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
this is the very case of some of those whose life we thinke to be so happie and condition of life so without knot So much for the persons that shall be rebuked the things for which follow Of all their wicked deeds which they haue vngodlily committed The matters about which the sessions of the last day shall be holden by Christ with all wicked sinners concerne their deeds and speeches according to which or the euidence of which they shall be reproued of him at his comming Their deeds are to be said vngodlily committed that is done against the law of God in the first and second table For euery sinne though it be done directly against man yet hath a kind of defect and withdrawing from God And for the manner of committing them it is not said that they were sinnes of infirmitie or accident but sinnes done after an vngodly manner or to render it by the aduerbe as here vngodlily or sinnes not weakely but wickedlie committed and not vpon occasion but of purpose that is from an vnrepentant heart and mind addicted to vngodlinesse The Apostles meaning is that they doe not euill vnwillingly but gladly nor against their mind but purposely nor sometimes of weaknesse but continuallie or that they are of the occupation of sinne and follow it as men doe their trades and for this they shall bee rebuked to damnation Doctr. 1 The doctrine here taught is That not simply the committing of vngodlinesse but the committing of sinne vngodlily bringeth death not our being in sinne but our trading in it will condemne vs. Indeed to commit a sinne deserueth death but to lie in sinne bringeth it So the Apostle Iohn is to be vnderstood when he saith He that committeth sinne is of the Diuell 1. Ioh. 3.8 For his meaning is he who giueth himselfe ouer to sinne in whom Christ neuer destroied sinne cannot be the child of God but of the Diuell nor child of saluation but of death â—inne destroied not Dauid for he repented of it but sinne destroied Saul for he would not leaue it to the day of his death If Iudas had repented for betraying of Christ as Peter did repent for denying of Christ Iudas had not perished more then did Peter Iudas did cast to doe euill Peter was circumuented therefore Peter obtained mercie Iudas died in his sinne Sin therefore doth not principally or so much condemn a wicked person as his impenitencie in sinning a greedinesse to commit sinne For a man may haue an infirmitie and not die of it and regenerate man may commit some sinnes and not be damned for them Else why came Christ Was it not to saue sinners that is repentant sinners 1. Tim. 1.15 I speake not this as if sinnes of infirmitie did deserue pardon For I haue said that euerie sinne both of infirmitie and other deserueth death Yea sinnes of infirmitie in Gods children deserue death and are sinnes but by grace they loose their power and condemnation Rom. 8.1 and so are as they are accounted not sinnes vnto death but sinnes that shall not bee condemned and his sinnes who shall not die The reasons All are sinners in Adam and all haue sinne in them that came from Adam and therefore if sinne simply should condemne a man no man should be saued Secondly a man may commit sinne as the Apostle did who said the euill that I would not doe that I doe Rom. 7.19 But sinne so committed is couered in mercie that is is accounted none or is not imputed that is standeth not vpon the booke and so goeth for no debt and is made by remission no sinne and if no sinne by account then none to condemnation Further wee are that in account that we are in affection and hee is no sinner who striueth to be none Now if no sinner in account then no sinner vnto death But it is so with all Gods children who are in sinne as a Malâ—factor in prison that would gladly go out and cannot that is though they doe euill they would with all their hearts would doe otherwise and therfore in some sinne doth not condemn which in others sinning vngodlily that is willingly wilfully ordinarily is to condemnation Thirdly when Gods children fall out with their sinnes which they euer doe and doe by true repentance God comes in with them being in with them they are no longer accounted enemies by him but friends and so their sinnes cannot hurt them For who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods chosen Rom. 8.33 That is who shall obiect any thing against them that shall bee able to condemne them or harme them But this should not be if the committing of sinne simply should bring death Vse 1 The vse of this point teacheth vs to distinguish betweene sinners and to put difference in sinnes committed by Gods elect and reprobates For the sinnes of Gods children are sinnes of infirmitie so are not the sinnes of the wicked that bring death and sinnes of infirmitie befall not gracelesse sinners The ordinarie drunkard though hee call his sinne of drunkennes his infirmitie yet is it his inexcusable sinne And large couetousnesse is not an infirmitie but sinne of idolatry in those that commit it Raigning anger is a great iniquitie so is the custome of swearing Buyers and sellers who trade with lying as they doe with wares are obdurate sinners not sinners of infirmitie And they who so offend let them repent quickly or they shall beare their condemnation whosoeuer they be Gods children may fall into some of these sinnes or all yet though they fall into them by infirmitie they rise vp from them by repentance but the wicked fall into them and lie in them and loue them Againe the sinne of wantonnesse is couered by sinners with a cloke of naturall infirmitie and the wicked lend a sigge leafe of excuse to prankes of vanitie in striplings and yong men But the godly say with Dauid Lord remember not the dayes of my youth Psal 25. and the sinnes of my youth they call not infirmities but rebellions If yong men dance and colt and ryot and poure out themselues to all excesse not onely on common dayes but on the Lords day cockering parents and carnall masters will iustifie all the profuse wickednesse and say Youth must haue a time But godly parents will sacrifice care for their children with Iob in such a case Iob. 1.5 and religious masters say for themselues their seruants with Iosua in a like matter I and my house will serue the Lord. Ios 24.15 And if any such wickednesse be committed by their children or any in their house they wil not beare it with the vngodly but bee against it with Dauid Psal 101.3.4.5.8 and protest against the doers of it with Nehemiah Neh. 13.21 So for mispending of time The wicked iustifie that vnthristinesse the godly bewaile their losse of precious time The wicked say how shall we passe the time They cast to doe euill the godly say let vs redeeme the
by the preaching of the word Rom. 10.14.17 Acts 8.28 34.35.37 Iohn 16.23.24 Pron 29.18 Rom. 4.11 and it is confirmed by the same meanes as also by the reading of the word and the reuerent vse of praier and Sacraments What is Praier A speech to God through Christ Iohn 16.23 Iames 1.6 Phil. 4.6 with faith whereby I aske graces wanting and giue thanks for benefits receiued What is a Sacrament A visible seale of the Gospell fully assuring the faithfull of Christ by two effectuall instruments of grace Rom. 4.11 Gen. 17.11 1. Cor. 11.25 Then there be two Sacraments Yea. Which are they Baptisme 1. Cor. 10.1.2 12.13 and the Lords Supper What is Baptisme A seale of our entrance into the name that is Tit. 3.5 Mattâ— 28 19. Ephes 5.26 Church and couenant of Christ by washing with water What doth washing with water signifie in Baptisme That the blood of Christ washeth away sinne Coloss 2.11 12.13 Apoc. 1.5 1. Iohn 1.7 as water doth bodily filthinesse So much for Baptisme what is the Lords Supper A seale of our continuance and nourishment in Christ 1. Cor. 10.16 11.24.26 Ioh. 8.55 signified by Bread and Wine So much for Mans recouery to saluation what is his duty for it Psa 50.23 17â— 12.13 Pâ—m. 1.21 True thankefulnesse Wherein standeth that In new obedience which is Ephes 4.23.24 1. Pet. 1 15 18 Luke 1 74.75 Rom. 6.1.2.3.4 Galat. 