of paine for the fruition of that which is perfectly pleasing and good Or to change death for life Or to passe from a wearie pilgrimage to their desired homes where they shall not onely neuer feele miserie but bee euer happie and blessed with the full sight of that the glimpse wherof shining vpon the face of our Sauiour in his transfiguration made Peter to say Master it is good to be here Math. 17.4 Salomon saith Better is the day of death then the day in which wee were borne Eccles 7.3 And why better except because when we are borne we come into misery when we die we goe out our death beeing changed by the death of Christ and made vnto vs not a death as the Law maketh it but our path and mid-way betweene this life and the other which is eternall or our doore and little wicket out of this world into that world and kingdome which is prepared for the Saints inhabited of the Angels and receiueth honour from God who is the light and temple of that Cirie Lastly death hath lost his sting his hell his victorie I speake in regard of the righteous that which remaineth if wee liue in the spirit and die in the Lord is profitable for vs. For it shall bring an end of all our labours and giue vs vp into the hands of Iesus Christ Now what feare is in all this Let them feare therefore who haue giuen vnto them a spirit of bondage and of feare in which they tremble at their owne estate and which maketh them to carrie in their breast tormenting furies that hold them day and night in the feare of endlesse death Let them feare who rest in sinne liue in errour and ignorance follow the lustes of the world and walke in all the waies of death but let not them feare who are at a couenant with themselues to haue no pleasure in such fond courses and direct waies of death but to haue their pleasure onely in the word of God to vnderstand it and in the mysterie of Christ to bee lightened with it who hate sinne that they may haue hope and walke in righteousnesse that they may walke with Christ Let not such feare for the power of death Satan is broken before such and such may haue boldnesse when they goe out of the world that they shall goe to God A comfort therefore to the faithfull Vse 3 who haue born the brunt of life for such may be comforted in death as a Souldiour who hath endured the skirmishes and scarres of warre is glad and may haue ioy that the enemie is spent and the warre ended where others because they haue spent no time or so little in the Lords seruice and giuen so few strokes if any in the cause of his truth and glorie may feare at the approach of death and iustly complaine of that day as of a day of death indeede and that eternall In the eleuenth Chapter to the Hebrewes the Apostle sheweth what great troubles the seruants of God endured and how ioyfull they were as at a royall feast in all those troubles and sufferings for Christ that they might enter vpon the comfortable death of the righteous They were so farre from fearing death as worldlings feare it that they ranne gladly to it in their hope of the resurrection and reioiced in the welcome day of death as in a day of the greatest good that could befall them The reasons were they knew with Sampson that they should slay moe at their death then they slew in their life Iudg. 16.30 As first that they should slay their last enemie by death which is not slain but by dying And secondly that they should kill the spawne of all enmitie sinne 's sinne which bred death 〈◊〉 4.7 and the miseries of eternall death Which death in the Saints bred by sinne as the worme in the flower killeth the corrupt flower that bred it that is that sinne that caused death And this made c I doubt not but the Prophet here sinned by impatiencie but his hope was in death Eliah to desire death not life and rather to die then to liue saying It is enough 1. King 19.4 It made Dauid to lay vp his flesh in hope Psal 16.9 It made Paul to say I am readie not to bee bound onely but to die at Ierusalem for the name of the Lord Iesus Act. 21.13 And as Simeon said Lord now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace Luke 2.29 So the godly haue such comfort in death that they say with old Simeon and all Saintes Come Lord Iesu come quickly Apo. 22.20 apprehending death as their onely way to Christ and guide to happinesse and applauding death as Iacob applauded the Chariots that Ioseph his sonne sent for the bringing of him out of a land of miserie into a land of plentie and fulnesse where hee should haue foode inough the best in the land Gen. 45.27.48 The hope of Iob and expectation of the Saints is that they shall see God and come to Christ by death presently in their soules and in their bodies at the last day when all the bones in Golgotha shall rise at that voice that shall say returne yee sonnes of Adam Psal 90.3 For though death shall swallow them vp as the Whale did Ionah and shall binde them as the Philistims did Sampson and the shroude did Lazarus hand and foote Ioh. 11.44 yet the Whale of the earth shall not hold them nor the snares of death and shroude of darknesse preuaile against them when God shall speake by his last trumpet to the graues of the earth and they shall cast out all the Lords Ionahs Ion. 2.10 The bands of death shall fall asunder as corruption and rottennesse in that day in which Christ shall command the holds of darkenesse to deliuer his Saints saying loose them and let them goe Ioh. 11.44 This then beeing all that the righteous shall loose by their gainfull death For they shall loose a short miserable life and receiue a long euer blessed life in glorie what losse can there be in death and what greater aduantage then by dying This the godly know and therefore reioyce in death as they that finde great spoiles They finde that their bodie such as it is now in the estate of corruption is an image of golde which is disfigured that it can be brought to no shape till the owner melt and refound it to a new similitude Euen so the bodie that at first was beautifull hauing such a grace and maiestie set in the face of it that after a sort and outwardly it resembled the Creators image fairer then any of Gold they finde so to bee troden in the mire and so mishapen by sinne that it can neuer receiue the beautie and condition of the first worke till it bee dissolued and new-moulded by the hand of GOD at the resurrection of all bodies and therefore they desire death as the first necessary and blessed work-house of this their
the life of a thought whereof there may bee a thousand in an houre vers 9. a life of nothing Psal 39.5 that is of no time or of vanitie which is next to nothing Iacob in his time brought it to a short account that is from diuers hundreds to an hundred and thirtie Gen. 47.9 But Moses comming after him gathereth it into a shorter summe or account euen to an account or count or totall of threescore and ten or of fourescore at the most with labour and sorrow Psal 90.10 Dauid measureth it with his short span Psal 39.5 and this excellent Saint compareth man borne of a woman â—o a flower that is soone cut downe and to a shadow that continueth not Iob 14.2 Finally our vncertaine short life is in Scripture compared to a thought that is presently gone Psal 90.9 to a dreame in the night that is forgotten in the morning to a bubble vpon the water to a ship vnder saile and to a weauers shuttle So soone passeth our life and it is gone The reasons First Iniquity now aboundeth and more in these latter times then in formeâ— ages Math. 24.22.2 Tim. 3.1.2 which must needs prouoke God to cut shorter these our dayes then those better daies wherein our fathers liued who liued more simply and in fewer sinnes then wee their children doe at this day Secondly our time is short that our short time might moue vs not to deferre to doe good as the manner is seeing euen the Diuel himselfe is busie because his time is short Apâ— 12.12 17. Thirdly our life is as nothing that Gods Children might sooner be deliuered from their burthens and from those that burthen them in this life and that the wicked the children of this world might haue a shorter time to keepe in bondage and vnder the whip of malice those poore ones who desire to sacrifice their life to God in a conscience of his seruice and to walke in faith before him For if mans life might now extend to the yeares which were before the floud when men liued six seuen eight nine hundred yeares This cruell age in which wee liue would too long torment and too vilely deale with Gods faithfull ones there being no hooke of short time in the iawes of the wicked to keepe them in feare as now when death is such a tyrant and short life such a curbe vnto them that they dare not or cannot doe as they would And indeede how can they doe that in their fortie and vnder their fourescore which they might doe and would be hold to doe being men of might in their hundreds Also how could the poore Church hold vp the head and continue in good case that should haue so strong and long-liued enemies to encounter with An admonition to run the way of Gods commandements Vse 1 while he enlargeth our hearts and not to put off our conuersion in so short a life Hee that hath a long iourney to goe in a short time will make hast and he who remembreth that euery day runneth away with his life cannot sit still But where men promise to themselues long life and much time there they wax wanton and become secure as Amos 6.3 2. Pet. 3.4 Therefore the Lord doth commend our life to vs in this Scripture and in other Scriptures in a short abstract of daies and not in a volume of yeares as in the booke at large So Christ saith to Ierusalem in this thy day Luke 19.42 not granting a longer terme then the terme of one poore day vnto her Which was to teach her and vs in her to thinke euery day to bee our last day And therefore to doe that this day as in our time which wee are not sure to doe the next day as in a time that God hath taken to himselfe and from vs as being more properly his then our day A worthy Souldiour warring long vnder Adrian the Emperour after that long time returned to his house and liued Christs souldiour Where and in which manner after he had liued seuen yeeres he yeelded to death and beeing readie to die commanded that it should bee written on his tombe Here lieth Similis for that was his name a man who was many yeares and liued but seuen counting that hee liued no longer then hee liued a Christian How many warre after the flesh vnder the Emperor of the aire not vnder Adrian who yet I cannot say seuen yeeres I would I could say that seuen dayes or houres before their death they did cast away these weapons of sinne that it might bee engrauen vpon their graue stone for their Epitaph that seuen daies before their last day or seuen houres before their dying houre they not onely