ending he is the way in our peregrination truth in deliberation life in remuneration the way whereby our pathes are directed the truth whereby our errours are corrected and the life whereby our fraile mortalitie is eternized Therefore you may not looke to leape out of your mothers warme wombe into your fathers hot ioy Matt. 10.24.25 For the disciple saith our Sauiour is not aboue his master nor the seruant aboue his Lord you must for a while endure death that you may be dignified I had almost said deified and surely you shall be neere it Iohn 1.13 For we are borne of God saith the Euangelist and we shall be fashioned like vnto the glorious bodie of Christ for hee shall change our vile bodie Phil. 3.21 that it may be fashioned like vnto his glorious bodie and we shal follow the Lambe saith the holy Ghost Reuel 14.4 whithersoeuer hee goeth And now tell me in lieu of all I haue said if death doeth thus diuide vs from all euill and bring vs into all good if death bee like vnto the gathering hoste of Dan Numbers 2.31 Numb 10.25 Ioshua 6.9 that commeth last to gather vp the loste and forlorne hope of this world that they may bee found in a better whether is it better to liue in sorrow or to die in solace Let Agamades and Trophonius assoile the doubt of whom it is writen by Plato in his Axiaco that after they had builded the temple of Apollo-Delphick they begged of God that he would grant to them that which would bee most beneficiall for them who after this suite made went to bed and there tooke their last sleepe being both found dead the day after in token that the day of death is better then the day of life this being the entrance into all misery and that the end of all misery yea our dissolution is nothing else but aeterni natalis the birth day of eternitie as Seneca calles it more truly then he was aware For this dissolution giues to our soules an entrance and admission into the most blessed societie of eternall glorie with God himselfe for what other thing is death to the faithfull but the funerall of their vices and the resurrection of their vertues Christians therefore one would thinke need not as pagans consolations against death but death should serue them as a consolation against all miserie But you will here obiect and say me thinkes I am called backe too timely out of this life Psal 102.24 God snatcheth me a way in the midst of my dayes I might yet liue longer for I am young and in my blood I feare therefore lest this be a signe of the wrath of God Psal 55.23 seeing it is written Bloudie and deceitfull men shall not liue out halfe their dayes I answere there is no time now to consult with flesh and blood but readily to obey the heauenly call And for your few yeeres Seneca saith well He that dieth when he is young is like him that hath lost a dye wherewith hee might rather haue lost then wonne more yeeres might haue ensnared you with more sinnes and haue hardened you in your impenitencie to the hazard of your life in this world and your soule in another And for the flower of your youth if you compare it with eternitie whether now you are going and ought to long after it indeed all are equally young and equally old For the most extended age of a man in this world is but as a point or minute and the most contracted can bee no lesse And Iesus the sonne of Sirach saith Eccl. 41.13 A good life hath but few dayes nothing is too timely with God which is ripe Long life truly is the gift of God and the hoarie head a crowne of glory saith the Wiseman if it be found in the way of righteousnesse Pro. 16.31 Yet short life is not alwaies a token of the wrath of God seeing God sometime commands the godly also and those that are beloued of him to depart timely out of the house of this world that beeing freed from the danger of sinning they may be setled in the securitie of not sinning neither be constrained to haue experience of publike calamities more grieuous oftentimes then death it selfe An immature and vntimely death for a man to be taken away before he be come to the full period of his life that by the course of nature and in the eye of reason he might haue attained vnto is a thing that may betide good men and not be a curse to them Esay 57.1 The righteous man perisheth and no man layeth it to his heart saith the Prophet the mercifull man is taken away namely vntimely For if they died in a full age it were not blame-worthy for a man not to consider it in his heart Iacob knew this full well that vntimely death belongeth to Gods children for when Iosephes party-coloured coat was brought to him all bloudie it is said that he knew it Gen. 37.33 It is my sonnes coate saith hee some euill beast hath deuoured him Ioseph is without doubt rent in pieces So Abiah Gen. 44.28 the sonne of Ieroboam falling sicke Ieroboam sending his wife to the Prophet Abiiah with presents 1. Kings 14.1.2.3.6.12.13.17.18 to tell her what should become of the childe when shee was come the Prophet told her that he was sent to her with heauie tidings Arise thou therefore saith