died for when Death had seased his bodie he died in prayer Acts 7.59 Lord Iesus saith he receiue my spirit And in such sort as Iacob died who in the seasure of death vpon his bodie raised vp himselfe and turning his face toward his beds head leaned on the top of his staffe by reason of his feeblenesse and so prayed vnto God Which prayer of his at his death was an excellent fruit of his faith For by faith Iacob Heb. 1.21 when hee was in dying blessed both the sonnes of Ioseph and worshipped leauing vpon the top of his staffe God grant when he commeth that he may finde vs so doing that when we shall lye vpon our death-beds gasping for breath readie to giue vp the ghost that then the precious soule of euery one of vs redeemed with the most precious bloud of our sweete Sauiour Christ Iesus may passe away in a prayer in a secret and sweet prayer may passe I say out of Adams body into Abrahams bosome But heere it may be obiected that in the pangs of death men want their sences and conuenient vtterance and therefore are vnable to pray Answere The very sighes sobbes and groanes of a penitent and bleeding heart are prayers before God at such a time euen as effectuall as if they were vttered by the best voyce in the world For prayer standeth in the affection of the heart whereof the voice is but an outward messenger For God at such a time especially lookes not vpon the speech and voice but vpon the heart And therefore the Psalmist saith Psal 10.17 Psal 145.19 That God heares the desire of the humble the Lord will fulfill the desire of them that feare him What prayer maketh the little infant to his mother He weepeth and cryeth not being able to expresse what he lacketh the mother offers him the breast or giueth him some other thing Psal 38.9 Matth. 7.11 such as shee thinketh his necessitie requireth much more then the heauenly Father heedeth the desires sighes groanes and teares of his children and doing the office of a Father hee heareth them and prouideth for them Exod. 14.15 Wee reade in the booke of Exodus that the Lord said vnto Moses Wherefore cryest thou vnto me and yet as it is there said there was no voice heard Wee reade also in the first booke of Samuel 1. Sam. 1.12.13 that Hannah continued praying before the Lord that shee spake in heart onely her lippes mooued but her voice was not heard and yet the Lord heard her heartie prayer and granted her request Yea the very teares of the children of God are loud and sounding Prayers in his eares who will as the Psalmist saith put them into his bottle Psal 56.8 and register them in his booke yea the very bloud of his Saints are crying prayers vnto him And therefore the Lord said vnto Cain Gen. 4.10 when he had slaine his brother Abel What hast thou done the voice of thy brothers bloud crieth vnto mee from the ground If thou canst not pray distinctly and orderly lifting vp thine eyes on high with Hezekiah chatter like the Swallow mourne like the Done For the sorrow of his heart did so oppresse his soule that though he remembred God and looked vp vnto him and had all his desires waiting vpon the hand of God yet he was not able to pray to God in any distinct manner like a well aduised man his praying was all out of order it was more like the mourning of a Done and the chattering of a swallow then like the holy and orderly prayers of a wise and godly man as wee may reade in the Prophecie of Esay Esa 38.14 Luke 22.62 Wee reade not in what words Peter prayed but onely that he wept bitterly let thy teares flow likewise when thy words can find no free passage Which teares of sinners S. Bernard cals the wine of Angels And as concerning the true vigor of praying S. Augustine in one place sayeth It stands more in teares then in words for instructing a certaine rich widow how to pray vnto God among other words hee hath this saying Plerumque hoc negotium plus gemitibus quà m sermonibus agitur plus fletu quà m afflatu This businesse of prayer for the most part is performed rather with groaning then with words with weeping then with speech Let God heare thy sighes and grones let him see thy teares when thou canst not shew him thy desire in words Psal 6.6 Water thy couch with teares as did the Prophet and God will gather vp and put euery drop into his bottle Thus doing when thou thinkest thou hast not prayed thou hast prayed most powerfully For as Saint Ierome saith Oratio Deum lenit lachryma cogit prayer greatly moueth God teares forceably compell him he is allured and wonne with the words of prayer to heare vs but with the teares of a contrite heart he is drawne and inforced to heare and helpe where otherwise hee would not And in this case wee must remember that God accepts affecting for effecting willing for working desires for deeds purposes for performances pence for pounds S. Chrysostome saith That prayer is the soule of our soules and in this affliction growing in thy soule because thou knowest not how to pray heare a notable comfort that the Apostle giues thee saying The spirit helpeth our infirmities Rom. 8.26 for we know not how to pray as wee ought but the spirit it selfe maketh request for vs with sighes that cannot bee expressed Where thine owne strength and wisedome