Death is comming Indeed all the comfort that the soule is capable of is this that the sting of death is tooke away Now when Death commeth upon such a man it doth but free him from all that state of miserie hee is in here from all that extremitie of condition that he is put into from all those diversities of occasions pressing occasions of tumbling about in the world Death doth but put an end to all And which is an excellent comfort to a Christian Sin is ended with Death what afflicteth the soule of a Christian but that hee carrieth about him a body of sinne and of death This was a trouble to Saint Paul and is to every true Christian Now when Death commeth there is an end of this Body of sinne thou shalt never sinne more thou shalt never grieve the Spirit of God more thou shalt never be clogged with such imperfections and infirmities in dutie that death that commeth to thee shall passe thee to the fruition of eternall glory and what canst thou desire more then to be happy in eternall glory with God FINIS THE DESRVCTION OF THE DESTROYER OR THE OVER THROVV OF THE LAST ENEMIE PSAL. 9. 6. O thou Enemie thy Destructions are come to a perpetuall end ISAIAH 25. 8. Hee will swallow up Death in victorie LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE DESTRVCTION OF THE DESTROYER OR THE OVER THROW OF THE LAST ENEMIE SERMON VII 1 COR. 15. 16. The last enemie that shall bee destroyed is Death DEath is a subject that a Christian should have in his thoughts often and neither the hearing nor thinking nor speaking of it can be unseasonable for any place or person We have heard that the life of Philosophers is nothing but a meditation of Death and certainly the life of a Christian much more should abound in
such meditations No man can live well till he can die well Hee that is prepared for Death is certainly freed from the danger of death neither is there any so fit a way to bee ready for it as to be often minded of it Therefore I have made choice at this time to speake of this verse wherein ye see the Apostle declareth and leadeth us to treat of foure things First that there is a Death Secondly that this Death is an enemie Thirdly that this enemie is the last enemie Lastly that this least enemie shall be destroyed A word or two of each of these parts First Death is Yee know that well enough your eyes shew it you daily our senses declare it so plainly that no man is so senslesse that knoweth it not It is agreed upon by all Only for your better furtherance to make use of this point let us acquaint you with that which nature will teach yee concerning Death Secondly with that which Scripture will teach you above and better then Nature Nature sheweth yee concerning Death first what it is And then Secondly what Properties it hath It telleth us this That Death is an absence from life a ceasing from beeing when one was beeing to be thrust as it were out of the present world and be cast some where This is all that Nature informeth us concerning the Essence and beeing of Death Death is a dividing of us from this life and from the things of this life and sends us abroad we know not where Secondly Nature teacheth us three Properties concerning Death One that it is universall It hath tied all to it high and low rich and poore Death knockes at the Princes pallace as well as at the poore habitation of the meanest man It is a thing that respects no mans greatnesse it regardeth no wealth nor wit nothing Death takes all before it That Nature teacheth too Secondly Nature teacheth that Death is inevitable If a man would give all the world he cannot thrust it out of dores It takes whole Armies aswell as one man It scorneth to bee resisted by the Phisitians there is no words no meanes to escape it It is such an enemie as we must grapple with and it will conquer This Nature teacheth Againe Nature teacheth that death is uncertaine A man knoweth not when Death will come to him or when it will lay hold on him or by what meanes it will fetch him out of the world It may fetch him out of the world at any time or in any place and by such occasion as it is impossible for any wit to thinke of before This is in substance all that Nature teacheth And the knowledge of this it is for good use aswell to remember and consider it as to understand it But now I goe on to tell yee what the Scripture teacheth concerning Death for that giveth a perfecter and larger information of the thing then the dimme light of Nature The Scripture then over and above that which Nature sheweth telleth us concerning Death these things First it sheweth better what it is and then It sheweth whence it commeth and what are the causes of it Thirdly it declareth the consequences what follow upon it And lastly and bestly it telleth us the remedie against the ill of Death In all which Nature stumbleth and can doe little or nothing First the Scripture telleth us what it is It letteth us know that it is the disolution of a man not the annihilation It doth not make him cease to bee but takes asunder a while the soule from the body It carrieth the one to the earth and the other to another world so that both continue to bee though they be not united as before The word of God teacheth us that he hath created the world as it were a house of three Stories The middle is this present life where we be And there is a lower place the Dungeon a place of unhappinesse and destruction There is a higher place a pallace of glory According as men behave themselves in this middle roome so Death either leadeth them downe to the place of unhappinesse or conveyeth them up to the pallace of glory and blessednesse This Nature is ignorant of but the Scripture is plaine in The rich man dieth and his soule is carried to Hell the poore man when he died his soule was advanced to Heaven So that Death is nothing but the messenger of God to take the soule out of the body and to convey it to a place of more happinesse or more miserie then can be conceived Secondly the Scripture acquaints us further with the cause of death Philosophers wondred since nature desireth a perpetuitie and continuance of it selfe that man should be so short a time in the world The Scripture endeth this wonderment and tels us that man indeed was made immortall to continue for ever and should not have died but sinne came into the world and by sin death Death is the mother of sinne and of all miserie that by little and little draweth to death I say sinne the first sinne of our first Parents whereby they transgressed that most easie and equall mandate about eating the forbidden fruit That transgression that was the treading under foot the covenant of workes and the disanulling of it that sinne let in Death at a great Gappe and now it triumpheth and beareth rule over all the world Nature cannot tell which way in the world a man should die so soone and that hee that is the Lord of all creatures should bee inferiour to a great number of them in length of life But the word of God unridleth this riddle and telleth us that God made man that hee might and should have lived for ever but Sinne comming and comming in the person of the first man it brought death and made all men mortall and when sinne entred Gods curse came and that working upon us poore and miserable creatures it is the cause that we cannot continue long here It was equall that death should follow sinne for since God made man to obey his will when man had unfitted himselfe for Gods service it was reason that he should have a short continance of life for the longer he endured the more he would abuse himselfe Yee see then two things that the Scripture teacheth concerning death The third thing it sheweth is what followeth after death and that is plaine It is appointed for all men once to die and after death commeth judgement Nature never dreamed of judgement after Death but the Scripture telleth us there is a Judgement after Death Judgement what is that Judgement yee know is a calling of a man before Authoritie a looking into his wayes a considering of his actions a finding out whether hee be a sinner an evill doer and if hee find him so to passe sentence according to his evill deeds When God hath tooke the soule from the body hee takes the soule first
is a nullitie of beeing in respect of a living creature there is nothing liveth Here is a perishing from a being to a not beeing Againe perishing may be a passage from a being to a worse beeing so an impenitent man when he dieth he passeth from life to death yea to an eternall death to a worse beeing that is a perishing and a proper perishing that is worse then to bee lost It is better to have no beeing then to have either of these But in neither of these senses the righteous man perisheth hee hath a beeing and a well-beeing after death His soule hath a real beeing with God in happinesse his body hath a beeing of hope though it be in the grave Nay it hath a real beeing of happinesse as it is a member of Christ in regard of the misticall union So in no sense he perisheth he is but tooke away hee is but removed it is but Exodus but transitus his death is not a going out of the Candle it is but a translation a removing of it to a better frame it is set upon a more glorious table to shine more bright The word is well expounded in the 11. Hebr. concerning Enoch whereas in the fifth of Genesis the Scripture saith Enoch walked with God and God tooke him in the Hebrewes it is said he was translated In the one he was tooke away that is in respect of the world In the other hee was translated that is in respect of heaven They are tooke away that is from the place of miserie the Dungeon the prison to a place of glory and happinesse They are tooke away from the house of clay to the house Eternall not made with hands in the heavens they are translated upward that is meant in this So that there are two observations in this First That Pietie and Mercie excuseth not from death Godlinesse it selfe freeth not a man from death Death it is that end that is propounded to all men The bodies of godly men are of the same mould and temper of the same frame and constitution as other men their flesh is as fraile their humours as cholericke their spirit as fading their breath as vanishing they owe the same debt to nature to sinne to God to themselves and their owne happinesse They are bound under the weight of the same Law the statute law is It is appointed to all men to die once It is well said to die once for the impenitent man dieth twice he dieth here by the separation of his soule from his body that is the first death and there is the second death that succeedeth that the death of the soule by a separation of it from God which is far worse But righteous and mercifull men die once the first death seizeth upon them It is appointed to all It is the end of all flesh in one place It is the end of all the earth in another place It is the end of all living the end of all men even mercifull and godly men are brought within the compasse of this law of Nature to yeeld up this debt due Righteousnesse excuses not it frees not It is a law that bindeth one as well as another As Basil of Seuleucia observeth though Adam was the first that sinned yet Abel was the first that died Adam committed the transgression the elder sonne was Cain the second Abel in the course of nature the eldest should have gone first but Abel righteous Abel that was the moytie the halfe of his comfort and the greater halfe though the younger Adam sinneth first and yet righteous Abel dieth first Hee gives the reason to be this because God would let us see in the Portall of death the table of the Resurrection he would shew us the linnaments of the Resurrection in the first man that dieth that righteous Abel is tooke away that we should be assured that he was but translated there was hope of the Resurrection confirmed even in his death But yet that is not all the reason I conceive that is more proper to this is righteous Abel dieth first to shew that even righteous and mercifull men must not expect immunitie from death and from suffering tribulation in this world it is the condition that befalleth Abel the righteous as well as Cain the Pharisee It belongeth to faithfull Abraham as well as to Apostatizing Demas to beloved Iacob as well as to rejected Esau to meeke Moses as well as to cursing Shemei to Deborah the Prophetesse as well as to usurping Athaliah to devout Iosiah as well as to impious Ahab to tender-hearted David as well as to churlish Nabal to the humble Publican as well as to the vaunting Pharisee It is the law and rule that is set to all there is no exemption righteousnesse pietie and workes of mercie then doe not exempt For if they could exempt how should pietie have the reward when should godlinesse come to the full recompence It is Death that makes way to the hope of reward And if it be so that righteousnesse excuseth not then neither honour nor strength nor beautie nor riches can excuse in the world for these are of farre lesse prevalencie with God then pietie So the Argument standeth strongly if Iob died that was a mercifull man if Abel was taken away that was a righteous man looke to other conditions then Caesar that is the Princes of the world shall be cut off their state and pompe shall not keepe them then Cressus that is the rich men of the world shall die their purse and plentie shall not excuse them then Socrates that is the prudent and learned men of the world their wisdome shall not prevent it then Helena that is the Minnions of the world the decking of their bodies and their beauty and painting shall bee fetched off they will expose them to death they shall not free them then Sampson that is the strong men of the world those that are healthy of able parts likely to out-live nature their strength shall not excuse them that no man should glorie in any thing without Neither the strong man in his strength nor the wise man in his wisedome or the rich man in his wealth but if hee glory in any thing to glory in the Lord. Though wee must not boast our selves of pietie yet as the Apostle saith yee have compelled mee If a man may boast of any thing it is of pietie that is rejoyce in this if God have made a man a vessell of mercie and an instrument of doing any good but otherwise to boast of it even that shall be the staine and further disgrace of it for righteousnesse it selfe excuses not from death all are subject to the same law that is the first observation Mercifull men are taken away as well as others Secondly there is a difference in the manner though they bee subject to death yet it is a subjection under another subjection Death is made subject to them they conquer Death So both
the oath of Alleageance some for attempting to blow up Parliament houses Such as these are not Martyrs It is not the punishment it is the cause that makes the Martyr Our blessed Lord himselfe that never did evill was crucified betweene two evill doers there was an equall punishment there was not an equall cause It must be the cause that wee must looke to if wee looke to be blessed But I cannot stand upon that Here is the first interpretation To die in the Lord is for the Lord. But there is a second and that is more large Die in the Lord that is die in the faith of the Lord. Salute Andronicus and Iunius my fellow prisoners which were in the Lord before mee saith S. Paul that is that were Beleevers that were in the faith before mee And to let passe many other places if there bee no resurrection of the dead saith the Apostle then wee that are asleepe in Christ c. If wee beleeve that Iesus died then those that sleepe in Iesus shall hee bring with him c. And againe Hee shall descend from heaven with a shout and they that are dead in Christ shall rise first Now what is it to die in Christ in a large sense I will tell you Hee that would die in Christ first hee must die in obedience There are many workes of obedience that wee are to doe Our last and greatest act of obedience is to resigne up this same spirit of ours willingly chearfully into the hands of God that gave it If wee have not attained to that strength that some have done that is to live patiently and die willingly yet wee should labour to attaine to thus much strength to live willingly and to die patiently So as Christ may bee magnified in my body saith the Apostle I passe not it makes no matter let it either bee by life or by death When wee have done the worke that God hath set us to doe wee must be gone and thus must every one say with himselfe Lord if I have done all the worke thou hast appointed mee to doe call me away at thy pleasure Here is the first In obedience Secondly Die in repentance I remember what Possidonius said of Saint Augustine a little before his death that it was necessarie that men when they died they should not goe out of the world absque digna competenti resipiscentiâ without a fit competent repentance Hee himselfe did so for he caused the penitentiall Psalmes to be written and they were before him as hee lay upon his bed and hee was continually reading those penetentiall Psalmes and meditating upon them with many teares he died even in the very act of contrition I doe love to see a man chearefull upon his death-bed but I doe more love to see a man penitent There is a day indeed when God will wipe away all teares from our eyes When that commeth then he will wipe away these teares of repentance too these teares of godly sorrow But the Lord grant he may find mee with teaees in mine eyes Thirdly Die in faith Indeed if ever Faith had a worke to doe it hath then a worke to doe when all other comforts in the world faile us and friends goe from us then faith to lay hold on the promises I know that my Redeemer liveth and that I shall rise againe at the last day and bee covered with my skin and shall see God with these same eyes Thus faith And then fourthly Die with Invocation calling upon the name of God Thus have all the Saints of God done continually commending of their soules to God in prayers Saint Paul would have us commend our soules to God in well-doing And it is a necessary thing every morning wee rise and every night wee goe to bed but especially when wee see some harbingers of death sent unto us then to have nothing to doe but with our blessed Lord Father into thy hands I commend my spirit And with Saint Steven Lord Iesus receive my spirit And next to this let me put in also Mercie Charitie Die forgiving one another Thus our Lord taught us to doe when he cried out Father forgive them for they know not what they doe And Saint Steven taught us to doe so too Lord lay not this sinne to their charge And then lastly for I cannot stand upon these things there must be a death in Peace Peace with God Peace with our owne consciences and Peace with all the world And now the man that dieth thus dieth with willingnesse Dieth in repentance dieth in faith dieth with invocation dieth in charitie dieth in peace this man dieth in the Lord and such a one is blessed They that would thus die in him must live in him A man cannot bee said to die in London that never lived in London A man cannot be said to die in the Lord that never lived in the Lord. If thou dost not live in obedience in faith in repentance in invocation in charitie in peace thou canst not die in these A man must first live the life of the righteous before he can die the death of the righteous And then againe if a man would die thus Hee must bee well acquainted with death grow familiar with him by meditation Many things more I might have said to this purpose but I am loth to transgresse the houre I have done with that Give me only leave now to speake in a few words unto the present occasion You have brought here beloved the body of your wellloved neighbour Mistris S. H. late the Wife of your late reverend Pastour Doctor R. H. to be layed up together with her Husband in hope of a blessed and glorious resurrection It is long since that I did in this place performe this service at the buriall of his former Wife a woman of whom I may not speake for though I hold my peace the very stone here in the wall will say enough of her and you that know her cannot but assure the truth of it I am intreated to performe now the like duty to the second Wife And I was easily intreated to doe it for that name of brother and sister that was usually betweene us for many yeares continued may very well challenge of me any dutie I am able to performe I am straitned in time and I cannot speake what I would and I doe perceive alreadie by this that I have spoken that if I should speake much more my passion would not give me leave Let me tell you one thing amongst many others it is a thing extraordinary and it is for imitation The Vertuous woman in the last of the Proverbs is commended for many things Amongst others this is one Shee doeth her husband good and not evill all the dayes of her life And marke it I pray you It is not all the dayes of his life and yet peradventure some woman might bee thought a good
