to glorifie him in the life and death of them And if men do oppress and afflict us till we die yet then have they no more that they can do against us in which they may afflict or trouble us Math. 10.28 Jam. 5.8 Reasons of Death in respect of the wicked As for the wickeds dying they living in their sins and wickedness and not repenting thereof they must needs die as being 1. Not justified from their sins the wages whereof is death Rom. 6.23 2. Yea they besides the sin of Adam upon the account whereof the first Death was pronounced and passes upon all by their personal sins and wickednesses oftentimes provoke God to cut them off signally insuch times and wayes as else they might not have died in For though Pharaoh Saul Haman Judas c. as men and as sinners must have dyed yet they needed not nor might haved dyed at such times and in such wayes as they did had they not been guilty of such hainous personal wickednesses as they were otherwise such their deaths should not have been punishments to them for such their sins as it is certain they were * See Psal 55 23. Yea sometimes Gods people also by some sinful wayes or acts pull upon themselves untimely and exemplary deaths God chastening them and making them examples and admonitions to others in such wayes in which he also may prevent the perishing of their souls as is evident in 1 Cor. 11.29 30. For this cause many are sick and weak and some are fallen asleep But 3. Besides God in mercy to men even such as are wicked hath ordered Death to them that the consideration of it might awake them to repentance while a day of grace is vouchsafed to them that ceasing to be wicked they might not die for ever Isa 55.7 Ezek. 33.12 4. And for the sake of the righteous and in mercy to them that they persisting in their wickedness and not turning therefrom the world might not be alwayes pestered with them nor they be alwayes a vexation and mischief to them that walk with God and fear him But that the yoke may be broken sometimes off their necks and Gods anger against his people cease in their destruction as Iâ—a 10.25 and as we have instances in the Deaths of Pharoah Haman Ahitophel Saul and divers others from whose wrath malice and mischeivous madness God gave his servants deliverance by cutting them off by Death in his due time Yea 5. For the benefit of the world too and such as yet are ignorant of and opposite to God and his truth Partly that they might be delivered from such teachers of and provokers to wickedness by their evil examples counsels compulsions and withholding from them the wayes and means of life And partly that they might by Gods exemplary judgments upon them in their deaths and destructions be awakened and made to see the evil of wickedness and the truth of Gods words and goodness of the wayes of righteousness as Psal 58.11 Psal 9 16. Seeing the wicked also shall die it may instruct us 1. Not to be afraid of the fury of the oppressor so as to turn Vse 1 aside from God to avoid that For besides that the arms of Christ do judge the people and he can by his strong arm put by the most stout hearted cruel Tyrants and oppressors from their desires and purposes of oppressing and harming his followers and can gather his Children with them and keep them safe from those that would hurt them their time also will come to die as David said of Saul in his persecuting him 1 Sam. 26.10 and then he shall cease from all power of troubling and molesting us in the day that the wickeds breath goeth out of his nostrils all his thoughts purposes or intentions for evil against us shall perish With this the Lord Jesus comforts his followers and people the Nation that knows his righteousness and have his Law in their hearts in Isa 51.7 8.12 13. Fear ye not saith he the reproach of the people neither be ye afraid of their revilings for the Moth shall eat them up like a Garment and the Worm shall eat them like wooll But my righteousness shall be for ever and my salvation to all generations And again Who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die and of the son of man that shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy maker and hast feared all the day â—ing because of the fury of the oppressor And where is the fury of the oppressor when God doth but take away his breath and life from him as he will at some time or other and may at any time when he will what becomes then of all his rage and wrath his Cruel Threatnings Bloody Laws and Decrees Unjust Oppressions or the like Surely they shall all vanish with him 2. It may instruct us also not to envy their prosperity and reprove such as so do To that purpose is that in Prov. 23.17 18. Let not thine heart envy sinners but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long Upon this account for there shall be an end namely to thy suffering from them and of their lives and power to put thee to suffering as also of their enjoying those their enjoyments for which thou art apt to envy them As it is more evident in that parallel Counsel Psal 37.1 2. Envy thou not because of evil doers for they shall soon be cut off as the Grass and wither as the green Herb c. 3. It may also admonish the wicked to cease from his wickedness and from his priding in himself in or pursuing after those things for and by which he is made wicked and hardened in his wickedness Seeing he must die and then all his glory and what he prefers before God and his ways must be at an end with him yea he also must give an account and be judged after that for all his wickedness too But that