beleeve and close with his sayings that they being intertained Christ himself to whom they bear witnesse and whom they set forth may be beleeved on come to and received into the heart he may be entertained into the fouls affection desire delight confidence c. that so he that is Gods righteousnesse provided for us and given unto us being received and entertained thou mai'st in him be presented righteous to God and filled with the fruits of righteousnesse both toward God and men that so thou having of the spirit of Christ within thee it may lead teach support and comfort thee and in the midst of dangers yea and of death it self fill thee with a lively hope of life and glory Friends do righteously in beleeving the word of God and looking to Christ by faith be not enemies to your selves by heeding lying vanites put not away from you your own mercies run not desperately through a spirit of envy or malice or through worldlinesse pride presumption Atheisme loosenesse into your own destruction What good will you get to your selves in the issue by being wicked by being envious against the Gospel and grace of God by quarrelling against and resisting the truth by scorning contemning hating and reproaching them that out of love and good will preach and hold it forth to you by rejecting the testimony of God and closing with every vain phantasie by which you think your selves strengthened against it whom do you fight against in opposing the word of God is it not against God himself and is it not against your own good Do you not endeavour thereby to pervert your own waies to make his grace and goodnesse questionable as concerning your selves and so put your selves from having the word of God the ground of your faith to fetch the ground of it from some blinde conjectures and good conceits of your selves Oh stand not in your own light neglect not so great salvation as is set before you nor rest in such a notion all profession of truth as leaves the soul destitute of the power of truth such a consent to it and profession of it as yet leaves the soul unrighteous brings it not into Christ nor receives not the power and Spirit of Christ into it Let not love of the world and worldly vanities keep you out either from attending to and receiving truth nor from submitting to and walking out in the power of truth perhaps you are rich some of you and injoy much in the world you can fill and satiate your selves with the profits advantages and delights of it you finde a great deal of satisfaction in your own waies some in coveteousnes others in pride and others in voluptuousnes c. But oh consider the emptinesse and vanity of all these satisfactions will the world and the things thereof last for ever is not God even now powring out whole vials of his wrath upon it and is he not staining the pride of all glory and bringing to contempt all that 's honourable in the earth Is he not marring the form of it and casting bitternesse into all the comforts of the earth and what will your riches profit you if God come to plead with you with sword famine and his sore judgements do you think to bribe his wrath or make an agreement with hell and death do you think that his hand will not finde you out or do you think your riches honours pleasures accomodations in the world will then fill your souls with hope O no beloved these things will then prove more empty vanties you may live as richly and sumptuously and in as great pleasure as the rich man in the Gospel Luk. 16. yea and perhaps to have as honourable a buriall and yet the next news may be that that was his unhappy portion that you are in hell tormented what then will all these things you here set your hearts upon advantage you what will it profit you could you get and enjoy the whole world and to lose your souls in the getting it die like stocks or blocks without God and without Christ and without hope or to die howling out with vexation and despair Alas what good would all his riches and places or great funerall c. have done this gentleman if he had died without faith in God and without the hope of his glory and so before his body had been interred his soul had been in hell Be you willing to follow his steps in owning the truth of God and the grace of God therein declared and in so laying down your selves to the Crosse of Christ and cordially desiring the knowledge and enjoyment of Christ that so your end may be as hopefull as his you may not be afraid of death and faint under it but hope in it and rejoice over it for the righteous man is he that hath hope in his death 3. To conclude let me speak one word to you that do follow after righteousnesse even the righteousnesse of God you that have received the record of God concerning his Son beleeved his love and therethrough are brought to appreach unto him to have good thoughts of him and have cast your souls upon him and set your hope in him what hath been said may be usefull unto you for your encouragement and consolation I shall say this to you my brethren hold fast your integrity follow on yet after righteousnesse Rev. 22.11 be not weary of well doing nor saint in the way he that is righteous let him be righteous