faileth in this seruice of prayer vnto God there the wisedome and power of Gods spirit kindleth in thee strong desires and earnest longing after mercie and the meanings of those desires and longings God perfectly vnderstandeth and needes not be informed by thy words So that though thou canst not pray as thou oughtst to doe yet that seruice goeth forward wel while heartily thou desirest Gods fauour Esay 65.24 And it shall come to passe saith the Lord that before they call to me for ayde that is in our purpose of prayer I will answere and whiles they are yet speaking I will heare Remember that many goe to bed and neuer rise againe till they be raised vp and wakened by the sound of the last trumpet 1. Thess 4.16 If therefore thou desire to sleepe safely and securely whether in health or sicknesse goe to bed with a reuerence of Gods Maiestie and a consideration of thine owne weaknes frailty and miserie which thou mayest imprint in thy heart in some poore measure and pray thou thus and say If it bee thy blessed will to call for mee in my sleepe O Lord for Christ Iesus sake haue mercy vpon me forgiue me all my sinnes and receiue my parting soule into the heauenly kingdome But if it be thy blessed wil and pleasure to adde more dayes vnto my life then good Lord adde more amendement to my dayes and weane my mind from
Christ it ceaseth to bee a plague or punishment and of a curse is made vnto vs a blessing and become vnto vs a friend and a passage or middle way betweene this life and eternall life and is become as it were a little wicket entrance or doore whereby we passe out of this world into heauen And then in this respect this saying of the Preacher is most true for in the day of birth men are brought forth and borne into the vale of misery but afterward when the children of God goe hence hauing death altered vnto them by the death of Christ they enter into eternall life and happinesse The third obiection is taken from the example of most worthy men who as it should seeme haue made their prayers against death Mat. 26.39 as our Sauiour Christ We reade when our Sauiour Christ was borne it was a ioyfull time at whose birth there was great ioy and mirth Simeon and Anna Luke 2.10.13.28.38 Luke 19.41 Marke 16.10 Luke 23.28.45 Matth. 27.51 yea and the Angels of heauen did sing and they bid the Shepheards sing because they brought them glad tidings of great ioy which should be vnto all the people But when our Sauiour Christ suffered death then it seemed that it was a dolefull time for then there was as much lamentation and weeping Our Sauiour Christ himselfe wept whom we reade to haue wept three times at the destruction of Ierusalem Iohn 11.35 at the raising of Lazarus and in his agony the disciples wept the daughters of Ierusalem wept Heb. 5.7 the Sunne was darkened the vaile of the Temple was rent the stones were clouen in sunder Yea all these and all sencelesse creatures in their kind did weepe and lament the death and passion of their maker And so it should seeme that our Sauiour Christ prayed against death on this manner Psal 6.4.5 Father if it be thy will let this cup passe from me Wee reade also that the Prophet Dauid prayed against death Returne O Lord saith he deliuer my soule O saue me for thy mercies sake for in death there is no remembrance of thee in the graue who shall giue thee thankes Againe Esay 38.1 wee reade that King Ezechiah prayed against death for when the Prophet brought him word from the Lord that hee should die and not liue this good king at this newes wept very sore and prayed for further life Now by the examples of these most worthy men yea by the example of the Sonne of God himselfe it should seeme that this should not be true which the Preacher doth heere auouch That the day of death should bee better then the day of birth but rather that the day of death should be the most dolefull and terrible day of all Answ We are heere to vnderstand that when our Sauiour Christ prayed in this sort as we haue heard he was in his agonie and he then as our Redeemer stood in our roome and stead to suffer and endure all things which wee our selues should haue suffered in our own persons for our sins if he himselfe had not vouchsafed to suffer for vs and therefore hee did not pray simply against the bodily or naturall death but against the cursed death of the Crosse for he feared not death it selfe which is the separating of soule and bodie but the curse of the Law which went with death as namely the vnspeakeable wrath and iudgement of God which was due for our sinnes The first death troubled him not but the first and second ioyned together Therefore the Author to the Hebrewes saith Heb. 5.7 That Christ in the daies of his flesh wheâ— he had offered vp prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares vnto him that was able to saue him from death that he was heard in that he feared By which place it appeareth that Christ did not pray simply against the naturall death but against the cursed death of the Crosse which was the second death Concerning Dauids praying against death we are to vnderstand that when he made that sixt Psalme hee was not onely sicke in bodie but also perplexed with the greatest