latter are a separation of the whole man bodie and soule from the fellowship of God The first is an entrance to death the second and third are the accomplishment of it The first is temporarie the second and third are spirituall and eternall The first is of the body onely the second and third are of both bodie and soule The first is common to all men the second and third are proper only to the Reprobates But touching the naturall and bodily death which is the proper subiect of this Diuision it is as we haue said before the seperation of the soule from the bodie with the dissolution of the bodie vntill the resurrection as a punishment ordained of God and imposed on man for sinne though to the godly the nature of it is chaunged For when God had setled Adam in Paradise a place of pleasure giuing him such libertie as these words import Thou shalt eate freely of euery tree of the garden Gen. 2.16.17 yet left hee should presumptuously equall himselfe with his Creator he gaue him this bridle to champe on But of the tree of knowledge of good and euill thou shalt not eat for in that day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death Adam had soone forgotten this saying thou shalt die and harkened vnto that lying speech of the Serpent Yee shall not die Matth. 15.14 The man gaue eare to the woman the woman to the Serpent they eate of the forbidden tree so the blind led the blind and both fell into the ditch But now when Father Adam hath tasted of that forbidden fruite O how was he bewitched He was once in the state of grace but now of disgrace hee was once the childe of God but now in danger for ought he knoweth to be the slaue of the Serpent God did once care altogether for him but now hee must care and shift for himselfe hee was warme without apparell naked without shame satisfied without labour or paine his meat was put into his mouth But now it is come out of his nostrels and is loathsome vnto him Numb 11.20 And now hee must be pinched with cold and scorched with heate Gen. 31.40 he must trauell hard and in the sweat of his browes must eate his bread Gen. 3.19 While hee kept himselfe within his compasse hee was a happie man for which he was to thank God and now being in miserie hee is accursed and vnhappie for which hee may thanke himselfe A lamentable fall a pitifull case the wrath of God ouerrunneth the whole world as a gangrene through all Adams posteritie for his disobedience his treason hath attainted all his children his whole bloud is corrupted his fall redoundeth to all of vs that came of him Alas then how shall we doe Adam is dust hated of God and ashamed of himselfe he is accursed hee is sicke with sinne hee is dead twice dead subiect to mortalitie and subiect to eternall damnation his children bee in the same case Woe therefore bee vnto vs we are so benumbed with our sinnes that wee feele not the sting of death fixed therein the impostume of sinne lieth hidden in our hearts so pleasingly to our carnall sence as that we thinke our selues whole and sound as if we presumed we should neuer die The incredulous and rebellious broode of Adam will not acknowledge their corruption and mortalitie such and so great is their selfe-love and pride of heart Adam the Father of all Nations was once a free-man a blessed man the childe of God the mercie of God imbraced him on euery side In the earth there were blessings for him ingrauen as it were in the herbes flowers and fruits yea in the heauens and in the waters he saw innumerable tokens of Gods loue towards him But alas wretch that he was when he was in honor he forgot himself he denied God his seruice yea he obeyed his Enemie and therefore became accursed and debarred of all his former blessings He became a bondman a cursed creature the seruant of sinne and Satan ashamed of his nakednesse and trembled at Gods voice So that death and the graue haue obtained the victorie for Adam and his wife are become a cursed couple yea not onely they but all their posteritie they be the roote we be the branches If the roote bee bitter the branches must bee so also they bee the Fountaine we be springs if the fountaine be filthie so must the springs be Sinne and corruption bee the riches that wee bequeath to our children Rebellion is the inheritance that we haue purchased for them Death is the wages that we haue procured vnto them such as the father is such bee the children For wee are all of the same nature and haue eaten the same sowre grape Ezec. 18.2 The fathers haue eaten sowre grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge By one man sinne entred into the world Rom. 5.12 and death by sinne and so death went ouer all men in whom all men haue sinned In sinning with Adam wee must all die with Adam and this is the onely difference betwixt him and vs that hee did it before vs and for vs. For if any of vs had beene in Adams stead we had done that which Adam did if not more to procure death And wee receiuing from Adam the infection of our flesh we receiued from him also the corruption of our flesh And this is the cheifest and most principall cause why all must die As the goodnesse of God hath lent vs life so our owne deserts haue wrought our death It is a true and a heauie sentence spoken to euery man Thou must die verified not in one in few in many but in all and vniuersall is this saying in respect of the elementarie creatures All must die A short clause of a long extent containing in it the estate of all mortall creatures whatsoeuer As there are certaine common principles which doe runne through all Arts so this is a generall rule that concernes euery man All must die The truth thereof is daily to be seene and all of vs hereafter shall proue the Lord knoweth how soone by his owne experience Therefore it is said in the second booke of Esdras Esd 2. v. 3.4.5.6.7 O Lord who bearest rule thou spakest at the beginning when thou diddest plant the earth and that thy selfe alone and commandedst the people and gauest a bodie vnto Adam without soule which was the workmanship of thine hands and diddest breath into him the breath of life and he was made liuing before thee and thou leddest him into Paradise which thy right hand had planted before the earth came forward and vnto him thou gauest commandement to loue thy way which he transgressed and immediately thou appointedst death to him and his generation of whom came Nations Tribes and Kindreds out of number And in another place of that book it is said And when Adam transgressed my Statutes Esd 2. v. 7.11.12 then was decreed
excellent fruits in the life of man For a worldling surfeted with vanities a proud man in the midst of his aspiring thoughts the couetous man in the dogs-hunger of his auarice the voluptuous man in the fury of his fornication the enuious man in the torment of his malice if they can be so happie as once to prepare themselues for Death in a holy meditation into what amazement will they be brought to consider of their wondrous folly in their dangerous estate Then pride will strike her sailes couetousnes will be satisfied voluptuosnesse more continent and enuie more charitable Gen. 18.27 Iob. 42.6 it will make vs say with Abraham I am but dust and ashes and with the holy man Iob to abhor our selues and to repent in dust and ashes The second dutie in this generall preparation is that euery man must daily indeauor to take away from his owne Death the power and sting thereof Iudg. 16.5 The Philistimes saw by experience that Samson was of great strength and therefore they vsed meanes to know in what part of his body his strength layâ— and when they found it to bee in the haire of his head they neuer ceased practising with Daliah till it was cut off and then they had their will of him In like manner the time will come when we must incounter hand to hand and grapple with cruell death and therefore the best way is before hand while we haue a breathing time to learne where the sting of Death which is his strength doth ly which being once knowne we must with all speed cut off his Samsons locks bereaue him of his power disarme him and make him weake and vnable to destroy vs. Now to finde out the way we neede not vse the counsell of any Dalilah but we haue the oracles and counsels of God which direct vs plainely wherein the strength and sting of Death consists namely in our sinnes 1 Cor. 15.56 The sting of Death saith the Apostle is sinne And seeing we now know that the power and force of euery mans death doth lye in his owne sinnes the wages whereof is death as the same Apostle telleth vs and the body is to dy because of sinne Rom. 6 23. Rom. 8.10 wee must therefore indeauour before Death come vpon vs to pull out this sting and take froÌ„ him his power strength by humbling our selues in the time present for all our sinnes past and by turning our selues to God for the time to come and to labour to haue our sinnes pardoned and forgiuen by the pretious death and blood-shedding of our Sauiour Iesus Christ by which meanes and none other the power of Death is much rebated For Christ dyed not to take away Death as yet but to change Death not to overthrow the being of death but to plucke out the sting of Death not quite to stop vp the graue but to remoue and quell the victorie of the graue By which meanes Death cannot now sting them that haue their sinnes forgiuen nor the graue triumph ouer them Death in it selfe is the way to hell vnto the wicked but it is altered and changed vnto the children of God by grace and is become vnto them a portall by which the soule passeth out of the fraile body into heauen In it selfe Death is as a Sergeant to arrest men and bring them to iudgment but to the elect children of God by the Death of Christ it is as the Angell which guided the Apostle Peter out of prison Acts 12. and sets them at liberty and leads them from the vale of teares into the land of righteousnes and by this meanes of a mighty and bloudie enemie is so far forth made tractable and friendly that wee may now with comfort encounter with Death and preuaile seeing now it is become a peece of our happines Exod. 8.8 Acts 8 24. The most notorious wicked person wheÌ„ he is in dying perchance will pray and with Pharaoh desire others â—o pray for him and will promise amendement of life with solemne protestations that if he might liue longer he would become a practiser of all the good duties of faith repentance and reformation of life although God knowes there be too many that after recouery do with Pharaoh breake this promise This therefore is a dutie which you must be carefull to doe euery day Num. 23.10 Wicked Balaam that false Prophet would faine dye the Death of the righteous Let mee saith he dye the death of the righteous and let my last end bee like his buthe by no meanes would liue the life of the righteous But this preparation will bring thee to liue the life of the righteous and then no doubt but thou shalt also dye the death of the righteous The third dutie in our generall preparation is in this life to enter into the first degree of life eternall for eternall life and happines hath three degrees one in this life and that is when a man can truly say with the Apostle Gal. 2.20 I liue and yet not I but Christ liueth in me and the life which I now liue in the flesh I liue by faith in the sonne of God who loued me and gaue himselfe for me and this all such can say as doe vnfainedly repent and beleeue and that are iustified from their sinnes sanctified against their sinnes and haue the peace of a good conscience with other good gifts and graces of the holie Spirit being the earnest peny of their saluation The second degree is in the end of this life that is when the bodie goes to the earth from whence it came and the soule returnes to God that gaue it and is carried by the angels into Abrahams bosome The third degree is in the end of the world that is at the resurrection and last iudgement when bodie and soule being reunited together who were ancient louing familiers liuing and suffering together and from their first conuersion did draw together as sweete yoke-fellowes in the Kingdome of grace doe now ioyntly enter together into the Kingdome of glory So that the first of these three degrees is in this life into which we must enter For he that will liue in eternal happinesse must first begin in this life to rise out of the graue of sinne in which by nature he lyes buried and then liue in newnesse of life by grace The fourth dutie in our generall preparation is to exercise and inure our selues in dying by little and little before we come to that point that we must needs die indeed For he that leaues this world before the world leaue him giues Death the hand like a welcome messenger and departs in peace Wherefore as they in open games of actiuitie as running shooting wrestling and such like long before hand breath their bodies and exercise themselues that in the day of triall they may winne the game c. Euen so should wee beginne to die now while we are liuing that we may
vnder the burthen therof account that bondage more intollerable and worse subiection then can bee to the most barbarous and cruell tyrant in the world from whose tyrannie hee that should set vs free must needs bee welcome Which death and onely death can doe What great cause haue we then with all willingnesse to embrace death and be greatly comforted when it appproacheth But death doâ—h yet much more for vs then all this for it not onely frees vs from all euills euen sinne but puts vs also into actuall and peaceable possession of all good things and bringeth vs to that good place where if there were any place for any passion we would be offended with Death for not bringing vs thither long before And though the bodie rotte in the graue or bee eaten of wormes or deuoured by beasts or swallowed vp by fishes or burnt to ashes yet that will not be to vs a matter of discomfort not-onely because as wee haue heard before they are at rest and doe sleepe in peace in their beddes till the last day but also if wee doe well consider the ground of all grace as namely our vnion and coniunction with Christ our head it is indeede a spirituall and yet most real coniunction and vnion For we must not imagine that our soules alone are ioyned and vnited to the body or soule of Christ but the whole parson of man both body and soule is vnited and conioyned to whole Christ For we are vnited wholy to whole Christ who is not deuided euen according to both natures 1. Cor. 1.13 1. Cor. 3.21 by which hee is wholy oure but after this good order as first to be vnited to the manhood and then by the manhood vnto the Godhead of Christ And when we are once ioyned and vnited to whole Christ in this mortall life by the bond of the Spirit we shal so abide and remaine eternally ioyned and vnited vnto him And this coniunction and vnion being once truly made can never afterward be dissolued Hence it followes that although the bodie bee seuered from the soule by death yet neither the soule nor body are seuered or sundred from Christ but the very bodie rotting in the graue or howsoeuer else consumed abide still ioyned and vnited vnto Christ and is then as truly a member of Christ as it was before death For looke what was the condition of Christ in death the same or the like is the condition of all his members Now the condition of Christ was this though his body and soule were seuered and sundered for the time the one from the other as farre as heauen and the graue yet neither of them were sundered from the God-head of the Sonne but both did in his Death subsist in his person Euen so though our bodies and soules bee pulled in sunder by naturall or violent death yet neither of them no not the body it selfe shal be pulled or disioyned from Christ the head but by the vertue of this coniunction and vnion shall the dead body howsoeuer it bee wasted and consumed arise at the last day to eternall glory For although the dead bodies of Gods Saints are often mingled with the bodies of beasts foules fishes or other creatures that deuoure them yet as the Goldsmith by his art can feuer mettals and extract one mettall out of another euen so God can and will distinguish these dusts of his Saints at the last day of the glorious resurrection In the winter season the trees remaine without fruit or leaues and being beaten with the winde and weather they appeare to the eye and view of all men as if they were withered and rotten dead trees yet when the spring time comes they become aliue againe and as before doe bring forth their buds blossoms leaues and fruits the reason is because the body grayne and armes of the tree are all ioyned and fastened to the roote where all the sappe and moisture lies in the winter time and from thence by reason of this coniunction it is deriued in the spring to all the parts of the tree Euen so the bodies of men haue their winter also and this iâ— in death in which time they are turned into dust and so remaine for a time dead and rotten Yet in the spring time that is at the last day at the resurrection by meanes of the misticall coniunction and vnion with Christ his diuine quickning vertue shall streame and flow from thence to all the bodies of his elect and chosen members and cause them to liue againe and that to life eternall For the bodies of Gods elect being the members of Christ though they be neuer so much rotten putrified and consumed yet are they still in Gods fauour and in the couenant of grace to which because they haue right being dead they shall not remaine so for euer in their graues but shall arise againe at the last day vnto glory And by reason of this vnion and coniunction with Christ we gaine the prayers of the Saints yet liuing with vs the loue of the Saints glorified before vs the ministrie of Angels working for vs grace in earth and glory in heauen And in Christ our gaine is such as that we shall haue all losses recompenced all wants supplied all curses remoued all crosses sanctified all graces increased all hopes confirmed all promises performed all blessednesse procured Satan conquered death destroyed the graue sweetened corruption abolished sanctification perfected and heauen opened for our happy entrance And as for death it selfe we are to consider that it is chiefely sinne that makes it so terrible vnto vs for in it selfe and by it selfe it is the wages of sinne and the reuenging scourge of the angry God but vnto those that beleeue in Christ it is changed into a most sweete sleepe For although the regenerate those that beleeue in Christ doe as yet carry about the reliques of sinne in their flesh from whence also the bodie is dead that is to say subiect to death Rom. 8.10 for the sinne that dwelleth in it yet the spirit is life for righteousnesse that is because they are iustified from sinne by true faith in Christ and resist the lusts of the flesh through the Spirit therefore that sinne which yet remaineth in the flesh is not imputed vnto them but is couered with the shadow of the grace of God Therefore by death the true and spiritual life of the soule doth not die in them but doth rather begin to which death is constrained to doe as it were the office of a midwife So that now we are deliuered from sinne in Christ that it cannot hurt vs nay it is conuerted to our owne profit and therfore death hauing her strength from sinne is not to bee feared sith sinne the sting of death is ouercome What need wee feare the snake that hath lost her sting shee can only hisse and make a noyse but cannot hurt and therefore wee see that many hauing taken out the sting
THE ANATOMIE OF MORTALITIE Deuided into these eight heads viz. 1 The Certaintie of Death 2 The Meditation on Death 3 The Preparation for Death 4 The right behauiour in Death 5 The Comfort at our owne Death 6 The Comfort against the death of friends 7 The Cases wherein it is vnlawful and wherin lawfull to desire Death 8 The glorious estate of the Saints after this life Written by GEORGE STRODE Vtter-barister of the middle Temple for his owne priuate comfort and now published at the request of his friends for the vse of others MATTH 13.52 Euery Scribe which is taught vnto the kingdome of heauen is like vnto an housholder which bringeth forth out of his treasure things both new and olde Vita mihi Christus mors lucrum patria coelum LONDON Printed by William Iones and are to be sold by EDMVND WEAVER dwelling at the great North-doore of Saint Pauls 1618. TO THE HONORABLE SOCIETY OF THE MIDLE TEMPLE ALL HEALTH AND PROSPERITIE WHen it came neere my turne to reade and that I had entred into the choice of my Statute euen then my body wasted with long sicknes and disease called vpon me to consider rather of my death and that so withdrew my minde from the positiue Lawe I had in hand as that it setled my thoughts vpon that eternall law of God wherby Statutum est hâ—minibus c. It is appoynted vnto men that they shall once dye and afterward come to iudgement and when I had spent some time thereon it did not only disswade me from mine intended enterprise to reade and perswade me to giue way to a more fit Reader but gaue me also such comfort and content as that thereout I straight way affected to impart it vnto you to whom I shall euer wish as your Foster-brother all satisfaction in the things of best vse toward your prosperitie in this life and glorious estate in the life to come excuse I pray you the forme it coÌ„meth to you in as issuing from a minde affected at that instant with the order of a Temple reading and therefore could receiue no other impression then of the same kinde which neuerthelesse as it is I doe not presume to addresse vnto you for your instruction but for your incoragement and incitation that you knowing me to be heauie and slow by nature and little bettered by any art and yet to haue by constant and diligent hearing of godly sermons and that only at our appoynted houres and by addition of some things sorting with the matter collected out of my readings gathered such store of Diuine notes as that thereout I may present you with such a common place as this might from thence consider what excellent things may be compassed by you who as well for your naturall endowments as your liberall bringing vp doe farre exceede not only my selfe but many other every way afore me and this also you may performe without the least preiudice to your prescribed studies for if your indeauours this way be but accompanied with delight the one will be a recreation yea a very apt helpe to the other For what maxime of the Common Law of this kingdom can you cite whereby our infinite and those most variable poynts and questions are decided that is not grounded or originally deriued from the eternall law of God either by direct precept or by consequent implication What I haue done in this my poore and simple labours is a part of my negotiation with that one Talent I haue receaued from the Lord which I am desirous to put to the vttermost profite And although perhaps for my selfe to be seene in the presse in a matter of this kinde will be to some as great a wonder as Saul among the Prophets yet had I rather by doing of some good this way lay open my infirmities to the censure of men then with the idle seruant to hide my Talent in the earth Accept therfore I pray you this my present with that kinde affection I doe intend it and then I hope it shall either profit you in the reading as it hath done me in the compiling or at least stirr you vp to correct and amend it by your owne endeauours for your better vse and comfort And so wishing to you as to my selfe I rest euer at your seruice GEORGE STRODE The eight Diuisions 1 The certaintie of Death page 1 2 The meditation on Death 61 3 The preparation for Death 90 4 The right behauiour in Death 130 5 The comfort at our owne Death 176 6 The comfort against the Death of friends 228 7 The cases wherein it is vnlawfull and wherein lawfull to desire death 241 8 The glorious estate of Gods children after Death 276 THE ANATOMIE OF MORTALITIE THE Statute which I haue chosen to reade vpon wanteth neither time to settle authoritie to bind nor notice to auoid excuse For in time it precedeth all time for it was and is from all eternitie in authoritie of the Law-maker it exceedeth all that euer were for all the three Estates in that Parliament were now are and euer shall be infinite in power glory wisdome foresight mercie and Iustice and hath beene proclaimed to the World by many meanes first in Paradise then by the Prophets and lastly by this holy Author to the Hebrewes where it is thus written Heb 9.27 THE STATVTE It is appointed vnto men that they shall once die and afterward commeth the Iudgement MY reading vpon this Statute may for the better apprehension of the Law-makers meaning be aptly put into these eight Diuisions following viz. 1 The certaintie of death 2 The meditation on death 3 The preparation for death 4 The right behauiour in death 5 The comfort at our owne death 6 The comfort against death of friends 7 The causes wherein it is vnlawfull and wherein lawfull to desire death 8 The glorious estate of the children of God after death THE FIRST DIVISION OF THE certaintie of Death THis first Diuision containing the certaintie of death is properly subdiuided into three parts The first is into the death which is naturall of the bodie the second is the spirituall death of the soule in sinne and the third is the eternall death of both body and soule in hell To these three deaths are opposed three liues the life of Nature of Grace and of Glorie Naturall or bodily death which is called the first because in respect of time it goeth before the third in our vnderstanding is a dissolution or separation of the soule from the bodie for a time namely vntill the resurrection The spirituall death which is termed the second is a perpetuall separation of the soule principally but consequently of body and soule from God of which Sinne is the mother the Diuell is the father and Damnation is the daughter and this is when men die not to sinne but in sinne Eternall death is the hire and wages of the second and this euer followes the reprobate after the first Both these
