lesson is That even the Godly are sometimes much afraid of bodily death You see your example is plaine The disciples thinking they should presently be drowned crie out we perish so did Peter their mouth in that excellent confession of their faith seeing the wind boisterous he was afraid and when he began to sinke he cried Lord save me The Doctrine is sufficiently confirmed and so I might leave it But because many of Gods children are herewith greatly troubled and Satan assaulteth their soules suggesting that they have not faith nor true peace of conscience nor are in good estate with God because they are so fearefull to die give me leave a little to inlarge my selfe for their comfort and for illustration of this Doctrine present unto you foure glasses and thorow which it is that men and women looking Death is so fearefull or comfortable The first is the glasse of Nature the second of Fortune the third of the Law and the fourth of the Gospell In the three first Death appeareth fearefull only in the fourth comfortable Yea fearefull in the glasse of Nature more fearefull in the glasse of Fortune and most fearefull in the glasse of the Law God would have all the wicked to behold Death in the three first that through feare of Death they may repent of their sinnes and flie to Christ who saveth from it and hee would have the godly to behold Death in the glasse of the Gospell that having found grace to beleeve and repent they may die comfortably But Satan who seeketh mans destruction well knowing how remarkable the sicknesse and deaths of men are and what deepe impressions the last ends of the dead make in the minds of the living laboureth to invert this order And whereas God would have his children to behold death in the glasse of the Gospell he as much as he can hideth that from their sight and shuffleth in the other before them that he may terrifie them with the dread and horror of death and if it be possible draw them into impatience and to speake unadvisedly which the wicked hearing and seeing are thereby animated in their evill courses saying You see such and such an one great professors and holy men yet you see how impatient in sicknesse how fearefull to die And on the other side when the wicked are sick readie to die so much as he can he hideth the three first glasses and only presenteth the fourth and if in the time of health they have heard any comfortable sentences he will helpe their memories to rehearse them to the end they may lie patiently and die resolutely and cheerefully then doe such sinners boast Loe such a man though in his health a good-fellow a drunkard a whore-master gamester swearer c. yet he died like a lambe wagged neither hand nor foot I desire to make no better end which I hope I shall doe though I walke in his waies Oh see the juggling of Satan where God doth not over-master him Be wise yee that feare God Doe yee see a most wicked and prophane liver to die quietly and well condemne him not sometimes a good death may follow a bad life but it is to be feared Satan hath abused him and presented a wrong glasse before him therefore say I will not hazard mine estate upon so desperate a point I will not walke in his waies I will live well and then I shall die well and doe you see such an one as hath lived godly and well and approved himselfe to the consciences of such as knew him to be an honest man fearing God and eschewing evil yet lieth hardly impatiently bearing his visitation tossing tumbling sweating it may be talking idly and raving Alas this may befall the best of Gods children partly through the malice of Satan and partly through the weaknesse of flesh and bloud and strength of his disease But let not these things trouble thee That of Saint Augustine is most sure Non potest malè mori qui bene vixerit He cannot die ill that liveth well Yea Thou art thy selfe sick and in danger of death and thou art much troubled to thinke how soule and bodie must part friends and all be left thy body which thou hast kept so delicately clothed and fed so deliciously must be laid in a place of darknesse and cold become meat for wormes and see corruption but thou art more troubled to thinke how thou must leave thine houses lands offices wealth and honour thou knowest not to whom it may be to enemies leave a desolate widow and fatherlesse children to the mercy of the world thy selfe being cut off in the midst of thine age and deprived of all thine hopes but thou art most troubled to thinke how Death came into the world that it is the wage of sinne the seale of Gods anger malediction of the Law and portall of hell thy minde can thinke of nothing else so as now thou art even distracted with feare and wouldst give all that ever thou hast for life Oh if thou beest a penitent beleever suffer not Satan thus to abuse thee say unto him Avoid Satan thrust away these glasses from thee let not thy minde meditate on these things call for the glasse of the Gospell wherein thou shalt see the sting of Death taken away yea Death it selfe swallowed up in victory thou shalt see the nature of it changed being the end of sicknesse sorrow sinne labour and all miserie and the beginning of full happinesse and glory thou shalt see the Angels carrying soules into Abrahams bosome thou shalt see the happinesse of heaven into which the soule immediately upon departure hence entreth and such as all the wealth glory and comforts of this life are but dung in comparison of there shalt thou see God in his holy habitation a Father to the fatherlesse and Husband to the widow yea there shalt thou see thine owne mortall and corruptible body rise in glory Oh behold Death in this glasse of the Gospell and thou shalt die