preuaile against vs and to this end let vs know as our Sauiour Christ saith to his Disciples Yee haue neede of patience so wee haue neede of knowledge of faith of hope of loue and other graces of the spirit of God for Sathan will not onely assault vs but perhaps continue his siege battery a day a weeke a moneth and giue vs no respight and though he will sound the retreate and depart sometime for a season as Saint Luke Luk. 4. saith yet he will returne againe perhapes another way and set vpon vs by some other meanes therefore arme your selues saith the Apostle and resist him and if this battell seeme hard and tedious vnto vs remember in what cause we fight and for what crowne our Sauiour Christ saith in the Reuelation He that ouercometh shall inherite great and glorious things and Paul saith The Saintes shall iudge the Angelles that is the deuilles Paul saieth to 1. Cor. 6. Timothy I haue fought a good fight and then he addeth I looke for the Crowne the Saints in heauen that are now crowned haue come vnto it thorow many temptations and tribulations therefore let vs harken to the Apostles exhortation be strong in the Lorde put on the whole armour of God and resist in the euil day and the God of peace shall treade Rom. 16. downe sathan vnder ouâ— feete shortly ⧠The Houre-glasse of Mans life PSALME 90. 12. Teach vs so to number our dayes that we may apply our hartes to wisedome THIS whole booke is called the booke of Psalmes because it contayneth in it for the most part matter of praise and thankesgiuing though there be many other doctrines mingled therewithall They are called the Psalmes of Dauid because he compiled most of them not because he made them all for this was made by Moses as yee may see by the title of it We call this the 90. Psalme because it is bound with the Psalmes and standes in the place of that number but it is intituled and that more fitly agreeing with the matter of it A prayer of Moses In which Moses setteth forth the estate of mans life generally and perticulerly of the people of Israell in the wildernesse where he saw many thousands of them that came out of Egypt dye some by one meanes and some by another as it is more largely recorded in the booke of Numbers Now Moses considered that many of their forefathers liued almost a thousand yeares whereto hee hath respect in the 4. verse where he saith One thousand yeâ—res in thy sight is but as yesterday and the life of man was growne shorter and shorter and in his time ordinarily it was not one hundred yeares as appeares in the 10. verse The dayes of a man are threescore yeares and tenne or perhaps fourescore which was nothing to their fathers how much lesse when they were cut off by strange punishmentes in the middest of their course and dyed thicke and three-fould without warning Now after the mention of those things he breakes out into this speech Teach vs to know our dayes that we may apply our harts to wisedome In which words are two things to be considered first a petition secondly a reason of the petition The petition is in these first wordes Teach vs to number our dayes The reason is in these other wordes in the end of the verse that we may apply our hartes to wisedome Wherby we are taught first of al that there is a number of euery mans dayes for this difference to be considered betweene this life and the next life this life hath an end therefore it is called temporall the next life endes not therefore it is called eternall the certaine number of our daies is knowne Iob. 14. 5 to God and not to vs. But he doth not desire to know the certaine number of his dayes but rather the vncertaine number of them that is that God would teach them to know the breuity and shortnes of mans life Therefore he sets it downe by dayes not by yeares and this he desires not for himselfe only but for the people and therefore he saith not teach me but teach vs to number our dayes Now according to Moses prayer God hath taught vs this point in the Scripture that all men are mortall and must dye as the Lord saide to Adam In the day that thou eatest of the tree in the middest of the garden thou shalt die although the diuell who for that cause our Sauiour Christ saith Iohn 8. Was a lyer from the beginning spake contrary and said to Eue Thou shalt not die at all yet indeed Adam died for although he dyed not by by yet he was a dead man because sentence was passed vpon him and all his life afterward was but a dying life euerything then sauoring of death and euery day beeing a step vnto death If any will inquire what death is to speake generally it is a seperation from the condition of this mortall and temporall life but to speake more properlye it is a seperation of the soule and body as the ioyning togeather of the soule and body at the first was the cause of life as it is said God breathed into Adam the breath of life and Gen. 1. man was made a liuing soule so the seperation of the soule from the bodye is the cause of death as Christ saieth to the ritch man This night they shall fetch away thy soule thou shalt dye This Adam by his sinne brought not onelye vpon himselfe but vpon all his posteritye as Paul saieth Rom. 5. By man sinne entred into the worlde and death by sinne and death went ouer all men forasmuch as all men haue sinned therefore it is saide not onely of Adam himselfe but of dyuers of the