would haue lurked in secret And as the beames in the Sunne are not euill though they descry and lay open things deformed or filthy which the wicked desire and as the knowledge of Physicke is not to be condemned which acquainteth vs with poyson and venemous things that are in themselues dangerous and abused by some to their owne destruction So the law is not euill in it selfe though it be abused as an occasion of euill to corrupt and wicked men Without the law sinne is dead not as though there was no sinne in the world before the publishing of the law for euen the Gentiles themselues which had not the law written shewed the effect of the law in their hearts the conscience also bearing witnesse and their thoughts accusing one another or excusing and therefore being conuinced in their soules of sinne without the Law written are a law vnto themselues and sinning without law shall perish without the law written by the law of nature that was grafted in their hearts This is confirmed by many Morall vertues which they naturally followed and by many vices which they naturally hated This knowledge of the light of Nature though vnperfect yet is sufficient to confound them albeit sinne indeede was then hidden in respect which is the meaning of the Apostle and their best knowledge of the Law ouer-shadowed and well-nigh blotted out that sinne could not appeare in his nature But when the Law was renewed sinne that seemed to be dead reuiued and shewed it selfe All the spots did then appeare which before were darkened by the ignorance of Gods Law which Man gained by his fall The Law then conuinced vs of sinne and reuealed our nakednesse which our figge leaues had hidden it opened the inward man with all his concupiscence it shewed vs our shame and confusion our vglesome shape most monstrous to beholde how wee were transformed from the image of God to the similitude of the Diuell It put vs in remembrance of our diuine nature which we had lost it shewed vs hell and the wrath of God nothing but condemnation appeared by it It let vs vnderstand how farre we were led from God how all things within vs and without vs were corrupted and out of course It painted our God in his nature according to his most pure holinesse and iustice how he requireth all our hearts all our soules all our mindes all our strength that is to say the whole man and euery part of him in his seruice The least sinne could not so shroude it selfe but the law discouer it not condemning onely all our outward acts but giuing sentence against all our wicked thoughts yea all our idle motions without consent And therefore since all flesh created of God is corrupted so that all the imaginations of mans heart are onely euill continually since all men by the law are conuinced of sinne all included vnder sinne and subiect vnto the same guilt of condemnation since by the Law commeth the knowledge of sinne which leaueth euery man without excuse since it was added because of transgression and that our sins might more appeare and abound therefore it is called to the vnregenerate man an importable yoke the occasion of sinne the law of sinne and of wrath the administration of condemnation the oldnesse of the letter which cannot giue life but pronounce all our workes accursed The law is a hammer not only to bruise the conscience but to breake it into powder which if it be not done we shall neuer haue the spirit of adoption to seize vpon vs The law commandeth but giueth no power to obey It is but a dead letter and hath but a dolefull and dreadfull sound vntill the spirit come and arme vs with power to performe what the law requireth And now behold the strength and sting of Death How did Death enter by sinne How did sin appeare and what is the strength of the same euen the law of God which giueth sentence of condemation against all flesh and leaueth not one iustified in Gods sight And yet notwithstanding all this the law of God is holy iust and good opening vnto vs his very will which is goodnesse it selfe setting a blessing before our eyes as well as a curse It was not contrary to our nature before it was corrupted but agreeable to the image of man in which hee was first created it sheweth the very perfect patterne of true obedience what is agreeable to God and his nature how much he hateth sinne and delighteth in goodnesse it offereth both life and death life to the obayers death to the breakers Therefore let vs all glorifie God in this behalfe let euery mans mouth be stopt from accusing God or his law let vs confesse against our selues our manifold sinnes and say vnto him Shame and confusion appertaineth vnto vs Death and condemnation are our due Thy heauy anger wrath and hell be our deserts and thou O blessed God art iust righteous good and gracious in all thy doings for euer Let vs thus I say giue sentence against our selues that God may be iustified and praised euen before the most wickedest men when he is iudged Well then let vs beare in minde that God is not rigorous in punishing sinfull man with euerlasting Death by reason of his innumerable sinnes conuinced by his Law and that Gods infinite iustice thus broken and disobeyed could not otherwise be answered of man but by the infinite sustaining of eternall Death And now I pray you marke the whole power of Sathan and kingdome of the Diuell first hee fighteth and warreth with temptations which are as darts to wound our soules to Death which if we resist not being so tempted but yeeld to sinne then comes the Law against vs with his force and by vertue of the Law Death entreth and triumpheth for the sting of Death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law for it sheweth vs hell which is the pallace of Death and leaueth vs in perdition See I say what Prince Death hath and what strong souldiers to keepe his kingdome to wit the Diuell himselfe sinne law wrath of God and all to vphold it Wherefore it is no maruell if the remembrance of Death be bitter vnto many and that they abhorre and hate it I say it is no wonder if all their ioynts doe quake and tremble yea and shake a sunder since the horrour thereof made the sonne of God to pray against it to sweate drops of blood for the agony of it and to cry out to his father as a man forlorne why hast thou forsaken me Neither was this so strange a wonder to see the sonne of God so amased at Death for it set both Diuell law sinne hell graue and wrath of God against him All these were armed to ouerthrow him and any or the least of these without this our Captaine Christ will quite destroy vs. CHAP. IX Of
procurement of life but by suffering of death Now when God commeth to obay hee must needes be humbled and when hee comes to deserue he must needes serue which God alone could not doe and when he comes to dye hee must needes be mortall which God could not be therefore hee was man to be bound himselfe and God to free others Man to suffer God to vanquish Man to become mortall God to triumph ouer death Christ thus fitted to be our Sauiour proceeded to the worke of our redemption Now in our sins from which hee saueth vs wee must consider three things first our disobedience to the Law secondly our originall corruption thirdly our condemnation for this corruption The first of these is double eyther in breaking the Law or not fulfilling it The second is the originall cause of this disobedience which is the euill inclination of our heart and our corrupt affections The third is the punishment of this disobedience hell fire itselfe These being as three running soares are healed and cured by three running streames in Christ For our rebellion to the Law is satisfied in him who not onely paid the penaltie for that wee had broken it but actually fulfilled euery poynt thereof to the full For the second which is our originall corruption wee haue the holinesse and sanctification of his nature which was euer seperate from all vncleannesse so that now in Christ our redeemer our estate is farre better then euer it was in Adam in his first creation for though he was made good yet was he changeably good as hath beene said before but those that are in Christ are absolutely good and vnmoueable euen as the strongest mountaines that cannot be stirred Thirdly wee haue Christ by his passion to deliuer vs from condemnation Euen as in the sacrifice vnder the Law the blood of the innocent beast was shed for him that had sinned who worthily by sinne deserued to dye himselfe so we by the shedding of Christs blood that immaculate Lambe are purged from the guilt of all our sinnes for by his stripes we are healed and by suffering in his flesh hee hath prepared a ready way for vs to heauen hauing rendred in the same most perfect obedience for vs and by his death fully satisfied his Father for our sinnes and through the remission thereof obtayned righteousnesse and by righteousnesse the grace and fauour of God and by grace euerlasting life that wee may boldly present our selues before the throne of God But here obserue the wonderfull wisedome of God in the worke of our redemption prouiding such remedy which none could haue deuised but God alone for what else is death but the power of the Diuell and the vtter euersion of all the world Now to make the death of Christ as an antidote against the death of man and the very meanes to vanquish Diuell and Hell as also the high way to heauen and happinesse it selfe what was it else but the excellent vertue and admirable wisedome of him alone who calleth all things that are not as though they were bringing light out of darknesse good out of euill and death out of life And surely if all men and Angels should haue conspired together in study and deuise to wish a plague to haue fallen vpon Diuell and Death it selfe they could not haue determined such another course to wit that their glory should be their shame their power should be their plague and their kingdom of pride their vtter confusion What could the Prophet Dauid in all the hottest zeale he boare to God wish more against the wretched reprobates so traiterous to Christ his sonne and to his Gospell then to pray that their dainty tables might be as snares to take themselues withall and that their great prosperitie might be their greatest ruine Euen thus hath Christ ouercome the Diuell and Death and albeit they still doe warre against the Church yet their strength is so weakened and their power so abated that they cannot hurt it And where the Apostle saith that by death Christ ouercame him that had the power of death it is clearely manifest what manner of death our Sauiour Christ sustayned euen that ouer which the Diuell had his power the same death which is the reward of sinne by bearing it he ouercame it and hee conquered no more then hee submitted himselfe vnto for by death hee ouercame death If hee suffered no more but a bodily death hee ouercame also but a bodily death and so though wee all rise againe yet should wee arise in the condemnation of the sinne of our soules or if hee haue ouercome death and the power of it both in our bodies and soules then Christ hath suffered the paines of it both in body and soule that wee might rise againe from the bands of death and liue with him for euer for hee hath broken the force of it no further then hee hath felt the sting of it himselfe Therefore let vs beleeue that Christ both body and soule was made a sacrifice for our sinnes for so hee said himselfe My soule is exceeding sorrowfull euen vnto death And Marke saith Hee beganne to be astonished with his griefe and was ouerwhelmed with his sorrow And S. Luke declareth that in his Agonie his sweate was as droppes of bloud distilling from his face and that God sent an Angell from heauen to comfort him And can wee thinke that all this was for the feare of bodily death which many of Gods children yea many wicked men haue desperately despised Did the Apostles sing in Prison and went away reioycing being whipped and scourged Did Paul glory in so many tribulations which hee reckoneth vp and should our Sauiour Christ in the like paine with a fainting heart cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me No no if could not be saith a godly man but that which hath made Christ to tremble would haue torne his Apostles and dearest Saints a sunder that which made him to sweat blood so plentifully would haue made all other creatures to haue sunke to the bottome of hell most sodainly and that which forced him to cry would haue held both men and Angels in euerlasting woe and hellish howlings without all end Which comfortable poynt serueth to confute the hereticall doctrine of all such which say that the soule of Christ suffred nothing but only for the bodies sake as our soules suffer when our bodies are weake sicke or a dying But how then should wee be saued from the death of sinne and condemnation Doe they know that hee bore our sinnes in his body and submitted himselfe to the death of the Crosse and that by the wounds of his stripes wee are healed And did our sinnes deserue onely a bodily death and not a spirituall also which is the wrath of God holding body and soule in the euerlasting fire of hell This also maketh for the exceeding comfort
same Thus are the bodies of the Mariners hardened vnto the Sea thus come knobs in the poore labourers hands so are the souldiers armes strengthened for the Speares and Darts and the members of those that runne made nimble for the race And in very deed that part in any man is the stronggest that most is exercised by paines and toyle There is none so firme and solid a tree as that which the windes oftnest beate vpon for being thus beaten and ballasted it knitteth together and spreadeth the rootes more firmely in the ground The fire tryes the gold and misery men of courage There is no peace without war no rest without toyle no crowne without crosses no raigning without suffering no glory without shame and shaking in this wofull world section 16 Many would feed vpon manchet and alwayes tread vpon Roses I meane in seruing God they would be freed from all afflictions They loue Canaan with the Israelites but they loath the wildernesse The running waters of Shilo they would taste but the rough streame of Iordane they cannot tallage Iames and Iohn would haue the seate of honour but they would not drinke of the bitter cup. But wee must know that the way to heauen is not strewed with flowers but set with thorns yet is it both the straight and the right path to immortall glory The persecutions and troubles of Gods Children shall neuer cease till the World be without hatred the Diuell without enuy and our Nature without corruption Euen the sweetest of all flowers hath his thornes and who can determine whether the scent be more delectable or the pricks more perillous It is enough for heauen to haue absolute pleasures which if they could be found here below certainly that heauen of heauens which is now not enough desired would then by such meanes be altogether feared God here compoundeth our pleasures to the fashion of our selues so as the best delights we haue may still sauour of the earth thus God doth weary vs in the world to weane vs from it section 17 And for Death it selfe which by nature wee so much abhorre God hath mitigated and broken the sorrowes thereof that though they tyre the flesh and amaze it for a season yet they cannot extinguish the hope of a Christian for what can Sinne the sting of Death preuaile against vs being pardoned in Christ The abundance thereof causeth abundance of grace and the greater remission of sinne procureth the greater loue of God What therefore can Sathan gaine by his assaults but to multiply the reward and make the Crowne of Gods Saints farre more glorious by their sufferings Death may put out our carnall eyes yet Sathan hath not whereof to reioyce so long as Faith inlighteneth the minde neuer remouing her eyes from Christ Iesus crucified So forcible and effectuall is the spirituall contemplation and insight of Christ crucified that it turneth despayre into hope and hope into ioy most glorious and vnspeakable The humbing Bee hauing lost her sting in another section 18 doth still notwithstanding make a grieuous noyse by her often buzzing about our eares yet wee know she cannot hurt vs So Sinne and Death hauing lost their sting in Christ doe not as yet leaue their murmuring but with furious stormes of temptations seeke still to terrifie our soules though not able to wound vs to euerlasting death Indeede Death may fray vs at the first sight as Moses rod turned into a Serpent made him flye from it for the present but through confidence in God who hath willed vs not to feare wee shall finde it a blessed meanes to diuide the waters of many tribulations to make vs a passage from the Wildernesse of this world vnto the heauenly Land of eternall rest Neyther can Death separate vs from God though it be fearefull to the flesh to see his prefixed end nay nothing hath greater power to ioyne vs to God through the death of him that conquered Death And must it not needes be ioyfull to a Christian to be freed from this wicked life wherein euery day is the messenger of fresh sorrowes and wherein hee findeth his corruption so burdensome and therefore he is ready most chearefully to imbrace it as the Souldier that commeth after his valour shewed in the field to be made a Knight or the King that goeth to his Coronation for then they shall not haue Reeds but Palmes in their hands to shew their triumph and not to be crowned with thornes as Christ in this world with his members are in mocking but with immortall glory with God and his Angels in the highest heauens section 19 To conclude Death is the key of the King of heauen which in mercy he sendeth to deliuer those that loue him from the irkesome prison of this body of sinne It is the gate through which Gods friends escape from whole troupes and swarmes of euils This whole wretched life rightly considered is nothing else but a continuall crosse and death of the olde man that being once mortified in all our members hee may most gloriously be transformed into the Image of God For like as there can be no generation without corruption for so much as that thing which is must perish that that thing may be made which is not so this spirituall regeneration and transformation of man into God cannot be effected vnlesse the old man be first destroyed by death CHAP. VI. Gods Children in this world as strangers and Pilgrims haue hard entertainment their true heauen and happinesse commeth hereafter section 1 BVt for as much as the faithfull while they liue in this world are as poore strangers in their voyage and passengers by the way in their iourney they must fit themselues for all assayes regarding neyther the winde nor the weather foule nor faire Such as they finde they must take in good part There is small prouision for strangers vnlooked for as they come they must be accounted of Happy sometime they thinke themselues if they may haue any lodging in their Inne if it be but bare house-roome it must serue their turne for the tlme The best lodgings are here taken vp for great States Christ and his Mother must be glad of a Stable The dainties and delicates are prouided for the Nobles and great men the bread of aduersitie and water of affliction are commonly the diet of Gods dearest children vntill the time of their refreshing come in a better life Here for a little they shall weepe and mourne till hereafter God send them such exceeding ioy that none can take away And when Gods children are well vsed in their hosteries section 2 yet no allurements can make them stay long but that after their baite they haste on their iourney Neither will they much be discouraged with their lets and impediments but still comfort themselues hoping this day that to morrow will be better howsoeuer they still lagge on that they were at home And because the
much better art thou then a graine of corne when thorow corruption thou shalt come to incorruption thy glory then shall be vnspeakeable and all things shall serue thee Thy hope now if thou couldest in large it a thousand section 6 fold yet it shall be greater then thou canst imagine and thy faith if it could apprehend more assurance of immortalitie then the clearest eye doth of the light of the Sunne yet thou shalt finde the fruit of it aboue all thy thoughts This thou seest if thou see Christ by faith and this thou knowest to be true if thou knowest thy selfe to be one with him The keeping greene of Noahs Oliue-tree vnder the flood the budding againe of Arons rod the deliuerance of Ionah from the depth of the Sea the voyce that calleth come againe ye children of men the hope that Iob hath to see God with the selfe-same eyes the dry bones that should come bone to bone and be knit together with sinewes c. may stirre vp in vs a ioyfull hope and cheere our pensiue soules against the feare of death and doubt of our resurrection but aboue all the rising againe of Christ The voyce of Christ is thorow Christ the voice of Christians saith Augustine Death where is thy sting Hell where is thy victory If the sinne of Adam who was a liuing soule was the cause that Death reigned ouer all men much more the resurrection of Christ who is a quickning spirit shall be of power to raise vp all beleeuers to the hope of a blessed and eternall life section 7 As Christ in dying shewed what we should suffer so by his rising from death he declared what wee should hope for For all the bones in Golgatha shall rise and those that sleepe in the dust shall awake Wherefore though Death doe swallow vs vp as the Whale did Ionah and binde vs hand and foot as the Philistims did Sampson yea seale the Sepulcher vpon vs as the Iewes did vpon our Lord Iesus yet wee shall come forth and breake the bands as the bird out of the snare the snare shall be broken and we shall be deliuered Christ our head and Captaine raigneth now most gloriously in heauen and as a most victorious conqueror hath led away captiue Death Sinne and Diuell in shew and open triumph Wherefore we may no lesse assure our selues that we shall rise againe and raigne with God for seeing he hath taken our flesh and suffered for our sins and hath borne the iudgement and curse of God in himselfe and died for our redemption so may we be as sure and certaine our flesh shall rise againe in him and be exalted vnto the glory of God aboue the highest heauens And therefore hee is called the first fruits of them that sleepe in him the first borne among the dead so called indeede because hee is the first and onely one which is risen againe by his owne diuine nature and power As the onely spring and originall fountaine of the resurrection of life to all the faithfull which die and rise againe in him and onely by him Hee hath giuen vs a pledge and taken one of vs to put vs out of doubt He hath taken our flesh which hee hath carried into heauen to put vs in possession and he hath giuen vs his holy spirit for an earnest to seale his promises in our hearts witnessing to our spirit that we are the Sonnes of God and co-heires with Iesus Christ to raigne with him in glory Seeing then that wee are the children of God and haue section 8 the seede of God remaining in vs wee must not doubt but that as Christ hath made vs partakers of his diuine nature euen as it hath pleased him to take part of ours to become true man to make vs Gods that is diuine and spirituall that euen as the corne that is sowne in the ground doth die in the same and after groweth and taketh roote springeth eareth and bringeth forth fruit for the haruest so should wee be well assured that when wee die and haue our bodies sowne as it were as seede in the earth yet that they shall againe be quickned in Christ and rise againe to immortall life for as much as we carry with vs the warmenesse of Gods spirit which cannot die And though our flesh doe rot yet shall the spirit of section 9 Christ deliuer our bodies from corruption which shall againe be raised vp by the vertue of him that raised vp Christ from the dead and so shall our dead members be made aliue againe He that neuer saw a haruest seeing the Plow-man taking so much paines to till the earth to spread it with dung and after to cast faire Wheate into the field he would thinke that this man were mad but seeing after the happy haruest that should come of it he would change his minde and say that the husband-man had done an excellent worke Now this life is the time to till to dung and to sow the soyle but the happy haruest shall follow hereafter Let vs not change the course of the seasons neither yet let vs seperate them the one from the other But let vs ioyne the time of death with the glorious day of our resurrection and so assuring our selues that hauing sowed with teares we shall reape with ioy CHAP. X. Very fruitfull and necessary considerations much auailing to our Christian preparation for death section 1 ANd to the end that we may be most chearfully resolued to finish our course with ioy let vs alienate our affections and thoughts from the earth and worldly cares hauing our whole soules and senses as much as in vs lieth rauished with heauen and heauenly things Let them be the matter of our speech the subiect of our thoughts and our alone meditations So shall we in time become diuine and loath this sinfull life Let vs seriously make vse of our knowledge and godly readings ioyning our experience with the same in our selues and Gods Saints on earth Let our skill herein not onely be contemplatiue but practique for the good of our selues section 2 Let vs not descant and discourse as carnall men can doe for a time which often can say and confesse that they are mortall and sinfull that they are but dust and clay and that their bodies are as tabernacles set vp for a time and quickly to be remoued being without foundation Let vs not onely say for fashion sake that we are strangers vpon the earth and soiourners as all our Fathers were c. but be willing indeede with good Abraham when the Lord shall call and command vs to leaue our owne country and remoue our tents to pitch them where hee pleaseth And so to follow him with all obedience where he will leade vs. He abode saith the Apostle in the land of promise as in a strange country as one that dwelt in tents for he looked for a
world euen so long there is betweene them a certaine equalitie in the flesh though alwayes an euident distinction in the spirit So that vntill this mortall body hath put on immortalitie and the spirit of Christ which dwelleth in Gods children hath brought them to God in heauen all discommodities and casualties with Death it selfe must needs be incident to all men alike Besides that our earthly prosperitie so dulleth our spirituall senses and our great imployments in the world so carry away our affections and so hinder the remembrance of our latter end that the greatest men many times both for place and gifts doe mightily forget themselues herein and knowing it to be so haue had their speciall Memorandums I omit to speake of the preparing of their Sepulchres in their life time and the purposed placing of them in their common walkes with their set salutations of some seruant to that purpose Thus most humbly supplicating your Honour to be well pleased with this my honest purpose and christian indeuour in the fauourable acceptance thereof I commend your Honour to the gracious protection and direction of the eternall and euer liuing God who euer guide you with his spirit in all your weighty imployments to his glory and the good of his Church c. From my poore Study at Shearsbie in Leicestershire February 21. 1616. Your Honours in all Christian duties wholy deuoted in the Lord Iesus IOHN MOORE AN ABRIDGEMENT OF THE WHOLE Bookes substance OR A GENERALL TABLE of the principall poynts thereof according to the CHAPTERS and SECTIONS The first BOOKE CHAP. I. GOD in his incomprehensible Wisedome Goodnesse and Loue created man at the first as a Chrystall glasse of his glory and a liuely resemblance in a sort of his Maiestie Section 1. Mans body a briefe map and abridgement of the whole worlds perfection 2. Mans excellency and maiestie in his first Creation ibid. Man in his body resembled his Maker and in his seuerall members expressed the varietie of his perfections 4. The very Pagans admired the portraiture of mans body and preferred it before the worlds curious creation ibid. Man especially in his soule resembled God with the manner how 5. Gods Image in man appeared especially in the regiment of the creatures 6. It consisteth principally in righteousnesse holinesse and knowledge ibid. The Image of God in man is to haue the same Will Knowledge Iudgement and Reason with God in humane and heauenly things in a measure with the reason thereof 7. The difference betwixt the Image and Similitude of a thing 8. Christ is the very ingrauen forme of God and the true patterne and type of our first created image ibid. Reason and Will as two wings to the Soule did at the first guide it aright to God that so it might soare aloft with her affections to heauen and heauenly things 9. The excellent harmony in all the faculties of the Soule before Adams fall with the exquisite reason and knowledge thereof 10. CHAP. II. GOD alone is vnchangeable and all creatures haue their being standing and vpholding by him who onely is Sect. 1. Gods name and nature ibid. Adam was mortall by creation yet had he not sinned he neuer had dyed 2. Man was made of a mutable nature in power of standing and possibilitie of falling 3. The reason why God alone is vnchangeably good and all other creatures subiect to decline ibid. Three things requisite for Adam and the Angels to perseuere in goodnesse 4. Why the good Angels fell not but keepe still their standing ibid. Adam if hee would had grace sufficient to haue kept himselfe from sinne and death illustrated by examples 5 6. Adam could fall of himselfe but hee could not stand or rise againe with the vse thereof 7. Why man was made of a changeable nature 8. Man was subiect to death by nature but not of necessitie with the reason 9. CHAP. III. SAthan enuying at mans glorious estate laboured by temptations to supplant him and so preuailed Sect. 1. The manner and degrees of Sathans proceeding 2. Adam by yeelding procured his fall and so sold himselfe to Sinne and Sathan to the iust destruction of himselfe and all his seede ibid. The greatnesse of Adams sinne and the equitie of Gods Iustice in the manner of punishment 3. See the further inlargement of Adams rebellion by the degrees thereof 5. God not onely commanded his obedience but threatned his rebellion 6. Adam by his fall lost Gods Image and contemning life hee found out death ibid. The cursed fruits and effects of his fall 7. Adam procured the practise of euill before he could attaine to the knowledge thereof 8. In searching for knowledge he met with error and blindnesse both of soule and body ibid. Originall sinne as a pestilent poyson infected euery part of man 9. It is deriued from Adam by propagation and by imitation confirmed and multiplyed in all mankinde ibid. The fruits and effects of originall sinne ibid. It maketh man more degenerate then all the rest of the creatures 10. Mighty is the power and raging is the strength of originall sinne ibid. Though sinne be the greatest bondage yet wee are willingly led to the practise and obedience thereof 11. Sinne breedeth in our hearts as wormes in the wood ibid. Concupiscence the fruit of Adams transgression is the Tyrant of the flesh the Law of the members the nourishment of Sinne the feeblenesse of Nature and food of Death 12. Before wee can sinne we are lincked to sinne and before wee offend we are bound with offence ibid. CHAP. IIII. THough the cause of death be iust yet the originall thereof seemeth doubtfull Sect. 1. God is not the author of Death with the reasons why 2. The Diuell is the author of Death proued at large 3. Sathan was created an Angelicall Spirit by sinne hee made himselfe a Diuell and falling from God hee fell from goodnesse 4. Causa causae est causa causali Sathan being the cause of Sinne caused Death ibid. Man and Diuell are partners in Sinne and so in Death 5. Sathan tempted and man consented ibid. The Diuell is not the absolute cause of Sinne and Death with the reasons why 6. Sollicite he may to sinne but force he cannot ibid. Man by nature might haue declined and should in himselfe haue had the cause of sinne and so of death 7. Death hath no proper efficient cause but rather deficient 8. It is a priuation of life onely hauing a name and no nature and substance with the vse thereof ibid. Sect 9. Adams sinne was hereditary to his posteritie and so the punishment proued at large from 10. to 13. The naturall condition of mans soule by originall sinne 13. Though in the iust iudgement of God mens soules be defiled with sinne being ioyned to their bodies yet it is not of compulsion 14. God doth incline the wils of men eyther to good or euill according to his mercy and their iust deserts 16. The children of the regenerate
are as corrupt by nature as the rest vntill they be reformed by the santified meanes ordained of God 15. Mans sinne maketh his life a due debt to death 17. The Diuell is the father of Sinne and Sinne the mother of Death ibid. The corruption of our flesh did not make our soules sinfull but the sinne of our soule did make the flesh corruptible ibid. CHAP. V. DEath is threefold corporall spirituall and that which is common both to body and soule Sect. 2. The description of Death according to the seuerall parts 3. The soule cannot properly dye being life it selfe illustrated by examples 4. How the soule is said to dye 5. The seperation from God is the death of the soule as the departing of the soule is the death of the body ibid. The nature of Death 6. Gods Spirit is the soule of our soules ibid. Man by sinne lost his life and found out death 7. It is agreeable to Gods iustice that a spirituall death should beget a corporall ibid. So soone as man had sinned so soone did the armies of death besiege his life 8. The very life of sinners is a death 9. Gods spirit must quicken and reuiue the soule or else it must needes dye and be damned 10. The degrees of the spirit in Gods elect 11. The wicked in this life doe liue in death and conuersing in earth they are bondslaues of hell 12. An effectuall faith in Christ is the life of the soule 13. What it is to be dead in sinne 14. Death is diuersly deriued with the reasons thereof 15. CHAP. VI. IT is enacted in heauen that all men must dye Sect. 1. The Registers of the death and buriall of men from the beginning witnesse the execution of Gods decree herein 2. Death is the way of all the world and the house of all men liuing ibid. Death is the Lady and Empresse of all the world 3. Balthasers Embleme is written vpon euery mans wall 4. Death respecteth no mans person place or qualities 3. Dayes and yeares and times no plea against the graue but a fitter prey for Death ibid. Death as Dan the gathering hoast sweepes all away 4. Mercilesse Death doth exercise her cruelty vpon all alike 5. Nothing can preuaile against Death or ransome our life 6. Gods hand a man may escape but Deaths dart no man can shunne 7. No force can resist it nor meanes preuent it ibid. Death is the common road-way of all the world 8. We must needes yeeld our selues to the law of Death ibid. Men may be distinguished by times but all are equall in the issue 9. As we grow our life decreaseth This whole life is but a death ibid. Man cannot be ignorant of his death since all creatures and actions proclaime his mortalitie 10. Experiments of death on euery side most apparant 11. The law of Nature conuinceth it amongst all nations 12. Our liues as our garments weare of themselues they are eaten with the Moaths we with the Time ibid. The course of our life runneth without pause to the period and end 13. An exclamation against Death most hideous and pittifull 14. 15. The Christian vse of our mortalitie with a reproofe of the carelesse Christian 16. 17. Death to the faithfull is as an hackney to carry and hasten them from earth to heauen ibid. CHAP. VII SInne brought in a sea of miseries Sect. 1. Life and misery are two twinnes which were borne together and must dye together 2. A description of infancy and old age with their miseries 3. The miserie of all estates Here death is liuing and life dying 4. There is no contentment in this wretched life 5. A description of mans sinfull mortall body 6. The frailty and brittlenesse of mans body with the reason thereof 7. See the manifold dangers of our life and how easily it is lost 8. The mutabilitie and inconstancie of mans life 9. This life is little better then hell were it not for the hope of heauen 10. This world is an Ocean sea of troubles See how fitly it resembleth it hauing a mercilesse maw to swallow vp all 11. It is a dungeon of ill sauours and a puddle of vices 12. Mans life is short and swift like a poste a ship and a shadow ibid. Our dayes passe swiftly as the Eagle to her prey and all mortall men are a prey to death 14. We are as flowers and grasse and Death in the hand of God as a sythe to cut vs downe ibid. All things dye but our sinnes which reuiue and grow young againe in despight of nature ibid. The cares of this life are like the Flyes of Egypt which giue men no rest neither day nor night 15. They are like mercilesse Tyrants which take away our peace ibid. Man and his labour are fitly resembled to the Spider and her web 16. All things are as snares to sinners to draw them to destruction 17. The meanes for Christians to auoid the snares of this life 18. It is as naturall for corrupt man to sinne as for water to run downe the channell or a Coach downe a hill 19. The best men liuing amongst the wicked are aptly resembled to Colliers and Millers ibid. The manifold engins of Sathan to enthrall vs. 20. No man can liue peaceably in this world among so many enemies of peace ibid. The warfare of Christians both outward and intestine with the occasions thereof 21. 22. Our life is as a tempestuos sea and death the onely port of tranquilitie and rest 23. CHAP. VIII MEN by dying proue they had sinned and sinne conuinceth there is a Law Sect. 1. The Law conuinceth man of sinne who without it knew not sinne 2. Sinne by the Law grew out of measure sinful with the reason thereof 3. The Law detecteth sinne as a hidden sicknesse that so we may seeke to Christ the Physitian 4. It is holy and righteous in it selfe though an occasion of euill to those that are corrupt ibid. How sinne is said to be dead without the Law 5. The Law anatomiseth sinfull man and setteth him out in his colours 6. The Law slayeth the sinner before Gods Spirit quicken him 7. Sinne and the Law are the strength and sting of Death 8. The Law not onely conuinceth man of sinne but iustifieth God in the punishment thereof 9. The horror of death with the reason thereof 10. CHAP. IX GReat and heauy was the tribute which God imposed vpon man for sinne Sect. 1. The death of the body is nothing to the damnation of body and soule in hell 2. As diseases are the maladies of the body so death is the maladie of diseases ibid. The death of the reprobate is a liuing death and a dying life 3. The life of the damned is an immortalitie of torments and euill 4. The torments of hell are vnspeakable 5. They are euerlasting and endlesse 6. Death to the vnregenerate is the very gate of hell 7. Death cannot be so feared as it ought of wicked men 8. CHAP. X.
