him but deale kindly with him nor run from him but towards him to bid him welcome not to bid him be gone Luc. 15.11 c. His very miserie was sufficient matter to worke vpon his fathers heart would not this ouercome a man the Lord is kinder to vs and how can we setting him before vs in so great loue but breake of the course of sinne and with a yeeding heart returne to our father Fourthly we must set the Lord before vs in his prouidence not onely generall to all but particular to vs which being well considered must needs doe something with vs for a better course For who will not seeke to please him or her vpon whom he must rely for al the turnes of life Seeing then wee depend on God for all things and that our life is at his only pleasure who breath in the aire of his mercies how can we thinke of this and thinke indeed and earnestly thereof and not striue to obey him in his word of whose prouidence we moue and haue beeing Acts 17.28 Fiftly and lastly for it were infinite to speake of all we must set the Lord before vs in Christ in whom he so loued vs not then friends but enemies Ro. 5.8.10 that he gaue his Son to death for vs Ioh. 3.10 Now what enemie will not bee reconciled and dearely loue him who shall but offer to die for him Christ died and made not an offer onely to die for vs and is not this sufficient beeing well and deepely thought of to reconcile vs to God by submission to Christ by spirituall life By all this wee may easily iudge why God is so little regarded among vs. Vse For we set him seldome before vs and as seldom we appeare before him rather we say Depart from vs wee desire not the knowledge of thy waies Iob. 21.14 So did Dauids enemies of whom hee maketh complaint in diuers Psalmes For he saith they sought not God and which made them more securely to doe euill they thought there was no God And after he giueth this for a reason of their so desperate and bold madnesse The iudgements of God were high aboue their sight that is they set them so farre off that they neuer looked after them nor did remember them Ps 10.4.5 Further speaking of strangers that rose vp against him and of tyrants that sought his life that which made them so cruell as he saith was they set not God before them Ps 54.3 86.14 God was not in their thoughts nor the feare of God before their eies therefore they kept no measure in sinning Let vs for our selues remember this who haue the Lord set before vs in the preaching of the Gospell euerie sabbath day Let vs remember him in his Sonne and not forget him in his iudgements specially in his last iudgement The end of our daies and the beginning of that draweth on the Sun is long since past the meredian line and death we know will not be answered with an I pray thee haue mee excused Luc. 14.19 Let vs not therefore put off till the flood come not of waters but of insufferable fire or till the Lord come with deuouring fire and with his tempest of the last iudgement to kindle it Let vs rather frame that course for our selues now that hereafter may proue in our dying houre or at this worlds last houre an arke for our bodies and a tabernacle for our soules If we would set the word before vs or God in it we should see our dangerous waies and by so cleare a light better direct our steppes Ps 119.105 If we would well remember Gods prouidence ouer vs and care for vs we should not doe as we haue done we would beare euils more patiently and doe euill more vnwillingly seeing whatsoeuer commeth to vs commeth by his appointment and whatsoeuer euill is done against him by vs is done against his bounties and loue And if we would set him before vs in Christ how could we sinne against the sacrifice of such a Redeemer or if we wold set Christ before vs in that day wherein this world that must be destroied shall crackle about our cares being all on fire and the large Ierusalem of the earth be brought downe by him who will send forth his voice and that a mighty voice Ps 50.3.4 how little would we regard the short and deare-prized pleasures of this our momentany and fading life But because God is so farre out of our sight and so late in our hearts therefore doe offenders so multiplie among vs and sinne so abound that the regions begin to grow white and we cannot but thinke that the Angell will shortly thrust in his sicle Men are at no paines and bestow no care in Gods seruice Men are mercilesse without naturall affection false accusers and despisers of them which are good 2. Tim. 3.3 Men want faith and some goe cleane against it both in word and in bookes written Sin is full ripe now which in our fathers daies was but greene in the eare and iniquitie that then stroue with righteousnesse hath now gotten the vpper hand what doe all these shew but that God is forgotten and that the fearefull God is cast behind vs in this age of so great liberty and fulnes of sinne The Lord giue vs the due consideration of these things pardon our great sinnes for his owne great names sake to whom be praise and glory for euer The end of the third sermon THE FOVRTH SERMON IVDES Epistle verses 14.15 Vers 14 Behold the Lord commeth with thousands of Saints Vers 15. Togiue iudgment vpon all men and to rebuke all the vngodly among them of all their wicked deeds which they haue vngodlily committed and of all their cruell speakings which wicked sinners haue spoken against him THis prophecy was ancient for he to whom this testimonie is ascribed was the seuenth from ADAM And it is like it either passed as Enocks from hand to hand by tradition or was found in the daies of the Apostles extant in some booke bearing Enochs name For the Iewes had some vnwritten truths which were profitable and good for instruction and yet were not made articles or rules of faith to saluation This prophecie of Enochs and testimonie of Iudes might bee one yet was it as common water till it passed through the sanctuarie Ezech. 47.1 Till the Apostle Iude or the holy Ghost by him set it down in scripture it was to be receiued but as other truths which are to haue their allowance from the booke of faith But now that the Lord hath brought it into his treasurie among the other golden plates which beare for letters of credence the stampe of his Spirit wee must take it for his owne coine and sacred metall distinguishing it from baser metall that hath receiued but common impression and is marked with the finger of man That which the Apostle would proue by this testimoniâ— is that those seducers of Gods people of whom he had spoken
in the good way young that they may sucke the milke of the Gospel with the milk of their Mother But to moue such to doe this dutie with more thankfulnesse let it be considered first that such instruction so giuen by Parents is more naturall and kindly then that which is giuen by strangers For as a tender plant will sooner take nourishment thriue better in the soile wherein it first grew and sprung vp then in any other ground because it liketh it owne soile best so tender children will sooner take instruction and good teaching from the Parents with whom they best agree as with their best and most naturall soile in whose loines they seeded and tooke their first roote then they can or are like to doe from strange Teachers when they shall be transplanted as it were into an other stocke and family or be exposed to grow vp in another soile of people then that in the which they had their first nature and sap of being Secondly who but Parents haue such as bee very young and tender vnder their charge and direction Now while they are yong one may work in their youth as in the day Ioh. 9.4 but when the night of their stubborne yeares commeth that season for good things is commonly lost Thirdly as Plants set in the Spring grow and prosper better then they which are set in Winter or Autumne so the instruction that is giuen in the spring of youth better prospereth and doth more edifie then that which is giuen in the Autumne of manhood or winter of gray haires Fourthly as Parents haue brought forth their children the children of wrath by nature So it concerneth them by the doctrine of Regeneration as by a second better nature in all good conscience to help to make them the sonnes and daughters of God by faith Fiftly Parents will betimes put their children forth to good trades And is there any trade of their life for honour delight or riches comparable to the trade and way of godlinesse Is the trade of wisdedome as other common trades which is a tree of Life to all that lay hold of it Prou. 2.18 The meaning is it increaseth strengthneth life where worldly trades if they be wel followed spend and diminish it and where other trades are vncertaine it hath the promises of this life and of that which is to come and where other trades are subiect to the course of this world being sometimes better and sometimes worse this is not so but alwaies good for God hath sealed vp his promise to it that it shall neuer faile which