death but the evil of death not the being but the sting of it as whilome he suffered Esau to meet his Jacob but first he drave all enmity out of the heart of that Esau Gen. 33.4 This is one degree of the change which Christ has wrought in the nature of death to his Servants that it hath no power over them to hurt them they shall not be hurt of this second death Revel 2.11 who overcome the first that of the soul by sin conquer that by Faith and thou subduest the fear of this He that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live John 11 25. he shall chaunt out S. Pauls triumph 1 Cor. 15. O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory This is one degree but this is not all 't is not enough to make us blessed that death hurts us not it must be forc'd against the own nature of it to help us it is a part as being a means of our happinesse that we die Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die 1 Cor. 15.36 so that the very blow we receive from this hard hand is healing that which our sin made to be our last enemy the goodnesse of God hath made the first friend that we meet with in our passage to another world When a child sees a goodly cluster of ripe Grapes he thinks it pity to put them into the presse and to deface them but the skilfull man knows that this hard usage preserves the liquor of them from corruption we are sometimes these ignorant children we think it pity that such a holy devout religious good man should die alas he can be ill spared yet God in his wisdome makes this man thus ripe for heaven the more happy by death it selfe he fals into the ground that he may bring forth much fruit Jo. 12.24 This is the true ground beloved of all our spirituall rejoycing upon our Death-bed that we know we leave this for an infinitely better life that we can say with the Apostle Phil. 1.21 Mori mihi lucrum we gain by this change That we receive no hurt by death that it is at the worst but a sleep in which we rest from our labours this is much but that we should reap profit and honour that the Crown of Righteousnesse is layd up for us that the reward of our works doth follow us this is all this is the very blessednesse of the dead that die in the Lord. The former is sufficient to inforce the Apostles Exhortation 1 Thess 4.13 concerning them who are asleep that we sorrow not for them but this is able to make us so affected toward our Brethren when they go before us to our heavenly Father as our Saviour Christ would have his Disciples affected towards him upon the like occasion If ye loved me ye would rejoice because I said I go unto the Father John 14.28 Be not sorry not only so but rejoice rather because as Solomon taught long since the day of death is not so sad is better more joyous than the day of our birth Eccl. 7.1 If any man could have found a life worthy to be prefer'd unto death so wise great and glorious a King must needs have done it and yet he in his very Throne commends his Coffin above his Scepter and would rather choose to be a subject for worms to feed upon than a Prince of men This makes us no more to marvel at those Heathens who mourned at the birth and feasted at the death of their children and yet alas they had not halfe the cause that we have of rejoycing they knew some of the miseries that accompanied this life what troubles and cares and anxieties and wants men passed through what crosses and calamities they indure here which are the punishments of sin but sin it selfe the greatest burden of this life the sorest evil that waits upon and makes it most wearisome this malum culpae this evil of sin they were not as they ought aware of and yet they were so affected with the feeling of those other ills that they made merry at the death of their friends out of a miserable conceit they had that they then ceased to be miserable We know what they did and more we understand the wretchednesse of living in this vale of tears and we understand what causes it the snares of sin from which we are loosed when we are freed out of the prison of this body he that is dead Rom. 6.7 is free from sin We understand the Happinesse of dying that it not only unfetters us from these chains of sin an shame but conveyes us to an eternity of holinesse and glory How should we cheer our selves in this expectation yea assurance of being so happy How should we say out of choice and faith what the Prophet Jonah said out of bitter passion It is better for me to die Jon. 4.3 than to live to die in the Lord for such when they are dead are blessed It is time for us to have done with this first discourse Part. 2 which the Text ministers unto us concerning death and the bitternesse of it in it selfe to the natural man and the sweetnesse which Christ by his death hath infused into it to all that die in him Now turn your thoughts with patience 't is high time to beg that upon the other subject-matter of the Text Blessednesse A subject that we shall finde of as great importance and as nearly to concern every of us as the other If that were needfull to us for the weaning our affection from the vanities of this world this is as usefull for the inflaming those affections toward the glory of another World Forget not the former but afford this also some time of meditation by no means lose the memory of death Be as wise in this point as those wise men Philosophers of India who were called Brachmanae they would have open Sepulchres placed before the doors of their houses that as they went out and in they might think of that place whether they must go at last that was a bridle to them with which they held themselves in awe and let us still place our graves before the door of our minds and imagine we hear God speaking to us as to his Prophet Jeremy Descende in domum figuli Go down to the Potters house Jer. 18.2 and there I will cause thee to hear my words God could have spoken with his Prophet in any other place as well as that where men were busied about clay but he would thereby admonish us that the Tombs of dead men where all humane clay all the carkasses of men that were made of clay and of which clay is made are gathered together as in a Potters house that these are the fittest Schools of wisdome to us there God usually expounds unto his Auditors the most deep and hidden mysteries of wisdome there not with logical Sophisms but by
