EIGHTEENE Choice and usefull SERMONS BY Benjamin Hinton B. D. Late MINISTER of HENDON And sometime fellow of TRINITY COLLEDGE IN CAMBRIDGE Contra rationem nemo sobrius senserit Contra Scripturam nemo Christianus senserit Contra Ecclesiam nemo pacificus senserit Imprimatur EDM CALAMY 1650. LONDON Printed by J. C. For Humphery Moseley at the Princes Armes in S. Pauls Church-yard and for R. Wodenothe at the Starre under S. Peters Church in Cornehill 1649. To the Right Worshipfull Master FRANCIS PHILIPS Auditor of LONDON Grace and Peace YOur love and kindnesse whereof I have had so long experience imboldens me to present these few Sermons unto you not as presuming of the worth of them but as desiring to testifie my thankfulnesse having so just occasion I am old and gray-headed wanting not much of seventy years yet not so old in years as I am in infirmities and in my age it pleased God to visite me through a fall whielâ— I took with an incurable lamenesse and through sicknesse which I had with great weaknesse both in my memory and voice whereby I have been much disabled to preach I was therefore the more willing with my pen to supply the defect of my tongue as Zachary wrote when he could not speake and made his pen to make known what his tongue could not Luke 1.63 And though many have done the like before me with far greater ability yet remembring that God at the making of the Tabernacle accepted as well the offerings of the poorer sort who brought thither but Goats-haire and Rams-skinnes as of those who were rich and offered blew silk and purple and scarlet I have offered these few mites into the treasury of the Church out of my want and penury when others offer talents out of their store and plenty And I doubt not of your favourable acceptance hereof as coming from him who will no longer desire your favour then he desires to remaine Your truely loving in the Lord BEN. HINTON Curteous Reader IT was the earnest desire of the Authour my Reverend Father that these Sermons might passe the Presse in his life for the furtherance of others passage to life eternall but being himself taken away by death before his purpose was effected I thought it my duty not to let his works die with him but to impart to others what GOD had imparted to him I desire that as they teach the word of Truth so they may be the word of life And although in these dayes Sermons are neglected by the most contemned by the worst and too little esteemed even by the best yet I doubt not but these will meete with some who will receive the Message for the Masters sake And as formerly the feet of those who brought glad tydings of the Gospel of peace were counted beautifull so will the Gospel it self I hope though plainly preached not be trod under feet but be acceptable and helpfull to augment their peace who indeed seek peace which shall be the prayers of him to the God of peace who is your Christian Friend WILLIAM HINTON The severall SERMONS I. ABrahams offring his Sonne Isaac GEN. 22.2 Take now thy Sonne thine onely Sonne Isaac whom thou lovest and get thee into the Land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt-offring upon one of the Mountains which I will tell thee of II. The good ground or hearer of the word MATTH 13.23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth some an hundred fold some sixty some thirty III. Zacheus converted LUKE 19.8 Behold Lord the half of my goods I give to the poor c. IV. Gaining the world and losing the soule MATTH 16.26 For what is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soule V. Man like the grasse and flowers of the field PSAL. 103 15. As for man his dayes are as grasse as a flowre of the field so he flourisheth VI. The Devil a coward if he be resisted JAMES 4.7 Resist the Devil and he will flee from you VII Gods best beloved most afflicted HEBR. 12.6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth VIII No peace to the wicked ESAY 57.21 There is no peace to the wicked saith my God IX God the Authour and protector of the Scripture 2 PETER 1.21 For the Prophesie came not in old time by the will of Man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost X. Christs miraculous Cures MATH 11.5 The blind receive their sight and the lame walk the Leapers are cleansed and the deaf heare the dead are raised up and the poore have the Gospel preached to them XI The Churches love to Christ CANTIC 3.1 By night on my bed I sought him whom my soule loveth XII Both Poverty and Riches occasions of evil PROVERBS 30.8 Give me neither Poverty nor Riches XIII Gods pardoning great sinners a great comfort to others PSAL. 32.6 For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou maiest be found XIIII Steven Stoned ACTS 7.59.60 And they stoned Steven calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice Lord lay not this sinne to their Charge XV. Lawfull and unlawfull swearing JEREM. 4.2 Thou shalt swear the Lord liveth in truth in judgement and iâ—â—â—ghteousnesse XVI Jonas sent to Nineveh JONAH 3.1 c. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time saying arise go to Nineveh that great City and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh XVII Hiding of sinne no small sinne PROVERBS 38.13 He that covereth his sinnes shall not prosper but who so confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy XVIII Christs coming to judgement both certain and uncertain 1 THES 5.2 For you your selves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a Thief in the night THE FIRST SERMON GEN. 22.2 Take now thine onely Sonne Jsaac whom thou lovest and get thee into the Land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt-offring upon one of the Mountaines which I will tell thee of Paradisus Genesis in quo pullulant Patriarcharum virtutes Ambr. Epist 41. THis booke of Moses is resembled by St. Ambrose not unfitly unto Paradise Genesis saith he is a Paradise wherein spring forth the virtues of the Patriarchs For as in Paradise there were variety of trees which brought forth variety of excelent fruits both pleasant to behold and good to eate Gen. 2.9 So in this Paradise this book of Genesis are many worthy plants Gods Children and Servants whose fruits of Faith of Love and obedience are both delightfull for us to read and profitable to imitate Now of all these plants the chief are the Patriarchs of all the Patriarchs the most fruitfull is Abraham and of all the fruits which he
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