he get thee to thine owne house and when thy feete enter into the Citie the childe shall die and all Israel shall mourne for him bury him for he only of Ieroboam shall come to the graue because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Ieroboam Now this truth is confirmed vnto vs by two arguments the one drawne from the malice of the wicked against the godly the other from the mercie of God to the godly For the first the wicked through their malice seeke by all meanes to cut off the godly because their wickednesse and sinfull life is reproued by their godly conuersation neither can they follow their sins so freely as they would nor quietly without detection or checke The Apostle saith Cain 1. Iohn 3.12 that wicked one cut off and slew his brother Abel and wherefore slew he him because his owne workes were euill Gen. 37.2 and his brothers good The Patriarches sold Ioseph their brother and sent him out of the house of his Father because hee was a meanes that they were checked for their euill sayings And this is that we haue in the booke of Wisdome Therefore the vngodly men say let vs lye in wait for the righteous Wisd 2.12.14.15.16.18.19.20 because he is not for our turne but is cleane contrary to our doings he vpbraideth vs with our offending the law and obiecteth to our infamie in the transgression of our education Hee was made to reproue our
with whom all things are possible as our Sauiour Christ saith in the Gospell Againe we may roue at the glorious estate of the children of God after death by that high price which was set on theÌ„ Our Sauiour Iesus Christ the Sonne and only Son of God not by adoption but by nature louing and best beloued bought them not with money but with bloud not with the bloud of Goats and Rammes but with his owne bloud and not with the bloud of his head hands or feete but with his owne heart bloud And as he prayed soundly for them himselfe in his last prayer which he made vnto his heauenly Father a little before his suffering as appeareth in the Euangelist Saint Iohn Iohn 17.1 so hath he prised them vnto his friends and children and none can enter into them but by many tribulations Acts 7.59 For we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdome of God They did cost Paul a beheading Peter a crucifying Stephen a stoning millions of Martyrs racking burning torturing tormenting and a thousand other kinds of deathes and our deere Sauiour Christ himselfe a suffering Ought not Christ to haue suffered these things Luke 24.26 and so to enter into his glorie 1. Cor. 10.13 God who is faithfull and true as the Apostle speaketh hath not deceiued his Sonne nor ouer-sold his ioyes vnto his Saints and children and therfore vnspeakable are those ioyes which Christ hath purchased and his children obtained through a world of miseries Againe wee haue a resemblance of these ioyes in Christs transfiguration vpon the Mount Luk. 9.28.29.30.31.32.33 when as the fashion of his countenance was altered and his rayment was white and glistering whereby wee learne what glory our bodies shall haue in the day of the resurrection wheÌ„ as the blessed Apostle Saint Paul telleth vs that as we haue borne the image of the earthly we shall also beare the image of the heauenly 1. Cor. 15.49 and be like the Sonne of God in glory Againe we may make coniecture of these ioyes by reflecting our eyes vpon those innumerable perils which wee haue heere escaped For if such as are deliuered from the dangers of the sea doe wonderfully reioyce when they come safe on shore much greater then is the ioy of those who hauing beene tossed in the waues of this troublesome world troubled with sinnes with Satan with frailties of the flesh with the feare of hell whose dangers saith Gregorie appeare by the multitude of those that perish are now arriued at heauen for their hauen and are wholly freed from all their calamities and miseries And as Saint Augustine wel speaketh the more dangers escaped the more ioyes encreased as the most doubtfull battell maketh the most ioyfull victorie Againe we doe reade in the booke of Hester Hester 6.6.7.8.9.10.11 that when Haman was by King Ahashuerosh willed to speak what shal be done to the maÌ„ whom the King would honor he supposing that the King had no meaning to honor any but himselfe said this Let them bring forth for him royall apparell which the King vseth to weare and the horse that the King vseth to ride on and that the Crowne Royall may be set vpon his head and that his apparell and horse bee deliuered to one of the Kings most noble Princes that they may array the man withall whom the King delighteth to honor and bring him on horse-back thorow the streetes of the Citie and proclaime before him Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King will honor Then the King said to Haman Make haste c. Euen so shall it be done vnto them whom the King of kings and Lord of lords will honor after death First there shal be put vpon them royal apparel Reu. 3.4 5. euen long white roabes which are such as Iesus