with the strangury or when it comes raging in a violent and masterless phrenzy In a word when it endeavours to appear more formidable than it self who ever could pretend to such strength as should not grow seeble or to such hardiness as should not be dismayed before it Its first encounter baffles the appetite and causeth it to languish it disturbeth and interrupteh the sleep weakens the joynts commands a cessation of the usual exercises spreads paleness and wanness upon the skin Its next proceedings subject a staff for the necessary support of the enfeebled structure call in the Druggist to supply the place of the Cook and Confectioner cast a man upon his bed as the retirement of his wearied and fainting limbs and by degrees invade the seats of the vital and animal spirits afflict the heart with faintings the head with pains obstruct the vessels serving for the passage of the blood and spirits cause the keepers of the house to tremble the strong men to bow themselves and those that look out of the windows to grow dim for want of the usual supply of animal spirits Till at last the cold sweat takes possession of the Hippocratical face the disturbed soul sits upon the trembling lip threatning to take its leave of that body where the enfeebled spirits will not prevail to fetch up that phlegm that lyes ratling and betokening suffocation And then is the dust prepared to return to the dust whence it was taken Eccl. 12.7 Then doth man set forward in his joyrney toward his long home and the mourners go about the streets Then comes a shrowd to be the modish apparel and a sepulcher the bed for repose then begins this proud aspiring Nimrod to know himself and to own his original saying to corruption thou art my father and to the worms ye are my brethren and sisters Job 17.14 Then he that so bustled above ground as to think the world too strait for him is content with six foot of earth for his patrimony A rare conquest the fruit of a signal conflict Thirdly victory as it is here applied supposeth Death accustomed to conquer That challenge or triumphant insultation v. 55. O death where is thy victory seems to suppose Death a tryed Champion fleshed in conquest And if First we look to its power over mans body we must confess it an irresistable enemy and a constant victor Pallida mors aequo c. It is not the robes and pallaces of Kings any more than the rags and cottages of beggars that exempt them from the arrest of this Sergeant neither are those so high as to affright death from attempting them nor these so low that it should scorn to meddle with them It is not the long delay and forbearance of Death in demanding its due that can make it forget the debt that is owing by the aged The short histories of the strangely long lives of those Antedeluvians that survived the elapsing of several hundreds of years are every-where closed up with and he dyed Gen. 5. Nor it is the pittiful cryings and pulings of the infant in swadling clothes that is loth to be snatched away form its beloved breast and seems to plead that it hath tasted nothing of the pleasures nor understood the design of its being set a-shore upon the earth that can move this Skeleton void of bowels to hold its hand and to draw back its envenomed darts But these things are done in the green tree yea in the tender plant as well as in the dry Luke 23.31 The wisdom of Solomon or of the seven Sages of Greece would in vain have attempted to out-wit Death The strength of Samson or of Davids worthies whose countenances were like the countenances of Lions 2 Sam. 17.10 could not daunt this Messenger of Gods justice or prevail in the last conflict with it but these also yeilded to be led in triumph by Death In Golgotha are skuls of all sorts and sizes as tokens of the impartial conquest that Death is making There lyes Absolom so perfect in beauty as well as Mephibosheth a deformed Cripple There lyes the wanton and amorous youngster as well as the old man that doted and leaned on his staff There lyes Goliah a man of overgrown nature as well as David a ruddy youth There lyes Hector and Achilles so famous for manly valour as well as Thesites a cowardly and seditious brawler We may see there that wise men dye as well as the foolish and brutish persons Psal 49.10 There have Xerxes and all his vast army that threatned to level the mountains and to drink the Oceans dry laid down their skuls and owned deaths soveraignty Nor could those many million of millions that like piles of grass have stood before Death yet blunt the edge of its Scyth but hitherto it goes on conquering and to conquer Secondly if we take measure of its strength in arresting the Soul of man we must needs own it as an absolute victor It hath a sting put into it by sin which makes it assault the sinner with deadly strength and violence Man by his wilful and disingenuous transgression incurred the sentence of the Law which was Death