being so how carefull should Christian Parents be not to put off to put out their children carely and as it were at breake of day to such a profitable certaine and happie trade of life by which they shall be sure to liue euer with the Lord But if Parents will not betimes bind their youth by precept vpon precept Esay 28.10 as by Indenture and by Christian discipline as by Indenture sealed to so good a trade I beseech their Christian youth to offer themselues vnto it Sixtly Parents should remember that they help to build or pull downe the Christian world for in their children they beget and beare Parents to posteritie And if they learne no good while they be children how shall they teach it when they be fathers Seuenthly Parents are Gods Husbandmen and their children his seed and husbandrie 1. Cor. 3.9 as therefore in the husbandrie of this world the good Husband before he reape or inne one crop will plow and prepare for another yea and get the best and purest seede that at the time of haruest he may receiue some good increase So God hauing made religious Parents his husbandmen and their children his seede and husbandrie they should see that the haruest of Gods church be in some good proofe and well comming forward in their seede and posterity before their owne croppe be inned in their owne blessed death For Gods husbandrie must not die nor be giuen ouer till death bee vanquished which is the last enemy they must deale with Hee that hath or meaneth to haue and preserue a good Orchard will haue a nurserie also of young trees to feede it with and of these tender trees hee will be more carefull then of those elder in his Orchard of fruits The reason is they may sooner be bitten or nipped or the canker may sooner take them then the other trees God loueth and maketh much of the Orchard of his Church in the old store but hee is tender of it in the nurserie and new store that consisteth of babes in Christ growing to holinesse because the canker of euill things may soonest breed in them heards not of Beasts but of Diuels may soonest bite and nip them and so the Vineyard that God loueth so well may for want of supplies from the seminarie of young men and children begotten to the Gospell become desolate and wast for euer Now is God thus tender of his spirituall Nurserie and shall Christian Parents his husbandmen neglect it Doe they not know that the old trees cannot stand alwaies and that sooner or later they must be cut downe with the axe of death should they not then looke well to the nurserie of the younger impes in their charge by hedging with good nurture and discipline the young men and young women whom they meane to set as trees of righteousnesse in the Orchard of the Lords Church should they not water them with good teaching dresse them in good and due manner paring away their riot and superfluities of apparell of pleasures of play and prouide that no dangerous worme eat into them by any carely habit in euill vnmet with or if they shall despise or post of this so important a dutie what can we call them but prophane and such as leaue Gods Church in worse case then they found it The hope of the Church is in the youth that now haue being for if they be well brought vp they will be carefull that such as proceed from them shall haue good bringing vp also that age will commend this good education to another the next to them that follow and they to others by an inuiolable tradition till there be an end of all generations on Earth And as this is a lesson for all Parents so specially for Parents of great Families for the greater the ship is and the better merchandise it carrieth the more neede it hath of an expert and carefull Pilot. And so the greater a childe is by blood possessions the more need he shall haue of some speciall Ouerseer and one that greatly feareth God to be guide to his youth The contrarie carelesse nursing vp of such in vice and idlenesse is cause of these great wasts that wee find to be made so ordinarily in the best patrimonie of the common wealth for as the fattest soile bringeth forth the rankest weedes when it is not plowed so great houses not well
of spirituall death into spirituall life out of vnhappinesse and paines mortall into all happinesse and ioyes eternall Further they who are set in Christ in whom they liue to whose glorie they desire to liue and die seeing they behold death not with carnall eyes but with the eyes of faith in the Gospell doe as hath beene said get heart and reioyce against death in their good consciences and all the terrour of it and so to them it is a disarmed enemie or enemie of no power and hurt For how can that Scorpion hurt that hath no sting Or why should that enemie be feared that hath neither hand to strike nor weapon to kill Such a Scorpion is death when we take sinne from it and death is such an enemie when once wee haue set it downe by reformation of life Contrarily naturall men feare death exceedingly death that bringeth so much good to the righteous and taketh so much euil from the Saints because death in them is not ioined with a godly and well reformed life They haue not done the good for which they came into the world and therefore they feare to diâ— They apprehend death as a strong enemy finding in it through their continuall wickednesse no likelihood of saluation nor signe of peace and therefore desire not to be dissolued but feare to bee dissolued nor thinke death to bee a change but a plague Or they haue all their pleasure and peace in their dayes here nor caring for the dayes of heauen nor fearing the long night of hell Here they are well and they know not where is better Therefore not hoping for a better life no maruell if they leaue this against their will Death to such is the beginning of eternall death and no port-way to Christ but a portall-doore to destruction Let vs therfore so liue that we may not feare death and so learne to die that wee may liue euer not with Diuels in torments but with God in his kingdome That wee may so doe wee must remember how it was said that death as it is an effect of the fall hath a sting which sting of death is sinne This sting we must pull from it by taking sinne from it in our daily repentance and daily turning to God by newnesse of life Hee that hath an enemie will doe what he can to weaken him and if he be fearefull because he is well armed hee will doe what lieth in him to disarme him that he may not feare him This enemie is death the last that shall be destroyed Let vs therefore doe all we can by putting off sinne and putting on righteousnesse to bring downe his strength and by taking away from our hearts and the conuersation of our liues the sinne and sting of drunkennesse whoredome blasphemie pride lying and other abominable lustes let vs put no weapon of malice or edge into deaths hands to feare vs with when wee should leaue this world with comfort and goe to God in peace So shall we neither feare death nor feele the gripes of second death Obiect But the godly haue feared death else why did Eliah flye from it in the persecution of Iezabel 1. Kin. 19.3 and Christ teach his to decline it in the persecutions of men Math. 10.23 and Christ himselfe pray against the bitter cup of it in in his agonie and before his apprehension Mat. 26.39 Ans I answere briefely These Saints did not nor were to fly from death as it is the end of life and blessed end of a good life but vsed the meants of flight onely to preuent violent and hastie death till the houre appointed should come that they were to giue their spirit in peace into the hands of him that made it And because such vntimely death was enemie to the good they had to doe and course they were to finish therefore they went aside by flying for some time and till the time of their departure came that they might do the good to which they were appointed and finish the course for which they were sent But where it is alledged that Christ himselfe prayed against the cup of death I answere two waies And first that hee prayed without sinne and without hauing sinne against it seeing that in that his supplication of teares and much feare he submitted alway to his fathers will and seeing also death was not to him as it is to vs. For to vs the sting of it is conquered and the force broken but to him it was in full power He felt the sting of it and wrastled with the force of it in soule and bodie Secondly I say that it was not meerely a bodily death though vnsubdued saue where himselfe subdued it that he trembled at but by the burden of our sinnes which hee was to vndergoe in which he beheld the whole There hee saw his fathers countenance turned against him and there knew that he must beare his wrath because hee bore our sinnes Besides Christ feared death beeing clothed with our flesh to shew that hee tooke our infirmities and bore our sorrowes and was perfect man And so death in some case may bee feared and at some time prayed against