Christ the King of glory himselfe is described to weare Secondly they shal sit vpon Iesus Christ his owne horse Reu. 19.11 which is said in the booke of the Reuelation to be a white horse for Iohn there saith I saw heauen opened and behold a white horse and hee that sate vpon him was called faithfull and true To him therefore saith the Sonne of God that ouercommeth Reu. 3.21 will I grant to fit with me in my throne euen as I also ouercame and am set on my fathers throne Thirdly the Crowne royall shall bee set vpon their heads Be thou faithfull vnto death saith the Sonne of God and I will giue thee a crowne of life Reu. 2.10 And this is that most excellent glorie which the Saints haue in heauen shadowed out vnto vs by a kingly crowne which of all earthly things is most glorious Fourthly this glorie shal be furthered by the hands of the king of heauens most noble Princes Mat. 24.31 He shall send his Angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather his elect from the foure windes from one end of heauen to the other Fiftly and lastly the Saints shal be entred into the ful fruition of their inheritance with such ioy and triumph in the glorious assembly of all the Saints and holy Angels as the like was neuer seene in the world no not in Ierusalem that day when king Solomon sate downe in his father Dauids throne 1. King 1.40 But all that is nothing comparable to this ioy triumph and glorie of Gods Saints And it shal be as it were proclaimed before them Thus shall it bee done vnto them whom the King of glory will honour And this honour saith the Psalmist Psal 149.9 haue all his Saints There is no king on the earth can produce so ancient right to his Crown as the Christian effectually called can to these ioyes of heauen no maÌ„ on the earth can be acknowledged his fathers heire vpoÌ„ such sufficient warraÌ„t as the godly Christian No freeholder so surely infeoffed in his lands hauing so many confirmations of his right as hath the iustified Christian who vpoÌ„ his gift hath receiued the earnest the pledge the seale and the witnesse of the great king of glorie Wee doe reade in the first booke of the Kings that when the queene of Sheba heard of the fame of Salomon 1. King 10.11 concerning the name of the Lord she came from a very farre Countrey to proue him with hard questions and she communed with him of all that was in her heart and Salomon told her all her questions and there was not any thing hid from the king which he told her not And when shee had seene all Salomons wisedome and the house which he had built and the meat of his table and the siâ—ting of his seruants and the attendance of his ministers and their apparell and his Cup-bearers and his ascent by which he went vp into the house of the Lord. It is there said that there was no more spirit in her And she said to the king it was a true report that I
of a good life but vsed the meanes 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 enemy 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 come that they might doe the good to which they were appointed and finish the course for which they were sent For if a remouing or flying for thine ease in this respect may be effected by shifting thy place that may both be desired and vsed without sinne Isaak sent his sonne Iacob away from his brother Esau when Esau in his anger had sworne to slay him Dauid fled from the hand and iauelin of Saul and shifted for himselfe by remouing from place to place and conuayed all his fathers house into the land of Moab from Sauls reach The Lord Iesus oftentimes withdrew himselfe from the rage of the Iewes and he gaue his Disciples a rule for times of persecution saying When they persecute you in this city Mat. 10.23 flie into another And many honest men haue remooued their habitations to auoide euill neighbours and free themselues from beeing troubled by hem But where it is againe alledged that Christ himselfe prayed against the cup of death for the further satisfying of this point I answere further two wayes First that hee prayed without sinne against it seeing that in his supplication of teares and much feare hee submitted to his Fathers will alwayes Mat. 26.39.42 Neuerthelesse said he not as I will but as thou wilt And againe O my Father if this cup may not passe away from me except I drinke it thy will be done 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 as was said before that it was not meerly a bodily death though vnsubdued saue where himselfe subdued it that he trembled at but by the burthen of our sinnes which he was to vndergoe in which hee beheld the whole There he saw his Fathers countenance turned against him and there knew that he must beare his wrath because he bare our sinnes And besides Christ feared death beeing cloathed with our flesh to shew that he tooke our infirmities Isay 53.4,5,6 and bore our sorrowes and was perfect man And so death may in some case be feared and at sometime prayed against but euer vnder the correction of Gods will For the rod of death turned into a serpent made Moises feare Exod. 