all to save themselves from the grave they would leave but little to Friends or Executors could they but bribe Death with their Silver and Gold I have read of one who would make a tryal and so called for a Bag of Gold when on a Sick-bed and laid it to his trembling heart but presently cried out Away away with it it will not do Oh my Beloved Riches will not avail you in the day of wrath Prov. 11. 4. and as it will not in the Day of Judgement so it will not in the hour of Death The brutish person dies and leaves his wealth behind him Psal 49. 10. The Cardinal of Winchester who procured the death of the good Duke of Glocester in the Reign of King Henry the Sixth was shortly after taken with a grievous Disease who understanding by his Physicians that he could not live murmurring and repining thereat he cried out Fie will not Death be hired Will money do nothing must I die that have so great riches If the whole Realm would save my life either by policy I can get it or by riches I can buy it But yet all would not do the proud Cardinal must submit to death 5. As Riches will not deliver from the power of the grave so likewise earthly power and worldly sovereignty and greatness cannot do it all the mighty Potentates and Monarchs the holy Scripture and ancient Histories acquaint us of where are they hath not Death subdued them all After all their grandeur and pomp they were all cut down by Deaths all-conquering hand and now their glory lies in the dust Augustus Caesar one day triumphs in the greatness of his strength the next day is stabbed to death with Bodkins Herod King of the Jews one hour is admired as a God the next hour is made a Feast for Worms Acts. 12. 22 23. The great Conqueror Alexander who subdued he greatest part of the World is at last overcome by Death Death makes no difference between the King in his Royalty on the Throne and the Begger in Rags upon the Dunghill Alexander having received 2 wounds at the siege of great City in India finding himself to be sore wounded was in some measure made sensible of his own fragillty and cried out to his flattering followers You call me the Son of Jupiâ—er but I perceive I am subject to wounds and death as well as other men Death bringeth down the loftiest looks of man I have read that in the Library of Dublin there is a Globe at the one end and at the other end the picture of Death to shew that though man was Lord of the whole Universe i. e must submit to Death Thus you see that all the pomp and glory of the world hath been cut down by the power of the grave But again 6. As Worldly Dignities cannot deliver from the power of the Grave so glorious Titles will not do it Those Worthies that God conferred glorious Titles upon yea so far as to give his own name unto them to be called gods One would think that this if any were the most likeliest to exempt a man from the grave and yet it will not do Psal 82. 6 7. I have said ye are gods but with the same breath adds ye shall die like men and fall like one of the princes But 7. Eminency in grace and spiritual endowments or divine qualificacations will not be able to rescue a soul from the power of the grave All the Patriarchs of old they are gone where are all those choice and renowned in grace that we read of who shined in their day like the stars in the firmament Oh! where are those Troops of Israelites that excelled in patience chastity temperance holiness and humility these could not deliver themselves from death The righteous perish and no man layeth it to heart and merciful men are taken away none considering that the righteous are taken away from the evil to come Isa 57. 1. 8. Lastly No spiritual Dignity Office or Place can deliver from the hand of the grave though a person be never so much in the favour of God and honoured by Christ Jesus though never so laborious for the good of souls as to be an Embassador of Peace and Minister of the Gospel yet these will not exempt from death your Fathers where are they and the Prophets do they live for ever Zech. 1. 5. Thus you have heard the Doctrine made good and confirmed That there is no man living that shall not see death or be able to deliver himself from the power of the grave I shall onely give you two or three reasons of the point and so proceed to the Application If you question why all must die take two or three things for an Answer 1. Reas Because all have sinned Sin and Death came into the world together Death came by the fall in the Garden 't is part of the punishment due to us for that transgression Rom. 5. 12. Wherefore as by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned the wages of sin is death Rom. 6. 23. We may cry out in the words of a holy man O sin sin 't is thou which by thy just deserts hast caused all the funerals that ever have been Thus you see all must die because all have sinned 2. Reas Because God hath decreed that all men must die Heb. 9. 27. And as it is appointed for men once to die and after that to judgement Though death be natural and the punishment of our sins yet we die by Gods appointment We let in death by our sin and God causeth death to proceed upon us to make good the justice and severity of his own threatning I know saith Job thou wilt bring me to death to the house appointed for all living Job 30. 23. On the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return Gen. 2. 17. 3. 19. 3. Reas Lastly Why God will bring all men to the grave and I shall add no more Because he would thereby magnifie his glorious Attributes as first out of infinite grace commiseration and goodness he brings his own children to the grave knowing the miseries sad afflictions and troubles that doth attend them in this life Here most times poor Saints with Lazarus have their evil things many are their afflictions and this way God takes to deliver them out of them all Death opens a door to glory to every gracious soul and secondly God by death prepares the bodies of his Saints for eternal bliss and happiness He brings the body to the grave that it may be purified and made a glorious and most amiable body 't is sown that it might be raised more glorious 1 Cor. 15. 42 43 44. God doth with the bodies of his Saints with reverence be it spoken as they do with their Earthen Vessels in China they bury them in the earth for many