had a being but a life in the world and not onely were but liued Such desire not to remember but to forget their short time nor to heare of their end but to suppresse it because the remembrance of it will make them sparingly to offend and the feare of it alter affections And from hence it is that hee who hath peace in his dayes and is besotted with the flumber of long life being loath to leaue his possession for an vncertaintie or to liue be where hee cannot assure himselfe that hee shall or can either liue or be as here he may and doth saith to death as Ahab to Eliah Art thou here mine enemie 1. King 21.20 When the preferment of it considered in the sweet peace of the righteous and happie death of the Saints hee should rather say Welcome my friend or the welcom day of death come neere Vse 2 A reproofe therefore to those who put off the time of amendment to some long time hereafter not remembring their short time and few dayes here Though here they be but Tenants at will in their Clayforme whose foundation is in the dust whose strength is a few bones tyed together with sinewes as with small strings whose life is in a little breath quickly stopt and which howsoeuer we patch and peece it with helpes of Art and supplies of Nature for a time will they know not how soone fall into the place of darknesse when the winde of death hath passed ouer it Yet they thinke not of their enduring house and house from heauen or they so much delight in the momentanie gourd of their short life which yet hath her worme of speedie corruption that they forget the dayes euerlasting and change that is to come Ion. 4.6 Of such wee reade Chapter 21. of this booke Who because theiâ— houses were peaceable to them without feare their wealth came in vnto them without faile and they were great in their posteritie Therefore their hearts were all set in pleasure and they reioyced in their dayes and substance that was so great not remembring their time how short it was till they suddenly went down to the graue When the Disciples were in the Ship and the Ship was in the middes of the Sea tossed with windes and couered with
of spirituall death into spirituall life out of vnhappinesse and paines mortall into all happinesse and ioyes eternall Further they who are set in Christ in whom they liue to whose glorie they desire to liue and die seeing they behold death not with carnall eyes but with the eyes of faith in the Gospell doe as hath beene said get heart and reioyce against death in their good consciences and all the terrour of it and so to them it is a disarmed enemie or enemie of no power and hurt For how can that Scorpion hurt that hath no sting Or why should that enemie be feared that hath neither hand to strike nor weapon to kill Such a Scorpion is death when we take sinne from it and death is such an enemie when once wee haue set it downe by reformation of life Contrarily naturall men feare death exceedingly death that bringeth so much good to the righteous and taketh so much euil from the Saints because death in them is not ioined with a godly and well reformed life They haue not done the good for which they came into the world and therefore they feare to diâ— They apprehend death as a strong enemy finding in it through their continuall wickednesse no likelihood of saluation nor signe of peace and therefore desire not to be dissolued but feare to bee dissolued nor thinke death to bee a change but a plague Or they haue all their pleasure and peace in their dayes here nor caring for the dayes of heauen nor fearing the long night of hell Here they are well and they know not where is better Therefore not hoping for a better life no maruell if they leaue this against their will Death to such is the beginning of eternall death and no port-way to Christ but a portall-doore to destruction Let vs therfore so liue that we may not feare death and so learne to die that wee may liue euer not with Diuels in torments but with God in his kingdome That wee may so doe wee must remember how it was said that death as it is an effect of the fall hath a sting which sting of death is sinne This sting we must pull from it by taking sinne from it in our daily repentance and daily turning to God by newnesse of life Hee that hath an enemie will doe what he can to weaken him and if he be fearefull because he is well armed hee will doe what lieth in him to disarme him that he may not feare him This enemie is death the last that shall be destroyed Let vs therefore doe all we can by putting off sinne and putting on righteousnesse to bring downe his strength and by taking away from our hearts and the conuersation of our liues the sinne and sting of drunkennesse whoredome blasphemie pride lying and other abominable lustes let vs put no weapon of malice or edge into deaths hands to feare vs with when wee should leaue this world with comfort and goe to God in peace So shall we neither feare death nor feele the gripes of second death Obiect But the godly haue feared death else why did Eliah flye from it in the persecution of Iezabel 1. Kin. 19.3 and Christ teach his to decline it in the persecutions of men Math. 10.23 and Christ himselfe pray against the bitter cup of it in in his agonie and before his apprehension Mat. 26.39 Ans I answere briefely These Saints did not nor were to fly from death as it is the end of life and blessed end of a good life but vsed the meants of flight onely to preuent violent and hastie death till the houre appointed should come that they were to giue their spirit in peace into the hands of him that made it And because such vntimely death was enemie to the good they had to doe and course they were to finish therefore they went aside by flying for some time and till the time of their departure came that they might do the good to which they were appointed and finish the course for which they were sent But where it is alledged that Christ himselfe prayed against the cup of death I answere two waies And first that hee prayed without sinne and without hauing sinne against it seeing that in that his supplication of teares and much feare he submitted alway to his fathers will and seeing also death was not to him as it is to vs. For to vs the sting of it is conquered and the force broken but to him it was in full power He felt the sting of it and wrastled with the force of it in soule and bodie Secondly I say that it was not meerely a bodily death though vnsubdued saue where himselfe subdued it that he trembled at but by the burden of our sinnes which hee was to vndergoe in which he beheld the whole There hee saw his fathers countenance turned against him and there knew that he must beare his wrath because hee bore our sinnes Besides Christ feared death beeing clothed with our flesh to shew that hee tooke our infirmities and bore our sorrowes and was perfect man And so death in some case may bee feared and at some time prayed against but euer vnder the correction of Gods will Esay 38.2.3 For the rodde of death turned into a Serpent made Moses to feare Exo. 4.3 and the best haue moderately declined and shrunke at the stroke of death when it came in some tempest And who doth not dread all Gods terrours wherof death is one And feare that which is the punishment of sin and curse of sinners And decline that which is the destruction of humane Nature and shrinke at that which hath made the strongest the wisest the richest the greatest to fall downe flatte before it Therefore the feare of death thus reproued is not the naturall feare of it which is in all but the seruile feare of it proper to euill doers and common to those who can haue no hope in death because they neuer cared to liue till they were compelled to die And now that wee haue heard what feare of death it is that Gods children must not bee stained with as namely that which is seruile and cowardly wee will shew and that briefely why such feare of death should fall vpon none of Gods seruants who in so great peace leaue this world and for so precious a crowne of glorie For if wee haue no better resemblance of death then when we sleepe nor better rest then at that time why should it be counted so hydeous a thing when the bodie is toiled and much spent with labour to send it to the sweet and deepe sleepe of death or to lay it in the quiet bed of the earth where no sounds or feare can disease it And if to Gods Children death bee not onely a departing from paine and euril but an accesse to all good nor the end of life but the end of death and beginning of life eternall can Gods children thinke it any disaduantage to exchange the sense
ordered bring forth the greatest Masters of vice and Guides to wickednesse and as a weede if it grow in a ranke soile will grow out of measure noisome so the tender youth of great families brought vp in ease and pampered with the delights of gentry if they prooue weeds must needs riot most vnmeasurably and prooue most hurtfull members in the Commonwealth and not members but diseases in the Church Lastly to excite our gentry to traine vp their yong Gentlemen to the feare of God and to good sciences let them remember that a gentleman without vertue learning is like a darke heauen in the night without moone or starres and let them not forget that if they would haue the blessing of being blessed fathers of a blessed seed they must bring them within the couenant endeuouring to make their sonnes by nature the sons of God by grace The like for their daughters if they would haue their daughters by birth to become the daughters of Abraham by new birth and godlinesse An admonition to yong persons Vse 2 to striue against all impediments of godlinesse in yong yeeres For are parents bound to teach youth then are youth bound to learne of their parents or must al feare God yong then young and all must learne betimes to feare him and can none feare him but such as arme against the impediments of his feare then where are most as in youth and where most are hindered as tender youth there must this armor chiefly be put on The first impediment of early godlines in yong men is a reckoning but without their host that they shall liue to be old which causeth theÌ„ to say peace peace Iâ—r 8.11 til with Sisera they fal into their last sleep of destruction Iudg. 4.21 go from their house to graue Psal 49.14 But who can be ignorant that on the stage of this world some haue longer and some shorter parts and who knoweth not though some fruits fall from the tree by a full and naturall ripenes that all doe not so nay that more are pulled from it and wither vpon it in the tender bud or young fruit then are suffered to tarrie till they come to their perfect ripenes and mellowing so do not mo without comparison fall from the tree of time young either violently plucked from it by a hasty death or