therefore goe about it now Reckon with others also for works of mercy what thou hast been wanting in to thy brethren thou hast lived thus long in a plentifull estate what hast thou done wich thy estate Josephus reckons up three several tenths that were expected and exacted of the Jews Wouldest thou be less liberal now in the time of the Gospel then they were under the law Is God lesse merciful or hath he less interest in thy estate Thou hast so many thousands What hast thou done out of this to releeve the poor or to set up those in a course of traffique and trade that want a stock Beloved you cannot if you look about you want objects of mercy and means to further your reckoning at the day of the Lord. And if you would be faithful stewards to God say thus I have been thus much behind-hand in paying the due I owe to the poor to the Church c. I will pay it while I live and if that be not enough when I die I will pay it But I hasten That is the second thing Let every man reckon thus with his own heart The third thing is the daily exercise of repentance upon the sight of your former evils God now saith the Apostle calleth all men every where to repentance because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness Let this then stir us up to repentance God expects that men should judge themselves now Fourthly If you would stand at that great day of Judgement when there shall be such an exact reckoning Interest now your selves in Christ There is no way to escape the Judgement to come but by making peace with the Judge now There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus This was prefigured in the Mercy-seate that was to be compassed about with the wings of the Cherubins all covering the two tables of the Testament one Cherubin to look toward another shewing us thus much that there is no covering of our transgressions committed against the commandements of God the tables of the Testimony but by the great Mercy-seat the Lord Jesus Christ upon whome the Fathers of the times before Christ and Beleevers since look expecting the covering of the guilt of their sins from the wrath of God by no other means but by this propitiator or Mercy-seat that covereth the Arke of the Testimony Lastly it serveth also for instruction in another point that is To teach us to lead a holy conversation This use the Apostle Peter made of the Doctrin of the day of Judgement Seeing saith he that we locke for these things what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godlidesse Alas beloved little do you know whether this be the last Sermon that many of you may heare whether this be the last day wherein God will ever call upon you to repent and amend your lives There shall be a fearful dissolution and destruction of all things that you see There shall be a naked appearance made before the Judge at that day of reckoning let every man therefore say within himself How shall I stand at that time at that Judgement All our care should be that of the Apostle Pauls Whether we be absent from the body or present in the body we labour that we may be accepted of the Lord Whether we live a day longer or die this day before the morrow that we may be found acceptable before the Lord. And for this cause saith he in another place because there shall be a resurrection from the dead both of the just and unjust I exercise my self to have alwayes a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Look to it in your places and in your hearts that you may have a good conscience void of offence toward God and men for the time shall come that nothing in the world shall stand you in stead but a good conscience and if then when the books are opened it be found that your reckonings are even and the accounts clear between you and your Master by obedience and repentance by works and by faith happy shall that servant be whome his Master at that day shall find so doing The last Use is a use of comfort to all the servants of God Let them quietly and cheerfully suffer that portion of miserie and affliction that the Lord dealeth out unto them Let them not grudge at the prosperity of ungodly men or at the variety of changes that themselves are exposed unto because there is a day of reckoning and account when all things shall be made even The Apostle Saint James exhorteth Christians to patience upon this very ground because the day of the Lord draweth nigh If therefore you see wicked men prosper and bring their enterprises to passe be not troubled at the matter A man doth not much envy an enemy that is now in prison though he have some good chear there though he have some friends that come and see him there because he knows he is but a Prisoner and he shall be brought out at the Assizes and then he shall be righted The world is the common Jayle whereinto Adam was cast after he had sinned and we are all prisoners in this prison-house the enemies of Gods glory and of his Church and people they cannot escape out of this prison here they are tied Gods chains are upon them and he will bring them to an account before his Judgement seate and that before all men and Angels With these things let us comfort and support our selves A word concerning the present occasion Yee have heard that all men are Gods Stewards yee have heard that God hath a time wherein he will call all his Stewards to an account the fore-runners of this great account shall be in this life and after death when God strikes men down by death it is that they may be brought into his presence and there receive the sentence either of absolution or condemnation as I shewed you before concerning the soul o man in that intelectual manner receiving the sentence It is appointed to all men once to die and after that the Judgement You have now a spectacle of mortality before you one of Gods stewards took away and called by death to give up his account Concerning whom it cannot be expected that I should say much or any thing at all specially by those that know both the condition of his living and of his dying For his living It was not in the Citie but for the most part it was from us in the Country For his dying He was here but a day or two before he was taken hence Hee came to the Citie in the extremity of his weaknesse and it took him with some violence as the nature of that disease the stone is There was much expression expected from him but it pleased God to make a sudden change more then we looked
of whatsoever else it be this is even the very reason of all because even those that professe themselves to be the people of God and to give God the glory of his attributes in all his works yet they lay not to heart the death of those that are before them Men durst not they could not passe away their time in such unprofitablenesse and unfruitfulnesse as they do if they did seriously consider and lay to heart the death of others before them Again secondly As it condemnes the general neglect that is amongst men of this duty so it serves to reprove that sinful laying to heart of the death of others that is too frequent and common in the world That is first when men with too much fondnesse and with too great excesse and distemper of affection look upon their dead friends as if God could never repair the losse nor make amends for that he hath done in taking of them away Rachel mourneth and will not be comforted David mourneth and will scarce be comforted Oh Absalom my son my son would God I had died for thee What is all this but to look on freinds rather as Gods then men as if all sufficiency were included in them only Men look on their freinds as Micah did upon his Idol when they had bereaved him of it they took away all his comfort and quiet You have taken away my Gods saith he and what have I more or as Laban that when his Idols were stoln away his heart was dead he could not stay in his house he could not enjoy himselfe wherefore have you stollen away my Gods saith he So I say men look on their dead freinds as they should look upon the Creatour and not as upon the creature they take their death to heart but not in a right manner This is the very reason why God many times makes your Christian freinds so unprofitable to you when they live because you idolize them you advance them above God This is the reason also why you are so unable to bear the losse of them when they die God beating you now with your own rod and making you feel the fruit and effect of your own folly This now is an ill taking to heart the death of freinds to mourn as men without hope Secondly there is a taking to heart and considering of the death of men but it is an unrighteous considering an unrighteous judging of the death of others If men see one die it may be a violent death then they conclude certainly there is some apparent token of Gods judgment on such a one If they see another die with some extremity of torment and vehement pains certainly there is some apparent evidence of Gods wrath upon this man If they see another in some great and violent tentation strugling against many tentations they conclude presently certainly such are in a worser case then others I may say to all these as Christ said once to those that told him of the eighteen men upon whom the Tower in Siloe fell think you that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem Or rather as Solomon saith All things come alike unto all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath Learn to judge righteous judgment to judge wisely of the death of others take heed of condemning the generation of the just But rather in the last place Make this use of the death of every one Doth such a man die by an ordinary sicknesse having his understanding and memory continued to the end Doth such a man die in inward peace and comfort with cleare and evident apprehensions of Gods love so that he can with Simeon say Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace What use shouldest thou that livest make of this now Certainly let the sweetnesse of their death make thee in love with the goodnesse of their lives That is the only way to a happy death to a comfortable end indeed the leading of a fruitful and profitable life Again dost thou see the Children of God full of temptations full of fears and disquietnesse of spirit in their death Sometimes so overcome with the violence of the disease as that it may be they speak impertinently and idely it may be sinfully What use shouldest thou make of this now Certainly let the terribleness of the example of such a mans death let it be a terrour to thee and a means to stir thee up to more carefulnesse of making good use of thy time in this life Nabal dieth and his heart is in him as a stone If ever God quicken thee if ever God breath upon thy soule or enliven thee by the inward motions of his Spirit embrace those opportunities and seasons of grace lest God smite thee with an everlasting deadnesse Again hath God caused the light of his countenance to shine upon thy heart Doth he offer a gracious message of peace to thy soule Doth he speak peace at any time by the ministery of his Word Imbrace those offers yeeld to those conditions of peace lest thou be deprived of peace at the end Againe hath GOD given thee any strength over temptations Hast thou prevailed over the assaults of Sathan and other of thy enemies Hath he made thee a conquerour take heed how thou insnarest thy selfe againe how thou inthrallest thy self in yeelding to Sathans yoke lest he buffet thee by him in a worse manner at thy end Thus I say thou canst see nothing befal any of Gods servants in their death or in the manner of their death whether in be more pleasing or more sorrowful more calm and quiet or more tempestuous and full of trouble whether it be more comfortable or more lamentable but it may be useful unto thee If it be good it may be it shall be so with thee if it be bad it may be it shall be so with thee too The main businesse that a man hath to do is to make sure of himself in this life It was the question that Saint Austin made to those that told him of a violent death that seized upon one But how did he live saith he He made no matter how he went out but how he carried himself in the world And truly this is the great Question that every man should put to his soule I must out of the world how have I lived when I was in the world had GOD any glory by me had men any good by me have I furthered my account against the day of reckoning that I may give it up with joy it makes no matter how I go out of the world I am sure if my life have been serviceable to God and beneficial to men my departure shall be for gain and advantage it is
Death and therefore when by faith he looks upon Christ and through him upon Death he looks upon that as a thing made instead of poison a medicine instead of a destroyer a Saviour and deliverer as a means to free him from the bondage of sin and misery and afflictions c. Thirdly Doth God do this that he may make men more holy and watchful in their course then certainly the more thou canst purge out thy sin in the course of thy life the less thou shalt fear death The sting of Death is sin then if thou wilt have Death comfortable let thy life be conformable to Gods rule and word or else every sin will present it selfe in death before thee specially those sins thou allowest thy self in will make Death as bitter as Hell Fourthly Doth God do it for this end that he may make thee better prepared for death Then the more thou art prepared for Death beforehand the less thou shalt fear it when it cometh upon thee it will not come as a stranger but thou wilt be ready to receive it as one with whom thou art acquainted already It is a great matter if men could learn this wisdome to die daily that is be every day imployed as dying daily I mean for the manner of your carriage not for the matter for the substance of the duty If a man were sure to die this day he would lay aside all business and set himself to be prepared for judgment and would lay aside the use of any other comforts and delights But this is not the meaning but this that we carry our selves in business every day as if death should seize upon us in that business that we might be found well-doing that is when a man followeth his earthly business with a heavenly mind when he keepeth to the rule of righteousness and truth in his ordinary calling when he is doing or receiving good in his company when he useth his pleasures and recreations as the whet-stone to the Sithe to make him fitter for God I say when thus we do things to a right end and in a right manner if Death now should seize upon us in such an action it should find us well-doing And this is that we perswade you to if you would have death comfortable and not tertible be so imployed as that your actions may be good both for matter and forme that you are now about because Death may stricke you in such an action But I cannot stand on these particulars Again for the causes in our selves If you would be freed from the terrours of Death then rectifie your apprehensions and opinions of Death think of it as it is as it is I say to beleevers to those that are in Christ It is not the destruction of nature and so a natural Ill as you account it It is rather a cure of nature for assoon as ever we live we are dying and all our life it is but a living death a continual decaying and dying Now when death cometh it putteth an end to all the decayes of nature and setteth all right again It is but a sleep and sleep it is not a destruction but a help of the body and that which inableth to vigour and strength and fitnesse to action Again it is not the distruction of any part of a man the body it self is not destroyed indeed it is in the Grave but it is in the grave as in a bed of peace They shall come and rest in their beds saith the Prophet The grave is but as a bed wherein the body lies asleep and no man you know is troubled with fear that he goeth to bed The grave is but as Gods chest to keep in all his Treasure whereof the bodies of his servants are a part precious to him even in the grave in death Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints and God will open this Cabinet and the Chest of the Grave in the great day of the Resurrection and bring the body out again and then it shall be as good as ever it was nay I say not only as good but much better too for our vile bodies shall be made like the glorious body of Christ Phil 3. No man when he goeth to bed thinks much to have his old cloathes taken off that they may be mended and made better against morning When we sleep in the Grave it is no more but this the garment of the soul the body the old apparel that is taken off that it may be made better and a more glorious body this is all we lose nothing by it but our estates even our bodily estate is bettered by it And for the Soul Death doth not destroy that neither for know this the soul liveth for ever the bodie indeed returneth to the Earth as it was but the soul returneth to God that gave it The soul I say liveth that is the thing that Christ himself proveth in 22. Mat. Abraham is alive why so for God is not the God of the dead but of the living for God said I am the God of Abraham c. How can this be that God is the God of Abraham and yet he is dead Indeed he is dead if we looke to the separation of the soul and body in the cessation of bodily actions but if we looke to the better part of Abraham his soul that continueth the everliving God hath made an everlasting Covenant with him and therefore he dieth not Again it is not only not the destruction of nature but not of your actions neither Death doth not destroy them neither Indeed there is a cessation of bodily actions but it is that the body may have better strength and be the fitter instrument of holiness after But for those actions of the soul that depend not upon the body they are as perfectly done when we are dead as when we are alive and better too When a man liveth upon the earth you see his soul is much hindered by the body A distempered sick crazie body or a full well-fed body is a hinderance to the soul because of that tie that is between the body and the soul and the spirit so there is a simpathy the soul is affected somewhat in this sense But it is not so then the soul shall be loosed from the body and so freer for spiritual actions then now it is The souls under the Altar they crie How long Lord holy and just wilt thou not revenge our bloud upon them that are upon the earth The souls of Gods servants you see then are glorified when they are out of the body and therefore shall glorifie God more prefectly and enjoy God more freely and fully then now while their souls are in these mortal bodies And at that very instant when the soul of Cods servant is carried out of the body to heaven it more perfectly injoyeth Christ and is more sensible and more fit to answer the love
respect of the metaphor the Apostle aludeth unto it is taken from the sting of a Serpent and so Sin is a sting in a double respect First in respect of the fearfulness and then in respect of the hurtfulness of it First in respect of the fearfulness It is Sin that makes Death fearful to a man Indeed I confess that in the best Christian though Christ have pulled out the sting of death yet there are natural grudgings and shruglings As to a Serpent though the sting be pulled away yet there are some abhorrings and dislikes in a man But then how terrible is Death when it cometh in a compleate Armour as it doth against a person in whom Sin remaineth in its full power it must needs then be terrible See the differences between two persons the one is afraid of every one he meeteth the other is not what is the reason the one is greatly indebted and ingaged the other is free So it is with a Christian and another man the one cannot hear of Death but his heart breaks he is full of fear and horrour the other heareth of Death and is only somewhat affected in the hearing of it but not possessed with that fear as is the other what is the reason the sting of death remaineth in one and not in another Sin therefore is a sting in that respect Secondly it is a sting in respect of hurtfulness The sting of the Serpent is a hurtfull thing it poysoneth the vitall parts it takes away life it self All the evill that cometh to us by death cometh by sin Man need not complain of the ilness of the prison so much as of his own folly that he ingaged himself in debt whereby he is cast into prison Why complainest thou of the misery in Hell rather labour to break off thy sins that are the cause of all that misery all the hurtful quality and miserable condition that befalleth a person in Death and Hell is for Sin the eternal separation of the soul from God and all punishment that follows after in Hell are the fruit of mans sin Hell had not been Hell without Sin it is Sin that causeth it to become hurtfull Thus I have explained these inquiries Now I come to make Use and application and so conclude the Point The first Use of this point shall be this If Sin be the sting of death let it be our wisdom to get this sting pulled out in the time of our life Oh that this people were wise faith God then would they consider their latter end If you were wise that hear me this day you would consider that Death will come and if it be not taken away before-hand with a sting upon the soul My brethren we have many enemies to deal with even now at this very instant but there is yet an enemy as the Apostle faith The last enemy to be subdued is Death he his behind and here is the difference betwixt Death our last enemy and some other of our enemies some other of our enemies cannot be subdued but by their presence but let me tell you this Death is such an enemy as is never subdued but by his absence thou canst never overcome Death in death thou must not reserve this combat till thou come to the field but thou must overcome this enemy before he cometh thou must overcome him in thy life How is that Pull out the sting of him now then Death is conquered How will you disarm the tongues of malicious slanderous persons and deprive them of their viperous speech by an innocent life So how will you take away the sting of death watch against Sin take away sin and you take away the power from Death set upon Sin and Death is overcome so much sin as is now dead so much is Death conquered I beseech you seriously consider these particulars First that it will not be long ere Death knock at these doors of ours these houses of clay must shortly be ruinated we must certainly be resolved into dust What is this life of ours but as a ship that is driven by a gale of breath When the breath of man ceaseth the ship lieth in a dead calm Man goeth to his long home saith Solomon and the mourners follow in the streets Death is our long home we all are the mourners we follow in the streets This dead carcass is an example that leads us to our home and a sermon to tell us that we must follow we follow now in a charitable expression but we shall follow one day in paying of the same debt Look over all the times of the world and the dispositions of persons look over learning and folly greatness or poorness find me a man that escaped Death Die we must and we have need to have this much pressed upon us for it is a hard matter to beleeve that we must die that I must be the man that must die common notice of Death are granted but that I must die and lie in the dust and stand before God it is a hard matter to beleeve this And consider this secondly that Death will be terrible to thee if he knock and find a sting in thee Thou that now wilt not be reclaimed from swearing Alas what will become of that blaspheming soul of thine when death shall come and find a sting of blasphemy in thee How darest thou think of giving up that swearing soul of thine to the Judge of heaven and earth Thou unrighteous person that wilt not sanctifie the Lords day how darest thou give up that unholy soul of thine to the holy God Dost thou think to have an eternal rest in heaven and wilt not give God a rest here So I might say for all kind of sinners Think of this take heed lest Death find a sting in thee for all the sting that Death hath it findeth in thy self look to it thy condition will be fearful if Death come and find Sin unmortified unrepented of in thee God will certainly bring thee to judgment for every thought and word and action Thirdly consider this that naturally we are so tempered that if Death come he shall find his weapons and strength in us in every man of us I mean considered naturally But how shall I know whether Death when he cometh shall find a sting in me or no I will only give you two tryals you shall know it thus First if thy conscience now sting thee for some approved sin if thou repent not Death will assuredly meet thee with a sting that approved sin of thine will be the â—…ting of death Conscience will sting a man either for the act done or for the approbation of the act if conscience sting a man for his approbation of a sinful quality or for a sinfull course if a man continue in that course surely that will be the sting of death to his soul therefore look to thy self perhaps thou art convicted of such a sin perhaps thy
conscience hath so wrought on thee that it hath stung thee for such a sin thou yet approvest thy self in it and thou wilt go on in thy pride still in such and such sins stil thou wilt do so do but know this that stand thou never so much upon thy resolution Death will certainly come and if he find thee in such a sin against thy conscience thou hast reserved in thy self a sting for Death Secondly a man shall know if Death come with a sting by this trial that Solomon giveth us in Ec. 11.9 Rejoyce oh young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the dayes of thy youth and walk in the wayes of thy heart and sight of thine eyes but know that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment If thou live a voluptuous life Death will certainly come with a sting Dives he lived a voluptuous life had he not a sting for it So others in Scripture did not their plentiful tables and voluptuous courses bring a sting on them A voluptuous life makes a sting for Death When a poor wretch is a dying and shall begin to reflect back on his life what have I done how have I lived so much time I have spent or mispent in apparel in vanity in eating in drinking in swaggering What comfort is this to his soul how can he answer this before God this is the very thing that will sting him at such a day when he can read nothing in his life but barrenness and unfruitfulness nothing that hath honoured God in all his life Certainly my brethren if there be an Epicurious voluptuous life this life will provide a sting for Death Alas you will say Is it so then we may fear that Death will seize on us thus for we confess we have gone on in a voluptuous life gone on in sin that our conscience hath condemned us for how shall we do to pull out this sting I would to God you were thus affected that you were convicted what a fearful thing it will will be if sin remain But wouldest thou have the sting of death pulled out before death come I. How shall I disarme it that I may look death in the face with comfort I. shall give you some wayes and means remember them and practise them First get but a part in Christ and the sting of death is gone thanks be to God saith the Apostle here that hath given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ It is he that in the Revelation is said to have the keyes of Hell and of death they are under his command and subjection he is victorious over them he hath vanquished them so that if a man have Christ he hath victory and power over Hell and Death I told you in the beginning that that which giveth a sting to Death is the guilt of sin It is so and it is a fearful sting Now that which takes away the guilt of sin is Christ If Christ be mine I have enough to answer the guilt of sin Therefore the Apostle saith Death cannot separate from the love of God in Christ What shall then Indeed nothing it is not the guilt of his sins Christ hath satisfied from them So that if thou wilt have the sting of death out get faith in Christ if thou be not hidden in the clefts of that Rock in the blood of Christ if Christ be not thy Justification and thy righteousness what hast thou to answer the Justice of God you must die and stand before God and how can you stand before God in your sins you cannot without Christ why do you not then study more for Christ Why do you not labour for faith in him It will be your wisdom to labour earnestly to make sure of him if you have him the sting of death is gone Death cannot hurt a person that hath Chriâ—… Get faith in Christ therefore that is the first Secondly 〈…〉 would not have Death terrible and fearful to you labour for sincerity 〈◊〉 â—â—ethren it is a marvellous thing and yet the truth uprightness and sincerity 〈…〉 is an enabling grace All the particular things that we account particulaâ—â—â—â—â—â—wise they have not an inabling vertue in them Some persons have a great dâ—â—â— of learning and wit and many friends much riches and the like yet there cometh an occasion sometimes that puzzleth all these there cometh an occasion sometimes that a mans learning is of no use and natural parts and wit cannot help and riches cannot inable him What time is that The time of death the heart of a man is put to it at such a time and now these shrink nothing can inable a man agaiâ—â— fear so much as sincerity and uprightness When the Prophet Isaiah told 〈◊〉 from God that he must die he flieth to this Lord remember how I have 〈◊〉 fore thee with an upright heart and done that which was good in thy sight When Death cometh to a wicked voluptuous person and telleth him I am here come for thee thou must appear before God what can this man say Lord I have lived before thee a voluptuous proud wretched life I was a scorner of thy Word a contenâ—…er and persecutor of thy people a swearer c. What though perhaps he can say Lord I have heard so many Sermons I have been so much in conference and the like will this inable a man against the fear of Death No nothing but this that he hath a sincere heart that his heart is unmixed that sin is not affected in his soul that there is no sin that he would live in no duty that he wonld not do Lord remember I have walked before thee uprightly I say nothing will inable a man more against fear then sincerity and nothing disgraceth perplexeth the soul in an exigent more then 〈◊〉 It is sincerity that takes away the sting of Death The Apostle in Râ—…m 14. saith he No man liveth to himself but if he live he liveth to the Lord and if he die he dieth to the Lord whether we live or die we are the Lords Here is the comfort we are the Lords saith he How proveth he that We live unto him That is the work of a sincere heart A true Christian liveth not to himself but to Christ Now if thy conscience give thee this testimony I have lived unto Christ then whether I live or die I am the Lords the Apostle concludeth it So right is that of Solomon Riches availeth not in the day of wrath but righteousness delivereth from death Thy righteousness and sincerity delivereth thee not from dying but from death It takes away the sting and power of Death Death shall not be death to thee it is only a passage to thee Therefore remember as to get a part in Christ so to get a perfect and sincere heart and then the sting of death is gone But a hypocritical divided heart a heart and a heart that will