it farewell then Farewell to all to profits and pleasures and honours we shall carrie none of them away with us None of our pompe and glory shall descend after us as the Psalmist saith Farewell to all the gold and silver we have gathered together to all the goodly lands wee have purchased to all the stately houses we have built to all the pleasant gardens and orchards wee have planted to all the sports and pastimes we have had to all our merry consorts wee have kept company with to all our Jewels and wardrope to our dauncing and feasting and musicke Death pulleth us from all these and layeth us levell with the Dust It mingleth shovels and Scepters together It makes rich and poore the Prince and the Peasant alike I shall see man no more All relations we have now shall be broken off then betweene Husband and Wife Parents and children Master and servants neighbour and neighbour friend and friend wee shall dwell apart with our selves and not so much as shake hands one with another All the services and imployments wee are tooke up with here shall cease then there shall be no frequenting of the Exchange no exercising of Trade no bearing of Office no working in our Calling Death is the night that no man can worke in and Death is the place of silence where all affaires are cut off Where there is no worke nor invention nor wisedome nor counsell as Solomon saith in the booke of the Preacher Oh saith good Hezekiah I shall see the Lord no more in the land of the living There is no more service to be done to the Lord nor no more in the Church in that manner as it is now there is no exercise of Religion no Word no Sacraments no Fasting no Almes no Preaching no Prayer no Confession and thankes-giving The Corse cannot praise thee the Grave cannot give thankes they that goe downe into the pit cannot honour thee Oh Beloved how carefull and active and vigilant and diligent should this make us to be when wee consider it for the well improving of that time that wee have lent unto us and for the well-discharging of those places and offices and duties that are now laid upon us Considering that Death is an enemie that will cut us off from all affaires and bereave us of all opportunities of receiving or doing or performing any service to God at all either in Church or Common-wealth Fiftly and lastly Conscience of sinne and certaintie of iudgement and uncertainty of salvation for brevities sake I put them together these things come along with Death and make the face of Death terrible and fearfull Conscience of sinne first of all For Sinne it is the sting of Death And which of us is there that doth not arme Death with that sting Who can reflect on the passages of his life but he shall find it as full of sinne as the Leopard of spots Wee find nothing in sinne now but oblectation and delight and therefore wee hide it under our tongue and hugge it in our bosomes Oh but when Death commeth once it thrusteth these things out and oh the horrour and anguish that the poore conscience is tormented and made to smart with Againe with conscience of sinne certainty of judgement that is another dreadfull Arrow in Deaths quiver After Death commeth judgement And wee must all appeare before the judgement seat of Christ to receive according to what wee have done in our bodies First the particular judgement that passeth upon the soule it shall never be reverst for as the Tree falleth so it lieth And then the Generall judgement when the Body and Soule shall both bee wrapped up in the same condemnation Oh who can dwell with devouring fire with those everlasting burnings And then lastly The uncertaintie of our future estate For how many thousands bee there that die that cannot tell what becommeth of them when they die but they must sing that Farewell to their soules as Adrian to his My poore wandring soule whether art thou going What will become of thee Death then being accompanied with such an Armie of Terrours as these the Apostle might well call it as it is in the Text An Enemie That is the first thing Secondly we are to consider how it is called the last Enemie For two reasons First because it is the last that shall assault us So Caietan Secondly because it is the Last that shall bee destroyed So the common streame of interpreters It is the Last Enemie that shall assault us And here I have to note two things First that while wee live in the world we have more Enemies in the world For when there are some last there must bee others going before If Death bee the last Enemie there are some others beside I we have so God knoweth Enemies on every side Without us within us The Divell he is an Enemie to us and vollies of tentation hee hath to discharge against us So many tentations so many Enemies The World is an enemie to us An enemie when it seemeth a friend When it smileth it betrayeth it kisseth and killeth On the right hand it hath prosperitie to allure on the left hand adversitie to affright in every corner wicked counsell and company and example to seduce and insnare us Lastly our owne flesh is an enemie It is a Serpent wee carry in our bosomes The Divell is a serpent in Hell the world is a Serpent in our hand the flesh is a Serpent in our bosome Wee carry it with us where ever wee goe It is a con-naturall concorporate Enemie All our other enemies could doe us no hurt if it were not for that if this enemie that cohabiteth with us did not combine against us Know who everthou art there is no Enemie like thy selfe thy selfe is the worst enemie of all All the sparkes that flie out of Sathans engines could never sindge a haire of our heads if our flesh were not as tinder All the windes that blow in the foure corners of the world could not make shipwracke of us if our flesh were not a treacherous Pilot. Death that gnaweth the thread of our soule and body asunder could not separate them or them from God if the flesh did not whet the teeth of it and sharpen it with a sting So then we see we have a great many Enemies more to encounter us besides Death some without some within Therefore how should this teach us circumspect walking to behave our selves wisely in every thing as David when he knew Saul was his Enemie and had an eye upon him to doe him mischiefe How should it teach us to pray with David Lord teach mee thy way and lead me in the right path because of mine enemie That is one thing I have to note Againe another thing I have to note If Death be the last enemie then in all probabilitie it is like to be the worst Of the Divels regiment
whether it be good or bad LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE GREAT TRIBVNALL OR GODS SCRVTINIE OF MANS SECRETS SERMON XIIII ECCLESIAST 12. 14. For God will bring every worke into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be Evill DEath and judgement are two subjects about the meditation of which our thoughts should every day bee conversant wee should every day be thinking of those two dayes Every day upon the day of death because there is no day wherein death may not befall us And every day upon the day of Iudgement because as the day of Death leaveth us so the day of Iudgement findeth us We had an occasion like to this not long since Then you may remember I discoursed of Death considered as an enemie I shewed you what kind of enemie it is it is a common enemie a secret enemie a spirituall enemie Now at this time having the like occasion I thought it not amisse for me to discourse of that that commeth immediatly after Death that is Iudgement The Apostle saith Heb. 9. 27. It is appointed to all men once to die and after Death commeth Iudgement And it is that that Solomon mindeth us of here in the words of my Text which he addeth as a reason to that grave advice he gave in the verse before going Having discoursed at large in this booke concerning the vanity of all earthly things and the vexation among those things that are under the Sunne he telleth us where it is best for us to set up our rest that is in learning that one lesson Feare God and keepe his commandements for this is the totall all that God requireth That we might the rather be stirred up to hearken to this counsell hee telleth us that whether we doe or no the day will come that we shall be called to an account when God will bring every one of us to Iudgement and take a tryall of every worke we have done and of every secret thing whether it be good or evill In handling of these words we have two things in generall that Solomon speakes of First the Person Iudging Secondly the things Iudged The Person Iudging is God And there I will speake First of the Iudge And then of the Iudgement The things that God bringeth to Iudgement and tryall hee telleth us first every worke every thing be it never so secret And then a more particular resolution those things that are good and those things that are evill God will bring every worke to Iudgement and every secret thing whether it bee good or whether it be evill I begin with the Person judging And here first of the Iudge himselfe God shall bring to judgement God essensially meant all the Persons in the God-head Father Sonne and holy Ghost For all concurre in this worke being as the Schoole-men say Opus ad extra It is one of the Externall workes of the Godhead and it is an Axiome in Divinitie that the Externall workes of the Godhead are not to be divided It is true there are certaine internall workes of the Godhead that are said by the Schooles to bee divided incommunicably proper and peculiar to every Person as it is proper to the Person of the Father incommunicably to have his Beeing of himselfe Of the Sonne to be begotten of the Father And it is the property of the Holy Ghost incommunicably to proceed from both But those workes that they call Externall that is those workes by which the power and wisedome of the Godhead are externally made manifest to the creature such as creation preservation redemption those equally and indifferently proceed from all the Persons not from one in parcular but from all in generall and this of Iudgement is one For as they all concurre in the creating of us so they shall in the judging of us all of them shall co-operate together in the executing of justice and mercy Justice in the damnation of the wicked and mercy in the salvation of the godly You will object peradventure that the Scripture seemeth to speake otherwise though Iudgement here be attributed essensially to God in some places it is attributed personally to Christ Hee shall judge the quicke and the dead and therefore oftentimes it is called in the Scripture the Ivdgement seat of Christ as 2 Cor. 5. 10. Againe sometimes this worke of Judging is appropriated to the Saints Know yee not that the Saints shall judge the world 1 Cor. 6. 2. and by and by againe Know you not that we shall judge the Angels verse 3. How shall we reconcile these when it is said Christ and the Saints shall judge I answer This threefold doubt is reconciled by a threefold distinction God is said to judge if wee respect the Authority of Jurisdiction Christ is said to judge if we respect the Promulgation of the sentence The Saints are said to judge if wee respect the Approbation The power and right are equally given to all three Persons but the particular Execution is given to Christ the Approbation of what Christ doth is ascribed to the Saints As at our common Courts of Assize here one is set upon the Bench as Judge and others are joyned in commission with him as Accessories the Judge only pronounceth the sentence and they that sit in Commission with him ratifie and approve his sentence that he pronounceth so at that day Christ shall sit upon his Throne as Iudge the Saints they shall joyne as Commissioners Christ he alone pronounceth the sentence upon every one that is summoned there to the tryall but then his Apostles and Saints that are joyned in commission with him for such honour have all his Saints they shall ratifie and approve and give attestation to the sentence that he pronounceth and say Amen to the condemnation of the wicked So that the difference is easily reconciled and we see how God and Christ and the Saints are said to judge The Authoritie is Gods The Execution Christs The Approbation the Saints The Apostle in Rom. 2. 16. makes the point plaine hee telleth us that God shall judge by Christ In that day God shall judge the secrets of all hearts by Iesus Christ So Christ himselfe Ioh. 5. The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all power to the Sonne Hee hath given him power to execute judgement as he is the Sonne of man Why to him For this Reason That his second comming may be in glory to make amends for his first comming in humilitie Christ at his first comming into the world he came meanly and homely at his second comming hee shall come triumphantly and gloriously Before he came like a Lambe then he shall come like a Lyon Before in the forme of a servant then in the forme of a Lord. Before Pilate sate upon the Bench and Christ stood as a malefactour but then Pilate shall stand at the Barre as a Malefactour and
then what it is to keepe those sayings The Saying or words of Christ is the Doctrine of the Gospell the Covenant of Grace which by an excellency is called His because by it hee bringeth life and immortality to light as I said before which in former times was hid as it were in the darke and not made knowne so publikely to the sonnes of men The Gentiles knew little or nothing of it The Iewes knew what they knew with much darknesse and obscurity Hee that was almost the first Preacher of this Gospell in cleare termes without any vaile or darknesse Iohn Baptist who was as it were betweene both hee did deliver this doctrine not so darkly as the Prophets before him nor so clearely as after it was by our blessed Saviour and those that succeeded him Therefore I say it is the Saying of Christ by an excellency because hee did in a manner first begin to teach and declare the same in the clearenesse and sweetnesse thereof and hee sent his Apostles abroad to make it plaine and manifest to all the world that a man may runne and reade it And His likewise it is called because hee is the Authour of it for hee is the worker of that salvation which it declareth to us Now this Doctrine of the Gospell hath two parts The first acquainting us with our miserie The second with the Remedie For as the Bond and Acquittance specifie the debt but to different purposes the one to tie the Debtor to the payment the other to absolve and acquit him even so the Law and the Gospell both declare the miserie of man the one to tie it fast upon him the other to helpe him the better to loose it from him The Physitian intreateth of the sicknesse as well as the Cure but of the sicknesse alone for the cures sake The Judge passeth a sentence of condemnation and then largely rehearseth the crime and punishment due to the offender the Pardon likewise makes mention of the fault and the punishment but in a different manner and to a different end So the Gospell declareth mans miserie and borroweth so much of the Law that may lay downe our wretched estate in our selves and so draw in that which is the maine and principall part of it the remedie of our soules And this part of the Gospell the Apostle St. Paul succinctly delivereth in a few words Rom. 3. 23. All have sinned and are come short of the glory of God All have sinned and All have sinned in such a sort and measure and degree that they are fallen short of that Glory of God by which the Apostle I thinke meaneth life Eternall that Glory that had it not been for sinne he would have bestowed upon the sonnes of men by vertue of the first Covenant he made with them The second part of the Gospell the words of Christ is concerning the Remedie whereby a man may be helped against this miserie And for that purpose it sheweth us Who helpeth us And how hee helpes us And what is to bee done by our selves that wee may obtaine and enjoy this helpe The Person that helpeth us is the Sonne Manifest in the flesh the Sonne of God taking our nature upon him and clothing himselfe in the similitude of sinfull flesh the Eternall Sonne of the Father assuming I say the very nature of man into the unitie of his Person so becomming God and Man in the same Person hee is the sole Redeemer neither is there any other name under heaven by which wee can be saved but by his alone Againe it sheweth us by what meanes hee saveth us as the Apostle speakes plaine enough in the next verse to that I spake of before being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Iesus Christ. To the intent that hee might free us from the Curse of the Law and wrath of God and the danger of eternall Death he vouchsafed to be made sinne for us to satisfie the justice of his Father by enduring the Curse of the Law and to accomplish the Righteousnesse of the Law by being made in our stead under the Law so he he became a Propitiation for the sins of the sons of men as the Apostle saith in that place Thus Christ by his perfect satisfaction made to his Father and by that perfect Righteousnesse whereby hee was subject to the Law for our sakes hath absolutly and fully delivered us from the power of sinne and of Death and performed the worke of our Redemption by vertue whereof by the merit and worth and value whereof wee are delivered and saved and Redeemed from this Death and from all other evils that crosse our eternall happinesse And thirdly the Gospell sheweth us by what means we may become partakers of this happinesse and Redemption in Christ and telleth us of three things as it were Conditions of the Covenant of Grace of the New Covenant which is ratified by the bloud of Christ. I say of three things the Conditions on our parts of that Covenant which if wee doe we shall certainly bee saved by the Redemption in Christ. The first is Repentance The second is Beleeving The third is our New obedience All and each of these plainly exprest in the word of God As for Repentance it is that wherewith Iohn the Baptist began his Preaching It is that that our Saviour commanded his Apostles to declare to the Iewes Repent for the kingdome of heaven is at hand It is that which himselfe preached at the first as Saint Marke witnesseth chap. 1. 15. It is that which Saint Paul began with when hee came to the Athenians Act. 17. and now hee admonisheth all men every where to repent It was the first of the foundations of the Doctrine of the beginning of Christ that was wont to bee taught in the Ancient Church as witnesseth the Authour to the Hebrewes chap. 6. not laying againe the foundation of repentance from dead works and then he proceedeth to the rest This Repentance is that which the Lord requireth absolutely of the sonnes of men as a condition of the new Covenant the Covenant of Grace without which they cannot possibly be made partakers of the same And this Repentance hath 4. parts every one of which is so needfull that without it the rest is little worth First lamenting for our sinnes and being sorry for our iniquities as David said of himselfe Psal. 38. I will declare my iniquitie and bee sorry for my sinnes And so the Apostle Saint Iames expresseth it chap. 4. 9. Afflict your selves mourne and weepe let your laughter bee turned into sorrow and your joy into teares Therefore Christ you know was sent to Preach glad tydings to the Prisoners and Captives and the opening of the prison to the prisoners and to bring the oyle of gladnesse to those that mourned in Sion A man must first be a Mourner in Sion one that smiteth
of the Sermon he usually repeated to his people 4. His exemplary vertues in his whole course of life 1. His meeknesse and peaceablenesse of disposition A grace which in the sight of God is much set by and a notable testimonie of inward holinesse according as it runnes Iam. 3. 17. Pure then Peaceable Hee was not apt to quarrell matters that concerned him not never being observed to beare a part in any faction a favourable interpreter of things not evident readier to reconcile then to make differences and choosing rather to part with his right then with peace as appeared in a suite knowne unto many here 2. Though he were meeke in his owne cause yet hee was zealous in Gods Hee could not endure any thing repugnant to holy Scripture nor would he neglect either seasonably to admonish or reprove the faulty that were within the compasse of his admonition or to whet on and exhort others to love and good workes 3. Yet his Zeale did not miscarry being allayed and tempered with wisedome as the heart is by the braine and as the conceit is of the Primum mobile with the Chrystalline heaven neere it His wisdome appeared first in his discreetnesse in his undertakings and all affaires an argument of which some take to be this That hee was never troubled nor so much as questioned in any Court concerning any fact Second in his observing a fit season when and a fit decorum in speaking Third in his choyce of company and specially of such acquaintance as hee would be neere with and intimate which were only such as might be able to afford him spirituall assistance in a time of need 4. His freenesse from worldlinesse and contentednesse with his estate not as those in Horace Quocunque modo rem but hee would not improve his estate by the raysing it as haply hee might have done and as others doe upon his tenants Hee counted himselfe rich because hee needed not all that he had but could have lived with lesse for hee that can make a little to bee his measure all else that hee hath is his treasure which was the observation of a good Poet but a better and a more mortified Divine 5. His humilitie and even among the very temptations to pride It is an hard thing to be humble in an humble and low estate but much more difficult in the affluence of outward things You know his kindred and his relations yet as he manifested this grace in his whole cariage so in particular in not being puffed with his brothers and sisters greatnesse or the advancement of his children 6. His diligence in the use of the meanes of grace 1. Hee had a right conceit of Sermons most relishing such as were most wholsome and usefull for edification 2. Hee tooke paines to heare Hee was often knowne in his younger time to goe ten miles on foot in those times of greater scarcitie 3. His behaviour in the Church in the time of prayer and in hearing was very observable for his reverend attendance and devotion 7. His answerable practise fitted and proportionable to his exterior profession 1. Hee was much in private prayer If you would have a tryall of sinceritie follow a man home and to his closet and see what hee doth within dores for there may bee many respects that may set a man on worke coram populo Secret prayer if it bee constant cannot lodge long with hypocrisie in the same heart 2. Hee was often as they say in secret fasting by himselfe alone a Dutie not only lamentably neglected in these lazie times of easie Christianitie but ill spoken of too as a character of a Pharisee by such as are loath to be at the paines of subduing their bodyes and yet are desirous to come off with the credit and reputation of religion 3. Hee was temperate in his dyet and in his habit sober and grave as counting wisedome and grace a better and trimmer dresse then Lace or the fashion and so hee was in his recreations though constantly chearefull yet a man of little mirth or delight in any thing but spirituall 4. Hee was full of charitie which appeared in these particulars 1. Alwayes upon the Lords day he had sixe poore at dinner to every one of which hee gave a piece of beefe away with them besides and at night hee sent what was left to other poore Besides what hee gave at his dore and what hee gave privately to the poore houshold of faith 2. His hospitalitie according to his ranke was such as Peter Martyr reported of Martin Bucer whose table was ever open to any good people especially to Ministers whom he much respected 3. Hee sate up many nights for the comfort of thesicke not thinking that worke of mercy sufficiently performed by an How doe you or a cold visit 4. Hee had a Sympathie with the condition of Christs Church abroad 5. In the last place let us view him in his last act his sicknesse and death which as the Text hath told us is pretious in the sight of the Lord. 1. Hee prepared himselfe to die not only being willing but desirous also to bee set at libertie being often at S. Pauls Cupio dissolvi which they that were with him say was much in his mouth 2. Hee was very thankfull for Gods assisting him with memorie and understanding to the very last for the continuance of which he prayed and desired others that were about him to pray 3. Hee employed both his memorie and speach for the comfort and counsell of such as visited him 4. Hee made a confession of his faith but chiefly in the matter of Iustification by faith which an eminent Roman Prelate called a good supper doctrine and in the comfort of that point hee resigned his soule to Christ and slept sweetly in the Lord. Thus as his life was holy his death was pretious Hee made no great noyse in the world nor raised greater expectations of himselfe then hee could well manage like many exhalations that rise out of dunghills as if they meant to reach the skie but presently fall downe againe and wet us But as a taper hee gave light till hee went out and now hee is gone wee will leave upon his Grave Memoria ejus in Benedictionibus and apply to him the words of the Text Pretiosa in oculis Iehovae Pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints FINIS THE DESIRE OF THE SAINTS AFTER IMMORTALL GLORY PHIL. 1. 23. I desire to bee dissolved and to be with Christ which is farre better LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE DESIRE OF THE SAINTS AFTER IMMORTALL GLORIE SERMON XXI 2 CORINTHIANS 5. 2. For in this wee groane earnestly desiring to bee cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven WHen I reade these words I am in a great doubt whether I should rather admire the excellencie of the temper of these Saints or deplore the vilenesse of ours so celestiall the one so