1 6 Luke 1.6 Acts. 24.16 Tit. 2.11.12 1. Cor. 7.17 that man carry in his heart a constant purpose not to serue sinne any more and withall endeauour in his whole life to please God in all his commandements doing his dutie in his calling to God and man ECCLES 12.13 Let vs heare the end of all feare God and keepe his Commandements for this is the whole duty of Man An examination before our comming to the Lords table WHat do you cal the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Our growing vp with Christ by faith Ephes 4.15.16 1. Cor. 10.16 Math. 26.27 resembled in visible signes effectuall seales of bread and wine In comming to this Sacrament what is to bee considered by euery well prepared communicant The doctrine thereof and our endes of comming to it What say you of the Doctrine It is seene in the nature of the signes which are made Sacraments or in their vses What say you of the nature of the signes Their nature is to be seales of the body and blood of Christ Matth. 26.26.28 that is of the fruits of the same offered to vs by faith Where haue you the seale of Christs bodie In the bread Math. 26 2â— Where of his blood In the Wine Math. 26.27 So much for the nature of the signes what say you of their vses They be such as concerne the Bread and Wine What is that coÌ„cerneth the bread It is that which is feene in the breaking and giuing or in the receiuing and eating of it What doth the breaking of bread signifie The wounding and breaking of the flesh of Christ for vs. Isai 53.5 1. Cor. 11.24 What doth the giuing of it signifie The giuing of Christ the true bread Iohn 6.51 1. Cor. 11.24 for our spirituall nourishment What doth the receiuing of the bread signifie The receiuing of Christ with the hand of faith in our hearts Iohn 1.12 Ephes 3.17 as wee receiue the bread with our bodily hands Who are reprooued heere The Papists who say and beleeue that the substance of the bread is turned into the naturall body of Christ Bellarm. tem 2. text cont gen de sacr Euch. lib. 3. cap. 18. c. and that the people carnally receiue and eat their Maker What say you against this grosse opinion That a true naturall body such as Christs is Matth. 28.6 26.11 Heb. 10.13 Acts 3.21 1. Thess 4.16 cannot bee in two places at one and the same time to wit in heauen and bodily in the Sacrament So much for receiuing what doth the eaâ—ting of the bread signifie That as bread doth nourish our temporall and corporall life Iohn 6.54 so this is a Sacrament of our eternall nourishment in the life to come and of our spirituall in this life of grace which we haue heere So much for the vses of the bread what be they of the Wine They bee seene in the pouring out and giuing or in the receiuing and drinking of it What doth the pouring out of the Wine signifie The powring of the blood out of his holy body for our sinnes Matth. 26.28 1. Cor. 11.25 What doth the giuing of the Wine signifie Our full nourishment in Christ offered not in his body onely Iohn 6. â—5 Psal 104.15 but in his sauing blood What doth this teach That the Papists did and stil do 1. Cor. 11.25 Bellarmâ— Tom 2. tert comtr gen lib. 4 cap. 22. de Eutharqst c. with iniurious sacriledge detract from our assurance and Gods goodnesse one great helpe of our faith by taking from the common people the vse of the Cup. Somuch for giuing what doth the receiuing of the Wine signifie That possession is taken of whole Christ 1. Cor. 10.16 Iohn 6.56 1. Cor. 10.3.4 while after the receiuing of the bread wee by faith open our hearts as vessels to receiue the trickling drops of his blood that nothing be lost What doth the drinking of the wine signifie The applying of the comforts of Christs passion to our drooping soules Galat. 6.14 Phil. 3.8.9 as Wine reioiceth the heart of Man So much of the doctrine of the Sacrament what say you of our ends of comming to it They be before or in our comming What is that which is before our comming Our end before our comming is to satisfie the earnest desire that we haue Acts 8.6 â—â—h 7.37.38 or should haue of receiuing the promises of God vnder seale What bee the endes in our comming Such as testifie our gifts or receipts What be our guifts Such as we giue to Christ the head or to the Church his meÌ„bers What giue you to Christ the head A heart well examined concerning our estate before wee come 1. Cor. 1â— 28 Luke 15.21 Math. 8.8 seriously meditating on Gods goodnesse in Christ and our own great vnworthinesse when wee are come What else An humble oblatioÌ„ of our selues Rom. 12.1 soules and bodies to him with thankesgiuing at our departure Wherein standeth the hearts examination In the examining of our knowledge faith loue repentance 1. Cor. 11.29 2. Cor. 13.5 Matth. 22.12 Eph. 4.28 Rom. 1 21. Heb. 13.18 thankefulnesse and works of our particular callings So much for that you giue to Christ the head what giue you to the Church his members A fellow-stone in the spirituall building 1. Cor. 10.17 12.13.14 Ephes 2.21.22 Ephes 4 12 16 that is a member to help to make perfect the body of Christ What doth this teach
leasure to liue well but flit from sinne to sinne as the flye skippeth from dish to dish till they be taken with the sweet meate of sin in their mouth and there bee no place to repentanâ—â— Let such consider that the custome of sinne causeth a hardning in sin For so the Apostle speaketh thou after thine hardnesse and heart that cannot repent heapest vnto thy selfâ— wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5 and let them remember that custome will adde to nature and turne it vnto it selfe Which is the cause that a Preacher shall as soone take Nature from a man by his words as sinne to which hee is accustomed Besides Sathan is not easily cast our where hee hath long dwelt and if Sathan be in sinne will not be out if Sathan haue possession sinne that attends vpon him will not loose possession if one dwell in vs both as well as one wil and must dwell in vs. So much for the Wisemans exhortation his reasons follow Whiles the euill dayes come not c. These are the reasons for which Salomon would haue his young man not to put of in the age of youth which is most prime and teachable the remembrance spoken of And they are taken from the many infirmities and withdrawings that are to bee found in old age when youth is abused as much as if Salomon should haue said Well my sonne thou art now yong lustie and actiue of good apprehension and sharpe conceite indued with fresh and strong faculties of wit and remembrance thy feete are nimble thy sight is good and thy hearing perfect now therfore serue God whiles thou maist the time may come when thou wilt be old weake and sickely dull in apprehending and of bad capacitie and remembrance without a good legge to bring thee to church without a good eare to heare at Church and either without all eies or darke sighted and so not able to reade or not able to reade long nor a good letter but through spectacles then it will be too late to doe any good seruice to God thy Creator This I take to be the Wise 〈◊〉 meaning in these words and the doctrine from hence is Doctr. Old age is no fit time wherein to begin godlinesse when the gay and fresh age of youth hath beene consumed in vanities The Israelites are complained of by the Lord in Malachy That they offered the blind for sacrifice and the lame and sicke for aâ— hallowed thing Mal. 1.8 He that would not haue a beast that had no eyes in his seruice would haue theâ— whiles thou hast eyes to serue him The sicke and the lame were no good offerings then and bee they good ware now in the sicke and lame bodie of a man that hath desperately put off his turning to God till he can neither draw winde nor legge Moses knew this and therefore bore this burthen yong and while his legges were able to beare him For the Text saith That when he was come to age hee refused to be called the sonne of Pharaohs daughter that is would not liue in delicacies while he had strength to liue vnto God Heb. 11.24.25.26 Ioseph also in his beautie and faire person turned his back to his tempting Mistresse and his face to the Lord. Gen. 39.10.12 He would not put off to serue God till old age had made choppes to his beautifull face and till his skin was withered Iosiah a good