sting a man That is the second Thirdly wouldest thou have the sting of death pulled out now Then mortisie thy sins now do it presently Remember what Saint Paul saith but I think he speaks it in respect of afflictions I profess by our rejoycing in Christ Jesus I die dayly If it be meant of afflictions yet it should be verified of us in respect of sin die dayly to sin and then the sting of death is gone Oh beloved our condition will be sad and discomfortable when at once we must enter into the field with Death and Sin he that dieth daily to Sin he hath nothing to do with Death when it cometh Death may come to such a party but cannot hurt him he may rest quietly when it cometh And observe it so much sin as thou now sparest so much sting thou reservest for Death and is it not folly in a man to spare sin that giveth a sting to Death But now as a man is to crucifie evey sin let me put in this caution and remember this advise As the sting of every sin is to be pulled out so pull out especially the sting of that Sin that now stingeth thy conscience that now lieth upon thy conscience for if it work now it will work fearefully at death Death doth not lessen the work of sin but inrageth it God will then present and set thy sins in order before thee perhaps God hath brought thee here to day to hear this Word get thee home and set thy soul in order The love of Sin and the fear of Death seldome part and where Sin is much loved Death will there be much feared Death is never more terrible then where sin is most delighted in Therefore crucifie sin if thou wilt have the sting of death taken away It may be thou thinkest it is a troublesome work but remember that those sins which thou now so much delightest in and lovest and livest in will then prove the sting of death to thee If a man would spend his time in the mortisication of sin when death cometh he should have nothing to do but to let his soul loose to God and to give it up to him as into the hands of his most faithfull Creator and Redeemer And is it not an excellent thing for a man to have nothing to do with Death when it cometh Lastly here is a use of comfort If it hath pleased God to give any of us the grace to pull out the sting of death it is a great comfort But Death is approaching you will say Oh but Death is disarmed the sting of it is taken away what a singular comfort is it then to you that Death is coming Indeed all the comfort that the soul is capable of is this that the sting of death is took away Now when Death cometh upon such a man it doth but free him from all that state of misery he is in here from all that extremity of condition that he is put into from all those diversities of occasions pressing occasions of tumbling about in the world Death doth but put an end to all And which is an excellent comfort to a Christian Sin is ended with Death what afflicteth the soule of a Christian but that he carrieth about him a body of sin and of death This was a trouble to Saint Paul and is to every true Christian Now when Death cometh there is an end of this Body of sin thou shalt never sin more thou shalt never grieve the Spirit of God more thou shalt never be clogged with such imperfections and infirmities in duty that death that cometh to thee shall pass thee to the fruition of eternal glory and what canst thou desire more then to be happy in eternal glory with God THE DESTRUCTION OF THE DESTROYER OR THE OVER THROW OF THE LAST ENEMY SERMON VII 1 COR. 15.26 The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death DEATH is a Subject that a Christian should have in his thoughts often and neither the hearing nor thinking nor speaking of it can be unseasonable for any place or person We have heard that the life of Philosophers is nothing but a meditation of Death and certainly the life of a Christian much more should abound in such meditations No man can live well till be can die well He that is prepared for Derth is certainly freed from the danger of death neither is there any so fit a way to be ready for it as to be osten minded of it Therefore I have made choice at this time to speak of this verse wherein ye see the Apostle declareth and leadeth us to treat of four things First that there is a Death Secondly that this Death is an Enemy Thirdly that this Enemy is the last Enemy Lastly that this last Enemy shall be destroyed A word or two of each of these parts First Death is Ye know that well enough your eyes shew it you daily our senses declare it so plainly that no man is so senseless that knoweth it not It is agreed upon by all Only for your better furtherance to make use of this point let us acquaint you with that which nature will teach ye concerning Death Secondly with that which Scripture will teach you above and better then Nature Nature sheweth ye concerning Death first what it is And then Secondly what Properties it hath It telleth us this That Death is in absence from life a ceasing from beeing when one was beeing to be thrust as it were out of the present world and be cast some where This is all that Nature informeth us concerning the Essence and Being of Death Death is a deviding of us from this life and from the things of this life and sends us abroad we know not where Secondly Nature teacheth us three Properties concerning Death One that it is universal It hath tied all to it high and low rich and poor Death knocks at the Princes pallace as well as at the poor habitation of the meanest man It is a thing that respects no mans greatness it regardeth no wealth nor wit nothing Death takes all before it That Nature teacheth too Secondly Nature teacheth that Death is inevitable If a man would give all the world he cannot thrust it out of doors It takes whole Armies as well as one man It scorneth to be resisted by the Phisitians there is no words no means to escape it It is such an enemy as we must grapple with and it will conquer This Nature teacheth Again Nature teacheth that death is uncertain A man knoweth not when Death will come to him or when it will lay hold on him or by what means it will setch him out of the world It may fetch him out of the world at any time or in any place and by such occasion as it is impossible for any wit to think of before This is in substance all that Nature teacheth And the knowledg of this
shall never again be known in the world or felt by his servants and he preventeth all those evill effects that it would work in the soul for eternity and removeth all the ill effects of it that it hath wrought on their bodies for the present time Death takes away a mans goods for the present Christ abolisheth that he giveth everlasting substance in heaven Death takes away friends Christ abolisheth that he sends us to heaven where we have more friends and better Death brings the body to rottenness and corruption it laieth it in the dust turns it to putrifaction Christ abolisheth that at the Resurrection it shall rise again in glory How that is done the Apostle tells us in the end of this chapter The body shall be laid in the dust a weak and feeble a mortal and natural body but it shall be clothed with immortality This mortal shall put on immortality this corruptible shall put on incorruption then shall be fulfilled that saying Death is swallowed up in victory But this is also limited it shall be destroyed to whom To those that use the remedy those that partake of Christ those that have put on him that is the Resurrection and the life Thus I have laid before your eyes briefly these four things that the Apostle leadeth us to treat of concerning death That it is That it is an enemy That it is the last enemy And that it shall be destroyed Now I desire to apply this and to make use of it First I shall be bold to play the Examiner to search each conscience a little Brethren let the word of God enter into your souls Ye hear that there is a death and that this death is a sore and bitter enemy and ye hear that to some sort of men it is the last enemy that ever they shall encounter with and be freed from all the hurt of it it shall be utterly destroyed Now do so much as discend every one into himself and inquire what care there hath been to prepare for death to make use of the remedy against death what time and paines hath been bestowed to seek to get that that is the only means to escape the Dart of this enemy and that that is the only cause to procure this enfranchisement to the soul from that that else will destroy all A man hath not fitted himself to encounter with his enemy when he looks after wealth and followeth the pleasures and contentments of this life these things will do no good they will be rather a burthen to the heart and vexe the soul and increase the mischief laying more sin upon the soul and giving death darts to pierce the soul with But when is a man fit for death and who may encounter with this enemy with safety I will tell ye That man that takes the greatest care to disarm death of his weapons to arm himself with defensive weapons against death If an enemy come upon a man with good weapons in his hand and find him altogether unweaponed it is hard for a naked unarmed man to deal with him it is hard for a man that never thought of it before to fight with one that is skilful at his weapons Death I told ye is an enemy and an enemy that is skilful in his weapons and the weapon of death it is our own sin Death bringeth nothing with it to hurt a man It findeth with us and in us that whereby to hurt us so many corruptions as are in thy heart so many weapons so many idle words so many bad deeds so many swords to pierce thy heart Death maketh use of those weapons it findeth in our selves and with them he destroyeth and killeth and brings us to perdition Now what have ye done beloved to disarme death what care have ye taken to break sin apieces that it may not be as a sword ready drawn for the hand of death when it cometh as Arrows in a Bow to shoot at you when Death layeth hold on you That man that hath took no care to overcome sin in the power of it and to get himself free from the guilt and punishment of it is unfit for death If death come upon him and find his offences unrepented of unpardoned unsubdued he will so order those offences that he will thrust them into his foul as so many poisoned Darts that will bring sorrow and anguish and vexation and destruction to all eternity Ye may see then whether ye have any fitness to meet with this Enemy whether ye be in case to fight that battel that of necessity ye must for Death as I told ye before is enevitable If ye have not Get alone between God and thy self and there call to mind the corruption of thy nature the sins of thy childhood of thy body of thy mind bring thy soul into his presence confess thy sins with an endeavour to break thy heart for them and to be sorry for them mightily crying to him in the mediation of that blessed Advocate Jesus Christ that died on the Cross to pardon and to wash thy soul in his bloud and to deliver thee from the pollution of thy sins Beg the Spirit of sanctification to bear down those sins and subdue thy corruptions Bestow time to perform these exercises daily carefully present thy self before God thus to renew thy repentance and faith in Christ to make thy peace with God Labour to purge away the filthiness of thy sin and then whensoever Death cometh thou shalt find in thy self sufficient against it thou hast disarmed it But if ye spend your time in pursuing profits and pleasures and follow the vanities of this life and either ye do not think of death or ye think of it no otherwise then a heathen man would have done to no purpose ye think of it to enjoy the world while ye live because ye know not how soon death will end the world and you if you play the Epicures in the thought of Death to annimate you to enjoy the outward benefits of this life to think of it to no purpose but only to talk and discourse now and then as occasion serveth then Death will find your souls laden with innumerable sins that repentance hath not discharged and undoubtedly it will bring eternal perdition Have ye thus disarmed Death But again a mans self must be armed or else he cannot incounter with his enemy What is our Armour against Death to keep off that blow The Apostle in one word sheweth us these Armours when he saith a Breast-plate of faith and love and the hope of salvation a Helmet If a man have got faith to rest on Christ alone for eternal happiness and his soul filled with the hope of glory and salvation through him and then with love to him and his servants for his sake These three vertues will secure a man against all the hurt that death can doe Faith Hope and Charity the Cardinal vertues that Christian religion requires
and commands us to seek these are Armour of proof against all the blows of death he that hath them shall never be hurt of Death because he shall never taste of the second death he hath only to wrestle with the first Death and there is no terrour nor terribleness it that if a mans heart be secure by these Graces Faith whereby we depend on Christ and on him alone for grace and salvation bringing hope whereby we expect and look for salvation of our souls by his blood according to his promise and working charity whereby we love him for his goodness and his servants for his sake If it be charity not only of the lip to speak well but that that produceth wel-doing I say this is that makes us that death cannot separate us from Christ but the further we are from life the neerer we are to him for when this outward tabernacle of our house is dissolved we have a building with God eternal in the heavens and death to such a man is nothing but the opening of the door to let him out of the dungeon of the world and to place him happily in the Pallace of eternal blisse I pray enter into consideration how ye have behaved your selves in the course of your lives whether as Heathens or as Christians A man that takes no care to prepare for death though he come to the Church from Sunday to Sunday and partake of all Gods ordinances yet if the consideration of death be not so imprinted in him that it become a motive to him to labour for Faith and hope and charity and to endeavour to edifie himself in these graces he liveth as a Heathen or an Infidel and when death cometh to him it will do him more hurt then it will an Infidel because by how much God hath given him more means to escape and by neglecting those means as his sin is greater so shall his punishment be Secondly if ye have been careless for to prepare for this enemy Now be ashamed of it and sorrow for it let your hearts now smite ye and ake within you Oh foolish man or woman say I have lived twenty thirty forty fifty years and some more I have laboured against other enemies if men had any thing against me I would be sure to take order I have laboured for the things of this life for riches and friends and give my self leave for to enjoy pleasures and taken pains to doe good to my body but all this while it never came into my heart seriously to think I must die and after that comes Judgement that I must stand before Gods Tribunal and give account of my wayes I have not laboured to beware of Death and of sin nor to kill my corruptions I have not laboured to increase in Faith and hope and charity I have left my self unarmed against the last and worst enemy Oh what folly is this to live in the world many a long day and never to consider that there will be an end of all these dayes and the end of those the beginning of another life and a life that will be infinitely more miserable then this If this beloved have been any of your faults to be carelesly forgetful of your latter end not to consider of your departure hence if the world have so tempted you and pleasures have so enamoured you that you have forgotten your latter end blame your selves it is the greatest of all follies And that I may disgrace this folly and make you ashamed of it Consider a little That this is to be like children The Apostle biddeth us not to be like children in understanding but he that forgetteth Death and is careless to prepare for it is a very child A little one never thinketh he shall ever be a man himself and maintain himself and live in the world by his own labour or by that he shall have from his friends he careth for nothing butmeat and drink and sport and pastime we blame their folly andlaugh at it as rediculous and therefore by our diligence we prevent that ill that might else come upon them Is it not thus with many of you ye live and build houses and raise your names to be glorious and to make a fair shew in the world but to get grace and to get faith and hope and love and repentance none of your thoughts almost run that way scarce any of your thoughts are so bestowed Is not this to be children in understanding Again he is a foolish man that knoweth he shall meet an enemy and will not prepare If a man should hear of twenty or thirty thousand souldiers were gathered against the City and besieged it to destroy it He would not be so foolish and so simple then as to bestow himself in his trade and to follow his business and to give himself to merrimeut but he would get his weapons and he would look about him help to arm the City and to make it strong Why do ye not consider that your soul is as a City Death will come against it and batter you with sickness with pains and at last will certainly take it and if the soul be not prepared will carry it to Hell fire Why will you be so retchless and sensless to eat and drink and labour to grow rich to bury your selves in eatrthly labours and never think how to escape how Death may be kept out that will destroy soul and body I presume you are ashamed of this folly by this time I hope ye will go away with remorse and sorrow for so carelesly neglecting a thing of so great importance to be provided for In the third place therefore I entreat you begin this great work this day Consider if you have not begun the enemy lieth in wait for thee oh man or woman if thou be never so young thou maist meet with him before night if thou be old thou must meet with him ere long Prepare for him betime think what an enemy may encounter thee in the way If a man be to travel though he be not assured to meet with an enemy yet he will strive to get good company and weapon himself he will carry his sword something he will do that if a theef come to rob him he may be able to prevent the danger Beloved think that there is an enemy that way-laies us as we go along in the world one time or other he will be sure to come upon us therefore stir up your selves begin this day to prepare for this enemy How shall I prepare for Death I told you before it is not amiss in a word to repeat it Get Faith in Christ and Hope and Charity and repentance These will be means to prepare and help thee against Death Therefore if hitherto thou have not lament and bewail the sinfulness of thy nature and life Assoon as thou art out of this place get thee into a solitary room fall upon thy knees lament thy
rotten name that stinks while he liveth yet he would live still Yea and not only wicked men do make many base shifts to live they have their portion in this life no wonder therefore they do it but even Gods best children that look for a better life then this when this ended are not willing to part with this life if they could keep it Do you not remember how David pleaded for life Oh let me live that I may praise thy Name oh spare me a little before I go hence and be no more Hezekiah turneth his face to the wall and wept oh shall the grave give thanks unto thee or shall the dead celebrate thy praise No Vivens vivens it is the living it is the living that must praise thee as I do this day I know indeed that sometime you shall find some of Gods children wishing for death Job My soul hath chosen strangling and death rather then my self Lord I pray thee saith Moses kill me out of hand and let me not see my wretchedness Elijah when he fled from Jezable for his life Lord quoth he take away my life for I am not better then my fathers He was not willing that Jezable should take away his life but he would have God to take it away You know Jonah his pettish mood that he was in when he would needs think to know what was better for him then God himself doth Lord take I beseech thee my life from mee for it is better for me to dic then to live These men of God they were sons of men they had their passions as other men have and passion was never good judge between life and death I know again that there is question made by Job Wherefore is light given to a man that is in misery and life to the bitter in soul Such a man I confess that hath bitterness of soul he may happily seek for death as for treasures and be glad when he hath found the grave But let God be but pleased a little to allay that bitterness let him but lay up that bitter pill in sugar a little and then he will like life well enough Why do we all this while go from my Text Surely there be so many voyces upon earth against it that if there were not a voyce from heaven to say Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord we should scarce beleeve it But then if the dead be blessed why do we not die that we may be blessed There is such a like Question of Scipio in that same book of Tullies Somnium Scipionis Scipio asked his Father when his father had told him of those glories that the soul enjoyed in immortality Why saith he do I tarry thus long upon the earth why do not I hasten to die The schollers of Eugesius when they heard their Master dispute of the immortality of the soul went and laid violent hands upon themselves that they might go to that immortality And so Cato Uticensis after he read Platoes books of the Immortality of the Soul made away himself Many such examples there have been And I find often-times in your bills many that have laid violent hands upon themselves some that cut their own throats and some that hang themselves I pray give me leave a little to speak upon this Saint Austin tells me of five causes for which persons do usually lay violent hands upon themselves The first is this Some do it to avoid some shame or some dishonour or misery or beggery that shall befall them Thus did Achitophel when he saw that his counsell was defeated he went home and hanged himself Thus have many done to avoid shame and dishonour Alas poor wretches While they seek to escape temporal punishment they run into eternal like our fishes in the proverb out of the frying-pan into the fire into hell fire where the worm dieth not and where the fire never goeth out Secondly some have done it to avoid the terrors of a guilty conscience Thus Judas troubled in conscience after he had betrayed Christ he went and hung himself Poor wretch He had more need he had lived that he might have healed that sin of his by repentance This is not a way to expiate thy sin this is a way to increase it Judas when he killed himself he killed as wicked a man as was upon the earth and yet he shall answer to God aswell for that nocent bloud of his own that he spilt as he shall for the innocent bloud of the Son of God that he betrayed Thirdly we find some that have done this to avoid some villany that they feared should be offered them As for example Pelagia a noble Lady that we read of in Ecclesiastcall stories when she was followed by some barbarous souldiers that would have abused her she speaking nothing but never a villain of them all shall touch me threw her self over a bridge and drowned her self Some of the Fathers do little lesse then commend her for this Saint Augustine condemnes her so should I. For why should she that had done no hurt do hurt to her self why should she to escape the hands of the Nocent lay violent hands upon her self that was innocent Our chastity of body is not lost when the chastity of our mind remaineth inviolated Fourthly Some have done this to purchase to themselves a name of valour Rasis in the book of the Machabees did thus And if there were no other thing in the world to shew that book to be Apochriphal Scripture this is enough in that the Author of that book commendeth Rasis for it It is not valour for to flie a danger it is valour to bear it If any example can be alledged to this purpose that of Sampsons may But Saint Austin he answereth The Spirit of God secretly commandeth him to do it And we may verily beleeve it for if the Spirit of God had not commanded it yea and assisted him in it too he had never done that he did in pulling down the house upon himself and the Philistims Lastly some have done it or they might have done it because Blessed are the dead Some will die that they may be blessed Poor wretches They that diprive themselves of this life may not look for a better when this is ended I will not judge particulars I leave them unto God But in the general Considering that life is Gods blessing it is he that giveth it and it is he that must take it away Considering that man is not lord of his own spirit Considering that God hath set us here in our stations and we may not move out without leave from our General Considering that we are set here to serve God and we must serve him as long as he will and not as long as we will Or specially considering that God hath forbidden us to kill others therefore forbidden us much more to kill our selves therefore surely except Gods mercy
Lord the Lord that sheweth judgment and righteousness upon the earth there is a mercy shewed to the creature but it is I that do it faith the Lord. If you meet with a merciful man God is merciful in that man If you meet with a bountiful man God is bountiful in that man If you meet with a man whose lips feed many God instructeth that man I say seeing all things we have though they have divers channels and pipes and conveyances whereby God conveyeth goodness and mercy to men yet nevertheless it is in God and from God we receive all let us therefore look upon every creature as instruments in Gods hand that can do us neither good nor hurt without him What good it doth it doth by the influence of the supream cause working by that creature let us so look upon and conceive of every creature Thus the Saints have done in all times Jacob when he saw Esau I have seen thy face as the face of God saith he He saw God in the face of Esau So in all good men we should say God is good in them This should make men not to seek themselves not to study men more then God not to study gain with men with the loss of God to please men with the displeasing of God but to venture the loss of all men that they may please God if they cannot keep men and God together For the affections of men are in Gods hand and he fashioneth and frameth them according to his own pleasure either to love or hatred as David observed in the case of Shimei God hath bid him curse Be convinced I say of this that if we get all the men in the world to be our freinds with the neglect of God if we get all the treasures and wealth of the world if a man were advanced to the Monarchy of the whole earth yet these things are more in Gods hand then in ours When a man hath wealth it is not in his own keeping riches have wings When a man hath favour God gives it not into his own keeping whatsoever we have it is secured to us by Gods protection and made good to us by his blessing Let this be our care and work therefore how we may live to God how we may enjoy God in the things we enjoy and possess God in all things we possess in the things we have still to keep God and that will keep our estates and names and comforts and lives and all That is the first Again secondly There are certain graces to be exercised if a man would not live to himself for indeed it is the property of a Christian and none else to live to God and not to himself and he doth it by vertue of those graces in his heart that empties him of himself and draws him to God therefore I say there are certain graces that every one should exercise if he would not live to himself What are those First the knowledg of God in Christ Get a more full and particular and experimental knowledge of God All our looking to the creature is because we know not God perfectly if we did know him we would account him the chiefess of ten thousand the Church when she knew Christ said so we would account him as Elkanah said to Hannah Am not I better to thee then ten sons better then ten friends then ten worlds Get therefore a more full knowledge of God that all power is in him One thing have I heard once and twice that power belongeth unto God saith he Psalmist Secondly Get faith in the exercise more All the worthies of the Lord in Heb. 11. What made them live so to God and not to themselves as they did because they beleeved they did it by faith by faith Abraham denied himself by faith Moses for sook the pleasures of Egypt by faith those Worthies of whome the world was not worthy wandred up and down in sheeps skins and goats skins and would not be delivered When a man getteth interest in Christ by faith he shall see that in him that will satisfie all his desires and answer all his losses Thirdly exercise Love Faith works by love The more we love God in Christ the more perfectly we shall cleave to him Love is a uniting grace that uniteth the soul to Christ The love of Christ constraineth me faith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. for we thus judge if one died for all then it is fit they that live should not live to themselves And the truth is the more a soul loveth Christ the more it will live to him Lastly a word of the last Use and that for instruction Being convinced that such is the estate of most men that they live to themselves and that whose estate soever it is it is a sinful estate and argueth a man out of Christ and that there is a possiblity of getting out of this estate Let it be for instruction to all those that in some measure live to God and not to themselves let it be to teach them and perswade them more fully to live to him and less to themselves A man simply censidered without any relation to others or dependance upon an another man he may please himself but when a man is considered in his dependance upon God and his relation to men he must then observe the will of his Creatour in that relation God hath set him he must carry himself as his creature and observe the end that the creature is appointed to Nay he must carry himself as a Christian and observe the good of the body he must carry himself as a member to do good to the whole Let every Christian labour to do this if he would have comfort to his soul that he doth not live to himself that he is of the number of those that are accepted of God in life and death Labour to imploy his time and strength and gifts and whatsoever he is and hath to the good of others As every man hath received the gift let him minister to others as faithful dispencers of the manifold grace of God If you have received gifts you have received them from God you have received them for the good of others you have received them as dispensers let every man faith the Apostle dispense the manifold grace of God if the Apostle had said be dispensers of the grace of knowledge that you have for the feeding of the souls of many and not of your estates or relieve as many as you can with your estates but take no care for their souls but when he saith be dispensers of the manifold gifts of God his meaning is that whatsoever I have wherewith I am able to do men good with whether it be inward or outwards gifts the gifts of the mind or of the outward man any thing whereby I can be advantageous to others I must serve God and men in improving of that He that will not
we carry in our bosomes The Divell is a Serpent in Hell the world is a Serpent in our hand the flesh is a Serpent in our bosome We carry it with us where ever we go It is a con-natural concorporate Enemy All our other enemies could do us no hurt if it were not for that if this enemy that cohabiteth with us did not combine against us Know who ever thou art there is no Enemy like thy self thy self is the worst enemy of all All the sparks that slie out of Sathans engines could never sindg a hair of our heads if our flesh were not as tinder All the winds that blow in the four corners of the world could not make shipwrack of us if our flesh were not a treacherous Pilot. Death that gnaweth the thread of our soul and body asunder could not separate them or them from God if the flesh did not what the teeth of it and sharpen it with a sting So then we see we have a great many Enemies more to encounter us besides Death some without some within Therefore how should this teach us circumspect walking to behave our selves wisely in every thing as David when he knew Saul was his Enemy and had an eye upon him to do him mischief How should it teach us to pray with David Lord teach me thy way and lead me in the right path because of mine enemy That is one thing I have to note Again another thing I have to note If Death be the last enemy then in all probability it is like to be the worst Of the Divels regiment it is I told ye before He is the General of the Army And beloved beleeve it the Divel is very politick and subtile in marshalling his forces he will not place his best Souldiers in the forefront of the battel but keeps them in the Reare he puts them behind that when all the rest have wearied and tired us they should set on us afresh He is so cunning a disputant that he reserveth the best arguments for the last A cunning Gamester that plaies his best play at the last A cunning Archer that shoots his best shaft at the last So since Death is the last Enemy it is like to be the sorest Now the sorer we are like to find him the carefuller we should be to arme against him alwayes to put our selves in a readiness that whensoever he cometh he may find us weaponed that if it were possible we might be alwayes doing as if we were dying it being the height of the perfection that any soul can attain to as the heathens themselves well obierved for a man to spend every day as if it were his last day That is one reason why the Apostle here calleth Death the last Enemy because the last is like to be the worst Again another reason As it is the last by which we are assaulted so it is the last that shall be destroyed That the Apostle principally meant here as Interpreters commonly understand it when he saith the last enemy that shall be Destroyed is Death he meant that Death is the Enemy that shall be destroyed last And this leadeth me to the last point I propounded to speak of That Death is an enemy and the last enemy and at last shall be destroyed It shall be destroyed that is one thing Who undertakes the doing of it Our selves In likelihood Death is more likely to destroy us then we it But as it is said of the seven-sealed book in the Revelation when there was none in heaven or in earth or under the earth that was able to open it the Lion of the tribe of Judah prevailed to open the book So the Lion of the tribe of Judah prevaileth to destroy this enemy that none in heaven or in earth or under the earth but only he is able to destroy He saith of him as David of Goliah when he defied the host of Israel and all men ran away Let no mans heart fail him So saith the son of David The Lord of David let no mans heart fail him I will go to fight with yonder Philistim Oh Death I will be thy death It is spoken in the person of Christ whom Saint Peter calleth the Lord of life He subdueth all Enemies and it is he that will destroy Death he will not leave him till he have trod him under foot But when will Christ do this We see Death playes the Tyrant still it killeth and spoyleth as fast as it did his sickle is in every ones harvest as fast as the corn grows up he cuts it down he leaveth not an ear standing How long Lord how long before this that the Apostle tells us of will be At last His meaning is at the general day of the Resurrection when the end of the world shall come then Christ shall destroy him And he bringeth it in the rather to assure the Corinths of that that some of them doubted of namely that there should be a Resurrection For unless the dead should arise how can Death be destroyed But Death shall be destroyed therefore it is out of question that the dead shall rise again But what comfort have we in the mean time if Death be not destroyed till then if till then it play the domineering Enemy No not so neither We have comfort enough in that that Christ hath already done Though it be not already destroyed yet it is already subdued It is not only subdued but disarmed and not only so but captivated and triumphed over He subdued it when he died in suffering death he overcame Death he beat him in his own ground at his own weapons in his own hold he disarmed him When he rose again then he spoyled him of his power and took his weapons away and triumphed over him in the open field When he ascended into heaven then he carried those spoils with him in token of conquest as Sampson took the Gates of Gaza on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill Christ by Death took the sting of Death away by his Resurrection he took the strength of Death away by his Ascension he took away the hope of Death for ever conquering or prevailing more finally at the last Judgement he will take away the name and Being of Death so that it shall never be more remembred but mortality shall be swallowed up of life I Christ hath done this for himself perhaps but what is this to us Nay Christ hath done it not only for his own victory but he hath given us victory he is not only a conqueror but he hath made us conquerors thanks be unto God that hath given us victory In a word Christ hath and will do by Death as he doth by our sins he hath subdued them already at the last he will utterly destroy them sin and Death both of them are already subdued at last they shall be abolished and destroyed that they