but euer vnder the correction of Gods will Esay 38.2.3 For the rodde of death turned into a Serpent made Moses to feare Exo. 4.3 and the best haue moderately declined and shrunke at the stroke of death when it came in some tempest And who doth not dread all Gods terrours wherof death is one And feare that which is the punishment of sin and curse of sinners And decline that which is the destruction of humane Nature and shrinke at that which hath made the strongest the wisest the richest the greatest to fall downe flatte before it Therefore the feare of death thus reproued is not the naturall feare of it which is in all but the seruile feare of it proper to euill doers and common to those who can haue no hope in death because they neuer cared to liue till they were compelled to die And now that wee haue heard what feare of death it is that Gods children must not bee stained with as namely that which is seruile and cowardly wee will shew and that briefely why such feare of death should fall vpon none of Gods seruants who in so great peace leaue this world and for so precious a crowne of glorie For if wee haue no better resemblance of death then when we sleepe nor better rest then at that time why should it be counted so hydeous a thing when the bodie is toiled and much spent with labour to send it to the sweet and deepe sleepe of death or to lay it in the quiet bed of the earth where no sounds or feare can disease it And if to Gods Children death bee not onely a departing from paine and euril but an accesse to all good nor the end of life but the end of death and beginning of life eternall can Gods children thinke it any disaduantage to exchange the sense
the life of a thought whereof there may bee a thousand in an houre vers 9. a life of nothing Psal 39.5 that is of no time or of vanitie which is next to nothing Iacob in his time brought it to a short account that is from diuers hundreds to an hundred and thirtie Gen. 47.9 But Moses comming after him gathereth it into a shorter summe or account euen to an account or count or totall of threescore and ten or of fourescore at the most with labour and sorrow Psal 90.10 Dauid measureth it with his short span Psal 39.5 and this excellent Saint compareth man borne of a woman â—o a flower that is soone cut downe and to a shadow that continueth not Iob 14.2 Finally our vncertaine short life is in Scripture compared to a thought that is presently gone Psal 90.9 to a dreame in the night that is forgotten in the morning to a bubble vpon the water to a ship vnder saile and to a weauers shuttle So soone passeth our life and it is gone The reasons First Iniquity now aboundeth and more in these latter times then in formeâ— ages Math. 24.22.2 Tim. 3.1.2 which must needs prouoke God to cut shorter these our dayes then those better daies wherein our fathers liued who liued more simply and in fewer sinnes then wee their children doe at this day Secondly our time is short that our short time might moue vs not to deferre to doe good as the manner is seeing euen the Diuel himselfe is busie because his time is short Apâ— 12.12 17. Thirdly our life is as nothing that Gods Children might sooner be deliuered from their burthens and from those that burthen them in this life and that the wicked the children of this world might haue a shorter time to keepe in bondage and vnder the whip of malice those poore ones who desire to sacrifice their life to God in a conscience of his seruice and to walke in faith before him For if mans life might now extend to the yeares which were before the floud when men liued six seuen eight nine hundred yeares This cruell age in which wee liue would too long torment and too vilely deale with Gods faithfull ones there being no hooke of short time in the iawes of the wicked to keepe them in feare as now when death is such a tyrant and short life such a curbe vnto them that they dare not or cannot doe as they would And indeede how can they doe that in their fortie and vnder their fourescore which they might doe and would be hold to doe being men of might in their hundreds Also how could the poore Church hold vp the head and continue in good case that should haue so strong and long-liued enemies to encounter with An admonition to run the way of Gods commandements Vse 1 while he enlargeth our hearts and not to put off our conuersion in so short a life Hee that hath a long iourney to goe in a short time will make hast and he who remembreth that euery day runneth away with his life cannot sit still But where men promise to themselues long life and much time there they wax wanton and become secure as Amos 6.3 2. Pet. 3.4 Therefore the Lord doth commend our life to vs in this Scripture and in other Scriptures in a short abstract of daies and not in a volume of yeares as in the booke at large So Christ saith to Ierusalem in this thy day Luke 19.42 not granting a longer terme then the terme of one poore day vnto her Which was to teach her and vs in her to thinke euery day to bee our last day And therefore to doe that this day as in our time which wee are not sure to doe the next day as in a time that God hath taken to himselfe and from vs as being more properly his then our day A worthy Souldiour warring long vnder Adrian the Emperour after that long time returned to his house and liued Christs souldiour Where and in which manner after he had liued seuen yeeres he yeelded to death and beeing readie to die commanded that it should bee written on his tombe Here lieth Similis for that was his name a man who was many yeares and liued but seuen counting that hee liued no longer then hee liued a Christian How many warre after the flesh vnder the Emperor of the aire not vnder Adrian who yet I cannot say seuen yeeres I would I could say that seuen dayes or houres before their death they did cast away these weapons of sinne that it might bee engrauen vpon their graue stone for their Epitaph that seuen daies before their last day or seuen houres before their dying houre they not onely had a being but a life in the world and not onely were but liued Such desire not to remember but to forget their short time nor to heare of their end but to suppresse it because the remembrance of it will make them sparingly to offend and the feare of it alter affections And from hence it is that hee who hath peace in his dayes and is besotted with the flumber of long life being loath to leaue his possession for an vncertaintie or to liue be where hee cannot assure himselfe that hee shall or can either liue or be as here he may and doth saith to death as Ahab to Eliah Art thou here mine enemie 1. King 21.20 When the preferment of it considered in the sweet peace of the righteous and happie death of the Saints hee should rather say Welcome my friend or the welcom day of death come neere Vse 2 A reproofe therefore to those who put off the time of amendment to some long time hereafter not remembring their short time and few dayes here Though here they be but Tenants at will in their Clayforme whose foundation is in the dust whose strength is a few bones tyed together with sinewes as with small strings whose life is in a little breath quickly stopt and which howsoeuer we patch and peece it with helpes of Art and supplies of Nature for a time will they know not how soone fall into the place of darknesse when the winde of death hath passed ouer it Yet they thinke not of their enduring house and house from heauen or they so much delight in the momentanie gourd of their short life which yet hath her worme of speedie corruption that they forget the dayes euerlasting and change that is to come Ion. 4.6 Of such wee reade Chapter 21. of this booke Who because theiâ— houses were peaceable to them without feare their wealth came in vnto them without faile and they were great in their posteritie Therefore their hearts were all set in pleasure and they reioyced in their dayes and substance that was so great not remembring their time how short it was till they suddenly went down to the graue When the Disciples were in the Ship and the Ship was in the middes of the Sea tossed with windes and couered with
