Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A44069
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A cordiall against the feare of death delivered in a sermon before the Vniversity of Oxford May 28, 1654 / by Thomas Hodges.
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Hodges, Thomas, d. 1688.
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1659
(1659)
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Wing H2318; ESTC R27407
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21,172
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40
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need not slavishly to fear death I know nature is averse to and trembles at dissolution and the pure and holy nature of Christ did with submission to his fathers will decline suffering and feare dying and it is sufficient for the servant that he be as his Master A naturall ordinate moderate feare of death a Christian may have but yet he doth not slavishly feare death or hell he knows the one cannot hurt him and the other hath nothing in him a haire of his head shall not fall to the ground and not so much as the smell of hell fire shall ever passe on him Christians have no need to fear death it can let it do its worst but kill the body it cannot cast body or soule into hell fire and wherefore then should Christians feare it the shell the body may in death be broken or worm-eaten but the kernell the soul that is untouched the wormes cannot touch that Besides death is a hiding place or Sanctuary to Christians for a time till all the sore calamities of this miserable world are overpast and men in distresse do not fly from but to places and cities of refuge Againe they may look on death as a period of all evill as a forerunner as an in let to all blessednesse a darke entry leading them to the father of lights they find death in the Inventory of their good things 1 Cor. 3.21 22. For all things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world Revel 14.13 or life or death Even so saith the Spirit Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. Alacres accedunt ad mortem tanquam ad aerumnarum terminum melioris vitae exordium Corn. Alap They approach death cheerfully as the end of their troubles and the beginning of a better life How unhappy were Christians if they could not dye they would not live alway It is enough say they with Elijah a little altered take away our lives 1 King 15.4 that we may be better with our fathers nay that we may be ever with the Lord which is best of all Vitam habent in patientia mortem in desiderio they are patient of life or content to live but desirous to dye Of old it was grown to a kind of Proverb soli Christiani mortis contemptores Christians were the men who contemned death In the Martyrologie we find Justus and Pastor the one of seven the other of nine yeares of age offering themselves to Martyrdome for Christ A godly man dies willingly though at the stake saying with the first Martyr Stephen Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Act. 7.59 but t is observed by some that the rich fool dyed unwillingly this night saith the text do they require thy soul of thee he would not dye but he must Luk. 12.20 gr Farther Christians are freed by Christ and by his dying from the slavish feare of death and hell or temporall and eternall death For 1 Christ hath destroyed him that had the power of death i. e. the Devill non quod personam aut substantiam diaboli destruxerit annihilârit sed quia ejus regnum imperium destruxit Corn. Alap He hath not destroyed or annihilated the person or substance of the Divell but he hath destroyed his Kingdome and Empire Christ hath despoyled the Devill of that right or power which he sometimes had by permission or sufferance from God to tempt and torment them by reconciling them by his death unto God Now since Christ hath made our peace with God the Devils power to tempt us in this life is much limited and restrained if we be in Christ and his power to torment us after death is totally abolished He hath delivered us from the power of Satan Act. 26.18 from the power of darknesse Col. 1.13 Ita prostratus est saith Calvin speaking of the Devill ut pro nihilo habendus sit ac si nullus foret the Devill is so vanquished as if he signified nothing now as if there was no Devill at all as to believers And Christ conquerd the Devill beat him out of his Kingdome and Empire which he sometimes had over us his Subjects with his own weapon he slew him as it were with his own sword hostem suis ipsius armis confecit Christus saith Beza Christ by death overcame him that had the power of death when he hung upon the crosse See Colos 2.15 Ephes 4.8 he spoiled principalities and powers and when he ascended up on high he led captivitie captive and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them The Devill first got his power to torment us with death temporall and eternall and with the fear and horror of both by tempting us to sin and by that meanes tyrannized over man putting him to death cruelly and malitiously but now Christ became sin for us our sins were laid upon him and he died for our sins and by his death overcame the Devill the great Leviathan did bite at the flesh of Christ or his humane nature sed captus fuit hamo Divinitatis but he was caught by his divinity as with a hook yea the divine power of Christ is such a hook in his nostrills that he can and will hinder him from tyrannizing over and tormenting as formerly he did those that are Christs And truly the Devil hath justly forfeited his power for his malice against Christ and his presumption in setting upon Christ the Captain of our salvation when he once appeared but in the Similitude of sinfull flesh 2. Because Christ hath destroyed the power and dominion of Sin he hath by his death taken away the condemning power and purchased the Spirit to destroy the commanding power of Sin in his so that sin shall no more raigne in our mortall bodyes Sin shall no more have dominion over us since Christ dying for sin hath condemned Sin in the flesh 3. That Christ hath delivered true Christians from the feare of Death appeares in that he hath freed them from the damning power of the Law the strength of sin as to its condemning power is the Law but Christ in this regard as to those that are Christs hath nayled the Law to his crosse yea the law was not made for a righteous man sayth the Scripture 1 Tim 1.9 and such are justified persons by the death of Christ Farther t is said against such there is no law Gal. 5.23 and that we might be yet delivered from all our tormenting feares hear what the Apostle Paul sayth Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ 4 In that Christ by his death hath abolished death to the godly I had all-most said Name and Thing he hath taken away the sting of death he hath beat out the teeth of this evill and venemous beast Death came with open mouth upon Christ like a roaring Lyon as he went down that way but Christ hath slaine the Lyon and now out of the eater comes meat and out of
