cannot die evill who liveth well Now as that is a good and wel-led life which is passed in holinesse and vertuous actions that an evill one which is led in wickednesse answerably the death is to be weighed from the forepassed actions of life so that if the life be led in a religious observance of God his Law in a holy obedience to his will the death cannot be bad for it is a translation to immortality But if otherwise it is necessary it must be evill for it transmits to eternall misery how comfortably could a good old Simeon pray that hymne and sing while he prayed Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace with what a religious confidence could old Hilarin farewell with his soule d Hier. de Hilar who had served his God sixty years the conscience of that faithfull service satisfied that his future being could not bee unhappy A heavenly life here on earth must needs give security of a happy life in heaven he that lives here hath no cause to feare to die hereafter e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doroth. doctr 8. for indeed I call the holy the onely life the wicked man hath a being here but onely the righteous man lives We use to count our dayes and number our years according to the time we are on earth Deceive not thy self who ever thou art Compute thou hast only lived that day in which thou hast denyed thine own will in which thou hast resisted thy corrupt affections in the which thou hast not transgressed the rule of equity Compute thou hast onely lived that day which malice and wickednesse envy or pride hath not clouded which hath not been wasted in sin in which thou hast stood upon thy guard and hast not been foyled by fleshly temptations Compute thou hast only lived that day which pious meditation and holy practice hath enlightned not which the darknesse of sin hath turned into a night apply only unto thy life that day the benefit of which by a holy conversation hath redounded unto thy soul The rest is but idle pastime a phrase which humours most men well but such empty cyphers will prove nothing but reall woes at heavens account Shall we compute that a day of life in which men consume eternity and heape unto themselves punishments never to have an end such a life tends unto and ends in death and is in truth but a death live therefore while here thou art sow the seeds of holinesse that thou mayst reape happinesse Bud forth in the blossomes of a future life that thou mayst gather the fruit hereafter the present must answer to the future the worldly lusts subdue thy corrupt appetites let the spirit of God rule in thy heart set thy affections on things above let thy conversation be in heaven and hope well one day thou mayst come thither as Cicero said of Hercules he had never been inrolled among the gods in heaven if he had not laid out his way thither while he lived so if we walke not in that holy way while here we live we shall never be registred with the Saints in blisse f Beru There is no way unto the Kingdom without the first-fruits of the Kingdome neither may they hope to reign there as Kings who have not here ruled over their properlusts If yee looke God should take you as he did Enoch you must as he walke with God a holy ever ushers in a happy life It was a bold and sharpe reply of those Philosophers to Alexander an exemplary Prince for Armes and Arts who passing some territories where his conquering sword had made him master hearing of learned men as his manner was sent for them and propounded to them many questions they giving him good resolution as an argument of his royall satisfaction he would have them aske him what they pleased that hee might grant it to them they joyntly asked of him immortality the Prince began to smile before sayes he I thought you wise men but now I thinke you fools to aske of me immortality who my selfe am mortall While I consider the condition and manners of the most of men I may make the like demand give me immortality if nature prompts them or Religion hath better taught them that they are mortall I make my reply with them to Alexander why then doe you live evill letting loose the reynes of all kinde of sin and wickednesse as if you were immortall as if you had no thought of death or feare of judgement For if we weigh well the actions of the most can we judge any otherwise of them for where is he who lives according to the decorum of heaven whose practice answers to that holy faith he would be accounted to make profession of Philosophy tels us that naturally men desire the chiefest good eternalll happinesse But all this while Religion hath been preached in the world it cannot worke so much upon mens affections as to win them to the right means of gaining of it they would obtein the chiefe good yet they would not be good g Aug. Ser. 12. ae verb. Dom. Doest thou not see how thou oughtest to blush at thy selfe who wouldest have all things good yet thy selfe wouldest not be good thy house thou wouldest have filled with goods and shall it have thee an evill master What is it that thou wouldest have ill not a wife not a childe not a servant not a house not a garment not thy shoos and yet thou carest not though thy selfe be evill thinke better of thy life then of thy shoos All things about thee if they be elegant and