leads us to consider Bran. 2. Both have a latter end The second Branch of this point viz. That both righteous and wicked have or shall have their end We have this asserted of both in Psal 37.37 38. Mark the perfect man and consider the upright for the End of that man is Peace But transgressors shall be destroyed together the End of the wicked shall be be cut off There is the End both of the upright and of the wicked But Object it is said in 1. Joh. 2.17 That he that doth the will of God shall abide for ever How is it then that he hath an end how shall we understand it Again it is said of both righteous and wicked That these the wicked shall go into everlasting punishment and the righteous into everlasting life Math. 25.46 How then can either of them be said to have an end seeing the one is everlastingly punished and the other lives everlastingly Yea it would be an happiness
many years and of noted zeal and fervency in what she apprehended to be the truth and right way of God walking for diverse years with and of good note among some people called Independants amongst whom her love and liberality zeal and diligence in seeking after God according to their principles were conspicuous and her yet remaining works for them and their entertainment speak yet for her But it pleased God in process of time to open her understanding in the Scriptures of truth and righter way of the Lord in giving her to perceive his Grace in Christ to all mankind according to the received doctrine of the Church of England and freeness to impart it to all and interest any of all there-through in his everlasting Covenant in coming to him and to bring her into acquaintance with a people believing and walking therein Chiefly I think by means of her son in law Mr Jeremy Coleman Minister of Hethersest in Norfolke a man of a sweet and excellent spirit and usefully precious in his generation who some years before her though young was taken away as a chastisement to many yet surviving How readily she received the Testimony of the Grace of God in its extent and how well she relisht it and retained it and how blamelesly and uprightly she walked in it for divers years before her decease and untill her decease I suppose many can Testifie And so that she was so far as men may judge a truly righteous person because seeking and accepting of the Lord Jesus Christ only to be her righteousness in her generation to her capacities which were none of the meanest Her constancy in the faith of Christ her love to it her charity and liberality her blamelesness c. yet live in the memories of diverse though she be dead now some time since and long may they there live A woman she was that had a close therefore better than his that died unlamented and indeed worthy to be lamented in respect of others though to be rejoiced in in behalfe of her self The loss many have and will have of her is to be bewailed by us for as she was good and useful to many while she lived so now being dead that usefulness cannot but be missed Chiefly her onely son hath a loss of her whom she had a most motherly and affectionate care of being as yet in his minority and a little too much indulgence for his sake and to have seen him well disposed of and much more truly well disposed she could have been glad if God had pleased to have lived here yet a little longer otherwise for her self content to be dissolved and to be with Christ How gravely and graciously as I was informed I being then not there she did instruct and admonish him when her sickness began to seize on her and she thought death approached some yet can well rememberâ— and I pray God he himself may not forget it but may follow her good admonitions advise and practises as long aâ— he lives A loâ—â— the town and neighborhood had of her who may w◠〈◊〉 lament that one so useful to and among them 〈…〉 The good relief the poor had and the good 〈…〉 and matters of health the sick and 〈…〉 the good opportunities such as would had and more also might have had for receiving instructions in the Gospel and truth of God for their souls by her means as a countenancer and promoter thereof speak for lamentations upon her death her freinds and relations have the want and loss of her company and acquaintance (a) Chiefly her ouâ— Daughter 〈…〉 of Yaâ—moâ—h but she we trust is above the reach of loss and wants as to her self In many respects therefore her Death is greatly to be lamented but in respect of her death it self and in respect of her self in and by death cause of gladness and much rejoycing That she did well while she lived and lived so long as she did considering her weak body much craziness and often infirmities to do so much good as she did and that she dyed in the faith of Christ and hope of his glory to be revealed upon her and injoyed by her at the appearing again of the Lord Jesus these are matters to be rejoyced in and for Her righteous doing here is at and end but her righteousness in which she was righteous and which in that righteousness she did endureth for ever for she was righteous in that sense of righteousness too as it is taken for mercy and almsdeeds so that it might be said of her she dispersed and gave to the poor her righteouâ—ness endureth for ever and therefore her hâ—rn shall be exalted with honor Psal 112.7 The consideration of the goodness of her life but much more of the happiness of her death and of her state as dead put me in minde of what Balaam wisht and put me upon explicating it in order to the consideration of the desirableness of what he wished