death where is thy sting they may take this all-devouring serpent without any hurt at all into their bosomes they that have their debts paid dare go out of doores and are not afraid to meet the Sergeant they dare looke on death and welcome him as the King of heavens officer to give them possession of an everlasting-inheritance wee feare our friends when they have a vizour on their faces but put it off and we rejoyce in them Excellent was the speech of S. Ambrose to the Nobles of his city which with threats and flatteries were sent to him by the Count Stilico to perswade him to pray unto GOD for the continuance of his life which when the holy Bishop heard he answered divinely J have not so lived amongst you that I am ashamed to live longer nor am J afraid to die because we have a good Lord. Doubtlesse had we beloved brethren as much faith on earth as there is joy in heaven we would not be afraid of death this is the narrow passage betwixt this life and our countrie on this side the bridge we have many troubles many sins many feares many temptations of the Divel which should make us think the worse of our lives and very willing to leave them but on the other side we shall be freed from all trouble from all sin from al molestation of the divel and shall be filled with all the joy our hearts can possibly desire So that hitherto we may apply Sampsons riddle Out of the enter came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetnesse Secondly this may serve to moderate our excessive mourning for our friends which die we hope in the LORD David exceeded in his sorrow for Absalon and was there not a cause He did not so at the death of the infant Let us rejoyce Saint Chrysostome saith for the just both living and dead because they are happy let us not in an unseemely manner bewaile them by pulling off our haires baring our armes tearing our faces or putting on mourning garments so saith the father and I say happy are they which have exchanged a base earthly tabernacle for a princely Pallace sorrowes for joy and earth for heaven and me thinkes our blessed brother now deceased if he had intercourse with us mortall creatures would say to his deare wife lying in her teares children and friends as our Saviour did to those pious women that followed him Daughters of Ierusalem weepe not for me but weepe for your sâ—lves you know my fastings my meditations my watchings and know you brethren that godly Ministers do purposely watch and meditate for you when you are or would be a sleep You know my griefe for my owne calamities and for the calamities of GODS Church and by your owne experience you may know what sharpe combats I have had with that raging enemie the Divell and what wounds I have received in the conflict now do I feare no perils on the land or sea no perils in the house or in the field now am J victorious over Satan and have trampled him under my feet and now he hath nothing at all in mee and now am J crowned with glorie and would you my deare friends be so unkind to me to wish me alive againe and to run the former hazards Kings and Queenes are willing to marrie their daughters to forraine Princes and never looke to set their eyes onthem againe and should we mourne too much for his absence and not rather rejoyce with him for his happier estate then this earth can afford When Iacob heard that his beloved Ioseph was alive and governour over all the Land of Aegypt his fainting heart revived no lesse ought the consideration of the glorie of departed servants of GOD cheere up our drooping and sad hearts for them and excite us to desire the fruition of the same glorie And this is my next point to be handled I desire saith S. Paul to be dissolved and to be with CHRIST It 's the fore-sight of heavenly glory and being with CHRIST that makes a man desire to die Some men indeed would die because there is nothing in this world for them to expect but miserie and shame and these do little lesse sometimes then call for the rocks to fall upon them that they might end their wretched daies as Iob saith they long for death and dig for it more then for hid treasure which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can finde the grave this motive swaied not Saint Paul but onely this that he might be with CHRIST I grant to desire death simply as death is against the Law of GOD and the law of nature death is our enemie and is not from GOD creationes by creation though it be truly from him ultione to revenge the sins of man saith Florus de praedest or as others say it is from him ordinatione because in justice he ordained death corporall as one part of the punishment which was due for the sinne of man and hence our Saviour CHRIST himselfe who knew no sin at all viewing death as it is in it selfe considered declined it let this cup passe and so did Saint Paul too we will not saith he be uncloathed the parting of these good friends body and soule without some further end is a grievous separation this harmelesse innocent nature teacheth and as death is further a meanes to cut off all possibility to profit others and to helpe the poore Church of CHRIST with our labours â—â—…us piety and grace may move them to pray with David LORD let my soule live These cautions are premised to prevent mistaking in the point but now which is to my purpose Consider death as it is a way meanes to bring us to the presence of CHRIST so it may be holily desired our Saviour CHRIST who said let this cup passe said also as his death was our life I have a Baptisme to be baptized withall and how am I pained till it be accomplished and nót only I Paul but we that are faithfull that are in this tabernacle do groane earnestly ver 2. not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life and after we are willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the LORD It s the love that a child should be borne into the world not the love of paine that makes the mother desire the travell in child-birth excellently saith Saint Basil properanti ad coebestem paetriam c. to him that makes hast to the countrey which is above the stay in the body is more grievous then any paine or any prison and it is said that Peter and Andrew welcomed their crosses as they were wont to doe their dearest friends and imbraced them in their armes and saluted them with kisses of peace Ignatius encouraged wild beasts to devoure him that he might be