mournefull funerals and the reading of inscriptions ingrauen on sepulchers doe make the the very haire to stare and stand on end and strike many with an horror and apprehension of it which is a reproofe to those who can see nothing in their owne deaths but what is dreadfull beyond measure and simplie the end of man Such conceiue Death not as it is to the righteous and as Christ hath made him to bee by his glorious death but as fooles iudge of him who behold him through false spectacles as he is in his owne vncorrected nature considered out of Christ Amos 6.3 that is most vgly terrible hideous so did they behold him in Amos who put the euill day of his comming that which they call euill and the godly long for and iudge happie as farre from them as they could by carnall delicacie and wantonnesse So did Baltashar looke vpon him Dan. 5.5.6.30 whose heart would not serue him to read the hand writing of his owne end so neere 1 Sam. 25.37.38 And Nabal who had no heart to dy when hee must needes dye dyed like a stone that is dyed blockishly and so faintly that he was as good as slaine before Death slue him He had no comfort in Death beeing churlish and profane and no maruell for this aduersary Death armed as Goliah 1 Sam. 17.10.11 and vaunting as that proud Giant of Gath commeth stalking toward such in fearefull manner insulting ouer weake dust and daring the world to giue him a man to fight withall Therefore at the sight of him the whole host of worldlings bewray great feare turning their faces and flying backe as men readie to sinke into the earth with abated courages and deiected countenances stayned with the colours of feare and Death trembling like leaues in a storme and striken with the palsie of a sodaine and violent shaking through all the body But the true child of God armed as Dauid with trust in God and expectation of victory by the Death of Christ who by Death ouercame Death as Dauid cut off the head of Goliah with his owne sword dares and doth boldly and obediently incounter with this huge Philistime Death supposed inuincible and seeming great but neither with sword nor speare but in the name of the God of the host of Israel by whose might onely he woundeth and striketh him to the earth trampling vpon him with his feete and reioycing in the returne of his soule to the place from whence it first came he singeth this ioyfull and triumphant song of victory O Death where is thy sting c. 1 Cor. 15.55 he hath the eyes of Stephen to looke vp into heauen and therefore in obedience and a willing minde he dyeth But a wicked man dying may say to Death as Ahab said to Eliah hast thou found me O mine enemie 1 King 21.20 but when it is told the child of God that Death is come within his dores begins to looke him in the face he to shew his courage and obedience may say as Dauid saith of Ahymaaz 2 Sam. 18.27 let him come and welcome for he is my friend and a good man and hee commeth with good tidings so he Death is my friend let him come he is a good man and bringeth good tidings As for the wicked they doe with Felix tremble Acts 24.26 if they doe but heare of death and of iudgment and are like vnto Saul hauing no strength in them but fall into a sound when they heare of death and if they could but see it they would cast a jauelin as Saul at Dauid 1 Sam. 18.11 to slay it But the children of God doe willingly welcome Death as Gods seruant and messenger and applaud it as Iacob applauded the Chariots that Ioseph his sonne sent for the bringing of him out of a Countrey of misery into a land of plenty Gen. 45.27.48 where he should haue food enough the best in the land So the hope and expectation of the Saints is that they shall see God and come to Christ by Death presently in their soules and in their bodies at the last day So they may say of Death as Adoniah said vnto Ionathan the sonne of Abiathar the Priest come in for thou art a valiant man 1 Kings 1.42 and bringest good tidings Cruell and vnmercifull Death makes a league with no man Esay 28.15 and yet the Prophet Esay sayth that the wicked man doth make a league with death how may this be There is no league made indeede but onely in the wicked imagination of man who falsely thinkes that Death will not come neere him though all the world should be destroied And therefore the seperation of the soule from the body will be bitter to the wicked which cannot bee seperated without great griefe woe and lamentation As the Oxe doth commonly lowe and mourne when his yoke-fellow wont to draw with him is taken away so the wicked then mourne when the soule shall be seperated from the body then will the soule and the bodie with teares repeat againe and againe dost thou thus seperate vs bitter Death O Death c. Then griefes follow griefes and sorrow comes vpon sorrow and then what a wound doth the heart of the wicked receiue which loueth this present life When the Physitian saith vnto him thou must from henceforth thinke no more on life but of Death at the hearing of which heauie newes the body shall dye once whether he will or no but the heart shall dye so often as the things and sinnes be in number which he loued Then shall the most cleere light be turned into darkenesse because those things which aforetime were occasions of great ioy shall now become most horrible vexations and torment which will make the wicked set their throates vpon tainter hookes and lift vp their voyces like trumpets and cry out at that time vpon Death as the deuils did vpon Christ in the Gospell saying what haue we to doe with thee O cruell Death Mat. 8.29 Iob 2.4 art thou come hither to torment vs before the time And therefore well said the deuill pellem pro pelle skin for skin and all that euer a man hath will hee giue for his life so that he may enioy that although but for a moment longer As Pharaoh said to Moses depart from among my people so say the vngodly to death bee banished from vs thy presence thy shadow the very remembrance of thee is fearefull to vs to heare Saint Paul speake of Gods terrible iudgment to come is too trembling a doctrine for their delightfull dispositions to heare with Felix they are not at leasure for this is iarring musicke which sounds not arright in the consort of their worldly pleasures to thinke of death is Aceldama saith one euen a field of blood but if any Physition would take vpon him to make men liue euer in this world what a multitude of patients should he haue And
how well would they reward him But the children of God reioyce at the newes of Death to shew their obedience to it and their ioy is according to the ioy of haruest as the Prophet speaketh and as men reioyce when they deuide the spoyle Isa 9.3 And they may say of Death when it commeth as the people triumphantly somtime spoke of the day of King Dauids coronation Psal 118.24 This is the day which the Lord hath made we will reioyce and be glad in it And they may call Death as Iacob did the place where he came Mahanaim because there the Angels of God met him when hee was to meete with his cruell brother Esau Gen. 32.1.2 euen so when the children of God are to meete with cruell Death the Lord will send his holy Angels Hebr. 1.14 who are all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heires of saluation to carrie them into Abrahams bosome Tell one of our gallants in his sicknesse that Death is come for him 2. King 9.20 and that his driuing is like the driuing of Iehu comming furiously toward him he hath the Athenian question presently ready What will this babler say Acts 17.18 But this newes comming to the childe of God in his sicknesse hee may be talked withall for he hath learned with Samuel to say Speake Lord for thy seruant heareth 1. Sam. 3.10.18 and to say with Ely It is the Lord let him doe as seemeth good to him and with Dauid to say Heere am I let him doe to mee 2. Sam. 15.26 as seemeth good to him Now the reason of this great difference betwixt the wicked and the godly why they are thus diuersly affected vnto Death is this the wicked enioy their haue-best in this life but the godly looke for their good and are walking toward it And if it should be demanded when a wicked man is at his best the answere is the best is euill enough and that his best is when he comes first into the world for then his sins are fewest his iudgements easiest they goe astray as soone as they are borne saith the Psalmist Psal 58.3 It had beene good for him therefore that the knees had not preuented him but that he had died in the birth Nay it had beene good for him Iob 3.11.12 as our Sauiour Christ said of Iudas which betrayed him if he had neuer beene borne Mat. 26.24 For as a Riuer which is smallest at the beginning increaseth as it proceeds by the accession of other waters into it till at length it be swallowed vp in the deepe So the wicked the longer he liueth he waxeth euer worse and worse 2. Tim. 3.13 deceiuing and being deceiued saith the Apostle proceeding from euill to worse saith Ieremy till at length he be swallowed vp in that lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Ierem. 9.3 Reuel 19.20 And this the Apostle expresseth most significantly when he compares the wicked men to one gathering treasure wherein he heapes and treasureth vp wrath to himselfe against the day of wrath and the reuelation of the righteous iudgement of God For euen as the worldling who euery day casteth in a peece of money into his treasure in few yeeres multiplies such a summe the particulers wherof he himselfe is not able to keepe in minde but when hee breaks vp his chest then he finds it in sundry sorts of coyne whereof he had no remembrance Euen so and worse it is with thee O impenitent sinner who not only euery day but euery houre and minute of time multiplyest thy transgressions and defilest thy conscience hoording vp one euill work vpon another To what a reckoning thinkest thou shall thy sins amount in the end though thou forgettest them as thou dost cōmit them Rom. 2.5 yet the Apostle telleth thee that thou hast laid them vp in a treasury and not only so but that with euery sinne thou hast gathered a portion of wrath proportionable to thy sinne which thou shal◠perfectly know in that day Psal 50.21 wherein the Lord shall breake vp thy treasure and open the booke of thy conscience and set thy sinnes in order before thee But if you wil aske when the children of God are at their best I answere praised be God our worst is away our good is begun Iohn 7.6 our best is at hand As our Sauiour said to his kinsmen so may we say to the worldlings Your time is alwayes but my time is not yet come the children of God are not at their best now it is in the working onely wee were at our worst before our conuersion For our whole life till then was a walking with the children of disobedience in the broad way that leads to damnation and then were wee at the worst when wee had proceeded furthest in the way of vnrighteousnesse because then we were furthest from God Our best began in the day of our recalling wherin the Lord by his word and holy Spirit called vpon vs and made vs turne our backes vpon Satan and our face toward the Lord and caused vs to part company with the children of disobedience amongst whom wee had our conuersation before then we came home with the penitent forlorne to our Fathers family but they went forward in their sins to iudgement That was a day of diuision betwixt vs and our sinnes in that day with Israel we entred into the borders of Canaan into Gilgal and there we were circumcised Iosua 5.9 and the shame of Egypt was taken from us euen our sinne which is our shame indeed and which we haue borne from our mothers wombe The Lord grant that wee may keepe it for euer in thankfull remembrance and that we may count it a double shame to returne againe to the bondage of Egypt to serue the Prince of darknesse in bricke and clay that is to haue fellowship any more with the vnfruitful workes of darknes but that like the redeemed of the Lord Psal 84.7 we may walke from strength to strength till wee appeare before the face of our God in Sion For heere wee are not at our best but our best is to come Now our life is hid with the Lord and wee know not yet what we shall be 1. Iohn 3.2 but wee know when hee shall appeare we shall be like him the Lord shall carry vs by his mercy and bring vs in his strength to his holy habitation hee shall plant vs in the mountaine of his inheritance Exod. 15.13 euen the place which he hath prepared Isa 35.10 and the Sanctuary which he hath established Then euerlasting ioy shall be vpon our heads and sorrow and mourning shall fly away from vs for euer Therefore for this cause we must first indeuour that our death be voluntary for to die well is to die willingly Secondly we must labour that our sinnes die before vs. And thirdly that wee bee alwayes
done and neither for the error committed by man let vs hate man whom God made nor for the man that is Gods worke loue the sinne that man hath committed And againe here note we must hate none in respect of his creation but in respect he peruerteth the vse of his creation for they beare the Image of God which is louely but they deface and scratch it out to their owne damnation so that we must hate not virum but vitium the wickednesse of the man and not the wicked as he is man The kinds of death as we haue heard in the first Diuision are three-fold Naturall Spirituall Eternall but they may be reduced into two only as the kinds of life are that is bodily and spirituall Bodily death is nothing else but the separation of the soule from the body as bodily life is the coniunction of body and soule And this death is called the first because in respect of time it goes before the second Spirituall death is the separation of the whole man both in bodie and soule from the gratious and glorious fellowship of God Of these two the first is but an entrance to death and the second is the accomplishment of it for as the soule is the life of the bodie so God is the life of the soule and his Spirit is the soule of our soules Againe this spirituall death hath three distiâ—ct and seuerall degrees The first is when it is aliue in respect of temporall life and yet it lies dead in sinne Of this degree the Apostle speakes when he saith 1. Tim. 5.6 Shee that liueth in pleasure is dead while shee liueth and this is the estate of all men by nature who are said to be dead in sinne Ephes 2.5 The second degree is in the very end of this life when the bodie is laid into the earth then the soule descends into the place of torments Luk. 16.22.23 as the soule of the rich man in the Gospell The third degree is in the day of Iudgement when the body and soule at the resurrection of the last day meete together againe and shal goe to the place of the damned there to bee tormented for euer And this is called by the name of the second death Mat. 25.41 which doth belong onely to the Reprobate Hauing thus found the nature differences and kinds of death it is more then manifest that that place of the Preacher is to be vnderstood not of the spirituall death but of the bodily death because it is opposed to the natiuitie and birth of man The words then must carry this sence The time of bodily death in which there is a separa ion of the soule of man from the body either naturall or violent being called a bodily or worldly death is better to the childe of God then the time in which one is borne and brought into the world Now followeth the second point and that is how this can bee true which the Preacher saith That the day of ones death is better then the day of birth I make not this question to call the Scriptures into controuersie which are the truth it selfe but I doe it to this end and purpose that we might without doubting or wauering bee resolued of the truth of this which the Preacher heere auoucheth for the comfort of all the children of God at their death For there may be sundrie reasons brought to the contrary of this which the Preacher heere auoucheth Therefore let vs now handle the questions reasons and obiections which may be alledged to the contrary which all may be reduced vnto sixe heads The first is taken from the opinion of wise men who thinke it the best thing of all neuer to bee borne And the next best to die quickly as soone as he is borne For Cicero an Heathen man and renowned for his eloquence and learning complaines that nature hath brought man forth into the world not as a mother but as a stepmother with a body naked weake and sickly and with a minde distracted with cares deiected with feares faint with labours and addicted to lusts and pleasures And hence grew this coÌ„mon speech amongst the Gentiles related by Aristotle repeated by Cicero and Plutarch and fathered vpon Sylemus by all three That the best thing in the world was not to be borne at all and the next best to die soonest Now if it be the best thing in the world not to be borne at all then it is the worst thing that can be to die after a man is once borne Answ There be two sorts of men the one that liue and die in their fins the other that doe vnfainedly repent and beleeue in Christ the one goates the other sheepe the one good the other euill Now this sentence and speech of those Heathen men may be truely applied auouched to the first sort of whom we may say as our Sauiour Christ said of Iudas Mat. 26.24 It had beene good for that man that he had neuer beene borne But the saying applied to the second sort is most false For to them that in this life turne to God by true and vnfained repentance the best thing of all is to be borne because their birth is a degree of preparation vnto all ioy and happinesse and the next best for them is to die quickly because by death they doe enter into the possession and fruition of the same ioy and happinesse for their birth is an entrance into it and their death the accomplishment of the same And this was the cause that made Baalam so desirous to die the death of the righteous and to wish that his last end might be like theirs Num. 23.10 And therefore in this respect the Preacher in this place preferres the day of death before the day of birth vnderstanding thereby that death which is ioyned coupled and accompanied with a godly life and this is called the death of the righteous The second obiection is taken from the testimonies of the holy Scriptures and namely these Rom. 6.20 1. Cor. 15.26 Death saith the Apostle is the wages of sinne Death is an enemie of Christ Death is the curse of the Law Gal. 3 13. Hence it seemes to follow that in and by death men receiue their wages and payment for their sinnes and so thereby the day of death is become the dolefull day in which the enemie preuailes against vs for that he which dieth is cursed Answ We must distinguish heere of death it must be considered two wayes first as it is in it selfe in his owne nature secondly as it is altered and changed by the death of Christ Now death by it selfe considered is indeed the wages of sinne the enemie of Christ and of all his members and the curse of the law yea the verie suburbs and gates of hell and so it is still vnto the wicked yet in the second respect it is not so for by the vertue of the death of
will carry the snake in their bosomes without any feare Euen so although we cary death about vs in our mortall bodies yea in our bosomes and bowels yet sinne which was her sting being pulled out by the death of Christ shee can onely hisse and make a stirre and ordinarily looke blacke and grimme but can no wayes annoy vs. Which will be the more manifest if we well weigh how Christ our head and Captaine hath quelled and conquered this mightie Gyant for vs whereby none that are Christs members need stand in feare thereof Death saith the blessed Apostle is swallowed vp in victory and Christ was dead and now liueth 1. Cor. 15.54 Reu. 1.18 and that for euer And he hath the keyes of hell and death as he testifieth of himselfe in the booke of the Reuelation Now he that hath the keyes of a place hath the command of that place It is as much then as if it had been said he had the command of death and power to dispose of it at his pleasure And will Christ then that hath such an enemie at his mercie let him hurt and annoy his deare friends nay his owne members and so in effect himselfe Noe noe he conquered death for vs not for himselfe seeing death had no quarrell to him By his vniust death then hee hath vanquished our iust death as Saint Augustine very excellently saith Death could not be conquered but by death therefore Christ suffered death that an vniust death might ouercome a iust death and that he might deliuer the guiltie iustly by dying for them vniustly Whereunto agreeth that speech The vniust sinneth and the iust is punished the guiltie transgresseth and the innocent is beaten the wicked offendeth and the godly is condemned that which the euill deserueth the good suffereth that which the seruant oweth the master payeth that which man committeth God sustaineth For although because he was man he could die and did so yet because he was iust hee ought not to haue died and hee that had no cause to die for himselfe in reason and equitie should not die for others vnprofitably neither did he surely but to the greatest purpose that the Sonne of God dying for the sonnes of men the sonnes of men might thereby bee made the sonnes of God yea that they of bad seruants might bee made good sonnes And this glorious mystery of our Sauiours Incarnation and Passion must needs bring forth glorious effects this strange and vnspeakable loue of God that his onely Sonne should die for vs that the Lord should dye for disobedient seruants the Creator for the creature God for man this strange loue I say must needs bee of strange operation as it is euen to make of sinners iust men of slaues brethren of captiues fellow-heires and of banished persons Kings and to make of death as it were no death but a very easie passage to eternal life for the death of Christ is the death of our death sith hee died that wee might liue and how can it be but that they should liue for whom life it selfe died Surely Death by vsurping vpon the innocent forfeited her right to the guiltie and while shee deuoured wrongfully shee her selfe was deuoured Yea in that Christ hath vanquished death we may be truely said to vanquish it Rom. 8.37 Ephes 5.30 For in this saith the Apostle we are more then conquerours through him that loued vs he being our head and wee his members and where the head is conqueror the members cannot bee captiues Let vs then reioyce that wee haue alreadie seized on heauen in Christ who hath caried our flesh thither in his owne person as an earnest peny and pledge of the whole summe that in time shal be brought thither Wee may then boldly say that there is somewhat of ours aboue already yea the best part of vs as namely our head from which the members cannot be farre yea we may assure our selues that wee being members of such a head yea bodie to it we are in effect where our head is For S. Augustine saith This bodie cannot be beheaded but if the head triumph for euer the members also must needs triumph for euer And that we haue this benefit by Christs ascension into heauen aforehand for vs Bernard excellently sheweth Be it saith he that only Christ is entred into heauen yet I trow whole Christ must enter and if whole Christ then the body as well as the head yea euery particular member of the bodie For this head is not to be found in the kingdome of heauen without his members In a word the head being aboue water the bodie can neuer be drowned although it bee neuer so much beaten and tossed in this world with waues and tempests Oh but life is sweet and death is fearefull how then may I bee prepared against that houre to vndergoe it in a Christian patience without earthly passions I answer this is indeed the infirmitie of our flesh and the propertie of our corrupt nature that we are more desirous of this life fading then of the life to come that is not flitting and hence comes that feare and terror of death Iohn 10.28 Death in it selfe and out of Christ is as we haue heard very dreadfull and we haue reason to feare it as it is an effect of sinne But we speake not of death considered out of Christ or considered in it selfe but of death altered by the death of Christ for so it is no dreadful thing but much to be desired he is our Pastor we need not feare to be taken out of his hands our Aduocate 1. Iohn 2.1 1. Tim. 2.5 Iohn 8.12 Psal 91.1 Iohn 5.22 therefore we need not dread damnation our Mediator therfore we need not feare the wrath of God our light wee neede not feare darknesse our shadow wee need not feare the heat of hell fire our Iudge we need not feare that sentence shall be denounced against vs our life and therefore wee need not feare death Well may the brute beasts feare to die whose end of life is their end of being well may the Epicure feare and tremble at death who with his life looketh to loose his felicitie well may the faithlesse and impenitent sinner feare and quake whose death is the beginning of their damnation well may the voluptuous worldling whose felicitie consists wholy in the fruition of these transitorie things greatly feare death as that which depriueth him of his pomp and preferment of his honours and high calling robbeth him of his iewels and treasure spoileth him of his pastimes and pleasures exileth him from his friends and country and vtterly bereaueth him of all his expectations solace and delight Which Iesus the sonne of Sirach noting said Eccles 41.1 O death how bitter is thy remembrance to the man that liueth at rest in his possessions vnto the man that hath nothing to vexe him and that hath prosperitie in all things yea vnto him that is yet able to receiue
