his mother Hagar But this howsoever it was a grief to Abraham yet it inflamed his affection the more towards Isaac For as when Eliah was taken away his spirit was doubled upon Elisha 2 Kings 2.9 10. so Jshmael being gone now Isaac is his Fathers only darling and now Abrahams affection is doubled upon him But when God sees this his deep-setled love he strikes him as it were with a thunder bolt from Heaven and commands him to kill this his onely Son A Commandement more cruell then the Lawes of Draco which were written in blood wherein every word stabs Abraham to the heart Take saith he thy Son thine onely Son even Isaac thine onely beloved Son Was it not enough O Lord saith Origen that thou dost command him to kill his Sonne but thou must adde for this further vexation his onely Sonne or was not this enough but thou must put him in mind how dearly he loves him and was not this yet enough but the more to kindle and inflame â—is affection thou must likewise name him The parting with a Sonne will move a Father very much His Sonne so great is a Fathers affection unto his Sonne when Jacob heard that his Sonne Joseph was dead he mourn'd and Iamented Gen. 37.34.35 he put on Sackcloth and would not be comforted yet Jacob ye know had many more Sonnes In Rama saith the Prophet there was a voice heard weeping mourning and great lamentation Jerem. 31.15 Rachell weeping for her Children and would not be comforted because they were not Yet Rachell was young and might have more Children 2 Sam. 18.33 when David heard that his Sonne Absolon was slain he wept and lamented very bitterly for him nay he wished that himself had died in his roome O Absolon Absolon my Sonne my Sonne I would to God saith he that I had died for thee my Sonne Absolon Yet Absolon was a graceless and rebellious Sonne one that rose up in Armes against his own Father and sought to deprive him both of life and Kingdom and yet because he was his Sonne David could not but love him so great is a Fathers affection unto his Sonne which no man indeed can sufficiently conceive but he that is a Father and hath a Sonne We read in the Ecclesiasticall Histories Sozomen lib. 7. cap. 24. That a certain Merchant in Theodosious time hearing that two of his Sonnes were taken prisoners at the day appointed that they should be executed he came in all haste to Thessalonica where his Sonnes were hearing the matter why his Sonnes were to suffer he first offered a great summe of money for his Sonnes Ransome and when that would not be taken he offered his own life and made sute that he himself might die in their roome They who had the charge of the Prisoners committed unto them made him this answer that his death could not possibly excuse them both because a set number were appointed to suffer but offered withall that if he would die for any one of them his death should be taken The Father presently accepted their offer and mourning and lamenting over both his Sonnes he would willingly have died for either of them but he knew not whether so great was this Fathers affection unto his Sonnes that though it were equally divided between them both yet he was willing to have saved either of their lives even with the losse of his own His onely Sonne But now if a Father have but one Sonne then all his care all his love all his affection is wholly set upon him and then it is the greatest grief in the world to lose him And therefore the Prophet Jeremy in the sixt of his Prophesie speaking of the great mourning which the Jewes should make when their most cruel enemies the Chaldeans and Assyrians should come to destroy them Jerem. 6.26 he knew not how to express the greatness of their sorrow but by the sorrow of a Father who having but one Sonne is to part with him make saith he lamentation and bitter mourning as for thine onely Son shewing thereby that there is no sorrow like the sorrow of a Father who having but one Son is to be deprived of him And therefore our Saviour John 3. to set forth Gods infinite love towards us John 3.16 he saith That God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son If a Father have many Sonnes Plutaâ—ch de multitud Amicorum his affection is divided among them all and therefore the lesse towards any one like a River which being cut into many Channels his current ye know must needes be the weaker If a Father have many Sons the losse of one cannot be so grievous unto him because he finds comfort in those which are left him but having but one if he loose him especially when he is old as Abraham was this must needes be an extraordiraly grief unto him And yet Abrahams case is far more grievous His beloved Sonne Many a Father though he have but one Son yet his grief is the lesse when he is taken away because while he lived he was a grief unto him But Abraham must loose not his Son onely and his onely Son but Isaac his onely joy and comfort Isaac his onely beloved Son And indeed there was never any Father that had the like cause to love his Sonne Parents do commonly love their Children either because they are their own flesh and blood or because they continue their name after them for so long as their Children and Posterity continue they seeme in a manner to live in them But besides these Abraham had many other causes and far more forcible to love his Sonne Abraham as we heard before out of the 15 of Gen. even longed as it were to have a Sonne after that God had promised him a Sonne many a year past before he had him In the mean time God to make him as it were amends for his long expectation had given him many comfortable promises concerning this Sonne as that his seed should be called in Isaac Gen. 17.19 that he would multiply his seed like the starres of Heaven that he would establish his Covenant with Isaac for an everlasting Covenant and with his seed after him And hath not Abraham then an extraordinary cause to love his Sonne But besides this Abraham was fully a hundred years old before he had him Sarah had been barren for a long time and if she had not been so yet by reason of her age she was past bearing so that God had wrought a double miracle in giving him a Sonne all which did more inflame his affection towards him and yet now all upon the suddain as if God had repented him of his former kindness he commands him to sacrifice this his onely Sonne what now might Abraham think with himself he might now suppose that God had but deluded him in all his promises and that God had given him many
for his enemy this is that love of God which passeth all understanding and can never be sufficiently exprest either by men or Angels And yet that we may in some measure conceive a little better of this infinite Love of God suppose with thy self that thou being a poor and a silly creature shouldst live under the Dominion of some mighty Emperour who had made this Law That whosoever should be found guilty of high Treason should be put to the most exquisite torments that could be imagined and that thou afterwards having received many favours from him shouldst give eare notwithstanding to some of his Nobility and willingly joyne with them in Treason against him And being both convicted of the same he should execute the utmost of his fury upon his Nobility but cast with himself how he might save thee And finding no other meanes for thy deliverance he should give his onely beloved son the sole Heir of his Kingdom to suffer the must shamefull and accursed death of all other for thy ransome who willingly taking the same upon him should never speak so much as one word in the behalf of his Nobility but onely plead and sue for thee that thou by his death mightst not onely be forgiven but likewise mightest be made Heir of his Fathers Kingdom What now wouldst thou think of his love unto thee How wouldst thou wonder at it How would thy soule be ravisht when thou thoughtest upon it Beloved such and farr greater is the love of God unto thee if thou canst apply it The Angels that were farre more glorious creatures made to attend upon God and to be in his presence yet God spared not them when they had but once and that onely in thought rebelled against him but as for thee though thou hadst often rebelled against him yet God hath given his onely begotten Sonne to dye in thy roome that thou mightest inherit the Kingdom of Heaven And this was that reall sacrifice which was here prefigured by Abrahams offâ—ing his onely Sonne And therefore when Abraham was come to the place appointed and had already stretcht forth his hand to have sacrificed his sonne God presently forbad him because onely the death of our blessed Saviour and not Isaacs death was a price sufficient for our redemption But â—et we are to remember that Abraham knew not but that his Sonne should die and therefore no doubt all the while that he was travelling to the Mountaine he was distracted between faith and affection between his love unto God and his love to his Sonne the one still pulling him backward and telling him what an unnaturall act he went about the other putting him forward because it was God that had commanded him to do it Doct. 4 Now whereas God here commands Abraham to go and sacrifice his Sonne in the land of Moriah which was as I told you distant from him three dayes journey We may learne from hence That while we are to performe any service to God no journey ought to seem tedious unto us For he that coÌ„mands Abraham to go so farre to sacrifice his Son he requires of us that we refuse no labour while we are about to perform that which God commands us But I will likewise passe this over and proceed to the last difficulty dif ∣ ficulty fifth The last difficulty in this commandement is in regard of the time when he must sacrifice his Sonne Take now thine onely Son namely now when he was old and his wife past Bearing and therefore hopelesse of having any other children now he must sacrifice his onely Sonne We read in Herodotus Herod Thalia that when Intaphernes one of the privy Councell of King Darius had offended the King the King commanded that both he and his whole family should be put to death but being moved with the complaints of his wife he both spared her and withall gave her the choice which of them all she would choose to deliver She having a while deliberated upon it resolved in the end to make choise for her brother and the King demanding why she sued not rather for her husband or children she made this answer that though her husband or children should dye yet she