THE vngodly as captiues are haled to deaths prison and Iayle of hell Sect. 1. The ioy of the wicked endeth in heauinesse 2. Their whole life is a miserable bondage of feare 3. The wicked once awakened out of the sleepe of sinne doe end their dayes like barking dogs 4. Who can put to silence the voyce of Desperation 5. Sinne is a make-bate betweene God and man and betwixt a man and himselfe 6. A wicked mans heart bleedeth when his countenance smileth 7. The Conscience cannot be pacified when sinne is within to vexe it 8. The wicked are in hell yet liuing vpon earth 9. Death is the Lords Serieant to apprehend a wicked man and to hale him to hell 11. The vnrepentant with as great violence are pulled from the earth at Ioab from the hornes of the Altar 12. The trembling estate of the reprobate 13. Hell is as fit for the reprobate as heauen for the righteous 14. The second BOOKE CHAP. I. WIcked men without Christ haue hell for their prison and are locked from God and his Saints in the dungeon of death Sect. 1. No creature could possibly redeeme vs from death with the reason why 2. Take hold of Christ and take hold of life In the flesh of Christ there it resteth Death hath raigned in all the world beside 3. God became man that he might be a Redeemer as before hee was a Creator 4. The dignitie of Christs person gaue such worth to his satisfaction that what hee suffered in short time might satisfie beyond all times 5. None can purchase our saluation but he onely that hath paid the price of our redemption ibid. None but Christ saueth and he will be alone in all his courses without mixture without medley 6. There is no God without Christ he created alone and he will redeeme alone 7. If our case were not desperate and past hope of recouery our redemption should not be so precious 8. Christ is Lord-Treasurer of heauen and Steward of all Gods graces 9. The Church in it selfe most vncleane and in Christ most beautifull 10. Christs humiliation in the worke of our Redemption 11. It was the fire of Loue to mankinde and the sharpe knife of Gods Iustice that put the Sonne of God to death 12. Excellent types and allusions of Christ our Redeemer 13. CHAP. II. THe compleat worke of our redemption performed by Christ alone and his onely meanes Sect. 1. Why Christ our Redeemer must needes be God and man 2. Christ his manner of proceeding in the worke of our redemption 3. The wonderfull wisdome of God in making the death of Christ as an Antidote against the death of man and so to bring life out of death 4. Christ suffered in soule as well as in body for our redemption 5. 6. The vse of Christs suffering in soule as well as in body 7. Death lost his sting in Christs death 8. Death tasted of Christ but it could not deuoure him 9. The death of Christ is the death of Death 10. Christs gall was our honie and his bitter death the sweet life of all beleeuers 11. The ready way to goe to heauen is to swim through the sea of Christs sufferings 12. Christ his death is the secret den of our deliuerance from Death and Hell 13. Christians onely ouercome by the bloud of the Lambe 14. The grace of Christ must be our onely clothing before Gods Tribunall 15. God will be knowne by his mercy and we by our deserts that so all glory may returne to him alone 16. Christs power is made perfect through our weaknesse he is all things to vs which are nothing in our selues 17. Christ is a mutuall help to God the Father and to vs without whom wee cannot possesse any good thing eyther in grace or glory 18. The Law and Christ are as the Physitian and Surgeon to a sicke man 19. It is absurd to seeke for iustification by the Law 20. To trust to our owne merits is the reioycing of Sathan 21. Christ conquered death and diuell being nailed to the crosse 22. CHAP. III. AS there is no life in the body but as it is vnited to the head so in Christ our head consisteth our life being vnited to him by his holy Spirit Sect. 1. By our spirituall vnion we are interessed in all that eyther God hath promised or Christ hath performed 2. Gods Spirit sheweth vs our nakednesse and the wardrobe of Christs righteousnesse to clothe vs. 3. There is no saluation nor sanctification for vs but as our nature is vnited to the person of Christ 4. This spirituall coniunction we can neuer comprehend till wee know God as he is 5. Christ is not onely God with his Elect in nature but in person the reprobate are of the same nature with him yet he is not God with them but against them 6. God punishing Christ in our person and iustifying vs in his he neither punisheth the innocent nor iustifieth the offenders 7. Christ washeth his children from their sinnes whom he ioyneth to himselfe 8. Whole Christ is his God-head and humanitie is our head and Sauiour 9. Whole Christ is coupled with whole man a mysterie vnspeakable ibid. Euery Christian man hath a portion of flesh in the body of Christ and where my flesh is there I hope to be 10. The God-head of Christ is the fountaine of all good things and his flesh is the Conduit-pipe by which they are deriued vnto vs. 11. We must goe by Iesus Christ that is God to Iesus Christ that is man 12. In our flesh he hath dyed risen and ascended that faithfull man may be crowned with glory ibid. God doth communicate nothing with vs but by the flesh of Christ in it he wrought our Redemption 13. Our soule is ioyned to the soule of Christ and our flesh with the flesh of Christ which quickneth both by the vnitie of his person 14. Christ vniteth himselfe to vs by the communication of his Spirit and we by faith are ioyned to him 15. The singular vse of our spirituall vnion with Christ 16. In the person of Christ all our blemishes are couered and his righteousnesse and sanctification imputed 17. The sinnes of the faithfull are not imputed to them but vnto Christ 18. The punishment of them are forgiuen to them but not to Christ ibid. If we be ingrafted into the body of Christ we are his and hee liueth in vs and his victory ouer all is ours 19. By this spirituall vnion Christ is our brother which are borne of God by the same spirit 20. The vncleannesse of our birth is washed away in the sanctification of Christs nature 21. Death can make no diuorce betwixt Christ and the faithfull though their bodies rot in the graue yet still they remaine true members of his body 22. Christ our head is able to restore that which nature hath destroyed 23. Christ and Christians are made one indiuisible body by the bond of Gods spirit and he being the head will raise vp his
members 24. CHAP. IIII. THE life of Christians is a continuall warfare nothing but death can end the combat Sect. 1. 2. Sathan especially assaulteth Christ and his members with the reasons why 3. The Diuell as a cunning fisher fitteth his baites as he findeth men affected 4. Out of the nature of mens qualities he worketh his malignities 5. Sathan most eagerly assayleth the faithfull at the houre of death and why 6. Sathans arguments from the Law of God against the faithfull 7. 8. The answere of Sathans obiections 9. All the breaches of the Law are made vp in Christ who perfectly fulfilled the same for all beleeuers 10. The Law being fulfilled Sathan Sinne and Death must needs be vanquished 11. The particular conflicts of Sathan with the faithfull with their comfortable conquest 13. 14. Soueraigne Antidotes of comfort against afflictions 15. Such we are by imputation with God as we are in purpose and affection 16. An excellent course to silence Sathan in his varietie of temptations 18. We must send him to Christ our aduocate who both pleadeth and defendeth our cause 19. Wee must shew him our generall acquittance sealed by God himselfe and proclaymed from heauen 20. Men cannot be more sinfull then God is mercifull 21. As Death entred by Sinne so it extinguisheth Sinne and endeth our warfare 22. CHAP. V. DEath must giue vs our last purgation and end our corruption Sect. 1. The dearest Saints of God are here subiect to all afflictions and Death it selfe as the vilest sinners with the reason thereof 2. The nature of Death is altered through Christ to the faithfull 3. Sinne brought in Death and Death must driue out Sinne. 4. There is no prescription against Death earth cannot redresse that which is enacted in heauen 5. Paine sicknesse c. with Death it selfe are as Gods Souldiers to come and goe at his pleasure 6. Afflictions are preuentions of sinne to the godly and plaisters to cure the sores thereof ibid. God doth diet his children in this world that they surfet not vpon pleasures and profits ibid. Wee as children cannot order our selues Gods wisedome and will are our best guides 7. Our worldly desires and lusts are inordinate and endlesse except the Lord restraine them 8. The excellent fruits of afflictions when they are sanctified to Gods elect 9. Afflictions are necessary trials of our Christian estate 10. Afflictions in this life are both punishers and purgers of Gods elect 11. They are both sufferings and instructions 12. Christ is the true patterne of Christians to whom they are conformable by their sufferings 13. Crosses and calamities are the Harbingers and Purueyers of Death 14. Whom God most loues those he most proues 15. The fire tryes the gold and misery men of courage ibid. The troubles of Gods children shall neuer cease till the world be without hatred the Diuell without malice and our nature without corruption 16. Afflictions may tire the flesh but neuer be able to extinguish the hope of a Christian 17. Sinne and Death haue lost their sting in Christs death 18. They cannot separate vs from God though they be fearefull to the flesh ibid. Death through Christ is the key of Gods Kingdome and gate of glory 19. CHAP. VI. CHristians are strangers in the world the bread of aduersitie and water of affliction is commonly their dyet Sect. 1. Being strangers they must be content with their vsage and prepare for their iourney 2. This world is restlesse there is no contentment in it 3. The world deales with men as the Rauen with the Sheepe picking out the eye that it may not see her tyranny 4. See the Anatomie of the World 5. The world is no proper element to Christians it rather feedeth then slaketh their appetites as oyle doth the fire 6. All Creatures haue their rest from God he is the centre of the faithfull 7. God hath set the earth vnder our feet that it should not be too much esteemed 8. Euery Christian with his crosse must be content to accompany Christ to his kingdome 9. Whilest we set our affections on earthly things we seeke for no better for we looke no higher 10. God giues his children here but an assay of his goodnesse the maine sea of his bountie and store is hourded vp in heauen 11. CHAP. VII AS man rebelled against his maker so all things while he liueth rebell against him euen man against himselfe the flesh against the spirit Sect. 1. Our manifold infirmities are as gyues and fetters about our legs to shew our guilty condition 2. The flesh as a subiect should obay the soule as her soueraigne 3. Though it be infused into the body it must not be confounded therewith ibid. Worldly and fleshly imployments dull the soules edge 4. Death to the faithfull is the funerall of their vices and the resurrection of their vertues 5. How we may discerne the state of our soules 6. Death endeth the combat of Christians when the flesh shall be dead and the spirit fully liue our passions buried and our reason freed in perfection 7. The body is but the barke and shell of the soule which must needes be broken if we will truly liue and see the light 8. The nature of the earth and earthly men 9. Sinne in the regenerate hath a deadly wound but in the wicked it hath a full and violent course 10. The Lord cureth our grosse sinnes by our infirmities ibid. Great are the troubles of the faithfull but saluation will one day make ameds for all 11. The glorified body shall obay the soule with admirable facilitie 12. The difference betweene a mortall man liuing and the faithfull deliuered by death 13. Sinne with all misery affliction and Death it selfe shall hereafter be shut vp in hell as in their proper place 14. This world to all Gods Israel is an Egypt of slauery 15. See the royall exchange of the faithfull who for a mortall and miserable life shall enioy a blessed and immortall 16. As the sufferings of Christ doe abound so doe the consolations increase to Gods elect 17. CHAP. VIII THE faithfull redeemed by Christ grow euery day to be spirituall and heauenly Sect. 1. Prayer and holy deuotion as precious perfumes take away the euill sauour of sinne and vncleannesse 2. There is no Iustification without the vnfayned sanctification of Gods spirit 3. The way to become spirituall and diuine 4. The nearer we approach to death the more we should be inflamed with the loue of God and all good workes 5. If wee will dye the death wee must liue the life of the righteous 6. Our deuotion must not be like the morning dewe and leaues of Autumne 7. The soule without grace is as the ground without moysture 8. Christians should not feare death but accustome themselues to hope for it 9. Death to the godly is no end of their liues but an end of their sinnes and miseries 10. The graue of the faithfull is sweetned by Christs funerall 11. When wee
presently he saw his shame his figge leaues could not couer his nakednes but God accursed him and his seede he plagued the earth with barrennesse and caused all the creatures to feele the smart of this his fall and as he disobeyed God so procured he the disobedience of all the creatures towards himselfe Hereof comes the fiercenesse of Lyons Beares Tygers Wolues and all wilde beasts hence ariseth all rebellions and vprores warres seditions scarcitie dearth hunger colde and nakednesse murther plagues and all kinde of calamities that are in the world all which are forerunners of this eternall death and ring-leaders to damnation Thus Sathan suggesting a want of knowledge because he knew not euill and so corrupting his heart with a curious desire thereof not able of himselfe to effect the ill that he suggesteth procured man to the practise of ill before he could obtaine to the knowledge thereof euen as a man commeth to the knowledge of poyson by the dangerous taste thereof so deare was the purchase of euils experience that it sodainely procured mans ruine and fall And so his passions were made to see and his Reason blinde in searching for knowledge hee met with error So Reason it selfe the lampe of mans soule which like the Sunne in the firmament spreading her beames thorough mans little centre is now become so dimme and darke in his cloudy and ecclipsed skye that the eye of the soule is as voide of light in things diuine as the little sparkes of fire raked vp close in the ashes which blindnes and ignorance of God and heauenly things were not personall in Adam himselfe but by possession entred into all his posteritie and of-spring And originall sinne the fountaine and wel-spring of all the rest as a pestilent poyson infected euery part This is that canker of our nature and contagious infection the vtter confusion of mans state the roote of iniquitie the puddle of all dregges the seede of rebellion the pumpe of all enormities whence issueth infinite and innumerable vices This is the pit of perdition which Adam digged for himselfe and his broode in this we were left in this we were lost in this we were condemned in this conuicted This sinne is deriued by propagation and laid vpon vs and by imitation confirmed and multiplied in all mankinde whose very bones by the same are corrupted sinewes tainted veines infected arteries poysoned flesh polluted wit confounded minde captiuated knowledge turned into ignorance wisedome to errour will to wilfulnesse memory to forgetfulnesse the whole soule to sinfulnesse reason to rebellion innocency to impudency and immortality to death it selfe both of soule and body So that man now of his owne nature is no lesse the bondslaue of sin then the slaues which are bought whose Maisters vse their seruice as that of their Oxen and Asses at their pleasure So are we wholly led vnder the gouernment of sin being wholly addicted to the seruice thereof And so much the more is our slauery that in our corrupted wills we desire and onely delight to sin which must teach vs to be continually touched with our miserable sinfull life and in this respect daily to desire and long after death as the onely medicine to heale these deadly maladies of our soules Many Beasts and Fowles saith one farre exceed mankinde in some vertue and good qualities as the Doue in simplicitie the Storke in kindnes the Dogge in fidelitie the Oxe and Asse in memorie of benefits c. but in vice and euill man surpasseth them all being more cruell then the Wolfe more crafty then the Foxe more proud then the Peacocke c. yea all vices and wickednes which are but seuerall in beasts are mustered and troupe together in sinfull man And as many members vnited make but one body so doth the Spirit of God terme this heaping of vices in man a body of sinne euery vice being as it were a member It is said that in a Sheepe euery thing turneth to profit the flesh for food the wooll for cloathihg c. but euery thing that is in man is eyther euill or tendeth to euill as the reason to beguile and deceiue the liberty to licentiousnesse the eyes to wantonnesse the heart to couetousnesse c. All the members I say with S. Paul are weapons instruments and seruants to sinne All his actions and affections are out of order As a man that hath a Palsie hath still a motion left of head and hands as hee had before his sicknesse but yet his mouings are now altogether irregular and out of order so all those affections of the minde as Loue Desire Ioy c. and all naturall functions of the body as eating drinking sleeping c. which should haue beene performed without any sinne are now mixed in man with many blemishes and corruptions so that this corruption of our flesh so long as we liue sendeth out the filthy scum of all vncleannesse which continually broyleth and walloppeth in our nature foaming out such filthy froath and stinking sauour to our mindes that it is not onely detestable to the soule of the regenerate but also abasheth the very naturall man to looke into such a loathsome stye of sinne and sincke-hole of iniquities for mighty is the power and raging is the strength of originall sinne in all Adams sonnes breaking out into action Sinfull man saith Iob drinketh iniquitie like water but wee may truely say like wine with pleasure and delight with great facilitie custome and ease passeth hee downe any kinde of sinne that is offered as a man drinketh water when hee is a thirst Wee know that in vs saith Paul that is in our flesh dwelleth no goodnesse but whatsoeuer the corruption of our nature is be it neuer so great yet our fault is neuer the lesse no more then if wee had had an Angels nature which willingly and wittingly wee would peruert For vnto our corrupt nature wee bring of our selues a froward and crooked Will which did corrupt the Angels nature and made them fall from God Therefore let vs not so much finde fault with our nature as condemne our wicked wils so set to worke sinne and with delight affecting and effecting euill The corruption which wee haue our pleasure is in it and all the goodnesse which wee want wee care not for it but our Will is after our worke and as wee are so wee like our selues best Sinne springeth vp and is nourished in our hearts and whatsoeuer is euill in vs there it hath the fountaine in which wee know first that sinne is our owne and in our hearts it breedeth as wormes in the wood And as our heart is the roote of sinne so there is no sinne but commeth from the heart if thy heart accuse thee thy sinnes must needes bite thee To conclude Concupiscence which was the fruit of Adams eating the forbidden fruit cleaueth now to the nature of all his sonnes which is the tyrant of
a man vpon easie conditions should gaine an high estate to him and his for euer and yet should wittingly and wilfully forfeite it againe to the owner who would either moane the heire or blame the giuer Euen so God hauing made the soule of man good righteous and faire as from himselfe yet knitting it to the body to make the man which man is Adams heire he may iustly withdraw his graces from it as his owne being forfeited and lost by traiterous man Thus Gods grace most iustly fayling the soule it falleth to sinne and declineth to naught which pronenesse of euill is our naturall sicknesse which we call Originall sinne So that the soule of man is not now created with that strength to perseuere in goodnesse and resistance of euill and other excellent graces which it should haue had if Adam had not sinned and albeit it be pure and vnspotted as it proceedeth from God yet is it no sooner ioyned to the body but it is presently polluted euen as the purest wine and best quintessence when it is powred into a filthy pot poysoned and vnsauory doth in a moment loose their naturall taste and tallage so doth the sweet soule loose her fragrant smell of grace and goodnesse so soone as it is sent into this filthy vessell the body of sinne Neither is the soule of man subiect onely to weakenesses and infirmities in resisting of corruptions but hath many other defects both of minde and will being destitute of spirituall life and light blinde by nature and not so much as inclinable to holy desires and sanctified workes as God her Creatour by his law requireth And although in the iust iudgement of God as we haue already heard mens soules be now made in such sort as that of necessitie they must be defiled being ioyned to these bodies of sinne yet are they not thereby to be excused from the guilt of sinne for though it be of a iust necessitie yet is it not of any compulsion that they should sinne as we see by experience Iron and Stones and such like graue and heauie substances though neuer so softly let downe into a brooke doe of necessitie yet not by any violence sinke downe to the bottome thereof Bodies depriued of foode and flesh in time doe putrifie of necessity yet neither the one nor the other by any compulsion God of necessitie is good and the Diuell is euill yet can we not say that either goodnes in God or iniquity in the Diuell doe proceede of compulsion So our soules being ioyned to our bodies are of necessitie sinfull yet willingly also and of their owne accord Neither yet is it or can be otherwise now with the best regenerate and holiest men renewed in Christ towards their children then it was in Adam at the first touching the propagation of originall sinne they can conuey no more vnto their posteritie but that which by nature they are possessed of for grace comes from heauen and our new birth is not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God If we winnow any Wheate or graine neuer so perfectly and purge it neuer so throughly by the fanne from the chaffe and dust yet when it is sowne againe it will not bring forth cleansed corne but with the graine yeelde huskes and hawnes which also must it selfe be threshed with the flayle and cleansed with the fanne vpon the floore As this clensed Corne I say can giue no more but what it had by nature and looke what it had by the art industry of man the same meanes must be vsed to it againe before it be cleane and fit for our vse Euen so the faithfull though they be washed iustified and sanctified by Gods spirit and the blood of Christ yet can they giue no more to their children then what themselues haue had by nature being the children of wrath and as for any grace or goodnesse it must come from the same Author and by the same meanes which their parents had to worke it in them or else it can neuer be effected God doth worke in the hearts of men to incline their wills which way hee pleaseth either to good things according to his mercy or to euill according to their owne desert and that by his iudgement sometime manifest sometime secret but alwayes iust A worke-house must needes decline and also fall when the vnder-proppes are remoued Darkenesse must needes ensue when the Sunne and light is departed away Those bright beames of all light and happy life which were giuen to our first parents are remoued and other excellent gifts and graces of God are in his iust iudgement so long withholden from our soules vntill by his holy spirit as the worker and by his holy word as the instrument God in his good time doe againe enlighten our mindes and purifie our hearts by faith and confirme and strengthen vs in euery good word and worke Sinne to mankinde will alwaies be a Iebusite a false borderer yea a ranke traitour rebelling against the spirit which makes the life of man to be saith Chrisostome a debt as it were owne and due to death for the diuell is the father of sinne and sinne is the mother of death Hereupon saith S. Iames that Sinne being finished trauaileth in childe-birth like a mother to bring forth Death and Dauid calleth sinne the gate of death because as a man commeth into a house by the dore or gate so death came into the world by sinne The corruption of our flesh did not make our soule sinfull but the sinne of our soule did make the flesh corruptible Whereupon Lactantius calleth sinne the reliefe or foode of death and as a fire goeth out when all the fuell is spent but burneth as long as it lasteth so death dieth when sinne ceaseth but where sin aboundeth there death raigneth CHAP. V. Of the Nature of Death what it is and how manifold and whence Deuines haue deriued it DEath thus iustly deriued from Adam as the stocke to all and euery one of vs his line and race as to the boughes and branches the leprosie of his sin cleauing fast to all his seede we are further to consider the nature thereof for our better humbling which cannot more plainely appeare then by the true describing and diuiding of the same by and into his seuerall parts properties and effects as they are laid out vnto vs and gathered from the Scriptures As man therefore in his nature consisteth of two principall parts a humane body and a diuine soule which vnited together make but one person so there is a Death of the body and a Death of the soule and a death that is common both to body and soule Death then in it selfe is not onely a killing of the body but also a slaying as it were of the soule not onely a separation of the soule from the body but a diuision and cutting off both of
body and soule from God Hence it appeareth that Death is threefold first corporall secondly spirituall and thirdly a death common both to body and soule and all these kindes due to all men without exception for all haue sinned and are destitute of the grace of God This corporall Death which I said to be a seperation of the soule from the body is likewise called the first Death And spirituall Death which is a renting of the soule from God who is the life thereof is also called the second Death Both corporall and spirituall or the Death that is common both to body and soule which is an euerlasting diuorce both of body and soule from the vnion and fellowship of God is also called eternall death which is inchoatiue in this life for they that beleeue not are condemned already and compleate in the life to come when after the resurrection of the body both body and soule shall euerlastingly be seperated from the Lord of life which is also common to all by reason of sinne yet not preuailing ouer Gods elect iustified and freed from it by faith in Christ Death therefore in a word is nothing else but a departing from life the life of the body is the soule therefore the separation of the soule from the body is Death And as the soule is the life of the body so the life of the soule is God therefore the going and departing of the soule from God to cleaue to sinne and Sathan is the death also of the soule The sinfull soule dies not because she turnes to nothing but in that she dies to God and liues to sinne for how can the substance thereof perish seeing it is the soule that giueth life he that receaueth the soule receaueth life and when the soule departeth life flyeth away The soule therefore is life and how can it die which is opposite so directly to death it selfe For as Snow can endure no heate but presently it melteth and as the Sun in his brightnesse can receaue no obscuritie but dissipates and dispels all darkenes by his cleare and christall beames and as the coldest and hardest Ice at the approach of the fire is turned into water so the soule which is the fountaine of life and authour of mouing is not capable properly of death nor can possibly die Therefore the soule of man being immortall ought to be well ordered and heeded least the Immortality to ioy should turne to Immortality of sorrow The death of the body is not the death of the soule but onely a seuering or parting of the same from the body As in taking of a Candle out of a Lanthorne we may take the light out and not put out the Candle and the Lanthorne is full of darkenesse by reason of the light remoued yet the Candle casteth her light more cleare and bright euen so the soule departing from this body of clay liueth and moueth afterward more freshly and blessedly The soule then dies not because it is vtterly abolished but because it is as though it were not it ceaseth to be in respect of righteousnes and fellowship with God for this is the death of all deaths when the creature hath subsisting and being still in it selfe and yet for all that is depriued of all happy and heauenly societie with God The soule in the body is the life of the flesh but God which quickneth all things is the life of our soules so saith Gregorie As the body dieth when it sendeth out the soule so doth the soule die when it looseth God The seperation from God is the death of the soule euen as the departing of the soule is the death of the body so saith Augustine Sinne begat the last and the punishment of sinne brought forth the first so saith Bernard The nature then of death in effect is the absence or depriuation of that life which God bestowed on man in his creation It is an execution of Gods iustice and iudgement vpon man for sinne God ordained it in iustice but man procured it by his sinne whose stipend it is euen the ouerthrower of mankinde an enemy to nature the dissolution of Gods worke the power of the diuell the strength of Gods wrath and the very kingdome of hell The death of the soule is to cease from righteousnesse and quite to be sequestred from the life of God This is called the first death in respect of time going as I said before the second which is the compleate death indeede for as the soule as we haue heard is the life of the body so God is the life of the soule and his spirit is as it were the soule of our soules the want of which communion brings nothing else but endlesse and eternall death Without God there is no life therefore Adam and Euah departing from God departed from their life and although their soules were not presently seperated from their bodies yet being gone from God their life they lay as it were buried in their bodies as dead carkases in the graues as also their bodies themselues euery moment were mortall Sinne saith Bernard went before and Death followed at the heeles which if Man had preuented death had not entred He would not be ruled by God and so was made vnable to rule his body Thus by sinne he lost his life found out death As his soule could not be diuided from God his life but by sinning no more could his body be seperated from his soule but by dying and nothing was more agreeable to Gods iustice then that a spirituall death should beget a corporall a guilty death that which is penall and a voluntary death an ineuitable and fatall So soone as man through sinne had turned himselfe from God so soone and as sodainely was he destitute of his grace and so soone did the huge hoast of death ceaze vpon him and besiege him as hunger thirst and nakednesse sicknesse sorrow and all kinde of miseries So soone as euer they had sinned saith Chrisostome euen so soone did the Lord pronounce sentence of death against them and euen as those that are condemned of an earthly Iudge although for a while perhaps they may be reserued a liue in prison and be repriued yet in effect they are but dead men Euen so our first parents though through the exceeding great mercy of God after sentence pronounced they did long enioy their liues yet forthwith in effect they were as good as dead for no day houre or moment did afterwards ensue in which they had assurance of their life Whereby we may learne that the life of sinners is no life indeede but a death being estranged from the life of God and none haue life in God which want beliefe in Christ for onely Christ who is eternall life through faith doth quicken vs So that truely to acknowledge Christ and thorough faith to possesse him is to be freed from death and to haue eternall
life Onely in name to professe him is the part of dead men for as whosoeuer beleeueth not remaineth in death and hath the wrath of God still staying vpon him so none beleeueth in Christ that loues him not and none loueth him that keepeth not his commandements Hereof saith Saint Iohn to the Angell of Sardis thou hast a name that thou liuest but thou art dead so Christ called the Scribes and Pharisees painted sepulchers whose soules were dead in their bodies for want of faith Hence it was that he said to the young man let the dead burie their dead and Paul of the wanton Widdow that being aliue she was but dead Awake thou that sleepest and stand vp from the dead and Christ shall giue thee light you hath he quickned that were dead in your trespasses and sinnes As the soule infused into the body quickeneth a massie piece of flesh which had no motion before so the soule to make it a liuely and a good soule must haue as it were a soule powred into it that is the Spirit of God and if this Spirit be absent wee are but dead from all holy motions as the body naturall is from outward actions by absence of the soule So that a man may liue a life in the flesh and yet be dead in respect of the life of God Againe as the body while it hath a soule is but a naturall body wasting it selfe like oyle in the Lampe and cannot choose but in the end to dye yet after this life shall be called a spirituall body not in substance but in qualitie because in the resurrection it shall be quickened by the spirituall power of Christ So a man that hath but simply a soule if hee haue not the true soule of the soule which is the Spirit of God to quicken and reuiue it hee is but a meere naturall man and must needes be damned Furthermore as a body raised vp and quickened by the power of God can neuer dye againe so the soule of a faithfull man being a spirituall soule hauing once receiued the earnest of Gods Spirit and a measurable power of true Sanctification from the holy Ghost can neuer dye Now the life of Gods Spirit hath three degrees in Gods elect Regeneration in this life when we are renued in our affections and doe feele a true change of minde within vs the second after this life when the soule shall be separated from the body which being once as it were released from the fetters of the flesh shall swiftly take her flight to heauen and then shall the soule liue indeede a heauenly life being altogether freed from the temptations of the Diuell and all allurements of the flesh But the highest degree of all of the soules estate is at the generall day of resurrection when the world with the lusts thereof shall passe away like a cloud and be sodainely wrapped vp like a scrole for then both the body and soule of man shall not onely enioy the presence of God but liue also with him for euer in heauenly blisse So likewise the reprobate in this life and in the life to come haue double miseries coupled to their double deaths For first while they liue they want Gods grace and fauour being strucken with terrour in their conscience as Cain that runnagate and vagabond not onely fearing their liues but being frighted at their shadowes And they haue the Diuell who is the God of this world possessing them and still leading them captiues by the cords and chaines of all manner of wickednesse towards hell and damnation and in the life to come they are not onely depriued of the presence of God but suffer and endure all endlesse and vnspeakable torments with the Diuell and his Angels As Gods Children therefore being crucified to the world and the flesh haue the life of God liuing in them which will most perfectly appeare and shew it selfe at Christs comming so all fleshly and wicked men who haue giuen themselues to the Flesh World and Diuell doe presently liue the life of hell which they carrying about in their bodies will clearely shew it selfe to their shame and confusion at the latter day So that the wicked in this life doe liue in death and conuersing in earth they are the bond-slaues of hell And as Faith in Christ as I said before is the life of the soule in Gods elect so no faith can quicken vs which is not liuely in it selfe which apprehendeth not Christ aright which worketh not by loue which flourisheth not with fruits for Faith without good workes is dead And therefore to the end wee may be reuiued being dead and buryed in our sinnes we must first beleeue in Christ which is our life and if our beliefe be liuely wee must shew it forth by our fruits otherwise we may haue a name to liue and yet be dead Now to vnderstand this poynt the better let vs obserue what it is to be dead in sinne They are said to be dead in their sinnes whom Death still holdeth in the cords and bonds thereof such as are strangers from the life or God that haue neyther sense nor feeling of their sinnes nor any motion to godlinesse to whom all goodnesse is vnsauory whose bodyes and soules are holden captiue of the Diuell whom they serue as slaues such as are void of Gods Spirit wedded to their owne wicked wils whom the God of this world hath blinded that they can neyther see nor beleeue the truth whose conuersion is as hard as to raise vp Sonnes of Stones vnto Abraham Who is more dead then hee that carryeth fire in his bosome sinne in his Conscience and doth neyther feele it nor shake it out nor tremble at it for Sathan hath gotten quiet possession and hee is carelesse in assaulting of such in whom he hath gotten a quiet dwelling Hence we may learne to loath our selues for our sinnes which bring vs into such thraldome to Death and Diuell which cut vs off from God shut vs out of heauen rob vs of saluation and bring the euerlasting wrath of God vpon vs which is vnmeasurable infinite and vnportable neuer able to be sustained of any but of Christ our infinite God and Sauiour who in maiestie and power is equall with his Father Thus we haue heard the nature of death common vnto all by the meanes of sinne without exception Well therefore is Death deriued from a word that signifies to to diuide not onely for that it maketh diuision where it comes but that without exception it equally diuides to all alike Some thinke that it proceedes from bitternesse for that the sweetnesse of the forbidden fruit proued bitter to Adam and his brood And Augustine not vnwittily deriueth Mors à morsu for that our first parents in biting the Apple were bitten of death Whence hee also alludeth to that of Osea 15. O death I
