unto it labour we by being in Christ as born of God by living in Christ as abiding in him that at length we may also die in the Lord. If to die in the Lord were all perhaps to perswade that also will not need much â—â—â—â—ur there is no man but with halfe 〈◊〉 Exhortation will be easily induced to 〈◊〉 of the Prophet Baâ—â—am's minde concent to die the death of the righteous and that his last end might le like his Num. 23.10 but will they consider that to effect this they must first be as well content to live the life of the righteous and let their beginning and continuance be like his If we would die in the Lord at the last and so be blessed we must in the mean holily endeavour to live in the Lord by Faith and Repentance Acts 24.16 and a good conscience both before God and towards men If we spend the time of our life upon our own lusts if we now live unto our selves little hope we have to die in him Live we not then and live we too do we both as S. Paul counsels 2 Cor. 5.15 not â—enceforth to our selves but to him who died for us Be we in Christ and abide we in him only this way we shall surely diâ— in Christ and be blessed by him and with him Beatus qui vigilat Revel 16.15 Blessed is he that watcheth To watch in holy Scripture is to live the life of fifth as on the other side sin is 〈…〉 the sleep of the soule Watch ye stan◠〈◊〉 in the faith 1 Cor. 16.13 and Awake thou that sleepest Epâ— 5.14 i.e. Rouze up thy selfe shake off the sleep of sin and lead the life of righteousnesse now this watch must continue till the Bridegroom comes this holinesse of life must hold out till Christ calls foâ—â—â—â—y dâ—ath we must watch till we shall never sleep we must be holy till we shall never sin we must do the one and be the other till we get up to Heaven Bratiquos cum venerit Luke 12.37 Blessed indeed are those servants whom the Lord when he commeth shall finde watching to have watcht before will be but a drowsie excuse if then we sleep in sin to have done many good things Mat. 7.22 even to the casting out of Divels will not avail us if we be not then found doing Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he comineth shall finde doing as he hath lived to so shall he die in the Lord of a truth the Lord will make him Ruler over all that he hath Luke 12.44 What an incouragement is this Consolatio beloved to the servants of God against the fear of death that as Christ when he began to give his Law which contained many Precepts that seem'd strict and difficult for our ability to perform that he might draw us the more willingly to an obedience to them does severally prefix before them this blessednesse whereto at last they bring us Mat. 5. so because death had been made by fin so terrible to the Natural man therefore Christ who died to overcome death and to take away sin which is the sting of it as by this means he has made it easie and sweet to them that die in him so he would make it appear so also by this assurance of blessednesse upon it Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. Be we not therefore afraid of Death which must be the means to convey us unto blisse Be we not loath when God shall call us to leave the miseries of this life this warfare upon earth for the crown in Heaven nay be we carefull by a life to him that we may die in the Lord and we shall finde that such a certain remedy against the fear of death that we shall rather with S. Pauls cheerfulnesse make choice of S. Phil. 1.23 Paul's Cupio dissolvi even desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ the Lord we shall not pitch our thoughts upon that false shadow of blessednesse which the few and evil dayes of this life can afford but look toward our Countrey our Home to that green Pasture Psa 23.2 and those waters of comfort whither the Shepheard of our Souls shall conduct those Sheep which belong unto his Fold we shall resolve to fight the good fight here 2 Tim. 4.7 and expect to triumph in peace there we shall set up our rest to sow in tears here Ps 126.5 and comfort our selves with the assured hope of reaping in joy there In a word we shall not look for true blisse in this wretched world which cannot give it but stay our time with patience all our time wait with joy all the dayes of our appointed time till our change commeth 14.14 not hasten to gather our Grapes in the Spring before they be ripe sour Grapes to edge our teeth here Eze. 18.2 Lu. 13.28 and give us gnashing of teeth in the other World but constantly bear the heat of the Summer here and stay for the sweetnesse of Autumn and the delight of the Vintage in Heaven where we may gather oâ— full Clusters full ripe and drink of the fruit of the Vine even new with our Christ in his Fathers Kingdome This grant good Christ unto us all that we may live in thee by a true faith and holy life and die in thee by our constancy in that faith which we have here possessed and inherit that blessednesse which thou hast promised even for thy Names-sake and for thy great Mercies-sake To thee c. A SERMON Preached at the BAPTISME of the Right Honorable JAMES EARLE of Northampton Matth. 