deposition and laying downe of the same that so they may receive a glorified a clarified an incorruptible spirituall body not made of a spirit but serviceable to the spirit they desire that these eyes may bee so defecated that if they cannot behold the essence of God yet they may stedfastly behold the Empyrian heavens the splendour of our Saviour and the lustre of the bodies of the Saints more bright then the Sunne seven times they desire that these hands may bee blessed with the contrectation of that sacred body that redeemed them they desire that this body may be so transparent and lucid that the Soule may sally out freely not at the eye alone but at every part to contemplate those glorious objects that it may bee so prelucid that the very thoughts of the heart and the divine fancies that are in the imaginative part may bee seene through it that it may be so stript of corporall densitie and grossenesse that like lightning it may bee here and there that it may be fit for raptures and extasies and the Soule no more doubtfull whether shee be in the body or not in the body This the Saints desire and long after And let me speake this of you oh triumphant Soules that are now in blisse without the least impeachment of your happinesse This even you thirst after you esteeme it an imperfect estate to bee without your bodyes though you glorifie and praise GOD in your soules yet you count it an imperfect worke and say with the Psalmist In death no man remembreth thee and in the grave no man shall give thee thankes though your spirits doe it without ceasing without failing yet the whole man doth it not and such an insatiable aviditie there is in you of the praise of God that unlesse it bee done totally and fully you thinke it not done at all therefore you desire this glorified organe but the Saints on earth being much more depressed with this heavy clay cry out with these Saints In this wee groane earnestly c. To bee cloathed upon with our house c. An improprietie of speech I confesse for men doe not cloath them selves with houses yet of eminent elegancie and pregnant with varietie of instructions to shew the fitnesse of this glorie to every soule as apparell is fitted to every body to shew the comelinesse of this glory as apparell is an ornament to a man to shew the firme adhesion of this glorie the whole man as a garment doth cleave close unto him to shew the redundancie of this glorie that a man shall inveloppe himselfe in this glorie as a man doth inwrappe himselfe in his garment to shew the Authour of this glorie hee that made garments to cover mans nakednesse in Paradise below hee maketh robes of honour to adorne him everlastingly in Paradice which is above to shew the undeservednesse of it on our part that these garments they are not webbes of our owne spinning but robes of Gods giving to shew the all-sufficiencie of this glory in this life wee need houses to dwell in and rayment to cover us and food to nourish us and fire to warme us but this glory it shall be a Magazine of all spirituall store an house to shelter us a garment to cover us Manna to feed us water to refresh us it shall be all in all unto us These and many more instructions are folded up in the Cabinet of this Metaphor which streights of time will not give mee leave to unfold and spread before you but must leave them to your private meditations and so passing though unwillingly from these two houses which the Saints desire I must raise up your attention to their ardent affection unto them In this wee groane earnestly c. Wherein you see the intention of their affection and the expression of it The intention not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Desiring but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Desiring earnestly The expression of it by groanes In this wee groane earnestly The one the soule the other the body the one the forme the other the exercise the one the roote the other the branch or if you will the one the fire the other the fuell the one the flame the other the oyle that nourisheth the flame The first is the intension of the affection As those that are in a longing passion die if they bee not satisfied as the pregnant Mother groanes to be delivered of her burthen as those that are pressed under a heavy weight faint if they be not eased even so the Saints pressed downe with that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that eternall weight of glorie mentioned in the precedent Chapter a burthen which did both presse them downe and raise them up that did both streighten them and enlarge them like the feathers of the Dove which adde to her Masse but take off from her gravitie which makes her more corpulent and yet more light even so this weight of glory so pressed downe the Saints that it raised them up to the Throne of the Lambe and feeling this body of sinne this body of death which they did beare about them as plummets of lead hanging at their feet they desire eft-soone to bee stripped of all incumbrances and impediments to depose and lay downe this cottage of clay that so being absent from the body they might be present with the Lord this was the violence of their affection In this wee groane earnestly c. An affection worthy the name of an affection truly grounded and thereforetowring so high that it is almost invisible to our weake sight There are some in this life that are fed with gall and wormewood with teares and groanes upon whom the wheele of oppression is roled breaking all their bones so that they seeke for death as for pearles and hidden treasures as an end and period of their miseries Others there are who seeing the vanitie of the things of this life and ballancing with them the transcendent excellencie of the Soule of man above the world had rather be idle or not be at all then to be so basely and meanly imployed and rewarded as the world doth remunerate her favourites Others make bitter invectives against the body as the onely impediment to the soule in her more pure speculations placing the happinesse of the soule in the separation from the body all these come farre short of this divine affection which hath not her rise from the miseries of this life or from the vanitie of the creature or from the incumbrances of this cottage but from a true apprehension of the love of God from a deepe panting after union with him from a taste of the powers of the life to come from a Soule inflamed with a coale from Gods Altar Looke upon these Saints in my Text they were indeed exercised beyond measure with those things which wee call miseries calamities afflictions at the mention whereof wee quake like Aspen leaves but were these tainted with impatiencie were these groanes fuliginous
vapours from a malecontented spirit Did they not account these afflictions their Justs and Barriers and Turnaments and exercises of honour and chivalrie at which Angels and Archangels were present with their Euges and approbations God himselfe the chiefe Spectator and rewarder of these exercises they themselves tryumphing and boasting in their tryalls with the impresse of the Apostle on their shields of faith Wee are perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall bee able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus They were more Eagle-eyed by the strength of grace to pry into the nothingnesse of the creature then all the Philosophers by the strength of nature they did mortifie and crucifie and keepe under the body with the lusts thereof and more truly detest the corruption of the outward man then any Platonist whatsoever but were these the grounds the rise of this celestiall affection nothing lesse to see God to enjoy God to dwell with him to converse with him to be bee dissolved to be with Christ these transported their affections not the emptinesse of the things below but fulnesse of things above not the basenesse of earthly things but the glorie of celestiall things not the miseries of this life or of this crazie vessell but the happinesse of the life to come they had but a glimpse of this strange light darted into their soules and the whole world was darknesse unto it they had a gust of sweetnesse cast into the palate of their soules and all things else were bitter and unsavorie Christ was placed in the summitie and height of their soules and the desire of the full fruition of him caused that fainting that earnest longing in their spirits You will say if this be so what will become of the greatest part of Christians who are afraid to die who are so farre from groaning to depose this Tabernacle that they groane at the least intimation of dissolution It is true that all men receive not this saying neither is it for every one to attaine to this perfection As there are two sorts of faith so there are two forts of Christians there is a strong faith and a weake faith and there are strong Christians and there are weake Christians the strong Christian is willing to dye and patient to live the weake Christian is willing to live and patient to dye hee goes when God calls but he could wish that God would deferre his calling hee hath good hopes of heaven but he desires a little more to enjoy the earth he loves God more then all yet his affections are not fully taken off from all hee is not perplexed with the feares of Hell yet hee is not ravished with the joyes of Heaven hee hath much strength but knowes it not as many a Spectator of a prize is better able to performe it then he that undertakes it but either through faintnesse of heart or ignorance of his owne strength dare not put it to the hazard but had rather commend another mans valour then trye his owne whereas a strong Christian a man growne in Christ sends a challenge to this Gyant Death singles him out as a fit object of his valour grapples with him not as with his match but as his underling insulteth over him setteth his foot on the necke of this King of terrours and by conquering him captivates with great facilitie all other pettie feares of ignominie povertie and the like which therefore are dreadfull because they tend to Death the last the worst the end the summe of all feared evills this is the unconquerable crowne of Faith this is the glory of a Christian this is the Diadem of honour wreathed about his Temples advancing him above all other men whatsoever But you will say may a man desire death Is this now a question what meanes the agony of the Apostle I desire to bee dissolved and to bee with Christ. What meanes the earnest longing of the Spouse Apoca. 22. The Spirit saith come and the Bride saith come and let him that heares say come What meanes her fainting in the Canticles I am sicke of love let him bring mee into his chamber Let mee see his face I am sicke unto death Let mee dye lest I dye that I may see him for ever What meanes the character of a true Christian As many as love the appearance of the Lord which cannot be without death What meanes the incredible contempt of death in ancient Christians insomuch that it was a received Maxime with the Heathen Omnis Christianus est contemptor mortis What meanes the heroicall encouragement of old Hilarion Egredere anima egredere quid times Goe out my soule goe out why tremblest thou What meanes the words of old Simion in the flames Thus to die is to live What meanes the rapture of Saint Chrysostome that hee would thanke that man that would kill him as transmitting him more speedily to those unconceivable Joyes What meanes this groaning and thirsting in my Text Doe not these demonstrate that it is lawfull to desire death Not simply in it selfe or for it selfe it is the separation of those two whom God hath coupled it is a cessation of being it is an evill of punishment the daughter of sinne to desire it simply were to desire evill which is abhorrent to nature much lesse ought wee to hasten our death by violent meanes Let their memories bee buried in perpeturall silence as the botches and ulcers of Christianitie who out of impatience have perpetrated this heinous sinne a sinne against God and man against nature against grace against the Church against the common-wealth against all things The Heathen man could say that we are the possession of God to be disposed of by him not by our selves the body is the structure of God the worke of his hands the Tabernacle which hee hath made and not to be removed or to bee taken downe but by his command while we live we may advance the glory of God the good of others wee may impeople heaven make up the ruines of Angels to hasten our death were to envie this glory to God this good to others In that distraction of our Apostle betweene two good things his owne glory and the good of others you know which way the scales inclined to the good of others as if he had said Let my glory be deferred so Gods glory be increased let my joy be increased let my joy be suspended so the joy of Angels and of the Court of heaven be intended by the conversion of sinners Nay more this is a small thing Let me be an Athema so Israel be blessed let me be blotted out of the booke of life so thousands bee inserted let the bowels of Christ be streightened to me so they bee enlarged to others this is life indeed this is the end of our life this will comfort
of our life may be the more easie considering the shortnesse of it so the shortnesse of our life may be the lesse grievous considering the miserie of it for if God should lengthen out many mens lives what would it bee but a lengthening of their miserie But our life it is but a little while therefore let us indure it with comfort And as it serves for comfort so for instruction for if the life we live in here be but for a little while then learne to bestow this little time of life that we spend here as profitably and as faithfully as we can both for the receiving and doing of good Thou that livest now under a good Magistrate under a good Minister under a good Father under a good Master gaine all the good thou canst now for peradventure they shall live nay certainly they shall live but a little while and when their life is once quenched thou knowest not what light thou maist have to walke by And for our selves since our life is but a while let us be carefull to doe all the good we can be stirring betimes while wee have opportunitie let us doe good to all It is the madnesse of the Epicures because they shall live but a while they will live onely to themselves Let us eate and drinke because wee shall die tomorrow and that is the reason they die as beasts because they care not to live as men When they sing out their first canto we will fill our selves with pleasure the burden of the song must bee that wee have wearied our selves with sinne And it is the folly of the Mammonists considering that they have not long to live to put off the doing of all good till they die whereas the rule of Christ is to worke while wee have day for shortly the night will come when no man can worke They contrary put off all their worke till night all the day their charitie sleepes and doth nothing as one said wittily that that men give then they give of other bodies then their owne for they give that that they can keepe no longer and though it be said to bee given by their Will and Deed it is rather their Deed then their Will for if they could have their will it should never bee their Deed they would rather be possessers of it themselves then that others should be their Executors but be exhorted to doe workes of charitie and other good workes while you have time while you may make your owne eyes your overseers and your owne hands your executors while you have opportunitie doe good to your selves and others and the rather because you know not how long opportunitie will be afforded or tooke from you For what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little while Thus of the first circumstance wherein the resemblance consists the shortnesse of abiding The next is the suddennesse of departing It appeares for a while and then vanisheth away And here my discourse must be like a vapour short it suddenly vanisheth away that is the nature of a vapour ‑ for as there is no matter to give it a fixed foundation so when it appeareth for a little it soone dissolveth and vanisheth awayto nothing and such a vapour is the life of man it is gone suddenly it is gone before wee be aware and when it is gone there is no memorie of it remaines no print of it how suddenly and quickly in a moment in the twinckling of an eye have many been deprived both of breath and life as one would put out a candle or tread out a snuffe It is true sicknesse is one common Bailiffe that arests men at the suite of Death but many a one hath beene made the prisoner of Death that was never arested at the suite of Death yee know Abell was murthered in the field Ely broke his necke from the chaire Absalon was snatched up in an Oke the disobedient Prophet was slaine by a Lyon the disobedient Prince was trodden to death in a crowde Abimelech was slaine by a peece of a milstone Pope Adrian was choaked with swallowing a flie Pelus slaine with the fall of a tile Such is our life as a vapour as the sand of an houre-glasse ever spending and ever running out as Gregorie hath it in his Moralls Looke how many dayes a man addes to his life so many steps hee takes to his death So Ieremie to Heliodorus wee are ever dying for we every day change when I am writing this all the points of my penne spends a point of my life nay while we are hearing this Sermon we are passing on I will make a little Vse of it and then I have done First make the Vse the Apostle doth to them that build upon futuritie and thinke they may do what they list you that thinke you wil do to day and to morrow what you list Oh saith the Apostle what reason have you to build on to day and to morrow when yee know not what a day will bring forth We may not promise our selves life for to morrow much lesse may we do as the foole in the Gospel promise years when we cannot assure our selves of a moment of life if wee might assure our selves of a moment of life in which it might be said it were impossible to die we might possibly be immortall and not die at all but as Ambrose saith corruptible is not so capable of incorruption but since it hath beene subject to fall till it doth fall it is ever declining there is no building nor trusting to uncertaine futuritie we must not rest and trust on those things which are to come but only upon God and speake conditionally of them not absolutely referre the successe and disposing of all things to come to the will and good pleasure of God remembring what our life is so make lesse accompt of our life and of our selves and all Secondly seeing our life is so vanishing let us ever prepare for death for sudden death because life is vanishing Thou knowest not in what houre thy master will come Therefore every houre we should so bestow our selves that our Master may find us at worke For this two things are requisite First ever thinke of death death cannot be sudden to that man that ever thinkes of it Secondly be carefull to lead a godly life the goodnesse of the life consists not in the long continuance of it but in the well imploying of it it may be any mans case to live well it can be no mans to live long our comfort is though our life bee momentarie yet notwithstanding this very moment of time is enough to gaine to us here-after eternitie and how much better is a short time well spent for the purchasing of eternall happinesse then a short time ill spent for the purchasing of eternall miserie your life is momentarie yet eternity depends on it if it be spent ill eternall miserie if well we are eternally happy
sleepie heart and conscience when a man heares not nor understands the Word that hee doth heare when he heares not that which is spoken It is one judgement upon wicked men the Booke of God is clasped to them such a man reads and heares and discernes not If the Booke be open his heart is clasped fast he takes no good by it And this is not the least part of the miserie upon the Saints that this booke is not so open to them nor they doe not so understand it nor discerne that which is in it as they might We heare the Word many of us many times and we seeme to receive it but yet who is he that may not find in himselfe that the sleepe and securitie of his mind and soule makes him not much to attend and regard it that he is not carefull and industrious in the keeping and maintaining of that hee heares and the framing himselfe according to it And so it comes to passe that it is with Gods word that we heare as it is with Physick when it is given to a man that is dead it workes not or when he sleepes immediatly upon it so when we heare the word of God and fall into a sleepe upon it into the sleepe and sluggishnesse of earthly cares the Word is unprofitable it workes not that effect that else it would Againe a man that sleepes you shall know it by this he doth not mind his ordinarie businesse he neither troubles his head nor his hands with it his businesse sleepes with himselfe he doth nothing but sleepe while he is asleepe he can doe nothing else So hereby we may know our selves to be in a marvellous sleepe of sinne when we give not our serious thoughts to God and to the practice of pietie and godlinesse it is an argument of sleepe and slumber in us The mind of man should intend the principall thing for which God hath put us in the world when we give not our thoughts to God and mind not the things of Gods kingdome it is a signe we are asleepe When we move not nor stirre not our hands and our feete in the wayes of Gods commandements as we should it proceeds from this sleepinesse and drowsinesse Whereas would we be wise for our selves and awake as we should wee should neither be idle nor unfruitfull in the worke of the Lord. We should ever be doing something that might glorifie God and further our owne reckoning But this is a signe of a sleepie person in the maine and principall things his heart is not upon them his hands and feet move not in the wayes of God he workes not to the principall end for which hee came into the world Thirdly you shall know a sleepie man by this he knowes not of the passing of the time but so much time as he sleepes he wastes it is as the time of death to him for what is sleepe but the shadow of death Even so it is with many of us that professe the teaching of Grace Alas how doe we waste time insensibly and passe away the time some decke away the time some play away the time dayes and weekes and moneths together as if time were not made for some other businesse as if we had received time for such imployments as these for our recreations and sports and pleasures and not rather that we might further our repentance and our reckoning and helpe the servants of God and get oyle in our lampes and faith in our soules and patience against the time of trouble and get assurance of a blessed inheritance when we shall be turned out hence Time is given us for these ends and yet we silly men as we are devise pastimes to our selves as if our life did not passe away whereas Iob saith it is as a Weavers shuttle Let us consider brethren time will passe that we may improve it and not wast our time Fourthly and lastly to conclude this point a man that is addicted immoderately to sleepe you shall know it by this it destroyes naturall heate and that being destroyed by immoderate sleepe as by a sudden mightie shower this man growes pursie and fatte and lazie he growes idle and unfit for the exercises of manhood or of his Calling and the like So it is when a man is immoderatly and excessively fast asleepe with the cares of this life the lusts of his heart the pleasures of this present world or whatsoever it is that lulls him and rocks this cradle when he is thus asleepe hee growes fatte and pursie his naturall heate is gone he falls from his first zeale and affection and desire and practise Alas brethren we may speake to the shame and sorrow of many I doubt that heare me that have exchanged their care of godlinesse that have exchanged their seeking of God in the meanes with company with good-fellowship with drunkennesse And let the Lords marriners come to them and say Up sleeper call upon thy God why dost thou not doe thy first workes Why art thou lazie he growes angry as Ionas was that thought he did well to bee angrie to the death This is the miserie of many that live under the teaching of the Gospell in the light of the Gospell This is another marke and a signe of sleepe when we cannot abide of any thing to be wakened To draw to a conclusion the last use of this point it serves to rouze and to raise us from this sleepe and securitie this slumber that is in the best of us And know my brethren I speake not now to those that are out of the Church and those that are notoriously wicked those that are scandalous and rebellious to good counsell but I speake to those that live in the bosome of the Church those that professe goodnesse and godlinesse yea those that are Disciples and are neere the side of Christ let this exhortation be to them to raise and rouze themselves out of this sleepe It is time saith the Apostle that wee rise out of sleepe The summe of this exhortation I will propound and then draw to a conclusion First consider how unprofitable a man a Christian man is when he is asleepe What is a man when he is asleepe but that there is hope of awaking and to come to the actions of life againe a man that is asleepe he lives but the life of a Plant there is nothing but being and nourishment a waking beast is more profitable but that I say there is hope that afterwards hee will awake So when we sleepe and slumber and tumble and tosse our selves in dead securitie how unprofitable are we to Gods glorie and to our owne selves Saint Paul saith that Onesimus was unprofitable before his conversion but now saith he hee is profitable both to thee and mee A man that is asleepe is unprofitable and certainly he that is asleepe in securitie and sinne this man is most unprofitable to Gods glorie and to his