most comfortably and even desire to be dissolved and be with Christ I beseech you marke well my discourse of Death this day and labour to remember at the least the principal passages therof you know not how soone you may have occasion to make use of it It is appointed for all once to die but when this day or to morrow this yeere or the next where on sea or land at home or abroad how by fire or water ordinary sicknesse or pestilence naturally or violently we know not these things if preserved by you may stand you in some stead in time of need Wherefore what I have delivered in the grosse I will now more particularly unfold and from the holy Scriptures inlarge my Discourse severally The first glasse is the glasse of Nature I meane of Nature corrupted for it is the wage of sinne i◠Adam had not sinned there had not beene death Thorow this all the wise Gentiles and Heathen
The Heathenish Mariners in Ionahs storme did cry every man to his god In nothing were the Gentiles more sottish than in this the multitude of gods and goddesses and ascribing particular tutelar gods to particular places Babylon had Belus Egypt Isis Athens had Minerva and Ephesus Diana the Caldeans had Baal Sidonians Ashteroth Ammonites Moloch or Milcom Moabites Chamos Syrians Rimmon and the Philistims Dagon Yea the Elements had their severall gods to rule over them As the Heaven had Iupiter the Aire Iuno the Sea Neptune and Hell Pluto The times of the Yeere had also their gods As Maia and Flora of the Spring Ceres of Autumne Pan was the god of Shepherds Aeolus of Winds Apollo of Fruit Bacchus of Wine Smiths had Vulcan Physitians Aesculapius Souldiers Mars yea and Harlots had Venus Yea for every purpose and occasion yea every sicknesse or disease they had a god to call upon Alas to what purpose should I fully discover the madnesse of the Papists who in this if it were possible outgoe the Gentiles having for every Country Place Calling Creature Disease some Saint or other to call upon Our Disciples are better taught Poperie was not then hatched nor this point of Invocation knowne in the Church for 300 yeeres after for it was 300 yeeres after Christ that the Fathers used this Argument against the Arrians Christ is invocated therefore Christ is God they doe not in this storme call upon Aeolus or Neptune Saint Nicholas or Christopher no nor Noah Moses Ionah or any other who had beene in danger of Seas and waters before but they come to Christ the true and only Lord of Sea and Land and all Whose example let us follow To pray to any other than the true God hath no commandement commendation promise nor warrantable example in all the Scriptures of God To pray to dead Saints is a dishonour to the living God and as great offence to make a new as to denie the true God God hath commanded Call on me in the day of thy trouble Christ hath taught us to pray Our Father which art in heaven David renounced all other Whom have I in heaven but thee Who are Peter or Paul Samuel or Moyses Gabriel or Michael or the Virgin Mary her-selfe though more excellent than they all yet who are any or all of these that we should give them divine honour of Adoration Invocation or Intercession Nay howsoever the Papists doe plead it as a matter of honour and say in denying this we dishonour the Saints it is not so we give to the blessed mother of God and all the glorified members of Iesus Christ all honour bounded with modestie and sobrietie and never any learned Protestant did with tongue or pen out of Pulpit or Presse once touch the hem of their garments to deprive them of the least reverence which the word of Truth hath taught us to give and specially consisteth in thankfull commemoration and carefull imitation of their renowmed vertues but to pray unto them in our wants and necessities is to give them such honour as is due unto God And if Olympias the Mother of Alexander the Great wrote to her sonne when he stiled himselfe the sonne of Iupiter not to doe it for feare of procuring the envie and displeasure of Iuno I dare say it is a matter not only displeasing to God but to the Angels and Saints themselves Did an Angell here on earth refuse that Iohn should bow the knee of his bodie to him and charge him See thou doe it not I am but thy fellow-servant worship God and will they be contented now that the knees of mens hearts be bowed and prayers powred out unto them No no if it were possible for them to heare such unlawfull prayers of men they would with both hands as we say put them from them and labour to purge themselves Not unto us Lord not unto us but to thy Name be such honour ascribed Shall prayer which one of their best Writers saith doth comprehend the whole worship of Religion and Piety shall this be given to creatures Oh keepe your soules unspotted of such a sinne when yee pray pray as the Disciples here by their examples have taught you pray unto God who only is able and willing to heare and helpe you Thirdly what doe they being come to Christ doe they sit leane or lie downe and dispose themselves to sleep with him No but as in the storme the Ship-master awakened Ionah so in this storme the disciples awakened Christ or as the word signifieth they raised him up Yea the word in many places is used where mention is made of the resurrection as Destroy this Temple and in three dayes I will raise it up and Many bodies of Saints which slept arose and If Christ be risen from the dead how say some among you there is no resurrection of the dead In which and many other places and specially in that Chapter to the Corinthians the word of my Text is used and not improperly for what is deep fast and sound sleep but the image and brother of death Now Christ was in a fast or dead sleep as we have heard and therefore the Disciples are said to raise him as it were from the dead For the letter it is probable that they awakened him very turbulently and irreverently for their feare was great and faith small Their words as we shall heare bewrayed a great deale of passion and as death is of all fearefuls the most fearefull to nature so doth it dispense with ceremonies and complements and take away all respect of persons What are the clamours vociferations and cursitations of men in perill of drowning We need not inquire of Seneca Virgil Ovid and other Heathen for the Psalmist witnesseth saying They are even at their wits end and cry to the Lord in their trouble and in Ionahs storme the Mariners being afraid cried every one to his god and cast out their wares Howsoever then at other times the Disciples carried themselves in words deeds and gesture humbly dutifully courteously yet feare of death now made them forget themselves and offer violence with tongue and hand they cried with their tongues and at least jogged him with their hands never ceasing till they had awakened and raised him But I leave the letter The word being fully opened in mysterie affordeth us two singular and usefull instructions and specially for these times the former from the Disciples awakening the latter from the Master awakened in them importunitie in him opportunitie They awaken him suddenly hee awakeneth seasonably they awaken him violently hee awakeneth voluntarily For the first From this Example of the Apostles wee learne to be importunate with God in our praiers and never give over till we do awaken him and that he doe heare arise and helpe us Christ is fast on sleepe the disciples come unto him and
and all that know not God doe behold it and thus to looke upon it is fearefull It is true that many Heathen men have seemed very valorous and have contemned it but it was rather rashnesse and desperate madnesse than true valour or courage The Prince of Philosophers himselfe hath said not only that Death is fearefull but of all evils the fearefullest What need we their testimonies when the Scripture it selfe is so cleare Iob calleth it The King of Terrors And the Apostle saith Without Christ all men through feare of death are subject to bondage Oh it is the enemie of Nature separater of soule and bodie most loving twinnes depriver of all earthly comforts which so sarre depend on life as it ceasing they also cease to be David saith When men die they must leave their wealth and honour to others God asked the foole Whose shall these things be And Abraham gave Dives begging but a drop of water a cold answer Sonne remember thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things Wherefore it is impossible for any man utterly ignorant of Christ and only seeing Death thorow the glasse of Nature but he must needs feare and either die sullenly or desperately The second glasse wherein death is seene I may with reverence to Gods providence call the glasse of Fortune as the goods of this world are called the goods of Fortune and in this glasse death appeareth more fearefull than in the former Circumstances doe greatly increase the feare of death as if a man be young healthy lustie and in strength of nature bloud runnes fresh in the veines and marrow in the bones Quanto natura fortior tanto dolor acerbior The sweeter the conjunction the more bitter the separation Also if a man be in high place of honour or great hope of preferment If a man be rich and have all things at his hearts desire how fearefull are such to die Oh death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at râ—st in his possessions to the man that hath nothing to vex him that hath prosper it iâ— in all things Oh death how bitter is thy remembrance to him that with Peter thinketh it is good to be here that hath much to leave and little to hope for Againe a violent death more fearefull than that which is naturall and according to the meanes of violence and instruments of execution fearefull to die by the hands of man more fearefull to die by the mouths of wilde beasts but of all most fearfull to die by raging fire waters Which thing an Heathen Poet hath excellently expressed I feare not death but drowning a miserable kinde of death Againe to die suddenly and specially when God sheweth some token of anger doth wonderfully increase the feare of it This made such a cry thorowout all Egypt when at midnight their first-borne were slaine I doe not judge such as die suddenly and extraordinarily by water or land The wise man hath taught us not to judge of any mans estate before God by outward things God knoweth whose case it may be I am sure it hath beene the case of such as the holy Scriptures assure to have beene godly as Eli Ionathan Iosiah Sampson The Apostle saith Nothing can separate the Saints from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus not death not manner of death Sudden death to Gods children is but like the translation of Henoch and Elias which was in a moment yet let me say againe though we judge charitably of such yet to be suddenly and unlooked for surprized of death with any note of divine anger is both fearefull to the parties themselves and others For though we know we must die and ought alwaies to be ready yet who so prepared especially in times of health and prosperitie but hath many things to set in order And seeing all dependeth upon the last act the whole life being but as a levelling and drawing death as the discharge of the arrow our mother Church hath godly taught us to pray if it be his blessed will to deliver us from sudden death and to give us time of repentance and preparation