shall he no more As there shall be no more sorrow and pain so there shall be no more death and sin All tears shall be wiped from our eyes I will ransom them from the power of the grave and redeem them from death More then this This yet addeth to our comfort Christ will so destroy Death as be will not only subdue him for us but also reconcile him to us not only foil him as an Enemy but propitiate and make him our friend We have all our enemies subdued to us but some are so subdued that they are reconciled Death is one of them it is a reconciled as well as a subdued enemy Instead of bringing forth children for bondage it becometh a purchaser of our freedom it is so far from plucking us from Christ as rather it letteth us into Christ so far from being a loss as it bringeth gain so far from being a dammage that it is part of our Dowry therefore the Apostle reckoneth it as a prerogative as he saith that the world and life and Christ is ours so Death is ours Indeed if Death were not ours life were not ours for our only way to life now is by Death Such a friend is this Enemy become that it is a Bridge to pass to heaven the Chariot that we are took up to heaven in What we get of life toward life we lose in death but what we get in death toward life we never lose Now for the Application and conclusion of all Something I have to say by way of comfort and something by way of counsel First by way of comfort Against the fear of Death or against over-much sorrow for those that Death takes away It is true Death is an Enemy But to whom only to the wicked that are out of Christ to those that have no benefit at all by his Death and Resurrection and Ascension When Death cometh and findeth out these they may say as Ahab did to Eliah and more truly a great deal hast thou found me oh mine Enemy It is the worst Enemy they have in the world It is a cruel Sergeant that catcheth them by the throat and arresteth them for a debt that they are never able to pay It draggs them to the Jayl casteth them into the Dungeon to the chains of Darkness I have not a word of comfort to say to them They have no more comfort in Death then they have in Hell where though they shall lie in torments and pain they shall not have a drop of water to cool their tongue But to the saithful in Christ there is comfort upon comfort For though Death be an Enemy yet remember first it is a subdued Enemy Secondly a reconciled Enemy Thirdly and lastly an Enemy that one day shall not be at all It is a subdued Enemy that is one comfort The strength and sting of it is gone When a Bee hath lost his sting and is a Droan it can hurt no more So Death is a Droan to a Christian it hums and buzzeth it doth no hurt it cannot sting the sting is gone Against all those Enemies that I formerly told ye of that are attendants on Death here is comfort First it is true Death cometh with ill Harbingers it bringeth sicknesses and aches and pain but there is comfort against this For when God sendeth pain remember he promiseth to send patience too that he will put his hand under to help His left hand shall be under us and his right hand over us to catch us he hath promised comfort upon our sick beds to make our bed in our sickness We need not make such an Allegory as Ambrose doth this sweet flesh of ours the Bed of our soul it is under infirmities and weaknesses God helpeth us he makes our bed he saith to the sick of the Palsey Take up thy bed he turneth our bed in our sickness either he sends us health so some exponds it he turns the bed of sickness into a bed of health or God turneth our bed for us in our sickness that is he refresheth us giveth us ease when we lie upon our sick beds It is a Metaphor borrowed from those that attend sick persons that help to make their Beds easie and soft and turn them that they may lie at ease So God hath promised his children in the painfull time of sickness to make their Beds easie and soft to cause them to lie at ease by the Patience that he will give them Secondly it is true Death bringeth dissolution and dissolveth the frame of nature it separateth and divorceth those two loving companions the Soul and the Body But there is comfort in this For though it divorce the Soul and the Body yet it cannot destroy the soul and the body even the body is in the hand of god when it is rotting in the earth as the Soul is translated to heaven Again though they be separated yet it is but for a time one day they shall meet more joyful and glorious then ever before and after that they shall never be separated again Lastly though he separate the soul from the body and the body from the soul yet neither from Christ nor Christ from them Nay it is so far from separating that it helpeth to unite us to Christ as I said before the dssolution of those shall be the conjunction with him I desire to be dessolved and to be with Christ Thirdly it is true the horrour of the Grave attendeth Death and the putrifaction of this flesh of ours that must turn to corruptness it makes it terrible and fearful But there is comfort against this For after that time of putrifaction there shall be a time of restitution and though the worms devour this flesh of ours yet in thâ—… very flesh of ours we shall see God another day These eyes shall see him There is comfort in that that when God shall come to restore us with himself what the Grave hath cloathed with corruption he will cloath with glory these vile bodies he will make them like the glorious body of Christ without all corruption Fourthly it is true Death depriveth us of worldly friends of worldly imployments this makes it terrible Yet there is comfort against this Though we be deprived of worldly friends it carries us to heaven to better company to Angels to the spirits of just and perfect men to God the Judge of all to Jesus the Mediatour of the New Testament Nay besides one day he will restore again those very friends of which here we are deprived though we lose them for a time in heaven we shall meet again and there renew a perpetual league of society and love So though it deprive us of worldly benefits it cannot of heaven and those are better they are not pleasures of sin that last for a season but at the right hand of God that endure for ever So though it deprive us of worldly
rashly and inconsiderately and divers things out of incogitancy that he knows not what he doth he is unfit for holy duties unstable in all his wayes As he is thus in regard of his place and calling so in regard of the duties of Gods service he cannot do these with a quiet heart with a peaceable spirit while he is possest with these fears You shall see almost all the sins in the world come from this fear What was the reason that Abraham and Sarah did equivocate was it not fear in that particular of men more then God and so they put God upon a miracle to preserve Sarahs chastity in the case of Abimeleck What was the reason that Aaron yeelded to make an Idol for the people of Israel and so joyned in Idolatry with them he was afraid of the people that they might do him some hurt he durst not trust God with his preservation So Peter denied his Master out of fear What is the reason that a Minister doth not sometimes reprove sin that a Magistrate doth not sometimes reform that that is amisse It is slavish fear they will not trust God to maintain them in his own cause What is the reason that many servants lie c. it is out of a slavish fear of their masters And so in regard of the things of the world men are inordinately afraid that they shall lose somewhat they possess and therefore they take indirect courses Still this slavish fear and horrour and distrust of God it is almost the cause of all sin as we may observe in the world This being so prejudicial in the last place let us fence our hearts against this fear By this means we shall honour Religion and make our lives comfortable incourage other Saints of God and draw people to like Religion when it yeelds such sweet contentment to the souls of men For do but once again muster together all our enemies and see if we have cause of fear For our spiritual enemies Will any man fear a wounded foe for the Lord God hath wounded Satan and trampled him under our feet and brought us as Joshua did his Captains to set our feet upon the neck of principalities and powers that through the mighty power of God we are more then conquerours and shall we fear such an enemy as this Shall we fear those sins that we are humbled for and which God hath made as if they had never been For the evils of the world Why should we fear them those corrections that are immediatly from God there is no cause of fear in them As thus If God take away thy Wife or thy Child or thy friend or a part of thy substance what cause of fear is there Fear not faith God I will chastise thee in measure and will not make a full end of thee Jer. 46.28 yet thou shalt not be altogether uncorrected And then remember God proportions the correction to our strength as a Father not as a Judg he aims at our amendment not at our ruin If he take away a friend that we doted too much on if we set our minds too much on the world and worldly things God will deprive us of them and so by this be all in all to us and draw us neerer to himself have we cause of fear to fear that that comes from God No will some say if we fall into the hands of God there is mercy but the mercies of men are cruel What if unreasonable men deal with us have we not reason to fear ill from them they are outragious and cruel they bend their malice against us and if the enemy should come and make an in-road into our country and bring devastation what should we do then I answer first in all things that fall from men there is a provident hand of God therefore faith our Saviour to his Apostles when he would incourage them faith he there is a providence even concerning sparrows there is none of them light on the ground without the providence of God So when he would encourage his Disciples against their adversaries your very hairs are numbred As if he had said Almighty God knows how many hairs every man hath upon his head he numbers all our joynts he tells our steps there is nothing befalls us but what the provident hand of God is in And wicked men the Divel and all his instruments God hath them in a chain they cannot go one step further then he gives them leave Again consider what God laid to Abraham here I am thy shield In regard of all the evils that men attempt against us whether in regard of scoffing or persecution and open hostility or whatsoever God is our sheild And the Psalmist calls him else-where our strong tower You know how it is if men incounter a strong Tower the enemy must first batter the Tower about their ears before they can hurt the men If a man fight with an enemy he must pierce his shield before he can hurt the man We may speak it with sacred reverence to the Majesty of God they must overcome God himself before they can hurt his people in doing any thing that shall prove in the event hurtful as long as they keep close to God The Lord intimated this to the people of Israel The Egyptians marched and followed hard after them to devour them with open mouth God when he saw that he removes the pilsar of the Cloud and set it between them as if God should have said to them you deceive your selves to think to conquer my people you must conquer me before you conquer them So God is our strong Tower our shield and our deliverer and he will find deliverance for his people some way or other from the evil or in the evil or out of it as shall turn to our exceeding advantage For suppose the worst that can be supposed that wicked men are let loose on us to do all that their malice can invent they can but touch the body the shell of the soul and let the prisoner out of doors Upon this argument Christ incourageth us Fear not them that can kill the body but fear him that can kill both body and soul As if he should say Do the enemies threaten death they promise you life the greatest advantage and the happiest day that ever can befall a man that is in covenant with God is the day of death Then all they can do is to kill the body for a while which God will raise maugre the malice of the Divel and all his instruments and possess the soul of that bliss that is prepared for it And in regard of Death why should we fear that if we be in covenant with God the nature of it is changed the sting is out and it is become beneficial But you know the Saints die still The red Sea swallowed up the Egyptians but contrariwise to the Israelites it was a wall
that are such as I have now said think in your consciences what would you die if God should now stop your breath and ascite you by Death presently to appear before his Majesty being thus full of ignorance of security of presumption of unsanctified of vicious of malicious of covetous thoughts could you find in your hearts to say Lord now let us depart Sure we could not but Death must needs be to us as it is said to be to the wicked Rex terrorum the King of terrours if it should come upon us and find us in this case And yet what know we how soon how suddenly we may be overtaken some of us drop away daily some young some old some lie sick longer some lesser time and how soon it will be our turn we cannot tell Our hreath is in our nostrills we are all as grass If the breath of the Lord blow upon us we do suddenly wither as the slower of the field and return again to our first Earth Why will we not labour to be now ready sith it may be alwayes truly said We may now depart either while we are here or in our way home or in our beds or at our meat Who can truly say to himself I am sure I shall not die this hour It may be now thou wilt demand of me What shall I do that I may be ready To insist upon particulars would be too long onely therefore in a word The best preparation for death is a reformed life He that lives religiously cannot but die preparedly And it is a thousand to one if a wicked liver make a gracious end The Scripture makes mention of a double Death and so likewise of a twofold Resurrection the first Death is the death of the body which is the separation of it from the soul The second death is of the soul which is the separation of it from God The first Resurrection is the rising from the Death of sin to a new life the second is that which shall be of the body out of the Grave at the day of Judgment Now what faith the Scripture Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power Wouldest thou then be freed from the second Death hell destruction when thou art dead Now that thou art yet alive labour to have a part in the first Resurrection Note what Saint Paul faith of the wanton widdow that she is dead whilst she lives So he that lives in the pleasures of sin and in the wayes of his own heart and after his own lust he is dead in soul though he be alive in body and if he seek not to come out of this grave eternal death shall be his portion Well then wouldest thou prepare for Death wouldest thou be able alwayes to say Lord now now I am ready labour to know God out of his Word that is eternal life Labour to feel Christ live and raign in thee by his Spirit labour to renounce every sin do not go on in any known sin against conscience renew thy repentance daily and still survey the state of thy soul that wickedness may not get dominion over thee Let Death come when it will though the Lord should so visit thee that thou shouldest drop down suddenly yet it shall not find thee unprepared thou hast a part in the first Resurrection there is no fear of the second Death But if thou wilt cherish thy heart in evil thou wilt go on in thy ignorance in thy careless worship of God in thy prophaning the Sabbath in thy whoredom oppression malice drunkenness excess voluptuousness thou makest ready for hell and it is not thy Lord save me or I cry God mercy c. that shall serve thy turn I will tell thee who thou art like unto even to a man appointed after a year or two to be burned and in the mean space must carry a stick daily to the heap so thou heapest up wrath against thy self and makest thy score so great that when Death comes thou shalt not know how to be prepared And thus have I finished the first general part of my Text touching the disposition of the godly in respect of Death I proceed now in a word to the second the ground rule or warrant of this desire and preparation for death according to the word as if Simeon had said this desire that I have now to end my dayes proceeds not from any carnal discontentment because I am now old and can take no great comfort in worldly things but the ground of it is thy word and Promise thou Lord hast revealed unto thy servant that I should not die before I had seen my Saviour This word is now fulfilled and the sweetness thereof hath given me that encouragement that I do even long to be dissolved and to be united unto thee Or again thus Oh Lord this care that I have had to provide thus for Death and to be alwayes in a readiness it hath not come from my self nature never taught it me but thy Word hath instructed me If I had not proceeded according to thy Word I should never have known how to have prepared my self to the time of dissolution This is the meaning of the words and so the Doctrine is plain viz. that Men ignorant in Gods word can never take comfort in death nor be truly prepared to undergo it This is plain if we consider the Exposition which I have already given of that part of Simeons speech It is a general Rule that of our Saviour Ye err not knowing the Scripture A man ignorant in the Scripture can never rightly perform any spiritual duty Hence was that of David Thy testimonies faith he are my delight and my counsellors If any matter came in hand that concerned his soul straight to the word of God went he to know thence how to do it as a man for his Lease or conveyance goeth to a Counsellor for direction So again he confesses that if Gods Law had not been his delight he should have perished in his afflictions And so no comfort no true quiet in any trouble much more at Death without the guidance and information of the Word The assurance that the sting of Death is plucked out that Gods wrath is appeased that sin is pardoned that Heaven gate is opened whence shall we fetch these but from the Scripture the directions for a holy life which is the best preparation for Death where shall we find them but in the Scripture Here then we see is a Caveat to all that have no will nor desire to be acquainted with the Scripture Divers think they should have done well enough though we had no such Book as we call the word of God To be a Scripture-man is a by-word a reproach a matter of disgrace and sooner will men listen to some idle Pamphlet then to a matter of Scripture Well beguile
know all the house sets against him and never rest till they cast him out and if they want strength they cry for help but the Master of the house comes in and then all the servants are in their places to do him service all take care to please him and give him content How entertain you the motions of sin look upon your former wayes upon your former customes and vanities look upon your wonted course of ill and consider now whether there be an endeavour to satisfie the sinful inclination of your hearts or is there a striving and using all means to be rid of it Do you make this your question to the Ministers you converse with to the Christian friends with whom you consult in this case how to be rid of such a corruption how to get such a sin purged out Is this the matter of your prayer to God do you cry to Heaven for help to get out this theif that is stollen into your hearts this traytor that conspires against the glory of God this rebel that maintains a fight against the kingdom of Christ do you so look on it It is a sign you are dead to sin or else sin is alive in you and you are dead in sin Thirdly and lastly consider your actions consider your conversation doth sin get strength or is it weakened For know that this is not the mortification of sin that a man be never troubled with it more that he never hear more of it that he be never more troubled with the motions of sin no As a man that hath a deadly wound given him it may be he more fiercely sets on him that gave him the deadly blow then ever before yet he falls dead at his feet after so it is with the motions of sin think not when sin is dead by vertue of our union with Christ that we shall not be tempted any more to sin that you shall not have sin any more in you no it will be in you and molest you But what fruit do you bring forth What actions do you what strength hath sin all the strife it hath is but to disquiet and disturb you not to rule and command you as it was wont to do It is a sign that sin is dead naturally by way of incoation it will die in the end you shall hear no more of it at the last and though it a great while disturb you and disquiet you yet this is your comfort you are disturbed and you maintaine Gods quarrel against your corruptions and fight against it it is a sign it hath a deadly blow Therefore let every one consider his estare let no man deny himself his own portion let him that is dead in sin know that he is dead and the wretchedness of that condition eternal death begins in that death And let him that is dead to sin know that he is alive to God and is among those that live in Christ and shall be saved A word of exhortation and so I conclude Doth this testifie our life in Christ that we are dead to sin Then as you hope for any comfort or priviledge or advantage by Christ labour to make this good to your souls and labour to secure this evidence more and more that you are dead to sin There are none that hears me this day but they profess they hope to be saved by Christ and they look for no other name under Heaven to be saved by but the name of Jesus It is certain but who will Christ save they are such as whom he sanctisies and will he sanctisie such as by union with him are dead to sin and alive to God Then I beseech you make this good to your selves strive more and more to kill sin take this as a quickning argument that you are in Christ and therefore you must be conformable to Christ Saith the Apostle He bore our sins in his body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2.24 that we might be dead to sin and live to righteousness Why did Christ bear your sins in his body upon the Tree but for this very end that as he died for sin you might die to sin Now that we may perswade you know that it is upon special ground you lose nothing but get much by it the more you die to sin the less you lose by it First you shall not lose any thing that is comfortable and good you shall not lose life by it nay indeed the more you sin the more you die every sin is deadly and mortal every sin tends to your destruction to the taking away of life this is certain Therefore look as a man when he is in a mortal dangerous disease that every man concludes if the disease prevail he will die nay it hath so far prevailed that it will be the death of him you need no more to perswade him to spend all his estate upon Physitians to cure that disease Now the sins that you cannot endure should be reproved that you cannot abide to reform they will be death in the end your eternal death therefore labour especially against them When we diswade you from sin and perswade you to purge outsin we perswade you to your cure to be free from your disease to be free from that that will end in death You shall not lose any rest and peace by it the more you mortisie sin the more rest and peace you shall have nay the more sin rules the less rest and peace There is no peace to the wicked but they are as the troubled waves of the Sea that alway foam and cast up mire and dirt as the Prophet speaks such is the restless agitation of a man that goes on in sin he is ever restless and unquiet Would you have peace and quiet get out sin that hinders all peace and quiet Again you shall not lose outward good things not credit and name and esteem Nay what dishonours you and exposeth you to reproach and shame and obliquie is it not sin For what is it that men are evil spoken of is it not for this and that particular evil Do you love your name avoid sin sin will end in shame it is the issue the fruit of it God will give you honour with his servants nay even in the hearts of the wicked You know the more men strive to mortifie their sins the more the world reproacheth them ordinarily but we must not judge what men do in their jollity and in their passion but what themselves do when they are upon the wrack of a trouhled conscience upon their death-bed oh then if they might die the death of the righteous oh then they would they had lived the life of the righteous or any thing then if they had been like such a one whom they scorned This gained esteem of John in Herods heart Again you shall not lose your wealth your estate all losses of estate that are judgments and punishments they are but the
many things there are which we shall never see Every man cannot see that which one man doth but there is one thing which every man shall see he must see death There are many enemies from whom we can deliver our selves and many more from whom we may be delivered but yet there is one enemy from which we cannot desend our selves nor be defended by others he will be too strong for every man let him strive repine order his dyet intreat do what he will or can No faith the Psalmist none shall deliver his soul from the hand of the grave And he puts a Selah a note of observation at the end of the verse That all the sons of men are subject to this change by death will appear to you by these familiar Arguments The First may be taken from the quality of our lives which is sweetly set out in the Scripture under the terms of changeable things all which point out unto us the certainty of death Sometime our life is compared to a shew Psal 39.6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew In a shew you know there is some devise or other opened carryed a-while about but at length it is shut up so it is with our lives Sometime again it is compared to a shade or a shadow Job 8.9 Our dayes upon earth are a shadow a shadow is but an imitation of a substance a kind of nimble picture which is still going and coming and will set at last perhaps it is suddenly ecclipsed so is our life Sometimes again it is compared to a vapour James 4.14 What is your life it is even a vapour that vanisheth away like a poor cloud sometimes looking white sometimes black sometimes quiet and settled sometimes again tossed up and down with every wind and at last consumed and brought to nothing so it is with our lives Sometimes also compared to a Tale Psal 90.9 We spend our years as a tale hat is told a meer discourse of this thing and that thing and indeed but a very parenthesis of a more tedious discourse and many times it is broken off in the very telling so it is with our lives Sometime again it is as grass as in Isa 46. The voyce said cry aloud what shall I cry all flesh is grass and the goodliness thereof as the flower of the grass And verse 7. The grass withereth and the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it And Job in this chapter calleth it a Flower He cometh forth faith he like a flower and is cut down A flower is a sweet thing but of an earthly breed sed with showers at its best when it is in all its glory it is but to day and to morrow it withereth and is fit for nothing but the Oven so it is with our lives Many expressions of the like nature might be added the Scripture is plentiful in these comparisons comparing our life to the Spiders web to a Weavers shuttle to the breath of a candle to a pilgrimage to a journey to the dayes of an hireling c. all of them things of a changeable and variable nature The second argument may be taken from the quality of our Natures and there in there are two things considerable both which imply a certainty of death First our composition and matter whereof we are made we are reared out of a mouldering and wasting principle our bodies are therefore stiled an earthly house 2 Cor. 5.1 A house though of Iron will in time be cankered but a house of earth as it is most impotent against assaults so it is of its own nature most apt and subject to dissolution And in this respect also they are termed Tabernacles Now a Tabernacle you know is a thing of no perpetuity made only to be soon set up and that in a mans passage and then as soon taken down again Secondly beside this there is in our nature sin and corruption and this is it that doth put us to the sword and cause this deadly change this tears our lives with a continual consumption The tree breeds the worm which will destroy the life of the tree we in Adam gave leave to sin and now it is that sin gives leave to death In the day that thou shalt eat there of thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 and Rom. 5.12 By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed over all men in that all have sinned The shadow doth not so neerly attend the body of man as Death doth the body of sin And Rom. 6.23 the very wages of sin is death God should do that man wrong that hath hired out his soul all his dayes to sin if he did not at night pay him with the wages of death The third Argument may be drawn from the certainty of the Resurrection we all believe the resurrection of our bodies and therefore we must needs conclude a change of our bodyes for what is the Resurrection but life from death for the dead to hear the voyce of Christ and live What is it but a breathing in of the soul again the lighting of the candle again the body could never be raised if it were not first changed Thou fool faith Saint Paul 1 Cor. 15. that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die The fourth Argument is from the infalibility of Gods decree it is appointed unto men once to die and after death to come to Judgment Heb. 9.27 Thou maiest sooner expect that the course of the heavens shall be altered and the Center of the earth be dislocated then that the purpose of God concerning mans mortality should be reversed any that may be for heaven and earth shall pass away but this shall never be not one jot of the word of God shall fall to the ground God hath purposed it and none shall dissanul it nay he hath established his purpose with a word of confirmation Gen. 2. in the day thou eatest therefore thou shalt surely die As if he should have said Do not deceive thy self but build upon it I have spoken it and will not alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth as sure as thou livest if thou eatest thou shalt die Thus you see the first assertion cleared unto you I will address my self now to the second of which brieffy too and then make Application of them both together As there is a certainty of our change so we should alway wait till it doth come There are two things which I will here inquire of for the fuller illustration of this point First what this continual waiting may import Secondly why there should be such a constant waiting for the day of our mortal change First this continual waiting mainly imports two things one a certain axpectation of death for waiting is an act of Hope expecting something If we do hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it saith the