faire please and wilt thou be vile and filthy in thy selfe if thy good things could speake unto thee which thou enjoyest would they not say unto thee as thou wouldest have us good so doe we desire thee to be and may they not secretly murmur to God against thee behold thou hast given so many good things to this man yet he himselfe is evill Cannot he who gave these good things and makes them good unto thee if thou displease him take away the comfortable enjoyment of them turne the blessing into a curse thy prosperity into thy destruction get therefore with them his good will by doing his good will that at last he may give thee better and more reall the true goods Conjoyne thy selfe to the fellowship of Saints be of the holy Church here below that thou maist be one of the Church triumphant in glory Labour according to the grace of God given unto thee to doe the will of God here on earth as they doe in heaven that so thou maist doe it more perfectly hereafter with them h Cum quibus fuerit vobis consortium devotionis erit communio dignitatis Leo Ser. 5. de Epip For with whom we have a consort devotion we shall have a community of dignity If thou wouldest have the righteous mans end live as doe the righteous let it be thy delight to
coll 3. for of a truth the Christians life is hereafter though in the ordinary phrase of speech a man is sayd to live while here he is and to dye when he makes an end of dying death being not the end of life but the end of death and our birth day unto eternall blisse for if it be accustomably sayd a man childe is borne when he breaks forth out of the wombe of his mother into this light may not he be as rightly said to be borne who loosed from the bonds of flesh is brought forth into the land of the living it had obteined a custome in the Church that the day in which holy men departed this life they called it the day of their nativity and the usuall solemnities they called them b Beda hom in Ioh. 16. not funeralls but birth day feasts to raise this to a higher speculation God is the life of the soule as the soule is of the body While here we live our soule is separated from its life which is God which St. Paul hints While we are present in the world we are absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5 6. It is true he cherishes us with the breathings of his spirit he streams the rayes of his grace into our hearts but we enjoy not his glorious presence which gives fulnesse of life and vigour into the soule Again the state and condition here we are in being so transient our life but a blast but a bubble such a nothing deserves not the title of life but that state of incorruption to which death transmits us that fixed immortality that and that onely is life indeed 5 Death is gaine unto the righteous It is the end of the day when they receive their penny the reward of that faithfull service they have yeilded unto their God c Bene moritur qui cum moritur lucrum facit Sen. he dyes well says the moralist who makes a gain by his death that does the righteous man he exchanges this cottage of clay for a mansion in the new Jerusalem a house not made with hands eternall in the heavens he exchanges his poore possession for a glorious inheritance he changes this fading miserable for an ever blessed life he d O preclarum diem cum ad illud divinorum animorum con cilium caetumque proficiscar cum ex hac turba colluvione disâ—edam Cic. de Senect changes the company and fellowship of sinfull men for the blessed society of God and his holy Angels by whom he shall be most lovingly entertained e Suet. in Aug. Augustus at the Epilogue of his life desired his friends about him to give him a plaudite as if conscient to himselfe that he had acted his part well upon the stage of this World the righteous man shall have his plaudite from a better Theatre God the Father entertains him with a well done thou good and faithfull servant Mat. 25.21 God the Son entertains him with come yee blessed children of my Father Mat. 25.34 The whole hoast of heaven congratulate him for if there be joy in heaven at the repentance of a sinner Luk. 15.7 what exultation will there be at the entertainment of a righteous man into blesse if they rejoyce when he is but set in the way what will they doe when he comes to heaven 6 Death to the righteous is his marriage day in which he is conjoyned to his espoused Lord Christ Death is but the Paranymphus which presents the faithfull soule unto her bridegroom Oh happy meeting of a happy day to be evermore happy in the imbraces of her loving and beloved Lord f Suet. Augustus tooke the farewell of his life at the lips of Livia and dyed in the complement so he left her whom he loved The righteous man dyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 34.5 at the mouth of God g In osculo Domini Virg. in Apoc. 14. at a kisse of Gods mouth but it is a kisse of welcome and friendly entertainment of him in whom his soule delighteth as the indulgent mother takes her little one into her armes when it is about to sleepe So God takes his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his little righteous ones when they sleepe in death into the armes of his mercie and kisses them with the sweet imbraces of his love and favour and though a while he may lay them