King in the eight yeare of his raigne and sixteene of his age when he was yet a Child began to seeke after the God of Dauid his Father and in the twelfth yeare of his raigne and twentieth of his age made a famous reformation 2. Chro. 34.3.4.5.6 What so soone and so young So saith the Scripture and so it was without controuersie For Gods Children take the good daies of youth for good duties and not the euill of sickly and saplesse old age for them as commonly the worlds children doe Samuel serued God in his minoritie and grew in spirit as hee shotte vp in yeares Samuel was a good man and the better beâ—â—â—â— a good yong man The reasons Repentance as it can neuer come too soone where sinne is gone before so it must needes with much adoe and not without some speciall worke of God ouertake so many sinnes of youth and manhood so farre and much before it Secondly old age is full of wearinesse and trouble and where wee haue elbow-roome in youth we cannot turne vs in old age Perhaps wee shall neither heare nor see nor go nor sit without paine and torment in all parts and is this a fit condition of life and age of time to serue God in Or doe we thinke seeing wee will not know God in youth that he wil know vs at these yeares and in this case and state A reproofe therefore to those who bestow on Sathan the beauty Vse 1 strength and freshnesse of youth and offer to God the wrinckles weakenesse and foule hue of old age Or when they haue giuen away the flower of their yong yeeres to Gods enemie offer to God who will haue the first and deserues the best the dregges and leauings To such I say if thou wilt not know God in thy youth hee will neuer know thee for ought thou knowest when thou art gray-headed If as hath been said thou wilt not giue him the yong and sound and that which is without blemish he will neuer take in good part the old and sicke and euill fauoured which no man will giue to his friend nor dare offer to his Prince If thou wilt not when thou art quick-witted when thou art come to yeares of dotage hee will not If thou wilt not beare him in his day thou shalt cry in thy day that is in the euill day and not be heard Prou. 1.28 It is too late to sowe when thy fruit should be in and no time to leaue sinne when sinne must leaue thee An instruction Vse 2 not to trust to the broken staffe of old age for being holy as wee are called to holinesse 1. Thess 4.7 but in the daies of our youth as the yeares of plentie to prouide with Ioseph in Egypt for a famine of hearing a famine that may come by infirmitie of yeares Gen. 41.49 For holinesse is a gift and the grace of holinesse is the gift of God Psal 51.10 Now a gift must bee taken when it is offered It is offered to day to day if you will heare his voice Psal 95.7 And therefore we may not come for it many yeares hence being promised to day What folly is it to challenge it thirty or forty yeares hereafter But if men haue neglected in their youth thus to remember God it is high time in their age to remember him Which would bee considered of those who haue already put foot within the dores of that age in the which the Almond tree flourisheth the haires are turned white to the haruest of death Eccl. 12.5 For is it not time for
the good mans death but what is profitable and excellent In the third to the Philippians vers 21. the Apostle calleth this alteration by death not the losse of our body but the change of our vile body that it may bee facioned like to the glorious body of Christ And is there any thing in this but what is excellent and worthy if any thing be worthy our trauell best paines here Iohn speaking of the Saints glorified saith All teares shall be wiped from their eyes Apoc. 21.4 His meaning is that as soone as death shall let them out of the world they shall haue no more sorrow that is sorrow that causeth teares And the same Iohn saith Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord Apo. 14.13 that is they who hauing liued righteously die wel in him are in the hand by the helpe of death leade presently to blessednesse The Saints militant did alwaies with the eyes of faith in the Gospell behold this great honour and preferment by death in the happy ends of the righteous and therefore sighed desiring their house from Heauen 2. Cor. 5.2 for they knew that if it were an honour to be remoued from a base cote to a Princes court it could not but be a double that is singular honour to bee translated from the Cotes of the Earth to the Court of Heauen Therefore they sighed that is could not be merrie till that change should come Paul saith that to be losed to wit from the bonds of his corruptible bodie was best of all Philip. 1 23. which hee would not haue said if any preferment had beene better then that by death which is from basenes into the glorious libertie of the sonnes of God The reasons And further that there is so much good in the godlie mans death which is his change may be and is euident First by the things to which that their happie and blessed change by death is compared as to a hauen that after they haue passed the troublesome waues of the sea of this world carrieth them to their owne key or backe in the which they ride safely to their iourneys end after which they come home to their owne house being strangers here 1. Pet. 2.11 to the medicine that cureth most perfectly the sicknesse of life to the messenger that biddeth them to the marriage dinner of their great King Mat. 22.2.3 to their returne from banishment into their owne countrey and naturall land to their deliuerance from the gaole of sorrow where they are taken with Ioseph out of prison to be set with Princes to the laying downe of their tabernacle and to the putting on of their house from Heauen to a deliuerance like that out of Egypt from the bondage of corruption to the libertie of saints from a land of darknesse to a land where the sunne neuer goeth downe and from a land of destruction to the land of the liuing Now what is there in all these that is not perfitly good and desirable Secondly death abolisheth in the faithfull departed all power of sinning and sting of sinne Thirdly the bodie feeleth no more paine nor shal euer againe be sensible but of that which is excellently good desireable and comfortable and for the soule it shall presently be glorified Luc. 16.22 Fourthly death is but the dore of the soule out of an earthly dungeon such as the bodie is that must be destroied before the wormes into an heauenly kingdome or passage from death to life from a short death to a long life Lastly God executeth his iudgements vpon the damned and purgeth his Church by death An instruction to correct all vnreasonable and faithlesse weeping for our godly friends and brethren departed in the faith of Christ Vse 1 The Apostle to the Thessalonians exhorteth Christians if they sorrow for such not to sorrow for them as men that haue no hope 1. Thes 4.13 When Hester was taken from Mardochay who had brought her vp as his owne daughter to be married to King Assuerus and to receaue the crowne of Queene in the kingdome did he either bewaile or enuie that her great preferment the faithfull are taken from sorrowfullmen to be espoused to Christ and to receaue the crowne of glorie and shall they that liue by such vnmeasurable sorrow and taking on as is too commonly vsed at the graues of their friends vnwish to them in a sort so great happinesse Will a father be sorrie or can he without imputation of enuie repine that his sonne or daughter is with Ioseph taken out of prison to be set with Princes when thou giuest forth thy child to nurse and shee hath kept it long inough should shee because thou takest it home againe complaine thou wilt say she hath no reason for it Then what reason hath any father to murmure against the owner of the child hee taketh for taking of his owne Parents that so lose their children if they may be called lost that are so found are but nurses to them in their absence from their owne fathers house to nurse them with the milke of the Gospel and religiously to nurture them for the Lord who by death sends for them home to himselfe when he seeth time and when he so doth haue they