THE RIGHTEOVS MANS HOPE IN HIS DEATH IN A SERMON AT THE Funerall of Mr WILLIAM CONYE of Walpoole Justice of Peace and Captain over the Trained Band in Marshland PREACHED By JOHN HORNE Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ at Soushlyn in Norfolke 2 do May 1648. 2 SAMUEL 14.14 For we must needs die and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again neither doth God respect any person yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him ISAIAH 57.1 2. The righteous is taken away from the evil to come He shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds each one walking in his uprightnesse Cum constet deresurrectione mortuorum vacat dolor mortis vacat impatientia doloris Tertul. de Patientia Quinto major fides tanto morsest imbecillior Luth. LONDON Printed for Tho. Vnderhill 1649. To the Author of the Sermon IN Achor's vale Thou op'st a Door of Hope The Heart enlarg'd may well behold Thy scope The strong Devourer is by Thee made sweet We see the Eater is become mans meat The Faithfull die their fear of death is past In hope they live These dead thou lead'st to rest J.A. On the death of William Conye Esq Justice of the Peace and Captain at Wars Who being dead yet speaketh Heb. 11.4 OH living man would'st by death gain Learn Christ who did thy death sustain That so when Death Thy Life shall end Thou maist in Life with Christ Ascend Thy losse of friends becomes thy gain When God thy friend thou do'st obtain Then Pattern-like Be taught of me Let Christ thy life yet living be By sin came death yet liveth he Who conquer'd death to succour thee J.A. Or Thus. The Bush on fire is still preserv'd Mans life in death is yet conserv'd The Angels food Mans bread Christ is This Captain slew our death by his His bonds makes free his death brings life Our shame through Christ works glory rife Christ's Grace gains Faith Man hopes glory Sure 's God 's word myst'ry and stlory Vain man I Why fearest death in vain Christ is risen Beleeve and reign J.A. The CONTENTS Doctrines 1. That Righteous men die 1. The leverall kindes of death 1. Eternall which is a perishing from the presence of the Lord The second death 2. Spirituall Dead in sins strangers from the life of God Taken in an ill sease Dead to the Law to a mans self Thus taken in a good sense 3. Temporall see sin Inchoate In deaths often The shadow of death Censummate An utter sepatation of the soul from the body 2. The reasons of the Righteous mans dying 1 From the frail and mortall nature about them 2 From Satan and this world haters of them 3. From sin that cleaves so fall to them 4. From the Ordinance of God upon them That all men must die 5. For right ends to them 1. To humble the righteous by death 2. To make them seek salvation out of death through Christ 3. That the glory of Christ in raising them out of death may appear 4. That death may put an end to all their evils 5. That dying the righteous may enter into life and glory 2. That the Righteous hath hope in his death And therein consider 1. The difference of the Righteous mans hope from other mens hopelesse of life or senselesse of death 2. Who is the Righteous man 3. Divers sorts of Righteousnesse 1. Of a mans own and of works Morall Legall 2. Of God Of saith 4. Gods goodnesse done for man and his truth said to man cals for mans trust and hope towards God 5. What is this hope of a Righteous man 1. The severall objects of his hope Christ And other things through Christ 2. The grounds of his hope 1. Christs sufferings for man the ground of mans righteousnesse with God 2. Christs resurrection out of death the ground of mans hope of life 3. The efficacy of his hope the Righteous mans hope dies not It lives in his death 6. The blessed memory of this deceased Righteous man and of his hope in his death Application 1. The Righteousnesse of God is to be taken notice of and not to be slighted 2. All men ought to fellow this righteousnesse of God and not faint for sufferings 3. These followers are to go on in the way of righteousnesse The righteous not to die in their affections for death it self but to have hope in their death THE RIGHTEOVS MANS HOPE IN HIS DEATH The Text. PROV 14.32 The Righteous hath hope in his death NOt to spend time in unnecessary prefacing because we shall finde matter enough in the words to take up all this little time allotted us There are two Propositions couched in the Text to which I shall desire as briefly and yet as clearly as I may to speak viz. 1. That even Righteous men also are liable to death 2. That the Righteous have hope in their death The truth of the former of these is not only a matter of faith but is evident to sense also as the Scriptures tell us Heb 9.17 It 's appointed to man once to die So we see the wise and the foolish the righteous and the wicked both are subject thereto and in that regard all things come alike to all The most famous for righteousnesse have yielded unto death Abraham is â—â—nd and the Prophets are dead yea Christ himself yielded up the Ghost and died so that we shall not spend time about the proof of that point only I shall desire to unfold the severall acceptions of the word death and see in which of them this is found true that the righteous comes unto death and so see the latitude in which this Text may be taken and then shew whence and upon what grounds it comes to passe that the righteous also die and so proceed to the next particular The word death is diversly used in Scripture As We reade of a second death Rev. 20 6. 〈◊〉 Thes 17.8 9 Mâ—â—â— 25 4â— a perishing from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power a being thrown into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his Angels But of this death the text is not to be understood for this is none of the righteous mans death it 's not appointed for him nor he for it nor shall he come into it nor is it a death in which any hope may be had this is indeed the righteous mans hope that he shall not see this death but be preserved and kept from it as it is said Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection for on such the second death shall have no power Rev. 20.6 And of this that saying of our Saviour is to be understood that he that beleeves in him shall not taste death Joh 8 52. 2. Death is sometimes taken for a more spirituall death or a death in the spirit of a man only not in the body as when men are said