Apostle Rom. 8.15 a man is then said to wait for death when he is looking for it at every turn as a Steward waits for his Master when he continually expects his return when upon every voyce he hears or upon every knock at the door he saith oh my Master is come this is he that knocks So a man is said to wait for death when in every action of his life in every motion of his estate in every passage of his courses saith well I must die when though his bones are full of marrow yet I must die when though riches come in like a flood yet I must die when changes appear upon himself or others yet I must die I have no abiding here I am but a sojourner and a stranger as all my fathers were I must not enjoy my Wife for ever Children for ever Friends for ever Lands for ever these comforts for ever my life for ever it is but a lease which may soon expire I am but a steward and I must be called to an account such a one is gone before and I must follow after the writ of Habeas Corpus hath seized on him and for ought I know the next may be for me so when death comes I am ready to answer it as Abraham did his Son Isaac here I am it comes not upon me as a thief in the night when I am asleep and think not of him but as Jonathans arrow to David who stayed in the field and expected when it should be shot and then he rose up and embraced him Yee brethren faith Paul in 1 Thes 5.4 are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a theif ye are all the children of the light therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober This is the first thing that waiting imports Another thing it imports is a serious preparation for the day of our change for it is not a naked expectation of a change arising from the certainty of death but it is also a religious preparation improving the intrim of time for the best advantage for a mans soul before the day of change doth come which is here implyed in waiting Solomon calls it a remembring Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth whiles the evil dayes come not and the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them what is this remembring of the Creator but a care to know him a fear to offend him a study to obey him and when is that to be done Now now remember there must be a present acting of this Moses calls it a numbring of our dayes Psal 90.12 and more then that such a numbring as is joyned with an applying of our hearts to wisedome and the reason is because wisedome it directs to the choyce of such particular actions and works as tend to happiness so should a man after his serious consideration of death apply himself to such wayes and such actions by which he may comfortably close up his life with death it is a great point of wisdome to sute actions with their ends to sit and square the wood before we build the house to learn and discipline a troop before they go to battel to rig and trim and furnish the ship before we launch to sea this is preparation indeed Now this preparation for death consists in two things First in an undoing of that which unsits us to die Brethren he who is not fit to live he is not yet fit to die and that which ever masters the life will be of greatest force in death The Father spake it boldly on good grounds I am not ashamed to live nor afraid to die now that which unfits a man to die is sin it makes him find a bitter enemy of death Oh when this Kng of terrours shall present himself by thy bed side with his arrows in his hands I mean thy sins he will wound thee with infinite amazement and horrour the sting of death is sin faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. Thou dost not prepare thy self for death if thou dost not undo thy sins which thou hast done in thy life the which consists First in a narrow search of thy sinfulness both of nature and practice Secondly in a secret humbling of thy soul for them Thirdly in an unfeigned repentance and forsaking of them Fourthly in a constant imploring and obtaining of mercy for them in the blood of Christ If thy soul doth give sin its discharge now death shall give thy soul a discharge hereafter Secondly in the qualifying our persons for the conquest of death there are three things by which we shall be able chearfully to meet and assuredly to conquer death First by having interest in the Lord Jesus the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God who hath given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ If thou hast gotten Christ into thy arms by faith thou carriest thy peace strength and advantage both through life and death For we are â—…ove then conquerors through him that loved us saith the Apostle Rom. 8.37 And to me to live is Christ and to die is gain faith the same Apostle Phil. 11 21. If thou hast a good Christ thou maist be consident of a good death Secondly renewedness of our nature What Saint John spake of he Martyes as some conjecture Blessed and happy is he that hath part in the first 〈◊〉 on such the second death hath no power that say I of a person renewed by the sanctifying quality of Gods Spirit I happy is he he shall have power even over the first death The Spirit and the Bride saith come if a man hath gotten the heavenly Spirit which beautifies the soul with the ornaments of Grace as the Bride is with her ornaments he is a fitted person he may well say to Death come and to Christ come Lord Jesus come quickly Thirdly uprightness of conversation Righteousness delivers form death saith Solomon and the righteous hath hope in his death if a mans work be Christs service if he have a heart enclined to keep a good conscience in all things to keep himself exact to the rule and to walk with God Blessed is that servant which his Master when be cometh shall find so doing that man that hath looked to Gods Word to guide his life may confidently look up to Gods mercy to comfort him in death Remember O Lord saith Hezekiah Isa 39. how I have walked before thee intruâ—…h and with a perfect bea rt Now all this doth the waiting for our change import in the Text to wit a serious expectation of it first by undoing those sins of ours which else for eyer will undo us and by interesting our persons into Christ from whom we must likewise receive the Spirit to change our hearts and uprightness to form a new our conversation But then you will say
this life yet in death thy hands must open â—…emselves and let it go thou must not hold the world above thy life nor thy life beyond the day of death no we cannot alway have that which we desire we must certainly part with what we most esteem of Secondly what comfort is this to a good soul If we had hope only in this life faith Saint Paul we of all men are most miserable 1 Cor. 15. Death is a happy change to a holy person First it is a change which shall put a period to all his changes in this life his outward condition how oft doth it change sometime by joy and sorrow sometime by comfort and misery by health and sickness by abundance and want but when Death comes all sorrow shall fly away for ever thou shalt never be more troubled with a sick body with a sad estate with common losses but the change of a temporal life shall set thee in a full and settled possession of an heavenly His inward condition how oft doth it change sometime free anon distressed now a sweet view of heaven anon darkned with fear now rejoycing in Christ anon buffeted with Sathan now blessing God for grace anon distracted with the insolent workings of remaining corruptions but when death comes then comes a change of all this it will release thee for ever of sin and Sathan after death sin shall be a burden no more and Sathan shall be a tempter no longer but thou shalt be as happy as thou canst desire and shalt enjoy thy God and thy Christ without fear of trouble in glory in felicity in eternity all the cruel insolencies of tyrants shall come short of thy soul thou shalt be above their malice and beyond thy self Secondly it is a change and no worse then a change just as Joseph changed his garments and went into Pharaoh so thou shalt put off thy body and go into glory put off thy mortality and go into immortality Oh what terrour to wicked men a day of change will befal them Why didst thou say Oh David there is no bands in their death and they are not in changes like other men Verily I should have checked thee hadst thou not recanted it presently thy self Psal 73.4,17,18,19 and reported it to us that they are set in slippery places and are brought into desolation and cast down into destruction in a moment and utterly consumed with terrour Good Lord what a change is that to them they judged with insolent and unrighteous judgment the Children of God now but death will change this the unjust steward shall be called to a an account and he that beat his fellow servant shall be eternally judged by a righteous God and their honour shall sinck in the dust neither shall their riches deliver them from wrath but they shall see him whom they have peirced and persecuted and shall not be able to escape his presence A dismal thing will this be that a man shall have his honour die and the great God put disgrace upon him a dismal change indeed when a man shall see all his power changed into impotency his pleasures into torment and wrath put upon his soul when God shall seperate thee from his presence thou shalt not have a drop of ease nor any friend to assist thee nor any hope of comfort thou shalt be stript of them all in a monent shall a change of all this be O consider this if there be any here that forget God least he tear you in pieces and there be none to help remember and consider your latter end and apply your hearts to wisdome Last of all shall there be a change that shall befal every son of man then Oh that this people were wise as Moses faith that they would remember their latter end all the dayes of our appointed time to wait till our change come What do you think of servants to whom you had committed servile imployments till you came home and if when you come home they were absent and you found one in the street drunk another in a chamber with a strumpet how would you take this Brethren think upon it we are Gods servants or should be two things are imposed upon us one to honour God another to save our own souls if he find us doing the works of the Devil and the flesh and find us in the works of the world how will he take this Come faith God I have lent you a life thus many years I told you what you should be and what you should do and what have you been doing all this life what have your works been what courses have you taken are these the fraits of your wayes to have a life run over with ignorance with prophaness c. Alus when a man at that time shall have nothing to say but Loâ—…d I have lived in such a sin all my dayes I have fulfilled my own desires thou hast for me in this World and I have laboured to get a great estate all my dayes Another may say I have spent my time in 〈◊〉 society c. What will God say to these men are these the endings of thy life the fruits of thy opportunities where is the repentante I called for at thy hands where is that godly sorrow that I called for for the sins of thy life did not I send thee into the world for this end to get Grace to get Faith to make up thy accounts with me thy God and hast thou no regand to it Well thou hast been foolish inconsiderate for the time that is past yet now understand that a day of change will besal thee O let us be perswaded I beseech you be perswaded to it in this our day to know the things that concern our peace whilest it is called to day not to hearden our hearts whilest it is called to day not to deser our repentance thou art not assured of any more time then present Death may meet with thee as thou sittest in thy feat as thou goest out of the Church doer and thou knowest thy heart hath been wicked oh why wilt thou set thy eternal estate upon so small a point as it were the cast of a Die Remember what Daniel said to Nabuohadnezzar let it have acceptance with thee break off thy sine by repentance c. Seeing we must die and appear before the judgment feat of God what manner of persons ought we to be in all holiness of life and conversation as soon as we are we begin to sin and as soon as we are we begin to die let us look upon our account and be faithful to our souls perhaps thy accounts are yet to make oh be sure to let it be the first thing thou doest and give thy self no rest till thou hast done it and when thou hast done this labour to clear it with the bloud of Christ labour by humble confession and hearty repentance to turn unto the Lord go on
have lost the jewel doth less set by the casket yet he who loves much and highly esteemeth of the soul of his friend as Alexander did of Homer cannot but make some reckoning of the Desk or Cabinet in which it alwayes lay we have a care of placing the picture of our friend and should we not much more of bestowing his body If burial were nothing to the dead God would never have threatned Coniah that he should have the burial of an Ass nor the Psalmist so quavered upon this doleful note dederunt cadaver servorum tuorum coeli volucribus O God the heathen are come into thine inheritance thy holy Temple have they desiled and made Jerusalem an heap of stones the dead bodies of thy servants have they given to the fowls of Heaven But thou shalt be buried in a good old age Procopius observeth it in Miriam Aaron and Moses that as they exceeded one the other in holiness so in dayes for Aaron out lived Miriam and Moses Aaron long life is a crown when it is found in the wayes of righteousness cum senectute bona and albeit it is almost the burthen of every mans song that age is a burthen and a perpetual disease or rather a continual tract of diseases and a sequence of maladies yot none for ought I see goeth about to lay down this burthen or to be cured of this disease even they who most eloquently declaim upon the vanity and exclaim against the miseries of this life and wish a thousand times that they were dead would be loath to be taken at their word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in greek signifieth praemium a reward as senectum old age and doubtless old age in general is so to be accounted for it is reckoned among the blessings which God bestowed upon Job Isaac David and Jehoida who are all said to have dyed in a good old age or full of dayes riches and honour For howsoever to some men in some case contraction of their dayes hath proved an advantage by abridging their present and preventing their future forrows as it was to good King Josiah who was timely taken away that he might not see the evil which after his death fell upon his people and to Saint Austin who dyed immediatly before Hippo was taken Yet length of dayes ordinarily is a blessing and promised to such as obey their Parents honour thy father and thy mother that thy dayes may be long as on the contrary shortning the dayes of life is threatned by the Psalmist as a curse to the blood-thirsty and deceitful man and Eli took it for such when Samuel from God told him there should not be an old man in his family Howsoever if old age be not perpetually and simply a blessing in it self yet as it is here qualified with bona I am sure it is The Almond-tree is beautiful of it self how much more when it is hung with jewels and precious stones as Xerxes his Platihas was and crowned with health riches honour and the comfort of a good conscience These make old age such a burthen as bladders are to him that swimmeth which bear him up or feathers to a bird which though they have some weight yet by them she raiseth her self up and flyeth By this time you expect I know the application of this Scripture but it is made already not in word but in deed not by me but by him whose empty Casket we behold with tears yet rejoycing that God hath taken out the jewel to adorn his Spouse the triumphant Church in Heaven He is already gone in soul to his Fathers and is now going in body to them to be buried in their Sepulchre his body and soul are now distracted and we for his distraction his soul is gone and our hearts are gone I ever held sighs the best figures and tears the fluentest rhetorick in a Funeral speech if I had better known this honourable Personage I could have spoken more in his praise yet no more then the City and Conntrey will prove to be true by the miss of him Desiderantur reliqua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 10 PAEAN OR CHRISTS TRIUMPH OVER DEATH A FUNERAL SERMON Preached at Lambeth August 3.1639 SERMON XLIII 1 COR. 15.55 O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory I Fear lest some here present that are of a more melting disposition stung with the sense of their present loss and overcome with grief and sorrow for it may frame an answer with a deep sigh to the Interrogations in my Text saying here is Deaths sting here is the Graves victory here is Deaths sting for it hath stung him to death who was the stay of my comfort and joy of my life here is the Graves victory for it holdeth the Corps of my dearest Friend captive and close prisoner in his Coffin If any thus troubled in mind hear me this day let them stop the flood-gate of their tears and lengthen their patience but to an hour and by Gods assistance in the Explication and Application of this parcel of Scripture I will make it appear to them that their Friend is not dead but sleepeth and that death hath not swallowed up him but he hath swallowed up death into victory and that already in soul he insulteth over Death in the words of my Text O Death where is thy sting and shall hereafter in body when this corruptible shall put on incorruption insult in like manner over the grave saying O grave where is thy victory This sentence is like a Ring of Gold enamelled or cloth of Tissue imbroidered or a peece of rich plate curiously wrought and engraved materiam superavit opus the workmanship seems to go beyond or at least equal the mettal for this sentence consisteth of three figures at least First an Apostrophe which by a kind of miracle of art giveth life to dead things and ears to the deaf like to that O earth earth earth hear the voyce of the Lord. Secondly an insultation like to that in the Prophet Esay Where are the Gods of Hamar and the gods of Arphad or the gods of the City of Sepharvaim Thirdly a double Metaphor the former taken from a Serpent Bee Wasp or Hornet the latter taken from a Conquerour for Death is here compared to a Bee Wasp Hornet or Serpent without a sting the Grave to a Conquerour that hath lost his booty or prisoner O death c. Such Drawn-works wrought about with divers coulors of Art we find often in the Sacred coutext especially in the Prophesies of the old Testament and the Epistles of Saint Paul in the new If we look up to the heavens we find in some part of the skie single starrs by themselves in others a Constellation or conjunction of many stars so in some passages of holy Writ you may observe one figure or trope as namely a membrum or similiter cadence as I was hungry and you gave me meat
the sum agreed upon for his ransome and the person in whose power the captive is and who accepteth of the ransome Which of these is the Redeemer you will all say he that is at the cost of all so it is in our redemption from spiritual thraldome the holy Spirit draweth the condition sealeth the Bonds the Father receiveth the ransome the Son both mediateth for the ransoming and layeth down the sum For we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb withouâ— blemish he took part of our nature that through death he might destroy him that had tthe power of death that is the devil and deliver them who through the fear of death were all there life-time subject to bondage Hence we gather that he that destroyed death must die but to affirm that the immortal and eternal Spirit of God expired is blasphemy and to say that the Father suffered is heresie long ago condemned in the Patro-passions we conclude therefore with the Apostle that the second person Christ Jesus hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel And so I fall upon my last Observation the judgment here mentioned Davorica 3. Thy plagues there is no tittle or iota in holy Scripture superfluous some mystery therefore lyeth in the number plagues in the plural not plague in the singular which I conceive to be this that Christ put Death to many deaths and foyled and conquered it many wayes first in himself secondly in his members First in himself by destroying sin the sting of Death Secondly by breaking the bonds thereof in his powerful Resurrection wherewith it was impossible that he should be held Secondly in his members by changing the nature of it to them and making it of a curse a blessing of a loss a gain of a punishment either a great honour or a special favour or a singular advantage a great honour as to the Martyrs who thereby acquired so many Rubies to their crown of glory as they shed drops of blood for their Saviour A special favour as to Abraham Josiah and Saint Austin who were taken away that they might not see and feel the misery that after their death fell on the posterity of the one the subjects of the other and the diocess of the third A singular advantage to all the faithful who thereby are discharged from all cares fears sorrows and temptations and presently enter into their Masters joy For blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them Now the means whereby Christ conquered death utterly destroyed it are diversly set down by the learned some argue a contrariis contraries say they are to be destroyed by their contraries as heat by cold moysture by drought sickness by health Death therefore must needs be destroyed by life as the contrary but Christ is the resurrection and the life in him was life and life was the light of men Saint Austin declareth it after this manner Life dying contended with Death living and got a glorious and signal victory Nysscen thus the Devil catching at the flesh of Christs humane nature as a bate was cought by the hook of his divine Saint Leo and Chrysologus thus if a Bayliff or Sergeant arrest the Kings son or a priviledged person and lay him up in a close prison without commission he deserveth to be turned out of his place for it So Death Gods Serjeant seizing upon his Son in whom there was no fault without warrant or commission was justly discharged of his office Is Death thus discharged hath Christ changed the nature of Death and freed all his Members from the sting of the temporal and fear of eternal death hath he of a postern made it a street-door of an out-let of mortal life an in-let of immortality why then are we so much afraid of death which can no more hurt us then a hornet or wasp after her sting is plucked out Christ fought with a living death we with a dead death which doth not so much sever our souls from our bodies as joyn them to Christ not so much end our life as our mortality not so much exclude us out of the Militant as render us to the Triumphant Church Nothing is more dreadful I confess to the natural man then Death which dissolveth the soul and body and the Grave which resolveth the body into dust and ashes To cure this malady of the mind there is no vertue in any Drug of nature the Philosophers in this case are Physitians of no value they tell us that sickness and death are tributa vivendi and the Grave the common house of the dead But what of this what comfort is here doth this speculation discharge us from the tribute or make the payment thereof the easier doth it inlighten the darkness of these prisons of nature or take away the stench from these under-ground houses no whit Yet God be thanked there is a magazine in Scripture to pay these tributes there is light in Goshen to enlighten these houses there is Specknard to perfume these dankish rooms there are Cordials in holy Scripture to strengthen the heart not only against deadly maladies but also against death it self for there we hear of a voyce from heaven not only affirming the happiness of the dead but confirming it with a strong reason for they rest from their labours and their works follow them we hear of Tabernacles not made with hands but eternal in the Heavens we hear that when we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord we hear the Lord of life opening the ears and chearing the heart of the dead and saying I am the resurrection and the life whosoevor believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live There we hear death not only disarmed of his sting but also slain down right O death I will be thy death O grave I will be thy destruction Secondly hath Christ destroyed Death and hath he both the keyes of Death and of Hell then beloved when we lie on our death-bed let us not have recourse after the Popish manner to any Saint or Angel no not to the blessed Virgin her self but to her Son who is the Lord of life who satisfying for our sins at his death thereby plucked out the sting of death and after his resurrection quite destroyed this serpent In which regard he is stiled stella matutina the Morning star because he ushereth in the day of eternity and primitiae dormientum the first fruis of them that slept because in him the whole lump is sanctifyed When therefore the fiery Serpent hovereth over us to sting us to eternal death let us look upon the Brazen Serpent and the other shall not hurt us Lastly hath Christ conquered Death and Hell and that for us let us then
believe faith he that every noble soul which is in grace and favour with God presently as soon as she hath shaken off the body which kept down her wings flyeth joyfully streight up to her Lord and Saint Cyprian Death to the godly is not a departure but a pass from a temporal to an eternal life and no stay by the way as soon as we have finished our course here we may arrive at the goal there And S. Bernard The infidels call the parting of the soul from the body Death but the believers call it the Passeover because it is a pass from death to life For they die to the world that they may perfectly live to God To strike sayl and make towards the shoar if all that die in the Lord are blesfed from the very moment of their death and this blessedness is confirmed by a voyce from heaven let us give more heed to such a voyce then to any whisper of the flesh or devil Whatsoever Philosophy argueth or Reason objecteth or sense excepteth against it let us give more heed to God then man to the spirit then the flesh to faith then to reason to heaven then to earth although they who suffer for the testimony of the Gospel seem to be most miserable their skins being fleyed off their joynts racked their whole body torn in pieces or burned to ashes their goods confiscate their arms defaced and all manner of disgraces put upon them yet they are most happy in heaven by the testimony of heaven it self the malice of their enemies cannot reach so high as heaven it cannot touch them there much less awake them out of their sweet sleep in Jesus Secondly if the dead are blessed in comparison of the living let us not so glue our thoughts and affections to the world and the comforts thereof but that they may be easily severed for there is no comparison between the estate of the godly in this life and in the life to come for here they labour for rest there they rest from their labour here they expect what they are to receive there they receive what they expected here they hunger and thirst for righteousness there they are satisfied here they are continually afflicted either for their sins or with their sins and they have continual cause to shed tears either for the calamities of Gods people or the stroaks they themselves receive from God or the wounds they give themselves there all tears are wiped from their eyes Here they are alwayes troubled either with the evils they fear or the fear of evil but when they go hence Death sets a period to all fear cares sorrows and dangers And therefore Solon spake divinely when he taught Crasus that he ought to suspend his verdict of any mans happiness till he saw his end Thirdly if those dead are blessed that die in the Lord let us strive to be of that number camus nos moriamur cumeo Let us go and die with him and in him And that we may do so we must first endeavour to live in him For Cornelius a Lapida his collection is most true As a man cannot die at Rome who never lived at Rome so none can die in Christ who never lived in him and none can live in him who is not in him first then we must labour to be in him and how may we compass this Christ himself teacheth us I am the Vine and my Father is the Husbandman every branch that beareth not fruit in me he taketh away and every branch that breareth fruit he purgeth that it may bring forth more fruit as the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in me Hence we learn that we cannot bear fruit in Christ unless as branches we be ingrasted into him now that a graft maybe inoculated 1. There must be made an incision in the tre 2. The graffe or syence most be imped in 3. After it is put in it must be joyned fast to the tree The incision is already made by the wounds given Christ at his death many incisions were made in the true Vine that which putteth us in or inoculateth us is a special faith and that which binds us fast to the tree is love and the grace of perseverance If then we be engrafted by faith into Christ and bound fast unto him by love we shall partake of the Juice of the stock and grow in grace and bear fruit also more and more and so living in the true Vine we shall die in him and so dying in him we shall reflourish with him in everlasting glory Fourthly if we are assured by a voyce from heaven that none but they are blessed who die in the Lord all Infidels Jewes and Turks yea and such hereticks too as deny all special faith in Christ are in a wretched and lamentable case for it is clear that unbeleevers cannot live in Christ for the just liveth by faith and though hereticks and among them our Adversaries of Rome have a general faith yet because they want a special faith in Christ whereby they are to be ingrafted into him and made members of his mystical body they can make no proof to themselves or others at least unless they renounce some of the Trent Articles that they live or die in the Lord. Lastly if all that die in Christ are blessed as a voyce from heaven assureth us we do wrong to heaven if we account them miserable we do wrong to Christ if we count them as lost whom he hath found if we shed immoderate tears for them from whose eyes He hath wiped away all tears to wear perpetual blacks for them upon whom he hath put long white robes Whatsoever our losses may be by them it cometh far short of their gain our cross is light in comparison of their super-excellent weight of glory therefore let us not sorrow for them as those that have no hope Let us not shew our selves Infidels by too much lamenting the death of beleevers Weep we may for them or rather for our loss by them but moderately as knowing that our loss is their gain and if we truly love them we cannot but exceedingly congratulate their feasts of joy their rivers of pleasures their Palmes of victory their robes of majesty their crowns of glory Water therefore your plants at the departure of your dearest friends but drown them not For whatsoever we complain of here they are freed from there and whatsoever we desire here they enjoy there they hunger not but feast with the Lamb they sigh not but sing with Moses having safely passed over the glassy sea they lie not in darkness but possesse inheritance of Saints in light They have immunity from sin freedome from all temptations and security from danger they have rest for their labours here comfort for their troubles glory for their disgrace joyes for their sorrowes life for their death in Christ and