souls of the house of Jacob which came into Egypt were threescore and ten souls the like you have in Acts 7. 14. And Joseph called his father Jacob to him and all his kindred threescore and fifteen souls that is so many persons in Acts 27. 37. all that were with Paul in the ship are said to be two hundred and threescore and sixteen souls 2. It is taken for the life of the body Psal 7. 5. Let the wicked persecute my soul and take it yea let him tread down my life upon the earth 3. It is taken for the affections desire or heart of the Creature 1 Sam. 1. 15. And Hannah answered and said no my Lord I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink but have poured out my soul before the Lord. And in chap. 18. it is said the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David that is his affections were set and fastened upon him In many other places by soul we find some one or more faculty of the soul is intended 4. It is taken for the stomach Prov. 27. 7. The full soul loatheth an honey-comb but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet 5. By it is meant oftentimes the noble and superiour part of man distinct from the body for this see Psal 19. 7. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Mat. 10. 28. Fear not them which can kill the body but are not able to kill the soul But probably some may say if the word soul hath so many various acceptations how may we know when the spirit or principal part is in Scripture meant hereby Answ I shall briefly lay down three or four Rules whereby you may know 1. When you read of soul as that wherein couversion is wrought it can intend nothing else save the noble or immortal part for Conversion is a change onely of the evil qualities of man's better or superior part Psal 19. 7. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Conversion to God changes not the defects and qualities of the outward man If a man be attended with such and such a disease or distemper before Conversion he may be truly converted and yet retain the same diseases the same lameness blindness deafness crookedness or what ever other blemish he may have of the like nature 2. When you read of soul as that which rejoyceth in God delights in God longs and thirsts after God lives and feeds upon God and Christ and united to and hath communion with God cloathed and adorned with the holy Spirit it alwayes holds forth the glorious spirit or soul of man let me onely direct you to one or two Scriptures upon this account Luke 1. 46. My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour Psal 94. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul Psal 42. 1 2. As the hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God my soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before him Psal 73. 26. My heart and my flesh faileth me but God is the strength of my soul and my portion for ever 3. When you read of soul as that which men cannot kill or destroy is alwayes intended this excellent part see Matth. 10. 28. Fear not them that kill the body but cannot kill the soul 4. Lastly When you read of soul as that which lives when the body dies or is commended into the hands of God at death you must alwayes take it in those Scriptures for the same 6. By soul sometimes is meant only the body distinct from the spirit or immortal part see Josh 10. 28 37. And the king thereof he utterly destroyed and all the souls that were therein and they smote the king thereof and all the souls that were therein and in this sense soul is to be taken in this place But that I may proceed a word to explain the other term to wit the hand of the grave By hand beloved often in Scripture is meant power Isa 50. 2. Is my hand shortned that it cannot redeem that is Have I lost my power to redeem so Acts 4. 3. My Text thus briefly opened I shall proceed as most suiting with our present occasion to take notice of one Doctrinal Truth from the words which take as followeth Doct. That all men must die Or thus That no man whatsoever can escape the power of the grave I shall God assisting endeavor to demonstrate and confirm the truth of this Proposition The holy Spirit doth not slightly pass it by but puts a Remora to it viz. that Emphatical signal word Selah which shews us that this word calls for meditation and our diligent attention it doth lay a kind of an arrest upon our spirits not passing from it till we have seriously weighed the matter What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Death will be too hard for him and too powerful to resist there is no withstanding the strength of this King he will bring all into subjection he is said in Rom. 5. 12 14. to reign over all and so he is called the terror of Kings as well as King of terrors he is so to the wicked and what King hath as many subjects as Death hath And that I may demonstrate it consider Age cannot rescue any man from the hand of Death the oldest man must die All those that lived before the Flood are dead Methuselah lived nine hundred sixty nine years Gen. 5. 27. but alass at last the words tell you and he died he lived near a thousand years but at last was forced to subject to the grave 2. As the oldest man must die so must the strongest Sampson was a mighty man yet Sampson must die Death will make the stoutest hearts to faint and the strongest legs to tremble One dieth in his full strength being wholly at ease and quiet his breasts are full of milk and his bones are moistned with marrow Job 21. 23 24. If any were likely to encounter or grapple with Death we may suppose that this is the man he who is in his perfect strength free from distempers signified by that word wholly at ease and quiet yet alass all will not do this man was forced to yield he is made Deaths Captive 3. The wisdom and policy of man cannot deliver from the power of the grave The wisest prince that ever late upon a Throne was forced to stoop to the sovereign hand of Death Wise men die faith the Psalmist likewise the fool Psal 49. 10. In death there is no remembrance of the wise more than the fool Eccl. 2. 16. The most grave and politick in all ages of the world after all their famous and deep contrivances have been overcome by death 4. Riches cannot deliver from Death if it could we should have few rich men die doubtless they would give their
