wee will convince you of this life that it is simply necessary That so without delay every one that is convince that he liveth to himselfe may now begin to leave that course to liue to himselfe and hereafter live to God For the first of these To convince us that there are many amongst us that professe our selves to be Christs and yet are thus disposed and have this sinfull affection to live to our selves Take this first in the generall If there were not such a disposition in mens hearts the holy Ghost would not thus have directed the spirit of the Apostle in expressing this as a note of difference betweene them and others and as an argument that a strong Christian should beare with the weake because they doe not live to themselves The Scripture giveth not rules in vaine But that yet we may see it more clearely you shall find this very thing complained of sometime and sometime forbidden Complained of Phil. 2. 21. All seeke their owne and not the things of Iesus Christ. Such a disposition there was in them that they sought their owne they lived to themselves And forbidden 1 Cor. 10. 24. Let no man seeke his owne but every one another mans wealth A thing expresly and in termes so clearely forbidden as no man can hide himselfe from the light of it Hee is certainly guiltie of the breach of this command that seekes after his owne that seekes himselfe But how shall wee know that wee may bee more sensible of our owne case whether it be thus with us or not whether wee live to our selves and not unto God I will give you two generall rules and tryals whereby a man may discerne whether he live to himselfe or not The first is this Consider when a lust and an occasion meet together how you are I shall shew it in divers particulars Take it thus Sometimes you shall see that a man is put on to a good dutie by incouragement sometimes hee wants those incouragements Marke now how a man determineth and resolveth to act or to cease his action by vertue of these incouragements Sometimes you shall see that there is a command to a dutie but no outward incouragement to that duty that may satisfie the desire of a mans heart in selfe-respects He must obey God in this command but hee shall gaine nothing in the world by it hee shall neither grow rich nor get more esteeme among men or have a more easie or pleasant life in outward things all selfe-respects faile in this action The question is what a man resolveth upon in this If now his heart start aside from God and fall off from the dutie because he wants those incouragements that a man lookes after a way for himselfe fulnesse to himselfe then it is evident thou hast respect to thy selfe Iehu all the while that his zeale to God might further him and the better settle himselfe in the kingdome of Israel he can call others to come up and see his zeale for the Lord but when his zeale had no such baite and allurement to those actions then Iehu turneth against God and falleth to Idolatrie and other sins Iehu is not now the man when these incouragements faile that he was before You have abundance in Iohn 6. 10. seeking Christ that still discovered a living to themselves in it You seeke me saith our Saviour because of the loaves they had some outward advantage by him and therefore so long they sought him So the Lord discovered them in Hos. 7. to bee such as lived to themselves even in holy duties You crie unto me saith God but it is for corne and wine and oyle for this they cryed but when they had corne and wine and oyle what zeale had they then Hee that should have beene upright when hee waxed fat he kicked with the heele as the Lord speakes under the name of Iesurun to Israel That is one case Consider when things come thus that sometime those worldly advantages fall off from a man in the profession and practise of religion if hee fall off from the dutie too he is a man that liveth to himselfe This was the case of the second and third grounds they received the seed with joy that is when they were sensible of comfort they followed Christ but afterward when persecution arose for the Gospell they fell off and tooke offence Such as these live to themselves they seeme to live to God but it is to themselves and therefore when selfe-respects faile they fall off too Secondly take another instance for the clearing of it Suppose that not only sensible advantages faile but sensible disadvantages come in the world A man is sensible that hee shall disadvantage himselfe much if he goe on in the wayes of obedience to God It may be if he make conscience of his wayes hee must make restitution of his estate unjustly gotten Hee must deny himselfe in a greater measure of pleasures that hee hath unlawfully pursued Hee must emptie himselfe in workes of mercie and pietie of a great part of his estate for the good of others that God may be glorified by his substance Hee shall lose some worldly friends some esteeme among men Here are sensible disadvantages to a man Now the Question is what he resolveth to doe Here is the command of God and here is the thing whereupon the heart of man and his affections are set upon disadvantages in the world These come together Here is an occasion for a lust a sinfull affection to expresse it selfe If that bee laid in the ballance and shall prevaile above the other that rather then I will endure disadvantage in the world I will neglect the way of serving God this partie liveth to himselfe whatsoever good he did before in matters of religion all was done to himselfe I say when these two come together as you know when two men walke together and one servant followeth them a man knoweth not whose servant he is till they part but then when they part a stranger may know whose servant hee is hee followeth his owne Master and leaveth the other So when God and the world goe together God and a mans owne advantages goe together when there is nothing commanded but standeth with his owne advantages so long a mans deceitfull heart may flatter and delude and misguide him hee may goe on in a false perswasion and in a strong conceit that hee is in Christ in a blessed estate But when these two part that I shall not onely not advantage my selfe but sensibly disaduantage my selfe in outward things Here now I say the Question is what a man doth If I resolve to cleave to my outward advantages and leave God and leave the wayes of God I live to my selfe A man that liveth to God you shall see it is otherwise with him as for instance David when hee might have had the kingdome of Israel somewhat sooner by sinne
become profitable as the furnace to the gold to purge out the drosse to make a separation betweene the pure mettall and the ore Profitable as physicke to the body to purge out the malignant humours Profitable as sope to the cloth to fetch out the staines to take out the greasie spottes it is the Scripture expresion their hearts are as fatte as grease to make them white Profitable as the Thunder to the Ayre to purge it to make it more commodious to breathe in Profitable as the wind to the water to make it the purer by its ventillation Profitable as the pruning knife to the tree to make it more fruitfull These and the like metaphors we have and by them wee are to conceive of the good and benefit that comes to us by Gods castigation and fatherly exercising of his people with his discipline and rod of Affliction But what are these blessed fruits what is the profit accruing to the soule of the people of God by this meanes I can but name part of them Besides that which is exprest in the Text that we might bee partaker of his holinesse there are these gracious effects of afflictions Weaning from the world a bringing us into more acquaintance with God Manasseth when hee was in affliction hee besought the Lord his God and humbled himselfe greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him and then saith the Text he knew that the Lord hee was God God by this meanes makes us know our selves the vanitie of the creature the sinfulnesse of sinne the sweetnesse of the Word the excellency that is in the promises makes us more compassionate to others keepeth us from hell and many other fruites there are of afflictions But to passe this A second thing implied in the Doctrine is this that as afflictions are meanes conducing to our profit so God in exercising his people with them mainly intendeth it The Lord saith Moses led thee through that great and terrible wildernesse wherein were fiery Serpents and Scorpions and drought where there was no water suffered thee to hunger brought thee into hard straites but what was Gods ayme in this that hee might humble thee and that hee might prove thee to doe thee good at the later end By this saith the Prophet speaking of the afflictions of the Church shall the iniquitie of Iacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sinne This I say is that which God intendeth by the afflictions of his people and this is that which the servants of God by faith have beene able to apprehend and to interpret the Lords meaning in all his sharpe dispensations towards them As the Prophet Habakkuk having made a terrible description of the Babylonish rod hee concludes in the twelfth verse of his first Chapter Art not thou from everlasting O Lord my God Wee shall not die O Lord thou hast ordained them for Iudgement and O mighty God thou hast established them for correction This is that likewise which the Saints of God have looked for and expected that while the windes of afflictions have beene blowing some ship or other should come home richly fraighted So David when that storme of cursing came from the mouth of Shimei Oh saith David let him alone let him curse it may be that the Lord will looke on mine affliction and that the Lord will requite good for his cursing this day So when Rabshaketh came up against Ierusalem Let him alone saith Hezekiah answer him not a word it may be the Lord will heare the words of Rabshaketh whom his Master hath sent to reproach the living God and will reprove the words which the Lord hath heard It may be the Lord will open his eare upon this rage and blasphemie and consider his people and doe them good The Saints of God I say have expected good and benefit from Gods afflicting of them For the use of this and so to draw to a conclusion In the first place Seeing this is Gods intent in all his administrations to his people especially in his castigations of them and reaching out unto them such sharpe and bitter potions It may serve to checke and controule all those hard thoughts that wee are apt to suffer to lodge within us concerning Gods dealing with us in the time of our distresses Apt we are to speak foolishly and unadvisedly concerning God and to misconster his administrations This hath beene the frailtie of Gods dearest servants in their affliction I shall one day said David perish by the hand of Saul Woe is mee saith Isaiah for I am undone because I am a man of uncleane lips The Lord saith the Church hath broken my teeth with gravell stones and covered me with ashes he hath removed my soule farre off from peace and I said my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. The Lord hath forsaken me saith Zion and my Lord hath forgotten mee Iob though for a good while hee carried himselfe very fairely and demeaned himselfe very warily toward God yet when he began to be wet to the skinne then he speakes foolishly and unadvisedly falleth to the cursing of his day not to the cursing of his God as Sathan thought he would but of his day though that was too much and ill beseeming so holy a man The Saints I say are apt to mistake themselves this way and to overshoote themselves in this case We should therefore humble our selves before the Lord for this distemper of soule and labour to keepe downe such unquiet thoughts and hard disputings that are apt to rise within us against God and his dispensations And consider that whatsoever our thoughts are yet the Lord knoweth his owne thoughts concerning us as he himselfe speakes in Ier. 29. howsoever saith he you may thinke that I intend to cut you off for ever yet I know my thoughts that I thinke towards you even thoughts of peace and not of evill to give you an expected end Againe secondly it may serve to comfort the godly concerning all the meanes and instruments of their sufferings whether they be men or divels Wicked men and divels whom God useth as a Rod to chastise his people their malice is great and their rage violent and they march on with much furie against the godly they intend their utter ruine and devastation and purpose nothing lesse But O Assyrian saith God the rodde of mine anger and the staffe in their hand is mine indignation howbeit hee meaneth not so neither doth his heart thinke so but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off But saith the Lord whatsoever his meaning is I know what my intentions are hee is but the rodde in mine hand and I will give such strokes with it as my people may beare and such as may bee for their profit This I say should comfort us concerning all the instruments of our suffering whatsoever they be The Phisitian
you know applieth the horseleaches to his distempered Patient the Horseleech intendeth nothing but the satiating and filling himselfe with the blood of the sicke partie but the Physitian hath another ayme even the drawing out of the putrified and corrupted blood God suffereth wicked men and divels as Horseleeches to suck his people to draw their blood but it is in order to their good it is no matter what wicked men thinke though Ashur thinke not so yet God purposeth it and aymes at it and in conclusion effects it and then saith hee it shall come to passe that when the Lord hath performed his whole worke upon mount Sion I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his high lookes Againe in the third place Seeing this is Gods ayme in all his afflictions whatsoever the instrument be how sharpe soever the castigation be or of what nature whether it be in a spirituall way by sore temptations and buffetings of Sathan or outwardly by losses in our estate or death of friends c. seeing I say this is Gods purpose and intent that his people may be profited Let us quietly and patiently apply our selves unto God and expect the quiet and peaceable fruit of righteousnesse that shall spring up in due time to those that are this way exercised by the Lord Looke for it and presse on to this quietly to waite on the Lord our God for a blessed fruit of such administrations An argument ab utili is an argument of great prevayle what will not men doe for Profit It is for profit that men rise up early and goe to bed late and eate the bread of carefulnesse The Husbandman takes much paines and plowes his ground indures many sharpe stormes and piercing winters the Machant runnes divers hazards abroad and all for profit so should we be willing patiently and quietly to submit to Gods dealing humbly to apply our selves to his wise and fatherly administrations seeing hee intendeth by it our profit And take heede of murmuring and repining against the Lord this will make him indeede to lay heavier blowes upon us an impatient Patient makes the Physitian deale more harshly and a strugling child procureth for himselfe the more and sorer stripes what though our potion bee bitter so long as it is wholesome have wee not reason to submit our selves But here is the mayne thing wee sticke at You may happily reply Indeed if we could see our corruptions subdued our hearts humbled the pride that is within us abated and that God would be pleased to bring us more nearer to him and make us more heavenly minded and weane our affections from the world if wee could see this fruite of all our sufferings and temptations and crosses it would be an abundant satisfaction to our soules but alas alas wee cannot see this profit our hearts are still full of many spirituall distempers and great prevaylings of evill there is upon us notwithstanding all these Stormes and Frosts and tempestuous hard Winters yet these weeds of wickednesse grow and are marvelous lively this is the bitternesse of the cup and this is that which sinketh the heart most under all those pressures which lye upon us To which I answer first wee must judge rightly and wisely and consider well whether it be the time for the fruite of affliction to spring forth No affliction for the present seemeth joyous and no affliction it may be for the time of its working appeareth commodious But saith the Apostle they doe bring forth the quiet fruite of righteousnesse Againe secondly wee may perhaps beare too much upon the physicke alas afflictions and crosses of themselves they will rather drive us further then draw us nearer unto God wee are therefore to submit our selves unto God in his way of administration and to intreate his blessing upon them that through that they may be made successefull As every creature so every condition both of prosperitie and adversitie is sanctified to us by the Word and by prayer And take heede of disputing against the Lord as wee are apt to doe he is wise above all that wee can conceive he is wonderfull in working and knoweth how to bring about the good of his people in a wonderfull way what if he will plunge thee into the mire in order to holinesse what if Christ will put clay upon a mans eyes in order to sight a medicine more likely to put out his eyes Considering therefore that God is wise and wonderfull in his working let us apply ourselves to him and in due time wee shall see the fruite and benefit of all his administrations I should now have come to the third and last proposition and that was That this profit that God aymeth at in all his castigations of his children is to make them partaker of his holinesse And this is profit indeede when God thereby draweth us from the world and makes us more heavenly minded and more dead to the creature purgeth away our drosse and takes away that filth and corruption that is in us oh this will I quit all the cost and make amends for all the labour and paines and hardship wee have beene made to endure But I shall forbeare to insist upon this So much for the Text. There is a word to be spoken according to custome with respect to the occasion of our meeting I have done the maine part of my taske which was to present to you a word of instruction and therefore for the occasion concerning this young gentleman disceased whose Funeralls wee now solemnize I shall but speake a few words and so conclude I neede not to speake any thing concerning his parentage and discent nor much concerning his education I am confident that that was religious and gracious and such as wherein there was a second travell in order to his spirituall birth that Iesus Christ might be formed in him For his owne particular though I can speake nothing upon my owne knowledge being a meere stranger yet I have such a testimony concerning him from those that deserve credence both of me and you as that I shall conclude that of him as may give us good hope concerning his finall and eternall estate If so be contrition of heart and sorrow for sinne If earnest and constant prayer unto God If lamenting of youthfull miscariages and the not answering of time and meanes and opportunities and religious education and that godly care that was exercised in order to his spirituall welfare and building of him up in the knowledge of God and of Christ. If I say the lamenting of the neglect of opportunities of this kinde If soâ—…e the desire of the prayers of others for him and that out of a sense of his owne disabilitie to plead his owne cause If so bee a gracious communication of God unto him in wayes of comfort in the time of his sicknesse supporting him under divers
shee desired him to be a carefull Father over them all shee prayed to God devoutly to send a blessing both upon him and them Much shee could not then speake because of her paines that now began still to increase upon her When shee was in the extremitie of her labour he being absent as it was fitting she sent downe to him to desire him to pray to God on her behalfe that he would ease her of those grievous paines and preserve her in the great paine and perill of Child-birth The propitious God it seemed heard him and granted his request for presently to the thinking of the standers by shee was well delivered Not satisfied with this having received so great a blessing from God shee sent downe againe to desire him to give God thankes for her safe deliverie But God that had determined to take out of this miserable life quickly turned that hope of the standers by into a feare and suddenly shee changed which perceiving as long as shee was able to speake shee cried Lord Jesus have mercy on my soule Lord have mercie on mee Lord pitty mee poore miserable wretch and when she could not speake shee held up her hands to heaven as desirous to make her peace with that God whom shee knew shee had highly offended I make no question but God hath translated her from the valley of teares to the Mount Sion of blessednesse whether God of his infinite mercie bring us all FINIS THE DEATH OF SINNE AND LIFE OF GRACE EPHES. 2. 1. And you hath hee quickned that were dead in Sinnes and Trespasses LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE DEATH OF SINNE AND LIFE OF GRACE SERMON XXXVII ROM 6. 11. Likewise reckon ye also your selves to bee dead unto sinne but alive unto God through Iesus Christ our Lord. THe intent of this Chapter is to take off an abuse of the Doctrine of the Gospell which publisheth the free Grace of God to great sinners The Apostle had sayd in the latter end of the 20. verse of the former Chapter where sinne abounded Grace did much more abound From hence some did inferre that therefore under the Gospell they might take liberty to sinne the more their sinnes were and the greater they were the more they should occasion God to manifest his abundant Grace upon them This the Apostle answers in this Chapter and he answers it two waies First by way of detestation Secondly by way of confutation By way of detestation in the first verse and part of the second What shall we say then shall we continue in sinne that Grace may abound God forbid Secondly by way of confutation the argument whereby hee confutes it is by a necessarie consequence of our justification that is our sanctification these are so inseperably united together all that are justified are sanctified And upon this ground the Apostle frames two arguments to confute this errour taken from the two parts of sanctification The first is from our mortification from the third verse to the end of the seventh and the argument runnes thus Those that are dead to sinne cannot sinne that Grace may abound but all that are in Christ are dead to sinne therefore they cannot sinne that Grace may abound Now that all that are in Christ are dead to sinne he proves by their union with Christ testified in Baptisme and by the effect of that union which is conformitie to Christ that as Christ was dead for sinne so they are dead to sinne The second argument is taken from the second part of our sanctification which is our quickning to a new life and that he handles in the 8. 9. 10. verses and that argument runnes thus Those that are quickned by Christ to newnesse of life cannot sin that Grace may abound but all that are in Christ are quickned by Christ to newnesse of life therefore they cannot sinne that Grace may abound That all that are in Christ are quickned to newnesse of life he proves in verse 8. If we be dead with Christ we beleeve that we shall live with him still by our union with Christ whereby there comes a conformity to Christ in his resurrection as well as in his death And from these premises hee inferres by way of application the conclusion that is here in the words of the Text I have now read to you likewise reckon ye also your selves dead unto sinne but alive to God through Iesus Christ our Lord. As if he should say doe not rest your selves satisfied in the bare knowledge of these things in the discourse of them in generall but bring them to particular application make the case your owne what wee say of death to sinne and of newnesse of life wee speake to you if ye be in Christ therefore you must make account of it to bee your case likewise reckon ye your selves dead to sinne but alive to God through Iesus Christ our Lord. We see now the coherence of the words with those that goe before and the maine intent and scope of the Apostle in the Chapter wherein we might note divers things The first is out of the very connexion that by vertue of the union of beleevers with Christ there is in them a conformitie to Christ. They are made like unto him he had sayd before that Christ dyed and rose againe likewise reckon ye your selves like him in this Every one that is in Christ is conformable to Christ and made like him Then againe secondly wee might note hence this also that Rectified and sanctified reason ever concludes to God and for God Reckon yee make account conclude this so the word signifieth reason thus conclude thus as it is used Rom. 3. 28. Wee conclude saith the Apostle where the same word is used That a man is justified by Faith without the workes of the Law So conclude this rest on this conclusion do not make it a matter of conjecture and opinion onely but when you consider things wisely when you weigh things seriously you shall see great reason to inferre those things from these premisses that God would have you inferre Therefore whatsoever reasoning is against the Word whatsoever disputes the mindes of men uphold against any truth in Scripture it is but the reasoning of corrupt reason If reason were sanctified it would conclude as 2 Cor. 5. We judge if one dyed for all then they that live should not live to themselves but to him that dyed for them When men come to deale judiciously and advisedly when they come to conclude of things wisely they will conclude then that what use the Word and the Gospell would have them make of any truth that they will make of it Likewise reckon ye judge thus Thirdly we might note hence thus much also that The best and most profitable knowledge of the Scriptures is in applying it to a mans owne case and person and condition Reckon ye also your selves saith the Apostle make account of thus much that
which may furnish us abundantly with meditations in this kind It was a custome in former times for men to make their sepulchres in their gardens to mind them of death in the midst of the pleasures of this life This present worke may not unfitly be tearmed a Garden wherein whosoever takes a dayly walke may gather in the severall beds thereof those wholsome flowers and hearbs which being distilled by serious meditation will prove water of life to a fainting spirit in some hee shall finde instruction in some incitation in others consolation in all profit Here thou shalt finde that Lethall gourd sprung up by Adam his transgression that makes all his posterity cry out There is death in the Pot. There thou mayst gather hearbs of grace as a counter-poyson against the malignity of death in a third there is the spirituall Heliotroâ—…ium opening with joy to the Sunne of righteousnesse the hope of a blessed resurrection Doe the glittering shewes of outward things make thee begin to over-fancie them heere thou shalt finde how little they will availe in death the consideration whereof will make them like that precious stone which being put into the mouth of a dead man loseth it's vertue are thou over-burthened with afflictions here thou art supported in the expectation of a farre more exceeding weight of glory art thou ready to faint under thy labours here thou shalt finde a time of rest and of reaping doth the time seeme over-long that thy patience begins to flag heere thou hast a promise of thy Saviours speedy comming In a word be thy estate and condition what it will be heere thou mayst have both directions to guide thee and comforts to support thee in thy journey on earth till thou arrive at thy Countrey in Heaven Certainely there is no man can sleight and undervalue so deserving a Worke but hee shall discover himselfe either to be ignorant or idle or ill affected especially when so judicious and learned men have thought it a fit concomitant for their severall labours which they have added for the accomplishment of it Therfore take it in good worth improve it for the good of thy soule that being armed and prepared for death when it shall approach thou mayst have no more to doe but to die and mayst end thy dayes in a stedfast assurance That thy sinnes shall be blotted out when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of the LORD Thine in him who is the Resurrection and the life H. W. THE TABLE THe Stewards Summons Page 1. TEXT LVKE 16. 2. Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou mayst be no longer Steward The praise of Mourning Page 29. ECCLESIASTES 7. 2. It is better to goe to the house of Mourning then to the house of Feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart Deliverance from the King of feares Page 55. HEBREVVES 2. 14. 15. 14 For asmuch then as the Children are partakers of flesh and bloud hee also himselfe likewise tooke part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Divell 15 And deliver them who through the feare of death were all their life time subject to bondage The perfection of Patience Page 79. IAMES 1. 4. But let patience have her perfect worke that you may bee perfect and intire wanting nothing A Restraint of exorbitant passion Page 101. 2 SAM 12. 22. 23. 22 And he said while the Child was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the Child may live 23 But now he is dead wherefore should I fast Can I bring him back againe I shall goe to him but he shall not returne to me The sting of Death Page 121. 1 COR. 15. 56. The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law The destruction of the Destroyer Page 135. 1 COR. 15. 16. The last enemie that shall be destroyed is death The Worlds losse and the righteous mans gaine Page 151. ESAY 57. 1. And mercifull men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evill to come The good mans Epitaph Page 177. REVEL 14. 13. I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their workes doe follow them The Christians Center Page 193. ROM 14. 7. 8. 7 For none of us liveth to himselfe and no man dyeth to himselfe 8 For whether we live we live to the Lord and whether wee die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords The improvement of Time Page 213. 1 COR. 7. 29. 30. 31. 29 But this I say Brethren the time is short it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none 30 And they that weepe as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not and they that buy asthough they possessed not 31 And they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away Securitie surprized Page 235. 1 THESSAL 5. 3. For when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction commeth upon them as travaile upon a woman with child and they shall not escape A Christians victory or conquest over deaths Enmitie Page 263. 1 COR. 15. 26. The last Enemie that shall be destroyed is death The great Tribunall Gods scrutinie of Mans secrets Page 283. ECCLESIAST 12. 14. For God will bring every worke into judgement with every secret thâ—…ng whether it be good or whether it be evill A Triall of Sinceritie Page 299. ESAY 26. 8. 9. 8 Yea in the way of thy judgements O Lord have wee waited for thee the desire of our soule is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee 9. With my soule have I desired thee in the night yea with my Spirit within me will I seeke thee early for when thy judgements are in the earth the Inhabitants of the world will learne righteousnesse The expectation of Christs comming Page 321. PHIL. 3. 20. 21. 20. For our conversation is in Heaven from whence we looke for the Saviour the Lord Iesuâ—… Christ. 21. Who shall Change our vile body that it may bee fashioned like unto his glâ—…rious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himselfe Christs Precept and Promise or security against death Page 345. IOHN 8. 51. Verily verily I say unto you if a man keepe my saying he shall never see death The Young-mans liberty and limits Page 367. ECCLESIAST 11. 9. Rejoyce O young-man in thy youth and let thy heart cheare thee in the dayes of thy youth and walke in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into
