dreadfull of hel yet coveting death in a continuall torment yet his own tormentour consuming himself with grief and horrour impatience and despair till at last he ended his miserable-miserable life And now beloved if such be the departure of a sinnfull soul O who would live in sinne to come to such a departure For my part I dare not say these parties thus miserable in their own apprehensions are now among Devils in hell I find the Authours themselves to incline to the right hand besides what am I that I should sit in Gods Chair onely this I say that their miserable deaths may verie well give warning to us all nor need you think much at me for uttering these terribilia terrible stories for if sometimes you did not hear of Gods judgements against sinne a day might come that you would most of all crie out on the Preacher To this purpose we have a story of a certain rich man who lying on his death-bed My soul said he I bequeath to the Devil who owns it my wife to the Devil who drew me to my ungodly life and my Chaplain to the Devil who flattered me in it I pray God I never hear of such a Legacy from any of you sure I had better to tell you aforehand to prevent it then not telling you to feel it And let this be for my Apologie in relating these stories Vse 2 But for a second Use give me leave I pray you to separate the precious from the vile Now then to sweeten the thoughts of all true penitents the souls of Saints are not required but received Rejoyce then ye righteous that mourn in Sion what though a while ye suffer death is a Goal-delivery to your souls not bringing in but freeing out of thraldome Here the good man finds sharpest misery the evil man sweetest felicity therefore it is just that there should be a time of changing turnes The rich mans Table stood full of delicates Lazarus lacks crums but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Luke 16.25 Wo unto you that laugh for you shall mourn Luke 6.25 Luke 6.25 Blessed are you that mourn for you shall rejoyce Matth. 5.4 Matth. 5.4 Happy Lazarus who from thy beggary and loathsome sores wert carried by Angels into Abrahams bosome happy Thief who upon thy true repentance and unfeigned prayer wert received from the Crosse to the Paradise of thy Saviour happy are all they that suffer tribulation Death shall lose their souls from bonds and fetters and in stead of a Bayliff to arrest them shall be a Porter to conduct them to the gates of heaven There shalt thou tread on Serpents trample on thine enemies sing sweet Trophies were not this enough thy Conquests shall be crowned by the hands of Seraphims triumphed with the sound of Angels warbled by the Quire of Spirits confirmed by the King of Kings and Lord of Hosts Happy Soul that art not required by Devils but received by Angels and when we die Lord Jesus send thine Angels to receive our Souls You see now Deaths Arrest and what remains further save to accept of some Bail But what Bail where you have the Kings Commandment from his own mouth this requiring is not of any other but himself of no suretie but of thee saith God must thy Soul be required Of thee ONce more you see I have brought this rich man on the stage his doom is now at hand and Death Gods messenger summons him to appear by Requiring of his soul but of whom is it Required had he any Sureties to put in or was any Bail sufficient to be taken for him no he must go himself without all help or remedie it was he that sinned and it is he must pay for it Of thee it is required How of thee Sure Death mistakes we can find thousands more fit none more fearfull there stands a Saul near him his armour-bearer behold a Judas such will outface deaths fury nay rather then if fail in its office they will not much question to be their own Deaths-men but this Of thee who art at league with hell in love with earth at peace with all is most terribly fearfull Stay Death there stands a poor Lazarus at the gates like Job on his dung-hil his eyes blind his ears deaf his feet lame his bodie struck with Boyls Job 7.15 and his Soul choosing rather to be strangled and die then to be in his bones were not this a fit object for deaths crueltie would he spare the rich he should be welcome to the poor but Death is inexorable he must not live nor shall the Beggar beg his own death for another Of thee it is required But Death yet stay thy hand here 's a better surety what needs death a presse when he may have volunteers there stands an old man as ready for the grave as the grave for him his face is furrowed his hairs hoary his back bowing his hammes bending and therefore no song is fitter then old Simeons Luke 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Youth is loath but Age is merry to depart from misery let Death then take him that standeth nearest deaths-door No the old must die but the young may he must die soon yet be sure thou shalt not live long Of thee it is required Cannot this serve let death yet stay his hand there stands a servant waiting at this rich mans beck as if he would spend his own life to save his Masters he can make a Pageant of Cringes act a whole speech of flatteries every part owes him service feet to run hands to work head to crouch and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of a Mistris so the eyes of his servants look unto the hands of their Master but where be these attendants when death comes was ever any Master better then Christ were ever any servants truer then his Apostles yet see their fidelitie must their Saviour die one betrayes him another forswears him all run from him and leave him alone in midst of all his enemies what then is the trust of servants the rich man may command and go without if death should require them they would not or if they should desire death hee will not his arrest concerns not the servants it is for the Master himself he that command others now death commands him Of thee it is required Will not all do Let death but stay this once there stands a friend that will loose his own to save his life Greater love then this hath no man saith our Saviour when any man bestoweth his life for his friends John 15.13 John 15.13 Riches may perhaps procure such love and get some friend to answer deaths quarrel which he ows this man Jonathan loves David David Absolon and sure it was a love indeed when Jonathan preserves the life of David and David wisheth a death to himself in the stead of Absolon O my sonne Absolon 2.