with understanding memory hearing and speech to the last breath Did not Lot know that his wife should die Yes but to him and all that shall heare the storie it is fearefull that shee was suddenly turned into a pillar of salt Aaron well knew that his sonnes must die but to see two of them Nadab and Abihu consumed at once by fire from heaven it did strangely astonish him Iob knew so much too but to heare that all his children were suddenly destroyed with the downefall of their eldest brothers house wherein they were feasting made him rise and rent his clothes Yea and David knew so much and comforted himselfe after the death of another saying I shall goe to it but it shall not come to me But when he heard of the sudden death of his sonne Absolon it made his heart even turne and ouer-turne within him he never so bitterly lamented any thing as that Oh my sonne Absolon my sonne my sonne Absolon would God I had died for thee O Absolon my sonne my sonne Come we to our disciples They see death in the glasse of Nature and it is fearefull they see it in the glasse of their Fortune they are now in middle age strong and lustie in great hope of preferment by their Master and striving for supremacie and who shall sit on his right hand and who on his left in his kingdome death commeth upon them suddenly robbeth them of all they now are or hoped to be they have not leisure to set themselves or houses in order nor bid wife and friends farewell not leisure to swallow their spettle nor say their praiers but shortly and abruptly for life they are like to die by waters and become meat for the fishes and that by such a sudden and raging storme as if heaven meant to destroy them so as now their feare is much increased and they cry out Lord save us we perish The third is the glasse of the Law which representeth death as the wage and punishment of sin the demonstration of Gods displeasure and the gate of hell when all the curses and maledictions of God come fully and for ever to be powred out Oh in this death appeareth most fearefull and like that dreadfull and terrible strong beast which Daniel saw in his Vision which had great Iron teeth and ten hornes and devoured and brake in peeces and stamped the rest under feet Good Lord how greatly are the wicked and all guilty sinners affrighted at this sight of death Saul being a wicked man having a guilty conscience no sooner saw death at hand through this glasse but he fell straight-way all along upon the earth was exceedingly afraid and there was
on his face and praying out of the dust with great constancie he prayed three times with submissive obedience Not my will but thine be done and with great charitie for ever and anon he visited his Disciples and gave them good counsell and comfort and what was it he thus begged Take oh take away this cap and he was heard in that which he feared the storme was calmed an Angell sent and comforted him Oh man see in thy Saviour what it is to be a sinner If the righteous and deare Sonne of God having no sinne but by imputation was so affrighted with the terrors of death how would death distract with the terrors of it impenitent sinners if God did open their eyes and let them see it in the looking-glasse of the Law clothed with the red robe of Gods fiery indignation gaping with great Iron teeth ready to devoure having in the forehead written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the booke of the law to doe them and having the keyes of hell and the bottomlesse pit in his hand Thus we have seene death in the looking-glasse of Nature and it appeareth fearefull for therein the bodie perisheth We have seene it in the looking-glasse of Fortune therein it appeareth more fearefull for therein bodie and all the good things of this world perish We have lastly seene it in the looking-glasse of the Law and therein it appeareth most fearefull for therein bodie and soule perish for ever The fourth and last glasse is the glasse of the Gospell wherein through the death of Christ the nature of it is changed of a foe it is become a friend and from a curse and punishment of sinne is become a blessing from the doore of Hell it is become the portall of Heaven Christ hath spoiled principalities and powers and triumphed openly over them on the Crosse yea and hath pursued Death into the grave his Castle and there conquered him the sorrowes of death being loosed whereof it was impossible that he should be held and so hath performed what he anciently threatned O death I will be thy plagues oh grave I will be thy destruction which made the Apostle in the name of all the faithfull so to triumph O death where is thy sting ô grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the law but thanks be to God who giveth victory through Iesus Christ our Lord I am the resurrection and the life he that beleeveth in me shall live though he die He that beleeveth is passed from death to life and shall not come into judgement Now then there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus and Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord Loe these are the comforts of the Gospell against death which all the faithfull have enjoyed from the beginning of the world though more plentifully revealed in these last dayes And hence it is that where-ever death is beheld through the glasse of the Gospell it is seene and spoken of with abundance of joy and comfort and as the nature so the name of it is changed God called Abrahams death a going to his fathers and the death of Isaak Iacob Aaron and Moses is called a gathering to their fathers Ioshuah calleth his dying the going the way of all the earth And David useth the same words Moses and Elias