temptation of all in that hee wrastled in conscience against the wrath of God as appeares by his owne words For hee there saith Psal 6.1 O Lord rebuke me not in thy anger c. Wherein wee may see that he prayed not simply against death but against death at that instant when hee was in that grieuous temptation for at other times he had no such feare of death And therefore in another Psalme he saith Psal 23.4 Yea though I walke through the valley of the shadow of death I wil feare none ill c. Wherefore he prayed against death onely in that sixt Psalm as it was ioyned with apprehension of Gods wrath as our Sauiour Christ did Lastly touching king Hezekiah wee are to vnderstand that he prayed against death not onely because hee desired to liue and to doe seruice to God in his kingdome but also it was vpon a further and more special regard because when the Prophet brought him this message of death he was then without issue hauing none of his owne body to succeede him in his kingdome But then it wil be obiected What warrant he had to pray against death for this cause Answ His warrant was good for God had made a particular promise vnto Dauid and his posteritie after him 1. King 2.4 that as long as they feared him and walked in his commandements with all their heart and with all their soule there shal not faile thee saith he a man on the throne of Israel Now this good king Hezekiah at the time of the Prophets message of death remembring what promise God had made to Dauid and to his seed and how that he for his part in some poore and weake measure had kept the condition in that he had walked before God with an vpright heart and had done that which was well pleasing and acceptable in his sight as he himselfe saith in the same place Isay 38 3. therefore hee prayed against death not for that he feared it but he desired to haue issue of his own to succeed him according to the Lords promise to his seruant Dauid Which prayer of his was so well accepted of God that hee gaue him his request and added vnto his daies fifteene yeeres and three yeeres after God gaue him Manasses Isay 38.5 Againe beside these examples it will be further obiected that the godly haue feared death 1. Kings 19.30 or esse why did Eliah flie from it in the persecution of Iezabel and Christ teach his to flie it in the persecutions of men Mat. 10.23 and Christ himselfe as we haue alreadie heard did pray against the bitter cup of it in his agonie Mat. 26.39 and before his apprehension Answ Those Saints did not nor were to flie from death as it is the end of life and a most blessed end
heard Yea God hath told thee as we haue said before Because I haue called and you refused you shall call vpon me Prou. 1.24.28 and I will not answere you A dolefull and heauie doome for a dying man It is too late to sow when thy fruite should be in and no time to leaue sinne when sin must leaue thee Luke 16.24 Heb. 12.17 Mat. 25.11.12 Diues prayed but was not heard Esau wept but was not pitied The foolish Virgins knocked but were denied By which fearefull examples it appeareth that it will be too late to call for mercie after this life when the gates of mercie will be shut vp and repentance comes too late For if wee through our negligence and carelessenesse ouerslip this opportunitie which the Lord in mercie offereth vs we cannot recouer it afterward although wee seeke it with teares which we find truely verified by the fore-alledged fearefull examples Esay 59.2 For your iniquities haue seperated betweene you and your God and your sinnes haue hid his face from you that hee will not heare It is therefore the surest and safest way and better by many degrees for the saluation of our soules to leaue our sinnes now in our youth and now to repent in our health then hereafter alas when it may be too late The holy Ghost in the Scriptures pointeth vs to the present time and exhorteth vs to make that the time of our repentance and vpon this Theme many of the holy men of God spent their Sermons Looke in Esay Ieremie and the rest and you shall euer finde that they beate vpon this present time Esay 55. Ier. 35. Heb. 3. Psal 95. Ioel. 2. Now turne vnto the Lord now whiles it is called to day to day if yee will heare his voice this is the accepted time and therefore wee may not come for it many yeeres hence being promised to day Iniquitie did then abound as now it doth and procrastination was euer dangerous and therefore they iudged no doctrine so fitte as often to vrge repentance without all delay So that now euen now is the time of repentance euen now whilst he calleth now whilest he speaketh now whilst hee knocketh now let vs take vp this day and make it the ioyfull day of our repentance For ioy shall be in heauen saith our Sauiour in the Gospell Luke 15.7 ouer one sinner that repenteth Therefore let vs now say this shal be my day of repentance I will deferre it no longer and so let vs repent from day to day euen to our dying day and then whosoeuer shall continue so repenting to the end hee shall surely and vndoubtedly be saued Mat. 24.13 Now for conclusion of this duetie of repentance marke heere how happily we fall vpon repentance God grant repentance to fall vpon vs. It is a grace when it