I had dreadful Plague Fire and Sword and what further means could God make use of in an ordinary way for allarming and stirring of us up to prepare for our change aud turning of our souls to himself and fitting of us for Eternity And shall none of these work upon you Shall all means fail Shall the Gospel be preached in vain Shall Ministers spend their study their breath nay their strength to no purpose what will you do then in the end 6. Do you know that you shall have all these helps continued to you Will God still suffer his holy Spirit to strive with you Alass Death may soon have Commission to seize you and carry you into the other world but should you live are you sure God will still wait upon you upon such rebels who have slighted and undervalued his Grace Son and Gospel Sirs I must tell you alluding to that in Genesis 6. which hath often been upon my heart that the blessed Spirit shall not alwayes strive with man Means and advantages are like to be taken away God ere long may say to Conscience Be still reprove that man that woman no more You may be left to commit wickedness without remorse or trouble God may give you up to a hardened and sordid heart to a seared and filthy Conscience yea and refuse in mercy to afflict you any more see Hosea 4. 14. May not he that hath taken away a Minister an able one a sweet and precious Labourer take away ere long a sweet and precious Gospel and what will become of your souls then 7. Do you know for certain the Gospel shall be continued to this Land Be you sure you shall hear the joyful sound Let me tell you my thoughts freely though I pretend not to a spirit of Prophesie yet mark what follows I tremble to think what is coming upon us as a punishment of our sins I fear Beloved the Gospel is a going Ephraim hath grey hairs here and there though he know it not and grey hairs are a sign that our morning or best days are gone secondly they commonly bring a wrinkled face or a decay of Beauty our goodness like Ephraims are even like the morning dew thirdly they bring feebleness or a decay of strength fourthly they shew that death and mortality draws near We have heard some of us that he was grey a great while ago I doubt he is white by this time There are sad symptomes upon us I know not how soon we may have cause to cry Ichabod because the glory is departed Are we not in danger to be over-spread with Popery Confusion and Darkness for if the Gospel should continue and Gods people resolve to do their best by their prayers and prizing of it to hold it fast yet are you sure you shall have Ministers to prcach unto you Many have been taken of late away and one at this time before your eyes is gone a faithful and able one whom now you shall hear no more But should there be Ministers and opportunities yet you may be left to your selves to ripen for Hell and ruin Nay Is not Christ already crying over you as he did over Jerusalem Oh that thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belongeth to thy peace but now they are hid from eyes Luke 19. 42. Oh that these things might take hold and touch your Conscicnces 8. Consider of the shortness and uncertainty of your dayes Alas what is your life you know not how soon death may come and knock at your doors or look in at your windows It may be some of you have had many years but this consider of you know not how few the rest may be behind you have no promise from God no lease or assurance that you have one year more where hath God told you that you shall nay one half year You cannot assure your self you shall have one month no not one week no not one day You may be stricken by death before you return home Boast not thy self of too morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth Pro. 27. 1. Many that are young hope that they may have many years the child thinks to be a youth and the youth to be a man and a man till he is full of dayes But alass they consider not how brittle they are they do not lay to heart the uncertainty of their lives David desired to know his end and the measure of his days that he might know how frail he was Psal 39. 4 5. Many do not take a right measure of their dayes they measure not by a lawful Rule What say some my Father and Grandfather lived to a good old age and I hope to attain to their years Others measure by their present health they are not diseased nor sickly but of a good healthful Constitution but alass this is no sure Rule thou mayest notwithstanding all this be quickly in the grave such sometimes death makes to stoop on a sudden they go many times before sickly persons Others measure their dayes by their present strength they fear not death upon that account yet they die as you have heard though wholly at ease these do not go by the Kings Standard neither Let me tell you what is a right and true measure for your dayes account them then by the morning dew and flower of the field Man that is born of a woman saith holy Job is but of few dayes he cometh forth like a flower and is cut down and flieth away like a shadow and continueth not Job 14. 12. Naturalists tells us of a plant that lasts but for a day this plant thou or I may be The Heathen hath observed that the Rose grows old in its very budding Mankind is like Jonah's Gourd that came up in a night and perished in a night Nothing fades sooner than a flower oh measure thy dayes by that and by the vapour that appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away the Spiders Web the Swift Post the Weavers Shuttle or a Ship under sail Persons never so rich or great never so beautiful never so weak of strong wise or foolish vertuous or vicious as thou hast heard must die May not the thoughts of this move thee to a preparedness for the grave 9. Consider how you have loytered hitherto and lost much of your precious time which God hath lent you to prepare for the grave Upon the improvement of your present time doth your eternal happiness depend and if it be squandered away what will become of your immortal and never dying souls If a man hath much work to do work of the weightiest concern that must be done or the man undone business that would take up all his day and it should so fall out that he had lost the morning nay above half his day would it not concern him to set about the work with all his might so as if possible to do two hours works in one lest the Sun