talking on Thabor of Christs death call it so too they talked of his departure Yea Christ called it his departing out of this world to his Father and Simeon prayed the Lord to let him depart in peace It is but a taste but a sight Lazarus death is called a sleepe Ioh. 11. Paul calleth his death a loosing as out of prison S. Peter calleth his a laying downe of his Tabernacle Thus comfortably doe the Scriptures phrase death for the incouragement of all mortall men who must die oh get into Christ and feare not death no more than thou wouldest feare to lie downe and sleep or to put off an old garment or to goe out of prison or of a rotten Cottage that thou maist dwell in a Palace a Paradise Oh death is not now terrible but desirable as S. Paul said I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ And againe Wee sigh desiring to be clothed on with our house which is from heaven Oh welcome death which to all Gods children through Christ is the end of hunger thirst sorrow care sicknesse ache paine temptations sin and all evills and the beginning of all good without end Whereof some of the learned Fathers have written most large and excellent Treatises If then these Disciples had beheld death in the glasse of the Gospel had had a strong Faith they would never have given it so harsh comfortlesse a title as calling it a perishing but as you have heard a sleeping going and gathering to fathers departing laying downe of Tabernacle c. and if their Faith had beene strong they would have said as the three children did to Nabuchadonozer O King our God whom we serve is able to deliver us Winds and Seas what meane yee to rage Our Master whom we serve is able to save vs whether he sleepe or wake but howsoever we feare not death be it sudden or looked for violent or naturall by sea or land by water or fire for if we die we shall goe to heaven and then shall we know misery no more To conclude these disciples call and pray to Christ for helpe but withall they doe their duties The Euangelist saith They did toile in rowing in another storme and so doubtlesse did they in this The heathen Mariners in Ionah as they did cry upon their gods so they cast their wares into the sea to lighten the ship and did even dig and delve or furrow the sea with their Ores if possibly they might have brought it to the land But herein appeareth a great deale of our folly that as most pray not at all so many pray only Lord save us and doe nothing else whereas God would have every one in such a storme to set to his hands to helpe to cast out the lading of the ship and lighten it What is it that ladeth the ship of the Church and endangereth it in a storme It is sinne which is heavier than sand or lead or any ballast It was too heavie for David to beare Psal 38. 4. It made the Sonne of God sweat Luke 22. 44. Yea made God himselfe complaine That hee was pressed as a Cart with sheaves Amos 2. 13. Oh Ministers Magistrates all Christian men and women set to your hands Over the boord with sinne in your selves and in others Were it not madnesse for Mariners in a storme to take in more lading And
this Land in the daies of Queene Mary so cheerefully to receive sentence of death so joyfully to sing in their prisons darke and loathsome dungeons so comfortably embrace faggots kisse stakes clap hands in flaming fire because all this was for a good cause even for Christ the Gospell and a good conscience sake and the holy Ghost hath pronounced Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord This made them rejoyce in death with joy unspeakable and glorious This was Iosephs comfort in prison that he was falsly accused And Daniels that he was cast to the Lions for the matter of his God Therefore Saint Peters charge is Let none of you suffer as a murtherer or as a theefe or as an evill doer or as a busie-bodie in other mens matters but if any suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God in this behalfe But how great is the horror of malefactors No doubt but it pierced Ahabs soule more than the arrow did his bodie that this was the just judgement of God upon him for his sinne How fearefull was death to all such whose carcasses God overthrew in the wildernesse and destroyed them with fiery Serpents and other fearefull meanes Who knoweth the unconceiveable dread and horror which wicked men have in their soules in their prisons death-beds or executions when their owne consciences tell them This miserie is come upon me for murther theft adultery riot and such like wicked courses I doe not deny but such malefactors may die sullenly or desperately Others may be deceived and thinke they die in a good cause when they doe not So the ancient Donatists and Arrians and in our times the Priests and Iesuits thinke they die for Religion and the true Catholike cause and deserve to be Canonized for Saints whereas they suffer deserved punishment for their rebellion and sedition yea they would in death be accounted Martyrs before they have led the life of a Christian yet being thus abused and deceived by Satan and God in his justice giving them over into a reprobate sense they may even astonish men to behold their seeming patience joy and Christian resolution but yet this standeth firme that no man suffering or dying for an evill cause and his minde be rightly informed can die with comfort and peace but with exceeding dread and horror such an one must needs be exceedingly fearefull to die Yea this that I have said must also be understood with exception of Repentance Many men justly suffer pressures and miseries tortures and torments for their sinnes and evill deeds yet upon true repentance finde peace and comfort in life and death Moses died