is but the image of death saith Cato Here is a true picture of our frailty life is like death indeed so like so near together that we cannot differ each from other See here the condition of our life what is it but a Rose a Grasse a Picture a Play a Show a Sleep a Dream an Image of death such a thing is life that we so much talk of Vse And if Nature give this light how blind are they that cannot see lifes frailty you need no more but mark the Destinies as Poets feign to spin their threds one holds another draws a third cuts it off what is our life but a thread some have a stronger twist others a more slender some live till near rot others die when scarce born there 's none endures long this thread of life is cut sooner or later and then our work is done our course is finished Are these the Emblemes of our life and dare we trust to this broken staff how do the heathen precede us Christians in these studies Their books were skuls their desks were graves their remembrance an hour-glass Awake your souls and bethink you of mortality have you any priviledge for your lives are not Heathens and Christians of one Father Adam of one mother Earth the Gospel may free you from the second not the first death onely provide you for the first to escape the second death O men what be your thoughts nothing but of Goods and Barns and many Years you may boast of Life as Oromazes the Conjurer of his Egge which he said included the felicity of the world yet being opened there was nothing but Wind Think what you please your life is but a Wind which may be stopt soon but cannot last long by the law of Nature But secondly as Nature so Scripture will inform you in this point The life of man is but of little esteem what is it but a Shrub or a Brier in the fire As the crackling of thorns under the pot so is the life or laughter of the fool momentary and vanity Eccles. 7.6 Eccles 7.6 Nay a shrub were something but our life is lesse no better then a leaf not a tree nor shrub nor fruit nor blossome We all fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have swept us away Esay 64 6. Esay 64.6 Yet a leaf may glory of his birth it is descended of a Tree life is a Reed sometimes broken at least shaken so vain so infirm so inconstant is the life of man What went you out to see a reed shaken with the wind Matth. 11.7 Matth. 11.7 Nay a reed were something our life is baser indeed no better then a rush or flag Can a rush grow without mire though it were green and not cut down yet shall it wither before any other herb Job 8 11 12. Job 8.12 What shall I say more what shall I crie a rush All flesh is grass and all the grace thereof as the flower of the field the grass withereth the flower fadeth surely the people is grass Esa 40.7 Esa 40.7 I am descended beneath just patience but not so low as the life of man as all these resemble life so in some measure they have life but life is a smoke without any spark of life in it thus cries David My dayes are consumed like smoke my bones are burnt like an hearth Psal 102.3 Psal 102.3 Yet is here no stay the smoke ingenders clouds and a cloud is the fittest resemblance of our life Our life shall passe away as the trace of a cloud and come to nought as the myst that is driven away with the beams of the Sun Wisd 2.4 Wisd 2.4 Neither is this all clouds may hang calm but life is like a tempest it is a cloud and a wind too Remember that my life is but a wind and that mine eye shall not return to see pleasure Iob 7.7 Job 7.7 Nay we must lower and find a weaker element it is not a wind but water said that woman of Tekoah We are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again 2. Sam. 14.14 2. Sam. 14.14 yet is water both a good and necessary element life is the least part of water nothing but a foam a bubble The King of Samaria that great King is destroyed as the foam upon the water Hos 10.7 Hos 10.7 I can no more and yet here is something lesse a foam or bubble may burst into a vapour and What is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and afterwards vanisheth away Iam. 4.14 Jam. 4 14. Lesse then this is nothing yet life is something lesse nothing in substance all it is it is but a shadow We are strangers and sojourners as all our fathers were our dayes are like a shadow upon the earth there is none abiding 1. Chr. 29.15 1. Chr. 29.15 See whither we have brought our life and yet ere we part we will down one step lower upon a strict view we find neither substance nor shadow Psal 39.5 onely a meer nothing a verie vanitie Behold thou hast made my dayes as an hand breadth and mine age is nothing in respect of thee surely every man living is altogether vanitie Psal 39.5 Psal 39.5 Lo here the nature of our life it is a shrub a leaf a reed a rush a grasse a smoke a cloud a wind a water a bubble a vapour a shadow a nothing What mean we to make such ado about a matter of nothing I cannot choose but wonder at the vanitie of men that runne rid toil travell undergo any labour to maintain this life and what is it when they have their desire which they so much toyl for we live and yet whilest we speak this word perhaps we die Is this a land of the living or a region of the dead We that suck the air to kindle this little spark where is our standing but at the gates of death Psal 9.13 Psal 9.13 Where is our walk but in the shadow of death Luke 1.79 Luke 1.79 What is our mansion-house but the body of death Rom. 7.24 Rom. 7.24 What think ye Is not this the region of death where is nothing but the gate of death An non haec regio mortis ubi porta mortis umbra mortis corpus mortis and the shadow of death and the body of death Sure we dream that we live but sure it is that we die or if we live the best hold we have is but a lease God our chief Lord may bestow what he pleaseth to the rich man wealth to the wise man knowledge to the good man peace to all men somewhat yet if you ask Who is the Lessor God Who is the Lessee Man What is leased This world For what terme My life Thus Jacob tels Pharaoh as the Text tels you Few and evil have the dayes of my
man never so great in power and spreading himself like a green bay tree a tree most durable a bay tree most flourishing a green bay tree that is most in prime if any thing will stand at a stay what is more likely yet he passed away saith the Psalmist and lo he was gone I sought him but be could not be found Psalme 37.35 36. Psal 37.35 36 We cannot stay time present how should we recall time past See here the man on whom the eyes of the world are fixt with admiration yet for all this he passeth without stay he is gone without recall I sought him but to find him is without all recovery Time was that Adam lived in paradise Noah built an Ark David slew Goliah Alexander overcame the world where be these men that are the wonder of us living we all know they are long since dead and the times they saw shall never come again How fond was that fiction of Plato Annus Platonicus that after the revolution of his tedious year then he must live again and teach his Schollers in the same chair he sate in our faith is above his reason for the heavens shall passe away the elements shall melt with heat and the earth with the works therein shall be burnt up 2 Pet. 3.10 2 Pet. 3.10 Where then is the life of Plato when all these things shall turn to nothing we may now for his learning praise him where he is not and he may then for his errour be damned and tormented where he is Is there any man with skill or power can call back but yesterday once onely we read of such a miracle but it was onely by the hand of God Almighty Hezekiah was sick 2 Kings 20. 2 Kings 20. and to confirm the news that he must recover he requires a sign What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day this was no temptation for you see how the Prophet gives him satisfaction This sign shalt thou have of the Lord wilt thou that the shadow go forward tenn degrees or go back tenn degrees Hezekiah thinks of death and the Prophet restores his life not onely a time of fifteen years to come but of ten degrees now gone and thus it was observed in the diall of Ahaz This was a miracle that but once happened since the beginning of the world he then that sleeps away his time in exspectation of Hezekiahs sunne may sleep till his death and then not recall one minute of his life as the time so our life if once past it is irrevocable irrecoverable 2. And as it cannot be recalled again so suddenly it is vanished Longitudinem hujus vitae sentiri non facit nisi spes vivendi nam nihil videtur esse celerius quâm quicquid in ea jam praeteritum est Aug. in Psal 6. Certè videres vitam tuam non fuisse diuturnam Aug. in Psal 36. Nothing makes life long but our hope to live long take away those thoughts of the time to come and there is nothing swifter then the life that is gone Suppose then thou hadst lived so long as from Adam to this time as Austin saith Certainly thou wouldest think thy life but short and if that were short which we think so long how long is our life which in comparison of that is so extreamly short The time once past we