miserably withering vpon it by a long death perishing in the bud of childhood or beaten downe in the greene fruit of youth then come to their full age of ripenesse by a mellow and kindly death Further doth not God call home from his worke some in the morning some at noone and some at night For as his labourers enter into his vineyard so they goe out that is in such manner and at such houres Math. 20.1.2.3 c. Some dye in the dawning of their life who passe but from one graue to another Some dye in youth as in the third houre some at thirtie and some at fiftie as in the sixt and ninth and some very old as in the last houre of the day Yet more dye young then old and more before tenne then after threescore Besides all this the fresh life which the youngest haue here is cut off or continued by the same decree and finger of God that the oldest and most blasted life is prolonged or finished For say that a man had in his keeping sundrie brittle vessels as of glasse or stone some made fortie fiftie yea threescore yeares age and some but yesterday we will agree that that vessell wil soonest be broken not that is made first but which is first striken or first receiueth a knocke So for these brittle vessels of our earthly bodies they that soonest receiue the blow of death though but made yesterday first perish not that were first made and haue longest liued What then is our life and how vaine and false is our hope of long life seeing no man can tel who hee is that shall receiue the first stroke or knocke to the destroying of this his mortal tabernacle In a prison where are many condemned should some riot and forget death because they first are not drawne out to die or because one goes before another to execution shall he that comes last come forth pleasantly with Agag and say Surely the bitternes of death is past 1. Sam. 15.32 because we die not so soone as others and we shall not all die at once shall we therefore count our selues immortall If we be old wee may bee sure our turne is neere and if we be young it may be as neere for they that be old may trauell longer but we that are yong may haue a shorter way home Seeing then this hope of liuing till we be old is so vaine and deceitfull wee should make as great haste to God at twenty as at fourescore When we heare a solemne knell we say some bodie is departed and why should we not thinke that the feet of them who carried out that bodie is at the doore readie to cary vs out also Act. 5.9 He was not an old man and he had much peace in his dayes to whom it was said O foole this night they will fetch away thy soule Luc. 12.20 So death worketh in vs whether we prepare for it or no. a Mr. Perk. in his right way of dying well A certaine writer vseth this comparison A man pursued by an Vnicorne in his flight fals into a dungeon and in his fall hangs by the arme of a tree as he thus hangeth looking downeward he sees two wormes gnawing at the root of the tree and looking vpward he sees an hiue of sweet hony which makes him to climbe vp vnto it to sit by it and to feed vpon it While he thus feedeth himselfe and becommeth secure or carelesse of what may come the two wormes gnaw in sunder the root of the tree which done both man and tree fall into the bottome of that deepe pit This Vnicorne is swift Death the Man that flieth is euerie sonne of Adam the pit ouer which he hangeth is hell the arme of the tree is his short life the two wormes are day and night which without stay consume the same the hiue of honie is the pleasures of this world to which while men wholly deuote themselues not remembring their last end the root of the tree that is temporall life is spent and they fall without redemption into the pit and gulfe of hell Another impediment of godlinesse in a young man is his strong constitution which perswades him that he shall liue long that therefore he may at leasure inough turne to God hereafter but no constitution in man can enlarge his Charter of life one poore houre Indeed the good complexion of a man may be a signe of long life but he that prolongeth our daies on Earth he onely can make vs to liue long Exod. 20.12 A third impediment of godlinesse is parentage abused For some thinke that God neuer required
not when they shall die and if they cease from attendance the Master will come in a day when they thinke not Math. 24.50 Therefore they should alway looke for that which whether looked for or vnexpected will most certainly though stealingly come Secondly Christ appeareth vnto saluation onely to those that looke for him Hebr. 9.28 that is that so liue as whether hee come in the second watch or in the third he shall find them waiting in their doore for Him by continuance in well doing But doe they looke for him who continually serue sin in their mortall bodies and continually and ordinarily are holden in those cursed lusts of the world and flesh wherein is nothing but death and hell I speake of fornicators couetous drunkards daily swearers and other monstrous sinners doe they looke for him or would they curse and sweare and riot on the Sabbath and steale and whore as they doe and drinke so many healths till they haue left no foundnesse in them if they thought presenttly to die and presently to come to their terrible account they may presently come vnto it Thirdly wee serue a prentiship of attendance for our worldly freedome and to reason from the lesse to the greater will we not attend seuen yeres perhaps we shall not wait seuen dayes to be free for euer For by the portall of death the godlie passe from bondage to libertie from the land of Aegypt to the land of righteousnesse from the vale of tears to mansions of glorie An instruction to keepe alwayes in mind the day of our death Vse 1 that it preuent vs not by carnall forgetfulnesse or come vpon vs vnlooked for as Iehu furiously came vpon Iehoram 2. King 9.23.24 bee made with al speed to his charet thinking to flie but the arrow that Iehu shot preuented him So some thinking to flie from the flying arrow of death by running to their accustomed refuges as it were Charets of vaine delayes and hopes further to auoide it haue presently receaued into their bodies the fatall dart of death and haue presently died That we may thus remember death we must not be carelesse to spend our short time well as they are whose comfort standeth rather in an vncertain delay of death then in anie certainety of life eternall after death Our care must be to liue well so shall we without our care haue good assurance to die wel If we continue and increase in goodnesse we are well prouided for death and need not to feare the bitter effects of second death Blessed is that Seruant whom the Master when hee commeth shall find so doing Mat. 24.46 The Apostle Paul might well say he was ready to be offered to wit by that end of all the liuing death seeing he had fought a good fight in the battell of his life finished a good course in the race of his pilgrimage and kept faith in a good conscience 2. Tim. 4 6. Hee considered his life as a woman with child reckons her time as neere as shee can because then shee hopes for deliuerance the nerer the day of his last Iubilee or last breath drew the more his ioy increased being sure that then he should goe out of prison Leuit. 25.41.54 Thus had he ioy in death who had so well and long prepared himselfe to die A charge therefore vpon carelesse persons who Vse 2 as if they should say with the euill Seruant spoken of Math. 24.48 My Master doth differre his comming fall into a deep sleepe of false peace without all regard of awaking to righteousnesse 1. Cor. 15.34 till death come to cut them off with sinners Christ speaking of the dayes of Noah doth not say that the Men then were vnmercifull extortioners or idolatours but that they are they drank they married till the flood came that is were first drowned in securitie and after in water Luc. 17.26.27 Further speaking in like manner of the daies of Lot he saith of the men of that time that they ate they dranke they bought they sould they planted they built verse 28. but were these things vnlawfull No not in themselues but in their manner of vsing them for they entended nothing else till God rained fire and brimstone from Heauen vpon them and destroied them verse 29. That is nothing could warne them till death came that giues no warning And here our Sauiour setteth downe three sorts of men the first followed their pleasures onely they ate they dranke The second followed their profit onely they bought they sould The third and worst of all followed both their pleasure and profit for they builded for their pleasure and planted for their profit And doe not some of these or all of these lusts of the world hold carelesse Christians if we may call such Christians so in the loue of earthly things at this day that there is no remembrance of death in their waies Doe not worldlings entring into a dreame of an Heauen vpon Earth dote so vpoÌ„ things that perish with the vse that they neuer thinke of things eternall whether life or death euerlasting till they must no remedie passe from this world to another The foolish Virgines thought not of their oile till the Bride-groome came and there was no opening Mat. 25.8.11.12 And foolish sinners so flatter themselues with a slumbering opinion of preparing time â—inough for death when they goe on their last houre that they will know nothing till the flood come Mat. 24.39 nor looke toward heauen till they bee in hell Luc. 16.23 nor haue oile in their vessels and repentance in their hearts with it to meete the bride-groome Christ till the gate of mercie and of all hope be shut Math. 25.10 Meane while what doe they but follow the pride couetousnesse whoredome drunkennesse and lusts of their owne heart not remembring Ioseph But pray we beloued for a waking conscience and let not this keeper of the house in a heart past feeling so drowse and sleepe in vs that our house be broken digged through and rifled before we haue time or will to say Lord haue mercie on vs. So much for the attendance spoken of the term or continuance followeth Al the daies of mine appointed time c. The time of Iobs attendance or waiting on God for his helpe is the whole terme or act of his life which he calleth not yeeres but daies So hee measureth his short time by the inch of daies rather then by the span of moneths or long ell of yeeres Doctr. Which is to teach vs that the daies of man are few his life short vpon earth And that it is so experience and that which we see in daily vse doth shew besides the word which for this speaking of mans short time vseth to take the shortest diuision in nature to expresse it by as that it is the life of yesterday Ps 90.4 A life which is gone as soone as it comes vers 9. a life of few houres as a watch in the night vers 4.