fathers that were his posterity to shew the trueth of Gods threatning to Adam In the daye Gen. 5. thou doest eate of such a tree thou shalt dye And to shewe the falcehoode of the diuelles promise to Eue that though sâ—e did eate it she should not dye at all such and such a one liued thus many hundred yeares but he dyed for though the day be neuer so long at length comes euensong Heb. 9. the Apostle saith It is appointed to al men once to dye after that comes the iudgement when all men are dead then comes the general iudgemeÌ„t but when euery one dyes then comes his perticuler iudgement as appeares in the example of the ritch man and Lazarus for as the day of death leaues vs so the day of doome shall finde vs therfore Dauid when he laye sicke said I goe the waye of all the worlde for death is as an vnpartiall iudge that is indifferent to all poore and rich Iob speakes of some men that would seeke death either for the auoyding of present sorrow or procuring of future ioy but whether a man seekes it or no he shall be sure it will seeke him We read of a HeatheÌ„
obscure so great a mistery Now that we might the better see the greatnesse of this mistery that God is manifested in the flesh as it were with a paire of spectacles let vs briefely consider on the one side what God is and on the other side what man is And yet I meane not to enter into any large discription of God least we should thinke he may be fully conceiued for one saith truely and wittily If all the world were full of bookes if all the creatures in the world were writers and all the water in the sea were inke the writers would be wearied the bookes would be filled and the sea would be emptied and exhausted before his perfection could be manifested Therefore Simonides being asked what God was desired a dayes respit to make answere and being asked the next day he deferred two dayes respit and againe being asked the third time saide the more I search it the further I am from it When I seeke for God saith one of the ancient fathers I doe not seeke for the glistering beauties of Dyamondes and precious stones for the eye I doe not seeke for the pleasant melodie of birdes and tunable instruments for the eare I do not seeke for the sauour of flowers spices and oyntments for the smell I doe not seeke for hony and delectable things for the taste which brute beastes may be capable of but I seeke for a glory aboue all beauty for a voyce aboue all melodie and for a sauour and sweetnesse aboue all delicacie which neither beastes nor men with their outward censes can attaine vnto God is the most absolute supreame excelent thing a substance deuine inuisible eternall infinite vnchangeable glorious almightie onely wise true iust mercifull gracious and bountifull before whom the Esa 6. Cherubins do couer their faces of whom thorow whom for whom are all things Rom. 11. saith the Apostle to him be glory for euer Now as God is thus and much more excellent then can be spoken so on the other side man especially considered as Adam hath left him is most base insomuch that Dauid comparing man but with some of the creatures said What is man that thou art mindfull of him and the sonne of man that Psal 8. thou doest consider him how much more compared with the Creator Yea man is not onely base but miserable and so miserable that if Christ had not come to redeeme vs it had beene better for vs we had beene stones yea beares and toades therefore seeing all that can be saide is too little to set forth Gods maiesty and nothing can be said enough to set forth mans misery this that the Apostle saith That God is manyfest in the flesh must needes be a great mistery By God the Apostle meanes not the first person in the diety which is the father nor the third person which is the holye Ghost but the second person which is the Sonne for though there bee but one God yet in the Godhead there Mat. 28. are three persons the father the sonne and the holy Ghost Now it was the sonne the second person that was more manifested in the flesh as Iohn saith The word was made Iohn 1. flesh and dwelt among vs we saw the glorye thereof as the glory of the onely begotten soâ—ne of the father full of grace and truth Therefore Paule saith In him dwels the fulnesse of Col. 2. 9. the Godhead bodily And yet we are not to thinke he was thrust out of heauen as the euill Angels were but he tooke flesh of his owne accorde as the Apostle saith in the second to the Phillipians he being equal with God tooke on him the forme of a seruant for as Adam sinned and ouerthrew mankinde voluntarily so it was necessarie that Christ should take our nature and redeeme vs voluntarily Manifested in the flesh By flesh he meanes not the body of man onely but our whole humane nature consisting of soule and body As when Peter saith He suffred in the 1. Pet. 4. flesh it is not meant he suffered in his body onely but in his soule also as he saith of Mat. 2. himselfe my soule is heauy euen to the death so when it is said here he was manifested in the flesh he meanes in our humane nature for he was in all things like to vs sinne excepted Heb. The manner of his taking flesh was of a woman as it is said God sent his sonne made of a woman Mathew tels vs Gal. 4. Mat. 1. what woman namely the virgin Mary therefore he is in the Scripture called the Sonne of man not that any man was his father