think it suddenly past and so is life gone in a moment in the twinckling of an eye so soon indeed before it can be said This it is In every one of us death hath ten thousand times as much as life the life that is gone is deaths and the life yet to come is deaths our now is but an instant yet this is all that belongs to life and all the life which any of us all is at once possessed of here is a life indeed that so soon is vanished before it can be numbered or measured it is no time but now yet staies not till the syllable now may be written or spoken what can I say the life that I had when I began to speak this word it is now gone since I began to speak this word May we call this life that is ever posting towards death Do we what we can could we do yet more all we do and all we could do were to no purpose to prolong our life see how vve shore this ruinous house of our body vvith food vvith raiment vvith exercise vvith sleep yet nothing can preserve it from returning to its earth vve go and vve go suddenly vvitnesse those tvvo Cesars vvho put off themselves vvhilest they put on their shoes Fabius styled Maximus for his exploits and Cunctator for his delaying yet could not delay death till notice might be taken he vvas sick but hovv manie examples in this kind have vve daily amongst us you knovv how some lately have gone safe to bed and yet in the morning were found dead and cold others in health and mirth laid down by their wives and yet ere mid-night found breathless by their sides What need we further instances You see how we go before we know where we are the life that we had what is it but a nothing the life that we have what is it but a moment and all that we can have what is it but a fleeting wind begun and done in a trice of time before we can imagine it In a word our Sunne now sets our day is done ask Jacob the Clock-keeper of our time this Text tells the hour and now struck you hear the sound our dayes are gone few and evil they have been The Conlusion Occasioned by the death of CHARLES BRIDGEMAN who deceased about the age of twelve in the yeare of our Lord 1632. he was a most pious sonne of a most pious mother both now with God HEre I thought to have finished my Text and Sermon But here is a sad accident to confirm my saying and whilest I speak of him what can I say of his state his person his birth his life of all he had and of all he was but that they have been Sweet rose cropt in its blossome no sooner budded but blasted how shall we remember his daies to forget our sorrows no sooner had he learnt to speak but contrary to our custome he betook him to his prayers so soon had grace quelled the corruption of his nature that being yet an infant you might see his proneness to learn nay sometimes to teach them this dutie who waited on to teach him his devotion not long after he was set to school where he learned by book what before he had learned by heart the sweet care good disposition sincere religion which were in this child all may remember which cast but their eyes upon him O God hovv hast thou bereaved us of this Gem Sure it is as it was said of another for this cause onely
that it might shine in heaven But this was but the beginning of his dayes now they are past they have been Go a little further we left him at school but how learned he Christ 1. Cor. 2.2 Psal 8.2 and him crucified this was the knowledge taught him by the Spirit of God in a wonderfull manner Out of the mouthes of babes and sucklings hast thou O God ordained strength To consider again his religious words his upright actions his hearty devotions his fear of God all then concluded as they did of John Luke 1.66 What manner of child shall this be No question the grace of God was with him If I should instance in any of these his frequencie in prayer his reading of Scripture his reasoning with others to get knowledge to himself we may wonder at Gods power in this childs poor weakness Excuse me whiles I tell nothing but truths and I hope they will tend to our own instruction In the morning he would not stir out of doors before he had poured out his prayers at noon he would not eat any meat before he had given the Lord thanks at night he would not lie down on his bed before he had kneeled down on his knees we may remember those times when sometimes that he had forgotten this dutie no sooner had he been in bed but up he would have got again and so kneeling down on his bare knees covered with no garment but his linens he would ask God forgiveness for that sinne of forgetfulness neither have his brothers escaped without his reprehension for had they eat any meal or meat without a grace his check was usuall Dare you do thus unless God be mercifull unto us this bit of bread might choke us The wise sentences the religious words which often dropt from his mouth like honey can we remember them and not grieve at the death of him that spake them What comfort had we in those dayes What sorrow have we to think those dayes are done Surely we cannot speak it without bitterness of soul they are gone they have been Thus he lived will you know how he died First a lingring sickness seized upon him against which to comfort him one tells him of possessions that must fall to his portion And what are they said he I had rather have the Kingdome of Heaven then a thousand such inheritances Thus he minds Heaven and God so minding him presently sent him his sickness that should summon him thither And now how should I repeat his words with the life that he spake them dying No sooner had God struck his body with that fatall sickness but he asks and needs would know his souls estate I have heard of the soul said he but what is the soul the mind he questions and questioning answers better I fear then many too many gray headed amongst us but the answer given how the soul consisted of the Will and the Understanding he sayes he is satisfied and now understands better then he did before Another comes to him and then he begins another question now he knows the soul he desires yet to know further How his soul may be saved O blessed soul how wisely couldst thou question for thine own souls good The answer given by faith applying Christs merits he heard it and had it anon telling them who before had taught it him Resolved in these questions he questions no further but will now answer them that go about to question him One asks him whether he had rather live or die he gives the answer and not without Pauls reason I desire to die said he that I might go to my Saviour O blessed Spirit bow didst thou inspire into this child thy wisdome and goodnesse This done his pain begins again to afflict him and this occasions another thus to question him whether he would rather still endure those pains or forsake his Christ Alas said he I know not what to say as a child for these pains might stagger a strong man but I will strive to endure the best I can Upon this he presently calls to mind that Martyr who being in prison Thom. Bilney the night before his burning put his finger in the candle to know how he could endure the fire O said he had I lived then I would have runne through the fire to have gone to Christ Sweet resolution of a silly child who can hear and not wonder wonder and not desire to hear that he may wonder still Blessed child hadst thou lived that we might have wondred at thy wisdome but his daies were determined and now is the number turned to this poor cypher they are not they have been I cannot leave him yet his sicknesse lasts long and at least three dayes before his death he prophesies his departure and how strange a prophecie not onely that he must die but fore-telling the very day On the Lords day said he look to me Neither was this a word of course which you may guesse by his often repetition every day asking till the day came indeed What is Sunday come At last the lookt-for day came on and no sooner had the Sun beautified that morning with his light but he falls into a trance What think ye meant his blessed soul whilest the body it self used such an action his eyes were fixed his face chearfull his lips smiling his hands and arms clasping in a bow as if he would have received some blessed Angel that there was at hand to receive his soul but he comes to himself and tells them how he saw the sweetest boy that ever eyes beheld and bids them Be of good chear for he must presently go with him One standing near as now suspecting his time of dissolution bids him say Lord into thy hands I commend my spirit Psal 31.5 Yes said he Into thy hands Lord I commit my spirit which is thy due for why thou hast redeemed it O Lord my God most true Who will not believe this child now sings in Heaven that so soon had learned this Davids Psalm on earth I cannot hold my self nor will I hold you long but how may I omit his heavenly ejaculations Beloved I beseech you pardon me whilest I speak his words and I will promise you to speak no word but the very same formally which were his own Pray pray pray nay yet pray and the more prayers the better all prospers God is the best Physician into his hands I commend my spirit O Lord Jesus receive my soul Now close mine eyes forgive me father mother brothers sister all the world Now I am well my pain is almost gone my joy is at hand Lord have mercy on me O Lord receive my soul unto thee Where am I whilest I speak these words Blessed Saint now thou singest in Heaven God hath bid thee welcome the Angels are hugging thee the Saints rejoyce with thee this day is the Crown set on thy head this day is the Palm of victory in thy hand