still and be that is holy let him be holy still let him continue and increase in holinesse and righteousnesse serving God in them all the daies of his life abide in Christ and in his way attending to the grace of God and submitting thereto to be acted and led thereby to deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts Tit. 2.11 12. Heb. 13 1â— 16 and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking diligently that none fail of the grace of God that none be prophane as Esau to sell the hope set before him the birthright given you for a messe of pottage for any worldly carnall transitory vanities take heed of consulting with flesh and bloud lest you be turned aside from the word of God to other doctrines or to be corrupted to worldly waies and evils take heed that the cares of this life and the deceitfullnesse of riches or love of other things in this world do not by little and little steal in upon your spirits to cheak the good seed of the word of God and so to make you content your selves with a barren profession of Christ without power and fruitfullnesse Hold fast your hope and confidence in Christ Heb. 10.35 and hold fast your good conversation according to Christ knowing that your confidence hath a great recompense of reward 1 Cor. 15 18. Gal. 6 7. and your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord in due time ye shall reap if ye faint
Tim 1.6 Heb 1.9 2 Joh 2 2. ungodly sinners and enemies 1 Pet. 3.18 Rom. 3 6 8 10. that whosoever beleeves on him should not perish but have everlasting lift that the Son of God gave himself a ransome for all and tasted death by the grace of God for every one is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world Well then if thou beleevest the testimony of God by his Apostles and surely that is to be credited before what men say then maiest thou see that this appertains to thee if thou beest a man or one of the world then God gave his Son for thee and the Son of God came down from his Father into the world to be a Saviour for thee and died and gave himself a ransome for thee and is the propitiation for thy sins this is thou feest the language of the Scripture and of the testimony that God hath given of his Son that he died for sinners for men for all and there is none but will confesse that it 's meet that we should beleeve Gods saying as that which is in it self undoubtedly true Why then it 's meet that thou believe him in this particular too else thou dealest unrighteously with him and givest him the lie and if thou faiest ah but thou wouldst have some sign or token of the truth of this as concerning thee from him in something to be done by him to thy soul before thou canst or wilt give credit to it and judge it true then dost thou Mâ—tâ—h 12.33 as that adulterous generation which Christ reproveth seeking signes and tokens when God himself witnessed in his word concerning him and if thou shouldst persist in that way thou maist be given up to delusion to beleeve a lie and to be drawn from the truth asserted in the word by lying signs and wonders such as God sometimes orders to those that receive not the love of his truth that they might be preserved and saved by it 2 Thâ—s 1. 〈…〉 〈◊〉 Parath in Râ—n 9. If thou wilt not beleeve Gods word thou art in a dangerous way of miscarrying It 's a good counsel that Erasmus gives in such cases Desine disceptare incipe credere ita citius intelliges Leave off disputing and questioning about Gods word and opposing thy vain reason against it offer up thy reason as * Hoc est juge illud sacrificti vesperâ—â— ii matuâ—â—…um Novi Testamentâ— Vespertinum mortificare rationeâ—â— matutinâ—â— glorificare Deuâ— luâ—h in Gal 3.6 Luther advises as an evening sacrifice let that be mortified in whatsoever it sets it self against the word of God and instead thereof do thou begin to beleeve and give credit to what God saith and so thou shalt soonest come to understand which counsel I the rather commend because it sutes with the word of God it self it agrees with that of James 1.19 Be swift to hear slow to speak slow to wrath ready to listen what God saith in his word of truth but slow to be putting in thy glosses and corrections upon it and slow to wrangle with it or to be offended at what is said therein and so in Isa 7.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Tertullian renders thus Iâ—â—o taamiâ—â— Kâ— lo reamenu Tertul advers Marciod 4 c 32 Nisicredideritis non intelligetis unlesse ye beleeve ye shall not understand God would have us take his word and then he will let us see the truth and faithfullnesse of his word Man is apt to look the wrong way in first desiring to have his reason satisfied before he will beleeve but if thou wouldest prove and experiment the truth and certainty of his word to thy soul and have the profitable understanding of it do thou first receive it and close with it holding it for true and certain and then beleeving it to be true thou wilt judge it but a meet and righteous thing to commit thy soul to him and betrust thy self with him that hath prevented thee with so much goodnesse and declared such love to thee before-hand that thou mightest be