but because on a woman he tooke on him mans nature this is that the Prophet Esay spake of him They shall call his name Esa 7. Emanuell that is God with vs therefore are there such misticall speeches in the scripture Iohn Baptist saith of him he that comes Ioh. 1. after me is before me that is he comes after me in his manhood but was before me in his Godhead He is likened to Melchisadeck who is said to be without father and Heb. â— without mother for as he was man he was without father and as he was God he was without mother and he himselfe saith in Iohn 5. Ioh. 5. Before Abraham was I am This is that which some diuines haue spoken of in a wondring maner That he which is eternall should be borne in time that hee Esa 7. Dan. 7. which is called the ancient of daies should be a child of an houre old that he which is the worde should become a babe that Iohn 1. cannot speake that he which is infinite should be compassed in the wombe of a Luke 2. Virgin that hee should not onely make vs like himselfe at the first but make himselfe like vs that the flesh of Adam and the sinne of Adam being ioyned in all other men should be separated in that man that was the sonne of God because he was not borne after the ordinarie manner of men but was conceiued by the holy ghost and borne of the Virgin Mary this is wonderfull Who would haue thought that these two natures the Godhead and the manhood that were so farre deuided a sunder should haue beene so neerelie ioyned together not in one Paradice as at the first but in one person that more meerely then the soule and the body for they may be deuided but the godhead and manhoode of Christ cannot therefore this is a great mistery that God is manifested in the flesh Yet we must not imagine two Christes one that was God and another that was man but one Christ who is both God and man the diuell hath stirred vp some heritickes to deny his Godhead and some to deny his manhood and some also to confound them together thinking to corrupt this mistery and so to ouerthrow religion those that haue denied his Godhead alleadge for colour
thereof our Sauiour Christes owne wordes My father is greater Iohn 14. then I Ergo say they he is not God because he saith he is inferior to the father not vnderstanding the misterye of those speeches that he speakes there of himselfe as he is man or mediator and so he is inferiour to the father but in the second to the Philipians it is said He Phil. 2. thought it no robbery to be equall with God in his deuine nature Those that haue denied his manhood aledge these words of Paule God sent his sonne in the similitude of sinfull Rom. 8. flesh Ergo say they he was not man because it is sayd he had but a similitude of flesh but the Apostle saith not he had the similitude of flesh But the similitude of sinnefull flesh For though he seemed to be a sinner as others were as the Pharises wrongfully Iohn 7. said of him Yet Peter saith In him was no 1. Pet. 2. sinne neither was there guile found in his mouth So that though he had true flesh yet he had but the similitude of sinnefull flesh those that confound his two natures as if the one of them did destroy the other were led thereto by this that the scripture doth sometime attribute that to his manhood which belongeth to his Godhead as that it is saide the sonne of man is in heauen when he talked with the Iewes and sometimes doth attribute that to his God-head which belongings to his man hood as Paule saith to the elders of Ephesus Acts. 20. watch ouer the flock which God hath purchased with his owne blood Which speeches are vsed by reason of Christes personable vnion that is the vniting of his two natures in one person for as in owne nature of God there are three persons so in one person of Christ there are two natures But to leaue the confuration of heretickes whose property is alwayes to passe ouer all plaine places of scripture that doe shew the trueth and to cauill with darke places that may seeme to maintaine their error Those that would bee confirmed in the truth of the deuine and humane natures in the person of Christ let them read Iohn 11. Rom. 9. 5 Heb. 1. 8. 1. Ioh. 5. 20. these few places of scripture quoted in the margeant for the heaping vp of many testimonies is needlesse in this point that is so pregnant and plaine in this very Text which saith That God was manifested in the flesh Furthermore let vs marke that the sonne of God did not onely become base man but the basest of men for hee was borne of a base person a poore maide that had not a Lambe to offer for her purification but was faine to offer a payre of Pigeons he was borne in a base place in a Stable or Stall for beastes he liued diuers yeares in a base trade of a Carpenter and after he entred vpon his publike office he kept company with base persons with Fishermen Paul saith Hee made himselfe of no reputation yea he was Phi. 2. so base in outward appearance that the 〈◊〉 5. Prophet sayde There was no forme nor 〈◊〉 in him but he was despised and reiected of men The reason of this basenesse was because he did not onely take on him our nature but our case and condition that is the frailties and infirmities of our nature I meane not our sinfull infirmities for that is alwayes excepted in his humanity else how should he haue beene ioyned to God who can abide no impuritie but I meane he tooke on him