in the comprehensive notion of it To bring men to that which the Scripture calls the second death Rev. 20.6 the former death hath commission And who is able to withstand a Messenger of the Almighty or refuse appearance when he summons us to that tribunal It is not mens hiding their sins like Adam nor covering them with the fig-leaves of trifling excuses it is not gilding over the potsherd of abomination with the silver dross of Pharisaical pretences or outside holiness It is no palliating colours no cunning conveyances no subtil evasions no critical subterfuges can deliver a man in that last encounter or stand him instead when Death summons him to appear before the judgment seat of Christ 2 Cor. 5.10 So that in every respect Death pleads custom for the victory it demands over mankind But yet Fourthly the term here used and applied to a Christian doth signifie that a good man may obtain a victory over this mortal enemy in the great conflict though so accustomed to conquer and so proud with success And the joining of the subject we with the adjunct victoriousness shews that it is the peculiar priviledg of true Christians so that strangers do not intermeddle with this joy Prov. 14.10 Not that a good man can expect to be exempt from the stroke of Death nor be secure as to any particular time or season of his life nor plead exemption from any sort of disease or circumstance of Death for what man is he that liveth and shall not see death shall he deliver his soul from the power of the grave Psal 89.48 And it is appointed for men indefinitely and without distinction once to dye Heb. 9.27 This being the passage through which we are to enter into another world But yet though it may seem a wonder even when good
they disquiet themselves in vain and that every man living upon ground or in what capacity soever he stands is altogether vanity Psal 39.5 6. and to cry out with the wise man Vanity of vanities all is vanity Eccl. 1.2 And if the profit that is in all labour do encourage a man to take pains and to endeavour to shew himself wise under the Sun then sure these thoughts of the vanity of humane designs and attempts do take a man off from striving to do wisely and worthily in his generation Thirdly it duls the edge of the soul for good duties He that fancies himself to lye down under the burden of insuperable difficulties that apprehends God to be an austere Master Heaven to be unattainable and Hell unavoidable will have very little mind to stir up himself to lay hold upon God or to work out his own salvation Isa 64.7 Phil. 2.12 or to use that violence of holy endeavours that is required in taking the kingdom of heaven Mat. 11.12 For it is hope of success that quickens endeavours and despair of this doth disspirit a man and make him dull and unactive Secondly let us take notice of such a man when Death is at hand and begins to encounter him and here we find him in a very miserable estate that hath not attained victory over Death for First it dispossesseth him at once of all the fruits of his labours and ejects him from the enjoyment of all his worldly acquisitions Though whilst he lived he blessed his own soul he shall go to the generation of his fathers and shall no more see the light of comfort and therefore man that is in honour and underctandeth not is like the beasts that perish Psal 49.18 19 20. And is it not a dismal condition for a man that hath toiled and bestowed great industry that hath plotted and contrived to the disturbing of his head and interrupting of his sleep that hath pinched and denied himself the enjoyments of many worldly comforts to increase his heap by parsimony yea that hath too often stained his conscience and hazarded his soul to heap up that which might be called a plentiful estate in this world this man I say to hear on a sudden that dreadful and heart-breaking voice Thou fool this night shall thy soul be taken from thee and then whose shall all those things be for which thou hast laboured Luk. 12.20 Secondly It dasheth all those vain hopes of Heaven with which such a man had flattered himself As there are politick projecting hypocrites who know themselves to be no better than whited Sepulchres Matth. 23.37 so are there many foolish Virgins who bear about the lamp of an outward profession in their hands and want oil to make it burn Matth. 