waues they came to Christ awoke him saying Master saue vâ— wee parish Mat. 8.24.25 But they had Christ with them in the Ship But some thinke not of Christ to awake him to their saluation being strangers to God through the ignorance that is in them til the ship of their body tossed with the tempests of their last sicknesse bee readie to sinke into death and by many leakes and wearings beginne to receiue into their soules that dead sea that must needs drown them in perditioÌ„ destruction before the Lord for euer For how many thus think of him till they can thinke no longer how many begin to liue that is truely to liue till they be readie to die and how many call to minde that Time of Times till there be no more time at least to them till that last time and houre of the day come vnto them in the which they must come to the barre to receiue their doome and iudgement The reason of all this backwardnesse to a new life in the feare of God is mens ouer-hungrie desire to follow those pleasures of sinne into which Satan putteth himselfe as he did into the Serpent to beguile Heue The subtile enemie knoweth with what bait to take a worldling to all forgetfulnes of God and of the iudgement to come And therefore as the hunter minding to take the Tygres young one is said to set vp certaine looking glasses in the Tygres way that is in the way that she passeth to seek her straying brood that finding in such glasses a perfect resemblance of her selfe the same may cause her to leaue the pursuit and to loose her whelpe So this old huntsman Satan obseruing what care man ought to haue which care but few men haue to saue from hell and destruction his stray soule doth set many goodly shewes or false glasses of pleasures which seeme but are not in the way of his Christian walke that by holding his sight in these deere-prized delights he may more willingly leaue the care of that one thing which is necessarie the saluation of his soule Therefore that wee may not bee taken in this Hunters snare our short life should be often thought of When we goe to bed we should remember our graue and when wee rise in the morning consider that we shall rise out of the graue of the earth at the last day With this key of meditation we should open the day and shut in the night And what befalleth others in the dust of their bodies we should thinke must come to vs we cannot tell how soone in our owne dust mortality Here therefore as the third Captaine sent from the King of Israel to Eliah to bring him and perceiuing that the other two Captains with their fifties were deuoured with fire from heauen at the request of Eliah grew wife by their experience and therefore fell downe and besought fauour for himselfe and his fiftie 2. King 1.13 So we seeing or hearing of so many fifties young and old that in these late yeares of mortalitie haue ended their liues in a fire of pestilence sent from the Lord should make supplication day and night not as that Captaine to the man of God but as true Christians to the man and God Christ Iesu that our liues deathes may be precious in his eyes and that we may not forget that what is done to others may come to vs. And if God haue knocked by many infirmities as by so many messengers at the doore of our fraile bodies wee should not defâ—â—re then chiefly to open to him by present repentance lest he breake in by incurable plagues and make his way by our certain destruction death remedilesse An apologie or defence of those good Christians Vse 3 who considering the vncertaintie and shortnesse of Mans time redeeme as much as may be of it into the band and to the glorie of Him that made and is owner of all their daies in a care of his seruice They know that Satan is a great gainer by the waste of time and that contrarily they shall gaine and Satan be looser by a wise redeeming of their few daies for good duties and therefore they care not to buie time with any redemption temporall so they may haue store of it for the markets of godlinesse and thefeare of the Lord. This would be well obserued for it sheweth the reason why the godly haue so great comfort in their short time and the wicked no true comfort in their few euill daies and so much horror at the end of them when they goe from their house to graue The godly haue much pleasure in their short though troublesom life because they haue bestowed it well and because they are become by such redemption of time citizens in title of a citie that cannot be shaken And therefore though their time bee short their short time here is very comfortable vnto them seeing as Noahs douâ— vpon the waters they waite daily till God open the window of his heauenly Arke to take them to rest from their labors The wicked who haue spent their short time euil must needs greatly feare at the end of their short time seeing when they see death they may doubt if it be peace hauing neuer yet loued the God of peace 2. King 9.22 The righteous are in the world as the Israelites in Babylon who beeing captiues in this prison of life care not how soone they bee deliuered that they may sing the songs of the Lord in their owne Land Psal 137.4 The wicked like spirituall Babylonians and as men at home in their owne naturall soile desire no other life and know no better and therefore it exceedingly grieueth them so soone to depart from this and so much against their wils To the godly by reason of good houres well employed 1. Cor. 15. death is the last enemie and to the wicked by their prophane life the first Gods Children count nothing their own here euerie day they gather Manna and haue but from hand to mouth till the long Sabbath come when they shall eate the fruites of the land of heauen Therefore their losse is nothing when they haue lost all here onely they loose miserie and finde saluation and what losse is that Surely such as they are glad of and the sooner they make the change the better for them The worlds children are here at home in their Mothers lappe here they haue their pleasure Luk. 16.25 and receiue their portion hauing great things for themselues and to leaue to their Babes when they are gone Here they wasted time the fairest and best part of it vpon their profits and lusts and little of it they bestowed if any of it well and what maruel then if they cry out to come to their account for time so precious so much abused The godly because their affection is to do good and God doth so mercifully blesse them that they constantly and heartily doe it therefore they are and
are reputed seruants in Egypt and strangers in the wildernesse being vnhappy to wit in the opinion of worldly men till they come into their happy land and receiue those mansions which are prepared for them The wicked because they serue sinne in their members and short time are happie till they die being for that Lords in Egypt and Citizens here Here in pleasures after death in torments Here Lords of the earth hereafter brands of hell No maruell then if short life trouble the wicked as it comforteth the godly That which is added by Iob to his time of attendance followeth All Iob saith that hee would waite all his daies because he knew not the day nor houre when God would command his apparence by death and send him to his dust As if he should haue said Of my departure hence I know not the day nor houre or I know not when I shall die 1. Pet. 1.17 and therefore euery day shal be as my dying day and I will liue in continuall expectation of that which will come I know not how soone Doctr. This is the meaning And the point taught is though there bee nothing more certaine then death yet nothing is more vncertaine to vs then the houre in which we shall die For this cause the day of the generall as likewise the day of our particular iudgement in death is said to come suddenly vpon worldlings as the snare vpon the bird which commeth when it is not looked for Luke 21.35 And Mathew to shew how little wee know the comming of it till it come compareth it to a Master from home who returneth to his house in a day that the seruants looke not for him and in an houre that they are not ware of Mat. 24.50 And in the 43. verse of the same Chapter he compareth it to a thiefe in the night For as a thiefe giueth no warning so no more doth stealing death He that keepeth the house knoweth not when the thiefe will come and hee that looketh for death knoweth not when he shall die 1. Thes 5.2 The reasons If we knew the day of our death we would put off all till the comming of that day Secondly as it is the glorie of a King to know some things that no man else can know so it is a part of Gods glorie to hide from men and Angels the particular houres of mans death and this worlds doome which hee hath closed vp with the seale of secrecie and put in his owne power Now God will giue no part of his glorie to 〈◊〉 Thirdly if we knew the houre or certaine time of our death it would giue vs too great boldnesse to wallow in sinne till that time or houre came The whorish woman because she knew the rust time when her husband would returne who went into a far countrie did by such a certaine knowledge of the appointed time of his comming backe the more liberally poure out her soule to vice wantonnesse Prou. 7.20 Therefore it is counsell to vs when wee shall die that all the dayes of our appointed time we may wait for this day and in all our time looke for this last time To make good vse of this point Vse we must account of euery presēt day as the day of our death so liue now as if we were now dying doe those good duties euery day that wee would bee found doing at our last houre of the day Death doth come suddenly to many so it may to vs and some who haue promised to themselues many yeeres and long life haue not had a minute of warning giuen them to cal for mercie The houses of their bodies were presently digged thorow when they iudged their time endlesse and when they thought to haue runne a long race of scores Iob. 21.23.24.25 their graues haue met them in their setting out and they haue ended their act before they had plaide one full part on their stage The consideration hereof should make vs carefull to doe good while we haue time seeing we are so vnsure of it Gal. 6.10 The time of making peace with our Aduersarie is while wee are in the way Math. 5.25 And because we know not the day we should watch by doing good euerie day sitting with Abraham in our Tent doore Gen. 18.1 