our naturall infirmities both of minde and body The infirmities of minde that he tooke on him without sinne were both in his iudgement and affection For iudgement it is sayd of him He grew in wisedome Luke 2. which he could not haue done except there had beene some want and also Mark 13 it is said he was ignorant of the day of iudgement for his affection it is said he sorrowed Mat. 9 Heb. 5. and he feared and that he tooke on him our infirmities of bodye appeares when it is said he was hungry and that he Mat. 4. Iohn 4 was weary c. But we are not to thinke that he tooke on him euery particuler mans infirmities that grow of some speciall cause franzinesse of minde or lamenesse of body but generally the infirmityes which bee common to the nature of all men that hauing experyence of infirmities he might be able to succour vs in ours as the Apostle saith Heb. 2. But is this all the mistery of religion to know that the Godhead was ioyned to our base and fraile nature No but there is much more in it that doth carrie our consideration a great deale further as appeares by the wordes of the text that follow He was preached to the Gentiles and beleeued on in the worlde yea it reaches not onely to this world but to the worlde to come He was receiued vp into glorye A great part of the mistery of Christes personall vnion standes in the vse of it to vnite mankinde vnto God by a spirituall and misticall coniunction the Apostle Paul hauing said The faithfull are members of Christes body of his flesh and of his bones Ephe. 5. He addeth This is a great mistery but I speake concerning Christ and the Church The sonne of God was manyfested in the flesh that he might be the redeemer not of Angels but of men as it is said He Heb. 2. tooke not the Angels nature for the Angels that fell shall remaine in the state of perdition without recouery for euer therefore one wondring at the worke of our redemption saith let all the Angels tell me if euer God did any such thing for them but he tooke the seede of Abraham saith the Apostle That is our humaine nature that he might be the redeemer of men and yet not of all men for reprobate men are no more ioyned to God by Christ then reprobate Angels but the elect that Ephe. 1. were chosen in him although by their fall in Adam they deserued to be for euer seperated from God yet they are in and by Christ againe reconciled and ioyned vnto him againe God was manyfested in the flesh that he might doe that for men that no other could doe but he Yea that hee might doe that for man that he himselfe could not haue done except he had beene both God and man For if he had not beene man how could he haue performed our obedience in all the dueties of holinesse righteousnes and temperance which the law of God doth require of men and sanctifie mans nature that was defiled in which respect he is called our wisedome righteousnesse and 1. Cor. 1. sanctificatiō againe if he had not bin man how could he haue suffered our miseries and borne the punishments which by sinne we had deserued in which respect he is called our redemption this is that one saith is a matter of
cast them away as the author to the Hebrews saith Cast away 〈◊〉 12. the things that presse downe To mortifie â—hem as it is sayde to the Collâ—sians Moâ—tiâ—ie your earthlie members and names diueis Col. 3. perticulers to abstaine from them as Peter 1. Pet. 2. saith Abstaine from fleshlye lustes that fight against the soule To haue no fellowship with them as to the Ephesians Paul Ephe. 5. saith Haue no fellowship with the vnfruitfull workes of darknesse but reprooue them rather To cleanse them as the Holye Ghost saith by â—ames Cleanse your hands Iam. 4. yee sinners and purge your hearts yee wauâ—ring minded There be some things in nature indeed that must not bee cast off as the faculties of the soule and members of the bodie but whatsoeuer is corrupt in nature must bee layde aside not iudgement but the corruption of iudgement not affection Eph. 4. 26 as some thinke all anger is sinne but the corruption of affection So not the members of the bodye as some haue taken those wordes of our Sauiour Christ Mat. 5. 29 If thine eye offend thee plucke it out c. but the corruption of those members and so of all the rest And as the Scripture doth command vs to cast off the corruption of nature generally so perticulerly saith Lie not sweare not steale not commit not adultery kill not c. Some will lay aside some sinnes in their manners but not the loue of them in their mindes as the Pharises were outwardly like painted Tombes but inwardly full of rottennesse some will leaue some little sinnes but not great sinnes as Herod that reformed many things but would not put awaye his brother Philips wife and some will leaue some great sinnes but not little Mark 6. sinnes they will not forsweare but they will sweate in their common talke they will not rob openly but they will deceiue secretly But all these are borne of the flesh not of the spirite In the new history of Scot-land there is mention made of a controuersie betweene Scotland and Ireland for an Iland lying betweene them both at length it was put to the determination of a wise Frenchman whose order was that a snake should be put into the Iland aliue and if it did still liue the Iland should belong to Scotland and if not it should belong to Ireland because it is said there are no snakes in Ireland which is aleaged to this ende to shew that if the venomous corruptions of our nature doe liue and thriue in men they belong to the kingdome of Sathan for that which is borne of the flesh is flesh and cannot enter into the kingdome of God And that which is borne of the spirit is spirit That is he that is a spirituall man is spiritually 1. Cor. 2. 