in the wildernesse and might not enter into the promised Land because hee did not sanctifie God at the waters of Strife but repenting he died with comfort Iosiah fighting rashly and without warrant from God was wounded to death but repenting of his folly he died with comfort and was gathered to his Fathers in peace The theefe on the Crosse died justly for his sinnes but repenting he died with comport and went to Paradise Our Prodigall suffered hunger and misery justly for his riotous and luxurious dilapidating and wasting his goods but repenting he found comfort Many a man commeth to great misery poverty sicknesse ache imprisonment banishment death for his disordered life yet truly repenting findeth peace and comfort But these cases excepted no man that is rightly informed in his minde and continueth impenitent can but be exceedingly afraid to die wherefore every one that would moderate the feare of death must be sure to live and die in a good cause The second meanes for moderation of the feare of death is to live an holy and sanctified life The Apostle compareth death to some fierce and truculent beast or serpent which killeth all men that grapple with it with a poysonfull sting and telleth us the sting of death is sinne As a man then would not feare but with great boldnesse encounter that Serpent when he knoweth the sting is gone so may we boldly and comfortably die when we know the sting thereof is gone Oh it is the guilt of sinne maketh men so fearefull to die But great is the peace they have that love thy Law Mark the upright behold the just the end of that man is peace The righteous are bold as Lions Oh such as here live in the feare of God making conscience of their waies eschewing evil Walking in the Spirit Mortifying the flesh with affections and lusts having their conversation in heaven And ever beholding the face of God thorow the perspective of holinesse Setting their minds on those things which are above Being passed from death to life and alreadie entred into the first degree of glorification sanctification being glorification inchoate and glorification sanctification consummate What comfort joy boldnesse have such in sicknesse and death How comfortable to the living to visit such and to heare and see their cheerefulnesse patience prayers praises benedictions valedictions if infirmitie of flesh and bloud or strength of disease doe not hinder on the other side such as walke in their life time after the flesh drinke up iniquitie like water and are continually strengthening and adding poison to the sting of death How are they distracted with feare if they see that beast but gape upon them or hisse at them How comfortlesse to visit such see their impatience observe their worldly mindednesse and heare their words of discontent discomfort and distrust if God have not laid on them the spirit of slumber Therefore let him that calleth on the name of Christ depart from iniquitie And whosoever would with comfort and boldnesse looke for death or Christ to judgement Let him deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and live righteously godly and soberly in this present world The third meanes of moderation is by a lively and stedfast faith This is our victory even faith How can that man be immoderately afraid to die who doth in his heart stedfastly beleeve that Christ died for him and hath conquered Satan death and hell for him disarmed the strong man Satan deprived Death of its sting that it cannot hurt that the nature of it is changed an end of all evill the beginning of all true good It is not possible with the cleare eye of Faith to behold death in the Crystall-glasse of the Gospell and to be immoderatly afraid of it Here then was the Disciples want they had a good cause they followed their Master into the ship they lived honestly Iudas excepted but their faith was weake and therefore their feare so strong Why are yee so fearefull O yee of little faith Wherefore let all such as desire to moderate the feare of death pray for increase of Faith Oh see what an inestimable Pearle Iewel Faith is in
borne or buried or whilst he lived whereon to rest his head And as quickly was he gone againe he did but sojourne or as the word signifieth pitch his Tent among us for the space of 33 yeers which compared with eternitie or long lives of the Patriarchs is nothing He was but as a Traveller which as for a nights lodging only turned in unto us and as a stranger he was used for his owne would not receive him but did lade him with all wrongs and injuries preferre a murtherer before him and most disgracefully crucifie him betwixt two notorious malefactors But it shall suffice only to touch these things The third and last is more largely to be handled as most fitting the Text the day the insuing service of this day whereunto with some few words to that purpose I would prepare you and is this This man is a strange man wonderfully qualified For they propound the question in way of admiration What manner of man is this q. d. Oh what a wonderfull man is this And well might they so marvell and demand for there was never such a man on earth before or since or shall be The Church saith Her beloved is the chiefest of ten thousand a finite number being put for an infinite All the thousands and millions of glorious Angels in heaven or men on earth cannot afford such another He is the only Standard-bearer as the word signifieth He is anointed with the oile of gladnesse above his fellowes He received not the spirit by measure In him were hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge yea all that fulnesse of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily that they may well marvell