not cast our accompt that we must die There is no action without pause no warre without truce the weary workeman hath his day of rest Musicke hath her stops the Scriuen or his points we do not alwayes eate and drinke we doe not alwaies walke nor sleepe yea we doe not alwaies breath although we cannot liue without breathing but concerning our life there is no truce no pause no rest no delay but hourely yea euery moment in all places and actions we hasten to our end Whether we eate or drinke or sleepe or wake or goe or stand still the course of our life runnes out as the houre-glasse and neuer rests till it hath finished his course They which come hereafter shall march vpon our graues as we doe now vpon the sepulchers of our fathers they shall remaine in our houses as we doe now in theirs that were before vs they shall possesse our goods our lands our gold and siluer our Iewels and treasuries as we at this day enioy theirs whom we haue succeeded But I will hasten to an end though the experience be endlesse which confirmeth this point One rufully thus exclaimeth of Death How quickly and sodainely stealest thou vpon vs how secret are thy paths and waies how doubtfull is thy houre how vniuersall is thy kingdome The mighty cannot escape thy hands the wise cannot hide themselues from thee and the strong are weakened before thy face Thou accountest no man rich for that no man is able to pay the ransome for his life Thou goest euery where thou searchest euery where and thou art euery where Thou witherest the hearbes thou wastest the windes thou corruptest the aire thou dryest the waters thou changest the ages thou alterest the water and suppest vp the sea All things doe decrease and diminish but thou still remainest and raignest in the world Thou art the hammer that alwaies striketh the sword that neuer blunteth the snare that alwayes catcheth Thou art the prison whereinto euery man entreth thou art the sea wherein euery one drowneth thou art the paine that euery one suffereth O cruell Death thou snatchest vs away in our ripest age thou many times interruptest our best affaires thou robbest vs in one houre of all the gaines we euer got Thou cuttest off succession of kinreds and families thou bereauest kingdomes of their naturall heires thou fillest the world with widowes and orphanes thou breakest off the studies of the learnedst Clearks thou ouerthrowest the finest wits and best conceits in the ripest age thou ioynest the end with the beginning without giuing place to the middle thou art such a meanes as God neuer created but thy comming was by the Diuels enuie and malice Now that wee may profit by this experience of our mortall estate and not forget our selues so grosely vpon euery occasion as we doe it is necessary to haue this holy Meditation still fixed in our mindes that since we liue moue and haue our being of God that therefore our liues are not our owne but lent vs for a time we must remember that we are borne to die and must liue to die for the forgetfulnesse of Death and hope of long life makes vs so secure and carelesse as that we desire no other heauen but earth Many make a couenant with Death and clap hands with the graue hoping thereby to escape or for a time to solace themselues in the forgetfulnesse of their latter end and so bathe themselues in their fleshly pleasures and wallow like fatted Swine in the filthy stie of all vncleanenesse still following things apparant to their eyes and neuer regarding the time to come till death preuent them on a sodaine and summon them to appeare before their Iudge So it commeth to passe that as they liued wickedly they die most fearefully their hope is as the winde and their confidence like the cobwebbe Death is a terrour and a torment both to their soule and body and this is the reason they haue not learned to die Death is strange vnto them he seemes an vgly monster they dare not once behold him True it is that Death in it owne nature as partly wee haue heard is most terrible to behold that the horror thereof amazeth all our senses yet he that is armed with faith is well assured that it is sent for his profit to be as his hackney to carry and conuey him from earth to heauen from paine to pleasure from misery vexation griefe and woe to endlesse mirth melody and ioyes vnspeakeable with God for euer And seeing the sentence of death is gone forth against vs and that our soules remaine in our bodies attending the day of execution let vs detest to heare of our former wicked life as prisoners condemned to die and humble our selues in prayer vnto God reprouing the vanities of this wicked world and aduertising our friends and familiars to doe the like c. CHAP. VII Of the miserable life and wretched state of man by the meanes of Sinne and Death INfinite are the miseries of mortall men their sinne brought in a sea of euils and iust is Iobs complaint that man borne of a woman is full of wretchednesse from the day of his birth till the day of his death a whole armie of euils besiege him Tormented he is in his soule and afflicted in his body in euery part from the crowne of the head to the sole of the foote he is full of infirmities sores and maladies no place is free The first day of the life of man is a beginning of conflicts Our ingresse and egresse and whole progresse of life is set about with seuerall signes of sorrow The tender babe new borne and not yet able to speake saith Augustine doth by his teares prophesie and foretell the manifold sorrowes that are incident to this miserable life of man We enter this life with teares we passe it in toyle and end it in sorrow and torment Great and little rich and poore not one in the whole world that can pleade immunitie from this condition Life and misery saith one are as two twinnes which were borne together and must die together From the wombe to our winding-sheete our life is a warfare vpon earth no age no condition of life no day no night but brings his enemy with him as well against the man of an hundred yeares olde as against the babe new borne How full of ignorance is the time of our infancie how light and wanton are wee growing to be striplings how rash and headlong in the time of our youth how heauy and vnweildy when we come to olde age What is an infant but a bruit beast in the shape of a man and what is a young youth but as it were a wilde vntamed Asse-colt vnbridled and what is an aged heauy and crooked old man but euen a sacke and fardell stuffed with griefes and diseases He is forsaken of the world his kinsfolk friends and acquaintance his owne members and
for euer and together eternally Oh saith a godly Father if a sinner damned in hell did know that hee had to suffer those torments there no more thousands of yeares then there be sands of the sea and piles of grasse on the ground or no more thousand millions of ages then there be creatures in heauen and in earth hee would greatly reioyce thereof and comfort himselfe with this poore cogitation that once yet his torments would haue an end but now saith hee this word Neuer breakes his heart when hee thinketh on it and that after a hundred thousand millions of worlds there suffered he hath as farre to his end as he had at the entrance for no water can quench this fire no time can end these torments Death in it selfe to the vnregenerate man is the very gate of hell and wicket-dore of damnation for whomsoeuer it findeth vnrenued by Gods Spirit lying still in the filth of sinne it sendeth them straight to Gods Iudgement seat for speedy vengeance such therefore cannot choose but loathe and abhorre it being the messenger of Gods wrath the wages for their sinne and the fearefull fore-runner of their eternall damnation to ensue For shall it hale them forward to hell like an executioner and they not dislike it Shall it arrest them as a Serjeant to appeare before their Iudge and they not regard it Fearefull no doubt are their fits and furies before their end and grieuous and vnspeakable are their pangs before they come to the full possession of their endlesse paines And what a sorrowfull day will death be to such when Iustice shall set such a fyne vpon their heads that will for euer decay their former wealthy estate in the world and leaue them in a desperate case It is no maruell therefore that wicked reprobates doe so shake and tremble at the remembrance of death for there is cause of more feare then they can feare For the power of Gods wrath which now in death the wicked and vngodly men presently expect to feele cannot be feared as it ought For who knoweth the power of thy wrath There is no feare no suspition no thought which may sufficiently expresse the terrour of it Horrendum est it is a horrible thing so saith the Author to the Hebrewes but how fearefull no creature can tell but they that feele it and lye vnder it in the flames of hell as Diues did Aske no question saith one concerning them that perish concerning the death of the vngodly seeke not neither enquire there is no comfort to be giuen vnto it CHAP. X. The fearefull condition of the reprobate and all wicked men without Christ WHen the wicked and vngodly men shall ponder with themselues vpon the knowledge of the former poynts how sinfull they are and how by meanes of their vnrepentant hearts they are holden in the cords of their sinne and as malefactors apprehended and found guilty are ready to be haled to deaths prison there to lye vntill their arraignment and appoynted time of iudgement speedily to be executed vpon them They cannot choose hauing the sentence of condemnation written in their consciences but tremble and quake at the remembrance thereof If the hand-writing against Balthasar once read vpon the wall caused his very heart to shake and his knees knock together when hee heard that God had numbred his dayes and weighed him in the Ballance how fearefully shall the vngodly be affected with the continuall expectation of the wrath and vengeance of God assuredly decreed sodainly and in a moment to fall vpon them And albeit they striue to put away the euill day from their thoughts and cogitations yet haue they many fits and feuers of feare euen in the middest of their delights When Pharaoh the proud Tyrant had hardened his heart and boasted exceedingly against the people of God yet he no sooner saw the death of the first borne but he feared and trembled as the leaues in the Wildernesse There is indeede a way as Solomon saith that a man thinketh straight and pleasant when yet the issues thereof lead to death but what pleasure is that and what delight Surely in that laughter the heart is sorrowfull and that mirth doth end in heauinesse True it is that such men strengthen themselues and striue to vanquish feare sometimes with one pleasure and sometimes with another but if they would violently cast it out as the Cannon doth her shot yet would it euermore returne againe and vexe their heart And though they would neuer so faine haue their conscience seared as with a glowing Iron to make them senslesse yet sometimes it awakeneth them as out of a sleep and then they see most fearefull sights of horrour and torment and when they feele it least their state is no better then that of the stalled Oxe not knowing being so fat that then he is the fittest for the slaughter All their life is a miserable bondage in feare and terrour of their iust condemnation to ensue They haue the spirit of slauery and feare being the children of the handmaid Hagar borne in the bondage of her wombe they dwell in the Desart of Ambia and are in mount Sinai where is the burning of fire and blacknesse and darknesse and tempest and sound of Trumpet at which they tremble for they are without Christ and therefore must needes be in the horrour and feare of death all their dayes And though through the custome of sinne they come to a slumbring spirit and are cast into a numbnesse of conscience brawned through a senslesse blockishnesse as men hewed out of hard Oakes or grauen out of Marble hauing flinty hearts and adamant soules altogether destitute of true feeling of their sinnes and feare of God yet when the Lord shall let loose the cord of their consciences and shall set their sinnes before their face some of them depart this life like bruitish Swine and others of them surcharged with sinne doe end their dayes like barking dogges The sting of an ill conscience is called a worme that neuer dyeth a searing with an hot iron a sea that alwayes rageth a violent fire to deuoure the aduersary An euill conscience is a heauy burden it will make the wicked grieue at the losse of that he neuer loued for vertue hath this triumph ouer vice that they which hate her most shall be grieued at her absence If a man languish in sicknesse so his heart be whole his sicknesse doth not so much grieue him if he be reproached so he be precious in the sight of God and his Angels what losse hath hee but if his soule be disquieted who dareth meete with the wrath of the Lord of hoasts Who can put to silence the voyce of desperation Who can make agreement with Hell and Diuels In all other afflictions a man may haue some comfort against sinne but this is euer accompanied with the accusation of sinne then a man suspecteth all
consolation And seeing that God my louing Father tempered this Potion for mee and Iesus Christ his Sonne hath begunne vnto mee shall I not drinke it with thankfulnesse and comfort But why will hee haue thy death so bitter and sharpe It is my Lord who can and will wish me nothing but good and why should I his poore and vnprofitable seruant refuse to suffer that which the Lord of glory and my blessed Sauiour sustained himselfe But it is a miserable thing to die No the death of Gods Saints is precious in the sight of of God and the ready way to eternall life Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord for so saith the Spirit they shall rest from their labours But the death of sinners is damnable Yea but he is no more a sinner that truely repenteth and is pardoned Let not Sathan tell Gods children what they haue beene but what they would be for such we are by imputation section 16 as we are in affection and he is now no sinner which for the loue he beareth to righteousnesse would be no sinner Such as we be in desire and purpose such wee be in reckoning and accompt with God who giueth that true desire and holy purpose to none but to his children whom he iustifieth Neither vndoubtedly can the guiltinesse of sinne breake the true peace of conscience seeing it is the worke of another who hath commended vs as righteous before God and saued vs. It must needes be graunted that in our selues we are weaker then that we can resist the least sinne so farre off is it that we can encounter with the Law Sinne Death Hell and Diuell and yet in Iesus Christ we are more then conquerours ouer them all If Sathan summon thee therefore to answere for thy section 17 debt send him straight to Christ thy pledge and say that the wife is not sueable but the husband therefore enter thy action Sathan against Christ my husband and he will answere thee Who then shall condemne vs or what Iudge shall daunt vs sith God hath acquitted vs and Christ that was condemned hath iustified vs He is our Iudge that willeth not the death of a sinner hee is our man of law that to excuse vs suffered himselfe to be accused for vs. O gluttenous hell where is thy defence O cruell sinne where is thy tyrannous power O rauening death where is thy bloody sting O roaring Lyon why doest thou fret and fume Christ my law fighteth against thee O law and is my libertie Christ my sinne against thee O sinne and is my righteousnesse Christ warreth against thee O Diuell and is my Sauiour Christs Death is against thee O Death and is my life Thou diddest desire to paue my way to the burning lake of damned soules but contrary to thy will thou art constrained to lift vp the Ladder whereby I must ascend to euerlasting happinesse and ioy In our tryals and temptations we must first search out section 18 the cause and ascend to God pleading guilty and crauing mercy at his hand and not so much stand quarrelling with the corruption of our nature and Sathans malice against vs. For as it were no good wisedome for a man condemned to die to make any long suite to the Iaylour or hangman for they be but vnder-officers and can doe nothing of themselues but must rather labour to the Iudge himselfe who can either repriue or release him so it is no good pollicie to stand reasoning so long with Sathan in our temptations who doth all by constraint and restraint vnder God our Lord in whose onely hands are both the entrance and issues of all afflictions and Death it selfe section 19 Whatsoeuer scruple therefore ariseth from our selues or is inferred of Sathan from any imperfection that is in vs it neede not at all dismay vs because wee saue not our selues but are saued by him who is made vnto vs from God wisedome righteousnes Sanctification and redemption that who so glorieth should glorie in him Thus we must send Sathan to Christ who is our aduocate to pleade and defend our cause which yet is not so much ours as his owne because the question is not of our merits or satisfactions which we freely renounce but of the merits of his obedience and of the value of his Death vnto the saluation of the soules of all the faithfull Thus shall we at once for euer stop the mouth of this our cruell enemie when refusing to pleade our owne cause we referre our selues vnto Christ whom we know to be the wisedome of God and sufficient to answere what possibly can or shall be obiected against vs. When Dauid comes to fight with Goliah he casteth away Sauls armour all confidence in the world or man is laid aside and he onely trusteth in God section 20 Doth the Law indite vs of transgression we must make our appeale to the court of Conscience in heauen and there get a Supersede as to stay the course of Law and so appeale to the throne of grace from the Law of feare to the Law of loue as Augustine speaketh Doth the aduersarie vrge our debt our answer is the obligation is cancelled and the booke is crossed and the whole sum discharged Christ hath passed his word nay he hath paid all that is due for vs to the vtmost farthing Let vs shew him our generall acquittance vnder hand and seale giuen vs by God himselfe with whom it is as proper to shew pittie as mercie to helpe misery This is my wel beloued Son in whom I am wel pleased Here is the creditours owne word his owne handwriting vnder seale this is a very good quietus est in Law it is proclaimed from heauen and therefore sufficient to comfort poore distressed sinners vpon earth The house built vpon a rocke was not moued when the stormes beate and the windes blew Christ is our sure rocke let vs builde our faith vpon him and we shall be safe Men cannot be more sinfull then God is mercifull if section 21 with penitent hearts they faithfully call vpon him If wee come to Christ the fountaine of all mercies there shall we finde God in his mediation great without quantitie and good without quality as an auncient speaketh When the wandring Sonne had consumed his fathers substance yet returning sorrowfull his father receiued him and though we sometime loose the nature of children yet God doth neuer loose the name and nature of a father To conclude the Diuell once ouercome giues a fresh assault againe he will neuer giue vs ouer till death end the battell and then he shall be foyled As it comes to passe amongst warriours if the one die in the field and fight the other getteth the vpper hand Here is the difference the faithfull at the last euer get a finall conquest then ascend to heauen as triumphers there the Diuell can assaile them no further he may compasse the earth but he cannot enter
a very burden vnto it selfe loathing that at last which intermission of trouble would haue made full sweet Giue a free horse the full reynes and hee will soone be tyred Summer would be no summer if winter did not lead it in and follow it out Paine pleasure griefe sicknesse health with death it section 6 selfe be Gods Souldiers which Christ our Captaine hath vnder his gouernment if he bid them goe they goe if he bid them come againe they come if hee bid them doe this or that they performe it All euill and consequently death it selfe are profitable and medicinable to the children of God whither they be sicknesse of body pouerty worldly losses depriuation of friends c. which if they be vndergone as the fatherly chastisements of our good God for our reformation then are they wholesome remedies for our soules for with such easie and short receipts God doth heale the sores of sinne to spare our soules in the world to come He sends afflictions as preuentions of sinne as many be let blood before they be sicke for feare of sicknesse The superfluous sprigs of the Vine are pruned to make it more fruitfull God doth diet his children lest by riches they should grow proud by sinne become insolent by libertie waxe wanton c. All wicked instruments of our trials are but as Apothecaries to make drugs to heale our infirmities they are as Masons to smooth vs being as rough Stones for the building as furbushers to varnish vs from the rust and canker of our corruption as Scullions in the Kitchin to scoure vs and make vs bright vessels for the Lords owne Table Yea all the crosses of the faithfull are but as vnsauorie Physicke yet wholsome for the recouery of their sicke and sinfull soules A sound body saith one many times carrieth within it a sicke soule Some labour of the plurisie of pride some of the dropsie of couetousnesse some of the staggers of inconstancie some of the feuer of luxurie some of the lethergie of idlenes others of the phrensie of anger c. And it is a rare soule that hath not some sicknesse Now crosses and afflictions are ordained of God as his medicinable remedies What though they be vnpleasant they are Physick it is enough if they be wholesome not pleasant taste but secret vertue and operation commends the medicine If they cure thee they shall please in displeasing or else thou louest thy taste aboue thy soule section 7 Surely we men are very fooles in the estimation of our owne good Like children our choise is led altogether by shew no whit by substance Though thou knowest what dish is pleasant to the eye and taste yet thy Physitian knowes best what is wholesome Thou wouldest follow thy appetite too much and wouldest dig thine owne graue as it were with thy teeth but God ouer-sees thee and ouer-rules thee Wouldest thou then willingly goe to heauen what better guide canst thou haue then him that dwelleth there If he lead thee through the deepe sloughes and marish grounds brakes brambles or thornie thickets know thou that hee knoweth this to be the nearer way though more cumbersom Can there be in him any want of wisedome not to foresee the best can there be any want of power not to effect the best since what his power can doe and what his wisdome seeth should be done his loue no doubt hath done because all are infinite He willeth not things because they are good but they are good because he willeth them yea if ought had beene better this that befalleth thee had neuer beene God willeth that he doth and if thy will accord not with his whether wilt thou blame of imperfection If our affections might alwayes feed vpon Mannah we section 8 would loath it if our inheritance did stretch it selfe to the plaines of Iordane we would inlarge it and if our preheminence might reach to heauen yet would wee raise vp our hearts higher These were the itching humours of Euah who thought not Paradise spacious enough for her habitation nor the dainties of Eden sweet enough for her taste nor the presence of God good enough for her company But where the superscription of holinesse to the Lord is ingrauen on the head and the perswasion of godlinesse to be gaine is ingrafted in the heart there saith a learned man the lust of the world and the dust of the earth shall be shuffled together as payres and pearles of equall price accompt and continuance Therefore the Lord hath here choaked our fields with thistles and wrapped vp all the treasure of the world in rust that seeing the ground whereon we stand to be out of Paradise and the staffe whereon we leane to be but rotten wood wee might pray to God to haue the sword put vp that stoppeth vs from the tree of life and those boughes cut off that shadow vs from beholding our sinnes borne and sustayned in the body of Christ Therefore the waters of troubles and afflictions are but section 9 as a bath to the faithfull to cleanse and purge them from those corruptions they gather by walking in this dirty world The chaffe and wheate both feele the flayle yet the chaffe is free from the Milstone from the Fanne and from the furnace of these onely doth the wheat taste and so happy is he that is ground and baked as it were in an ouen and so made fit manchet for the Lords owne dyet For though the chaffe feele not the hardnesse of the Mill in grinding nor the heate of the Ouen in baking yet being good for nothing it is cast forth scattered with the winde and trodden vnder foote Such is the state of the wicked they are separate as tares from the corne eyther to be burnt in his displeasure or blowne from his presence God in this life knowing the dangerous temptations of his Children doth sift and boult them with afflictions the mother of humilitie and true nurse of repentance lest in time they should loose the experience of their knowledge and faith in Christ and so seeke some easier kinde of life for flesh and bloud Neyther can we truely repent vntill by some crosse we know this world to be a place of sorrow for so long as we make our prosperitie a bulwarke to beat downe all harmes we are to looke for aduersitie to beate downe the high sayle of our proud hearts whereby we gad after our owne lusts and leaue the anchor of peace which is our trust in God section 10 Neyther must wee thinke that we shall euer be shut vp as it were in a mewe to see and sustaine no euill at all Let vs looke to fall but on our knees because Gods hand doth hold vs. Let vs looke to be humbled but yet in mercy because the Lord sustayneth vs for if this were not what tryall and examination should there be of our faith If our way lay alwayes as in a fayre medow that wee might
the race and winne the goale why step wee aside to follow flies and feathers in the ayre CHAP. VII The faithfull in this life are subiect to manifold infirmities their bodies and soules are vnder the thraldome of Sinne and corruption but Death breakes their bonds and setteth them at libertie section 1 MOst lamentable and fearefull is Saint Pauls complaint in the person of the faithfull that he is carnall and sould vnder sinne doing those things which he hateth and omitting the good things he willeth that in his flesh dwelleth no good thing and therefore crieth out as a miserable caitiue to be deliuered from the body of this death For as man at the first by sin rebelled against his maker so all things while he liueth shall rebell against him euen man against himselfe the flesh against the spirit yea both of them doe what wee can are lyable to the tyrannie of sin which as a soule and an vncleane spirit hauing entred will not againe without much renting and torment be driuen out a doores And were it not that our strong man armed far greater then sinne had dispossessed him with violence desperate and forlorne had beene our estate yet here in this life the battell is but begun and must continue all our tearme as we haue heard onely death must end the wars and make our conquest pleasant God here will haue vs humbled all our daies before he will fully exalt vs when all times and daies shall cease section 2 The corruptions of this life and manifold infirmities of our nature shall be as gyues about our legs and fetters about our feete to shew our guilty condition and what we are He therefore that desireth so greatly to liue is like a foolish prisoner delighting in his bolts that may be free from his fetters and careth not that may goe out of the Iayle and will not Shall the bruite beasts and senceles creatures being subiect to vanitie grone in their kinde for the redemption of Gods Sonnes when they shall be freed from the bondage of sinne and shall wee that are Christians endued with reason yea and aboue reason inlightened with Gods holy Spirit especially when it standeth vpon our ioyfull being and euerlasting dwelling with God in heauen shall wee not I say lift vp our mindes beyond this rottennesse of earth Surely the very creatures shall condemne our backwardnesse herein that we are worse then beasts bereaued of sense and reason Wee may say of our vnruly flesh as one said once of a troublesome neighbour Neyther can I liue with thee section 3 neyther yet can I be without thee Here our nature like Hagar the bond-woman is very disdainfull toward Sarah the free-woman where the rebellious appetites striue against the regiment of Reason where our wit like another Heuah still prouoketh vs to reach of the forbidden fruit where Sinne like Tarquinius the proud would tyrannize challenge so a perpetuall Dictatorship We must not therefore commit the guard of our selues to this body of sinne nor mingle our soules with the corruption therof Ioyne with thy friends not with thine enemies the flesh is thine enemy because it contradicteth the vnderstanding and contends after nothing but to sow enimities and troubles Mingle not thy soule therewith for feare thou confound and defile it together for making this commixtion thy flesh which should be a subiect comes to contemne the soule which ought to command as a Soueraigne seeing shee giues life to the body and the flesh on the contrary effects the death of the soule Though the soule be infused into the body yet wee may not thinke that shee is confounded with the body Consider the light for an example though it peirce into euery place yet is it not mixed therewith wee must not therefore confound the office and effects of so different substances but let it reside in the body to quicken lighten and gouerne the same section 4 Wee see by experience when wee muse and meditate on a matter wee would not willingly see any body wee like not to heare any noyse about our eares hauing sometime our minde so fixed on our thoughts that wee see not that which is before our eyes And in the night our cogitations are more firme and wee conceiue the better of that in our hearts which serues for our learning and instruction Oftentimes many men close their eyes when they would profoundly consider of any affayres auoyding at such times the impediments of sight otherwhiles seeking out some solitary places to the end no company may hinder their contemplations For this body of ours procureth diuers imployments which dulleth the soules poynt and slackens our intentions Well therefore said Iob Thou hast made me of the clay and slime Our soules are as it were plastered with the flesh but they dissolue not into it Thou hast apparelled mee with skinne saith hee and flesh thou hast enterlaced mee with bones and sinewes so that our soule is confined and extended through the sinewes that many times shee is made stiffe as it were thereby and sometimes crooked by the heauy affections thereof section 5 Wee must therefore rouze vp our soules aboue the bed of our flesh and rise out of this rotten sepulchre of the body of sinne that wee may the more nimbly mount aloft towards heauen and so retyre from this dangerous coniunction of the body Let vs chearefully martch forwards towards our happy home for what other thing is Death to the faithfull but the funerall of their vices and the resurrection of their vertues Let vs therefore swiftly ascend with the flight of loue to that high and happy hill where wee hope to rest Let our soules soare aloft like the Eagle who flyes aboue the clouds shee glisters and shines afresh by the renewing of her plumes shee raises her flight to the skyes where she cannot be intrapped by the snare like other foolish Fowles which descending downeward are intrapped by the Fowler So take wee heede lest our soules groueling on the earth be insnared with Sathans gyns and worldly baites Now the better to discerne the state of our soules let section 6 vs learne of the Musitian who according to the songs that he singeth or playeth vpon the Lute Harpe or Recorder hath his countenance and passions accordingly framed and affected So the soule which vseth the body and playeth vpon it as an Instrument of Musicke if she be sage wise and godly will expresse as it were with her fingers ends the most inward parts and passions so that a pleasant harmony of good manners will redound thereof and we shal see her obserue such melody in her thoughts and affayres as that her deliberations and executions will most sweetly accord It is the soule therefore that needeth the body but as an instrument and therefore soueraignetie is one thing and seruice another and there is great difference betweene that which wee are and that which wee ought to be As