being young might marry again and so might have more but if her brother were put to death now that her parents were dead she was sure she should never have any other brother If God had given Abraham a child while himself and Sarah his wife had been young had then commanded him to have put him to death yet his losse had been the lesse in that he might have hoped to have had more children but they both being old when he was to sacrifice Isaac they could not hope for any other after him Fathers saith Philo when they come to be old of all their children they make most of their youngest Philo lib. de Abraham and he giveth this reason because being old they expect no more now nature being spent and decayed in them But Abraham as I told you before Joseph lib. 1. Antigen was a hundred yeare old and Sarah was ninety before Isaac was borne Isaac was now as JOSEPHUS writes five and twenty yeare old when he was to be offered and therefore they being struck so far in years might well imagine that as Isaac was their first so he was like to be their last that they should have between them So that Abrahams grief must needs be the greater in regard of the time when he was commanded to sacrifice his Sonne But to come more directly to the time it is said in the former verse that after these things God did prove Abraham and said unto him Take now thine onely Sonne namely after that God as we see in the former chapter had had notable experience of Abrahams obedience by calling out Jshmael his first begotten now he layes a new task upon him far more grievous then the former was Now saith he Take thine onely Son as though he should have said I have made heretofore some tryall of thine obedience in smaller matters I commanded thee to leave thy native Country and thou hast left it I bad thee to cast Jshmael out of dores with his mother and thou hast done it deest adbuc vnum yet there is one thing wanting now that thou hast done all this now thou must sacrifice thine onely Sonne We see then how many tryalls God layeth upon Abraham and how many difficulties are couched together in this one tryall to be deprived of his onely Sonne whom he so dearly loved himself to become his Sons executioner to put him to so violent and horrible a death to undertake so long a journey to perform the same and then to do it when himself wâ—â— so old and his wife past bearing The least of these tryalls was very hard to be overcome yet Abraham like a Gyant that rejoyceth to run his course rose up early in the morning went about it and having a
that we dedicate it wholly to Gods service But I will passe this over and come to the fourth difficultie difficulty fourth The fourth difficultie in this Commandement is in regard of the place where he must sacrifice his Sonne namely in the land of Moriah upon one of the mountaines which God would shew him Morti destinatum citò occidere misericordia genus est It is a kinde of mercie if a man be condemned to die to dispatch him quickly and the reason is because the punishment is much augmented through the expectation of it the expectation of any evil being as ill or worse then the evil it selfe But God here the more as it may seeme to torment Abraham Commands him not onely to Sacrifice his Son but injoynes him a long and tedious journey before he must do it God might have appointed him First to go with his Son into the Land of Moriah and being come thither then he might have told him the cause of his coming But first he commands him to sacrifice his Son and then sends him to the place where he must perform the same and what is the Reason but onely this as Origen saith ut dum ambulat dum iter agit per totam viam cogitationibus discerpatur that all the while he is travelling with his Son he might ruminate upon that which he went about and be confounded in a manner with the remembrance of it Now concerning this place where Abraham was appointed to sacrifice his Sonne some of the Jewes report that Cain and Abel had offered their offrings upon the same Mountain St. Jerome writes that he had heard it for certain of some ancient Jewes that Isaac was offered in the very same place where afterwards our Saviour Christ was crucified St. Augustine addes that he had heard it reported that Christ was crucified in the very same place where Adam had been buried and therefore that it was called Calvaria locus the place of a dead mans skull quia caput humani generis ibi dicitur esse sepultum because the head of mankind lieth there buried The Saracens who will needes borrow their name from Sarah though they came of Hagar to make it more profitable that they sprang from Isaac they faine that the land of Moriah is a part of their Country and therefore when any stranger comes to their City of Mecha to see Mahomets Sepulcher hard by the City they do shew him the Mountain where on Abraham as they say did sacrifice his Sonne But the truth is that the Land of Moriah where Isaac was to be offered was the same which was afterward called Jerusalem as we may plainly gather out of the second of the Chronicles 2 Chron. 3. the third Chapter for there it is said in the first verse that Salomon built the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem in Mount Moriah So that the place where Isaac was to be offered was either the same or very near to the place where our Saviour was afterwards to be crucified And indeed it was not unfit that Isaac should be offred where our Saviour was to suffer because Isaac was a type and figure of our Saviour So saith St. Augustine Abraham quando filium suum obtulit typum habuit Dei Patris Isaac typum gessit Domini Salvatoris Abraham when he offered his Sonne represented God the Father Isaac when he was offered represented our Saviour the Son of God For many things which wore shadowed forth in Isaac were afterwards verefied in our Saviour Christ As the promises of God unto Abraham concerning his Son were often renewed and his birth foretold so were the promises and the birth of the Messias As Isaacs was named before he was borne so was also Christ As Isaacs Birth was strange and miraculous in regard that he was borne of Sarah that was barren so was also Christs being borne of a virgin As Isaac was Abrahams onely Son whom he so dearly loved so Christ was the onely begotten Son of God in whom alone he was wel pleased As Isaac was causeless to be put to death so was Christ being innocent As Isaac bore the wood wherewith he was to be sacrificed so Christ bore the Tree whereon he was to be crucified In a word as Isaac by yielding himself to be offred did testifie his obedience unto his Fathe and his Father his wonderful love unto God so Christ by submitting himself to the death declared his wonderfull obedience unto God and God his unspeakable love towards us And indeed beloved this is the most excellent use that can possibly be made of this whole History when we hear how Abraham did offer his Son we stand amazed at it we wonder how it was possible for a Father to do it And may we not much more admire the infinite love of God unto us in giving his onely begotten Son to be crucified for us When we hear how Isaac yielded himself to be bound and offered we cannot but wonder at his strange obedience and may we not much more wonder at the infinite obedience of our blessed Saviour who being equall with God yet humbled himself and became obedient â—ven to the death of the Crosse Abraham when he offered his Sonne unto God he did but restore unto God that which God had given him he might wel the rather be moved thereunto because God had been alwaies so gracious to him But when God gave his Son to be offered for us we were so far from having deserved any thing at his hands that we were his open and profest enemies Isaac when he yielded himself to be offered yet he yielded himself into his Fathers hands who was to present him for a sweet savour unto the Lord and so to put him to a kind of death which of all other might seene the most glorious But Christ when he yielded himself to be offered he yielded himself into the hands of his persecutors who he knew would not onely put him to the most ignominious death but for his further vexation even deride him in his torments When Abraham was to sacrifice his onely Sonne God was so moved with compassion and pitty that instead of his Sonne he provided a Ramme Indeed it was fitter that a Ram should dye if the death of a Ramme might ransome a Sonne But when Christ was to be offered the case was altered the Ramme was spared and the Sonne was sacrificed Nay the Sonne was therefore sacrificed that the Ram might be spared Read over all the Histories of Heathen Authours examine their writings search out all their antiquities and see if there were ever the like example of love For a man to die for his friend it is no small matter and but few have done it but if one should offer to dye for a stranger we would wonder at it O but for a man to dye for his enemy nay the Sonne of God to come down from Heaven even from his Fathers bosome to dye a most accursed death