of heaven for the love of earth Let us labour for this main piece of wisdome even to provide for the eternal well-being of our Souls This is the only wisdome which will stand us in stead when we grow wise for a better life And that we may provide for the life to come let us learn this point of wisdome even to remember our latter end know how to die well Deut. 32.29 Oh that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end This is the wisdome of a Christian to prepare himself for death to be ever in a readiness to die that when his change shall come he may have this to comfort him that whatsoever becomes of his body for the present he hath made good provision for his Soul He is the only wise Christian that provides for Eternity and minds this only above all other things how he may enjoy his God and live with him for evermore The Greeks have but one word to express a wise man and an happy man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both as if that were only to be accounted for true wisdome which leads to Eternal Bliss and happiness Herein is the wisdome of a Christian in labouring to attain true Blessedness even the sight and enjoyment of God for evermore Oh blessed is the man that is so wise as to provide for Eternity who dies with this comfort that though his body moulder into dust and ashes for a time yet his Soul shall rest in the arms of his Redeemer The second particular now follows and that is the subject of this wisdome where it is seated even in the heart and affection This in brief is our next Conclusion True wisdome is to be beloved and embrac'd Prov. 2.2 If thou incline thine ear unto wisdome and apply thine heart to understanding Wisdome is the Mother of us all Mat. 11.19 Wisdome is justified of her children and it is fit the Mother should be loved of her children The Urim was to be laid upon Aarons heart Exod. 2.8 30. to note that wisdome must be seated in the heart there she must lodg and be entertain'd the heart is only a fit Receptacle of wisdome and there she must live and abide The Queen of Sheba was so in love with the wisdome of Solomon as that she took a tedious journey to give that wise King a visit Mat. 12.42 And behold a greater than Solomon is here What is Solomon to Christ what is the wisdome of man to the wisdome of God It is but as a Cloud to the brightness of the Sun as the shadow to the substance and he that loves the wisdome of the World and forsakes the wisdome of God embraceth a shadow and forgoes the substance What can we love if our hearts be not enamoured with wisdome There is nothing amiable but wisdome and if we despise ber what is there of this worlds good whereon we many set our love and affection The learned men of old would only be called Philosophers Lovers of Wisdome not wise men as if this were the highest perfection of wisdome and no man was so wise as he whose heart was enflam'd with the love of wisdome It is not enough to know that which is good but we must be in love with that good which we do know Let us be in love with true wisdome and embrace her as our only delight and joy David bore an hearty affection to the commandments of God he made them his only delight and comfort Psal 119.24 Thy Testimonies are my delight and my counsellors Let us not so much affect the things of this life as to forgo all love of God and heaven Let us not be slaves to the world and despise the freedome which wisdome promiseth to them that love her Let us not say as the servant of his Master Exod. 21.5 I love my Master I will not go out free I love the world so well as that I am content to be a Slave for ever so I may have the wages which the world can give me I value not the joyes of the life to come so I may have the good things of this life for my portion Oh for shame shake off the love of these vanities and be in love with heaven esteem nothing amiable but what is reserv'd for thee in another world Let thy heart be set upon true wisdome and do not suffer the fooleries and vanities of this world to steal away thy heart from God Let wisdome be precious in thine eyes and do not seem to love her but love her in truth and in heart Let us not content our selves with a bare sight of heaven with an outward view and speculation of the glory of heaven but let us fasten our deepest thoughts and meditations upon it Let us not speak of heaven but let our hearts be ravished with the love of heaven Our tongues are but the Suburbs of wisdome but the heart is the City Let not wisdome remain without the gate in the mouth and outward profession of piety but let her be received into the City and entertain'd with joy and gladness into the heart and there rest and repose her self as in the bosome of her best beloved And now that I may not have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a tongue without a door that cannot be governed and kept within the compass of time I hasten to the third particular and that is the means were by we may attain this wisdome and that is by numbring of our dayes Our last observation is this the consideration and meditation of death makes us wise the remembrance of death makes us truly wise The wise man shows us who is wise and who is a fool Eccles 7.4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth A wise mans heart is bent to sadness and the serious meditation of his end and makes choice of such mournful thoughts as will present death before his eyes the desires of a fool are carryed after unseasonable mirth and jollity and he minds nothing less then the sad remembrance of his death The thought of death casts a man into a melancholly fit therefore he cannot away with it What saies he Shall I think of that which torments and afflicts my Spirit and causeth sadness and pensiveness of mind The remembrance of death it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a daily death and the medication of our latter end is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a continual sorrow and vexation of the heart But let careless Christians imagine what they please that which is a grief to them will prove no little joy and comfort to those whose thoughts are taken up with the meditation of their latter end When the hour of death approacheth we shall account it the only wisdome to have fitted and disposed our hearts aright for the last day of our dissolution and departure out of
ΘΡΗÎΟΙΚΟΣ THE House of Mourning FURNISHED With DIRECTIONS for PREPARATIONS to MEDITATIONS of CONSOLATIONS at the Hour of Death DELIVERED IN LIII SERMONS Preached at the FUNERALS of divers faithfull SERVANTS of CHRIST By Daniel Featly Martin Day John Preston Doctors in Divinity Ri. Houldsworth Richard Sibbs Thomas Taylor Thomas Fuller And other Reverend Divines ECCLES 7.4 The heart of the wise is in the house of Mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth Ambr. de obit frat Non amitti sed praemitti videntur quos sed non absumptura mors sed aeternitatas receptura est Seneca Ep. 77. Iter imperfectum est si in media parte aut citra petitum locum steterit vita non est imperfecta si honesta ubicunqque desieris si benè desieres tota est Newly Corrected and Amended with several ADDITIONS LONDON Printed by G. Dawson and are to be sold by John Williams at the Sign of the Crown in St. Pauls-Chruch-Yard 1660. TO THE CHRISTIAN READER THere is no man that can plead Ignorance to the universal Decree of God concerning the necessity of Mans Mortality It is appointed for all men once to die and every man can say as that wise Woman of Tekoaeh we are all as water spilt upon the ground There is no Age Estate Condition or rank of Men but have been foyled with that invincible Champion Death who riding up and down the World upon his pale Horse above these five thousand years hath with an impartial stroke laid all flat before him some in there Infancy have proved what it is to die before they knew what it was to live others in the strength of Youth some in their old Age rich and poor high and low of all sorts young men may die old men must die even those that are stiled Gods and that by no fawning Sycophant but by God himself their Mortality proves them to be men to themselves though they be as Gods to others and as Epictetus once told the Emperour That to be born and to die was common both to Prince and Beggar The sicknesses and miseries of this World have made the proudest Painims to confess with St. Peter to Cornelius Even I my self also am a mortal man So that experience as well as Scripture concludes what man is he that liveth and shall not see death There are no ingredients in the shop of Nature that are sufficiently cordial to fortifie the heart against this King of terrors or his harbingers the velvet slipper cannot sence the foot from the gout nor the gold ring the finger from a fellon the richest Diadem cannot quit the head-ach nor the purple Robe prevent a Fever Beauty strength riches honour friends nor any nor all can repeal that sentence Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Every fit of an Ague and every distemper of this frail constitution being as a light skirmish before the main battel of Death wherein weak man being vanquished is led captive to his long home and when once the lines of Mortality are drawn upon the face of the fairest mortal he becomes a ghastly spectacle how lovely soever before and the conclusion is Bury my dead out of my sight This inevitable necessity however it be confessed and acknowledged of all yet lamentable experience teacheth that in the Christian world most men so live as though they should never die and at length they so die as though they should never live again and when the time of their dissolution cometh their souls are rather chased out by violence then yielded to God in obedience Indeed to a wicked man Death is the beginning of sorrows it is a trap-door to let him down to the everlasting dungeon of Hell but the children of God though they cannot scape the stroke yet they are freed from the sting of death they can play upon the hole of this Aspe without danger and welcome the grimmest approach of this Gyant with a smile being freed from the hurt of him by Him that is the Captain of the Lords Host who hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light so that the sting of it being plucked out and the suffering sanctified by Christ death is become to every Believer but a dark entry to the glorious Pallace of Heaven Now as it is Gods tender mercy to his Children that their conflict and misery should be temporary but their perfect happiness eternal so it should be their care in this little space of time alotted them whereupon their everlasting condition depends so to provide that they may live happily where they shall live eternally and since we cannot escape death to prepare for it that we may get the sight of this Basilisk before it approach and so avoid the danger of it Wretched is the estate of that man who when these spiritual Philistims the terrors of death make war upon him shall have just cause to say The Lord is departed from me the death of such a one will be like the sleep of a frantick man who when the malignant humor is concocted awakes in a greater rage than he lay down whereas to him that is wise to consider his latter end death is no way dreadful death may kill him but it cannot hurt him it doth free him from temporary misery but cannot hinder him from eternal felicity and as that noble Captain of Thebes who having gotten the victory over his enemies but withal received his mortal wound he made this his grand enquiry whether his weapons were safe or not whether his buckler was not in his enemies hands and when it was replied all was safe he died with a great deal of chearfulness and fortitude So when a Christian is to grapple with death his main care is that his Buckler of Faith and the Helmet of his Salvation his Hope that they be safe to guard his Soul and then he passeth not much what becomes of his outward man he dies in peace and confidence Now that we may be fitted to encounter with this last enemy besides the manifold helps which God hath reached to us in his Word in the passages of his providence in the frequent examples of mortality before us continually and in our own sensible approaches to the gates of death I say besides these and infinite more this ensuing Volumn with so much care and pains compiled by Gods blessing and our endeavours may prove no small furtherance in our Pilgrimage Each Sermon therein being as a several Legasie bequeathed by those upon the occasion of whose deaths they were Preached as by so many Testators who themselves have made a reall experiment of Mortality and left these for our instruction that survive them It is true the dayly examples of Mortality are so many real Lectures that by a kind of dumb Oratory perswade us to expect our end but as they are transient so our thoughts of them vanish therefore it can be no small advantage to have in
things God will bring thee into Judgment Abrahams Purchase c. Page 233. GEN. 23.4 I am a stranger and a sojourner among you give me a possession of a burying place with you that I may bury my dead out of my sight Gods Esteem of the Death of his Saints Page 243. PSAL. 116.15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints The desire of the Saints after immortal Glory Page 251. 2 COR. 5.2 For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven The Careless Merchant c. Page 265. MAT. 16.26 What is man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul Christs second Advent c. Page 273. REVEL 22.12 Behold I come shortly and my reward is with me to give every man according to his works The Saints longing for the great Epiphany Page 263. TITUS 2.13 Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Lifes Apparition and Mans Dissolution Page 291. JAMES 4.14 For what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away Saint Pauls Trumpet c. Page 303. ROM 13.11 And that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep The Righteous Mans resting-place c. Page 313. GEN. 15.1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abraham saying Fear not Abraham I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward The righteous Judge c. Page 323. JAM 2.12 So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty Sins Stipend and Gods Munificence Page 335. ROM 6.23 For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Profit of Afflictions c. Page 343. HEB. 12.10 For they verily for a few dayes chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness Spiritual Hearts-ease c. Page 355. JOHN 14.1 2 3. 1. Let not your hearts be troubled believe in God believe also in me 2. In my Fathers house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you 3. And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there you may be also Faiths Triumph over the greatest Tryals Page 367. HEB. 11.17 By Faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up his Son Isaac and he that had received the promise offered up his only begotten Son The Priviledge of the Faithful c. Page 377. IPET 3.7 As Heirs together of the grace of life Peace in Death c. Page 387. LUKE 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word The Vital Fountain c. Page 399. JOHN 11.25 26. 25. Jesus said unto her I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live 26. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die Death in Birth c. Page 411. GEN. 35.19 And Rachel died The Death of Sin and life of Grace Page 419. ROM 6.11 Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Hopes Anchor-Hold c. Page 433. 1 COR. 15.19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable The Platform of Charity c. Page 445. GAL. 6.10 As we have therefore opportunity let us do good to all especially to them that are of the houshold of faith Death prevented c. Page 463. JOB 14.14 All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my change shall come Iter Novissimum or Man his last Progress Page 473. ECCLESIAST 12.5 Man goeth to his long home and the mourners go about the streets Tempus putationis or the ripe Almond gathered Page 485. GEN. 15.15 And thou shalt go to thy Fathers in peace thou shalt be buried in a good old age Io Paean or Christs Triumph over Death Page 493. 1 COR. 15.55 O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory Fato Fatum The King of Fears frighed c. Page 501. HOS 13.14 O Death I will be thy plagues Vox Coeli The Deads Herauld Page 509. APOC. 14.13 And I heard a voyce from Heaven saying unto me Write blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth c. Victoris Brabaeum or The Conquerours Prize Page 517. APOC. 14.13 So saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them Faith's Eccho or The Souls AMEN Page 527. REVEL 22.19 AMEN Even so come Lord Jesus Deaths Prerogative Page 539. GEN. 3.19 For dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return The Patriarchal Funeral Page 549. GEN. 50.10 And he made a mourning for his Father seven dayes The true Accountant Page 559. PSAL. 90.12 So teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdome The Just-Mans Funeral Page 575. ECCLES 7.15 All things have I seen in the dayes of my vanity there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness The Righteous Mans Service to his Generation Page 587. ACTS 13.36 For David after he had served his own Generation after the will of God fell asleep c. The Crown of Righteousness c. Page 597. 2 TIM 4.7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto them also who love his appearing THE STEVVARDS SUMMONS SERMON I. LUKE 16.2 Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou maist be no longer Steward IN the Chapter going before our blessed Lord and Saviour had preached the Doctrine of the Free Grace of God in the Remission of Sin and receiving of Repenting and Returning Sinners in the Parable of an indulgent Fathers receiving of a prodigal Son The Pharisees were a People that hardned their own hearts and scoffed at every thing that Christ delivered therefore now in this Chapter he cometh to summon and warn them to appear before God the great Master of the world to give an account of their stewardship that by the consideration of Gods proceeding in the day of Judgment they might know the better how to prize the Remission of Sins in the day of Grace This he doth by presenting to them a Parable of a certain rich man that had a steward who was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods calleth him to an account and to the end that the Pharisees might not think that it was a matter to be jested withal and that such considerations
the rule remain firm I say it may be so But secondly we answer They had that that was in stead of Death to them some change though they did not die after the manner of other men So at the end of the world it is said that those that are alive shall be caught up and changed in the twinckling of an eye there shall be a sudden and almost undiscernable unperceivable change which shall be to them instead of death But it will be objected further There is a promise made in Joh. 11. That those that believe shall never die To this I answer with that common distinction There is a twofold death which the Scripture calleth the first and the second death The first death is the death of the body that ariseth from a dis-junction and separation of the body from the soule And there ie a second death that ariseth from the dis-junction and separation of the soule from God The first death is no death properly the second death is that which is truly Death and so they shall not die A man may have a body separated from the soule and yet not his soul separated from God nor himselfe from Christ Who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ neither life nor death nor principalities nor powers c. Death you see shall not be able to separate us from God it cannot separate the soule Nay it doth not separate the body from Christ the body remaineth a member of Christ as well while it is still in the grave as before God is not the God of the dead but of the living saith Christ Mat. 22. And therefore he proveth that even Abraham was not dead in that sense that they then took it but he remaineth yet alive in as much as God was his God Abraham whole Abraham was Gods by vertue of Covenant so are all his posterity the children of Abraham by faith in a spiritual sense they remain with Christ and they are united to him as members to the head even when their bodies are in the grave So that I say they die not in that sense so as to have their soule separated from God though they die in the first sense that is to have their bodies separated from the soule But our Saviour in that place of John speaks of the second of that death which is an everlasting separation of the soul from God As we say of wicked men that while they are alive they are dead so the Apostle speaks of the widdow that lived in pleasures while she lived she was dead and the Church of Sardis had a name to live but she was dead This is true death indeed when that the soul of a man is separated and dis-joyned from God and from Christ And it is the state of every man by nature of every man under sin though they walk up and down and do the actions of the living yet they are but dead men And as truly as they are said to be dead while they live so truly it may be said of the children of God that while they are dead they live as it said of Abraham so it may be said of all Gods servants they die not properly but remain still in union with God and with Christ with God through Christ they are Christs and therefore Gods in him and therefore they die not Look what the soule is to the body that is God to the soul the soul is the life of the body and God is the life of the soul they are still living men that have God the soul is alive even when the body lieth down in the grave This shall serve for the opening of that they are not dead but alive they do die in the first sense and in the common acceptation in respect of the separation of the body from the soul but they do not die in the second sense in respect of the separation of the soul from God they do not die eternally they do not die properly Now briefly to make some use of this and to hasten to that I most intend to stand upon Is it so then that Death is the end of all men Let us make account of it for our selves This seemeth but a plain point and so indeed it is but I know there is nothing more useful and I know there is nothing lesse regarded and lesse considered of seriously then this that we must die It is true we all acknowledge it in the general and every man the very worst the most ignorant and most prophane in the world will yeeld to this in the general that all men must die and let a man come and tell them that they themselves must die they will grant it too but this is that that undoes us all we rest in generals and do not seriously insist upon a serious application of it to a mans own particular case and bring it home to a mans self to conclude thus I must die I may die soon this may be the last day of my life upon earth this may be the last time I may breath this may be the last word that I shall speak the last action that I shall do I know I must die and it may be I may die now This is that we should principally intend and labour most after that when we read the stories of the Scripture and see that Death is the end of all men that all must die and their houses must be houses of mourning to conclude the same for our selves All those worthies spoken of in Heb. 11. it is said they all died in faith I read such a man was a King but he died such a man was a Prophet but he died such a man was Noble but he died such a one died in his youth such a one in his strength these died and I must die the same thing must be said of me that is said of them I say let us not only say it but resolve and conclude upon it conclude for our selves that the same thing must be said of us that is said of all men All men must die we must die The benefit that floweth from it will be this First when a man bringeth it to his own particular case it will make sin more odious to him What is it that brought Death into the world what bringeth death upon us Sin By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have finned This I say is it that will make sin odious to a man it will make a man look upon sin as a deadly evil A man will avoid an infections disease that is mortall and deadly and pestilential and the like Why because it is deadly it is as much as his life is worth The same is sin it is that that brought death upon all man-kind and will bring it upon thee When doth the creature forfeit his beeing to the Creator
ariseth out of this This is necessary to awaken mens drowsinesse and to quicken up mens dulnesse to a serious consideration of that that is so usefull to themselves A man would wonder that in the Wildernesse where so many thousands died for the hand of God was out against them for their murmuring and rebellion and they were destroyed by the destroyer as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 10. that there Moses should pray Lord teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdome though they had a sight of so many dying before them and that continually yet they needed to be stirred up to pray that God would teach them to make use of it So it is with us We have seen not only one or two die before us but there was a time not long since and you cannot forget it wherein the destroying Angel did walk at liberty about the Citie and kill thousands in our streets yet when so many died what security was there even among those that lived in so much that after awhile the sicknesse grew common and usual and so unregarded Have we not need then as much as ever Moses had in the Wildernesse to crie to God to teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdome Nay much more now when there is scarce one or none in comparison of those multitudes that were swept away in that visitation we have need of such helps as these are and to joyn our prayers with them too that we may be stirred up to a serious application of it to our selves That 's the first thing it is necessary for living men to take to heart the death of those that are departed that they may see and be brought seriously to think of the certainty of their own death Secondly therein also we see the nature of death what the proper work of it in the world is It is of singular use too The nature of death the proper work of it is to dis-unite to separate to dis-joyn things here you have the soul separated from the body the estate separated from the man the man separated from his friends and all by Death First I say ye have the body separated from the soul and this is a useful consideration The soul and the body while they keep together in a man they may be helpful and useful one to another the time will come when they must be separated Alas the not considering of this is the cause of those great errours that are in the lives of men that they bestow so much time upon their bodies that they so much mind the present things of this life and their outward welfare as if they had no souls at all to regard as if there never should be a separation of body and soul one from another What is the reason that there is all that care took for food for the body for apparel for the body for health for the body and such an utter neglect of the soul but because that men doe not dream do not thing of a time of separation of a time of dis-junction of a time of parting these two All the work of a mans life should now be to make a good use of the faculties of his soul that the body may be happy by it the soul will draw the body after it to its own estate Now they are together if they joyne now in sin after there separation there shall come a time when they shall be joyned in punishment if they joyn now in the service of God after they have been separated a while by death there will come a time when they shall be again joyned in glory and happinesse That is the first There will be a separation of soul and body therefore make good use of them while they are together let the body be serviceable to the soul by all its senses and members let the soul rule and order the body by its understanding and affections c. that both body and soul may be made blessed in an eternall conjunction together after death and in an everlasting union in the sight of God Secondly Death makes a separation between a man and all his outward estate in the world The rich man in Saint Luke 12. thought not upon this Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years he thought his soul and his goods should never have parted therefore take now thine ease saith he See what the end of it was Thou fool saith the Lord this night they shall fetch away thy soul and then whose shall these things be The time is coming that these things shall be none of thine they shall be another mans they shall be some bodies else they shall be taken from thee How necessary is this consideration to take off mens affections from the world and to stir them up to use their wealth and their estates while they have them so as may make for the glory of God A time shall come that they shall not have it to use that nothing shall be left them but a bare account to be given up Give an account of thy Stewardship Luke 16. The main businesse is now to be done while a man and his wealth are together while a man and his estate continueth together to use it to Gods glory otherwise it will be a woeful and heavy parting when death shall come to make a separation The young man went away sorrowful when Christ would have his wealth from him because he had great possessions How sorrowful will a man go out of the world when he hath a great deal of wealth but he hath not prepared his account he cannot give up a reckoning of his getting of it of his using imploying of it it is necessary therefore I say that men take to heart the death of those that die before them that when they see the bodies and souls of men parted men and their estates parted they may learn how to use their bodies souls themselves and their estates while they are yet joyned together Thirdly Death doth not only part a mans body and soul a mans self and his wealth but it parteth a man from his friends from all his worldly accquaintance from all those that he took delight in upon earth Death makes a separation between husband and wife see it in Abraham and Sarah though Abraham loved Sarah dearely yet Death parted them Let me have a place to bury my dead out of my sight It parteth father and child how unwilling soever they be see it in David and Absolom Oh Absolom my son would God I had died for thee and Rachel mourned for her children and would not be comforted because they were not It parteth the Minister and the people see it in the case of the people of Israel lamenting the death of Samuel and in the case of the Ephesians at the parting of S. Paul sorrowing especially when they heard they should
see his face no more It parteth those friends who were so united together in love as if they had but one soul in two bodies see it in the separation that was made by death between David and Jonathan that were so knit together in their love that he bewaileth him Woe is me for my brother Jonathan This is a necessary consideration for us that live that we may learn to know how to carry ourselves towards our wordly friends and how to moderate our selves in our enjoyment of these worldly comforts Look upon every worldly thing as a mortal as a dying comfort Look upon children and friends as dying comforts Look upon your estates as that that hath wings and will be gone Look upon your bodies that now you make so much of as a thing that must be parted from the soul by death and that ere long See what advice the Apostle giveth 1 Cor. 7.19 the time is short saith he therefore let those that marry be as if they married not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it A man abuseth the world when he useth it beyond the consideration of the shortnesse of enjoying these things when he looks upon these things as things that he shall enjoy alwayes But if we would use it aright look upon things as things that we shall enjoy but for a short time This body that seemeth now to have some beauty in it yet it must die be laid in the dust these friends that seem now to have some pleasure and delight in them yet I must die and be took from them this estate and wealth that now I set so much price upon I must die and death will part me and it So I say look upon every thing as separable from us Moderate your affections likewise to them Use them onely as comforts in the way as a traveller doth the pleasures of his Inn he stands not to build himself houses against every pleasant walk he looks upon he stands not to purchase lands and to lay them to every Inn he comes to lie at No he knows that he is now but in his passage in his way he knows that he is not at home that is the place he is going to and after a time he shall come thither So make account that you are not now at home it is death that must help you to your home Let this therefore take you off from all these things that are in the way It is a strange thing to see how Sathan besotteth and befooleth men They strive and labour to compasse many worldly things as if their happinesse stood in the enjoyment of them as if they should have their wealth and their comforts for ever What care is there amongst men to get wealth and many times lose their souls in getting the world Alas Death will part soul and body them and their wealth and all Do we not see this daily in the death of others before us such a one is dead where is his body now in the dust Where are his friends and his companions now Where is his wealth and his estate for which many flattered him and fawned upon him are they not all separated from him they have nothing now to do with him he cannot dispose of one penny of his estate now it is left he knows not to whom others now have the mannaging of it As now you can say this of others so there will a time come that other men will say the like of you I had such a friend but death hath parted him from me he had such an estate but death hath parted him and his estate Let us therefore make this use of the death of others to conclude with our selves that there will be a parting of all those outward things that now we are so apt to dote upon The third special thing considerable in the death of others that will be matter of profit and benefit to those that live and survive after them is the end and cause for which God sendeth Death abroad into the world with such a large commission that it goeth on with such liberty to every family to every place that it seizeth upon every person What 's the reason of it You shall see in the several deaths of men several causes There is judgement and mercy sometime a mixture of both and sometime but of one of these Sometimes we see an apparant judgement of God in the death of some A judgement of God upon themselves Thus the young Prophet that disobeyed the word of the Lord a Lyon met him in the way and slew him So those Corinths that did eat and drink unworthily in the Lords Supper though they were such as were saved after yet neverthelesse for this very cause saith the Apostle some of them were sick and weak and some slept they died they were judged of the Lord that they might not be condemned with the world When you see death seizing upon men as an act of divine judgement of divine displeasure let it make you more fearful of sinning against God lest you provoke against your selves the same warth in the very act of sin Sometimes again it is a judgement of God upon others Thus God takes away divers of his servants because the world is not worthy of them And as this is an act of judgement upon the world so it is an act of mercy to them God in mercy taking of them away from the evil to come and from the evil present A judgement of God to others that are udworthy of them A mercy to themselves that they are took away from their own evil from sin from temptations from all the effects and fruits of sin and taken away from the evil that is to come upon others An act I say of mercy to them So it was to the child of Jeroboam he should die and should not see the judgement that was to come upon his fathers house because there was found some good thing in him toward the Lord. So it was to Josiah He should be gathered to his fathers in peace and his eyes should not see all that evill which the Lord would bring upon Jerusalem and upon the inhabitants thereof An act of judgement to others Righteous and merciful men are taken away and no man layeth it to heart they consider not the causes wherefore God takes away those good men A Land a Kingdom a State a People a place is much weakned when those that are righteous and merciful men when those that stand in the gap and use their endeavours to prevent judgments are taken away The house will certainly fall when the Pillars are removed They are the people of God only that hold up a state that hold up the world Assoon as Noah is put into the Ark presently cometh the deluge upon the World Assoon as