the Bee doth fall among the weedes which seeme section 7 sweet flowers and lights on this and sits on that and tasting all is pleased with none but flyes away so here the faithfull soule findes no delight in these flowers of sinfull flesh and worldly weedes but like Noahs naked doue returnes againe whence she was sent and soares to heauen No more then shall Gods Children paine themselues in heaping together these exhalations of the earth for the heauens shall be ours and this masse of earth which euer draweth vs to the earth shall be buryed in the earth No more then shall wee weary our selues with mounting from degree to degree and from honour to honour for wee shall highly be raised aboue all heights of the world and from on high laugh at the folly of all those wee admired who fight here foolishly for lesse then a poynt or an apple like little children No more then shall we haue such combats in our selues for our flesh shall be dead and our spirit in full life our passions buryed and our Reason freed in perfection Our soule deliuered out of this foule and filthy prison shall againe draw her owne breath recognize her ancient dwelling and againe remember her former glory section 8 This flesh which wee feele this body which we touch is not properly man Man is from heauen heauen is his Countrey and his Ayre That hee is in his body is but by way of exile and confinement Man indeede is soule and spirit man is rather of celestiall and diuine qualitie wherein is nothing grosse or materiall This body such as it is is but the barke and shell of the soule which must needes be broken if wee will be hatched for a heauenly life if wee will truely liue and see the light Wee looke but through false spectacles wee haue eyes but ouer-growne with pearles wee thinke wee see but it is in a dreame wherein wee see nothing but deceit All that wee haue and all that we know is but abuse and villany Death onely can restore vs both life and light And yet so blockish are wee that wee thinke shee comes to rob vs of them Though our soule now for a while be bound to our bodies as Isaack was tyed to the Altar yet so soone as the bonds are loosed it mounteth vp to heauen a place of ioy and blisse Death depriues the soule of no good but freeing it from the burden of the flesh makes it fitter for goodnesse It is the very graue of sinne to the faithfull and the instrument and meanes to raise them vp to the life of righteousnesse through it the sinfull bodies are resolued to dust that so defiled the soule and so the soule once separated aspireth to the heauenly Spheares section 9 The nature of the earth saith one is cold and drye so are our earthly affections to deuotion and pietie The earth stands still without motion and hath the circumference carryed round about it so Gods benefits compasse earthly men and yet they are nothing moued The earth doth often extinguish hot and fiery exhalations which otherwise would ascend so doe earthly affections many holy and heauenly motions of remembring our latter end But the qualitie of the earth which wee should imitate for our good is to be fruitfull after tilling because that the ground which bringeth forth bryars and thornes is subiect to a curse The dearest children of God here in the flesh are as section 10 poysoned vessels washed by the holy Ghost wherein notwithstanding there rests some taste and tallage of the former corruptions But the reprobate and wicked are as barrels full of poyson infused of the Diuell wherein the spirit of God neuer shewed his power Sinne in the regenerate hath a deadly wound and is like the Sun faintly appearing through a thicke cloud but in the wicked it hath a full and violent course Yet if wee haue receiued but the earnest-penny of Gods Spirit in this life wee shall be sure to receiue our full wages and pay in the life to come Neyther neede wee be dismaid that we limpe with Iacob and be imperfect in this life for if wee had no infirmities wee should be as proud as the Diuell whereas now they serue to humble vs and make vs thankfull vnto God so mercifully restrayning them and so fatherly passing by them and so they serue to multiply our grones vnto God the sooner to be freed from this body and bondage of sinne God doth here buffet his children with their imperfections as he did Paul lest they should grow insolent Now the Lord will trust vs no more with perfection since Adam lost it in Paradise but will exercise vs with our weaknesses lest wee should step into our old mothers conceipt to thinke our selues Gods And thus the Lord cureth our grosse sinnes by our infirmities euen as the best Triacle is made of poyson and the skinne of a Viper is the best cure against the sting of a Viper And though our infirmities be simply euill yet qualified and tempered with God our Physitians hand they are turned to our good If God be on our side who can be against vs Nay rather section 11 saith Chrisostome who is not against vs But howsoeuer they are against vs they shall not long trouble vs for God is a recorder of our patience and Death the finisher of our paine And though the heauy burden of our sinfull flesh doe load vs yet lightsomnesse it is to a Christian to thinke that the way is not long The traueller thinking of his Inne but especially of his home which is the end of his trauell goeth more chearfully on to the end of his iourney The bond-man calling to minde the yeares of Iubilee endureth with more patience the yeares of his bondage Great are our troubles and trauels in this life but saluation will one day make amends for all when wee shall once be landed on the shoare of perfect securitie and be deliuered from all toylesome labours c. Happy yea thrice happy and blessed shall the faithfull be being departed from a shadow of life to true life it selfe from darknesse to light from trouble to rest from sinfull men to the most holy God when the battell of their warfare shall be ended and they quite freed from al the throes of Sinne and Death section 12 One faith well that the word of God is swift and it requireth a speedy follower if speede in following much more in attayning if speede in the body which is a burden of sinne much more when the soule hath put it off if vnder the crosse wee groane and yet goe forward with how much more speede shall wee haste to the Crowne when all teares shall be wiped from our eyes And if it be true of a glorified body as Augustine speaketh that the body is straight where the minde will how much rather shall a sanctified soule disburdened of the body
leaue our worldly beeing therefore to know our selues well we had neede to make some tryall and who can doe this that neuer came to proofe Vertue desires danger and obserues to what it tends what the scope thereof is and not what shee must endure for to attaine to the same for euen her very endurance is a great part of her glory A Pilot may be well knowne in time of a tempest a Souldier in the heate of battell It is alwayes best fighting with a knowne enemie and what shall an vnskilfull warriour doe that knowes not the nature subtilly weapons and policie of his aduersary A good House-holder maketh prouision for himselfe section 5 and family and buyeth before hand all necessary prouision according to his power much more ought a Christian to prepare before for that life that endureth to all eternitie Some doe as the wife that would giue none of her pottage to any till her pot was ouer-throwne and then calleth in the poore With this penaltie saith Augustine is a sinner punished that when hee dyeth hee forgetteh himselfe who in his life time thought not vpon God If a theefe be brought from the prison eyther to the Barre to be arraigned before the Iudge or to the place of execution hee will bewayle his misdemeanour past and promise reformation of life if so be hee might be deliuered In this case we are as fellons for wee are euery day going to the barre of Gods Iudgement-seate there is no stay or standing in the way Euen as the ship in the sea continues in her course day and night whether the Mariners be sleeping or waking therefore let vs prepare our selues betimes that in death we may make a happy end section 6 Many thousand soules as rockt asleepe in the cradle of securitie in this seducing world doe sodainly finde themselues within the gates of hell yet liuing on earth before they be aware For they are led through the vale of this present life as it were blindefolded with the vizard of sensuall lusts like beasts to the slaughter-house and neuer espie their dangerous estate before it be too late And most men are ready to take their farewell of the world before they thinke of their condition in the world and then they would beginne to direct their course aright when the time requireth them to make an end But one saith otherwise of himselfe drawing towards the period of his life When I was a young man my care was how to liue well since age came on my care hath beene how to dye well In this life said Augustine nothing is so sweet vnto me as to prepare for my peaceable passage from this pilgrimage of sinne to life and happinesse Alas wee encumber our selues with many things as Martha did not regarding as wee should that onely needfull thing to serue our God in life and death The tempest before expected doth lesse amaze vs when the storme shall arise Hee that leaues the world before the world leaues him and thinkes of his death as the sicke man harkneth to the clock shall say with Simeon Now let thy seruant depart in peace That which foolish men would gladly doe in the end section 7 should wise men doe in the beginning It is best with Noah to build an Arke while the season is faire and calme with prouident Ioseph to lay vp store of prouision in the dayes of plenty before the time of dearth and penury come to pinch vs while the weather is faire to thinke of a strome and when opportunitie is offered to follow our thriuing husbandry still sowing the seede of godly actions in the field of a repentant heart that so in the Autumne and end of our age we may reape the fruit of euerlasting comfort for our happy haruest and prouision to come It falleth out to vaine men many times in their death as to Pages and Seruitors in the Court who being allowed a candle to light themselues to bed doe spend it in playing and vngodly sports are afterwards constrained to goe to bed darklings So wicked men do waste the light of life by sinne and vanitie and at last are void of comfort and knowledge at the houre of death Therefore as our whole life is a passage to death so should wee make it a preparing for death that how soone soeuer the body returneth to the earth the soule may be as sure to goe to heauen Let vs doe that before death which may doe vs good after death and then sooner or later death shall not hurt vs which is only euill to the euill and good to the good If God offer grace to day thou knowest not whether he will offer the same to morrow and therefore now vse it if thou wilt be sure to vse it at all The light will shine when we shall not see the closing in of the day the euening will come when we shall not see againe the breaking forth of the morning light It behooueth euery one not so much with Ezekiah to set section 8 his houshold in order for that hee must dye as to set his soule in order his conuersation in order for that after death there is somewhat more behinde and that is called a time of iudgement 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 amendment of life Saint Peter saith Be sober and watch for your aduersary the Diuell goeth about like a roaring Lion c. As if hee should say Watch for you haue a watchfull aduersary if yee respect his old experience hee was in Paradise if his nature a Lion if his cruelty a roaring Lion if his diligence hee seeketh if his intent that is to deuoure we had need then to watch hauing so watchfull an enemie Watch saith Christ because yee know not the houre when the Sonne of man will come As if he had said Because yee know not the houre watch euery houre because yee know not the month watch euery month because yee know not the yeare watch euery yeare Why doe wee not then keepe a continuall watch ouer our soules since we know not at what houre Death will assaile vs section 9 Carnall men are so inchanted with the harlot-like allurements of sinne and so carryed away by the violent streame of sensuall securitie as that they quite and cleane forget all remembrance of their end and become worse then Idols which haue eyes and see not yea a reasonable soule and vnderstand not But this is Sathans slight whose businesse was and is at and since the fall of the first man with this bloudy sword to slay mens soules Tâ—sh you shall not dye at all As if hee would haue vs to thinke the remembrance of death but a melancholy conceipt and lest it should make too deepe an impression of the feare of God in mans heart hee will haue the
forbidden tree to delight the eye fayre words to please the eare and driue all away Why You shall be as Gods when his drift is to make them all as Diuels What a dangerous Lethargie of the soule is this when so many spectacles of mans mortalitie before our eyes can nothing moue vs or at least our mouing with Agrappa is not much but somewhat which by and by is all forgot and gone and so wee thinke of our end by some running fits and haue done Wee will and wee will not and so with the Sluggard nothing is done Some count it death to meditate of death they like the remembrance of it as Ahab the presence of Eliah to be troublesome to them Let fooles as they doe make but a sport of sinne and section 10 say with the old Epicures What haue wee to doe with Death They shall one day finde that Death will haue to doe with them when hee shall strip them into their winding sheete binde them hand and foot and make their last bed to be the darke and slimy graue Ahab could not abide to heare Micheas speake for that hee neuer prophesied any good but euill vnto him hee would be wicked and yet could not endure to heare any other newes then good So wicked men cannot away to heare of death because they liue a sinfull life Balaam desires to dye the death of the righteous but hee will neuer vndergoe to liue the life of the righteous As Pharaoh said to Moses Depart from among my people so say the vngodly to Death Be banished from vs thy presence thy shadow and the very remembrance of thee is fearefull vnto vs. To muse of their end is the least of most mens thoughts To heare Saint Paul speake of Gods terrible iudgement to come is too trembling a doctrine for our delightfull dispositions to heare with Foelix wee are not at leasure for this is iarring Musicke which sounds not aright in the Consort of our worldly pleasures To thinke of Death is Acheldama saith one euen a field of bloud but wastfully to spend the time in the dangerous delights of sinne and so to be flattered with promise of peace and pleasure is a tuneable Dittie to most mens eares vntill their soules so sleepe in sinne as Sisera slept who neuer woke againe But if any Physitian 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 Alas poore fooles they are earth and will not know it But will the forgetfulnesse of death preserue them from dying But Plato said truely that there was no more honourable section 11 Philosophy for a mortall man then the daily meditation of his mortalitie and death for the remembrance of death through Gods blessing serues as a sounding Bell to awake vs from the sleepe of our sinnes and as a spurre to pricke vs on to vertue as a bridle to restraine our greedy desires as an oyntment for our eyes to make vs clearely see the foulnesse of our sinne whereof the Diuell is the father Death his fruit and Hell his dwelling place Remembrance of Death is as the match and tinder that nourisheth and inlighteneth the fire of all holy deuotion the Bellowes that kindle all godly affections it is as it were the Fanne that seuereth from our soules the dust and chaffe of all vanitie and sinne it serueth as a Pilot to gouerne the right course of our life who stands euer behinde in the ship to conduct it the better to the desired Port it is better Musicke then that of Dauids Harpe to Saul against all the raging fits and furies of all infernall Spirits section 12 Shew me a promise that you shall liue but to morrow or hauing this assurance that to morrow shall giue you light or if it appeare whether you shall see the light Shew mee I say the promise and liue to morrow But what doe I say It may be thou shalt liue long wilt thou liue a long life and a wicked together and be in danger to end thy life by a miserable and wretched death As the Husbandman is carefull to cast seede into the ground whilest faire weather lasteth and the Merchant to lay out his money whilest the Mart and good Market endureth so must Christians take the time and good opportunitie offered for the night will come when no man can worke We must vse Gods mercies to our gaine and not to our damnation When the third Captaine ouer fifty saw how his two fellow-Captaines were deuoured with fire it went so neare his heart that hee went vp and fell downe and besought the man of God that his life might be precious in his sight But how many thousands of our fellow-souldiers haue wee heard and seene to fall in this spirituall fight How many of our dearest friends haue taken their leaue and yet none or very few maketh supplication I say not to the man of God but to God himselfe that our liues and deaths may be precious in his sight Oftentimes hath God knocked at the doore of our hearts to put vs in minde of our mortalitie for who hath not had experience of his declining nature But yet for all this what little humbling of our selues is there before him whose dominion reacheth vnto the ends of the earth who bringeth to the graue and raiseth vp againe The perfection of knowledge is to know God and our section 13 selues aright and our selues then wee best know when wee haue throughly learned our mortall estate As men wee dye naturally as Christians wee dye religiously wee must first dye to the world that after wee may liue to God By our dying to the world Christ Iesus commeth and liueth in vs and by our dying in the world wee are sure to goe to liue with Christ Wee dye not saith one because wee are sicke but because wee liue so when wee recouer our sicknesse wee escape not from death but from the disease Let vs therefore make that voluntary which is necessary saith S. Chrisostome and yeeld it to God as a gift which wee stand bound to pay as a debt We must not saith Ambrose neyther loath to liue nor feare to dye because wee haue a good and gracious Lord. No good thing can be well and perfectly done at the first seeing therefore it is so great a matter to dye and so necessary to dye well it is expedient that in our life we learne to dye often that we may at last dye well at the very time of death The Souldiers that be appoynted to fight doe first practise themselues in the field to learne in time of peace what they must doe in time of warre The horse that must runne at the Tilt trauerseth all that ground before and tryeth all the steps thereof that when hee commeth to make his course he be not found new
both going out and comming in they might alwaies be mindefull of their death and latter end section 19 I cannot sufficiently wonder at the folly of our nature so abhorring the mention of Death yea euen the aged men whose spring is past whose summer is spent and are euen arriued at the fall of the leafe whose heads are dyed with snowie winter colours and whose ship begins to leake and grate vpon the grauell of their graues yet how fearefully are they amazed to heare the last sound of Deaths trumpet O foolish imbecilitie so fearing to be luld a sleepe in Deaths slumbering fits which is so ready to close vp this mortall day to bring their soules to an euerlasting morrow Mans life saith one is a small thing but the contempt of this wretched life is a great thing And why should Christians so loue this sinfull life and loath their death which is so gainefull First it killeth our familiar enemy the flesh which lusteth against the spirit and maketh vs that we cannot please God Now there is no enemie like vnto a domesticall and home-bred enemie that lieth in our bosome that rests and sleepes with vs and is alwayes a companion to the soule vrging and hailing it to sinne but Death openeth the doore of this filthy prison and stinking dungeon of this body of sinne in which we liue as slaues It freeth vs from this pannier and dungcart we carry about full of all corruption and vilenesse for this corruptible body is heauie vnto the soule and this earthly mansion keepeth downe the minde oppressing it with cares It putteth an end to this our painefull pilgrimage full of bitternesse and griefe For what is this life but a heauie mierie way clagging and tyring our feet and orher limbes Consider then how absurd it is for poore drudges so section 20 foyled and wearied to be yet vnwilling to haue such an irkesome life and way ended Our life is full of labour t' is led with sorrow and yet left with teares so that better is death then such a silly life We thinke not so much how neare Death we approach all of vs being reserued to die we complaine not so much of the thing it selfe as of the day of our death But would wee not thinke him a foole who amongst many other being condemned to die would craue it as a great benefit to be executed the last So foolish are many esteeming it such a matter to haue their death deferred and a little to prolong their dayes Malefactors hate nothing more then the giues and fetters barres and bolts of the prison doores wherewith they haue beene loaded and wherewith they haue beene inclosed and we foolish men feare nothing more then the opening of this prison doore for our egresse and deliuery we cannot abide it we cannot indure to haue the locks and shuts of this layle of our flesh to be broken and battered for our euerlasting manumission from this seruitude and slauerie of sinne section 21 Now then if our whole life be nothing else but a continuall trauell to death as wee haue heard if the houre of death be also the dreadfull houre of Iudgement what other thing is our whole life but a continuall walking towards the tribunall seate of God And what great madnesse is it for men going actually to be iudged thus in the way to prouoke their Iudge to anger by continuall sinne Let vs better open our eyes and consider the way wee take let vs fore-cast with our selues to what place wee are going and be ashamed of our euils or at the least to aduise with our selues how euill this that wee doe agreeth with that businesse wee haue in hand What a wonder is this that euery day we dye and yet perswade our selues to liue for euer wee are like the Megarenses of whom the Phylosopher speaketh in making proud and sumptuous buildings as though they should alwayes liue yet liuing as though they had but mortall soules section 22 But to hasten to an end Whereof commeth so great forgetfulnesse of almighty God such negligence of preparing our selues to die euen from hence that we presume our life shall last so long This false imagination perswadeth vs that we haue time inough for all things for the world for our pleasures for vanitie for vices for friuolous and curious exercises and that yet for all this we shall haue sufficient time to prouide our selues to die in so much as we dare dispose of our life as we will of a web of cloath for our family lying on a table appointing one piece for this purpose and another for that so we make account of our liues as though we had the signory and gouernment of times in our owne hands to order and our life at our owne will and pleasure to dispose of This fond conceit groweth and is grounded vpon selfe-loue which alwaies hateth and abhorreth Death to auoide the paine and griefe which otherwise it would conceiue Such a one is easily induced to beleeue that another shall die for as hee is not greatly in loue with others so is not the knowledge and beliefe of that truth so sowre and vnpleasant vnto him but as hee loueth himselfe exceedingly so is hee very loath to beleeue any thing that should increase his paine and griefe Yet see how such a one is deceiued hee first of all begins to lead the dance of death and others so censured long after doe follow him So that it fareth with these men as with yong sea-men and fresh-water-souldiers who when they come forth of the hauens mouth it seemeth vnto them that the land and houses depart away when they themselues indeede doe moue and passe away the land and houses standing still Of what impatiencie is it not to endure that euill section 23 which together with so many and mighty is common vnto all men Thou refusest to pay the debt with all Gods Saints which whether thou wilt or no must needs be discharged Hee which by nature could not die was for thy sake made mortall and subiect to death and thou being borne to dye and which so often for thy sinnes hast deserued death wouldest thou alone amongst all other be priuiledged from dying Remember therefore thy folly and pride and rather incourage thy selfe to die hauing so many fellowes and partners in this case For indeede wee haue no more cause to grieue that wee shall die then wee haue to be vexed that wee were borne or that wee were created mortall men and not Angels immortall Death bringeth an equall law and an ineuitable necessitie ouer all Now who can complaine for being of such a condition from which no man is excepted for the chiefest point of equitie is equalitie Let vs therefore pay our tribute chearefully since wee cannot be released and let vs second and follow the will of God without murmuring from whom all things are iustly deriued for Destinie leades him by the hand that goeth willingly and
drags him along that goeth by compulsion CHAP. II. How dangerous a thing it is not to be prepared for Death or to deferre the time thereof HAuing partly heard of the necessitie of preparation section 1 let vs a little consider of the dangerous want thereof for Death being such a fearefull enemie we may not without great hazard of our estates meete him naked in the field but knowing him and his forces it is fit wee be throughly prepared against the combat And albeit we cannot of our selues make any prouision sure inough to serue our turne for it is not our owne strength counsell or pollicie that can stand vs in stead in such a fight yet prouided we must be if we will preuaile neither is it Sauls harnesse that will buckle handsomely to our backs or any other furniture deuised by man but onely the sling of faith casting out the stone taken out of that riuer or rather that inuincible rocke Iesus Christ that will vtterly foyle this huge Goliah Death For Gods children hauing continuall experience of his section 2 mighty power in their worldly deliuerances and of his gracious protection and aide in all the miseries and calamities of this life feeling still in themselues the sufficiencie of his grace and assistance of his spirit in all their extremities they doubt not euer to commit their bodies and soules to this their faithfull creatour They doe not feare to be ruled by him in life death no they will goe to God thorow fire water no dangerous paths will they eschew when he cals them they care not to goe thorow the vale of death leaning on his staffe nor to sayle as it were through hell that they may come to heauen to enioy his blessed sight knowing that by the susteining of a temporall death they are freed from eternall torments and endlesse fire of hell For although at deaths first entrance a huge flood of sinnes and a fountaine of sorrowes issued out yet now being altered by Christ it killeth sinne in Gods Saints and perfecteth their estate And so farre off is it from the destruction of a Christian man that it brings him to perfection for after the death of the body followes the freedome of the spirit nay it is the very furnace appointed of God for the purifying both of body and soule from the drosse of all corruption and sinne But as it auaileth nothing as I said before to goe to section 3 warre without weapons or to keepe a Castle without munition no more or lesse can we withstand deaths deadly force our soules not harnessed against the same The greatest cowards haue many times the greatest talke then it will onely appeare what thou hast gained in knowledge when thou commest to combat with Death no man knowes in what place Death attends him therefore in all places we must be prouided What cares Death for prisons for guards for iron barres c. one gate or another stands alway open to him there is but one chaine onely that keepes vs bound euen the loue of this life and this must not wholly be shaken off but extenuated and lessened that when occasion serueth nothing may hinder vs. If euery day of our life were as long as that long day of Iosua when as the Sunne stood still a whole day in the middest of heauen it would auaile vs nothing For as in the end the night came which dissolued that long day so the night of death will at last assaile vs and make the daies of our life vanish away how long so euer they haue beene for euery thing subiect to corruption fadeth and he that troubleth himselfe therewith shall passe away Man is resembled to a peece of rotten wood which breaking in peeces is turned into powder section 4 This life is a moment of time whereon all eternitie of life and death to come dependeth If it be a moment and a moment of so great importance how is it passed ouer by worldly men so carelesly as it is If Death be an enemie then let vs watch him as an enemy preuent him as an enemie that so we may endure his hard assaults when time shall serue Doe that before death which may doe thee good when thou art dead for if we prouide not before death there is no prouision after It is farre better to enter while the gate is open then afterwards to knocke in vaine when the gate is shut to seeke the Lord while he may be found then to be found of him vnprouided when we would not be sought The morning was faire when Lot went out of Sodome and yet before night it was burnt to ashes Nebuchadnezar neuer thought himselfe so sure as when he boasted himselfe of Babel and yet while the word was in his mouth God puld him downe vpon his knees The rich man neuer thought himselfe so likely to liue as when hee said to his soule Eate drinke and be merry yet the selfe same night it was taken from him The ship would be mended in the hauen not in the tempestuous Sea the breach would be repayred in the time of peace not in the skirmishes of warre In time a care would be had of our estate for the time to come The dayes of man are short and his time vncertaine that little moment wee haue to prouide for a state of all continuance and to gaine eternitie in is quickly runne ouer before wee be aware Gods mercy in giuing vs time and space passeth along section 5 as a pleasant-riuer if we stop the course thereof by continuance in sinne it will rise high as a floud and turne into Iustice bearing vs downe by force as a violent streame and ouerthrow our surest repose Such is here our fraile and brittle estate that when wee seeme to stand in great securitie wee then doe dwell in deepest danger and when wee least feare we soonest fall Calamitie commeth vpon vs not looked for sicknesse sodainly inuadeth and Death without ransome requireth her due therefore Boast not thy selfe of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth Our continuance here is certaine in vncertaintie therefore saith one Let our vncertaine condition worke a certaine carefulnesse of our estate to come That which once and neuer but once is done should be aduisedly begunne carefully prosecuted and most seriously laboured with all industry vnto the end Wee sleepe with our cause and wee rise with our cause saith Augustine Doe well and haue well liue the life of the righteous and dye the death of the righteous To him that passeth through darke places one light carryed before him will doe him more good then many brought after him When sleepe is gone from the sicke mans eyes when rather extremitie of griefe then true sorrow doth rake out a little sicke repentance from the most carelesse person when rest is departed from their tossed beds then many can
are our sinnes the cause let vs repent and amend Is it the loue of this world let vs hate it Is it for want of faith let vs pray Lord helpe our vnbeliefe section 4 But what speake I so much to true Christians concerning the feare of Death they hauing so many causes rather to imbrace the same First to shew their subiection and obedience to Gods will by the example of Christ Father not my will but thy will be done Secondly for as much as by death all sinne is abolished and wee for euer cease to offend our God any more Our bodies likewise are brought to a better condition then euer they were in our liues for by death they are made insensible and so freed from all the miseries of this life ceasing to be the instruments of sin any more Againe it giues the soule passage to rest life and heauenly glory in which we shall see our God as he is perfectly know him and praise his name keeping an eternall Saboath in the celestiall places And lastly it executeth Gods iudgement vpon the wicked and purgeth his Church from such filthy dung and drosse Let Pagans therefore saith Cyprian and Infidels feare Death who neuer feared God in their life but let Christians goe as trauellers vnto their natiue home and as children to their Father willingly gladly Balaam would faine haue comforted himselfe with riches honour which he esteemed so much yet was he not without feare which at last brake out and forced him to wish that his soule might die the death of the righteous and that his latter end might be like vnto theirs So I beleeue it is with all wicked reprobates they know it and euen as Iosuah saith withall their hearts and withall their soules they know it that the righteous mans life is better then theirs and tremble and quake at the remembrance of their owne death which is farre worse then theirs desiring to die the death of those who in their life and practise they vtterly detest True it is that wicked men in appearance die quietly section 5 in their beds hauing as Iob speaketh no bonds in their death But iudge such a one no more by his death then by his birth for many women may haue more easie trauell of a reprobate then some of an elect childe of God Hypocrisie it may be hath put the conscience to silence here that they may more suddenly and fearefully roare out in hell It may be a crust is growne vpon their hearts that they rot and fester within and feele it not whereas the elect haue the wound of their sinne kept alwaies open neither can they flye the least breach of the Lords displeasure but are anguished neither can they thinke that they euer feare inough which tender heart of a Christian is like the Adamant as it to draw the iron so this to draw the oyle of grace into his soule for his solace If a man die like a Lamb and passe out of the world like a bird in a shell the sottish sort say that certainly hee is saued although neither holinesse was in his life nor God in his mouth grace in his heart nor yet repentance faith or feeling at his death Such men saith one excepting their feather-beds and pillowes die liker beasts then Christians For they shall neuer haue their sinnes forgiuen which first or last doe not vndergoe a holy despaire for them acknowledging nothing to remaine in themselues but matter of iudgement and euerlasting death and comfort and eternall life to flow alone from Iesus Christ For thorow him we see our sinnes purged the diuell vanquished death and condemnation abolished our selues established and infranchised into the libertie and freedome of the Saints in heauen Are we ready to goe out of this world as the Israelites out of Egypt let vs sprinckle our hearts with the blood of the Lambe and the destroyer shall not enter nor haue power to hurt vs. Let vs call to minde Gods loue who spared not his Sonne but gaue him to death for vs and how shall he not giue vs all things with him section 6 The steps of Saints saith one and the state of sinners their liues I meane and deaths are here equally bound vp with the coards of corruption yet vnequally matched in the ioy of their seperation the one falling away like a flower transplanted to a better soyle the other rushing vpon the rocke of Gods wrath either shamefully deiected with the horrour of iudgement while they liue or else fearefully entangled with the feare of torment when they die Yet may we not in conscience censure any man simply for his manner of death or sudden departure for many sicknesses slay men suddenly euen while they haue meate in their mouthes and are full merry Many are sharpe and of long continuance as the Palsie Sciatica or Hipgoute as Physitions best doe know Some take away the vse of the tongue and other members as the Apoplexie and falling euill Some the wits as the Phrensie and burning feauer and other strange and vnknowne diseases as experience it selfe doth proue and therefore it is good to be prepared in our Christian estate But in all these strange assaults of our brethren we must iudge the best for there neuer can be an euill death where a constant good life hath gone before For as many amidst these torments doe suddenly passe to the Paradise of Gods Saints so many dying peaceably in their beds are swiftly translated from earth to hell yet still precious in Gods sight is the death of his Saints Elie was a Priest and a good man yet brake he his neck section 7 with falling backward from his seat Ionathan a godly man and a faithfull friend to Dauid yet was he slaine in battell by the vncircumcised Philistimes The Prophet that came from Iuda to Bethel to speake against Ieroboam and his Alter was a good man yet killed by a Lyon So was Iosiah slaine in the valley of Megiddoe Iobs children so well brought vp by their Godly Father were slaine by the ruine of a house in a violent winde Wee must not therefore iudge so much of men by their manner of death as by their life for though sometimes a good death may follow an euill life yet an euill death can neuer follow a constant good life Correct therefore thy euill life and feare not an euill death for he cannot die ill that liues well So that sudden death is onely euill to them which lead an euill life it finding them vnprepared carrieth them suddenly to hell But it cannot be euill to them which liue well for finding them prepared it freeth them from paine which others indure by long and lingring sicknesse and brings them forthwith to the place of happy rest Some pray against sodaine Death which yet can neuer come sodainely to Gods Saints whose whole life is a continuall meditation of Death We ought rather