waues they came to Christ awoke him saying Master saue vâ— wee parish Mat. 8.24.25 But they had Christ with them in the Ship But some thinke not of Christ to awake him to their saluation being strangers to God through the ignorance that is in them til the ship of their body tossed with the tempests of their last sicknesse bee readie to sinke into death and by many leakes and wearings beginne to receiue into their soules that dead sea that must needs drown them in perditioÌ„ destruction before the Lord for euer For how many thus think of him till they can thinke no longer how many begin to liue that is truely to liue till they be readie to die and how many call to minde that Time of Times till there be no more time at least to them till that last time and houre of the day come vnto them in the which they must come to the barre to receiue their doome and iudgement The reason of all this backwardnesse to a new life in the feare of God is mens ouer-hungrie desire to follow those pleasures of sinne into which Satan putteth himselfe as he did into the Serpent to beguile Heue The subtile enemie knoweth with what bait to take a worldling to all forgetfulnes of God and of the iudgement to come And therefore as the hunter minding to take the Tygres young one is said to set vp certaine looking glasses in the Tygres way that is in the way that she passeth to seek her straying brood that finding in such glasses a perfect resemblance of her selfe the same may cause her to leaue the pursuit and to loose her whelpe So this old huntsman Satan obseruing what care man ought to haue which care but few men haue to saue from hell and destruction his stray soule doth set many goodly shewes or false glasses of pleasures which seeme but are not in the way of his Christian walke that by holding his sight in these deere-prized delights he may more willingly leaue the care of that one thing which is necessarie the saluation of his soule Therefore that wee may not bee taken in this Hunters snare our short life should be often thought of When we goe to bed we should remember our graue and when wee rise in the morning consider that we shall rise out of the graue of the earth at the last day With this key of meditation we should open the day and shut in the night And what befalleth others in the dust of their bodies we should thinke must come to vs we cannot tell how soone in our owne dust mortality Here therefore as the third Captaine sent from the King of Israel to Eliah to bring him and perceiuing that the other two Captains with their fifties were deuoured with fire from heauen at the request of Eliah grew wife by their experience and therefore fell downe and besought fauour for himselfe and his fiftie 2. King 1.13 So we seeing or hearing of so many fifties young and old that in these late yeares of mortalitie haue ended their liues in a fire of pestilence sent from the Lord should make supplication day and night not as that Captaine to the man of God but as true Christians to the man and God Christ Iesu that our liues deathes may be precious in his eyes and that we may not forget that what is done to others may come to vs. And if God haue knocked by many infirmities as by so many messengers at the doore of our fraile bodies wee should not defâ—â—re then chiefly to open to him by present repentance lest he breake in by incurable plagues and make his way by our certain destruction death remedilesse An apologie or defence of those good Christians Vse 3 who considering the vncertaintie and shortnesse of Mans time redeeme as much as may be of it into the band and to the glorie of Him that made and is owner of all their daies in a care of his seruice They know that Satan is a great gainer by the waste of time and that contrarily they shall gaine and Satan be looser by a wise redeeming of their few daies for good duties and therefore they care not to buie time with any redemption temporall so they may haue store of it for the markets of godlinesse and thefeare of the Lord. This would be well obserued for it sheweth the reason why the godly haue so great comfort in their short time and the wicked no true comfort in their few euill daies and so much horror at the end of them when they goe from their house to graue The godly haue much pleasure in their short though troublesom life because they haue bestowed it well and because they are become by such redemption of time citizens in title of a citie that cannot be shaken And therefore though their time bee short their short time here is very comfortable vnto them seeing as Noahs douâ— vpon the waters they waite daily till God open the window of his heauenly Arke to take them to rest from their labors The wicked who haue spent their short time euil must needs greatly feare at the end of their short time seeing when they see death they may doubt if it be peace hauing neuer yet loued the God of peace 2. King 9.22 The righteous are in the world as the Israelites in Babylon who beeing captiues in this prison of life care not how soone they bee deliuered that they may sing the songs of the Lord in their owne Land Psal 137.4 The wicked like spirituall Babylonians and as men at home in their owne naturall soile desire no other life and know no better and therefore it exceedingly grieueth them so soone to depart from this and so much against their wils To the godly by reason of good houres well employed 1. Cor. 15. death is the last enemie and to the wicked by their prophane life the first Gods Children count nothing their own here euerie day they gather Manna and haue but from hand to mouth till the long Sabbath come when they shall eate the fruites of the land of heauen Therefore their losse is nothing when they haue lost all here onely they loose miserie and finde saluation and what losse is that Surely such as they are glad of and the sooner they make the change the better for them The worlds children are here at home in their Mothers lappe here they haue their pleasure Luk. 16.25 and receiue their portion hauing great things for themselues and to leaue to their Babes when they are gone Here they wasted time the fairest and best part of it vpon their profits and lusts and little of it they bestowed if any of it well and what maruel then if they cry out to come to their account for time so precious so much abused The godly because their affection is to do good and God doth so mercifully blesse them that they constantly and heartily doe it therefore they are and
our child hath entred on alreadie And why are we vnquiet seeing the Lord of Heauen and earth hath called our child from a base condition to noblenesse to bestow honours vpon him and ritches that shall not faile promising the like to vs by the way of death should we not rather so dispose our occasions and life that we may ioifully follow him whom wee haue not lost but sent before But you will say my child was young and died in his flowers well be it so yet they who die young so they die well are old inough to goe to God besides did not Ieroboams childe in whom were found good things die young 1. King 14.13 And did not Iosiah die old whom the Lord in a battle at Megiddo tooke from the filthy will of Iudah to plant him before himselfe in the garden of his owne presence in glorie 2. King 24.29 Neither can they be said to die yong whose perfection is growne to a blessed ripenesse before the Lord. But young or old if you haue reioiced in your child as in the Lords interest you will not think it much and why should you that the Lord should haue his owne or will you with Phurao offer to hold in the prison of life as in Egypt any seruant of his whom hee shall send for by death his last messenger and that aâ— supper time when all things are ready Luc. 14.17 While he liued God gane him to you as a pledge of his fauor now that he is taken away you must freely resigne him as a pledge of your obedience But you wil say He was my onely child Indeed the death of an onely childe is very greeuous to the Parents Zechar. 12.10 Am. 8.10 yet Abraham was readie to haue sacrificed his onely sonne Isaac at Gods commandement Gen. 22.3.10 and God gaue his onely sonne Christ to death for our salâ—ation Ioh. 3.16 wherefore as Elkanah said to Annah so and much more may the Lord say to vs am not I better to you then ten sonnes 1. Sam. 1.8 or are not our ten sonnes and all the children of the wombe his gift Ps 127.3 Then though he be your onely child and all you haue whom God thus by death taketh from you there is no cause of griefe or of complaint seeing the Lord hath but his owne when he hath taken him and seeing also that he taketh him and you giue him but as your pledge and earnest to binde vnto you the right of that inheritance that you looke for or as your Feof-fee of trust gone before to take the possession for you A reproofe to those Vse 2 who can see nothing in the death of their friends or in their owne deathes but what is dreadfull beyond measure and simply the end of man Such conceiue death not as he is to the righteous and as Christ hath made him to bee by his glorious death but as fooles iudge of him who behold him through false spectacles as he is in his owne vncorrected nature considered out of Christ that is vgly terrible and hideous So did they behold him in Amos who put the euill day of his comming that which they iudged to bee euill and the godly iudge to bee happie no day happier as far from them as they could by carnall delicacie and wantonnesse Amos 6.3 So did Belshazzar looke vpon him whose heart would not serue him to reade the hand-writing of his owne end so neare Dan. 5.5.6.30 And Nabal had no heart to die who when he must needes die died as a stone that is died blockishly and