unto it labour we by being in Christ as born of God by living in Christ as abiding in him that at length we may also die in the Lord. If to die in the Lord were all perhaps to perswade that also will not need much â—â—â—â—ur there is no man but with halfe 〈◊〉 Exhortation will be easily induced to 〈◊〉 of the Prophet Baâ—â—am's minde concent to die the death of the righteous and that his last end might le like his Num. 23.10 but will they consider that to effect this they must first be as well content to live the life of the righteous and let their beginning and continuance be like his If we would die in the Lord at the last and so be blessed we must in the mean holily endeavour to live in the Lord by Faith and Repentance Acts 24.16 and a good conscience both before God and towards men If we spend the time of our life upon our own lusts if we now live unto our selves little hope we have to die in him Live we not then and live we too do we both as S. Paul counsels 2 Cor. 5.15 not â—enceforth to our selves but to him who died for us Be we in Christ and abide we in him only this way we shall surely diâ— in Christ and be blessed by him and with him Beatus qui vigilat Revel 16.15 Blessed is he that watcheth To watch in holy Scripture is to live the life of fifth as on the other side sin is 〈…〉 the sleep of the soule Watch ye stan◠〈◊〉 in the faith 1 Cor. 16.13 and Awake thou that sleepest Epâ— 5.14 i.e. Rouze up thy selfe shake off the sleep of sin and lead the life of righteousnesse now this watch must continue till the Bridegroom comes this holinesse of life must hold out till Christ calls foâ—â—â—â—y dâ—ath we must watch till we shall never sleep we must be holy till we shall never sin we must do the one and be the other till we get up to Heaven Bratiquos cum venerit Luke 12.37 Blessed indeed are those servants whom the Lord when he commeth shall finde watching to have watcht before will be but a drowsie excuse if then we sleep in sin to have done many good things Mat. 7.22 even to the casting out of Divels will not avail us if we be not then found doing Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he comineth shall finde doing as he hath lived to so shall he die in the Lord of a truth the Lord will make him Ruler over all that he hath Luke 12.44 What an incouragement is this Consolatio beloved to the servants of God against the fear of death that as Christ when he began to give his Law which contained many Precepts that seem'd strict and difficult for our ability to perform that he might draw us the more willingly to an obedience to them does severally prefix before them this blessednesse whereto at last they bring us Mat. 5. so because death had been made by fin so terrible to the Natural man therefore Christ who died to overcome death and to take away sin which is the sting of it as by this means he has made it easie and sweet to them that die in him so he would make it appear so also by this assurance of blessednesse upon it Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. Be we not therefore afraid of Death which must be the means to convey us unto blisse Be we not loath when God shall call us to leave the miseries of this life this warfare upon earth for the crown in Heaven nay be we carefull by a life to him that we may die in the Lord and we shall finde that such a certain remedy against the fear of death that we shall rather with S. Pauls cheerfulnesse make choice of S. Phil. 1.23 Paul's Cupio dissolvi even desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ the Lord we shall not pitch our thoughts upon that false shadow of blessednesse which the few and evil dayes of this life can afford but look toward our Countrey our Home to that green Pasture Psa 23.2 and those waters of comfort whither the Shepheard of our Souls shall conduct those Sheep which belong unto his Fold we shall resolve to fight the good fight here 2 Tim. 4.7 and expect to triumph in peace there we shall set up our rest to sow in tears here Ps 126.5 and comfort our selves with the assured hope of reaping in joy there In a word we shall not look for true blisse in this wretched world which cannot give it but stay our time with patience all our time wait with joy all the dayes of our appointed time till our change commeth 14.14 not hasten to gather our Grapes in the Spring before they be ripe sour Grapes to edge our teeth here Eze. 18.2 Lu. 13.28 and give us gnashing of teeth in the other World but constantly bear the heat of the Summer here and stay for the sweetnesse of Autumn and the delight of the Vintage in Heaven where we may gather oâ— full Clusters full ripe and drink of the fruit of the Vine even new with our Christ in his Fathers Kingdome This grant good Christ unto us all that we may live in thee by a true faith and holy life and die in thee by our constancy in that faith which we have here possessed and inherit that blessednesse which thou hast promised even for thy Names-sake and for thy great Mercies-sake To thee c. A SERMON Preached at the BAPTISME of the Right Honorable JAMES EARLE of Northampton Matth. 19.14 Suffer little Children and forbid them not to come unto me for of such is the Kingdome of Heaven THe whole History of this business is not long to be read unto you that you may better conceive the occasion of these words 'T is recorded by three of the Evangelists so worthy a passage it was thought by them not to be omitted but in fewest words by S. Matthew he concludes it in three short verses almost as short as sweet please you hear it Vers 13. Then were there brought unto him little children that he should put his hands on them and pray and the Disciples rebuked them Vers 14. But Jesus said Suffer little Children and forbid them not to come unto me for of such is the Kingdome of Heaven Vers 15. And he laid his hands on them In which short History there are three several parts acted The first by them who brought the children the Parents in all probability Christ had now for the space of three years travelled about that Countrey of Palestine helping and healing he went about saies S. Peter doing good and healing all Acts 10.38 For this the people magnified him and followed him but the Priests and the Pharisees they especially of Jerusalem were mad with anger and indignation to see a stranger so go in strength of Authority and Repute amongst