by to rest in Abrahams bosome while the number of the elect shall be gathered together yet his eye is ever on them and they enjoy his presence in which is fulnesse of joy If I should adde no more is not this enough to make good and to give us to joyne issue with Balaam Let me dye the death of the righteous but we will follow him to the ultimate period of his wish and let my last end be like his Though death be the end of all yet not the last that betideth man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and let my afterwards or let it be to me after death as to him We will consider then what follows death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 9 27. after death judgement The punctuall circumstance of time is not limited by any verbe neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that whether it shall follow presently or in a longer tract the Text leaves undetermined and the terme after may as well signifie the precedencie of things done and order as reference to any particular time h In loc Aretius would streighten it by altering the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon that I like not this liberty with the sacred Text in the least Iota neither will that conclude it For circumstantiall notes of time as were easie to evidence are in Scripture largely or more streightly taken for yeares before or after and it is not peremptorily to conclude from the Apostles phrase It may be more easily resolved if we consider man according to his essentiall principles the judgement of the soule follows presently upon the dissolution that receiveth sentence and is carryed by the Angels into Abrahams bosome a place of rest and happinesse or thrust into torment the body is to expect its doom while that great day of the generall judgement these two being now separated we will take some liberty to speake of some things though of lesser note and might not so fully lie in Balaams wish that betide the body after death There being some small difference observable 1 The grave What ever the humerous Cynicke thought i Laert. in vita Diog. who cared not what became of his corps when hee was dead yet the wiser man said that an untimely birth was better then he that had no buriall Eccles 6.3 it was the curse of that wicked woman the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the walls of Jezreel 1 King 21.23 and she shall be as dung upon the face of the field 2 King 9.37 it was the doom of Jehojakim that he should have the buriall
of an asse Jer. 22.19 which implies that the civill interment of the body and committing of it to earth was honourable And as the old Law was full of types and ceremonies so they whose soules wereseparated to severall mansions as if they would expresse this truth in a type the faithfull were buryed by themselves from whence was that phrase to be gathered to their Fathers Gen. 25.8 As Jacob gave commandement concerning his bones that he would not be buryed in Egypt k Gen. 47.29 Gather me not with the wicked prayes the Prophet Psal 26.9 not to take notice of the solemnities used at their funerals and to passe the customes from hence derived to other Nations looke we onely to our own They who deny the common faith or whose more vileactions have been a scandall to their profession we eyther bury them not at all or dishonourably but they who live and dye in the faith of Christ and their good conversation hath given us to hope that their bodies shall one day be partakers with their souls in bliffe we give them a more decent buriall in places set a part for that use the Church yard which the Germanes call l Godw. ant Gods Acre or his field where the bodies of his Saints are sown corruptible to spring and arise again incorruptible and immortall 2 The resurrection though our bodies doe moulder and resolve into yet they doe not lose themselves in the dust they onely leave their weaknesse and corruption which adheares unto them by the contagion of sin from which being purged the substance of the body returns again to prove that there is a resurrection were too large a digression and a needlesse labour it being so cleere a constat among Christians that we hold it an article of our faith We are baptized not onely for the remission of sins but also into the resurrection of the flesh 1 Cor. 15. from whence I conceive the Greeks call baptisme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the clothing or putting on of immortality and again we lay down out bodies in the dust in the sure and certain hope thereof It was an ill reading of that Text the wicked shall not arise in judgement Psal 1.5 which strained that glosse m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyr. Hier. cat 18. Theoph. in Joh. 3. not to judgement but to condemnation the true reading is they sholl not stand in judgement according to the * Stare in judicio Latine phrase they shall not be acquitted but fall when they are judged For as Aquinas rightly argues n Suppl 3. partis qu. 75. art 2. that which is taken from the nature of the species is alike found in every individuall of the same species the resurrection is such and therefore it belongs to every particular Every one must arise the most wretched liver and the false beleever but here is the difference o Resurrectio