19.14 Suffer little Children and forbid them not to come unto me for of such is the Kingdome of Heaven THe whole History of this business is not long to be read unto you that you may better conceive the occasion of these words 'T is recorded by three of the Evangelists so worthy a passage it was thought by them not to be omitted but in fewest words by S. Matthew he concludes it in three short verses almost as short as sweet please you hear it Vers 13. Then were there brought unto him little children that he should put his hands on them and pray and the Disciples rebuked them Vers 14. But Jesus said Suffer little Children and forbid them not to come unto me for of such is the Kingdome of Heaven Vers 15. And he laid his hands on them In which short History there are three several parts acted The first by them who brought the children the Parents in all probability Christ had now for the space of three years travelled about that Countrey of Palestine helping and healing he went about saies S. Peter doing good and healing all Acts 10.38 For this the people magnified him and followed him but the Priests and the Pharisees they especially of Jerusalem were mad with anger and indignation to see a stranger so go in strength of Authority and Repute amongst
delicate Garments the basenesse of the Winding-sheet for his former neatnesse nothing but putrefaction for his perfumes a stinking savour and for his savour it selfe deadnesse for his Servants and attendants the company of crawling worms at the best which will more really destroy him than when alive the most unfaithfull of his servants could How must he be tormented with extremity of griefe for that which shall befall his body But then to imagine the state of the Soul which has not hope in Christ for we are in Nature yet to think of that Incognita that new Region unknown to any living Wight whither it must now travel naked and unaccompanied save with the horror of his gnawing Conscience to labour to conceive those unconceivable woes of that other world and to comprehend that incomprehensible eternity of them 't is wonder he can live a moment to digest that indigestible thought 't is a wonder that the terror of it does not prevent the hand and sythe of his approaching death that it does not anticipate his fate and prove more quick to dead him more nimble than his disease to strike and slay his soul For one to be taken from his wealth pleasure honour friends wife children to leave these outward contentfull things makes death bitter to him 't is another death This O mors quà m amara est memoria tuis 't is the Wise-mans exclamation Ecclus. 41.1 O death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions that hath nothing to vex him that hath prospepity in all things The separation that is made betwixt him and his world afflicts him but the separation betwixt him and himselfe his soul and his body is intollerable how loathly it leaves that old companion how loathly it goes out of that beloved dwelling St. Hierome writes the life of Hilarion a good Christian a devout and holy man one that feared God and in most of his life so little feared death that he desired nothing more than to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 and yet when death began to seize upon him when he was now in his last agony his soul had a strong touch of this fear and was loath to go insomuch that he was fain to have recourse to his faith and by the help of it to encourage his fainting soul in his journey to Heaven Egredere go out my soul what fearest thou go out valiantly hast thou serv'd God these seventy years and dost thou now fear to leave thy body Beloved Eratenim eremita moriebaturoctoginta annos natus if this Holy man who had from ten years age dedicated his whole life to the service of God found yet the natural man so strong in him that he was put to his plunge in which he might have stuck had he not awaken'd his faith awake awake why sleepest thou O my faith and call'd that to his help how terrible must this dissolution needs appear to them who have liv'd in their sins and not yet cast off those sins by repentance who when they should grapple with death and conquer it by their faith in Christ alas they lie under the weight of their sins and cannot rise they struggle in vain that load oppresses them their sin 1 Cor. 15.56 which is the sting of death is fastned in their hearts and slayes them their death is a flaughter the worst death of all Mors peccatorum pessima Psal 34.21 Evil misfortune shall slay the ungodly Siccine separas amara mors may be their complaint in the bitternesse of their spirit they may well call it the darknesse of death as Agag did 1 Sam. 15.32 Beloved have you look'd enough upon death in his worst shape and can ye collect how terrible he must needs appear to the wicked over whom he hath full power since even to Gods holy servants out of a natural desire to preserve their being since even to Gods beloved Son when to shew himselfe truly man he was content to yield so sar to the sway of humane nature within himselfe he seem'd so odious that in the presence