delicate Garments the basenesse of the Winding-sheet for his former neatnesse nothing but putrefaction for his perfumes a stinking savour and for his savour it selfe deadnesse for his Servants and attendants the company of crawling worms at the best which will more really destroy him than when alive the most unfaithfull of his servants could How must he be tormented with extremity of griefe for that which shall befall his body But then to imagine the state of the Soul which has not hope in Christ for we are in Nature yet to think of that Incognita that new Region unknown to any living Wight whither it must now travel naked and unaccompanied save with the horror of his gnawing Conscience to labour to conceive those unconceivable woes of that other world and to comprehend that incomprehensible eternity of them 't is wonder he can live a moment to digest that indigestible thought 't is a wonder that the terror of it does not prevent the hand and sythe of his approaching death that it does not anticipate his fate and prove more quick to dead him more nimble than his disease to strike and slay his soul For one to be taken from his wealth pleasure honour friends wife children to leave these outward contentfull things makes death bitter to him 't is another death This O mors quà m amara est memoria tuis 't is the Wise-mans exclamation Ecclus. 41.1 O death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions that hath nothing to vex him that hath prospepity in all things The separation that is made betwixt him and his world afflicts him but the separation betwixt him and himselfe his soul and his body is intollerable how loathly it leaves that old companion how loathly it goes out of that beloved dwelling St. Hierome writes the life of Hilarion a good Christian a devout and holy man one that feared God and in most of his life so little feared death that he desired nothing more than to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 and yet when death began to seize upon him when he was now in his last agony his soul had a strong touch of this fear and was loath to go insomuch that he was fain to have recourse to his faith and by the help of it to encourage his fainting soul in his journey to Heaven Egredere go out my soul what fearest thou go out valiantly hast thou serv'd God these seventy years and dost thou now fear to leave thy body Beloved Eratenim eremita moriebaturoctoginta annos natus if this Holy man who had from ten years age dedicated his whole life to the service of God found yet the natural man so strong in him that he was put to his plunge in which he might have stuck had he not awaken'd his faith awake awake why sleepest thou O my faith and call'd that to his help how terrible must this dissolution needs appear to them who have liv'd in their sins and not yet cast off those sins by repentance who when they should grapple with death and conquer it by their faith in Christ alas they lie under the weight of their sins and cannot rise they struggle in vain that load oppresses them their sin 1 Cor. 15.56 which is the sting of death is fastned in their hearts and slayes them their death is a flaughter the worst death of all Mors peccatorum pessima Psal 34.21 Evil misfortune shall slay the ungodly Siccine separas amara mors may be their complaint in the bitternesse of their spirit they may well call it the darknesse of death as Agag did 1 Sam. 15.32 Beloved have you look'd enough upon death in his worst shape and can ye collect how terrible he must needs appear to the wicked over whom he hath full power since even to Gods holy servants out of a natural desire to preserve their being since even to Gods beloved Son when to shew himselfe truly man he was content to yield so sar to the sway of humane nature within himselfe he seem'd so odious that in the presence of some of his Apostles he did not let to discover his passion My soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death Matt. 26.38 Mat. 26.44 to pray to his Father thrice against it and but that the will of his Father was in the midst of his bowels and his obedience stronger than death he would have begg'd three times more that the Cup might have pass'd from him so odious that for the comfort of the Elect 't is one of the greatest blessings betroath'd to them in the New Jerusalem that there shall be no more death Rev. 21.4 Then now cheer up your thoughts again by faith in Christ and with that eye of faith behold death vanquisht by that Christ behold him trampled under those victorious feet so languishing so dead himselfe that he cannot hurt you he cannot scare you This is the second consideration of death Mors Porta Coeli that how evil soever it be in it selfe even the way to Hell yet by Gods goodnesse it is become a Portal to the Children of Grace by which the soul passeth out of the miseries of this life into the joyes of Heaven even the dead are blessed that die in the Lord. God made not Death Wisdome 1.13 through the envy of the Divel it came into the world Wisd 2.24 't is he that was the Murderer from the beginning Joh. 8.44 Murderer of our bodies and of our souls too death of both is his work 't is he that has the power of death Heb. 2.14 and if only the body di'd he would soon disown the name and disvalue all the power he had Now wherefore came Christ into the world wherefore was he manifested in the flesh why for this purpose sayes S. John ut dissolvat opera that he might destroy the works of the Divel 1 John 3.8 He took part of our flesh and blood why that he might die without that he could not die the Godhead is immortal and why die but that through his death he might destroy him that had the power of death the Divel Heb. 2.14 So truly might he say of himselfe John 10.10 I am come that they might have life This was it which was prophecyed so long since Hos 13.14 O mors ero mors tua O death I will be thy death thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction the Prophecy is not yet fulfill'd if we read that place as the Vulgar Edition hath it I will be thy death Death shall be destroyd indeed but not yet 't is the last enemy 1 Cor. 15.26 that must be destroyd but if we read it as we have well translated it O death I will be thy plagues 't is every day fulfill'd in that glorious victory with which so many of the Saints of God at their dissolution do triumph over it Christ does not take away