ever Lot was got up to Zoar presently the Lord rained down fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah Assoon as ever the mourners are marked presently cometh the destroying Angel upon the rest Beloved when we see those that are mourners for the evils of the times and places where they live look away we should lay it to heart and consider it as a sign of Gods displeasure as a sign that he is a going and departing when he takes away his jewels as a sign that he is a coming to judge the world when he beginneth to separate to take to himself his own Certainly as soon as ever that number of the elect shall be accomplished when the company of those that God hath determined to eternal life shall be fulfilled when the sheep of Christ that are yet to be brought into his fold are gathered together when the fulnesse of the Gentiles is come in and the nation of the Jewes added then the world shall he burnt with fire and the day of Judgement shall come nothing shall hinder that general destruction that shall be the end of all things here below As it is with the general Judgement of the world so with particular Judgements upon Nations when God takes away his people when the Saints go out of Jerusalem to Pila then cometh the sword of the enemie upon Jerusalem when God drawes out his own people presently cometh judgement upon the rest It is good to observe Gods method and order that he takes in governing of the world at this day that in the death of the servants of God we may consider our own time that we may prepare for those evils that are a coming and for those greater judgments that are hastning Thus you see what use may be made of laying to heart the death of others God is much glorified thereby For all his attributes are seen in all his works and the glorifying of God is a declaring of God to be as glorious as he hath revealed himself to be in his attributes which is by shewing of them forth in his works When men can see the wisedome the justice the power the mercy the truth the soveraignty of God and all in the death of others then they glorifie God in taking to heart the death of others You see likewise what good cometh to a mans self by laying to heart the death of others He sees thereby the certainty of his own death He sees the nature of death and what the proper work of it is viz. to separate between him and all those outward comforts all those props and staies whereupon his heart rested too much on earth in the dayes of his vanity And lastly he sees the end and cause why God sendeth Death into the world sometime in judgement that men should take heed of sin sometimes in mercy in mercy to the men themselves and in mercy also to those that live that they seeing the servants of God lodged up before the tempest may learn to fear and to hide and secure themselves under Gods special providence who can either hide them amongst the living or the dead in the worst times Now let us conclude with some application to our selves In the first place it serveth for the just reproof of that great neglect that is in the world at this day that men lay not to heart the death of others I wish that this were only the sin of worldly men I know to a worldly man it is of all things the most unpleasant thought that can be to think of death he cannot indure to hear this they shall fetch thy soul from thee It is as unpleasant to him as it is to a Bankrupt to hear of a Sergeant coming to arrest him as unpleasant as it is to a Malefactor to hear of being brought before the Judge And that is the reason why men in the time of feasting cannot endure such discourses at their Tables as might put sad thoughts of death into them oh these are too melancholly thoughts Yea but in the mean time it is thy folly thy want of wisedome He that was guided by the spirit of wisedome and had now bought some wisdome at a deare rate by woeful experience of his former follies he now seeth that it was farre better to go to the house of mourning that is seriously to consider of that which men account the most ordinary cause of mourning that is the death of others and of themselves then to go to the house of feasting that is to sport a mans selfe in the pleasures of the world and to give liberty to a mans selfe to all manner of delights But I say I wish that this were their fault onely and that it may die with them But it is too much the fault of Gods own people Moses is fain to pray for Israel in the Wildernesse where they saw so many die before them that God would give them wisdom to number their dayes And Ministers have still the same cause to pray for the people and Christians to pray one for another that God would give them wisdome to lay to heart the death of other men Have you well considered of Death when you can only discourse that such a one that was profitable in his instruction is dead such a one by whom we have had good in conversing with is dead such a one that was young and likely to live many years longer is dead What of all this this is but idle and empty discourse What use makest thou of this to thy self dost thou gather from thence the certainty of thy own death Dost thou consider what death will do to thee when it cometh how that it will separate between thee and all things in the world as it hath done them Dost thou consider for what cause God sendeth Death abroad into the world Dost thou consider this with thy selfe as thou oughtest to do This is an act of wisdome This is that we call due consideration when the soul reflects upon it self it is their case now and it will be mine and mine in the same manner therefore it is good for me to set my accounts strait with God When thou accompaniest another to the grave dost thou conclude thus with thy self the very next time that any death is spoken of it may be mine or as Saint Peter speaks to Saphirah after the death of Annanias the feet of those that have buried thy husband are at the door and shall carry thee out also This is reason of all that worldly-mindednesse of all that earnestnesse and invention to gain the favour of men by indirect means this is the reason of all that immoderate care about our businesse with the neglect of our souls this is the reason of all that carnal security of all that forgetfulnesse of God and the account that shall be made at the day of Judgment this is the reason of the unfruitfulnesse of our lives of our unprofitable spending of our times or
it as Ill. Ill is twofold either that which is contrary to mans will and so it is called Malum tristitivum or else contrary to mans nature and so it is Malum corruptivum Now Death is contrary to man in both these senses both to his nature and to his will It is a thing he would not have because it is contrary to his nature and that is contrary to his nature that seeks the destruction of nature Now when a man apprehendeth Death as a thing that would destroy nature that would overthrow and dissolve and break in pieces that goodly Fabrique as he conceiveth it and make that something to become nothing it is a thing that nature cannot bear it abhorreth So the servants of God as they have nature in them they have this natural affection to preserve their beeing and this in it self is not simply sinful but so far as it exceedeth the rule Therefore you see that because men apprehend Death as an Ill contrary to nature they prefer other things that are Ill in a lesse regard in a lesse degree before that A man would rather part with his wealth then part with his life as we see in Psal 49. A man would give God a ransome for his soul if he could he would give all his goods to ransome his life He would rather be poor then not at all Nay a man will part with his ease with his health rather then with his life he will be in paine rather then he will not be Skin for skin and all that a man hath will be give for his life Nay a man will part with his credit and estimation rather then with his life he will rather be disgraced then not be A living dog is better then a dead lyon this is the speech of a man naturall he preferreth a dog that hath life in him before a Lyon that is dead he would rather be a mean living man then a dead Prince That is ths first thing men naturally conceive Death as a thing contrary to nature So it is a natural Ill. Secondly as a man conceiveth Death an Ill contrary to nature so he apprehendeth it an Ill not easily overcome When Goliah looked on David on the meannesse of his stature and the slendernesse of his prepartation to fight he considered him as an enemie but as a weak one and therefore instead of fearing he disdained him Dost thou come to me as a dog I will give thy flesh to the fowles of the heaven and to the beasts of the earth he scorned him But when the Host of Israel looked on Goliah as a mighty enemy that they could not easily resist much lesse overcome the Text saith they were full of fear because of Goliah the strength of the adversary was that that filled them with fear So when a man looks upon Death and seeth it come as a mighty armed man provided with all weapons of war seeth it come in to the most populous Cities as in the pestilence and slayeth ten thousand before it seeth it come on the most strong and valiant men and breaks their bones and destroyeth them Who can stand before this Goliah he that defieth the Host of God the host of Israel not only the wicked but the servants of God are overcome by this enemy I say thus nature discourseth and thus a natural man apprehendeth Death and therefore he conceiveth Death to be a fearful Ill because it is a thing that he cannot easily overcome That is the second Thirdly he conceiveth it as a thing Future as an Ill to come I am yet living and in health but how soon this health may turn to sicknesse and this life to Death 〈◊〉 know not this is that that holdeth down the spirit under fear As David said I shall sall one day by the hand of Saul one day so saith a man that liveth now in the multitude of his businesse in abundance of strength and ability every way I shall one day fall into the Grave I shall one day fall into the hands of Death Peter we know how he affected Saphira with telling her of the death of her husband and saith he the feet of those that carried out thy husband shall carry thee out this affected her with fear so that she fell down dead upon the apprehension of it Thus I say if we look upon the object Death considered as an Ill that is a thing contrary to nature Death considered again as a strong and mighty Gyant that none can overcome but it overcometh them And then considered again as a thing coming upon men now in the approach and we know not how soon he will grasp a man in his hands and seize upon him this is that I say that causeth that natural fear that is in the children of God Then again consider the Subject the person in whom the apprehension of such an object is and so likewise we shall see somewhat in the dispositions of men or in their state and condition here that may affect them with a natural fear of Death The first is some men by constitution are more melancholy and are naturally of a more fearful temper indeed distemper The brain is distempered the heart is distempered The brain apprehends things and looks upon them through a false glass through a deluded fancie and so makes a false report to the heart presenteth things more terrible then they are so sometimes the heart is ill affected by the misreport that is brought to it by the understanding sometimes both are distempered as that humor prevaileth more strongly in the body So also there are sometimes raised up turbulent and disquieting and voilent passions that make some full of fear as we see in Belshazzar whose knees did smite together and all through the apprehension of death and so Felix when he heard of death and judgement to come he trembled Though the fear of these men did not rise from melancholy but from inward guilt of conscience yet the effect sheweth that when men are affected with the apprehension of Death in the worst sight and opprehension of it it causeth fear and terrour Secondly it cometh in others and generally in all from weakness of nature which in some is more then others according to their different constitutions and educations so the rich many times are more fearful of death then the poor because they have more to lose so likewise voluptuous persons are more fearful of Death then those that are more temperate because by voluptuousness they have dis-joynted and weakned their spirits So young men many times are more fearful of Death then those that are old as we see in the story Judg. 8.20 Jether the sonne of Gideon when he should have killed Zeba and Zalmunna the Text saith He was afraid because he was a young man but Gideon that was elder did it willingly as a man better accustomed and experienced with observations of changes and varieties of accidents amongst
of Christ to him then ever when it was in the body So then here is a cessation of baser actions and imployments to give place to more noble and heavenly and excellent actions wherein the soul shall be employed in heaven There is then no losse of actions neither Again there is no losse of company This is a thing that troubleth men husband and wife to part friends to part But we lose no company by death howsoever we lose the company of men that we cannot assure ourselves friends indeed for of all the friends we speak of in the main point when they come to be tryed there are few to be found to be friends But then we go to them whose love is perfect than you may be sure of and have the truth of their love Again how little comfort nay how little have you company with those friends you desire Is not much part of our life spent without any sight of our friends Is not half of it spent in sleep in the night and the other half in businesse and pleasure Alas how little time have we to enjoy our friends we rest on But then we shall perfectly enjoy them when there shall be no need of sleep when there shall be perfection of love and freedom from distraction and imployment when the servants of God shall fully and freely and sweetly and comfortably enjoy one the other Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the meanest of the Saints shall meet in the expression of love in such a perfection as we cannot speak of And this is certain you shall go to many Who can tell the dvst of Jacob Now you have some one or two or three or a few men or women that you account friends and dote much upon but then you shall have ennumerable company a world of friends of men and women multitudes they cannot be numbred they are as the stars of heaven for number I say there is no losse of company by this means Again you shall lose no pleasures by death it may be you shall lose some few sensual bruitish pleasures a few mixed corrupt pleasures pleasures that have the mixture of sorrow and fear in them that imbitters them to the soul of a man but it shall not be so then you shall be freed from imperfect pleasures and have perfect ones at Gods right hand for evermore pure pleasures Again you lose no necessary convenience neither the rich man loseth no riches by death he loseth his money doth he lose his riches therefore No The Angels are rich but they have no money the Saints are rich they want nothing but they have no money It may be thou losest a child thou shalt find a Father it may be thou losest a weak friend that loveth not long or it may be not so truly as thou thinkest he doth and thou findest friends that are many and perfect and pure in their love that love with a perfect heart And what then are all those losses when you enjoy that which shall make the soul happy for ever Thus I say you shall rectifie your opinions concerning Death look upon it aright have true apprehensions of it Get an intrest in Christ and look on death through him get faith and then all these things that I have spoken shall be your advantage so the Apostle concludeth Christ is to us in life and in death advantage If we live he is gain to us in life and if we die he is advantage to us in death And death is reckoned amongst the special favours and priviledges Christ hath given to his Church All are yours what all life and death things present and things to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods So we see that Death is amongst the priviledges that Christ hath given his Church therefore rectifie your opinions concerning Death make good that I spake before and you shall find this good that I now speak And for the last the unacquaintance with Death let not that trouble you none come from the dead to tell you what is done there but look on the servants of God before and when they die and you shall find enough how they apprehended Death when they have looked on it in the glasse of the Gospel Look upon them before death Jacob being to close up his dayes with blessing of his children Lord saith he I have maited for thy salvation He looked upon Death through Christ the Saviour of the world that he should be saved by him and though it be true that there is a further meaning for the Tribes in those words of Jacob yet this was proper to Jacob himself he looked upon Death now approaching as that that he was delivered from and set into that freedom purchased by Christ So old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Jacoh accounted it his salvation old Simeon a departure from a worse place to a better from worse company and comforts to a better A change for the better still and a departing in peace Again secondly look on the servants of God in death see what they have said too Josiah a man that was upright in heart he went to the grave in peace he was gathered to his fathers in peace that he should not see the evill that should come upon his people here is all it was but a peaceable taking of him away from a more troubelous condition if he had lived longerâ—… Beloved he died in war yet it is said he was gathered in peace he had inward peace with God though he failed in that particular action And the Apostle in the 2 Cor. 5.4 This is our desire that we may be clothed upon not that we would be unclothed but clothed upon that mortality may be swallowed up of life A strange speech he counteth death life to him he counteth the death of this life to be the death of mortality by laying aside this earthly tabernacle as he said in the first verse mortality is swallowed up of life And therefore you give wrong names to things for while you live you die because your life it is a dying condition and while you die you live because then the cessation of life it is as the river Jordan to the people of Israel no more but a passage to Canaan not a floud to drown them so it is with the servants of God death is but a passage to heaven it is not destructive to them So that if men did but rectifie their opinions of Death as I told you before when their hearts are right set when they are humbled and not lifted up with worldly things when their faith is strengthned and setled in them when they are made watchful in a holy course looking for Death when they are established with the assurance of Gods favour then I say they may find that all these natural fears of death were upon mistake they did
why is thy conntenance fallen Or as that great King said to Nehemiah Why is thy countenance sad So if men would put the question to themselves concerning their affections as concerning love why do I set my heart upon such and such things and so likewise concerning their sorrow and anger and every thing Why is it thus As Rebecca said when the children did strive in her womb so when there is a conflict of passion in the soul against reason since it is so why am I thus Who art thou that fearest mortal man saith Isaiah to the Church If men I say did thus they would not break out into such exorbitancy of passions as commonly they do The way then to order any affection aright is to reduce it to the principles of sanctified and rectified reason and judgement Let reason be guided by the Word of GOD and let the affections be ordered by that reason so rectified Thus it was with man in the state of innocency and experience telleth us that in the state of corruption all disorder cometh from the want of this subordination of the affections to reason in their several actions and motions When a man goes hood-wink'd up and down he is in danger of stumbling and falling into one hole or other this is for a man to walk in darknesse then a man-walketh in darknesse when he is not guided in all his actions and affections by the light of truth shining in his understanding A man should therefore strive to check himself and to suffer others to check him Why is it thus If a man cannot give a cause and a reason it is a passion to be rejected a distemper o be repented of This is the first thing He saw no reason therefore he would not do it The second is this It was altogether bootlesse Why should I fast I cannot bring him back again He meaneth bring him back again to live on the earth So Job meaneth when he speaks in the same manner If a man die shall he live again he cannot be brought again to live and converse among men The point I note hence is this That all the actions and opportunities of this life cease in death There is no calling of them back again No bringing of a man back to take new opportunities to enioy the comforts he hath lost and to make use of the means he hath neglected and to redeem the time he hath slackly let passe When the request was put to Abraham by Dives that some might come from the dead to tell his brethren upon earth where he was No faith he that request shall never be granted that a man should come from the dead to give warning to the living much lesse that a man himself should return from thence to begin upon a new score a new reckoning to have a new time appointed when that time is past over They have Moses and the Prophetes let them hear them God hath appointed the means and a time to use the means Now they have Moses and the Prophets After this life they shall have none of these means no time of using them The child shall not come back again nor the man shall not come back again Death is a strict door-keeper all that passe out that way the door is shut on them they shall never return back We read of many several Ages that have gone to the place of silence we never read of any that came thence to tell what is done there we never heard of any yet that came back again to reform his course A friend with all his prayers and tears cannot bring back a friend that is dead It teacheth us a point of wisdom to make good use of our time the time of grace we have We draw neerer death every day then other and when once we are dead we shall never be brought back again upon the earth If a man had all the world and would give it to obtain an hours time upon earth to do what he neglected before he cannot have it therefore while it is called to day harden not your hearts yet a little while and you shall have the light saith Christ while ye have the light walk in the light Make use of the means of grace the time may come when ye may wish as Dives is described to wish that some body much more that you your selves might come from the dead Certainly if those in Hell were to come from the dead again though it were to live a hundred years on earth a holy strict and concionable life to watch over all their wayes to keep a good conscience towards God and men they would not omit a duty nor slight a duty they would not omit an opportunity a minute but spend their whole life in working out their salvations with fear and trembling they would sleep and awake with fear lest they should sin they would be careful that they had no sinful thought they would be patterns of the strangest expressions of conformity to the rule that can be imagined if it were possible to be granted You may easily be perswaded of this do you that now which they wish for and wish in vain make use of the time of grace now there is no coming back again afterward Thirdly A third reason is this I shall go to him As if he should have said I have another business in hand now the child is dead it is not for me to stand blubbering and spending my time for a dead Child I am going to him The word here is I shall return to him Return signifieth to go back to a place where one was before So David shall return to his Child for he was there before there in respect of his body the principles of that is in the earth where the Child is and in heaven in respect of his soul where the Child is The Body returneth to dust whence it was taken and the soul to God that gave it The body is of the dust and returneth to dust the soul cometh from God and returns to God again Therefore he saith here I shall return to him because I came from him When things are reduced to their principles the body to the earth and the soul to God they are said to return Ye see the phrase then The point briefly is this That the greatest care of a mans life the greatest business he hath to do on earth is to prepare for death His business is not to care for his children that are dead and to spend unprofitable sorrow for them the main business of my life is how I shall make my peace with God and be fitted for death for I am going thither We should observe the death of others to stir us up to a serious preparation for our own death the Father should be stirred up by seeing his Child dead before him the elder by seeing the younger die before them we see how death hath shot his arrowes
the Stage by Death You will say this is a hard condition for so Noble a creature as Man is to be folded up in the grave for so fair a beauty as the life of man is to be closed up in eternal darkness that man should turn to the acquaintance of dust and worms and make his habitation with rottenness and loathsomeness that Death should have the victory of so excellent a Creature it is a hard condition The Apostle thinks not so he thinks otherwise Death faith he ver 54. is swallowed up in victory As if he should say It need not trouble you to think so of Death the condition of it is not so strange and hard as men take it to be It is swallowed up in victory If a man have a strong enemy to deal with it might trouble him but it is no great matter to deal with a conquered enemy Christ hath overcome Death hath conquered that strong enemy Death is swallowed up in victory Therefore Saint Paul in the precedent and subsequent verses of this Chapter seemeth to insult and triumph over Death Oh Death faith he where is thy sting Oh grave where is thy victory As if he should say before Christ came and conquered thee Death thou wert victorious so it was there was a sting in it before Christ sweetned the grave there was something that was terrible in the Grave but now because Christ is come and hath gotten the victory over the one and sweetned the other therefore Saint Paul breaks forth thus into an insultation and triumph But how can this be Why doth the Apostle thus triumph The reason is insinuated in the verse I have read to you the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But this is the occasion of trouble to Christians No it is not thanks be to God that hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord As if he should say I will shew you the reason of my triumphing over Death there was a sting in Sin and Sin is the sting of Death and the Law is the strength of sin but Christ hath took away sin and hath satisfied the Law sin being taken away Death cannot hurt me the Law being satisfied Sin cannot prejudiceme This was the cause of the Apostle and in him of every Christians insultation over Death The words I have read contain two parts First the sting of Death Secondly the strength of Sin First the sting of death is sin Secondly the strength of sin is the Law If there were no law there would be no sin and if there were no sin there would be no death Sin is the transgression of the Law and sin is the sting of death I shall only at this time insist upon the first of these from whence I shall deliver that which if it please God to accompany with his Spirit may be useful to you The proposition shall be the very words of the Text. Sin is the sting of death This Proposition I would not have you understaud in this sense only that death came in by sin meerly in a habit though that be true too But understand it in this sense That all the horrour and terribleness of Death all the power and rage it hath whatsoever makes it fearful to a man it receiveth it all from sin It is sin that armeth Death against a man if Death have any weapons against a man Sin puts those weapons into the hands of Death if Death have any poyson against a Christian the sin of that person putteth that poyson in it Death may be considered two wayes either as Christ hath made it or as we make it Death as Christ hath made it is a medicine to a Christian a passage and entrance to happiness it is a day of redemption and refreshing and so we need not be afraid of it Death as we by sin have made it is the Pale horse Saint John speaks of in the Revelation it is as a fearful arrest to the debtor it hath a sting in it and so it is feareful But that I may open this point more profitably we will inquire into these particulars First what death the Apostle speaks of here Secondly of what sin he speaks of Thirdly in what respect sin is called the sting of death And then we will make the use and application of all this First of what death doth the Apostle here speak of that sin is the sting of For answer hereunto there is a double death corporal and spiritual Corporal death is the privation of the soul when the soul is severed from the body Spiritual death when God and grace are severed from the soul The Text speaks of the corporal death Sin is not the sting of the spiritual death for the spiritual death is sin it self And hear I will not contend with any man if he be full of enquiry but I will distinguish two parts of spiritual death and I grant in one of them is this sting In spiritual death therefore there are two parts or two degrees The first is called the first death That I take to be the death of the soul in sin The second part is when soul and body are for ever closed up in Hell And in this part sin is the sting And remember this by the way Sin is not only a sting now but it will be a sting to men in Hell the sting the deadliness the exreamity of punishment that is in Hell it is received all from sin for the damned in Hell when they come there as they cease not to sin so the sting of sin ceaseth not to be with them and it may be delivered by conjecture I think Hell were no Hell if there were not the sting of sin there So then you see what death the Apostle speaks of principally of corporal death but it may be extended to the second part of spiritual death for their sin continueth and so the sting remaineth The next question is what sin the Apostle speaks of when he faith the sting of death is sin This is not a time to stir controversies therefore those ancient controversies and such as are lately stirred up about original sin how far it is the sting of death I let them go In a word to let you see what sin is the sting of death remember this Sin may be considered two wayes either as it is intire untouched uncrushed Let that sin be what it will be whether it be original only or whether it be any actual sin streaming from original whether it be a sin of ignorance or knowledg whether it be of pleasure or of profit A sin immediately that respecteth God or immadiately respecteth our neighbour whatsoever the sin be if it be not touched if it be not crushed if it scape uncontrouled if it be in its native power and keeps in his kingdome if it rule in a man that sin will certainly be the sting of