rightly fetcheth in all this good to the soul the ground of it being of that pretiousnesse in it self and acceptablenesse with God as doth cause these fruits to spring from it and put an everlastingnesse into them the vertue and goodnesse of the righteousnesse of mans hope in God springs from the goodnesse of the spring and rise of it The Pharisee hoped for great things from God Luk. 18.9 10. as that God would accept him and account him righteous and deal with him as a righteous man ah but his hope was naught because it sprung from a wrong foundation it sprung from his own goodnesse and good performances which he conceived to be the effects of Gods love towards him he knew nothing of love to him in God before his good performances to spring them up in him but he concludes now that God did love him from his good performances God I thank thee that I am not as other men are he thought that he could not have been so good as he was if God had not had speciall and eternall love and favour towards him But the righteous mans hope grows upon another root he first heard of and was perswased of Gods love towards him in the promised seed the gift of Jesus Christ for him while a sinner and ungody and the belief of this Gods love in him brings him in to beleeve in him and hope in him he therefore hopes and expecteth that God will support and carry him through death and bring him to such glorious injoyment of eternall life as hath been mentioned yea to greater glory then can be mentioned because he sees and beleeves that he hath already in Christ prevented him with his love in whom death is abolished life and immortality brought to light sin satisfied for law fulfilled eternall redemption obtained God well pleased that man should have eternall life and to that end hath put it in his Son and put it upon his Son to bestow and give it to every one that leans upon his grace and submits to beleeve on him for it to which end also he sees in the Gospel and in his heart beleeves that God hath given his Son infinite glory power and authority to subdue whatever in the Beleever or without him would hinder him of his glory appointed him judge of quick and dead to forgive and pardon all sins to all that by his goodnesse are brought to him to give them his good Spirit preserve them in trials come again and raise them out of death and make their vile bodies like his own glorious body and in the issue possesse them with himself and of his own glory for the effecting all which in and for him the righteous man judges and beleeves him both able and faithfull in which hope he is confirmed by the experiments of the divine grace calling and quickning him and from this free-grace in Christ which brings the soul to do righteousnesse in beleeving on him and so leads it to the enjoyment of Christ for righteousnesse with God springs up in his most dying condition this hope of the glory and further grace before expressed And so we have done with the explication of those two things propounded and so with the explicatory work about the proposition It remains that we come next to the confirmation of it For confirmation of this point I shall only do these two things 1. Shew that it hath been so with righteous men in former ages such as the Scripture mentions and 2. Shew that this our deceased Friend and Brother as others of this place before him found it so 1. Scripture instances of the cloud of witnesses produced therein prove this to be true That the righteous hath hope in his death It mentions a large catalogue of Worthies that lived and died in faith though they received not the promises I never see the righteous faith David forsaken Psa 37.25 Why then not in death neither God hath given them hope in that too How sweetly sung old Jacob when he breaths forth this confession in the midst of his blessings Gen 49.18 I have waited O Lord for thy salvation So David when in great danger of death many conspiring to take away his life see how his heart then hoped in God I said O Lord thou art my hope my times are in thine hand Psal 31.15.19 And a little before his giving up of the Ghost how sweet are his expressions 2 Sam. 23.3 4 5. These are the last words of David David the son of Jesse said the man that was raised up on high The anointed of the God of Jacob and the sweet Psalmist of Israel said the spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue the God of Israel said the Rock of Israel spake to me He that ruleth over men must be just ruling in fear of God and he shall be as the light of the morning when the sun rises a morning without cloud as the tender grasse springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow Sweet expressions of assured confidence flowing from Gods love in his covenant with him whereof Christ is the Mediator if not rather the summe and contents of it and yet these were the expressions of a dying righteous man Act. 13.3 4. Job 19.25 26 27. What should I mention Job whose voice it was in the midst of distresse I know that my redeemer liveth and he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God Whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my reins be consumed within me A glorious triumph over death in the midst of deaths 2 Tim 4.8 I shall add no more from Scripture but that of Paul Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of life which God the righteous Judge shall give me All which instances are evident witnesses of this truth That the righteous hath hope in his death To which I might also have added the constant confessions and sweet hopefull expressions of many Martyrs but I passe them over for brevity and so come 2. To this our Friend and Brother decased he was another instance of and witnesse to this truth as all that were eye and ear witnesses of his carriage in his sicknesse will affirm For though he was known and noted to be a man naturally of a timerous and fearfull disposition afraid of dangers yet such the more abundant operation of the grace of God in him in his sicknesse and at his death he was nothing at all afraid of death though the king of terrour nay so far was he from fearing it that it was his desire to be dissolved and to