like a sweet perfume is pleasing to every man Lucri bonus est odor exâ—re qualibet and though many are much affected with pleasure and delight yet the hâ—ost are most affected with gaine and profit What makes the Husbandman to toile all his life-time but hope of gaine What makes the Merchant to venture his life and his whole Estate but hope of gainâ— This is that which the most so affect that they can never find any arietie in it but the more they have the more they desire and the greater the gaine the more it affects them But here you see is the gaining of the whole World a whole world of gaine that if a man will part with his soul for any thing he can hardly part with it upon a better bargaine If it were but for the gaining of one Kingdom in the world what would a man hazard and venture for it Judges 9.5 Rather then Abimilech will not raign over Israel he will put seventy of his Brethren to death together Rather then Herod will stand in fear of losing his Kingdom Mat. 2.16 Macrob. Satur lib. 2. cap. 4.2 Sam. 15.10 thousands of innocents shall lose their lives though his own son be one of them Rather then Absalon will not raigne he will rise up in Armes against his own Father and seek to deprive him of life and Kingdom And rather then Nero shall not raigne his own Mother will be content to be murdered by him Ocâ—idat modò imperet Let him kill me saith his Mother so he may get the Empire A Kingdom can hardly be valued at too high a rate For if we consider the state of a King there is scarce any thing that may seem to make a man happy that can be wanting unto him His word for the most part is a sufficient warrant for the effecting of his pleasure and his intreatie a most forcible kind of command for the obtaining of his desire so that if he would have any thing he may have what he likes and no man deny him if he would do any thing he may do what he please and no man oppose him If therefore a King be so mighty how mighty should the Monarch of the World be If he hath such command that hath but a Kingdom What command should he have that should have the whole World under his Dominion If King Assnerus his Dominions were so large that he raigned over an hundred and seven Provinces Hester 1.1 if his magnificence and bounty were such that he made a feast royall for all his Princes and Servants which continued for an hundred and fourescore daies If King Salomons yearely revenues were so great that he had six hundred threescore and six talents of Gold Ester 1.4 1 Kings 10.14 and Silver as plentifull as stones in the street If King Xerxes his power was so unresistable that Rivers and Mountaines could not stand before him 2 Chro. 1.15 but he was able to turn and overturne them at his pleasure then what might not he do that were Monarch of the World and had all Kingdoms and Nations to do him service A King howsoever his power be great yet he hath his equals in other Countries and though his command reach very far yet it reacheth no farther then his own Dominions But he that were Monarch of the whole World command where he would and he should be obeyed for all the Princes of the earth should be his Subjects A King though he may have whatsoever his Kingdom affords yet every Kingdom affords not every thing and those things do commonly most affect us which other Countries do yield and are not to-be had in our own But he that were Monarch of the whole World whatsoever any Kingdom in the World could afford he should be sure to have it and happy were he that should first present it A King though he may greatly advance his favorites yet he hath but one Kingdom for himself and them and if with Herod he should promise unto one the half of his Kingdom Mark 6.23 and after promise as much to another were he taken at his word he might leave himself nothing But he that were Monarch of the whole World he should have severall Kingdoms for his severall favorites ' and yet leave himself more when he had inriched them all then ever Alexander had after all his conquests It is said of Cyrus that to perswade the Lacedemonians to follow him in the warres he made them this promise They saith Cyrus Plutarch in Reg. Apophtheg that will be my followers if they be Footmen I will give them Horses if they be Horse men I wil give them Chariots if they have houses and tennements of their own I will give them Villages and if they have Villages I will make them Lords of Townes and Cities This was a great advancement of his followers But he that were Monarch of the whole World where King Cyrus left there might he begin They who were his favourites and Lords of Towns he might make them Princes and give them Kingdoms if they were Kings he might make them Emperours and if this were not enough he might double their Dominions For a Kingdom in comparison of the whole World is no more then a town in comparison of a Kingdom then what would not a man do for so great a gaine And therefore the Devill when he tempted our Saviour in the fourth of Matthew knowing that there is not any more forcible argument to perswade a man to any thing then the gaining of the World like a cunning Orator he reserved this temptation for the last of all and when he had shewed him all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them and had given him his promise Mat. 4.9 That he would give him all if he would fall down and worship him and saw that all this would not prevaile with him it was high time for him to be gon he thought it to no purpose to tempt him any longer and so presently left him For he that will not stoop to so faire a lure he that will not be moved with so great a gain he will be moved with nothing But now howsoever this gain be great yet withall it hath divers inconveniences which do lessen and diminish the value of it And therefore as he that would purchase a house he will not only know what commodities it hath but he will likewise be informed of the inconveniences of it So having heard of the profits and pleasures and preferments of the world we are further to enquire of the discommodities of it And they especially are these three First That whatsoever the world can afford us yet it is but short and of small continuance For were a man Monarch of the whole World and had he all that his heart could desire yet when he dieth he must leave all that he hath and all that he hath can neither deferre the comming of death nor
men are living there is great difference among thent some are of high place some of mean condition some wise some simple some rich some poore some of one complextion some of another but being laid in their graves and consumed to ashes Agamemnon cannot be known from Thersites the rich glutton in the Gospel cannot be known from Lazarus but all are so like that we can see no difference Respice sepulchra saith St. Augustine et discerne si potes Jrum a Rege fortem a debili pulorum a deformi Look into mens Sepulchers and distinguish if thou canst between the King and the beggar the strong and the weak the faire and the deformed Therefore we read of Diogenes the Philosopher that when Alexander the Great as he was passing by saw him looking very wisly into Tombs and Sepulchres and demanded of him what he was looking for Diogenes answered That he was looking for the bones of King Philip Alexanders Father who had been the terrour of all Greece and that he could not distinguish them from other mens bones nor finde any difference To note unto Alexander that even he notwithstanding all his pomp and bravery after all his conquests must in the end be laid in the dust and then there would be no difference between him and others We see then briefly how man is like the grasse and the flowers of the field and wherein this resemblance between them consists That they are like for their beginning like for their continuance and like for their end But that which the Prophet David here specially intends is the second of these that they are like for their short continuance For he saith That the dayes of man are as grasse not reckoning our life-time by years or by moneths but only by dayes to signifie how soon our life passes even as the grasse and the flower which doth not continue from one year to another but as it comes up soon so it soon withers And he saith That man slourisheth as the flower of the field Sient slos agri non horti As the flower of the field not as the flower of the garden for garden-flowers ye know are more carefully lookt to the Gardiner keeps them standing as long as he can because they make a faire shew and are a grace to the gardens but for field-flowers they are subject ye know to many more dangers they lie open to passengers that pull them up and to the beasts that either crop them or tread them under foot and if they escape all dangers yet the time they flourish is very short they come up later then the grasse and yet stand no longer for when the grasse is cut down they are cut down together Here then in that we are resembled to grasse and the flowers of the field we may observe from hence two things The certainty of our death and the shortnesse of our life First The certainty of our death That we shall as certainly die as we are sure that the grasse and flowers of the field shall fade and wither Death indeed is uncertain in some respects as in respect of the time in respect of the place and in respect of the mâ—â—â—ner thereof because we do not know either when or where or how we shall die Death is uncertain in regard of the time for we do not know when death will arrest us whether by day or by night whether in the morning at noon or in the evering whether at the cock-crowing or in the dawning For when we lie down we do not know whether we shall rise again and when we are risen we do not know whether we shall lie down again Death is uncertain in regard of the place because we do not know where death will arrest us whether when we are in company or when we are alone whether in the Field or in the Town whether abroad or at home for when we go forth we do not know whether we shall return again and when we are returned we do not know whether we shall go forth again And death is uncertain in regard of the manner because we do not know how death will arrest us whether we shall die a naturall or a violent death whether a painfull or an easie death whether a lingring or a sudden death In these respects death is uncertain yet nothing again more certain then death For though we know not as I said either where or when or how we shall die yet we know for certain that either here or else-where either sooner or later either by one means or other we are sure to die Therefore David propounds this question What man is he that lives and shall not see death Psal 89.48 because death is common to all men and no man by his greatnesse strength or wisdome or any other means can avoid the same And this the Heathen knew very well and therefore though they worshipt the Sunne the Moon and all the Host of heaven though they offered sacrifice to stocks to stones to men to divels and to all manner of creatures whom they worshipt as Gods yet among all their sacrifices there was never any that offeted sacrifice to death as knowing that death will never be appeased and therefore that their sacrifices should have been to no purpose Contra omnia aliquid inveniri potest contra mortem nihil One remedy or other may be found against every thing but no remedy can possibly be found against death Galen Hipocrates and other skilfull Physicians have found out many remedies against the most diseases and have prescribed many rules how to preserve our health and to keep us from sicknesse but how to preserve and keep us from death there was never any that could invent any remedy And though Paracelsus had such considence in his knowledge that he professed himselfe able to keep a man by physick in so perfect a temperature that he should never die of any disease whatfoever yet he could not prescribe any physick against death For though we diet our bodies and use all preservatives to keep us from sioknesse and though we live all our life time without any disease yet either casnality or age will bring us to our graves Therefore the grave is called by Job Job 30.23 the house appointed for all the living I know saith Job that thou Wilt bring me to death and to the house appointed for all the living it is appointed and therefore cannot be avoided it is appointed for all the living and therefore none are exempted but all that live upon the face of the earth are subject unto it In severall Kingdoms there are severall Lawes whereunto they are not bound in other Kingdoms Now in the whole world there are three Kingdoms where the Laws concerning death are divers In heaven they have a Law that they shall live for ever and never die Mat. 19.17 Therefore heaven is called by the name of life If saith our Saviour thou wilt enter into life