and desired Well she is gone and gone to the best place we trust that she could go to even to the presence of the Lord Jesus in whom and through whose grace she and what she did had allowance and acceptance and with whom she is above our wishing and praying for any thing more for her except that Gods Kingdom may come and therein the accomplishment of hers and all our happiness Being a woman that feared God and wrought righteousness as she was accepted of God so she may be praised of men for favour is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised and though I cannot say of her in all things as was said of that unparalel'd woman Prov. 31. yet we may say in her commendations she was doubtless among the daughters that did vertuously though I will not say that she eâ—â—elled all the rest Prov. 31 30 31. Let us also imitate whatsoever was truly praise-worthy in her giving diligence that we may die the death of the righteous by living their life that our latter end may be like hers ADieu adieu dear Friend that state possess Wherein the upright Souls have endless bless What others but desired thou hast gain'd What we yet pray for thou hast now obtain'd Freed from all earthly dross and worldly cares Thou hast that peace now which nothing impairs Thy righteousness which here thou followdst after Like Sarahs womb hath brought forth only laughter For nought but joy and happiness attends The Soul that on the Lord alone depends Who trusting in him doth what 's good how well He speeds at last no mortals tongue can tell But thou in part injoyst what we below Can see but glimmerings of not fully know Thy Race is run thy Goal's obtain'd and thou Art far above the reach of danger now Oh happy Soul But blest for ever be That precious Lamb of God that made thee free Free him to close with and believe on here Free now from sin
be the Law wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto Death And sin taking occasion by the Commandment wrought in me saith he all manner of concupiscence or all lusting or coveting So that according to that Rule we are all pronounced unrighteous There is none righteous no not one Rom. 3.10 None that doth good no not one ver 12. All gave out of the way all together become unprofitable every mouth stopped and all the world guilty before God vers 13.19 What ever conceits men may have of themselves or one of another yet by the deeds of the Law no flesh living is or shall be justified in the sight of God ver 20. As many as are of the work◠of the Law and claim life and righteousness the promises and blessing to themselves that way are all deceived and are under the Curse the Law saying Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.18 And there is not a man found living here upon earth that doth so continue in all things to do them Not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not Eccles 7.20 The whole first Adam our natural Root with all of us even all the natural branches naturally springing out of him being all rotten and corrupt crooked and perverse bowed down from God to the creature and from loving one another to love our selves with a perverse love but neither God nor our selves nor one another as we ought and in a way manner and measure conformable to his will And all our blossoms or what proceeds from us goes up as dust all our thoughts words and works corrupt and abominable filthy and stinking Psal 14.1 2 3. Rom. 3.10 11 to 19. Such the unrighteousness and unrightness of mankinde and notwithstanding all the Law can do to rectifie and mend us the Law could not make us just the flesh in us prevailing against it and multiplying sin by occasion of it Rom. 8.3 with 7.8 What then be these righteous or upright ones whose death Balaam would die and whose latter end he would have like his What shall we take them to be Angels No sure They die not those especially that be righteous holy and good and for the damned ones they are far from being righteous or upright No we must finde them in the nature of men and amongst men To which purpose 3. God still being righteous holy and good and his Eternal Word and Almighty Spirit by whom he made and gave being to all things abiding still just and upright and eternally so pittying fallen miserable man being under the Sentence of a most dreadful Death by none to be desired for his unrightness and devising how to deliver him therefrom created a new thing in the earth such as was not found in all his first Creation a new Root of Righteousness and Plant of Renown a Righteous Seed out of the sinning woman by a wonderful and most glorious way even by ordaining and in due time sending forth his own Eternal Word his onely begotten Son made of a woman and so taking the seed of the woman the nature of a man into a perfect entire and personal union with himself did so sanctifie that Branch of mans nature in the conception of it and uniting it with himself that therein and so in him as become man Immanuel God with us there was no stain or pollution of sin He knew no sin 2 Cor. 5.21 nor did he any sin nor was any guile found in his mouth 1 Pet. 2.22 Him he made to be his Lamb for taking away the sin of the world a spotless Lamb and without blemish before him in heart and life doing ever and in all things what pleased his Father to his utmost content and satisfaction Job 8.29 1 Pet. 1.19 Math. 3.17 Isa 42.1 He only of all men or persons partaking of the humane nature was and is the holy and just One Act. 3.14 and 7.52 Jesus Christ the Righteous 1 Job 2.1 and he was just and righteous