23. For the wages of sinne is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. THe latter part of this Chapter from the 12. Verse to the end is spent in a grave and powerfull dehortation of the faithfull from securitie in sinne against which the Apostle useth sundry arguments That which he presseth most is drawne from the severall ends to which sinne and righteousnesse doth leade men The end of sinne is death vers 21. therefore that is not to bee served The end of of righteousnesse is life everlasting vers 22. therefore that is to be imbraced Because there is now difference in the manner of the proceeding of these two ends death comming from sinne as from the meritorious cause but life from righteousnesse another manner of way therefore the Apostle addes this epiloge and conclusion in the last verse plainely shewing and more clearely expressing the manner of them both for the wages saith hee of sinne is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. In which words we have a description of a twofold service Of sinne in the former clause And of God or righteousnesse in the latter And how both these are rewarded The one with death it payes us well And the other with life which is bestowed by the free gift of God through Christ. These are the two parts the two generall points that we are to consider First the wages of sinne is death saith the Apostle Of sinne That is of the depravation and corruption of our nature and so consequently of every sinne that being not onely it selfe sinne but the matter and mother of all sinne when sinne hath conceived it bringeth forth death when sinne is put forth whereby he signifieth the generall depravation and corruption of our nature from whence all sinne flowes So it is here The wages The word in the originall signifieth properly victualls because victualls was that that the Roman Emperours gave their souldiers as wages in recompence of their service but thence the word extends to signifie any other wages or Salary whatsoever The wages of sinne is death by death here is signified and meant both temporall and eternall death especially eternall death for it is opposed to eternall life in the next clause of the sentence therefore that is that that is principally meant The wages of sinne is death that is eternall death This for the exposition of the tearmes The point to bee observed from this first part of the Text is this that Death is as due to sinne as wages to one that earnes it To such a one wages is due in strict justice if a man have a hyred servant he may bestow a free gift on him if he will if he will not he may choose but his stypend or his wages he must pay him unlesse he will be unjust for it is the price of his worke and so is due to him that he cannot without injustice withhold it After such a manner is death due to sinne the very demerrite of the worke of sinne requires it as being earned God is as just in inflicting death upon sinners for their sinnes as any man is in paying his labourer or hired servant their wages for this is the generall plaine scope of the Apostles words here So in the beginning God appointed Gen. 2. 17. where hee told Adam concerning the forbidden fruite in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death As if hee should have sayd when thou sinnest death must be thy wages The same is repeated Ezek. 18. 20. where it is sayd The soule that sinneth shall die expressing the wages of sinne it is death that is the recompence of sinne if sinne have his due then death must follow So the Apostle had shewed before in this Epistle Rom. 5. 12. that by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne so death went over all men for as much as all men had sinned All had sinned therefore all are payed with death And Saint Iames shewes the consequence and connexion betweene these two the worke and the wages he tells us Iam. 1. 15 that when sinne hath conceived it bringeth forth death All these places are evidences that death by Gods ordinance by his appointment is the due of sinne as due to it even as wages is to a hyred servant or one that hath earned it What death is it that is due to sinne Both temporall and eternall death I say both deaths concerning both which the truth is to be cleared from some doubts It was the Pelagians errour to thinke that man should have dyed a naturall death though he had never sinned so they thought that the naturall temporall bodily death was not the wages of sinne Contrary to the Apostle in the placâ—… I spake of Rom. 5. where hee makes that death that goes over all men which must needes bee naturall death to enter by sinne sinne brought in death no sinne no death at all But it may be objected when God told Adam in the day that he eate the forbidden fruite he should die the death he meant not temporall death there as the event shewes for such a death was not inflicted upon Adam in the day that hee sinned for after he sinned he lived still in the world naturally hee continued living many yeares after I answer notwithstanding all this Adam may bee sayd to die a naturall death as soone as he sinned because by the guilt of his sinne he then presently became subject to it and God straight way denounced upon him the sentence of death therefore it may bee sayd he straite way dyed As a condemned person is called a dead man though he be respited for a time Besides the Messengers and Sergeants of death presently tooke hold of him and arrested him for sinne as hunger and thirst and cold and diseases daily wasting of the naturall moysture to the quenching of life Indeede God suffered him that the sentence was not presently executed so to commend his owne patience and to give to Adam occasion of salvation the promise of Christ being after made and he called to repentance by that meanes to attaine a better life by Christ then he lost by sinne It is objected againe Christ redeemed us from all sinne and all the punishment thereof but he did not redeeme us from bodily death from temporall death for the faithfull wee see dye still even as others doe therefore it is concluded by some that temporall death is not the wages of sinne for then when wee were free from sinne by Christ wee should bee freed from that Our answer to this is that Christ hath freede all his elect not onely from eternall but even from temporall death though not from both in the same manner From temporall death first in hope of which the Apostle speaking 1 Cor. 15. saith The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death meaning temporall death at last then it shall be destroyed mortall shall put on immortality as the Apostle speakes but in the meane time it is destroyed in hope though it remaine indeede and must be undergone even of the faithfull in this life How be it to them Christ hath changed the nature of it and now they no longer undergoe it as the wages of sinne but for other causes As first the exercise of their graces their faith and hope and patience and the rest all these are exercised as in other afflictions so even in the death of Gods Children Secondly the totall remoovall and riddance of the reliques of sinne from which they are not freed in this life but when they die then all sinne is taken away for as at the first sinne brought death into the world so to the faithfull now death carries it out againe Thirdly their entrance into heaven and to bee at home with the Lord from whom wee are absent as long as wee are at home in these bodies Fourthly to prepare their bodies for renewing at the last day that is done by death for as a decayed Image or statue must first be broken that it may be new cast so these bodies of ours must bee broken by death that they may be cast into a new mold of immortalitie at the generall resurrection But here as some sinne remaines so death remaines though wee be in Christ yet wee are still in that estate wherein it is appointed to all men once to dye Thus even temporall death is left to the Children of God to bee undergone before they come to heaven It is left to them I say and that justly in respect of the remnants of sinne yet they undergoe it no other way but for their owne good and benefit How ever temporall death in its owne nature to an unbeleever is the wages of sinne And as temporall so eternall death for when God told man that in the day hee sinned he should die the death he meant not onely temporall but eternall death he meant that principally as I shewed before in that the Apostle opposeth it to eternall life in the next clause of the sentence Now Christ hath freede all beleevers actually from eternall death But how eternall death should be the wages of sinne may be doubted because betweene the worke and the the wages there must be some proportion that seemes not to bee betweene sinne and eternall death for sinne is a finite a temporall thing committed in a short time and that death is eternall Now to punish a temporall fault with an eternall punishment it seemes that it is to make the punishment to exceed the fault and that is against justice But for answer to this doubt wee must know that however sinne considered in the act and as it is a transcient action it is finite yet in other respects it is infinite and that in a threefold consideration First in respect of the object against whom it is committed for being the offence of an infinite Majestie it deserves an infinite punishment for wee know offences are reckoned of for their greatnesse according as the greatnesse of the person is against whom they are committed If hee that clippes the Kings coyne or deface the Kings Armes or counterfeit the broad Seale of England or the Princes privie Seale ought to die as a traytor because this disgrace tends to the person of the Prince much more ought he that violates the law of God die the first and second death too because it tends to the defacing of the Image and the disgracing of the person of God himselfe who is contemned and dishonoured in every sinne Secondly sinne is infinite in respect of the subject wherein it is the soule of man Seeing the soule is immortall and of an everlasting substance and that the guilt of sinne and the blot together staine the soule as a crimson and skarlet die upon wooll and can no more be severed from the soule then the spottes from the Leopard it remaines as the soule is eternall and as that is everlasting so sinne is infinite in durance and continuance and deserves an infinite wages and punishment which is eternall death Thirdly it is infinite also in respect of the tie betweene the desire and indeavour of an impenitent sinner for his desire is to walke on still in sinne and except God cut off the line of life never to give over sinning but he would runne on infinitely committing sinne even with greedinesse And it is reason that as God accepts the will for the deed in godlinesse so hee should punish the will for the deed in wickednesse if wee sinne according to our eternitie in our will and purpose to sinne God will punish us according to his eternitie it is just that they that would never bee without sinne if they might have their owne will should never be without punishment Thus we see eternall death is the wages of sinne though sinne be committed in a moment though it bee a transcient action in it selfe yet it is just with God to give it the wages of eternall death So you see Death both temporall and eternall is the wages of sinne Wee come to the Use of the point being thus declared First it teacheth us contrarie to the Doctrine of the Church of Romeâ—… that originall lust and concupiscence in the regenerate is a sinne for how else should God be just in inflicting temporall death upon infants that are regenerate actuall sinnes they have none and iâ—… they have no originall sin neither then God should inflict the wages of sinne where there were no sinne which cannot be because there is no iniquitie with God Therefore certaine it is that after regeneration this originall lust though the guilt of it be taken away yet as sinne it remaines the substance of it still remaines and will as long as we live in this world For it is in us as it is well compared as the I vie is in the wall which having taken root so twines and incorporates it selfe that it can never bee quite rooted out till the wall be taken down so till body and soule be taken asunder by death there will be no totall riddance of Originall corruption and the depravation of our nature it is still in us as appeares by the temporall death even of the best Saints of those that are most sanctified in this life it shewes there is remainders of corruption in them still for if there were not sinne there would not be the wages of sinne there would not be death if there were not sinne Secondly the Use of it is to take away a fond Popish distinction of mortall and veniall sinne they teach some sins to be veniall that is such sins as in their owne nature deserve not death whereas the Apostle here speaking of all sinne in generall hee saith the wages thereof is death
there yet remaine divers such heads noted by her with her owne hand signes of Grace signes of the truth of it of the growth of it of the effects of it meanes to grow in grace c. An excellent course Thus she shewed pietie in reading of the word of God the like shee did in prayer hearing others performe that dutie in her Familie but specially when shee was both husband and wife both master and mistris Death making a division betweene her deare Husband and her selfe shee used to pray her selfe and those that heard her and have given testimonie thereof admired her gifts that way Frequent she was as appeared in her often retyring her selfe to her Closet in her constant and secret devotion yea also shee tooke occasion of much fasting specially when shee heard of the troubles of the Church The cause of the Church much affected her either in matter of rejoycing or griefe shee continued it till her dying day and still her heart was upon the peace of the Church praying for it As thus she exercised her selfe in this holy manner so shee did likewise wonderfully respect those that were the Ministers of God Amongst many others I have heard long agoe that worthy Minister before mentioned from whom I have received most of what I have now related speake much of her and of her worthy Husband in this respect The feet of those that brought the glad tydings of salvation were beautifull to her And as shee was carefull to testifie her respect to them so shee her selfe gained no little recompence thereby for shee was still asking them questions still desiring to have such and such doubts resolved by them As thus her pietie was manifested so likewise was her Charitie constantly every weeke giving reliefe to the Poore ready upon all occasions that she was moved to to open her hands and to open them wide and that againe and againe not wearied in doing good Sober and grave she was in her cariage and attyre and therein a good example to the younger sort And thus shee continued even to her dying day full of sweet meditations upon her death-bed my selfe partaked of some of them Being asked what evidences she had for her salvation she answered good whether she doubted not shee replyed no though shee were of a tender conscience yet she had laid such a foundation as her faith remained firme Shee sweetly ended her dayes with prayers of her owne with desire of the prayers of Ministers still as they came to her for as she hearkened to and desired the benefit of their counsell when she lived so she desired the comfort of their prayers now in her death thus I say with a sound testimonie of her faith and of her good estate she ended her dayes and we may be assured that she is in the Number of those that are Co-heires of the grace of life I remember the Philosophers make mention of a word which containes in it a kind of collection or combination of all in one I may say of her that the graces and vertues and ornaments of others seemed to be gathered together and to meet in her And so her pietie toward God resembleth her to the two pious Hanna's the one the Mother of Samuel the other the Daughter of Phanuel Her charitie resembleth her to Dorcas Her love to the Ministers of God to the Shunamite that provided a Chamber a Table and a Candlesticke for Elisha In her relation to her Husband she shewed her selfe a true Daughter of Saraah In her relation to her children which she had a Bathsheba and Eunice To others a Priscilla the Wife of Aquila ready to instruct as occasion was offered And so my brethren she hath shewed her selfe a follower of those that through faith and patience inherit the Promise It remaineth to us to set such examples before us and to bee followers of them as they have beene followers of others and as others have beene followers of Christ that so walking in their steps wee may also bee in the number of such as have the comfort of this Text to be Co-heires of the grace of life which that you may doe c. FINIS PEACE IN DEATH OR THE QUIET END OF THE RIGHTEOVS PSAL. 37. 37. Marke the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace NUMB. 23. 10. Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. PEACE IN DEATH OR THE QVIET END OF THE RIGHTEOVS SERMON XXXIV LUKE 2. 29. Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy Word IN the Text it selfe to let passe other things you have First a Request and secondly a Reason upon which the Request is grounded Of each of these in order and first of the first The Request The summe whereof is That he may die Where is considerable First the disposition of the servants of God in respect of death viz. 1. A desire and longing after it 2. A care to be alwayes ready for it Secondly the warrant or guide of that desire according to thy Word Thirdly the nature and qualitie of the death of the Righteous adeâ—…e in peace Of each of these apart The point that ariseth from the first branch of the first geneâ—…all part viz. the desire and longing of the Saints for their day of death is this that The servants of God have in them a contented comfortable and willing expectation of death The rise of this Observation is obvious enough one spirit workes in all Gods servants and brings forth like effects though not alwayes in the same measure that therefore which is true in Simeon which the very first view of the words import that the comming of Death was expected and desired by him is in some degree verefied sooner or later in all that are the Lords Hereunto agrees that of Saint Paul I desire saith hee to bee dissolved c. And hee averres the same of all true beleevers viz. that they groane earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with their house which is from Heaven and that they are willing rather to bee absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. The foundation of this desire is the knowledge and right understanding of the truth of that speech of Solomon to wit that the day of death is better then the day of a mans birth They have learned to know that the day of death to Gods servants is the day of freedome from all miseries and of entrance into eternall happinesse The miseries of this life which even the best are subject unto are many Losse of goods losse of credit losse of friends aches paines diseases fevers consumptions c. bondage under originall corruption and the fruits thereof as unbeliefe pride of heart ignorance covetousnesse distrustfulnesse hatred lust c. the buffetings and temptations of Sathan societie with the wicked all these miseries even