what greater enmitie therefore it was the speech of that parrabolicall King in the 19. Luke which is Christ the king of the Church these mine enemies that would not that I should reigne over them bring them hither and slay them before mee Such is the state of all those men that have wealth and abuse it consume it upon their lusts as Saint Iames speakes upon their pride in excesse in apparell meates c. that have wit and spend it like Turtullus to crie downe the wayes of God to harden themselves and others in the course of sin that have greatnesse and authoritie and mis-imploy it to the crushing of good persons and good causes these and the like are stewards that abuse their Masters goods mis-imploy them to his dishonour these Christ counteth his enemies and hee will not beare it There is a third thing that God expects of all his stewards and that is this that they should doe him Homage that they should appeare at his Court dayes Gods Sabbaths are Gods Court dayes wherein hee calleth and assembleth his servants together Hee will have every one to waite there upon him that they may know his will as Cornelius bringeth his familie together and saith he Wee are all present to heare what is commanded thee of God So God I say will have his servants present at his Court dayes and not only so not only to be present there to heare his will and to understand his mind but to submit to his orders to yeeld obedience to his lawes to be governed by his rules God hath certaine rules to which hee will have every man subject there be rules for Magistrates for Ministers for Masters for Parents for servants for children for all and hee is a rebell and carrieth not himselfe as Gods steward that doth not keepe the rules that God hath set up in his owne house Againe fourthly God expects this from all his stewards that whensoever hee sendeth his Bayliffs for rent that they returne him the fruit of his owne ground Every soule is Gods ground from which God expects some fruit or other and hee sends his Bayliffs his servants continually to gather these fruits from men When hee sends a poore man to the rich there 's a Bayliffe sent to him to gather some fruit of his wealth When hee sends an oppressed man to those that are in authoritie there 's a Bayliffe sent to him to gather the fruit of his power and greatnesse When he sends an ignorant man to those that have wisedome and knowledge there 's a Bayliffe sent to him to gather the fruit of his knowledge And so wee may say of all things whatsoever whatsoever indowments of body or mind or estate any man hath if another need it that other is Gods Bayliffe sent to him to call for his rent to call for the fruit of his ground and thou must returne it by such a one for thou art but a steward and you know how fearfull the proceedings of the great King was in the 21. Matt. Hee sent his servants to the husbandmen to those to whom hee had let out his ground to receive the fruits of it and there was none what was the issue of it Hee was full of wrath and commeth upon the husbandmen and slew them So when God shall send the poore to thee for reliefe and thou helpest him not shall send the ignorant to thee for instruction and thou informest him not shall send any one to thee that may have use of thy gifts and abilities and thou doest not imploy them that way thou deniest the great Lord the fruit of his owne ground and art of the number of those husband-men that must expect this at his hands to bee slaine in his wrath Yee see the point opened that all men are Gods stewards both in respect of what God hath bestowed on them and what God doth expect from them I come briefly now to make some use of this Are all men Gods stewards Then certainely there is some worke required of every man in the world by vertue of this title put upon him that hee is Gods steward It concernes therefore Every one to looke to his place There are two things required of every steward First a dispensation Secondly a right ordering of his dispensations First a Dispensation For a steward yee know is appointed for laying out hee is made for others not for himselfe for the good of the familie in which hee is set not for his owne benefit God hath made every creature to bee for the use of others and not for it selfe those heavenly bodies the Sunne and Moone and Stars their motion and influences are for us for the service of the world the Earth with the fruits of it the Beasts and all are for the service of man So every man in his severall place hath some worke to doe for others some abilities given him for the service of others Hence it is that the Magistrate is said to bee the minister of God for the peoples good Hence it is that Ministers are said to be the servants of the Churches I am a debtour saith Paul to the Iew and to the Gentiles to the Greekes and to the Barbarians Hence it is that a Master of a familie is said to bee worse then an infidell if hee provide not for those of his owne house And every other Christian though hee stand not in these relations to others hee hath some gifts or other that are to bee layed forth for the use and advantage of others and every private person in the world hee may be of some use or other in the place in which hee is set Hence it is that the name of Brother is common to all Christians and yee know Ioseph acknowledged that hee was preferred to those honours and that authoritie and place for the good of his brethren for his fathers house so should all Gods people acknowledge other Christians their brethren and that whatsoeuer parts they have they have them for the good of the familie Hence it is that Christians are called members one of another Every member is of use to the whole bodie so must every Christian bee of use to another to some by the riches of the body to some by the riches of the mind to some by the abilities of their estates every one according to the treasure hee is intrusted with and the Talent that is committed to him This is the first thing that men must make conscience to doe to be dispencers of their goodnesse of any thing they have to bee communicative to defuse and extend themselves to others as occasion shall bee offered And indeed where there is any goodnesse in a man hee will expresse it this way by doing all the good to others he can Secondly it is required of a steward that hee consider of the manner and right ordering of his dispensations There be two rules for
that That hee dispense faithfully wisely Who saith the Lord in that 12. Luke 42. is a faithfull and wise steward whom his Lord shall make ruler over his houshold c. Gods stewards yee see must in their dispensations bee faithfull and wise First they must be faithfull Fidelitie appeares in this when they have a right End and a right rule to walke by What is the End and rule of a faithfull steward in all his dispensations in the house of his Master His Masters credit and his Masters will His masters honour and his Masters command So it must be in the house of God If wee would bee faithfull in our places let Gods glory be our end and his Word our rule That is let a man consider what God in his Word commands him in such a place in such a qualification having such indowments such parts such abilities and let him dispense these by that rule according to that command to the glory of God that gave them him Thus was Moses a faithfull steward faithfull as a servant in all the house of God so the Apostle saith of him Heb. 3. 5. His Masters glory was his end and therefore when once hee saw his Master dishonoured by Idolatrie hee could not then containe himselfe but his Anger waxed hot though hee was the meekest man upon earth And his Masters will was his rule therefore hee came downe from the mountaine with the Tables in his hand that it might appeare what he made his guide and direction in all his cariage amongst the people and wee shall find that in all the doubts of the people either in matter of Command or punishment hee alwayes sought direction from God Hee is no faithfull servant that doth not doe this Secondly As hee must be a faithfull steward in dispensing so hee must be wise in his dispensing too What is the wisdome of Gods stewards Not the wisdome drawne from the writings of Machivile or the wisdome of the World or of the flesh for that is enmitie against God not drawne from the rules that politicians walke by But that wisdome that is drawne out of the Scriptures the word of God The word of God saith the Apostle is able to make the man of God wise to salvation this is the wisedome that Gods servants must expresse and manifest in dispensing of their gifts they must be made wise by the Word they must seeke wisedome from the Word the rule of Wisedome from the Examples in the Word of those that were guided by the spirit of Wisedome if they would be wise stewards They must compare the precepts of the Word and the practise of the Saints together see what God commandeth in such a place in such a condition see what Gods servants that are gone before have done in such a condition Marke how Abraham and Iob and others of Gods Saints have imployed their wealth and authority it was for the releeving of the poore for the furtherance of Gods glory for the ease of those that were opprest Marke how Nehemiah bestirred himselfe for the sanctifying of the Sabbath for the furtherance of Gods worship Marke againe how S. Paul as a Minister watched against the wolves and how hee spends himselfe to the uttermost for the Church of God Marke how Abraham as a master of a familie governed his familie teaching and commanding his children and his houshold to walke in the way of the Lord Marke how other of Gods servants have imployed their gifts As Sampson all his strength for the Church and so Solomon all his wisedome and whatsoever gift any of them had they acknowledged that the talents that were committed to them were for God and for the service of his Church for the furtherance of his glory in the particular places that hee had set them in I say if men would be wise stewards they must doe thus But I cannot stand upon this lest I bee prevented in that which I most intend in that that followeth Yee have heard who is the Steward It is Every one that hath received any abilitie from God to doe him seruice God expects that he should imploy that abilitie in his service Wee come now in the second place to consider the reckoning which every man must make the account that every man must give of his stewardship And that as yee haue heard is the second point of Doctrine that offers it selfe to us out of the first part of the Text viz. That all Gods stewards must give a reckoning one time or other unto God As every man in the world is Gods steward so every steward must give an account In opening of this I will shew yee two things First I will shew yee what time of Reckoning God hath with his stewards Secondly I will shew yee why God judiciously proceedeth in this manner called a reckoning or an account For the first There are two times of reckoning that God will have with his stewards The first in this life The second after death First hee calleth them to account in this life while they live on the earth and that two wayes By his Word Rodde First by his Word hastning every man to an Account by the Gospell and the Doctrine of repentance This course God himselfe tooke with Adam called him to account for his cariage in the garden Adam saith he where art thou who told thee that thou wert naked hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat Afterwards when God sent his Prophets into the world they tooke the same course so Elijah when hee came to Ahab hast thou killed and also taken possession as if hee should have said know that God hath found out thy sinne and now calleth thee to a reckoning So Iohn Baptist when hee came to the Pharisees and those hard-hearted sinners hee calleth them to a reckoning oh generation of vipers who hath warned yee to flee from the wrath to come So Peter called those three thousand soules in the 2. Acts to a reckoning for crucifying of Christ him saith hee who is the Lord of life yee have taken and with wicked hands have crucified and slaine And because there are many that like the Adder stop their eares at the voyce of the Charmer and if God speake but in his Word they passe it by as Elihu in Iob saith God speakes once yea twice yet man perceiveth it not therefore when the Word doth not prevaile God calleth them to a reckoning by his rodde Micha 6. 9. Heare the Rodde and him that appointeth it that is God hath appointed scourges and afflictions for men to awake them to hearken to the voyce that calleth them to a reckoning Now afflictions are outward or inward corporall or spirituall God sometimes calleth men to an account by corporall afflictions Hee smiteth man as he saith with paines upon his bed and the multitude of his
all this And there be these two reasons for it The first is because the wicked not only sinne in soule but in body too the body hath beene the instrument of the soule in sinning and therfore it cannot serve the turne that the soule is punished and the body lie in the graue no but those that have joyned in sin must also joyne in punishment Secondly howsoever the sinfull actions of the wicked are transcient and seeme to die with them yet in respect of the contagion and evill effects these actions worke upon others and upon posteritie by the ill example of their predecessors the actions I say of those wicked men continue to the day of Iudgement Thus wee shall see the Iewes in Ierem. 4â—… reuived the sinnes of their fathers Our fathers say they made cakes to the Queen of heaven and so willwee So the succeeding Kings of Israel that went on in the steps of Ieroboam who made Israel to sin they continued the sin of Ieroboam As long as men go on in the steps and sins of their forefathers the sins of their forefathers live so that some mens sinnes by a continued imitation are perpetuated to the day of Iudgement therefore there must be a judgement then that may fill up a measure proportionable to their sinne This was that that Dives feared in Hell and that made him crie out as hee did that one might goe and tell his brethren upon earth that they might not come into that place Why would hee have them tell his brethren was there such love to the kingdome of Christ in hell that Dives would have his brethren converted no such matter Was it love to the soules of his brethren that hee would not have them damned no such matter neither What then Certainly it was nothing else but a sense of his owne guilt hee knew what evill example hee had giuen and what a counseller hee had beene to his brethren and if they should goe on in his steps and their children follow the same steps all this would but adde to his punishment and torment in the great day when soule and body shall bee joyned together to make up the full measure of their torment For this reason I say it is therefore necessary that there should bee a judgement after this life at the end of the world The second thing remaineth and that is why the holy Ghost expresseth Gods proceedings by way of reckoning or calling to an account What need the Lord reckon with men he may proceed by way of a Iudge but he saith come give an account of thy stewardship I answer There are foure things implied in this all shewing the manner of Gods proceedings at the day of judgement with his stewards that it shall bee like the proceedings of a Master with his seruants in an account and reckoning The first is this that it shall bee a proceeding in particulars God shall then proceed not by grosse sums and in the totall yee have done evill in the generall none will deale thus with an Accountant but he will run over the particulars and Account for pounds for pence for every thing Thus God will deale with all his stewards when hee bringeth them to a reckoning hee will reckon on particulars for all things that hee hath enabled them with for his service Those that are rich men first how they have gotten their estates whether they have built their houses as a moth as Iob speakes that is raised their estates to the hurt of others as men doe that raise themselves by Vsurie and oppression and fraud and bribery and such like courses Secondly how they have kept their wealth whether with the injurie of others with-holding the goods from the owners therof from the poore for I call them in case of want the owners of their goods because God hath given them to his stewards for their sakes therefore marke how Saint Iames expresseth it Goe to now yeerich men weepe and howle why so your riches are corrupted and your garments moth-eaten your gold and silver is cankered c. As if hee should say you have beene hoarding up your treasures you had rather bee laying of it up then laying of it out and therefore because you have not layed out your estates for the service of your master rust is come upon your gold and the moth hath eaten into your garments yee have heaped treasure together for the last day Thirdly how they have spent what they have had whether on their lusts or no Yee aske and have not saith Saint Iames because yee aske amisse to spend it on your lusts so yee lay out amisse yee spend it on your lusts When men for pride in apparell for excesse at their tables for vaine buildings for sinfull upholding of wickednesse for unnecessary and injurious proceedings in law sutes or in whatsoever indirect course men lay out their estates it is a mis-spending of their Masters goods And as hee that hath got his wealth unjustly and hee that keepeth it unjustly shall give an account so hee that layeth it out in a confused sinfull profuse way shall be called to give areckoning for that And not only for matter of estate but besides for matter of place and authoritie Moses knew this well enough and therefore when hee was to goe out of the world hee first cleares all reckonings with the people of Israel I have beene a Ruler thus long let any man come and stand up and say I have done him wrong let every man come and cleare me this day before the Lord that I have walked all my life time unblameably inoffensively promoting the glory of God and suppressing all the evill that I could with my might this was the account that Moses made with the people of Israel before hee â—…ed that hee might lift up his head with comfort in the day of the Lord. Thus it must bee with you yee must give an account of your places And so for the state of your bodies The health thou hast had how hast thou spent thy strength and thy health Marke the speech of the Wise man to the young man Rejoyce saith hee in the dayes of thy youth as if hee should say Doe if thou wilt doe if thou dare but know that for all these things thou must come to judgement Now thou hast a great deale of health a great deale of strength but hast thou beene the better for Gods service hast thou imployed it for Gods glory or no And so for the members of thy body thou must give an account for thy imployment of those instruments Thy tongue every idle word saith Christ that men shall speake they shall give an account of at the day of judgement If for every idle word what then for thy swearing and cursing and lying what for the abundance of filthy obscene and rotten communication that commeth out of thy mouth Thou must give an account for thy tongue And so for
parts the maine matter whereof things were made and shall that be the destruction of that whereof it is made Yes saith the Apostle All things were made by water too and yet they were destroyed by water and why not then by fire But God deferreth the promise of his comming What of that He putteth it not quite off though he deferre yet it is not long with God for there is no time long to him that is eternall and in that he deferreth it is that some men may be brought to salvation and others made inexcusable Thus the Apostle takes off all objections of the Atheists of the world and sheweth that there shall be a day of Iudgement Secondly it serveth for instruction If there shall be such a Iudgement to come if God will have such a time of reckoning with all his stewards in the world Then it teacheth us first not to busie our selves in judging one another why because there shall a time come of Gods Iudgement Who art thou saith the Apostle that judgest thy brother wee shall all stand before the judgement seate of Christ. Asif he should say What a bold part what a presumptuous part is this that thou shouldst judge thy brother Dost thou not know that there is one that shall judge him and thee is it fit that he that is a prisoner at the Barre should come and leape up into the place of the Iudge and sit in his seat Yee are all fellow prisoners together and yee must all stand before the judgement seat of Christ. So in another place the same Apostle when hee would take men off from judging saith hee Iudge nothing before the time Why for the Lord will come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darknesse and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts and then shall every man have praise of God As if hee should say Thou art not able to judge aright it may bee that man that thou dispraisest at that day may find praise with God Secondly Turne the judgement on thy owne heart bee more in judging of thy selfe that thou mayest not bee judged of the Lord. Will God call thee to a reckoning then begin to call thy selfe to a reckoning first How shall that bee done There is a double reckoning that every man must undergoe that will avoid this reckoning with God First hee must reckon with his owne heart Secondly with others First with his owne heart Every man must take all the advantages and opportunities that God hath given to reckon with himselfe Doth God awaken thy conscience by the preaching of his word Descend into thy owne heart It is that that the Lord lookes for that a man should say What have I done Doth God smite thee with someafflictions if with losses reckon with thy selfe how thou hast gained thy wealth If with disgraces reckon with thy selfe about thy pride and ambition and vanitie of thy heart If God smite thy body with sicknesse reckon with thy selfe about the imployment of thy health and the well usage of the times and seasons of grace Every evening call thy selfe to an account What have I done this day where have I beene In what company how have I carried my selfe there what good have I done what good have I received In the matters of thy calling reckon with thy selfe with what heart thou hast followed it with what care to conforme thy selfe to Gods word the rule of righteousnesse If thou hast been in pleasures whether they were lawfull and if they were whether they were lawfully used Thus must every man reckon with his owne heart as the Church in Lament 3. 39. Wherefore is the living man sorrowfull Man suffereth for his sinne let us search our wayes and turne againe to the Lord. There are many that thinke to out-face God and men in their sinnes but know this who-ever thou art that if thou forbeare to reckon with thy owne heart God will assuredly reckon with thee thou must reckon here or hereafter with thy selfe or with God therefore saith David Psal. 4. Commune with your owne hearts upon your beds that is bee sure to take time from your sleepe rather then to neglect this businesse of reckoning with your owne hearts Secondly Reckon with others too Let that man that is in authoritie a Magistrate so carry himselfe in his imployments that he may reckon with the people and give an account to them if need be as Samuel did Whose oxe have I taken or whose asse have I taken or whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith The Lord saith hee is a witnesse that yee have not found any thing in my hand And not only so but that they may bee able to witnesse that they have beene great instruments of Gods glory and of the good of others Let Ministers reckon with the people committed to their charge as Paul did when hee tooke his leave of the Ephesians and was to goe up to Ierusalem I take you to record this day saith he that I am pure from the bloud of all men for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsell of God and I have kept backe nothing that was profitable unto you but have shewed you and taught you publikely and from house to house And because I know that after my departure there will somewhat remaine to be done for Grievous wolves will enter in not sparing the flocke therefore I will be carefull that there be a succession of faithfull Ministers after me and therefore I give charge to the rest that follow that they take heed to themselves and to the flocke over which the holy Ghost hath made them overseers to feed the Church of God which hee hath purchased with his owne bloud Let Masters reckon with their Families their servants and children whether they have done their dutie as faithfull Masters not only in furthering the service of God but also in furthering of them by instruction and example to all good Let those that are in a way of traffique learne to reckon with those that they deale withall If thou hast wronged any by unjust gaine thou must reckon with him by restitution there is nothing that thou hast gotten unjustly for which thou dost not reckon now but as Saint Iames saith at that day shall eat thy flesh as it were fire Therefore Zacheus when salvation was brought to his house If I have done unjustly and wronged any I restore it Doubtlesse there are many men that cloathe themselves in Sattin and Velvet and abound in all varietie and bravery that would now be houselesse and monilesse and apparellesse it may bee if they should make restitution of their unjust gaine Well doe it as yee love your owne soules you shall reckon as you are Gods stewards with him how you have come by every penny that you have in
Let me have a place to burie my dead out of my sight It parteth father and child how unwilling soever they be see it in David and Absolom Oh Absolom my sonne would God I had died for thee and Rachel mourned for her children and would not be comforted because they were not It parteth the Minister and the people see it in the case of the people of Israels lamenting the death of Samuel and in the case of the Ephesians at the parting of S. Paul sorrowing especially when they heard they should see his face no more It parteth those friends who were so united together in love as if they had but one soule in two bodies see it in the separation that was made by death betweene David and Ionathan that were so knit together in their love that he bewaileth him Woe is mee for my brother Ionathan This is a necessary consideration for us that live that wee may learne to know how to carrie our selves towards our wordly friends and how to moderate our selves in our enjoyment of these worldly comforts Looke upon every worldly thing as a mortall as a dying comfort Looke upon children and friends as dying comforts Look upon your estates as that that hath wings and will be gone Looke upon your bodies that now you make so much of as a thing that must bee parted from the soule by death and that ere long See what advise the Apostle giveth 1 Cor. 7. 19. the time is short saith he therefore let those that marry bee as if they married not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it A man abuseth the world when he useth it beyond the consideration of the shortnesse of enjoying these things when hee lookes upon these things as things that hee shall enjoy alwayes But if we would use it aright looke upon things as things that we shall enjoy but for a short time This body that seemeth now to have some beautie in it yet it must die and be laied in the dust these friends that seeme now to haue some pleasure and delight in them yet I must die and be tooke from them this estate and wealth that now I set so much prize upon I must die and death will part me and it So I say lookeupon every thing as separable from us Moderate your affections likewise to them Vse them onely as comforts in the way as a traveller doth the pleasures of his Inne hee stands not to build himselfe houses against every pleasant walke he lookes upon he stands not to purchase lands and to lay them to every Inne he comes to lie at No he knowes that he is now but in his passage in his way he knowes that hee is not at home that is the place he is going to and after a time hee shall come thither So make account that you are not now at home it is death that must helpe you to your home Let this therefore take you off from all these things that are in the way It is a strange thing to see how Sathan besotteth and befooleth men They strive and labour to compasse many worldly things as if their happinesse stood in the enjoyment of them as if they should have their wealth and their comforts for ever What care is there amongst men to get wealth and many times lose their soules in getting the world Alas Death will part soule and body them and their wealth and all Doe wee not see this daily in the death of others before us such a one is dead where is his body now in the dust Where are his friends and his companions now Where is his wealth and his estate for which many flattered him and fawned upon him are they not all separated from him they have nothing now to doe with him he cannot dispose of one penny of his estate now it is left he knowes not to whom others now have the mannaging of it As now you can say this of others so there will a time come that other men will say the like of you I had such a friend but death hath parted him from me hee had such an estate but death hath parted him and his estate Let us therefore make this use of the death of others to conclude with our selves that there will be a parting of all those outward things that now wee are so apt to dote upon The third speciall thing considerable in the death of others that will be matter of profit and benefit to those that live and survive after them is the end and cause for which God sendeth Death abroad into the world with such a large commission that it goeth on with such libertie to every familie to every place that it seizeth upon every person What 's the reason of it You shall see in the severall deaths of men severall causes There is judgement and mercy sometime a mixture of both and sometime but of one of these Sometimes wee see an apparant judgement of God in the death of some A judgement of God upon themselves Thus the young Prophet that disobeyed the word of the Lord a Lyon met him in the way and slew him So those Corinths that did eate and drinke unworthily in the Lords Supper though they were such as were saved after yet neverthelesse for this very cause saith the Apostle some of them were sicke and weake and some slept they died they were judged of the Lord that they might not bee condemned with the world When you see death seizing upon men as an act of divine judgement of divine displeasure let it make you more fearefull of sinning against God lest you provoke against your selves the same wrath in the very act of sinne Sometimes againe it is a judgement of God upon others Thus God takes away divers of his servants because the world is not worthy of them And as this is an act of judgement upon the world so it is an act of mercie to them God in mercy taking of them away from the evill to come and from the evill present A judgement of God to others that are unworthy of them A mercie to themselves that they are tooke away from their owne evill from sinne from temptations from all the effects and fruits of sinne and taken away from the evill that is to come upon others An act I say of mercie to them So it was to the child of Ieroboam he should die and should not see the judgement that was to come upon his fathers house because there was found some good thing in him toward the Lord. So it was to Iosiah Hee should bee gathered to his fathers in peace and his eyes should not see all that evill which the Lord would bring upon Ierusalem and upon the inhabitants thereof An act of judgement to others Righteous and mercifull men are taken away and noman layeth it