according to the Law which he was made under and was subject to Gal. 4.4 for our sakes never breaking it or doing any thing short of what was required of man in it So as that God testifies of him once and again that he was well pleased in or with him Math. 17.5 for he delighted to do his will his Law was in his heart his ear he opened and he was not rebellions nor turned back Psal 40.7 8 9. Isa 50.5 6. Heb. 10.7 and indeed in respect of his perfect obedience to God and conformity to his Law he was justified thereby and ought to have lived and to be blessed but yet though he had done so and those things were due to him God his Father willing him to lay down all that life and blessing and take upon himself as our nature and Law so now also our sin and curse and notwithstanding life and blessing was his due to die for us and be made a curse he willingly for our sake did so and so he suffered the just for the unjust and died for the ungodly that he might bring us unto God Rom. 5.6 and 1 Pet. 3.18 it happened to him the righteous One according to the work and desert of us wicked and ungodly ones that it might happen to us ungodly ones according to the work of him the just and righteous One for he that knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him and he hath redemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us that so the blessing of Abraham for or concerning or unto the Gentiles might be in Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith that is that he might be made the righteousness of God to us and we might be made righteous by and in him and inherit the life and blessing promised by the law to the righteous and so the righteousness of the law be fulfilled in us walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit given us in and through him Gal. 31 13.14 2 Cor. 5.21 and 1 Cor. 1.30 Rom. 8.4 So that this righteous One having dyed for all and therein given himself a ransome for all from under that sin and sentence of death upon all there is now in and by him wrought for us a compleat righteousness even the righteousness of God through the faith of him he saith not the faith in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but of him the Gospel unto or for all even for all men for the free gift is for or unto all men for the justification of life and upon all that believe Rom. 3.22 and 5.18 So then here we have found a righteous man a perfectly righteous and upright One in whom no crookedness or guile in the least and that not only in himself and for himself but for us too as a root and fountain
the services and carry through all the sufferings he calls to Thence those frequent expressions of respect to the reward had and exercised by the Saints as the Patriarchs Heb. 11.9 10 13 14 15 16. Moses Vers 25.26 27. the Apostles 2 Cor. 4.12 14 16 17 18. and 5.1 Philip. 3.12 14. Yea Christ himself as man Heb. 12.2 and the frequent mention and proposal of it to others to animate and hearten them on as in 1 Cor. 15.58 2 Cor. 6.17 18. with 7.1 Heb. 6.10 11 12 13. and 10.35 36 37. Rev. 2. and 3. and God is just to perform his bargaine having given also an earnest of it to his servants Eph. 1 13 14. Such the grounds and reasons of this so happy a Death and after-state which yet we have hitherto considered only absolutely it will be yet more manifest contraries being set off and illustrated the more by their contraries to be desirable if we veiw the contrary condition of the Death and after-part of the unrighteous and wicked The after-part or latter end of the wicked and so veiw it Comparatively Comparing it with the portion of the wicked and see how it excels that But who can express either of them to the life either the excellency of the End of the righteous or the misery of the End of the ungodly and wicked the Psalmist tells us The End of the transgressors shall be cut off Psal 37.38 Eli tells his Sons it will be bitterness in the End 1 Sam. 2.26 Yea the Apostle Peter implies it to be inexpressible bitterness bitterer than wormwood as is said of the End of the whorish woman Prov. 5.3 4. when he saith what shall the End be of those that obey not the Gospel as wanting words to express the bitterness and badness of it 1 Pet. 4.17 18. We might shew it to be in all things contrary to the End of the righteous or upright both as to their state in dying and as to their after-state both in the time of their being dead and in and after their Resurrection But I shall but hint at it because I would not be too tedious And so In Death 1. Whereas Death to the righteous is an End to all their miseries sorrows and troubles on the contrary Death to the wicked is an End to all their good Thou in the life time saith Abraham to the rich man received'st thy good things Quis sâ—it an adjâ—nt hodicâ—nae crastina sumâ—ae Tempora Dii superiâ— Hor. Luc. 16.25 All in this life time nothing after and alas this life time is very short and uncertaine very momentany and hidden at all times as to the length and duration of it in continual dangers and jeopardies of being cut off It s so in Gods hand that he can cut it off as a weaver his thred when he will and that 's very easily So that their good is as Job saith not in their hand Isa 38.12 Job 21. 