brought us all those things are passed away as a shadow or as a Poste that passeth by Look on this man as he lies on his bed of death here is neither smile nor dimple All the daughters of musick are brought low Eccles. 12.4 His voice is hoarse his lips pale his cheeks wan his nostrills run out his eyes sink into his head and all the parts and members of his body now lose their office to assist him Is this the merrie man that made such pastime Sweet God! what a change is this Esa 3.24 In stead of sweet smell there is a stench in stead of a girdle a rent in stead of well-set hair baldness in stead of beauty burning in stead of mirth mourning and lamentation weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Must not sadnesse seize on that soul which incurs this doom Here is a malefactour stands at bar indited by the name of Fool charged with the guilt of treason condemned by the Judge of heaven and this night the saddest that ever he saw is that fearfull execution that his soul is taken And yet more horrour It was a night of sinne and this doth encrease the sorrow Psal 116.13 How dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints and we may say on the contrary How abominable in the sight of the Lord is the death of the wicked Was not this a grief to be took thus tripping in his wickedness even now whilest he was busily plotting his ease and pastime death stands at his door and over-hears all his plots and projects It was a death to his soul to be took in his sinne hear how he roars and cries O that I had lived so virtuously as I should had I embraced the often inspirations of Gods blessed Spirit had I followed his Laws obeyed his Commands attended to his will how sweet and pleasant would they now be unto me We and alas that I had not fore-seen this day what have I done but for a little pleasure a fleeting vanity lost a Kingdome purchased damnation O beloved what think ye of your selves whilest you hear this voice you sit here as senseless of this judgement as the seats the pillars the walls the dust nay as the dead bodies themselves on which you tread but suppose and it were a blessed meditation you that are so fresh and frolick at this day that spend it merrily use it profanely swearing revelling singing dancing what if this night while you are in your sin the hand of death should arrest you Could I speak with you on your death-beds I am sure I should find you in another case how but sorrowing grieving roaring that your time were lost and these words not heeded whiles the time well served how would you tear your hair gnash your teeth bite your nails seek all means possibly to annihilate your selves and can nothing warn you before death seize on you take heed if you go on in sinne the next step is damnation It was the Apostles advice Rom. 13.11 Now it is high time to wake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer then when we believed Rom. 13.11 If this wretched man had observed the present time how happy had he been this hour of his departure But as Officers take malefactours drinking or drabbing so is he nearest danger when deepest in the mire of pleasure Look at all those that are gone before us and which of them thought their end so near while they lived so merrie I must needs tell you there is a fire a worm a sting a darkness an hell provided for all wicked wretches and there most certainly must you be this night if you die this day in your naturall state of sinne Lord that men should be so strangely bewitched by the Prince of the air as for the momentarie enjoyment of some glorious miseries bitter-sweet pleasures heart-vexing riches desperately and wilfully to abandon God and to cast themselves headlong into the jaws of Satan Such a prodigious madnesse seized on this Worldling he sings he revels he dallies Plin. l. 7. c. 23. then dies Thus greatest euils arise out of greatest joyes as the ears vvith vehement sounds and the eyes vvith brighter objects so many by felicity have lost both their sense and being Gallus dies in the act of pleasure 2 Sam. 4.7 Num. 11.33 Ishbosheth dies in the middest of sleep the Israelites die in their day of lust this Worldling dies in that night of sinne even then on a sudden his soul is taken And yet more horrour it vvas a night of death and this vvas the vvorst of all the darkness drowsiness sadness sin all vvere nothing to this all nothing in themselves if death had not follovved Aristot lib. 3. mor. cap. 6. this is that most terrible of all terribles all fears griefs suspicions pains as so many small brooks are svvallovved up and drovvned in this Ocean of misery Novv rich man vvhat saiest thou to thy barns buildings riches lands Do these pleasure thee in this thy extreme and dying agonie Thou liest this night on thy departing bed burthened vvith the heavie load of thy former trespasses the pangs come sore and sharp upon thee thy brest pants thy pulse beats short thy breath it self smels of earth and rottennesse vvhither vvilt thou go for a little ease or succour vvhat help canst thou have in thy heaps of gold or hoord of vvealth Discip de temp serm 118. ex Hum. in tract de septuplici timore should vve bring them to thy bed as vve read of one dying commanded that his golden vessels and silver plate should be set before him which looking on he promised to his soul it should have them all on condition of his stay with him but the remedie being silly at last most desperately he commends it to the Devil seeing it would not stay in his body and so gave up the ghost Alas these trifling treasures can no more deliver thee from the arrest of that inexorable Serjeant then can an handfull of dust Wretched men vvhat shall be your thoughts vvhen you come to this miserable case full sad and heavie thoughts Lord thou knovvest you may lie upon your beds like vvild buls in a net full of the furie of the Lord In the morning thou shalt say would God it were evening and at even thou shalt say would God it were morning for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see Deut. 28.67 Deut. 28.67 Here is the terrour of that night of death vvhen you may vvish vvith all your hearts that you had never been born if the Lord once let loose the cords of your conscience vvhat account vvill you make of crovvns of possessions all these will be so far from healing the wound that they will turn rather into fiery Scorpions for your further torments Now now now is the dismall time of death what
of torments which like infinite rivers of Brimstone feed upon his soul without ease or end What avails now his pompous pride at his dolefull funerals the news is sounded hee is dead friends must lament him passing-peales ring for him an hearse-cloth wrap him a tombe-stone lye over him all must have mourning suites and may be rejoycing hearts but all this while his soul his going to judgment without one friend or the least acquaintance to speak in his cause O that his soul were mortall and body and soul to be buried both together in one grave must his body die and his soul live in what world or nation in what place or region it is another world another nation where Devils are companions brimstone the fire horrour the language and eternall death the souls eternall life never to be cured Bernard in Medit. and never must be ended O my soul saith Bernard what a terrible day shall that be when thou shalt leave this Mansion and enter into an unknown region who will deliver thee from these ramping Lyons who can defend thee from those hellish monsters God is incensed hell prepared justice threatned onely mercy must prevent or the soul is damned View this rich man on his deaths-bed the pain shouts through his head and at last comes to his heart anon death appeares in his face and suddenly falls on to arrest his soul Is it death what is it he demands can his goods satisfie no the world claims them must his body goe no the worms claim that what debt is this which neither goods nor body can discharge Habeas animam ejus coram nobis Gods warrant bids fetch the soul O miserable news the soul committed sin sin morgaged it to death death now demands it and what if he gain the world he must lose his soul This night thy soul shall be required of thee Vse 1 Animula vagula blandula said the heathen Emperour Pretty Adrian little wandring soul whither goest thou from me wilt thou leave me alone that cannot live without thee O what conflicts suffers the poor soul when this time is come must the soul be gone help friends physick pleasure riches nay take a world to reprive a soul so different are the thoughts of men dying from them living now are they for their pleasure or profit the body or the world but then nothing is esteemed but the soul what can we say but if you mean your souls must be saved O then let these precious dear everlasting things breathed into your bodies for a short abode scorn to feed on earth or any earthly things it is matter of a more heavenly metall treasures of an higher temper riches of a nobler nature that must help your souls Do you think that ever any glorified soul that now looks God Almighty in the face and tramples under foot the Sun and Moon is so bewitcht as was Achan with a wedge of gold no it is onely the Communion of Saints the society of Angels the fruition of the Deity Iosh 7.21 the depth of eternity which can onely feed and fill the soul So live then as that when you die your souls may receive this blisse and the Lord Iesus our Saviour receive all your souls Vse 2 I must end but gladly would I win a soul If the reward be so great as you know it to recover a sick body Si magnae mercedis est a morte eripere carnem quanti est meriti à morte liberare animam Ambros Offic. 