What manner of man is this For Christ hath said of himselfe he is a wonder and the Prophet maketh this one of his glorious titles He shall be called wonderfull And never any creature so answerable to his name as Christ to this For what he was said did suffered ordained was all most marvellous Let us retaile these things For wherein can I more edifie you than by provoking you to marvell which is the whetstone of knowledge And first let us consider his person and it will make us marvell yea be astonished with marvelling He that is true God from everlasting in time became true man not ceasing to be what he was before but beginning to be what he was not before assuming true manhood to subsist in the word by hypostaticall or personall union neither nullifying the Deitie nor deifying the Humanitie but reserving the essentiall properties of each nature severall and distinct without mixture or confusion The Apostle saith This is a great mysterie and to be much marvelled at God manifested in the flesh The word made flesh Manhood assumed into personall union with Godhead that so Godhead and Manhood make the person of one Redeemer as soule and body doe one man that seeing as God hee could not die which God hath threatned and as man not overcome death being God and man he could both suffer and overcome the one suffered and the other enabled By reason of which union and as I may call it association of divers natures a kinde of mutuall commutation there is whereby those concrete Titles God and Man when we speake of Christ doe take interchangeably one anothers roome and in the Concrete it is most holy and true which in the Abstract were horrible and hellish blasphemie to affirme We cannot say the Humanitie made the world or Deitie suffered but we may truly say the man Christ made the world and the God Christ suffered The Apostle saith The Iewes did crucifie the Lord of glory 1 Cor. 2. 8. and that God hath purchased his Church with his bloud and Christ being on earth said at the same instant The Sonne of man was in heaven Where you see a bloudy death is attributed to God and Lord of glory and ubiquitie to manhood which humane nature admitteth not Therefore by God and Lord of glory wee must understand the whole person of Christ who died and shed his bloud but not in that nature for which he is called God and Lord of glory and in the other place by Sonne of man we understand the person of Christ who was in heaven as well as on earth though not in that nature for which he is called the sonne of man Yea without this caution the Fathers who were both sound in the faith and unanimous in defense thereof will seeme to be both corrupt and contrary For Theodoret disputeth with great earnestnesse that God cannot be said to suffer but he meant in the Abstract against Apollinarius who held the Deitie to be passible And Cyrill is as earnest saying Whosoever doth denie very God to have suffered death doth forsake the faith but he meaneth in the flesh and not in that substance for which the title God is given him But why doe I goe about to expresse and make cleare such a mysterie as is unconceiveable The strength of faith appeareth in those things wherein our wits and capacities are weake and therefore I must leave you reverendly and religiously to marvell at the person of your Redeemer and say What manner of man is this who is truly God-Man and Man-God And so I proceed to speake of his humane nature wherein he is more familiar unto us yet therein most marvellous also And first His conception is marvellous which was not according to the course of nature and by carnall copulation as Ebion blasphemed but as the holy Gospel teacheth and we professe to beleeve he was conceived by the Holy Ghost that as he was God of his Father without mother so he might become man of his mother without father and so be a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedech who is said to be without father and mother And this comming of the Holy Ghost upon the Virgin effected a threefold worke First the fashioning of the body of a part of Maries substance that so he might be the true sonne of Adam Abraham and David according to the flesh and also the creating and infusing of the soule into the body which at the first was organized and fit to receive it which other bodies are not Secondly the sanctification of that matter that it had not the least staine or blemish of any originall sinne uncleannesse contagion or corruption Thirdly the union of the Godhead Manhood All which were wrought at the same instant of time Of all which the personal union is most marvellous That as in the Trinitie three persons are united in essence so in Christ three several and distinct substances viz. Deitie Soule and Flesh are united in one person And therefore the humanitie of Christ his soule and body did not make a person as in other men but so soone as