perswaded to beleeve in him and that it 's thy great sin and evill that thou art so diffident and distrustfull of him yea in closing with that word of his grace in which he hath testified such love towards thee in Christ Isa 50.2 thou shalt in due season finde and feel the power of God put forth to save thee from distrusting him and so enabling thee with thy heart to beleeve on him so as it shall be imputed unto thee for righteousnesse Christ himself shall be made thy righteousnesse and thou accounted and accepted as righteous in him And now to bring thee again to the businesse where Christ is so received by faith as that the soul depends upon him and he becomes it's righteousnesse and presents him righteous to his father thence he will be operative in the soul too by his Spirit teaching the soul to walk righteously and act forth righteousnesse both to God and man For the faith that so receives Christ is not a bare dead notionall apprehension of a proposition sloating in the brain but such a cordiall closing of the heart with the word of God as that it closeth with loveth prizeth and leaneth on Christ held forth therein and ascendeth up to God by him loving admiring panting after and cleaving to God in him the Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus working effectually in the soul and filling it with divine and heavenly vertues and operations as to devote it self to God for his great love towards it to expect further good from him to submit unto him c. and so be filled with peace and joy in the manifestation of Gods accepting it and witnesse thereof bearing to it with love and charity to men inward desires of their good and readines really to endeavour it as opportunity is offered as knowing that God would have them to be saved and that what Christ hath in his death and sufferings procured into himself it is free for any to come to him for whosoever will may take freely of the waters of life as also that it is acceptable to God that they should so walk towards others as he hath walked toward them and indeed faith as it gives a sight to the soul of the glorious grace of God so is it a means of the souls being transformed through that glory seen into his similitude to love as he hath loved pity where he shews pity and to delight in that which he delighteth it teacheth us to deny all ungodlines and worldly lusts and to live godly righteously and soberly in this present world to hold forth the word of life and work the works that are acceptable to God and profitable to men not in any thing to injure or wrong them but in all things to seek their commodity as occasion is presented to them that they might glorifie God in the day of
THE RIGHTEOVS MANS HOPE IN HIS DEATH IN A SERMON AT THE Funerall of Mr WILLIAM CONYE of Walpoole Justice of Peace and Captain over the Trained Band in Marshland PREACHED By JOHN HORNE Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ at Soushlyn in Norfolke 2 do May 1648. 2 SAMUEL 14.14 For we must needs die and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again neither doth God respect any person yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him ISAIAH 57.1 2. The righteous is taken away from the evil to come He shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds each one walking in his uprightnesse Cum constet deresurrectione mortuorum vacat dolor mortis vacat impatientia doloris Tertul. de Patientia Quinto major fides tanto morsest imbecillior Luth. LONDON Printed for Tho. Vnderhill 1649. To the Author of the Sermon IN Achor's vale Thou op'st a Door of Hope The Heart enlarg'd may well behold Thy scope The strong Devourer is by Thee made sweet We see the Eater is become mans meat The Faithfull die their fear of death is past In hope they live These dead thou lead'st to rest J.A. On the death of William Conye Esq Justice of the Peace and Captain at Wars Who being dead yet speaketh Heb. 11.4 OH living man would'st by death gain Learn Christ who did thy death sustain That so when Death Thy Life shall end Thou maist in Life with Christ Ascend Thy losse of friends becomes thy gain When God thy friend thou do'st obtain Then Pattern-like Be taught of me Let Christ thy life yet living be By sin came death yet liveth he Who conquer'd death to succour thee J.A. Or Thus. The Bush on fire is still preserv'd Mans life in death is yet conserv'd The Angels food Mans bread Christ is This Captain slew our death by his His bonds makes free his death brings life Our shame through Christ works glory rife Christ's Grace gains Faith Man hopes glory Sure 's God 's word myst'ry and stlory Vain man I Why fearest death in vain Christ is risen Beleeve and reign J.A. The CONTENTS Doctrines 1. That Righteous men die 1. The leverall kindes of death 1. Eternall which is a perishing from the presence of the Lord The second death 2. Spirituall Dead in sins strangers from the life of God Taken in an ill sease Dead to the Law to a mans self Thus taken in a good sense 3. Temporall see sin Inchoate In deaths often The shadow of death Censummate An utter sepatation of the soul from the body 2. The reasons of the Righteous mans dying 1 From the frail and