souls of the house of Jacob which came into Egypt were threescore and ten souls the like you have in Acts 7. 14. And Joseph called his father Jacob to him and all his kindred threescore and fifteen souls that is so many persons in Acts 27. 37. all that were with Paul in the ship are said to be two hundred and threescore and sixteen souls 2. It is taken for the life of the body Psal 7. 5. Let the wicked persecute my soul and take it yea let him tread down my life upon the earth 3. It is taken for the affections desire or heart of the Creature 1 Sam. 1. 15. And Hannah answered and said no my Lord I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink but have poured out my soul before the Lord. And in chap. 18. it is said the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David that is his affections were set and fastened upon him In many other places by soul we find some one or more faculty of the soul is intended 4. It is taken for the stomach Prov. 27. 7. The full soul loatheth an honey-comb but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet 5. By it is meant oftentimes the noble and superiour part of man distinct from the body for this see Psal 19. 7. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Mat. 10. 28. Fear not them which can kill the body but are not able to kill the soul But probably some may say if the word soul hath so many various acceptations how may we know when the spirit or principal part is in Scripture meant hereby Answ I shall briefly lay down three or four Rules whereby you may know 1. When you read of soul as that wherein couversion is wrought it can intend nothing else save the noble or immortal part for Conversion is a change onely of the evil qualities of man's better or superior part Psal 19. 7. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Conversion to God changes not the defects and qualities of the outward man If a man be attended with such and such a disease or distemper before Conversion he may be truly converted and yet retain the same diseases the same lameness blindness deafness crookedness or what ever other blemish he may have of the like nature 2. When you read of soul as that which rejoyceth in God delights in God longs and thirsts after God lives and feeds upon God and Christ and united to and hath communion with God cloathed and adorned with the holy Spirit it alwayes holds forth the glorious spirit or soul of man let me onely direct you to one or two Scriptures upon this account Luke 1. 46. My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour Psal 94. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul Psal 42. 1 2. As the hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God my soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before him Psal 73. 26. My heart and my flesh faileth me but God is the strength of my soul and my portion for ever 3. When you read of soul as that which men cannot kill or destroy is alwayes intended this excellent part see Matth. 10. 28. Fear not them that kill the body but cannot kill the soul 4. Lastly When you read of soul as that which lives when the body dies or is commended into the hands of God at death you must alwayes take it in those Scriptures for the same 6. By soul sometimes is meant only the body distinct from the spirit or immortal part see Josh 10. 28 37. And the king thereof he utterly destroyed and all the souls that were therein and they smote the king thereof and all the souls that were therein and in this sense soul is to be taken in this place But that I may proceed a word to explain the other term to wit the hand of the grave By hand beloved often in Scripture is meant power Isa 50. 2. Is my hand shortned that it cannot redeem that is Have I lost my power to redeem so Acts 4. 3. My Text thus briefly opened I shall proceed as most suiting with our present occasion to take notice of one Doctrinal Truth from the words which take as followeth Doct. That all men must die Or thus That no man whatsoever can escape the power of the grave I shall God assisting endeavor to demonstrate and confirm the truth of this Proposition The holy Spirit doth not slightly pass it by but puts a Remora to it viz. that Emphatical signal word Selah which shews us that this word calls for meditation and our diligent attention it doth lay a kind of an arrest upon our spirits not passing from it till we have seriously weighed the matter What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Death will be too hard for him and too powerful to resist there is no withstanding the strength of this King he will bring all into subjection he is said in Rom. 5. 12 14. to reign over all and so he is called the terror of Kings as well as King of terrors he is so to the wicked and what King hath as many subjects as Death hath And that I may demonstrate it consider Age cannot rescue any man from the hand of Death the oldest man must die All those that lived before the Flood are dead Methuselah lived nine hundred sixty nine years Gen. 5. 27. but alass at last the words tell you and he died he lived near a thousand years but at last was forced to subject to the grave 2. As the oldest man must die so must the strongest Sampson was a mighty man yet Sampson must die Death will make the stoutest hearts to faint and the strongest legs to tremble One dieth in his full strength being wholly at ease and quiet his breasts are full of milk and his bones are moistned with marrow Job 21. 23 24. If any were likely to encounter or grapple with Death we may suppose that this is the man he who is in his perfect strength free from distempers signified by that word wholly at ease and quiet yet alass all will not do this man was forced to yield he is made Deaths Captive 3. The wisdom and policy of man cannot deliver from the power of the grave The wisest prince that ever late upon a Throne was forced to stoop to the sovereign hand of Death Wise men die faith the Psalmist likewise the fool Psal 49. 10. In death there is no remembrance of the wise more than the fool Eccl. 2. 16. The most grave and politick in all ages of the world after all their famous and deep contrivances have been overcome by death 4. Riches cannot deliver from Death if it could we should have few rich men die doubtless they would give their