the Holiest and dearest servants of God are exercised with and divers of these doe make them many times mourne exceedingly and to cry one while O wretched man that I am and to groane out another while Woe is mee that I am constrained to live in Mesech and to have my habitation in the tents of Kedar of all these miseries Death is the end to Gods servants And so also it is an entrance into happinesse for albeit their bodyes rot in the Grave and bee laid up in the Earth as in Gods store-house untill the last day yet the soule forthwith even in an instant comes into the presence of the ever-living God of Christ and of all the Angels and Saints in Heaven the spirits of just men made perfect to Abrahams bosome to bee with Christ quanta haec felicitas What greater happinesse It was much that Moses obtained to see the back-parts of God but how much greater favour is it to see him face to face to have eternall fellowship with God the Father with Christ the Redeemer with the Holy Ghost the sanctifier The knowledge of this benefit of Death makes the face of it comfortable to Gods servants and causes them to strive with their owne naturall weaknesse that so they may even long for their day of dissolution But now against this point divers Objections may be alledged For first the Apostle Paul sayes that Death is the wages of sinne And else-where hee stiles it Christs enemie the last enemie that hee shall subdue is Death How should not death then be rather a day of misery to bee trembled at then a day of happinesse to bee longed for To this I answer that wee are to distinguish touching Death for it must be considered two wayes First as it is in its owne nature Secondly as it is altered by Christ in the first sence it is true that Death is the wages of sinne and the very suburbs and the gates of hell But in the second taking of Death it ceases to be a plague and becomes a blessing inasmuch as it is even a doore opening out of this world into Heaven Now the godly looke not upon Death simply but upon Death whose sting and venome is plucked out by Jesus Christ and so it is exceeding comfortable But then secondly it is objected that wee reade of many that have prayed against death as namely first David Returne O Lord saith he and deliver my soule oh spare mee for thy mercyes sake for in death there is no remembrance of thee Secondly Hezekiah when the message of death was brought to him Thirdly Christ himselfe Father if it bee possible let this cup passe from me To all these I answer first touching Daâ—…d that when he composed that sixt Psalme hee was not only gâ—…vously sicke but also exceedingly tormented in mind for he wrestled and combatted in his conscience with the wrath of God as appeares by the first Verse of that Psalme therefore wee must know that hee prayed not simply against Death but against death at that time in asmuch as the comming of it was accompanied with extraordinary apprehensions of Gods wrath for at another time hee tells us that hee would not feare though hee walked through the valley of the shadow of Death And the like I say touching Hezekiah that his prayer proceeded not from any desperate feare of Death but first that he might doe more service to God in his Kingdome And with such a kind of thought was Saint Pauls desire of dissolution mingled Secondly hee prayed against Death then because he knew that his death then would be a great cause of rejoycing to evill men to whom his reformation in the State was unpleasâ—…ng Thirdly because hee wanted issue God had promised before to David that there should not faile a man of his seed to sit upon the throne of Israel so that his children did take heed 〈◊〉 their wayes Now it was a great discomfort to him to die childlesse for then he and others might have thought that he was but an Hypocrite inasmuch as God had promised issue to all those Kings that feared him and for this cause God heard his prayer and after two yeares gave him a sonne Maâ—…asseh by name And so I say the same touching our Saviour Christ that hee prayed not against Death as it is the separation betwixt Body and Soule as appeares by what the Apostle saith that hee was heard in that hee feared for hee stood in our roome and became a Curse for us it was the Curse of the Law which went with Death and the unspeakable wrath and indignation of God which hee feared and from this according to his prayer he was delivered But thirdly wee see in most good men a feare of Death and a desire of life and I my selfe may some godly man say doe feele my selfe ready to tremble at the meditation thereof and yet I hope I belong unto God I answer that there are two things to bee considered in every Christian Flesh and Spirit Corruption and Grace and the best have many inward perplexities at times and doubtings of Gods favour Now it is a truth which our Saviour delivers that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weake And as in all other good purposes there is a combat betwixt the flesh and the spirit so is there in this betwixt the feare of Death and the desire of Death sometime the one prevailes and sometimes the other but yet alwayes at last the desire of Death doth get the victory Carnall respects doe often prevaile farre with the best care of wife children and the like Thâ—…se are their infirmities but as other infirmities die in them by degrees so these also at last are subdued and the servants of God seeing clearely the happinesse into which their Death in Christ shall enter them doe even sigh desiring to bee clothed upon with their house which is from Heaven Here then is a good Marke by which we may know our selves to be Gods servants viz. by the state of our thoughts and meditations touching Death I will so deliver it as may bee most for the comfort of those that truly feare God I demand therefore of thee Dost thou know that the confident and comfortable expectation of Death is the worke of the Holy Ghost in Gods servants Dost thou desire unfeignedly that the same may bee wrought in thy heart Dost thou labour to know what happinesse comes by Death to those that feare the Lord Dost thou grieve at thine owne weaknesse to whom the thought of Death is sometime troublesome and unsavourie Dost thou pray the Lord so to assure thee of his favour in Christ that death may bee desired before it comes and welcome when it is come Dost thou when thou hearest this speech of Simeon wish that thou wert able to use the like words with the like resolution Surely
upon this how they may die with comfort and end their dayes in peace How many prophane ones that set light by Death being apt to say like those Epicures Edamus c. Let us eate and drinke for to morrow wee shall die How many that doe put all to a desperate adventure God made us and hee must save us and wee shall doe as well as please God and there is an end How many are there whose hearts albeit they be in the house of God and in his presence are notwithstanding fraughted with malice with envie with worldlinesse with disdaine with secret scorning repining at the Word which they heare with wearisomenesse with spirituall sleepinesse and securitie You that are such as I have now said thinke in your consciences what would you die if God should now stop your breath and ascyte you by Death presently to appeare before his Majestie being thus full of ignorance of securitie of presumption of unsanctified of vicious of malicious of covetous thoughts could you find in your hearts to say Lord now let us depart Sure wee could not but Death must needs be to us as it is said to be to the wicked Rex terrorum the King of terrours if it should come upon us and find us in this case And yet what know wee how soone how suddenly wee may be overtaken some of us drop away daily some young some old some lie sicke longer some lesser time and how soone it will be our turne wee cannot tell Our breath is in our nostrills wee are all as grasse If the breath of the Lord blow upon us we doe suddenly wither as the flower of the field and returne agaâ—…e to our first Earth Why will we not labour to be now ready sith it may be alwayes truly said We may now depart either while we are here or in our way home or in our beds or at our meat Who can truly say to himselfe I am sure I shall not die this houre It may be now thou wilt demand of me What shall I doe that I may be ready To insist upon particulrs would be too long onely therefore in a word The best preparation for death is are formed life He that lives religiously cannot but die preparedly And it is a thousand to one if a wicked liver make a gracious end The Scripture makes mention of a double Death and so likewise of a twofold Resurrection the first Death is the death of the body which is the separation of it from the soule The second death is of the soule which is the separation of it from God The first Resurrection is the rising from the Death of sinne to a new life the second is that which shall be of the body out of the Grave at the day of Judgement Now what saith the Scripture Blessed and holy is hee that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power Wouldest thou then bee freed from the second Death hell and destruction when thou art dead Now that thou art yet alive labour to have a part in the first Resurrection Note what Saint Paul saith of the wanton widow that shee is dead whilst shee lives So he that lives in the pleasures of sinne and in the wayes of his owne heart and after his owne lust hee is dead in soule though hee be alive in body and if hee seeke not to come out of this grave eternall death shall be his portion Well then wouldest thou prepare for Death wouldest thou be able alwayes to say Lord now now I am ready labour to know God our of his Word that is eternall life Labour to feele Christ live and reigne in thee by his Spirit labour to renounce every sinne doe not goe on in any knowne sinne against conscience renew thy repentance daily and still survey the state of thy soule that wickednesse may not get dominion over thee Let Death come when it will though the Lord should so visit thee that thou shouldest drop downe suddenly yet it shall not find thee unprepared thou hast a part in the first Resurrection there is no feare of the second Death But if thou wilt cherish thy heart in evil thou wilt goe on in thy ignorance in thy carelesse worship of God in thy prophaning the Sabbath in thy whoredome oppression malice drunkennesse excesse voluptuousnesse thou makest ready for hell and it is not thy Lord save me or I cry God mercy c. that shall serve thy turne I will tell thee who thou art like unto even to a man appointed after a yeare or two to be burned and in the meane space must carry a sticke daily to the heape so thou heapest up wrath against thy selfe and makest thy score so great that when Death comes thou shalt not know how to be prepared And thus have I finished the first generall part of my Text touching the disposition of the godly in respect of Death I proceed now in a word to the second the ground rule or warrant of this desire and preparation for death according to thy word as if Simeon had said this desire that I have now to end my dayes proceeds not from any carnall discontentment because I am now old and can take no great comfort in worldly things but the ground of it is thy Word and Promise thou Lord hast revealed unto thy servant that I should not die before I had seene my Saviour This word is now fulfilled and the sweetnesse thereof hath given mee that encouragement that I doe even long to bee dissolved and to be united unto thee Or againe thus Oh Lord this care that I have had to provide thus for Death and to be alwayes in a readinesse it hath not come from my selfe nature never taught it mee but thy Word hath instructed mee If I had not proceeded according to thy Word I should never have knowne how to have prepared my selfe to the time of dissolution This is the meaning of the words and so the Doctrine is plain viz. that Men ignorant in Gods word can never take comfort in death nor bee truly prepared to undergoe it This is plaine if we consider the Exposition which I have already given of that part of Simeons speech It is a generall Rule that of our Saviour Yee erre not knowing the Scripture A man ignorant in the Scripture can never rightly performe any spirituall dutie Hence was that of David Thy testimonies saith he are my delight and my counsellours If any matter came in hand that concerned his soule straight to the word of God went hee to know thence how to doe it as a man for his Lease or conveyance goeth to a Counsellour for direction So againe he confesses that if Gods Law had not beene his delight hee should have perished in his afflictions And so no comfort no true quiet in any trouble much more at Death without the guidance and information of the Word The
hell out of sorrow and angvish and tentation hee raiseth out their greatest quiet Secondly because the love of God is eternall and unchangeable Whom hee loves hee loves to the end It is unpossible that the Lord albeit he trie and that sharply yet should finally forsake those that are his in their greatest extremitie But againe secondly if you make a peaceable death to bee the reward of the Righteous what say you to this There bee many that in all their life gave little evidence of any Religion or grace but of the contrary rather yet in their death were very quiet and still and seemed to all that were by to have in them no manner of vexation no troublesome thoughts no perplexed motions shall wee say that these were good men because they seemed to goe away in peace It is true indeed it is the common opinion Doth a man lye quietly hath hee his memorie to the end died he like a Lambe surely then hee is gone to heaven but this is an absurd colection for First sometime this outward calmenesse is an ordinary consequent of some diseases as Consumptions and such like by which Nature being formerly weakned hath not power left to make resistance Secondly this outward calmenesse is no argument of a peaceable and quiet soule The Psalmist tells us of the wicked in whose death there are no bands Thirdly wee must distinguish betweene securitie and peace betwixt carnall senslesnesse and true spirituall quietnesse Nabals death was quiet enough yet hee were but a foole that would adventure his soule with Nabals I see many ignorant persons many of heathenish and brutish conversation very quiet in sicknesse without any feare of hell and judgement to come making no doubts casting no perills asking no questions complaining of no sinnes and so away they goe without any more adoe What shall I say that these died in true peace God forbid No when I compare together their ignorant secure benummed hardned kind of life with their senslesse and drowsie kind of death I must say that these are fearefull signes these things argue that the Divill had quiet possession where hee made so small adoe Thus then notwithstanding these Objections I will conclude that a peacefull death is the peculiar and individed priviledge of Gods servants However it be yet I know saith Solomon that it shall goe well with those that feare the Lord but there is no peace to the wicked saith my God Wee may make Use of this first to be a tryall betwixt our Religion and the Romish for from this Doctrine I avouch that Religion to be no true Religion because a Papist by the Rules of his owne Religion can never die in peace This is a hard saying thou maist object or how can I make it good I answer by two reasons First every Papist is taught to beleeve under paine of Anathema and the great curse that whosoever dyeth if hee have not in this life attained to perfection and throughly purged himselfe from the remainders of sinne by workes of satisfaction his soule must after death goe into Purgatory and there continue untill hee hath made a full satisfaction now the paine of Purgatorie is held for the time to bee as great as the paines of hell differing onely in this that it is not perpetuall Now I would faine know how can a man die comfortably and in peace and with a joyfull heart when hee thinkes with himselfe that albeit perhaps after some yeares hee shall goe to heaven yet in the meane space his soule must goe into such a place of unspeakable torment where if the matter be not well plyed by the prayers of them that are alive and by well feeing the Priests they may hap to lye for many yeares I say how can the Doctrine of Popery beget a peacefull death when it teacheth an expectation of such an hellish Purgatory Secondly every Papist as he is bound of a certaine to beleeve a Purgatory so further must he beleeve that hee cannot in this life be assured of salvation otherwise then by a kind of confused hope which may deceive him Now hee which by the witnesse of his owne conscience is sure that hee hath deserved hell and cannot attaine to any certaintie of discharge what comfort can such an one have to dye hee knowes that when hee is dead he must come to his account before God but yet can have no assurance that the Lord will acquit him in Christ Jesus I wish that this may seriously be considered by us for the establishing of us in the truth of Religion I say againe and testifie these reasons which I have alledged being weighed that a Papist by his owne doctrine can never expect that which Simeon did a departure hence in peace He knowes he must to torment he is taught that he cannot know in this world that God will pardon him In the next place let us come neerer home to our selves that we must all dye nothing more certaine Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne God hath decreed it and it cannot bee revoked if our end be not peaceable our estate after cannot bee happy Let our care then be spent about this one point how one may attaine to this to end our dayes in peace I doubt not but wee will all bee ready to say we hope so to doe but this is nothing for when the wicked man dyeth his expectation perisheth What becomes of the hope of the Hypocrite said Iob when God takes away his soule But what course then shall wee take that wee may finish our course with joy I will tell thee in few words I touched it a little before the best meanes for a peaceable departure is a godly and religious life I have fought the good fight saith Saint Paul and he could comfortably from thence inferre that therefore there was laid up for him a crowne of righteousnesse It was Christs owne inference I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the worke which thou gavest mee to doe and therefore now O Father glorifie thou mee with thine owne selfe The reason of it is first Gods promise blessed shall bee the undefiled in the way Those that honour mee I will honour said God Now this promise God will not breake He that goeth this way though it be with much weaknesse with many falls with sundry imperfections with divers wandrings yet he cannot misse of the promised peace Secondly life eternall hath three degrees the first is in this life when a man repenteth and beleeveth and is purged from dead workes to serve the living God The second is in death when the body goes to earth and the spirit returnes to him that gave it The third is at the last judgement These three degrees hang together like three linkes the second followeth the first and the third the two former the last cannot be hoped for where
there remains not now any sinne to cleave to the conscience to defile it to cleave to the conscience so as a ruling enemie would doe that would take away all true and perfect peace all boldnesse and accesse to the throne of Grace there is no such conscience of sinne This making conscience of every sinne is that that frees conscience from being defiled in that sence with any sinne So much for the first Well secondly it is expressed by death and life to shew the orderlinesse in the proceeding of this change When a man is changed by the effecacie and working of Christ to whom hee is united it proceeds in such a manner as the change in death or life You know death or life begin within first it begins in the inward man in the heart first And as in naturall death or naturall life there is a dying first of the root and a quickning first at the root So likewise in spirituall death or life it is an orderly proceeding it begins first within Our Saviour Christ gives this direction First make the inside cleane and then all will bee cleane against the hypocrisie of the Scribes and Pharisees that looked more to outward actions So this change it is not onely a meere civilizing of a man a conforming of him to that societie hee converseth with in outward actions but renewing of a man in the spirit of his minde Rom. 12. 2. So the change begins from within Hence it is that first hee is good and then hee doth good according to the speech of Christ make the tree good and then the fruit will bee good we will not stand upon it you see the Analogie and agreement holds betweene these two in generall Now we come to take them apart more specially First how this being dead to sinne agrees with that change that is in a man that is in Christ from sinne Reckon this sayth the Apostle make account of this that you are dead to sinne that is now there is such a change and turning from your evill courses from whatsoever it is that is truly and properly called sinne in Scripture you are changed from it Now in whatsoever sence a man may be said to bee dead in that sence a man in Christ is changed from sinne there is somewhat in his change expressing that death Now there is a threefold death A Civill Judiciall Naturall Death We begin with the judiciall first as Gods great Worke begins in the judgement There is a judiciall death so one that is alive now in respect of naturall life may yet bee sayd to bee judicially dead when hee is dead in sentence when by the Judge he is condemned to death when hee is adjudged to die So reckon yee your selves dead to sinne make account of this that now in your judgement there is a sentence passed out against sinne that it shall bee slaine that it shall bee mortified thus your judgement stands and thus you lookeupon it as a thing dead in sentence and that is the first It is that in Ezek. 36. 31. saith the Lord When I shall bee pacified to thee this shall follow upon it thou shalt judge thy selfe worthy to bee destroyed for all thine iniquities and abhominations When God is reconciled to a man which is as much as to say when a man is in Christ for by Christ we are reconciled to God this followes upon it that man comes now to judge sinne to bee a deadly thing to judge sinne to bee dead and to judge himselfe worthy to bee destroyed for it Hee lookes on sinne as it should be looked upon his opinion is right concerning it hee accounts it an iniquitie a thing against that rectitude against that equitie and righteousnes wherewith man was once indowed in the Creation and from which so farre as hee swerves so farre hee is plunged into death As you know that curse was denounced against man when he sinned he should die so hee cannot looke upon iniquitie upon that that is contrary to that righteousnesse wherein hee was made but hee lookes upon it as on death it selfe and a deadly thing hee lookes upon it as upon an abhomination That looke as persons that sinned capitally were an abhomination to the Land and people among whom they sinned as the Scripture speakes of murtherers and the like the land was defiled if the sentence of death were not executed so it is here in the opinion and judgement of a man that is in Christ he accounts this the greatest defilement that his soule remaines so farre polluted and defiled as there is any life left in sinne That is the first thing reckon this then that sinne is dead imediatly that is that you now come to passe as Judges do a sentence of death against sin and that howsoever a Malefactour bee not naturally dead when he is judicially dead yet hee is in an order to it the next thing that followes will bee to be cut off So it is with sinne when a man comes to judge himselfe for his iniquitie worthy to be destroyed for his abhominations this is the next thing that followes hee will not rest till that bee slaine and subdued till that Mallefactour bee condemned to death and cut off and tooke out of the way Here is the first thing herein this change is like death Secondly there is a civill death too so one that lives naturally may bee dead civilly so one that is under the subjection and power of another such a one is dead civilly The civill Law accounts any one that is under subjection to bee Civiliter mortuus as they speake that is he is in that sence not accounted among living men hee is one dead because hee is not annimated and acted by his owne will but by the will of him that rules him so reckon yee your selves dead saith the Apostle Make account that when you are in Christ sinne is no more to be ruler and commander to act and animate and quicken you to obey its lusts that you should beacted and animated by it that as soone as sinne tempts you should obey presently make account in this sence you are dead to sinne that is sinne is dead in you civilly it hath not a ruling power it comes not now as one that hath power to sway all before it that is it the Apostle saith in this Chapter sinne shall not have dominion You have a new Master a new Lord you are no more under the rule and dominion of sinne that is the second Thirdly there is a naturall death as well as a judiciall and civill death so things are said to be dead naturally two wayes Imperfectly Inchoate Perfectly Consummate Naturall death imperfect and but begun is this as when there is a great blow given with an axe to the roote of a tree whereupon certainly it will wither and die and bee made altogether unfruitfull for the time to come though for the present it