not too long a time and that they should in his good and appointed time be changed up into the glory of Heaven and that all the Enemies of the Church should at length by the power of Christ their victorious Captain be thrown into the ever burning Lake of fire and brimstone We may divide the whole Booke briefly Partitio libri for I must not stand long upon this Discourse Divide it I may I come not to expound the whole Book and the Text it selfe affords matter enough for this short time though I eke it out with a borrowed part of another hour into a Preface Paraeus to the ninth verse of the first Chapter the Prophecy it self from thence to the sixteenth verse of the last Chapter and from thence to the end the Epilogue or Conclusion We are now in the midst of the Prophecy and the whole Prophecy may be distinguished into 7 several visions notoriously distinct asunder to them that read them with careful observation which Christ was pleased for the future good of his Church to shew to his beloved St. John whilst he lived a banisht man in the Isle of Pathmos I may not stand now to shew you these 7 Visions with the subject-matter of them I read not a Lecture upon them all nor upon any one intirely This Text is a small part of the fourth Vision which takes up three whole Chapters the twelfth thirteenth and fourteenth It is of the Woman travelling in birth and the Draggon gaping to devour the fruit of her womb of her flight into the Wildernesse and his pursuit after her resisted by Michael and his Angels then of the two Beasts one with seven heads and ten horns the other with two horns like a Lamb which spake as a Draggon both persecuting the Saints then of the victorious Lamb upon that Mount Sion and of the three Angels one preaching the Gospel another proclaiming the fall of Babylon a third denouncing punishment to them that worship the Beast Lastly of Christ upon the Cloud with a sharp sickle in his hand and the Angel proclaiming the last Harvest of the World and the Vintage and Wine-presse of the Wrath of God All this is the subject of the fourth Vision in which the future estate of Gods Church in this World even from the Infancy of it under the Ministry of Christs Apostles unto the end of the World is far more cleerly shaddowed out unto us than in the former Visions The third Angel begins at the 9. verse of this Chapter and continues to the end of the 11. Then in the 12. and 13. verses part of the last whereof I read unto you follows an Epiphonema of exhortation and consolation to the Saints of God that in all these vexations with which Antichrist shall grate them they persevere with patience and constancy in the faith of Christ and obedience to his Gospel that they faint not under their tribulations but hold out to the end being held up with the hope of eternal felicity in Heaven which is here propounded The Exhortation to perseverance is in the 12. verse the Argument for it is taken from that Tragical end that miserable and wofull event which must befall Antichrist and his unsound followers that seeing they shall at last drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God and drink it off the very dregs of it that they shall be tormented with fire and brimstone and shall have no rest day and night here is the patience of the Saints v. 12. Here is an Argument for their perseverance that the Holy ones of God who keep the Commandments of God and the saith of Jesus that they suffer manfully under the bitterest Tyranny of their Adversaries as knowing that it shall at last be guerdon'd to them with the fearfull endlesnesse of insufferable torments in Hell fire Then follows the Consolation in this verse of my Text And I heard a voice from Heaven saying Write blessed are the Dead that die in the Lord The Argument which the Holy Ghost here useth to strengthen and comfort them ready now to droop under the weight of their sufferings is drawn from the assurance of the most inestimable Reward eternal bessednesse in Heaven and that Death it selfe the last and greatest evil with which the faithfull can be afflicted by their most despiting enemies is no evil at all for it is the ready though straight and narrow and severe Way to the certain joy and glory of the Heavenly Kingdome I heard a voice from Heaven from thence we see though through a cloud through the water of that and the tears of our owne eyes our comfort comes 'T is most certain most true were it the voice of God himselfe or of one of his Angels at his command St. John sayes not whether but the voice of Christ himselfe his Sheep are sure it is they know his voice the same in effect which we have heard from him before in his holy Gospel more than once Joh. 5.24 Verily verily I say unto you he that hears my Words and believes on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8.1 and there is no condemnation too to them in the ears of whose Souls are the words of Christ and in John 8.51 not without another and another a double Verily I say unto you to cast off all doubt If a man keep my saying he shall nevtr see death the eternall the cursed death The very same to all purposes that this Voice sayes here Write blessed are the dead c. There are three things observable in this Voice from Heaven Divisio Versus first the command to Write Christ will not put his Church to trust to the uncertainty the deceivableness of unwritten Traditions but as in the beginning there was a generall command for the writing of this whole Prophecy Write sayes Christ to the Prophet St. John chap. 1. v. 19. Write the things which thou hast seen and the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter so has he here again a special command for the writing of this heavenly voice concerning the blessednesse of them who die in the Lord he will have our comfort confirm'd to us here as the Divel 's several suggestions were rejected and confuted by himselfe Matt. 4. with a Scriptum est the Scripture the written Word of God shall be the ground as of our Faith so of our Hope our incouragement and consolation through that Faith Secondly the Argument the substance of what he is commanded to deliver to the Church by writing blessednesse And thirdly the assurance and proofe of this blessednesse by two strong Reasons one that they are now gotten to the end of their Race that they enjoy a perpetual rest from all the labours and sufferings which they have sustained under the Sun they rest from their labours and the other that they have so