of affection to the Messenger but perhaps thou mayst be one that likes neither may be thou dost not care to hear of the tidings of dying and art ready to judge them melancholy fools that break their sleep about it These who are indeed prepared for it have no cause to be disquieted in thoughts of it but what wilt thou do when death comes that hast a guilty conscience have you not heard of that poor soul who cried out in horrour and distress of spirit upon his death-bed O what shall I do I am so sick that I cannot live and yet so unprepared that I dare not die Remember that the thoughts of death when it comes will abate thy courage 't will make the proudest heart to stoop 'T is a pretty Passage that I remember of a certain King of Hungary who being on a time very sad his Brother a Jolly Courtier would needs know what ailed him O Brother said he I have bin a great sinner against God and I know not how to die nor appear before God in Judgment These are said his Brother melancholy thougâ—â—… and withal made a Jest at them the King replied nothing for the present but the custom of the Countrey was that if the Executioner came and sounded his Trumpet before any mans door he was presently to be led out to the Place of Execution the King in the dead time of the Night sends the Headsman to sound his Trumpet before his Brothers door who hearing it and seeing the Messenger of death springs in pale and trembling into the Kings Presence beseeching him to tell him wherein he had offended O Brother replied the King you have never offended me and is this Executioner so dreadful and shall not I that have greatly and grievously offended God fear to be brought before the Judgement Seat of Christ Death amazes none more when it comes as it doth them who think not of it the Egyptians used to carry about the Table a Deaths Head at their Feasts 't is good in the midst of all our delights and enjoyments to be put in minde of the Grave And if this Sermon spake no more power fully to thee then a Deaths-Head to awaken thee it may be worth thy Pains to read it God may bless weak endeavors to great advantage Jesus Christ could make five Barley leaves and two Fishes to feed five thousand men and yet the fragments that were left might saetisfie many a poor hungry soul what though thou art afterly served God can heat it by his Spirit God can make it wholesom food for thy soul if thou hast but an appetite I do not much fear thy relishing of it for though the full stomack loaths the Honey-comb yet to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet But because I would not weary thee I shall only now give thee a summary Account of the particular things insisted upon and then commit thee to God 1. Thou hast the certainty of Death amplified or brieftly enlarged upon 2. Some awaking Considerations and Motives to a speedy and effectual Preparation for it 3. Several Directions and Cautions in order to it 4. You have dying Ministers lamented or several sad grounds of Lamentation upon that account 5. Then fifthly and lastly you have comfort against Death or how true Christians may stay and support themselves in the hour of death or in parting with godly relations and because nothing is more effectual in order to this then that comfortable assurance of present enjoyment or being with Christ at that very instant when the breath leaves us somthing was offered to confirm the souls immortality it was but a little which was said had it been more it would not have bin too much It was not delivered as it is matter of controversie to grieve any who are differently perswaded but as 't is matter of comfort suiting with the occasion that so sorrowful spirits might be consolated having for several years found the usefulness and sweetness of the doctrine under the like dispensation my self What is more plainly laid down in holy Scripture then this and those Arguments that so much establish me in the beleef hereof are many one is taken from our Saviours own words Because man cannot kill the soul Mat. 10. 28. If men cannot kill it then 't is not mortal As also the consideration of its nature being spirit might I not reason thus If the noble part of man somtimes called soul be spirit then 't is immortal but 't is called spirit in several places and again doth not the name of spirit declare its nature a spirit in its nature is invisible and its very essence is life if it should cease to live if would be spirit no more Thirdly the Scripture shews that at death the body goes one way and the spirit goes another namely to God that gave it we may judge also of the nature of the spirit or soul of man if we consider how nothing but God himself can satisfie it lives upon divine and immortal food and therefore sure must be of like nature what does shew more clearly that our bodies are earthly or made of earth as the consideration of their being fed and sustained from the earth so say I on the contrary hand in respect of the soul 't is sed with spiritual and immortal food ergo such is its nature but not to trouble you with things of this kinde further Reader let it be thy Chief care to prepare for thy eternal state for be sure it will be but a little while and thou wilt find either to thy everlasting joy and comfort or else to thy everlasting wo and sorrow the truth of this doctrine of the Souls Immortality and the effects thereof And that this broken Sermon may prove through Gods blessing someways for thy Souls advantage and profit is the sincere desire of Thy Affectionate and Cordial Friend and Servant in the Lord Jesus B. K. An ELEGY on the Death of that most Laborious and Painful Minister of the Gospel Mr. JOHN NORCOT who fell asleep in the Lord the 24th of this instant March 1675-76 HOW doth my troubled Soul amused stand On thoughts of God's most sore Chastising hand Let Heaven assist my Pen and help indite This Mournful Elegy I 'm mov'd to write My grieved heart knows not what way to take Its love to shew and lamentation make David for Jonathan was sore distrest And in like so 't has sorrow seiz'd my Breast Beloved John is gone dear Norcot's dead That Man of God who hath so often fed Our precious Souls with Manna from above Whose powerful preaching did ingage our love To Jesus Christ O! hâ— had care and skill To feed poor souls and do hiâ— Master 's will But is he from us also took away What breach still upon breach Lord Jesus stay Thy band such stroaks are hardly born Here 's cause for hundreds to lament and mourn The loss is grâ—at thâ— Churches do sustain Poor sinners too