were reprobate or saued Of which matter saith he it is not for me to determine Our Iudge is his Iudge who will lay all thinges open when the time commeth This in the meane time is certaine that the deede of the man ought in no wise to bee allowed If wittingly I discommend his reason if in a phrenzie as one out of his wit then doe I greatly lament and pitty his case Yet notwithstanding seeing Gods iudgements be secret and wee be likewise in doubt vpon what intent he did thus punish himselfe nor any man can be certaine whether he repented or not before the last breath I think their opinion herein is more indifferent who doe rather disallow the example of the dead then despayre any way of his saluation Otherwise if we will adiudge all these to hell that haue departed the World after this sort how many examples haue we in the first persecutions of the Church of those men and women who being registred in the Works of worthy Writers haue notwithstanding their prayse and commendation For what shall wee thinke of those young men who being sought for to doe sacrifice to heathen Idols did cast down themselues headlong and brake their neckes to auoyde such horrible pollution of themselues What shall I say of those Virgins of Antioch who to the end they might not defile themselues with vncleannesse and with Idolatrie through the perswasion of their mother casting themselues headlong into a riuer together with their mother did for doe themselues though not in the same water yet after the same manner of drowning as this M. Hales did What shall I say of other two sisters which for the selfe same quarrell did violently throw themselues headlong into the Sea as Eusebius doth recorde In whom though perchance there was lesse confidence to beare out the paines that should be ministred of the wicked vnto them yet that their good desire to keepe their faith and religion vnspotted was commended and praysed Another like example of death is mentioned by Nicephorus in another Virgin likewise whose name is expressed in Ierome to bee Braessila Diraehima who to keepe her Virginity fayned her selfe to be a Witch and so conuenting with the yong man which went about to deflowre her pretended that shee would giue him an hearbe which should preserue him from all kind of weapons and so to proue it in her selfe layde the hearbe vpon her owne throat bidding him smite wherby shee was slain so by the losse of her life saued her Virginity Hereunto may bee ioyned the like death of Sophronia a Matron of Rome who when shee was required of Maxentius the Tyrant to be defiled and saw her husband more slacke then he ought to haue been in sauing her honesty bidding them that were sent for her to tarry a while till she made her ready went into her Chamber and with a weapon thrust her selfe through the breast and so dyed Likewise Achetes biting off his owne tongue did spit it in the face of the harlot Which examples sayth M. Fox I doe not here alledge as going about to excuse or mainetaine the hainous fact of M. Hales which I would wish rather by silence might bee drowned in obliuion But yet notwithstaÌ„ding as touching the person of the man what soeuer his fact was because we are not sure whether hee at the last breath repented againe for that wee doe not know nor are able to comprehend the bottomles depth of the graces and mercyes of God which are in Christ Iesus our Sauiour Wee will therefore leaue the finall iudgement of him to the determination of him who is appointed the onely Iudge of the quicke and dead And thus far M. Fox Touching the Cases wherein it is lawfull to desire death they may bee reduced principally into fiue The first is that if God can bee more honoured and glorified by our death then by our life then in such a case it is lawfull to desire death Iudg. 16.28.29.30 In which case Sampson desired death knowing wel therby that he should slay more of the vncircumcised Philistines the enemies of God at his death then he slue in his life In this case Moses the seruant of God desired to dye yea he went further for hee desired not a temporall but an eternall death for the glory of God in the saluation of his people For when Moses perceyued that the Lord was greatly offended with the people for making and worshipping the golden Calfe and that the Lords wrath waxed hote against them and that hee meant to consume them for the same Exod 32.31.32.33 It is sayd that Moses returned to the Lord and sayde Oh this people haue sinned a great sin and haue made them Gods of gold yet now if thou wilt forgiue their sinne and if not blot mee I pray thee out of the booke which thou hast written Also in this case the Apostle Saint Paul went as farre as Moses in desiring the same death for the like cause as Moses did which was for the glory of God in the saluation of his people Who being exceeding much sorrowfull for the Lords reiecting and casting off the Iewes sayth Rom. 9.1.2.3.4 I say the truth I â—…e not my Conscience also bearing mee witnesse in the holy Ghost that I haue great heauinesse and continâ—al sorrow in my heart for I could wish that my selfe were accursed or separated from Christ for my Brethren my Kinsemen according to the flesh who are Israelites to whom pertayneth the adoption and the glory and the couenants and the giuing of the Law and the seruice of God and the promises whose are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the Flesh Christ came Who is ouer all God blessed for euer Amne In this case also the holy Martyres greatly longed after and desired death and ranne most ioyfully and gladly vnto it Well knowing with Sampson that they should slay more at their death then they slue in their Life as first that they should slay their last enemie by death which is not slaine but by dying And secondly that by dying they should kill the spawne of all enmitie sinne that causeth death and thirdly they knew that God should be more glorified and honoured by their death then hee could be by their life in that it would thereby bee an occasion of daunting his enemies and of the increasing and flourishing of his Church and Children For the death of the Martyrs was the seed of Gods Church Acts and Monuments 113. In which respect M. Foxe in his Acts and Monuments sayth that in old time Martyrdome was more desired then Bishoprickes be now Secondly it is lawfull to desire death in respect of the wicked through zeale to Gods glory to the end that wee may bee freede from their society whereby wee might not bee eye-witnesses nor eare-witnesses of theyr dayly blaspheming and dishonouring of God In which case Rebecka desired death Gen. 26.34.35 for when Esau had taken
persecutions into desarts mountaines and holes of the earth But they were worthy and had farre better company hauing a kind of fellowship with Christ and all the Saints that were gone before them So for the faithfull that now liue if the wicked and vngodly make no more of them then of the filth of the World and as of the of scouring of all things as the Apostles speaketh it is because they are too good to liue amongst them and too precious to be cast before swine 1 Cor. 4 13. that so treade and trample them vnder their feet And where they say away with such fellowes from the earth Math. 7.6 for it is not fitte that they should liue Christ will in his due time take them from the earth by a blessed and most sweet death Act. 22.22 to haue the company and fellowship with him his Angels and Saints and with all the holy company of Heauen and then they shall haue their desire Thirdly it is lawfull to desire death in respect of our sinnes to the end we might not offend God any more by sinning And what a miserie and bondage it is to bee in subiection to sin may appeare by the most earnest and feruent prayer of the blessed Apostle Saint Paul vvho feeling the waight and heauie burden thereof 2 Cor. 12.7.8.9 he desired God with earnest zeale and feruencie and with deepe sighes and groanes that hee might be deliuered from it And againe after the long and lamentable complaint that the Apostle made of the Law that was in his members striuing against the law of the Spirit and leading him captiue into the law of sinne hee breaketh forth into this most patheticall exclamation O wretched man that I am who shall deliuer mee from the body of this death or this body of death I thanke God through Iesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 7.24.25 The Prophet Dauid also feeling the heauy waight of his sinnes maketh his grieuous complaint and mone thereof vnto God saying There is no soundnesse in my flesh Psal 38.34 because of thine anger neyther is there any rest in my bones because of my sinnes for mine iniquities are gone ouer my head as a heauie burthen they are too heauy for me If a man would inuent a torment for such as feare God and desire to walke in newnesse of life and to haue part in the first resurrection hee cannot deuise a greater torment then to be disquieted with this tyranny of sinne and with this vnquiet vnhappy Iebusite euen the rebellion and corruption of our owne flesh and this heauie weight of sinne that doth cleaue and hang so fast vpon vs. O happy therefore and blessed death that dischargeth and freeth vs from so sore combersome and cruell bondage and from further offending of him who dyed for our sins So that death freeth vs from the necessity of sinning also brings vs to bee with Christ And to desire death in this case is not a loathing to liue but a loathnesse to sinne In which case Iob desired death because of his sinnes that he might not offend â—od any more and therefore hee sayth Iob. 6.8.9 10. O that I might haue my request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for euen that it would please God to destroy me that he would let loose his hand and cut me off then should I yet haue comfort Now in the meane while till we can haue our desire in this case accomplished Rom. 6.12 wee must resist and striue against our sinnes that they may not raigne in our mortall bodies and let all our endeauor and care increase against our sins that the force of them may be dayly weakened their number lessened and all occasions of sinning auoyded Fourthly it is lawfull to desire death in respect of the miseries calamities and troubles of this life and for the preuenting of the miseries to come And yet this holy desire must not be simple and absolute but it must bee restrained with certain respects and with these reseruations First it must bee desired so farre forth as it is a meanes to put an end to all our miseries to all the dangers of this life to all the corruption of nature and to the necessity of sinning Secondly as it is a gate by which wee enter into the immediate fellowship with Christ and of God And our desire also for these endes must keepe it selfe within these limits wherein two Caueats must bee obserued First it must not bee immoderate exceeding the golden meane Secondly it must alwayes be with a reseruation of Gods good pleasure and with an humble submission and subiection of our willes to the will of God For if eyther of these be wanting the desire of death is defectiue faulty and dangerous Death frees vs from the miseries and perils of this world abolisheth all present and preuents all future dangers and brings vs to be with Christ What man wearied with labour desires not rest what Mariner tossed vpon the seas wisheth not to come into safe harbour What traueller toiled with a tedious and perilous iorney would not willingly come to his wayes end what sicke maÌ„ accepts not health what slaue imbraceth not freedome what prisoner doth not entertaine inlargement what captiue would not welcome liberty what husbandman would be euer toyling and not at length receiue the fruit of his labour what marchant is content to liue euer in danger by sea and by land amongst Pyrats and robbers not to come at last safe home with his wealth And lastly what man hauing the reuersion of a goodly kingdome would be loath to receyue the possession of it And sure wee are all in this case by reason of the manifold miseries incident to vs in this world that wee haue good cause to wish with a holy desire to be loosed from al these miseries and to be with our Sauiour Christ and in the meane time Luk. 21.19 till we can haue our desire in this case Let patience possesse our soules Fifthly and lastly it is lawfull to desire death for the perfecting and full accomplishment of that coniunction and vnion which wee haue in Christ Iesus our head that wee might be where he is to enioy his presence For we are saith the Apostle members of his body of his flesh Eph. 5.30 and of his bones that is we are most straightly coupled to Christ by the spirituall band of our faith which vnion is most admirable For first wee are vnited to his Godhead that is not by transfusion of the diuine substaÌ„ce but by effectual working by the manhood and secondly wee are one with his manhood that is really and substantially Ioh. 15.5 as appeareth by those Similitudes by which this vnion is expressed in holy Scriptures as namely First of the Vine and branches Ioh. 3.29 Rom. 11.18 Eph. 2.20 Eph. 1.23 Secondly of the Bridegroome and the Bride Thirdly of the Oliue tree and the
left being obedient It was neuer beautifull and cheerefull since it waxed old in youth through manifold attaxes and disorders and at this day lyes bedrid waiting for the comming of the Son of God And we full well know and are taught by the reading of the Scripture and also by experience that men are not so long liued nor of that goodly tall proportion or strong constitution of bodie as in former ages For the world as a voice out of a bush telleth Esdras 2. Esdr 14.14 hath lost his youth and the times beginne to waxe old and we are borne weaker and more feeble then all creatures and had we not some body to receiue vs when we come into the world woe were it with vs wee might make a short and wofull stay or tragedie to bee borne to weepe to die We haue no cause to perswade vs that this is the golden age but rather that according to the dreame of Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 2. The golden head the siluer breasts the brasen thighes are long since past and wee now liue in the time of the Iron legges the feete whereof are partly yron partly clay In the fortunate Islands beyond the Atlantick seas in the vttermost borders of Ethiopia where the people that liue there are called Macrobij for their long life a man perhaps may liue a long life but what countrey may bee found where a man may auoid the sickle of Death Hence it was that Hormisda did answere the Emperour Constantine demaunding him of the bewtie of Rome stately buildings goodly Statues and sumptuous Temples if he thought that in all the world were any such Citie Surely saith Hormisda there is indeede none comparable vnto it yet hath it one thing saith hee common to all other Cities for men die heere as they die in all other places And what doth it profite to liue long and wickedly and die at length It were better like Cadmus progeny to die the same houre wee were borne What Duellum is this betweene death and nature And if God should not suffer vs to die alas what a miserable life would this be when we come to be old and full of sorrowes Eccle. 11.1 aches sicknesses diseases and griefes When our sences are gone and we haue no pleasure in any thing And when as the Psalmist saith Psal 90.10 our life is but a labour and a sorrow In which age we had need if we haue our sences then to pray hartily to the Lord. Psal 71.9.18 Cast me not off in the time of old age forsake me not when my strength faileth me And also When I am old and gray headed O God forsake me not And alas if we should not then die we would wish to die and say it were better a thousand times to die then to liue For death saith Iesus the sonne of Syrach is better then a better life Eccle. 30.17 or continuall sicknesse And therefore we reade of a certaine Islâ—nd where they liue so long that they are faine to bee carried out thence that they might die And God hath prouided wonderous well for mankind that whereas any man may take our life from vs yet there is none that can take Death from vs who can stoppe the winde that it blow not Who can hinder death that it come not If Iacob counted his time but short Gen. 47.9 hauing already liued an hundred and thirty yeeres what reckoning may we make of our time which is farre shorter Gen. 5.5.27 In the time before the Floud the age of man was great Adam liued nine hundred and thirtie yeeres Noah nine hundred and fiftie Gen. 9.29 Methusalem nine hundred sixtie nine yeeres but after the Floud in Terahs dayes who was father to Abraham Gen. 11.32 Gen. 25.7 Deut. 34.7 Iosh 24.29 the age of man was a great deale shortned from nine hundred brought downe to two hundred and twentie and vnder For Terah liued two hundred and fiue yeeres Abraham his sonne not so long one hundred seuentie fiue yeeres Iacob in his time brought it to a shorter account one hundred and thirty Moses 120. and Ioshua one hundred and ten yeeres And yet are wee not truely said to liue any one of these yeeres vnlesse it be religiously and holily in Christ as a certaine worthie souldier seruing in the warres a long time vnder Adrian the Emperour yet in the end returned to his house and liued Christs souldier where and in which manner after he had liued seuen yeares he departed this life and being readie to die commanded that it should be written on his tombe Heere lyeth Similis for so was his name who was a man many yeeres and liued but seuen accounting that he liued no longer then he liued a Christian How many spend their daies in war after the flesh vnder the Emperour of the Ayre not vnder Adrian who yet I cannot say for seuen yeeres I would I could truely say seuen daies or seuen houres before their death cast away these weapons of sinne that it might be written vpon their grauestone for their Epitaph that seuen dayes or seuen houres before their last houre they not only had a being but a life in the world and not onely were but also liued Therefore it is our duetie to liue well that at the day of death we may speede well and to liue well should be the delight and sweete perfume of euery Christian Thus liue well that thou mayest die well and after death eternally speed well Psal 90.12 Yea So teach vs to number our daies saith the Prophet that we may apply our hearts vnto wisdome Where we are to obserue that he speaketh heere not of weekes or moneths or yeeres but of daies noting thereby the shortnesse of our life in this word Daies And the same phrase is vsed of all the holy men of God vpon the like occasion Iacob being asked by Pharaoh how old he was Gen. 47.8.9 tould him That few and euill were the dayes of his pilgrimage speaking of the time to note the shortnesse of the time or of his life he names not yeeres but daies and speaking of the toyles and troubles of life he calles it a pilgrimage as to be euery day hastely iourneying towards our end Iob 9.25.26 Iob 14.14 Iob in like manner numbring his dayes My dayes saith he are more swift then a post and swifter then the ships And againe he saith All the daies of my appointed time will I waite till my change come The time of Iobs attending or waiting on God for his helpe is the whole terme or acte of his life which he calleth not yeeres but dayes so hee measureth his short time by the inch of dayes rather then by the span of moneths or long ell of yeeres teaching thereby that the dayes of man are few and his life short vpon earth Our Sauiour Christ teaching vs to pray Matth. 6.11 bids vs to pray thus Giue vs this day our