particular viz. Application with which we shall conclude You hear friends what the Scripture saith Application and you have heard severall instances of the truth of it minde well what ye have heard minde the Scriptures and minde the end of the just ones even such as you have had amongst you The first tels you That the righteous hath hope in his death the other hath experimented and proved it and rejoiced in affliction and death for the hope of the glory which they expected further to be revealed on them Both Scriptures and their experience commend to us these following instructions 1. Take notice of the excellency of righteousnesse and of the condition of a righteous man how good it is to receive by faith the righteousnesse of God and how well it goes with them that so do What is there in all the World to be compared to righteousnesse We may say of it as Solomon of wisdom and indeed it 's a high point of wisdom to do righteously in beleeving Prov. 3 14 15 16 c. The â—â—â—ch and so thereof is better then the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof better then of sine gold She is more precious then rubies yâ—â— all that thou canst desire is not to be compared to her She is a tree of lift to all that take hold of her c. Alas How empty are the riches and honours and pleasures of this world in comparison of righteousnesse they may make a man frolick outwardly in this life and yet not that neither except God give health and power to enjoy them but often times in the midst of that jollity and bravery the heart is sad the conscience torn and broken and alas when death comes and judgement appears at the back of it then what trembling then except the conscience be hardned seared and grown utterly carelesse what terrours and pangs of despair torment it All these things that the world so much prize are but bread that perisheth They may perhaps make us a little glorious to the world but cannot give us peace with nor hope in God Riches deliver not in the day of wrath but righteousnesse this righteousnesse of faith which is accepted with God for righteousnesse and so Christ received and beleeved on delivers from death Prov. 11.4 That will give a man boldnesse in the day of judgement while he knows his Judge is his righteousnesse and will protect him from wrath and vengeance Oh that men did see the worth of righteousnesse the righteousnesse of God surely then they would not trifle so much time and strength and talents away about empty lying vanities they would not so swell with conceits of themselves and look so big for a few muddy riches for a little fading appearing worldly glory they would not be so cheated into a contentednesse with some painted shews of righteousnesse formall devotions so much religion as may serve them to live in credit with men and lull their consciences asleep till they satisfie their earnall earthly desires no certainly they would count all things but losse and dung that they might win Christ and enjoy him for their righteousnesse Well friends however you may pursue after other things and blesse your selves in your enjoyments possessions ease pleasures vanities now yet there will come a day in which all these appearing deceitfull you will wish for righteousnesse you will see then what hath been now shewed you and what the wise man saith viz. That the righteous man is more excellent then his neighbour Prov. 12.26 as he is more excellent in his life because exalted in Christ and inriched with him and his priviledges as also because of his spirit in him conforming him to Christ and putting something of heaven and heavenly vertues into him so will he be found more excellent in his death when his heart shall have hope and rejoicing in God while other mens sink within them or die like stones being without God and without hope to God Oh that now therefore you would take notice of the excellency of righteousnesse above all things in the world that you may not slight it and so want its sweet and satisfactory usefulness when you have most need of it 2. Be we exhorted to follow after righteousnesse Vse 2. to imbrace the righteousnesse of faith to receive the Lord Jesus Christ the bread of life and the true righteousnesse that God gives us Know and beleeve friends that God doth give you righteousnesse in Christ he hath sent him into the world for you to be your Saviour hath laid the sin of the world upon him and he hath born it and suffered death for it this he hath done for all therefore beleeve and know it is true for you and that God having raised him from the dead hath given him in the humane nature all fulnesse of power and authority so that he is able to the uttermost to save you to forgive you your sins he having died for them for otherwise according to the order of Gods proceeding he should not be able to forgive you if he had not shed bloud for your sins Heb 9.22 for without bloudshedding there is no remission But know that he I say is able to forgive and save you With him there is forgivenesse that he might be feared Col. 1.14 And if the knowledge and belief of it work so with you as to turn you in to fear him you shall have that forgiveness with and in you it shall passe upon you yea he is ready to receive and forgive you he cals you to him that he might confer this grace upon you Let the wicked forsake his waies and the unrighteous man his thoughts and return to the Lord for he will have mercy c. and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Isa 55.7 Yea he sent his Son to turn every one of you from your iniquities Act. 3 Only he would have you to look to him for it and be saved by him Isa 45.22 Now oh be perswaded to do righteousnesse seeing righteousnesse is so excellent a thing and hath so great recompence of reward Receive the word and grace of God give credit to the record that God bears of his Son that he hath given us eternall life and this lift is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life c. That God hath sent him forth to be the Saviour of the world and he hath given himself arausome for all and so died and is risen for thee and hath life is himself for thee to look after and to receive in looking to him that God in him hath thewed forth exceeding grace towards thee and be not of a gainsaying heart and spirit wrangling against the word and patting it from thee Let the unrighteous man forsake his own is righteousnesse wrong unbeleeving thoughts and lay down all the suspitions and contradictions of his own reason against Gods truth and turn to the Lord to minde receive