is called in the Scripture and then there is nothing so comfortable and desirable as death it selfe to the servants of God So wee see David in the 23. Psal. Though I walke through the valley of the shadow of death I will feare none ill for thou Lord art with mee And so the Apostle Saint Paul triumpheth over all things Nothing shall separate 〈◊〉 from the love of God in Christ neither principalities nor powers nor life nor death nor things to come nothing shall doe it the Apostles faith now was out of conflict it had got the field the day of Sense and now he lookes on Death with comfort So that I say in that measure that Faith workes in that measure feare of death ceaseth Secondly it may be objected But we see the servants of God are said to love the appearance of our Lord Iesus Christ and the Apostle Paul is said to desire to bee dissolved and to bee with Christ How can these stand with the feare of death under which Gods servants are held To this I answer briefly Gods servants must be considered in their desires two wayes First in their generall desires Secondly in a particular state wherein they are In their generall course their desire is most for the appearing of Christ they most desire to be with him as best for them but take them in some particular state wherein they are lesse provided and lesse fitted and prepared then they may be at a stand in their desires they may have the feare of death in them As a wife her generall desire is for nothing so much as for the presence of her husband yet she may be under some particular unfitnesse there may be something or other in the way that she would not have him come in at that instant though her desire be for nothing so much as for his company So it may be the case of the servants of God they may say sometimes Lord spare mee a little before I goe hence to strengthen my faith to perfect my repentance and holinesse to doe some particular worke and the like David considered this that there was something that he might doe that he had not done and that he would faine doe before he went and so Hezekiah and the rest of the servants of God The point is cleare I come to the Application It shall be a word of exhortation to cut of otheruses and that is this To stirre up the servants of God that if they be disposed to distempers under which they are held that they are afraid to die that therefore they labour by all good meanes to shake off the feare of death Why Consider and note well those two things that are in the Text. The first is this that it is an uncomfortable state to be held under the feare of Death you see it is called a Bondage here and that is enough to show the uncomfortablenesse of it he saith by the feare of death they were held in Bondage all their life long Now the feare of Death is a bondage principally in these two respects first because it is with them as it is with a Bond-slave A Bond-slave is afraid to looke on him that hath the command of him he apprehendeth him as no friend therfore he doth not love to looke on him so it is in this case when a man lookes upon Death as a thing that is no friend to him he cannot abide to looke on him every thought of Death is a presenting of death to him and it is a miserable bondage when a man cannot present Death to himselfe without feare Secondly there is this in it that makes it a bondage it holdeth downe the spirit of a man A bond-slave you know is bound with fetters and chaines in his captivitie so that he hath neither freedome of spirit nor freedome of action So it is with a man that is held under the feare of Death he cannot doe what he would he cannot rejoyce in God he cannot delight in the apprehension of glory to come he cannot entertaine a thought of parting with things present with that securitie and comfort of heart that he should doe and all because this feare as the fetters bindeth his hands and his feet and keepeth him in bondage This is the first thing the feare of death to be held under it it is an uncomfortable state Secondly as it is uncomfortable so it is possible that the servants of God may be free from these feares under which they are held We see the text sheweth it Christ came for this end that having destroyed him that hath the power of death that is the divell hee might deliver those that for feare of death were held under bondage Did Christ come for this end then it is possible to bee had for certainly Christ would not lose his end he came for this was his end not onely to deliver them from eternall death but also from the feare of temporall death It is possible therefore The servants of God have found it and therefore you shall see them brought in insulting and triumphing and glorying over Death Oh death where is thy sting oh Grave where is thy victory thankes be to God that hath given us victory through Christ our Lord When they looked upon Death through Christ they looked on it without this feare the sting and power is tooke out the very nature of it is changed and it is made now every way beneficiall I say it is possible for we are regenerate and begotten againe to a lively hope to an inheritance immortall and undefiled and in what measure the hope of heaven is in the heart of man in that measure the feare of death falleth in that heart now it is possible that we may attaine this fulnesse of hope and therefore it is possible that we may be freed quite from the feare of Death This may suffice by way of motive A word or two by way of direction If this be possible to be had how shall the servants of God get it you see some of Gods servants are held under the feare of death and that all their life long how shall we be freed from this feare I should now orderly take up the particulars laid downe as causes and shew that by these it is cured as for instance Doth God doe this for this end that he may humble a man then the more humble thou art the lesse thou shalt be in the feare of Death for God layeth these feares upon men to humble them therefore labour for perfect humiliation and thou shalt perfectly ridde these feares out of thy heart as we see plainly the servants of God the more humble they have growne the lesse carefull they have beene of life and the lesse fearefull of Death And so those servants of God that have beene brought to deny themselves and to renounce all their worldly expectation and advancements they have alwayes beene ready to
thee in thy body hee might have afflicted thee in thy soule and a wounded spirit who can beare Hee hath afflicted thee in some one member of thy body he could have cast body and soule into Hell There is not a tryall upon thee but God could have made it heavier let that make thee therefore to submit with a more meeke heart and willing spirit to God as a mercifull God as the Church in the Lamentations It is the Lords mercy that wee are not consumed the Church was in great affliction when the Babilonians came upon them and they were driven from the house of God and their owne houses but yet it was Gods mercy that they were not consumed So the Prophet Ieremy telleth Baruch in the captivity Seekest thou great things for thy selfe thou shalt have thy life for a prey Baruch was wondrously disquieted he complained that the Lord had added griefe to his sorrow What griefe was that that Hee must goe to Egypt and after to Babylon Well saith the Prophet thy case is not so heavy as thou seemest to make it thou shalt have thy life for a prey in all places wheresoever thou goest God might have taken away life and all but thy life thou shalt have for a prey Therefore be content with so much So I say to thee when great afflictions come upon thee they might have beene greater therefore consider that that thou maiest give God the glory of his mercy And so much for the first direction that is to acknowledge God in all the changes of life that befalleth thee Secondly looke to sinne as that deserving cause that draweth on all the afflictions of this life Consider thou hast fallen by thy sinne into Gods displeasure therefore whatsoever affliction befalleth thee thy sinne hath deserved that at the hands of God The Lord now dealeth with thee as a just God though not in the extremity of rigour yet neverthelesse there is a righteous proceeding in it as the Church confesseth Righteousnesse belongeth to thee O Lord though they were in great affliction yet God was righteous in it It is profitable to consider this nay and not only that thou sufferest righteously as the Theefe on the Crosse said Wee suffer according to our deserts but thou sufferest not so much as thy sinnes deserve thy sinnes deserve greater things at the hands of God then yet he hath infflicted on thee Wee see that a commutation and change of punishment a lesse for a greater hath the place of a mercy upon a malefactor that deserveth greater when he deserveth to be executed and to die he is not only content to be burnt in the hand but he confesseth it to be a mercy of the Prince So it is with us whatsoever affliction God hath layed on thee thou maist conclude I have deserved greater Therefore saith the Church Why is the living man sorrowfull Man suffereth for his sinne let us search and trie our wayes and turne againe to the Lord. So let this be the maine businesse of thy life in this case rather bethinke thy selfe how to get the favour of God then to be eased of such a trouble Let a man looke to sin in all this Lastly consider the gracious and comfortable fruit of Affliction that is born with patience For first patience lesseneth the judgement impatience increaseth it on a man The strugling child hath more stripes A man in a Fever the more he strugleth and striveth the more he increaseth his paine The more patiently a man yeeldeth himselfe to the hands of God the more by the mercy of God he findeth ease and mittigation of the affliction And this God promiseth Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I will deliver thee in the time of trouble God will take off the affliction when once he hath perfected Patience by affliction for you must know this that all that God aymeth at in all afflictions that hee layeth on men is to perfect patience in them therefore the issue will be good There will for the present be more ease to the heart and afterward a gracious issue and deliverance from trouble when thou art exercised by patience Secondly there are otherafflictions of our life and that is not onely in those cases wherein some positive evell as wee account it naturally some affliction grievous to nature and sense are upon a man but mercies are delayed and hope deferred makes the heart faint It is an affliction to a man to be kept and delayed in the expectation of that good he hath not if he seeme to catch at it it is drawne from him further and further There are many men that have sent many a prayer to God yet the thing they aske is not granted to this day Many a man hath waited long and sought the Lord yet he hath not that his soule desireth How shall a man come to exercise Patience in such a case as this In such a case when God delayeth know first that Gods delayes are not denyals though God delay the thing hee may and wil in time certainly grant it yea though he delay it a great while As we see in other servants of God we may see it in David in Iob in Paul in the Canaanitish woman and in others The Vision is for an appointed time saith Habakkuk waite for it it will come and it will not tarrie it will not lie God will bee knowne a God of truth what he hath promised he will performe in due time only what doth he expect of thee to waite for the present Now this is an act of faith Hee that beleeveth will not make hast Glorifie God by beleeving put to thy seale that hee is true Whatsoever God hath promised in the Word and thou hast a warrant to beleeve waite for it Secondly Gods delayes are not onely not denyals but improvements of Gods favour God increaseth and commendeth the excellencies of his mercies by delayes hee recompenceth our expectation and waiting for them with putting in greater sweetnesse into those favours when they come I say God increaseth the comfort answerable to the delay as in the 61. Isa. 7. God to comfort the distressed Church in the time of calamitie for their affliction saith he they shall have double Double what Double comforts for their tryals Our light afflictions saith the Apostle that are but for a moment cause us a farre more excellent and surpassing weight of glory A weight of glory for light Afflictions an eternall weight of glory for momentany afflictions Here is the issue As our afflictions have abounded so our consolations abound much more This is the course of God Thirdly know that Gods delayes are never long at the longest they are but for a short time what if he delay a yeare what if twenty thirty fourty yeares what if the life of a man this is no great delay Compare this time of thy waiting for mercie with the
is that which is both a testimony of the inward humiliation of the soule as also a helpe and furtherance of it Such a fast was this that David speakes of here A Fast that did arise from a sense of his unworthinesse of the creature and did expresse the sorrow of his heart for sinne A Fast which he did set upon only for this end that he might be more free and more fit for prayer And so likewise for the mourning and weeping he speakes of It was not such a weeping as ariseth meerely from the temper of the body as in some that are more apt for teares Nor a weeping that did arise from the distemper of the mind such as those curst froward passionate vexing fretting teares are such as the teares of Esau to his father hee lift up his voyce and wept hast thou not one blessing more blesse mee even me also oh my father But they were teares that did arise from a holy affection from a gracious disposition of heart from inward contrition and sorrow like the teares that Peter shed when hee went out and wept bitterly They were teares that discovered the inward vehemency of his spirit in prayer like those teares of Iacob when he wrestled with the Angell the Prophet Hosea telleth how he wrestled hee prayed and wept Such teares were these as did expresse the fervencie of his spirit in prayer the earnestnesse of his desire in putting up this request he had now to God like those of Hezekiah I have heard thy prayer and seene thy teares saith God such teares as God putteth into his bottle such teares as hee takes speciall notice of There are no teares that are shed for sinne out of an inward sorrow of heart that are shed in prayer to expresse a holy desire that proceed from an inward inflamed affection and fervency of spirit but they are very precious with God as farre I say as they declare the inward truth of the heart and the inward sense of our wants and the weight of the petitions we put up to God Such were these teares here I fasted and wept I will not stand upon this The reason of this action why he fasted and wept I did it for this end for saith he I said who knoweth whether the Lord will bee gracious to mee that the childe may live A man may wonder if he read the former part of the chapter whence this perswasion and hope should come into the heart of David that there should be a possibility of having the life of this child by his prayer whereas the Lord had said before by Nathan to him that the child should die Nathan had told him in expresse tearmes that the child should die yet he putteth up his prayer for it and said Who knoweth whether the Lord will bee gracious to me that the child may live We must know therefore that God sometime even in those sentences that seeme absolute implies and intends a condition David had respect to such a course as God ordinarily tooke hee knew well that God at other times had threatned things yet neverthelesse upon the repentance and prayers and teares upon the humiliation and contrition of the hearts of his servants he hath beene pleased to alter the sentence to suspend nay it may be wholly to take away and change the Execution Thus it hath beene It was so in the case of Hezekiah The Lord sentas expresse a message by Isaiah the Prophet to Hezekiah as he did by Nathan to David Set thy house in order for thou shalt die and not live Yet neverthelesse Hezekiah turneth his face to the wall hee wept and laid open his request before the Lord Remember now oh Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart c. Yee see the Lord presently sendeth the Prophet to tell him that he had added fifteene yeares to his life and yet the message was carried in expresse words and in as peremptory termes as a man would have thought it had beene absolute and no condition intended The like in the case of Niniveh Ionah commeth to Niniveh and began to enter the City a dayes journey and hee cried and said Yet fortie dayes and Nineveh shall be destroyed Here was the time limited the Judgement declared and no condition exprest yet the King of Nineveh humbleth himselfe and the people they fast and pray and goe in sackcloth c. and the Lord was pleased to alter this sentence But some will say these Examples were after Davids time What were these to him upon what ground did hee take this course had he any promise or example before time of any such thing as this that did give him incouragement to fast and pray in hope that though God had said the child should die yet it should live Certainly David had examples before time of the like nature when God had threatned judgements and they did not know whether the issue would prove or no as they desired yet they sought God As in the case of Saul When the Lord sent an expressemessage by Samuel that the kingdome should be taken from him and given to another because he had not dealt faithfully in the execution of Gods command concerning Amaleck yet saith thetext Samuel mourned for Saul still Insomuch as the Lord questioneth him How long wilt thou mourne for Saul seeing I have rejected him from raigning over Israel Yet Samuel continued in seeking God as if hee should say Who knoweth what the Lord will doe But more expresly David had examples before his time not onely of seeking the Lord but of a gracious successe and answer that those had that sought him As in the case of the Israelites when there was a discontent amongst the people because of the ill report that the Spies put upon the good land the people began now to murmur against God Well saith the Lord to Moses let me alone and I will destroy this people at once Moses setteth himselfe to seeke the Lord and prayeth and presseth the Lord with many arguments for his owne glory for his peoples sake for his Covenants sake and many other wayes to spare them What was the issue of it He was heard the Lord told him that hee had heard his prayer and granted his request though hee would fill the earth with his glory and all the world should know what a jealous God he was another way yet in this particular hee had granted his request they should not be cut off at this time So that David had good experience that though judgement hath beene threatned before yet neverthelesse courses have beene taken that the sentence hath beene altered without a change of Gods purpose at all For God ever intended it to be understood with a condition if they returned not to him he would goe on if they returned to him he would not goe on So the purpose of God
same debt Looke overall the times of the world and the dispositions of persons looke over learning and folly greatnesse or poorenesse find me a man that escaped Death Die we must and we have need to have this much pressed upon us for it is a hard matter to beleeve that we must die that I must be the man that must die common notions of Death are granted but that I must die and lie in the dust and stand before God it is a hard matter to beleeve this And consider this secondly that Death will be terrible to thee if he knocke and find a sting in thee Thou that now wilt not be reclaimed from swearing Alas what will become of that blaspheming soule of thine when Death shall come and find a sting of blasphemy in thee How darest thou thinke of giving up that swearing soule of thine to the Judge of heaven and earth Thou unrighteous person that wilt not sanctifie the Lords day how darest thou give up that unholy soule of thine to the holy God Dost thou thinke to have an eternall rest in heaven and wilt not give God a rest here So I might say for all kind of sinners Thinke of this take heed lest Death find a sting in thee for all the sting that Death hath it findeth in thy selfe looke to it thy condition will be fearfull if Death come and find Sin unmortified unrepented of in thee God will certainly bring thee to judgement for every thought and word and action Thirdly consider this that naturally we are so tempered that if Death come he shall find his weapons and strength in us in every man of us I meane considered naturally But how shall I know whether Death when he commeth shall find a sting in me or no I will only give you two tryals you shall know it thus First if thy conscience now sting thee for some approved sinne if thou repent not Death will assuredly meet thee with a sting that approved sinne of thine will be the sting of death Conscience will sting a man either for the act done or for the approbation of the act if conscience sting a man for his approbation of a sinfull qualitie or for a sinfull course if a man continue in that course surely that will be the sting of death to his soule therefore looke to thy selfe perhaps thou art convicted of such a sinne perhaps thy conscience hath so wrought on thee that it hath stung thee for such a sinne thou yet approvest thy selfe in it and thou wilt goe on in thy pride still in such and such sinnes stil thou wilt doe so doe but know this that stand thou never so much upon thy resolution Death will certainly come and if he find thee in such a sinne against thy conscience thou hast reserved in thy selfe a sting for Death Secondly a man shall know if Death come with a sting by this tryall that Solomon giveth us in Eccles. 11. 9. Rejoyce oh young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheare thee in the dayes of thy youth and walke in the wayes of thy heart and sight of thine eyes but know that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement If thou live a voluptuous life Death will certainly come with a sting Dives hee lived a voluptuous life had he not a sting for it So others in Scripture did not their plentifull tables and voluptuous courses bring a sting on them A voluptuous life makes a sting for Death When a poore wretch is a dying and shall begin to reflect backe on his life what have I done how have I lived so much time I have spent or mispent inapparell in vanitie in eating in drinking in swaggering What comfort is this to his soule how can he answer this before God this is the very thing that will sting him at such a day when he can reade nothing in his life but barrennesse and unfruitfulnesse nothing that hath honoured God in all his life Certainly my brethren if there be an Epicurious voluptuous life this life will provide a sting for Death Alas you will say Is it so then we may feare that Death will seize on us thus for we confesse we have gone on in a voluptuous life gone on in sinne that our conscience hath condemned us for how shall we doe to pull out this sting I would to God you were thus affected that you were convicted what a fearfull thing it will be if sinne remaine But wouldest thou have the sting of death pulled out before death come 1. How shall I disarme it that I may looke death in the face with comfort I shall give you some wayes and meanes remember them and practise them First get but a part in Christ and the sting of death is gone thankes bee to God saith the Apostle here that hath given us victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. It is he that in the Revelation is said to have the keyes of Hell and of Death they are under his command and subjection he is victorious over them hee hath vanquished them so that if a man have Christ he hath victorie and power over Hell and Death I told you in the beginning that that which giveth a sting to Death is the guilt of sinne It is so and it is a fearfull sting Now that which takes away the guilt of sinne is Christ. If Christ be mine I have enovgh to answer the guilt of sinne Therefore the Apostle saith Death cannot separate from the love of God in Christ What shall then Indeed nothing it is not the guilt of his sinnes Christ hath satisfied from them So that if thou wilt have the sting of death out get faith in Christ if thou be not hidden in the clefts of that Rock in the bloud of Christ if Christ be not thy Justification and thy righteousnesse what hast thou to answer the Justice of God you must die and stand before God and how can you stand before God in your sinnes you cannot without Christ why doe you not then studie more for Christ Why doe you not labour for faith in him It will be your wisedome to labour earnestly to make sure of him if you have him the sting of death is gone Death cannot hurt a person that hath Christ. Get faith in Christ therefore that is the first Secondly if you would not have Death terrible and fearfull to you labour for sincerity My brethren it is a marvellous thing and yet the truth uprightnesse and sincerity of heart it is an enabling grace All the particular things that we account particular otherwise they have not an inabling vertue in them Some persons have a great deale of learning and wit and many friends much riches and the like yet there commeth an occasion sometimes that puzzleth all these there commeth an occasion sometime that a mans learning is of no use and naturall parts and wit cannot helpe and riches cannot inable him What time