so faintly that he was as good as slaine before death slew him 1. Sam. 25.37.38 He had no comfort in death which hee could not see one that was as righteous but as churlish and prophane And no maruell for this Aduersarie death armed as Goliah and vaunting as that proud Gyant of Gath commeth stalking toward such in fearefull manner infulting ouer weake dust and daring the world to giue him a man to fight with Therefore at the sight of him the whole hoast of worldlings bewray great feare turning their backes and going backward as men readie to sinke into the earth with abated courages and lookes cast downe stained with the colours of feare death trembling like leaues in a storme and striken with the palsie of a sudden and violent shaking through all the bodie 1 Sam. 17.10.11 But the true Christian armed as Dauid with trust in God and expectation of victory by the death of Christ who by death ouercame death as Dauid cut off the head of Goliah with his owne sword dares and doth boldly encounter with this huge Philistian death supposed inuincible and seeming great but neither with sword nor speare but in the name of the God of the hoast of Israel by whose might onely hee woundeth and striketh him to the earth trampling vpon him in the returne of his soule to the place out of which it first came and singing ouer him this ioiful and triumphant song of victorie O death where is thy sting 1. Cor. 15.55 Hee hath Steuens eyes to looke into heauen and therefore cannot but haue the tongue of the Saints who say Come Lord Iesu come quickly Apoâ— 22 2â—â— For the ioy that is set before him he with his good Sauiour endureth the crosse of death and despiseth the shame of corruption to which the dust of his bodie must bee turned Heb. 12.2 Ob. Quest But you will say Is not death to be feared that worketh so fearefully beeing also enemie to nature and the wages of sinne Rom. 6.23 Ans Answ Indeede death is dreadfull out of Christ and in it selfe and wee haue reason to feare it as it is an effect of sinne for so God setteth his angrie countenance in it and so Aristotle it is simply fearefull and euill Which made an heathen man to say that of all terrible things death was most terrible Hee saw in the darke that death had much euill in it and that it was properly euill and but accidentally good but he could not see through the dark cloud that which made it so euill Therefore euill it is I confesse and fearefull And to this we haue a greater witnesse then the witnesse of man For the Apostle saith the sting of death is sinne 1. Cor. 15.56 Now so farre as it hath a sting and is in it strength it is to be feared The reason is so it is properly death and death in kinde But we speake not of death considered out of Christ or considered in it selfe but of death altered by the death of Christ and which by such a change is made our passage from death to life for so it is no dreadful thing but a thing desireable and so the sting is taken from it which is of force and carieth an edge of second death against all the workers of iniquitie who dying out of Christ die miserably hellishly and with horrible feare By Christ the doore death is made a doore out
of paine for the fruition of that which is perfectly pleasing and good Or to change death for life Or to passe from a wearie pilgrimage to their desired homes where they shall not onely neuer feele miserie but bee euer happie and blessed with the full sight of that the glimpse wherof shining vpon the face of our Sauiour in his transfiguration made Peter to say Master it is good to be here Math. 17.4 Salomon saith Better is the day of death then the day in which wee were borne Eccles 7.3 And why better except because when we are borne we come into misery when we die we goe out our death beeing changed by the death of Christ and made vnto vs not a death as the Law maketh it but our path and mid-way betweene this life and the other which is eternall or our doore and little wicket out of this world into that world and kingdome which is prepared for the Saints inhabited of the Angels and receiueth honour from God who is the light and temple of that Cirie Lastly death hath lost his sting his hell his victorie I speake in regard of the righteous that which remaineth if wee liue in the spirit and die in the Lord is profitable for vs. For it shall bring an end of all our labours and giue vs vp into the hands of Iesus Christ Now what feare is in all this Let them feare therefore who haue giuen vnto them a spirit of bondage and of feare in which they tremble at their owne estate and which maketh them to carrie in their breast tormenting furies that hold them day and night in the feare of endlesse death Let them feare who rest in sinne liue in errour and ignorance follow the lustes of the world and walke in all the waies of death but let not them feare who are at a couenant with themselues to haue no pleasure in such fond courses and direct waies of death but to haue their pleasure onely in the word of God to vnderstand it and in the mysterie of Christ to bee lightened with it who hate sinne that they may haue hope and walke in righteousnesse that they may walke with Christ Let not such feare for the power of death Satan is broken before such and such may haue boldnesse when they goe out of the world that they shall goe to God A comfort therefore to the faithfull Vse 3 who haue born the brunt of life for such may be comforted in death as a Souldiour who hath endured the skirmishes and scarres of warre is glad and may haue ioy that the enemie is spent and the warre ended where others because they haue spent no time or so little in the Lords seruice and giuen so few strokes if any in the cause of his truth and glorie may feare at the approach of death and iustly complaine of that day as of a day of death indeede and that eternall In the eleuenth Chapter to the Hebrewes the Apostle sheweth what great troubles the seruants of God endured and how ioyfull they were as at a royall feast in all those troubles and sufferings for Christ that they might enter vpon the comfortable death of the righteous They were so farre from fearing death as worldlings feare it that they ranne gladly to it in their hope of the resurrection and reioiced in the welcome day of death as in a day of the greatest good that could befall them The reasons were they knew with Sampson that they should slay moe at their death then they slew in their life Iudg. 16.30 As first that they should slay their last enemie by death which is not slain but by dying And secondly that they should kill the spawne of all enmitie sinne 's sinne which bred death 〈◊〉 4.7 and the miseries of eternall death Which death in the Saints bred by sinne as the worme in the flower killeth the corrupt flower that bred it that is that sinne that caused death And this made c I doubt not but the Prophet here sinned by impatiencie but his hope was in death Eliah to desire death not life and rather to die then to liue saying It is enough 1. King 19.4 It made Dauid to lay vp his flesh in hope Psal 16.9 It made Paul to say I am readie not to bee bound onely but to die at Ierusalem for the name of the Lord Iesus Act. 21.13 And as Simeon said Lord now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace Luke 2.29 So the godly haue such comfort in death that they say with old Simeon and all Saintes Come Lord Iesu come quickly Apo. 22.20 apprehending death as their onely way to Christ and guide to happinesse and applauding death as Iacob applauded the Chariots that Ioseph his sonne sent for the bringing of him out of a land of miserie into a land of plentie and fulnesse where hee should haue foode inough the best in the land Gen. 45.27.48 The hope of Iob and expectation of the Saints is that they shall see God and come to Christ by death presently in their soules and in their bodies at the last day when all the bones in Golgotha shall rise at that voice that shall say returne yee sonnes of Adam Psal 90.3 For though death shall swallow them vp as the Whale did Ionah and shall binde them as the Philistims did Sampson and the shroude did Lazarus hand and foote Ioh. 11.44 yet the Whale of the earth shall not hold them nor the snares of death and shroude of darknesse preuaile against them when God shall speake by his last trumpet to the graues of the earth and they shall cast out all the Lords Ionahs Ion. 2.10 The bands of death shall fall asunder as corruption and rottennesse in that day in which Christ shall command the holds of darkenesse to deliuer his Saints saying loose them and let them goe Ioh. 11.44 This then beeing all that the righteous shall loose by their gainfull death For they shall loose a short miserable life and receiue a long euer blessed life in glorie what losse can there be in death and what greater aduantage then by dying This the godly know and therefore reioyce in death as they that finde great spoiles They finde that their bodie such as it is now in the estate of corruption is an image of golde which is disfigured that it can be brought to no shape till the owner melt and refound it to a new similitude Euen so the bodie that at first was beautifull hauing such a grace and maiestie set in the face of it that after a sort and outwardly it resembled the Creators image fairer then any of Gold they finde so to bee troden in the mire and so mishapen by sinne that it can neuer receiue the beautie and condition of the first worke till it bee dissolued and new-moulded by the hand of GOD at the resurrection of all bodies and therefore they desire death as the first necessary and blessed work-house of this their