of some of his Apostles he did not let to discover his passion My soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death Matt. 26.38 Mat. 26.44 to pray to his Father thrice against it and but that the will of his Father was in the midst of his bowels and his obedience stronger than death he would have begg'd three times more that the Cup might have pass'd from him so odious that for the comfort of the Elect 't is one of the greatest blessings betroath'd to them in the New Jerusalem that there shall be no more death Rev. 21.4 Then now cheer up your thoughts again by faith in Christ and with that eye of faith behold death vanquisht by that Christ behold him trampled under those victorious feet so languishing so dead himselfe that he cannot hurt you he cannot scare you This is the second consideration of death Mors Porta Coeli that how evil soever it be in it selfe even the way to Hell yet by Gods goodnesse it is become a Portal to the Children of Grace by which the soul passeth out of the miseries of this life into the joyes of Heaven even the dead are blessed that die in the Lord. God made not Death Wisdome 1.13 through the envy of the Divel it came into the world Wisd 2.24 't is he that was the Murderer from the beginning Joh. 8.44 Murderer of our bodies and of our souls too death of both is his work 't is he that has the power of death Heb. 2.14 and if only the body di'd he would soon disown the name and disvalue all the power he had Now wherefore came Christ into the world wherefore was he manifested in the flesh why for this purpose sayes S. John ut dissolvat opera that he might destroy the works of the Divel 1 John 3.8 He took part of our flesh and blood why that he might die without that he could not die the Godhead is immortal and why die but that through his death he might destroy him that had the power of death the Divel Heb. 2.14 So truly might he say of himselfe John 10.10 I am come that they might have life This was it which was prophecyed so long since Hos 13.14 O mors ero mors tua O death I will be thy death thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction the Prophecy is not yet fulfill'd if we read that place as the Vulgar Edition hath it I will be thy death Death shall be destroyd indeed but not yet 't is the last enemy 1 Cor. 15.26 that must be destroyd but if we read it as we have well translated it O death I will be thy plagues 't is every day fulfill'd in that glorious victory with which so many of the Saints of God at their dissolution do triumph over it Christ does not take away
death but the evil of death not the being but the sting of it as whilome he suffered Esau to meet his Jacob but first he drave all enmity out of the heart of that Esau Gen. 33.4 This is one degree of the change which Christ has wrought in the nature of death to his Servants that it hath no power over them to hurt them they shall not be hurt of this second death Revel 2.11 who overcome the first that of the soul by sin conquer that by Faith and thou subduest the fear of this He that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live John 11 25. he shall chaunt out S. Pauls triumph 1 Cor. 15. O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory This is one degree but this is not all 't is not enough to make us blessed that death hurts us not it must be forc'd against the own nature of it to help us it is a part as being a means of our happinesse that we die Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die 1 Cor. 15.36 so that the very blow we receive from this hard hand is healing that which our sin made to be our last enemy the goodnesse of God hath made the first friend that we meet with in our passage to another world When a child sees a goodly cluster of ripe Grapes he thinks it pity to put them into the presse and to deface them but the skilfull man knows that this hard usage preserves the liquor of them from corruption we are sometimes these ignorant children we think it pity that such a holy devout religious good man should die alas he can be ill spared yet God in his wisdome makes this man thus ripe for heaven the more happy by death it selfe he fals into the ground that he may bring forth much fruit Jo. 12.24 This is the true ground beloved of all our spirituall rejoycing upon our Death-bed that we know we leave this for an infinitely better life that we can say with the Apostle Phil. 1.21 Mori mihi lucrum we gain by this change That we receive no hurt by death that it is at the worst but a sleep in which we rest from our labours this is much but that we should reap profit and honour that the Crown of Righteousnesse is layd up for us that the reward of our works doth follow us this is all this is the very blessednesse of the dead that die in the Lord. The former is sufficient to inforce the Apostles Exhortation 1 Thess 4.13 concerning them who are asleep that we sorrow not for them but this is able to make us so affected toward our Brethren when they go before us to our heavenly Father as our Saviour Christ would have his Disciples affected towards him upon the like