25.3 and yet are so simple as to expect at last to enter in with the Bridegroom as well as the best And how sad will it be to them when at death coming to the door and crying Lord Lord open unto us they shall be repulsed with Verily I say unto you I know you not What is the hope of the hypocrite though he have gained applause from the World when God taketh away his soul Will God then hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him Will he then delight himself in the Almighty will he always call upon God Job 27.8 9 10. Beside there are many who though they could not find in their hearts to day while it was called to day to hear God's voice Heb. 3.8 yet they verily intended to take a time more convenient for these things But now these mens hopes are over the Bridegroom is come on a sudden those that were ready are entred with him and the doors are shut Thirdly Death puts an end to his day of Grace Some men indeed have so long hardned their hearts against hearing the voice of God that he hath already given them up to their own hearts lusts Ps 81.12 they have so long resisted the Holy Ghost in its strivings Acts 7.51 that God hath resolved that his Spirit shall no more strive with them Gen. 6.3 But ordinarily mens day of grace is commensurate with the day of their lives and whilst men are alive there is no man so bad but he may become better But death puts an end to these expectations it shuts-men up in an unalterable condition and as the tree falls so it shall lye for ever whether toward the South or toward the North Eccles 11.3 Fourthly death commonly brings to a mans remembrance those sins which before he was unmindful of In the day of health and prosperity men are apt to put far from them the troublesome and ungrateful remembrance of their sins past Worldly business and company and divertisements worldly pleasures and delights suggest more sanguine thoughts to the mind But when death cometh God doth ordinarily to them that are of sound mind and memory shew that he hath set their iniquities before him and their secrets sins in the light of his countenance Psal 90.8 Yea after his long silence he doth then use to reprove men and set their sins in order before their eyes Psal 50.21 and causeth mens iniquities to compass them about as at their heels Psal 49.5 and lets them see and feel that it is an evil thing and a bitter that they have forsaken the living Lord and that his fear hath not been before their eyes Jer. 2.19 And judg how unwelcome this is to a man's mind that hath long lain asleep in security when it makes him cry out with Ahab to Elijah hast thou found me O my enemy 1 Kin. 21.20 Fifthly death puts the greatest affront imaginable upon the beautiful and majestick fabrick of the body This pile of dust and ashes that appeareth so stately through the Divine Architecture that is so fearfully and wonderfully made in its contexture Psal 139.14 that is rendred so glorious by the enstamping of God's Image upon it that is by God's ordination become so awful and formidable to inferior animals of far greater strength This painted piece of dirt that hath been so much doted upon and adored for its delicate feature and amiable intermixture of lillies and roses this well-formed statue which voluptuous persons have adored as a terrestrial Deity Phil. 3.19 to which they have constantly sacrificed whole hecatombs of all the dainties which the Earth the Air and the Sea could afford this flesh for which men have made provision to fulfill its lusts Rom. 13.14 This must then become equal to the beasts that perish a prey to the inferiour animals the very worms loathsom to the eye of its former admirers so that they that loved it best when informed with a Soul can afford it now no better complement than let me bury my dead out of my sight Gen. 23.4 This that was sometime fed and clothed by the contrivance and industry of so many heads and hands must go naked out of the world as it came naked in and lye solitary
called us into his eternal Glory by Christ Jesus and who after we have suffered a while will make us perfect stablish strengthen and settle us 1 Pet. 5.10 He is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulation 2 Cor. 1.3 And therefore this especial comfort that ariseth from victory over death is to be owned with thankfulness as his gift Secondly it is a gift which none but himself can bestow Human reason and manly courage may in part support us under the thoughts of leaving the World and sleeping in the Grave by telling us that the World is vanity and vexation of spirit and helping us to consider that we are every way as well at ease wâ—en we are a-sleep and forget the World as when we are awake to enjoy it But what strength or courage of a mortal man can bear up without fainting under weakning decays of bodily vigour and endure without complaining that tedious pain and anguish with which it pleaseth God sometimes to afflict our bodies except he that lays on his hand to afflict do also put underneath his everlasting arms to support Thou even thou art to bâ— feared and who may stand in thy sight when on â—â—th 〈◊〉 wâ—â—â—â— Psal 76.7 Can thy heart endure or thy hand be strong in the day when God shall visit thee Ezek. 22.14 Especially who can bear up under the dreadful apprehension of appearing before almighty God as the judg of all the world except he hath comfortable apprehensions of God being reconciled and the judg become his friend They were no cowards nor sorry mean