repaire from deformitie to fashion and from corruptible to eternall So death was Saint Pauls aduantage and how can it bee our losse if wee make Saint Pauls end If we had no hope after death wee might feare indeed But GOD hauing made their first Adam a liuing soule not a dying soule and all the sonnes of the second glorious soules not reprobate spirits Why should wee dread or feare to receiue our crown and glorie Or why should we be vnwilling with a ioyfull shout to salute our port and hauen after so many tiring stormes as wee haue endured vpon the raging sea of this world And why be sorie that we are going to our house of peace and home of long life which is at the right hand of God where is fulnesse of ioy and pleasures for euermore Psal 16.11 Doth any man feare to fall a sleepe at night that hath laboured hard all day What is the death of the faithfull but their sleepe of refreshing after the toiles of their life when the night is come in which no man can worke Ioh. 9.4 To this blessed sleepe of peace the Lord for his mercies sake lay euerie one of vs whom hee hath purposed to take to rest from labour in his time appointed Amen The end of the second Sermon THE THIRD SERMON ESA. Chap. 57. Vers 2 He shall enter into peace and they shall rest in their beddes euery one that walketh before him or that walketh in his righteousnesse THis scripture is a scripture of much comfort bringing a Gen. 8.11 an oliue leafe of peace in the mouth of it to the righteous that perish and to mercifull men that are shut vp with the flood of death in the Arke of their graues that they might not see the euill the great euill to come when they should see their enemies in the habitation of the Lord and Iuda with her King and inhabitants lead in Chaines of bondage to Babylon The words particularly and those of the fiue verses immediately before foure of them in the former Chapter the fift and sixt at the beginning of this containe two things as a complaint and comfort The complaint which is ioined with a threatning concerneth the vngodly that liued in their sinnes the comfort pertaineth to those that should be taken away in peace walking before the Lord that is in pathes of righteousnesse before him In the complaint the Prophet speaketh of a lamentable and very vniuersall destruction or plague that the Lord was preparing to send shortly vpon that wicked Rebell Iudah which was come to such a brimme of sinne and senslesse wickednesse and that is he would call for the wild beasts of the field and forrest of Babel meaning those Gentils and Nebuchadnezar their King to deuoure them and to execute the Lords iudgements vpon them eating their flesh and inuading their land Therefore where in a figuratiue speech at the 9. verse of the former chapter he calleth the beasts together as to some royall feast hee meaneth to forwarne the people of some grieuous iudgement prepared for them and comming toward them euen a iudgement of desolation and slauerie entended against them by the King of Babel and his great hoast The like we reade Ier. 9.22 Ezech 39.18.19 And because it might appeare that the Lords iudgements are euer righteous as he himselfe is most righteous and holy in the three verses that follow he speaketh of one maine cause that moued the iust God to send so great a storme of affliction and death in the captiuitie then threatned and that was their watchmen who should haue told them of their sinnes and giuen them warning with the Lords trumpet at their mouth of a plague so neere neither kept watch nor gaue warning but liued delicately and fed without feare being also couetous and greedie dogges that could neuer haue inough And indeed when a kingdome is ouer-runne by such in the forme and calling of Teachers it is a blazing-starre to that people and kingdome of some alteration at hand For if the Sun be set vpon the Mountains what shew can it make in the valleys or if the blind lead the blind must not both of them by the darknes that is in them of sinne and ignorance fall into the ditch of the condemnation of the Lord. Mat. 15.14 But all the fault though the greatest was not in those dumme and greedie Dogs the not teaching and ill ruling Ministers of that time the people them selues had their sinne also spoken of in the first verse of this Chapter and that was a carelesse regard of the deaths of the righteous beside their festrednesse and more then stand in sinne and wickednesse wherein they continued and went on carnally not feeling any stroke of Gods hand in that iudgement which he begunne at his owne house by taking away suddenly his best men And now if this complaint may bee vrged against vs and our coldnesse in a like case at this day as it was against them and if it shall make vs no wiser to God nor more carefull of our last end then it could them let vs prepare our selues to a like iustly deserued miserie and to pledge these in the cup in which they haue drunke before vs or begun vnto vs to destruction Thus farre the complaint The comfort entended only to those who should walke before God in their goodnesse fidelitie and truth for such should be sure vpon the remoue of their soules in soule to enter possession of an euerlasting and present peace and in bodie to rest most sweetly in the common bed and house of the earth till the last great day hath two things to be considered in it as a promise made and the persons to whom the promise is made The promise is in two things peace to the soule and rest to the bodie so soone as the soule goeth out of the bodie The persons to whom this promise is made are iust men and mercifull men that walke before the Lord that is that doe his commandements that they may liue Luc. 10.28 and keep his sayings that their part may bee in the tree of life Apoc. 22.14 The text may be resolued thus as a learned man resolueth it He that is the righteous shal enter into peace or vpon peace and they namely the godly shall rest in their beddes to wit immediately and presently vpon their deaths for as their bodies goe to rest so their soules shall enter into peace as Apoc. 14.13 Luc. 16.22 Euerie one that is euery godly one God is no accepter of persons and there is a generalitie of giuing in him as their must be a particularitie of receauing in vs that walketh before the Lord that is that hath his conuersation in the Lord walking in no way but by him nor in any course but after him This being as I take it the true both resolution and sense of this verse the first thing in it promised to the righteous is peace by which as was said
Psal 1.5 Thus the doctrine standeth fast being proued in euery part particularly Other reasons may be giuen for further illustration The reasons And first there is great reason that Christ should be Iudge himselfe For he alone is the Sauiour and therefore he alone must be Iudge He that saueth his elect must condemne the world Secondly he is the head of his Church to saue it from harmes and to wring out the dregs of his wrath vpon their heads that harme it Eph. 5.23 Esa 63.1.2.6 And how can he thus deliuer his Church if he be not her Sauiour and thus be reuenged on his Churches enemies if he be not there Iudge Thirdly it shall be a day of ioy vnspeakable to the godly and of terrour importable to the wicked For the godly shall meet the Lord in the 2 1. Thes 4.17 aire The fornace that is appointed to purge the world and to consume sinners shall haue no power ouer such nor the smell of it come vpon them Dan. 3.27 The Iudge will be their Sauiour The witnesses the Angels the Saints and the great inquest of all the creatures will cleere them And who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect Rom. 8.33 The things that they shall be iudged off are condemned in Christ and the sting of conuiction is departed from them to his death who hath conquered all the power of the enemie The tribunall that face of it that is toward them shall put off feare and become a session-house of mercie and of plentifull redemption The sentence pronounced shall send them to their houses of ioy and blisse endlesse and their father will giue them the kingdome Luc. 12.32 But as the godly shal thus heare a most blessed sentence of absolution so the wicked shall then heare their iust sentence