no more you shall hear him pray no more preach no more and is not this a ground of lamentation 9. Saints and Ministers of the Gospel are the interest of the Nation City or Place where they live Was not Lot the interest of Sodom I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither Gen. 19. 22. Till Lot was gone fire and brimstone could not come upon that miserable City Oh what love hath God to the poor Preachers of righteousness But again Was not Jacob the interest of Labans family How did God bless him for Jacobs sake The like might be minded of Joseph to the Egyptians Ye saith our blessed Saviour are the light of the world and the salt of the earth To whom did he speak but to his Disciples his holy Apostles that he sent forth to preach glad tydings of great joy unto the Nations I might shew you wherein they are the interest of the place where they are but I must hasten Take onely two or three brief hints 1. They stand in the gap or in the breach Ours is a great one the Lord look upon us They plead with God When Moses hands are up Israel prevails and when he lets down his hands Amalek Prevails Exod. 17. 11. Oh how doth he cry out for a provoking generation When Jehovah cries Let me alone that I may destroy them Exod. 32. 10. Oh saith Joshua what wilt thou do for thy great name If thou wilt not forgive their sin saith Moses blot me out of thy Book Nay though God promised to make of him a great Nation yet he still lifts up a cry for them Exod 32. 10 11 32. 2. They are the interest of the Nation where they are by counselling warning and admonishing 3. By their holy and exemplary conversations Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant we should have been as Sodom and should have been like unto Gomorrah Isa 1. 9. 10. Ground of Lamentation is because sin usually is the cause why God removes his faithful Embassadors He sends to treat with sinners about the concerns of their souls I wish this stroke be not in judgement to some of your souls The Message they bring is often slighted and thereby sinners slight and reject the King himself They cry and lift up their voice like a trumpet fore-warning of danger but none lays it to heart They spend their strenght and weaken their bodies for the good of sinners souls but sinners slight it Nay if they should sweat drops of blood it would not do it would not work in them remorse of Conscience and repentance unto life Well saith God now I 'll wait upon thee no more him that you despised and contemned or neglected to hear or whose counsel you did not regard you shall hear no more The taking 〈◊〉 of faithful Preachers is one of the greatest judgement that can come upon sinners But alas it may not onlâ— be for the sins of the ungodly world â—â—on unconverted sinners but a punishment upon Professors and Church Members for their inquiry they may not prize the mercy nor walk worthy of the blessing They may not carry it as they ought to do to the Labourer that is amongst them They may grieve and wound his heart by their disorderly walking and God may from hence be provoked to take him a way Nay they may on the other hand overvalue him they may idolize their Teachers and look upon them above what is meet though sinful yet 't is possible to eye man more than God by man God may remove them Upon this account the Apostle speaks of some that had mens persons in admiration I am satisfied there is too great extreams in the world We should have a care we do not receive the Truth for the sake of a man or to please men because such and such says it but out of Love to Jesus Christ and because God hath commanded it Beloved it may not be amiss to lay these things to heart 't is good to hear the Rod and to know who it is and for what it is appointed I do not charge any in particular 11. And lastly Here is cause of lamentation because evil and dark dayes many times follows the removal of Gods Worthies When God take away so many faithful ones what may we expect to look for I might give divers instances of the sad effects or what hath followed the taking godly persons sincere Labourers away But I am afraid I have been too tedious already remember what the Prophet saith The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart Merciful men are taken away and none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come Isa 57. 1. Thus much by way of Lamentation and Consolation I have onely one Use more which shall be in the fourth place by way of Comfort and Consolation 1. Must all dye the godly as well as the wicked Is the Grave the place prepared for all Living Must Fathers Husbands Wives Children Ministres and the dearest Friends we have dye How shall we then comfort our selves against death If thou art a Beleiver I I have a word of comfort for thee there is none I am sure for Christless Souls 2. Consider death cannot hurt thee it cannot hurt those that are Believers because it hath lost his sting Death may hiss but cannot hurt Nothing makes death terrible to an ungodly man but it's Sting The sting of death is sin but this is taken away from Believers by Jesus Christ Oh death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 1. Cor. 15. 55 56. 2. Death cannot hurt a Believer because it cannot bring an annihilation of the body though it bring an alteration upon the stare and condition of the body yea and though the body be dissolved to dust yet it shall not be lost it shall rise to life again 3. Death cannot dissolve or break that blessed union there is between Jesus Christ and believers Though it may separate soul and body yet it cannot separate either from Jesus Christ and the soul immediately will be in a more glorious enjoyment of Christ and though the body for a while must lie in the grave yet that dust is precious dust in Christs sight 4. Consider Death cannot keep the body long under its power nor keep soul and body apart 't is but a little while and they will meet again Death and the Grave are conquered enemies Saints by faith can now through Jesus Christ triumph over them and shall have a compleat a full Conquest over a short space 5. Death has not power to cast into hell if Conscience condemns thee not if the Word convicts thee not if God passeth not the Sentence upon thee Death has no power to do it Death can but bring to the grave 't is sin that casteth the soul into hell 6. Consider Death is thine that is 't will be for thy profit and advantage every way Remember