run as to obtain 1 Cor. 9.24 that having finisht their course they have not rest onely but their Brabium their Crown also which was laid up for them 2 Tim. 4.7 8. their Crown of righteousnesse their works do follow them 'T is a Metalepsis a figurative speech as much as to say the fruit of their Works the Reward the Crown of their Righteousnesse which was laid up in Heaven is given to them by the Lord the righteous Judge at that day the day of their death as S. Paul speaks 2 Tim. 4.8 That which is the Argument of this Scripture is now our Text and must be anon the Argument of our Discourse Blessed are the dead a most sweet and comfortable Argument a Theme beloved full of gracious solace wherewith to arm the faithfull against the evil day that of death that it is not as the Epicurean Sect of Philosophers taught Extrema linea rerum the end of all our being that when the body returns to the earth as it was made the spirit does not so too but unto God who gave it Eccles 12.7 that we are not born at all adventure and shall be hereafter as though we had never been as those ungodly fools dream'd Wisd 2.2 that the breath of our nostrils are not as smoak and a little spark in the moving of our heart which being extinguished our body shall be turned into ashes and our spirit shall vanish as the soft aire They taught ill and their Disciples the Sadduces learn'd as ill from them that there is no Resurrection Act. 23.8 No if Christ be preach'd that he rose from the dead we may ask S. Pauls question How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead 1 Cor. 15.12 And. If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable v. 19. but we are therefore miserable in this life that at our death we may be blessed as my Text hath it Blessed are the dead In the handling of which to fit you to the more profitable hearing of what shall be delivered let me put you in minde of the Wise mans counsel Eeclus 7.36 Remember the end the last things and thou shalt not do amisse There are Quatuor novissima four things which do last befall the state of man Death Judgment Blessednesse in Heaven and Torments in Hell These would be often thought on and duly consider'd by us as a most soveraign Antidote against the Infections of this world a pretious preservative against Sin Death which must bring us to Judgment Judgment which must either convey us to Heavenly Blisse or condemn us to eternal restlesse misery there is the blessednesse of the Saints in Heaven to inflame our hearts with a holy desire after it and the wretched state of the damned in Hell to make us wise and wary for the avoyding of it 'T is a rule of St. Chrysostom's that we should be so and a promise thereupon to ascape it Non sinet in Gehennam incidere Gehennae meminisse the awfull thinking of it will keep us from falling into it These are the Quatuor novissima the four last things which the Wise man would have ingraven in our memories with a Pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond to keep us from doing anisse Memorare novissima Remember the end and thou shalt not do amisse Within the compasse of this short Text Divisio Textus we have two of these four last things to imploy our thoughts upon Death and Blessednesse Death which all men by nature fear Blessednesse which all men by that same instinct desire and therefore no man living but this Text concerns him no man but may reap profit from the Doctrine it affords That 's two-fold in the unfolding and applying of which I intreat your attention and devotion 1. That Death though in it selfe it be bitter and terrible yet to Gods children it is so sweetned by Christ that in them 't is made the way to blessednesse Psal 118.80 This is the Gate of Heaven and the Righteous shall enter in thereby The Dead are blessed that die in the Lord. 2. That Blessednesse though it be so sweet a thing the object of all mens desires so generally aim'd at by all men in their severall endeavours yet all our life time here we come short of it we attain it not till our death Dicique beatus antiobitum nemo nemo before that and not omnes after not all of us then but they only who die in the Lord Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. I desire first to fasten your considerations upon Death which is the way to blessednesse and to keep the best wine till the last in the second place to refresh you with the Meditation of Blessednesse which insueth upon death Nor will this former discourse Praefatio ad partem primam as it is pertinent to the businesse we are now upon the death of that Worthy and Right Honorable Patriot of his Countrey for whom wise men religiously mourn in a Sermon as witty men used to lament for Heathens in an Elegy be needlesse and superfluous to those that live since the often taking occasion as it is now most unhappily for us and most blessedly for him whom we remember offer'd by that God who hath taken him from us to himselfe to six the eyes of our minde upon the end of our life is so behoovefull that even Plato the Heathen Philosopher but admirable for wit and learning found such a benefit of it that he defin'd Wisdome to be the Meditation of death and though in that he aim'd not as we do to perswade men to the often thinking upon it for difinitions are the Common-Place of one sort of Learning the speculative and perswasions of another the practicall yet in this respect especially may we more truly affirm it than he did that it is a great part of wisdome to accustome our selves often to the meditation of death and howsoever the Divel that great enemy of Mankinde does for his own ends and the readier advancement and enlarging of his Kingdome labour by all means to lull us into security by the pleasures of this World and to steal out of our thoughts the remembrance of our death that so our death may steal upon us at unawares Luke 21.34 and take us unprovided to make us ducere in bonis dies nostros to spend our dayes in jollity that we may go down to the Grave in a moment Job 21.13 yet the Spirit of God directs us a safer course Eccles 11.8 If a man live many years and rejoice in them all yet let him remember the days of darknesse There is danger when death steals upon us Oh then we have lost that blessing of our Text which the soul of this our dear Father departed hath found 'T is a Curse let death come hastily and sure 't is lawfull to pray as we do in our Letany against