that sweet word of Paul to the Corinthians 1. Cor. 3. 22. Whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours it will be every way for thy good Consider what freedom thou wilt gain thereby 1. It will free thee from a body of sin and death that often makes thee go with a sorrowful heart Oh! hath it not oft made thee to cry out with St. Paul Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death Oh what is a greater trouble to a Child of God than indwelling sin He cannot do the things he would do But now comes death and frees thee of all these soul perplexities and disquietments Sin makes a Saint to groan being burthened but now thou shalt grieve Christ and his spirit nor thy own soul no more Is not this that a poor Saint longs for 2. 'T will free thee from a poor crazy diseased or distempered Body There will then be no crying out of back or bone nor head not heart any more 't will be with thee as with the Church in the glorious day to come Rev. 21. 4. There shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away 3. It will free thee from an evil and wicked world Oh what a defiling ensnaring and bewitching world is this What hinders us of our joy and peace in Christ more than it What greater vexation to us Oh how many precious Saints are clogged and imprisoned by the cares of the world which many times is ready to choak the seed of holy desires after Christ But by Death thou shalt be delivered 4. It will free thee out of the hands of presecutors Thou wilt with our dear Brother be out of their reach then they shall not disquiet thee imprison thee nor torment thee any more There saith Job speaking of the grave the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest there the prisoners rest together they hear not the voice of the oppressor Job 3. 17 18. 5. Death will free thee from an envious raging and tempting Devil He will have not more power to disturb thee accuse thee nor by his cursed suggestions to vex and perplex thy soul no nor any other ways to hurt or annoy thee O will not this be to thy great advantage Who would be unwilling to die that hath an interest in Jesus Christ 6. Thou wilt hereby also be freed from all the discords and troubles that rise amongst Brethren The unworthy and disorderly lives of Professors shall sadden thy heart then no more This was that which worried and grieved the blessed Apostle Phil. 3. 18. Our dear Brother is set at liberty from all these things disorders in the Church no loose walking of Members thereof will burden nor trouble him again 7. Nay and Death will free thee of all that trouble that riseth from those inward becloudings and hideings of God's face It will never be night with the soul any more thou wilt then be with Christ and behold his face with joy for ever 8. And lastly Thou wilt also be freed of all thy toilsome pains and labour of what nature soever it be O how good is rest to a weary soul Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Rev. 14. 13. But then once again Consider what a blessed state thy soul will be in at death If thou art a true Beliver thou shalt not onely have hereby a negative good it will not simply a freedom from all those sorrows and troubles thou hast heard but thy soul shall immediately receive transcendent joy with Jesus Christ For me to live saith Paul is Christ and to die is gain The advantage the soul receives upon this account made Paul so much desire to depart and be with Christ which he says is far better Phil. 1. 21. Pray observe his words he doth not say it will be gain to him when he rises again no but to die is gain I shall receive more joy more consolation more of the fulness of God and Christ as if he should say when I die then I can whilest I am in this body Mind that passage in 2 Cor. 5. 1. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Compare this with ver 6. Therefore we are always confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. The Apostle doth not say we know when this earthly house is broken down and raised up again we have a building with God eternal in the heavens Pray consider it but plainly when it is dissolved when it is turned to its dusty crums We have that is our souls he can intend nothing else By we he means their better part which he compares to an inhabiter and the body to the house or tabernacle in which it dwels Oh what an excellent thing is the soul of man over the body And now beloved That the soul or better part is capable of being separated from the body and in its seperate state from the body capable of glorious enjoyments of God and high raptures of joy with Jesus Christ doth appear most evident from that passsage of the Apostle in 2 Cor. 12. 1 2 3. It is not expendient for me doubtless to glory I will come to vissions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago whether in the body I cannot tell God knoweth such a one caught up to the third heaven ver 4. says he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words which is not lawful for a man to utter The soul or spirit then it appears may be seperate from the body I from this place thus argue 1. If the soul or spirit of man be not capable of being seperated from the house of clay or earthly tabernacle then Paul might have boldly and safely have said the whole man was taken up a soul and body together and not one without the other because it is impossible to seperate them but since Paul says he knows not whether in the body or out of the body he plainly shews what opinion he was of And then secondly I may from what he says reason after this manner viz. If the soul in its seperated state from the body be not able or capable to enjoy or take in heavenly comforts or consolations of Jesus Christ Paul might boldly and Positively have said he was taken up in the body because however he was caught up whether within or without the body he heard and saw unexpressible things he had high and soul-filling raptures of joy The Lord Jesus promised the penitent Thief that he should that is