mortall nature about them 2 From Satan and this world haters of them 3. From sin that cleaves so fall to them 4. From the Ordinance of God upon them That all men must die 5. For right ends to them 1. To humble the righteous by death 2. To make them seek salvation out of death through Christ 3. That the glory of Christ in raising them out of death may appear 4. That death may put an end to all their evils 5. That dying the righteous may enter into life and glory 2. That the Righteous hath hope in his death And therein consider 1. The difference of the Righteous mans hope from other mens hopelesse of life or senselesse of death 2. Who is the Righteous man 3. Divers sorts of Righteousnesse 1. Of a mans own and of works Morall Legall 2. Of God Of saith 4. Gods goodnesse done for man and his truth said to man cals for mans trust and hope towards God 5. What is this hope of a Righteous man 1. The severall objects of his hope Christ And other things through Christ 2. The grounds of his hope 1. Christs sufferings for man the ground of mans righteousnesse with God 2. Christs resurrection out of death the ground of mans hope of life 3. The efficacy of his hope the Righteous mans hope dies not It lives in his death 6. The blessed memory of this deceased Righteous man and of his hope in his death Application 1. The Righteousnesse of God is to be taken notice of and not to be slighted 2. All men ought to fellow this righteousnesse of God and not faint for sufferings 3. These followers are to go on in the way of righteousnesse The righteous not to die in their affections for death it self but to have hope in their death THE RIGHTEOVS MANS HOPE IN HIS DEATH The Text. PROV 14.32 The Righteous hath hope in his death NOt to spend time in unnecessary prefacing because we shall finde matter enough in the words to take up all this little time allotted us There are two Propositions couched in the Text to which I shall desire as briefly and yet as clearly as I may to speak viz. 1. That even Righteous men also are liable to death 2. That the Righteous have hope in their death The truth of the former of these is not only a matter of faith but is evident to sense also as the Scriptures tell us Heb 9.17 It 's appointed to man once to die So we see the wise and the foolish the righteous and the wicked both are subject thereto and in that regard all things come alike to all The most famous for righteousnesse have yielded unto death Abraham is â—â—nd and the Prophets are dead yea Christ himself yielded up the Ghost and died so that we shall not spend time about the proof of that point only I shall desire to unfold the severall acceptions of the word death and see in which of them this is found true that the righteous comes unto death and so see the latitude in which this Text may be taken and then shew whence and upon what grounds it comes to passe that the righteous also die and so proceed to the next particular The word death is diversly used in Scripture As We reade of a second death Rev. 20 6. 〈◊〉 Thes 17.8 9 Mâ—â—â— 25 4â— a perishing from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power a being thrown into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his Angels But of this death the text is not to be understood for this is none of the righteous mans death it 's not appointed for him nor he for it nor shall he come into it nor is it a death in which any hope may be had this is indeed the righteous mans hope that he shall not see this death but be preserved and kept from it as it is said Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection for on such the second death shall have no power Rev. 20.6 And of this that saying of our Saviour is to be understood that he that beleeves in him shall not taste death Joh 8 52. 2. Death is sometimes taken for a more spirituall death or a death in the spirit of a man only not in the body as when men are said
their visitation and be turned unto God and every one that so beleeveth the testimony of God concerning Christ in his heart that he therein receiveth Christ for his wisdom righteousnesse holinesse and redemption and is brought to rely upon him and God in him for pardon peace life spirit and whatsoever may concern his happinesse and therewithall is framed to the minde of Christ to live to him and to God in him as hath been shewn he is the truly righteous man here to be understood in the text one whom God approves and holds for righteous Every through cordiall and sincere beleever he is the righteous man here spoken of and that is the first thing propounded for explication who is this righteous man in opening which I have been the larger because that 's of most weight and men are aptest therein to be deceived resting either in morall or Pharisaicall conceited righteousness in stead of the true righteousnesse which is according to God or else to rest in a form and carcasle of faith that receives nothing but propositions of truth into the head but receiveth not Christ into the heart to be it's righteousness from all which the righteousnesse of God doth greatly differ beyond all which kinde of righteous men the man that 's truly righteous doth very