1. Quid est quod velis habere malum nihil omnino Aug. in quod serm which for all that must die of what reward is that cure to save a soul which must ever ever live O sweet Jesu why sheddest thou the most precious and warmest bloud of thy heart but onely to save souls thou wast scourged buffetted judged condemned hanged was all this for us and shall we do nothing for our selves What is it thou wouldest have bad if thou couldest wish it good not thy house nor thy wife nor thy children nor thy good nor thy cloaths but no matter for thy soul I beseech you value not you souls at a less price then your shooes you can please the flesh with delicates which is naught but worms meat but the soul pines for want which is a creature invisible incorporeall immortall most like to God are we thus carefull of pelf and so careless of this pearl certainly I cannot choose but wonder when seeing the streets peopled with men that follow suits run to Courts attend and wait on their Councellors for this case and that case this house or that land that not one of these no nor one of all us will ride or run or creep or go to have counsell for his soul I must confess I have sometimes dwelt on this meditation and Beloved let me speak homely to you be our Counsellors in this Town every week solicited by their Clients and have we no Clients in soul-cases not one that will come to us with their cases of conscience sure you are either careless of your souls or belike you have no need of particular instructions O let us not be so forward for the world and so backward for the soul yet I pray mistake not I invite you not for fees as noble Terentius when he had petitioned for the Christians and saw it torn in pieces before his face gathered up the pieces and said I have my reward I have not sued for gold silver honour or pleasure but a Church so say I in middest of your neglect I have not sued for your good or silver for your houses or lands but for your souls your precious souls and if I cannot or shall not woe them to come to Christ God raise up some child of the Bride-chamber which may do it better if neither I nor any other can prevail O then fear that speech of Elies sons they hearkened not unto the voice of their father because the Lord would slay them 1 Sam. 2.25 In such a case O that my head were full of water and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for your sins O that I could wash your souls with my tears from that filth of sin wherewith they are besmeared and defiled O that for the salvation of your souls I might be made a sacrifie unto death But the Lord be praised for your souls and my soul Christ Jesus hath died and if now we but repent us of our sins and believe in our Saviour if now we will but deny our selves and take up his cross and follow him if now we will but turn unto him that he may turn his loving countenance unto us if now we will but become new creatures and ever-hereafter walk in the holy path the narrow way which leads unto heaven why then may our souls be saved This is that we had need to care for Cur carnem adornas animam non
adornas Hugo de claustro animae not so much for the body as for the souls good to this purpose saith Hugo Why cloath we the body in silks which must rot in the grave and adorn not the soul with faith and good works which one day must appear before God and his Angels O think of this day this night this hour of death for then must your Souls be taken from you Thus far you see the rich mans arrest God injoyns it death serves it the time was this night and the party is his Soul God give us grace to provide our souls that when death arrests we may be ready and then O God have thou mercy on our Souls Shall be required THe originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They shall require it wherein you have the Sergeants Arrest The Sergeants They and the arrest it self They require his soul Wee 'll first take a view of the Sergeants They who not God he knows not sinners what should he do with a drunken profane covetous sensuall soul he that never so much as thought on God in this life will God accept of the commending of his soul to him at his death no the Lord of heaven will none of it he that forsook God is justly forsaken of God See the true weight of this balance he would not receive Gods grace into his soul and God will not receive his graceless soul into heaven But who then will the Angels take it no they have nothing to do with the soul of a dying sinner the Angels are onely porters for the souls of the just Poor Lazarus that could neither go nor sit nor stand for sores it is he must be carried on the wings of Angels but for this rich man not the lowest Angell will do him poorest service Who then will the Saints receive it no they have no such commission to receive a soul that blind opinion which every one may blush at that Saint Peter should be heavens porter and that none may go in but to whom he will open if it be true why may not a Saint help a departing soul Away with this dreaming folly not Peter nor Paul nor all the Saints of heaven have any such priviledg if God will not hear us what will our prayers do to Saints Heaven is too far off they cannot hear or were it nearer they will not cannot help it is God must save us or we perish ever Who then are the Sergeants not God nor Saints nor Angels no there is another crew Death and Devils stand in a readiness and they are the parties that arrest this prisoner Stay what would death have the soul cannot die and for the body no matter who receives it O yes there is a death of the soul as well as of the body I mean not such a death whereby it may be annihilated but a second death that shall ever accompany it this is a death of the soul that will always keep it in deaths pangs But not to speak of this death there is another death temperall that shall sever the soul and body each from other these two twins that have lived together since their first espousall these two lovely ones that were made and met and married by the hands of God these two made one till death them depart and make them two again now is their rufull time of divorce when death comes he gives over the body to the grave and arrests the soul to appear in presence before Gods high Tribunall Such a Bayliffe hath now laid hands on this rich mans soul when he least thought on 't death comes on a sudden and arrests his person O wretched worldling who is this behinde thee call we this Gods Sergeant What grim ugly monstrous visage is this we see have ever any of you seen the grisly picture of death before you how was it but with hollow eyes open skull grinning teeth naked ribs a few bones knit together with dry strings as presenting to your eyes the most deformed image of a man in moldes But what 's that in his hands an hour-glass and a dart the one expressing the decreasings of our life and the other deaths stroke that he gives us in our death Such emblemes are most fit to express mortality and imagine such a thing to arrest this rich man would it not terrifie him whilest looking back death suddenly claps him on his shoulder away he must with this messenger all the gold and pearl of East and West cannot stay him one hour now rich man what avails all thy worldly pleasure Hadst thou in thy hands the reigns of all earthly kingdomes wert thou exalted as the Eagle Obad. 1.4 and thy nest set among the starrs yet all this and whatsoever else thou canst imagine is not worth a button where did that man dwell or of what cloth was his garment that was ever comforted by his goods or greatness in this last and sorest conflict See worldling death requires thy soul no bribe will be taken no entreatie will prevail no riches rescue nothing at all redeem death death is impartiall But O horrour death is not all see yet more Sergeants Devils and Dragons are about thy bed and these are they that will hurrie away thy soul to hell How Devils O worldling stay thy soul and never yield it better to die a thousand deaths then to