concurrence betweene the action and the affection with conformitie to the Rule First there must be actions It is not speaking good nor meaning good only but it is doing good Saith the Apostle If a brother be naked or hungrie or cold and you say to him goe in peace warme thee but you give him no fire and goe and cloath thee but you give him no apparell and goe and feed thee but you give him no meate Here are good words now but the deedes are not answerable here are no good deedes at all Solomon compares such complementall charitie that is only verball and in outward expression to Cloudes and windes without raine Not much unlike the boxes of Apothecaries that are adorned with glorious tytles without but open them and examine the insides you shall finde nothing but emptinesse Well that is the first thing there must bee good actions Againe secondly these must have a good rise they must proceed from a good affection too or else they lose the name of good actions Make the tree good and the fruit shall bee of the same condition the actions are not good if the affections bee naught and therefore the same God that requires beneficence hee commands benevolence also and would have men become tender-hearted and put on the bowels of compassion that they should Sympathize with others and be like affectioned to them to mourne with those that mourne and to be with those that are bound as being bound with them This is that which our Saviour calls being mercifull Bee mercifull as your heavenly Father is mercifull Hee saith not only doe workes of mercie but be mercifull doe them from a mercifull heart from bowels of compassion that yearne towards those that are in necessitie That is the second thing But then thirdly these actions and these affections whence they rise they must hold conformitie with the Law There is no good but what is conformable to the rule of goodnesse that is the written word of God and therefore all those will-worships and idle ceremonies made according to the inventions of man as a thousand devices in Poperie wherein they intimate a show of great Liberalitie they are not good deedes because they want that good rule that should uphold and make them so So much shall serve for the opening of it Good deedes then are such actions as rise from a sanctified affection and receive ground and warrant from Gods will revealed in his Word to men Againe there is a third terme yet Doe good to all men What doth the Apostle meane that every man should receive the fruits of our Beneficence There are some men notoriously wicked and rather to be punished than relieved The Apostle meanes not such for hee gives you a Caution If any man worke not let him not eate Relieve him not that hath abilitie to get and will live idlie and unprofitably But doe good to all men that is to all men so farre as you see them in extreme want unable to helpe themselves if their lawfull necessities call upon your charitie in this respect all men must be looked unto but especially To the houshold of Faith By houshold of faith here he meanes the multitude of beleevers and not only those that dwell neere us and about us but those that are dispersed throughout the whole earth the Churches of God The dispersion spoken of through all the parts of the world are this houshold of faith all the Saints of God in what difference or distance soever one from another yet they are of the same houshold together of the same Church of God So the Church of God is called the house of God and sometime it is understood of the Church militant and sometime of the Church triumphant Of the Church triumphant In my Father 〈◊〉 many mansions There it is heaven the place of the blessed Then for the Church militant Moses was faithfull in all his house saith the Text. And Paul exhorts Timothie how hee should carry himselfe in the house of God that is in the Church militant As for those that live above us they need not our good workes and actions therefore it is intended of those that are here in the Church militant that is called Gods houshold because there is such a communion amongst beleevers as amongst those that live in the same house that abide under the same roofe that live under the same government that eat at the same Table c. So then you have the meaning of all which is no more but this Take those advantages of times which you can obtaine or elâ—… many will slip unprofitablie to bee conversant in such actions of mercie which tend to the reliefe of thoâ—… that want them If there be extreme necessitie doe good to all but if you may make choyce of persons to whom you may doe good choose the houshold of faith Thus you have the substance and the meaning of the words In them you may observe briefly these three parts The first is a determination or limitation of time to which the Saints are tyed in the performance of the duties that are injoyned them as you have opportunitie and while you have time Secondly there is a declaration of dutie doe good Thirdly there is a description of the persons to whom this good must be done first more generally Doe good to all and then more particularly and with an especiall note Especially to those of the houshold of Faith Of these in order First for the determination of time to take the words as they lie while you have time therefore or as you have opportunitie the words themselves doe render the maine point It is the dutie of Christians to take their advantages of times to take the best opportunities of their life to doe good I will speake somewhat by way of Explication of the point and something by way of Application and so proceed to what followes First for the Explication what is intended or meant in it when we incite you to embrace times and opportunities Briefly these two things are meant in it First that you should bee sure not to lose the time of life And Secondly that you should not forgoe the advantages and opportunities of estates You shall not alwayes have life to doe good and it may bee if you have life you â—…all not alwayes enjoy meanes and abilitie to doe good Whâ—…â—…ou have life therefore and time doe good or while you enjoy meanes and so power to doe good embrace these opportunities That is the meaning of the Apostle in this place First then there must be a doing good while you have life let your good workes goe before you doe things while you live and deferre not the performance of them till your death Make you friends of the unrighteous Mammon that when you want they may receive you into everlasting habitations Hee calls that unrighteous Mammon not that it is unrighteously gotten only though
that may be meant but that which is unrighteously kept is unrighteous Mammon to you if you procured it never so justly unlesse you doe rightly dispose of it and if you be desirous to doe right in disposing of your mammon of your wealth doe it now That when you want that power and those times you may enjoy the comfortable fruit of the well-redeeming of the time of your life to receive you into everlasting habitations In the 25. verse of the 16. Luke it is the challenge of Abraham to Dives Sonne remember that thou in thy life-time haddest thy goods for so the word signifieth thou haddest thy opportunities of life and of goods too but now thou hast neither life nor goods left thee to doe good with and therefore hee is blessed and thou art tormented It was the folly of those five Virgins They tooke not the opportunitie of life for that is the thing meant there but they posted over all to the last and hoped that all might bee effected in a trice or minute of their life which would haue held them employment enough all the dayes of their lives And therefore they came short of heaven the gates were shut against them as you see when the Bridegroome came If any man imagine because it is said Blessed are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them That therefore it matters not so long as a man doth good at his death though hee have neglected the wayes of goodnesse all his life Let them know that by works there is not meant the actions of men but the fruites of their actions Their workes follow them not the workes they have deferred untill death but the fruites of those workes they did while they were living and received not the benefit of them untill death Their workes follow them that is the fruits of their workes It is more good and pleasant by farre to have the actions goe before and the fruites and comfortable effects to succeed and follow after But if any man yet suppose that hee may make that up in his Will which he hath neglected all his life long and though hee have lived miserably covetously and unprofitably all the dayes of his life yet his thoughts may tell him that by the Charitable Bequests of his last Testament as bequeathing largely to the Church and Common-wealth and to all sorts of people hee may at the last make fit compensation and satisfaction for neglect of former duties Let no man deceive himselfe with such a bad resolution for first it argues a signe of infidelitie that a man will not trust God for feare he should want in his life-time what is the reason else that he deferres the doing good in health unlesse it be for feare of wanting himselfe such distrust hee hath in the providence of God Besides the same God which bids thee doe good when thou hast opportunitie and while thou enjoyest the advantage of life hee expects it now And it may bee truly said of many that neglect those times of doing good while they lived and have now supplied that defect in their death by the large benevolence of their Wills Their will is good but their deed is â—…ught So much for the first point I proceed unto the second that is thou must not only take the time of thy life but also the opportunitie of thy meanes and thy estate while there is yet a price in thine hand while thou hast opportunitie and enjoyest wealth to doe good with redeeme the advantages and opportunities by employing them in that way for which thou didst receive them The time may come wherein you may desire to doe good but cannot wanting at estate and opportunities whereby to doe it Marke what Solomon saith Wilt thou trust in a thing of nothing for Riches have wings as an Eagle and flie away toward heaven It is the vanitie of men that they still forbeare and stay while their estates increase pretending that then they shall bee better able to doe good and extend themselves more largely or that they may keepe their wealth and waite for a better opportunitie But why wilt thou trust in a thing of nothing Thou seest a fowle in her flight and now it may be thou perceivest it but instantly it vanisheth out of thy sight Why riches have wings saith Solomon Thou hast them now in thy possession and retainest them fast in hold but presently they are departed they flie as an Eagle out of thy sight And the same wise man when he exhorteth men to cast their bread upon the waters Hee gives them this reason Thou knowest not what evills thou knowest not what judgements and calamities God intends to bring upon that Nation where thou livest upon the Citie upon the Familie where thou dwellest upon thy person or estate Thou knowest not what evils God will bring upon the earth And so likewise charge rich men in this world that they hee not high-minded and that they trust not in uncertaine riches but in the living God that they bee readie to distribute and to communicate and to doe good workes What is it that hinders men from distributing and communicating Because they trust in uncertaine Riches For if they would now learne not to trust in uncertaine Riches but account them uncertaine as they are and put confidence in the living God who can provide for them when those outward meanes which they so much rely on faile their expectations they would then be more liberall and bountifull and readie to doe good and to communicate So then here is the meaning of the point Take the opportunities of life That is first take the time of life while you may doe good and then take the meanes the wealth and estate which is the time of your meanes For this observe Iobs case hee goes on discoursing of this very point he was now a man stript of all hee had but the other day the Richest man in the East the Sâ—…ans and Caldeans had carried away his goods his cattell and his children and all things were taken from him Yet there was onething that administred comfort in the day of his adversitie and his affliction And it was this saith he If I have made the eyes of the poore to faile or if I eate my morsels alone or if I have not relieved the fatherlesse c. If I have not done thus and thus then let the Lords fiercest judgement fall upon mee But herein consists my comfort my conscience beares mee witnesse that when I had wealth and estate and enjoyed the goods of this life I did good I was father to the fatherlesse a foot to the lame and eyes to the blind I did all the good that lay within the compasse of my power to doe when I had meanes to doe it I say little doe you know beloved whatsoever thou art whatsoever estate thou hast though thou
Spirituall change wrought in the soule by the Spirit of God nothing makes in this life such a change as true grace Wee all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. This change is like the tuning of a disordered instrument or like the refining of corrupt mettall or like the clearing of the darke ayre or like the quickning of a dead Lazarus but neither is this change that the text intends Fourthly there is a change of the life and this I call a mortall change we shall all be changed saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 5. life hath the first course but death will have the second As in a Comedie severall persons have severall parts to act which when they have dispatched they all draw off of the stage so though in life we all present our selves on the stage of this world and act severall Scenes and parts yet at length we must all retire and passe away through one and the same doore of mortallity This is the change which Iob speakes of to wit a change of his life by Death Here then are two things to bee demonstrated and proved for the making good of the point in hand viz. 1. That death is a change 2. That this change of death will befall all the sonnes of men First that Death is a change not an anihilation A change is a different and a divers order or manner of being Anihilation is one thing and mutation is another thing there the thing ceaseth utterly to be here the thing only ceaseth to be as once it was so it is with Death it doth not reduce us to nothing but alter our former something it changes our manner or order of being not our being absolutely Now observe Death is a change in five respects First it changes that neere union of the Soule and the body and makes of one two severalls they that were as the hands mutually clasping or as two persons conjugally tyed together when Death comes it plucks them asunder and divides one from the other as farre as heaven is from the earth Secondly it changes our actions or worke Whiles life remained here in our bodies while our day lasted we might have fedde the hungry clothed the naked visited the sicke râ—…ved the distressed frequented the ordinances bewailed â—…nnes but when death once enters the night is come in which â—…an can worke thou art then turned changed into an insenâ—…ble rotten and loathsome carkasse Thirdly it changes our countrey Whiles we live here wee are as children put abroad to schoole in a strange place hence it is wee are so often in the Scripture called Pilgrims and strangers This earth this lower world is not the proper home of the Soule But when Death comes wee change our countrey wee goe home to our owne place to our owne Citie the wicked shall goe to their owne place as it is said of Iudas and the godly to their owne Mountaine to their owne Kingdome Fourthly it changes our companie In this life we converse with sinfull men emptie creatures infinite miseries innumerable conflicts but when Death comes all this shall be changed wee shall goe to our God and Father to our Christ and Saviour and to the innumerable company of blessed Angels and Saints and the spirits of just men made perfect Fiftly it changes our outward condition When Death comes thou shalt never see the wedge of gold againe thou shalt never find thy delights in sinne any more all the excellencie of the creature and the contentments of them and the sensuall rejoycing in them shall goe out with life Death shall shut and close them up in an eternall night which shall never rise to another day So much for the first thing that Death is a change I come now to speake briefly of the second that this change of Death will be fall all the sonnes of men Psal. 89. 48. What man is hee that liveth and shall not see death shall hee deliver his soule from the hand of the grave We love to see most things the eye is never satisfied with seeing and yet many things there are which we shall never see Every man cannot see that which one man doth but there is one thing which every man shall see hee must see death There are many enemies from whom wee can deliver our selves and many more from whom we may be delivered but yet there is one enemie from which wee cannot defend our selves nor bee defended by others he will be to strong for every man let him strive repine order his dyet intreate doe what hee will or can No saith the Psalmist none shall deliver his soule from the hand of the grave And he puts a Selah a note of observation at the end of the verse That all the sonnes of men are subject to this change by death will appeare to you by these familiar Arguments The First may be taken from the qualitie of our lives which is sweetly set out in the Scripture under the termes of changeable things all which point out unto us the certaintie of death Sometime our life is compared to a shew Psal. 39. 6 Surely every man walketh in a vaine shew In a shew you know there is some devise or other opened carryed a-while about but at length it is shut up so it is with our lives Sometime againe it is compared to a shade or a shadow Iob 8. 9. Our dayes upon earth are a shadow a shadow is but an imitation of a substance a kind of nimble picture which is still going and comming and will set at last perhaps it is suddenly ecclipsed so is our life Sometimes aâ—…aine it is compared to a vapour Iames 4. 14. What is your life it is even a vapour that vanisheth away like 〈◊〉 poore cloude sometimes looking white sometimes blacke sometimes quiet and settled sometimes againe tossed up and downe with every wind and at last consumed and brought to nothing so it is with our lives Sometimes also compared to a Tale Psal. 90. 9. Wee spend our yeares as a tale that is told a meere discourse of this thing and that thing and indeed but a very parenthesis of a more tedious discourse and many times it is broken off in the very telling so it is with our lives Sometimes againe it is as grasse as in Esay 46. The voyce said crie aloude what shall I crie all flesh is grasse and the goodlinesse thereof as the flower of the grasse And verse 7. The grasse withereth and the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it And Iob in this chapter calleth it a Flower Hee commeth forth saith he like a flower and is cut downe A flower is a sweet thing but of an earthly breed fedde with showres at its best when it is in all its glory it is but to day and to morrow it
more then that such a numbring as is joyned with an applying of our hearts to wisedome and the reason is because wisedome it directs to the choyce of such particular actions and works as tend to happinesse so should a man after his serious consideration of death applie himselfe to such wayes and such actions by which hee may comfortably close up his life with death it is a great point of wisedome to sute actions with their ends to fit and square the wood before wee build the house to learne and discipline a troope before they goe to battell to rigge and trimme and furnish the shippe before wee launch to sea this is preparation indeed Now this preparation for death consists in two things First in an undoing of that which unfits us to dye Brethren hee who is not fit to live hee is not yet fit to dye and that which ever masters the life will be of greatest force in death The Father spake it boldly on good grounds I am not ashamed to live nor afraid to dye now that which unfits a man to dye is sinne it makes him finde a bitter enemie of death Oh when this King of terrours shall present himselfe by thy bed side with his arrowes in his hands I meane thy sinnes hee will wound thee with infinite amazement and horrour the sting of death is sinne saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. Thou dost not prepare thy selfe for death if thou dost not undoe thy sinnes which thou hast done in thy life the which consists First in a narrow search of thy sinfulnesse both of nature and practice Secondly in a secret humbling of thy soule for them Thirdly in an unfeigned repentance and forsaking of them Fourthly in a constant imploring and obtainig of mercie for them in the bloud of Christ. If thy soule doth give sinne its discharge now death shall give thy soule a discharge hereafter Secondly in the quallifying our persons for the conquest of death there are three things by which wee shall bee able cheerefully to meet and assuredly to conquer death First by having interest in the Lord Jesus The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law but thankes bee to God who hath given us victorie through our Lord Iesus Christ. If thou hast gotten Christ into thy armes by faith thou carriest thy peace strength and advantage both through life and death For wee are more then conquerours through him that loved us sayth the Apostle Rom. 8. 37. And to mee to live is Christ and to die is gaine sayth the same Apostle Phil. 1. 21. if thou hast a good Christ thou mayst bee confident of a good death Secondly renewednesse of our nature What Saint Iohn spake of the Martyrs as some conjecture Blessed and happie is he that hath part in the first resurrection on such the second death hath no power that say I of a person renewed by the sanctifying qualitie of Gods Spirit I happie is hee hee shall have power even over the first death The Spirit and the Bride sayth come if a man hath gotten the heavenly Spirit which beautifies the soule with the ornaments of Grace as the Bride is with her ornaments hee is a fitted person hee may well say to Death come and to Christ come Lord Iesus come quickly Thirdly uprightnesse of conversation Righteousnesse delivers from death sayth Solomon and the righteous hath hope in his death if a mans worke be Christs service if hee have a heart enclined to keepe a good conscience in all things to keepe himselfe exact to the rule and to walke with God Blessed is that servant which his Master when he commeth shall find so doing that man that hath looked to Gods Word to guide his life may confidently look up to Gods mercie to comfort him in death Remember O Lord sayth Hezekiah Isa. 39. how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart Now all this doth the wayting for our change import in the Text to wit a serious expectation of it first by undoing those sinnes of ours which else for ever will undoe us and by interesting our persons into Christ from whom we must likewise receive the Spirit to change our hearts and uprightnesse to forme a-new our conversation But then you will say Why must there be such a wayting for this these grave clothes are too sadde for the freshnesse of our life and would you have us be like the mad-man in the Gospell who lived among the Sepulchres Nay I beseech you let us consider and settle our thoughts a little and you shall be stayed with reason there are many strong Arguments and reasons why we should thus waite both by expectation and preparation First it is the maine errand of our life God did not send us into this world to sinne and to adorne our selves with the creature but to bring him some honour and then to dye the factor is not imployed to take his pleasure abroad but to doe his Masters worke and then to returne home Tertullian confesseth he was a great sinner and therefore borne to repentance therefore doth God give us life as the Master allowes the servant a candle to worke by that we may repent of our sinnes and get our hold in Christ and worke out our salvation and doe the great businesse of beleeving to be good and to doe good and so by Death to goe up to heaven Secondly death is but once and that needs to bee well done which can be but once done if there might be another space after death a second edition to correct the faults and escapes of the former then a present and speedie preparation were not altogether so necessarie but saith the Apostle It is appointed for all men once to dye and after death to come to judgement Heb. 9. 27. no more but once Wee usually shadow out Death with an houre-glasse A fit Embleme but that when an houre-glasse is runne out it may bee turned againe but this once out can be set up no more thou shalt never live to amend thy errours in dying O then how needfull is it before-hand to prepare for Death Thirdly when death hath done with thee then God will begin with thee thou must once die and after this come to Judgement Heb. 9. 27. To judgement what is that thou must bee presented before the holy and just and great God who is the Judge of the quicke and the dead and with all that thou art and with all that thou hast done there must appeare then before him all the courses of thy life all the bent of thy affections all the secrets of thy heart shall then be pulled in peeces and opened and all thy workes and all thy words shall bee exhibited scann'd and surveyed and that with severity and righteousnesse how say you then is it not fit to be preparing for Death to fit thy soule to reforme thy heart and life wilt thou