how wee should speake whom wee should inuocate In his temptation hee withstood the Tempter to shew vs how to come out of temptation In his Agonie hee prayed to teach vs how and what to pray section 5 Let vs call to minde how wee lost happinesse in seeking to saue ourselues and iust it is that by induring sorrowes wee should recouer what wee haue lost Wee ranne away by committing euill and wee must returne againe by suffering euill Once wee sinned by transgressing righteousnesse and now wee must humble ourselues by induring for righteousnesse Great were Iobs crosses which he endured none of his Sonnes and Seruants were left but onely foure messengers to bring him tidings of sorrow and those not altogether but one after another to increase the same All Iobs comforts goe away together and Sathan was perswaded that this trayne of troubles would haue blowne vp the strongest fort but he is deceiued Iob is the same man still For hee that did truly serue God in time of prosperitie did also blesse him in his greatest aduersitie Here was patience with thankfulnesse well met together Sathan tooke away many things from him but God he could not take away that gaue him all his resolution was too strong for that Though he kill mee yet will I not be kept from trusting in him It is God that knoweth the perils of thy death and can onely defend thee Through his power shalt thou get thorow and drinke the bitter draught Though wee dye yet liueth God before vs with vs after vs and is able to preserue vs for euer Death as one speaketh is euen as a darke caue in the section 6 ground but who so taketh Christs true light and candle in beleeuing on him and goeth into that dimme and darke hole the mist flyeth before him and the darknesse vanisheth away The sweet spices of Christ his buriall expelleth the strong scent and ill sauour of our rotten graues He is our hope our safeguard our triumph our crowne wee may be dead but our life is hid with God in Christ Our true life then is not in this world but laid vp with God in heauen and shall in time through Christ be gloriously reuealed And although after our departure from our soft lodgings and beds of Downe our bodyes must be placed for a time in darke dungeons and loathsome graues there to rot in the earth and be consumed of wormes yet Christians looking vpon them in this so vile estate as they appeare with the Chrystall eyes of Faith and considering them aright as now altered and changed by Christ who hath vanquished Death and pursued her to her denne we neede not to bewayle our euill exchange or thinke our bargaine hard for that our bodies hereafter shall become most beautifull and precious and euen conformable to the glorious body of Christ himselfe And albeit the gate of death be so narrow and hard a passage yet our heauenly Father shorteneth it and though the paines thereof should passe all that wee haue felt vpon the earth it endureth not long but maketh quicke dispatch and when the paine is greatest of all then is it nearest an end and God can then more comfort vs then the most horriblest death with the pangs thereof are able to disturbe or torment vs. Such is the state of this world that one euill cannot be section 7 cured but by another To heale a contusion or bruise must be made an incision All the paines that our life yeeldeth vs at the last houre we impute to death not marking that as our life beganne and continued in all sorts of griefe and sorrow so necessarily must it end in like afflictions Wee marke not as one saith that it is the remainder of our life not of death that tormenteth vs The end of our nauigation that paineth vs not the hauen wee are to enter which is nothing else but a sure refuge against all stormes And thus wee complaine of death when wee should indeed complaine of life as if one hauing beene long sicke and now beginning to be well should accuse his health of his former paine and not the reliques of his disease For what is it else to be dead then to be no more aliue in the world Now simply not to be in the world is it any paine did we then feele any paine when we were not section 8 Nothing better resembleth death then our sleepe and when doe wee euer better rest then at that time Now if this be no paine why accuse we death of the paines our life yeeldeth vs at our departure vnlesse wee will fondly accuse the time when as yet wee were not of the paines wee felt at our birth If our comming in be with teares is it a wonder that our going out be answerable If the beginning of our being be the beginning of our paine is it any maruell that such should be our ending Death is no wayes hurtfull to those that be liuing and for the dead they are out of his reach Such a death is neuer to be deplored which is seconded with immortalitie and euerlasting life Wilt thou feare that once which is alwayes acted Fearest thou to dye once when thou dyest euery day by little and little Death which wee so feare and flye taketh not from vs our life but giueth it truce and intermission for a time Neyther children nor mad-men feare Death and how absurd is it that reason and wisedome should not be as able to furnish vs with securitie as they are fortified by their simplicitie and fury section 9 What hurt is it to the inhabitant to pull downe an old ruinous house to build it vp againe and make it more glorious Now our bodies are as old rotten houses for our soules to dwell in if God cause our soules to depart then out of our bodies for a time and so destroy them to build them vp againe and make them fitter habitations for our soules haue we any cause to mourne Nay rather if we looke not so much on the present condition of our bodies after death as vpon their glorious estate at the day of resurrection by the eye of faith wee haue great cause to praise our God for this our good exchange And why should the faithfull be affraide of Death by which they are deliuered from the slauery of sinne For when Death hath made vs all euen leuell with the ground the graue shall be to vs as a fould vntill our Shepheard come and to the wicked as a shambles till the destroyer of their soules shall haue receiued an endlesse commission to torment them What cause haue wee then to shut our gates against the gaspe of Death Or like trembling leaues to entertaine the gale and blast of sicknesse which doth but prune our feathers to flye both faster and swifter towards heauen itselfe For if neither the waight of our corruption though it sorely presse vs nor the
out of heauen saith one as goe thither thy selfe in this wicked kinde of life What then wilt thou forgoe heauen and yet escape hell This is lesse possible whatsoeuer the Atheists of this world perswade thee Wilt thou deferre the matter and thinke of it hereafter Thou shalt neuer haue more abilitie to doe it then now and it may be neuer halfe so much againe If thou refuse it now thou maist greatly feare to be refused thy selfe hereafter There is nothing then so good as to take this good occasion while it is offered Breake from those tyrants which detaine thee in seruitude section 14 the Diuell Sinne World and Flesh shake off their shackles cut all their bands and chaynes asunder free thee from their gyues and irons and runne violently to Iesus Christ who standeth with open armes ready to imbrace thee make ioyfull all the Angels and Saints with thy conuersion strike once the stroke with God againe and returne to thy Father Who would be so base minded with the Prodigall Sonne in this world rather to eate huskes with the Swine then to turne home with him againe to be so honourably receiued haue such good cheare and banketting and heare so great melody ioy and triumph for his returne Hee that will liue without repentance must looke to dye without repentance The sparing of the Theefe on the Crosse at the last gaspe was set out as a medicine against desperation and not as a matter of imitation God saith one spared one that no man might despaire and hee spared but one that no man might presume The Lord hath promised pardon to him that repenteth but to liue till to morrow hee hath not promised section 15 The heauenly dewe of Repentance neuer fals but the Sunne of righteousnesse draweth it vp Repentant eyes bedewed with teares for sinne are the cellers of Angels and penitent sighes and sobs the sweetest wines which the sauour of life perfumeth the taste of grace sweetneth and the purest colours of returning innocencie highly beautifieth O that our hearts were euermore such a Lymbecke distilling so pure a quintessence of godlinesse drawne from the weedes of our offences by the fire of true Faith and vnfayned contrition of spirit Heauen would mourne at the absence of such precious waters and earth lament the losse of such fruitfull showers Surely till death close vp those fountaines they should neuer fayle running which if they had alwayes issue we neede not doubt of our saluation but that God would wash away all our filthinesse and sinne The world saith Bernard had not perished with the Floud if the flouds of teares for sinne had euer flowed from mens eyes section 16 To conclude if thou shalt see thy selfe to floate in the sea of temptations in the agonies of death leaue not the Anchor-hold of hope before thou enter the hauen of rest This is the sure Anchor indeede of the soule which lyeth deepe and is not seene and yet is the stay of all euen the soule of our life And because wee cannot plead the plea of Innocencie Faith bids vs boldly plead the plea of Mercy and telleth vs the Iudge is reconciled But this is no Palsie-faith as wee haue heard but firme and constant vnto the end which still concludes through Christ to the Conscience that liuing and dying we are the Lords Hope is the piller sustayning this building of our Faith which fayling our Faith falleth into the gulfe of Despayre And there is nothing maketh more cleare the mighty power of the Word and of Gods promise then that it makes men so mighty that hope and trust in God for all things are possible to him that beleeueth When wee seeme as it were in the whirle-pit of Despayre and are carryed by a violent streame of trouble wee know not whither and are constrayned to diue and plunge downe the water of affliction running ouer our soules yet the Lord will recouer vs and set our feet in a steady place If wee be cast downe so that wee can but scrawle vp againe if wee be so tyred of Sathan by temptations that yet wee can but kicke against him in affection if we can but open our lips and accuse him of malice before the Lord there is yet some hope of comfort to be found And in all our tryals and temptations wee must haue recourse to faithfull prayer that so the burthen thereof may eyther be remoued or at the least eased or wee better strengthened and inabled to sustaine the same Hope to a Christian in this life is as a staffe to a traueller section 17 in his iourney who leaneth to it and resteth vpon it shall hardly fall but shall flye aloft as the Eagles It is giuen to Hope to enter the garden of pleasures and thence to fetch all fragrant smels to season the bitternesse of our sorrowes whose nature is to glory in tryals It ouer-floweth with dainties in the pining Desart of this world Who is this that ascendeth from the Desart flowing with delights It esteemes not the losse of temporall goods for it is said of the Saints that they had sustayned with ioy the spoyling of their goods And whom haue I in heauen but thee and there is none in earth with thee It bringeth rest in labour a shadow against the heate of tribulation ioy in mourning it sheweth vs life in death and heauen as it were in hell Hee may boldly giue saith one that hath so good a pawne and hee may be sure of heauen that hath the pledge of an assured Hope But Despayre is as a tree pulled vp by the rootes it is a bottomlesse gulfe out of which few or none returne that fall into it CHAP. IX The true knowledge and assured perswasion of the Resurrection of our bodyes much furthereth our chearefull resolution to Death section 1 NOW for as much as the fairest frame and building with all the prouision and preparation thereunto is nothing worth if the ground-worke and foundation be not sure and vnmoueable besides the abuse of the time costs and persons imployed about the same frustrating the purpose and end of the builder with the ruines of despayre So all that hath hitherto beene spoken of Life and Death of Heauen and Hell of Christians and Infidels of Faith and Hope and other furniture and prouision for the assured fruition of a blessed life is but spoken in the ayre and a fighting with our shadow if there be no sure demonstration of the vndoubted resurrection of our bodies For then saith the Apostle Paul our Preaching is in vaine our Faith in vaine Christ dyed in vaine all Religion in vaine the persecutions and sufferings of Gods children in vaine nay then let vs scoffingly conclude with Epicures and Atheists Let vs eate and drinke for to morrow wee shall dye But such euill words corrupt good manners I will therefore endeauour as much as in me lyeth to make it plaine
citie hauing a foundation whose builder and maker is God And all the godly groane in these their earthly tabernacles being laden with corruption that this mortalitie may be swallowed vp of life for they know that corrupt flesh blood cannot enter into heauen Gods children I say are grieued not because they beare about their bodies for it is a griefe for them to lay them downe but they sigh to be clensed from their sinnes and corruption of their bodies which make them so wretched We ought not therefore to long so much for this present life which indeede is nothing else but an image of death but rather loath it to be vnloaden of our sinnes And as for Death it appertaineth to all men as we haue section 3 heard for neither rich nor poore old nor young prince nor people can escape it It respecteth no mans person no sexe no age no condition whatsoeuer No power no wealth no learning no wisedome art or skill can auoide it There is no salue to heale this soare no Physicke to be found for this sicknesse it is the way of all the world and the house appointed for all the liuing It is an Axe that heweth downe not onely the low shrubs and small Osiers but the great Elmes and huge Oakes yea all the high and tall Cedars of Libanon The daies of man are but as the winde and weauers shittle as grasse and flowers which in the morning are fresh and greene but anone towards the euening dried vp and withered We bring our yeares to an end as it were a tale that is told Our life is like a stage on which men play their parts and passe away Man is like a thing of nought his daies are like a shadow God bids Esay to cry All flesh is grasse and that all the grace and goodlinesse thereof is but as a flower of the field O that the Lord would open all our eyes that in this glasse wee might behold our estate What are we all but grasse and shall we wither like hay Alas wee cannot so perswade our selues for if we could it would plucke downe our pride and lay our lofty lookes it would then reforme our disguised ruffes and make our monstrous attire more modest it would mitigate our madnesse and make vs humble minded we would then throw downe our selues with Abraham and say to God we are but dust And to the end that our resolution to death may be more chearefull and this rough way as it seemeth to the section 4 flesh may be made more plaine Let vs comfort our selues with these meditations let vs say vnto our soule why art thou so sad why art thou so vnquieted within vs Put thy trust in God which is the helpe of our countenance and our God For why should a Christian man so feare the violence of Death whose force is broken Can Death depriue him of Christ which is all his comfort ioy and life No but Death shall deliuer him from this mortall body full of sinne and corruption which beareth and beateth downe the soule Faine would the flesh make strange of that which the spirit doth imbrace Oh saith a holy Martyr how loath is this loytering sluggard to passe forth and goe forward in Gods path to heauen So that were it not through the force of Faith plucking it forward by the bridle of Gods sweet promises and of Hope the anchor of saluation pricking still behinde great aduenture there were of fainting by the way section 5 Who would be sorry to forsake this life which cannot but be most certain of eternall life Who loueth the shadow better then the substance who can so loue this life but he that regardeth not the life to come who can desire the drosse of this world but such as are ignorant of the true treasure euerlasting ioyes in heauen I meane who is affraide to die but such as haue no hope to liue eternally A greater assurance next saith in Christ of our election cannot be found then not to stand in feare of Death which like a Tayler putteth off our ouer-worne rags to apparell vs with royall robes of immortalitie incorruption glory If the wals of thy house shake with age if the roofe thereof totter if the whole edifice not being able any longer to stand presage a meere downefall and ruine to approach wouldst thou not make more then ordinary hast to remoue and be gon If thou wert sayling in the maine sea and that a furious storme swelling the waues thereof with the blustering windes should threaten thy shipwracke wouldest thou not endeuour to recouer some cricke or hauen Behold this world how it shaketh and is ready to fall manifesting very shortly her vtter ruine Wherefore thinkest thou not on God why reioycest thou not at thy condition being ready to depart this world seeing thy selfe taken betimes out of those shipwracks warranted frō the blowes that threaten al such as suruiue thee Wherefore to the end that the former perswasions may section 6 better preuaile pierce the deeper let vs further consider for the same abridgement of all that hath been hitherto spoken what this life is which wee so loue what death is which we now so feare and what is prepared for vs after death which we so little regard First therefore concerning this present life we know and haue heard already that it is full of miserie vanitie vexation woe being a plaine exile from God For if heauen be our country what is this earth but a place of banishment If the departing out of this world be an entrance into life what is this world but a graue wherein we are buried what is it else but to be drowned in death If to be deliuered out of the body is to be set at liberty what is this body else but a prison a Iayle and a dungeon If to enioy the sweet fellowship of God be the highest felicitie why then to be kept from it is it not the extreamest misery for certainly til we be escaped out of this life we wander goe astray from the Lord our God If we consider that this vnstedfast faulty corruptible frayle withering rotten tabernacle of our body is shall therefore be dissolued by death that it may afterward be restored againe vnto a stedfast perfect incorruptible and heauenly glory shall not faith compel vs feruētly to desire that which nature feareth If we consider that by death we are called out of banishment to inhabit our country yea our heauenly country shall we not reioyce and be glad therefore Alas this our wretched life is a vapour a smoake a shadow a warfare a wildernesse and a vale of wretchednesse section 7 wherein wee are compassed on euery side with most fierce fearefull foes And should we desire to dwell here should we lust and long to liue in this loathsome and laborious life should wee wish to tarry in this miserable wretchednesse should
A MAPPE OF MANS MORTALITIE Clearely manifesting the originall of DEATH with the Nature Fruits and Effects thereof both to the Vnregenerate and Elect Children of GOD. Diuided into three Bookes and published for the furtherance of the wise in practise the humbling of the strong in conceit and for the comfort and confirmation of weake Christians against the combat of DEATH that they may wisely and seasonably be prepared against the same Whereunto are annexed two Consolatory SERMONS for afflicted Christians in their greatest Conflicts BY IOHN MOORE Minister of the Word of God at Shearsbie in LEICESTER-SHIRE HEBR. 9.27 Booke 1. It is appoynted vnto men that they shall once dye and after that commeth the Iudgement REVEL 4.13 2. Then I heard a voyce from heauen saying vnto mee Write the dead which dye in the Lord are fully blessed euen so saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them ECCLES 9.10 3 All that thy hand shall finde to doe doe it with all thy power for there is neyther worke nor inuention nor knowledge nor wisedome in the graue whither thou goest LONDON Printed by T.S. for GEORGE EDVVARDS and are to be sold at the signe of the Greyhound in Paules Church-yard 1617. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE Sr. FOVLKE GREVILL Knight Chancelor of his Highnesse Court of Exchequer and one of his Maiesties most Honourable Priuie Councell the assurance of Gods loue in all outward blesings of this life with the vndoubted euidence of Gods Spirit for the fruition of Heauen and happinesse in the life to come be daily more and more increased and confirmed through Iesus Christ c. Right Honourable SVch is the force of Vertue and of the very shadow of Godlinesse that as it were naturally it draweth mens loue and affection and after a speciall manner vniteth mindes together farre distant and different in calling and condition The very Heathen hauing experience hereof both by their writing confessed and also practised the same one towards another who for the loue of morall vertues embraced those whom they neuer saw How much more then should Gods Children rightly informed by Gods Word and reformed by his Spirit most highly value the incomparable worth of sincere Religion and the holy profession thereof by the meanes and ministery whereof men are as it were newly created and restored to the Image of the eternall God which maketh them most amiable in the sight of God and honourable in the account of his children who doe know that they are translated from death to life by louing the brethren For as God in himselfe the very fountaine of all goodnesse is loue and properly to be loued of all being the very obiect and subiect of all Christian affection as hauing in himselfe all the causes both motiue and attractiue to draw them vnto him So they whosoeuer of Gods elect which most resemble him in grace and goodnesse doe next deserue our loue not that we should diuide the same from God the very Ocean of goodnesse but rather to make it knowne that we truly loue the Lord our God in them who cannot possibly loue God whom wee haue not seene except wee loue his Children which represent his person and in whom hee will proue our loue towards himselfe Hence arise so many good occasions to make Gods children acquainted which otherwise would be strangers many poore Christians and despised Ministers in the world to write and speake seeke and sue for the countenance and acquaintance of eminent personages sincerely professing and patronizing Gods truth and with Luke to looke for some noble Theophilus and with S. Iohn some honourable and Elect Lady vnto whom they may consecrate their labours The consideration of which premises Honourable Sir may somewhat qualifie my present boldnesse in this my seeming rash attempt Neyther is it strange indeede that poore men in the valley looke to the Beacon on the hill and that such spreading fruitfull trees should be in view and knowne for shelter and reliefe against a storme Hee which seeketh fonsuch friends seeketh to God his assignes for are they not his Deputies to doe good to his Church and Children Are they not eyes to the blinde and feet to the lame Are they not fathers to the poore and in so being procure their blessing I minde not here to blaze out your iustly deserued praises but rather in dutie be earnest in my prayers to God for the increase and continuance of Gods graces bestowed vpon your Honour for the good of our Church and Common-wealth And I hope you haue learned that continuance in well-doing getteth the greatest praise and prize with God and all good men And my particular prayer shall be that still you may exceede your selfe in the performance of all Christian duties to God our Prince and Countrey euer tending to that perfection which leadeth to eternall life Moreouer let your Honour be throughly perswaded that God will haue all his children humbled here before they can aspire to the top of the highest glory which they hope for hereafter and that the way hereunto is rightly to know our selues by our fraile condition and mortall estate May it please you therefore with other sorts and rancks of Gods people to take some view thereof in this Discourse Feare not Honourable Sir to read some lines thereof at your leasure the receipt whereof I doubt not will proue more wholsome then toothsome to the flesh which still would make vs play the Gyants against our God yet mortified it must be in some measure For as raw flesh is not fit for the stomacke no more are vnmortified men for God Euen Nichodemus himselfe must be borne againe if he will come to an assured hope of that heauenly inheritance I prescribe here no Lawes nor Rules to be obserued with the Franciscans Dominicks and other Fryers to this or that sect or sort of men I say with the Apostle There is one Law for all men enacted in heauen without repeale that they must dye And for as much as God hath sanctified this Physicke for the saluation of our soules let the wholesomnesse thereof qualifie the bitternesse And since the death of the faithfull hath lost her sting in Christ his death let vs neuer feare the humbing of this Bee nor being able to hurt vs. But for these Cordials of Comfort with many moe soueraigne Antidotes against Deaths poyson and dangerous Symptomes I leaue your Honour to a larger discourse thereof in the proper place Now for offering to your Honour such mournfull matter of humiliation and as it may seeme distastfull to Courtly senses let these few words suffice That as there is a communitie of flesh and bloud and a generall infection of sin in all Adams heires that so likewise Death which is the wages thereof is and must needes be common vnto all without exception of any And so long as the godly and wicked liue together in this
draw neare to death wee approach to the very gate of life 12. The faithfull departing see their Sauiour with Simeon eyther in soule or spirit 13. The hope of eternitie is the reuenge of iniquitie ibid. CHAP. IX THe ioyes of heauen are vnspeakable and farre beyond our thoughts Sect. 1. They farre exceede our prison-ioyes on earth 2. There is neyther end number nor measure of them being infinite and endlesse 3. The glorious estate of Gods Saints with their happinesse what it is 4. Gods Saints shall haue fulnesse of ioy which they shall still affect and in affecting shall be satisfied and yet neuer be cloyed with fulnesse or feeling of want 5. The sight of God is the full beatitude and totall glory of the Saints 6. The soule is made capable of God and therefore whatsoeuer is lesse then God cannot suffice it 7. The ioyes of heauen are ioyes aboue all ioyes besides which there is no ioy 8. Wee may sooner tell what there is not in that blessed life then what there is 9. If the ioyes of heauen be so great let vs lift vp our eyes to heauen our eares to God and our hearts to Paradise ibid. Hee which is in loue with heauen is neyther proud with prosperitie nor cast downe with aduersitie for as hee hath nothing in this world that hee loueth so is there no losse of any thing in this life that he feareth 10. CHAP. X. IT is not the bare knowledge of heauen and happy estate but the assured euidence thereof that bringeth comfort to the conscience Sect. 1. So sure as there is a God so sure there is another life in which he will reward the good and punish the wicked 2. As our Faith reioyceth in Gods fauour so our Hope reioyceth in Gods glory 3. God giueth his children the plaister of Patience to support their Hope for he is sure that hath promised 4. The ground of Faith and Hope is Gods word and promise 5. A faithfull heart is furnished like a shippe of warre against all hellish Pirots and worldly force ibid. We can haue no certaine knowledge of heauenly things but by Faith 6. God alone is to be beleeued touching himselfe as wee credit a mortall man with his owne secrets ibid. We can desire nothing which we know not and this knowledge of heauenly things is onely by faith grounded vpon the word of God 7. Our saluation in Christ is alwayes fresh and new sure and certaine 8. Our Faith is not extinguished our Loue cannot be quenched nor our Hope faile vs nor the holy Spirit taken from vs which sealeth our saluation ibid. The wicked shall be as well able to saue themselues without God as to hurt vs hauing God and the worst they can doe is but to send vs to God 9. God doth not choose the worthy but in choosing them maketh them worthy 10. The head will haue his members God his elect and Christ his redeemed and where will hee haue them but in heauen where he is ibid. The third BOOKE CHAP. I. THE crowne of glory will not be got without conquest Sect. 1. Wee must striue to enter in at the narrow gate we must so run that we may obtaine 2. Wee ought to liue in such sort as at the day of death wee wish we had for looke how death leaueth a man so shall the last day finde him 3. It is too late then to beginne to liue well when we must leaue the world 4. With this penalty a sinner is punished that when he dyeth he forgetteth himselfe who in his life time neuer thought vpon God 5 Many men are ready to take their farewell of the world before they know of their condition in the world 6. As our whole life is a passage to death so should we make it a preparation to death 7. Wee ought still to be prepared and watchfull not knowing the time of death 8. Sathan laboureth by his subtilty to make vs to forget our latter end 9. Some count it death to meditate of death ibid. Wicked men cannot abide to heare of death because they liue a sinfull life 10. Remembrance of death to Christians must serue as a sounding bell to awaken them from the sleepe of sinne 11. Christians must take the time and good opportunitie to prouide against death 12. Wee then best know our selues when we haue throughly learned our mortall estate 13. There is nothing so glorious as to order aright the vpshot of our time 14. Who feares God feares not death for what can he feare whose death is his hope 15. Since death watcheth for vs on euery side let vs watch for him that he take vs not tardy 16. Death to Christians should serue as a key to open the day and shut the night ibid. Christians must be as birds on a bough to remoue at Gods pleasure 17. It is absurd to feare that which we cannot shun 18. Christians must haue temporall things in vse but eternall in desire ibid. Mans life is a small thing but the contempt of life is a great thing 19. The manifold commodities of death to the faithfull ibid. See the folly and absurditie of men so to hate death and to loue this sinfull life 20 21. The presumption of long life causeth the greater negligence of our death 22. Selfe-loue causeth men to hate and abhorre Death ibid. Death bringeth an equall law ouer all for the chiefest point of equitie is equalitie 23. CHAP. II. CHristians knowing Death with his forces ought throughly to be prepared against it Sect. 1. Death is so farre from the destruction of a Christian that it brings him to perfection 2. No man knoweth in what place Death attendeth therefore in all places we must be prouided 3. If we prouide not before death there is no prouision after 4. When we seeme to stand in greatest securitie we then doe dwell in greatest danger and when we least feare we soonest fall 5. It is a dangerous course neuer to begin to liue well till we be a dying 6. He that repenteth when he can sinne no longer leaueth not sinne till his sinne leaue him 7. Many neuer thinke of death nor their sinnes till they cannot liue Sicke they are but their repentance is sicker 8. CHAP. III. SAthan hath an host and armie of enemies to hinder vs in our Christian voyage towards Death Sect. 1. Through Christ alone we get the conquest ouer him and his forces 2. The felicitie of the world is fained his loue counterfeit and his promises deceitfull to Gods children 3. There are no worldly comforts but may be kept and desired so that God being aboue all things be not lost 4. Comforts against losse of friends and kinsfolkes 5. Our life is very short for all good things but too long we may thinke in regard of our miseries 6. All worldly delights finish their course in the salt brine sea of sorrowes 7. How much better is it to want a little hony then to be swolne vp with
a venemous sting 8. Comforts of riches flye from vs in our crosses as vermine from a house on fire 9. When men forsake their owne wils and submit themselues to Gods what can be hard 10. Worldly fauours honours c. as snowbals against the beames of the sunne dissolue and come quickly to nothing 11. He that is great with God shall haue quietnesse in earth and blessednesse in heauen 12. The pompe of the world is like a blazing starre presaging ruine ibid. He is vnworthy of Gods fauour that thinketh it not happinesse inough without the world 13. The Trinitie which the wicked worship is the diuell the world and the flesh ibid. CHAP. IIII. THis wicked world is Sathans kingdome a very Edome and Egypt to the Israel of God Sect. 1. It is a sea of sorrowes and our liues as new sayling ships vnacquainted with the water 2. It is Sathan forge and stythie wherein he frameth a thousand chaines of impieties ibid. A discription of couetousnesse the worlds factour and the couetous 3. God maketh this world loathsome to his children that they should not loue it 4. This barren land wherein we liue after all our drudgerie yeeldeth nothing else but a crop of cares troubles feares c. 5. Our Christian loue must be as a iust ballance our worldly lusts are vnequall in valuing earthly things 6. If our life be no more then the dreame of a shadow what must we thinke of the glory of this world which is of shorter continuance then mans life 7. All worldly glory is no more certaine then calmenesse in the sea still subiect to a storme 8. Worldly men are better sighted then the children of the light but Ieremie wondreth how he should be a wise man that is not a godly man ibid. We must put our trust in God not in our goods on whose pleasure they depend 9. He is the richest that coueteth the least and is content with the least 10. Contentment consisteth not in much yet he hath much which hath it ibid. CHAP. V. GOd made all things and gaue them vnto man who sinning forfeited all againe into his hands and so sent him out of the world with as much as he brought at first Sect. 1. We haue our goods to liue the end ceasing the meanes also cease 2. All worldly goods are ebbing and flowing neither possesse we them as we should vnlesse at all times wee be ready to forgoe them when God pleaseth 3. We must not make a rent-charge of these outward blessings which God giueth of his free liberalitie they are but lent and borrowed 4. Vaine confidence in wealth be-commeth not onely poison to humilitie modestie and faith but transformeth them into pride arrogancie and infidelitie 5. We must vse our riches as our raiment such as are fit for couetousnesse groweth with riches as the Iuye with the Oake 6. God is to be loued aboue all things and all things for him ibid. Good men vse the world and the things thereof that they may inioy God and wicked men so vse God as that they may inioy the world 7. If we loue our friends too much and not God aboue all things then hath our sorrow no measure as it ought 8. Carnall parents and friends are to be loued but the creatour of all is to be imbraced and preferred 9. Loue him that thou canst not loose euen Christ thy redeemer ibid. CHAP. VI. IT is naturall to all men to feare death and how it may lawfully be feared of the faithfull Sect. 1. Faith and a religious feare are alwaies friends in a Christian man 2. Affections of nature are not simply euill but lawfull and tollerable when they are rightly ordered by Gods spirit 3. Christians haue greater cause to imbrace Death then to feare it 4. None are simply to be censured for their manner of Death 6. Gods dearest children are subiect to most fearefull deaths yet an euill Death can neuer follow a constant good life 7. Death cannot properly be called sudden which euery day manifesteth it selfe to all our sences ibid. We must not be curious either to know the time or to choose the manner of our death 8. It is madnesse to desire to know our end of such as are ignorant of their owne 9. We must seeke to mortifie the flesh in vs and to cast the world out of vs but to cast ourselues out of the world is in no sort permitted vs. 10. Gods children alwaies waite in their tryals vntill Death open the doore for their deliuerance 11. We must neither hate our life for the toyles nor loue it for the delights 12. CHAP. VII THe dearest children of God are subiect to the agonie of death by meanes of the weakenesse of nature and guiltinesse sinne Sect. 1 2. Christian meanes to mittigate the horrour of death 3 4. We run away by committing euill and we must returne againe by suffering euill 5. It is God that knoweth the perils of our death and can onely deliuer vs by his power ibid. The sweet spices of Christs buriall expell the strong scent of our rotten graues 6. It is the remainder of life not of death that tormenteth a man 7. Such a death is neuer to be deplored which is seconded with immortalitie and a blessed life 8. Death and the graue are a fould to the faithfull and a shambles to the wicked 9. Death doth prune as it were the feathers of the soule to flye more swiftly to heauen ibid. By death and the graue the faithfull are fitted and by Gods spirit renewed for his kingdome and glory ibid. CHAP. VIII IT is most conuenient for Christians to dispose of their goods and make their testament in time of their health Sect. 1. and 2. The best furniture against death are faith hope and a conscience vndefiled 3. Men without hope are as a ship without a sayle and anchor tossed with euery tempest and in danger of ship-wracke 4. A sauing faith and an vnmoueable hope are alwaies accompanied with a Christian life and conscience vndefiled 5. As there is no saluation without faith so there is no true faith without repentance 6. Faith is euer alone in iustifying but neuer alone in the person iustified 7. God iustifieth none whom he doth not also sanctifie ibid. The conscience of Christians is bathed and rinsed in the bloud of Christ from the guiltinesse and corruption of sinne 8. The comforts and commodities of a good conscience 9. Thou canst not be friends with thy selfe till thou be with God if thy conscience accuse thee it will kill thee 10. He that hath a hope to liue when he is dead must dye while he is a liue to sinne and wickednesse 11. If the day of our death finde vs a sleepe in sinne we shall hardly awake 12. Many by deferring their amendment shut themselues out of all time and send themselues to paine eternall without time 13. He that will liue without repentance must looke to die without repentance 14. The world