evident undeniable demonstration he layes before our eyes the frailty of our flesh the shortnesse of our life the deceitfulnesse of the world the vanity of all things under the Sun and what becomes at last of all the strength of Man and beauty of Woman and pride of both and of the glory of all the world that all of it is vain-glory And indeed from this inconsideration spring so many errours of our life so much arrogancy and ambition and covetousnesse such immoderate desire to joyn Title to Title and House to House and Field to Field till we forget that title of Dust which is due unto us and the House of the Grave and the Field of the Potter that we look not often enough into the Monuments of dead men and read this lesson in them that they might have been before now and very shortly may be must be our own habitation how many of us now sin with great ease and so little remorse as if we had a God of wood and stone or at best but a breaden God such as they have in every Church and at every Altar within the Popes great Bishoprick who saw us not nor could take vengeance of our sins unless when superstitious man takes his unprovok'd God and throws him at our head yet when death appoaches and affrights our waken'd consciences with remembrance of our former abasing of Gods mercies and the sight of his angry countenance against us for it how would we wish a thousand times it were undone how would we buy it off were it in our power with thousands of Rams and ten thousands of rivers of Oyle Mic. 6.7 Well If the consideration of this be so behoovefull to us for the withdrawing of our Souls from sin for which purpose I have thus long chafed your memories to the due meditation of it the consideration of the other can be no lesse behoovefull for the inkindling our souls after glory for which purpose I must entreat a new attention and devotion in you I will not be still presuming upon so much time Beatitudo as I shall need to speak of blessednesse at large and to discourse as the true nature of it so the manifold errors of others about it nor does my Text require it There is no man but has by nature some kind of knowledge of it that it is the best and choisest thing that can be and as Boetius defines it an estate made perfect by the enjoying of all good things which who so has obtained he is fully satisfied he seeks he desires he wishes nothing more But what that is in the possession whereof this happinesse consists and which endoweth a man with this perfect estate that has ever been a thing so difficult and obscure to the most learned ages of old Heathenism that there is no one question has bred such perplexity and differenee in opinions amongst the ancient Philosophers some placing it in knowledge some in vertue some in plenty some in pleasure I cannot I list not I need not name them all St. Austin tels us De Civit. l. 19. c. 1. the learned Varro has observ'd that Philosophers have wrangled about this point to the number of 288 different opinions not to trouble you with the relation of them That which I propound to be observed briefly is that 1. True blessednesse is a thing generally desired of all men 2. That notwithstanding this so generall desire it is never fully obtain'd by any man till his death 3. And then not by all men but by those only who die in the Lord Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. That every one man does Votum omnium in his desire aim at blessednesse no one man will deny so little need there is to prove it ask every man by the poll if he would be blessed ye know his answer before-hand we are all alike born with that desire in us nor is there any thing which we do at any time in which we have not a close purpose to blesse our selves in every humane action there is an end propounded for which we work not the finis cujus the end of the action as when a man giveth over to work but the finis cui the end for which he worketh as he that studieth he studieth to this end that he may attain knowledge and the Merchant that traffiques he trades to this end that he may grow rich and the ambitious that serves and flatters he does it to this end that he may get into some place this end is the beginning in every of our actions 't is primum in intentione as the Philosopher speaks the first thing in our intentions that which sets us at work and when we have propounded to our selves that we will atchieve knowledge or riches or honour then we betake our selves to such actions as we think to be the means for procuring them as study or merchandize or servile flattery the practise of the undeserving Parasite as of the ingenuous minde to high actions of vertue Now that which is the finis ultimus the last end of all that which all men in their several projects aim at as their Master-prize and upshot of all their endeavours is agreed on by all sides to be blessednesse He that studies to be such either he falsely places true happinesse in that or else by that he thinks to compass some higher degree of being happy He that labors for a quiet and retired life either he believes that to be the only happy estate or else hopes by that to make way to a setled happinesse Men may diversly erre in their opinions either concerning what is true happinesse or concerning what is the true way to it but happily blessed they would be they know to be blessed is to be best therefore they desire nothing so earnestly as that no nothing at all but what they think to be a means to that but that they desire only for its own sake as being the most perfect good in respect whereto all other good is imperfect and subordinate and that being purchast nothing can be wanted or wish'd for by the boundlesse thoughts of Man Not unfitly therefore does David the Father countenance his whole Book of Psalms Psal v. â— with such a blessed Introit Beatus qui non abiit in consilio impiorum Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly a very omen and presage of blessednesse to him that shall take delight to read and meditate on that book of Psalms as it was his own incouragement for his entrance into so holy a work And most comfortably does our Saviour Christ his Son commend unto us his most excellent Sermon upon the Mount with that gracious assurance in the very begining of the same blessednesse upon severall holy endeavours Mat. 5. of Poverty in spirit of Mourning of Meeknesse c. Beati pauperes Beati qui lugent c. Blessed are the poor