such meditations No man can live well till he can die well Hee that is prepared for Death is certainly freed from the danger of death neither is there any so fit a way to bee ready for it as to be often minded of it Therefore I have made choice at this time to speake of this verse wherein ye see the Apostle declareth and leadeth us to treat of foure things First that there is a Death Secondly that this Death is an enemie Thirdly that this enemie is the last enemie Lastly that this least enemie shall be destroyed A word or two of each of these parts First Death is Yee know that well enough your eyes shew it you daily our senses declare it so plainly that no man is so senslesse that knoweth it not It is agreed upon by all Only for your better furtherance to make use of this point let us acquaint you with that which nature will teach yee concerning Death Secondly with that which Scripture will teach you above and better then Nature Nature sheweth yee concerning Death first what it is And then Secondly what Properties it hath It telleth us this That Death is an absence from life a ceasing from beeing when one was beeing to be thrust as it were out of the present world and be cast some where This is all that Nature informeth us concerning the Essence and beeing of Death Death is a dividing of us from this life and from the things of this life and sends us abroad we know not where Secondly Nature teacheth us three Properties concerning Death One that it is universall It hath tied all to it high and low rich and poore Death knockes at the Princes pallace as well as at the poore habitation of the meanest man It is a thing that respects no mans greatnesse it regardeth no wealth nor wit nothing Death takes all before it That Nature teacheth too Secondly Nature teacheth that Death is inevitable If a man would give all the world he cannot thrust it out of dores It takes whole Armies aswell as one man It scorneth to bee resisted by the Phisitians there is no words no meanes to escape it It is such an enemie as we must grapple with and it will conquer This Nature teacheth Againe Nature teacheth that death is uncertaine A man knoweth not when Death will come to him or when it will lay hold on him or by what meanes it will fetch him out of the world It may fetch him out of the world at any time or in any place and by such occasion as it is impossible for any wit to thinke of before This is in substance all that Nature teacheth And the knowledge of this it is for good use aswell to remember and consider it as to understand it But now I goe on to tell yee what the Scripture teacheth concerning Death for that giveth a perfecter and larger information of the thing then the dimme light of Nature The Scripture then over and above that which Nature sheweth telleth us concerning Death these things First it sheweth better what it is and then It sheweth whence it commeth and what are the causes of it Thirdly it declareth the consequences what follow upon it And lastly and bestly it telleth us the remedie against the ill of Death In all which Nature stumbleth and can doe little or nothing First the Scripture telleth us what it is It letteth us know that it is the disolution of a man not the annihilation It doth not make him cease to bee but takes asunder a while the soule from the body It carrieth the one to the earth and the other to another world so that both continue to bee though they be not united as before The word of God teacheth us that he hath created the world as it were a house of three Stories The middle is this present life where we be And there is a lower place the Dungeon a place of unhappinesse and destruction There is a higher place a pallace of glory According as men behave themselves in this middle roome so Death either leadeth them downe to the place of unhappinesse or conveyeth them up to the pallace of glory and blessednesse This Nature is ignorant of but the Scripture is plaine in The rich man dieth and his soule is carried to Hell the poore man when he died his soule was advanced to Heaven So that Death is nothing but the messenger of God to take the soule out of the body and to convey it to a place of more happinesse or more miserie then can be conceived Secondly the Scripture acquaints us further with the cause of death Philosophers wondred since nature desireth a perpetuitie and continuance of it selfe that man should be so short a time in the world The Scripture endeth this wonderment and tels us that man indeed was made immortall to continue for ever and should not have died but sinne came into the world and by sin death Death is the mother of sinne and of all miserie that by little and little draweth to death I say sinne the first sinne of our first Parents whereby they transgressed that most easie and equall mandate about eating the forbidden fruit That transgression that was the treading under foot the covenant of workes and the disanulling of it that sinne let in Death at a great Gappe and now it triumpheth and beareth rule over all the world Nature cannot tell which way in the world a man should die so soone and that hee that is the Lord of all creatures should bee inferiour to a great number of them in length of life But the word of God unridleth this riddle and telleth us that God made man that hee might and should have lived for ever but Sinne comming and comming in the person of the first man it brought death and made all men mortall and when sinne entred Gods curse came and that working upon us poore and miserable creatures it is the cause that we cannot continue long here It was equall that death should follow sinne for since God made man to obey his will when man had unfitted himselfe for Gods service it was reason that he should have a short continance of life for the longer he endured the more he would abuse himselfe Yee see then two things that the Scripture teacheth concerning death The third thing it sheweth is what followeth after death and that is plaine It is appointed for all men once to die and after death commeth judgement Nature never dreamed of judgement after Death but the Scripture telleth us there is a Judgement after Death Judgement what is that Judgement yee know is a calling of a man before Authoritie a looking into his wayes a considering of his actions a finding out whether hee be a sinner an evill doer and if hee find him so to passe sentence according to his evill deeds When God hath tooke the soule from the body hee takes the soule first
an enemie that it doth not cease till it hath dragged the soule into the presence of God and after from his Tribunall to the torment of eternall fire in Hell That succeedeth death for naturally of its owne nature it tendeth to the destruction of man because it is a fruit of sinne and therefore must needs be the perdition and overthrow of the soule For sinne bringeth destruction in regard it makes God angrie with us and separateth from him and by consequence from all manner of comfort and in regard it separateth from him it bringeth all manner of ill his wrath his hatred and ill will the greatest of all Death I say properly and of it selfe intendeth and seekes to draw all those that it layes hold on to a state of everlasting unhappinesse therefore it is an enemie So you see the second point opened The third is that Death is the last enemie after which there shall bee no more But I must tell you to whom it is the last not to all For there are a generation of men that shall feele death to be the least of enemies and in a manner the first But to the Saints and those that are prepared for death and those that will use the remedie to these and these alone death is the last enemie after once they have grappled and fought and encountred with this enemie they are at peace and rest as he saith Happy are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours There is no more toyle and miserie to a good man after death And why Because death seperateth sin from his soule as well as the soule from the body and so taking away the cause of unrest it must needs take away miserie and unhappinesse it selfe Indeed properly Death doth it not but the Lord Iesus Christ by death For it pleaseth him when his servants leave this world then they are fit to enter into a place of happinesse in another world which they could not be except they were freed from sin Death is the daughter of sinne and with a happy patricide as it were at once it destroyeth it selfe and sin and therfore it takes away all misery because it takes away all sinne Therefore it is the last enemie because it killeth the worst of our enemies for when we are dead there shall be no more enmitie betweene God and us and so no more enemy This is the third point The last is that this enemie shall bee destroyed A thing is destroyed abolished when it selfe ceaseth to be and is tooke out of the way and when all the ill effects that it would produce and effect or hath are removed So the Lord Jesus Christ abolisheth Death he destroyeth it that it shall never againe be knowne in the world or felt by his servants and he preventeth all those evill effects that it would worke in the soule for eternitie and removeth all the ill effects of it that it hath wrought on their bodies for the present time Death takes away a mans goods for the present Christ abolisheth that he giveth everlasting substance in heaven Death takes away friends Christ abolisheth that hee sends us to heaven where we have more friends and better Death brings the body to rottennesse and corruption it laieth it in the dust turnes it to putrifaction Christ abolisheth that at the Resurrection it shall rise againe in glory How that is done the Apostle tells us in the end of this chapter The body shall be laid in the dust a weake and feeble a mortall and naturall body but it shall bee clothed with immortalitie This mortall shall put on immortalitie this corruptible shall put on incorruption then shall bee fulfilled that saying Death is swallowed up in victorie But this is also limited it shall bee destroyed to whom To those that use the remedie those that partake of Christ those that have put on him that is the Resurrection and the life Thus I have laid before your eyes briefly these foure things that the Apostle leadeth us to treate of concerning death That it is That it is an enemie That it is the last enemie And that it shall be destroyed Now I desire to apply this and to make use of it First I shall be bold to play the Examiner to search each conscience a little Brethren let the word of God enter into your soules Yee heare that there is a death and that this death is a sore and bitter enemie and yee heare that to some sort of men it is the last enemie that ever they shall encounter with and bee freed from all the hurt of it it shall be utterly destroyed Now doe so much as discend every one into himselfe and inquire what care there hath beene to prepare for death to make use of the remedie against death what time and paines hath beene bestowed to seeke to get that that is the only meanes to escape the Dart of this enemie and that that is the only cause to procure this enfranchisement to the soule from that that else will destroy all A man hath not fitted himselfe to encounter with his enemie when hee lookes after wealth and followeth the pleasures and contentments of this life these things will doe no good they will be rather a burthen to the heart and vexe the soule and increase the mischiefe laying more sin upon the soule and giving death darts to pierce the soule with But when is a man fit for death and who may encounter with this enemie with safetie I will tell yee That man that takes the greatest care to disarme death of his weapons to arme himselfe with defensive weapons against death If an enemie come upon a man with good weapons in his hand and find him altogether unweaponed it is hard for a naked unarmed man to deale with him it is hard for a man that never thought of it before to fight with one that is skilfull at his weapons Death I told yee is an enemie and an enemie that is skilfull in his weapons and the weapon of death it is our owne sinne Death bringeth nothing with it to hurt a man It findeth with us and in us that whereby to hurt us So many corruptions as are in thy heart so many weapons So many idle words so many bad deedes so many swords to pierce thy heart Death maketh use of those weapons it findeth in our selves and with them hee destroyeth and killeth and brings us to perdition Now what have yee done beloved to disarme death what care have yee taken to breake sinne apieces that it may not be as a sword ready drawne for the hand of death when it commeth as Arrowes in a Bow to shoot at you when Death laieth hold on you That man that hath tooke no care to overcome sinne in the power of it and to get himselfe free from the guilt and punishment of it is unfit for death If death come upon him and find his offences
some that hung themselves I pray give me leave a little to speake upon this Saint Austin tells me of five causes for which persons doe usually lay violent hands upon themselves The first is this Some doe it to avoide some shame or some dishonour or miserie or beggerie that shall befall them Thus did Achitophel when he saw that his counsell was defeated hee went home and hanged himselfe Thus have many done to avoide shame and dishonour Alas poore wretches While they seeke to escape temporall punishment they runne into eternall like our fishes in the Proverbe Out of the frying-pan into the fire into hell fire where the worme dieth not and where the fire never goeth out Secondly some have done it to avoide the terrours of a guiltie conscience Thus Iudas troubled in conscience after hee had betrayed Christ he went and hung himselfe Poore wretch He had more need he had lived that hee might have healed that sinne of his by repentance This is not a way to expiate thy sinne this is a way to increase it Iudas when he killed himselfe hee killed as wicked a man as was upon the earth and yet hee shall answer to God as well for that nocent bloud of his owne that he spilt as hee shall for the innocent bloud of the Son of God that he betrayed Thirdly wee find some that have done this to avoide some vilanie that they feared should bee offered them As for example Pelagia a noble Ladie that we reade of in Ecclesiasticall stories when shee was followed by some barbarous souldiours that would have abused her she speaking nothing but never a villaine of them all shall touch me threw her selfe over a bridge and drowned her selfe Some of the Fathers doe little lesse then commend her for this Saint Augustine condemnes her so should I. For why should she that had done no hurt doe hurt to her selfe why should she to escape the hands of the Nocent lay violent hands upon her selfe that was innocent Our chastitie of body is not lost when the chastitie of our mind remaineth inviolated Fourthly Some have done this to purchase to themselves a name of valour Rasis in the booke of the Machabees did thus And if there were no other thing in the world to shew that booke to be Apochriphall Scripture this is enough in that the Author of that booke commendeth Rasis for it It is not valour for to flie a danger it is valour to beare it If any example can bee alledged to this purpose that of Sampsons may But Saint Austin hee answereth The Spirit of God secretly commanded him to doe it And wee may verily beleeve it for if the Spirit of God had not commanded it yea and assisted him in it too hee had never done that he did in pulling downe the house upon himselfe and the Philistims Lastly some have done it or they might have done it because Blessed are the dead Some will die that they may be blessed Poore wretches They that deprive themselves of this life may not looke for a better when this is ended I will not judge particulars I leave them unto God But in the generall considering that life is Gods blessing it is hee that giveth it and it is hee that must take it away Considering that man is not lord of his owne spirit Considering that God hath set us here in our stations and we may not move out without leave from our Generall Considering that we are set here to serve God and we must serve him as long as he will and not as long as wee will Or specially considering that God hath forbidden us to kill others therefore forbidden us much more to kill our selves therefore surely except Gods mercie bee greater then I can give warrant for they that die thus die eternally And wee had need beseech God with all earnestnesse of spirit to keepe us from such a fearfull temptation as this for they that die thus die not in the Lord and therefore cannot bee blessed for my Text saith it of no other but of those Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. This is the first point I come to the Restriction Die in the Lord. It may be construed two wayes the preposition is Ambiguous for the Preposition many times in Scripture signifies In Domino or propter Dominum As Rom. 26. 1. I commend unto you Phebe our sister that you would receive her in Domino in the Lord that is for the Lords sake as becommeth Saints And in the twelfth verse of the same Chapter Salute the beloved Persis which laboured much in the Lord that is laboured much in Gods cause for the Lord. So againe Say to Archippus looke to the ministerie that thou hast received In Domino that is for the Lord for the Lords service for his worke I might give you many more instances There is one place most pregnant Eph. 4. 1. I Paul a prisoner in Domino so saith the vulgar Latine and so is the Greeke interpretation In the Lord. What meaneth Saint Paul A prisoner in the Lord what is that A prisoner for the Lord a prisoner for the Lords cause And thus you may take the word here in the Text Blessed are they that die In Domino that is such as die in causa Domini and thus Iudicious Beza to whose judgement I attribute much in translations hee readeth it so Blessed are the dead qui moriuntur causa Domini and then in his Annotations propter Dominum And if you take it thus then the Martyrs only are blessed That Martyrs are blessed the Church of God is so farre from making a question that they set it downe as a Rule Injuriam facit Martyri qui orat pro Martyre A man doth wrong to a Martyr that prayes for a Martyr their blessednesse is so sure for Hee that loseth his life for my sake and the Gospels shall find it saith Christ. If he loseth a temporall life he shall find an eternall If he lose a life accompanied with sorrow hee shall find another life that is with joy such joy as cannot bee conceived such joy as shall never be ended Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his Saints There are two things saith S. Bernard that makes the death of a Saint precious the one is a good life before the other is a good cause for which he dieth A good life will make it a precious death but a good cause will make it a more precious death But that is the most precious death that hath both a good life before it and a good cause comming next The Martyrs are blessed but they must be such Martyrs as suffer for the Lord be sure of that or else they are not blessed There be some that would be accounted Martyrs a great company of such we have had of late that have died for broaching of treason and some for sowing of sedition some for absolving subjects from
therefore they should in these things agree together The generall end at which they all aymed in their doings is the Lord Hee that eateth saith he eateth to the Lord and he that eateth not to the Lord hee eateth not that is still he propoundeth God as his end and the pleasing of God in his actions as the rule of them That he may prove this unto us that they stand thus affected both of them notwithstanding this difference he bringeth in this as the generall reason whereto every particular of their lives may bee reduced All their life is ordered by the Lord they live to the Lord they die to the Lord so that whether they live or die they are the Lords Therefore all their particular actions are to the Lord. Whether we live wee live to the Lord and whether we die we die to the Lord. Now this generall reason he propoundeth two wayes First Negatively None of us liveth to himselfe and no man dieth to himselfe Secondly Affirmatively which consisteth of two parts Their dutie to God Gods acceptance of them and protection over them Their dutieto God if we live we live to the Lord and if wee die we die to the Load Gods acceptance of them Whether wee live or die wee are the Lords That which we shall now insist upon is the former part the negative expression and proposall of this generall reason None of us liveth to himselfe and no man dieth to himselfe Now when the Apostle affirmeth this of the beleevers of those times he therein intimateth thus much that it is the course of beleevers in all times It is a dutie belonging to all others of which they must make account not to live to themselves but to the Lord. Therefore though he speakes generally here yet there is in his speech a kind of particular universalitie a generality with a restraint He saith none of us hee saith not none in the world live to themselves for there are many in the world live to themselves and not to the Lord but none of us none of those that wee ranke our selves with that are in the condition of beleevers none of those concerning whom we speake in this question none of us live to our selves Life in generall is nothing else but that power whereby wee act or move As we read Gen. 2. God breathed into man the breath of life and he became a living soule he gave him the power whereby he acted The acting of this power is the exercise of that life whether the action be of the mind or of the body And so as there is a double life there are two sorts of actions of life there are naturall actions of a naturall life and there are spirituall actions of a spirituall life When the Apostle speakes of living hee intends both these Wee live not that is we doe not the actions of life whether naturall or spirituall to our selves but to the Lord. No man liveth to himselfe By himselfe he meaneth not only a mans person either soule or body but all those advantages that conduce to the well-being of a man No man of us so ordereth the actions of his life with reference and respect to our selves as the uttermost end wee doe not make our owne wel-beeing or wel-fare the uttermost end of our actions None of us live to our selves You have the sense and meaning of the words which being a patterne to other Christians a thing which the Apostle supposeth is or should be in every beleever it giveth us this point of instruction whereupon we shall insist at this time That is No beleever none that are in Christ should make themselves the end in their actions None should live that is spend their time and strength and endeavour ayming at no higher end then themselves No Christian should so spend his time as to seeke himselfe only in the actions that he doth None of us liveth to himselfe But here it may bee objected for the clearing of the point May not a Christian seeke himselfe in the things that hee doth When they doe good things that which God commandeth that they may avoide the punishment when being incouraged by the promise of a reward they performe the actions of obedience doe they not herein seeke themselves They seeke the avoyding of evill to themselves and the obtaining of good for themselves and doing thus they live to themselves To this wee Answer Wee must consider our selves two wayes First in subordination to God Secondly in competition with him or opposition against him Consider a mans selfe in subordination to God so a man may seeke himselfe that is he may seeke his owne good though not as the uttermost end wherein his thoughts rest yet hee hath this incouragement Selfe-love is a plant of Gods owne planting in the heart of man and hee will not have any man root out that that he hath planted Grace drieth not up the fountaine of nature It doth but turne the streame into a new channell it guides it the right way When a man is renewed by grace and sanctified he is the same man in his faculties he doth his actions better then he did before and all that he did before he doth them to a better end It is impossible that the will of man should incline to any thing but as he conceiveth it good and good for mee now there is no man can conceive a thing as good for him but hee must conceive it as good and sutable to him sutable to his welfare and condition The law of God forbiddeth not this but stablish it and commendeth it if it be rightly ordered Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soule and with all thy strength that is the chiefe notwithstanding thou shalt not hate thy selfe thou shalt love thy nighbour as thy selfe subordinate to the love of a mans selfe must be the love of his neighbour and subordinate to his love of God must be the love of himselfe Thou maist love thy selfe but in a degree inferiour to God Thou must love thy selfe in God and seeke thy good in God and not in thy selfe therefore it is that God in the Scripture hath set promises and threatnings one opposite to the other Now it is lawfull for a man to bee drawne to obedience or driven from sinne by any argument that God useth in his Word When God threatneth punishment shall not men be awakened the Lyon roareth and the beasts of the Forrest tremble When God promiseth here is the act of Faith to receive this promise and to believe it Herein Iesus Christ the Author and finisher of our faith is set as a patterne for us hee set before him the joy It is lawfull for a Christian herein to imitate Christ I speake this for their sakes to allure them by incouragements from the Word that howsoever the avoyding of sinne by threatnings is an action of selfe-love without the love of God yet
thoughts of Gods displeasure and thinkes it is at peace with God it is an evident signe that wrath is a comming Nay beloved in that measure you are in carnall securitie in that measure you are under wrath let that therefore be enough to awaken you and say thus with your selves It were better for me a great deale to be among the number of those that complaine and are mourning Christians then to bee in the number of those that are full of jollity and Joviality that rejoyce and sport themselves that put farre from them the evill day I might then escape the wrath of God as they doe Who are they that escape wrath See in Ezekiel 9. Those that were awake when others slept those that mourned when others laughed those that humbled themselves before God when others hardned themselves those were the men that were marked in the forehead by the Angel and they escaped And in the third of Malachie Those that feared the Lord and thought upon his name in those evill times that spake oft one to another there was a booke of remembrance of them and they are Gods jewels he will be sure to keepe them safe But how shall wee come to be awakened I should have told you some helpes for this I will but touch upon a few in a word First I will propound sobrietie as a maine helpe Would you be watchfull and kept from spirituall slumber take heed that you keepe your selves sober I speake not of sobrietie as it is opposed to drunkennesse though that be one thing Bee not filled with wine wherein is excesse but bee filled with the holy Ghost Ephes. 5. As if he should say you cannot be filled with the holy Ghost and with excesse of Wine persons that take liberty in excessive drinking certainly they are destitute of the holy Ghost and so of life and salvation But I meane a further sobriety that is as it is opposed to worldly-mindednesse Take heed that you plunge not your selves too much in the world and worldly pleasures and cares for these are against the rule of sobriety Be sober in your diet in your apparell in your gaining in your spending in your mirth in your company in every thing that is moderate your selves and your affections in these things A man may soone grow to such a drunkennesse by excesse in worldly affections that he may bee in a dead sleepe neglecting Gods judgements and his owne estate as wee see men that plunge themselves in worldly businesse are It takes away the thoughts of those things that concerne our spirituall good I say not that you should leave off the businesse of the world for every man must continue in the calling that God hath set him But I say moderate your affections to the things of the world Doe worldly businesses with heavenly mindes in obedience to God Doe them with waking hearts to repent for the sinnes of your callings to avoide the sinnes of your callings And that that I say of labouring in your callings I say of pleasures and of every thing else we should be watchfull and sober as S. Peter saith Bee sober and watch Secondly if you would be free from security which is a forerunner of judgement be sure to keepe your selves in exercise A man that would keepe himselfe awake will busie himselfe in some exercise and imployment or other What exercise should a Christian use The exercise of grace and of the duties of obedience Be sure to keepe your selves in the exercise of all the advantages that God giveth you in your lives to imploy your graces in In difficulties and straites exercise your faith In provocations to anger and discontent exercise meeknesse In crosses and troubles and afflictions exercise patience In the miseries and wants of others whether spirituall or corporall exercise mercy And what I say concerning grace I say concerning duty Keepe your selves in the exercise of prayer and reading and meditation and conference some one thing or other some holy employment or other that may keepe the soule waking For I tell you you shall find that whensoever you let fall spirituall exercise you will at that very instant fall into carnall securitie in some kind or other Thirdly would you keepe your selves from this dead sleepe of carnall security then keepe your spirits in feare Sorrow and griefe makes a man heavy but feare keepes a man waking when Iacob feared Esau he kept a watch that night Sampson feared the Philistims and it wakened him out of his sleepe Feare makes a man watchfull You may perceive it in your owne experience In that measure that the feare of God prevaileth securitie is expelled Keepe feare therefore Blessed is the man that feareth alwayes but he that hardneth his heart falleth into evill Marke how he opposeth the hardning of a mans selfe in carnall securitie to the feare of God Keepe your heart in a constant feare Reason thus Alas shall I doe this thing and sinne against God Will not God be offended and displeased Shall I goe on in this vanity Would I have the judgement of God find me in this company would I have it seise upon mee in this imployment in this businesse in this action Feare lest God should strike thee in such an act lest Death should seize upon thee in such a place and let that make thee keepe a constant watch against the snares that are in those places Fourthly keepe good company Company you know is a good meanes to keepe men awake Two are better then one and woe to him that is alone saith Solomon I say good company for there are a company that will infect you Keepe not company with a froward person lest thou learne his frowardnesse So keepe not company with drunken and swearing persons these are the Divels instruments to keepe a man in carnall security No keepe company with those that have a charge given them to exhort one another daily and to consider one another to provoke to love and good workes Keepe company with the Saints and make use of all opportunities to provoke others and to be provoked by others That is the fourth helpe Fifthly would you bee kept from this sinfull security then keepe God alwayes in your sight It is a good way for a man that would keepe himselfe awake to fix his eye upon some object Fix your eye upon this maine object God Whether shall I depart from thy presence saith David This is that the Lord would have his people to consider to keepe them from sinne in Ier. 23. 23. Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God a farre off Doe not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord Can a man hide himselfe from God in any secret place Thinke in thy chamber in thy parlour in thy shop in thy house in thy friends house in the street in the Church in every place wheresoever thou art that there God is also If