And watching death that watcheth vs. One light before doth more good then many carried after So one fore-thought is better then twentie after wits Death looketh for vs euerie where therfore as one saith wee should euery where looke for him Luke 12.35.36 But further to incite vs to this Christian watch let vs remember that where the tree falleth there it lieth in the East of life or West of second death where the Sunne of peace setteth vpon reprobates for euer Eccles 11.3 As the last day of our life leaueth vs so shall that last day the day of Christs comming August finde vs. How good were it therefore before we runne into desperate arrierages to cast our billes of account the rather because wee shall bee warned out of our office we know not how soone Luke 16.2 Some Emperors among the Heathen were woont as bookes say to bee crowned ouer the sepulchers and graues of dead men to teach them by the certaine but vnknowne end of their short life to vse their great roomes as men that must one day be as they then were whose graues they trode vpon The old Saints who liued in a continuall meditation of their short and vncertaine time were wont alway like wise Merchants to thinke of their returne homeward And therefore tooke vp their treasure by billes of paiment not where they were but where they would bee and meant to make their long aboad that is meant to be for euer And the Philosophers who saw not beyond the clouds of humane reason when they perceiued how much men did decline by course of yeares and wastes of time were woont to say that the life of a wise man was nothing but a continuall meditation of death And were it no more but that it is enacted as by an euerlasting Parliament that all must once die Heb. 9.27 This were inough to cast a cloud yea a whol dark sky ouer the fairest day we see here and passe in our fairest pleasures But when we shall consider that after death commeth the iudgement it must needes moue vs to turne our laughter into mourning and to thinke how to liue and die well in so short and certaine but vncertain time of our expectation of such a day a day of such dread and tertour to carelesse liuers a black hideous and dismall day But carelesse persons like those officers in the Kings house who hauing their allowance of lights consume them in wantonnesse and goe to bed in the dark doe consume on their lusts those good graces as it were lights which they haue receiued for saluation from the father of lights Iam. 4.3 which is cause that when their bodies must goe to
the good mans death but what is profitable and excellent In the third to the Philippians vers 21. the Apostle calleth this alteration by death not the losse of our body but the change of our vile body that it may bee facioned like to the glorious body of Christ And is there any thing in this but what is excellent and worthy if any thing be worthy our trauell best paines here Iohn speaking of the Saints glorified saith All teares shall be wiped from their eyes Apoc. 21.4 His meaning is that as soone as death shall let them out of the world they shall haue no more sorrow that is sorrow that causeth teares And the same Iohn saith Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord Apo. 14.13 that is they who hauing liued righteously die wel in him are in the hand by the helpe of death leade presently to blessednesse The Saints militant did alwaies with the eyes of faith in the Gospell behold this great honour and preferment by death in the happy ends of the righteous and therefore sighed desiring their house from Heauen 2. Cor. 5.2 for they knew that if it were an honour to be remoued from a base cote to a Princes court it could not but be a double that is singular honour to bee translated from the Cotes of the Earth to the Court of Heauen Therefore they sighed that is could not be merrie till that change should come Paul saith that to be losed to wit from the bonds of his corruptible bodie was best of all Philip. 1 23. which hee would not haue said if any preferment had beene better then that by death which is from basenes into the glorious libertie of the sonnes of God The reasons And further that there is so much good in the godlie mans death which is his change may be and is euident First by the things to which that their happie and blessed change by death is compared as to a hauen that after they haue passed the troublesome waues of the sea of this world carrieth them to their owne key or backe in the which they ride safely to their iourneys end after which they come home to their owne house being strangers here 1. Pet. 2.11 to the medicine that cureth most perfectly the sicknesse of life to the messenger that biddeth them to the marriage dinner of their great King Mat. 22.2.3 to their returne from banishment into their owne countrey and naturall land to their deliuerance from the gaole of sorrow where they are taken with Ioseph out of prison to be set with Princes to the laying downe of their tabernacle and to the putting on of their house from Heauen to a deliuerance like that out of Egypt from the bondage of corruption to the libertie of saints from a land of darknesse to a land where the sunne neuer goeth downe and from a land of destruction to the land of the liuing Now what is there in all these that is not perfitly good and desirable Secondly death abolisheth in the faithfull departed all power of sinning and sting of sinne Thirdly the bodie feeleth no more paine nor shal euer againe be sensible but of that which is excellently good desireable and comfortable and for the soule it shall presently be glorified Luc. 16.22 Fourthly death is but the dore of the soule out of an earthly dungeon such as the bodie is that must be destroied before the wormes into an heauenly kingdome or passage from death to life from a short death to a long life Lastly God executeth his iudgements vpon the damned and purgeth his Church by death An instruction to correct all vnreasonable and faithlesse weeping for our godly friends and brethren departed in the faith of Christ Vse 1 The Apostle to the Thessalonians exhorteth Christians if they sorrow for such not to sorrow for them as men that haue no hope 1. Thes 4.13 When Hester was taken from Mardochay who had brought her vp as his owne daughter to be married to King Assuerus and to receaue the crowne of Queene in the kingdome did he either bewaile or enuie that her great preferment the faithfull are taken from sorrowfullmen to be espoused to Christ and to receaue the crowne of glorie and shall they that liue by such vnmeasurable sorrow and taking on as is too commonly vsed at the graues of their friends vnwish to them in a sort so great happinesse Will a father be sorrie or can he without imputation of enuie repine that his sonne or daughter is with Ioseph taken out of prison to be set with Princes when thou giuest forth thy child to nurse and shee hath kept it long inough should shee because thou takest it home againe complaine thou wilt say she hath no reason for it Then what reason hath any father to murmure against the owner of the child hee taketh for taking of his owne Parents that so lose their children if they may be called lost that are so found are but nurses to them in their absence from their owne fathers house to nurse them with the milke of the Gospel and religiously to nurture them for the Lord who by death sends for them home to himselfe when he seeth time and when he so doth haue they cause to complaine of wrong father mother sonne wife husband brother are but lent goods which we must restore when the creditor and hee that owneth them calleth for them And shall we count our selues spoiled or vndone because they are required If one should lend vs a thing of price or thing that is costly would wee for a recompence of the vse of it vpbraid the owner because he sendeth for it or if we should might not he who was the lender iustly say is this my thanks and shall I be recompenced with so great impatiencie for my so great good will So if God should lend vs tenne deare children as he did to Iob and we should be made to part with them all in one day would it become vs with rough words to receaue that supposed losse or would we complaine of wrong where none is offered and where our good is sought and our childrens gaine be vnthankfull if we should may not the Lord of them and of vs iustly taxe our vnthankfulnesse and complaine of wrong May he not say did Iob my seruant so from whom I tooke ten children in one day and in a few daies all the honour and substance that he had did he not rather confesse my vnquestionable right in such moueables and say the Lord giueth the Lord taketh away blessed be the name of the Lord. Iob 1.21 If a great Lord should call vs and our child promising to both much honour and great wealth would we weepe and take on because our child is gone before and we our selues must shortly follow after would we not rather with much ioy so order our iourney and affaires that we also might with as great dispatch as might be receaue such preferment as wee know