leave it in their hands but alas thou canst not choose thy last hour is come and here is neither hope nor help nor place of any longer terrying See but the misery of a miserable soul what shall it do whither shall it fly from these damned Furies would they take it and teare it into nothing it were somewhat tollerable but to teare it in pieces and never to make end of tearing to give it torments without all patience or resistance this is that load which it cannot bear and yet O extremity it ever ever must be born Think on this O my soul and whilest thou hast a minutes stay in this body call upon God to prevent this arrest of Devils was it not think yee a terrour to this rich man when so many hell hounds waited for his soul we read of one man Hartmundus Schedel in vit Pap. who being took away with a Devill through the air was said so to roar and yell that many miles distant his noise was heard to many a mans trembling And if a soul had but the organs of a sound what a shreek would it make being seized on by a Devil witness the cries of many desperate souls when as yet they are safe in their beds how do they roar and rage how do they call and cry Help help us save us deliver us from these fiends about us these are those evening wolves enraged with hellish hunger these are those ramping Lyons ever ready to devour our souls these are those walkers up and down the earth which are now come and entred into this rich mans lodging
Matth. 24.28 Wheresoever the dead carkasse is thither saith our Saviour will the Eagles resort and wheresoever a damned soul is thither with a lacrity will these spirits come O how they fly and flutter round about him what fires do they breathe to enkindle them on his soul what clawes do they open to receive her at the parting and what astonishment is that poor soul in that perceives these Sergeants even ready to clasp their in her burning armes See O Cosmopolite what thy sin hath caused lust hath transported thine eyes blasphemy thy tongue pride thy foot oppression thy hand covetousness thy heart and now Death and Devils they are the Sergeants that require thy soul Vse Reflect these thoughts on your own souls and consider with your selves what may be your cases it may be as yet thou standest upright without any changes hitherto thou hast seen no days of sorrow but even washed thy steps with butter and the rock hath poured thee out rivers of oyle Deut. 32.13 14. Alas was not this the case of this wretched worldling yet for all this you see a night came that paid for all and so may it be with thee a day an hour Casaub Dies hora momentum c. a moment is enough to overturn the things that seem to have been founded and rooted in Adamant who can tell whether this night this storm may fall upon thee art thou not strangely nailed and glued unto sence art thou not stupidly senceless in spirituall things that for pelf vanity dung nothing wilt run headlong and willfully into easelesse endlesse and remediles torments Yet such is thy doing if thou beest a worldling to get riches to thy body and let death and devils have thy soul O beloved consider in time and seeing you have such a terrible example set before you let this worldling be your warning We have done with the Sergeants but what 's their office to beg to sue No but to force to require thy soul is required How requried is any so bold to approach his gates and make a forcible entry Yes God hath his speciall Bailiffs that will fear no colours riches cannot ransome castles cannot keep hollows cannot hide hills nor their forts protect Sits Herod on his Throne there 's a Writ of Remove and the worms are his Bayliffs is Dives at his Table Death brings the Mittimus and Devils are his Jaylours sits Lazarus at his gates the King greets him well we may say and Angels are his keepers poor rich good bad all must be served at the Kings suit no place can priviledge no power secure no valour rescue no libertie exempt with a non omittas propter aliquam libertatem runs this Warrant 2. Sam. 22.5 O rich man what wilt thou now do The sorrows of death compasse thee and the flouds of Belial make thee afraid What no friends to help no power to rescue is there no other way but yield and die for it O miserie enough to break an heart of brasse again Imagine that a Prince a while possessed some royall City where if you walk the streets you may see peace flourishing wealth abounding pleasure waiting all his neighbours offering their service and promising to assist him in all his needs and affairs if on a sudden this city were besieged by some deadly enemie who coming like a violent stream takes one hold after another one wall after another one castle after another and at last drives this Prince onely to a little Tower and there sets on him what fear anguish and misery would this Prince be in If he looks about his holds are taken his men are slain his friends and neighbours now stand aloof off and they begin to abandon him were not this a wofull plight trow you even so it fares with a poor soul at the hour of her departure the body wherein she reigned like a jolly Princesse then droops and languishes the keepers tremble Eccles 12.3 the strong men bow the grinders cease and they wax dark that look out at the windows no wonder if fear be in the way when the arms the legs the teeth the eyes as so many walls wherein the soul was invironed are now surprized and beaten to the ground her last refuge is the heart and this is the little Tower whither at last she is driven But what is she there secure no but most fiercely assailed with a thousand enemies her dearest friends youth and Physick and other helps which soothed her in prosperity do now abandon her what will she do the enemy will grant no truce will make no league but night and day assayls the heart which now like a Turret struck with thunder begins all to shiver here is the wofull state of a wicked soul God is her enemy the Devil her foe Angels hate her the earth groans under her hel gapes for her the reason of all sin struck the alarm and death gives the battel it is but this night a minute longer and then will the raging enemie enter on her Death is no beggar to entreat no suiter to wo no petitioner to ask no soliciter to crouch and crave a favour she runs raging Quaque ruit furibunda ruit ruling charging requiring hark this rich mans arrest thy soul shall be required It shall yes the word is peremptory what be required yes it comes with authority Here 's a fatall requiring when the soul shall be forced by an unwilling necessitie and devils by force hurrie her to her endless furie Adieu poor soul the Writ is served the Goal prepared the judgement past and Death the Executioner will delay no longer This night thy soul shalt be required of thee Vse 1 But to whom speak I Think of it you miserably covetous that joyn house to house and call the lands after your own names You may trust in your wealth and boast your selves in the multitude of your riches but none of you call by any means redeem his brother no nor himself Psal 49.6 Psal 49.6.7 When Death comes I pray what composition with the Lord of heaven could ever any buy out his damnation with his coyn howsoever you live mirrily deliciously go richly yet Death will at last knock at your doors and notwithstanding all your wealth honours tears and groans of your dearest friends will take you away as his prisoners to his darkest dungeon Your case is as with a man who lying fast asleep upon the edge of some steep high rock dreams merrily of Crowns Kingdoms Possessions but upon the sudden starting for joy he breaks his neck and tumbles into the bottome of some violent sea Thus is your danger every hour Sathan makes you a bed lulls you asleep charms you into golden dreams and you conceive you are wallowing in the Sea of all wordly happiness at last death comes against which there is no resistance and then are you suddenly swallowed up of despair and drowned in that pit of eternall death and