incredulis parata est gloria autem resurrection is sola credentibus repromissa est Eus Em. hom 1. de Symb. though all arise yet the glory of the resurrection is onely promised unto the faithfull Which was that Saint Paul so earnestly endevoured after if I may by any meanes obteine the resurrection of the dead Phil. 3.11 that of the wicked not deserving the title being but an upstanding to everlasting death Here the body being raysed by the power of GOD out of the dust meets it soul again and are conjoyned together to the righteous a joyfull meeting one of them being happy in the other and both of them in a full expectation of a never ending felicity Sad to the wicked soul being fettered again to the body like malefactors accessories in the same guilt to receive together a just but fearfull recompence of reward 3 Judgement is an act of justice terminated upon man A sentence given by GOD upon his actions There is a twofold judgment assigned by Divines a Session and a grand Assize a particular and a generall For every man is to be considered as he is a singular person in himself and as his sins have had influence into others And as he is a member of mankind 1 As he is an individuall and particular person so is he adjudged by God presently after his death when he is doomed according to what he hath done in the body although not fully because not in the body but onely in the soule that onely appearing and having its sentence the body lying asleepe in its dust 2 As he is a part of mankind so he is called at the great and generall day when there shall be a full summons and an universall appearance of all the living that ever were and as generall a sentence neither yet does God judge twice for the same thing and inflict double punishment for one sin but that which before was not compleatly inflicted then shall the wicked be given up to be tormented and the good glorified in soule and body both and thereseems to be in this equity that the body which hath been a fellow worker with the soul either of holinesse unto life or unrighteousnesse unto death should have her part proportionable in the reward by which generall judgement the righteousnesse of God shall be acquitted and vindicated from all slander not onely from the testimony of every guilty conscience but also by the cleere acknowledgement of every one summoned to appeare at the barre Righteous O God art thou and just are thy judgements The secrets of all hearts being then revealed and the full number of each mans sins being then made up for wicked men finish not their sins with their dayes some mens sins following after judgement 1 Tim. 5.24 they give while they live bad examples which are drawn into practice they leave behinde them the memory of unrighteous deeds which multiply to posterity and acknowledge them their first and proper parent So the vertuous lives of good men lead others by the hand unto holinesse and their faith is filed for posterity Abraham is long since in blisse yet is his faith impressed in the hearts of his children who walke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the steps of the faith of that holy Father Rom. 4.12 how will it adde to the crown of rejoycing as glory of that blessed Saint to see so many trails after him in that tread of faith and righteousnesse which he hath before trodden out how will it blisse those faithfull dispensers of the word and other holy men who by their devout faith and religious practice have converted many unto righteousnesse to appeare with those they have brought to fight under Christ his banner might I rather in the rerelead up but one convert then to march in the van of all the worlds happinesse or triumphant glory The Son of man being mounted on the throne of his Majesty then follows disquisition of actions Heavens records shall be brought forth the books shall be opened the book of life and according to their
works written in that book the dead shall be judged Apoc. 20.12 Not to enter into any nice School disputes concerning this book what it is how mens actions are therein registred and enrolled when the Holy Spirit is pleased to besilent I will not over-sawcily determine It is enough our actions are all therein recorded not a good work word alms-deed prayer but it is there noted not a tear of contrition for sin that fals to the ground but GOD latches it Put thou my teares in thy bottle are not these things written in thy book Psal 66.8 As on the other side not a wicked action idle word vile thought but they are there recorded likewise These things thou hast done and I kept silence and thou thoughtest I had been such an one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them inorder before thine eyes Psal 50.21 He now unseen sees and observes what afterwards openly he will produce when he shall sit in righteousnesse to judge the world When hee shall come to try our actions and accordingly sever the good and bad with his discriminating fan in his hand parting the chaffe and soyle from the cleaner grains where the good wheat shall be layd up in Gods granery and the evill like the tares cast into the fire Having thus spoken of what betides man after death I now come to close with the ordinary reading and discover unto you the ultimate period the last end of the