that is into heaven keep the Commandements And heaven is called Psal 25. the land of the living I should saith David have utterly fainted but that I believe verily to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living that is in heaven for there they live eternally and never die In hell there is a quite contrary law that they die eternally Therefore it is said of the wicked Psal 49. They lie in hell like sheep and death gnawes upon them because there they suffer the second death which is everlasting And here upon earth there is a third law between them both Heb. 9.27 That every one living shall once suffer death Therefore saith the Apostle Heb. 9. It is appointed unto all men that they shall once dye not live here for ever as they do in heaven nor die for ever as they do in hell but once they must die and this is a law which all that live on the face of the earth are subject unto God hath given great priviledges to many of his servants and hath miraculously preserved them from many dangers Exed 34.28 1 King 19.8 Dan. 3.25 Mat. 14.29 Josh 10.12.13 some he hath preserved without any nourishment for many weeks together as Moses and Elius some he hath preserved in the midst of fire as the three children in the furnace some he hath inabled to walk upon the waters as Peter did some he hath inabled to stay the course of the Sun as Joshuah did but to stay and hinder the course of death and to free men from the same this is a priviledge which God never gave to any of his servants Therefore even they that lived before the deluge though some of them lived seven hundred years some eight hundred some nine hundred years and upwards yet they died in the end nature delaying more and more in them till it were quite spent as a candle being lighted wastes by little and little till it quite goes out Seeing then it is certain that we shall die this may therefore teach us to fit and prepare our selves against the coming of death by frequent meditation and remembrance thereof The oftner a man bethinks him of death the better he will be prepared for it as a man that foresees and expects a storm he will provide himself the better against it come And herein the Heathen themselves may be patterns unto us who though they knew not God nor the punishment of sin in the world to come yet knowing they should die they used many strange and memorable devises to put them in mind of their mortality Ortelius writes of a Countrey in the World where the people do use the bones of dead men in stead of their coin which being continually before their eyes they cannot but continually remember their ends Plutarch writes of Ptolomie the King of Egypt That alwayes when he made any sumptuous feast among the rest of his dishes the skull and bones of a dead man were brought in a platter and set before him and one was appointed to say thus unto him Plutarch in Conviv Sept. Sapientum Behold O King and consider with thy selfe this president of death that he whose skull and bones thou now seest was once like thy selfe and the time will come when thou shalt be like unto him and thy skull and bones shall be brought hereafter to the Kings table as now his are to thint Isodore writes That it was a custome in Constantinople that alwayes at the time of the Emperours Coronation among other Solemnities this was one A free Mason presented the Emperour with divers sorts of marble and asked him of which of them he should make his Tomb that so he might remember even then when he was in the height of his glory that he was but mortall Dion writes of Severus a Roman Emperour That while he lived he caused his Hearse to be made and was often wont to go in into it adding these words Thou O Herse as small as thou art must contain him whom now the whole world is searce able to contain If these who were Heathen were so mindfull of their ends what should we that are Christians We know that God hath made the end of our life the manner of our death and the place thereof to be unknown and uncertain that we might alwayes have it in expectation So saith Saint Augustine Latet ultimus dies ut observentur omnes dies Augustine Hom. 13. The last day of our lives is hidden from us that that day might be expected all the dayes of our lives And indeed the reason why we are not prepared for the comming of death is because we seldom or never think of dying for who of us almost have any thought thereof till either sicknesse or age the two Serjeants of death do come to arrest us or if at any other time we bethink us thereof it is only then when we hear the Bell to ring out for any or when we see some of our neighbours to lie upon their death-bed and past recovery Then it may be we think of our ends and that it is high time for us to prepare our selves for death that we may be in a readinesse against God shall call us But these meditations are but for a fit and they presently vanish I have seen somtimes when a Fowler coming to a Tree where there were store of birds and hath killed any one of them all the rest have immediately flown away but presently after forgetting the danger wherein they were before they have all of them returned to the same Tree And do not we resemble these silly birds when death comes to our houses and takes away any one of us we are all amazed and we presently think that the next course may be ours and therefore that it behooves us to reform our lives but presently after when the remembrance of death is out of our minds we return again to our former courses But he that will be provided against the coming of death must alwayes have death in his remembrance Tota vita sapientis debet esse meditatio mortis The whole life saith Gregory of a wise man ought to be a meditation of death That as the birth of sin was the death of man so the meditation of death may be the death of sin And as David here by comparing us to grasse and the flowers of the field implyeth thereby the certainty of our death that we shall as certainly die as we are sure that these shall fade and wither So he implyeth hereby the shortnesse of our life that we shall not live long but shall die soon as the grasse and flowers do fade and decay in a short time Theodorus Gaza tels us of a father that had twelve sons and each of those brethren had thirty children yet every one of them expired soon The father expired within the compasse of a year never a one of his sons but expired in a moneth and
presence of God and desiring with Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ and therefore God in mercy hath shortned our dayes that we may the sooner come into his heavenly Kingdom and injoy his presence And lastly God hath shortned our dayes that we may be the lesse carefull for the things of this life considering we shall injoy them so short a time If a man be to travell into a farre Country he will be the more carefull to provide the more and to proportion his provision to the length of his journey but if his journey be short he will provide the lesse and the nearer he comes to his journies end the lesse carefull he is what provision he hath God knowes if we were to live long in this World we would be the more carefull for the things of this life and would think we could never provide enough and therefore he hath made our life to be short that we might be the lesse carefull to provide for it To draw then to a conclusion of all we have briefly heard why we are here resembled to the grasse and flowers of the field and from thence both of the certainty of our death and the shortness of our life and the reasons why God hath made our life so short all which may serve to teach us two lessons 1. Vse 1 Not to make account that we shall live long as many of us do but that we shall soon die That we shall die we all know but the most of us deceive our selves in this that we put off the day of our death stil further from us vvhen we are young we think we shal live til we come to be old when we come to be old we think we may live longer and so we put off the time of our death still further and further And hence it is that we are so carefull for the things of this life as if this World were the place where we should live for ever We read of Alexander that to shew his affection to a certain Philosopher he willed him to aske what he would of him and he would give it him The Philosopher desired him to give him the fee-simple of his life that he might be free from death O saith Alexander if I could do this I would do it for my self why then it seemes saith the Philosopher that you are mortall True saith Alexander Indeed saith the Philosopher that you are mortall I do not doubt yet I greatly doubt whether you think that you are mortall and shall ever die because you live so as if you thought you were immortall and should never die The like may be said to many of us for though we cannot deny but must needes acknowledge that we shall surely die yet man live so they seek so greedily after worldly goods they so pamper their bodies and are so sumptuons in their buildings as if they were immortall and should never die The Patriarcks though they lived so many years yet they lived in Tents and in poor Cabins but we that live not the half of their dayes do build our houses so faire and so durable as if we meant here to set up our rest and that we should never depart from hence which argues that though we know we shall die Theatr. Histor ex Guid. yet we think we shall live a long time whereas we should daily look to die Like