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
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
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
we must be content to yield him obedience and to live as becomes his servants or he will not save us And therefore only the godly that serve him in their life can with comfort commend their souls unto him at the time of their death and say as Steven did Lord Jesus receive my spirit He prayes not for his body but for his soule Though it were his body which was here in danger while the Jews were stoning him yet it is not his body but it is his soule that he prayes for as being more sensible of his future estate then of his present condition and not so much regarding this present life as the life to come Many in their life and at the time of their death are carefull for their bodies thinking of the great pain which their bodies are to suffer when death siezes upon them and taking care how they shall be able to overcome the same This care troubles many that are good Christians who are the more afraid of death for the pain thereof and imagine the pain to be greater then it is That death is painfull there is not any question Si nulla esset mortis amaritudo non magna esset martyrum fortitudo saith Augustine If there were no sharpnesse and pain in death it were no great fortitude in the Martyrs to suffer it But though death be painfull yet we must remember this for our comfort that it will be no more painfull to us then it hath been to the godly in all ages and therefore why should we be afraid to undergo that which all the godly have undergone before us Will not any man be content to be put to that whereunto the King puts his chiefe Favourites for he will think with himselfe if I be put to no more then the Kings Favourites are I shall fare well enough The godly ye know are Gods chiefe Favourites God loves and favours them above all others if therefore they have suffered the paine of death and have not been exempted by God from it we may well be the lesse carefull to undergo it and may assure our selves that though the paine were never so great yet Christ who hath redeemed both our soules and bodies will inable us to bear it and as Cyprian saith Qui semel pro nobis mortem vicit semper vincet in nobis He that once overcame death for us will alwayes overcome it in us And therefore whether we die for the Lord or in the Lord we may well lay the care of our bodies aside and may chearfully commend our soules unto Christ as Steven here did Lord Jesus receive my spirit Doct. I might hence observe the immortality of the soule That though the body do die yet the soule is immortall This is signified by those words of Solomon Eccles 12.7 That the body shall returne to the earth from Whence it was taken and the spirit shall returne unto God who gave it Mat. 10.28 and by that saying of our Saviour Fear not those that can kill the body but are not able to kill the soule But I will passe this over and come briefly to the prayer which he makes for his persecutours He kneeled down and cryed with a loud voice Lord lay not this sinne to their charge Where first observe the gesture he used he kneeled down when he prayed The Jews did commonly stand when they prayed Therefore Christ alluding to this their custome Mark 11. When ye stand saith he and pray if ye have ought against any man forgive him And the Jewes have a saying Sine stationibus non consisteret mundus that the world could not consist without standing that is without praying because they were wont to pray standing 1 Kings 19.4 1 Chro. 17.16 The Prophet Eliah when he fled from Iezabel he prayed sitting And we read the like of David that he sat and prayed Other kinde of gestures we use in our prayers which may be reduced unto these two heads such as we use in regard of our Hope or in regard of our Humiliation and Reverence In regard of our hope we lift up our eyes and we stretch forth our hands as expecting and requiring Gods help and assistance So David in the 121. Psalm I will lift up mine eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help And Moses praying for the Isracletes Exod. 17. That they might prevale against Amaleck he stretched forth his hands For as Saint Austin saith Oculus erectus expectat manus extensa postulat The eyes being lift up expect help and the hands being stretcht forth do seeme to reuqire it In regard of our humiliation and reverence we uncover our heads we bow down our bodies and we kneele on our knees we uncover our heads which is Magnificentia depositio a laying aside of our greatnesse And thus Kings and Princes when they pray unto God do uncover their heads laying aside their state and acknowledging thereby that they are Gods Servants So we prostrate our selves and fall down on our knees as Steven here did in token of the reverence we owe unto God in offering our prayers And this gesture of kneeling we finde to have been often used by the faithfull and as the Magdeburgenses who wrote the Centuries affirme hath been the most ancient gesture in prayer and the most used by the Church in all ages Peter as we see in the 9. of the Asts and Paul in the 20. did pray kneeling so did the Prophet Daniel in his sixt Chapter Saint James the first Bishop of Jerusalem was so frequent in praying on his knees that he made his knees as hard as the hoofe of a Camel with continuall kneeling And the like did Asella as we read in St. Jerome It is true indeed that it is the heart and affection of him that prays and not the gesture of the body which God respects but withall this is true that he that makes no conscience of praying reverently doth never pray heartily and he that will not bend the knee unto God much lesse out of doubt will he bend the heart O come let us Worship and fall down saith the Psalmest and kneele before the Lord our maker Psal 95.6 Micah 6.6 Where withall shall I come saith the Prophet Micah in his sixt chapter before the Lord and bow my self before the high God To shew that he might not come into his presence but with great reverence And therefore this serves to reprove those that shew no signes of reverence unto God 2 Chr. 6.13 Luke 22 4â— when they come before him to offer up their prayers We see that Solomon when he consecrated the Temple 2 Chron. 6. he kneeled down and prayed and a greater then Solomon our blessed Saviour Luke 22. kneeled down when he prayed be for his passion If he therefore used such reverence in prayer should not we much more For shall mercy bend her knee and shall not misery Shall the Physician and shall not the Patient Shall