had not perished with the floud if the flouds of teares for sinne had flowed from mens eyes 15. Hope is the piller sustaining the building of our faith which fainting our faith falleth into the gulfe of dispaire 16. All things are possible to him which beleeueth ibid. Hope to a Christian is as a staffe to a traueller who resteth vpon it shall hardly fall 17. Despaire is a bottomelesse gulfe out of which none returneth that fall into it ibid. CHAP. IX WIthout the vndoubted hope of the resurrection Christ died in vaine our faith hope and all religion is in vaine Sect. 1. Infallible proofes of the resurrection by scriptures which are of God and cannot lie 2. Reasons drawne from the Scripture to confirme the same 3. Naturall reason and experience of the creatures conuince the truth hereof 4. Why should not our bodies rise againe from the dust as well as the seede sowne harrowed and hidden in the ground 5. Excellent resemblances and allusions of the resurrection of our bodies 6. Christ hath caried our flesh into heauen to put vs in possession and giuen vs his spirit as an earnest to seale his promises that we shall raigne with him in glory 7. Our bodies in the graue shall againe be quickned in Christ and rise againe to life carrying with them the warmenesse of Gods spirit which cannot die 8. Though our flesh doe rot yet shall the spirit of God deliuer it from corruption by the vertue of him that raised vp Christ from the dead 9. CHAP. X. THe godly groane that this mortalitie may be swallowed vp of life Sect. 2. They loath this wretched life to be vnloden of their sins 3. Our life is like a stage on which men play their parts and passe away ibid. A Christian needeth not feare the violence of death whose force is broken in Christ 4. Death as a Tailor putteth off our ouer-worne rags to apparell vs with the royall roabes of immortalitie incorruption and endlesse glory 5. A description of this sinfull wretched and miserable life 6. 7. Euery mans life is like a rocke in the Sea beaten vpon with waues on euery side and like vnto a Butt or marke at which sorrow c. shootes and at last Death that most sure Archer shootes and strikes it dead 8. The state and condition of all flesh is to be miserable and mortall 9. All kinde of miseries hunt after sinfull man and Death at length doth greedily deuoure him 10. Very fit resemblances of this wretched life 11. While we reside in the world death euery where lyeth in ambush for vs but when wee are in heauen it shall haue no place ibid. The comfortable death of Christians through Christ 12. 13. It is better to dye alwayes to liue then to liue to dye euer 14. If wee looke for our felicitie here wee are deceiued Eliah must goe to heauen in a whirle-winde 15. When we are borne we are mortall but when wee are once dead we become immortall 16. Death is as it were the birth of a blessed soule after a great trauell 17. Death and life are two twinnes inseparable vntill the diuision of soule and body ibid. It is a deliuerance from all sinne and the accomplishment of sanctification ibid. All the inhabitants of heauen weare crownes of glory sit in thrones of maiestie and possesse a Paradise of infinite pleasures 18. All glorified bodies shall shine as so many Sunnes and lamps in Gods kingdome 19. The incomparable ioyes of the kingdome of heauen shadowed out ibid. What heauenly societie and company of Saints are in Gods Kingdome 20. If we will make our death ioyfull and easie we must thinke of the glorious life that followeth it 21. If we would despise this world we must thinke of heauen ibid. Christ himselfe dyed that we might dye with more patience and pleasure ibid. It is a token of little loue to God to be so loath to goe vnto him 22. God reacheth out his hand to conduct vs but we draw backe our owne and runne away ibid. If God be our guide we must follow him to arriue in his house 23. FINIS THE FIRST BOOKE What DEATH is in it selfe CHAP. I. Of mans Creation and excellent estate before his Fall OVr most gracious God infinite in section 1 wisedome and incomprehensible in loue towards mankinde hauing before all worlds decreed to make himselfe most glorious in his Creation did in his appointed time effect the same For hauing made the world in wonderfull manner and furnished it with all varietie of creatures both for profit and pleasure deuising in his wisedome and vnspeakable loue a perfection of happinesse for man vpon the earth at last after a most exquisite manner consulted with himselfe for the shape of man and finding no creature fit enough for a patterne of his portraiture concluded with himselfe to make mankinde as a Chrystall glasse of his glory and a most liuely resemblance after a sort of his Maiestie section 2 And that not onely in the frame of his body to be as it were a briefe Map and abridgement of the whole worlds perfection which hee made as a most glorious Theatre fully replenished with most admirable sights of all sorts but which is more both in body and soule to represent his Creator as his Vicegerent and petty Monarch on the earth and seating him here as it were in his Throne and putting his owne Scepter into his hand and his Crowne of glory vpon his head gaue him dominion and rule ouer all the workes of his hands so that well may the Prophet with wonder exclaime and cry out Lord what is man that thou art so mindefull of him c. section 3 Now that this Image of God was liuely expressed in whole man resembling his Maker both in his body and in his soule doth plainly appeare by the renuing of man in Christ who is not onely sanctified in the one alone but in the other section 4 And first for mans Body it did resemble God in that immortalitie wherein it was first created as also in the seuerall members thereof expressed the varietie of his perfections and therefore in respect of Gods diuers employments in a borrowed speech are ascribed to him as the hands and armes to shew Gods omnipotencie and power his eyes and eares his piercing prouidence and sight c. I omit mans face and comely countenance in which principally doth shine a certaine imperious maiestie and grace most conspicuous causing all liuing creatures to stoupe vnto him and besides the goodly order of all his outward parts set and disposed in admirable sort a glorious beauty spreading it selfe throughout with wonderfull strength agillitie and nimblenesse of all his members made him most famous that very Naturalists and Pagans anatomizing his very body not onely preferred the frame thereof before the worlds whole curious creation but rauished in their senses with the consideration of the same deified and preferred it aboue all measure
will be thy sting O hell I will be thy biting The Grecians also deriue it from a word importing to looke vpwards because it brings vs to God and they tearme it Initiation or Perfection because in ending this life it entereth vs or rather perfecteth our life in heauen And the Latines take the name thereof from mora which signfieth delay or tarrying for a thing because it waiteth and expecteth for all men of all sorts and conditions And this may suffice for the dedescription of Death and declaration of the nature thereof CHAP. VI. At Death is due to all mankinde by the meanes of Sinne so all creatures actions and experience it selfe preach and proclaime the same AS the wages of Sinne is Death so all Adams sonnes hauing sinned must needes dye the death As in Adam saith the Apostle all men dye so in Christ shall all beleeuers be made aliue It is Gods Statute enacted in heauen that all must dye euen this were enough to cast a cloud ouer all our fayrest delights but there is more behinde and after that comes the iudgement The perswasion whereof possessing our hearts should one would thinke more then all penall Lawes deterre vs from impietie Ashes saith one are wont to keepe the fire the remembrance whereof wee beare about in our bodies But I would to God that the knowledge of these ashes I meane our fraile estate would keepe in our hearts the fire of Gods grace that we might neuer forget our graue And as the Law of dying was enacted at the first for sinne so hath it beene and shall be executed vpon all men without repeale vnto the end Neyther saith the Apostle any more then hath beene confirmed by a continuall course from the first creation as the registers of the death and buryals recorded in the Scripture doe declare Adam liued saith the holy Ghost by Moses nine hundred and thirty yeares and so hee dyed Seth liued nine hundred and twelue yeares and after dyed c. And is not this a true table most liuely representing our mortalitie and death Of some others it is said that they were gathered to their fathers of others to their people c. but of none that hee euer escaped For what man liueth and shall not see death shall bee deliuer his soule from the hand of the graue Therefore Iosuah calleth Death The way of all the world David The way of all the earth Iob The house of all men liuing He calleth it also The heape whereupon the liues of all men shall be powred where Kings and Counsellors are great and small Captaines and Souldiers bond and free Wee see how the best and happiest dayes of man slide swiftly away after come diseases and dolefull age and last comes cruell Death the lodge of all estates All must dye without distinction wee came by the wombe and wee must goe by the graue Before wee come to the sweet running waters of Shilo which runne softly we must passe the rough waters of Iorden that runne most swiftly Death is the Lady and Empresse of all the world her seizure is without surrender and from her sentence there is no appeale It is not the Maiestie of the Prince nor the holinesse of the Prophet nor grauitie of the Prelate that shee respecteth Strength of body feature or comelinesse of face or other parts learning riches or any such secular regard can plead against Death or priuiledge any person against the graue be thy dayes neuer so few or thy yeares neuer so full be they many or be they few all is one Dayes and yeares and time are no plea against the graue but a fitter pray for Death The Decree is out All must dye Balthasars embleame is written vpon euery mans wall God hath numbred thy dayes he hath laid thee in the ballance thou art found too light though not thy Kingdome which thou hast not yet thy life which thou possessest is diuided and giuen to death All Princes and the basest Peasants yea all persons whatsoeuer may say with Iob Corruption thou art my father Rottennesse thou art my mother Wormes and Vermine yee are my sisters yee are my brethren All men may truely say Graue thou art my bed Sheete thou art my shrine Earth thou art my couer Grasse thou art my carpet Oh Death therefore demand thy due and thou gathering hoast Dan come last and sweepe all cleane away Death is not partiall but dealeth vprightly with all making the state and condition of all men alike that none can repine for as well died righteous Abell whose sacrifice God accepted as enuious Cain whose seruice he reiected as well Abraham the father of the faithfull as Abimelech the infidell as well Isaack as Ismael as well Iacob whom God loued as Esau whom God hated as well chast Ioseph as incestuous Ammon as well meeke Moses as rayling Rabsheka as well Dauid a man after Gods owne heart as Saul from whom God tooke his spirit as well tender-hearted Iosiah as hard-hearted Pharaoh as well Salomon the wise as Nabal the foole as well poore Lazarus as the rich Glutton as well Iohn the beloued Disciple as Iudas the Traitor as well Simon Peter as Simon the Sorcerer mercilesse Death doth exercise her crueltie vpon all alike Notable is that saying of Agesilaus to diuers Captaines counselling him to walke to the hill Olimpus where hee should see such store of wealthy Merchants vttering a world of riches and precious Iewels If I could saith he buy and sell or exchange there sorrow for mirth sicknesse for health death for life I would then goe thither and spend all that I haue but I see that the buyers and sellers yea and the very things themselues are condemned to dye and to perish Wherefore neyther the sight of any thing there can better my estate or help me at the houre of death when I must creepe into my graue For although honour wealth and riches beare here a great sway amongst men yet can they nothing at all preuaile against the graue and Death it selfe Men by wisedome haue found out how the hardest stones may be broken and softened how wilde beasts may be tamed c. but nothing could be inuented whereby Death might be auoyded Gods hand saith one may a man escape but for Deaths dart no man can shunne it Against bodily enemies there may Fortresses be made Castles and Bulwarkes builded but to Death and his forces all men lye open as vnfenced Cities In other dangers power money flight counsell and policie may serue our turne but as for Death it can neyther be banished with power bought with money nor escaped with flying away nor preuented with counsell nor turned backe with policie All I say without redresse must hasten vnto Deaths home Hee therefore that thinketh it strange to dye forgetteth himselfe and his owne nature complaineth of the God of heauen that suffered him to be
euerlasting Death in particular and of the horrour thereof GReat and heauie was the tribute that the eternall God as a most iust iudge imposed vpon man for sinne The Death of the body is fearefull in our eyes when wee consider with our selues how strangely the condition thereof is altered when the body that a fleshly man makes so much of his belly which he esteemeth for his God his mouth for whose delight the sea and land sufficed not his flesh that was wont to be cloathed with costly garments of silke and gold curiously wrought shall now sodainely be haled into a filthy hole and pit where it shall be trod vpon yea and eaten with wormes where in stead of gorgeous apparrell he must now onely enioy his winding sheete and instead of his perfumes and maskes filthy fauours and rottennesse and in lieu of his varietie of delicate dishes and seruing men to attend him to haue a company and infinite number of crawling vermine to feede vpon him What man I say now liuing and enioying sence and reason but will maruell to thinke of the base condition that so noble a creature comes vnto who in his life time had no fellow nor equall Is it not a wonder that so excellent a myrrour of nature should come to such a dishonourable base and loathsome estate The euerlasting Iudge knew well enough what penance he enioyned sinfull man when he said thou art dust and to dust thou shalt returne but what is this death and disgrace of the body to the death and deformity of body and soule in hell it is but as the byting of a flea to the stinging of a Scorpion a shadow to the substance If diseases which doe but make the way to death be so dreadfull what must the end and perfection of diseases be since as the diseases are the malidies of the body so Death it selfe the maladie of disease for there are that feare not so much to die as to be dead If the pang be bitter yet it is but short but the comfortlesse state of the dead strikes some farre deeper that could well be resolued otherwise for the act of their passage The very not being is sufficiently abhorred of nature if Death had no more to make it fearefull but those that haue liued vnder such shining beames of light to shew them the darke dungeon of hell after their straight passage thorough the gates of Death and such as haue learned that Death is not onely horrible for their not being here but for their abode and being infinitely and eternally miserable in the world to come not so much for the dissolution of life as the beginning of torment such I say cannot but extreamely feare to die and hellishly tremble to be dead indeede But if it be such paines to die what shall be the torture and torment to be euer dying and neuer dead And if the strayning of one Ioynt can so afflict vs as experience teacheth what shall the racking of the whole body and tormenting of the soule be whose animation alone maketh the body feele and complaine of smart And if our momentany sufferings seeme long how long shall that be which is eternall If so extreme sorrowes be incident indifferently to Gods dearest children vpon earth to driue them sometimes within the sight of despaire what shall those be that are reserued onely for those that hate the Lord and are hated of him There is nothing great that hath not an end as it is in the prouerbe but to be tormented in most horrible paines in all the parts of body and soule without remorse that shall neuer haue end nor ease nor mitigation nor declination nor change nor alteration nor hope of end in the sufferer or tormentour this euill is beyond all the thoughts of man this is the dying life and liuing Death full of endlesse horrour and torment where the damned are not before Death or after Death but alwayes in Death therfore neuer liuing nor euer dead but alwaies dying and it shall be neuer be worse to the wicked in Death then when their Death it selfe shall be without Death And it is great iustice in God that they neuer want the paine of hell who all their life time had all their pleasure set on sinne Who if they could faine would haue liued for euer but neuer left their sinne for he that forsaketh not his sin in this life seemeth alwaies for sinnes sake to liue euer From this Death therefore there is no returne it groweth by continuance and by continuing groweth from hell there is no redemption It is a gulfe deuouring all things that come into it neuer restoring any thing againe It is the pit of perdition and house of despaire It is the second Death farre exceeding the first beyond all conceits of man for what life haue the damned where there is nothing but immortality of torments and euill where there is nothing but the fellowship of Diuels and the damned where there is fire vnquenchable to which ours is but Ice Continuall burning there is the least yet this is not all for though the euils be most great and continuall yet here hope bringeth some ease as a little Starre in the night but in hell with those greatest torments and horrour of euils is the greatest despaire without hope of any ease or recouery This horror is most horrible far exceeding all worldly sorrow and feare better it were neuer to haue beene then not to be deliuered from that dying life which is indeede an immortall death In this life all the paines which fall vpon man are but particular and not vniuersall as we see one man pained in his eyes another in his backe another in his teeth another in his belly c. which particular paines notwithstanding sometime are so extreame as that life is not able to resist them and a man would not endure them so long for the gaining of many worlds But suppose now a man were tormented in all the parts of his body together and at once in his head eyes tongue teeth throat stomacke belly backe heart sides thighes and in all his ioynts besides without ease or intermission what thing could be more miserable then this what sight more lamentable yet consider further what difference there is betweene abiding these paines for a weeke or for euer and all eternitie in suffering of them vpon a soft bed or vpon a burning gridiron and boyling furnace amongst a mans friends comforting him or amongst the Furies of hell tormenting him Now therefore if a man would endure a great deale of labour rather then abide the one in this life how carefull and diligent should we be to hate our sinnes and serue the Lord while we liue rather then to incurre the other tortures and torments in the life to come The wicked shall be tormented for euer so long as God is God so long shall they burne in hell neyther shall the tormenter nor the tormented dye but both liue
of Gods elect to know the bottomlesse loue of Christ beyond all knowledge indeed who was accursed for our sakes and suffered for vs not onely the torments of his body but the anguish and horrour of his soule and the wrath of his Father which wounded his flesh and spirit vnto death and would haue held him in that condemnation for euer if hee had beene no stronger then wee that had deserued it But being also the Sonne of God in whom the fulnesse of the God-head dwelleth bodily the eternall spirit that was with him did loose the chaines of Sathan Death and Hell and so hee mightily arose from the power of the Diuell of which it was impossible hee should be holden and hath left those his enemies euen Diuell Death and Hell in ignominie and darknesse and hath abolished them for euer and euer not to hurt vs any more As a Bee saith one stinging a dead body takes no hurt but stinging a liue body many times looseth both sting and life together in like manner Death so long as it stung mortall men onely which were dead in sinne was neuer a whit the worse but when it went about to sting Christ which is life it selfe by and by it lost both sting and strength Hee that felleth a tree vpon which the Sunne shineth may well cut the tree but cannot hurt the Sunne Hee that poureth water vpon iron which is red hot may well quench the heate but he cannot hurt the iron but rather makes it harder so Christ the Sunne of righteousnesse did driue away the shadow of death and as glowing iron hee was too hot and hard a morsell for Death to digest As the while Adam did eate any other fruit which God gaue him leaue to eate hee was nourished by it but when hee had tasted of the forbidden tree hee perished euen so Death had leaue to deuoure any other man Christ onely excepted but when it went about to destroy Christ then it was destroyed it selfe Death indeed did taste of Christ but could not swallow him vp nor digest him Contrariwise Christ as soone as euer hee had but a little tasted of death eft-soones he did deuoure it and swallow it vp in victory Death as a rauenous beast deuouring all men snatched at our Sauiour Christ but hauing caught him could not hold him in her iawes but perceiuing the worthinesse of the prey trembling for feare let him goe free for although Death seemed to swallow him when hee was dead yet finding him farre from the infection of sinne shee could not retaine him in her house As the life of Christ is the life of life so the death of Christ is the death of death Long before his death hee challenged Death and threatned his death O Death I will be thy death and after his death he scorned Death as a Drone without a sting It is reported that the Dragon killeth the Elephant yet so as the Elephant falling downe killeth the Dragon with him As an Elephant as the story saith killed Eleazar yet so as Eleazar falling downe killed the Elephant with him So the Diuell and Death by killing Christ were killed themselues The Elephant liued not after he had killed the Dragon nor Eleazar after he had slaine the Elephant But Christ liued and doth foreuer liue after the full destruction of the diuell and death Though Christ in his graue was neuer like to rise againe yet he died not but mortalitie died in him and immortalitie so liued in his person that euen in his sepulchre he did most liue when hee seemed most to be dead as the Lawrill it greenest in the foulest winter and the Lime is hottest in the coldest water and the Glow-worme lightest when the night is darkest Christ by Death was wounded but his enemies and ours Death and Diuell vtterly spoyled his buckler which was his god-head was whole and vntouched So that his death was no death indeede but an exaltation vnto greater glory He was led saith Esay as a sheepe before the Shearer Shorne he was saith one by Death but not for euer depriued of life But as a Lambe is much more nimble and liuely by shearing so this shearing by Death was a kinde of quickning to Christ Christ is that louing Rahel which dieth her selfe that her Son may liue He is that painefull Adam who by the sweate of his browes hath earned for vs the bread of life He is that iust Noah which shutting vp himselfe in his Arke as a Sepulchre saueth all that come to him aliue He is that tender Pellican which wounding his owne brest doth with his blood restore his faithfull broode to life And as honie being found in a dead Lion was the sustenance of Sampson So Christs gall is our honie and his bitter Death by reason of his righteousnesse is the sweete life of all beleeuers Now the remembrance of Christ crucified must serue to crucifie sin for then Christ doth sleepe in thee when thou forgettest his passion and the readiest way and directest path to goe to heauen is to swimme through the riuer of Christs blood the drops whereof rayning from the cloudes of his mercy commonly quench the fiery flames of Gods burning wrath which cannot be extinguished by the vertuous water of any mans merit It is the oyle of grace which must purge our defiled hearts It is the dew of heauen which will make vs flourish Christs death alone therefore is the welspring of our saluation Oh loue this good thing in which all good things are it is enough for thee Where is safe and stedfast rest and assurednesse for the weake and wounded soule but in the wounds of our Sauiour Christ and so much the surer I dwell therein as he is mightier to saue me The world rageth the body burdeneth the Diuell like a deuouring Lyon roareth yet the faithfull fall not because they are builded vpon Christ the rocke I haue sinned a grieuous sinne my conscience is troubled but it is not distressed because I remember the wounds of my Iesus Our safe sanctuarie in all distresse is Iesus Christ who wholly gaue himselfe and spent his soule in suffering for our sinnes still remaining our Aduocate to his Father and crying alwayes vnto vs to come to him for rest In the caue of this rocke wee may safely hide our selues his death is the secret den for our deliuerance from eternall death and hell Vnder the wings of this Hen may the poore and naked chickens hide themselues be sure and safe from all hellish Kites There is nothing so soueraigne a remedie against the stinging of that infernall serpent as to fasten the eye of our faith vpon Iesus Christ heaued vp and exalted vpon the Crosse The venemous by tings of those hellish spirits of damnation cannot once annoy vs if wee fully repose our trust in Christ alone that was crucified His Crosse and passion is the triumphant ensigne
Sepulchre can no where be found So that Sinne and Death can hurt vs no more for Christ is Lord ouer the Law Sinne and Death to all beleeuers Moses must giue place to Christ Death and Sinne can haue no roome but grace ioy righteousnesse life faith and peace must haue place with all true happinesse and heauenly rest The Law now cannot condemne nor saue it restraineth vs from sinning as the bonds and chaines the Lion and Beare from tearing and deuouring The Law is the Hammer of Death the thundring of Hell and lightning of Gods wrath that beateth to powder the obstinate and senselesse Hypocrites and hard-harted reprobates This is the true vse of the Law by fearefull tempests and sound of a Trumpet as in Synai to terrifie and by thunder to beate downe and rent in peeces that cruell monster of mans righteousnesse The Schoole-maister chastiseth his Schollers not to hurt them but to reforme them The rod is sharpe but correction is necessarie and the heart of the correctour louing The Physitian giueth a bitter potion to his patient to cure him the bitternesse is not to be imputed to the Physitian but to the medicine and maladie The Law condemneth the faithfull to death no more but teacheth and instructeth them in their duetie exhorteth and reproueth them and procureth them by all meanes to goe to the Schoole of Christ The Law and Christ are as the Physitian and Surgean comming to a sicke man to heale him The Surgean openeth the veine and taketh away the corrupt blood not to kill him but to recouer him to his health The Law peirceth our impostumes and corruptions of sinne and Christ healeth the wound But to seeke to be iustified by the Law is as if one hauing the Falling-sicknesse would ioyne to it the Pestilence for his recouery Or as if a Leper should come to one that had the leprosie to heale him or as one begger to another to enrich them So that they that seeke to be righteous by the Law are twise more vnrighteous weake and beggerly If a man now could fulfill all the Law of God yet could he not be saued because he was borne corrupt and could not possibly pay for that was past and in performing the Law afterward he should doe nothing but his duetie but this is our comfort that the Lord seeing our weakenesse hath in his loue passed by it and seeing our thoughts alwaies to be euill taketh no accompt or reckoning of vs but we resembling the Image of his Sonne the Lord reckoneth with him and striketh off our debts in setting them on his score who hath paid the Lord his full due euen to the vtmost farthing being in his birth cleane in his life holy and in his death obedient We therefore that haue no goodnesse of our owne haue iust cause highly to extoll the goodnesse of God freely giuen to vs in Iesus Christ For the trusting to our owne merites is the reioycing of Sathan the serpent that would sting vs. But the fastening of the firme Anchor of our hope vpon Christ alone is his ouerthrow and baine For as the Apostle exulteth If God be on our side who will be against vs. This is the onely victorie that ouercommeth the world euen our faith fixed on Christ This is the sling of Dauid to throw that mightie Goliah to the ground yea euen the weapon that slayeth him Neither the Law then nor merits of men nor any other meanes whatsoeuer but onely the deserts of Christ take place in the worke of our redemption The death and passion of Iesus Christ is a soueraigne medicine against all diseases of soule and body the remembrance whereof doth much mitigate the feare and horrour of death for hee that beleeueth in this crucified Sauiour is already passed from death to life By his vniust condemnation which we onely haue deserued we are deliuered and absolued at the iudgement seate of God and by the death which he suffered wee haue life and our death is abolished Christ suffered for our sinnes the iust for the vniust he hath borne our sinnes and God hath laid our sorrowes vpon him and by his stripes wee are healed He hath died for vs that wee might liue no more to our selues but to him which died for vs which we must doe by faith For faith presenteth Christ before our eyes It seeketh him out as a mighty Sampson which breaketh the gates of his enemies and carrieth them away vpon his shoulders who killed and destroyed more by his death then by his life So that Christ alone being crucified did conquer the Diuell being nailed to the crosse he cancelled the enditement of the law laid against vs and by dying he slaue Death and Sinne with their owne swords as Dauid did Goliah and broke the Serpents head Hee opened the Sepulchre and gaue life vnto the dead yea he entred into the house of Death and Hell and like a strong armed man bereaued them of their forces No sooner was Ionah cast into the Sea but the tempest ceased no sooner was the paschall Lambe slaine but the Israelites were deliuered no sooner was the high-Priests dead but all banished men returned home into their country What was this but a figure of Christ by whose Death we haue all returne into our country and deliuerance from all danger and destruction Who would not lay his burden vpon him that so desireth to giue him ease God would not haue the sinner to die and be damned but to liue and be saued Haue wee had so many experiments of his loue and should wee now doubt thereof Is the Iudge become our Aduocate and shall wee feare to goe forward to the throne of grace One deepe calleth another and what is that saith one There is a depth of mans miserie now at the gates of death and there is a depth of Gods mercie which is ready to heare and helpe all that call vpon him Now miserie calleth vpon mercie wee may cry Helpe Lord for besides him there is none to helpe It is not the peeces and patches of our owne deserts that can make vs a garment to couer our nakednesse and sinne but it is the Scarlet-roabe that tooke so deepe a double dye in the bloud of Christ that must now alone stand vs all in stead CHAP. III. The faithfull onely and such as are vnited to Christ are redeemed from death and restored to euerlasting life with the singular priuiledges and effects thereof NOW as the benefit of our Redemption section 1 by Christ is great and vnspeakable performed onely by Christ himselfe and his onely meanes so none but his members are partakers thereof Hee is the head the Church is his body and euery faithfull man is a member for his part And as there is no life in the body but as it is vnited to the head nor any motion in the
Things present things to come Life Death the world it selfe all is ours and we are Christs Christ in regard of this our vnion with him is not ashamed to call vs Brethren who yet made heauen and earth section 20 and is an immortall and glorious God one with his Father to whom all Angels doe obeysance and the most glorious Princes are but dust and ashes It was a rare thing in Moses being so high in fauour with Pharao that hee would vouchsafe to visite his poore brethren such slaues and bond-men It was singular loue in Ioseph being next to the King in honour and place yet not to be ashamed of his Fathers house being herd-men and sheepe-herds But this is nothing to the kindenesse of Iesus Christ the very shining brightnesse of that most glorious God and his onely begotten Sonne before all eternitie who yet was not ashamed of vs miserable wretched sinners but of his free grace acknowledged vs that were his very enemies in whose person he should suffer a most shamefull and slanderous Death And is it not trow you a iust condemnation if wee wretched men should be ashamed of him who being the God of glory was not ashamed of vs And as they are naturall brethren which are borne of the same Parents so all wee are brethren with Christ which are borne of God through the same spirit by which we cry Abba Father and exercise our loue one towards another in the vnitie of Christian faith section 21 Wee wrastle here with sin as though the steppes of our strength were restrained and looke euen fully vpon death as the Ialour that committeth vs to our graue as a dungeon how be it euen in this doth the Lord reach forth a most approued cordiall to reuiue the faintnesse of our hearts for through the vnion and communion we haue with Christ the vncleanenesse of our birth is washed away in the sanctification of his nature Our transgression remoued in his innocencie our rebellion discharged in his obedience and the vtmost farthing paid in his sufferings And hauing the Image of God which we lost in Adam not renewed onely but a fairer and deeper stampe thereof ingrauen and set vpon vs we may in a Christian resolution challenge at the gates of Hell and Death that nothing can be charged vpon vs as a debt and therefore nothing can light vpon vs as a punishment Wherefore though we mingle here our bread with care and drinke with weeping and haue our lodging in the bed of darkenesse and discomfort it is but to weane vs from the flesh-pots of Egypt till in the heauenly land of Canaan we haue our hearts desire section 22 And though our bodies seeme to perish for euer in in the iudgement of men yet still they haue a being in the sight of God and are members of Christ For the vnion as I haue said betweene Christ and the faithfull is not onely of our soules but of our bodies also all the bodies of the faithfull being vnited to the bodie of Christ And this is such a coniunction as Death can neuer dissolue For though it doth breake the knot betweene Man and Wife yet cannot it infringe the bond betwixt Christ and the faithfull As Death did not make a separation betwixt the two natures of Christ at the time of his suffering though his soule and body were then farre distant in regard of place the one being in heauen and the other in the graue yet were they at that time and in that case personally vnited vnto his god-head no more can Death make a diuision betwixt Christ and the faithfull though there bodies putrifie and rot in their graues yet still they remaine true members of his body And as the Husbandman doth make as great reckoning section 23 of that corne which he hath sowen in his Field and lieth vnder clods as hee doth of that which lieth safe in his barne or garner because he assureth himselfe it will come vp againe and yeelde encrease So Christ our Sauiour doth as highly esteeme of those bodies which are dead and buried as of those which remaine aliue because hee knowes that one day they shall rise againe in honour Their life is but hid for a time and will be found out againe for Christ is able to restore that which nature hath destroyed And God doth deale herein no otherwise with the bodies of his children then Goldsmiths with their old peeces of plate long agoe out of fashion who cast them in the Furnace to refine them and to bring them to a better forme according to his minde Therefore let not the wofull condition of our bodies discourage vs any whit or lessen our hope being ready to die For though the graue deuoure them wormes doe eate section 24 them fire consume them or sea swallow them vp yet being ioyned to Christ in his death and resurrection as Christ and Christians are made one indiuisible body by the bond of Gods spirit they can neuer be seuered from him And although their bodies be as it were rent from the soule by the violence of Death yet in regard of this coniunction with Christ their head neither death nor the graue can separate them from their head For though our bodie be buried in the earth yet our head is in heauen And as one that swimmeth though his body diue and sinke vnder the water yet his head being aboue the streames the whole man is sure and safe from perishing So sure are the faithfull from euerlasting death and destruction though their bodies be entrenched and enterred in their graues being members of their head Iesus Christ ascended aloft aboue the highest heauens to whom they are vnited still by an inseparable bond of his spirit which death can neuer breake CHAP. IIII. The combat and conflict of Christians with Sinne Flesh Death Law and Diuell with their heauenly conquest and triumph ouer them all through Iesus Christ section 1 SVch is the enmitie of the old Serpent in the iust iudgement of God set betweene him and Adams seede that though his head be broken yet still he will labour to bruise their heele Like a coward ouercome he lags behinde for aduantage and not daring to shew his face any more in the field hee dragges in the way and lieth aloofe vpon euery occasion to take them in a trappe Though he cannot preuaile yet prouoke vs still hee will to fight and try our manhood neither can wee otherwise be conquerours then was Christ our Captaine and head who by dying in the field recouered life both for himselfe and his Souldiers for nothing but Death can end this combat Our life is a warfare and that most strange for any section 2 other warre may haue an end either by a conclusion of peace with the enemie or by flying farre from him or by ouercomming him in fight But in this spirituall warre we cannot lawfully make any peace with these our enemies the