Christ and the holy Angels and all the company of heaven and though our body and soul part yet the mysticall union betwixt us and Christ the Head continues firme and indissoluble and we are still members of his body that death is a sleep after our labour and travell here and who feares to put off his clothes to goe to sleep in his bed that Christ our Lord dyed to free us from the slavish feare of death I say if we consider all these things we shall not need to be alway way in bondage through feare of death Though death was odious and accounted an enemy to the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods of the Heathen yet it hath been welcomed and entertained as a friend by godly Christians I have heard or read of a godly man who rejoyced exceedingly when he saw the plague spots upon his arme looking on them as certain signes of his approching dissolution and of a gracious Gentlewoman who being told by a friend that her change probably was not far off brake out after such a manner saying Now blesse the Lord O my soul and all that is within me blesse His Holy Name I would not goe back again for a world or to the like effect And 4ly that we may not feare the approach of Death le ts prepare and provide daily for his comming put on the whole armour of God especially the shield of Faith and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God Cant. 4.4 this is like the Armory of Solomon wherein hung a thousand shields even the shields of the mighty Keep close to our Captaine Christ who leads us and loves us and laid down his life for us and ever lives in heaven to make intercession for us through him we shall doe valiantly through him we shall tread down our enemies and be more then Conquerors over Sin Death and the Divel Le ts take heed of every Sin get and grow in and act as we have opportunity every grace labour to be abundantly fruitfull in every good thought word and worke and be sure to be found upon our watch and upon our guard when death comes And now Sir to return unto you having never preached to you from the Pulpit accept I pray this Sermon from the Presse You who feare God do not you feare Death Let not such a man as you seek to flee but rather stand in your tent door ready to meet him when he comes To this end be rich in Faith and rich in good Works let your own eyes be your Overseers and your own hands in some good measure your Executors Be eyes to the blind feet to the lame deale your bread to the hungry cloath the naked shew your faith by your works Thus whilst others may be compared to Dives or to the rich fool in the Gospell we shall behold you as the wise Merchant in the Parable who though you have indeed a great portion in the things of the world yet are not contented to have the world for your portion and though you have had your share of the treasures hid in the sands yet not satisfied therewith lay up for your selfe treasures in Heaven Thus returning you hearty thanks for the favours and respects you have been pleased to doe me hoping since you are reputed a lover of Ministers you will give a Minister leave still to love and honour you I shall conclude praying for you that when you shall have served your Generation according to the will of God and fall asleepe your soule may be received up into Heaven and your body rest in the Lord so that when you shall awake in the morning of the resurrection and your body and soule be reunited you may be still and ever with the Lord which is best of all Sir This is and shall be the Prayer of your Humble Servant in the Gospell of Christ THOMAS HODGES Souldern Decemb. 23. 1658. Heb 2.15 And deliver them who through feare of Death were all their life time subject to bondage IN this and the verse immediately foregoing we have a rationall account of the Incarnation of the Son of the God why it was expedient that the Messiah should be Emanuel the Word should be made Flesh wherefore the Son of God should become the Son of Man an everliving and all-quickening Spirit partake of flesh and blood like unto us his brethren onely without sin i. e. be of a nature passible and mortall or obnoxious to sufferings and Death namely it was for these two ends 1. That by his death he might destroy our great enemy there named the Divel and described to be him that had the power of Death And 2ly That he might deliver us his own brethren and friends out of the hands of this cruel tyrant and out of the mouth of this roaring Lyon of whom by reason of our sins we either were or had just cause to be all our life time afraid lest we should by him be punished both with temporall and eternall Death There are three observations which I desire to speak to and which I suppose contain the very marrow of these words 1. That t is a grievous bondage to be all our life time in continuall feare of Death 2. Unbelievers or those who are out of Christ either are or have just cause to be through feare of Death all their life time subject unto bondage 3. Believers or they who have part in Christ and they onely are delivered and freed by his death from this intollerable bondage Of the 1. I shall proceed by these steps 1. To shew that feare is a bondage 2. That to fear all on s life time aggravates the bondage 3. That to feare Death all our life time consummates the bondage 1. Feare is a passion which speaks a man a servant t is the badge and cognizance of a Servant whereas Love is the principle and character of a Child to feare our Lords or our Masters anger is servile servile est ac servum arguit saith Rolloc in loc And t is very observable that Rom. 8.15 the spirit of fear is cal'd a Spirit of bondage but the spirit of Adoption or the spirit of Sons is in the Scripture cal'd a spirit of love and distinguished from that spirit of feare or that principle of fear whereby servants commonly do act or are acted rather 2 Tim. 1.7 Feare hath torment sayth the Holy Ghost 1 Joh. 4.18 This foul fiend this torturing Affection was worshipped by the Lacedemonians as a God I suppose for the same cause that the Romans and Indians worshipped the Divel viz. that it should not torment them And truely they say Fear was commonly adored and painted in their Temples with a Lyons head and so very terrible not unlike the Devill that roaring Lyon who goeth about continually seeking whom he may devoure and truly if it be not like the Devill yet some have said Cardan that feare