righteous man The LORD hath taken him unto himselfe to be with him eternally blessed blessed to eternity but the difficulty will be to describe unto you what blessednesse is p Futura beatitudo acquiri potest aestimari non potest Eus Em. though here wee must labour and lay earnest for it yet we cannot rightly esteem of it to say it is q Est status omnium bonorum congregatione perfectus Boet. de cons Phil. 3. lib. 3. pros 2. a perfectstate consisting in the aggregation and collection of all good things While we take it thus up in the grosse it lesse affects us And to take it up in particulars thinking thereby more fully to explain it wee shall fall as short When as Saint Paul who was rapt up into the third heaven sits down in an extasie neyther eye hath seen neyther eare hath heard neyther hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive the good things that GOD hath layd up for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 It were I think impudent temerity in any one to go about to determine None I am sure did ever yet by a Jacobs ladder scale Heaven and make fuller discovery of that land of the living that hee might make us a more perfect relation r App. ad Aug. tom 9. The kingdom of GOD is greater then all report it is better then it can be praysed it surpasses all knowledge it is more excellent then all glory that can be imagined neyther ought I therefore to be silent in what I can say because I cannot what I would neyther because we say GOD is ineffable therefore may we not speak of him what we are able so that we beleeve more then we speake And ever bound our words with fear and piety What we cannot conceive GOD hath revealed unto us by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2.10 But it is observable where the Spirit hath revealed unto us these unconceivable things condescending to our understanding to move us it hath set them forth under the notion of temporall goods which wee make great account of Which yet in our conceits thereof if we rest we are as far beneath them as earth is heaven The Spirit sayth the righteous shall have a Kingdom and weare upon their heads a crown of righteousnes they shall be clothed with long white robes of innocence they shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob at his table in that Kingdom which shall be richly furnished to do the will of GOD ſ Delectatio erit cibus Paris and our delight in him shall be our meat and he shall give us to drink of the rivers of his pleasure This kingdom shall be theirs by a sure inheritance being coheirs with Christ the eternall Son of GOD. They shall enter into their masters joy where they shall bear a part in that heavenly quire to sing perpetuall hallelujahs unto the Lambe that sitteth upon the throne Heaven shall be theirs a treasury of riches and all wealth and to adde to the perfection of these of that kingdom there shall be no end The crown of glory shall bee immarcessible it shall not breed like Jonahs gourd a worm to eat it our garment of immortality no moth shall fret it those riches no canker shall destroy them those joys shall have no alloy of grief to abate them Those delights shall breed no surfet Those streams of pleasures shall not run dry but be mayntained by a continuall spring that day shall know no night the Sun shall not be ecclipsed nor clouded by darknesse for the Lambe is the light of the new Hierusalem that eternall city affords all things eternall and they shall be for ever to enjoy them The righteous shall enter into everlasting life t Aug. Ser. 74. because men love to live here on earth life is promised them and because they are affraid to dye therefore eternall life is promised them What doest thou love to live thou shalt have it What dost thou feare to dye thou shalt not suffer it ô living life and everlastingly blessed where is rest without labour wealth without losse health without languishing abundance without want perpetuity without corruption life without death where is light without darknesse knowledge without ignorance understanding without errour reason without obscurity memory without forgetfulnesse where what ever is desirable is to be enjoyed and nothing shall be desired that is not meet Where GOD shall be seen without end loved beyond measure praysed without wearisomnesse who in that he is the perfection of being shall satisfie the understanding perfection of goodnesse shall satisfie the will and truly amiable shall fill our affections Wee shall be amazed at his justice admire his mercy be ravished with his goodnesse What shall I adde more The righteous shall sit at the right hand of Christ they shall not onely enjoy GODS presence but shall be ever happy in a gracious union and constant communion with the Godhead u De cons Phi. lib. 3. pros 9. Boetius rayses a high pitch because by the gaining of blessednesse men are made blessed and blessednesse is the divinity it self it is manifest men are blessed by obteining the divinity and as by obteining of justice men are made just and by obteining of wisdom men are wise so says he by obteining the divinity men are made gods every blessed man therefore is a GOD who though but one by nature it hinders not but that there may be many by participation GOD promises himselfe indeed to Abraham an