righteous God the Law-giuer is infinit eternall and so his Iustice offended therefore his death by transgressing must be endlesse and euerlasting God is iust and cannot deny himselfe Hee hath said that if man breake his Law he should dye the death and therefore death shall hold him God is perfect and pure and therefore the satisfaction must be answerable to his nature His righteous Law bindes both soule and body to obedience euen euery mans thoughts words and workes and therefore let euery man performe this and hee shall liue section 8 These and many moe are the darts of the Diuel which hee casteth against our soules to wound vs to death the least of which assuredly would peirce vs through were it not that the strength of Iesus Christ rebounds them back and blunts them Hee alone is our shield and buckler our helmet of saluation our Castle and house of defence hee couereth vs with his wings and wee are safe vnder his feathers his faithfulnesse and his truth shall still preserue vs. For all these dangerous darts and a thousand moe are nothing to his power their force is lesse and their violence weaker then straw or stubble to the furnace But to hasten the answere Gods Iustice indeede is section 9 gone out it cannot be reuersed Man must keepe his Law or man must dye eternall death Whereupon it pleased the onely Sonne of God to become the sonne of man for our sakes and so as man to satisfie the Law of God for our sinnes that Gods truth might not be altered No Angell nor Saint could be our Sauiour in this case but man who had offended God Now man of himselfe being too weake to beare this heauy weight Christ being God became also man as we haue heard that so hee might suffer as man and saue as God Our Mediator was God and man Man and God were foes and therefore being God and man hee reconciled man to God And as the first Adam by transgressing brought death vpon all men so Christ the second Adam by obaying brought life to all beleeuers Gods purest Iustice could not exact the thing which he fulfilled not It required the performance of the Law this hee accomplished being the end of the Law and the Prophets Hee was the substance of all the old Ceremonies and the very body of all the shadowes of the Law Hee was circumcised and baptised and so fulfilled all righteousnesse hee paid tribute and was obedient in all things and was vnder the Law so his comming was not to breake the Law but to fulfill the Law As it required perfect holinesse in man so hee was a man without sinne conceiued by the holy Ghost therefore hee was not afraid to say to the faces of his foes Which of you can rebuke mee of sinne Yea the Iudge himselfe that condemned him washed his hands as a witnesse of his cleannesse I finde no fault in this iust man True therefore is the saying of the Apostle that hee was made sinne for vs which knew no sinne that wee might be made the righteousnesse of God through him He is truely called the Paschall Lambe most pure and vnspotted which taketh away the sinnes of the world To him all the Prophets beare witnesse that iustly through his name is preached remission of sinne and that there is no other name vnder heauen by which we can be saued Thus hee fulfilled the Law for man which had broke section 10 the Law being man himselfe His obedience was most perfect he left nothing vnfulfilled And as hee kept the Law which man had broken so likewise did he beare the punishment which hee deserued The breach of the Law was the curse of God and eternall death He therefore became accursed and sustained death euen the death of the Crosse accursed of God and so by death ouercame death and by his curse brought the blessing of God vpon vs. Hee cancelled the hand-writing that the Diuell had against vs hee nayled it to his Crosse and made it void so that now the faithfull may triumph through Christ Death being swallowed vp in victory they may boldly exclaime and say O Death where is thy sting O Graue where is thy victory for the sting of Death being Sinne and the strength of Sin being the Law and both Sin and Law being abolished through Christ there is now no condemnation that remaineth and therefore thankes be to God who hath giuen vs the victory through Iesus Christ for hee hath taken our sinnes vpon his backe hee hath satisfied the Law of God not for himselfe but for vs hee dyed that wee might liue hee was accursed that wee might be blessed he was buryed and rose againe that wee might rise from our graues and liue for euer hee descended into hell that wee might ascend to heauen his righteousnesse is our righteousnesse and our sinnes are his this exchange did hee make for our sakes And therefore through Faith by him wee are reuiued quickened and strengthened All his merits are imputed vnto vs as though they were our owne and our sinnes are truely his for which he suffered and satisfied to the vtmost section 11 Christ Iesus I say is our onely satisfaction and sacrifice the fountaine of grace and vertue the portion of our inheritance our righteousnesse wisedome sanctification and redemption our hope of glory our doore to heauen the way the truth and the light our attonement vnto God our Shepheard Master Lord and King To be short hee is all in all to vs that are nothing This our Sauiour Christ hath abrogated the Law and hath redeemed those that were vnder the Law and hee himselfe is the end of the Law and that which the Law could not doe hee hath accomplished in his person And therefore O Diuell let Gods people goe for the Law cannot hold them And therefore O death resigne thy power thy sting and strength is nothing the Law being fulfilled and Sinne remoued The seede of the woman hath bruised the Serpents head Christ hath ledde captiuitie captiue and giuen gifts vnto men He hath reconciled and made as one all things both in heauen and earth Hee hath quite plucked downe the partition wall in abrogating through his flesh the hatred that remayned There is now neyther Iew nor Gentile bond nor free Scythian nor Barbarian man nor woman all that beleeue are one in Christ Hee hath made the Wolfe to dwell with the Lambe and the Leopard to lye with the Kid he hath made the Calfe the fat beasts and the Lyon so tame that a little childe may lead them the Cow and the Beare with their young ones not onely feede but lye together the sucking childe doth play vpon the hole of the Aspe yea euen the weaned childe most safely putteth his hand into the hole of the Cockatrice Christ hath now dissolued the workes of the Diuell and broken his snares asunder that all beleeuing sinners might
passe with speede to him that gaue it The spirituall body raised vp from the graue by the spirit of Christ shall againe being vnited to the soule obay it with admirable facilitie all sense of trouble being taken away and all corruption and slownesse remoued when all frailtie and earthly pollution is conuerted and changed into heauenly puritie and stedfastnesse which shall not neede eyther meate or drinke but liue for euer by the quickening spirit of Christ Man of woman is borne in trauell to liue in misery Man section 13 through Christ doth dye in ioy to liue in felicitie Hee is borne into the world with cryes vttering at his entrance his miserable estate Straight as hee departeth with ioyfull songs hee prayseth God for euer Hee is scarcely in his Cradle but deadly enemies assault him yet after death no aduersaries can annoy him Whilest he is here he displeaseth God when hee is departed he fulfilleth his will In this life hee dyeth through sinne in the life to come hee liueth in righteousnesse Through many tribulations on earth is hee still tryed as gold in a furnace but with holinesse vnspeakable in that heauenly life is he indowed for euer Here he dyeth euery houre there hee liueth continually Here is sinne there is righteousnesse here is time there is eternitie here is mortall hatred there is heauenly loue here are paines and perils there is pleasure and safety here is misery there is felicity here is corruption there is immortalitie here wee see vanitie there shall wee behold the Maiestie of God with triumph and vnspeakable ioy in glory euerlasting Seeke we therefore the things that are aboue where Christ Iesus our Sauiour sitteth in his Maiestie to receiue vs. Gods Children in this world are cast as it were into section 14 a sea of melting glasse to seethe for a time and boyle in and in great perplexitie to shift for themselues but at length God will dragge them out to the shoare and giue them ease in that blessed life to come Sinne with all misery afflictions and death it selfe shall be shut vp in hell as in the proper place and the passing from death to life doubles the ioyes of eternall life As those that haue escaped many dangerous shipwrackes on the sea greatly exulte when they come to shoare Mans habitation here is in houses of clay he leades his section 15 life in vile and irkesome sort here is no firmenesse of iudgement nor constancie in actions yea well-nigh no faith to be found amongst men In the day many an afflicted soule desires the night and when it is night they wish for day Bitter mourning they haue instead of meate and salt bryne teares in stead of drinke No ease from troubles nor release from afflictions is here to be found so that many desire deaths company and cannot haue it they sue to her for rest and peace as tyred sea-men for the port and hauen This world to all Gods Israel is an Egypt of indurable slauery here for a poore liuing they make brickes and pots without straw or stubble they toile and labour for Onions and Garlicke here they lye amongst rusty and filthy pots and are made as Scullions Their poore soules are sold for shooes and cut to pieces as flesh to the pot they are as bread and meate to vngodly men and are daily swallowed vp Their backes are broken with burdens and their hands feebled with immoderate labours None in comparison here regardeth the misery of poore Ioseph though his feete be hurt the stockes and the heauy gyues doe peirce his soule This is the guerdon of the world and the reward that the wicked ones repay to Gods elect as naked they came into it so naked they shall leaue it for all their toyle section 16 What comfort therefore may it be to the faithfull children of God to be freed from this thraldome and by Death as Gods messenger to be sent for of the King of heauen with him to rest from their trauell and to be blessed for euer for their houses of clay and earthly tabernacles to take possession of heauenly habitations glorious and eternall mansions with the liuing God himselfe To haue perfect libertie and freedome for their miserable slauery and bondage all fulnesse of ioy and comfort in stead of their former sorrowes and calamities neuer to hunger and thirst againe being still fully fed and fraught with the pleasures of Gods house and fully replenished with the dainties and delicates prouided for the marriage of the Lambe c. Is not this a royall exchange and happy Mart And therefore true is Pauls Positions that Death is the faithfull mans aduantage and that to be with Christ is best of all If Peter and Iohn hauing but a glimpse of Christs glory in the mount could speedily be resolued that it was best for them to dwell there what shall we then iudge of the fruition of happinesse and substance of glory when the very shadow thereof is so beautifull and glorious why therefore should we feare the sorrowes of death and graue being fully assured of the comfortable presence and protection of God himselfe Therefore we reioyce saith Paul of himselfe and the section 17 faithfull in all our tribulations and afflictions and why doe they reioyce because the loue of God is spread abroad in their hearts through the holy Ghost For as the sufferings of Christ doe abound so doe the consolations increase in Gods elect to their exceeding ioy Thus will the Lord when sicknesse sorrowes and death it selfe approach to his children comfort and visite them vpon their death beds ministring most sweet refreshing to their soules With his right hand will hee hold vp their heads and with his left hand will he imbrace them in his loue he will couer them with his wings and they shall be safe vnder his feathers his faithfulnes and truth shall be their shield and buckler who now would not hasten to the fruition of such ioy and continuall gladnesse of heart And what man in miserie desireth not to rid himselfe from the daily sorrow and sadnesse of spirit And since videre Christum sit gaudere as Cyprian saith to see Christ be the reioycing of Christians and that without the sight of him it is impossible for vs soundly to reioyce what blindnesse and madnesse is it in mortall men so to loue and embrace this vale of teares and not rather hasten to that perfect ioy that they can neuer loose Wherefore hidest thou thy face saith Augustine to God happily thou wilt say no man shall see me and liue Oh then Lord that I were dead so I might see thee Oh let mee see thee that I may die euen here I will not liue die I would yea I desire to be loosed and to be with Christ I refuse to liue that I may liue with Christ CHAP. VIII The
holy life heauenly conuersation chearefull death and blessed daparture of the faithfull redeemed by Christ section 1 GOds children now being redeemed from Sinne and Death and truely vnited to Christ by his spirit whom they apprehend by an vnfained faith cannot chuse but shew forth the fruits of this their high calling to the glory of him that hath chosen them And being partakers of the diuine nature they flye from the corruptions of the world and giue all diligence to ioyne vertue with their faith and with vertue knowledge and with knowledge temperance and with temperance patience and with patience godlinesse and with godlinesse brotherly kindenesse and with brotherly kindenesse loue and these things being among them and abounding will keepe them from being idle and vnfruitfull The grace of God to them appeareth not in vaine but teacheth them to denie all vngodlinesse and worldly lusts to liue soberly righteously godly in this present world c. and being risen with Christ from the graue of corruption they euery day more and more seeke those things which are aboue setting their affections where Christ sitteth and not on the things that are on the earth for they are dead to the world and their true life is hid with God in Christ therefore they labour to be holy as he that hath called them to his kingdome and glory is holy They daily imploy themselues in reading and meditating of the word of God in prayer and religious exercises of holy deuotion loathing still this world and sinfull life daily growing to be spirituall and heauenly hauing their affections and zeale inflamed with the loue of God They say with Augustine O Lord I delight to heare of thee to talke of thee to write of thee to deuise of thee and in my heart to print whatsoeuer I learne of thee So must wee walke in these holy paths with all Gods Saints Godly deuotion and holy meditations saith one are section 2 as brine and pickle to keepe and preserue this corruptible flesh of ours from the euill scent that breedeth in our nature by originall sinne They are as faggots and firebrands that enkindle and inflame the loue of God in our hearts And as the fish out of the water die forthwith and the drops of raine distilling from the clouds vpon the ground doe quickly dry and drench vp and the fire without fuell is soone extinguished So our faith and loue c. without these sanctified meanes doe suddenly decrease They are as precious perfumes burnt in a polluted house and sick-mans chamber The sweet incense of prayer and the sauory smell of that odorifferous balme of a liuely faith and effectuall knowledge of God purge and clense the corruption of our liues and vncleane desires God hath chosen vs to be his glorious temple in whom hee dwelleth by his spirit therefore wee must haue our hearts purified by faith and clense our selues from all filthinesse and vncleanenesse both of bodies and soules and so adorne the place of his presence and habitation with all vertue and holinesse Hee that destroyeth the Temple of God him will God destroy for the Temple of God is holy which you are Saint Peter willeth vs to gird vp the loynes of our mindes teaching vs that as they which weare long garments when they come in the foule wayes doe take and gird them vp lest they should tag in the way So we whose mindes and affections doe traile as it were vpon the earth trudging through this foule and filthy world must heaue them vp towards heauen lest they should touch the damnable filth of sinne and wickednesse It is in vaine to boast of iustification without the vnfained sanctification of Gods spirit For as there can be no fire section 3 without warmth and light so neither can God by his spirit be in vs of with any of vs but he will also purifie vs from vice and corruption therefore wee must follow peace and holinesse without the which no man can see the Lord. Christ hath crucified our old man and put to death our vice and corruption and shall wee reuiue the same Shall we maintaine our Sauiours enemies and giue life againe to these deadly poysons of our soules If wee will be Burgesses of heauen we must be strangers to the earth Where is the house of our Father but in heauen and there dwelleth our eldest brother Iesus Christ and all our christian friends and kindred Heauen then is our true Country and on earth we are but trauellers section 4 When Moses had conuersed with God but fortie daies vpon the Mount-Oliue at his comming downe his face shined and glistered with heauenly glory So must we beholding in a mirror the glory of our Lord Iesus Christ in his word and Gospell as it were with open face and not with a vaile as did Moses be changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord. If I say but this short time while we liue we be conuersant in heauen by our most holy faith and fruits thereof in all holy affections thoughts words and meditations we shall in the end become heauenly and spirituall both in word and deede As wee see by experience when a country-man hath beene trayned vp sometime in the Court he forgetteth his clownish kinde of life and becommeth a Courtier Let vs therefore leaue the speaches habit fashions and manners of this wicked world wherein we liue and inure our selues with the customes and course of the court of Heauen Let all our thoughts words and communication testifie that in spirit wee are already there section 5 Christ Iesus whom all true Christians haue put on by baptisme as a garment is a most royall robe of grace holinesse and sanctification and shall we be so sloathfull to traile and trample him in the dyrt of filthinesse and sinne or putting him off to put on the vile and spotted garment of the flesh by following the lusts thereof When winter is once ouer the nearer that the Sunne draweth vnto vs the more doth the earth being warmed with the heate thereof fructifie and increase and the longer the daies are the more worke we may doe euen so the nearer the kingdome of heauen doth approach vnto vs by the comming of Iesus Christ the sonne of righteousnesse or the nearer we draw to death the more we should be inflamed in the loue of God and all good workes As the Sunne beames doe come to the earth and yet are in the region from whence they are sent so the mindes and soules of Gods children though conuersant in the earth are truely seated and setled with God in heauen from whence they came Let vaine-glorious worldlings who with the Camaelion section 6 liue by the ayre and therefore are alwaies found gaping and who haue with the Moone but a borrowed light in the world and no true light of
the word and therefore still continue in waxing and waining let such I say feede still their fancies with shewes and shadowes all which shall end in a moment but let vs that are Christians liue the life of the righteous that so we may die a righteous death and liue in peace and happinesse both here and hereafter If we liue in the spirit then let vs walke in the spirit Our walking and behauiour is a sure and certaine signe whether wee be aliue or dead If our walking and working be spirituall then doe we liue in the spirit but if our workes be carnall we are dead in the spirit neither haue we any thing to doe with Christ and his kingdome As there is a resurrection to the life of glory so is there also a resurrection to the life of grace As the death of the soule went before the death of the body so must the resurrection of the soule from the death of sinne be first and then in due time will come the resurrection of the body Sinne is a kinde of death this my sonne was dead and is now aliue holy conuersation is a rising againe and blessed are those that haue their part in this resurrection The prodigall Sonne by repentance found himselfe who first by riot had lost himselfe and therefore let vs giue him our life who gaue vs life section 7 Christians must be as birds who for necessitie sake are faine to stay vpon the earth yet still for the most part are soaring in the skie where they tune many a pleasant note so should our thoughts be imployed in things beneath but our chiefe delights must still climbe higher where true ioyes dwell where no distracting thoughts can once disturbe them Raise vp thy selfe O soule saith Augustine and thinke of that good which containeth all good Our deuotion must not be as the Morning dewe which vanisheth with the Sunne nor like the leaues of Autumne that fall from the tree but our goodnesse must abide so long as wee liue yea wee must rather yeelde vp our breath and being then our faith and deuotion section 8 Euery one feareth the death of the body but few are affraide of the death of the soule That which possibly cannot be auoyded men seeke to shun but to auoide sin that they may liue for euer few or none doe care To labour not to die is but trauell in vaine this is to defer not to auoide Death but if we would take heede we sinne not then neede we not be doubtfull after death to liue for euer Simply to liue is not so good except a man liue well and in Gods feare for the Diuels and the damned liue but better it were if they had no being The soule without grace is as the ground without moysture which turneth to dust and vanisheth and like the barren earth accursed It is as an vnarmed man and one that is naked amongst the pykes and darts of his aduersaries And since the earth was cursed for our sinnes in Adam and our soules are saued by faith in Christ let the direction of our thoughts to him be the messenger to our hearts that our affections are in heauen for we are not placed that wee should be planted here but being bought from this earth by bloud we should clense our selues in this world with water that since some inferiour affections must needes be found here below yet the dust onely may cleaue to our feete and our head and hands lift vp to God So shall we haue comfort in our death being thus sanctified section 9 in our life and it shall serue vs as a barge to bring vs to the hauen of happy rest which now is made through Iesus Christ the issue of all miserie and an entrance to true safetie to all Gods elect Christians therefore one would thinke neede not as Pagans consolations against death but death should serue them as a consolation against all afflictions So that wee should not onely strengthen our selues not to feare it but accustome our selues to hope for it for vnto vs it is not onely a departing from paine and euill but an accesse and possession-taking of all happinesse and good not the end of life but the end of death and beginning of life because it is not to vs a last day but the dawning of an euerlasting day Death now is the way to recouer our former estate being lost by our first parens It is the meanes to translate vs from our mortall condition to euerlasting immortalitie and happinesse in Christ Who therefore will not be glad to exchange for the better Let them desire to liue in the world whom it loueth and affecteth but all true Christians it hateth euermore and despiseth What man being farre from home would not hasten to section 10 returne into his country and though he saile vpon the dangerous seas would hee not hoyst vp the sailes of his Ship and hasten his iourney with some hazard to come to the hauen of rest where he would be Now this world is a forraine Countrie to all Christians where they wander for a while our home is the Paradise of God heauen it selfe is the hauen whither Gods children must saile to land and the way and passage both by sea and land is death decreed of God which to the godly as hath beene said is not an end of their liues but an end of their sinnes It destroyeth not nature but reformes it It cutteth off our corruption and restoreth vs to immortalitie Whilst I remaine vpon earth I am as it were in my wardship but hereafter I shall haue the full managing of all my goods O happy dying and blessed death which art made so gainefull vnto me why should I feare thee which bringest all sorrowes and feares to an end Thy name is fearefull but thy effect full of consolation especially when I behold thee vnder his feete which hath pulled out thy sting taken from hell his command and spoyled the diuell of his power section 11 The iudgement of God cannot afflict me for that the Iudge is my aduocate Sathan my accuser is condemned the Angels of the Lord are my defenders against him The graue though it gape wide yet can it not deuoure me for although I must rot in it yet was it my Sauiours bed who was laid therein to sanctifie it for me by his sweet funerall and to prepare me there a chamber of rest But O Lord suffer me not to die before I begin to liue nor to rot in the graue before I be assured of my immortall inheritance in heauen wound my hart with a holy sorrow wash my soule with thy precious blood Let other men desire to liue many yeares vpon earth my longing is to aspire to the dayes of heauen whereas one day consumes not another but are endlesse and eternall The reward of life the ioy of euerlasting saluation and perpetuall blisse the possession of Paradise
and all assaults It will oppose to this our deadly foe life for death holinesse for sinne obedience for the Law yea all Christs satisfactions to make the whole summe But of this poynt wee haue sufficiently discoursed Then commeth the World and will set abroach his section 3 baites What wilt thou dye O man I pray thee behold thy goodly buildings and stately roomes thy lands and reuenues thy rents and treasures thy credit wealth and fame thy pleasures and delights and all that thy heart desireth But alas O World this thy felicitie is fayned thy loue is counterfeit and thy promise is deceitfull These things I confesse to be good in their kinde and for my vse so long as they stand with Gods fauour Kept they may be so that wee loose not God who now doth call vs and therefore may not keepe vs from him Yet I know O World the vanitie of thy pleasures the frailty of thy glory and the ficklenesse of thy goods and that all these are nothing in respect of the riches of heauen and happy life which after death I am sure to haue wherefore I desire to be dissolued and to be with Christ in whom indeede are hid all the treasures of God who also is the keeper of our true life for this our wretched life which now we lead is no life indeede but a very death For we are dead and our life is hid with God in Christ wee walke by faith and not by sight yea so long as wee are at home in this body wee wander and goe astray from God our Lord. And thou O World which bewitchest so many to loue this life what should I gaine if I should serue thee I am sure to be a foe to Christ who loues thee not who prayeth not for thee whose Kingdome is not of thee and therefore to loue thee is to hate my God which to doe is worse then death Thy reward I know is nothing but nakednesse for naked I came vnto thee and naked I shall goe from thee therefore I am willing to forgoe thee and desire to be freed to dwell with Christ section 4 Lastly comes the Flesh with trembling and quaking Why wilt thou dye O man see here thy friends and thy family thy Wife and thy Children thy Father thy Mother weepe and waile cry and call vnto thee and wilt thou thus depart wilt thou needes goe from them It is good no doubt to tarry still among our friends with Gods good will and there is nothing vnder God but it may be kept so that God being aboue all things which we haue be not lost For hee that loueth father or Mother Wife or Children c. better then Christ is not worthy of his presence And though my friends lament the losse of my life yet can they not redeeme it for what man is hee that liueth and shall not see death and shall hee deliuer his soule from the hand of the graue No no neyther riches nor strength neyther power nor policie can preuaile in this poynt Death neyther spareth pouerty nor regardeth wealth it esteemes neyther manners age nor time but walketh in the gates of old men and setteth snares continually for young men no worldly practise can escape the bands of death It alwayes pursueth vs and wheresoeuer we goe it layeth hands vpon vs And though men labor to liue long and desire that they might neuer come to the terme of their dayes yet indeede it is no other thing to liue then to make haste to death Wherefore men doe walke whither they would not come and willingly runne to the end of that course which euermore they haue abhorred for death is the punishment of all men the tribute of all men the rule of all men and the receiuer of all men God hath set vs our bounds which wee cannot passe section 5 And as the greene leaues in a thicke tree some fall and some grow so is the generation of flesh and bloud one comes to an end and another is borne Wee came not altogether neyther must wee goe altogether therefore O Flesh be content O my friends be quiet needes wee must depart though to meete againe wee are full sure And in going from you my earthly friends I shall not yet be destitute of friends but make a good exchange for I goe to the Saints of heauen to the liuing God who is Iudge of all to Iesus Christ my Redeemer to the celestiall Ierusalem to my abiding Citie to the company of Angels to the Congregation of the first borne to the spirits of the righteous and to ioyes vnspeakable beyond all mans conceit Such be the comforts the rewards heritages and exceeding priuiledges that God hath before all worlds prepared and alwayes had in store for his elect And therefore still I desire to be freed from the flesh to liue with Christ Wee haue here no continuing Citie wee looke for one of God And I know that so long as I am in the flesh I cannot please God and that if once this earthly house of this tabernacle were destroyed I shall haue a building giuen me of God a house not made with hands but euerlasting with God in the heauens Not to liue said one but to passe the life well is life section 6 indeede Our life is very short for all good things yet long enough and too long may we thinke it in regard of our miseries A dangerous straite in which the lesse time thou hast to passe the more perill and danger thou hast in the passage But this is a miserie of miseries that being in such a miserable case we liue like men in a phrensie not knowing our misery Heraclitus and Democritus could better discerne this poynt then many Christians of whom it is reported that the one past his life in laughing and the other alwayes in weeping seeing as it seemeth that all our life is nothing else but ridiculous vanitie and lamentable misery Moreouer if this life be a vale of teares a prison of guilty persons and a banishment of them that be condemned how canst thou place such great pompe and pride such gay ornaments and stately furniture of houses and families in such a wretched place how canst thou take here thy pastimes and pleasures how canst thou delight thy selfe in feasting and banketting how canst thou desire so greedily to gather the prouision of this world and be so forgetfull for the life to come As though thou wert onely borne to liue alwayes here with bruite beasts and hadst no portion with the Angels in heauen Such wretchednesse sheweth of what a miserable stocke thou commest if nothing can perswade thee to behold this thy great and palpable blindnesse section 7 Wee maruell much at the rude and ignorant Indians who for glasses and trifles are said to part from their purest gold but wee neuer thinke of our owne folly who forgoe the treasures of heauen for very bables