occasion If ye loved me ye would rejoice because I said I go unto the Father John 14.28 Be not sorry not only so but rejoice rather because as Solomon taught long since the day of death is not so sad is better more joyous than the day of our birth Eccl. 7.1 If any man could have found a life worthy to be prefer'd unto death so wise great and glorious a King must needs have done it and yet he in his very Throne commends his Coffin above his Scepter and would rather choose to be a subject for worms to feed upon than a Prince of men This makes us no more to marvel at those Heathens who mourned at the birth and feasted at the death of their children and yet alas they had not halfe the cause that we have of rejoycing they knew some of the miseries that accompanied this life what troubles and cares and anxieties and wants men passed through what crosses and calamities they indure here which are the punishments of sin but sin it selfe the greatest burden of this life the sorest evil that waits upon and makes it most wearisome this malum culpae this evil of sin they were not as they ought aware of and yet they were so affected with the feeling of those other ills that they made merry at the death of their friends out of a miserable conceit they had that they then ceased to be miserable We know what they did and more we understand the wretchednesse of living in this vale of tears and we understand what causes it the snares of sin from which we are loosed when we are freed out of the prison of this body he that is dead Rom. 6.7 is free from sin We understand the Happinesse of dying that it not only unfetters us from these chains of sin an shame but conveyes us to an eternity of holinesse and glory How should we cheer our selves in this expectation yea assurance of being so happy How should we say out of choice and faith what the Prophet Jonah said out of bitter passion It is better for me to die Jon. 4.3 than to live to die in the Lord for such when they are dead are blessed It is time for us to have done with this first discourse Part. 2 which the Text ministers unto us concerning death and the bitternesse of it in it selfe to the natural man and the sweetnesse which Christ by his death hath infused into it to all that die in him Now turn your thoughts with patience 't is high time to beg that upon the other subject-matter of the Text Blessednesse A subject that we shall finde of as great importance and as nearly to concern every of us as the other If that were needfull to us for the weaning our affection from the vanities of this world this is as usefull for the inflaming those affections toward the glory of another World Forget not the former but afford this also some time of meditation by no means lose the memory of death Be as wise in this point as those wise men Philosophers of India who were called Brachmanae they would have open Sepulchres placed before the doors of their houses that as they went out and in they might think of that place whether they must go at last that was a bridle to them with which they held themselves in awe and let us still place our graves before the door of our minds and imagine we hear God speaking to us as to his Prophet Jeremy Descende in domum figuli Go down to the Potters house Jer. 18.2 and there I will cause thee to hear my words God could have spoken with his Prophet in any other place as well as that where men were busied about clay but he would thereby admonish us that the Tombs of dead men where all humane clay all the carkasses of men that were made of clay and of which clay is made are gathered together as in a Potters house that these are the fittest Schools of wisdome to us there God usually expounds unto his Auditors the most deep and hidden mysteries of wisdome there not with logical Sophisms but by
run as to obtain 1 Cor. 9.24 that having finisht their course they have not rest onely but their Brabium their Crown also which was laid up for them 2 Tim. 4.7 8. their Crown of righteousnesse their works do follow them 'T is a Metalepsis a figurative speech as much as to say the fruit of their Works the Reward the Crown of their Righteousnesse which was laid up in Heaven is given to them by the Lord the righteous Judge at that day the day of their death as S. Paul speaks 2 Tim. 4.8 That which is the Argument of this Scripture is now our Text and must be anon the Argument of our Discourse Blessed are the dead a most sweet and comfortable Argument a Theme beloved full of gracious solace wherewith to arm the faithfull against the evil day that of death that it is not as the Epicurean Sect of Philosophers taught Extrema linea rerum the end of all our being that when the body returns to the earth as it was made the spirit does not so too but unto God who gave it Eccles 12.7 that we are not born at all adventure and shall be hereafter as though we had never been as those ungodly fools dream'd Wisd 2.2 that the breath of our nostrils are not as smoak and a little spark in the moving of our heart which being extinguished our body shall be turned into ashes and our spirit shall vanish