is the end even the salvation of their souls 1 Pet. 1.9 that they truly and indeed are possest of in this life Haec est vita aeterna says our Saviour John 17.3 This is life eternal to know thee and Jesus He that hears my words and beleeveth on him hath eternal life John 5.24 he hath it in that degree as here he is capable of it But Beatitudo patriae the perfection of blisse the sight and fruition of God in Heaven that intire union with him when we shall be like unto himselfe for we shall see him as he is 1 John 3.2 This is for another life this is the crown laid up which the righteous Judge shall give at that day 2 Tim. 4.8 Vltima semper Expectando dies homini est Dicique beatus Antiobitum nemo supremaque funera debet Ovid. This expect not till death for thus only the dead are blessed To take away all scruple 't is an observable truth that S. Gregory Nyscen hath in his book De Beatitud that God in himselfe is Verè Beatus most properly blessed as having it in and from him-himselfe and that from him as from a Fountain it issues forth upon Angels and Men who are blessed in the participation of it which they receive from him Such as is the difference between the face of man which God made and his Picture drawn by an earthly skilfull hand though this be too distant to expresse it yet 't is the best we can light upon there the prime and true beauty is in the living face and the second the resemblance the counterfeit of it in his image so here the most excelling blessednesse is in the Deity it selfe and the next from him upon those creatures of his who were facti ad similitudinem ejus made after his likenesse and are his Image He is true Blessednesse in himselfe and to us but to us how no otherwise than as he is applied unto us and we conjoyn'd unto him which act of joyning us unto him and applying him unto us is that which is called Fruitio or Visio Dei when we perfectly enjoy him by our sight of him and see him as he is This is that act which is our formall blessednesse For God though he be blessednesse yet he is not formally in us but objectivè as the School speaks or effectivè That which makes us formally blessed is the sight of his glorious countenance that which makes us thus like to him is that we see him as he is His servants shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads Revel 22.3 4 5. Now can this be the portion of any living man to see his face this which was denied to Moses his so beloved Servant to whom he had said I know thee by name and thou hast found grace in my sight Exod. 33.12 grace in it but not the sight it selfe yet to him Thou canst not see my face no no man shall see me and live v. 20. if not see his face and live then not that true blessednesse which consists in that sight while we live There is a measure of seeing God in this life and so a measure of happiness but neither full we see God in his workes O come hither and behold the works of the Lord Psal 46.8 And These see the workes of the Lord Psal 107.24 And Behold the goodnesse and severity of God Rom. 11.22 This is with Moses to see the back parts of Jehovah Exod. 33.23 to behold him in his workes of Power and Justice and Goodnesse So then there is a cleer and open seeing of our Creator that true beatifical Vision which the blessed Saints and Angels in Heaven only enjoy and there is a weaker sight a more obscure glimpse of the Deity which only the servants of God have here by faith they and none else neither Heathen who are not called to the knowledge of God nor wicked men who resist the Grace of God calling them who do not open to him when he knocks nor yield obedience to the good motions of his Spirit these see him not at all They have eyes but see not Matth. 13.14 at most seeing they see but do not perceive the eye of their mind is so wholly darkned that it is and they are darknesse it selfe as S. Paul tels the Ephesians before they were called to the light of grace Eph. 5.8 Now if the eye of thy winde if the light that is in thee be darknesse how great is that darknesse Matth. 6.23 And can darknesse it selfe see so great a darknesse see God himselfe him whom eye hath not seen Isa 64.4 He is seen but by one of these two wayes cleerly by them in heaven and sub-obscurely by his on earth we have ground for them both in one verse of St. Pauls 1 Cor. 13.12 Now we see through a glasse darkly but then face to face just the same that I told you from 1 John 3.2 We shall see him as he is In a word we are blessed here onely in that we hope we shall be blessed hereafter and that hope of blessednesse is grounded upon the hope we have that we shall see God face to face Blessed are the pure in heart saies Christ Matth. 5.8 why they shall see God they are blessed because they shall be blessed This was the ground of Job's happinesse while he liv'd in regard whereto death and destruction could not hurt him Though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God Job 19.26 This was it that made David blessed here and was such a preservative to him against fainting in the midst of all his troubles I should utterly have fainted but that I believe verily to see the goodnesse of the Lord where in the land of the living Psal 27.15 So that the blessednesse which we have here consists in the hope that we shall be blessed in Heaven Without salvation no perfect blessednesse that 's sure but we are saved by hope Rom. 8.24 and we are blessed only by hope whilst here we live neither is revealed yet the glory that shall be revealed so the Apostle cals it Rom. 8.8 for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for v. 24. I hope we may now conclude this point with that saying of the wise-man Ecclesiasticus 11.28 Judge no man blessed before his death for before blessed he shall be die he must sayes our Text Blessednesse is first in the order of the words but in the order of nature death and with that exhortation of the Prophet David which follows upon the confidence he had that he should see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living Psal 27. that for blessednesse sake we would not rush upon death as some Heathens being taught the immortality of the soul cast themselves and their souls away that they might be immortal but rather Tarry the Lords leisure be strong and he shall comfort thy heart and put