a man had but alwayes some one before him as a witnesse he would not venture upon many things that hee now doth If a malefactour should see the Judge before him if the child had alwayes his fathers eye upon him or the servant had alwayes his Master sitting about him and above him though there are many that are unjust servants yet neverthelesse hee would serve him at least with eye-service Now set your selves in the eye of God that sees you in the darke heares you in your most secret whisperings knowes every action of your life and every circumstance of those Actions This will be a meanes to keepe thee from security I will adde but one more which is the sixth Consider thy latter end The night is now comming upon us If it were told any of us that this night thou shalt die as it was told the rich man in Luke 12. Thou foole this night shall they take away thy soule I thinke there is none that heareth me this day but hee would certainly keepe waking this night But it is not bodily waking we plead for but spirituall waking a waking from sinne a waking to repentance And we tell you that Death is now at the dore ready to seize upon you Wee speake not only to you that are aged that are at the brinke of the grave but we speake also to you that are young Death may seize upon you and strike you this night be awakened now to repentance I remember what God said to the Church of Sardis Bee watchfull and strengthen the things that remaine That Church was asleepe as many of us are at this day God commeth to awaken you now as he did them that that little goodnesse you have left may bee renewed and confirmed You that are quite out of the way of grace and goe on in a course of sinne fit now downe and humble your soules get into a secret corner wherein you may confesse those many provocations whereby you have provoked God all your dayes and resolve to amend if the Lord spare you Begin now delay it no longer it may be the last night the everlasting night to you take this warning now therefore be awakened to repentance This is that the Scripture calleth upon so much Eccles. 11. Rejoyce O young man in the dayes of thy youth and let thy heart cheare thee in thy youth and walke in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all this thou shalt come to Iudgement As if he should say You that are in the middest of your delights that solace your selves in the middest of the abundance of the earth which you enjoy that sport your selves in the pleasures of this world know that there will come a Judgement day see therefore now what will best answer God then Since the end of all things is at hand saith the Apostle let us bee sober and watch Wee know not how neere the end of the world is wee know indeed it shall not bee yet because Antichrist must bee destroyed and the Jewes called before that day come but neverthelesse certainly thy end is neere thy day thy particular death and that is the time of thy particular judgement may be sudden It is appointed for all men once to die and after that commeth the judgement That is the particular Judgement that commeth upon Death so I say this may be the night of thy death and the morning may be the day of thy particular doome Iudge your selves now that you may not bee judged of the Lord It was the use that the Apostle made even to good men For this cause saith he many are sicke and weake and many sleepe that is they are dead what then If wee would judge our selves wee should not bee judged of the Lord. So say I to you judge your selves now bring your selves as prisoners before the Barre arraigne your selves as malefactours before the Judge bring out the particular bills of inditement against your selves whereby you have provoked God yet there is mercie the day of grace and opportunity of repentance and turning unto God yet lasteth therefore doe it now I might adde many other helpes to this purpose but these shall suffice at this present Wee have an example before our eyes enough to warne us of this Here is an example of Death which should teach us now to awaken our selves and not to liue securely as men that dreame of a long life for many yeares Here is a young man dead tooke away in the prime of his time in the beginning of his dayes his sicknesse though it held him not long yet it was somewhat violent How know you what a short time you have though you are now young or if you live longer what sicknesse you may have it may be you may be deprived of your reason and senses therefore now while health and reason and sense while these Warning Sermons are afforded take time and make use of time lest your securitie make good this Text upon you When they shall say Peace Peace then sudden destruction commeth upon them as travaile upon a woman with child and they shall not escape FINIS A CHRISTIANS VICTORIE OR CONQVEST OVER DEATHS ENMITIE ROM 8. 37. Wee are more then conquerours through him that loved us HOSEA 13. 14. I will ransome them from the power of the Grave I will redeeme them from death O Death I will bee thy plagues O Grave I will bee thy destruction LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. A CHRISTIANS VICTORIE OR CONQVEST OVER DEATHS ENMITIE SERMON XIII 1 COR. 15. 26. The last enemie that shall be destroyed is Death IT could bee no Paradox to declare that every man hath more enemies in the world then friends both wicked and godly There is no question of it But it is true also that so long as a mans wayes please God hee can make his enemies his friends Of all the enemies men have the spirituall are the worst for they are common continuall enemies Common enemies I call them because they are every mans enemies Others though they bee enemies to some they are friends to others these to all Continuall because their warre is never at an end Other enemies we may have truce with now and then pauses and breathing times leasure given us when we have done one skirmish to make ready for another from these there is no intermission nor rest not for a moment wheresoever or whatsoever we are about it may be said to us as Dalilah said to Sampson Up Sampson thy enemies are upon thee The three principall of these yeeknow are commonly reckoned up to be The Divell the World and the Flesh. But the Apostle telleth us of a fourth which hee calleth our Last enemie the enemie which shall last of all assault us the other will leave assaulting us when we are in this world this when we are leaving the world mustereth up his forces against
shall be revealed and manifested all our wayes and workes the godly and the workes that they have done though never so secret the wicked and their workes the secret sins that they have committed That is the second thing in the manner of the Judgement First that all shall be summoned secondly upon the Summons all shall bee made to appeare Thirdly the Separation that shall be made at that time for when all are congregated by and by all shall be severed and separated a separation and division shall be made amongst them some shall be set at the right hand of the Iudge some at the left hand As a shepheard searcheth his flocke in the day when hee is amongst his sheepe that are scattered so I will search out my sheepe at that day and I will divide betweene cattell and cattell betweene the sheepe and the goates The Sheepe and the Goates here they flocke feed and fold together they will doe so they must doe so The Tares here must be let alone and grow with the corne till the day of harvest but yet afterward there shall be a division and a separation the wicked and the godly live together here but at the last the wicked shall be separated from the godly like the chaffe from the wheate as when two travell one way they passe together and lodge together but the next morning they part and take severall wayes so the wicked and the godly after they have beene here a time eating and drinking conversing and living and perhaps dying and rotting in the graves together notwithstanding when this day that I here speake of shall come then there shall be a separation and division made then the sheepe shall bee set on the right hand then you shall know which is Iacobs flocke and which is Labans which belong to Christ and which belong to Sathan then the chaffe shall be winnowed from the wheat and wee shall see which is for the Barne and which is for the fire Goe on you wicked still seeme the same you are not delude the eyes of the world that you have the same heart that you appeare you have Maskes and Vizards now the time will come your paint shall be washed off your fig-leaves shall bee stripped and your nakednesse shall be seene and all manifest at that day of God there shall be a separation of the good from the bad as the shepheard separateth his sheepe from the Goates Fourthly with this separation there shall be a tryall the Scripture speakes of after the conventing and separation there shall be a tryall I saw saith Saint Iohn Revel 20. 12. the dead small and great stand before God and the bookes were opened and another booke was opened which is the booke of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in those bookes according to their workes Marke there are severall bookes and so as there are severall books there are severall judgements some are tryed by one booke some by another First there are some bookes by which the workes of men are tryed the booke of Nature the booke of Scripture the booke of Conscience They that neuer heard of Christ shall be judged by the booke of Nature there is enough in the booke of Nature to leave all unexcusable They that live in the Church shall be tryed and judged by the booke of the Scripture Of the Law They that have sinned under the Law shall be judged by the Law Of the Gospell God shall judge the secrets of all hearts according to my Gospell Both of them shall be judged according to the booke of Conscience for God will lay that booke so cleare and open that they shall see what they have done against that Booke Lord what a many of sinnes have we committed here that we never remember and thinke of when they are done Our memorie and conscience now is a Book clasped up we see not a thousand things that are registred there but when God shall lay open that Booke and in large our memories and inlighten our consciences then men shall clearly see what they had forgot before they shall promptly dictate the whole course of our lives and acquaint us with every action that hath past us and every circumstance to accuse and excuse This is the kind of the tryall by which the workes of men shall be tryed Lastly with the Summons there shall be an appearance and with that a separation and a tryall after all these are done then commeth the sentence then the Sentence shall be pronounced upon the one and upon the othet the one Sentence full of sweetnesse and comfort every word droppeth as a honey combe Come you blessed of my Father inherit the kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world The same voyce that Christ spake to them here Come to me the same shall be there Come yee blessed and as they were carefull to come to Christ here so they shall make a happy comming to Christ there The other is a sentence of Hell and wrath and horrour Depart yee cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the divell and his Angels as they desired here to depart from God and said to him depart from us so they shall heare that word of horrour and woe pronounced at that day they shall bee sent away into fire to have their portion with the Divell and his Angels Thus briefly I have shewed concerning the Person judging First for the Iudge himselfe God And then for the Iudgement first that it must be and then the manner how I should goe on to the next generall point that is to consider the things and persons Judged every worke of every man whether it bee good or whether it bee evill And so I should have given the Application and Use of all together But so much for this time FINIS A A TRIALL OF SINCERITIE OR THE DESIRE OF THE FAITHFVLL ISAIAH 25. 9. This is the Lord wee have waited for him wee will be glad and rejoyce in his salvation PSAL. 38. 9. Lord all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. A TRIALL OF SINCERITIE OR THE DESIRE OF THE FAITHFVLL SERMON XV. ISAIH 26. 8 9. Yea in the way of thy Iudgements O Lord have wee waited for thee the desire of our soule is to thy Name and to the remembrance of thee With my soule have I desired thee in the night yea with my Spirit within me will I seeke thee early for when thy judgements are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learne righteousnesse THis Chapter is a sweet song of the Prophet if I mistake not concerning the restauration of the Iewes And the words of the Text are the sweet Swan-like song of our deceased Sister which she desired might be her Funerall song her Funerall text at this time and desired it long agoe before any thing that is now fallen
therefore that where there are desires toward God and desires of grace there is somewhat of God formed in that person there is something of grace begun at least the first lineaments thereof are drawne in some kind of truth This is the second Act that Christians should exercise and take speciall care to cherish that they have continuall pantings and breathings of desires toward God their hearts should worke and beate toward him continually But then in the third place there is another thing expressed in the words of the Text and that is these desires are not only according to our Proverbe of wishers and woulders ineffectuall desires desires that are meere gaping to see if the thing will drop into our mouthes or no without any bestirring of our selves but here is joyned with them if wee peruse the words of the Text we shall find it endeavours I have desired thee in the night and I will seeke thee early the soule of a Christian desires God in the evening and his spirit will seeke him early in the morning for those particulars of the time I shall touch by and by but now I only take notice of that third distinct act here mentioned which is our desires must be joyned with inquiries with indeavours to search after God to see if we may grope by any meanes to find him out to learne to know what is the way of his good will and pleasure how we may lead a life that may be acceptable to him and how we may come to the possession and assurance of his favour and be accepted in his sight Except there be endeavours it is a shrewd suspition that the desires are ineffectuall desires and unformed desires and not those that argue any life and truth of grace But when our desires are joyned with these bestirrings of the soule to seeke after God to search him out in his Word in his Ordinances to find his steps and to find his goings and so to maintaine a sweet and holy communion with him that is a sweet act of grace and a certaine ratification and seale of the truth of it But then let me adde the third thing In what height are all these actions to be boyled up or in what manner must we tender these services to God in this kind How must our understandings lay hold upon God and treasure him up in our memories How must our affections and desires worke toward him how must our endeavours be carryed toward God The manner of all these will make this compleat and so make up the full and compleat Character of a Christian in this generall dutie First the soule must be carried intimatly and most inwardly the inward motions and workings of the soule and spirit must bee toward God And therefore the Prophet here expresseth these acts as the acts of the very soule and spirit of a man All outward actions of seeking toward God and making our approaches and addresses toward him they are all such as may be counterfeited a hypocrite may act them There is nothing in the world no shape of any externall thing in the world but a Painter with his pensill can draw the picture of it give a resemblance of the thing and there is no outward action in the world that belongeth to God or to Christianitie but it is possible for a Painter for a base hypocrite to represent them with an artificiall pensill But the inward acts of life that no Painter can imitate a Painter cannot make a picture to have heart and entrailes and lunges to have life and motion and spirits and bloud stirring in the veines all those things a Painter cannot imitate he can make shapes but he cannot put the life into them he can make outward formes but he cannot put the inwards to them Now then this is that intended here all those outward actions must bee animated actions not dead actions actions that have no further bottome then the teeth outwards that grow upon the house toppe a word growing upon the tippe of the tongue that hath no roote in the heart and so for the rest But they must have the roote in the heart and soule of a man that must inwardly be carried towards God And when the heart and soule and spirit of a man all which words are here used by a supernaturall grace that is implanted in them when I say they are thus carried toward God it is an argument of spirituall life that there is some life Secondly they must be carried sincerely not for any by or base respects When a man makes toward any person or thing and professes love to it and doth it not for the thing it selfe but for some by end he doth not love that person he makes to but he loveth that thing for whom he makes to that person As for example A man scrapeth and croucheth and keepes a doe with a man that he never saw or knew one that he is ready it may bee when his backe is turned to curse but yet he will doe this for his almes for his gaine to make a prey a use of him some way this man loveth his almes loveth his prey loveth his bounty but it is no argument of love to the man So it is in this case for a man to make toward God and to seeme to owne him and to be one of the generation of those that seeke his face to addresse himselfe in outward conformitie and many other things by which another may charitably if hee have no other ground judge of him all this is nothing except a man may discerne something that may give him a tast that his spirit doth uprightly and sincerely seeke God that he loveth God for God himselfe that he loveth grace for grace it selfe hee loveth the Commandements of God because they are Gods commandements and because they are beautifull being according to the rule of his Word But otherwise if it be any sinister thing that carrieth a man on toward God it is no argument of the life and truth of grace You know it is so in experience there be many things that move and yet their motion is no argument of life A wind-mill when the wind serveth moveth and moveth very nimbly too yet you doe not say presently that that is a living creature No it moveth only by an externall cause by an artificiall contrivance it is so framed that when the wind setteth in such and such a corner it will move and so having but an externall Moter and cause to move and no inward principle no soule within it to move it it is an argument that it is no living creature So it is here if a man see another move and move very fast in those things which of themselves are the wayes of God see him move as fast to heare a Sermon as his neighbour doth is as forward and hastie to thrust himselfe and bid himselfe a guest to the Lords Table when God
so freeth men from the latter as they never come neere it and so freeth them from the former as they never dread to be under the power of the latter And the first Death of the outward man which is the separration of the Body from the Soule it is no Death if it separate not both from God which it can never doe if a man keepe the sayings of Christ therefore though his body that keepeth the sayings of Christ bee tooke from his soule yet he seeth not death so as to have any hurt by it hee feeleth no ill by it nay it is good to him for it is a passage from miserie to rest and felicitie Thus yee have these words as faithfully interpreted to you as I know how And now I will make proofe of this Doctrine thus explicated namely that thus to keepe Christs sayings to know and follow the Doctrine of the Gospell is the only sure way to escape the danger and hurt of Death Saint Peter acknowledgeth as much when he said to the Lord Jesus Christ that hee had the words of eternall life then he that keepeth them is certainly safe against the hurt of Death So the Angell speakes to the Apostles whom the Pharisees had imprisoned when he brought them forth of Prison he biddeth them speake to the people the words of this life since Christs Doctrine is the word of life it must needs follow that the keeping thereof is a per a perfect Antidote against the poyson of Death And Saint Peter when he gave an account to the rest of the Apostles and the brethren of Iudea of his going to the Gentiles he saith that an Angel appointed Cornelius to send for him that he might speake words to him whereby himselfe and his family should be saved and those words which cause a man to be saved you know will give him freedome enough from Death Thus I have proved the point by expresse Texts and there are two reasons of it The first is delivered by the Apostle Saint Iohn in his first Epistle and second Chapter where hee saith let that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning that is the Doctrine of the Gospell which Christ taught his sayings if that remaine in you you also shall continue in the Sonne and in the Father Hee that hath fellowship with the Sonne and with the Father can never see Death for God is the fountaine of life therefore those that are one with him and continue in him cannot see Death no more then he can be overwhelmed with darknesse that is where the Sunne shineth fully no more then the body can bee dead as long as it hath communion with the soule so those in whom the word of Christ remaineth and stayeth they are assured that they shall remaine with the Father and the Sonne and therefore being united to that that is life God the Father and the Sonne it is impossible that ever they should be hurt by the first or ever at all taste of the last Death Againe the Word of Christ freeth him in who it remaineth from the power and hurt of finne bringing to him remission of sinnes and sanctification And being free from sinne the cause of Death it is easie to conjecture that hee shall bee freeed from Death itselfe Let a mans Debt be satisfied and let the favour of the Prince be obtained and a Pardon granted the Prison shall never hold him long he shall not be brought to the place of Execution but when his guives are knocked off he is set at libertie so when we have obtained power against sinne by the powerfull worke of the Spirit of God which alwayes at the same time doth bend the heart of man to rest on Christ for salvation and heartily to indevour to walke before him in holinesse and righteousnesse when I say wee are thus freed from the power and guilt of sinne it is impossible that Death should lay hold upon us as his prisoner to carry us to the dungeon of Hell and to hold us under the wrath of God and that fiery indignation of his that causeth Hell to bee Hell Therefore certainly the words of Christ are an undoubted truth and we must rest upon them without all distrust and wavering that hee that keepeth his saying shall never see death and that the knowledge and beleeving and obeying the Doctrine of the Gospell is the only sure way to escape the hurt and ill of Death it selfe Let us now make some Application of this Doctrine to our soules First to stirre us up to a right hearty thankfulnesse unto Almighty God that is pleased to cast our times and dayes into that age and those places where the Doctrine of the Gospell this Saying of our blessed Saviour is so clearely and plainly and evidently laid open to you and frequently and earnestly prest upon your soules where the Lord commeth to declare unto you the way to life where he scoreth you out a path that will bring you quite out of the clutches and danger of Death this is the happinesse of our present Age and place where wee live and this whole kingdome too The grace and mercie and favour of our loving God hath so disposed of us that wee doe not live in times of Paganisme and darknesse where there was no newes of Christ that wee live not in places of Popish darknesse where the Doctrine of the Gospell is so mixed and darkned with tricks and devises of their owne that they cannot see Christ clearely It is our happinesse I say that wee doe not live in those places and times where either Paganisme or Poperie with their darknesse covered Christ from us and caused us that we could not clearely see or heare him and so not keepe his sayings But now grace is offered light is tendred to us wee may be saved wee may escape the danger of damnation if the fault be not solely and wholly in our carelesnesse and wilfulnesse and neglect and abuse of the meanes that God hath afforded us The heathen men that have not heard of Christ cannot possibly attaine to life as farre as we can Judge by the Scripture And it is very difficult for the Papists that heare so darkely and are told of the Doctrine of the Gospell with so many sophistications to come to be saved But for us that have the Doctrine of the Gospell so plainly and carefully taught us and revealed unto us wee may be saved and may easily see the way to obtaine salvation So we goe beyond them in happinesse Oh blessed be the name of the Ever-living God that beside the peace and plenty and other temporall benefits wherewith hee hath crowned this unworthy Nation of ours hee hath added this blessing of blessings this King of favours to give us so cleare a revelation of the Doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ alone Blessed bee his name and let your hearts say Amen to this thanksgiving and let it
cloudie to us but then God will manifest himselfe before men and Angels Then those wayes and workes of God against which the hearts of unsanctified men have boyled shall appeare to be as they are holy and good and righteous to their condemnation and terrour Yet further The particular Judgement that God inflicts upon men in this life may prove the universall The burning of Sodom and Gomorrah the drowning of the old World the plaguing of Egypt and the desolation of Ierusalem These shew the infinite hatred of God against sinne therefore no doubt hee will take a time to revenge himselfe of the impenitent amongst the sonnes of men because of their sinnes Lastly the consciences of men may prove that there shall bee a Judgement For let a man commit secret sinnes thatnone knoweth but God and hee yet many times hee feeleth hellish horrour which is a manifest proofe that conscience seeth and apprehendeth God as the supreame Judge that will call all men to an account for their sinnes Thus you heare the reasons why there must be a Judgement The manner of this Judgement consisteth in these particulars First it shall bee the last judgement after which there shall bee no other which declareth the terriblenesse of it In this life while there is life there is hope Let the wicked forsake his wayes and turne to the Lord hee will be gracious to him But then the sentence shall not be reverst then there can be no appeale from that Judge and judgement Againe it shall bee a Generall Iudgement which is the second thing God judgeth in this world and that both in life and in death Hee judgeth in life by chastising his children for their faults and avenging himselfe upon his enemies Hee judgeth every man at death But then there shall be a Generall Judgement of all 2 Cor. 10. Wee must all appeare before the Iudgement seat of Christ. In the third place It shall be a manifest Iudgement Sometime the Lord judgeth men secretly by raising up in them feares and horrours in their hearts causing his curse in them as water in their bowels and oyle in their bones But then God shall open his wrath against the children of wrath before a world of men and no eye shall pitty them Fourthly it shall bee a sudden judgement Even as the flood came upon the old World when they were sporting themselves and deryding Noah that preached to them of the flood so shall the fire come upon the World that shall passe before the face of Christ when he shall judge the quicke and the dead As a snare saith Christ shall it come upon all that dwell upon the earth When the Fowler layeth a snare to take a Bird hee giveth not warning to the Bird but surprizeth it suddenly so will Christ Jesus surprize the sonnes of men suddenly beyond their expectation The Evangelist saith hee shall come as a theefe in the night A theefe knocks not he giveth not warning so Christ Jesus beyond the thoughts of men will bee on them suddenly before they are aware by his dreadfull Judgement Fifthly it shall be a most righteous judgement Then God as the Apostle faith Rom. 2. will render to every man according to his deedes Hee will not regard the face of any Hee will not bee brybed by wealth or reward Hee will not heare the testimony of the world for the wicked or against the godly but deale impartially and give to every one according to his doings Lastly It shall be an Eternall judgement So saith the Apostle Heb. 6. 2. The meaning is not that God shall sit for ever sifting matters and surveying causes but it is so called from the effect for the conclusion shall be this the Eternall weale and happinesse of the godly and the eternall woe and miserie of the wicked that shall be plunged by the justice of God into the severest torments The Use of this Doctrine First it serveth as a preservative against temptation for so Solomon hath made it in the Text a preservative and bridle to young men God will bring thee to judgement saith he and let me make it so to you When Sathan tempteth you to sinne remember God will call you to Judgement even for those faults for which you may possibly escape the penaltie of men yet notwithstanding it is impossible for you to avoide the righteous Judgement of God If Sathan would have thee doe any thing that the word of God and thy owne conscience sheweth thee to be hatefull and wicked in the sight of God say to him No no God will bring me to Judgement This is the policie of our Adversarie when hee induceth us to evill hee makes sinne sweet and pleasant to us but it should bee our wisedome to make sinne bitter and loathsome even in this meditation God will bring us to Iudgement for the same The Apostle saith Resist the divell and hee will flie from you But how must we resist him not by arguments of our owne making but by arguments of the word of God and amongst other weapons remember to lift up this when Sathan would have thee sinne say No no God will bring mee to judgement When the Divell solicited Eve and circumvented her shee spake in the Serpent to Sathan concerning the Judgement of God Wee may eate saith shee of all the trees of the Garden but not of the tree in the middest of the Garden least wee die here shee brought an argument from the judgement of God but here was her weaknesse shee presently let it fall It should bee otherwise with us when Sathan tempts us let us say we shall die and be condemned for sinne say so and continue in it If any revolt from the truth he professeth he shall die in his sinne If any man disquiet the people of God by vexation or oppression hee shall die in his sinne If any man bee a drunkard or Epicure hee shall die in his sinne If any man be a whoremonger or adulterer hee shall die in his sinne If any man bee a swearer God hath vowed hee will not hold him guiltlesse hee shall die in his sinne If any man be an ignorant person disobeying godlinesse and obeying unrighteousnesse he shall die in his sinne If any man continue in grosse wickednesse in any wickednesse without repentrnce he shall die in his sinne Oh remember this Judgement of God this death that God will inflict on sinners for sinne For the wages of sinne is death and arme your selves with this when Sathan tempteth you if you forget Death and Judgement you are naked and unarmed your spirituall Adversary may hit you on the bare and spoile you as he will The second use is for instruction Will God bring us to Judgement for our sinnes Oh then let us hast to repentance Beloved this is one of the last things that God will doe and this is the greatest thing that Ministers can say