cause to complaine of wrong father mother sonne wife husband brother are but lent goods which we must restore when the creditor and hee that owneth them calleth for them And shall we count our selues spoiled or vndone because they are required If one should lend vs a thing of price or thing that is costly would wee for a recompence of the vse of it vpbraid the owner because he sendeth for it or if we should might not he who was the lender iustly say is this my thanks and shall I be recompenced with so great impatiencie for my so great good will So if God should lend vs tenne deare children as he did to Iob and we should be made to part with them all in one day would it become vs with rough words to receaue that supposed losse or would we complaine of wrong where none is offered and where our good is sought and our childrens gaine be vnthankfull if we should may not the Lord of them and of vs iustly taxe our vnthankfulnesse and complaine of wrong May he not say did Iob my seruant so from whom I tooke ten children in one day and in a few daies all the honour and substance that he had did he not rather confesse my vnquestionable right in such moueables and say the Lord giueth the Lord taketh away blessed be the name of the Lord. Iob 1.21 If a great Lord should call vs and our child promising to both much honour and great wealth would we weepe and take on because our child is gone before and we our selues must shortly follow after would we not rather with much ioy so order our iourney and affaires that we also might with as great dispatch as might be receaue such preferment as wee know
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
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
Rahel and life to come So much for the first of those comforts that are promised namely peace that properly concerneth our soules The second which is rest and belongeth to our bodies followeth And they shal rest in their beds c. By beds the Prophet vnderstandeth the places into which the Lord bestoweth the bodies of his seruants in or after their death whether water or fire or the panches of wilde beasts or the chambers of the earth or sea or aire And these he calleth beds because they shall rest quietly in them as men in their beds till the morning bell or loud trumpet of the last great day warning all flesh to rise shal raise them Therefore it is an vsuall thing in the scriptures so soone as men die to say they fall a sleepe Whereby is meant that they are laid in their beds of peace whether Churchyard or Church and that before their bodies are carried forth for buriall thither the places in which God taketh their soules to his presence are their beds and so the beds of their death are the beds of their peace Beds made for them by God himself in the which after their last long sleep of death they presently enter into their last sweet sleepe of peace The Papists say otherwise who hold that the righteous take no possession of their beds of rest till the Priest haue put them into their beds of earth Indeed men giue them burials then but God doth prouide for them their bed of burial lat their death And they are called beds of rest to put difference betweene these beds of our nights-sleepe and those of our sleepe in death For here bee our beds neuer so soft or well made we often take no rest by reason of some disorder in our bodies or fancies in our head but in these sleeping places which the Prophet calleth beds of rest wee may lay vs downe and sleepe in peace Psal 4.8 the Lord of life being our keeper who will make vs dwell in safetie Indeed in it own nature the graue is an house of perdition rather then bed of rest but being altered to the Iewes in promise to vs in performance by Christs graue who was buried in the earth to change the nature of it it is made to vs a chamber of rest and bed of Downe The point here taught is Doctr. The graues of the righteous which by nature are houses of destruction and chambers of feare are by Christ and the graue of Christ made to them chambers of safetie and beds of rest Christ by his buriall hath consecrated and perfumed our graues making them which were prisons to hell gates to heauen Which made the Apostle speaking of the dead in Christ to say they sleepe not they die As if hee should haue said they goe to their beds and not to destruction 1. Thes 4.15 And the same Apostle speaking of the death of the righteous calleth it not a death but a sleepe 1. Cor. 15.51 as if hee had called it not rottennesse but rest For this cause also is our death in heathen Authors called a sleepe as the Scriptures call it and our graue our bed At night wee take our chambers and lie downe in our beds so when death comes which is the end of life as the night is of the day we goe to the chambers of the earth and there make our beds or lie downe in bed till the day of refreshing which is the day of rising come that commeth from the Lord. The reasons are This was figured in the embalmings which the Iewes vsed And this figure as al other figures of the old Testament must bee performed in one which one is Christ As therefore their embalmings did perfume the graues in which they laid their dead for a season so the most precious blame of Christs buriall did for euer sweeten to the Saints their graues of corruption Secondly as the end of Christs death was that he might vanquish death so it was one end why hee was buried that he might after the manner of conquerours subdue death at his own home and as it were pluck him out of his owne den and cabbin Thirdly the bodies of the godly are parts of Christs mysticall bodie while they are in the graue and when they are turned to corruption and therefore cannot but bee precious in his eyes and grauen vpon the palme of his hand till they be restored For as the Husbandman doth make no lesse reckoning of that corne which he hath sowne in his field and lies vnder the clod of the earth then he doth of that which he hath brought into his barnes So Christ doth as highly esteeme of those bodies as it were graines of corne that are sowne in corruption as of those that yet neuer saw corruption nor came to the graue Therefore wee shall not rest in death though we rest in our graues For that God who raiseth the Sunne daily out of his den will one day raise vs out of our graues to stand before him for euer A confutation of that fancie that hath so long deluded the simple world Vse 1 which is that dead bodies walke after their death and appeare to men For how can that be when the bodies of Gods children rest in their beds so soone as their breath departeth and the bodies of the wicked are in their prisons till the day of assise Whereof if any make question let him open their graue and see And seeing the soule returneth not after it hath left the bodie how can the body walke that wanteth a soule or soule be seene if it should walke that hath no bodie Or if death bee a loosing of our soules from our bodies Phil. 1.23 How can there be any death when soule and bodie are not parted and when the man is not dead but liueth But this fancie came from Pithagoras a Philosopher and is but a Philosophers dreame Pithagoras told his dreame to the world which was that the soules of men departed did enter into the bodies of other men good soules into good mens bodies bad into bad mens The world then beleeued him And since that time Satan who can turne himselfe into all formes did in the darke night of Poperie to deceiue that ignorant age change himselfe into the similitude and forme of some person that was lately or had beene long dead and was beleeued by such a transformation to bee the partie man or woman that hee made resemblance off So entred the errour that Spirits did walke and that dead bodies came out of their graues and haunted sundry houses in the night which were not the bodies of the dead but the Diuell in those bodies or shapes as is to be seene in Samuels counterfet shape raised by the Witch at Endor 1. Sam. 28.8.14.15 And this errour as it deceiued the blind world and somewhat troubled the seeing Math. 14.26 Act. 12.15 So it is still in the mouth and faith of credulous superstition at this day But