fals vpon a sinfull soule that makes the Diuels murmure Luke 15. and vex themselues in hell and the good Angels reioyce in heauen This is that which makes the eternall Wisdome content to forget our iniquities and to remember them no more then if they had neuer beene and this is Magnaspongia as Saint Augustine calles it the great spunge that wipes them all away out of the sight of God this speakes to mercy to seperate our sinnes from the face of God to binde them vp in bundles and drowne them in the sea of obliuion this is that mourning Master that is neuer without good attendants teares of contrition prayers for remission and purposes of a mended life This makes Mary Magdalen of a sinner a Saint Zacheus of an extortioner charitable and of persecuting Saul a professing Paul Repentance is the Supersedeas that dischargeth all bonds of sinne Behold the office of repentance shee standeth at the doore and offers her louing seruice entertaine mee and I will vnloade thy heart of that euill poyson and returne it to thee emptie though it were full to the brimme Peccasti poenitere millies peccasti millies poenitere millies poenitet adhuc etiam poenitere Hast thou sinned repent hast thou a thousand times sinned why then a thousand times repent hast thou repented a thousand times I say despaire not but still betake thy selfe to repentance If you welcome repentance knocking at your dore from God it shall knocke at Gods doore of mercy for you It askes of you amendment of God forgiuenesse Receiue it therefore and imbrace it The fourth dutie is to die in prayer for when it shall please God in the weaknesse of our bodies to giue vs a remembrance of our mortality and our end let vs pray to God for grace that we may spend the time of our sicknesse in reading Gods word and comfortable bookes in godly conference in holy meditation and in feruent prayer to the Lord first for patience in thy sicknesse secondly for comfort in Christ Iesus thirdly for strength in his mercy and fourthly for deliuerance at his good pleasure yea endeuour as much as thou canst to die praying For when thou art in the depthes of miseries and at it were at the gates of death there is a depth of Gods mercie who is readie to heare and helpe thee for misery must call vpon mercie and Prayer is the chiefest thing that a man may present God withall For by prayer we are oftentimes in spirit with the blessed Apostle rapt vp into the third heauens 2. Cor. 12.2 where we that are otherwise but wormes walke with the blessed Angels and euen contâ—nually to our very end talke familiarly with our God And hence it is that holy men and women in former times could neuer haue enough of this exercise Nazianzen in his Epitaph for his sister Gorgonia writeth that shee was so giuen to prayer that her kneâ—s seemed to cleaue vnto the earth and to grow to the very ground by reason of her continuance in prayer Gregorie in his Dialogues writeth that his Aunt Trasilla being dead was found to haue her elbowes as hard as horne which hardnesse shee gate by leaning to a deske on which shee vsed to pray Eusebius in his Historie writeth that Iames the brother of our Lord had knees as hard as Camels knees benummed and bereaued of all sence and feeling by reason of his continuall kneeling in prayer Hierom in the life of Paul the Ermite writeth that he was found dead kneeling vpon his knees holding vp his hands lifting vp his eyes so that the very dead corps seemed yet to liue and by a kinde of religious gesture to pray still vnto God O how blessed was that soule without the body when as that bodie without the soule seemed so deuout O would to God that we likewise might be so happie so blessed as this holy man was that wee might depart hence in such sort as he did nay in such sort as our Sauiour Christ did who died in prayer Luke 23.46 Father saith he into thy hands I commend my spirit and in such sort as Stephen
with whom all things are possible as our Sauiour Christ saith in the Gospell Againe we may roue at the glorious estate of the children of God after death by that high price which was set on theÌ„ Our Sauiour Iesus Christ the Sonne and only Son of God not by adoption but by nature louing and best beloued bought them not with money but with bloud not with the bloud of Goats and Rammes but with his owne bloud and not with the bloud of his head hands or feete but with his owne heart bloud And as he prayed soundly for them himselfe in his last prayer which he made vnto his heauenly Father a little before his suffering as appeareth in the Euangelist Saint Iohn Iohn 17.1 so hath he prised them vnto his friends and children and none can enter into them but by many tribulations Acts 7.59 For we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdome of God They did cost Paul a beheading Peter a crucifying Stephen a stoning millions of Martyrs racking burning torturing tormenting and a thousand other kinds of deathes and our deere Sauiour Christ himselfe a suffering Ought not Christ to haue suffered these things Luke 24.26 and so to enter into his glorie 1. Cor. 10.13 God who is faithfull and true as the Apostle speaketh hath not deceiued his Sonne nor ouer-sold his ioyes vnto his Saints and