their own dayes might have found life but would not seek it so then in his day they shall seek death but shall not find it And as here it is called the day of the Lord Acts 2.20 so elsewhere it is called the great notable day of the Lord Joel 2.11 and the the great terrible day of the Lord because on that day more great terrible things shall come to passe then ever came to passe in the World before The Prophet Esay was shewed a vision which did so greatly astouish him that he saith his heart panted and fear came upon him Esay 21.3 that it made him to stoop when he heard of it and dismayed him when he saw it What was that vision which was able to affright so great a Prophet He saw the fall of Babylen how that mighty City the glory of Kingdoms as the Scripture calls it should be overthrown and all the stately buildings thereof should be brought to ruine But on this day which is here meÌ„tioned there shal be a matter which is far more fearfull not the desolation of one City or Kingdom but the finall overthrow and utter ruine of all the Kingdoms and buildings in the World together For on that day the very foundation of the earth shall be shaken so that all the buildings thereof from the least to the greatest shall be shivered asunder and quite overthrown Though our walls were as strong as the walls of Nineveh which as Authors write of them were made of that thicknesse that three Carts might go side-long together upon them though our Turrets were as high as the Spires of Egypt or the Tower of Babell whose top they would have made to have reacht up unto heaven though our houses were as sumptuous as the Pallace of Alcinous where the walls were of brasse the entries of silver and the gates of gold yet on this great day if they continued so long they should all be overthrown For what shall be able to stand on that day when there shall be earthquakes on the one side and fire on the other which shall overthrow and consume whatsoever is before them On that day there shall be so great an earthquake as Saint John tells us Revel Rev. 6.12.14 6. That all mountains and istands shall be moved out of their places On that day there shall be so great a fire all overthe World that Saint Peter tells us 2 Pet. 3.10 The heavens being on sire shall be dissolved the elements shall melt with fervent heat and the earth and all the works therein shall be burut up On that day there shall be the greatest number assembled together that ever were For then heaven and earth as it were shall meet together on the one side Christ and his Angels shall come from heaven thousand thousands shall attend upon him and ten thousand thousands shall minister unto him on the other side shall be Adam and Eve with their whole of-spring even all that have lived from the first to the last in all ages from one end of the world to the other in all Countries they shall all appear on that together Gen. 13.16 God promised Abraham the father of the faithfull that his seed should be as the starres of heaven Gen. 15.5 in number like the sand on the sea-shore which ye know is innumerable yet all these in comparison of that infinite multitude which shall be assembled together at the day of judgement are no more then an handfull For then all without exception both Jewes and Gentiles beleevers and infidels even every one in his own person shall appear on that day and not one shall be wanting Therefore saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that which he hath done whether it be good or evill All and every one to shew the generality that none are excepted and we must appear to shew the necessity that it cannot he avoided When the King in the Gospell invited many to the marriage of his Sonne Luke 14. they pretended excuses for their not coming one saying that he had bought a piece of ground another that he had bought five yoke of oxen another that he had married a wife and could not come so that of those which were invited there were many wanting But no excuse shall be taken at the day of judgement but as all shall be summoned to appear on that day so none shall be absent There shall not any be permitted to appear by his Atturney but all must come in their own persons and none be suffered to put in sureties We see many times that such as are to come before earthly Judges do break out of prison and escape the judgement that should passe upon them but there can be no hope for any to escape at the day of judgement for indeed the whole World is as it were Gods prison-house every part whereof on that day shall bring forth their prisoners Rev. 20.13 The Sea saith Saint Iohn Revel 20. did yield up her dead that were therein and death and hell delivered up the dead that were in them and they were judged every man according to his works Lastly On that day there shall a finall separation be made between the godly and the wicked While we live in this world the good and the bad the elect and the reprobate do live ye know promiscuously together And therefore the Church is compared in the Scripture sometime to a floor sometime to a field and sometime to a fold to a floore wherein is both come and chaffe to a field wherein is both wheat and cares and to a fold wherein are both sheep and goats Mat. 25.32 But on this great and notable day of the Lord they shall be distinguisht and an everlasting sepâ—ration shall be made between them For then Christ shall place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his lest the wheat and the corn shall be carried into his barn the chaffe and the tares shall be cast into the fire the godly shall be taken up into heaven the wicked thrown into hell And in these respects it is called the great and notable day of the Lord because so great and notable things shall come to passe on that day And thus much concerning the day it selfe The second thing to be considered is the coming of this day and therein two things are set down that it is certain this day will come For you your selves saith he know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes And that it is untertain when it will come It comes saith he as a thiefe in the night Whose coming is uncertain and not known when he comes And first concerning the certainty of the coming of this day Saint Peter tells us of some that make but a mock of Christs coming or