15. minded walkes after the spirit as he that is borne of the flesh is carnally minded Rom. 8. 1 and walkes after the flesh so he that is borne againe of the spirit is spiritually minded and manuered He meanes not that the substance of the spirite is infused into a regenerate man as the familie doe dreame but the qualities and guiftes of the spirite neyther is it meant that a regenerate man that is borne of the spirite is all spirite as a naturall man is all flesh for wee must not thinke any man can be perfect in this life Paul saith of himselfe which is true much more Phil. 3. 12 of others That he was not come to perfection but onely did striue vnto it therefore to the Romans hee complaines of his imperfections which hee calles the lawe Rom. 7. of his members or remnants of the flesh that still did rebell against the spirite for although Saint Iohn â—ayth Hee that is 1. Ioh. 3. 9 borne of God sinnes not yet the meaning is not that hee sinnes not at all for in the first Chapter hee saith If wee say we haue no sinne wee lye and sinne in saying so But the meaning is as some take it hee sinnes not as hee is borne of God or so farre as he is regenerate but as the most take it he sinnes not as he did before he was regenerate willingly and notoriouslye therfore when our Sauiour saith that which is borne of the spirit is spirit the meaning is he that is regenerate is a spirituall man not the flesh but the spirit not the corruption of nature but the sanctifying grace of God dooth rule and is predominate in him Therefore the sinnes of the children of God are called infirmities because they proceede from corruption that is weakened and made infirme in them by grace and therfore the duties of the children of God are called good workes because they proceede from grace but passing by our reason our will our affection our tongues handes and other members that are corrupt by nature and but in part sanctified they receiue some defilement yet because the motion from whence they come being the motion of Gods grace the end whereto they tend being Gods glorye and the ground whereon they stand beeing Gods worde is good therefore they are called good workes are accounted good and accepted in the faith of Christ who whose workes were absolutely good and therfore the workes of those that are regenerate and beleeue in him are accounted as his are for this cause a regenerate man is called a spirituall man taking his name of the more excellent part as a man is called a melancholike man not as if he had no fleame or choller in him but because that humour beares the greatest sway in him so a Christian is called a spirituall man not as if there were no remnantes of flesh in him but because the spirit beares the greatest swaye and ouer rules corruption in him therefore we must put a difference betweene iustification sanctification The Papistes speake of such a sanctification as may iustifie a man before God but iustification must be teached by faith from Christ Iesus whose perfect iustice is imputed to those that beleeue Gal. 3. 1â— our sanctification is alwayes in this life imperfect and mingled with some wantes but yet so as regeneration makes a man exceedingly to differ from a naturall man he that is of the flesh saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 5 sauours the things of the flesh that is corruption affectes them delightes them c. But hee that is of the spirite that is as Christ saith Borne of the spirite saueurs the things of the spirite a regenerate man in that he is borne of God loues his heauenly father and delightes in him but hee that is not borne of God but is a naturall man Iob 27. 10. dooth not beeing nothing of kin to him A regenerate man delightes in the lawe of Rom. 7. 22. Ioh. 1. 20 God an vnregenerate man dooth not but hateth the light a regeneraâ—e man loues those that be regenerate being the children of God and his
vs that we may apply our harts to wisedome and not to folly Men are in extremities of euery side some all their desire is to dye and to be gone some all their desire is to liue and neuer to dye some againe know they must away and are content to tarrie their time but doe not seeke for wisdome and study to liue well while they bee heere There be some who although their liues be shorte and too shorte if they were best imployed to become so wise as they should yet by laying violent hands of themselues doe make them shorter but this is not wisedome but foolishnesse In the sixt commaundement it is said Thou shalt not kill one obserues vpon that because it is not added thy neighbour hee meanes also thy selfe If it be a great sinne for a man to kill another it is a greater sinne to kill himselfe againe life is a blessing of God and death is a part of the cursse Now a man may not thrust from him the blessing of God and pull vpon himselfe the cursse God and not we doth appoint the time of our birth so God and not wee must appoint the time of our death No good