our eyes bee vpon Christ and vpon those whom God hath scaled to be faithfull and we shall not be confounded in the perilous day Let vs but say with Isaac my father Gen. 22.7 And though we can say no more God will presently answere Here I am my sonne For this is a trne saying and worthy of all men to be receiued that Iesus Christ came into the world to saue sinners The Apostle saith it is worthy the marking and let us marke it well 1. Tim. 1 15. For it is as true as worthy to bee receiued and teacheth that though we be sinners and great sinners or chiefe of sinners yet if as repentant sinners we can beleeue the remission of sins by Christ not too popishly harpe vpon a satisfaction for sin by our owne doings our part is in his great saluation For Christ came to saue sinners and the chiefest sinner There wanteth not a hand to giue but wee want hands who should receiue his gift The bloud of Christ is able to cure as most soueraigne physick all infirmities and sinnes repented off If we be neuer so great sinners and haue a hand of faith in our harts to receiue that grace of God that hath brought saluation Tit. 2.11 neither wee nor our sinnes can disanull the promise of God which is that he will be mercifull to our sinnes Then let our sinnes be neuer so many and those many sinnes neuer so great being truely repented off God is greater who hath forgiuen vs all our sinnes The voice that saith to all come Apoc. 22.17 excludeth none and shall wee being bidden to the great Kings wedding by turning the point of crueltie vpon our selues strike our owne names out of the roule of the guests that are bidden to the Lambes feast Math. 22.4.5 Therefore sinne doth not simply hurt vs but impenitencie in sinne hurteth the wicked For Herod had rather loose Iohn then his brothers wife Mat. 14.3.5 And some had rather part with their preachers then with their sinnes So they hinder the effect of the physick which in mercie by good application is appointed to heale them Saluation is come to their houses and into their houses but they iudge themselues vnworthy of euerlasting life Act. 13.46 Thus the godly in temptation dare not apply Christ and the wicked in sinne cannot But Vse 2 doth not God accept mens persons Then his Magistrates on earth which are called Gods Psal 82.6 should not in causes be partiall betwixt man and man For they execute not the iudgements of man but of the Lord who is with them in the matter of iudgement 2. Chro. 19.6 The Magistrates seat must bee the throne that iudgeth right and when he giueth sentence in a matter he must lay iudgement to the rule and righteousnesse to the ballance Esay 28.17 as if hee would waigh out an equall euen proportion of iustice to rich and poore Deut. 1.17 And this measure must bee scaled at the Lords standard with testimonie of an vpright conscience Therefore one setteth forth a good Iudge with a sword in the one hand and a paire of scales in other The meaning is that hee must not strike by iudgement til the cause to bee iudged haue receiued an indifferent ballance in hearing Though a Noble man speake by a letter and a rich man intreat by a gift hee must not heare to peruert the straight steps of iustice To be short as God is no respecter of persons so these Gods should know no difference of person wher right is one nor bend their cares to credit a tale that first is d Prou. 18.7 told them nor corrupt their iudgement with their censure before they hear the cause nor seperate betweene their verdit and the truch of their knowledge which should goe together nor vse sudden resolutions nor be hastie in iudgement So shall iustice be free not partial nor hired which God detesteth A reproofe of those proud christians who grace religion in a veluet hood Vse 3 but scorne it in vile raiment hauing the faith of the Lord Iesus Christ in respect of persons Iam. 2.1.2.3 or who bid rich religion home vnto them but will not take poore religion by the hand for either they turne from it as strangers or against it as enemies So the poore is seperated from his neighbour Pro. 19.4 that is his carnall friends will not helpe him the godlie that are poore cannot And hence it is that they who want wealth and countenance though neuer so religious are despised as abiects They who haue riches and fauour though neuer so prophane are admired as Angels But it is a marke of the heire of life to respect the vertue not the riches or person of a man Ps 15.4 And he who is such an one will bee affected towards men as he perceiueth men to bee affected towards God if they contemne God hee will not regard them though neuer so honourable and if they feare God he will make much of them though neuer so vile This is to iudge righteous iudgement and not according to the appearance which iudgement Christ the Iudge hath forbidden Ioh. 7.24 So S. Paul chargeth Timothie in his ministrie to do his duetie without preferring one to another to wit for outward matters and to do nothing partially 1. Tim 5.21 that is not to spare to reproue for affection nor to rebuke bitterly for displeasure and euill will A good item for the partiall in the ministrie among our selues at this day who will scarce giue counsel but such as shal please where they loue and yet drawe out reproofs as salt as brine the same many times causelesse where they spleenishly hate Which what is it but to make God himselfe their officer to reuenge their quarel and to scrue their malicious humor To spare some for great faults and bitterly to inuey against others for no fault because they bee our carnall friends whom we spare and suspected foes whom we so fiercely prosecute and falsly reproue Is it not to make the word it selfe and the author of it God himselfe partiall and to prophane that which is holy Which may bee spoken of priuate persons as well as of publike ministers who in their enemy can see the mote of a small fault and haue no eyes to see the beame of a great one in their friend and louer Math. 7.3 If he offend whom we malice or like not it is horrible but if hee greatly offend whom for kindred or wealth or acquaintance wee esteeme of it is nothing What is this but to affect for respects not of vertue or vice but of kindred or person A comfort to the poore that bee godly Vse 4 For pouertie doth not make a man lesse accepted of God or of good men The Prophet Dauid saith That God hath chosen to himselfe a godly man Psal 4 3. he saith not a rich man if he be not godly And he further saith be sure of this as if hee should say beleeue it
peace they haue not knowne O we are men and not Angels say some A little to tread awry and a little to goe out of the way is but a humane frailtie and an inch breaks no square But to such we may say it may be our frailtie thus to doe But if wee presume we may so doe or if we striue not to doe otherwise it may bee our destruction that wee so did and the losse of our peace for euer Indeed we are men by nature but we must correct nature by grace and labour to be good men We are not Angels it is true yet wee must imitate the Angels and an inch in finne may so far breake square as it may send vs square and roundly to hell Be perfect saith our Sauiour Christ as your heaneuly Father is perfect Math. 5.48 It was spoken to his Disciples and it is spoken in them to vs. Wee can not neithes could they be perfect in the same measure yet as they were charged so are we commanded to be perfect in the like manner by a kind of conformitie and imitation The meaning is we must endeuour to be what perfectly we cannot be And how can we then iustifie any limping in the way or little going out of the way of grace by small infitmities It is pardonable in Christ but not iustifiable by vs. Therefore where we make such littles of sinne as a little oath a little meriment a little of the fashion and a little must be borne with let vs know that Satan by such littles maketh his kingdome great For as a couetous man gathereth by halfe pennies and by pence till he come to poundes so the diuell getteth his wealth from some by littles here a little and there a little Prou. 6.10 till finne be full and many litles in finne make a great totall There is no dalying with God nor playing out and in our progresse to saluation which is to heape wrath vpon wrath til it come to a mountaine or from some small heapes to come to a treasure Rom. 2.5 The way is to giue the water no passage to pound in sinne and to giue no way to occasion to take heed we be not led away from our stedfastuesse in knowledge and grace 2. Pet. 3.17.18 not to trip if we can chuse but to make straight steps in the way and to hold on our fellowship in the Gospell from this day and hereafter Philip. 