Angels on both sides waiting whether of them should have the prey now alas then wouldst thou say The soul to depart from the body were a thing intollerable to continue still therein were a thing impossible and to deferre this departure any longer supposing this hour thy last hour no Physick could prevail it were a thing unavoydable what then would thy poor soul do thus invironed with so many straights O fond fools of Adams sinne that neglect the time till this terrible passage how much wouldst thou give if thus it were for an hours repentance at what rate wouldst thou value a dayes contrition worlds are worthlesse in respect of a little respite a short truce would seem more precious then the Treasures of Empires nothing would then be so much esteemed as a trice of time which before by moneths and years thou lavishly mis-spent Think on thy sinns nay thou couldst not choose but think Satan would write them on the curtains of thy bed and thy agashed eyes would be forced to look upon them there wouldst thou see thousands committed not one confessed or throughly repented then too late thou wouldst begin to wish O had I lead a better life and were it to begin again O then how would I fast and pray how repent how live Certainly certainly if thou goest on in sinne thus would be thy departure thy carkass lying cold among the stones of the pit and thy soul by the weight of sinne irrecoverably sinking into the bottome of that bottomless burning lake Vse 2 But to prevent this evil take this use of advice for thy farwell whilest yet thy life lasteth whilest yet the Lord gives thee a gracious day of visitation ply ply all those blessed means of salvation as prayer and conference and meditation and Sermons and Sacraments and fastings and watchings and patience and faith and a good conscience in a word so live that when this day or night of death comes thou mayest then stand firm and sure as yet thou art in the way of a transitory life as yet thou art not entred into the confines of Eternitie if now therefore thou wilt walk in the holy path if now thou wilt stand out against any sin whatsoever if now thou wilt take on thee the yoke of our Saviour Christ if now thou wilt associate thy self to that sect and brotherhood that is every where spoken against if now thou wilt direct thy words to the glorifying of God and to give grace unto the hearers if now thou wilt delight in the word the wayes the Saints the services of God if now thou wilt never turn again unto folly or to thy trade of sin though Satan set upon thee with his baits and allurements to detain thee in his bondage but by one darling delight Psal 116.15 one minion-sin then I dare assure thee dear right dear would be thy death in the sight of the Lord with joy and triumph wouldst thou passe through all the terrours of death with singing and rejoycing would thy soul be received into those sacred mansions above O happy soul if this be thy case O happy night or day vvhensoever the nevvs comes that then must thy soul be taken from thee You may think it now high time that we bid this far-wel-funerall Text adieu then for conclusion let every word be thy warning Lest this be thy time provide for this and everie time 1. Thess 5.6 lest the night be dreadfull Do not sleep as do other but watch and be sober lest thy soul should suffer desire the sufferings of thy God to satisfie lest death require it of thee by foree offer it up to God with a cheerfull devotion and lest this of thee be fearfull who hast lived in sin correct these courses amend your wayes and the blessing of God be with thee all thy life at the hour of death now henceforth and for ever AMEN FINIS Doomes-day MATTH 16.27 Then shall he reward every man according to his works THe dependance of this Text is limited in few lines and that your eyes wander no further then this verse therein is kept a generall Assize the Judge Officers Prisoners stand in array the Judge is God and the Son of man the Officers Angels and they are his Angels the Prisoners men and because of the Gaol-delivery every man If you will have all together you have a Iudge his circuit his habit his attendants his judgments a Iudge the Son of man his circuit he shall come his habit in the glory of his Father his attendants with his Angels what now remains but the execution of justice then without more adoe see the Text and you see all the scales in his hande our works in the scales the reward for our works of just weight each to other Then hee shall reward every man according to his works This Text gives us the proceeding of Doomes-day which is the last day the last Sessions the last Assize that must be kept on earth or is decreed in heaven if you exspect Sheriffs or Judges Plaintiffs or Prisoners all are in this verse some in each word Then is times Trumpet that proclaims their coming Hee is the Judge that examins all our lives Reward is the doom that proceeds from him in his Throne Man is the malefactour every man stands before him as a prisoner Works are the inditements and according to our works must go the triall howsoever we have done good or evill Give me yet leave this Judge sits on trials as well as prisoners it is an high Court of appeal where Plaintiffs Counsellors Judges all must appear and answer would you learn the proceedings there is the Term Then the Judge hee the sentence shall reward the parties very man the triall it self which you may finde in all to be just and legall every man his rewards according to his works We have opened the Text and now you shall have the hearing Then THen when the answer is Negative Positive First Negative Then not on a sudden or at least not at this present This life is no time to receive rewards the rain and Sun pleasure both the good and bad nay oftentimes the bad fare best and Gods own children are most fiercely fined in the furnace of affliction Job 9.24 Matth. 16.24 The earth is given into the hands of the wicked saith Iob but if any man will follow mee he must take up his cross saith our Saviour Ioy and pleasure and happiness attend the ungodly while Gods poor servants run thorow the thicket of briers and brambles to the kingdome of heaven but shall not the Iudge of all the world do right Gen. 18.25 a time shall come when both these must have their change Mark the upright and behold the just for the end of that man is peace but the transgressours shall be destroyed together and the end of the wicked shall be cut off Psal 37.38 Psal 37.37 38. The effect of things is best known to
it was committed till Dooms-day again yet then shall it out with a witnesse and be as legible in thy forehead as if it were writ with the brightest stars or the most glistring Sun beam upon a wall of chrystall Vse 2 As you mean the good of your souls amend your lives call your selves to account while it is called to day search and examine all your thoughts words and deeds and prostrating your selves before God with broken and bleeding affections pray and sue that your names may be writ in heaven in that Book of life This will be the joy of your hearts the peace of your souls the rest of your minds yea how glad will you then be to have * It is a question whether the sinnes of Gods people shall be manifested at that day some say they shall be manifested not for their ignominy or confusion but onely that the goodnesse and grace of God may be made the more illustrious and for this they urge Matth. 12.36 2 Cor. 5.10 Revel 20.12 Others say they shall not be manifested 1. Because Christ in his sentence onely enumerates the good works they had done but takes no notice of their sins 2. Because this agrees best with those expressions that God blotteth out our sins and that they are thrown into the bottome of the sea 3. Because Christ is their bridegroom friend advocate and how ill would it become one in such relations to accuse or lay open their sins which of these opinions is truest is hard to say Heb. 6.10 all these books laid open by this means I speak it to the comfort of all true hearted Christians shall your obedience and repentance and faith and love and zeal and patience c. come to light and be known God is not unrighteous to forget your works of labour and love No all must out especially at that day when the books shall be open our works manifested and as we have done so must we be rewarded for then he shall reward every man according to his works The books are opened and now are the matters to be examined there is first a view and then a tryall The Law-book whereby we are tryed contains three leaves Nature the Law and the Gospel the Gentiles must be tryed by the first the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles by the second and the faithfull Jews and Gentiles by the last Those that confesse no God but nature must be judged by the law of nature those that confesse a God no Christ must be judged by the Law of God without the merits of Christ those that confesse God the Father and believe in God the Sonne shall be judged by the Gospel which reconcileth us to God the Father by the merits of Christ Atheists by the law of nature infidels by the law of God Christians by the Gospel of our Saviour Christ To the statutes of the former who can answer our hope is in the latter we appeal to the Gospel and by the Gospel we shall have our tryall They that have sinned without the law Rom. 2.12 shall perish without the law and they that have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law Rom. 2.16 But God shall judge the secrets of all hearts of all our hearts by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel Rom. 2.12.16 Vse Vel te totaliter absolvit vel te capitaliter damnat John 16.9 Let this then forewarn us what we have to do It is the Gospel that will either throughly justifie thee or extremely condemn thee The Spirit shall convince the world of sinne saith Christ and why so but because they believe not on me John 16.9 There is no sinne but infidelitie no righteousnesse but faith not that adulterie intemperance malice are no sinnes but if unfaithfulnesse remain not all these sinnes are pardoned and so they are as if they were no sins indeed How quick a riddance true repenting faith makes with our sinnes