our child hath entred on alreadie And why are we vnquiet seeing the Lord of Heauen and earth hath called our child from a base condition to noblenesse to bestow honours vpon him and ritches that shall not faile promising the like to vs by the way of death should we not rather so dispose our occasions and life that we may ioifully follow him whom wee haue not lost but sent before But you will say my child was young and died in his flowers well be it so yet they who die young so they die well are old inough to goe to God besides did not Ieroboams childe in whom were found good things die young 1. King 14.13 And did not Iosiah die old whom the Lord in a battle at Megiddo tooke from the filthy will of Iudah to plant him before himselfe in the garden of his owne presence in glorie 2. King 24.29 Neither can they be said to die yong whose perfection is growne to a blessed ripenesse before the Lord. But young or old if you haue reioiced in your child as in the Lords interest you will not think it much and why should you that the Lord should haue his owne or will you with Phurao offer to hold in the prison of life as in Egypt any seruant of his whom hee shall send for by death his last messenger and that aâ— supper time when all things are ready Luc. 14.17 While he liued God gane him to you as a pledge of his fauor now that he is taken away you must freely resigne him as a pledge of your obedience But you wil say He was my onely child Indeed the death of an onely childe is very greeuous to the Parents Zechar. 12.10 Am. 8.10 yet Abraham was readie to haue sacrificed his onely sonne Isaac at Gods commandement Gen. 22.3.10 and God gaue his onely sonne Christ to death for our salâ—ation Ioh. 3.16 wherefore as Elkanah said to Annah so and much more may the Lord say to vs am not I better to you then ten sonnes 1. Sam. 1.8 or are not our ten sonnes and all the children of the wombe his gift Ps 127.3 Then though he be your onely child and all you haue whom God thus by death taketh from you there is no cause of griefe or of complaint seeing the Lord hath but his owne when he hath taken him and seeing also that he taketh him and you giue him but as your pledge and earnest to binde vnto you the right of that inheritance that you looke for or as your Feof-fee of trust gone before to take the possession for you A reproofe to those Vse 2 who can see nothing in the death of their friends or in their owne deathes but what is dreadfull beyond measure and simply the end of man Such conceiue death not as he is to the righteous and as Christ hath made him to bee by his glorious death but as fooles iudge of him who behold him through false spectacles as he is in his owne vncorrected nature considered out of Christ that is vgly terrible and hideous So did they behold him in Amos who put the euill day of his comming that which they iudged to bee euill and the godly iudge to bee happie no day happier as far from them as they could by carnall delicacie and wantonnesse Amos 6.3 So did Belshazzar looke vpon him whose heart would not serue him to reade the hand-writing of his owne end so neare Dan. 5.5.6.30 And Nabal had no heart to die who when he must needes die died as a stone that is died blockishly and so faintly that he was as good as slaine before death slew him 1. Sam. 25.37.38 He had no comfort in death which hee could not see one that was as righteous but as churlish and prophane And no maruell for this Aduersarie death armed as Goliah and vaunting as that proud Gyant of Gath commeth stalking toward such in fearefull manner infulting ouer weake dust and daring the world to giue him a man to fight with Therefore at the sight of him the whole hoast of worldlings bewray great feare turning their backes and going backward as men readie to sinke into the earth with abated courages and lookes cast downe stained with the colours of feare death trembling like leaues in a storme and striken with the palsie of a sudden and violent shaking through all the bodie 1 Sam. 17.10.11 But the true Christian armed as Dauid with trust in God and expectation of victory by the death of Christ who by death ouercame death as Dauid cut off the head of Goliah with his owne sword dares and doth boldly encounter with this huge Philistian death supposed inuincible and seeming great but neither with sword nor speare but in the name of the God of the hoast of Israel by whose might onely hee woundeth and striketh him to the earth trampling vpon him in the returne of his soule to the place out of which it first came and singing ouer him this ioiful and triumphant song of victorie O death where is thy sting 1. Cor. 15.55 Hee hath Steuens eyes to looke into heauen and therefore cannot but haue the tongue of the Saints who say Come Lord Iesu come quickly Apoâ— 22 2â—â— For the ioy that is set before him he with his good Sauiour endureth the crosse of death and despiseth the shame of corruption to which the dust of his bodie must bee turned Heb. 12.2 Ob. Quest But you will say Is not death to be feared that worketh so fearefully beeing also enemie to nature and the wages of sinne Rom. 6.23 Ans Answ Indeede death is dreadfull out of Christ and in it selfe and wee haue reason to feare it as it is an effect of sinne for so God setteth his angrie countenance in it and so Aristotle it is simply fearefull and euill Which made an heathen man to say that of all terrible things death was most terrible Hee saw in the darke that death had much euill in it and that it was properly euill and but accidentally good but he could not see through the dark cloud that which made it so euill Therefore euill it is I confesse and fearefull And to this we haue a greater witnesse then the witnesse of man For the Apostle saith the sting of death is sinne 1. Cor. 15.56 Now so farre as it hath a sting and is in it strength it is to be feared The reason is so it is properly death and death in kinde But we speake not of death considered out of Christ or considered in it selfe but of death altered by the death of Christ and which by such a change is made our passage from death to life for so it is no dreadful thing but a thing desireable and so the sting is taken from it which is of force and carieth an edge of second death against all the workers of iniquitie who dying out of Christ die miserably hellishly and with horrible feare By Christ the doore death is made a doore out
Rahel and life to come So much for the first of those comforts that are promised namely peace that properly concerneth our soules The second which is rest and belongeth to our bodies followeth And they shal rest in their beds c. By beds the Prophet vnderstandeth the places into which the Lord bestoweth the bodies of his seruants in or after their death whether water or fire or the panches of wilde beasts or the chambers of the earth or sea or aire And these he calleth beds because they shall rest quietly in them as men in their beds till the morning bell or loud trumpet of the last great day warning all flesh to rise shal raise them Therefore it is an vsuall thing in the scriptures so soone as men die to say they fall a sleepe Whereby is meant that they are laid in their beds of peace whether Churchyard or Church and that before their bodies are carried forth for buriall thither the places in which God taketh their soules to his presence are their beds and so the beds of their death are the beds of their peace Beds made for them by God himself in the which after their last long sleep of death they presently enter into their last sweet sleepe of peace The Papists say otherwise who hold that the righteous take no possession of their beds of rest till the Priest haue put them into their beds of earth Indeed men giue them burials then but God doth prouide for them their bed of burial lat their death And they are called beds of rest to put difference betweene these beds of our nights-sleepe and those of our sleepe in death For here bee our beds neuer so soft or well made we often take no rest by reason of some disorder in our bodies or fancies in our head but in these sleeping places which the Prophet calleth beds of rest wee may lay vs downe and sleepe in peace Psal 4.8 the Lord of life being our keeper who will make vs dwell in safetie Indeed in it own nature the graue is an house of perdition rather then bed of rest but being altered to the Iewes in promise to vs in performance by Christs graue who was buried in the earth to change the nature of it it is made to vs a chamber of rest and bed of Downe The point here taught is Doctr. The graues of the righteous which by nature are houses of destruction and chambers of feare are by Christ and the graue of Christ made to them chambers of safetie and beds of rest Christ by his buriall hath consecrated and perfumed our graues making them which were prisons to hell gates to heauen Which made the Apostle speaking of the dead in Christ to say they sleepe not they die As if hee should haue said they goe to their beds and not to destruction 1. Thes 4.15 And the same Apostle speaking of the death of the righteous calleth it not a death but a sleepe 1. Cor. 15.51 as if hee had called it not rottennesse but rest For this cause also is our death in heathen Authors called a sleepe as the Scriptures call it and our graue our bed At night wee take our chambers and lie downe in our beds so when death comes which is the end of life as the night is of the day we goe to the chambers of the earth and there make our beds or lie downe in bed till the day of refreshing which is the day of rising come that commeth from the Lord. The reasons are This was figured in the embalmings which the Iewes vsed And this figure as al other figures of the old Testament must bee performed in one which one is Christ As therefore their embalmings did perfume the graues in which they laid their dead for a season so the most precious blame of Christs buriall did for euer sweeten to the Saints their graues of corruption Secondly as the end of Christs death was that he might vanquish death so it was one end why hee was buried that he might after the manner of conquerours subdue death at his own home and as it were pluck him out of his owne den and cabbin Thirdly the bodies of the godly are parts of Christs mysticall bodie while they are in the graue and when they are turned to corruption and therefore cannot but bee precious in his eyes and grauen vpon the palme of his hand till they be restored For as the Husbandman doth make no lesse reckoning of that corne which he hath sowne in his field and lies vnder the clod of the earth then he doth of that which he hath brought into his barnes So Christ doth as highly esteeme of those bodies as it were graines of corne that are sowne in corruption as of those that yet neuer saw corruption nor came to the graue Therefore wee shall not rest in death though we rest in our graues For that God who raiseth the Sunne daily out of his den will one day raise vs out of our graues to stand before him for euer A confutation of that fancie that hath so long deluded the simple world Vse 1 which is that dead bodies walke after their death and appeare to men For how can that be when the bodies of Gods children rest in their beds so soone as their breath departeth and the bodies of the wicked are in their prisons till the day of assise Whereof if any make question let him open their graue and see And seeing the soule returneth not after it hath left the bodie how can the body walke that wanteth a soule or soule be seene if it should walke that hath no bodie Or if death bee a loosing of our soules from our bodies Phil. 1.23 How can there be any death when soule and bodie are not parted and when the man is not dead but liueth But this fancie came from Pithagoras a Philosopher and is but a Philosophers dreame Pithagoras told his dreame to the world which was that the soules of men departed did enter into the bodies of other men good soules into good mens bodies bad into bad mens The world then beleeued him And since that time Satan who can turne himselfe into all formes did in the darke night of Poperie to deceiue that ignorant age change himselfe into the similitude and forme of some person that was lately or had beene long dead and was beleeued by such a transformation to bee the partie man or woman that hee made resemblance off So entred the errour that Spirits did walke and that dead bodies came out of their graues and haunted sundry houses in the night which were not the bodies of the dead but the Diuell in those bodies or shapes as is to be seene in Samuels counterfet shape raised by the Witch at Endor 1. Sam. 28.8.14.15 And this errour as it deceiued the blind world and somewhat troubled the seeing Math. 14.26 Act. 12.15 So it is still in the mouth and faith of credulous superstition at this day But