the having saving graces in truth that assures us of GODS gratious acceptation of us in this world so doe they also by GODS free promise obtaine reward in heaven instantly upon the dissolution as Saint Cyprian spoke to Demetrian us though a blasphemous Ethnick that if he would at the end of his life pray to GOD for the pardon of his sins beleeve and confesse him he should be translated sub ipsa morte to immortality why not the soule being purged clearely from the impurity and staine of sin by the completion state of grace which gets full dominion in the very moment of her departure out of the body as Alexander Halensis Durandus and other learned Schoolemen have resolved and it is not defined in that Church whether the deordination of the will and whether vitious affections as too much love to wife and children remaine in the soule saith Estius yet doe we grant this to be true that the more gracious any man is in this world the more is he now respected of GOD the more glorious shall he be hereafter The point it self is clearly proved by the New Testament There is no condemnation to such as are in CHRIST JESVS None and therfore not to purgatory paines For the name damnation extendeth to Purgatory saith Th. in 4. Senten dist 45. q. 2. Sixtus Senensis l. 6. Annotat 47. No condemnation saith the Apostle yes that there is damnation to the fire of Purgatory saith the Jesuite Malon Whether will you beleeve againe Wee know that if the earthly house of this our tabernacle shall be destroyed we have a building not made with hands but eternall in the heavens S. Chrysostome rendreth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when to note the time immediatly after death he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have not I know not after how many years we shall have which may further appeare by the Apostles scope which was to administer consolation to the afflicted as appeares by the end of the former Chapter that they should after death goe to an eternall house statim post mortem acquirenda forthwith to be possessed after death as Estius sheweth out of Photius Anselme and Thomas which else could be but small comfort unto them if they believed they should be detained in a fiery prison farre hotter and more intollerable then any punishment in this world can be and that the soules of the faithfull were in a state of happines before the Ascension of CHRIST into Heaven is cleare though neither they nor the Angels were so happy for degree as after the incarnation of our Saviour is generally concluded and by cleare demonstrations confirmed the point I say is cleare I build not my faith on the book of Wisdome though it binds Papists to the beliefe thereof that saith the soules of the righteous are in the hands of GOD and there shall no torment touch them no torment then not the torment of Purgatory but behold a crystall streame which is able to quench the flames of Purgatory if a wicked man will turne from all his sinnes c. he shall surely live he shall not die all his transgressions that he hath committed shall not be mentioned to him How doth he not remember if he doth so severely punish that it passeth the imagination of man to conceive the greatnesse thereof can there be a back reckoning for that which shall never be remembred and saying that not a few but al his sins shall be forgotten will he yet punish them to satisfie for any sins at all and is it not an easie thing unto the LORD in the day of death to reward a man according to his waies Call you this a reward for a good man to be thrust into a place of torment this present life is a time of working striving running sowing and godly living after death is the time of reaping of receiving wages garlands and crownes an unjust thing it is to detaine the labourers wages which reason I suppose is as strong against Purgatory as against those Armenians whom our Adversaries do worthily confute and how is it imaginable that if he good in the old Law supposed then dead went first to torment that they did not tremble for feare of death how could they as they did depart in peace and how is it imaginable that GOD who appointed sacrifices for all sorts of sins and pollutions should appoint neither expiation nor sacrifice nor satisfaction to be made for the soules of the dead surely there appeares not to us any token of any such thing and therefore we may fairely conclude that all the soules of the righteous then were translated into a state of happinesse This Doctrine being thus briefly cleared we may from hence draw many conclusions Hence it followeth that the soule dieth not with the body as the Sadduces that pestiferous sect amongst the Jewes did damnably maintaine for as they denied the resurrection and the being of Angels so did they say there was no spirit no spirituall substance at all saith Scaliger which without all doubt is the truth in the judgement of Scultetus so grosse were these Sadduces in their apprehensions and as a wicked branch of this sottish stock of Sadduces there sprung up certaine Arabians which held that the soule perished together with the body as witnesseth Eusebius A fit doctrine for enlarging the kingdome of the divell but that the soule is immortall my Text proveth how else could it part from the body and be with CHRIST unlesse it was a seperable substance sith the body is not with CHRIST till after the generall resurrection whence is there is naturall confcience that accusing power for sin that feare of wrath but from this principle that the soule is immortall never make any question of this when thou diest thy soule which is thy better part dieth not but is taken out of thy body as a candle out of a lanthorne and immediatly placed either in blisse or in torment Hence may we in the second place conclude against the Anabaptists and Socinians which though they went not so far as the Sadduces to deny the resurrection yet did these fantastiques dreame that the soule sleepeth till Doomes day and is in a state of incensibility like some creatures in Winter insecta till they be quickned and revived by the heat of the Sun so they of soules till they be raised by the power of the LORD at the last day but how then could Saint Paul be with CHRIST but to say no more against these silly dreamers I proceed In the third place that conceit also falls to the ground which prevailed with many of the antient Fathers and with some later writers that the soules of the righteous see not GOD till the last day but are kept in certaine receptacles in expectation therof