they are too heavie for our shoulders and we cannot bear them faith onely turns them over unto Christ and we are disburthened of them whereas there would go with us to judgement an huge kennell of lusts an armie of vain words a legion of evil deeds faith instantly dischargeth them all and kneeling down to Jesus Christ beseecheth him to answer for them all howsoever committed O then make we much of faith but not of such a faith neither as goes alone without works it is nothing at this judgement to say I have believed and not well lived the Gospel requires both faith to believe and obedience to work not onely to repent and believe the Gospel Mark 1.15 Mark 1.15 but to obey from the heart that form of doctrine Rom. 6.17 Rom. 6.17 True indeed thou shalt be saved for thy faith not for thy works but for such a faith as is without works thou shalt never be saved we say therefore A justificando non à justificato works are disjoyned from the act of justifying not from the person justified heaven is given to us for Christs merits but we must shew him the fair copie of our lives O then let this move us to abound in knowledge and faith and repentance and love and zeal and clothing and feeding and lodging the poor members of Christ Jesus and howsoever all these can merit nothing at Gods hands yet will he crown his own gifts and reward them in his mercy Say then dost thou relieve a poor member of Christ Jesus dost thou give a cup of cold water to a Prophet in the name of Prophet Matt. 10.42 Christ doth promise thee of his truth he will not let thee lose thy reward certainly he will not so thy works be done in faith why this is the covenant the glad tidings the Gospel to live well and believe well O let not that which is a word of comfort to us be a bill of inditement against us albeit in our justification we may say Be it to us according to our faith yet in our retribution it is said as you have it before you in this Text read unto you Then he shall reward every man for manifestation of his faith according to his works A little to recall our selves The Prisoners are tryed the Verdict's brought in the inditement is found and the Judge now sits on life and death even ready with sparkling eyes to pronounce his sentence This we must deferre a while and the next time you shall hear what you have long exspected The Lord grant us an happy issue that when this day is come the sentence may be for us and we may be saved to our endless comfort Shall reward VVHat Assize is this that affords each circumstance of each prisoners triall the time is Then the Judge is He the Prisoners Men the evidence Works Non coronat Deus merita tua tanquam merita tua sed tanquam donasua Aug. lib. de grat lib. arbit cap. 7. which no sooner given in but
washed his hands before the multitude saying I am innocent of the bloud of this just man Matth. 27 24 Matth. 27.24 but alas did Pilate so favour him as to free him no he fears to condemn him being innocent and yet dares not absolve him being so envyed as he was by the Iewes what then can a little water what can Iordans floods what can rivers of wine and oile do towards the washing of those hands that had power to release him and would not he knew they had delivered him of envy Matth. 27.18 Matth. 27.18 he confesses I find no fault in this man Luk. 23.14 Luk. 23.14 he tells him that he had power to crucifie him and he had power to loose him Iohn 19.10 Joh. 19.10 and yet fondly would he wash away the guilt of his unjust sentence with a little water on his hands no Pilate that ceremony cannot wash away thy sin that sin I mean which thou and the Gentiles in thee committed in delivering of Jesus to the will of the Iewes Luk. 23.25 But if delivered to the Iewes sure it is well enough he is their Country-man Kinsman of the stock of Abraham of the Tribe of Juda of the Family of Ioseph but this rather aggravates then allaies his misery that his own people should degenerate into Traitors not a Gentile but a Jew to be his Executioner what torment had not been a lenitive and a recreation in comparison of this Daniels Den the three Childrens Furnace Esays wooden Saw Israels fiery Serpents the Spanish Inquisition the Romish Purgatory are all as far short in torture as the last of them in truth to the malice of a Iew witness our Saviours death when they all conspired not onely to scourge him mock him buffet him slay him but to slay him in such a manner as to hang him on nailes and to make the Cross his Gibbet But what no comforter amongst them all do the Gentiles condemn him will the Jewes crucifie him and is there none to pity him Yes what say we of his Disciples that heard him followed him Luk. 10.1 and were sent of him by two and two into every City and place whether he himself should come Would you think that these seventy Luk. 10.17 for they were so many in number which for a time did his Embassage with joy would now have forsaken him yes if you mark it many of them went back Joh. 6.66 and would walk no more with him some stumble at his Doctrine others at his passion but all were offended as it is written I will smite the Shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered Matth. 26.31 Matth. 26.31 Yet if the Gentiles reject him they do but like Gentiles who were ignorant of God if the Iewes hate and maligne him Matth. 23.31 it is but their old wont of killing the Prophets if the Disciples that are weaker faint and waver in faith Matth. 8.26 it was no more then was said of them O ye of little faith but what say we to the twelve Apostles those Secretaries of his mysteries stewards of his mercies almners of his bounties will they also go away and leave him comfortless alone no can Peter say Master to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternall life Ioh. 6.68 Joh. 6.68 or if he will have deeper protestations I am ready to go with thee saith Peter into prison and to death Luk. 22.33 Luk. 22.33 to death yes though I die with thee I will not deny thee and thus said all his Disciples Matth. 26.35 Matth 26.35 and yet like Ionas Gourd when the Sun beates hottest how soon are they all gone and vanished away loe one betrays him another forswears him all run from him and leave him alone in the midst of all his enemies And yet if his Apostles leave him what say we to Mary his mother and other his friends these indeed wait on him seeing sighing wailing weeping but alas what do those tears but increase his sorrows might he not justly say with Paul What mean yee to weep and to break my heart Act. 21.13 Acts 21.13 Pity and of all other feminine pity it is the poorest helpless salve of misery but howsoever it was to others this was so far from any salve to him as 't is one of his greatest tenderest sores about him Luk. 23.28 Daughters of Ierusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves and your children O see the wonder of compassion which he bears to others in his passion he hath more care of the women that follow him weeping then on his own mangled self that reels along fainting and bleeding even unto death the tears that drop from their eyes is more to him then all the bloud in his veins and therefore careless as it were of his own sacred person he turns about his blessed bleeding face to the weeping women Luk. 23.38 affording them looks and words too of compassion of consolation weep not for mee but weep for your selves and your children But O blessed Saviour didst thou flow unto us in showrs of Bloud and may not we drop a tear for all those purple streams of thine yes Lord thou dost not here forbid us weeping onely thou turnest the stream of our tears the right way that is to say homewards into our own bosomes pointing us to our sins the truest cause of thy sufferings But as for comfort to our Saviour whence trow ye may it come if we compass the earth the Gentiles Iewes his Disciples Apostles Mary his own Mother and all other his friends they are but as Iobs miserable comforters all but let us go up into heaven John 16.2 and there if any where be his comforters indeed alas what comforters If you imagine the Angels it is true they could attend him in the Desart and comfort him in the Garden but when he came to the main act of our Redemption not an Angell must be seen how not seen no they must not so much as look through the windows of heaven to give him any ease at all nor indeed were it to any purpose if they should for who can lift up where the Lord will cast down O yee blessed Angels how is it that your Hallelujahs cease that your songs which you warbled at his birth are finished at his death that your glorious company which are the delight of happy souls is denied to him who is the Lord and Maker both of you and them why thus it must be for our sakes I am full of heaviness said our Saviour in his type and I looked for some to take pity but there was none and for comforters but I found none Psal 69 20. Psal 69.20 And yet if the Angels be no comforters he hath a Father in heaven that is nearer to him Ioh. 10.30 I and my father are one saith our Saviour and it is my Father that honoureth mee Ioh.