spirited persons but the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty man and every freeman as well as every bondman that sought to hide themsâ—lves in dens and in the rocks of the mountains that courted the mountains and rocks to fall on them and to hide them from the face of him that sat on the throne and from â—he face of the Lamb for when the great day of his wealâ—h should come who say they shall be able to stand before him Revel 6 15.16.17 Thirdly this enemy Death is in perfect subjection to God as his servant and therefore he is able to bless us with victory and to command deliverance to Jacob. No man can enter the house of a strong man armed and spoil his goods except he fiâ—st bind the strong man Mar 3.27 Now this can God do not only in respect of his infinite power to which all creatures in heaven and earth do bow and obey whereby he can stop the mouths of Lions suspend the natural influence of fiâ—e appease the rage and swelling of the sea But also because Death is his servant the minister of his wrath the executioner of his justice And therefore he that saith to the raging sea peace and be still yea that hath placed the friable body of sand to be a rampart against its fury by a perpetual decree which it cannot pass nor return again to cover the earth Jer. 5.22 He also gives laws to death and sets bounds to its rage giving victory over it to them that fear him Fourthly the conferring of this victory is a favour that will eminently shew the great love and kindness of God to his people for naturally we are under the power and dominion of death by reason of sin it being as due as the wages to the workman when he ended hath his business And it was the meer mercy and undeserved good will of God toward the workmanship of his own hand now degenerated and become miserable through their own wilfulness that helped them to overcome that enemy which themselves had formed to be a thorn in their sides and a prick in their eyes Yea it was a peculiar favour to mankind not vouchsafed to the superior order of reasonable creatures to be able to vanquish that death that misery which there ungrateful revolting from their maker had brought upon themselves for verily the Son of God took not on him the nature of Angels nor helped them up but he took on him and relieved the seed of Adam and for them did by death overcome him that had power over death even the devil and delivered them who otherwise through fear of death must all their life time have been subject to bondage Heb. 2.14 15 16. Yea it is a mercy not vouchsafed to all mankind as to the actual enjoyment of it but to those only that beleeve in him To as many as received him he gave power to become the sons of God John 1.12 to have part in the first resurrection so that the second death should have no power over them Rev. 20.6 Fifthly consequently this Garland of Victory doth greatly oblige the hearts of Gods people unto himself It being the fruit of that preventing love that remembred us in our low and lost estate even because his mercy endureth for ever Psal 136.23 the manifestation of the kindness and bounty of God to procure for us so great a priviledge as this victory hath appeared to be and that at so dear a rate as the most precious blood of his own Son that Lamb without spot and blemish 1 Pet. 1.19 So God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3.16 This tends to draw us with the cords of a man with cords of love Hos 11.4 It sets us upon our legs to run the way of Gods commandments it renders us subjects capable of ingenuous service by setting us free with the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.21 And withall it layeth the strongest engagements of love and gratitude upon us to give up our selves both souls and bodies as living sacrifices unto him Rom. 12.1 and being delivered from our enemies to serve him without slavish fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life Luk. 1.74 75. This period being reflected upon will be of use First to resolve that wonder that sometimes possesseth our minds when we behold the great courage and undaunted confidence of some persons in looking death in the face Many that could not look upon those instruments of violent death a sword or pistol in the hand of an enemy people that are of weak constitutions and mean spirits for encountring an adversary abroad have yet been able to entertain death when coming from Gods own hand with great composure and sedateness of spirit yea many whose education hath placed them under disadvantageous circumstances through want of due knowledg and clear notions as to other things have been able to grapple with death when clothed with all that terror which cruel men could hang on its back The reason is because God gave them that gift which is in his own power to bestow and this wind bloweth where it listeth these favours are many times conferred upon babes in