in hell could have but another life in this world nay if those which have but seene them or rather as I believe in my instance the strong imagination of such a terrible sight I would not wonder if they proved the greatest Saints on earth Venerable Bede tels as he thinks a true story of one Drithelme by name the man lived in Northumberland who was raised from death to life and reported wondrous things which he had heard and seene both of joy and paine which wrought this great effect as there is chronicled that he utterly detested this present life and abandoned all worldly cares chastised his old impotent body with daily fasting plunging himselfe in Winter season into the cold water singing of Psalmes and devoutly praying and when the beholders said Brother Drithelme this is a marvellous thing that you can possibly suffer such bitter and sharp cold marvell not saith he for I have seene places colder then these Let this move thee to seeke the LORD while he may be found the benefit of this life you cannot long enjoy and when it is once past it is ever past you cannot recover it though you had in your power a thousand worlds to give to redeeme it And as for us fellow souldiers and deare Christians let us hold fast that goodnesse which we have let us play the men let us be couragious constant and never weary of well-doing let neither divell nor man take our crownes away from us never looke to enjoy a state which is best of all without much opposition Pharaoh will pursue you with all his power to bring you back into servitude but do you like stout Champions repell the temptations of the divell as Gregory Nyssen instructeth you Avant thou cursed and unhappy creature I am a dead man a dead man loves not bodily pleasures a dead man is not caught with riches a dead man slandereth not a dead man is no lier c now have I another kinde of life and another rule of life then formerly I had I have learned to contemne earthly things and to set my mind on heavenly things That which Saint Hierom spoke of judgement we may apply to the joyes of heaven let them be painted on the walls of our houses and in every corner thereof that they may be alwaies before our eyes as Captaines do encourage their Souldiers to fight for their country lives profession c. so doe I say to you brethren it is the LORD of Hosts whose battailes you fight it is your own salvation which is in hazard your enemies would rob you of grace and deprive you of happinesse if you give up your weapons you are undone and firebrands of hell be valiant therefore and keepe this treasure this pretious treasure which CHRIST saith S. Bernard did judge to be more pretious then his owne blood if I had kept the blood of CHRIST which dropped from him as he hanged on the Crosse in a glasse how carefull should I be to keep it and must I not be carefull of my soule which is a pretious treasure kept in an earthen vessell if thou art poore in thine outward estate and CHRIST be thy portion thou art rich enough care not for outward poverty be the LORDS servant now thou shalt be with CHRIST hereafter which is best of all If thou art afflicted in thy body with any grievous disease care not for that if afflictions work kindly to mortifie thy sinne now thou shalt be with CHRIST hereafter which is best of all if thou art basely esteemed and persecuted by wicked men care not for that if this be for righteousnesse and out of a desire to keep a good conscience thou shalt be with CHRIST hereafter which is best of all If thou hast but weake indeavours and a litle strength to goodnes if thou strivest to be better art a conquering thy sin be not daunted hereat thou shalt be with CHRIST hereafter which is best of all And to reflect upon our deceased brother now hast thou happy soule that which thou hast so much longed for thy death is the death of all thy defects the beginning of everlasting happinesse thy faithfullnesse thy integrity thy zeale have procured to thee a crowne of glory now hast thou thy fill of happinesse O blessed art thou that maist see the LORD face to face that thou maist enjoy the happy sight of thy sweet Saviour thou beholdest thousands of Angels the Assembly of our first Parents the seates of the Apostles the tribunals of the Prophets the scepters of the Patriarkes the crownes of the Martyrs and the praises of all just men made perfect as Saint Basil saith VER 24. Neverthelesse to abide in the flesh is more needfull for you Our Apostle hath made it knowne unto us why in respect of himself he desired to die and of this I have already spoken now doth he in this verse acquaint us with the reason why he should desire to live because his life made more for the profit and advantage of the Philippians then his death could doe For making the way to the maine point which I doe onely aime at five things are to be cleared 1. What is meant by Flesh the mortall body in which the soule dwelleth by a Synecdoche flesh being a conspicuous part thereof 2. What is it to live in the flesh it is to live a naturall life preserved by naturall meanes as eating drinking sleeping c. we walke in the flesh though we do not warre after the flesh yet take him not as if he meant to abide alwaies in the flesh and by a priviledge to be exempted from death which is appointed for all men but he meanes deliverance from those present bonds and the continuance of his life for a time to the furtherance of their faith and joy 3. Marke here and in the former verse that our Apostle speakes as if his soule was himselfe and as if his body was no essentiall part of man this is not true in propriety of speech and therefore is to be taken improperly by a Synecdoche Integri promembro the whole is put for a part here for a principall part of Paul the same trope in the like phrases touching our Saviour CHRIST is by a kind of Appropriation called by Divines the Communication of properties and these arousefull termes happily invented to cleare these and many obscure Texts of Scripture touching our Saviour But to returne to our Apostle Saint Paul consisteth of flesh and spirit or soule and body and yet Saint Paul saith for him to abide in the flesh is more profitable for them When hee died he was with CHRIST how not with his body but with his soule Saint Paul is dead and hath seene corruption How in body not in soule Saint Paul in propriety of speech abideth not in the flesh but his spirit a principall part of Paul that is it which during