children and therfore vnspeakable are those ioyes which Christ hath purchased and his children obtained through a world of miseries Againe wee haue a resemblance of these ioyes in Christs transfiguration vpon the Mount Luk. 9.28.29.30.31.32.33 when as the fashion of his countenance was altered and his rayment was white and glistering whereby wee learne what glory our bodies shall haue in the day of the resurrection wheÌ„ as the blessed Apostle Saint Paul telleth vs that as we haue borne the image of the earthly we shall also beare the image of the heauenly 1. Cor. 15.49 and be like the Sonne of God in glory Againe we may make coniecture of these ioyes by reflecting our eyes vpon those innumerable perils which wee haue heere escaped For if such as are deliuered from the dangers of the sea doe wonderfully reioyce when they come safe on shore much greater then is the ioy of those who hauing beene tossed in the waues of this troublesome world troubled with sinnes with Satan with frailties of the flesh with the feare of hell whose dangers saith Gregorie appeare by the multitude of those that perish are now arriued at heauen for their hauen and are wholly freed from all their calamities and miseries And as Saint Augustine wel speaketh the more dangers escaped the more ioyes encreased as the most doubtfull battell maketh the most ioyfull victorie Againe we doe reade in the booke of Hester Hester 6.6.7.8.9.10.11 that when Haman was by King Ahashuerosh willed to speak what shal be done to the maÌ„ whom the King would honor he supposing that the King had no meaning to honor any but himselfe said this Let them bring forth for him royall apparell which the King vseth to weare and the horse that the King vseth to ride on and that the Crowne Royall may be set vpon his head and that his apparell and horse bee deliuered to one of the Kings most noble Princes that they may array the man withall whom the King delighteth to honor and bring him on horse-back thorow the streetes of the Citie and proclaime before him Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King will honor Then the King said to Haman Make haste c. Euen so shall it be done vnto them whom the King of kings and Lord of lords will honor after death First there shal be put vpon them royal apparel Reu. 3.4 5. euen long white roabes which are such as Iesus Christ the King of glory himselfe is described to weare Secondly they shal sit vpon Iesus Christ his owne horse Reu. 19.11 which is said in the booke of the Reuelation to be a white horse for Iohn there saith I saw heauen opened and behold a white horse and hee that sate vpon him was called faithfull and true To him therefore saith the Sonne of God that ouercommeth Reu. 3.21 will I grant to fit with me in my throne euen as I also ouercame and am set on my fathers throne Thirdly the Crowne royall shall bee set vpon their heads Be thou faithfull vnto death saith the Sonne of God and I will giue thee a crowne of life Reu. 2.10 And this is that most excellent glorie which the Saints haue in heauen shadowed out vnto vs by a kingly crowne which of all earthly things is most glorious Fourthly this glorie shal be furthered by the hands of the king of heauens most noble Princes Mat. 24.31 He shall send his Angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather his elect from the foure windes from one end of heauen to the other Fiftly and lastly the Saints shal be entred into the ful fruition of their inheritance with such ioy and triumph in the glorious assembly of all the Saints and holy Angels as the like was neuer seene in the world no not in Ierusalem that day when king Solomon sate downe in his father Dauids throne 1. King 1.40 But all that is nothing comparable to this ioy triumph and glorie of Gods Saints And it shal be as it were proclaimed before them Thus shall it bee done vnto them whom the King of glory will honour And this honour saith the Psalmist Psal 149.9 haue all his Saints There is no king on the earth can produce so ancient right to his Crown as the Christian effectually called can to these ioyes of heauen no maÌ„ on the earth can be acknowledged his fathers heire vpoÌ„ such sufficient warraÌ„t as the godly Christian No freeholder so surely infeoffed in his lands hauing so many confirmations of his right as hath the iustified Christian who vpoÌ„ his gift hath receiued the earnest the pledge the seale and the witnesse of the great king of glorie Wee doe reade in the first booke of the Kings that when the queene of Sheba heard of the fame of Salomon 1. King 10.11 concerning the name of the Lord she came from a very farre Countrey to proue him with hard questions and she communed with him of all that was in her heart and Salomon told her all her questions and there was not any thing hid from the king which he told her not And when shee had seene all Salomons wisedome and the house which he had built and the meat of his table and the siâ—ting of his seruants and the attendance of his ministers and their apparell and his Cup-bearers and his ascent by which he went vp into the house of the Lord. It is there said that there was no more spirit in her And she said to the king it was a true report that I