Messodanus a holy old man who being invited by his friend to dinner for the morrow after Why saith he do you invite me to morrow to dinner I have not looked to live till to morrow this many a year For we no sooner begin to live but we begin to die and look how many dayes of our life are past so much of our life is already cut off and the lesse is remaining as the more of an Houre-glasse is already run out the lesse it hath to runne And secondly seeing we shall so soone die it may therefore teach us so to live as that death when it comes may be welcome and not fearfull unto us and that is by preparing our selves against the coming of death by a godly life For this is the comfort which a man can find when he lieth on his Death-bed that he shall enter into a better life when this life is ended and this comfort he cannot have at his death unless he have lived a godly life Death to the wicked may well be fearfull because as it is in it own nature it is the wages of sinne and imposed as a curse and punishment upon man for his transgression but by virtue of Christs death to the godly it is otherwise ceasing to be a curse unto them nay of a curse it is made a blessing even a passage out of a miserable life into the Kingdom of Heaven It was Sampsons Riddle Judg. 14.14 out of the eater came meat and out of the strong came sweetness Which was meant of the honie which was found in the Lyon which Sampson had slain for so the Philistins ye know expounded it what is sweeter say they then hony and what is stronger then a Lyon and it may not unfitly be applyed to death for what is stronger then death that subdues the strongest yet after that Christ had vanquisht death as he did for the godly out of the strong came sweetness for vvhat can be more svveet or pleasant unto us then the passage out of a miserable life into eternall happiness And such is death to the godly and therefore if we would find this comfort at the time of our death we must prepare our selves against the coming thereof by a godly Life FINIS The Sixth SERMON JAMES 4.7 Resist the Devill and he will flie from you IN the beginning of this verse we are exhorted to submit our selves unto God and the reason thereof is given by the Apostle in the words immediately going before because God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble Now because we cannot submit our selves unto God unless we be carefull to resist the Devill who labours by all meanes to withdraw us from godliness therefore the Apostle addes in these words which I have read unto you Resist the Devill and he will flie from you Division The words consist of these two parts An exhortation to resist the Devill and a motive or reason because he will flie from us if we resist him For as God is overcome by our yielding unto him and therefore we must submit our selves unto God so on the contrary we must resist the Devill because he is overcome and will flie away from us if we resist him In the exhortatiō we may observe two things First the person vvhom vve must resist Secondly The manner how vve must resist him And first for the person it is the Devill vvhose name vvhich is here given him doth signifie an accuser And indeed his name is not given him for nought but as Abigail said of Nabal Nabal is his
where the night continues divers monthes together and the Sun doth not shew himselfe all the while that the Inhabitants at the end of so long a night at such a time as the Sun is wont to appear and bring the day among them they get up to the top of their highest mountains as striving to have the first view of the Sun which as soon as they see they crie out for joy Behold the Sun the Sun appears and they put on their best apparell and feast one another So welcome is the light of the Sun among them when they have wanted it long For darknesse ye know is most uncomfortable therefore though God sent darknesse as a plague among the Egyptians Exod. 10.22.23 yet his people had light in all their dwellings And therefore as hell is shadowed forth in the Scripture by the name of darknesse to expresse the uncomfortablenesse and horrour of it Mat. 22.13 Colos 1.12 so heaven is illustrated by the name of light to expresse the great comfort we shall finde in it yet they which are in darknesse and have not the light of the Sun among them may have fire and candle and other helps to give them light and to take away darknesse but they who are blind are always in the dark and have no help against it So uncomfortable a thing it is to a man to want his sight In which regard whereas it is said of Abraham Gen. 25.8 That he gave up the Ghost and died a good old age and old man and full of years and was gathered unto his people It is only said of Isaac Gen. 35.29 That Isaac gave up the Ghost and died and was gathered unto his people being old and full of dayes It is not said of him as it is said of Abraham That he died in a good old age but this clause is omitted in the death of Isaac as Divines observe and they give this reason Because Isaac's old age by reason of his blindnesse could not be so good and comfortable unto him For they want many comforts which others have who do want their sight Therefore when our Saviour askt the blind man Luke 18 Luke 18.41 What he would have him to do for him he presently answered Lord that I may receive my sight as being more desirous to have his sight then any thing besides It is a grievous thing for a man to want his smelling or tasting or any of his sences or his hands or feet or any of his limbs but far more grievous to want his eyes because the eye is the guide of the whole body and directs every part and member of it without which the tongue knows not before whom it speaks the hand knows not what it is it takes the foot knows not whither it goes but the tongue will erre the hand will mistake and the foot will stumble vvhere there is not an eye to vvatch over all and to preserve them from danger Therefore God hath placed the eyes in the head vvhere they may look to the whole body because every part hath use of the sight to guid and direct it When therefore vve read That Christ cured the blind and gave them their sight vve may vvell imagine that it vvas a vvonderfull benefit that he did for them And therefore it â—â—â—fused dravv us to bethink our selves vvhat a blessing it is that God hath given us our sight vvhereby vve take comfort in the sight of the creatures in the sight of our parents and children and friends and vvhereby vve are freed from so many dangers Yet this is a blessing vvhich fevv do ever think of but find the benefit and comfort of it Carendo magis quam fruendo rather vvhen vve vvant then vvhen vve have it If vve vvanted our sight vvhat a benefit should vve lose vvhat a losse should vve have and vvhat vvould vve not give that vve might recover it And therefore vvhen vve hear hovv Christ cured the blind or vvhen vve see any that vvant their sight it should put us in mind vvhat a blessing it is that vve can see and therefore should be thankfull to God for it yet though it be grievous to vvant the sight and a great blessing to have the same yet it is far more grievous vvhen the mind is darkened and vvants the eyes of knovvledge and understanding For that vvhich the eye is to the body the same is the understanding unto the soule and vvhat blindnesse is to the one the same is ignorance to the other And therefore vvhen Christ did cure them outvvardly so vve may vvell think that he cured them invvardly as he took avvay their blindnesse and gave them their seeing so he took avvay their ignorance and enlightned them vvith knovvledge and understanding And this vvas a greater cure then the other Men commonly think that a man that is blind is far more miserable then he that is ignorant and that he on the contrary is in better condition that hath a sound and comely body then he whose mind is adorned and beautified with grace and virtue But as the soule is more excellent then the body so knowledge and understanding is more excellent then the sight because the sight doth onely give light to the body understanding to the soule They who want the eyes of their body yet they know they want them and therefore will carefully seek for help if they may be cured and if they cannot be cured yet they have this help that they may have one to lead and guide them But they who want the eyes of their mind do not know their blindnesse and therefore do not seek to have any help but think themselves well though they live in ignorance vvhereby the Devill leads them blind-fold to hell before they be aware 2 King 6.18.19 As the Army of the Syrians being struck with blindnesse were led into Samaria amongst the midst of their enemies and â—â—ew not where they were till they were come thither we may see then by that which I have spoken that it is a grievous thing to want the outward sight but far more grievous when the mind is darkened And therefore as the blind here came unto Christ to be cured of their blindness so we must likewise come unto him to remove our spiritual blindnesse from us because he is that day-spring from on high as Zacharie said that came to visit us to give light unto them that sit in darknesse and in the shadow of death Luke 1.78 and to guide our feete in the way of peace And thus much concerning the first cure which is here mentioned that the blind received their sight And so I come to the next that the lame walked As it is a great blessing to have the use of our eyes and to be able to see so it is a great blessing to have the use of our feete and to be able to go For God in framing the body of man hath so disposed of every