her to put all her trust and confidence in him She was now taken upon the sudden therefore the Lord hath left her as a patterne for us to looke upon to take heed to our selves that we may make our peace with God and looke for death every moment because wee know not how soone wee may be arrested Shee was indeed a woman of great trust and faith in God and one whose mouth was full of his praise still admyring and recounting the wondrous grace of God to her in all the course of her life in sparing her in giving her comfort in her conscience concerning the pardon and forgivenesse of her sinnes and providing for her worldly helpes which she thought never to attaine to and in many other particulars Shee did open the grace of God according to her best understanding still giving the praise to his holy Name and no doubt it the stroke upon her had not beene so fatall and as deadly as now it was wee should have had the like fruit more abundantly at this time Howbeit shee was not as one altogether destitute but she called for and craved the prayers of Gods people that they would lift up their hearts and hands and voyces to the Lord to looke upon her and release her of her miserie and trouble either by life or death for shee was content either way Shee had some touches also of Divine Scripture as occasion offered themselves As when the light was brought in shee desired to have the light of Gods countenance to shine upon her And when her eye-strings were broke that the teares did distill downe she desired the Lord God to put her teares into his bottle and many such Luminations there were that came from her Her surcharged spirits were so taken and strucken as a man might perceive at the first there was no way but one her selfe drawing her selfe within as though that in the outward man there were no roome for the soule to dwell there or to have a fit and opportune habitation I must needs advertise you of one thing that this custome of praysing and commending of the dead is very full of danger because a man may bee a lyer and a flatterer besore hee be aware when he never intended it But truly for ought that I could discerne this Sister of ours was one that was very well deserving of a quiet and moderate spirit intentive and carefull to governe her house and children and no way exorbitant for any thing that I can heare It is true that all are not of one Modell as the bodies of men and women are not of one height and colour so the soules and spirits are not all of one elevation neither but wee esteeme the children of God according to that they bave received and not according to that that they have not received as the Apostle speakes I say therefore according to the grace shee had received I verely beleeve shee was faithfull and true to it that shee received not the grace of God in vaine she sought by all meanes to nourish and cherish it from one degree to another and to proceed from grace to grace And therefore I conclude in the judgement of Charitie that we have very strong hopes and great probabilities of her happy translation Shee was a Daughter of Sarah as Saint Peter speakes of women that he would have them demeane themselves as Daughters of Sarah and such a one shee was in her habit and attyre in the manner of her life and societie and company and therefore I doubt not but shee inheriteth with Sarah the place of blessed mansions that the Lord hath made infinite spacious and wide and capable for all blessed soules that put their trust in him Now this let us make use of to our owne soules In that shee had not that largenesse of time shee supposed to have had but was surprised so soone and vehemently as shee could not dispose of her selfe in that manner as wee know by experience she would have done it should be a lesson to us to be ready for God to bee acquainted with God Wee have had two Corses one after another one a man another a woman both taken suddenly in respect of the time though they had thought to have made an overture of themselves to the world and thought to have made all things faire and easie by the confession and expression of their faith to the world but they were not suffered to doe it So all presume to have time to make the world know that they be humble and penitent and to make their confession but many put it off till it be too late Let us not be put off with vaine presumptions the Lord giveth and the Lord takes wee know not how soone Wee were borne wee know not when we shall die we know not when The Lord prepare us all for it FINIS GODS ESTEEME OF THE DEATH OF HIS SAINTS PREACHED AT THE FVNERALL OF Mr. IOHN MOVLSON OF Hargrave at Bunbury in Cheshire By S. T. REVEL 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord c. LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. GODS ESTEEME OF THE DEATH OF HIS SAINTS SERMON XX. PSAL. 116. 15. Pretious in the sight of the Lord Is the death of his Saints THe Psalme was composed by David to be an acknowledgement of that favour and grace of God which himselfe had experience of at some time or other but when or what the particular occasion of it was we are uncertaine Some referre it to that escape which he made when Saul and his troopes had compassed him about upon the discoverie of the Ziphites 1 Sam. 23. 26 27 28. Others because Ierusalem is mentioned in the Psalme and Ierusalem at that time of Saul was not built as they conclude well against the time of the penning of it so they find also another occasion his escape from Absolom and that great plot 2 Sam. 15. 14. Others include also his spirituall Conflicts his combattings with Gods wrath and his despaires because of his sinnes together with some sicknesses and strong diseases accompanied with griefes and anxieties of minde In all which he found God benevolous and mercifull unto him in the sense of which hee rejoyces and as it was his dutie gives thankes and praises unto God Hee saith in the fourteenth verse hee would make publique businesse of it and would pay his vowes corum populo in the presence of all the people and good reason hee had for God hath oft releeved him and taken much care to preserve his life as hee is ever tender of the safety of all his people for Pretiosain oculis Iehovae c. Pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints The words are a Simple universall affirmative proposition wherein 1. The subject or thing spoken of is The death of Gods Saints 2. That which is spoken of it is That it is pretious in the sight of the Lord. Which
sleepie heart and conscience when a man heares not nor understands the Word that hee doth heare when he heares not that which is spoken It is one judgement upon wicked men the Booke of God is clasped to them such a man reads and heares and discernes not If the Booke be open his heart is clasped fast he takes no good by it And this is not the least part of the miserie upon the Saints that this booke is not so open to them nor they doe not so understand it nor discerne that which is in it as they might We heare the Word many of us many times and we seeme to receive it but yet who is he that may not find in himselfe that the sleepe and securitie of his mind and soule makes him not much to attend and regard it that he is not carefull and industrious in the keeping and maintaining of that hee heares and the framing himselfe according to it And so it comes to passe that it is with Gods word that we heare as it is with Physick when it is given to a man that is dead it workes not or when he sleepes immediatly upon it so when we heare the word of God and fall into a sleepe upon it into the sleepe and sluggishnesse of earthly cares the Word is unprofitable it workes not that effect that else it would Againe a man that sleepes you shall know it by this he doth not mind his ordinarie businesse he neither troubles his head nor his hands with it his businesse sleepes with himselfe he doth nothing but sleepe while he is asleepe he can doe nothing else So hereby we may know our selves to be in a marvellous sleepe of sinne when we give not our serious thoughts to God and to the practice of pietie and godlinesse it is an argument of sleepe and slumber in us The mind of man should intend the principall thing for which God hath put us in the world when we give not our thoughts to God and mind not the things of Gods kingdome it is a signe we are asleepe When we move not nor stirre not our hands and our feete in the wayes of Gods commandements as we should it proceeds from this sleepinesse and drowsinesse Whereas would we be wise for our selves and awake as we should wee should neither be idle nor unfruitfull in the worke of the Lord. We should ever be doing something that might glorifie God and further our owne reckoning But this is a signe of a sleepie person in the maine and principall things his heart is not upon them his hands and feet move not in the wayes of God he workes not to the principall end for which hee came into the world Thirdly you shall know a sleepie man by this he knowes not of the passing of the time but so much time as he sleepes he wastes it is as the time of death to him for what is sleepe but the shadow of death Even so it is with many of us that professe the teaching of Grace Alas how doe we waste time insensibly and passe away the time some decke away the time some play away the time dayes and weekes and moneths together as if time were not made for some other businesse as if we had received time for such imployments as these for our recreations and sports and pleasures and not rather that we might further our repentance and our reckoning and helpe the servants of God and get oyle in our lampes and faith in our soules and patience against the time of trouble and get assurance of a blessed inheritance when we shall be turned out hence Time is given us for these ends and yet we silly men as we are devise pastimes to our selves as if our life did not passe away whereas Iob saith it is as a Weavers shuttle Let us consider brethren time will passe that we may improve it and not wast our time Fourthly and lastly to conclude this point a man that is addicted immoderately to sleepe you shall know it by this it destroyes naturall heate and that being destroyed by immoderate sleepe as by a sudden mightie shower this man growes pursie and fatte and lazie he growes idle and unfit for the exercises of manhood or of his Calling and the like So it is when a man is immoderatly and excessively fast asleepe with the cares of this life the lusts of his heart the pleasures of this present world or whatsoever it is that lulls him and rocks this cradle when he is thus asleepe hee growes fatte and pursie his naturall heate is gone he falls from his first zeale and affection and desire and practise Alas brethren we may speake to the shame and sorrow of many I doubt that heare me that have exchanged their care of godlinesse that have exchanged their seeking of God in the meanes with company with good-fellowship with drunkennesse And let the Lords marriners come to them and say Up sleeper call upon thy God why dost thou not doe thy first workes Why art thou lazie he growes angry as Ionas was that thought he did well to bee angrie to the death This is the miserie of many that live under the teaching of the Gospell in the light of the Gospell This is another marke and a signe of sleepe when we cannot abide of any thing to be wakened To draw to a conclusion the last use of this point it serves to rouze and to raise us from this sleepe and securitie this slumber that is in the best of us And know my brethren I speake not now to those that are out of the Church and those that are notoriously wicked those that are scandalous and rebellious to good counsell but I speake to those that live in the bosome of the Church those that professe goodnesse and godlinesse yea those that are Disciples and are neere the side of Christ let this exhortation be to them to raise and rouze themselves out of this sleepe It is time saith the Apostle that wee rise out of sleepe The summe of this exhortation I will propound and then draw to a conclusion First consider how unprofitable a man a Christian man is when he is asleepe What is a man when he is asleepe but that there is hope of awaking and to come to the actions of life againe a man that is asleepe he lives but the life of a Plant there is nothing but being and nourishment a waking beast is more profitable but that I say there is hope that afterwards hee will awake So when we sleepe and slumber and tumble and tosse our selves in dead securitie how unprofitable are we to Gods glorie and to our owne selves Saint Paul saith that Onesimus was unprofitable before his conversion but now saith he hee is profitable both to thee and mee A man that is asleepe is unprofitable and certainly he that is asleepe in securitie and sinne this man is most unprofitable to Gods glorie and to his
to make the straight wayes of God crooked to make that that God accounts straight to be crooked this is a setting against God therefore Peter saith to Simon Magus pray if it be possible that the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee So you see Saint Paul speakes to Elymas the sorcerer upon the same ground Act. 13. Thou child of the divell and enemy to all righteousnesse wilt thou not cease to pervent the right wayes of God Now I say here are the words and speeches that men speake against the wayes of God these are speeches that argue men in a state whereby they are lyable and open to judgement and exposed to wrath therefore wee should take heed of such words The use may be to condemne those that make light account of words they thinke they may speake it may bee in rashnesse and hastinesse and they may be excused for uttering them it is their hastinesse and their passion and it was done unadvisedly c. I but the Law of God is transgressed the Majestie of God is offended the anger of God is provoked You know what old Eli sayd to his sonnes My sonnes if a man sinne against a man man may plead for him but if he offend against God who shall plead for him I say who shall take up the matter with God in such a case as this when the offence strikes against God and his ordinances and his worship Therefore take heede there is much evill there is life and death as Solomon saith in the power of the tongue that is a man may utterly destroy himselfe by the very words he speakes unadvisedly as hee thinkes and will plead for himselfe or passionately and rashly Againe much more doth it concerne those that proceede to other kinds of wickednesse in the tongue we instanced in some particular instances then that we cannot now stand on We came to direct men to carry themselves in their speech as David to set a watch before the doore of their lippes he prayed to God to doe it And Psal. 39. I sayd that I will take heede to my wayes that I offend not in my tongue And then he prayes to the Lord Psal. 131. to keepe a watch before the doore of his mouth Hee knew well enough that there will be a time when the words that we thinke are sleight and vaine shall be brought to judgement idle unprofitable frothy talke much more rayling and reviling speeches most of all the highest blasphemies and execrations these shall most certainly be brought to a greater censure at the day of judgement But I will not stand on that I then handled Now there remaines three things more The first is this that in the day of judgement God will proceed according to his Law So speake and so doe as those that shall bee judged by the Law I say In the day of judgement God will proceede with men according to his Law Hee will proceede according to his word written therefore labour that your speeches and actions may bee such that they may be agreeable to that Iohn 12. 48. The word that I speake to you saith Christ shall judge you at that day There is not a word that Christ speakes but it shall judge he speakes not in vaine he is the judge that speakes Now you know Christ speakes two wayes Eyther in himselfe Or by his Ministers In himselfe and so eyther that that hee spake when hee was on earth in his his owne person then all the words that hee spake at that time are those words by which he will judge men as farre as they concerne morrall actions by those words he will judge men at the great day for he spake nothing but what was according to his Law Or else that which he spake in his Apostles immediatly by a certaine and infallible worke of the Spirit directing them to such truth as that they could not erre in speaking now in this Christ still spake in them The same way Christ hath in speaking to this day therefore saith he he that heareth you heareth me and he that heareth me heareth him that sent me That which he spake to them hee spake in them concerning all the Ministers of the Gospel What we speake as Ministers that is as men that looke to the direction of our Lord for we are but Embassadours and our words are so far of value and power as they are the speeches of our Lord and as we speake the word of him whose Embassadours we are Now I say looke what the Minister thus speakes as the Embassadour of Christ to the people that Christ will confirme at the day of judgement Now it will appeare what wee speake as Embassadours if we speake nothing but what is agreeable to the text of Scripture rightly understood Therefore marke it whatsoever sinne wee denounce the judgement of God against and urge Scripture for it it is the very rule that Christ will observe in judging men Or else that speech could not stand what yee loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven and what yee bind on earth shall be bound in heaven Wee bind when by declaring of mens sinnes wee denounce the judgement of God against such sinnes and so pronounce men to stand under the wrath of God that remaine in those sinnes saith Christ what you thus binde on earth shall bee bound in heaven that is Gods act shall ratifie and confirme the same sentence in heaven which we denounce here upon earth by vertue of this word So when wee come to distressed soules and declare to them that they stand acquitted and that by the Word of God and so as Ministers of the Gospell by vertue of the truth revealed to us declare that they are freed from the bond and guilt of their sinnes upon those evidences of repentance that they manifest I say it is ratified in heaven Therefore you see there is no other way of proceeding but looke as Christs owne words when hee was upon the earth so the same that are as his owne words that is those truths that are drawne from Christs truths have the same power upon the hearts and consciences of men now to command them and shall have after to judge them as ever they had But here it may be objected it should seeme that all men shall not be judged by the Law because there are some men to whom the Law hath never beene published for what shall wee say to a great part of the world that have not yet received the Scriptures we know that the Scriptures have not beene published to a great part of the world at this day there are many Heathens many Pagans that never had the Scriptures therefore how shall they be judged by the Law except you say that onely those shall bee judged by it that have beene under the preaching of the Gospell and have had the helpe of the Scriptures We answer that all mankinde and every particular man is under
23. For the wages of sinne is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. THe latter part of this Chapter from the 12. Verse to the end is spent in a grave and powerfull dehortation of the faithfull from securitie in sinne against which the Apostle useth sundry arguments That which he presseth most is drawne from the severall ends to which sinne and righteousnesse doth leade men The end of sinne is death vers 21. therefore that is not to bee served The end of of righteousnesse is life everlasting vers 22. therefore that is to be imbraced Because there is now difference in the manner of the proceeding of these two ends death comming from sinne as from the meritorious cause but life from righteousnesse another manner of way therefore the Apostle addes this epiloge and conclusion in the last verse plainely shewing and more clearely expressing the manner of them both for the wages saith hee of sinne is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. In which words we have a description of a twofold service Of sinne in the former clause And of God or righteousnesse in the latter And how both these are rewarded The one with death it payes us well And the other with life which is bestowed by the free gift of God through Christ. These are the two parts the two generall points that we are to consider First the wages of sinne is death saith the Apostle Of sinne That is of the depravation and corruption of our nature and so consequently of every sinne that being not onely it selfe sinne but the matter and mother of all sinne when sinne hath conceived it bringeth forth death when sinne is put forth whereby he signifieth the generall depravation and corruption of our nature from whence all sinne flowes So it is here The wages The word in the originall signifieth properly victualls because victualls was that that the Roman Emperours gave their souldiers as wages in recompence of their service but thence the word extends to signifie any other wages or Salary whatsoever The wages of sinne is death by death here is signified and meant both temporall and eternall death especially eternall death for it is opposed to eternall life in the next clause of the sentence therefore that is that that is principally meant The wages of sinne is death that is eternall death This for the exposition of the tearmes The point to bee observed from this first part of the Text is this that Death is as due to sinne as wages to one that earnes it To such a one wages is due in strict justice if a man have a hyred servant he may bestow a free gift on him if he will if he will not he may choose but his stypend or his wages he must pay him unlesse he will be unjust for it is the price of his worke and so is due to him that he cannot without injustice withhold it After such a manner is death due to sinne the very demerrite of the worke of sinne requires it as being earned God is as just in inflicting death upon sinners for their sinnes as any man is in paying his labourer or hired servant their wages for this is the generall plaine scope of the Apostles words here So in the beginning God appointed Gen. 2. 17. where hee told Adam concerning the forbidden fruite in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death As if hee should have sayd when thou sinnest death must be thy wages The same is repeated Ezek. 18. 20. where it is sayd The soule that sinneth shall die expressing the wages of sinne it is death that is the recompence of sinne if sinne have his due then death must follow So the Apostle had shewed before in this Epistle Rom. 5. 12. that by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne so death went over all men for as much as all men had sinned All had sinned therefore all are payed with death And Saint Iames shewes the consequence and connexion betweene these two the worke and the wages he tells us Iam. 1. 15 that when sinne hath conceived it bringeth forth death All these places are evidences that death by Gods ordinance by his appointment is the due of sinne as due to it even as wages is to a hyred servant or one that hath earned it What death is it that is due to sinne Both temporall and eternall death I say both deaths concerning both which the truth is to be cleared from some doubts It was the Pelagians errour to thinke that man should have dyed a naturall death though he had never sinned so they thought that the naturall temporall bodily death was not the wages of sinne Contrary to the Apostle in the placâ—… I spake of Rom. 5. where hee makes that death that goes over all men which must needes bee naturall death to enter by sinne sinne brought in death no sinne no death at all But it may be objected when God told Adam in the day that he eate the forbidden fruite he should die the death he meant not temporall death there as the event shewes for such a death was not inflicted upon Adam in the day that hee sinned for after he sinned he lived still in the world naturally hee continued living many yeares after I answer notwithstanding all this Adam may bee sayd to die a naturall death as soone as he sinned because by the guilt of his sinne he then presently became subject to it and God straight way denounced upon him the sentence of death therefore it may bee sayd he straite way dyed As a condemned person is called a dead man though he be respited for a time Besides the Messengers and Sergeants of death presently tooke hold of him and arrested him for sinne as hunger and thirst and cold and diseases daily wasting of the naturall moysture to the quenching of life Indeede God suffered him that the sentence was not presently executed so to commend his owne patience and to give to Adam occasion of salvation the promise of Christ being after made and he called to repentance by that meanes to attaine a better life by Christ then he lost by sinne It is objected againe Christ redeemed us from all sinne and all the punishment thereof but he did not redeeme us from bodily death from temporall death for the faithfull wee see dye still even as others doe therefore it is concluded by some that temporall death is not the wages of sinne for then when wee were free from sinne by Christ wee should bee freed from that Our answer to this is that Christ hath freede all his elect not onely from eternall but even from temporall death though not from both in the same manner From temporall death first in hope of which the Apostle speaking 1 Cor. 15. saith The last enemy that shall be
say in the Lord have I Righteousnesse and strength There are two things likewise in a Christian which are of eminent sufficiencie in order to his salvation and his possession of the Glorious inheritance purchased by this Saviour Faith and Patience often spoken of severally and in particular but withall joyntly and together as might bee manifested by the allegations of Scripture as bee not slothfull but be yee followers of them that by Faith and Patience inherit the promise c. Concerning these two which are so eminent in the called of God and are sufficient in order to their possession of the purchased inheritance as the Scripture abundantly treateth of so most frequently in this Epistle and more especially in the 10. 11. and 12. Chapters In the later end of the tenth Chapter you have the Apostle there first dogmatically handling the doctrine of Faith as the necessary meanes to attaine everlasting life and as the principall conducement to the possession of glory and to the saving of the soule The just shall live by Faith In the beginning of the eleventh Chapter he sheweth the absolute necessitie of Faith to an acceptable walking and well pleasing of God For without faith vers 6. it is impossible to please God and the whole Chapter is further spent in setting downe the glorious Examples of Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and the rest of the Elders eminent for their Faith by which saith hee they received a good report All whom did worthily in their dayes and are now become famous to posteritie standing out to this day as so many living voyces calling upon us to become followers of them that we might together with them bee at length made partakers of the glorious inheritance of the Saints in light The Apostle having spoken much to this purpose goeth on to that other grace we spake of so necessarie to the constitution of a Christian and to the enabling of him to a well and faithfull managing of his Calling and condition and that is Patience Propounded by way of exhortation in the first part of this twelfth Chapter and urged with respect to the necessarie uses of it both concerning duties done and afflictions to be endured in the verses following First with respect to duties which the Apostle propoundeth under the Metaphor of running in a race for such is the course of a Christian life which the Saints of God are called to the finishing of Let us runne the race that is set before us and runne with Patience Secondly it is urged with respect to sufferings and that of two sorts from men from God From men from whom the faithfull are to make account of sufferings in divers kindes in shame and derision in proud and insolent contradictions and according to their power and opportunitie in bloudy persecutions You have not yet resisted unto bloud uerse 4. From God and here the Apostle is more large urging his exhortation to Patience and a quiet applying of our selves to God according to all the states and conditions he is pleased to bring us unto and according to all his severall administrations towards us very strongly labouring to fasten it in the hearts of the Saints of God as a nayle in a sure place first alledging that same passage of Solomon in the Proverbs My sonne despise not thou the chastening of the Lord And then he further strengthneth his exhortation by invincible arguments I doe but touch upon these things hastening on to the maine thing I intend only desiring to give you a plaine and briefe Analasis of this Scripture with the context of it The Apostle I say driveth on this exhortation by strength of argument And that first of all by propounding to the godly that whereas the Lord is pleased to exercise them with afflictions to make them drinke many times of a cuppe of bitternesse yet they have reason to be quiet and patient because this way the Lord giveth a proofe of his love to his children and those that are wise and godly will be glad they have reason so to be that God should take sucha course with them as whereby he may give them a demonstration of his deare love and affection Now herein the Lord evidenceth his love and affection to his people for all the afflictions and chastisements that he exerciseth them withall flow from his love and are as fruits thereof For saith he whom the Lord loveth hee chasteneth and scourgeth every sonne whom hee receiveth verse 6. Secondly he propoundeth it to their consideration as a course wherein the Lord giveth an evidence of his peoples adoption For what sonne is hee whom the Father chasteneth not But if yee bee without chastisement where of all his children are partakers then are yee bastards and not sonnes vers 78. Now the godly should be glad to have the Lord take such a course with them and so to order out his administrations concerning them as that they may have some comfortable evidence to their soules that they are his adopted ones and such as hee will one day acknowledge for to bee his children But thirdly and that which more concerneth our present purpose the Apostle urgeth his exhortation by a comparison that he frameth betweene God the Father of spirits and men that are fathers of our flesh we have had fathers of our flesh and they verely for a few daies chastened us and wee gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live they chastened us for their pleasure but Hee for our profit that wee might bee partakers of his holinesse Wherein you see the comparison is laid out in severall particulars and the preheminencie the advantage of the comparison is given to God for so is the scope and intent of the Text. It lieth thus briefly First Wee have had fathers of our flesh and God is the Father of Spirits if we have beene contented to undergoe the discipline of our earthly fathers much more have we reason quietly and patiently to submit our selves to the proceedings of the Father of our spirits Secondly They for a few dayes chastened us and we gave them reverence it is but a few dayes neither that the Father of spirits meaneth to keepe us under his discipline suppose it be all our time and perhaps it shall be so yet all that is but the time of our minoritie and therefore if we have beene content to submit to our earthly parents theirdiscipline for a few dayes shall we not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits to his chastisement though it befor our life-time for the disproportion is infinitely greater between the time of this life compared with the state of maturitie and ripe age which the Saints shall come to hereafter and the time of our minoritie and childhood compared with the state of full age and man-hood in this life for alas how short are our dayes they are spent even as a tale