1.5 Blessed is the seruant whom his Master when he commeth shall find so doing Math. 24.46 But it is said here that they enter into peace and come to rest that walke before the Lord as it were vpon two legs the right of sound religion and the left of an vndefiled life for where one of these is lacking there is halting in the way as also where they be seuered and where both goe not together The doctrine is Doctr. A good life hath a good death and they who liue well here shall liue well that is blessedly hereafter Dauid made this question Lord who shall rest in thy mountaine that is in heauen not as Pilgrims for a time but as heires for euer Ps 15.1 and God maketh this answere He that walketh vprightly and worketh righteousnesse verse 2. that is he that liueth holily shall die purely and liue for euer He that loueth the face of God in his Church shall see the face of his pleasures in his kingdome The same Prophet with some small alteration of the words asketh the like question to which the like answere is made The question is who shall ascend into the Lords mountaine Psal 24.3 that is who shall be taken from their pilgrimage to their countrey and from this mortall vale to the hils of immortall rest and the answere is He that hath innocent hands and a pure heart verse 4. The meaning is he that liueth charitably with men and holily with God or that is not vniust to men nor an hypocrite to God He that professeth the Gospell and is carefull of his waies not walking vpon a leg and a stumpe as they doe who seeme religious and liue ill or appeare righteous and are prophane hee shall stand before the Lord for euer Esay likewise maketh a question and answere to this effect Who saith he shall dwell with the deuouring fire who shall dwell with the euerlasting burning Esay 33.14 His meaning is who shall abide the presence of God who is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 and dwel safely before him This is the question and the answere is He that walketh in iustice and speaketh righteous things c. ver 15. that is whose waies are without offence and words without guile he that saith well and doth well shall dwell on high ver 16. or rest safely in the mountaine of peace And Christ our blessed Sauiour telling vs who shall not enter into the kingdome of heauen as the hypocrites of heart who make a stirre with their mouthes and put no good work into their hands who prophecie in Christs name and doe nothing for for his name and call him Lord but make their lusts their Lords telleth vs that they shall enter into heauen who doe his fathers will which is in heauen Math. 7.21.22 All desire to rest in the holy mountaine of God but few behaue themselues as Pilgrims in his tabernacle Yea all desire with Balaam to die the death of the righteous when there are few who take care to liue the life of the righteous that they may so die Num. 23.10 Therefore our Sauiour sheweth that our talking of saluation will not bring vs to it nor our wishing to bee in heauen send vs thither If we will be saued then we must liue as the heires of the grace of life that is as the sonnes of God not as brands of hell The reasons Though nothing be due to a good life by desert on our parts or by debt on Gods yet it being his merciful promise that all such shall be happie both here and hence in this world and in Gods kingdome Psa 112.16 c. 128.1.2 he will not and because it so pleaseth him cannot call backe his word whose promises are all yea and Amen that is no sooner made 2. Cor. 1.20 but as good as done Therefore they that liue godly shall die blessed Secondly they who liue well liue in obedience to God Now they who obey a good master are in fauour and encrease in wealth and shall the seruants of God liue in miserie and die vnrewarded Also they who conforme to Gods commandements are his faithfull scruants and loyall subiects whom a good master and gracious Prince must needs countenance Thirdly the Apostles words are plaine that godlinesse hath the promises of this life and of that to come 1. Tim. 4.8 As much as if hee had said They who walke according to this rule shall be blessed here and blessed in heauen Indeede the godly doe not alway prosper in these outward things yet wanting them or their
fill in them they haue Gods blessing inwardly in the peace of a contented minde outwardly in so much as is sufficient The wicked who haue them in greater measure haue them not vnder Gods hand nor as his blessings but as stolne wares that they shall answere for because they haue no right vnto them by Christ nor hold them in Capite that is in him Therefore their table is a snare vnto them and their prosperitie their ruine They liue to the encrease of their damnation and they die to take possession of it Fourthly they who with the glorified virgins wait for Christ in the life of the righteous are alway prepared for death when it knocketh Mat. 25.10 to open vnto it And what is a prepared death but an happy death And what followes an happie death but an happy life neuer to die againe Such goe in with Christ to his marriage of euerlasting life We see then that the last houres repentance the common refuge of worldlings as it commeth short of a sanctified life Vse so it seldome reacheth to an happy death or life after death For as the tree boweth before it bee cut downe so it falleth and in the place where it falleth there it shall be Eccles 11.3 That is as we liue so wee commonly die Or shall we thinke that men can easily begin righteousnesse at their last houre and that repentance in that houre is ordinarily good and sound repentance Let them well consider this who put off their conuersion to God and send away by hope of repenting old all those good motions that knocke at the doore of their hearts for a sanctified life One saith well While the Lord speaketh to thee make him answere and while he calleth let there bee an eccho in thy heart such as was Dauids who when God said seeke yee my face presently answered thy face will I seeke Psal 27.8 The Lord hath promised pardon to him that repenteth saith another but that hee or any other shall liue till to morrow he hath not promised Many in their puttings off fare as if they should say Lord let me sinne in my youth and pardon me in mine age But where in the meane season is their walking before God yong that peace may come when they are old And is it not a iust thing that men dying should forget themselues who liuing neuer remembred God Surely let them looke for no better who watch not the stealing steps of death in their tower of repentance in the life of the righteous And if moe things belong to repentance then can bee done in an houre and well in a mans life as to bring forth the buds of it young to beare fruits of it at more yeares to ripen it being man and to gather it toward death in the autumne of fruits how can they thinke one poore houre to be sufficient to bring the seednesse the spring the summer the autumne and full crop of these things together in so short time and how can they hope in such a span of life to prepare themselues for the Lord when so many els of long lâ—fe afford so scant measure to the best men to set them in a readinesse for him Let vs therefore while wee haue time laying vp treasures in heauen for our soules store vp in the summer of life for the winter of death which will come Prou. 6.8 In our last sicknesse and vpon our death-bed we are fitter to seeke ease for our bodies then mercie for our faults and grace for our soules Besides how fearefull will it be to be taken then by sudden death as by some vnexpected Officer without baile or warning and by it to bee brought