sinners yea pierced that heart with a speare which devised all good for man And doe yee not marvell Doe you reade that the fountaine of living water thirsteth the light of the world put out Truth oppressed by false witnesses Discipline scourged He that beareth up all things faint under the Crosse He that is Iudge of quicke and dead judged by a mortall man Justice condemned Foundation hanged on a Tree Salvation wounded and Life killed and doe yee not marvell But alas these were lamentable things and in the eye and wisdome of flesh and bloud base and contemptible Behold then such things as are full of glory and majestie The Sunne ashamed of their doings pulled in his beames covered it face and refused to give light to such a work of darknesse The earth trembled as not able to beare the weight of such a sinne The vaile of the Temple rent asunder from the top to the bottome in detestation of such wickednesse The Centurion confesseth truly This was the Sonne of God Pilat whose hands were embrewed with his bloud writeth his inscription and publisheth his glory to Hebrewes Greekes and Latines This is Iesus of Nazareth King of the Iewes And will you not marvell at it Yea open the eyes of your mindes and you shall see the benefits hereof He was apprehended that we might escape scourged that we might be spared bound that we might be loosed disgraced that we might be honoured wearied with the burthen of the Crosse that wee might be eased of the burthen of the Curse fainted that we might be refreshed thirsted that we might be satisfied wounded that we might be healed humbled to the Crosse that we might be exalted to Thrones died amongst Theeves that we may live amongst Angels condemned that we may be justified killed that we may live And doe yee not marvell and say What manner of man is this Moreover when Christ was truly dead and buried and all made sure as they thought the wicked triumph and rejoyce and his Disciples full of sadnesse and sorrow Luk. 24. 17. loe he that had power to lay downe his life had also power to take it up againe Ioh. 10. 18. Hee loosed the sorrowes of death whereof it was impossible for him to be holden Acts 2. 24. having thorowly conquered death even in the grave it strongest hold fortresse or castle It was not the great sealed stone could keepe him in Matth. 27. ult but Sampson-like carrieth on his shoulders the brasen gates Iudg. 16. 3. and declared himselfe mightily to be the Sonne of God by his rising from the dead Rom. 1. 4. Death and Grave confesse their weaknesse and his dominion they are weary of their prey and hasten with the Whale to cast up this Ionah they are oppressed with an intolerable burthen and have swallowed so bitter a morsell as they would faine be rid of the earth is in travell till it be rid of him Moreover after that he had beene conversant with his Disciples for the space of forty daies after his resurrection and had instructed them concerning his kingdome he was received up into glory from the top of Mount Olivet in the sight of his Apostles he ascended into heaven that is his humane Nature by the power and vertue of his Godhead was truly and locally translated from earth into the highest heavens of the blessed where he is said to sit on the right hand of God to make continuall intercession for his Elect from whence he sent the Holy Ghost in likenesse of cloven tongues of fire within ten daies according to his promise from whence he powreth out his spirit on all flesh and specially on such as he hath called to the work of the Ministerie doth gather and protect his Church bridle and confound his enemies and at the appointed time shall come from thence in his owne glory and the glory of his Father and of the holy Angels to iudge both the quicke and dead when all his Saints shall be gathered from the foure corners of the world shall meet him in the aire and be with him in happinesse for ever whose kingdome shall have no end Oh most marvellous Redeemer Oh most glorious mysteries of the Gospell How are we bound for ever to that good God who hath revealed them by his word and Spirit unto us How poore and simple beggerly base and contemptible are all the Religions in the world compared with this What is Moses and all the Legall service and worship though ordained of God yet the time of Reformation being come the Apostle calleth them weake and beggerly elements What is that Impostor Mahomet with his Alcaron though a Religion so generally received and professed how carnall filthy and obscene What are his best promises but such as a godly minde would despise abhorre How many great Kingdoms do worship Sunne Moone Starres yea foure-footed beasts and creeping things And some worship the Devil himselfe How in Poperie are poore people deprived of the Scriptures nusled in ignorance and implicite faith taught to beleeve lying Legends counterfet miracles fed with old wives fables and abused with cosening tricks of deceitfull men Oh stand fast in the faith marvell and praise God who hath made knowne the Saviour and the way of salvation unto you You have marvelled at many things but I pray you forget not that which is the burthen of all What manner of Man It is Man yea true Man that is so marvellous in birth life doctrine death resurrection ascension Oh how highly hath God exalted humane nature Some love their flesh for the beauty of it and some for the comely shape and proportion some for the strength Here is the ground of true love to love it because in Christ it is the flesh of God and herein exalted above the nature of Angels It was a great honour was given to man at the Creation when he was made after Gods Image but it is a far greater honour given in Redemption God himselfe becomming man flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone Oh Christian acknowledge thy dignitie and doe not defile with a lewd conversation what God hath so highly honoured But me thinketh I heare some object this is a matter of offense that Christ was a man yea a weake and poore man I answer Indeed it is true if we behold him with a carnall eye and looke upon no more but his bare humanitie and wrapped up in great infirmitie it is a matter of offense and therefore Christ hath pronounced Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me The Prophet foretold hee should be a stone to stumble at and a rocke of offense And the Apostle saith We preach Christ a stumbling blocke to the Iewes and foolishnesse to the Gentiles But whoso well observeth the Gospell shal see in