the Sonne of God that thou so little regardest him He loved us so dearly that he thought not his life too dear for us but suffered a most shamefull and accursed death to free us from the curse which was due unto us yet we for requitall of this his love though love be requited with nothing but love as fire is kindled with nothing but fire do so little regard him that we preferre our friends our pleasures our wealth and riches and for the most part whatsoever we love before him How farre are such from being able to say truly as the Church here doth I sought him whom my soule loves Her love unto Christ was not verbal and outward from the rine of the lipps but real and inward from the root of the heart from her soule and spirit her soule loved him she loved him as the Church Esay 26. desired and sought him with my soule have I desired thee in the night Esay 26.9 yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early She loved him as the blessed virgin magnified him My soule doth magnifie the Lord Luke 1.46.47 and my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour She loved him as the Prophet David praysed him Prayse the Lord O my soule and all that is within me prayse his holy name Psal 103.1 Outward love from the lips may be false and counterfeâ— but inward love from the soule is alwayes unfained And such a love it is which Christ doth require and no other that we love him with the heart and with the soule with all the heart and with all the soule So precious doth he account our love that he will not have so much as the least grain of it lost but will have it all He hath millions of Angels that are inflamed with his love who love him far better then we do or can and our love unto Christ is no benefit to him he reapes no prophet nor advantage by it only because he loves us he desires again to be beloved of us and that unfainedly from our very soules He will not have the soule and love divided he likes not that soule that is without love nor that love which comes not from the soule If love come unto him and not from the soule before he admit it he will first aske whence it came as Micha asked the Levite before he received him And if the soule come unto him without love he will forbid it to come as Joseph forbad his Brethren Judges 17.9 Gen. 43. to come unto him without their Brother Benjamin And therefore if we will come unto Christ Gen. 43.3 we must come with love with love from our soules as the Church here doth I sought him whom my soule loves To draw then to a conclusion that we may be the more carefull to seek Christ let us meditate on those things which may kindle and inflame our love towards him by considering how he desires our love and deserves the same If a man have shewed us any extraordinary kindness and hath deserved our love we could not but condemn our selves of unthankfulness if we did not love him Nay though he have not deserved our love by any kindness he hath shewed us yet if we do but heare that he is desirous of our love because this is an argument that he loves us we will love him again But Christ doth both desire our love and deserve the same He desires our love not for his own but for our good that he might have occasion to requite our love And therefore he useth most forcible Reasons to procure our love Sometimes intreating us and making it his earnest suit that we would love him 2 Cor. 5.20 We saith the Apostle are Embassadors for Christ as God beseeching you by us we pray you in Christs stead but for what to be reconciled unto God Here is the strongest sute that ever was made God and man were fallen out man is the party that hath offended and God is the party that sues to be reconciled man that should intreat God that he would forgive him is intreated by God that he would be content to be forgiven Thus he sues for our love that should sue for his Nay he useth not onely intreaty to procure our love but likewise the promise of infinit rewards The eye saith the Apostle hath not seen the eare hath not heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man what God hath prepared but for whom for them that love him Was it ever heard of since the World began that any man ever came to a poor begger and offring him meat that was ready to starve and to perish for hunger should intreat him to eat it and not onely so but witâ—al should promise to reward him for it But God though it be for our good that we love him for otherwise we cannot but everlastingly perish yet he intreats us that we would love him and not onely so but promiseth withall to reward our love with the Kingdom of Heaven So earnestly doth he desire our love And as he desires so he deserves our love If we should give a man but his diet or houseroome we would think we deserved he should loâ—e us for it How then doth he deserve our love that gives us every thing The very bread which we eat nay the breath which we breath we have it from him in whom we live and move and have our being and cannot live a minute without his blessing The least blessing he gives us deserves our love and we have nothing but our love to give him for all that he gives us So abundantly doth he deserve our love Great reason have we then to require his love in some measure by loving him unseignedly as the Church here doth I sought him whom my soule loves FINIS The Twelveth SERMON PROVERBS 30.8 Give me neither poverty nor riches THese words are part of Agurs Prayer and his Prayer in the whole verse consists of two parts a deprecation of evil and a Petition of good The evil which he deprecates or prayes against is of two sorts either such as is simply evil in it own nature as vanity and lying against which he prayes in the beginning of this verse Remove farre from me vanity and lies Or such as are not simplie evill in their own nature but yet may be occasions of evil as riches and poverty against which he prayes in the next words Give me neither poverty nor riches The good which he prayes for is a competent Estate in the end of this verse a mediocrity between the two extreams of want and superfluity Feed me with food convenient for me And these are the parts of the whole verse Here then he prayes that God would give him neither poverty nor riches neither over little nor over much that he may neither live in want nor yet in abundance not because these in themselves are evil but because they may be and
they that suffer persecution for righteousnesse sake it is not their suffering but their suffering for righteousnesse that makes them blessed Therefore the Apostles did not simply rejoyce in their sufferings Acts 5.41 but that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christs sake This was that which made Saint Paul so willing to suffer that being fore-told by Agabus Acts 21. That at Jerusalem he should be in bonds and be delivered into the hands of the Gentiles and being therefore intreated by the brethren that Acts 21.13 he would not go to Jerusalem What mean ye saith he to weep and to break my heart for I am ready not onely to be bound but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus And this was that which here imboldened Steven because it was for the Testimony of Christ that he suffered Martyrdome And so leaving the first point the person that was martyr'd I come to the second the kind of his Martyrdome and that was stoning They stoned Steven Our Saviour ye know fore-told his Disciples of the great persecution which they were to suffer Luke 9.23 Mat. 10.22 Mat. 10.16 Mat. 10.17 Mat. 23.34 That if any man would be his Disciple he must take up his Crosse every day and follow him that they should be hated of all men for his names sake that he sent them as sheep among wolves that they would be brought before the Councels and be scourged in their Synagogues that some of them should be slaine some stoned and some crucified All which not long after began to be accomplished To begin with the Apostles whom Christ vouchsafes the name of his friends John 15.15 John 15.7 Revel 1.9 John 21.17 Saint John the Disciple that Christ loved was condemned to banishment by the Emperor Domitian was banished into the Isle of Pathmos where he wrote the Book of the Revelation Saint Peter the Disciple that loved Christ was condemned by Nero to be crucified and was hanged on the Crosse as Saint Jerome writes with his head down-wards affirming himselfe unworthy to be crucified in the same manner that his Lord was Saint Andrew Peters brother was likewise crucified imbracing the Crosse saith Bernard and saying Per te me recipiat qui per te me redemit Let him receive me by thee who by thee redeemed me and hanging on the Crosse three dayes before he died converted many in the mean time to Christ Saint James the elder the Son of Zebedec and Saint Johns brother was killed with the sword and the person as Clemens Alexandrinus writes that had accused him when he saw him condemned was so moved therewith that he profest himself to be a Christian and having asked forgivenesse of Saint James was beheaded with him Saint James the younger the son of Alpheus and Bishop of Jerusalem because he would not deny Christ to be the Son of God was thrown down headlong from the battlements of the Temple and being still alive though both his thighes were broke his braines were dashed out as Egesippus writes with a Fullers club Saint Thomas who would not believe that Christ was risen from the dead except he might put his hand into the wound which the launce had made was afterwards in India as some Authours report thrust through with a launce because he would not worship the image of the Sun which was worshipt by them Saint Paul was beheaded in Rome by Nero on the same day as some do write that Peter was crucified and so that may not unfitly be applied to them which David said of Saul and Ionathan They were lovely in their lives and in their deaths they were not devided 2 Sam. 1.23 I might further instance in the rest of the Apostles and in the bloudy persecutions which afterwards followed wherein there was made such havock of the Church that if Ievemie or David had lived in those dayes there had been matter for the one to have made new Lamentations and for the other to sit weeping by the walls of Babylon when he remembred Sion Thus in these was verefied what our Saviour fore-told concerning the persecution which they were to suffer and the first of them all which brake as it were the ice and led the way to the rest was Steven here who was stoned to death A kind of death which was appointed by God for idolaters blasphemers and malefactors that others seeing what punishment they suffered might be kept from committing the like sins for fear of undergoing the like punishment So we see Deut. 13. That the idolater that inticed the people to serve other gods Deut. 13.10.11 was by Gods commandement to be stoned to deat that all Israel might hear and fear and the like might not be done any more in Israel So he that blasphemed the Name of the Lord Levit. 24.23 Levit. 