prolonged or finished For say that a man had in his keeping sundrie britle vessels as of glasse or stone some made fortie fiftie or threescore yeeres agoe and some but yesterday We will agree that the vessell will soonest be broken not that is made first but which is first striken or first receiueth a knocke So for these brittle vessels of our earthly bodies they that soonest receiue the blow of death though but made yesterday first perish not that were first made and haue longest liued What then is our life and how vaine and false is our hope of long life seeing no man can tell who he is that shall receiue the first stroke or knocke to the destroying of this his mortall tabernacle In a prison where are many condemned should some riot and forget death because they are not first drawne out to die or because one goes before another to execution Shall he that commeth last 1. Sam. 15.32 come forth pleasantly with Agag and say Surely the bitternesse of death is past because we die not so soone as others And we shall not all die at once shall we therefore count our selues immortall If wee bee old wee may be sure our turne is neere and if we be yong it may be as neere for they that are old may trauell long but they that are yong may haue a shorter way home For the short liuer runneth his race no faster then hee that liueth long both runne alike both make speed alike the difference is the first hath not so farre to runne as the latter It is one thing to runne further another thing to runne faster Hee that liues long runneth further but not a moment faster Euery man hasteneth to death alike though one haue a lesse way to goe then another Death is come vp saith the Prophet into our windowes Ier. 9.21 and is entred into our Pallaces to cut off the children from without and the yong men from the streetes Seeing then this hope of liuing till we be old is so vaine and deceitfull wee should make as great hast to God at twentie as at fourescore When we heare a solemne knell we say some body is departed Acts 5.9 and why should not we thinke that the feete of them who caried out that bodie is at the doore readie to carry vs out also He was not an old man and had much peace in his daies to whom it was said Luke 12.20 O foole this night they will fetch away thy soule so death worketh in vs whether we will or not Againe the strong constitution in a yong man perswadeth him that hee shall liue long but no constitution in a man can enlarge his charter of life one poore houre Indeed the good complexion of a man may be a signe of long life Exod. 20.12 but he that prolongeth our dayes on earth he only can make vs to liue long Againe the strength and beautie of youth maketh him beleeue that he hath many yeeres yet to liue Therefore the Wiseman saith Prou. 20.29 that the glory of yong men is their strength but how soone is this blighted strucken as the faire flower of grasse with an East-winde For beautie and strength is but a flower which if some sicknesse strike not suddenly yet the Autumne of ripe yeares impaireth and the winter of olde age killeth And what careth death which is indifferent to all for a faire strong and goodly complexion Is not a beautifull face as mortall as a foule hue The like may be spoken of health and stature of bodie for what are they and of what time In their owne nature they are fickle things and without good vse crosses For touching health the devouring vulture of sicknesse doth after some short time wast it to nothing Strength is common to vs with beasts and there are many beasts exceede vs in strength And for our comely stature it may as soone be brought downe to death and as deepely bee buried in the coffin of the earth as one of a meaner size And further if men haue not vsed these to Gods glory but to pride and vaine-glorie nor haue made them helpes to godlinesse but haue giuen them their head to sinne it will be said after death of such that a beautifull person a strong yong man a goodly tall fellow and one that neuer knew what sicknesse meant is gone to hell Therefore of beauty and her attendants as strength health and a goodly stature that may be spoken which vsually is spoken of fire and water that they are good seruants but ill Masters where they are ruled they doe good seruice but where they ouer-rule they make foule worke Or is it for the greatnes But that cannot priuiledge thee from death for Solomon who in wisdome excelled all other men who in riches exceeded euery man who in power as mighty as any man and who in birth was surpassed by no man who for his wisdome was admired of all for his riches beloued of all and for his power feared of all and honored of all for his birth euen he I say could not refraine to confesse for all his wisdome which was angelicall for all his riches which were innumerable for all his power so maiesticall and for all his birth so regall Wis 7.1 2.3.4 5.6 He I say could not chuse but cry out and say I my selfe am a mortall man like to all and the ofspring of him that was first made of the earth and in my mothers wombe was fashioned to be flesh in the time of ten months being compacted in blood of the seede of man and the pleasure that came with sleepe And when I was borne I drew in the common ayre and fell vpon the earth which is of like nature and the first voyce which I vttered was crying as all others doe I was nursed in swadling cloathes and that with care If then Salamon who was begotten by a King and borne to be a King and one whose liuing and conuersation before he fell to Idolatry seemed rather diuine then humane if he I say were subiect to such imbecillity and had no more fauour shewed him by nature then so to what misery and imbecility then should all wee be subiect or what may wee say that are made of a baser stuffe fashioned in worse mould and more obscurely and poorely brought into the world For as much weaknes and feeblenesse in birth by nature is incident to a Prince as to a peasant For sayth Salomon in the same place there is no King that had any other beginning of birth for all men haue one entrance into life and the like going out Iob 31.15 Did not he that made me in the wombe saith Iob make him and did not one fashion vs in the wombe A certaine man desired to see Constantine the great whome intentiuely beholding he cryed out I thought Constantine had bene some great thing but now I see he is nothing but a man Constantine
warning And experience sheweth the truth of this plentifully The rich Churle in the Gospell Luk. 12.19.20 that boasted of store for many yeeres euen that very night had his soule fetched from him when like a Iay he was prouning himselfe in the boughes hee came tumbling downe with the arrow in his side his glasse was runne when he thought it but new turned the axe was lifted vp to strike him to the ground when he neuer dreamed of the slaughter-house Wee had need of monitors of Philips boyes to put vs in minde of our end not the oldest man but thinkes he shall liue a yeere and the yong man in the April of his age when his breasts are full of milke and his bones runne full of marrow full little thinkes of the slimie valley and that he shall shortly remaine in the heapes Certainly we dwell but in houses of clay and Corruption is our father Iob 17.14 the wormes our mother and sister We are creatures but of a dayes life and the foure Elements are the foure men that beare vs on their shoulders to the graue Assure thy selfe ere many yeares or months be past pale Death will arrest thee binde thee hand and foote and carry thee whither thou wouldest not to a land darke as darkenesse it selfe What then remaineth but that thou make thy graue presently with Ioseph of Arimathea in thy garden the place of thy delight to put thee in minde of thy death and mourning euery day amongst thy entising pleasures as if the sun of thy life were to sette at night For time past is irreuocable time present momentary and time to come full of vncertaintie When thou goest to bed and art putting off thy cloathes remember and meditate that the day commeth when thou must be as barely vnstript of all that thou hast in the world as now thou art of thy cloathes And when thou seest thy bed let it put thee in minde of thy graue which is now the bed of Christ which he hath sanctified and warmed for the bodies of his deere children to rest in and let thy bed-cloathes represent vnto thee the mould of the earth that shall couer thee thy sheets thy winding sheete thy sleepe thy death thy waking thy resurrection for when wee rise in the morning we must remember thereby that we shall rise out of the graue of the earth at the last day For all these things appertaining to Death yea and Death it selfe Christ Iesus hath sanctified vnto vs by laying his blessed bodie three daâ—es and three nights in the graue from whence the third day he rose againe ouercomming thereby Death it selfe and all the difficulties thereof and the miseries incident to the same for vs most miserable distressed sinners With this key of meditation we should open the day and shut in the night and what befalleth others in the dust of their bodies we must thinke will come to vs we know not how soone in our owne dust and mortalitie here And therefore as the third Captaine sent from the King of Israel to Eliah to bring him 2. King 1.13 and perceiuing that the other two Captains with their fifties were deuoured with fire from heauen at the request of Eliah grew wise by their experience and therefore fell downe and besought fauour for him and his fiftie so we hearing and seeing of so many fifties yong and old that in these late yeeres of mortalitie haue ended their liues in a fire of pestilence sent from the Lord should make supplication day and night not as that Captaine to the man of God but as true Christians to the Man and God Christ Iesus that our lâ—ues and deathes may be precious in his eies And that wee may not forget that what is done to others may come to our selues Againe the meditation of Death is a most soueraigne and effectuall medicine against dâ—seases of the soule if we would well practise the same and applie it to our spirituall wounds Other medicines are auaâ—leable to some certaine and particuler diseases and serue for their seuerall vses and seldome doth one medicine profit for many diseases though it excell Triacle of Venice Mythridatum or the herbe Moly so much extolled by Homer but only the meditation on Death is profitable to the extirpation of all the diseases of the soule Of this it may be said as Dauid said of the sword of Goliah 1. Sam. 21.9 there is none to that giue it mee and I by the grace of God will bee a conquerour of vices As bread is necessarie for a man before al other elements so the serious meditation on Death beareth the prize aboue all other good exercises of pietie and vertue And surely as wings are to the bird to fly to the Mariners their sailes CoÌ„passe Pole-starre gouernment and direction for their nauigation to fishes their tayles and finnes to swimme to a Chariot wheeles to carrie it to horses hoofes and shooes for their trauell So necessarie is the meditation on Death to the leading of a holy Christian and godly life The Wise-man saith Eccl 7.3 Remember thy end and thou shalt neuer doe amisse and Seneca could say That nothing profiteth so much to keepe vs within the bounds of temperance in all our actions as the often meditating on our short and vncertaine life Aptly and elegantly speaketh the golden mouthed Doctor Iohn Chrysostome of sinnes saith hee are borne two daughters Sorrow and Death but these two daughters destroy their wicked mother as the worme which is bred in timber or cloath doth by little and little consume the same As the Viper killeth his Dam and the Dam the male in conceiuing and as the Naturalists affirme the biting of a Viper is cured with the ashes of a Viper the stinging of a Scorpion with the oyle of a Scorpion the biting of a dog with the burnt haires of a dog as Achilles speare cured Tellephus whom before it had wounded the rust thereof being cast into the wound so sinne which is more hurtfull then any Viper or Scorpion or other thing hath begotten Death which hath stung and hurt vs and of immortall made vs mortall but the meditation on Death doth wound and kill sinne which begate it The wound of this Viper Scorpion Dogge Speare that is our propension and greedinesse to sinne the ashes of this Viper the oyle of this Scorpion c. that is the remembrance and meditation on Death doth wound and slay in vs in as much as Sinne is the parent and author of all euill And shall a Christian man then bee so sencelesse and doltish to intertaine and embrace sinne in his heart which hath beene the murtherer and paricide of mankinde and will also be our destruction vnlesse by time we banish it by often meditation on our end Had it not beene for sinne Death had neuer entred into the world and were it not for Death sinne would neuer goe out of the world Basil saith God made not death
but we our selues by our wicked mindes of our owne accord we haue drawne it on our selues which God did not at all forbid lest it should keepe in vs an immortall disease For he that made heauen and earth ayre and fire Sun and Moone all elements all creatures good surely would not make him euill for whom all these good things were made How comes he then thus bad The words of our royall Preacher teach vs to say This onely haue I found Eccl. 7.29 that God hath made man vpright but hee hath sought out many inuentions Man was created happie but he found out trickes to make himselfe miserable Theophrastus Aristotle wrangled with Nature her selfe as if in a malignant humor shee brought forth men borne to great affaires to be snatched away in a moment whereas to Rauens and Harts shee granteth many ages which can neither prize nor vse their time But the truth is our selues doe shorten our liues with ryot idlenesse dissolutenesse and excesse Kingly treasures committed to euill husbands are quickly wasted Life is short onely to the prodigall of good houres For to speake as the truth is and as the matter deserueth we liue not but linger out a few dolorous daies So much time only wee doe liue as is vertuously bestowed and no more And as Epiphanius brings in Methodius disputing with Produs the Originist saith God as the true Physitian hath appointed Death to be a physical purgation for the vtter rooting out and putting away of sinne that wee may be made faultlesse and innocent and that as a goodly golden image saith he sightly and seemely in all things and all parts if it be broken and defaced must bee new cast and framed againe for the taking away of the blemishes and disgraces of it euen so man the Image of God being maimed and disgraced by sinne for the putting away of the disgraces and repairing his ruines and decayes must by the meditation on death be renewed by weakning of sinne which is the cause of death in vs. As for example if the couetous man would seriously take a view of himselfe in this glasse of the meditation on Death then would hâ—e not so miserably torment himselfe with carking and caring moiling and toiling in the world by falshood deceit and oppression grinding the faces of the poor and all to get a handful of feathers or to catch at a little smoake of vanitie being euery houre in danger to heare this voice of the Lord. Luke 12.20 Thou foole this night they will fetch away thy soule from thee then whose shall these things be which thou hast thus scraped and gathered together Then would they consider that death will depriue them of all their treasures their houses which they haue builded by fraud their rents for which they haue made shipwracke of their soules their fields which they haue gotten by deceit their siluer and gold which they haue gotten by vsury and oppression their life which they haue so lewdly and vnprofitably spent making their pleasures their Paradise and their gold their god Then shall they perceiue their error that they haue chosen drosse for gold grasse for grace rust for siluer losse for gain shame for honor paine for rest yea for heauen hell Come also to this schoole of the meditation on Death you drunkards swearers whore-mongers blasphemers swaggerers prophaners of Gods Sabbathes and all carnall riotous and vngodly liuers small pleasures would you take in these vices nay soone would yee leaue and forsake them if you would giue your selues to this meditation The ancient Egyptians well knew the force of this medicine who in the middest of their mirth at their solemne Feasts were wont to haue the image of Death brought in and laid before them with these words Hoc intuens epulare beholding this Image eate and drinke but within the bounds of temperance for you must all be as this dead carcasse is wheresoeuer yee goe But if we carry not with vs the vglie picture of Death yet let vs carry in our hearts the true picture of our Death and then this meditation will correct and amend these vices in vs. It is written of those Philosophers called Brackmani that they were so much giuen to thinke vpon their end that they had their graues alwaies open before their gates that both going out and comming in they might alwaies be mindfull of their Death and latter end Dionysius the tyrant caused his notable flatterer Damocles who affirmed the life of a King to be most happie to be set in his regall Throne in stately robes and all Princely cheere and dainty fare before him and a naked sword tyed but with a horse-haire to hang ouer his head menacing him Death Could this Parasite thinke you take any delight in this princely fare and pompe No verily but as if he had sat amongst the greatest hagges of hell he durst not once touch the dainty dishes before him and shall not the meditation on Death either present or hard at hand and the sword of the wrathfull Iudge drawne and hanging ouer thine head restraine thee from immoderate and superfluous eating and drinking It is recorded also of a certaine King whose minde was so fixed in the deepe meditation on Death that thereby hee became more sober and modest in all his actions who being incited by his Iester or Parasite to be merry banquet and carowse hee commanded his Parasite to be set on a seate made with rotten wood fire to be put vnder and a sword to hang ouer his head and also princely dishes to be set before him and willed him to eate drinke and be merry but this stomacke would not serue him so much as to tast one of thefe dainty dishes and wilt thou O drunkard or glutton sinne in excesse and make thy belly thy God who sittest vpon a rotten body with the fire of naturall heat continually deuouring within it which the fire of the elementarie qualities on euery side disturbeth hauing the Etna of hell beneath and the sword of Gods wrath aboue Euen thus standeth our case a certaine diuine writer vseth this comparison A poore traueller pursued by an Vnicorne by chance in his flight slippes or falles into the side of a deepe pit or dungeon which is full of cruell serpents and in his fall catcheth hold by one small twig of the arme of a tree As hee thus hangeth looking downeward hee seeth two wormes gnawing at the roote of the tree and looking vpward he sees an hiue of sweete hony which makes him to climbe vp vnto it and to sit and feede vpon it While he thus feedeth himselfe and becommeth secure and carelesse of what may come the Vnicorne being hunger-bitten and byting and brusing on other boughes is each moment ready to crop of the twigge whereon this wretched man sitteth Now in what wofull plight is this distressed creature Then after this the two wormes gnawe in sunder the roote of the tree which falling downe
and considered the shortnesse of their life so fraile so inconstant and transitorie and vpon Death so black and vgly how soone would they let fall their proud plumes forsake their arrogancy and change their purposes their manners their mindes their liues In that they tend and hasten as fast as they can to death some at one miles end some at two some at three and some when they haue gone a little further And thus it commeth to passe that some are taken out of this life sooner and some tarry a little longer Abhorre therefore thy haughtines auoid thy vanities leaue off thy lusts amend thy life For he that is godly wise vieweth his death present and by the meditation and remembrance thereof he armeth himselfe to amend If the greatest man in the world doe in a holy meditation strip himselfe out of his robes and ornaments of state and haue the scanning of this one poynt often in his minde hence I must as great as I am and whether then Like men who trauelling no sooner come to their lodging but they are talking of their next Inne the debating of this question in the minde would bring forth most excellent fruite and so likewise if euery man would thus meditate and reason I must remoue and whither then Hell is my desert how shall I escape it Heauen is the onely place I desire to goe to how shall I come to it And thus one good meditation and thought would make way for another and so lead vs on by degrees vnto the kingdome of God Marke the life and behauiour of the wicked to auoid their steps and of the godly to prouoke thy selfe to a holy imitation of the like course as a thing best pleasing to God It is one way whereby wee honor those that are departed in the faith when wee resemble them in those heauenly graces which like the stars of heauen did shine within them while they were aliue Mark also their death with like diligence think seriously vpon thy owne death how thou must shortly dye and lie downe in the dust and part with whatsoeuer delight thou doest here enioy that this may breede in thee a contempt of the world and a longing after a better life Gregory said that the life of a wise man must be a continuall meditation on Death and he onely is euer carefull to doe well who is euer thinking on his last end It were good that Christians which tender their saluation would among so many houres of the day as they mispend in idle vaine and wandring thoughts talke play or fruitlesse exercise imploy but an houre of the day after the example of a holy man in reading meditating and pondering of one little booke trium foliorum but of three leaues which I wil commit to your Christian cōsideration I haue read of a certaine holy man who at first had led a dissolute life and chancing on a time into the company of an honest godly man he in short time so wrought by his holy perswasions with his affections such is the force of godly societie that he vtterly renounced his former course of life and gaue himselfe to a more priuate austere moderate and secluse kinde of liuing the cause whereof being demanded by one of his former companions who would haue drawne him such is the nature of euill company to his vsuall riot hee answered that as yet he was so busied in reading and meditating on a little booke which was but of three leaues that he had no leisure so much as to think of any other businesse and being asked againe a long time after whether hee had read ouer these three leaues he did reply that these three leaues were of three seuerall colours red white and black which contained so many misteries that the more he meditated thereon the more sweetnesse he alwayes found so that he had deuoted himselfe to reade therein all the daies of his life In the first leafe which is red I meditate quoth he on the Passion of my Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ and of his precious bloud shed for a ransome of my sinnes and the sinnes of all his Elect without which we had been all bondslaues to Satan and fewell for hell fire In the white leafe I cheere vp my spirit with the comfortable consideration of the vnspeakable ioyes of the heauenly Kingdome purchased by the bloud of my Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ a great motiue of thankfulnesse In the third leafe which is blacke I meditatate vpon the horrible and perpetuall torments of Hell for the wicked and reprobate prouided and kept in store who if they behold the heauens from thence they are iustly banished for their sinnes If they looke vpon the earth there are they imprisoned on the right hand they haue the Saints whose steps they haue not rightly followed on the left hand the wicked whose course they haue ensued before them they haue Death ready to arrest them behind them their wicked life ready to accuse them aboue them Gods iustice ready to condemne them and vnder them Hell-fire readie to deuoure them From which the godly are freed by the death of Iesus Christ This booke of three leaues if we would alwayes carrie in our hearts and meditate often therein assuredly great would be the benefit which we should make thereby to restraine our thoughts words and actions within the bounds and limits of the feare of God 1. Sam. 24.10.11 But we are on the other side so busied like Nabal about white earth and red earth and blacke earth in gathering and scraping of transitory trash and in vncharitablenesse and so deuoted vnto fleshly pleasures and deceitful vanities and spending our houres like Domitian in hunting of flyes others like little children in catching of Butterflies and playing with feathers the rest like fooles in toyes and leasings that we haue not leasure at all to reade and meditate on that booke of three leaues nor to thinke on death And so on the sudden the sunne of our pleasure setteth the day of our life doth end the night of our death commeth and we chop into the earth before we be aware like a man walking in a greene field couered with snow not seeing the way runneth on and suddenly falles into a pit Lam. 1.9 When the Prophet Ieremie had remembred all the calamities and sinnes of the Iewes at the last he imputed all to this Shee remembred not her end so if I may iudge why naturall and carnall men care for nothing but their pompe their honor and dignitie why couetous men care not for any thing but their golden gaine why voluptuous Epicures care for nothing but their pleasures and Delicates whose posie is that Death hath nothing to do with them I may say with Ieremiah They remember not their end And with Esay Thou diddest not lay these things to thy heart Esay 47.7 nor diddest remember the latter end of it Deut. 32.29 O that they were wise saith