or over-gries any thing hee is troubled and disquieted Let not your hearts be troubled that is grieve not for things more then they are to be grieved for and feare not things more then they are to be feared For all these will dis-joynt the soule as it were it will put the spirit to much paine and disquit as a bone out of joynt Therefore by all meanes keepe your hearts in a right state in that order that God hath set them Let not your hearts be troubled That that I will briefly note here shall be but thus much that Men are wondrous prone even the very best men to be disturbed in their passions and affections Our Saviour Christ speakes it here to his Disciples to those that he had taught before whom hee had gone as an excellent example all his dayes yet these holy men these followers of Christ that had followed him through so many dangers and after so many teachings and instructings of them hee had need to call upon them to stirre them up to consider of their owne estate that their hearts might not bee troubled You may see the Maladie in the Medicine Every prohibition in the word supposeth a corruption and an aptnesse in the naturall heart and spirit of man to sinne and transgresse in that particular Therefore when Christ speakes to his Disciples and tells them they should not be troubled It shewes that even the best men are subject to excesse of passion and affection to be disturbed and troubled through immoderate feare or griefe for that was the case of the Disciples Now briefly I will shew the grounds of it and come to the Application because I will hasten This trouble that is upon the spirits sometimes of the best men it ariseth Partly from Gods providence and hand upon them And partly from Sathan And partly from themselves I will shew you the causes in these in particulars and then applie it First it riseth many times from the hand of God The Lord is said to bee a Sunne and a shield The Lord will be knowne to bee a Sunne and a shield to his people Now looke as it is with the earth when the Sunne withdraweth his light it is all darke and cold and dead So it is with the hearts of the best men when God withdrawes the light of his countenance from the soule it is as the earth at midnight And as it is with Souldiers in the battell if their shields be taken from them they are exposed to every dart and danger every thing may annoy them and wound them So it is in the state of the soule if God withdraw himselfe from it and doe not now support it as before and doe not fence and strengthen it as at other times the fierie darts of Sathan will pierce deepe into the soule and the spirit will not bee able to uphold it selfe against these assaults Now God withdrawes himselfe sometimes from his servants and that in speciall wisedome In respect either of the time past present to come Sometimes God doth it in respect of the time past and so hee doth it by way of correction First to correct his children for their former wantonnesse they have abused the expressions of love and now as a Father takes away the light from his child when hee sees hee makes no better use of it then to play with it So God sometimes takes away the light of his countenance that is he casts cloudes before himselfe he doth not manifest himselfe in that loving favour when his servants neglect that reverence and feare that hee expects from them in the midst of his mercies Secondly this hee doth sometimes as a correction of their negligence when God hath called on them from time to time and they have neglected calling on God hee hath called upon them for dutie and for the leaving of such particular evils and they have neglected it Now God withdrawes himselfe to make them know what it is to doe so And because they will not know what it is to heare his voyce when hee calls hee will make them feele it by his not hearing their voyce when they pray Sometimes hee calls to them as hee did to the Church in the Canticles Open to mee my sister my Spouse my love c. The Church is negligent and carelesse I have put off my cloathes how shall I put them on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them Now hee withdrawes himselfe from the soule and what is the end of it The Keepers strike her and the watch-men take away her vaile and now shee is left to trouble and perplexitie because Christ had absented himselfe whom shee would not entertaine when hee offered himselfe Thus God doth to correct that that is past And farther God doth it sometimes to correct that carnall confidence and securitie whereunto men are wondrous prone when they goe on in a cleare way with much comfort with wind and tide I said in my prosperitie saith David I shall never bee mooved thou Lord hast made my mountain so strong but what followeth upon it saith he Lord thou hidest thy face and I was troubled now trouble came upon him trouble of Spirit because he rested too much in that outward mountaine in that outward condition whereunto God had exalted him and he placed his hope too much on this and thought it should be alwaies thus now God turnes his hand then David is troubled and that is the first particular in the first cause But Secondly God hath a further ayme and that is for the time present and that is First to informe all his servants where their strength lies where all their good lies it lies not in themselves it lies not in any creature And therefore God will have them seeke it in him that they may do it he drawes them to it by sence they shall be deprived of comfort in respect sometime of outward conveniences and in respect sometime of the light of his countenance shining upon their soules How doe wee know that the Moone shines on the earth by a borrowed light but because wee see it is not alwayes alike in its light we see sometimes it hath a full light and sometimes it is enlightned but by the halfe and sometimes by some little part where wee see this disproportion that it is not alwayes alike wee know by this that the light of the Moone is borrowed from somewhat else from the Sunne Now how doe wee know that the heart of man is fed and releeved and supported with comfort from without it selfe with borrowed and received comfort but by this Because the state of Gods servants in respect of the spirituall quiet and satisfaction and contentment of heart is not alwayes alike but sometimes they have aboundance of joy that they seeme to bee as it were in heaven Sometimes they are perplexed with many disquiets and griefes that they seeme to be cast
upon this how they may die with comfort and end their dayes in peace How many prophane ones that set light by Death being apt to say like those Epicures Edamus c. Let us eate and drinke for to morrow wee shall die How many that doe put all to a desperate adventure God made us and hee must save us and wee shall doe as well as please God and there is an end How many are there whose hearts albeit they be in the house of God and in his presence are notwithstanding fraughted with malice with envie with worldlinesse with disdaine with secret scorning repining at the Word which they heare with wearisomenesse with spirituall sleepinesse and securitie You that are such as I have now said thinke in your consciences what would you die if God should now stop your breath and ascyte you by Death presently to appeare before his Majestie being thus full of ignorance of securitie of presumption of unsanctified of vicious of malicious of covetous thoughts could you find in your hearts to say Lord now let us depart Sure wee could not but Death must needs be to us as it is said to be to the wicked Rex terrorum the King of terrours if it should come upon us and find us in this case And yet what know wee how soone how suddenly wee may be overtaken some of us drop away daily some young some old some lie sicke longer some lesser time and how soone it will be our turne wee cannot tell Our breath is in our nostrills wee are all as grasse If the breath of the Lord blow upon us we doe suddenly wither as the flower of the field and returne agaâ—…e to our first Earth Why will we not labour to be now ready sith it may be alwayes truly said We may now depart either while we are here or in our way home or in our beds or at our meat Who can truly say to himselfe I am sure I shall not die this houre It may be now thou wilt demand of me What shall I doe that I may be ready To insist upon particulrs would be too long onely therefore in a word The best preparation for death is are formed life He that lives religiously cannot but die preparedly And it is a thousand to one if a wicked liver make a gracious end The Scripture makes mention of a double Death and so likewise of a twofold Resurrection the first Death is the death of the body which is the separation of it from the soule The second death is of the soule which is the separation of it from God The first Resurrection is the rising from the Death of sinne to a new life the second is that which shall be of the body out of the Grave at the day of Judgement Now what saith the Scripture Blessed and holy is hee that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power Wouldest thou then bee freed from the second Death hell and destruction when thou art dead Now that thou art yet alive labour to have a part in the first Resurrection Note what Saint Paul saith of the wanton widow that shee is dead whilst shee lives So he that lives in the pleasures of sinne and in the wayes of his owne heart and after his owne lust hee is dead in soule though hee be alive in body and if hee seeke not to come out of this grave eternall death shall be his portion Well then wouldest thou prepare for Death wouldest thou be able alwayes to say Lord now now I am ready labour to know God our of his Word that is eternall life Labour to feele Christ live and reigne in thee by his Spirit labour to renounce every sinne doe not goe on in any knowne sinne against conscience renew thy repentance daily and still survey the state of thy soule that wickednesse may not get dominion over thee Let Death come when it will though the Lord should so visit thee that thou shouldest drop downe suddenly yet it shall not find thee unprepared thou hast a part in the first Resurrection there is no feare of the second Death But if thou wilt cherish thy heart in evil thou wilt goe on in thy ignorance in thy carelesse worship of God in thy prophaning the Sabbath in thy whoredome oppression malice drunkennesse excesse voluptuousnesse thou makest ready for hell and it is not thy Lord save me or I cry God mercy c. that shall serve thy turne I will tell thee who thou art like unto even to a man appointed after a yeare or two to be burned and in the meane space must carry a sticke daily to the heape so thou heapest up wrath against thy selfe and makest thy score so great that when Death comes thou shalt not know how to be prepared And thus have I finished the first generall part of my Text touching the disposition of the godly in respect of Death I proceed now in a word to the second the ground rule or warrant of this desire and preparation for death according to thy word as if Simeon had said this desire that I have now to end my dayes proceeds not from any carnall discontentment because I am now old and can take no great comfort in worldly things but the ground of it is thy Word and Promise thou Lord hast revealed unto thy servant that I should not die before I had seene my Saviour This word is now fulfilled and the sweetnesse thereof hath given mee that encouragement that I doe even long to bee dissolved and to be united unto thee Or againe thus Oh Lord this care that I have had to provide thus for Death and to be alwayes in a readinesse it hath not come from my selfe nature never taught it mee but thy Word hath instructed mee If I had not proceeded according to thy Word I should never have knowne how to have prepared my selfe to the time of dissolution This is the meaning of the words and so the Doctrine is plain viz. that Men ignorant in Gods word can never take comfort in death nor bee truly prepared to undergoe it This is plaine if we consider the Exposition which I have already given of that part of Simeons speech It is a generall Rule that of our Saviour Yee erre not knowing the Scripture A man ignorant in the Scripture can never rightly performe any spirituall dutie Hence was that of David Thy testimonies saith he are my delight and my counsellours If any matter came in hand that concerned his soule straight to the word of God went hee to know thence how to doe it as a man for his Lease or conveyance goeth to a Counsellour for direction So againe he confesses that if Gods Law had not beene his delight hee should have perished in his afflictions And so no comfort no true quiet in any trouble much more at Death without the guidance and information of the Word The
assurance that the sting of Death is plucked out that Gods wrath is appeased that sinne is pardoned that Heaven gate is opened whence shall wee fetch these but from the Scripture the directions for a holy life which is the best preparation for Death where shall we find them but in the Scripture Here then we see is a Caveat to all that have no will nor desire to be acquainted with the Scripture Divers thinke they should have done well enough though wee had no such Booke as we call the word of God To bee a Scripture-man is a by-word a reproach a matter of disgrace and sooner will men listen to some idle Pamphlet then to a matter of Scripture Well beguile not your soules with these vaine conceipts with your Popish and carnall imaginations I say and testifie from this place that that man or woman which careth not to be taught out of Gods booke cannot die like a Christian Who can teach thee the way to dye well but God And where doth God teach but in the Scripture If our thoughts of Death if our provision and preparation for Death be not warranted and guided by Gods word it is all in vaine Lord saith Simeon my desire of dissolution is according to thy Word my care to be prepared hath beene ordered by thy Word hee cannot die with comfort that cannot make the like profession And this may serve for the next generall part the the ground of this desire and preparation for Death it is Gods word Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart according to thy Word The third and last part followes the nature and qualitie of the death of the Righteous A departure in peace or a peaceable dismission Here are two things first a dismission secondly a dismission accompanied with peace The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Let thy servant depart may well be Englished thus Let thy servant loose Lord free mee enlarge mee set mee at libertie Hence wee learne that The servants of God doe by Death receive a finall discharge from all manner of miserie This is evident out of the force of the phrase here used Simeon knew that so long as hee lived his soule was as it were imprisoned in his body and in it hee was held in bondage under the remnants of Originall corruption subject to the assaults and temptations of Satan in continuall and daily possibilitie to trespasse and sinne against God beside other afflictions and grievances in the body and estate but hee had withall this knowledge and understanding of the nature of Death that it was an enlargement to the soule and a freeing of it utterly and finally from all those and the like incumbrances The same may be gathered from the phrase used by Saint Paul I desire saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bee dissolved and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read the time of my departure the words shew that there comes a liberty by death to the soules of Gods servants The phrase that Saint Peter useth is worthy our observation for this purpose First hee tearmes death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laying downe of a burden and by that meanes the soule is lightned and eased Secondly he tearmes it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a going out from a place and condition of hardship The second booke of Moses which relates the departure of the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage hath the same name Exodus As for the point it selfe namely that the death of the Righteous is to them a discharge from all miserie the Scripture beares witnesse to it Blessed said he are the dead which die in the Lord even so saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours As long as they live here they are diversly troubled when they die their labours are at an end and they are received into rest Saint Iohn tells us that in his vision he saw the soules of them that were slaine lye under the Altar Now the Altar in the time of the Law was a place of refuge and safetie and thence it appeares that by death the servants of God are eft-soones received into a place of holy securitie where there is no expectation of any further miserie They are said to be received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into Abrahams bosome into the fellowship of the same happinesse with Abraham the Father of all true beleevers The Doctrine in the first place makes against those of the Church of Rome which maintaine a place of torment even for the servants of God after this life where they must bee tryed for a time before they can enter into Rest and happinesse This place they terme Purgatorie the torment here they hold to bee unspeakable and farre surpassing any torment which the wit of man is able to devise But this place among others is sufficient to overthrow this dotage for how were death to the Righteous a dismission a loosing a freedome from miserie if there followed after it a torment of farre greater extremitie then at any time before was ever tasted of So that the death of the servants of God being as I have proved it to bee an enlargement from misery certainly the soule is not bound in any new Prison whence it must expect and await and pray for a second dismission In the next place this Doctrine makes much for the comfort of Gods servants the face of Death to the wicked is very dreadfull the day of it is to them the beginning of sorrowes their soules are instantly arrested by the damned spirits and kept in everlasting chaines of darknesse but to those that are the servants of God it is otherwise I may by way of allusion to the phrase of my Text compare their day unto that which happened unto Ioseph in which hee was brought out of prison to bee Ruler over all the land of Egypt So is their death unto them a day of Bailement out of prison a day in which all teares shall be wiped away In which they shall have beauty for ashes and the oyle of gladnesse for the spirit of heavinesse and the long white robes of Christs Righteousnesse by which they shall be presented blamelesse unto God That day shall be to them even as was the day of escape to the Jewes a feast and a good day in which they shall see God as hee is and know him as they are knowne of him But hapily thou maist say how shall I know that the day of Death is the day of dissolution and this kind of dismission A very necessary quaere indeed this is for every man almost is ready to challenge to himselfe a part of this happinesse and it is a matter presumed upon by many which shall never enjoy it I will therefore give you one certaine marke by which wee may know assuredly that the day of our death shall be to us a day of enlargement and of finall discharge
thou hast this Hope in thee yea or no and thou must be sure that thou beest so farre from being a desperate past-hope like Cain that rather thou beleeve and hope above hope with Abraham not presuming but beleeving as hee did Now then how a man may know whether hee have this Hope in him or no I thinke he may find it out thus in few words There are divers temptations and especially three of a mans faith not to enlarge my selfe further in every of which Hope if it come in and play its part then it doth appeare to bee present to bee there As for example The first temptation that is a kinde of batterie against the strong hold of a mans faith it is the prorogation of Gods promises Hee is pleased to put them off longer and to dispose of them many times other waies then wee looke for Hereupon wee that are weake in Faith wee stumble at it and wee would hasten them on apace though wee know what the Prophet sayth Hee that beleeveth maketh not haste But we are such faithlesse persons that wee hasten on too much and would have God to come apace to make good his promises Now when God deferres these promises if a man commeth in with his hope and sayth The vision is yet for an appointed time though it tarrie waite for that that shall come will come and hee will not tarrie and though the Lord doth hide himselfe as it is in the Prophesie of Isaiah yet hee will returne againe If Hope will prompt Faith and tell it that the Lord is not slacke as some count slacknesse but hee will make sure his promise in the end then this is a manifest signe to a man that hath his faith thus supported that Hope is present there Here is then one search of it Another time there is another temptation that betideth a faithfull man and that comes to passe by Gods appearing in a manner an enemie by visiting him in his soule by wounding his conscience by setting him in a kinde of sight of Hell when hee is distressed in spirit as if God were now come out as a man of Warre against him and would not have mercie upon him Now if Hope can come in and say that God cannot forget to bee gracious nor cannot shut up his living kindnesse in displeasure and therefore I will endure and I will stay on the Lord for Hee will appeare and Hee will have mercy upon Zion I when the time the appoynted time commeth I will stay this time If I say Hope thus perswadeth the faithfull man of this goodnesse of God that shall bee revealed to him here is a manifest signe Hope is present There is a third temptation that Faith meets withall and that is concerning the mockings of men in the World when they deride the profession of Christians and faithfull men and will say as those profane and profuse fellowes in the Epistle of Saint Peter Where is the promise of his comming it is so long since his promise was made and yet there is none of his comming Wilt thou still retaine thine integritie right Iobs Wife as shee speakes to him wilt thou still retaine thy trust to what purpose is it It is in vaine to serve the Lord as those wicked ones speake in Malachie Now if Hope will come in and say notwithstanding all these things yet passe by bad report and good report be of Davids minde I will yet bee more vile before the Lord that chose mee before thee and thy fathers house and I will stand it out notwithstanding all the mockings of men Here is a manifest signe that there is Hope Thus you may seeke to find this grace in your selves and you shall find it by many such kind of assaults as these which Faith meeteth withall Now as you are to find it so you are to fight against the hinderances of this Hope And the hinderances of a mans hope are sometimes slavish feare sometimes an impatient spirit and sometimes even Death it selfe and that is a tedious affront indeed that Hope meeteth withall First Feare a kind of passion and perturbation of the spirit of a man that makes his griefe begin before his affliction comes upon him this same Feare hath a great deale of painfulnesse in it Where the fearfull are they are shut out with the unfaithfull and without shall bee dogges with those that are subject to this fearefulnesse Now Hope commeth to a man and saith Though I sometime be afraid yet put I my trust in God and therefore I will not feare what man can doe unto mee I will not be daunted with any kind of slavish terrour Hold out thou that sayst thou hast faith and bee not afraid of the Arrow that flies by day nor of the terrour by night Here is the hinderance of this hope taken away Then there is an impatient spirit that many times possesseth men An impatient spirit and a hopefull heart they are both as contrary as can be You shall have many a man so touchy that hee cannot endure any delay he must have things come according to his owne mind or he loseth his patience presently Oh but I will patiently waite for the Lord saith hope And here is the opposition that must be made for the maintenance of this hope against all kind of impatiencie In patience possesse your soules The last hinderance is death The last enemie that shall be destroyed is death Wee have many enemies in this world our very life is a warfare but amongst all the fightings and combates wee meete with in the world there is none comparable to this last single combate we must undergoe with death it selfe this is a terrible assault that betideth the hopefull faithfull man to know that notwithstanding all his faith and all his hope and all his love and all his patience what grace or vertue soever hee hath else yet notwithstanding he must goe downe to the grave make his bed in the darknesse and lie downeâ—… the dust and when he hath fought all that he can yet notwithstanding hee must downe he must yeeld hee must take the foyle the fall in the body howsoever the soule escapeth Now here is a kind of dismaidment of hope But I will tell you how it is spoken of the faithfull and so of the hopefull The faithfull are said to endure as seeing him that is invisible how doe they endure by the supplie of hope for this hope is it that makes the faithfull against all hinderances to fight it out so as that they would not bee delivered as it is spoken in the Epistle to the Hebrewes And shall death separate us from that we hope for No saith the hopefull man it shall not Yea so farre he is from being unwilling to submit himselfe to this way as knowing it to bee the way whereby he commeth to that he hopeth for as