16. and that very consideration takes off exceedingly from the sweetness of their present portion that they know not how soon or suddenly they shall loose it all but loose it all it is certain and they cannot but know it they must for the living know that they must die and they see wise men even those that are wisest for this world die also and the bruitish and foolish persons perish and leave their wealth their houses and lands and so all the comforts they have here to others Psal 49.10 Yea and besides the knowledge of the uncertainty of the good things they have here there is a deal of mixture of vanity and vexation of spirit with them very frequently but what ever good or sweet they have with that mixture Death when it comes sweeps it all away their silver gold houses lands wives children pleasures honors gay cloths dainâ—y fare c. Yea though Crowns and Kingdoms all goes at Death and then they must have no more good for ever Were there nothing else to be said of their portion or after-part but that in their death they loose and part with all comfort for ever and have no more any good thing befal them it were enough to render their part and lot very inconsiderable and despicable Yea though it might be had in the amplest surest manner here and for many yeares continuance in comparison of that of the righteous But alas this is but the least piece of its worthlesness and wretchedness For 2. Death is the inlet to them to infinite and endless miseries for they die out of Christ and have no share in him or in the blessings in him and so they are accursed both in soul and body It s true the body as we said before may be more honorably interred than the righteous mans but yet it s the body of a wicked man that hath no part in Christ and therefore dies in his sins which are all chargeable upon him both soul and body and the punnishment hangs over him and begins now to seize upon him Being not in Christ he is not in Gods favor and acceptance nor under any promise of any good mercy or blessing but under all the threatnings of curse and misery his hope is perished what ever he had in the world it s gone with the world and if he had any hope in God upon account of his birth parentage profession works goodness in his own eyes it s blown all away with his breath which he breathed our when he gave up the ghost If he plead it in the resurrection it will not stand Math. 7.22 23. there is no hope for him of any good for ever his body is reserved in the grave against the day of evil and vengeance and shall then be brought forth from it there being no darkness or shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves from punishment Job 34.22 So that their bodies are in far worse case than the bodies of the beasts and his spirit is disposed of by God to a restless unquiet miserable case like that of the damned spirits or evil Angels that are as it were prisoners in chaines of perpetual darkness reserved to the Judgment of the great Day 1. Pet. 3.19 20. and 2 Pet. 2.4 And then 3. Their resurrection and raised state is still worse than their death and dead-state for as that is not in the first resurrection In and after the Resurrection the resurrection of the just on the raised wherein the second Death shall have no power Luc. 14.14 Rev. 20.5 6. so when it comes it s not as of Christs members and by his spirit in dwelling in them but by his terrible and powerful voice forcing them will they nill they out of their graves and several receptacles to appear before him as their dreadful angry and impartial Judge in bodies indeed immortal and uncapable of dying any more as to a dissolution of them and separation of them from their souls as before which will be their
exceeding misery for now they cannot be made senseless of pain and misery as they were while in their graves but everlastingly united with their spirits that both bodies and spirits that sinned together may be cast into destruction together and suffer together an everlasting punishment Math. 25.46 both body and soul being cast into hell fire Math. 10.28 To which purpose Christ whom they have sinned perpetually against despising his counsels slighting his instructions hating him and his reproofs and ways and truths and people and whose love and blood and all the grace thereby procured for and held forth to them they set at naught he shall come in flaming fire to render vengeance on them and gathering them before him the heavens shall reveal their iniquities and the earth shall rise up against them Job 20. 27. and all their sins and wickednesses shall be ript up in the sight and veiw of God and Angels and men with all their ugliness aggravations circumstances and then they shall by him be adjudged to and undergo that terrible sentence Depart devil and his Angels Math. 25.41 whereby they shall be for ever thrust out from God and Christ and from all his holy Ones with infinite shame reproach and ignominy never to taste of their happiness or felicity being everlastingly accursed of God and thrust away with most dreadful miserable and damned spirits whose company and counsel they here liked and followed after into a state of darkness or uncomfortableness distress and anguish in the sense and feeling of the most severe wrath and vengeance of God poured out like fire and burning for ever upon them without end Quanta satius est pro perpetuis bones maela brevia pensare quam pro brevibus ac caducis bonis mala perpetua sustinere Loct lib. 6. ease or intermission their worm never dying nor their fire ever quenched there shall be weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth Lo such is the portion of a wicked man from God and the heritage appointed of God for him Job 20.29 Oh dreadful heavy and infinitely wretched portion infinitely worse than the worst condition that any man is or can be here in and