all which meanes the Lord brings vs to mortification which be the little Deathes that thereby we may be the better armed and prepared for the great death when it commeth to endure the same with more ease For wee must learne to giue intertainment to the Herbengers seruants and messengers of Death that we may the better intertaine the Lord and Master when he commeth This point that blessed martyr Saint Bylney well considered who oftentimes before his burning and martyrdome did put his finger into the flame of a candle not only to make triall of his abilitie in suffering but also to arme strengthen and prepare himselfe against greater torments and paines in his death which hee did suffer with the more ease And thus you see the fourth dutie which we must in any wise learne and remember because otherwise wee cannot be so well able to beare and endure the pangs of death well except we be first well schooled nurtured and trained vp by inuring our selues to die through the sundrie afflictions and trials of this life The fift and last duety of our generall preparation is set downe vnto vs by the Preacher who saith Eccl. 9.10 All that thine hand shall finde to doe doe it with all thy power And marke the reason For there is neither worke nor inuention nor knowledge nor wisdome in the graue whither thou goest Therefore if any man be able to doe any good seruice or office either to the Church of God or Common-wealth or to any publike or priuate person let him doe it with all speed and with all his might lest by Death he bee preuented He that hath care thus to spend his dayes shall with much comfort and peace of conscience end his dayes Thus much of the generall preparation for death Now followeth the perticular preparation for Death and this is in the time of sicknesse and in the right and true manner of making this particuler preparation are contained three sorts of duties one concerning God another mans selfe and the third our neighbour The first concerning God is to seek to be reconciled vnto him in Christ and by Christ though wee haue bin long since assured of his fauour all other duties must come after in the second place and they are of no value or effect without this Touching the duties which hee is to performe to himselfe they are two-fold the one concerning his soule the other his body The dutie concerning his soule is that he must arme and furnish himselfe against the immoderate feare of present death and the reason hereof is very plaine because how soeuer naturally men feare Death through the whole course of their liues more or lesse yet in time of sicknesse when death approacheth this naturall feare bred in the bone will most of all shew it selfe euen in such sort as it will astonish the sences of the sicke partie And therefore it is necessarie that we should vse some meanes to strengthen our selues against the feare of Death which meanes are of two sorts Practise and Meditation Practise that the sicke man must not so much regard Death it selfe as the benefits of God whiâ—h are obtained after death He must not fixe his minde vpon the consideration of the pangs and torments of death but aâ—l his thoughts and affections must bee vpon that blessed estate that he is to enioy after death He that is to swim ouer some great and deepe Riuer must not looke downeward to the violent running of the streame but if he would prâ—uent feare hee must cast his eyes to the bancke on the further side to the which place he is to passe and euen so he that drawes neere vnto death must looke as it were ouer the waues of death and directly fixe the eyes of his faith vpon the eternall life and happinesse The meditations which serue for this purpose are principally three the first is borrowed from the speciall prouidence of God namely that the Death of euery man much more of euery child of God is not onely foreseene but also appoynted by God Yea the death of euery man deserued and procured by his owne sinnes is laid vpon him by God who in this respect may bee said to be the cause of euery mans death Acts 4.28 The Church of Ierusalem confessed that nothing came to passe in the Death of Christ but that which the foreknowledge and eternall counsell of God had appointed therefore also the Death of euery member of Christ is foreseene and foreordained by the speciall decree and prouidence of God I adde further that the very circumstances of Death as the time place and manner the beginning of the sicknesse the continuance the end of it euery fit in the sicknes and the pangs of Death are set downe particularly in the counsell of God For vnto the Lord saith the Psalmist belong the issues of Death Psal 68.20 The carefull consideration of this one point will bee a notable meanes to arme vs against all feare distrust and impatience in the time of sicknes as also of our Death The second meditation is to be borrowed from the excellent promise that God hath made to the death of the righteous which is this Blessed are they that dye in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them Reue. 14.13 this the Author of truth that can not lye hath spoken Now then let a man but throughly consider this that Death ioyned and accompanied with a reformed life hath a promise of blessednes adioyned with it and it alone will be a sufficient meanes to stay the rage of our affections and all immoderate feare of Death The third meditation is that God hath promised his speciall blessed and comfortable presence to his seruants in their sicknes and at their death And the Lord doth manifest his presence three wayes The first is by moderating and lessening the paines and torments of sicknes and Death and hence it comes to passe that to many men the sorrowes and pangs of sicknes and death are nothing so greiuous and troublesome as the crosses and afflictions which they suffer in the course of their liues The second way of Gods presence is by an inward and vnspeakeable comfort of his holy spirit as Saint Paul saith We reioyce in tribulation Rom. 5.3.4 but why is this reioycing Because saith he the loue of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost 2 Chro. 2.5 which is giuen vnto vs. Againe this Apostle hauing in grieuous sicknesse receiued the sentence of Death saith of himselfe that as the sufferings of Christ did abound in him so his consolation did abound through Christ Here then we doe see that when earthlie comforts doe faile the Lord himselfe drawes neere vnto the bed of the sicke and as it were doth visit them in his owne person and ministreth vnto them from aboue refreshing for their soules with his right hand hee holds vp their heads Can. 2.6 and
not in the fadom of mans head to tell or heart to know how neere or farre off the day is onely God knoweth and Christ as God in what yeare month day and moment this frame shall goe downe In an age long since the day was neere now the houre is neere but curiositie is to be auoided in a coÌ„cealed matter in this forbidden tree of knowledge For secret things saith Moses Deut. 29.29 belong vnto the Lord our God Many men beate their heades about friuolous matters some saith Chrysostome being more busie to know where hell is then to auoide the paines of it others pleasing themselues in pelting and needlesse questions as this is to seeme singular amongst men neglecting in the meane time this dutie of their preparation for their end and such necessary things But when they come to their departing they shall finde that they haue beaten their braines about fruitlesse matters and wearied themselues in vaine It is sufficient for vs therefore to know that such a day will come and it shall bee wisdome in vs alwaies to bee readie for it that it come not vpon vs as the snare vpon the bird vnlooked for Therefore our Sauiour Christ saith Luk. 12.34.35 take heede to your selues lest at any time your hearts be ouercharged with surfetting and drunkennes and cares of this life and so that day come vpon you vnawares for as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the earth Thirdly if wee knew the day houre or certaine time of our death wee would put off all tiâ—l the comming of that day and it would giue vs too great boldnes and incouragement to wallow in all manner of sinne till that time or houre came The whorish woman because shee knew the iust time when her husband would returne who went into a farre Countrey did the more liberally power out her soule to sinne and wantonnesse Pro. 7.19.20 For the good man saith shee is not at home hee is gone along iourney hee hath taken a bagge of money with him and will come home at the day appoynted Fourthly and lastly It is therefore vnknowne to vs when wee shall dye to the end that all the dayes of our appoynted time wee may waite for this day and all our time looke for this last time and prepare our selues for it Argus as is fained had his head inuironed with an hundred watching eies signifiing thus much vnto vs that he was euery way indued with great wisedome prouidence and singular discretion Therefore if a pagan and Heathen man so excelled in wisedome and prouidence how much rather ought a Christian man to be well furnished with wisedome circumspection for his latter end Be thou therfore an other Argus nay more wary then he more wise and prouident then he more watchfull circumspect then hee that thou mayst learne to know to vnderstand and finally to prouide for thy last end Gregory vpon the watches mentioned by our Sauiour Christ in the Gospell of Marke in these words Mark 13.35.36.37 Watch yee therefore for yee know not when the Master of the house commeth at euen or at midnight or at the cock-crowing or in the morning lest comming suddenly he finde you sleeping and what I say vnto you I say vnto all watch he saith that there be foure watches in a mans whole life wherein it behoueth him to be vigilant and carefull and as a wakefull and warie watchman to keepe his watch and so prepare himselfe for his end The first is childhood the second youth the third manhood the fourth old age In all which ages he must prepare himselfe for death but he which remissâ—ly passeth ouer his childhood without this preparation and watchfulnesse let him be more carefull of his watch in his youth and pray as it is in Ieremie Ier. 3.4 My father be thou the guide of my youth If he hath passed his youth dissolutely let him be more carefull of his watch in his manhood And if hee hath passed ouer his manhood carelessely let him in any case looke to his last watch of his old age Nay if we prepare not for death before we come to this last watch of old age to which verie few doe attaine it is so fraile weake and feeble and decayed by the custome of sinne that it is an age not so fit for this preparation and watchfulnesse For at such an age men for the most part are like to the Idols of the Heathen Psal 115.4.5.6.7 which haue mouthes but speake not eyes but see not eares but heare not c. Therefore put not off this preparation and watchfulnesse to thy old age which is thy dotage but be thou watchfull and prepared in thy childhood youth manhood Eccl. 12.1 Remember now thy Creator saith the Preacher in the daies of thy youth while the euill dayes come not nor the yeares draw nigh when thou shalt say I haue no pleasure in them Wherfore not without cause our Sauiour Christ crieth so often in the Gospell Matth. 24.42 Mar. 13.32.33 Take yee heed watch and pray because yee know not the day nor the houre nor when the time is the which is as much as if he had more plainely said because yee know not that yeere watch every yeere because yee know not that moneth watch euery moneth because yee know not that day watch euery day and because yee know not that houre watch euery houre That is to say watch continually yeares moneths dayes houres yea all your life if you haue a care of euerlasting life And let your loynes saith our Sauiour Christ be girded about and your lights burning Luke 12 35.36.37.38 and yee your selues like vnto men that waite for their Lord when he will returne from the wedding that when he commeth and knocketh they may open to him immediately Blessed are those seruants whom the Lord when he commeth shall finde watching Verily I say vnto you that hee shall girde himselfe and make them to sit downe to meate and will come forth and serue them And if he shall come in the second watch or in the third and finde them so blessed are those seruants Prou. 19.20 Therefore heare my counsell and receiue instruction that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end The end of the third Diuision THE FOVRTH DIVISION OF THE RIGHT BEHAVIOVR IN DEATH THis behauiour is nothing else but a religious and holy behauiour especially toward God when we are in or neere the agonie and pangs of death Which behauiour containes foure especiall duties The first is to die in or by faith And to die by faith is when a man in the time of death doth with all his heart wholly rely himselfe on Gods especiall loue fauour mercie in Christ as it is reuealed in his holy word And though there be no part of mans life void of iust occasions whereby he may put faith in practise yet the speciall time
haue at large obserued in the first diuision Matth. 25.6 The foolish Virgins supposed the Bridegroome would not come like a bat in the night there is time enough said they to repent what needs all this hast But poore fooles they were excluded Many thousands are now no doubt in hell who purposed in time to haue repented but being preuented by death are fallen into the burning lake there to be tormented for euer Therefore let vs esteem it as an imminent danger to liue in that estate wherein we would be loath that death might finde vs. Secondly bad customes are dangerous and greatly to be feared Hee that from his youth hath wickedlie in his old age shall haue sinne in his bones Iob 20.11 his bones saith Iob are full of the sinnes of his youth which shall ly downe with him in the dust Sinnes are not like diseases in the body the older the sorer but saith Saint Augustine the older the sweeter and yet the more toothsome the more troublesome The Disciples of Christ could not cast out a foule spirit that had remained in one from his childehood Mark 9.18.21 hee that hath had long possession will plead prescription a custome long retained is not quickly changed and therefore it is very dangerous not to repent before we can sin no more Thirdly we must remember that the longer we continue in sin without repentance the further wee runne from God And there is no great likelyhood that hee that hath beene running from God forty fiftie or perhaps three or foure score yeares together and with the Prodigall runneth into a farre Countrey can returne againe in the space of six dayes six howers six minutes for it may bee his sicknes vnto which time he deferreth his repentance will not be so long as the shortest of these times how then is it possible to turne in time to our God by repentance Neither is this a worke of one day or two as it is said in the book of Ezra in another case Salomon giueth a young man counsell to remember his Creator in the daies of his youth Ezra 10.13 earely to begin repentance that is in the prime and bud of his life Eccle. 12.1 while hee is fresh and gallant and not to tarry till the dead winter of age cause his buds to fade and leafe to fall or till the brawne of his strong armes fall away or till the keepers of the house the hands which defend the body tremble or til euery thing bee a burthen feeing euen then the grasse-hopper shall bee a burthen or till they wax darke the eyes that looke out at the windowes or till the grinders cease that is his teeth fall out of his head or till the doores of his lippes bee shut and iawes fallen or till the daughters of singing the eares be abased being not able any longer to heare the voice or sound of Instruments or till it bee too late to knocke Eccle. 12.3.4 when the Lords doore is made fast Mat. 25.10.12 and there shall bee no more opening And lest this young man should thinke the terme of his age which Salomon cals the euill day or time to be the most conuenient time and terme of beginning repentance in the verses following he brings the old man deafe blinde lame short-winded full of aches and diseases in his body trembling vpon his staffe his lippes and hands shaking without memorie and almost robbed of his sences as if hee should say looke my sonne is this man fit to learne or repent who cannot heare speake see goe nor remember Thus Salomon schooleth his young man Exod. 2.22.29 Further God requiring the first borne for his offering and the first fruites for his seruice doth no doubt require the prime and maiden-head of euery mans worke Leuit. 23.10 and that we should repent betimes and serue him with our first and best meanes It is for yong men to beleeve And therefore the ordinary Creede which is both for yong old saith I doe beleeue In the Leuiticall temple there was a morning offering as well as an euening sacrifice And when the Angell of the couenant stirreth the poole that is offereth saluation not he that is oldest Iohn 5.2 but he that steppes in first yong or old is healed Eph. 5.16 Colos 4.5 Some say that youth must haue a time but Christians must redeeme the whole both of youth and yeares For here God will not be satisfied with the first fruits as in the legall Priest-hood but must haue the whole crop of time offered to him in his seruice and performance of his commandements Elisha could say to his seruant is this a time to take rewards And amidst the pangs of death is that a time to thinke of amendement of life Againe let vs remember that in time of sicknesse wee thinke most vpon that which wee most feele Death doth besiege vs sinne affrighteth vs our wiues grieue vs our children with-draw vs being many waies distracted how shall we then repent and amend Being then at the weakest how can we resist Sathan who is then at the strongest Our repentance then will be late repentance and late repentance is neuer or very seldome true repentance according to this saying sera poenitentia rarò est vera sed vera poenitentia nunquam est sera late repentance is seldome true but true repentance is neuer too late Also those repentance◠that men frame to themselues at the last houre are but false conceptions that come not to bearing for in such repentance men forsake not their sinnes but their sinnes forsake them It will be too late to come to the kay when the ship is launched too late to transplant trees when they be many yeares growne too late to season flesh when it crawleth with wormes too late to mend a house when it is on fire so stands the case with him that hath liued long in sinne without repentance Such as by their prophannesse doe wilfully refuse the offer of Gods mercy and do prefere their pleasures and profits before it may runne so farre that all the meanes they can vse shall neuer obtaine mercy at the hands of God I say as there is a time in the which the Lord will wooe vs yea he sends his Ministers to intreat vs hee will chide and expostulate the matter with vs why we will not accept of his mercy O Ephraim saith the Lord what shall I doe vnto thee Hos 6.4 O Iuda what shall I doe vnto thee So there is and will be a time that after the refusing of grace and contemning of mercy offered the Lord will shut vp and bolt the gate of mercie so as he will not be entreated at our hands any more This is proued vnto vs by the Prophet Dauid in one of his Psalmes Psal 95.7.8 where he exhorts the people that they will take and accept the time the Lord offers them lest it come to passe by their
eternall with out time for that they abuse the speciall benefit of time in this world Againe concerning those which post off their repentance til age sicknes or death of these there are specially two sorts viz. The first sort are such as plead the sweete promises of the Gospell Ezech. 18.21 Mat. 11.28 as namely these At what time soeuer a sinner doth repent c. Come vnto me all yee that labour and are heauie loaden and I will refresh you Answer True it is and most true but to whom are these promises made and to what sinners They are made to all repentant sinners that turne to the Lord with all their hearts but thou art an vnrepentant wretch and continuest in thy sinnes therefore those comfortable promises belong not vnto thee And what sinners doth he bid come vnto him Those that be weary and heauie laden that is whose sins pinch and wound them at the very heart and withall desire to be eased of the burthen of them Therefore take not occasion to presume of the promises of the Gospell for vnlesse thou turne from thy euill wayes and repent of thy sinnes they belong nothing at all vnto thee I know the Gospell is a booke of mercy I know that in the Prophets there are many aspersions of mercy I know that out of the eater comes meat and out of the strong comes sweetenesse and that in the ten commandements which be the administratiōs of death there is made expresse mention of mercy I will haue mercy vpon thousands yea the very first words of them are the couenant of grace I am the Lord thy God yet if euery leafe and euery line and euery word in the bible were nothing but mercy mercy yet nothing auailes the presumptuous sinner that lies rotting in his iniquities O but he is mercifull gratious slow to anger aboundant in goodnesse and truth reseruing mercy for thousands forgiuing iniquitie transgression and sinne is not here mercy mentioned nine or ten times together It is but read on the very next words and not making the wicked innocent visiting the iniquitie of the fathers vpon the children and vpon childrens children vnto the third and fourth generation is not this the terrible voice of iustice But stay in the 136 Psal there is nothing but his mercy endureth for euer which is the foote of the Psal and is found six and twentie times in 26 verses yet harke what a ratling thunder-clappe is heere and ouerthrew Pharaoh and his host in the red sea and smote great Kinges and slew mighty Kings c. The second sort are such that by reading and hearing of the story of Lots drunkennes of Dauids adultery of Peters deniall doe thereby blesse themselues and strengthen and comfort their hearts yea they haue learned to alledge them as examples to extenuate their sinnes and to presume that they shall finde the like mercy Am I a Drunkard saith one so was that good man Lot Am I an Adulterer saith another so was Dauid a man after Gods owne heart Am I a swearer a forswearer a curser a denyer of Christ So was the holy Apostle Saint Peter Shall I despaire of saluatiō saith the wicked persister in sinne and I read that the theefe repented on the crosse and found mercy at the last houre O vile wretches who hath bewitched you to peruert Gods word to your destruction It is as much as to poyson the soule Look on their repentance Lot fell of infirmitie and no doubt repented with much griefe yet looke vpon Gods iudgment vpon that incestuous seede Looke vpon Dauid Psal 38. Read the 38 Psalme it made him grow crooked his sinnes were as fire in his bones he had not a good day to his death but the griefe of his sinnes made him to roare out thou wouldst be loath to buy thy sinne so deere as he did Looke vpon Peter who wept for his sinnes most bitterly Mat. 26.75 And as for the example of the theefe as wee haue heard already and cannot heare too often seeing it is so often obiected and vrged the Lord knocketh but once by one sermon and he repented but thou hast heard many sermons crying and calling vnto thee and yet thou hast not repented and this is as wee haue heard an extraordinary example and thereof not the like in all the scripture againe and the Lord hath set out but one and yet one that noe man should despaire and yet that noe man should presume by this one example for what man will spurre his Asse till he speake Num. 22.28 because Balaam did so and yet one that no man should despaire but to know that God is able to call home at the last houre And by this he did declare the riches of his mercy to all such as haue grace to turne vnto him where contrary we see many thousands of those who hauing deferred their repentance haue beene taken away in their sinnes and dyed impenitent But this example is for all penitent sinners who vpon their hearty repentance may assure themselues that the Lord will receiue them to mercy Now if thou canst promise to thy selfe the same repentance and faith in Christ that he had then maist thou promise thy selfe the same felicitie which he now enioyes S. Ambrose cals the history of this man pulcherrimum affectandae conuersionis exemplum a most goodly example to moue men to turne to God But looke thou on his fellow who had no grace to repent and who hangs as an example to all impenitent wretches to looke vpon that they despise not the mercie of God nor reiect his call by his messengers and Ministers lest it come to passe that when they would repent they cannot To thee then that art priuie thou hast had many calles many offers of grace yea that hast seene the painfull and faithfull Preachers of Gods holy Word Sacraments spend their wits their strength yea ouerspend themselues for thy good what diuell hath bewitched thee to post off all and willingly to cast away thy selfe To thee therefore that dost strengthen thy selfe in thy sinnes vpon presumption of mercie to others I referre thee to the words that the Lord himselfe speakes in Deuteronomie Deut. 29.19.20 He that when he heareth the words of this curse blesseth himselfe in his heart saying I shall haue peace though I walke according to the stubbornenesse of my owne heart thus adding drunkennesse to thirst the Lord will not spare him nor be mercifull vnto him but the wrath of the Lord and his iealousie shall smoake against that man and all the curses that are written in this booke shall light vpon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from vnder heauen Besides this place there are many others in the Scriptures against those that strengthen their hearts in their sinnes If you presume that a Lord Lord will serue the turne at the close of your life it is nothing else but Infidelis fiducia a faithlesse confidence as