to the goale of the earth in the bodie and in the soule to perpetuall prison in the torments of hell Of this more was spoken in the first Sermon and vse of the last doctrine there But shall they who liue well here Vse 2 liue well hereafter that is blessedly then their desperate and cursed errour is confuted who blaspheme the way of righteousnesse saying that it is to no purpose to bee so deuout godly and that they are most wise who giue themselues most libertie in the pleasures and iollitie of life So say the wicked in Malachy it is invaine to serue God Mal. 3.14 And the wicked in Iob say what profit to pray vnto him Iob 21 15. As if they should haue said we may serue God and we may pray to God but there is nothing gotten by it or they speed as well and are as wise that are cold in these matters as they who kindle and are hottest in them But they Prophet here saith that peace shall come that is they shall see the peace of God in heauen who make peace with God here and they that serue him shall raigne before him The wicked are as the chaffe which the wind driueth away Psal 1.4 That is so soon as God punisheth them with the wind of death their hope is gone But the godly haue a sure foundation and no storme either of death or of mans ill will can blow them to destruction whose house beeing builded by God not on the sand of time but vpon a rocke vnmoueable standeth fast in all changes Math. 7.25 The builder vp of Sion is the wise God whose worke abideth for euer Let the vngodly oppose themselues neuer so much they shall not be able to beate down Gods house and death is their aduantage Phil. 1.21 Or if the Princes Palace be safely guarded we must not think that any of Gods houses shall be left without their keepers sufficient watchmen and the righteous shall flourish when the hornes of the vngodly shall be broken And thus it is no vaine labour nor gamelesse seruice to serue the Lord. Doth a good life bring a good death Vse 3 Then the despairing words of Gods children in a troubled skie and when the waters enter into their soul as that God hath forsaken them that God hath cast them off in displeasure that God will not saue them and such like are words of distemper not of reason and iudgement For will God cast away his people The answere is Godforbid The meaning is hee will not Rom. 11.1 Neither can mans changeable tongue alter the decree of God that is vnchangeable Rom. 3.3.4 And we must not iudge of the estate of any man before God by his behauiour in death or in a troubled soule For there are many things in death which are the effects of the sharpe disease he dieth of and no impeachments of the faith he dieth in And these may depriue his tongue of the vse of reason but cannot depriue his soule of eternall life Which may bee spoken also of a troubled soule For as in a troubled water the face in the water cannot bee perceiued which when it commeth to be cleare is manifest so in a troubled spirit the face of Gods mercie seemeth to be changed against vs and to
and wisely of our brother we may not iudge of the tree by the sappe neither may we iudge our brothers heart but must leaue that to his iudgment seat who knoweth it and the secretest walkes of it Neither is rash iudgement onely here forbidden but much more all lying iudgement as to say a man doth euill when he doth well or when he doth euill to say he doth worse then hee doth When a thing is doubtfull to take it in the worst part and when it is plaine to obscure it This meteth also with a kind of people who blow abroad vncharitably the faults which they should couer and haue their tongues alwaies vpon their neighbours sores setting their small faults vpon tenters and great vpon the stage of the wide world But the time that such spend in censuring of others they should bestow in amending of themselues remembring that they haue a Iudge and that that Iudge is the Lord who is full of eyes and lacketh not power to thrust into hell all such vsurping Iudges who speake cruelly and without respect either of their owne frailtie or their brothers amendment But more of this in the place thereof hereafter Here also they are reproued who giue a fauourable sentence not so much vpon euill doers as vpon their euill deedes calling their euill good Esa 5.20 For these doe not onlie preuent but flatly crosse Christs righteous iudgement Of these saith Salomon He that iustifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the iust euen they both are an abhomination to the Lord. And let them consider this who will be sure to speake for or to speake well of a wicked person or excuse him in his boldnesse with a lying tongue Men may commend such as charitable but God will condemne them as vnrighteous they may bee welcome to men but they are an abhomination to God You will say Christians must iudge charitably Charitably I grant but not falsely Charitie must neither bee too quicksighted nor blind And here wise iudgement is not forbidden but rash iudgement So much for the general end of Christs second comming the particular followeth And to rebuke all the vngodly among them c. The particular end of Christs comming concerneth the vngodly among men and that is to rebuke them to damnation and to set their doings in his angry countenance Where the Apostle setteth down two things as the forme of iudgement in the word rebuke or conuince and â—ow farre it exceedeth in the letter he speaketh of the persons who and the matters where of they shall be iudged The forme is by a iudgement of rebuke or conuiction wherein the Lord will proceede against all vngodly persons seuerely and terribly by his word and their owne consciences For God rebuketh two waies either in mercy when he correcteth his children Haâ— 3.2 or in iustice without mercie when he destroyeth his enemies Psal 6.1 Of the latter it is meant where it is said that the Lord will rebuke all the vngodly among men as if it had beene said he wil rebuke them to a perpetuall destruction or poure out his furie vpon them The doctrine here taught is The day of Christs comming against his enemies will be intollerable and full of wrath So the word sheweth whereby the Apostle doth expresse their igtollerable iudgement to come For he saith the Lord will rebuke Meaning that in his iudgement of rebuke he will reproue them by the booke of theirown wicked hearts which shall be so touched as it were opened euerie leafe of it and worke in it that all shall come forth Apoc 20.12 and they shall bee able to deny nothing that shall bee obiected against them and being thus laid open in their own consciences he will presently execute his fierce anger vpon them by punishing them with hell fire Esay the Prophet saith speaking of the Lords comming to iudgment against vngodly men that he will stretch out his hand as one that swimmeth his meaning is His iudgement shall so extend to them all that no one shall escape it Esay 25.11 Yea as an ouerflowing riuer so shall it be and shall goe ouer all their bankes and with such force break into their soules that they shall bee able no more to auoide this destruction of fire then the old world could that of the floud Esay 8.7.8 Now will not this be an intollerable iudgement that thus shal single out euery vngodly sinner as it were by the Pole to perishment It shall not be auoided and it cannot be abidden so terrible to all the Lords enemies shall the Lords comming be But this is set downe more fully by Saint Mathew where shewing how Christ in his last iudgement shall seperate his own people from strangers as a Shepheard separateth the sheepe from the goates he saith he will call to saluation the righteous whom therefore hee will set on the right hand of his fauour but for the wicked whom therefore he will set as on his left hand before the face of his rebuke in all their sinnes hee will in the chiding voice of that his last iudgement send them from his own comfortable presence to haue company with the Diuell his Angels of darknes in the lowest hels The words are Depart from me ye cursed into euerlasting fire which is prepared for the Diuell and his Angels Math. 25.41 One writing vpon these words doth thus amplifie As