the Earth A Dominion a Kingdome at the first in the beginning and a large one too but not permanent he held it but a while Man being in honour had no understanding Psal 49.12 to hold what God had given him to abide by it he was soon dispossest by his early sin soon vanquish'd out of this Dominion And therefore well was it with him that God had prepared another a better for him this place this Kingdome Paratum à Constitutione mundi from which he could not fall But how will this hold Paratum and Vado parare why as S. Austin Tract 68. in Jo. quotes that saying from the Prophet Deus fecit quae futura sunt 'T is no unusual phrase in holy Scripture when they speake of Gods actions which are infinite eternall as himselfe to whom all things are continually present which are and which were and which are to come Creavi faciam illud Isa 46.11 So Tremelius translates it as well as the Vulgat edition I have created and I will make it just as in these two Texts I have prepared a place for you and I will prepare it There is the like expression in the end of the two and twentieth Psalm The Heaven shall declare his righteousnesse unto a People that shall be borne whom the Lord hath made He hath already made them and yet they shall be borne in their succession to the end of the World as David does acknowledge of himselfe Psal 139. that before he was borne All his members were written in Gods Book when as yet there was none of them So this place was prepared as Christ is said to be slain ab origine mundi from the foundation of the World and yet he was slain after that by the promise of God The Serpent shall bruise his heele Gen. 3.15 He was slain in the faith of the Father before his incarnation he was slain in the sacrifices of the Law which were this Lamb sacramentally he was slain in his severall members Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Act. 9.4 He was slain in Abel The death of innocent Abel sayes Lyra was a Figure of the death of this Lamb And yet after all this he was still to be slain upon the Crosse So this place was prepared before in Gods eternall preordination and yet Christ goes now to prepare it by his Death and anon by his Resurrection and after that by his Ascension into Heaven By his Death he purchaseth it and payes the great price of our Redemption and opens the gates of Heaven to us The High Priest went into the Sanctum Sanctorum not without blood and this High Priest of ours by his owne blood must enter into the Holy place and so obtain eternall redemption for us Hebr. 9.12 so having conquered Death by his Resurrection he then ascends to take possession of this Place for us He is Praecursor pro nobis Hebr. 6. The forerunner is for us entred even Jesus vers 20. Initiavit nobis viam Novam in the tenth of that Epistle That New that hitherto untrodden way hath he consecrated for us and is entred into Heaven it selfe now to appear in the presence of God for us Heb. 9.24 That 's the last particular Vobis for you God whatsoever he doth he doth it for some end a wise man is not lightly so little master of his actions but he still propounds to himself some end in every of them now because the end intended must still be the most perfect good and all meaner ends must conduce to that last end that best good and because God in himself is summum bonum the greatest good that can be and so could not possibly advance his actions to any end better than himself therefore for himself hath he done all things whatsoever he hath done universa propter semetipsum Prov. 16.4 All things were created by him and for him Col. 1.16 for himself chiefly but not for himself wholly the first thing that he did for us 't was for himselfe too for his owne glory his owne glory is that finis ultimus the maine the utmost the principal end of all his actions and should be of ours his Election and Predestination of us before the faundation of the world 't was ad laudem gloriae To the praise of the glory of his grace Eph. 1.12 But there is a subordinate end too by which his actions tend to the last end and that 's the benefit of that creature which he made after his own image the good of man as in the first creation whatsoever he made was for man and therefore he made the world and all the other creatures before he made man that they might be ready for his use so in that great work of re-creation of redemption all that he did was for man the very birth of his son to begin there for that the song of the heavenly hoast was Gloria in excelsis Deo Glory to God in the highest but not a minims rest in it before they come to Peace on earth and good will towards men Luke 2.14 there 's the Prophet's natus nobis he was born for us Isa 9.6 his whole life it was chiefly honoro patrem Jo. 8.49 I seek not my own glory v. 50. but I honour my Father upon the man born blind John 9. ver 4. He must work the works of him that sent him and 't was ver 3. That the works of God should be made manifest in him and Lazarus sickness Jo. 11. that he might die and be raised again by him 't was pro gloria Dei v. 4. for the glory of God but both these actions of his were for both their good too and so was all the rest of his life spent in that imployment the good of man that one verse Mat. 4.23 is a short true abstract of it all He went about teaching and preaching and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people there 's his vixit nobis he lived for us too come to his death he humbled himself and became obedient there was the glory of his Father in his obedience he humbled himself to death that death should have no more dominion over him Ro. 6.9 that that last enemy death might be destroyed 1 Cor. 15.26 that through death he might destroy death and him that had the power of death that is the Divel Heb. 2.14 that death might be swallowed up in victory ver 54. There 's his victory his glory but pro nobis too Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 by his death are we reconciled to God ver 10. there is his mortuus pro nobis his resurrection next Christ was raised up from the dead Rom. 6.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paraeus some translate it and they may well the word bears it home In or propter gloriam for the glory of the Father and propter nostrum justificationem Rom. 4.25 He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our