be presented before Gods severe Judgement-seat with Usurie in thy baggs with bribes and oppression in thy hands with a scumme of holinesse in thy mind with uncleannesse in thy members with drunkennesse in thy mouth with swearing in thy tongue O Lord I tremble to thinke of it Fourthly the soule when it is once gone by Death can never be recovered any more the tree may be cut and that may grow againe the shippe may be lost and the wealth laboured up againe but if the glasse be broken in peeces it cannot bee made whole againe the soule of man is but one and the losse of that one is the losse of it for ever when death hath closed up thy eyes thou shalt never have opportunitie to pray more to weepe more to humble thy selfe more to fast more Never any Prophet or Apostle shall come unto thee in the Name of God more after death all the Ordinances cease unto thee for ever and all the space of returning shall cease unto thee for ever thou shalt not lye a fewyeares in flames of wrath and then get leave to come out and take a better course O no if once there then for ever there this life is the time of mercy and space of repentance but when Death shall deliver thee up to be judged by the Lord thou must stand for ever to his sentence therefore as Christ spake Agree with thine adversary while thou art in the way lest the Iudge deliver thee to the officer and hee cast thee into prison I tell thee thou shalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the last mite Luk. 12. 58. And get oyle into your lampes before the doore be shut Fiftly consider it will be as much as thou canst doe to doe the worke of Death when Death doth come therefore prepare and get all thy other worke done before For my Beloved consider three things First Conscience usually is most active at the time of death a man that could withstand and silence it in his life yet when hee comes to dye he shall heare his voyce and perhaps not bee able to stand under the bitter inditements and manifold accusations of it then it will spread the booke of thy life before thee and then and there thou shalt see thy sinnes as gastly presented as if they were so many wounds newly made Secondly thy patience will bee tryed with varietie of paine interruption of sleepe every place will be a thorne to thee and every action a burden Thirdly thy faith may be tryed to the utmost if thou lookest to thy Wife her teares may trouble thee if to thy Children their cryes may perplexe thee ifto thy friends they may bee discomforters to thee and will Satan let thee alone all this while will he let him lye downe in comfort who would not scarce let him live an houre in peace oh what a victory would it be if hee could at the last make thee cast a way thy confidence it is true he cannotattaine it but he may desperately attempt it Why brethren who knoweth the power of those sharpe temptations which may then beset him Verily all the holinesse which we have attained already all the duties we have performed already we may then looke on them with teares and cry out O why no sooner why no better why no more then all the strength of thy faith will be little enough to support thee Will there then be a change befall even all the sonnes of men Then to make some Use and Application of what hath beene said to ourselves First build no Tabernacls here Wee have here no abiding Citie And brethren saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. The time is short it remaines that they that have wives bee as if they had none and they that weepe as though they wept not and they that â—…oyce as though they rejoyced not c. Why this thirst for riches there will bee a change why this unwearied seeking after the things of this life as if thy soule were to goe into a barne or a bagge and there tumble it selfe for ever Thou foole this night may thy soule bee taken away and whose possessions shall then thy carefull and only gettings bee the glasse will be broken and all the wine will flye abroad though thou hast with much eagernesse grasped the world in this life â—…et in death thy hands must open themselves and let it goe thou must not hold the world above thy life nor thy life beyond the day of death no wee cannot alway have that which we desire wee must certainly part with what we most esteeme of Secondly what comfort is this to a good soule If wee had hope onely in this life saith Saint Paul wee of all men are most miserable 1 Cor. 15. Death is a happy change to a holy person First it is a change which shall put a period to all his changes in this life his outward condition how ofâ—… doth it change sometime by joy and sorrow sometime by comfort and miserie by health and sicknesse by abundance and want but when Death comes all sorrow shall flye away for ever thou shalt never bee more troubled with a sick body with a sad estate with common losses but the change of a temporall life shall set thee in a full and settled possession of an heavenly His inward condition how oft doth it change sometime free anon distressed now a sweet view of heaven anon darkned with feare now rejoycing in Christ anon buffeted with Sathan now blessing God for grace anon distracted with the insolent workings of remaining corruptions but when Death comes then comes a change of all this it will release thee for ever of sinne and Sathan after death sinne shall be a burden no more and Sathan shall be a tempter no longer but thou shalt be as happy as thou canst desire and shalt enjoy thy God and thy Christ without feare or trouble in glory in felicitie in eternity all the cruell insolences of tyrants shall come short of thy soule thou shalt be above their malice and beyond thy selfe Secondly it is a change and no worse then a change just as Ioseph changed his garments and went into Pharaoh so thou shalt put off thy body and goe into glory put off thy mortality and goe into immortalitie Oh whatterrour to wicked men a day of change will befall them Why didst thou say Oh David there is no bands in their death and they are not in changes like other men Verily I should have checked thee hadst thou not recanted it presently thy selfe Psal. 73. 4. 17. 18. 19. and reported it to us that they are set in slipperie places and are brought into desolation and cast down into destruction in a moment and utterly consumed with terrour Good Lord what a change is that to them they judged with insolent and unrighteous judgement the Children of God now but death will change this the unjust steward
held Secondly in his members by changing the nature of it to them and making it of a curse a blessing of a losse a gaine of a punishment either a great honour or a speciall favour or a singular advantage a great honour as to the Martyrs who thereby acquired so many Rubies to their crowne of glory as they shed drops of blood for their Saviour A speciall favour as to Abraham Iosiah and Saint Austin who were taken away that they might not see and feele the miserie that after their death fell on the postarity of the one the subjects of the other and the diocesse of the third A singular advantage to all the faithfull who thereby are discharged from all cares feares sorrowes and temptations and presently enter into their Masters joy For blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them Now the meanes whereby Christ conquered death and utterly destroyed it are diversly ser downe by the learned some argue a contrariis contraries say they are to bee destroyed by their contraries as heate by cold moysture by drought sicknesse by health Death therefore must needs bee destroyed by life as the contrary but Christ is the resurrection and the life in him was life and life was the light of men Saint Austine declareth it after this manner Life dying contended with Death living and got a glorious and signall victory Nyssen thus the Devill catching at the flesh of Christs humane nature as a baite was caught by the hooke of his divine Saint Leo and Chrysologus thus if a Bayliffe or Serjeant arrest the Kings sonne or a privileged person and lay him up in a close prison without commission hee deserveth to bee turned out of his place for it So Death Gods Serjeant seizing upon his Sonne in whom there was no fault without warrant or commission was justly discharged of his office Is Death thus discharged hath Christ changed the nature of Death and freed all his Members from the sting of the temporall and feare of eternall death hath hee of a Posterne made it a street-doore of an out-let of mortall life an in-let of immortalitie why then are wee so much afrayd of death which can no more hurt us then a hornet or waspe after her sting is plucked out Christ fought with a living death wee with a dead death which doth not so much severe our soules from our bodies as joyne them to Christ not so much end our life as our mortalitie not so much exclude us out of the Militant as render us to the Triumphant Church Nothing is more dreadfull I confesse to the naturall man then Death which dissolveth the soule and bodie and the Grave which resolveth the bodie into dust and ashes To cure this maladie of the minde there is no vertue in any Drugge of nature the Philosophers in this case are Physitians of no value they tell us that sicknesse and death are tributa vivendi and the Grave the common house of the dead But of what of this what comfort is here doth this speculation discharge us from the tribute or make the payment thereof the easier doth it enlighten the darknesse of these prisons of nature or take away the stench from these under-ground houses no whit Yet God bee thanked there is a magazen in Scripture to pay these tributes there is light in Goshen to enlighten these houses there is Spicknard to perfume these dankish roomes there are 〈◊〉 in holy Scripture to strengthen the heart not onely against deadly maladies but also against death it selfe For there we heare of a voyce from heaven not onely affirming the happinesse of the dead but confirming it with a strong reason for they rest from their labours and their works follow them we heare of Tabernacles not made with hands but eternall in the Heavens wee heare that when wee are absent from the body wee are present with the Lord wee heare the Lord of life opening the eares and chearing the heart of the dead and saying I am the resurrection and the life whosoever beleeveth in mee though hee were dead yet shall hee live There wee heare death not onely disarmed of his sting but also slaine downe right O Death I will bee thy death O Grave I will bee thy destruction Secondly hath Christ destroyed Death and hath hee both the keyes of Death and of Hell then beloved when wee lye on our death-bed let us not have recourse after the popish manner to any Saint or Angell no not to the blessed Virgin her selfe but to her Sonne who is the Lord of life who satisfying for our sinnes at his death thereby plucked out the sting of death and after his resurrection quite destroyed this serpent In which regard he is styled stella matutina the Morning starre because hee ushereth in the day of eternitie and primitiae dormientum the first fruits of them that slept because in him the whole lump is sanctified When therefore the fiery Serpent hovereth over us to sting us to eternall death let us looke upon the Brazen Serpent and the other shall not hurtus Lastly hath Christ conquered Death and Hell and that for us let us then give him the honour of the greatest Worthy and noblest Conquerour that ever the World saw Cyrus and Alexander and Caesar were no way to bee compared to him for they subdued but mortall enemies hee immortall they bodilie hee ghostly they with great Armies and power of men but hee alone they when they were alive and in their full strength and vigour but hee at the houre of his death and afterwards I conclude therefore with Saint Ierome his insultation over Death and thanksgiving to the Lord of life O Death thou didst bite and wert bitten thou didst devoure and art now devoured by him whom for a time thou didst devoure by his death thou art slaine by his death wee live everlastingly thankes bee rendred unto thee O Saviour who hast subdued so powerfull an adversary and put him to death by thy death and passion The Ethiopians as Herodotus relateth make Sepulchres of glasse for after they have dryed the corps they artificially paint it and set it in a glazed Coffine that all that passe by may see the lineaments of the dead body but surely they deserve better of the dead and more benefit the living who draw the lineaments of their minde and represent their vertues and graces in a Mirrour of Art for I am not of their judgement among us who properly and deservedly are called Precisians because out of the purity of their precise zeale ita praecidunt they so neere paire the nayles of Romish superstition that they make the fingers bleed who out of feare of praying forsooth for the dead or invocating them are shie of speaking any word of them or sending after them their deserved commendations for it is pietie to honour God in his Saints
it is justice suum cuique tribure to give every one his due it is charitie to propose eminent examples of heavenly graces and vertues shining in the dead for the imitation of the living Such jewells ought not to bee locked up in a Coffine as in a Casket but to bee set out to the view of all and surely they deserve better of the dead who set a garland of deserved praises on their life then they who stick their Hearse full with flowers Tapers made of pure waxe burne clearely and after they are blowne out leave a sweet savour behinde them so the servants of Christ who have caused their light so to shine before men that they may see their workes and glorifie their Father which is in Heaven leave a good name like a sweet smell behinde them and why may wee not blow it abroad by our breath Deo Patri c. The rest concerning the life and death of the party is lost FINIS VOX COâ—…LI OR THE DEADS HERALD SERMON XLV APOCH 14. 13. And I heard a voyce from heaven saying unto mee write blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from hence forth c. VBi Vulnus ibi manus From whence wee tooke our wound from thence we receive the cure a voyce from heaven strucke all the living dead saying All flesh is grasse and the glory or goodlinesse of it is as the flower of the field The grasse withereth c. But here a voyce from heaven maketh all whole againe and representeth all the dead in the Lord living yea and flourishing too â—…aying Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord. To give a touch at the wound that the smart thereof may make the sense of the cure more delightfull Omnis caro foenum omnis homo flos All flesh is grasse and â—…very man is a flower There is difference in grasse some is longer and some is shorter so some men are longer lived some shorter Some grasse shooteth up with one leafe some with three some with five or more so some men have more in their retinue some fewer some none at all Some grasse withereth before it is cut as the grasse on the house toppe some is cut before it withâ—…reth as the grasse of the field so some men decay before the Sythe of death cutts them all other after Likewise there is a great difference among flowers 1. Some are for sight only not for the smell or any vertue in medicines as Tulips Emims and Crowne Emperials 2. Some for sight and smell but of no use in Medicines as Sweet-williams the painted Lady and Iuly-flowers generally 3. Some are both for sight and smell and of singular use in Medicines as Roses and Violets So some men are of better parts and greater use in the Church and Common-wealth others of lesse Some flowers grow in the field some in the garden so some mens lives and improvements are publike others private Some flowers are put in Posies some in Garlands some are cast into the Still so some men are better preferred then others and some live and die in obscuritie Lastly some flowers presently lose their colour and sent as the Narcissus some keepe them both long as the red Rose So some men continue longer in their bloome grace and favour others for a short time but all fade and within a while are either gathered cut downe or withered of themselves and die And for this reason it is as I conceive that we sticke herbes and flowers on the Hearse of the dead to signifie that as we commit earth to earth and ashes to ashes so we put grasse to grasse and flowers to flowers For omnis caro foenum All flesh is grasse and all the goodlinesse thereof as the flower of the field the grasse withereth and the flower fadeth away But the comfort is in that which followeth But the word of the Lord endureth for ever and this is the word which by the Gospell is preached unto you Whereof this verse which I have read unto you for my Text is part Which Saint Iohn inferreth as a conclusion or corrolarie upon the conclusion of the Saints and Martyrs lives this conclusion is inâ—…erred upon two premisses 1. The end of their labours 2. The reward of their worke The Syllogisme may be thus formâ—…d All they who are come to an end of their labour and have received liberally for their worke or are paid well for their paines are happie But all the dead that die in the Lord are come to an end of their labour for they rest from their labours and receive liberally for their workes follow them Ergo all the dead that die in the Lord are happy As in other Texts so in this wee may borrow much light from the occasion of the speech which here was this Saint Iohn having related in a vision a fearefull persecution to fall in the latter times whereby the earth should bee râ—…aped and the Saints mowen like grasse and true beleevers like grapes pressed in such sort that their blood should come out of the wine-presse even to the horse bellies breaketh into an Epiphonema vers 12. here is the patience of the Saints that is here is matter for their patience and faith to worke upon Here is their patience to endure for Gods cause whatsover man or divell can inflict upon them to part with any limbe for their head Christ Jesus gladly to forfeit their estates on earth for a crowne in heaven chearefully to lose their lives in this vale of teares that they may find them in the rivers of pleasures that spring at Gods right hand for evermore Here is worke for their faith also to see heaven as it were through hell eternall life in present death to beleeve that God numbreth every haire of their head and that every teare they shed for his sake shall bee turned into a pearle every drop of blood into a Rubie to be set in their crowne of glorie To confirme both their faith and patience Christ proclaimeth from heaven that howsoever in their life they seemed miserable yet in their death they shall bee most blessed and that the worst their enemies can doe is to put them in present possession of their happinesse Blessed are the dead c. So saith the spirit whatsoever the flesh saith to the contrarie Here wee have 1. A proposition De fide of faith 2. A Deposition or testimonie of the spirit A Proposition of the happy estate of the dead A deposition of the holy Ghost to confirme our faith therin 1. Saint Iohn sets downe his relation 2. A most comfortable assertion 3. A most strong confirmation The relation strange of a voyce from heaven without any speaker The assertion as strange of a possession without an owner a blessed estate of them who according to the Scripture phrase are said not to be The Confirmation as strange as either by an audible testimonie of an invisible witnesse So