is sufficient for vs to know that such a day will come and it shall be our wisdome alwayes to be ready for it that it come not vpon vs as the snare vpon the bird The reasons of the certainetie of this day of iudgement are First it is the will and decree of God for the Apostle saith He hath appointed a day in the which hee will iudge the world in righteousnesse Act. 17.31 Now the wil and decree of God is vnchangeable His counsell shall stand Esa 46.10 Secondly it is an article of our faith grounded on the word of God But the articles of our faith are all certaine and most certaine Thirdly the scripture saith that God will make manifest euerie mans worke and iudge the secrets of men Eccles 12.14 Luc. 8.17 Rom. 2.16 This is not done here and here many matters are cloked and carried in a mist that deserue iudgement and merit condemnation Therefore and that God may be iust in his sayings there must be a sessions of gaol-deliuery which we call with the scriptures the iudgement of the last day Fourthly the godly doe here groane vnder many miseries and the vngodly wallow in delights the rich liue delicately and Lazarus is in paine therefore is it necessary as it is certain that a day should come wherein the Lord may make knowne his righteousnesse and magnifie his iustice before his glorious throne that they who haue liued merrily dishonouring God might liue in torments of fire and they whose life hath beene miserable seruing the Lord might be comforted for euer Some haue offended deepely and haue not beene touched by the Magistrate some haue suffered great rebuke somtimes death deseruing fauour therefore a day must come and is appointed wherein the Lord that is iust will recompence tribulation to all that haue troubled the righteous and to such as were troubled by them rest 2. Thes 1.6.7 On the other side would it not be hard for the godly who here haue endured the crosse for the ioy that was set before them if there shold not come a time of refreshing from God and would it not too much induâ—rate the wicked who drinke iniquity as water if they should escape all punishments and vengeance here and after death Fiftly this is shadowed out in that housholder who when euen was come called the Labourers and gaue euery man his hire and pennie Math. 20.8.10 And if a wise Master will reckon with his seruants Math. 25.19 shall we thinke that the wisest will not one day reckon with sinners and call them before him for his money that is precious graces of wit learning authoritie wealth and other ontward and inward ornaments of life which they haue consumed on their lusts Sixtly euery wicked mans conscience doth by a trembling feare as in Felix at one time or another iustifie this point of a iudgmeÌ„t to come Act. 24 26. And therefore as the flood of waters once drowned the world except a few who were saued in the arke Gen. 7 1.7.2 Pet. 2.5 So it is certain that the flood and tempest of the last daies fire shall burne it and all in it except such as Christ hath or wil then gather into the little arke of his Church In the euening of this world and when there shall be no more time he will call the labourers before him giuing them the pennie or pay of euerlasting life but for the idle and loiterers forth of the vineyard and out of Christ he will let them goe with sinners to the place prepared for them as they haue liued without the Church or idlie in it so when the labourers receaue their pennie they shall heare depart from mee ye that worke iniquitie I know you not Math. 7.23 Thus it is proued not onely to be certaine but necessarie that there should be a iudgment But some will say Quest seeing men come to their account at their death what needeth any other day of audit or hearing I answere Answ Men at their death receiue but priuate iudgement here they shall receiue publike sentence Then they are iudged in their soules onely here they shall bee iudged in soule and bodie that is but a close Sessions that an open or solemne assise There much of their shame is hid here they shall be shamed to the full And if our owne lawes doe not condemne and execute malefactors in prison but for their greater shame in open place and manner It is great reason that wicked sinners should not priuately in their graues as in prison bee iudged and led to execution but be brought to the publike scaffold and barre of solemne fession there to receiue their shame and sentence together and not to bee executed by a close death in the goale but be broght forth to suffer vpon the high stage of the world in the sight of Saints and Angels where all eyes may see them But is not Christ iudge in this life Quest And is there not a iudgement begun here Indeed Answ there is a iudgement begun already a iudgement that goeth before this of the last day For God hath erected in the consistorie of euerie mans heart a certaine iudgement seat where conscience is iudge The wicked securely despise or scornefully deride this iudge and iudgement seat but it giueth them many secret gripes though they profit not by them Oftentimes Gods children themselues because that the noises and sounds that the ring of the world maketh in them doe too much neglect these loude cals of their consciences to amendment of life But this is the iudgement that the Lord beginneth here with which they must well bee acquainted who meane to stand before Christ the iudge at the last day And this one well compareth to our quarter-Sessions which are kept for mulcts and meddle not in matters of life and death as Sessions of goale deliuerie doe For in this mid-space betweene these Sessions and that day of assise the Lord executeth a kind of iudgement among his houshould people and enemies by taking his grace from his seruants for a season from the wicked for euer Or by taking something from his children that they loued to much and did hurt them and that from the wicked that they seemed to haue The first to prepare the righteous for a better world the other to make the wicked readie for the sentence of their last and iust damnation begunne in this world That we may be fitted for this comfortable meeting of the Lord in the ayre and not liue in sinne as those workers of iniquitie doâ— vpon whom these mid-Sessions haue passed sentence binding them ouer to the close sessions of their death or more publike assise of the last day when all prisons must be rid and graues emptied let vs not sleightly passe ouer those seuerall penalties that the Lord inflicteth at his quarter-sessions in the twitches of our conscience for some good omitted or euill done But when he thus calleth vs let vs answere here am I. A
shall liue together with my dead bodies shall they rise Esa 26.19 where the Prophet testifieth without any figure his hope in the resurrection both of his owne bodie and the bodies of all beleeuers His drift is to proue that same thing whereof we spake before out of Ezechiel namely the restoring of Israel after their long captiuitie in Babylon where he sheweth that as herbs which in winter seem dead are fresh again in the spring so the people who seemed to die as winter herbs in their captiuitie shall in the spring of their return rise as it were from death to life And yet hee plainely sheweth that the bodies of the faithfull though they seeme vtterly to porish when they are in the earth shall rise at the last day through that seed which they haue in Christ Daniel speaketh yet more plainely and saith Many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall awake Dan. 12.2 He saith many as if he should say an infinite number shal awake an infinite number of the iust and an infinite number of the wicked Or by many hee vnderstandeth all as the Apostle in a like case doth Rom. 5.15.19 Where speaking of many dead by the sinne of Adam he sheweth in the 18. verse that by those many hee meaneth all The Iewes gather from the text in Daniel that there shall be no resurrection of the wicked which also they doe from the first Psalme But they gather that the holy Ghost neuer scattered And they may as well say that all the godly shall not rise because it is said many not all as that the wicked shall not be raised But to proceed wherefore did Dauid lay vp his flesh in such hope but because hee had greater faith in the resurrection Psal 16.9.10 Martha neuer staggered at the resurrection but confessed it as a doctrine of the faith of those times For when Christ had said thy brother shall rise againe shee readily answered I know that hee shall rise againe in the resurrection at the last day Ioh. 11.23.24 As if hee had said I doubt nothing of that Saint Paul in the whole 15. chapter of his former Epistle to the Corinthians maketh the resurrection the subiect of all his disputes there And this was his hope that he had toward God that the resurrection of the dead should bee both of the iust and vniust Act. 24. The Epistle to the Hebrews speaking of the manifold martyrdomes of the Saints sheweth that they quietly endured al those sharpe stormes in their faces because their hope was to receiue a better resurrection that is better then any deliuerance here Heb. 11.35 Also how could Christs argument hold that God is the God of the liuing being the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob if Abraham