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 terrors whereof death is one and feare that which is the punishment of sinne and curse of sinners and decline that which is the ruine and destruction of humane nature and shrinke at that which hath made the strongest the wisest the greatest the richest to fall downe flat 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 The fourth obiection is that those who haue beene reputed to be of the better sort of men haue oftentimes miserable ends for some end their dayes despayring some rauing and blaspheming some strangely tormented It may therefore seeme that the day of death is the day of greatest woe and miserie To this I answer first of all generally that wee must not iudge of the estate of any man before God by outward things whether they be blessings or iudgements whether they fall in life or in death For as the Preacher saith Eccles 9.1.2 No man knoweth either loue or hatred by all things that are before them all things come alike to all and the same condition is to the iust and to the wicked and to the good and pure and to the polluted and to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath Againe the Preacher saith Eccles 8.14 There is a vanity that is done vpon the earth that there be iust men to whom it hapneth according to the work of the wicked and there be wicked men to whom it happeneth according to the worke of the righteous Secondly I answere to the particulars which be alleaged in this manner First for despaire it is true that not onely wicked and loose persons despaire in death but also godly and penitent sinners who often in their sicknesse testifie of themselues that beeing aliue and lying in their beds they feele themselues to bee as it were in hell and to apprehend the very pangs and torments of it and I doubt not for all this but that the child of God which is most deare vnto him may through the gulfe of desperation attaine to euerlasting life and happinesse Which appeares to bee so by Gods dealing in the matter of our saluation For all the workes of God are done in and by their contraries In the creation all things were made not of something but of nothing cleane contrary to the course of nature In the worke of redemption God giues life not by life but by death And if we consider aright of Christ vpon the Crosse wee shall see our paradise out of paradise in the midst of hell for out of his own cursed death hee brings vs a blessed life and eternall happinesse Likewise in our effectuall vocation when it pleaseth God to conuert and turne men vnto him he doth it by the meanes of the preaching of the Gospel which in reason should driue men from God for it is as contrary to the nature of man as fire to water and light to darknesse For the Apostle saith 1. Cor. 1.21.22.23.52 After that in the wisdome of God the world by wisedome knew not God it pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching to saue them that beleeue For the Iewes require a signe and the Greekes seeke after wisdome but we preach Christ crucified vnto the Iewes a stumbling block and vnto the Greekes foolishnesse And yet for all this though it be thus against the nature and disposition of man it preuailes with him at length and turnes him vnto his God it hee belong vnto him Furthermore when God will send his owne seruants vnto heauen he sends some of them a contrary way euen as it were by the gates of hell For our way to heauen is by compasse euen as the Lord led the Israelites out of Egypt into the Land
the world vnited together if it were possible into one and that which the Apostle calleth the glory which shall bee shewed hereafter Better it is with a kinde of silent astonishment to admire it then to take on vs eyther to discribe it or to comprehend it in particular Yet giue me leaue to set before you for the furtherance of your priuate meditations a little shadow or glympse thereof euen as it were but the backe-parts thereof which Moses was permitted to see betwixt which and it notwithstanding there is as much difference Exod. 33.23 as betweene one droppe of water and the maine Ocean sea A word fitly spoken sayth the Wiseman is like apples of gold and pictures of siluer Prou. 25.11 Wee reade in the booke of Deutronomy that when Moses went vp from the playnes of Moab vnto the mountaine of Nebo Deut. 34.1.2.3.4 to the toppe of Pisgah that is ouer against Iericho that there the Lord shewed him all the land of Gilead vnto Dan and all Nepthacy and all the land of Ephraim and Manasses and all the land of Iudah vnto the vtmost sea and the South and the playne of the land of Iericho the Citie of Palme trees vnto Zoar. And this is the land which I sware sayth the Lord vnto Abraham and vnto Isaacke and vnto Iacob saying I will giue vnto thy seed and I haue caused thee to see it with thine eyes And this was that earthly Canaan euen that promised land which is so much commended in the holy Scriptures Euen so if we will take a little paines to goe vp to the