that he is very ready and greedy of death it is the way to that I hope for saith he therefore it is sweetly spoken of an Ancient and you will acknowledge it to be a sweet sentence of that Father Saint Austin Hee that desireth to bee dissolved according to that of the Apostle and to bee with Christ Non patienter moritur Hee doth not die patiently See here is a faithfull a hopefull man and yet doth not die patiently what would the Father say Hee liveth saith he patiently the very life he liveth putteth him to his patience when he commeth to die hee dieth pleasantly he goeth away with his hope and his hope is full of immortalitie And no more for that point The nex thing I observe is concerning the Object of this hope and this is it that Christ is the Object of the Christians hope We have hope in Christ. Heare it in the generall heare it in the speciall In the generall 1 Tim. 1. 1. Saint Paul he beginneth his Epistle with Christ our hope Col. 1. 27. The riches of the mysterie of Gods grace to the Gentiles is Christ in you the hope of glory Here is Christ our hope and Christ your hope in the generall In the speciall heare it in Saint Paul heare it in the Prophets and others Saint Paul to mee to live is Christ to die is gaine Christ is to me in life and Death advantage living or dying I am Christs I have hoped in the Lord saith the Prophet David And God is my hope and hath beene my helpe even from my youth This is the generall song of the whole Church God is our hope and therefore the Prophet Iacob made an excellent Ejaculation in those blessings he gave his sonnes when he said Oh Lord I have waited for thy salvation Here was his waiting his hope for the salvation of God from the God of his salvation And so let him slay me if hee will saith holy Iob yet notwithstanding I will still trust in him Thus the faithfull have hope and their hope is in Christ. No more of it for the enlargement of it It sheweth to us in the first place this Note that A Christians wings doe mount him above all meanes What are his wings his hope Whether flyeth his hope It takes its flight up to heaven to God to the right hand of God to Christ there is his hope So then he that hath this hope being poore he flyeth not to riches for they make themselves wings and flye away from him Being weake hee flyeth not to the arme of flesh for in man there is no hope nor no confidence to bee put in Prinâ—…s in the Ballance they are lighter then vanitie it selfe sayth the Psalmist Being sicke hee flieth not to the Physitian he fleeth to these as the meanes not to rest in them to make it the maine of his aime the scope of his hope hee doth not flie thus to them but hee goeth to God that commandeth all that worketh above all against all and without all means and sanctifieth all these means Therfore wel sayth the poore man God is my help and the sick man God is my health and the weak man God is my strength and the blinde man Christis my light and even the dead man the distrest man God is my life the good man Christ is my Hope and the happie man Christ is my love And so it is to Christ that the wings of a mans Hope doth lift him up This is the first It sheweth us that the wings of Hope that is in the faithfull soule lifteth him up above all meanes No more of that Secondly observe in this object the very Crowne of a Christians comfort I say the Crowne of all his comfort and that commeth onely from this object of his hope For what is there in all the World that can comfort a man indeed besides this much lesse compared with this Begin where you will when you have gone round about you will conclude with that of the Apostle I count all things but losse and dung in comparison of Christ and all things to bee vanitie and vexation of spirit as the Preacher saith Put the case thou art a sicke man or a sicke woman and I finde thee much affected afflicted dejected cast downe in thy selfe I would faine give thee some comfort now I tell thee of the vanitie of this present life therfore being content I tell thee of the hope of a better life I tell thee of the joyes that are to be revealed I tell thee of the promises of God which hee will make good to thee if thou wilt trust in his mercie I tell thee of all the sure mercies of David as they are called and all this while I have told thee nothing at all to comfort thee till I come to this the object of this Hope which I have in hand and that is Jesus Christ in whom all Gods promises are Yea and Amen and till thou canst learne this lesson of life concerning the Lord Jesus thou hast learned nothing come and learn this and my life for thine thou art then happy He is the Way the Truth and the Life the Way and Truth and Life it selfe and whether shall I goe from thee Lord thou hast the words of eternall life I have done with that Point and so passe on to the third Wee have Hope wee have Hope in Christ wee have Hope in Christ in this life This life-time then is our hope-time that is it you learne hence Here we have the feed of Hope but the harvest of Hope that is hereafter when wee shall have in re what now we have in spe as ordinarily wee speake when wee shall have in possession what now wee haue in expectation then there will bee no more use of this Grace there hope shall cease Now it is indeed in this life time that wee sow the seedes of Prayer that wee plant the roots of Faith that wee water all of them with our hope when our joy shall spring up when the end and fruit of our faith shall come when the possession of our hope shall appeare then we have done with hope hope serveth no longer then therefore it is now in this life Hope shall end for the action of it understand that aright as Faith shall but it shall never end for the object of it that end shall last still and rest ever Now then in the interim this is the Prophets and this is the Princes and this is the Peoples posse I wayte and I wayte too and I trust the Lord over all Now is your posse time as I may call it now is the seed time wherein we sow the seeds of love of joy of hope wherein we sow the seeds of sobrietie and innocencie and chastitie and charitie and all manner of vertues whatsoever now is the time Is this so then here is the
Father to begâ—…t them they are begotten by the same Word of Truth they enjoy the same Mother the Church Ierusalem that is abovâ—… is free and is the Mother of us all they are brethren together of the same Familie And therefore beloved let men see and acknowledge this that whatsoever difference there is of Nation yet they are all of the same Houshold in this respect You see the Iewes notwithstanding they were distinguished by Tribes yet they are all nominated together the House of Israel So all the people of God let their distinctions bee never so distant in respect of wealth of naturall birth of decent or outward ornament they are brethren of the same Familie notwithstanding Beloved let us looke to this Point we â—…re all brethren and all of the same House Is it not a shame then when one brother is full to suffer another to dye with famine and hunger for one of the same House to let his brother sincke under reproach and disgrace not offering his assistance or his hand to helpe him and prevent his extreamitie If this be the taske and dutie of Christians that they should especially looke to them of the Houshold of Faith let the instâ—…ction stirre up oâ—… endeavours to the performance of this dutie and above all the affection wee beare to others let the respect wee beare to the people of God bee advanced Saith our Saviour Christ when you come to a place aske who is worthie and I could heartily wish that you who intend any worke of mercie out of the estate which the providence of God hath enabled you withall according to the command of this dutie would propound the same rule unto your selves enquiring first who are worthie Bestow not your charitie at randome as it is the manner of many such are in want and they looâ—…e no further but enquire where you may bee furnished with better directions who are worthie and who are of the Houshold of Faith and inhabitants of the Familie such you are to labour to find and having found them looke to them And the more to incite you to this dutie know that Christ calls for it and doth continually expect it He would have you especially to have an eye to his members I was hungrie and you did not feed mee hee calls for it that gave you your wealth Neither doth hee demand any thing that is not his owne as David confesseth in his Provision for the Temple of thine owne have I given thee so you may account of whatsoever Christ calls for if it bee to your estate it came by his donation and hee gave it you first If you bestow any gift on your Children you thinke you may reserve that power unto your selves to take it againe at your pleasure and give it unto whom you list and shall not God be allowed that priviledge 〈◊〉 hee that conferres many liberall bâ—…ssings on thee Sure thou art much in his debt and it argues too foule an ingratitude if hee lend thee a Million and thou refusest to pay him a Mite Againe if hee call for it t' is not for thy lossâ—… that he requires it but will give thee better riches Aske of him and he will give you the Holy Ghost nay the kingdome of Heaven and those are riches farre above the value of any substance thou enjoyest Aske of him and hee will forgive your sinnes 10000. Tallents whereas hee demands but one penny of thee I daâ—… say he doth greater things for thee already then he desires for others Againe consider what want you have of him that demands this Hee gives you dayly bread give us this day ouâ—… dayly bread if you did not receive dayly bread and a blessing on it â—…om him you neither could have bread nor enjoy life by it Againe make on what termes he requires it t' is but to be lent and to bee lent upon Usurie too Many covetoâ—…s earth-worms would bee glad to heare of the most advantage by Intrest of money yet no Usurie is lawfull except this and this is spoken in this phrase to no other purpose but to convince the world of sinne that seeke gaine to their owne losse and procure their profit a wrong way Hee that gives to the poore hee lends to the Lord upon Usurie It is the confession of the Usurer that to receive ten in the hundred is great gaine and hee concludes that much advantage doth acrue to his Coffors and accounts it a prosperous profession Miserable trading when wee exchange our Soules and expose them to eternall destruction for the procurement of a little wealth of this world which hath not a minutes subsistance But This is the trade of advantage not ten in the hundred but a hundred for ten nay a hundred for one To enjoy a hundred for one here and in the world to come eternall life is advantage farre above the comparison of any gaine the earth can afford us Further marke who it is that askes this at thy hands even hee whose favour thou must one day seeke for whose countenance thou wouldest give all the world it is hee before whose seat thou must appeare that calls for this dutie of doing good with thy estate while thou enjoyest it denie not this small courtesie to him lest his favours being abused turne into anger and thou become a miserable instance of his heavie displeasure No man desiring the favour of a Prince or Judge in some businesse of importance but would gladly embrace an occasion of doing him a pleasure before the tryall of his cause that so the Judge may take notice of his good will and gratifie his kindnesse Beloved wee have speciall use for the favour of Christ and must all appeare before his Iudgement seate Now wee have opportunitie sufficient Christ in his poore members of the houshold of faith comes to you expecting favour at your hands hee wills you to doe good to them and to him in them What you bestow on them he accounts as a courtesie to himselfe In asmuch as you have done it to those it extends unto him and what is denied them he takes it as an inâ—…urie to himselfe In asmuch as you have not done it to those you have not done it to him Therefore looke how you extend mercy here to enjoy it hereafter and as you expect the favour of the Judge make way for his kindnesse by the performance of his will in a seasonable contribution during this life hee that useth not mercy here shall find none hereafter and Iudgement shall bee mercilesse saith the Apostle to them that shew not mercie Nay looke that such mercy â—…e showâ—…e as God expecteth you that are wealthy according to the wealth and riches you possesse God will accept of no beggerly present from a wealthy man neitheâ—… will he receive a poore reward from the Coffers of him that hath horded up much red â—…ay where hee hath 〈◊〉 liberally hee wilâ—… 〈◊〉 liberally Looke to it for
shall be called to an account and he that beat his fellow servant shall bee eternally judged by a righteous God and their honour shall sincke in the dust neither shall their riches deliver them from wrath but they shall see him whom they have peirced and persecuted and shall not be able to escape his presence A dismall thing will this bee that a man shall have his honour die and the great God put disgrace upon him a dismall change indeed when a man shall see all his power changed into impotencie his pleasures into torment and wrath put upon his soule when God shall separate thee from his presence thou shalt not have a drop of ease nor any friend to assist thee nor any hope of comfort thou shalt bee stript of them all and in a moment shall a change of all this bee O considr this if there be any here that forget God least he teare you in peeces and there bee none to helpe remember and consider your latter end and applie your hearts to wisedome Last of all shall there be a change that shall befall every sonne of man then Oh that this people were wise as Moses sayth that they would remember their latter end all the dayes of our appointed time to waite till our change come What do you thinke of servants to whom you had committed servile employments till you came home and if when you come home they were absent and you found one in the street drunke another in a chamber with a strumpet how would you take this Brethren thinke upon it we are Gods servants or should bee two things are imposed upon us one to honour God another to save our owne soules if hee finde us doing the workes of the Divell and the flesh and finde us in the workes of the World how will hee take this Come saith God I have lent you a life thus many years I told you what you should be and what you should doe and what have you beene doing all this life what have your workes been what courses have you taken are these the fruits of your waies to have a life runne over with ignorance with prophanesse c. Alas when a man at that time shall have nothing to say but Lord I have lived in such a sin all my dayes I have fulfilled my owne desires thou hast set mee in this World and I have laboured to get a great estate all my dayes Another may say I have spent my time in drunken societie c. What will God say to these men are these the endings of thy life the fruits of thy opportunities where is the repentance I called for at thy hands where is that godly sorrow that I called for for the sins of thy life did not I send thee into the world for this end to get Grace to get Faith to make up thy accounts with mee thy God and hast thou no regard to it Well thou hast beene foolish inconsiderate for the time that is past yet now understand that a day of change will befall thee O let us be perswaded I beseech you bee perswaded to it in this our day to know the things that concerne our peace whilest it is called to day not to harden our hearts whilest it is called to day not to deferre our repentance thou art not assured of any more time then present Death may meet with thee as thou settest in thy seat as thou goest out of the Church doore and thou knowest thy heart hath beene wicked oh why wilt thou set thy eternall estate upon so small a point as it were the cast of a Die Remember what Daniel sayd to Nebuchadnezar let it have acceptance with thee breake off thy sinnes by repentance c. Seing we must dye and appeare before the judgement seate of God what manner of persons ought we to bee in all holinesse of life and conversation as soone as we are we begin to sinne and as soone as wee are wee begin to dye let us looke upon our account and bee faithfull to our soules perhaps thy accounts are yet to make oh bee sure to let it bee the first thing thou doest and give thy selfe no rest till thou hast done it and when thou hast done this labour to cleare it with the bloud of Christ labour by humble confession and hearty repentance to turne unto the Lord goe on in a holy course and then assuredly wee shall live with joy and dye with peace when wee can get grace in our soules sorrow for our sins newnesse in our natures reformation in our lives uprightnes in our waies faith in Christ a discharge from God peace of conscience oh what a happie day the day of death will bee to our Soules FINIS ἙΞΑΛΈΞΙΟΠHEXALEXIUM OR SIX CORDIALS TO STRENGTHEN THE HEART OF EVERY FAITHFVLL CHRISTIAN AGAINST THE TERROURS OF DEATH By DANIEL FEATLEY D. D. Chaplaine to his sacred Majestie Philip. 1. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is to me life and death is to me advantage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Immortall descended into a single combate with Death and gave Death a deaths-wound by his death Greek Liturg. LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Nicolas Bourne 1639. ITER NOVISSIMUM OR MAN HIS LAST PROGRESSE A SERMON PREACHED At the Funerall of the Right Worshipfull Sir THOMAS THINNE Knight SERMON XLI ECCLES 12. 5. Man goeth to his long home and the Mourners goe about the streetes ALthough I might in the Kings King Solomons name command yet I will rather in the Preachers his other style humbly entreate your religious attention to the last Scene and Catastrophe of mans life consisting of two Acts and those very short 1 The dead his passe he goeth c. 2 The Mourners march they goe about c. Whereas the whole Scripture is a Volumne of divine Sermons and the Authour of every booke a Preacher and every Chapter a lesson and every verse and piece of a verse a Text. Gregorie Nysscen reasonably demands why this Book which treateth throughout of the vanity of the world and miserie of man is intituled The booke of the Preacher To passe by other answers rendred by him and others not so pertinent to our present purpose I conceive this title of the Preacher is in speciall set over this booke to intimate unto us that according to the Argument thereof there is no Doctrine so fit for all Preachers to teach and all hearers to learne as the vanitie of the creature and the emptinesse of all earthly delights and comforts And in very deed there is no meditation more serious then upon the vanitie of the world no consideration more seasonable then of the brevitie and uncertainty of time it selfe no knowledge more wholesome then of the diseases of the mind no contemplation more divine then of humane miserie and frailtie Which though we reade in the inscription of every stone see in the fall of every leafe here in the knole of every bell taste
for thy sinnes and call upon the only true God with confession and faith pardon is given unto the confessing thy sinnes and saving grace is granted to thee by the divine pietie or mercie and at the very moment of death thou hast à passage to immortalitie Secondly Eccles. 12. 5. Man goeth to his long home and the Mourners goe about the streetes Which words Gregorius of Neocesarea thus paraphraseth The good man shall goe to his everlasting house rejoycing but the wicked shall fill all with lamentations And S. Cyprian allâ—…ding to this passage resolveth that after this temporall life is ended we are diversly bestowed at the Innes of death or immortalitie at neither of which hangeth any signe of Purgatorie as any man may see Thirdly Luke 16. 22. The begger dyed and was carried by Angells into Abrahams bosome This beggers case Macharius a learned Monke of Egypt maketh a president for all the servants of God who when they remove out of the body the quires of Angels receive their soules into their owne side into the pure world and so brings them unto the Lord. And Saint Ierome raiseth a strong fort of comfort upon the ground of this parable Let the dead bee lamented but such a one whom hee doth receive for whose paine everlasting fire doth burne but let us whose departure a troupe of Angells doth accompanie whom Christ commeth forth to meet account it a grievance if wee doe longer dwell in this tabernacle of death And as Machareus and Saint Ierome so Saint Hillarie also draweth a generall rule from their example that as soone as this life is ended every one without delay is sent over either to Abrahams bosome or to the place of torment and in that state are reserved till the day of Iudgement Fourthly Luke 23. 43. This day thou shalt be with mee in Paradise and Philip. 1. 23. I desire to bee dissolved and to bee with Christ and 2 Cor. 5. 18. If our earthly tabernacle be dissolved we shall have an eternall in the heavens and when we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord From whence Iustine Martyr inferreth After the departure of the soule out of the body there is presently made a distinction betwixt the just and unjust for the soules of the righteous are carried by Angels into Paradise where they have commerce and sight of Angels and Archangels but the soules of the unjust to hell and Tertullian collecteth that it is an injurie to Christ to hold that such as bee called from hence by him are in a state that should bee pittied whereas they have obtained the chiefe ayme of their desires If we repine at this that others have obtained this their desire by this our grudging at it we seem to be unwilling to obtain the like and his scholler S. Cypriam censureth them yet more severely who either feare death or leave this world in discontent it is for him to feare death who is not willing to goe to Christ it is for him to bee unwilling to goe to Christ who doth not beleeve that he beginneth to reigne with Christ if thou dost truely beleeve in God and art secure of his promise why dost thou not embrace the message that thou art called to Christ why dost thou not rejoyce that thou shalt be rid of the divell Fiftly 1 Iohn 1. 7. the blood of Christ purgeth us from all sinne no sinne is therefore left for Purgatorie fire to burne out Were there sinnes to be purged yet after the night of this present life there is no place left saith Gregorie Nazianzen for purging it is better to be corrected and purged now saith he then to be sent to torments there where the the time of punishing is and not of purging But to leave other springs this in my Text affordeth store of water to extinguish Purgatory fire and therefore our adversaries seeke to damme it up two manner of wayes First by restraining this Text to Martyrs onely who die in the Lords quarrell though their soules flye to heaven their wings being not singed with this fire yet others say they are not saved but after some time of abode in it Secondly by cooling the heat of this fire and making it not only tolerable but also comfortable bearing us in hand that they that are in Purgatory may be said to be blessed because they rest from the labours of this life and they are secure of their eternall estate they are sure to feele no other hell From the first starting-hole I have beaten them already by demonstrating that all that beleeve in Christ are ingrafted by faith into his mysticall body and consequently that as they live in him so they die in him in which regard the Apostle speaking of all that depart in the faith of Christ saith they sleepe in the Lord and die in Christ. Their second starting hole is lesse safe then the former for to say that this blessednes and Purgatory paines may subsist in the same soule is an assertion neither politique nor reasonable First it is not politique for if they coole Purgatory fire in such sort they will stop the Popes Mint from going perswade the vulgar that the soules in Purgatory are in a tollerable nay in some sort in a blessed estate because they rest from their labours and their workes follow them and the Priests may set their heart at rest for gaining any remarkable summes for Dirges and the Popes tole-gatherers also for sucking any great advantage out of pardons to ransome soules out of Purgatory And as this answere standeth not with their profit so neither agreeth it well with their owne tenents for they teach that Purgatory fire is as hot as Hell for the time surpassing the smartest torment that can bee devised or ever was endured on earth and call they those happy who lie soultring in this fire yea but when they are there they receive singular comfort in this that they are sure they shall never go to hell Surely small comfort to one who is in hellish torments and shall continue there he knowes not how long to tell him that he is sure he shall goe to no other Hell and how prove they that Purgatory is a supersedeas to Hell What security have they for it Gods Word but in all Gods Word there is no sillable of Purgatory neither let they the people to know Gods Word for in Spaine and generally where the inquisition is in force the proverbe is that he smels of a Faggot who is found with a Bible about him in the mother tongue These things being so I wonder that any ordinary Papist be willing to die seeing the best hee can hope for is to bee cast presently into the flames of Purgatory and there to frie hee knowes not how long perhaps a hundred perhaps a thousand yeares But God be blessed for it we have otherwise learned of Christ and his blessed Apostles Wee know that if our earthly tabernacle
woman that doth that but shee may perhaps out-live her Husband A vertuous woman will doe him good and not evill all the dayes of her life And for this amongst many other things I doe commend this vertuous Gentlewoman I may almost say with the words there in the end of that Chapter Many daughters have done excellently but thou surmountest them all So I may say many women peradventure have done excellently in this kind but I doe not know of any one that ever hath done the like to her Husband I pray you heare it Her Husband had a brother that lived in Portugall at the time of his death who was there married he had there three children at least two sonnes and a daughter This vertuous good Woman would give her selfe no rest till she had these children out of Portugall shee got the two sonnes hither And what was her care here is another excellencie of hers her chiefe care was for their soules What did shee or rather what did shee not to winne those children from Poperie in which they have beene brought up and to bring them to the true service of God Shee obtained it she got it When shee had done that wonne them to our religion she had not done all one of these had a desire to exercise some Merchandise by Sea Shee furnished him to the Sea shee furnished him with money for his adventures The other shee bound Apprentise here in the Citie to an honest trade and shee hath given them a liberall childes portion I may say so A childes portion that they may thanke God and I hope they wil have the grace to do it that they had I do not say such an Aunt in law but such a Mother Here was not all Shee sent for the Mother too shee was but sister-in-law to her Husband she sent for the Mother she sent for the Daughter they were here Shee clothed them she fed them some moneths and if shee could have wonne them to our religion she would have maintained the Mother while shee had lived shee would have brought up the Daughter as her owne child But that could not be done it was a worke beyond her strength You see here a vertuous Woman that did good to her Husband not all the dayes of his life but all the dayes of her life To the very last day of her life shee never did cease to doe good to her Husband in his kindred and I thinke I may say that shee was more carefull of his kindred then of her owne But this is not all This kindnesse you will say was shewed to her Husbands kindred Heare a little more therefore Shee knew that there were many Ministers that had a great charge of children and peradventure would be very glad to have some of their children taken off of their hands Shee hath given to the putting out of five Ministers children to bind them Apprentices fiftie pounds Shee knew that there were some poore persons of the Palatinate here which stood in necessitie Shee hath given to the reliefe of them twentie pounds Shee knew that there were many poore soules that lay in Turkish slavery Shee hath given for the redeeming of them twentie pounds Nay yet more Shee considered that her Husband was sometime a poore scholler in the Universitie of Cambridge And shee considered too that there are many Ministers Widowes that lived well while their husband lived that are faine to crave reliefe the greater is the shame of some men when they are dead Shee hath therefore given five hundred pounds to purchase lands and with this land to maintaine partly two Schollers in the Universitie from their first comming thither till they bee Masters of Art And then with the residue to maintaine foure Widowes that have beene the Wives of honest preaching Ministers Zacheus his offer was but halfe of his goods Lord halfe of my goods I give to the poore For ought I can perceive and understand above halfe of her estate shee hath given to charitable uses I say no more of her These workes of her will praise her in the gates Shee died in the Countrey And I am sorry that I had not information as I did desire of her behaviour in her sicknesse I have it not I can say nothing of it but thus much It was not possible that such a creature that lived thus as we know she did in obedience to God in repentance in faith with invocation of Gods mercie in Charity in Peace but that her death was blessed Shee that lived in the Lord no question but she died in the Lord and shee is blessed for Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. God Lord teach us to number our dayes that wee may apply our hearts to wisedome and grant that as we grow in yeares we may grow in knowledge of thy truth in obedience to thy will in faith in thy promises in love toward thee and toward our neighbours for thy sake that when wee come to the end of our dayes wee may come to the end of our hope the salvation of our soules through Jesus Christ to whom with thee oh Father and thee oh holy Spirit three Persons but one true and immortall and onely wise God be given both from us and all thy creatures in heaven and in earth continuall praise honour glory dominion and power now and for evermore Let all those that heare the word of God depart from iniquitie Now the God of Peace that brought againe from the dead our Lord Iesus the great Shepheard of the sheepe through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect to doe his will working in you that which is pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ. Amen FINIS THE CHRISTIANS CENTER OR HOW TO LIVE TO GOD. PHILIP 1. 20. Christ shall bee magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death 2 COR. 5. 15. They which live should not hence-forth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose againe LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE CHRISTIANS CENTER OR HOW TO LIVE TO GOD. SERMON X. ROM 14. 7. For none of us liveth to himselfe and no man dieth to himselfe for whether we live we live to the Lord and whether wee die wee die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die wee are the Lords THese words containe an Argument or reason which the Apostle useth to prove that the weake Christian should bee borne withall and that men should not judge because of the difference of meat amongst them Hee sheweth that they did not with the neglect of the knowledge of any truth keepe themselves ignorant in this particular but it was their weaknesse The strong should beare with the weake and the weake should not censure the strong the reason is because they agree in one end they propound one generall end to themselves that guides them in all their actions they walke in one way and in one path and