of seperation from God Where all things shall make them to melt away with an horrible dread and minister great matter of all feare and terrour in that day For first it shall be a most fearefull thing to see and consider the number of them without number that shall run hither and thither to hide themselues in the holes of the earth The place ground on which they must stand will be fearefull for it shall be all on a flaming fire The Iudge will be fearefull for God is Iudge himselfe The things that they shall be iudged off will be fearefull for their secret and darke vngodlinesse shall then euerie thought of it come to light and be iudged in the sight of fire in the sight of water in the sight of Angels in the sight of all the elements in the sight of men and presence of God the Iudge of quicke and dead on whose head are many crownes and who is clothed with a garment dipt in blood Apoc. 19.11.13 The witnesses will be fearefull which will be their owne griping conscience and Gods all-seeing prouidence the accusing Angels their offended brother and millions of creatures abused by them The bench will be fearefull for it shall be to them a tribunall of iudgment without mercie The sentence will be if any thing most fearefull as that which shall proceed against al vnrighteous persōs in the fearefull forme Go ye accursed into euerlasting fire prepared for the Deuil and his Angels And the fire that to which they are appointed shall haue no end of feare For this fire is a far other thing then the fire of the chimney the fire of Gehenna then materiall fire The vses of this point concerne the godly and sinners Vse 1 It is comfortable to the godly that Christ shall be Iudge and they who haue followed him in the regeneration may lift their head to their redemption at hand when he commeth who will iudge his people with equitie that is with sauour For he must be Iudge who hath communicated to all his seruants the sweete and louing names of his a Mar. 33. mother sisters brethren b Cant. 4.9 10.11.12 spouse c Iohn 15.14.15 friends Now we are his mother if we beare him in the wombe of our hearts by faith as Marie bore him in the wombe of her bodie And we are his brethren and sisters if we loue him as brethren and cherish him as sisters in his weake and despised seruants among vs. And if we keepe our selues to him alone by matrimoniall faithfulnesse we are his spouse wife And we are his friends if we doe whatsoeuer he command vs. We being these and doing thus what need we feare for if we be his mother may we not come to him with as great boldnesse and expectation of successe as did Bath-sheba to Salomon the naturall mother to her Sonne 1. King 2.19 If we be his spouse shall we feare to make him our Iudge who is one with vs in spirituall marriage and by the espousall of faith our husband and friend or will one kind brother feare to make another his Iudge Can he condemne vs to death who hath redeemed vs from death eternall He is our Iudge who also is our aduocate at his fathers right hand and maketh intercession for vs. Art thou afraide that thy Iudge will be vnmercifull O what a vaine feare is that seeing he is thy Iudge who condemned himselfe to saue thee from iudgement who emptied himselfe for thy filling bestowed and spent himselfe for thy restoring and gaue his life which passed out at all the gates of his bodic for the life of thy soule Can the sentence be sharpe that commeth from the throne of grace in the hand of a Redeemer from whom commeth saluation or will he who stood at the barre to deliuer vs go vp to the bench and sit downe in the throne to condemne vs Rom. 8.1 or shall we feare any longer when our aduocate is made our Iudge And when he who came to saue vs may saue or condemne But shall Christ bee iudge Vse 1 The other was not more comfortable to the Saints then this shall bee terrible to vngodly sinners For what a hart-breaking will it bee to the wicked and death beyond all kindes of death temporall to see him who is their chiefe enemie in chiefe place What comfort can it bee to a couetous man or woman to be iudged by him for auarice who limited all his cares to the present day and spake so much earnestly against the morrowes care Or to a proud person to haue him his Iudge who humbled himselfe as a child being God of maiestie and set the low doore of humilitie before the courts of his fathers house Or to fleshly persons to appeare at his barre of iudgement whose whole life was lead in temperance and commandement was that we should be sober Or to Whoremongers and Adulterers whom God will iudge Heb. 13.4 to receiue sentence of death or absolution from his mouth who himselfe was born of a pure Virgin and hath those for his followers who were not defiled with women Apoc. 14.4 Or to the vnmercifull to be
is sufficient for vs to know that such a day will come and it shall be our wisdome alwayes to be ready for it that it come not vpon vs as the snare vpon the bird The reasons of the certainetie of this day of iudgement are First it is the will and decree of God for the Apostle saith He hath appointed a day in the which hee will iudge the world in righteousnesse Act. 17.31 Now the wil and decree of God is vnchangeable His counsell shall stand Esa 46.10 Secondly it is an article of our faith grounded on the word of God But the articles of our faith are all certaine and most certaine Thirdly the scripture saith that God will make manifest euerie mans worke and iudge the secrets of men Eccles 12.14 Luc. 8.17 Rom. 2.16 This is not done here and here many matters are cloked and carried in a mist that deserue iudgement and merit condemnation Therefore and that God may be iust in his sayings there must be a sessions of gaol-deliuery which we call with the scriptures the iudgement of the last day Fourthly the godly doe here groane vnder many miseries and the vngodly wallow in delights the rich liue delicately and Lazarus is in paine therefore is it necessary as it is certain that a day should come wherein the Lord may make knowne his righteousnesse and magnifie his iustice before his glorious throne that they who haue liued merrily dishonouring God might liue in torments of fire and they whose life hath beene miserable seruing the Lord might be comforted for euer Some haue offended deepely and haue not beene touched by the Magistrate some haue suffered great rebuke somtimes death deseruing fauour therefore a day must come and is appointed wherein the Lord that is iust will recompence tribulation to all that haue troubled the righteous and to such as were troubled by them rest 2. Thes 1.6.7 On the other side would it not be hard for the godly who here haue endured the crosse for the ioy that was set before them if there shold not come a time of refreshing from God and would it not too much induâ—rate the wicked who drinke iniquity as water if they should escape all punishments and vengeance here and after death Fiftly this is shadowed out in that housholder who when euen was come called the Labourers and gaue euery man his hire and pennie Math. 20.8.10 And if a wise Master will reckon with his seruants Math. 25.19 shall we thinke that the wisest will not one day reckon with sinners and call them before him for his money that is precious graces of wit learning authoritie wealth and other ontward and inward ornaments of life which they haue consumed on their lusts Sixtly euery wicked mans conscience doth by a trembling feare as in Felix at one time or another iustifie this point of a iudgmeÌ„t to come Act. 24 26. And therefore as the flood of waters once drowned the world except a few who were saued in the arke Gen. 7 1.7.2 Pet. 2.5 So it is certain that the flood and tempest of the last daies fire shall burne it and all in it except such as Christ hath or wil then gather into the little arke of his Church In the euening of this world and when there shall be no more time he will call the labourers before him giuing them the pennie or pay of euerlasting life but for the idle and loiterers forth of the vineyard and out of Christ he will let them goe with sinners to the place prepared for them as they haue liued without the Church or idlie in it so when the labourers receaue their pennie they shall heare depart from mee ye that worke iniquitie I know you not Math. 7.23 Thus it is proued not onely to be certaine but necessarie that there should be a iudgment But some will say Quest seeing men come to their account at their death what needeth any other day of audit or hearing I answere Answ Men at their death receiue but priuate iudgement here they shall receiue publike sentence Then they are iudged in their soules onely here they shall bee iudged in soule and bodie that is but a close Sessions that an open or solemne assise There much of their shame is hid here they shall be shamed to the full And if our owne lawes doe not condemne and execute malefactors in prison but for their greater shame