therefore how much more than that of the righteous in which are all things infinitely happy and glorious But I shall say no more to it this brief hint may suffice Why the unrighteous and wicked have so sad a death and latter end The reason of the sad end of the wicked divers reasons might be given reduceable to two heads I shall mention but a hint to either that is to say 1. It is of themselves only as to desert for though Satan tempt and the world allure and corruption move to disobedience and rebellion against God yet through the grace of God afforded they might resist and complying with the light truth and grace afforded might be helped but putting the fear of God from them they choose to walk after sin and Satan stubbornly persisting therein and refusing to turn at wisedoms reproofes or having begun to turn returned back again with the Dog to his vomit and to the Sow that is washed to wallow in the mire till death seized on them and therefore their sin being theirs their punnishment and destruction too is of themselves Prov. 1.20.24 25 26 c. Hos 13.9 Rom. 1.18 19 20 21. c. and their punnishment and misery is so great horrible and inexpressible 1. Because their sins are innumerable and every one of them exceeding great as there is therein a slighting or contempt of God and his authority power and goodness which is infinite a slighting also or contempt of Christ and all done and suffered by him for them and all his love therein testified and all the good there-through done and extended to them a grieving also and rejecting of the love and loving calls reproofs and strivings of the holy Spirit with them and withall making no account either of Gods favour to seek it or of his wrath to endeavour to avoid it an abuse of all his mercies and good things here bestowed and slighting all corrections used for their amendment and a careless despising all the glory and happiness by him tendered which things being against an infinite Deity and his infinite Attributes put an infiniteness into the demerits of their sins and so pull upon them an infinite punishment And then 2. Because they dying in their sins dye out of Christ and shall rise again our of him they have no forgiveness of their sins through him and so must answer for them and bear the punishment of them themselves which being not otherwise to be infinitely endured but in the infiniteness of their time of sufferings will occasion their endlesness to them 2. It is of God as to the decreeing sentencing and inflicting it as a most just and righteous Judge and the most unspeakably injured and provoked Majesty who will herein shew forth his righteous judgment Rom. 2.6.11 and therein 1. Testifie his infinite holiness and purity in his perfect hatred of sin and iniquity Isa 6.3 Apoc. 11.3 Prov. 1.24 25 26 29. 2. Avenge his own despised authority power love and goodness laws counsels c. slighted and contemned by them 3. Avenge the injuries done to Christ in their slighting all his love Psal 2.3 4. sorrows sufferings for them and Grace therein declared and tendered to them and therein also 1 Pet. 2 7 8 4. Magnify and glorify his Son and the infinite preciousness of his blood and sacrifice despised by them in taking such an unspeakable vengeance of their injuries to him upon them Zech. 7.11 12. 5. Avenge the abuses and slightings of all the addresses of the holy Spirit to them and gracious patient waiting upon them 6. Avenge the abuses of and unthankfulness for the Ministry and service of his holy Angels about them and of all other mercies in all his creatures afforded to them Rom. 2.4 5 6 11. 7. And in a word all their abuses of themselves and one another but chiefly of his Sion his people and servants sent to or living amongst them and deserving better use from them this last is particularly mentioned Math. 25.41 42 43 44. No marvail now if a wicked man enlightned to see any thing of these matters wisht to die the death of the righteous and to have his latter end like to his The latter part of the point considered in answer to two questions about which having spoken to the first and main business of the point about the excellency of the Death and latter end of the righteous or upright ones it remains that we speak a little as in the latter part of the Point we added that they be such as that even the wicked that care not to live their life or to have their beginning and progress yet understanding them desire to have their Deaths and latter ends like theirs Concerning which I shall only propound and speak to a Question or two
and so come to the Application And so 1. Whereas Balaam in wishing or desiring thus implies that he thought it possible though not certain that it would be so that he might dye the death of the righteous Whether a wicked man may die a righteous mans and that his latter end might be like his being in a manner a prayer and men use to pray for what they think possible Thence it may be queried Whether is it possible that a wicked man as Balaam was Quest 1 may obtain to dye the death of the righteous and to have his latter end like his To which I shall answer by distinction That a wicked man abiding a wicked man Ans 1. Not abiding wicked can by no means have such a death and after-part as the righteous and upright ones Except your righteousness saith our Saviour exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharasees ye can in no wise enter the Kingdom of God Math. 5.20 that is except men be truly righteous they cannot enjoy Gods Kingdome which is the end and portion of the