the loue of this world and worldly things and cause mee more and more to settle my conuersation and meditations on heauen and heauenly things And whether thou shalt recouer or not recouer thy former health againe by prayer that belongeth to thy God and resteth altogether in his good will and pleasure For God saith Wisedome hath power of life and death Wisd 16.13 And to God the Lord saith the Psalmist belong the issues of death Psal 68.20 And to speake truth God for the most part seemeth to sleepe that so he might be awakened by our intreaties For God as S. Augustine notes amat nimium vehementes and is so delighted with our prayers as that he doeth many times deny vs our suites that hee might heare vs continue earnest in our prayers And againe if he should vpon euery motion wee make vnto him grant our requests his benefits at last would come to be contemned of vs. For we know it an ordinarie practise amongst men citò data citò vilescunt we account it scarce worth the taking that is not twice worth the asking Therefore before he grant hee would haue vs earnest with him indeed and to awake him with our prayers if perchance he should seeme to vs to be asleepe For God loueth and is especially delighted with an earnest suter and therefore doth many times deny men their requests at the first that hee might find them more feruent and constant in their prayers to him afterwards But if God of his mercie be awakened by thy importunitie and hath at length heard thy prayer or the prayers of others for thee and hath restored thee to thy health againe For the Lord saith Hanna killeth and maketh aliue 1. Sam. 2.6 hee bringeth downe to the graue and bringeth vp And the Lord himselfe saith in Exodus I am the Lord that healeth thee Exod. 15.26 and againe I kill and giue life I wound and I make whole thou hast thy desire or rather perhaps not thy desire seeing the holiest and best men of all encline neither this way nor that way but wholy resigne themselues as in all other things so especially in this case to Gods good will and pleasure or if they determinately desire any thing it is for the most part with the Apostle to be dissolued and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 which is best of all But suppose thou desirest to recouer and doest recouer indeed consider then with thy selfe that thou hast now receiued from God as it were another life and know that it is but for a short time and therefore spend it to the honour and glory of God that restored it vnto thee and in newnesse of life let thy sinnes die with thy sicknesse but liue thou by grace to holinesse But then as thou obtainest thy desire thou must performe thy promise which thou madest when thy body was grieued with sicknesse and paine euen readie to die and when thy soule was oppressed with heauinesse pensiuenesse and sadnesse Isal 6.6 when thou with the Prophet diddest water thy couch with thy teares And what was that promise namely that if it pleased God to grant thee life and health and adde vnto thy daies some few yeeres more as he did to king Ezechiah 2. King 20.6 then thou wouldest loue him more sincerely serue him more obediently tender his glory more deerely pray vnto him more heartily repent more soundly follow thy calling more faithfully hate sinne more effectually and liue hereafter more warily and religiously then euer thou didst before And if thou hast offended him with pride to humble thy selfe hereafter if with dissolutones to be more sober if with swearing to leaue it if with prophaning of the Sabbaoths to make more conscience in sanctifying it if with vncleannesse to bee chaste and vnblameable it with conuersing with the wicked to abandon their societie and to say vnto them with the Prophet Dauid Depart from mee all yee workers of iniquity Psal 6.8.9 for the Lord hath heard the voyce of my weeping the Lord hath heard my supplication the Lord will receiue my prayer Psal 119.115 and againe Depart from me you euill doers for I will keepe the commandements of my God Remember that thou hast promised and vowed amendement and newnes of life deferre not to performe the same When thou vowest a vow vnto God saith the Preacher defer not to pay it Eccles 5.4.5 for he hath no pleasure in fooles pay that which thou hast vowed for better it is thou shouldest not vow then vow and not pay Againe When thou shalt vow a vow vnto the Lord thy God saith Moses Deut. 23.21 thou shalt not be slacke to pay it for thy Lord thy God will require it of thee and it would be sinne in thee Thus if these and such other like promises and vowes thou wilt most conscionably and constantly performe then in a good houre as we say and in a happy time thou didst recouer And be thou not then the more secure and carelesse in that thou art restored to health neither with the chiefe Butler be thou forgetfull of thy promises Gen. 40.23 nor insult in thy selfe that thou hast escaped death but call thy sinnes and faults to remembrance with the same chiefe Butler Gen. 41.9 and remember rather that God seeing how vnprepared thou wast hath of his infinit mercy spared thee and giuen thee some little longer time and space of breathing and respite that thou mayest performe thy vowes and promises in the amendement of thy sinfull life and in putting thy selfe in a better readines against another time and how soone thou knowest not for though thou hast escaped this dangerous sicknesse which many others haue not and then canst say with the Prophet The Lord hath chastened me sore Psal 118.18 but he hath not giuen me ouer vnto death yet it may be that thou shalt not escape the next It may bee when a ship is come to the mouth of the hauen a blâ—st driueth it backe againe but there it will arriue at the last so must thou at length at the gates of death though thou hast escaped this Too too many there are that when God visits them with sharpe diseases that wakens vp their consciences and then sicke sicke and then if God will repriue them vntill a longer day oh what Christians courses they vow to take God proues them they mend in bodies yeeres in manners no no more then Pharaoh after the plagues remoueall for many in their afflictions and sicknesses looking for death how liberall are they in their promises but afterward how basely niggardly are they in their performances they play childrens play with God they take away a thing assoone as they haue giuen it When Nebuchadnezzar besieged Ierusalem then the Iewes made a solemne couenant with the Lord to set free their seruants but no sooner had the king remooued his siege but they retracted and repealed their vow and
we shall enioy the fellowship of the Angels the societie and company of the Saints and where wee shall liue eternally obey God perfectly and raigne with him triumphantly And besides all this if we spend the time of our health of our sicknesse and of our death in this sort we shall leaue a good name and report behinde vs Eccles 7.1 which is better saith the Preacher then pretious oyntment and is rather to be chosen saith the Wiseman then great riches Prou. 22.1 and it will be like the coates and garments which Dorcas made Acts 9.36 that will remaine behinde vs after that wee are dead and gone for the good example and incouragement of all others which are to follow vs. The end of the fourth Diuision THE FIFTH DIVISION THE COMFORT AT OVR OWNE DEATH THe Preacher saith Eccles 7.1 That the day of our death is better then the day of our birth In which parcel of holy Scripture for our comfort at death three points are to be considered First what is death that is heere mentioned Secondly how it can be truely that is heere mentioned said that the day of our death is better then the day of our birth Thirdly in what respect it is better For the first Death is a priuation of life as a punishment ordained of God and imposed on man for his sinne It is a priuation of life because the very nature of death is an absence or defect of that life which God vouchsafed man by his creation I adde further that death is a punishment more especially to intimate the nature and qualitie of death and to shew that it was ordained as the meanes of the execution of Gods iudgement and iustice Furthermore in euery punishment there bee three workers the ordainer of it the procurer and the executioner The ordainer of this punishment is God in the estate of mans innocēcy by a solemne law then made in these words In the day that thou eatest thereof Gen. 2.17 thou shalt die the death The Executioner of this punishmēt is also God himselfe as himselfe testifieth in the Prophet Esay in these words I make peace and create euill And this is materiall or naturall euill Esay 45.7 to the latter of which Death is to be referred which is the destruction and abolishment of mans nature created The procurer of this punishment is not God but man himselfe in that man by sinne and disobedience did put vpon himselfe this punishment Therfore the Lord in the Prophet Osea saith O Israel thou hast destroyed thy selfe Hosea 13.9 but in me is thy helpe Against this it may be obiected that man was mortall in the estate of his innocencie before the fall Answere The frame and composition of mans body considered in it selfe was mortall because it was made of water and earth and other elements which are of themselues alterable and changeable yet if we respect the grace and blessing which God did vouchsafe mans bodie in his creation it was vnchangeable and immortal and so by the same blessing should haue continued if man had not fallen and man by his fall depriuing himselfe of this gift and the blessing became euery way mortall And hereof it is that the Preacher saith Loe this onely haue I found that God made man vpright Eccles 7.29 but they haue sought out many inuentions Againe before the fall mans bodie was but subiect to death and could not then be said to be dead but after the fall it was then not only subiect to death but might also be said to bee dead And therefore now in this respect the Apostle saith Rom. 8.10 The body is dead because of sinne Againe mans bodie in his innocencie was like vnto the bodie of Christ when he was vpon the earth that is onely subiect vnto death for he could not be said to bee dead because in him there was no sinne and this was mans case in his innocencie before his fall Thus it appeares in part what death is And yet for the better clearing of this point wee are to consider the difference betweene the death of a man and a beast The death of a beast is the totall and finall abolishment of the whole creature for the body is resolued to the first matter and the soule rising frō the temperature of the body is but a breath and vanisheth to nothing But in the death of a man it is otherwise For though the bodie for a time be resolued and turned into dust out of which it came yet it must rise againe at the last day and become immortall but the soule subsisteth by it selfe out of the body and is immortall The reason of which difference is for that the soule of man is a spirit or spirituall substance whereas the soule of a beast is no substance but a naturall vigour or qualitie and hath no being in it selfe without the body on which it wholly dependeth The soule of a man contrariwise being created of nothing Gen. 2.7 it is said God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and then man became a liuing soule and so as well subsisting forth of it as in it But when God made the beasts of the earth he breathed not such matter into them but their bloud is as their soule Leuit. 17.14 and their life for the life of all flesh is the bloud thereof Psal 49.20 So that when beasts die they perish as the Psalmist saith and that is their end and their spirit goeth downeward to the earth Eccles 3.21 but the spirit of man goeth vpward saith the Preacher Saint Ambrose takes occasion by this difference from the shape of mans bodie to aduertise our minde what our affections should be It is well ordained saith he that man hath onely two feete with birds and not foure feete with beasts for by this he may learne to flye aloft with the birds and not with beastes encline and decline to the grosser and earthly things of this world Heere then we see that since the fall of man man is not only subiect to death but also may be said a dead man because he shall as surely die as if he were dead already whereas notwithstanding he hath a forme and shew of immortalitie Other things so long as they retaine their forme so long they doe remaine A house falleth not all the time that his forme and fashion lasteth the brute beast dieth not except he first forgoe his life which is his forme but man hath a forme which neuer is dissolued as namely a minde endued with reason and yet he liueth now but a very short time in respect that his bodie by reason of sinne and disobedience is become mortall whereby man is the procuter of his owne death and punishment Therefore it is a true saying of Saint Gregory Man is the worke of God sinne is the worke of man let vs therefore discerne what God hath made and what man hath
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
of a good life but vsed the meanes of flight onely to preuent violent and hastie death till the houre appointed should come that they were to giue their spirit in peace into the hands of him that made it and because such vntimely death was enemy to the good they had to doe and course they were to finish therefore they went aside by flying for some time and till the time of their departure come that they might doe the good to which they were appointed and finish the course for which they were sent For if a remouing or flying for thine ease in this respect may be effected by shifting thy place that may both be desired and vsed without sinne Isaak sent his sonne Iacob away from his brother Esau when Esau in his anger had sworne to slay him Dauid fled from the hand and iauelin of Saul and shifted for himselfe by remouing from place to place and conuayed all his fathers house into the land of Moab from Sauls reach The Lord Iesus oftentimes withdrew himselfe from the rage of the Iewes and he gaue his Disciples a rule for times of persecution saying When they persecute you in this city Mat. 10.23 flie into another And many honest men haue remooued their habitations to auoide euill neighbours and free themselues from beeing troubled by hem But where it is againe alledged that Christ himselfe prayed against the cup of death for the further satisfying of this point I answere further two wayes First that hee prayed without sinne against it seeing that in his supplication of teares and much feare hee submitted to his Fathers will alwayes Mat. 26.39.42 Neuerthelesse said he not as I will but as thou wilt And againe O my Father if this cup may not passe away from me except I drinke it thy will be done Also death was not to him as it is to vs for to vs the sting of it is conquered and the force broken but to him it was in full power he felt the sting of it and wrastled with the force of it in soule and bodie Secondly I say as was said before that it was not meerly a bodily death though vnsubdued saue where himselfe subdued it that he trembled at but by the burthen of our sinnes which he was to vndergoe in which hee beheld the whole There he saw his Fathers countenance turned against him and there knew that he must beare his wrath because he bare our sinnes And besides Christ feared death beeing cloathed with our flesh to shew that he tooke our infirmities Isay 53.4,5,6 and bore our sorrowes and was perfect man And so death may in some case be feared and at sometime prayed against but euer vnder the correction of Gods will For the rod of death turned into a serpent made Moises feare Exod. 4.3 and the best haue moderately declined and shrunke at the stroke of death when it came in some tempest and who doth not dread all Gods terrors whereof death is one and feare that which is the punishment of sinne and curse of sinners and decline that which is the ruine and destruction of humane nature and shrinke at that which hath made the strongest the wisest the greatest the richest to fall downe flat before it Therefore the feare of death thus reproued is not the naturall feare of it which is in all but the seruile feare of it proper to euill doers and common to those who can haue no hope in death because they neuer cared to liue till they were compelled to die The fourth obiection is that those who haue beene reputed to be of the better sort of men haue oftentimes miserable ends for some end their dayes despayring some rauing and blaspheming some strangely tormented It may therefore seeme that the day of death is the day of greatest woe and miserie To this I answer first of all generally that wee must not iudge of the estate of any man before God by outward things whether they be blessings or iudgements whether they fall in life or in death For as the Preacher saith Eccles 9.1.2 No man knoweth either loue or hatred by all things that are before them all things come alike to all and the same condition is to the iust and to the wicked and to the good and pure and to the polluted and to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath Againe the Preacher saith Eccles 8.14 There is a vanity that is done vpon the earth that there be iust men to whom it hapneth according to the work of the wicked and there be wicked men to whom it happeneth according to the worke of the righteous Secondly I answere to the particulars which be alleaged in this manner First for despaire it is true that not onely wicked and loose persons despaire in death but also godly and penitent sinners who often in their sicknesse testifie of themselues that beeing aliue and lying in their beds they feele themselues to bee as it were in hell and to apprehend the very pangs and torments of it and I doubt not for all this but that the child of God which is most deare vnto him may through the gulfe of desperation attaine to euerlasting life and happinesse Which appeares to bee so by Gods dealing in the matter of our saluation For all the workes of God are done in and by their contraries In the creation all things were made not of something but of nothing cleane contrary to the course of nature In the worke of redemption God giues life not by life but by death And if we consider aright of Christ vpon the Crosse wee shall see our paradise out of paradise in the midst of hell for out of his own cursed death hee brings vs a blessed life and eternall happinesse Likewise in our effectuall vocation when it pleaseth God to conuert and turne men vnto him he doth it by the meanes of the preaching of the Gospel which in reason should driue men from God for it is as contrary to the nature of man as fire to water and light to darknesse For the Apostle saith 1. Cor. 1.21.22.23.52 After that in the wisdome of God the world by wisedome knew not God it pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching to saue them that beleeue For the Iewes require a signe and the Greekes seeke after wisdome but we preach Christ crucified vnto the Iewes a stumbling block and vnto the Greekes foolishnesse And yet for all this though it be thus against the nature and disposition of man it preuailes with him at length and turnes him vnto his God it hee belong vnto him Furthermore when God will send his owne seruants vnto heauen he sends some of them a contrary way euen as it were by the gates of hell For our way to heauen is by compasse euen as the Lord led the Israelites out of Egypt into the Land