in open place and manner It is great reason that wicked sinners should not priuately in their graues as in prison bee iudged and led to execution but be brought to the publike scaffold and barre of solemne fession there to receiue their shame and sentence together and not to bee executed by a close death in the goale but be broght forth to suffer vpon the high stage of the world in the sight of Saints and Angels where all eyes may see them But is not Christ iudge in this life Quest And is there not a iudgement begun here Indeed Answ there is a iudgement begun already a iudgement that goeth before this of the last day For God hath erected in the consistorie of euerie mans heart a certaine iudgement seat where conscience is iudge The wicked securely despise or scornefully deride this iudge and iudgement seat but it giueth them many secret gripes though they profit not by them Oftentimes Gods children themselues because that the noises and sounds that the ring of the world maketh in them doe too much neglect these loude cals of their consciences to amendment of life But this is the iudgement that the Lord beginneth here with which they must well bee acquainted who meane to stand before Christ the iudge at the last day And this one well compareth to our quarter-Sessions which are kept for mulcts and meddle not in matters of life and death as Sessions of goale deliuerie doe For in this mid-space betweene these Sessions and that day of assise the Lord executeth a kind of iudgement among his houshould people and enemies by taking his grace from his seruants for a season from the wicked for euer Or by taking something from his children that they loued to much and did hurt them and that from the wicked that they seemed to haue The first to prepare the righteous for a better world the other to make the wicked readie for the sentence of their last and iust damnation begunne in this world That we may be fitted for this comfortable meeting of the Lord in the ayre and not liue in sinne as those workers of iniquitie doâ— vpon whom these mid-Sessions haue passed sentence binding them ouer to the close sessions of their death or more publike assise of the last day when all prisons must be rid and graues emptied let vs not sleightly passe ouer those seuerall penalties that the Lord inflicteth at his quarter-sessions in the twitches of our conscience for some good omitted or euill done But when he thus calleth vs let vs answere here am I. A
chuse but come And the Euangelist Iohn the third witnesse of this truth vnto vs saw this in a vision wrote it in a booke His words are And I saw the dead both great and small stand before God Apoc. 20.12 Not some dead but all the dead little and great And they were iudged Not some men but euerie man according to his workes ver 13. But shall the dead onely stand before Christ not they who shal be found aliue at his comming Yes euen they shall stand before Him and the elect then aliue shall come vp vnto him 1. Thes 4.16 The elect shall be with him in the Mount the wicked and sinners shall stand at the foote of the hill The reasons First euerie thought and worke must bee brought into iudgement Eccles 12.14 11.9 and if euery secret thing and worke then the persons out of whose hearts those thoughts came and in whose hands those workes were must be iudged Secondly among the sonnes of Adam some are gold and they must be purged and some drosse and they must be burnt vp with the fire of the Lords comming Here goates and sheepe feede together as in one common pasture and here tares and wheat grow vp together as in one common field But when they come to the fold the Porter of heauen not Peter but Christ will open the doore of life to his sheepe and open hell for damned goates and reprobates and when they come to the haruest the Master of the field will command his Reapers the Angels to gather the wheate of his election into his garner but for the chaffe of his wrath he will scatter it with the wind of his iudgement and burne it vp with the vnquenchable fire of hell Math. 3.12 13.30 It is necessary therefore for the triall of euery mans worke and person that there should be a generall iudgement and a generall appearing at it Thirdly it is more for the glory of God and the solemnitie of the day that all without exception shall be cited to it and be present at it It is more to the glorie of God for then the glory of his iustice shall more appeare in the reprobation of sinners and the glorie of his grace be more and more gloriously manifest in the saluation of his people And for that daies magnificence what can be imagined to make it more solemne stately and glorious then to haue all countreyes tongues and kindreds of the earth to come together to it for what a great day will that be and how full of maiestie beautie and honour when the whole world shall appeare together at once that is at one session and iudgement If a King should marrie his eldest sonne and bid many Kings and some Emperours to the marriage would not that be a great marriage but at the day of Christs marriage wherein he shall be eternally espoused to his Church all the world shall be present all Kings and Emperors that euer were shall be at it some as guests to honour it some as enemies to be driuen from it Math. 22.11.13 Quest But if the godly shall be iudged and if all persons both the godly and sinners shall and must appeare before Christ in iudgement how is it true that the Saints shall come with Christ and that no iudgement shall passe by Christ against the saints and why doth Saint Iohn say that he who beleeueth in the Sonne shall not come into iudgement Ioh. 3.18 For answere I say that Answ though all persons must come vnto iudgement yet the righteous onely shall stand in the iudgment Ps 1.3 and with boldnesse before Christ the Iudge Luc. 21.36 who therefore shall receiue sentence with them not as the wicked against them and here the sentence of come yee blessed not the wofull sentence of goe ye cursed into euerlasting fire Math. 25.34.41 where it is said that he who beleeueth shall not come into iudgement the meaning is and so our bookes haue it into iudgement of condemnation Quest Answ But the text hath against all men I answere the me anng is and the greeke preposition may well be rendred vpon all men and so the last translated Bible copie hath it Will Christ giue iudgement vpon all men Vse 1 good and bad then the bodies of all men that sleepe in the dust good or bad must be raised For if they be not raised how shall they be iudged or shall they be iudged in their soules onely then not men but the soules of men onely are to be iudged This point of the resurrection is a point or article of faith to saluation wherein we professe to beleeue by the scriptures that when the soule goeth out of the bodie to rest or paine the bodie it selfe is laid in some graue till the day come wherein the Lord Iesus will raise it by his voice in an Archangell either to eternall happinesse or to eternall miserie I speake of the soules going out of the body For some haue thought that the soules of men which die not are kept in still within the body that dieth as in a sleepe or swoune till the last day But we reade to the contrarie in the word of God as of soules vnder the altar not still in the body and of crying soules not of soules asleepe or soules in a traunce Apoc 6.9 So Lazarus soule was carried to heauen Therefore not least in the bodie but taken out of the bodie Luc. 16.22 Other groser opinions of the soules estate after death I leaue to the Mowles and to the Backes from which they came Esa 2.20 My purpose being to speake of the bodies estate as it shall be at the last day not of the soules as it is at the day of our death And here for the resurrection of bodies which we beleeue with all the true Churches of Christ Satan hath raised some in all ages to cauill against it or flatly to denie it For all haue not altogether denied it who were enemies to it as Himineus and Philetus who granted there was a resurrection but said it was past 2. Tim. 2.17.18 And the Sadduces did not generally resist it but had their false glosses and diuers interpretations of it Indeed the Stoikes and Epicures among the Philosophers were peremptorie adâ—ersaries to it Act. 17.18 and Libertines among Christians doe in their liues denie it But the truth of it shineth brighter in scripture and reason then that it can be darkned by any cloude how blacke soeuer of humane opposition Iob saith that after the wormes haue done with his bodie yet euen in that bodie he shall see God Iob. 19.26 Ezechiel foresheweth the bringing againe of the people out of captiuitie vnder an excellent figure of the rising and restoring of our flesh at the last day Ezech. 37.5.6 as if he should haue said He that can restore flesh and breath to rotten bones can restore the Israelites to their country Esay speaketh plaine of this matter saying Thy dead men