Isaac and Iacob should not liue as now in their soules which are before God so hereafter in their bodies which are in Gods keeping Mat. 22.32 Neither doth the Lord say I am the God of Abrahams soule but the God of Abraham that is of Abrahams whole man Thus the point of the resurrection is plaine by Scripture It followeth briefely to shew what euidence it hath in reason that we may take heauen earth to witnesse against the oppugners of it Deut. 30.19 It is sufficient to weigh these matters in the weights of the sanctuarie and not needfull to trie them at the bulke of humane reason yet to giue them ouer measure that will not receiue this truth Let it first bee considered that as the soule of the righteous did not please God without the body nor the soules of the wicked sinne against him but in their bodies so it is requisite that as the soule of the one is glorified and the soules of the other are condemned to hell that I say their bodies also should in Gods time bee brought to pleasures or torment Secondly without the bodie the soule is imperfect And beeing imperfect how can it enter into an entire estate of happinesse till the body bee raised that the bodie may bee ioined to it Thirdly if the bodie should not bee raised the fulnesse of grace should not be shewed to the Saints nor the fulnesse of wrath to sinners Fourthly if there were no resurrection God shold promise that which he minded not to giue who promiseth a reward to the iust but it is at the resurrection Luke 14.14 Fiftly the reuolutions of so many springs summers haruests hard winters as it were so many deaths and resurrections the dying of the day in the night the graue of that day and the vprising againe of it in the morning from that den of darknesse are and doe become so many liuely testimonies to the world of the generall great resurrection of all bodies at the last day Sixtly doe we not see in the spring how that from a dead dry tree leaues proceed and sprout forth by a kinde of resurrection And doe wee not see the same tree to beare further fruit and to be adorned with a new rinde as it were fresh and beautifull skin do wee not fee in a small seede a tall and great tree is that which is sowne quickened except it die 1. Cor. 15.36 Doe not our Meddowes pastures and pleasant gardens which in the winter appeare dead without all beautie returne with the returne of the Sunne to their former full life and glorie This winter is our death and this spring our rising from death to life Seuenthly the swallowes wormes and flies which lie dead all winter doe with the returne of the Sunne and comming of Summer receiue a new life Now shall the force of this earthly Sun worke so in birds and wormes and shall the Sunne of righteousnesse be lesse able to giue life then the sunne of the heauens And if it was an easie thing with God at first to make man of nothing is it a lesse easie thing with him to make him againe though he be as nothing seeing hee is not meerely nothing but nothing out of that which was before Before we were borne where was our forme and matter Yet wee feee to what bignesse wee are come and what forme wee haue and what being Where was the seede of Leui when to speake as the Scriptures do hee was in the loines of Abraham his great grand-father Heb. 7.20 Many alterations corruptions and changes came between yet God purposed that Leui should be so borne that is of the feede of Abraham and not all the corruptions that came betweene could alter his purpose Lastly all the resurrections that we reade of in the Scriptures of the old and new testament as of the Shunamites sonne 2. Kin. 4.33 Of the body that was cast into the Prophets graue 2. King 13.21 of Lazarus Ioh. 11.43 of Iairus daughter Mat. 9.25 yea of the bright Sunne himself and of many Saints with him Mat. 27.52.53 are as so many pledges to vs of the resurrection that shal be of all dead bodies at Christs comming But must all
as the darkning of the Sunne and Moone the roaring of the Sea and waters not by an ordinary but strange vnquietnesse the failing of mens hearts the generall palsey or shaking disposition that shall be in all the heauenly powers which shall be so violent and with such perturbations of all lights and elements that the starres shall fall that is shall seeme to fall from heauen and the signe of the Sonne of Man which I take to be the burning of the high heauens and this lower earth which at the instant of his comming shall be set on fire these and the like signes not of peace but of warre to the world and not of fauour but of great wrath to sinners how can they but pierce with feare all such as shal come before the Lord in their sinnes without repentance at this day If the winds keepe vs in some awe when they be high and loud and if we feare the sea when it is but a little mooued if euerie sudden noise and cracke at mignight fright vs and if the thunder make vs afraid what shall their feare be and how great the confusion of their faces who shall stand in no faith and therefore with no boldnesse before the Sonne of God when all these matters of intolerable feare shall come together and meete vpon the then firie stage of this world and be ready to execute in their fiercest wrath and greatest power the law and will of their most excellent Creator against all faithlesse reprobates Fourthly this will be a day not of mercie but of rebuke to all Gods enemies and therefore intolerable to such For if the Lord doe straitly marke what is done amisse who shall abide it Psal 130.3 An admonition Vse 1 seeing it shall be thus to all the enemies of Christ presently to make our peace with Him while we are in the way Mat. 5.25 Our Sauiour doth exhort all the faithfull to this wisdome by the example of a King going to warre who being wise confidereth if hee be able with tenne thousand to meere him that commeth against him with twenty thousand or if he be not will send an ambassage and desire conditions of peace Luc. 14.31.32 Haue we our ten thousands to incounter with Christ who commeth that is will come with thousands of his Saints to giue iudgement vpon all men Surely as the men of Samaria reasoned concerning Iohn two Kings could not stand before him how then shal we stand 2. King 10.4 so we may more truly and better say concerning Christ not two Kings but not all the Kings of the earth though they banded themselues and assembled in troupes against him could yet euer preuaile or stand before the fierce wrath of his comming Psal 2.2.4.9 and shall we poore wormes when Christ will come to rebuke sinners thinke to abide or stand against the chiding voice of his iudgement so intolerable and righteous therefore yeeld we must or be broken in peeces Should we not therefore while this King is I cannot say a great way off for he may be neeter then we are aware but in his way yet toward vs by his singular patience send forth an ambassage of humble supplication and teares and present amendment of life desiring peace and that he would not turne against vs but to vs in mercy that we may be saued Therefore while our feet are at libertie and before wee bee bound hand and foot let vs runne the way of the Lords commandements while we haue tongues and before we become speechlesse Mat. 22.12 let vs vse our tongues well and not suffer our mouthes to sinne and while we haue hands and before our hands fall from our arme and arme rot from our shoulder let vs worke with our hands the thing that is good Ephes 4.28 and procure things that bee honest in the sight of all men and while wee haue breath before God stop our breath let breath and all praise the Lord and while we haue eares and before our eares these daughters of singing bee abased Eccles 12.4 let vs lift vp our eares to the word and not vnto vanitie For if here we stop our eares against the trumpet of the Gospell we shall heare to our griefe the trumpet of the last iudgement which whether wee sleepe in the ayre or fire or sea or holes of the earth will awake vs. Some nay many like some players at the game of cardes who though the night be farre spent will not giue ouer till their candle faile them will not leaue off to doe wickedly till the candle that Iob speaketh of bee put out And some flatter themselues with an imagination of a longer day then God hath set vnto them or perhaps to the world for the last houre thereof But let such know that thogh the day of iudgement were far of yet the day and houre of euery mans particular iudgement in death cannot be it being a common and true saying to day a man to morrow none And for the day of the generall death of this languishing world he that wisely considereth the waines and declinings that haue been found in it within these few yeares and how like a woman with child which hath many panges fits before the throwes of her great labour come it is now in paine till it be deliuered hauing much complained in those signes and alterations that are gone before I say hee that well obserueth to the true purpose of his saluation these such like throws or rather downe throwes of things in the womb of this old and sickly world so neare to the trauell and time of her appointed end by fire cannot but say that it cannot continue long and that the Lord will come shortly among vs. When wee see a man in whose face wearing age hath many wrinckles and deepe surrowes we say This man can not liue long so when we see the furrowes of old age to appeare and bee manifest in so many wastes and consumptions as this feeble world is entred into why doe we not see that the death of it is neare More particularly and specially as there is no greater signe that a man is drawing towards death then that hee is alway catching at the sheetes and blankets and alway snatching and pulling at somewhat so seeing that euerie one catcheth what hee can in this griple and couetous age and seeing that there is so insatiable a minde of hauing in all conditions and callings of people now it is a sure signe to the heart of a wiseman that this world is sicke vnto death and so as it cannot hold out long And if there be no greater signe of death then that the bodie is so cold that no heate will come vnto it surely the cold charitie of the world mens no zeale to religion our nullitie of faith or poore growth in faith insomuch as Sermons are seldom heard or with small amendment can not but testifie that the world it selfe came to be of no long life