righteous Reasons of it and the reason is because 1. It is against the purity and holinesse of God to admit wickedness and so wicked men abiding and continuing such into such nighness with himself and so into his favour and affection as the righteous be for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness Psal 11.8 and the righteous Psal 146.8 but he is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness evil may not dwell with him fools may not stand in his sight he hateth all the workers of iniquity Psal 5.4 5. He is of purer eyes than to behold evil and iniquity Hab. 1.13 and therefore cannot admit wicked men as and while such to come into his Kingdom and have part with the righteous 2. That would make void all the ends and intents of the Death of Christ and all the whole work and business of his undertakeing for if men might be saved and enjoy God in their sins then they might have been saved without Christs coming and suffering for them for why should Christ come to take away sins and wash and make us clean from them if God can endure them in his sight and presence unwashed away from men yea and why then was God angry with men for sinning yea and Christ should then fail of his undertaking if undertaking to bring men to God clean and pure from their sins he should bring them in their uncleanness to him in vain is a costly Bath prepared for washing and healing men if they may be well without it Christs coming therefore on purpose to take away our sins in order to our enjoyment of happiness is an evident demonstration that we may not be happy in them Thence our Saviour saith to St. Peter Except I wash thee thou hast no part with me Joh. 13.8 Yea 3. That stands cross to all the purposes declarations and threatnings of God in the Scripture which cannot be broken God cannot lye but he hath purposed said decreed and declared that no unclean or unrighteous thing shall inherit his Kingdome 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Ephes 5.3 4 5. either then we must cease to be wicked or else no part with the righteous for the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the just Psal 1.4 5. Yea 4. They being an abomination each to other the sinners to the righteous much more to the most holy and righteous God how shall they endure to live together and enjoy the same end reward and portion Prov. 29.27 Yea and lastly 5. God should not be just should he reward wickedness as he doth righteousness and God forbid that the Judge of all the earth should do unjustly Rom. 3.5 6. Gen. 18.25 But Answ 2. They may if they become righteous as they may It is very possible that wicked men may by the grace of God cease to be wicked and be converted to righteousness and so they maybe brought to enjoy the same end with the righteous And of the truth of this Manasses Mary Magdalen Paul the malefactor on the Cross that but there beginning to confess Christ found mercy and was that day with him in Paradise Luke 33.40.43 and many more are evident proofs and instances Yea this is clearly signified and held forth throughout the Scriptures that wicked men may be converted from their wickedness and being converted they become one in way and end with the righteous For Reasons of that answer 1. This was the end of Christs coming into the World and dying for all men even the ungodly and sinners suffering the just for the unjust or unrighteous that there-through he might both remove the curse from off the nature of man and obtain power and spirit into himself as man so as he might both by his power and spirit call and quicken men being ransomed from under the curse unto the knowledge of God and faith in himself and also when so to forgive and justifie them washing them in his own blood and renewing them also by his own Spirit into his own image and likeness from glory to glory To which end 2. God in and by him and he in the power of God hath ordered repentance and forgiveness of sins to be preached in his Name amongst all Nations for the obedience of faith Luke 24 47. in and by which he is calling commanding and encouraging all men the wickedest as well as others every where to repent because he hath appointed a day to judge the World c. Act. 17.30 31. Yea he is calling sinners to repentance and causing his servants whom he hath saved from their sins and reconciled to God to teach sinners the way that transgressors might be turned unto him while it is a day of Grace an accepted time Math. 9.13 Psal 51.14 15. 2 Cor. 6.1 2. with 5.19 20. In which time also 3. He is by his spirit accompanying his calls bringing his word nigh to men even to their hearts and mouths that they might receive it believe and be saved So as the Kingdom of God is therein and there-through made nigh to men which kingdome is righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 10.8 9. Luke 9.9 10. Rome 14.17 the holy Spirit in the means vouchesafed striving with or judging in men reproving and convincing them of sin righteousness and judgment opening the eyes that they might see and their eares that they might hear so that they might understand with their hearts and be converted and Christ might heal them Gen. 6.3 Joh. 16.9 10 11. Math. 13.15 Yea so nigh doth God bring his word to men that Satan is said to take it out of the hearts of those that are in their hearing and receiving it compared but to the way-side Math. 13.19 Luke 8.12 4. They that do in hearing hear and in seeing see that is when God by his Spirit is bringing light and salvation to them shewing them his truth