mountaine of the Lorde which the Prophet Esay speaketh of Esa 2.2 then there in in some small measure may we take a sight and view not of the glory of the earthly Canaan but of the glory of the heauenly Canaan and where the Deuill as it is sayd in the Gospell tooke Iesus vp into an exceeding high mountaine Mat. 4.8 and shewed him all the Kingdomes of the world and the glory of them Here vpon this mountaine of the Lord there is shewed vnto vs the Kingdome of God and the glory of the same All which the Lord will giue vs being the right owner thereof if we feare serue and worship him and wee neede not with Moses to clime vp to any earthly mountaine to see and behold the Kingdom of God and the glory therof Deut. 30.12.13.14 It is not in heauen sayth Moses in another case that thou shouldest say Who shall goe vp to heauen for vs and bring it vnto vs that wee may heare it and doe it neyther is it beyond the sea that thou shouldest say Who shall goe ouer the Sea for vs and bring it vnto vs that we may heare it and doe it But the word is verie nigh vnto thee in thy mouth and in thine heart and there we may behold this glory Search the Scriptures sayth our Sauiour Christ in the Gospell of Saint Iohn for in them yee thinke to haue eternall life and they are they which testifie of mee Iohn 5.39 And we may adde further also that they are they which testifie of this glorious estate of the children of God after death Ioseph gaue his brethren prouision for the way but the full sackes were kept in store vntill they came to their Fathers house God giues vs here a taste and assay of his goodnesse but the maine sea of his bounty and store is hoorded vp in the kingdom of heauen It is an vsuall thing in the Scripture to represent spirituall and heauenly things by bodily and earthly things that therein as in glasses we may behold heauenly thinges although obscurely which notwithstanding we cannot otherwise perceiue and see immediatly being too glorious and vehement obiects for our eyes Therefore as we can not behold the light of the Sunne in the Sunne but by reflection thereof in the Moone in the Starres in the water or other bright body or else by refraction thereof in the mistie ayre so the soule while it is in the body heareth seeth vnderstandeth imagineth with the body and in a bodily manner and therefore is not capable of such hearing seeing vnderstanding imagining as it shall bee when it is separate from the body hence it is that the Apostle sayth 1. Cor. 13.12 Wee now see through a glasse darkely Wee conceyue of heauen by a Citty whose walles pauements and mansions are of gold pearle Christall Emeralds as it is described in the booke of the Reuelation Reuel 21.10 which wee shall afterwards heare more at large And to beginne first of all with the comfortes and benefites of this life euen they although miserable doe argue that a far better estate is reserued for vs in heauen We see that God euen here vpon earth notwithstanding our manifold sinnes wherby we dayly offend him and which may iustly cause him as the Prophet speaketh Ier. 5.25 to withhold good things from vs yet he in great mercy vouchsafeth vs many pleasures and furnisheth vs not onely with matters of necessity who dayly sayeth the Psalmist Psal 68.19 loadeth vs with benefites but also of delights There is a whole Psalme spent onely in this matter which is the 104. Psalme Psal 104. a Psalme worthy to bee written in letters of gold and as Moses speaketh in Deuteronomy Deut. 11.20 vpon the dore postes of thine house and vpon the gates yea vpon the Table of thine heart as the Wise-man speaketh Pro. 7.3 for the admirable excellency thereof God causeth sayth Saint Ciprian the Sunne to rise and set in order the seasons to obey vs the elements to serue vs the windes to blow the spring to flow the corn to grow Ps 147.18 the fruites to shew the gardens and orchardes to fructifie the woods to rastle with leaues the meadowes to shine with varietie of grasse and flowers And Chrysostowe very excellently handling the same point with Cyprian further shewes that God hath in a sorte made the night more beautifull then the day by infinite varietie of bright and glittering starres and that hee hath beene more mindfull and mercifull then man would haue bin of himselfe who through the greedinesse of the World would haue ouertoyled himselfe but that God made the night of purpose for his repose and rest In a word hee sayes and that truly euen of these earthly benefites and commodities that although we were neuer so vertuous nay if wee should dye a thousand deathes wee should not be worthie of them And the very heathen Poet considering this could not choose but breake out into an admiration saying O how many things hath God created for mans delight heaped ioyes vpon him with a bountifull hand Nay the Prophet Dauid considering this could not chuse but breake out into this wonderful admiration Psal 144.3 Lord what is man that thou takest knowledge of him or the son of man that thou makest accoūt of him And al this hath