24. was stoned to death by the whole Congregation as God commanded I might instance in others So that stoning was a punishment appointed by God for wicked persons yet Steven that was a holy man was here stoned Here then we may observe from the kind of his Martyrdome which was stoning That we are not to judge of a man by the kind of his death because sometimes the godly die the same kind of death that the wicked do 1. King 16. Ahab ye know was a most wicked King that served Baul and polluted the worships and service of God so that it is said of him that he did more to provoke the Lord to anger then all the Kings of Israel that were before him Josiah on the contrary was a most religious King that brought Iudah and Ierusalem from their idolatry and restored Gods service so that it is said of him That like unto him there was no King before him 2. King 23. that turned to the Lord with all his heart neither after him arose there any like him Yet these two brethren that were so unlike in their lives were alike in their deaths both were slain in the warres by the hands of their enemies The like may be said of Ionathan and Saul a good Son of a bad Father yet both of them slain in the field together So seditious Sheba that conspired against David died the same kind of death that Iohn the Baptist did for they were both beheaded and Steven here dyed the same kind of death that Achan did for they were both stoned Doct. In a vvord There is hardly any death that can be names but some of the godly have been put thereunto as well as the wicked And therefore vve are not to judge of any by the kind of his death that he died vvell or ill because that kind of death vvhich befalls one may befall an other We commonly judge the vvorse of a man if his death be sudden and count sudden death a fearfull thing as indeed it is especially if it be a violent death vvithall It vvas a fearfull kind a death which Charles
the King of Navarre died both for the suddennesse and violence of it who feeling great anguish in all his nerves was by the advice of his Physicians to be close wrapped in linnen cloth which had been well steeped in Aquavitae and the cloth to be sowed strait all about his body one having sowed it not having a knife ready to cut the thread took the candle to burn the thread in sunder and the thread flaming to the cloth took sudden hold of the same and the Aquavitae that the King in this flame was burnt to death before he could be helped by any And many come to such fearfull ends and yet we cannot judge of them by the kind of their death because even the godly whose death is precious in the eyes of the Lord howsoever they die do sometimes die a violent death and that suddenly So did old Eli that was a good man vvho hearing that the Arke of God was taken 2 Sam. 4.18 fell backward from his scate his neck brake and he dyed So Job's Children no doubt were holy persons having had godly education and their Fathers prayers laid up in Heaven for them yet While they were feasting together in their elder brothers house Job 1.19 the house on the sudden fell down and killed every one of them If therefore we judge of men by the kinde of their deaths we shall condemn the generation of the righteous and may bring on ourselves the like censure from others For we do not know by what kinde of death we shall glorifie God whether we shall die an easie or a painfull death whether a naturall or a violent death whether a lingring or a sudden death The times have been God grant the like times may never come again when there have been so great persecutions in the Church that the faithfull have been put to all manner of deaths whether God hath reserved us to the like times or no we do not know we know we have no promise to the contrary and therefore ought to prepare our selves for the like times that if they come we may constantly maintain the profession of Christ though it cost us our lives as here it did Steven And thus much likewise for the second point the kinde of his martyrdom And so I come to the third by whom he was thus martyred namely by the Iewes They stoned Steven Ye all know that the Iewes were the people whom God had chosen to himself above all other Nations Behold saith Moses Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens is the Lords Déut. 10.14 and the Earth and all that is therein notwithstanding he hath set his affection on thy Fathers to love them and hath also chosen their seed after them Even you saith he hath he chosen above all people For as for all other Nations God counted them strangers and left them to themselves and did not vouchsafe them his Statutes and Ordinances but suffered them to walk in their own wayes But as for the Iewes he first taught them himself and delivered them his Law from his own mouth and because they desired to be instructed rather by men like themselves and therefore spake to Moses Loquere tu nobiscum et audiemus c. Speak thon say they with us and we will hear Exe. 20.19 but let not God speak with us lest we dye God yielded to their request and first taught them by Moses afterwards by the Prophets Luke 19.26 of whom Abraham said to the rich-man They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them But the Iewes were so far from hearing these that Steven could here upbraid them Which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted And Christ complaine of them O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee as here they did Steven Their sinne then is aggravated in regard of the persons by whom it was committed They were not the Gentiles or any Heathenish people that knew not God for then their sin had been the less but they were the Jewes Gods chosen people who commonly if they were offended with any upon every occasion were ready to stone them If they be offended with Moses Exod. 17.4 because they were thirsty and had no water to drink they are presently ready to stone him for it If they be offended with Caleb and Joshua Numb 14.10 for contradicting the spies that were sent into Candan and for giving a good report of the Land they are likewise ready to stone them for it And how often in the Gospel did they take up stones to have stoned our Saviour And here they stone Steven for bearing witnesse unto him And this vvas a greater sin in them being the people of God then if they had been heathen The heathen shall rise up in judgement against them for they reverenced their Priests though they were Idolaters The Marriners that were so tender-hearted to Jonas shall rise up against them for they hazarded their lives to save the Prophet though it were for his sinnes that they vvere in danger to perish but these mercilesse Iewes did stone him to death who sought to bring them to eternall life And therefore as the voice of Abels bloud did cry aloud in the eares of the Lord against Cain that shed it and was vox sanguinum a voice of blouds as the Scripture calls it as being not onely the voice of his bloud but of all the bloud that might have come of that bloud if it had not been shed So here the bloud of Steven did cry aloud against the Iewes that shed the same and the bloud of all those that might have come from him nay upon them was laid all the righteous blood that was shed before him Mat. 23.34 for so our Saviour told them Behold I send unto you Prophets and wise-men and Scribes and some of them you shall kill and Crucifie c. that upon you saith he may come all the righteous bloud shed upon the earth from the bloud of righteous Abel to the bloud of Zacharias Sonne of Barachias whom ye slew betweene the Temple and the Altar We read of Tomyris the Queen of the Scythians that because Cyrus the King of Persia had slain her son she gathered an Army and made War upon him and having vanquisht the Persians she took Cyrus and cutting off his head she cast it into a barrell that was filled with bloud thus insulting over it Thou that wast so thirsty and insatiable of bloud that thou slewest my son shalt now have thy fill till thou be glutted vvith it And thus the Jews vvho vvere so insatiable of the bloud of the Prophets had in the end their fill of bloud vvhen the bloud of all the righteous vvho had been slain from Abel to Zacharie vvas laid upon them And that may fitly be applied unto them vvhich the Angell saith Revel 16. Thou art righteous O Lord because thou hast judged thus
Rev. 16.5.6 for they have shed the bloud of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them bloud to drink for they are worthy And thus much for the persons by vvhom Steven vvas here martyred namely the Jews I come novv from their impiety in martyring Steven to Stevens great piety in his martyrdome vvhich he shevvs as I said in a double prayer vvhich he makes the one for himselfe the other for his persecutors Doct. And from hence we may observe before I come to his prayers in particular in that he called upon God while the Jews were stoning him The happy condition of a godly man that he is able to pray and call upon God in the greatest extremity that can befall him The wicked may rage and persecute the godly they may cast them in prison and lay bolts upon them they may bring them to the stake and burn or stone them but they cannot hinder them from praying unto God this comfort they can never take from them Paul and Silas may be scourged and imprisoned and put in the stocks Elias may be persecuted by Ahab and Iezabell till he be ready to famish Iob may have his body afflicted by the devill with sores and ulcers Sampson may have his eyes put out by the Philistins and Steven may here be stoned by the Iews yet God leaves them not destitute of this comfort that they are able to pray and call upon God in their greatest dangers Nay the greater extremity and danger they are in God inables them to pray with the more fervency unto him Hezekiah did never pray more fervently then when the sentence of death was pronounced against him and he lay a dying I beseech thee saith he O Lord remember now how I have walked before thee As if he had said now O Lord when I am ready to die and no other can succour me 2 King 20.3 now when Physick and art do faile me now when my strength is diminished and nature decayed now when thou hast pronounced the sentence of death against me now O Lord now now remember me But it is not so with the ungodly they call not upon God they are least able of all to pray in their greatest necessity Psal 14.4 1 Sam. 25.37 If they be in danger or hear any ill tidings their hearts like Nabals begin to die within them and become as stones For this is the priviledge of none but the godly and an infallible argument of Gods mercy towards them in that he inables them when they are in any perill to pray unto him Therefore David Psal 66. the last verse Blessed be God saith he that hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me Upon which words Saint Augustine Quamdin Deus non tollit a te oration em tuam non amovebit a te misericordiam suam As long as God doth not take thy praying from thee he will not remove his mercy from thee because it is his mercy that inables thee to pray If therefore when thou art in any great danger thou canst call upon God for his help and assistance and canst say with the Disciples Mat. 8.25 Psal 6.2 Lord save us we perish if when thou liest sick and keepest thy bed thou canst pray with David Lord be mercifull unto me for I am weak Lord heale me for my bones are vexed If when thou art drawing toward thy end and art to leave the World thou canst willingly resigne thy soule unto God and pray as Steven did Lord Iesus receive my spirit Thou mayest well conceive great comfort therein because only the godly are inabled in their greatest extremity to call upon God as Steven here did But let us come to his prayer Lord Jesus receive my spirit He called upon God saying Lord Jesus which invicibly proves that Christ is God This the Arrians and some other Hereticks have blasphemously denied and this the Jews to this day will not be brought to acknowledge But the Scripture is not more plain in any thing then it is in this For besides that the Scripture gives him the Title and Name of God that he is Deus in carne manifestatus i Tim. 3.16 Rom. 9.5 John 14.1 John 14.14 Mat. 28.19 John 5.23 Luke 8.28.31 Mat. 8.26 Mat. 4.23 Mat. 10.1 God manifested in the flesh and Deus in saecula benedictus God blessed for ever And besides that we are taught in the Scripture to ascribe unto him divine honour that we must believe in him that we must pray unto him that we must be baptized in his Name and that we must honour him as we honour the Father The very works and miracles which he did do testifie of him and prove him to be God For if he were not God how did the devills stand in aw of him how did the windes and the seas obey him how did he cure all manner of diseases and inable his Disciples to do the like in his Name Did ever any man by his own power raise himself being dead Did ever any man since the beginning of the World as the blind man saith John 2.19 John 9.32 John 9. open the eyes of any that was born blind but these things we know were done by Christ and do prove him to be God If he were not God how did he pardon and forgive sins Mat. 9.2 Mat. 9.4 Colos 1.16 which is proper to God how did he know the thoughts of mens hearts which is proper to God and how is he said to have created the World which is the peculiar work of God And therefore Steven praying to the Lord Iesus is said here to call upon God He called upon God saying Lord Iesus receive my spirit The Papists do commonly at their death commend their souls to the Virgine Mary So did Father Garnet so did Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury two that are reputed for speciall Martyrs in the Church of Rome though they suffered for treason they commended their soules at the time of their death to the blessed Virgine And it is a common prayer among them Maria mater gratiae tu nos ab hoste protege hora mortis suscipe Mary the Mother of grace do thou defend us from the enemy and receive us at the hour of death But Steven here the first Martyr commended not his soule to the Virgine Mary when he died but to Christ that redeemed it Lord Iesus saith he receive my spirit And he joyns these two Lord Jesus together acknowledging Christ to be both both his Lord and his Saviour Some disjoyne these they will acknowledge Christ to be their Jesus they vvill say they look to be saved by him but they do not acknowledge him for their Lord they will not serve him Such are they who go on in their sins and follow the lusts of their own hearts and yet do look to be saved by grace But such do greatly deceive themselves For either Christ will be our Lord or he will be our Jesus
the upright for the end of that man is peace and in the next verse But the end of the wicked shall be cut off For God being the just Judge of the world it cannot be otherwise but that between the end of the godly and the end of the wicked there must needs be great difference Therefore when Abraham prayed for Sodom that it might be spared for the righteous sake that were therein Gen. 18.23.25 wilt thou saith he Gen. 18. destroy the righteous with the wicked that be far from thee to do after this manner to slay the righteous with the wicked and that the righteous should be as the wicked that be farre from thee shall not the judge of all the earth do right to shew that it cannot stand with the justice of God to respect them alike and to make no difference between the godly and the wicked We see many times that the wicked do flourish and prosper in the world and live in great credit and estimation the godly on the contrary are many times vilified and privily slander'd whereby their good name which is the godly mans Heire is much called into question but God who never failes to help them to right that do suffer wrong at one time or other brings the wicked to shame and makes the innocency of the godly known This is that which God promises Psal 37.6 Psal 37. He shall bring forth thy righteousnesse as the light and thy judgement or just dealing as the noon-day the meaning is that though thy innocency and just dealing may be obscured and hidden for a time as the light in the night yet God will bring it forth like the light in the morning and make it more and more to appear like the Sun at noone whereby both thy innocencie and the falshood of those that unjustly accuse thee shall be openly known This we see by the example of Daniel who was cast by his accusers into the Lyons Den Dan. 6.16 Dan. 3.21 and by those who were cast into the fiery furnace yet God miraculously made known their innocency and brought those that accused them to shame and destruction It is very memorable which we find recorded to this purpose in the Ecclesiasticall Histories Three grace leâ—e Companions accused Narcissus a holy Bishop of an hainous crime and used fearfull imprecations against themselves if the thing were not true whereof they accused him The first wished that if it were not true he might be burnt The second that he might die of some grievous Disease And the third wisht that he might lose his sight And not long after God was reveng'd on every one of them in the same manner For the first had his house set a fire in the night where both himself and his houshold were burnt to death The second fell sick of a fearfull disease and died of it And the third seeing what 〈◊〉 befallen his Companions confessed how they had wrongfully accused the Bishop and with weeping and mourning lost his sight Whereupon the Bishop who had been deposed upon their accusation was restored unto his Bishoprick God having thus made his innocency known and brought them to shame that so falsly accused him And thus much for the former part of these words the description of an impenitent sinner who is described as you have heard both by his property that he covers his sinne and by his condition that he shall not prosper The penitent person is described by a double property he confesseth his sinnes and withall forsakes them and his condition is that he shall have mercy I will speak briefly of them in a word or two Those words of St. John 1 John 1.9 If we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse are as it were a commentary upon my Text and the one place may serve well to explain the other St. John names onely our confessing our sinnes If saith he we confesse our sinnes implying under confessing our sinnes our forsaking of them because as St. Ambrose saith Confessio peccati est professio desinendi our confessing of sinne is a profession of leaving the same Solomon in my Text doth name them both who so confesses and forsakes his sins and so expresses what St. John implies And Solomon addes that he shall have mercy but what mercy he doth not shew St. John therefore shewes what this mercy is that God will forgive him his sinnes and will cleanse him from all unrighteousnesse which you know is the greatest mercy For if we consider how highly God is offended with sinners how deeply we are indebted unto God by our sinnes or the great benefit we reape by Gods forgiving us we cannot but see Gods infinite mercy in forgiving our sinnes upon so easie a condition and requiring no more of us for the forgivenesse of our sinnes but that we confesse them If a Creditor should require no more of his Debtor that were indebted in a great summe unto him but to acknowledge the debt he would freely forgive him would not every man magnifie the Creditors bounty in releasing his Debtor upon so easie a condition but thus deales God with us he requires no more of us but to confesse our sinnes and promises to forgive us If saith St. John we confesse our sinnes God is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes faithfull and just and so we need not make any doubt thereof because his faithfulnesse and justice are ingaged upon it But some may say it may seeme that seeing God is just he should rather punish us then forgive us our sinnes because his justice requires that we make him satisfaction and that he reward us according to our deserts We are therefore to remember that confession of our sinnes and faith in Christ for the pardon of them do alway go together so that we cannot truly confesse our sins but we must needes have an eye unto Christ for the forgivenesse of our sinnes God therefore cannot but forgive us our sinnes because he is just for otherwise he should be unjust to his Sonne who hath made satisfaction to God in our roome and by his active and passive obedience hath merited for us that our sinnes should be forgiven And herein appeares the admirable wisdome and goodnesse of God in so contriving the work of our redemption that his justice should plead for the forgivenesse of our sinnes which pleaded before for our condemnation For if ye aske why God should condemn us for our sinnes the Reason is because he is just and justice requires that having offended him we should make him satisfaction And yet if ye aske why he should forgive us our sinnes the reason is here given by St. John because he is just and justice requires that Christ having made satisfaction for us we should be forgiven And so we see what mercy it is which he shall have who confesseth his sinnes namely the