Death Every sin vertually is the sting of death there is an aptitude in every Sin but in the event that sin proveth the sting of death that is untouched uncontrouled Not every sin in the event proveth the sting of death but that sin that liveth in us or rather that sin that we live in that ruleth in us that we affect and love this is the Sin that putteth a sting into death That very sin that thou lovest and likest so much and pleadest for that sin will make death terrible Secondly Sin may be considered as it is galled and vexed and mortified in the Soul When a man setteth upon the root of Sin and the way of Sin and falleth a crucifying the body of Sin and the members of it I say howsoever there be divers motions and stirrings of Sin in the soul yet if these be disavowed disaffected and mortified if there be a crucifying vertue pass over them if they come not within the judgment to approve them or within the affections to embrace and like them if they come not to be a mans trade and way and walk but fall within the improbation of the judgment to disavow them and the misliking of the affections to sorrow for them These shall not be the sting of death whatsoever the motions are But these untouched unmortified sins these are the sting of death Now these are the sting of death in a double respect First in respect of the guilt Secondly in respect of the corruption First they are a sting in respect of guilt Every Sin remaining unsatisfied for remaineth with his guilt and when Sin is not satisfied for there is the sting of death When the sinner hath nothing to oppose to the justice of God for the sin he hath committed if the Sin be in the book of God uncrossed be a debt there not blotted out by the blood of Christ if Christ have not satisfied for it if the sinner have not part in him as we shall hear anon then Sin is the sting of death And then secondly they are a sting in respect of the corruption and filthiness of Sins unmortified Those filthy sinful motions those depraving qualities in thy soul that thou likest and practifest in thy conversation they give thee up into the hand of Death to execute his Sting upon thee And therefore you that applaud your selves in sin and will go on in Sin do so But know this when thou comest to the full strength of thy Sin let it be what it will when Death cometh it findeth the strongest weapon it hath in thy sin the very power of thy sin armeth Death against thy soul No man is more obnoxious and open to the sharpest dart of Death then that man that will go on in Sin So you see what Sin is spoken of that is the sting of death that Sin is the sting of Death that a man loveth and doteth on The third Question is in what respect Sin is the sting of Death First by way of Eminencie because that then the sting of Sin beginneth most sensibly to work in a man Not but that Sin hath a sting before Death but then the deluded sinner feels his sin there be divers times that Sin can sting a person before that but then howsoever the sinner hath deluded himselfe and the word of God and the world he can delude them no more Death then most ordinarily sixeth his sting in the soul and makes the sinner feel the smart of his sin There be three times wherein Sin can sting a man Before death At death After death Before Death God sometimes letteth loose the conscience of a man even of the most resolved sinner of him that bears himselfe up alost in his own eyes in scrone and contempt of the ministry of the Word sometime I say God singleth out such a person and rippeth up all his heart strikes his Arrows into his very soul and stings his conscience so irresistably that he knoweth not which way to turne form the wrath that boyleth in his soul And it is one thing to deal with the Minister and another to deal with God When God strikes his Arrows of vengeance into the soul of a sinner then such a one is stung indeed this God doth sometimes before death Nay sometimes God stingeth the consciences of his own children for sin David cries out he roared for the disquietness of his spirit his bones were broken he was sore vexed Lord how long faith he If there be such deep disquiet by reason of this sting in the consciences of good persons tell me then what is the disquiet that springeth from sin in a Cain a Judas when it meets with a dispairing disposition Thus you see Sin hath this time to sting and therefore think not that Sin will never sting till death sometimes Sin stingeth a man before death Another time is at death When Death cometh and arresteth a sinner in an Action from God seizeth on a person that is under the power of Sin on one that is in his sins unrouched howsoever he behaved himself in his life-time yet then the very name of Death breaks his heart it apaleth him and then it stings such a Person It is appointed beloved for all of us once to die Death will one day arrest every man but when Death appeareth before a man that hath not a part in Christ that is under the power of his sins when it cometh to a Belshazar it makes his very joynts to smite one against another it is a sting to him amidst all those sweet morsels his sins which he so much affected and so earnestly pursued it is a very poyson to him nothing is a poyson now to us but sin only but then at the time of death sin is a poyson indeed Lastly Sin can sting not only before and at but after death Bothat the day of Judgment and after At the day of judgement Is not the concience of a sinner think you stinged and his spirit deeply affected by reason of the great wrath of God that is to be poured out when he shall cry to the mountains to cover him when he shall call to those insensible creatures that are not able to lend him that courtesie to crush him to nothing Make this our one cause think of it it will be our case as It is appointed for us all to die so we must all come to judgement And after the Judgement when the sentence go you cursed is past the sting of Sin ceaseth not no the worm for ever gnaweth in Hell It were a happiness for a sinner if he might only hear the sentence if this worm might not still gnaw his conscience but then this is his burthen Sin shall sting him for ever This is the first respect in which sin is called the sting of death because then Sin stingeth more eminently and sensibly Secondly it is called the sting of death in
it is for good use as well to remember and consider it as to understand it But now I go on to tell ye what the Scripture teacheth concerning Death for that giveth a perfecter and larger information of the thing then the dim light of Nature The scripture then over and above that which Nature sheweth telleth us concerning Death these things First it sheweth better what it is and then It sheweth whence it cometh and what are the causes of it Thirdly it declareth the consequences what follow upon it And lastly and bestly it tellech us the remedy against the ill of Death In all which Nature stumbleth and can do little or nothing First the Scripture telleth us what it is It telleth us how that it is the disolution of a man not the annihilation It doth not make him cease to be but takes asunder awhile the soul from the body It carrieth the one to the earth and the other to another world so that both continue to be though they be not united as before The word of God teacheth us that he hath created the world as it were a house of three Stories The middle is this present life where we be And there is a lower place the Dungeon a place of unhappiness and destruction there is a higher place a pallace of glory According as men behave themselves in this middle room so Death either leadeth them down to the place of unhappiness or conveyeth them up to the pallace of glory and blessedness This Nature is ignorant of but the Scripture is plain in The rich man dieth and his soul is carried to Hell the poor man when he died his soul was advanced to Heaven So that Death is nothing but the messenger of God to take the soul out of the body and to convey it to a place of more happiness or more misery then can be conceived Secondly the Scripture acquaints us further with the cause of death Philosophers wondred since nature desireth a perpetuity and continuance of it self that man should be so short a time in the world The Scripture endeth this wonderment and tels us that man indeed was made immortal to continue for ever and should not have died but sin came into the world and by sin death Death is the mother of sin and of all misery that by little and little draweth to death I say sin the first sin of our first Parents whereby they transgressed that most easie and equal mandate about eating the forbidden fruit That transgression that was the treading under foot the covenant of works and the disanulling of it that sin let in Death at a great Gap and now it triumpheth and beareth rule over all the world Nature cannot tell which way in the world a man should die so soon and that he that is the Lord of all creatures should be inferiour to a great number of them in length of life But the word of God unriddleth this riddle and telleth us that God made man that he might and should have lived for ever but Sin coming and coming in the person of the first man it brought death and made all men mortal and when sin entred Gods curse came and that working upon us poor and miserable creatures it is the cause that we cannot continue long here It was equal that death should follow sin for since God made man to obey his will when man had unfitted himself for Gods service it was reason that he should have a short continuance of life for the longer he endured the more he would abuse himself Ye see then two things that the Scripture teacheth concerning death The third thing it sheweth is what followeth after death and that is plain It is appointed for all men once to die and after death cometh judgment Narure never dreamed of judgment after Death but the Scripture telleth us there is a judgment after Death Judgment what is that Judgment ye know is a calling of a man before Authority a looking into his wayes a considering of his actions a finding out whether he be a sinner an evil-doer and if he find him so to passe sentence according to his evil deeds When God hath took the soul from the body he takes the soul first and after both soul and body and presents them before his own Tribunal and there searcheth into every mans life ransacks his conscience looks deep into his conversation and inquireth into his secrets openeth his actions and whole carriage from his infancy to his last breath and findeth out the things that he hath done and passeth sentence according to that he hath done This Indgment hath two degrees First assoon as a man dieth No sooner is the soul separated from this case as it were the body but instantly it is presented before the Lord Jesus Christ and there he passeth sentence either that it is a true beleever a godly liver a person united to Christ that walked as becometh the Gospel of Christ and then it receiveth glory and joy and bliss for the present more then tongue can express Or else it findeth against him that he was a sinfnl man a wicked man a hyyocrite a dissembler one that named Christ with his tongue but did not depart from iniquity nor live according to the Gospel of Christ and then he is delivered up to Satan to be hurried down to Hell and there to suffer the wrath of God according to the desert of so great wickedness This particular judgment passeth upon every soul assoon as it leaveth the Body Then followeth the great universal Judgment when soul and body shall be reunited and stand before God every particular man that ever hath been is or shall be every man shall appear in their own persons their whole lives shall be laid open all secret things shall be made known for God faith the Apostle shall judg the secrets of all hearts by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel This is the third thing that the word of God informeth us concerning death that nature could never do The last that is the best the Scripture giveth us a remedy against the ill of death It is a pittiful thing to hear of mortality and sickness if there were not a good Potion or Phisick prescribed to ascape the ill of it To hear tell of Death and so tell as the Scripture saith that it is a going to another world of weale or woe and not to hear of a remedy it is woful tydings and would wring tears from a hard heart But the Scripture makes report of death not only tollerable and easie but comfortable and gladsome to a Christian heart for it sheweth by whom and by what means we may infallibly and certainly escape all the hurt that Death can do Nay by what means we may order our selves so that Death may be beneficial to us What is that In one short word It is Christ I am the resurrection and the life he that beleeveth in
yet Abel was the first that died Adam committed the transgrestion the elder son was Cain the second Abel in the course of nature the eldest should have gone first but Abel righteous Abel that was the moyty the half of his comfort and the greater half though the younger Adam sinneth first and yet righteous Abel dieth first He gives the reason to be this because God would let us see in the Portal of death the table of the Resurrection he would shew us the linnaments of the Resurrection in the first man that dieth that righteous Abel is took away that we should be assured that he was but translated there was hope of the Resurrection confirmed even in his death But yet that is not all the reason I conceive that is more proper to this is righteous Abal dieth first to shew that even righteous and merciful men must not expect immunity from death and from suffering tribulation in this world it is the condition that befalleth Abel the righteous as well as Cain the Pharisee It belongeth to faithful Abraham as well as to Apostatizing Gemas to beloved Jacob as well as to rejected Esau to meek Moses as well as to cursing Shemei to Deborah the Prophetess as well as to usurping Athaliah to devout Josiah as well as to impious Ahab to tender-hearted David as well as to churlish Nabal to the humble Publican as well as to the vaunting Pharisee It is the law and rule that is set to all there is no exemption righteousness piety and works of mercy then do not exempt Eor if they could exempt how should piety have the reward when should godliness come to the full recompence It is death that makes way to the hope of reward And if it be so that righteousness excuseth not then neither honour nor strength nor beauty nor riches can excuse in the world for these are of far less prevalency with God then piety So the Argument standeth strongly If Job died that was a merciful man if Abel was taken away that was a righteous man look to other conditions then Casar that is the Princes of the world shall be cut off their state and pompe shall not keep them then Cressus that is the rich men of the world shall die their purse and plenty shall not excuse them then Socrates that is the prudent and learned men of the world their wisdom shall not prevent it then Helena that is the Minnions of the world the decking of their bodies and their beauty and painting shall be setched off they will expose them to death they shall not free them then Sampson that is the strong men of the world those that are healthy of able parts likely to out-live nature their strength shall not excuse them that no man should glory in any thing without Neither the strong man in his strength nor the wise man in his wisdom or the rich man in his wealth but if he glory in any thing to glory in the Lord. Though we must not boast our selves of piety yet as the A postle saith yea have compelled me If a man may boast of any thing it is of piety that is rejoyce in this If God have made a man a vessel of mercy and an instrument of doing any good but otherwise to boast of it even that shall be the stain and further disgrace of it for righteousness it self excuses not from death all are subject to the same law that is the first observation Mercifull men are taken away as well as others Secondly there is a difference in the manner though they be subject to death yet it is a subjection under another subjection Death is made subject to them they conquer Death So both stand together they die and not die because their death is but a translation but a removing There are two persons two men in every penitent and godly man there is somewhat of a righteous man and somewhat of a sinner somewhat of the flesh and somewhat of the spirit so according to these two both laws are kept the Law of commination that is kept thou shall die the death there is the reward of sin the law of promise that is kept thou shall live for ever there is the reward of righteousness Mortality giveth the reward to sin immortality to piety Though they die they are but taken away The word implies these two things First it implies that their death is but a temporary death Taking away is not a final translation it doth not implie a nullity Death though it cut the knot of nature yet not grace It is true there is the sharp Axe of death there is no knot so Gordian but it will cut it a funder It is a great knot that was first knit between the body and the soul it cutteth that asunder It is a sure knot which is the Conjugal knot between man and wife it cutteth that asunder There is a natural bond and union between Parents and children it cuts that asunder There is a civil union between friend and friend it cuts that knot asunder it takes one friend from another But there is the mystical union between the head and the members between Christ and the Church it cannot cut that knot asunder But look as Christs body in the Grave it was not deprived of the Hypostatical union so likewise the body of a Saint when it lies in the grave in corruption it is mellowing for immoratlity and eternity yea then it enjoyeth the benefit of the mistical Union there is somewhat of a member of Christ that lies in the grave that dust that the body of a Saint is resolved into it is holy Dust because that mistical Union is not cut asunder Death cutteth not that knot It perfecteth the misticall Union in respect of the soul and it is but an interruption of the manifestation of the union in respect of the body it is never severed As the Husbandman hath some corne in his ground and some in his Barn the Corn in his ground is of no less value and account then that in his house and Barn Nay it is of more for that that is in his Barn shall not multiply so many bushels he putteth up and so many he receiveth but that which is in the ground multipiles therefore it is in as great account So it is with God There are many bodies of the Saints walking on the earth and those that are laid in the grave that are sowen as the Apostle faith for immortality The bodies of the Saints in the grave are of no lesse account with God then those which walk up and down in the world and glorisie him with works of piety why the body is sown to immortality there is still somewhat of Christ That is the first thing it implies They are taken away it argues that their death is temporary Secondly it sheweth it is deliberate that their death is not sudden For there is a difference between these two to be snatched away
be greater then I can give warrant for they that die thus die eternally And we had need beseech God with all earnestness of spirit to keep us from such a fearful temptation as this for they that die thus die not in the Lord and therefore cannot be blessed for my Text saith it of no other but of those Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. This is the first point I come to the Restriction Die in the Lord. It may be construed two wayes the preposition is Ambiguous for the preposition many times in Scripture signifies In Domino or propter Dominum As Rom. 16.1 I commend unto you Phebe our sister that you would receive her in Domino in the Lord that is for the Lords sake as becometh Saints And in the twelfth verse of the same Chapter Salute the beloved Persis which laboured much in the Lord that is laboured much in Gods cause for the Lord. So again Say to Archippus look to the ministery that thou hast received In Domino that is for the Lord for the Lords service for his work I might give you many more instances There is one place most pregnant Eph. 4.1 I Paul a prisoner in Domino so saith the vulgar Latine and so is the Greek interpretation In the Lord. What meaneth Saint Paul A prisoner in the Lord what is that A prisoner for the Lord a prisoner for the Lords cause And thus you may take the word here in the Text Blessed are they that die in Domino that is such as die in causa Domini and thus Judicious Beza to whose judgment I attribute much in translations he readeth it so Blessed are the dead qui moriuutur causa Domini and then in his Annotations propter Dominum And if you take it thus then the Martyrs only are blessed That Martyrs are blessed the Church of God is so far from making a question that they set it down as a Rule Injuriam facit Martyri qui orat pro Martyre A man doth wrong to a Martyr that prayes for a Martyr their blessedness is so sure for He that loseth his life for my sake and the Gospels shall find it saith Christ If he loseth a temporal life he shall find an eternal If he lose a life accompanied with sorrow he shall find another life that is with joy such joy as cannot be conceived such joy as shall never be ended Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his Saints There are two things saith S. Bernard that makes the death of a Saint precious the one is a good life before the other is a good cause for which he dieth A good life will make it a precious death but a good cause will make it a more precious death But that is the most pretious death that hath both a good life before it and a good cause coming next The Matyrs are blessed but they must be such Martyrs as suffer for the Lord be sure of that or else they are not blessed There be some that would be accounted Martyrs a great company of such we have had of late that have died for broaching of reason and some for sowing of sedition some for absolving subjects from the oath of Alleageance some for attempting to blow up Parliament houses Such as these are not Martyrs It is not the punishment it is the cause that makes the Martyr Our blessed Lord himselfe that never did evil was crucified between two evil-doers there was an equal punishment there was not an equal cause It must be the cause that we must look to if we look to be blessed But I cantot stand upon that Here is the first interpretation To die in the Lord is for the Lord. But there is a second and that is more large die in the Lord that is die in the faith of the Lord. Salute Andronicus and Junius my fellow prisoners which were in the Lord before me Saith S. Paul that is that were Beleevers that were in the faith before me And to let pass many other places if there be no resurrection of the dead saith the Apostle then we that are asleep in Christ c. If we beleeve that Jesus died then those that sleep in Jesus shall he bring with him c. and Again He shall descend from heaven with a shout and they that are dead in Christ shall rise first Now what is it to die in Christ in a large sense I will tell you He that would die in Christ first he must die in obedience There are many works of obedience that we are to doe Our last and greatest act of obedience is to resign up this same spirit of ours willingly chearfully into the hands of God that gave it If we have not attained to that strength that some have done that is to live patiently and die willingly yet we should labour to attain to thus much strength to live willingly and to die patiently So as Christ may be magnified in my body saith the Apostle I pass not it makes no matter let it either be by life or by death When we have done the work that God hath set us to do we must be gone and thus must every one say with himself Lord if I have done all the work thou hast appointed me to do call me away at thy pleasure Here is the first In obedience Secondly Die in repentance I remember what Possidonius said of Saint Augustine a little before his death that it was necessary that men when they died they should not go out of the world absque digna competenti resipiscentiâ without a fit competent repentance He himselfe did so for he caused the penitential Plalmes to be written and they were before him as he lay upon his bed and he was continually reading those penitential Psalmes and meditating upon them with many tears he died even in the very act of contrition I do love to see a man chearful upon his death-bed but I do more love to see a man penitent There is a day indeed when God will wipe away all tears from our eyes When that cometh then he will wipe away these tears of repentance too these tears of godly sorrow But the Lord grant he may find me with tears in mine eyes Thirdly Die in faith Indeed if ever Faith had a work to doe it bath then a work to do when all other comforts in the world fail us and freinds go from us then faith to lay hold on the promises I know that my Redeemer liveth and that I shall rise again at the last day and be covered with my skin and shall see God with these same eyes Thus faith And then fourthly Die with Invocation calling upon the name of God Thus have all the Saints of God done continually commending of their souls to God in prayers Saint Paul would have us commend our souls to God in well-doing And it is a necesary thing every morning
overcoming of all sin and by the vertue of Christ he shall prosper in this I beseech you therefore set your selves awork about this great business to get Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it is much more needful then sleep then meat then attire there is nothing in the world so requisite for thy welfare as these things Scrape thou riches together in the same quantity that Solomon did and ten thousands times more yet thou shalt see Death once within a hundred or half a hundred years Get wisdome yet thou shalt see Death after a few years Take pleasure with as much greediness as he did once when he forgat himself for a space yet thou shalt see death These things that the foolish world hunts after with so much earnestness of desire will not secure thee from the sight of the King of feares Death as Job calleth it But if thou once get Faith and Repentance and new obedience then thou hast obtained that that all the riches and honour and pleasures and learning or whatsoever seemeth desirable in the world will not help their possessors to What will you do brethren Grovel still on the earth and still be mad after back and belly Or will you now begin to think I must die I must shake hands with that dismal enemy pale-faced Death that is able to strike terrour into the strongest heart and amazement into the stoutest soul that is not well confirmed and if this Death find me destitute of true Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it will seize upon me and dragg me before the Judgement seat of God where I shall be Henced away with a malediction and curse and be forced to take my place with the Divel and his Angels in unquenchable flames Oh what shall I do then to secure my self from the great from the strong arme of death I will repent now I will begin Lord draw me help me that I may do it I will beleeve now Lord do thou work Faith that requirest it I will obey Lord inable me to preform such needful duties as thou commandest me Shall this be your practice when you come home Will you thus study to practise Repentance and Faith and Obedience and study to cry and call for it and use all your endeavour Or what will you do will you be as idle and careless as negligent and slothful in making after these graces as before Will you be as greedy of the transitory vanities of this life as in former times Oh abuse not the word of God If thou go out of the Church without a full purpose to apply thy self from hence forward either to begin or to proceed in the practise of the saying of Christ Cursed be thou in thy hearing cursed be that hour that thou hast spent and cursed be thy misbestowed labour thou dissembling hypocrite But if thou labour to practise this of Christ namely to keep his sayings the Doctrine of the Gospel to repent to beleeve and to obey blessed art thou in thy hearing and in thy doing and in thy obedience happy is the time and the place and all things that concur together to draw thee to so needful a work I pray Brethren set not your labour upon gold and silver and money and trash not upon the pleasures and delights and contentments of the world not on any other thing but mainly and principally above all things let your chief care be for Faith and Repentance and Obedience If you strive for these things earnestly and heartily and constantly as sure as the Lord is in heaven he will bestow them upon you and with them the benefit of benefits Freedome from Death And now I shall speak comfort to those few that are in the world that keep these sayings of Christ Let them be of good comfort if their capital enemy the King of fears and the King of Afflictions be held from a possiblity of doing them harm nothing can harme them He that Death cannot hurt paine cannot hurt poverty and disgrace cannot hurt nothing can hurt him You know if the King of an Army be reconciled to a place he will keep his Souldiers from spoyling and burning and destroying that place If Death be put out of power to do thee hurt and God be reconciled in Christ because thou keepest the saying of Christ nothing can hurt thee thou art the happiest man under the Sun Why should the poor sad afflicted grieved mourning lamenting Saints of God envie them that are rich and jolly and merry worldlings any of their pleasures and profits any of those things wherewith they like Idiots make themselves laugh at What hath not God given thee better things then he that thou shouldest murmure and whine and weep for want of them art thou still complaining for want of them Remember what Saint James faith Let the brother of low degree that is abased and dispised in the world rejoyce yea rejoyce with great boasting and glory in his Exaltation This is the exaltation of the Saints Christ writing his sayings in their hearts and inclining them through the operation of his Spirit and the powerful work of his Word to repent and beleeve hath freed them from the danger of Death and interessed them into eternal happiness and that blisse that no tongue can expresse nor no heart conceive This is thy happiness it is not to be rich or to be great for these cannot deliver the owner from the hurt of Death natural nor from the danger of Death eternal But to have Faith and Repentance and Obedience this is riches and exaltation for he that hath them shall not alone escape the Dungeon of eternal darkness but be advanced to the Palace of everlasting felicity The Saint is the happy man the penitent beleever and true practiser of Christian obedience he is the sole and only happy man under the Sun for whatsoever storme he suffereth in this present world he shall certainly escape Death and obtaine Glory Blesse God and bless thy self in God magnifie him rejoyce in him take comfort in thy lot and portion Death that devoureth Kings that destroyeth Emperours that conquers Captaines and men of valour shall not be able to approach thee for thy hurt for thou keepest the saying of the Lord Jesus Christ Rejoyce I say in this magnisie him that is the Authour of it and account thy self happy that thou hast receâ—…ed from him so excellent a gift as to be in some measure inabled to keep his saying Yea if it were so may some Christian heart object then I should esteem my self the happiest man alive â—… but alas where is this Repentance you describe where is this New Obedience in me that still still find my self captive and thral to passion to this and that and the other lust and divers corruptions Where is I say that Repentance when I find so much fin Where is that Faith when I find so much wavering and quaking so much aptness to distrust and almost