much go as is declared having cleared that let us now come to the second thing propounded to be explained and opened Quest 2. viz. What the hope is that such a righteous man hath in his death In opening that I shall consider this his hope both in it's object and ground This hope may be considered according to it's object and that first Objectum in quo The object unto which the heart is led and carried and in which it hath it's expectation and that is not any vain empty creature either it self or any other thing in the whole world for the righteous man is crucified to them with Christ and knows there is nothing to be met with from them that can help or satisfie and that God hath pronounced a curse upon him that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm Jer. 17.5 His hope therefore is set upon God in Christ from him is all his expectation according to that of David Psa 62.1 2. Truly my soul waiteth upon God from him cometh my salvation and that in Lam. 3.24 The Lord is my portion saith my soul therefore in him will I hope God as he hath discovered himself to the soul in Christ so he himself is the object in which it hopeth and from whom it expecteth what it hopeth for 2. The Objectum propter quod the object for which it hopeth it hopes for something as well as in something as to instance he hopes for support and preservation through death Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death yet will I fear none ill for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff doth comfort me or support me Psa 23.4 Psa 37.25 2. The enjoyment of Christ and God in Christ more fully in his Spirit after the dissolution of the body thence Paul Phil. 1. I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ 2 Cor. 5.6 8. knowing that when we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord walking by faith and not by fight we desire to be rather absent from the body and to be present with the Lord the righteous man hopes for a more full enjoyment of Christ then here he was capable of 3. He hopes that God will yet take care of his people and preserve his Church and carry on his work in the world for the glory of his name and will not be wanting to his posterity if he leave any behinde him Deut. 33.26 29. 4. His resurrection out of death and the full possession of eternall glory which Jesus Christ in the re-union of the soul and body as is at large declared in 1 Cor. 15. and in 1 Thes 4.16 17. c. He that raised up the body of the Lord Jesus Christ shall also raise up the beleever and give him acrown of life and glory that shall never fade where there shall be no mixture of grief or misery with his joy or happinesse but he shall be fully and for ever satisfied with the glorious enjoyment of God in Christ Jesus This is the hope that a righteous man hath in his death the object hoped for 2. This hope may be considered too in the ground or motive of it whence it springeth or what that is that gives a man encouragement and boldnesse to hope in God and Christ for such happinesse yea even in death when God seems to be about co cut him off for ever and that is properly the Lord Jesus Christ as he is the gift of God the manifestation of the Fathers love and grace the Mediatour and Saviour of the soul declared to the soul in the Gospel and received by faith whence the Apostle stiles him our hope Paul an Apostle by the commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ our hope 1 Tim. 1.1 and again Christ in you the hope of glory Col. 1.28 for it 's in the gift of him for and to the soul that it apprehends the love of God to be such towards it as that it hath good cause for ever to hope in him and thus to reason concerning him If when we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son how much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life Rom. 5.10 Now because it is this love of God shed abroad into the heart by the holy Ghost that springs up this hope in God as Rom. 5.5 6. therefore the Apostle cals it good hope through grace that is sprung up through the apprehension and appearance of the grace or favour of God towards us as in another respect viz. because this grace is declared in the Gospel and therethrough discerned by us it 's called also the hope of the Gospel Col. 1.23 2 Thes 2.16 a lively hope that puts lively chearfull thoughts into the soul and makes it live in the midst of death in expectation of a crown and inheritance incorruptible and immortall c 1 Pet. 2.3 and that grounded upon the resurrection of Christ from the dead thence it 's also a good hope not only because it doth good to the soul in saving preserving and supporting it in trials and afflictions so as that it saints not nor turns away from God 1 Joh. 3.3 but is kept in dependance on him or in that it also purifies the soul or leads the man to purge himself through the grace of God beleeved that he may be meet for such a hope or glory hoped for in the view of which it also gives the soul strong consolation making it in death to trample upon death and rejoice over death because of the glory to be revealed and enjoyed after it but also it 's good because of the foundation whence it