hath beene and feare for what hee shall bee mingles and sowers all the joy and delight in that hee is And what is hee at the best a poore tennant â—…t â—…ill of a ruinous cottage of loame or house of clay readie to fall about his eares with a Grashoppers leape in a spot of ground His apparell is but stolne ragges his wealth the excrements of the earth his dyet bread of carefulnesse got with the sweat of his browes and all his comforts and recreations rather as Saint Austine tearmes them solati a miserorum quam gaudia beatorum sauces of misery then dishes of happinesse For albeit a good conscience bee a continuall feast and the testimonie of the Spirit an everlasting Jubile in the soule yet the most righteous man that breathes mortall ayre either by frailty or negligence or diffidence or impatience or love of this present life or suttletie of perswasions or violence of temptations so woundeth his conscience and grieveth the Spirit of grace that this feast is turned for a time into a fast and the Jubile into an ejulate or howling All things therefore layd together the scornes of the World assaults from the flesh temptations from the Devill rebukes from God checks from conscience sensible fayling of Grace spirituall dissertions with many a bitter agonie and conflict with despaire I cannot but perfectly accord with the Poet in his dolefull note Faelices nimium quibus est fortuna peracta jam sua they are but too happie whose glasse is well runne out and with the Evangelist in my Text beati mâ—…rtui blessed are the dead for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them they rest from those labours which tyreus that live and the workes which wee are to follow follow them A threefold cable saith the Wiseman is not easily brokn and such is this here in my Text on which the anchour of our hope hangeâ—…h 1 The testimonie of Saint Iohn Yea 2 The testimonie of the Spirit so sâ—…th the Spirit 3 A strong reason drawne from their rest and recompence they rest from their labours and they receive the reward of their labours they are discharged of their worke and for their worke If they were discharged for their worke and not discharged of their worke they could not bee said blessed because their tedious and painefull workes were to returne And much lesse happie could they bee tearmed if they were discharged of their worke but not for it for then they should lose all their labour under the Sunne they should have done and suffered all in vaine but now because they are both discharged of their worke for they rest from their labour and discharged for their worke for their workes follow them they are most blessed The Spirit here taketh the ground of this heavenly musick ravishing the souls of the living and able to revive the very dead either from the labourers pay or the racers prize If the ground be the labourers joy for their rest and pay the descant must bee this our life is a day our calling a labour the evening when wee give over our death the pay our penny If the ground be the racers joy for their prize the descant may bee this the Church is the field Christianitie is the race death is the last poste and a garland of glory the wager let us all â—…o run that we may obtaine Yea sayth the Spirit Wee read in the Law and the Prophets Thus sayth Iehovah the Lord in the Gospell Thus spake Iesus But in the Epistles and especially in the Revelation thus sayth the Spirit now the Spirit speaketh evidently heare what the Spirit sayth unto the Churches hee that hath an eare let him heare what the Spirit sayth unto the Churches and the Spirit and the Bride sayth come While Christ abode in the flesh hee taught with his owne mouth the Word of life but now since his Ascention and sitting in state at the right hand of his Father hee speaketh and doth all by his Spirit By the Spirit hee ordainâ—…th Pastours furnisheth them with gifts enlighâ—…h the understanding of the hearers and enclineth their wills and affections and so leadeth the Church into all truth In which regard Tertullian elegantly tearmeth the Spirit Christi Vicarium Christ his Vicar preaching in his stead and discharging the Cure of the whole World Secondly so sayth the Spirit not the flesh the earth denies it but Heaven avereth it when a man removeth out of this World the flesh beholdeth nothing but a corpes brought to the Church and a coffine layd in the Grave but the spirit discerneth an Angel carrying the soule up to Heaven and leaving it in Abrahams bosome till the Father of spirits shall give her againe to the bodie arrayed in glorious apparell There is no Doctrine the Devill the flesh and the World more oppose then this here delivered by the Spirit concerning the blessednesse of the dead for all Atheists all Heathen all carnall men all Saduces and sundrie sorts of Heretickes deny the Resurrection of the bodie and the greater part of them also the immortalitie of the soule A wicked and ungodly person beleeveth not his soule to bee immortall because hee would not have it so hee would not that their should be another World because hee can have hope of no good there having carried himselfe so ill in this faine hee would stifle the light in his conscience which if hee would open his eyes would clearly discover unto him a future tribunall yet sometimes hee cannot smother it and therefore as Tully who saw a glimering of this truth observeth hee is wonderfully tormented out of a feare that endlesse paines attend him after this life Well let the flesh and fleshly minded men deeme or speake what they list concerning the state of the dead the Spirit of truth sayth that all that dye in the Lord are blessed But where sayth the Spirit so In the Scriptures of the old and new Testament and in this vision and in the heart and conscience of every true beleever First in the Scriptures let mee dye the death of the righteous and let my last end bee like unto his refraine thy voyce from weeping and thine eyes from teares for thy workes shall bee rewarded and there is hope in thine end saith the Lord precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints the righteous shall wash his foot in the bloud of the wicked so that a man shall say verily there is a reward for the righteous Christ is in life and death advantage for I am in a straight betweene two having a desire to depart and to bee with Christ which is fâ—… better Secondly in this vision for Saint Iohn heard a voyce from Heaven saying Write it as it were with a Penne of Iron upon the Tombe of all that are departed in the Lord for so saith the Spirit Lastly the Spirit speaketh it in the
heart and soule of every true beleever lying on his death bed or on the Gridiron or in the dungeon or on the gibbet or on the faggot did not the Spirit seale this truth aboveall other at such times to his servants were not then their hope full of immortality they could never have welcomed death embraced the flames sung in their torments and triumphed over death even when they were in the jawes of it When Iob was in the depth of all his miserie the Spirit spake in his heart I know that my Redeemer liveth and that hee shall stand in the latter day upon the earth and though after my skinne wormes destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my selfe and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my reines bee consumed within mee Likewise when Saint Paul was now readie to bee offered and the time of his departure was at hand the Spirit spake in him I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is layd up for mee a crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous judge shall give mee at that day and not to mee onely but to them also that love his appearing Likewise when Gerardus was giving up the ghost the Spirit spake in him O Death where is thy sting Mors non est stimulus sed jubilus And though Robert Glover the Martyr all the night before his Martyrdome prayed for strength and courage but could feele none yet when he came to the sight of the stake he was mightily replenished with Gods holy comfort and heavenly joyes and clapping his hands to Austin the Spirit the Comforter himselfe spake in him Hee is come hee is come You have heard where the spirit saith so give eare now to a voyce from heaven declaring why the spirit saith so for they rest from their labours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth as well paine as paines broyles as toyles as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke so paine and paines in English are of kinne for labour is paine to the body and paine is labour to the Spirit and therefore what wee say to bee punished and tormented with a disease the Latine say laborare morbo and the throngs and throes which women endure in Child-bearing wee call their labouring Here then the dead have a double immortalitie granted them 1 From the labours of their calling 2 From the troubles of their condition freedome from paine and paines taking What then may some object doe the dead sleepe out all their time from the breathing out their last gaspe to the blowing the last trumpe as they suffer nothing so doe they nothing but are like Consul Bibulus who held onely a roome and filled up a blancke in the Roman fasti Nam 〈◊〉 factum consule nil memini or like mare mortuum without any motion or operation at all that cannot be the soule is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most perfect Act or as Tullie renders the word a continuall motion as the word is taâ—…en in that old proverbiall verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it can no more bee and not worke then the winde can bee and not blow the fire and not burne a diamond and not sparkle the sunne and not shine therefore it is not sayd here simply that they rest from all kinde of motion or working but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but from toylesome labours soretravells and againe from their owne labours or workes not the Lords They keepe an everlasting Sabbath in not doing of their owne workes but Gods they rest from sinfull and painefull travells but not from the workes of a sanctified rest for they rest not day and night saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was which is and is to come The rest of the soule is not a ceasing from all motion or opperation that cannot stand with the nature of a spirit but a setling it selfe with delight upon an all-satisfying and never satiating object such was the rest the sweet singer of Israel called his soule unto returne unto thy rest O my soule for the Lord hath dealt bâ—…untifully with thee Bodies rest in their proper places but spirits in their proper object in the contemplation fruition admiration and adoration whereof consisteth their everlasting content This object is God whom they contemplate in their mind enjoy in their will adore in both and this is their continuall worke and their worke is their life and their life is their happinesse which the Divines fitly expresse in one word glorification which must be taken both actually and passively for they glorifie God and God glorifieth them God glorifieth them by casting the full light of his countenance upon them and they glorifie him by reflecting some light backe againe and casting their crownes before him saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created They rest from their labours This Text of holy Scripture containeth in it the waters of Siloah not so much to refresh those that are tyred with their former labours having borne the heate of the whole day as to lave out the false fire of Purgatorie for blessednesse cannot stand with miserie nor rest with trouble nor reward with punishment but all that dye in the Lord are blessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is à tempore mortis from the time of their death as venerable Beda and other expound the words and so blessed are they that they rest from all paine and paines and so rest that their workes follow them that is as I shall declare hereafter the reward of their workes If this lave not out the Romish fire which scareth the living more then the dead and purgeth their purses and not their soule wee may draw store of water to quench it out of divers other Texts of holy Scripture as namely First If the tree fall towards the South or towards the North in the place where the tree falleth there it shall bee Which Text Olympiodorus thus illustrateth in whatsoever place therefore whether of light or of darknesse whether in the worke of wickednesse or of vertue a man is taken at his death in that degree and ranke doth he remaine either in light with the just and Christ the King of all or in darknesse with the wicked and prince of the world To little purpose therefore is all that is or can be done for the dead after they have taken their farewell of us after wee are gone from hence there remaines no place for repentance or penance no effect or benefit of satisfaction here life is either lost or obtained but if thou O Demetrian saith Saint Cyprian even at the very end and setting of thy temporall life dost pray
God our workes as they are good they are not ours as they are ours they are not good 2 Because whatsoever wee doe in fulfilling the Covenant of Grace wee are bound to doe for the inestimable benefits which we receive by our Redeemer 3 Because wee imploy not our Tallent to our Masters best advantage no man walketh so exactly as hee might doe by the power of grace which would not be wanting to us if wee were not wanting to our selves But because wee may seeme partiall in our owne cause and take these reasons for demonstrations which our Adversaries will not acknowledge to bee so much as probable arguments let the ancient Fathers give in the verdict Saint Austine When the Apostle might truly have said the wages of righteousnesse is eternall life he chose rather to say but the gift of God is eternall life that we might understand that he brings us to eternall life not for our merits but for his mercies sake And Saint Basil There remaines an everlasting rest to those who fight lawfully not for the merits of their workes or verbatim according to the Greeke originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not according to the due debt of their workes but of the grace or by the favour of our most munificent God And Fulgentius To possesse the kingdome prepared for us is a worke of grace for of meere grace there is given not only a good life to these that are justified but eternall life to those that are glorified And Saint Ambrose Our momentarie afflictions are not worthy the glory that shall be revealed therefore the forme or tenour of the heavenly decrees upon men proceed not according to merits but the mercy of God And Marke the holy Hermite The kingdome of heaven is not a reward of workes but a gift of God prepared for his fruitfull servants And let Pope Gregorie conclude all As Eleazar who killed the Elephant yet was killed by the Elephant in his fall upon him so those who subdue vices if they grow proud of their victorie as all doe who conceive they merit heaven by it are subdued by and lye under those vices which they before subdued for hee dyes under the enemie whom he hath discomfited who is extolled in pride for the vice which he conquered The third difficultie was whither the workes follow the dead which may thus be expedited their good workes follow them not to the grave for there there the soule is not nor to Purgatorie for J have already proved there is no such place nor to Hell for none are blessed that come there The workes of the damned indeed follow them thither there they meet with them and with the Divell who seduced them to torment them for them there the swearers and blasphemers gnaw their tongues there the lascivious wantons are cast into a bed of fire there they who swome here in pleasures are throwne into a river of brimstone But the workes of the godly follow them to the place where they receive their recompence for them The fourth difficultie was when the workes follow the dead which may bee thus expedited some of their works follow them immediatly after their death others at the day of Judgement Those workes which they have done by and in the soule only without the helpe or use of the body follow them immediatly after death when the soule receives her reward for them but those which were performed partly by the soule and partly by the body follow them at the day of Judgement When the King shall say Come yee blessed of my Father possesse the kingdome prepared for you for I was hangrie and yee gave me meat I was thirstie and yee gave me drinke I was naked and ye cloathed me I was sicke and in prison and ye visited me Wee have peeled off the rhine let us now taste of the sweet juyce if our workes shall most certainly and plentifully bee rewarded Let us be zealous of good workes let us be filled with the fruits of righteousnesse let us in no case be weary of well-doing let us not cast away our confidence which hath great recompence of reward if a cup of cold water shall be reckoned for what thinke yee of a glasse of hot water to revive many a fainting soule If two mites cast into the treasurie shall be taken notice of what thinke yee of ten talents If Christ hath a bottle for every teare shed for him how much more for every drop of bloud There are infinite motives in holy Scriptures to incite us to good workes I will touch at this time only upon three 1. Our great Obligation to them 2. Our exceeding comfort in them 3. Our singular benefit by them First our Obligation to them is twofold 1. As men 2. As Christians As men wee are bound to serve him with our hands who gave us them As Christians we are to employ them in his service who loosened them after they were manacled and restored unto us the free use of them 2. Our comfort in them is exceeding great they assure us of our spirituall life for as the naturall life is discerned by three things especially 1. The beating of the pulse 2. The letting out of breath 3. The stirring of the joynts or limbes so also is the spirituall if the pulse of devotion beate strong at the heart if wee breath to God in our fervent prayers and lastly if wee stirre our joynts by walking in all holy duties and performing such good workes as are required at our hands we may be sure that wee have spirituall life in us we may build upon it that Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith and that we live in him by grace 3. Our benefit by them is manifold in this life and the life to come In this life peace of conscience their soule shall dwell at ease 2. Good successe in all we undertake whatsoever we doe it shall prosper 3. The service of the creatures for all things worke for the best to them that love God Lastly a comfortable passe out of this world we are sure our end shall be peace In the life to come the benefits are such as never eye hath seene nor eare hath heard nor ever entered into the heart of man God grant therefore our heart may enter into them quia Aristoteles non capit Eurispum Eurispus capiat Aristotelum because wee cannot comprehend the joyes of heaven let them comprehend us You expect something to be spoken of our deare Sister deceased and much might be said and should by me in her praise but that one of her chiefest commendations was that shee could not endure praise Laudes quia merebatur contempsit quia contempsit magis merebatur Because shee deserved praise shee despised it and because shee despised it shee the more deserved it Silent modestie in her was her crowne in her life and modest silence of her was the charge
my glorie Wicked men see his glory what priviledge then betweene them and the godly It is true indeed wicked men see the glory of Christs person and they shall see and feele the glory of his justice but the godly see the glory not onely of his person not onely of his justice but the glory that no wicked man ever shall see the glorie of his Mercie and goodnesse and grace here is the difference God getteth himselfe glory upon Pharaoh in drowning of him but God getteth himselfe the glory of his Mercie in Israel in saving them in the bottome of the Sea so the godly they see the glory not onely of the person of Christ and that is infinite and surpasseth apprehension but they see the glory of his Mercie of his eternall goodnesse and they see it so as to bee like him to be translated into that glory to get a part and share of it as much as they are capable of they make themselves all glorious with his glory and shine with his brightnesse and beauty Alas brethren all the sight we can get of Christ in this world it is like the sight of the blind man that Christ cured hee bad him looke up and lift up his eyes and he saw men walking as trees an imperfect sight so wee have here but an imperfect glimpse of Christ we see him through a glasse through the Word and Sacraments and these meanes that he hath appointed an imperfect sight till Christ give us a cleere sight and makes us see perfectly and this is in the day of his returne All the sight and vision of Christ in this life it is but to see him in a glasse saith the Apostle as in a looking-glasse but then we shall see him face to face wee shall see him as he is What difference there is betweene the shadow in a glasse and the face it selfe so much difference there is betweene the sight of Christ here and hereafter when we shall see him as he is when we shall see him with open face and not in a mirrour Therefore let this incourage us and stirre up our hearts to expect and waite for the comming of Christ with vehement and daily prayers with fervencie of spirit with the Church and the Bride and the Spirit to say Even so Amen Come Lord Iesus FINIS The coherence Devision of the words Propos. 1. Every man in the world is Gods Steward Proved 1. By what every one receiveth from God 2. By what God expects from every one Psal 24. 1. mâ—…n doe not waste his goods 2. That they doe not abuse them to ill ends Luke 19. 27. Iames 4. 3. 3. To doe him Homage Acts 10. 33. 3. To returne him fruit Matt. 21. 33. Vse Two things required of a Steward 1. Dispensation Rom 1. 3. 4. Rom. 1. 14. 1 Tim. 5. 8. 2. Right ordering of his dispensations Luk. 12. 42. 1. Faithfully Heb 3. 5. Exod. 32. 19. 2. Wisely Rom. 8. 7. 1 Tim. 3. 17. Gen. 18. 19. Propos. 2. All Gods stewards must give an account Two dayes of reckoning 1. In this life By the Word Gen. 3. 11. 1 King 19. Mar. 3. Acts 2. By the Rod. Iob 33. 14. Mic. 6. 9. Iob 33. 19. 1 Cor. 11 30. Psal. 31. 5. 2. After this life A necessitie of a day of judgement 1. In respect of God his decree Acts 17. 31. Isa. 46. 10. His honour Eccles. 3. 16. 2. In respect of the Saints 2 Thes. 1. 5. For the manifestation of their innocency For the reward of their workes Mal. 〈◊〉 1â—… 18. 3. In respect of the wicked For the manifestation of Gods righteous proceeding against them Rom. 2. 5. For the persecting of their punishment Why God is said to call all men to an account 1. Because he will proceed in particular Job 27. 18. Jam. 5. 1 2 James 4. 3. Mat. 16. Mat. 5. 22. Mat. 15. 19. 2. Because he will proceed by method and order Psal. 50. Psal. 51. Rom. 7. A direction in the exercise of repentance 3. Because he will proceed by books Dan. 10. Rev. 20. Ioh. 12. 48. Ier. 17. 1. 4. Because God will exact of every one according to what he hath been trusted with Luke 12. 48. Vse 1. For confutation Atheists in the Church 2 Pet. 3. Vse 2. For instruction 1. Not to judge others Rom. 14. 10. 1 Cor. 4. 5. 2. To judge our selves here A twofold reckoning to be made here 1. Reckon with our selves Jer. 8. 6. Lam. 3. 39. Psal. 4. 2. Reckon with others 2 Sam. 12. 3. Acts 20. 26. Iames 5. 3. 3. To Exercise daily repentance Acts 17. 31. 4. To get an interest in Christ. Rom 8. 1. Exod. 25. 21. 5. To lead a holy conversation 〈◊〉 Pet. 3. 11. 2 Cor. 5. 〈◊〉 Acts â—…6 15 16. Vse 3. For Comfort James 5. Heb. 9. 27. The Coherence The meaning of the words The devision of the words Obser. 1. The death of others is a just occasion of Mourning Gen. 23. 2. Gen. 27. 41. Gen. 50. 10. 2 Sam. 25. 1. Zach. 12. 10. John 11. Act. 20. 38. Reas. 1. Reas. 2. Ier. 5. 3. Vse Object Answ. A twofold distemper in mens affections 1. 2. 1 Thes. 4. 13. Deut. 14. Observat. 2 Death the end of all men Iob 3. 14. Zach. 1. 5. Reas. 1. In regard of Gods decree Heb 9. 27. Reas. 2. In regard of the matter whereof men are made Job 13. 12. Reas. 3. In regard every man in him hath the cause of death Object Hâ—…b 11. 5. 2 King 2. 11. Answ. 2. Obiect Joh. 11. Answ. Rom. 8. 38. Matt. 22. Vse 1. Make account of it for ourselves The benefit of the particular application of death to a mans selfe 1. Sin will be made more odious Rom. 5. â—…1 2. The truth and justice of God will bee the more acknowledged 3. Death will be the better prepared for Job 14. 14. Three things wherein there is to be a particular application of death to a man 1. In matter of sinning Acts 5. 2. In redeeming of the time of life 1 Cor. 10. 35. Heb. 3. 13. Gal. 6. 10. 3. In the manner of our conversation Vse 1. In respect of the death of others 1. To moderate our mourning for the death of others 2. To improve the life of others Obser. 3. It is the duty of the living to lay to heart the death of others Reas. 1. 1. God is glorified by it Psal. 28. 5. Reas. 2. Our selves are benefited by it 2. Thereby we come to see the certainty of death 2. Thereby we come to see the nature of death The proper worke of death 1. To separate the body from the soule 2. To separate a man from his estate 3. To separate a man from his friends Gen. 23. 2 Sam. 1. 9. 1 Cor. 7. 19. 3. Thereby we come to see the end and cause of death 1 King 14. 13 2 Chro. 34. 28 Isa. 57. 1. Ezek. 9. 4. 5. Vse 1. For reproofe of the genetall neglect of this duty Vse 2.