of Canaan not through the Land of the Philistims Exod. 13.17.18 although that were neere For God siad lest peraduenture the people repent when they see warre and returne to Egypt but God led the people about thorow the way of the wildernesse of the red sea So God for many causes best knowne to himselfe doth bring his children out of this Egyptian world vnto the spiriutall Canaan which is the kingdome of heauen not the neerest way but by many windings and turnings and the furthest way about euen as it were thorow the red sea of miseries and afflictions that all Gods waues and billowes may goe ouer them Psal 42.7 The Lord can if he please bring them as he doth many other of his children the neerest way to heauen but this further way about is for Gods owne glorie and for his childrens owne good And God as a most wise Father is not euer kissing his childe but many times correcting him and the same God that doth mercifully exalt vs by giuing vs a sweete taste and liuely feeling of his grace and the efficacie of it in vs doth in much loue many times for our health humble vs when hee leaues vs without that sence and feeling in our selues and then doth he cure vs of the most dangerous disease of pride and confidence in our selues settle in vs a true foundation of humilitie cause vs to deny our selues and depend wholly vpon him to cast our selues into the armes of his mercie to hunger for his grace to pray more zealously and with greater feeling of our wants and to set an high price vpon the sence of Gods fauour to make more esteeme of it when we haue it againe and to kill and mortifie some special sinne for which before we had not seriously and heartily repented For when it is his good will and pleasure to make men depend on his fauour and prouidence hee maketh them first to feele his anger and displeasure and to be nothing in themselues to the end they might value and prize their vocation and calling at an higher rate and estimate and wholly and altogether rely and depend vpon him and be whatsoeuer they are in him only This point being then well weighed and considered it is more then manifest that the child of God may passe to heauen euen thorow the very depth and gulfe of hell For the loue fauour and mercie of God is like to a sea into which when a man is cast he neither feeles bottom nor sees banke For thy mercy saith the Psalmist is great aboue the heauens Psal 108.4 and thy truth reacheth vnto the clouds So that touching despaire whether it ariseth of the weaknesse of nature or of the conscience of sinne though it fall out about the time of death it can be but the voice and opinion of their sicknesse and a sicke-mans iudgement of himselfe at such time is not to be regarded and besides it cannot preiudize the saluation of their soules that are effectually called For the gifts and calling of God saith the Apostle are without repentance Rom. 11.29 and those whom God loueth hee loueth to the end and world without end And as for other strange euents which fall out in death they are the effects of diseases Rauings blasphemies and idle speeches arise of the disease of melancholy and phrensies which often happen at the end of hot burning feauers the choler shooting vp to the braine the writhing of the lips turning of the necke and buckling of the ioynts and the whole body proceed of crampes and convulsions which follow after much euacuation and whereas some in sicknesse are of that strength that three or foure can hardly hold them without bonds it comes not alwayes of witchcraft as people commonly thinke but of choler in the veines and whereas some when they are dead become as blacke as pitch it may rise by a bruise or impostume or by the blacke Iaundise or the putrefaction of the liuer and doth not alwayes argue some extraordinary iudgement of God in the wicked it doth but in the godly not Now these and the like diseases with their symptomes and strange effects though they doe depriue man of his health and of the right vse of the parts of his bodie and the vse of reason and vnderstanding yet they cannot depriue his soule of eternal life and happinesse which with the soule of Dauid is bound vp in the bundle of life 1. Sam. 25.29 with the Lord his God in eternall peace and blessednesse And all sins procured by these violent and sharpe diseases proceeding from repentant sinners are sins only of infirmity and weaknesse for which if they knew them and came againe to the vse of reason and vnderstanding they will further repent if not yet they are pardoned and buried in the bloud of Christ and in his death who is their Sauiour and great Bishoppe of their soules 1. Pet. 2.24.25 for he that forgiueth the greater sinnes will also in his children forgiue the lesse And againe wee ought not to stand so much vpon the strangenesse of any mans end when we knew before the goodnesse of his conuersation and life For wee must iudge a man in this case not by his vnquiet death but by his former quiet godly life And if this bee true that strange diseases and thereupon very strange behauiour in death may befall the best childe of God we must then learne to reforme our iudgements of such as lye thus at the point of death The common opinion is if a man lye quietly in his sicknesse and goe away like a lambe which in some diseases as in consumptions and such like lingring diseases any man may doe that then he goes straight-way to heauen though he haue liued neuer so wickedly But if the violence of the disease stirre vp impatiencie and cause in the partie frantick and vnseemely behauiour then men vse to say though hee be neuer so godly that there is a iudgement of God seruing either to discouer an Hypocrite or to plague a wicked man But the truth is farre otherwise for in truth one may die like a lambe and yet goe to hell For the Psalmist saith Psal 7 3.4.5 There are no bonds in their death but their strength is firme they are not in trouble as other men neither are they plagued as other men And againe another dying in exceeding torments and strange behauiour of the body may goe to heauen examples whereof we haue in that holy and iust man Iob as may appeare throughout his whole booke and in diuers others Gods deare Saints and children Therefore by these strange and violent kinds of sicknesse and death which doe many times happen to the deare Saints of God wee must take great heed that wee iudge not rashly of them in condemning them to be wicked and notorious Hypocrites and offenders for it may be our owne cafe for ought wee know This rash censuring and iudging was the sinne
saith the Wise man hath hope in his death Againe that sudden death is not euill in all respects is apparant For it is not euill because it is sudden but commonly it takes men vnprepared and therefore euill and so makes the day of death a blacke day and as it were a speedie downefall to the gulfe of hell otherwise if a man be readie and prepared to die as he ought alwaies to bee then sudden death is in effect no death but a quicke easie and speedie passage and entrance vnto eternall life and happinesse For why shouldest thou being the child of God vnwillingly suffer a short death that will bring thee to the fruition of life eternall and all happinesse Rather perswade thy selfe that if thou liue in the feare of God thou shalt doe well and so liuing though thou die neuer so suddenly thou shalt doe better and that the worst hurt that sudden death can doe thee if this may be called hurt is to send thee but a little sooner then peraduenture thy fraile flesh would be willing Ioh. 14.2.3 to thy Sauiour Iesus Christ who is gone but a little before thee through great and manifold dangers and temptations to prepare a place as he himselfe saith for thee and to receiue thee vnto himselfe that where he is there thou mayest be also and remember that that worst is thy best hope The worst therfore of sudden death is rather a helpe then a harme Now all these obiections being thus answered at large it doth appeare plainly to be a manifest truth which the Preacher here saith That the day of death is better then the day of ones birth Now I come to the third point in which the reasons and respects are to be considered that make the day of death to surpasse the day of ones birth and they may all be reduced to this one namely that the birth day is an entrance into all woe and miserie whereas the day of death ioyned and accompanied with a godly and reformed life is an entrance and degree to eternall life and glory Which appeareth thus viz. Eternall life hath three degrees one in this life and that is when a man can truly say with the Apostle Gal. 2.20 I am crucified with Christ neuerthelesse I liue yet not I but Christ liueth in mee And this all such can say as truely repent and beleeue and that are iustified sanctified and haue the peace of a good conscience and are furnished with the giftes and graces of Gods holy Spirit which is the earnest of their saluation The second degree is in the end of this life when the bodie goes to the earth from whence it came and the soule returnes to God that gaue it The third degree is in the end of this world at the last iudgement when bodie and soule being re-vnited do ioyntly enter into the kingdome of heauen Now of these three degrees death it selfe being coupled with the feare of God is the second in as much as death is as it were the hand of God to sort and single out all those that are the seruants of God from amongst the wicked of this wretched world So that death is a freedome from all miseries which haue their end in death and which is the first benefit that comes by death and the first step to eternall life and glory And the second benefit that comes by death is that it giues an entrance to the soule and makes way for it and doth as it were vsher it into the glorious presence of the euerlasting God of Christ of the holy Angels and the rest of Gods Saints in heauen And this is a notable comfort against death for as all other euils of paine are to a godly Christian changed into another nature and of punishments are become fauours and benefits so is it also in this of death for now it is not a token of Gods wrath for sinne but an argument of his loue mercie and fauour to his children It is not properly death but as it were a bridge by which we passe to a better life from corruption to incorruption from mortalitie to immortalitie from earth to heauen that is in a word from vanity and miserie to perfect ioy and felicitie and a way thereby made for the resurrection Now who would not willingly passe ouer this bridge that is so easie whereby he goeth from all cares and sorrowes to all delight and pleasure leauing all miseries behind him and hauing all contentation and happinesse before him The gentiles taking it for granted that either after death we should be happie or not be at all concluded that at least death would free vs from all euill and miserie and thereupon did willingly embrace death as a rich treasure The Egyptians also builded gorgeous Sepulchres but meane houses because the one was to them but an Inne the other as they did thinke an eternall habitation which freed them from all misery And Seneca again exclaimes that our whole life is a penance which the Thracians confirmed by their practise celebrating their childrens birth with weeping and lamentation but their death with great ioy and mirth as diuers ancient Writers record whereby insinuating that our life is nothing but miserie and death the end of miserie But they haue beene all greatly mistaken therin for it is the godly Christian only which enioyeth these benefits by death as namely the exemption and freedome from all cares troubles and miseries For which cause the death of the godly is called in the Scriptures by the names of Bed and Peace Esay 57.2 He shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds saith the Prophet It is called by the name of Rest Reu. 14.13 They shall rest from their labours saith the Sonne of God And the Author to the Hebrewes saith Heb. 4.9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God Againe the Scripture entitles death by the name of sleep and speaketh of the dead as of such as are asleepe and therfore the Prophet Daniel saith Dan. 12.2 Many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall awake some to euerlasting life and some to euerlasting shame and contempt And our Sauiour Christ speaking of Iairus daughter which was dead seeing all the people weepe and lament her said vnto them Weepe not Luke 8.52 shee is not dead but sleepeth Iohn 11.11.12.13 Act. 7.60 And touching Lazarus death our Sauiour saith Our friend Lazarus sleepeth And touching Stephens death it is said He fell asleepe For this cause our forefathers called the place allotted for the buriall of the dead Dormitorium a bed-chamber wherein their bodies rest expecting the ioyfull resurrection Homer calleth sleepe fratrem mortis the brother of death Diogenes awaked out of a deepe sleepe by the Physitian and asked how hee did answered Rectè nam frater fratrem amplectitur Well quoth he for one brother embraceth another The like is reported of Gorgias Leontinus and
the Poet saith Sleepe is the kinsman of death Quid est somnus saith one nisi breuis mors What is sleepe but a short death Et quid est mors nisi longus somnus What is death but a long sleepe By beds the Scripture vnderstandeth the places where the Lord bestoweth the bodies of his seruants after their death whether fire or water or the paunches of wild beasts or the chambers of the earth sea or ayre and these are called beds because they shall rest quietly in them as in their beds till the morning bell or loud trumpet of the last great day warning all flesh to rise shall raise them And therefore it is such an vsuall thing in the Scriptures so soone as men dye to say they fall asleep because therby is meant that they are laid in their beds of peace and they are called beds of rest to put difference betweene these beds of our nights sleepe and those of our sleepe in death for heere be our beds neuer so soft or well made we often take no rest by reason of some distemper in our bodies or fancies in our head but in these sleeping places Psal 4.8 which are called beds of rest wee may lay vs downe saith the Psalmist and sleepe in peace because the Lord our life being our keeper will make vs dwell in safetie Indeed in it owne nature the graue is rather an house of perdition then a bed of rest but being altered to the Iewes in promise to vs in performance by Christs graue who was buried in the earth to change the nature of it it is made to vs a chamber of rest and bed of downe These titles which are thus giuen vnto death is a sweete comfort to the children of God against the terrors of death for the graues of the righteous which by nature are the houses of destruction and chambers of feare are by Christ and the graue of Christ made vnto them chambers of safetie and beds of rest Christ by his buriall hath consecrated and perfumed our graues making them which were prisons to hell gates to heauen At night we take our chambers and lye downe in our beds so when death comes which is the end of life as the night is of the day we goe to the chambers of the earth and there lye downe in our beds till the day of refreshing which is the day of rising come that commeth from the Lord. This is a confutation of that phansie that hath so long deluded the simple world which is that dead bodies walke after their death and appeare vnto men For how can that be when the bodies of Gods children rest in their beds so soone as the breath departeth and the bodies of the wicked are in their prisons till the day of assise Whereof if any make a question let him open their graues and see And seeing the soule returneth not after it hath left the body how can the body walke that wanteth a soule or the soule be seene if it should walke which hath no bodie Phil. 1.23 or if death be a loosing of our soules from our bodies how can there be any death when soule and body are not parted and when the man is not dead but liueth But this phansie came from Pythagoras and is but a Philosophers dreame told by him to the world which was that the soules of men departed did enter into the bodies of other men good soules into good and bad into bad mens bodies The world then beleeued him and since that time Satan who can turne himselfe into all formes did in the dark night of Popery to deceiue that ignorant age change himselfe into the similitude of some person that was lately or had beene long dead and was beleeued by such a transformation to be the partie man or woman that hee resembled So entred the error that spirits did walke and that dead bodies came out of their graues and haunted sundry houses in the night which were not the bodies of the dead but the Diuell in those bodies or shapes as it is to be seene in Samuels counterfeit shape raised by the Witch at Endor 1. Sam. 28.14.15 And this error as it deceiued the blinde world and somewhat troubled the seeing Mat. 14.26 so is it still in the mouth and faith of credulous superstition at this day But God hauing giuen eyes to vs to see his truth Act. 12.15 and the light of iudgement to discerne it let vs not walke in so great darknesse as they that know not the truth nor whither they goe But the especiall drift of the holy Ghost in the holy Scripture by entitling death by the names of bed of peace of rest of sleepe and such like being all names of singuler commoditie and benefit is for the singuler comfort of all Gods children signifying vnto them thereby that they shal feele no bitternesse in death but rather ioy and reioyce in their deliue ance as if they were going to their beds and their liues are not lost but their bodies sleepe as in a bed most sweetely vntill the resurrection How sweete is peace to them which haue bin long troubled with warres and tedious contentions how pleasant is the bed rest and sleepe to them that haue ouerwatched themselues The Laborer is glad when his taske is done the traueller reioyceth when he commeth to the end of his iourney the Mariner is happie when after a dangerous voyage he arriueth in his harbour All men shunne paine and desire ease abhorre danger and loue securitie It were madnesse then for a godly Christian to feare so aduantagious a death and to wish for continuance of such a wretched life Tertullian hath a most excellent and elegant saying That saith he is not to be feared which sets vs free from all that is to be feared and that is death which putteth an end to all feares and miseries But the true Christian hath yet a farre greater benefit by death for it doth not only put an end to euils of paine but also to the euils of faults not onely to the punishment for sinne but to sinne it selfe Now the euils of faults are farre worse then the euils of paine yea the least sinne is more to be hated abhorred and shunned then the greatest punishment for sinne How comfortable then and welcome should death be vnto vs that endeth not only our sorrowes but also our sinnes As long as we liue heere and beare about vs these earthly and sinfull tabernacles we daily multiplie our transgressions and rebellions against our gratious God and sustaine fierie conflicts and continuall combates in our very bosomes O bondage of all bondages to be in bondage vnto sinne The Gentile that apprehended vice only as a morall euil could say that men being in bondage to their lustes were more cruelly handled by them then any slaues were by most cruell tyrants and monsters how much more then should we that feele sinne as a spirituall euill and groane
what can come in the whole earth or in hell so that I may enioy Iesus Christ in the end One seeing a martyr so merry and iocund in going to his death Luk. 22.44 did aske him why he was so merry at his death seeing Christ himselfe swet water and bloud before his Passion Christ said the martyr sustained in his bodie all the sorrowes and conflicts with hell and death due vnto vs for our sinnes by whose sorrowes and sufferings saith he we are deliuered from all the sorrowes and feares of hell death and damnation For so plenteous was the passion and redemption of Christ as that faint and cold sweat that is vpon vs in the agonie of our death the same he hath sanctified by the warme and bloudy sweat of his agony and making the graue a quiet withdrawing chamber for our bodies and death which before was so terrible to body soule is now by his meanes become the very doore and entrance into the kingdome of glory And hereof Blessed Hillary who from the fourteenth yeere of his age serued the Lord in singlenes of heart and in sinceritie of life to his liues end spake these words vpon his death-bed Goe forth my soule goe forth why art thou afraid Thou hast serued Christ these seuenty yeeres and art thou now afraid to depart Bishop Ridley the night before he did suffer at his last supper inuited his hostesse the rest at the table with him to his mariage for said he tomorrow I must be married shewing thereby how ioyfull he was to die and how little he feared seeing that hee well knew hee was to goe to Christ his Sauiour So by these examples wee see what great troubles the Saints and seruants and martyrs of God endured and how ioyfull they were as at a royal feast in all those troubles and sufferings of Christ that they might enter vpon that comfortable death of the righteous They were so farre from fearing death as worldlings feare it that they ran gladly vnto it in hope of the Resurrection and reioyced in the welcome day of death as in a day of the greatest good that could befall them Why then should we feare death at all to whom many things happen far more bitter and heauie then death it selfe and yet nothing so bitter and heauie as happened to these Martyrs and Saints of God Therefore when thou commest to die set before thine eyes Christ thy Sauiour in the middest of all his torments vpon the Crosse his body whipped head thorned face spitted vpon his cheekes buffeted his sides goared his bloud spilt his heart pierced and his soule tormented replenished on the crosse with a threefold plenitude as true God true man God and man gloria gratia poena full of glorie and all magnificence because true God full of grace and mercy because God and man and full of paine and miserie because perfect man a paine continuing long various in afflicting and bitter in suffering One saith hee continued in his torments twentie houres at the least others say he was so long in paine on the crosse as Adam was in Paradise with pleasure for it was conuenient that at what time the doore of life was shut against the sinner in the same moment the gate of Paradise should be open to the penitent and at what houre the first Adam brought death into the world by sinne in the same the second Adam should destroy death in the world by the Crosse Others report that Christ slept not for fifteene nights before his Passion in remembrance of the paine yea from the first houre of his birth to the last minute of his death hee did cary the crosse of our redemption In the beholding of which spectacle to thy endlesse ioy and comfort thou shalt see Paradise in the middest of hell God the Father reconciled vnto thee God the Sonne and thy Sauiour reaching forth his hand toward thee for to succour thee and to receiue thy soule vnto himselfe and God the holy Ghost ready to embrace thee and thou shalt see the Crosse of Christ Gen. 28.12 as Iacobs Ladder set vpon the earth and the toppe of it reaching heauen and the Angels of God ascending and descending on it to cary and aduance thy soule to eternall life and glory Then seeing wee are thus graced by God both in our life and at our death be not thou afraid to die And sure it is the will of God Matth. 20.22 that you should drinke of the cup that he hath filled for you and therefore pray that you may suppe it vp with patience and receiue great comfort thereby Againe there be three things that make death tollerable to euery godly Christian The first is the necessitie of dying the second the facilitie of dying the third the felicitie of dying For the first that which cannot be auoided by any power must be endured with all patience Eccles 8.8 There is no man saith the Preacher hath power ouer the spirit to retaine it neither hath he power in the day of death The first age had it and therein may pleade antiquitie the second age felt it and may pleade continuance the last age hath it and may plead propertie in all flesh till sinne and time shall be no more Call it then no new thing that is so ancient nor a strange thing that is so vsuall neither call it an euill properly thine which is so cōmon to all the world Wilt thou feare that to be done which is alwayes in doing I meane thy dying and dost thou feare to die in thy last day when by little and little thou dyest euery day Oh well said the Apostle Saint Paul 1. Cor. 15.31 I protest by our reioycing which I haue in Christ Iesus our Lord I dye daily Then I may well say yee are alwayes dying and death is still in doing Remember my iudgement saith Iesus the sonne of Syrach for thine also shall be so yesterday for me Eccles 38.22 and to day for thee Salomon saith All things haue heere their time you to day and I to morrow and so the end of Adams line is soone runne out Death is the Empresse and Lady of all the world it seaseth vpon all flesh without surrender of any till the day of restauration no place no presence no time can backe it there is no priuiledge against the graue Eccles 41.4 there is no inquisition in the graue there is no pitie to bee shewed by the graue there is no pleading with the graue For there is no worke saith the Preacher nor deuise nor knowledge Eccles 9.10 nor wisdome in the graue whither thou goest And therefore antiquitie neuer made altar to Death or deuotion to the graue because it was implacable euer found to be cruell and neuer felt to be kinde And heere from the necessitie of dying wee come to the facilitie of dying which maketh it lesse fearefull and more tollerable for that the sence of