if the damned should say Lord let vs be in thy presence though vnworthy to sit downe vpon seates in thy kingdome No saith the Lord but depart from me that is out of my sight and presence for euer Yet say the damned if thou put vs out of thy sight blesse vs before we goe Gen. 27.38 No saith the Lord but depart yee cursed And must wee goe with a curse say the damned yet send vs into some place of ease and comfort No saith the Lord but goe into a lake of fire Yet let this fire haue an end might the damned say No saith the Lord but goe into euerlasting fire If wee must depart into euerlasting fire might the damned say yet let vs haue some good company there No saith the Lord but goe into euerlasting fire which is prepared for the Diuell and his Angels hauing the Prince of Diuels for your King and the rest of the Diuels for your companions And thus after this second Noah hath blessed the seed of the righteous as is said before in this Chapter vers 34. he will curse all the Chams of the earth Gen. 9.24 And now that the blessing is past which not Iacob alone but the seede of Iacob hath gotten though they would say with Esau yet blesse vs euen vs also before we goe hence they shal heare not from Isaac but from him that is iudge in the clouds who hauing made an end of blessing shall say Iacob haue I blessed and hee shall be blessed the godly are with me and shall euer remaine with mee but for you the workers of iniquitie
on themselues but on those that heare them on themselues to destruction and on their hearers to infection and malicious tongues doe not onely destroy the soule that vseth them but wound the innocent name of those against whom they are bent and vsed So they are to giue a double account for their wicked speeches one for hurting themselues another for harming their brethren So much for the last of those things that are to be iudged which is further amplified and that by two properties as first that those speakings are cruell and secondly that they are spoken against Christ Cruell speakings c. The speakings of the wicked are said to be cruell speakings because by them they cruelly raged against the righteous and after a sort drew blood from them in the point of their credit and sometime in the case of their life bitterly accusing or tauntinglie mocking them And now where these things are stiled with the name of crueltie The doctrine is Doctr. That the scornes and reuilings of the wicked incident to Gods children are persecutions Among the grieuous trials of the Saints this that they were tried by mockings was reckone one Hebr. 11.36 And thus was Isaac persecuted by scoffing Ismael Moses saith no more but that Sarah saw the sonne of the Egyptian mocking her sonne Gen. 21.9 yet S Paul speaking to that point saith He persecuted him Gal. 4.29 Saint Pauls meaning is that scoffes and girds at men for good waies are sore afflictions and the point of cruelty at their heart It was not the least part of Christs suffering that the instruments of his death and many limmes of the Diuell so despitefully wagged their heads at him in great disdaine and that they spate upon him and spake vnto him so disgracefully and so cruelly saying Thou that destroiest the temple and buildest it in three daies saue thy selfe c. Math. 27.40 A great portion of the cup of his bitter Passion consisted in this that hee was mocked for his confidence in God For they said He trusteth in God let him deliuer him now if he will haue him Psal 22.8 Math. 27.43 The reasons First it is a degree of murder thus to speake Math. 5.22 For to speake cruelly is to speake wrathfully with despitefull tongues and goomes in blood Secondly such speeches proceed from a contempt of the grace of God in those who so suffer And it greeueth them more and they set it more to heart that God is contemned then if themseles were to suffer reproch and contempt yea losse of their goods and that which is dearer to them their life Hebr. 10.33.34 Act. 20.23.24 Lastly that which sauoureth of cruelty must needs be an affliction But cruel speakings are such for they are cast vpon the righteous with terrible indignities and therefore cruell speakings are afflictions First Vse 1 this doctrine doth teach vs to feare to be scorners of our brethren as we would be afraid to be persecutors of them The practise of godlinesse which standeth by the law of God and the good lawes of this land is called Puritanisme and the professours of it in a by-name Puritans But let such reprochers of the good way of the Lord in their fellow-christians bewaile such cruell speeches lest proceeding so to doe the Lord rebuke them at his comming And for the Papists whose bitter railings we haue heard and rancor against the truth of Christ we know let them learne here that they are right Ismaelites and therfore bound ouer to condemnation for their cruell speakings against Christ and the Church of Christ Like iudgement is to be giuen of all filthy speeches of vncleane Sodomites which gall the simplicitie and very soules of the righteous Secondly Vse 2 true christians here learne to prepare for to bear the scourge of tongues For among other persecutions that they must looke for persecution by euill tongues is one The Disciple is not aboue his Master Math. 10.24 Thus men dealt with Christ and they must expect accordingly to suffer that are in Christ It is our Masters reproch and we must beare it Hebr. 13 1â— or properly our own reproch and good reason wee should beare it So much for the first propertie of the wiâ—ked the second amplified propertie followeth Which wicked sinners haue spoken against him That which was spoken against the godly is here said to bee spoken against Christ For hee taketh the iniuries of his Saints to bee iniuries done vnto himself they that deale despitefully with them deale contemptuously with him The point taught is Doctr. Whatsoeuer is spoken or practised against the godly for their righteousnesse is esteemed as spoken and done vnto Christ for whose sake and cause they so suffer The people had cast off Samuel whom God had chosen Therefore the Lord counted himselfe despised because they had despised him whom he had chosen 1. Sam. 8.7 Saul persecuted the church and Christ saith I am Iesus whom thou persecutest to wit not in my person but in the church my members Act. 9.4.5 Also concerning his Disciples Christ saith and concerning all the godly in them Hee that despiseth you despiseth me Luc. 10.16 The reasons That which is done against the bodie concerneth the head but Christ is the head of his church and the church is his bodie Ephes 1.22.23 And therefore what is done against the Church is done against Christ Secondly It is not we that are hated but the cause of Christ in vs when we suffer for righteousnesse And wil not he reuenge his owne abuse and desend his own glorie He that spurneth against his truth spurneth against him And shall not the Lord turne to confusion all his despisers A terrour to those who reproch a good man for his goodnesse Vse 1 and a religious man for the truth For the Lord will proceede against such not onely for their iniury to man but for their blasphemie to God So they that smite his seruants shall be as they that smite himselfe For as hee that beateth a mans scruant abuseth the master So he persecuteth Christ that vexeth his seruants Pharao Saul Senacherib Herod and others found the truth of this in their fearefull destruction because like desperate wretches they fought against God in his Saints A comfort to those who defend a good cause Vse 2 For they stand not alone but hee standeth with them who is stronger then all men And of God bee on our side who can bee against us Rom. 8.31 If wee haue such a cause as Hezekiah had we may say with like confidence as Hezekiah didâ— there be 〈◊〉 with vs then are with them 2. Chron. 32.7 2. King 6.16 Dauids cause was the Lords and hee found that God would bee neare to auouch his owne truth in the middes of his enemies Therefore was hee deliuered from the battell that was against him for many were with him Psal 55.18 To conclude therefore let vs prouide our selues of a good cause and wee shall be sure of a strong