to pray to be deliuered from a bad and wicked life which maketh the death of the reprobate so sodaine and fearefull And with what reason can we name Death sodaine which euery day manifesteth it selfe to all our sences For what else doe we heare from the cradle then lamentations mourning for the dead What doe we oftner see with our eyes then exequies and funerals of the departed mourners weedes and monuments of men deceased Now if we regard not the burials of others Death commeth home to our owne doores and houses to our friends and kinsfolkes Yea how often are we our selues remembred in our owne persons by the messengers of Death Who hath not sometime or other bin in danger of the same by sea or land by storme or tempest by warre or famine by theeues or Pyrots by sicknesse or some disease or other Wheresoeuer thou turnest thee Death still pursueth thee Euery mans house is as his refuge and Castle yet how many are ouerwhelmed with the ruines thereof how many hath the earth swallowed vp and the ayre choaked Famaine and thirst without continuall reliefe are as Deaths Souldiers still ready to strike vs to the heart What shall I say Man can no sooner be named but his mortalitie is sounded out Death therefore can be sodaine to none but to wilfull ignorant secure and carelesse sots who although they liue a hundred yeares and are daily warned thereof will be still vnprepared section 8 Againe some are so foolishly curious that they would choose their kinde of Death Some require a certaine space and time in their sicknesse for to repent and amend Some desire quickly to be rid out of paine that they be not tormented in themselues or troublesome to their friends but these be notes of our infirmitie and weakenesse True faith maketh a Christian carelesse of these circumstances and constantly to commit both kinde manner space and time of sicknesse and death it selfe to the wise disposing of their almighty and mercifull maker Neither may we be moued as many vniustly are for that the time and houre of death is hidden from vs for herein God manifesteth his goodnesse to keepe vs from presumption to sinne and that we should not deferre our repentance to the latter end By this meanes he cheereth vs and freeth from that griefe sorrow which we should too truely receiue of our death graue Thus he restraineth the wicked that they do lesse hurt to the godly and the godly themselues are feared from doing euill as those that may die to morrow or if God will in a moment and withall inforceth them to doe well as those that should liue for euer section 9 Man knoweth not his end but as fishes are taken with the baite birds with the snare so death commeth vpon them vnexpected Which point condemneth such as will seeke to Palmisters Pythonists to star-gazers and Physiognomists to Calculators birth-Wizards no better then very Witches to Babilonicall or rather Diabolicall Southsayers and Inchanters to know their end and age But what madnes is this to desire to know our end of such as are ignorant of their owne Such are like to King Saul who sought to the Witch at Endor like to Ahazia that sent to Baalzebub but what auayled this but to double their death in hazarding the saluation both of body and soule And as wee may not vse any vnlawfull meanes for the preseruation of life or be too curious in searching out section 10 our death So must none for any distresse be weary of their life or by any wicked course procure their death God hath giuen no man leaue to depriue himselfe of the least space of time allotted vnto him for his repentance nor to shorten the benefit of life which hee hath granted him to gaine an eternall state Hee that brought vs into the world hath onely the calling of vs out againe and when hee calleth thee and not before must thou depart Abridge the time wee may not wee must not for all the crosses and losses this world can lay vpon vs. We must seeke to mortifie our flesh in vs and to cast the world out of vs but to cast our selues out of the world is in no sort permitted vs. A Christian ought willingly to depart but not cowardly to runne away Hee must fight therein as a Souldier in the field but he may not leaue his place without shame and reproach If it please the Generall to recall him let him take the retraite in good part and with good will obay it for hee is not borne for himselfe but for God of whom he holds his life in farme as his tenant at will to yeeld him both house and rent It is in the Land-lord to take it from him not in him to surrender it when a conceit or sullen dislike ouer-takes him We must not twine a-two the little twist of our mortalitie vntill our clew be ended but pray to our God for the thread of his grace to lead vs out of the labyrinth of such a troubled minde ready to destroy our soules Wee should not seeke death death should rather come to vs then wee goe to it before our time Life is precious and it is great impietie to bring it into perill For a man to see the greatnesse of his sins finally and not the greatnesse of Gods grace in the remission thereof is Caines disease and a fruit of Iudas kisse Will God require bloud at the hand of man and beast and shall he not require it at thine owne hand Thou maist not kill another therefore not thy selfe Holy Iob would rather endure in his flesh all extremities then to procure his deliuery by an vntimely death to be free from his miseries section 11 Gods Children alwayes waite in their trials vntill death open the doore for their deliuerance Let no Christian therefore be cast downe by distrustfull thoughts The tempest may rage but stay a while and the calme will follow The Sunne may be ouer-cast for a season but the weather will be fayre againe Christ may hide him a little time as it were behinde the Curtaines but his Spouse at last shall see his chearefull face I will not feare in the euill day saith the Prophet Is not the euill day the day of our end This euill day by the hope of the resurrection is made a good day The wickednesse which our mortall enemy casteth at our heeles is now remoued by him who hath broken his head Christ told Peter that when hee was old they should binde and lead him whither hee would not to shew that hee should suffer of another and not of himselfe God giueth to euery one their hyre in their due time and turne But hee who leaues his worke before God cals him looseth his wages and who importunes him before the time is destitute of reward Wee must rest then in his will who in the midst of our troubles
will set vs all at rest in his due time section 12 Wee must therefore neyther hate this life for the toyles therein for that is sloath and cowardlinesse nor loue it for the delights for that is folly and vanitie but serue our selues of it to serue God in it who afterward shall place vs in ioyfull rest and replenish vs with pleasures which shall neuer more perish Againe to flye it is childish and in flying from it wee meete it Much lesse ought wee to seeke it for that is temerâ—tie nor euery one that would dye can dye It is enough that constantly wee waite for deaths comming that shee neuer finde vs vnprouided Wee must not fall sodainely vpon death but march valiantly towards the same by little and little wee must not rashly or vnaduisedly leaue our life like one that takes his runne to fetch the better rise CHAP. VII Consolations against the agony of Death and horrour of the Graue and Corruption THE very remembrance of Death is bitter section 1 enough to frayle and mortall man but the agonies and bickerings wee haue in the flesh are farre beyond the conceit of men For such is the weaknesse of our nature and the guiltinesse of sinne making warre in our flesh that without especiall aide and helpe from heauen wee shall be swallowed vp of griefe And what man is hee so strong in Faith that can contayne himselfe in this pittifull tryall of deaths combat It made Christ himselfe to sweat and cry and pray before he got the victory Although I confesse the burden of our sinnes and Gods wrath were importable to any but himselfe yet was hee fitted with grace and power without measure and for all that felt this horrour and therefore the best and strongest regenerate men cannot goe free but are made conformable to the sufferings of Christ in a measure Besides the corruption of sinne remayning in vs which finally must be purged by the bitter pill of death Ezechiah after the sentence of death pronounced section 2 against him by the Prophet complayneth how his dayes were cut off that he should goe to the gates of the graue to the pit of corruption where hee could not see the Lord any more in the Land of the liuing nor the inhabitants of the world to confesse and prayse God as the liuing doe and hope for his truth He cryes out that his habitation is remoued like a Shepheards Tent and his life cut off as the weauers webbe that God brake all his bones like a Lyon and so made an end of him This made him in his prayer to chatter like a Swallow and mourne like a Doue Hee saith hee was oppressed and walked to his graue in the bitternesse of his soule c. What should I speake of many other of the faithfull which cry out aliue as men free among the dead drawing neere to the graue and going downe to the pit who are remembred no more but cut off by Gods hand lying in a place of darknesse and in the deepe feeling Gods wrath lying vpon them being vexed with all his waues and stormes How doe they stretch out their hands with lamentable complaints saying Shall thy louing kindnesse be declared in the graue or thy faithfulnesse in destruction Shall thy wondrous workes be knowne in the darke and thy righteousnesse in the land of obliuion I omit to speake of Iob of Ionah and many of Gods children who haue rufully complained in this case section 3 If the parting company of one way-faring man with another when they haue trauelled but for a time together doe cause such sorrow and solitarinesse what a griefe then will it be to thinke that two such friends as the Soule and Body haue beene shall be separated and singled one from another which so long haue trauelled together euen from the mothers vvombe vntill the instant moment of death Betweene whom there hath beene so many knots and bands of mutuall loue O Death how imperious art thou to carnall mindes aggrauating their other miseries not onely by expectation of future payne but by the remembrance of wonted ioyes not suffering them to see ought but what may torment them Great no doubt are the horrours of death when the sicke man shall see the world his friends and all earthly things forsaking him but farre greater is the horrour of iudgement to consider hee is now going to answere for all that hee hath done in his body whether it be good or ill If the countenance of an earthly Iudge be fearefull to a guilty prisoner how much more shall the beholding of an eternall Iudge amaze all such who finde a thousand witnesses in themselues to giue in euidence against them But as hee that is to passe ouer some great and deepe Riuer vpon a narrow plancke and straite passage must not looke downeward to the streame of the water but for preuenting of feare must set his foote sure and cast his eyes to the bancke on the further side So must hee that draweth neare to death as it were looke ouer the waues thereof and fixe the eye of Faith vpon eternall life If in the time of temptation wee looke to sayle a right course neyther sincking nor slipping into the gulfe of desperation neyther battering our Barke against the rocke of presumption let vs in a contrite spirit cry to the Lord our God and say Heale my soule for I haue sinned against thee for thou healest those that are broken in heart and bindest vp their soares I see and that with ioy how my flesh must decay for looke what freshnesse soeuer was in it at the first diminisheth day by day And I neede not goe farre to seeke for death for I feele not so small an infirmitie in my body but the same is vnto mee a messenger of dissolution Yet for all this I shall see my God and when I am couered in the belly of the graue I am assured hee will reach mee his hand to raise me vp againe to immortalitie and life so that this base cottage and shade of leaues being brought to dust shall yet in the end be conuayed vnto my incorruptible house in heauen That dissolution is well bestowed that parts the soule section 4 from the body to vnite them both to God All our life here is but a vitall death How gainefull therefore is that death that determines this false and dying life and beginnes a true and happy life Hee that hath Stephens eyes to looke into heauen cannot but haue the tongue of the Saints to say Come quickly Lord Iesus Such a man seeing the glory of the end cannot but contemne the hardnesse of the way but who so wants these eyes though hee say and sweares hee feares not death beleeue him not But is thy soule sorrowfull vnto death Remember Christs prayer in his Agonie Father not my will but thine be fulfilled Teaching vs what to doe in the time of distresse what wee should thinke
violence of affliction though it soundly beat vs can separate vs from the loue of God nor the league with his creatures Into what fond vanities are we fallen if we would still be hedged in and enthralled in this vale of teares and not desire to ascend on that ladder which Iacob knew to be the gate of heauen the skirts whereof but seene and felt of the Apostles did so rauish all their sences with delight as that they onely vaunted in the crosses of Christ which was also their preseruatiue against the feare of death and their spurre and preparatiue to set the houses of their hearts in order before they descended to the graue We may learne by the very foode that nourisheth vs section 10 euen our meates and drinks to what loathsomnesse they come before they worke their perfection in vs. From life they are brought to death being dead to the fire so clean altered from that they were aliue from the fire they come to the trenchers and knife all to hackt and cut and from the trencher to the mouth and there be ground as small as the teeth can make them and so from the mouth to the stomacke there to be boyled and dressed before they be fit for our nourishment Is it then any maruell if Christians who are to be as Gods delicates and dainties in the life to come be now so defaced and deformed in this world as in a Kitchin and Mill to boyle and grinde them should by death and the graue be quite altered and changed for a time till they atchiue their happie perfection in the world to come And as we looke for no nutriment of our meate before it be digested So must we not expect for our happy state of heauenly blisse before the corruption of the world and flesh be first swallowed vp of immortalitie Raw flesh is not fit meate for the stomack nor vnmortified men meete for God and heauen till by death and graue they be altered and by Gods spirit renewed as fit Citizens for his kingdom Let vs therefore waite for sicknesse as the fore-runner of sleepe and welcome death as the sickle of the Lords haruest beholding our graue as the faithfull treasurie of our bodies and look vp to heauen as the vndoubted Paradise of our soules CHAP. VIII In what things our Christian preparation to Death doth chiefely consist section 1 HAuing indeauoured to remoue such impediments as hinder preparation and warned Gods children to auoide some dangerous rocks in this their narrow nauigation towards the hauen of death it seemeth now as necessarie for their better encouragement to set downe some safe directions to guide them in this perillous way that chearefully they may passe on without any stay till they ioyfully arriue at the land of heauenly rest Great prouision I confesse would be made for this long and waightie voyage but so many things being obserued by others I will briefely passe by them and come to the principall prouision it selfe And as for the disposing and well ordering of our goods section 2 and worldly state it is best to dispatch this businesse in the time of our strength and health before we be bound to our beds and haue to deale with sicknesse which troubleth all our senses with Physition with Death and Sathan himselfe which then will be most busie to molest vs neither will this so short a time suffice for so many waightie imployments Remember thy Creatour in the daies of thy youth saith the wise man Much more then ought we wholy to thinke on him in the time of sicknes when euery day is suspected to be the last day we haue to liue Many are affraide to make their Testaments betime as things infortunate and presaging euill but this is their ignorance and infidelitie For the disposing of our worldly goods and exempting our selues from earthly cares maketh none die more quickly but more quietly So had Ezechiah counsel from God to put his house in order Abraham deuided his goods to Isaac the rest of his Sons So Isaac dim sighted yet in good and perfect health tooke order for his children before his death So did Iacob for his Sonnes after his Fathers example Which duetie is very fit to be seasonably performed of euery Christian of any state or wealth for the cutting off of contention betweene brethren and kinsfolkes Besides that many diseases are so sharpe and sodaine they giue men small leasure to dispose of themselues much lesse so large a time as to order their goods and familie As he that dreamed of long life had suddenly his answere thou foole this night shall they take away thy soule Sodainely came the flood vpon the wicked world being eating and drinking and sodainely was Sodome consumed with fire amidst their fleshly pleasures Sodainly fell the Tower vpon the eighteene men in Syloah not expected and sodainely will Christ come in the cloudes as a theefe in the night But because all men for the most part are prouident inough for these worldly matters and meanes of state family friends Physicke c. I come to more necessarie matters concerning the soule against the time of neede section 3 The chiefest furniture and best prouision therefore for a Christian man against his death and departure out of life are faith hope and a conscience vndefiled Faith in Christ is as Noahs Arke to saue vs from drowning in the flood of our sinnes and from the deuouring of the dangerous gulfe of death amidst the proud waues and bottomelesse sea of our innumerable transgressions able to sinke and swallow vs vp with the wicked world And hope in God is as the vnmoueable anchor fastned to the almighty power of God as to the most strong and vntwineable cable ready prepared to keepe vs from Shipwrack of our soules in all the raging stormes fearefull tempest and rough passages of Death and Hell For albeit Death be a fray-bug to all faint-harted Souldiers and faithlesse men not built vpon Christ the corner stone by a liuely faith and vndoubted hope threatning and fearing them with the losse of life worldly wealth and all things else Yet the flocke of Christ doe scorne and despise her who account all the world with his wealth and pleasures but dung and drosse yea all things losse to win the loue of Christ Their riches and treasures are placed on high whither their affections and delights were sent before not basely groueling and crawling vpon this filthy earth below but aspyring and climing to the heauen of heauens whither long before they were ascended and setled All earthly things to them are but as toyes and trifles their inheritance is in heauen there is the true portion of their cuppe there be the Iemmes and Iewels that they affect euen such as are safe from rust and free from corruption And thither they are assured by death to be speedily conuayed section 4 He that hath not
of all misery and the beginning of all blessednesse It is the very bed of Downe saith one and therefore well compared to a sleepe for the dolefull bodies of Gods seruants to rest on out of the which they shall arise and awake most fresh and lusty to euerlasting life It is a passage to the Father a chariot to heauen the Lords messenger a leader vnto Christ a going to our home a deliuerance from bondage and prison a dimission from warre a securitie from all sorrowes and a manumission from all miseries It is the fulfilling of our pilgrimage the laying downe of our burden being loaden the lighting from a wilde and furious horse a dispossessing of our selues from an old ruinous house it is the escaping of all dangers the wasting and diruption of all euils the payment of our naturall debt the end of our race and iourney and our entrance into glory Wherefore though Death in it selfe be as a fiery Dragon section 13 venemous Cockatrice and stinging Serpent for poore Christians to behold in outward shew and shape yet now through Christ who hath conquered it it can neuer preuaile against vs to ouercome vs. For as a Bee without a sting may be put into the bosome so need wee not to feare to meete with death Serpent still shee may seeme in sight to the outward man yet voyd of poyson shee is to the man of God Fight it may against vs but neuer be able to foyle vs nay rather it deliuereth vs from a thousand dangers The Souldier though hee be neuer so expert in his weapons yet still hee desireth the end of warre to inioy the triumph of his fight and alwayes preferreth the comfortable league of peace before the Pikes The Mariner though hee delight and loue to saile on the seas yet still hee perswadeth himselfe the shoare to be the safest and there is no Countrey so comfortable to the traueller as is his natiue soyle If a man were shut vp in a miserable darke prison with condition hee should not come forth till the wals of the tower were fallen downe would hee not reioyce to see them ruinous and ready to fall Now our soule is kept in the body as in a prison in captiuitie and bands and when by death it beginnes to be shaken and cannot choose but fall shall we be sorry For then indeede approacheth our deliuerance and freedome from all sinne and misery and presently wee are brought to the ioyfull fruition of God himselfe and all happinesse So that this day of death is better then the day of birth yea this day which thou fearest to be thy last shall be thy natiuitie to euerlasting life And indeede we cannot make the world to dye in vs section 14 except we dye our selues Sinne which is in vs liueth in vs and fighteth against vs vntill we dying it also dye with vs and by death alone the deadly assaults of Sathan our chiefe enemy dye forthwith Yet for all this the last day of our life is vnto vs alwayes the first day to life though we neuer account the first day to be the last The things that God will haue come to passe saith one are alwayes springing and things present doe alwayes decay and perish Those things that are past are cleane dead and consumed We then are dying while we liue and then doe we cease from dying when we doe cease to liue Therefore it is better to dye alwayes to liue then to liue to dye euer One saith well to this purpose that life and death haue deceiuable vizards but let vs cast them off and wee shall change our mindes when vnder the fayre forme of life there is nothing but matter of griefe and vnder the foule and hideous maske of death such beauty and felicitie as we shall presently be taken with her loue The way of this life is straite and narrow full of thornes section 15 and bryers that we cannot escape scratching The way to Canaan is cumbersome ouer hils and mountaines and lyeth through the wildernesse where we shall finde many wants yet may we not be discouraged but the rather be assured wee are going to the promised Land We must all arriue at the port of death and land at his stayres when wee passe from this life to our graues where the body abideth the time of the restauration of all things that with all the coheyres of Christ we may enter into the Land of promise And who being a traueller in forraine parts would not gladly hasten homewards who would not willingly sayle to his friends and desire a lusty gale of winde to speede him that he might sooner see the faces of his dearest kindred If wee looke for our felicitie here we are deceiued Elias must goe to heauen in a whirle-winde God will send Iacob an Angell of comfort in his iourney after all his troubles with Laban and God will bring him home with abundance of increase at the last When old Iacob saw the chariots of Egypt then he perceiued section 16 his sonne Ioseph was aliue then his fainting spirit reuiued I will goe see him said hee before I dye Our true Ioseph liueth euen Iesus our Sauiour and seeing wee can not see him liuing let vs willingly goe by the chariots of death Since man cannot see God and liue let me dye O Lord that I may see thee When we are borne saith one wee are mortall but when wee are once dead wee become immortall We are aliue in the wombe to die in the world but wee are dead in the graue to liue in heauen Here the soules of Gods children are pent and pind within the clayie wals of their corruptible bodies where they may looke as it were thorow the yron grates of their busie thoughts but can neuer quite be released till that God who gaue vs our Mittimus into this layle send vs our deliuery with a Returne yee sonnes of Adam To be short what other thing is this death but after a section 17 long conflict the day of victory the birth of a blessed soule after a great trauell as it were in childe-birth the healing of all wounds and sicknesses the deliuerance from all feare the accomplishing of our sanctification the day of our marriage with the Lambe and the enioying of our desires Who is it then among vs who feeling with S. Paul the bondage of sin would not also cry out with him Who shall deliuer mee from this body of death And feeling the good that death bringeth vnto vs will not also desire to be dissolued and to be with Christ Death and Life are as two twins vnited and knit together vntill the seperation of the soule and the body which seperation is called Death and is rather indeede the deadly stroake of death the body being then exempted from paine and the soule from corruption and sinne waiting vntill the remnants of death be swallowed vp in victorie at the day of
The experience of Gods loue in our former deliuerances out of danger ought still to encourage vs to resort vnto him when the like or greater troubles shall againe assaile vs. 8 God is still ready and at hand to comfort and relieue his children in their greatest dangers 9 God will maintaine and vphold the righteous cause of his seruants whatsoeuer be their dangers 10 There is nothing many times more dangerous in the world then to defend and maintaine the truth of God 11 God not onely maintaineth the cause but preserueth the persons of his seruants in their greatest perils that defend his truth 12. FINIS The first SERMON PSALME 119.92.93 Except thy law had beene my delight I should now haue perished in my affliction I will neuer forget thy precepts for by them thou hast quickened me THe summe of this Psalme is the Prophet Dauids long and earnest suite to GOD to be fully informed in the sound and sauing knowledge of his word The excellent fruits and effects whereof he relateth and inlargeth well-nigh in euery verse and professeth to haue found and felt the sweetnesse power and efficacy thereof not onely for his daily vse and instruction in that his changeable fraile and weake estate then liuing but for the assurance of Gods loue and truth of his promises to be accomplished and performed to him and all the elect in the life to come Now in these two Verses he speaketh of his afflictions so great and grieuous confessing that he had perished except Gods law had been his delight His meaning is hee had miscarried in his troubles had not the ioy and comfort he receiued from Gods word teaching him to relye vpon his speciall prouidence and promises farre surmounted and exceeded his worldly sorrows so sore oppressing him and that indeede he had dyed and vtterly perished had he not beene quickened and recouered by the vertue thereof and therefore resolueth neuer to forget that most comfortable and soueraigne meanes of Gods word so relieuing and restoring him in his distresse The words in effect offer vnto vs first Davids confession and secondly Dauids resolution with a seuerall reason annexed to the one and to the other His confession that he had perished in his affliction The reason why hee did not was the ioy and delight that was ministred vnto him from Gods law Secondly his resolution that Hee will neuer forget Gods precepts the reason is For by them thou hast quickened me being out of heart and hope in his owne conceipt The substance and summe of all is briefly this That Dauid could neuer haue endured the extremitie of his crosses had not the word of God comforted and confirmed him in his faith and resolution to depend vpon God But before we proceed to particular instructions let vs in a word consider the variety of Names and Titles he giueth to Gods word in this Psalme and the reason thereof Hee calleth it hereby the name of Law and precepts and in other places Statutes Commandements Ceremonies Iudgements Counsell c. The reason is to expresse the excellent vse thereof to euery Christian and to teach euery man not lightly to esteeme of the Scriptures as words of liberty and licentiousnesse but such as exact obedience at our hands and binde vs with a penalty as sure as any law or statute to performe our duties And that we cannot do iudge counsel resolue or be warranted of the lawfulnes of our actions without the direction thereof And this is proper to the whole word of God both in the Olde and New Testament Hitherto for the information of our knowledge for the Text it selfe our further instruction for the Christian vse thereof followeth Except thy law had beene my delight I had perished that is if thy word had not beene prouided as a meanes and remedy of comfort I had beene swallowed vp with despaire Whence first ariseth this instruction That God alwaies prouideth meanes to keepe his children doctrine 1 from distresse in their trials and afflictions Dauid had perished in his troubles if Gods law had not comforted him But Gods word brought ioy and delight to his afflicted soule therefore he perished not Christ speaking of the destruction of Hierusalem and of the last and worst daies before the consummation of the world And hauing amplified the dangers thereof especially amongst the Iewes by many circumstances hee addeth that the tribulation shall be such as was not from the beginning of the world to that time nor should bee hereafter being indeed beyond the compasse of all comparison and concludeth That except those dayes should bee shortened no flesh should be saued Yet for the elect sake sayth Christ those dayes shall be shortned So Israell in Egipt that house of bondage and furnace of afflictions was made to serue with sore labour in Bricke and Clay and all manner of worke in the field being wearie of their liues besides the hard vsage of their taske-masters and what mischiefe else could bee deuised by the Diuell and Pharaoh vtterly to roote them out yet the more they vexed them the more they grew Their estate is well resembled by the bush that burned and yet was not consumed As their enemies deuised to doe them hâ—rt so God deuised to doe them good Who knoweth as Saint Peter speaketh to deliuer the godly out of tentation and to reserue the vniust vnto the day of iudgement I cannot reckon vp the crosses of this people after their deliuerance out of Egipt See the Catalogue thereof in the Psalmes They wandred in the Desert both hungrie and thirstie with fainting soules They dwelt in darkenesse and in the shadow of death being bound in misery and iron Their hearts were humbled with heauinesse and there was no helper Their soule abhorred all meate and they were brought to deaths dore Yet when they cryed to God in their trouble he deliuered them out of their distresse The miseries of Gods children infflicted vpon them by Sathan and his instruments cannot be so many as the meanes and remedies of comfort and deliuerance that God prouideth for them See how the Church and children of God triumph and exult vpon the experience of this poynt They haue oftentimes afflicted mee from my youth vp may Israell now say They haue oftentimes afflicted mee from my youth but they could not preuaile against me The Plowers plowed vpon my backe and made long furrowes but the righteous Lord hath cut the cords of the wicked Although God suffer his people to be vsed as the field that is plowed and their enemies be as the strong and lusty iades appoynted for the plough Or as the stalled Oxen to breake vp the fallow ground renting and tearing the furrowes of the same and not leaue so much as a clod vnturned but attempt all manner of wayes euery way to annoy them Yet the iust God most faithfull in his promises and sure in his iudgements
are but dead and damned vse 2 This word considered in the properties power and wonderfull effects thereof sheweth vs also the difference betweene it and the lawes of mortall men their doctrines and traditions their commandements and inuentions This word alone is the rule of faith and the resoluer of the conscience All other humane deuises are but as straw and slubble yea drosse it selfe to the purest gold This hath beene tryed to the vtmost in the furnace and is still more glorious The turning of mens deuises are but as clay Should not a people enquire at their God To the law and the testimony for shame if they speake not according to his word it is because there is no light in them And Ieremie reproacheth those that say they are wise Ye haue cast away the word of the Lord and what wisedome is in you Therefore the Prophet that hath a dreame let him tell a dreame and he that hath my word let him speake my word faithfully What is the chaffe to the Wheate Is not my word euen like a fire saith the Lord and like a hammer that breaketh stones c. See more in the vses of the first doctrine The end of the first Sermon The second SERMON LAMENT 3.55.56.57 I called vpon thy name O Lord out of the low dungeon thou hast heard my voyce stop not thy eare from my sight and from my crie Thou drewest neare in the day that I called vpon thee Thou saidst feare not O Lord thou hast maintained the cause of my soule and hast redeemed my life THe Prophets meaning is that hee prayed heartily to God the ruler of the whole world from the place condition of greatest extremity when no meanes of deliuerance appeared resting still in the experience of Gods loue who heretofore had heard his petitions and now hopeth will not refuse them being earnest and hearty And though he seeme to be farre off will yet take notice of them in the manifestation of his loue in the meanes according to his gracious promise still encouraging his seruants in their greatest dangers Neither doubteth hee but God will defend both his life and good cause that procured the danger and will send deliuerance from the lands of all those that would destroy him and his Church The words containe first a description of the Prophets misery in times past Secondly the meanes hee vsed for his deliuerance Thirdly the fruits and effects thereof His misery is enlarged 1. In regard of the place being a low dungeon 2. In regard of his condition hee sighed and sorrowed he was full of feare and in danger of his life The meanes which he vsed was Prayer which is commended 1. For the faithfulnes 2. For the feruency thereof For the faithfulnes he called vpon God alone and grounded his prayer onely vpon his name and power For the feruency of his prayer he saith hee called cryed sighed and sorrowed 3. The fruits and effects of his prayer are noted by these circumstances 1. God heard him 2. Hee drew neare manifesting his care and prouidence towards him in the meanes 3. He freed him from feare maintained his cause and redeemed his life from the danger of death The summe is that as God heretofore had heard and deliuered him in and from such great dangers and distresse so he would still heare helpe and deliuer him and his afflicted Church in sauing him and redeeming him and it from their so great present dangers and afflictions Being in the low dungeon destitute of all worldly helpe hee called vpon the name of the Lord Teaching vs. That true faithfull prayer and inuocation of Gods name doctrine 1 is a most soueraigne means remedy for comfort and deliuerance in and from our greatest distresses when all other helpes doe faile vs this will serue our turne and is the onely refuge of all Gods children I looked vpon my right hand but there was none that would know me all refuge failed wee then cryed I to the Lord and sayd thou art my hope When the snares of death compassed me and the griefes of the graue caught me when I found trouble and sorrow then I called vpon the name of the Lord saying I beseech thee O Lord deliuer my soule reason 1 The reason hereof is that God hath commanded and ordained it so to be Call vpon me in the time of thy trouble so will I deliuer thee and thou shalt glorifie me Come to me saith Christ all that trauaile and are laden and I will ease you Hee shall call vpon mee and I will heare him I will be with him in trouble I will deliuer him and glorifie him reason 2 Secondly God is the iudge reuenger and defender of all his that suffer wrong he heareth all causes and controuersies defendeth the cause of the widdow and fatherles he sitteth in the throne and iudgeth right O Lord God the auenger exalt thy selfe clerely exalt thy selfe thou iudge of the world How long shall the wicked triumph and so he concludeth that God is his refuge and rocke of his hope The vse hereof is to make vs feruent and forward in prayer Is any man afflicted let him pray for the prayer of a vse 1 righteous man preuaileth much if it be feruent heauen and the eare of God is open to him When Moses held vp his hand Israell preuailed That the Israelites might see that his hand had a greater stroake in the fight then all theirs the successe must rise and fall with it Therefore we must wrestle with Iacob who by his strength had power with God and striue with Paul and stand in the gap with Moses Secondly it condemneth all such as contemne this ordinance vse 2 and doe not preferre this meanes before all other without which indeed all other actions and instruments are vnholy and vnprofitable as Chariots Horsemen Money Bread Physicke which most excellent ordinance of God is yet least and last thought vpon by many For if men or diuells can sted them they will not be beholden vnto God when it is too late then will they send for the Priest as their Prouerbe is yet so will infidells doe Yea Pharoh himselfe with Ahab and the greatest Athiests vse 3 Thirdly it maketh for the consolation of Gods children that their case cannot be desperate or themselues destitute of helpe If they can but call and cry vnto God if they can but sigh and groane though they can but chatter like a Swallow with Ezekiah make a noyse in their prayers with Dauid and but euen mooue their lips with Hannah it is sufficient if thy soule bee powred out with hers for God knoweth the meaning of the spirit which likewise helpeth our infirmities So that when Gods children are in any danger faith doth accompany them and mooueth them to prayer and in praying they are still more feruent they can neuer be