death is of no continuance it is buried in its own birth it vanisheth in its own thought and the paine is no sooner begunne but is presently ended Though the flesh bee weake and fraile yet the spirit is strong to encounter the crueltie of Death and to make it rather a kinde kisse 1. Cor. 4.16 then a cruell crosse We faint not saith the Apostle for though the outward man perish yet the inward man is renued day by day Our Sauiour Christ said at his death and last farewell Iohn 17.1 Father the houre is come glorifie thy Sonne that thy Sonne also may glorifie thee Is there glory in death and is death but an houre It is of no long abode that abideth but an houre and little doe I doubt but that in that houre the soule is more rauished with the sight of God then the bodie is tormented with the sence of death Nay I am further perswaded that in the houre of my death the passion of mortalitie is so beaten backe with impression of eternitie that the flesh feeleth nothing but what the soule offereth and that is God from whom it came and whither it would as Saint Augustine saith with as great hast as happinesse And therefore whether you please to define or diuine of death what it is if it bee rightly broken into parts and passages the elect of God shall finde it a very easie passage euen as it were but a going out of prison a shaking off of our giues an end of banishment a breaking off our bands a destruction of toile an arriuing at the hauen a iourney finished the casting off an heauie burthen the alighting from a madde and furious horse the going out of a tottering and ruinous house the end of all griefes the escape of all dangers the destroyer of all euels Natures due Countries ioy and heauens blisse And from hence doe flow those sweete appellations by which the holy Ghost which is the Spirit of truth doth describe the death of the godly in saying that they are gathered or congregated to their people that is to the company of the blessed and triumphing Church in heauen to come to those which haue deceased before them in the true faith or rather haue gone thither before them So that the holy Ghost vseth a most sweete Periphrasis of death as speaking of the death of Abraham Gen. 25.8 Then Abraham gaue vp the ghost and died in a good old age Gen. 35.29 Gen. 49 33. Numb 20.24 Num. 27.13 an old man and full of yeeres and was gathered to his people And of the death of Isaac And Isaac gaue vp the ghost and died and was gathered vnto his people and so likewise of Iacob of Moyses of Aaron c. It is but the taking of a iourney which we thinke to bee death it is not an end but a passage it is not so much an emigration as a transmigration from worse things to better a taking away of the soule and a most blessed conueying of it from one place to another not an abolishing for the soule is taken from hence and transposed into a place of eternall rest it is a passage and ascension to the true life it is an out-going because by it the godly passe out of the slauerie of sinne to true libertie euen as heretofore the Israelites out of the bondage of Egypt into the promised land And as S. Peter termes it it is a laying downe of the tabernacle 2. Pet. 1.14 2. Cor. 5.4 for so he stiles our bodies And as S. Paul termes it it is an vnclothing or putting off of it and a remouing out of the bodie from a most filthie lodging to a most glorious dwelling They are said to be loosed from a port or from a prison and to come to Christ Phil. 1.23 seeing they are led out of the Inne of this present life to the heauenly Countrey and out of the dregs of wicked men to the most blessed societie of Christ and his Saints in heauen They are loosed by death out of the bonds of the bodie for euen as cattell when they haue discharged the labour of the whole day at last about the euening are set free and as they which are bound in prison are loosed from their fetters so the godly are led foorth by death from the yoke of their labours and sorrowes of this life and out of the filthie prison of sinne and by a wonderfull and most sweet translation are caried to a better life Out of all which it clearely appeareth Phil. 1.21 how truely the Apostle hath called the death of the godly aduantage seeing it is aduantage to haue escaped the increase of sinne aduantage by auoyding worse things to passe to better from labour and daunger to perfect rest and security and which is all in all to eternall blessednesse All which appellations of death doe teach vs to be so farre from beeing afraid of it that we ought willingly to welcome it as the easie and ioyfull messenger of our happy deliuerance and not sing loth to depart as all worldlings doe who tremble at the very name of it And thus I passe from the facility of dying to the felicitie of dying of which I may say as Sampson did of his riddle Out of the eater came meate Iudges 14.14 and out of the strong came sweetnesse Now the meat that commeth out of this eater and sweetnesse that proceedeth forth of this strong one is a cessation of all euill and an indowment of all good and by this doore we haue an easie and readie passage to all blessednesse and happinesse where God and with him all good is Man that is borne of a woman saith Iob hath but a short time to liue Iob 14.1 and is full of misery O sweet death that turneth time into eternity and misery into mercie so graciously hath our Sauiour done for vs making medicines of maladies cures of wounds and salues of sores and to his children producing health out of sicknesse light out of darknesse and life out of death Psal 27.13 This made Dauid to daunce in the midst of all his affliction and calamitie when he said I should verily haue fainted vnlesse I had beleeued to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the liuing This hath supported the soules of Gods Saints in the seas of their sorrowes when they thought vpon the day of their dissolution wherein they should be made glorious by their deliuerance For as our Sauiour Christ tooke his flight from the heauen to the Virgins wombe from her wombe to the world from the world to the crosse from the crosse to the graue from the graue vnto heauen againe Euen so from the womb wee must follow his steppes and tread the same path that he hath traced out for vs. Iohn 14.6 I am the way saith our Sauiour the truth and the life He is the way without wandring the truth without shadowing the life without
saying vnto me Write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their workes follow them Your friend is dead in the Lord and therefore blessed will you then weepe and lament for him his workes follow him and the Lord in mercie hath crowned his obedience according to his promise and will you looke awry at it God forbid Againe consider with your selfe that your friends walk with God and are gone to their heauenly Father in peace they are gathered vnto their people they are not dead but sleepe and their flesh resteth in hope they are gone the way of all flesh and doe now behold the face of God in heauen and what cause of sorrow is this to any friend that loueth them If your friend were discharged and released out of prison and miserie and preferred to the palace of an earthly prince and to his Court to his great and exceeding ioy and content would you shewe your loue and contentment toward him in bewailing the same how much lesse then should you lament his preferment into Gods euerlasting Court and kingdome to his vnspeakable ioy and comfort Thus may you gather many places of holy Scripture and on this sort meditate on them For sweet is the word of God against all sorrowes and griefes and by name against this But it may happily be obiected it is your child that is dead and it died before it could well be baptized this grieueth me more then otherwise it would and so you feare your childs estate Answ God forbid that we should either speake or think so seeing the Lord neuer said so but contrariwise the Scripture witnesseth that they are in the Couenant of God and so in state of saluation so soone as they are borne and Baptisme doth not make them Christians that were none before but is the Sacrament the seale the signe the badge of them that are Christians before Besides it is not the want of the Sacrament that depriueth a man of Gods fauour for the children of the Israelites were not circumcised all those fortie yeeres which they liued in the wildernesse the reason whereof was because they were euer to remoue and iourney whensoeuer the pillar of the cloud that was their guide ascended and went forward Numb 9.18 c. so that they were alwaies to attend vpon the cloude both night and day not knowing when it would remooue and therefore could not circumcise their children in the wildernesse as yee may read Iosh 5.2 c. but it is the contemning or despising of the Sacrament that depriueth men of Gods fauour when they make no more account of it then Esau did of his birth-right Gen. 25.32 then Ahaz did of the Lords helpe Esay 7. and it is also the neglecting of it when God offereth time and opportunitie that we might haue it Againe the Lord neuer said that whosoeuer died vncircumcised or vnbaptized should be wiped out of the booke of life but hee hath said Gen. 17.12.14 that whosoeuer contemneth or carelesly neglecteth the Sacraments shal be cut off from among his people And so read you the notes vpon that seuenteenth chapter of Genesis and I hope they shall content you for this matter God is not tyed to the Sacrament nor euer was The contempt hurteth but not the want when it is against your will Obiect Happily your child was of ripe yeeres and withall so toward that it could not be but that he should come to some great place and preferment if he had liued both for the good of himself and his friends and that he in his youth and the flower of his age should thus bee taken away is a great losse say you Answer True it is that the losse is great in respect of the world but what is that if we consider God God is also able to supplie all that some other way if we take it well This is apparant that what good or preferment could haue come to him any way or to his friends if he had liued the Lord for some purpose as yet happily hidden hath preuented but yet his arme is not shortened as I said to doe vs good some other way but it might perhaps prooue otherwise contrarie to our expectation if he had liued longer and then it would haue beene a great griefe vnto vs. But admit that it would haue beene as you hope if he had liued longer yet he is more highly preferred euen to the highest heauens and to the presence of God and this no earthly preferment can match And except we be wholy earthly our selues we cannot but sauour this and not let his youth grieue vs for no youth nor age is too good for God when he is pleased to take them A foole or a child seeing a goodly cluster of grapes thinketh it pitie to put them into the presse to deface them but he that is wise knoweth that thereby the liquour which is in them is preserued and that this timely gathering is a meanes to keepe them from corruption So we thinke sometime Oh it is great pitie such a one should die so soone so towardly a youth so good a creature can hardly be spared but God in his wisedome knoweth it to be good And if he cut off the life of that good and godly king Iosiah as it were in the middle of the stemme 2. Kings 22.20 doubtlesse it is for this cause that his eies may not see the manifold euils to come If you will be ruled to weigh things with reason you may well see mercie euen in this timely death for many are the perils both of bodie and soule that young men auoid when they are taken hence false doctrine heresies errours and many grieuous sinnes wounding the very conscience with a biting worme that euer gnaweth publike calamities and ruine of state many priuate miseries great and grieuous which no man can thinke of beforehand more bitter to good men then any death from all which this happie deliuerance in time of youth doth free your child and set him safe that you shall neuer mourne with him nor for him that way And herein we haue Dauid an example of godly fortitude who hauing a child sicke did while it liued afflict his soule besought God for the child and fasted and wen◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and lay all night vpon the earth and would not be comforted Thus while there was hope of remedie he gaue way to the sorrow of his heart 2. Sam. 12.16 but when Dauid perceiued that the child was dead then he arose from the earth and washed and anointed himselfe and changed his apparell and came into the house of the Lord and worshipped and after came to his owne house and bad that they should set bread before him and he did eate His sorrow ended when he once saw there was no hope of enioying any longer the companie of his child Now this course seemed vnto
world or for the losse of his life here in which losse hee shall haue abundant comfort he shall haue eternall life in the Kingdome of heauen Here are comforts for thee if thou haue or shall come in these cases into danger if thou retaine this resolution to lay downe thy life for God and his glory for Iesus Christ and his truth But there was neuer in thee any such resolution thou didst not loue God so well and thy selfe so ill as to dye for the truth for the glory of God for the name of Iesus thou didst neuer esteeme the Gospell true Religion and Righteousnesse at so high a price O vile man O vnworthy sinner wouldest thou not gratifie God with contempt of life and wilt thou gratifie the Deuill with it Wouldest thou not loose it for him that is the Trueth and wilt thou loose it for the Father of Lyes Was he not worthy in thy sight to bee serued with this manly resolution that gaue thee this life and for the losse of it is ready to recompence it with eternall life and is he worthy to bee serued with it that was euer an enemy to it and when hee hath spoyled thee of this life makes thee amends with a higher mischiefe to plunge thee in eternall death O monstrous absurditie to bee admitted amongst the professors of Christianity Pause a while and consider of this point that if it bee possible thou mayest bee recouered from this desperate purpose Thinke what it is to haue helde God off at the staues end and neuer to haue yeelded in thine heart to dye for his loue though hee gaue thee life to lose one drop of bloud for his sake though he filled thy veines to haue thy breath stopped for his glory though it was hee that breathed into thy nostrels the breath of life and made thee a liuing soule yet to embrace the Deuill in thy bosome as if he were thy God to tell him that hee shall haue thy life thy bloud shall flowe for his sake if thou gette a sword or knife that thou wilt strangle thy selfe and stop thy breath for his loue If thou canst get a halter Where is thy wisedome that resoluest so foolishly thy Iustice to resolue so iniuriously thy loue to God and thine owne soule to whom thou owest thy loue to God to procure his glory to thy soule to procure the saluation of it that dost resolue so hatefully For more foolishly for himselfe more iniuriously against God and more hatefully against both himselfe and God Did euer any man conclude and resolue in any thing then thou doest in this most foolishly determine for thy selfe that runnest into that destruction from which thou shouldest flie with all possible speed as the Israelites fled from the tents of Korah and his company when the earth swallowed them vp and most vniustly thou dealest with God to take that which is his without his leaue for wee are his and not our owne they are the words of the Apostle Paul 1. Cor. 6.19.20 Yee are not your owne and a little after speaking of our bodies and spirites he sayth they are Gods And before his face without any feare or reuerence of him to destroy them both at one instant For thou destroyest the body in killing it and thou destroyest thy soule that must perish for that murther and most hatefully thou proceedest against God and thy selfe in this resolution hatefully against God in destroying his Creature and hatefully against thy selfe in destroying thy selfe The Fact of the Philistines in stopping vp the wels that Abraham had digged to the end that Isaacke his son should not vse them for his cattle is interpreted to bee an euidence of their hatred Isaacke saying vnto them Gen. 26.27 Wherfore come yee vnto mee seeing yee hate me How much more must thy fact be interpreted to bee an euidence of hatred against God and thine owne soule that fillest vp and choakest the Well of life that God digged and opened for thy vse and desirest to water at the pit of death and hell where thou shalt not obtaine one droppe of water to coole thy tongue when thou art in torments Luk. 16.24 How commeth it to passe among deceyued men that when as in the case of suffering for God where death is accompanied with comfort and rewarded with glorie they shrinke and feare as for their liues withdrawing them selues which then are sweet vnto them and death bitter and in this case of laying violent hands vpon themselues where death is accompanied with terrour and shall bee rewarded with eternall damnation here they step forth are desperately bold life being bitter vnto them death sweet This is a daungerous errour wherein the Deuill the ancient Murderer hath beene their Counsellour the Giuer of Life neuer perswaded thereunto the very fact bewrayeth from what head that sinne came euen from him that laboureth by all meanes the destuction of mankind Lay these things together and I hope the thing that thou art resolued to doe will appeare so foule and odious before thee that thy resolution will alter and vanish away And the most mighty preseruer change thy minde by his sanctifying Spirite and blesse thee from this fearefull ruine Obiect But what if one that hath professed sincerely the true Religion of the Gospell should through terrour of conscience and for very anguish of heart despayre and in that case should make away himselfe What may bee thought of the estate of such a one Master Foxe in his booke of Acts and Monuments Acts and Monuments 1708. 1709. in the lamentable Storie of Master Iames Hales a Iudge sayth that this iudge graunting to something by the assault and craftie perswasion of Stephen Gardiner Bishoppe of Winchister and of the rest of the persecuting Prelates beeing by theyr greatnesse and importunitie ouercome did shortly after call him selfe to better remembrance and with extreame griefe and anguish of heart hee was ready with his Pen-knife to haue killed himselfe in prison and had no doubt so done had not the mercifull prouidence of the Lord rescued him miraculously at that time After that Winchester hearing that hee had sore wounded himselfe taketh occasion thereby to blaspheme the Gospell calling it openly in the Starre-Chamber the Doctrine of Desperation But the sayd Iudge within a while after recouering of those wounds and deliuered out of prison gets himselfe home to his house in Kent where hee eyther for the greatnesse of his sorrow or for lacke of good counsell or for that hee would auoide the necessity of hearing Masse hauing all things set in an order a good while before that appertained to his Testament casting himselfe into a shallow riuer was drowned therin which was in Ianuary or February 2555. which vnhappy chance of this so worthy a Iudge as M. Foxe sayth was surely the cause of great sorrow and griefe to all good men and it gaue occasion besides to some Diuines to doubt with themselues whether he
and shunne him because he would else soone make his filth cleaue vnto vs. So wicked and vngodly persons do set their sinnes as markes vpon those with whom they company and disperse and scatter their filth where they come and leaue a print or badge of their prophanesse behind them and shall wee sit so close vnto them who haue so plunged themselues in the myre of sin who should rather labour eyther to draw them out of filthinesse or withdraw our selues that we proue not as loathsome and filthy as they are Should we not rather say If any will be filthie let him be filthy still by himselfe If any will bee vniust let him be vniust still by himselfe If any will be beastly let him be beastly alone The filthie person and beastly man shall not haue me for a companion Heb. 10.38 My soule shall haue no pleasure in him And as saith the Prouerbes of the Ancients Wickednesse proceedeth of the wicked 1 Sam. 24.13 but mine hand shall not be vpon thee We cannot alwayes withdraw our selues and auoyde those that bee such yet we must in affection separate from them when we cannot in place but not delight to sitte downe with them on one stoole that is wee must not bee as they are Dauid had an eye to this blessed hope of being one of Christs attendants hereafter and therefore would not bee for all companies but professed himselfe to bee a companion onely of such as feared God Psal 119.63 I am a compani sayth he of all such as feare thee and of them that keepe thy precepts Hee would not hazard his fraile potsheard vpon the rocke of euill company for any thing And wherefore did Dauid say in one of his Psalmes Psal 26.4.5 I haue not sitten with vaine persons neyther will I goe in with dissemblers I haue hated the congregation of euill doers and will not sit with the wicked but because hauing fellowship with God he feared to haue any fellowship with the contemners of God and was perswaded that as God will not take the vngodly by the hand as Iob speaketh so none of Gods company should Iob. 8.20 Also he was loath to make them his companions on earth of whom he could haue no hope that they should bee his companions in heauen Wee are more inclinable to vice then to vertue so vice is more strong in the wicked then vertue in the good whereby it followeth that the societie of euil men is dangerous to the good and that as a hundred sound men shall sooner catch the plague from one infected person then hee recouer his health by them so the good are more often peruerted by the wicked then the wicked conuerted by the good and for this cause GOD loueth not to see his children amongst the wicked for this cause hee commanded his people to destroy the Inhabitants of the Countrey which they were to possesse Numb 16.26 lest by their societie they should bee drawne into their sinnes as afterwards they were indeede He commaunded also not to touch any creature that was vncleane and that whosoeuer toucheth a dead body should bee vncleane but no Creature is so vncleane as a sinner no death like to the death of sinne And therefore I will avoyde wicked men as the most vncleane of all liuing creatures and as the most loathsome of those which are dead I speake to the faithfull whom I would not haue to go out of the world to auoide the wicked that are in it 1 Cor. 5 9.10 11. but intreat by the tender mercies of â—od and of Christ to bee as carefull as they can to auoide them and their wicked assemblie and if they must vse them for necessity not to vse them as companions neyther to draw with them in any yoake of affection but rather to draw backe when the wicked are in place that they may not bee eye or eare-witnesses of their dayly dishonouring of God We are commaunded in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ 2. Thess 3.6 to withdraw our selues from euery brother that walketh disorderly All this may be done when we loue the men and hate the vices when we suffer them to haue no quietnesse in their sinnes and yet liue quietly and offer quietnesse to themselues Hee that will wholy abandon the company of them that are euill must as the Apostle sayth get himselfe out of the world 1 Cor. 5.10 and therefore Saint Ambrose sayeth fitlie to this purpose Wee ought to flie the company of wicked men in respect of priuate fellowshippe and not in respect of publike communion and that rather with our hearts and affections then with our bodies and outward actions wee may not hate our brother but loue him yet if we loue the Lord Leuit. 19.17 Psal 97.16 Rom. 12.18 wee must hate that which is euill where the Apostle sayth If it be possible as much as lyeth in you liue peaceably with all men We may haue no peace with the manners yet we must liue peaceably with the men Thus then in a word out of the words of the Apostle the controuersie may be decided If it bee possible so farre forth as may stand with our faith and profession as much as lyeth in you let vs doe our part and performe our best endeauour to liue peaceably if we cannot haue peace yet let vs liue peaceably with all men with the bad to reforme them with the good to conform our selues vnto them with our enemies to shunne them with our friends to keepe them And here is comfort for the children of God whom the wicked thrust out of their company and would if they could thrust out of the world because of their conscience to God Psal 38.20 and because they follow the thing that good is And hereof it is that the Wiseman saieth that Hee that is vpright in the way Prou. 29.27 is abomination to the wicked And hence it is also that the Prophet sayeth Hee that departeth from euill maketh himselfe a prey and the Lord saw it and it displeased him Esay 59.15 And though they bee not accepted where euill men beare sway which is no disparagement to them but glorie nor losse but gaine yet they are esteemed of the good and admired of the euill though not followed of them Doe the wicked hate them they shall loose nothing by such hatred for God and good men will loue them Will not the vnrighteous haue any fellowshippe with them It is so much the better for them for they are in lesse daunger of corruption and in more possibility of grace goodnes And where meÌ„ that be euil auoid them Christ his thousands of Angels wil stick close vnto theÌ„ Heb. 11.38 Those Worthies of whom wee reade in the Epistle to the Hebrewes were most cruelly dealt with all and persecuted in the World Of whom the world was not worthy for the wicked did driue them out of their companies by sharpe