man that wee read of in the Scripture neither Iob Dauid Lazarus nor any other though they were in great extremitie did kill themselues but onely wicked men and reprobates as Saul Ahitophell and Iudas Cleombrotus a Heathen man hearing of the immortallity of the soule killed himselfe that hee might obtaine immortality beeing ignorant that there is immortalitie in hell aswell as in heauen and Lucretia and certaine Heathen women killed themselues that they might not be defiled with Souldiers not knowing that the bodye is not defiled if the minde bee chaste and yet if it were vncertaine adulterie should not haue been so much feared as certaine murder they should not so much haue feared a sinne that might bee repented as a sinne that could not bee repented because time was cut off homiside hath alwayes beene so detestable a thing in the Church that such haue beene denyed Christian buriall that where most men are with-houlden from sinne by the feare of death seeing they doe not feare death they might feare something after death that is the reproche of those that liue There was one sayde to his sonne who had often these wordes in his mouth I would I were dead I prethe saith hee learne first to knowe what it is to liue Some in crosses will say I would I were as deepe vnder the earth as I am high but waye first wherefore God hath placed you vppon the earth and caused you to growe so high as yee be and what hee dooth require of you and waye whether yee haue done it or no and what rewarde abideth for you if you haue not and then consider whether it be not fitter to learne to be wise and to liue better first Some againe as I sayde are in the other extremitie and would liue still and neuer dye many olde men that haue lyued long already would not dye as appeares by marrying young women and building new houses but such men haue neyther right reason to consider of the estate of this life nor true faith to consider of the estate of the life to come this is a life full of miserie the next to the children of God is a life full of felicitie It is said of Hereclitus that euery day hee wept and beeing asked the reason he answered Because the world was full of miserie The Thratians at the birthe of their children euer wepte their reason was because they were borne to miserie and at the death of their children euer reioysed because they were freed from misery as they thought Paul sayth of himselfe and the Church If our hope were onely in this life wee were of all other 1. Cor. 15 the most miserable All men are miserable in this life but those most miserable that haue most afflictions if there be not hope to sweeten them indeede no man liues one day wherein one griefe or danger or other dooth not waight vpon him in regarde of his soule or his bodye his goods or his name his wife his children his friends his Prince or countrie in regarde of the temptations of the deuill the worlde and the flesh wee see many dangers but wisemen doe foresee more From the Cradle to the graue wee are toste with troublesome things and if in our lyfe we meete with anye profitable or pleasante thinges they soone vanishe awaye at the least the pleasure of them As one saith When a Spider hath emptied euen her verie bowels to make one slender Webbe one puffe of winde blowes all awaye so when men with labour and trauell haue procured anye thing that they desire in the world they are soone blowne away But a good man that doth not only consider the misery of this life but the felicitie of the life to come dooth finde no such contentment in the best estate of his life that hee would desire alwayes to dwell in it and why should any man desire to continue in the world faithfulnes in the most is gone loue is gone so comfort in respect of men is gone seeing we must needs away why not now if we would not now when then will not the worlde bee vnto vs twenty yeares hence as it is now where is the longing of Paul to bee dissolued and to be with Christ where is the longing of Saint Augustine to see that head that was crowned with thornes and to see those handes that were pearsed with nailes As death takes vs from our friendes so it takes vs from our enemies as it takes vs from the delightes of the world so from the griefes and sorrowes of the world therefore why should men be vnwilling to die seeing Salomon Eccle. 7. saith which belongs to good men indeed The day of death is better then the day that a man is borne death indeed considered in it selfe is to be abhorted but considered as Christes death hath made it to vs hauing taken away the sting of it it is to be imbraced as the end of a miserable life and the beginning of a happy life As the Apostle saith of the seede It is not quickned except it â— Cor. 15 die So he saith of vs and as it is not the worse for the seede that it is plowed and harrowed into the ground so it is neuer the worse for vs that a little earth is throwne ouer vs when the Sunne of righteousnesse shall appeare wee shall spring more freshlve Therefore seeing Christ is to his both in life and in death aduantage let a good man or good woman say if I Phil. 4. liue I shall doe well and if I dye I shall do better How dooth a bride reioyce when her husband calles for her though her mother and friends doe weepe for her departure into another countrie yet if modestie would suffer it then shee could laugh