as the soft aire They taught ill and their Disciples the Sadduces learn'd as ill from them that there is no Resurrection Act. 23.8 No if Christ be preach'd that he rose from the dead we may ask S. Pauls question How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead 1 Cor. 15.12 And. If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable v. 19. but we are therefore miserable in this life that at our death we may be blessed as my Text hath it Blessed are the dead In the handling of which to fit you to the more profitable hearing of what shall be delivered let me put you in minde of the Wise mans counsel Eeclus 7.36 Remember the end the last things and thou shalt not do amisse There are Quatuor novissima four things which do last befall the state of man Death Judgment Blessednesse in Heaven and Torments in Hell These would be often thought on and duly consider'd by us as a most soveraign Antidote against the Infections of this world a pretious preservative against Sin Death which must bring us to Judgment Judgment which must either convey us to Heavenly Blisse or condemn us to eternal restlesse misery there is the blessednesse of the Saints in Heaven to inflame our hearts with a holy desire after it and the wretched state of the damned in Hell to make us wise and wary for the avoyding of it 'T is a rule of St. Chrysostom's that we should be so and a promise thereupon to ascape it Non sinet in Gehennam incidere Gehennae meminisse the awfull thinking of it will keep us from falling into it These are the Quatuor novissima the four last things which the Wise man would have ingraven in our memories with a Pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond to keep us from doing anisse Memorare novissima Remember the end and thou shalt not do amisse Within the compasse of this short Text Divisio Textus we have two of these four last things to imploy our thoughts upon Death and Blessednesse Death which all men by nature fear Blessednesse which all men by that same instinct desire and therefore no man living but this Text concerns him no man but may reap profit from the Doctrine it affords That 's two-fold in the unfolding and applying of which I intreat your attention and devotion 1. That Death though in it selfe it be bitter and terrible yet to Gods children it is so sweetned by Christ that in them 't is made the way to blessednesse Psal 118.80 This is the Gate of Heaven and the Righteous shall enter in thereby The Dead are blessed that die in the Lord. 2. That Blessednesse though it be so sweet a thing the object of all mens desires so generally aim'd at by all men in their severall endeavours yet all our life time here we come short of it we attain it not till our death Dicique beatus antiobitum nemo nemo before that and not omnes after not all of us then but they only who die in the Lord Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. I desire first to fasten your considerations upon Death which is the way to blessednesse and to keep the best wine till the last in the second place to refresh you with the Meditation of Blessednesse which insueth upon death Nor will this former discourse Praefatio ad partem primam as it is pertinent to the businesse we are now upon the death of that Worthy and Right Honorable Patriot of his Countrey for whom wise men religiously mourn in a Sermon as witty men used to lament for Heathens in an Elegy be needlesse and superfluous to those that live since the often taking occasion as it is now most unhappily for us and most blessedly for him whom we remember offer'd by that God who hath taken him from us to himselfe to six the eyes of our minde upon the end of our life is so behoovefull that even Plato the Heathen Philosopher but admirable for wit and learning found such a benefit of it that he defin'd Wisdome to be the Meditation of death and though in that he aim'd not as we do to perswade men to the often thinking upon it for difinitions are the Common-Place of one sort of Learning the speculative and perswasions of another the practicall yet in this respect especially may we more truly affirm it than he did that it is a great part of wisdome to accustome our selves often to the meditation of death and howsoever the Divel that great enemy of Mankinde does for his own ends and the readier advancement and enlarging of his Kingdome labour by all means to lull us into security by the pleasures of this World and to steal out of our thoughts the remembrance of our death that so our death may steal upon us at unawares Luke 21.34 and take us unprovided to make us ducere in bonis dies nostros to spend our dayes in jollity that we may go down to the Grave in a moment Job 21.13 yet the Spirit of God directs us a safer course Eccles 11.8 If a man live many years and rejoice in them all yet let him remember the days of darknesse There is danger when death steals upon us Oh then we have lost that blessing of our Text which the soul of this our dear Father departed hath found 'T is a Curse let death come hastily and sure 't is lawfull to pray as we do in our Letany against