to dispaire Where is it It may be in thy heart of all thy complaining and thou maist have it for all these exclaymings against thy self Tell me when thou findest those corruptions whereof and for which thou speakest against thy self Dost thou allow them or not dost thou confesse them and lament them or not I confesse them indeed but with such a finall deal of sorrow Is it such a sorrow as draws thee to God and drives thee out of thy self such as makes thee to fall before him and judge thy self worthy to be damned and submit to his Justice Is it such a sorrow as makes thee confesse and then purpose amendment Such as makes thee cry to him for power and strength such as makes thee rest on him for ability Dost thou determine still still to amend that that still troubleth thee Dost thou still continue to fight with the lusts of thy flesh by the spiritual weapons that God hath ordained for thee I say to thee thy Repentance thy Faith thy New Obedience may be true though it be weak When a man hath a shaking Palsey hand it is a hand A sick weake man that lies crying oh oh that can scarse turn himself between the sheets is a man a living man A poor child that is new born and hath nothing that discovereth reason almost but the shape of a man that poor child is a reasonable creature Faith beginneth with weake apprehensions and faint leanings on Christ Deep godly sorrow and other parts of Repentance may begin many times with little And amendment of life begins sometimes at a low soundation at small sins If it be true and sincere and constant if thou go on and continue in a course of daily renewing thy Repentance and Obedience and Faith and stirring by Gods means to get the increase of these graces and to be upright and sincere in them thou art blessed in them notwithstaading thy weaknesse take comfort in a little and be thankful for it God will give more and the only way to get more is to take comfort in a good measure in what thou hast and the way to take comfort is to labour to increase these graces Let not the weak troubled seebled Christian be troubled in mind as if he had no grace because he hath but a little as if he did not at all keep Christs sayings because he keepeth them but a little He is a scholler in the School that beginneth at Christ-Crosse-row as we call it And he is entred into the Colledge that beginneth but in a low book with the first rudiments of Logick And he is a member of the Family that began to be an Apprentise but yesterday and comes not to a deep knowledge of his Art and Mistery but is glad to do sorry work Beleeve it brethren there may be great conceits of Repentance and beleeving and obeying that may make a man good in his own eyes and be altogether false There may be a small measure of Repentance but if one be humbled in the smalness of that measure and labour and desire and pray and begg for the increase of that measure and take pains to edisie himself in it by the means of God then it is true and upright and shall save him Therefore rejoyce It is not with the Covenant of Grace as it was with that of Works The Covenant of Works the Law required perfection of Obedience to all the things prescribed a man must not only love God but love God perfectly But the Gospel satisfieth it self with accepting truch of endeavour to the thing required If there be Repentance though it be not in the full perfection if thou beleeve though not with the fullest measure of beleeving If thou Obey though not in the highest degree of obedience this Gospel this sweet this favourable gracious Doctrine giveth thee consolation enough Go home therefore comforted in the beginnings and resolved to proceed and know that thou shalt enjoy that which Christ hath promised freedome from damnation thou shalt never see Death THE YOUNG MANS LIBERTY AND LIMITS OR GODS JUDGMENT ON MANS CARRIAGE SERMON XVIII ECCLESIASTES 11.9 Rejoyce oh young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the dayes of thy youth and walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into Judgement SOlomon in the conclusion of this Chapter is exhorting the sons of men to true Religion and the better to mould and frame them to the same he mindeth them of Death and Judgement without which there cannot be planted in us a right care and fear of God From the seventh verse to the latter end he hath to do with two forts of men First with those that were glued to this life and to the delights and pleasures thereof and he bringeth them in speaking thus Truly the light is sweet and it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun verse 7. By light there we are to understand the light of the Sun shining on us while we enjoy this mortal life This many men suppose to be a very pleasant thing and they overmuch content themselves in the same These Solomon verse 8. refuteth by three Arguments The first is this that though a man live many yeares yet let him remember the dayes of darkness that is that a time of Death will come a time when our Sun will set and our light wil turn to darkness though we live never so long never so sweetly never so pleasantly though we enjoy the light of the Sun yet we should carefully remember that darkness abideth us Secondly faith Solomon those dayes are many His Argument is thus much Let a man consider with himself though he live many yeares yet notwithstanding the dayes and years of his life cannot be compared with the dayes and years of his Death a man is many more years under the ground in the Grave then above ground walking on the face of the earth Thirdly faith Solomon all that cometh 〈◊〉 vanity That is if a man may enjoy the light of the Sun and the pleasures of this life that makes his heartâ—…ight â—…ome yet all this is vanity there is no full contentment in these things but an emptiness in them all and no man knows how soon he may be bereaved of them Now in the words we have read Solomon hath to deal with the young man and he is altogether given to jollity and merriment he forgetteth God and the dayes of darkness and his latter end Well Solomon giveth him the bridle as it were and suffereth him to follow his own way by an Ironical concession or figurative speech declaring not what young men ought to doe but what their course is and what commonly they do Reâ—…ce 〈◊〉 young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the dayes of thy youth and walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but
there shall be a Judgement For let a man commit secret sins that none knoweth but God and he yet many times he feeleth hellish horrour which is a manifest proose that conscience seeth and apprehendeth God as the supream Judge that will call all men to an account for their sins Thus you hear the reasons why there must be a Judgement The manner of this Judgment consisteth in these particulars First it shall be the last Judgment after which there shall be no other which declareth the terribleness of it In this life while there is life there is hope Let the wicked forsake his wayes and turn to the Lord he will be gracious to him But then the sentence shall not be reverst then there can be no appeal from that Judg and judgment Again it shall be a General Judgment which is the second thing God judgeth in this world and that both in life and in death He judgeth in life by chastising his children for their faults and avenging himself upon his enemies He judgeth every man at death But then there shall be a General Judgment of all 2. Cor. 10. We must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ In the third Place It shall be a manifest Judgment Sometime the Lord Judgeth men secretly by raising up in them fears and horrours in their hearts causing his curse in theâ—… as water in their bowels and oyl in their bones But then God shall open his wrath against the children of wrath before a world of men and no eye shall pitty them Fourthly it shall be a sudden Judgment Even as the flood came upon the old World when they were sporting themselves and deriding Noah that preached to them of the flood so shall the fire come upon the World that shall pass before the face of Christ when he shall judg the quick and the dead As asnare saith Christ shall it come upon all that dwell upon the earth When the Fowler layeth a snare to take a Bird he giveth not warning to the Bird but surprizeth it suddenly so will Christ Jesus surprize the sons of men suddenly beyond their expectation The Evangelist faith he shall come as a theef in the night A theef knocks not he giveth not warning so Christ Jesus beyond the thoughts of men will be on them suddenly before they are aware by his dreadful Judgement Fifthly it shall be a most righteous Judgment Then God as the Apostle saith Rom. 2. will render to every man according to his deeds He will not regard the face of any He will not be bribed by wealth or reward He will not heare the testimony of the world for the wicked or against the godly but deal impartially and give to every one according to his doings Lastly It shall be an Eternal Judgment So saith the Apostle Heb. 6.2 The meaning is not that God shall sit for ever sifting matters and surveying causes but it is so called from the effect for the conclusion shall be this the Eternal weale and happiness of the godly and the eternal wo and misery of the wicked that shall be plunged by the justice of God into the severest torments The Use of this Doctrine First it serveth as a preservative against temptation for so Solomon hath made it in the Text a preservative and bridle to young men God will bring thee to judgment saith he and let me make it so to you When Sathan tempteth you to sin remember God will call you to Judgement even for those faults for which you may possibly escape the penalty of men yet not withstanding is is impossible for you to avoid the righteous Judgment of God If Sathan would have thee do any thing that the word of God and thy own conscience sheweth thee to be hateful and wicked in the sight of God say to him No no God will bring me to Judgment This is the pollicy of our Adversary when he induceth us to evil he makes sin sweet and pleasant to us but it should be our wisdome to make sin bitter and loathsome even in this meditation God will bring us to Judgment for the same The Apostle saith Resist the divel and he will fly from you But how must we resist him not by arguments of our own making but by arguments of the word of God and amongst other weapons remember to list up this when Sathan would have thee sin say No no God will bring me to Judgment When the Divel solicited Eve and circumvented her she spake in the Serpent to Sathan concerning the Judgment of God We may eat saith she of all the trees of the Garden but not of the tree in the middest of the Garden least we die here she brought an argnment from the judgment of God but here was her weakness she presently let it fall It should be otherwise with us when Sathan tempts us let us say we shall die and be condemned for sin say so and continue in it If any revolt from the truth he professeth he shall die in his sin If any man disquiet the people of God by vexation or oppression he shall die in his sin If any man be a drunkerd or Epicure he shall die in his sin If any man be a whoremonger or adulterer he shall die in his sin If any man be a swearer God hath vowed he will not hold him guiltless he shall die in his sin If any man be an ignorant person disobeying godliness and obeying unrighteousness he shall die in his sin If any man continue in gross wickedness in any wickedness without repentance he shall die in his sin Oh remember this Judgement of God this death that God will inslict on sinners for sin For the wages of sin is death and arm your selves with this when Satan tempteth you if you forget Death and Judgement you are naked and unarmed your spiritual Adversary may hit you on the bare and spoil you as he will The second use is for instruction Will God bring us to Judgment for our sins Oh then let us hast to repentance Beloved this is one of the last things that God will do and this is the greatest thing that Ministers can say God will judge you for your sins The Apostle Saint Paul he moveth the Atheniaus Acts 17.31 to repentance upon this very ground because God hath appointed a day in which he will Judge the world in righteousness And surely if this will not awaken us nothing will nothing can What do we mean beloved to suffer our sins to stand upon the score Where is our wisedome Our grace Are we able to stand before God when he is angry with us Why do we not take off our sins by godly sorrow If a Judge should say to a Malefactour except thou mourn for thy offence thou shalt die and be execnted Doe we not think he would mourn to save his life Behold God faith to you except you mourn for your
without failing yet the whole man doth it not and such an insatiable avidity there is in you of the praise of God that unless it be done totally and fully you think it not done at all therefore you desire this glorified Organ but the Saints on earth being much more depressed with this heavy clay cry out with these Saints In this we groan earnestly c. To be cloathed upon with our house c. An impropriety of speech I confess for men do not cloath themselves with houses yet of eminent elegancy and pregnant with variety of instructions to shew the fitness of this glory to every soul as apparel is fitted to every body to shew the comliness of this glory as apparel is an ornament to a man to shew the firm adhesion of this glory the whole man as a garment doth cleave close unto him to shew the redundancy of this glory that a man shall invelopp himself in this glory as a man doth inwrap himself in his garment to shew the Author of this glory he that made garments to cover mans nakedness in Paradise below he maketh robes of honour to adorn him everlastingly in Paradice which is above to shew the undeservedness of it on our part that these garments they are not webbs of our own spinning but robes of Gods giving to shew the all-sufficiency of this glory in this life we need houses to dwell in and rayment to cover us and food to nourish us and fire to warm us but this glory it shall be a Magazine of all spiritual store an house to shelter us a garment to cover us Manna to feed us water to refresh us it shall be all in all unto us These and many more instructions are folded up in the Cabinet of this Metaphor which streights of time will not give me leave to unfold and spread before you but must leave them to your private meditations and so passing though unwillingly from these two houses which the Saints desire I must raise up your attention to their ardent affection unto them In this we groan earnestly c. Wherein you see the intention of their affection and the expression of it The intention not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Desiring but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Desiring earnestly The expression of it by groans In this we groan earnestly The one the soul the other the body the one the form the other the exercise the one the root the other the branch or if you will the one the fire the other the fuel the one the flame the other the oyl that nourisheth the flame The first is the intention of the affection As those that are in a longing passion die if they be not satisfied as the pregnant Mother groans to be delivered of her burthen as those that are pressed under a heavy weight faint if they be not eased even so the Saints pressed down with that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that eternal weight of glory mentioned in the precedent Chapter a burthen which did both press them down and raise them up that did both straiten them and enlarge them like the feathers of the Dove which add to her Mass but take off from her gravity which makes her more corpulent and yet more light even so this weight of glory so pressed down the Saints that it raised them up to the Throne of the Lamb and feeling this body of sin this body of death which they did bear about them as plummets of lead hanging at their feet they desire est-soon to be stripped of all incumbrances and impediments to depose and lay down this cottage of clay that so being absent from the body they might be present with the Lord this was the violence of their affection In this we groan earnestly c. An affection worthy the name of an affection truly grounded and therefore towring so high that it is almost invisible to our weak sight There are some in this life that are fed with gall and wormwood with tears and groans upon whom the wheel of oppression is roled breaking all their bones so that they seek for death as for pearls and hidden treasures as an end and period of their miseries Others there are who seeing the vanity of the things of this life and ballancing with them the trancendent excellency of the Soul of man above the world had rather be idle or not be at all then to be so basely and meanly imploved and rewarded as the world doth remunerate her favourites Others make bitter invectives against the body as the only impediment to the soul in her more pure speculations placing the happiness of the soul in the separation from the body all these come far short of this divine affection which hath not her rise from the miseries of this life or from the vanity of the creature or from the incombrances of this cottage but from a true apprehension of the love of God from a deep panting after union with him from a taste of the powers of the life to come from a Soul inflamed with a coal from Gods Alter Look upon these Saints in my Text they were indeed exercised beyond measure with those things which we call miseries calamities afflictons at the mention whereof we quake like Aspen leaves but were these tainted with impatiency were these groans fuliginous vapours from a malecontented spirit Did they not account these afflictions their Justs and Barriers and Turnaments and exercises of honour and Chivalry at which Angels and Archangels were present with their Euges and approbations God himself the chief Spectator and rewarder of these exercises they themselves triumphing and boasting in their tryals with the impress of the Apostle on their shields of faith We are perswaded that neither death nor life nor Augels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus They were more Eagle-eyed by the strength of grace to pry into the nothingness of the creature then all the Philosophers by the strength of nature they did mortifie and crucifie and keep under the body with the lusts thereof and more truly detest the corruption of the outward man then any Platonist whatsoever but were these the grounds the rise of this celestial affection nothing less to see God to enjoy God to dwell with him to converse with him to be dissolved to be with Christ these transported their affections not the emptiness of the things below but fulness of things above not the baseness of earthly things but the glory of celestial things not the miseries of this life or of this crazie vessel but the happiness of the life to come they had but a glimpse of this strange light darted into ther souls and the whole world was darkness unto it they had a gust of sweetness cast into the palate of their souls and all things else were bitter and unsavory
Christ was placed in the summity and height of their souls and the desire of the full fruition of him caused that fainting that earnest longing in their spirits You will say if this be so what will become of the greatest part of Christians who are afraid to die who are so far from groaning to depose this Tabernacle that they groan at the least intimation of dissolution It is true that all men receive not this saying neither is it for every one to attain to this perfection As there are two forts of faith so there are two forts of Christians there is a strong faith and a weak faith and there are strong Christians and there are weak Christians the strong Christian is willing to die and patient to live the weak Christian is willing to live and patient to die he goes when God calls but he could wish that God would defer his calling he hath good hopes of heaven but he desires a little more to enjoy the earth he loves God more then all yet his affections are not fully taken off from all he is not perplexed with the fears of Hell yet he is not ravished with the joyes of Heaven he hath much strength but knows it not as many a Spectator of a prize is better able to performe it then he that undertakes it but either through faintness of heart or ignorance of his own strength dare not put it to the hazard but had rather commend another mans valour then trie his own whereas a strong Christian a man grown in Christ sends a challenge to this Gyant Death singles him out as a fit object of his valour grapples with him not as with his match but as his underling insulteth over him setteth his foot on the neck of this King of terrours and by conquering him captivates with great facility all other petty fears of ignominy poverty and the like which therefore are dreadful because they tend to Death the last the worst the end the sum of all feared evills this is the unconquerable crown of Faith this is the glory of a Christian this is the Diadem of honour wreathed about his Temples advancing him above all other men whatsover But you will say may a man desire death Is this now a question what means the agony of the Apostle I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ What means the earnest longing of the Spouse Apoca. 22. The Spirit faith come and the Bride faith come and let him that hears say come What means her fainting in the Canticles I am sick of love let him bring me into his chamber Let me see his face I am sick unto death Let me dy lest I dy that I may see him for ever What means the Character of a true Christian As many as love the appearance of the Lord which cannot be without death What means the incredible contempt of death in ancient Christians insomuch that it was a received Maxime with the Heathen Omnis Christianus est contemptor mortis What means the heroical incouragement of old Hilarion Egredere anima egredere quid times Go out my soul go out why tremblest thou What means the words of old Simion in the flames Thus to dy is to live What means the rapture of Saint Chrysostome that he would thank that man that would kill him as transmitting him more speedily to those unconceivable Joyes What means this groaning and thirsting in my Text Do not these demonstrate that it is lawful to desire death Not simply in it self or for it self it is the separation of those two whom God hath coupled it is a cessation of being it is an evil of punishment the daughter of sin to desire it simply were to desire evil which is abhorrent to nature much less ought we to hasten our death by violent means Let their memories be buried in perpetural silence as the botches and ulcers of Christianity who out of impatience have perpetrated this heinous sin a sin against God and man against nature against grace against the Church against the common-wealth against all things The Heathen man could say that we are the possession of God to be disposed of by him not by our selves the body is the structure of God the work of his hands the Tabernacle which he hath made and not to be removed or to be taken down but by his command while we live we may advance the glory of God the good of others we may impeople heaven make up the ruines of Angels to hasten our death were to envy this glory to God this good to others In that distraction of our Apostle between two good things his own glory and the good of others you know which way the scales inclined to the good of others as if he had said let my glory be deferred so Gods glory be increased let my joy be increased let my joy be sulpended so the joy of Angels and of the Court of heaven be intended by the conversion of sinners Nay more this is a small thing Let me be an Athema so Israel be blessed let me be blotted out of the book of life so thousands be inserted let the bowels of Christ be streightned to me so they be enlarged to others this is life indeed this is the end of our life this will comfort us in this life and crown us in the life to come He that can truly say that while he lived he lived to God not to himself that he sincerely propounded the glory of God and the good of others unto himself this man may write upon his Tombe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have lived take this out of the life of man and what is it but a meer death if not worse though it be protracted to the years of Methusalem twice told Thus simply to desire death is not good but cloath this with some circumstances and then to desire death is not only warrantable but commendable when we have done all the good we can when our lives will be no more serviceable to Church or Common-wealth when we have with all fidelity done our Masters work when we have the testimony of a good conscience that we have fought a good fight that we have kept the faith that we have finished our race then may we say with old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace then may we with our Apostle lift up our eyes to the crown of righteousness which the righteous Judge hath laid up for them that fear him then we may expect the Euge of the good servant Well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy of thy Master Again when we are called to be Holocausts or sacrifices oblations of sweet savours the Frankincense of the Church to perfume others to deliver up our lives unto God to seal his Truth with our bloud to encourage others then we ought to run unto death with all alacrity rejoycing that we are counted worthy to suffer for his Name to triumph to boast
Disciples Mat. 24. The Disciples point Christ to the stately buildings of the Temple but they were soon damped when Christ told them that after a while there should not a stone be left upon a stone So perhaps you are taken with admiration at the former part of the discourse concerning the excellency of mans soul but are damped to consider that a man may lose it It is a substance immortal in respect of the being of it but defiled with sin it is adjudgeable to death in regard of the well-being and a posibility so to die is nothing repugnant to the immortality of the soul The damned spirits they are alwayes dying and are never dead they are alwayes deprived of Gods comfortable presence and are never released of their hellish torments As the Apostle saith in another case as dying and yet behold they live as living and yet behold they die The soul expiring is the death of the body and God forsaking is the death of the soul But you will say how is it possible The question is soon resolved if we ponder the causes of death A thousand mortal maladies there are to kill the body and there are a thousand deadly diseases to destroy the soul There is no sin so small but in the rigour of Gods justice and in its own nature it way damn the soul When God in the beginning stated man in Paradise he gave him a special caveat about the tree of knowledg he gives him a command thus In the day thou eatest thou shalt die What for bare eating No beloved but for the sin for tansgressing so small a commandement of so great a God Sin alone makes a separation between God and the soul and causeth the death of the soul the soul that sins the same shall die It may teach us that for the time that we live in this world there is nothing easier then to sin There is a tree of Life and a tree of Kuowledg and by eating of the tree forbidden cometh death there is a way of felicity and a way to destruction there is a God of salvation and a ghostly enemy and by adhering to the pricipality of sin a man may lose his own soul Is it possible then that a man may lose his soul that is so precious and have we not great reason to try and to suspect our selves touching our standing towards God Is there not a main necessity to seek the means to preserve us in the compass and seals of grace It is lamentable to consider how in bodily diseases men can open their grief and seek for help and send to some learned Physitian We can go to some noble learned councel in case of law But alas the soul lies wounded in the way over laden with the grievances and pressures of sin distracted with the affrightings of a troubled conscience as if there were no balm in Gilead no Physitian there as if there were no Minister to afford help There is no seeking abroad a Lyon is pretented to be in the way and Solomons sluggard folds his hands to sleep O let not these things be so Be not as the Horse and Mule that have no understanding Neglect not the helps of your preservation in grace but be continually watchful with suspition and jealousie and abstain from fleshly lusts that fight against your souls The Poet could say Theeves rise by night to rob and kill and steal and wilt not thou wake to save thy soul God for the most part saith Saint Chrysostome hath alotted to nature all by two's two hands two eyes two feet two ears ears eyes hands feet two of all that if we chance to maim one we can help to relieve the necessity of it by the other but he hath given us but one soul if we lose that what shift shall we make for another soul a piercing contemplation if we had grace to consider it Therefore O my soul tender thy self as my own happiness if thou be translated to heaven the body in time shall come thither this corruption shall put on incorruption this mortal shall put on immortality Again if thou be haled with the fiends to the nethermost hell the body in time shall be tormented with thee It is altogether just with the righteous God that they that meet in sin should also consort in suffering Save thy self and save all and by woful consequence lose thy self and lose all For what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul So much for the second point the possibility of losing a mans soul Come we to the third the compossibility of outward prosperity he may lose his soul in gaining the whole world In the diversity of opinions concerning the chief good some there were that placed it in riches others in honours and how ever they differed in their judgements yet both agreed in this that they were both deceived For how ever it cannot be denied but that riches and honours are the blessings of God yet again they are no demonstration of a blessed man Lest any man should take them to be ill they are bestowed upon them that are good lest any man should reckon them for the chief good they are bestowed likewise upon the evil external blessings are but common favours vouchsafed to good and bad Was Abraham rich so was Abimelech Was Jacob rich so was Laban Was David a King so was Saul Was Constantine an Emperour so was Julian Salvation depends not on the multitude of riches or emminency in place the tallest Cedar hath the greatest fall and the fairest houses many times the greatest ruin and outward prosperity uuguarded with inward sanctity may soon lose the soul For first rich men are tainted with covetousness which is a kind of secret Idolatry Collos 3. and covetousness which is Idolatry saith the Apostle If you would know the reason the more tenaciously a man loves his own the less devotion he offers to God you cannot live in the service of Mammon and of Christ the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it you cannot serve God and Mammon If the young man in the Gospel have great possessions if Judas carry the bag if Demas imbrace the present world then fearewel Christ farewel Paul and farewel soul too So true is the saying of the Apostle They that will be rich fall into temptations and snares and many foolish and noysome lusts that drown men in perdition and destruction Where he saith not they that are but they that will be rich It is not simply money but the love of money that is the root of all evil Riches are good with a good conscience but if the soul be infected with avarice if it savour of that bitter Collaquintida Death is in the pot and how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdome of heaven For the desire of worldly men it is as the unsatiable thirst of a dropsie patient there is
no means that they leave unattempted no policy unachieved for the accomplishment of their ends and advancing of their estate Balaam for a bribe will almost curse where the Lord hath blessed Ziba for an inheritance as much as in him lies will bring his Master within the compass of treason Demosthenes for a little more gold instead of pleading will pretend he hath a cold May not the Church have a Balaam And the Princes Court have a Ziba and the bar have a Demosthenes There is no greedy Monopolizer wheresoever they be in City or Country but they are moralized Eagles and the coals that they carry shall fire their own nest They shall have Ahabs curse with Naboths Vineyard and Gehezies leprosie with Naamans reward and while with an eager pursuit they hoard up unrighteous Mammon it is but wrath heaped up against the last day they heap up wrath to themselves against the day of wrath Secondly great men are in danger of ambition and a swelling inordinately upon their promotion And the ambitious man is so strangely dazled with the beams of his own lustre ut imperio c. that in the greatest of his power he thinks of nothing but how to be greater he forgets the Lord that made him and God that raised him out of the mire to set him with the Princes of the people And like that famous fool in his new coat once he knows not himself So by means of this impediment though God have some Noble and some worldly-wise that he hath drawn to himself yet by means of this impediment not many mighty not many Noble are called The gates of heaven are too too strait for the swelling dimensions of ambition there is nothing so easie to pride as to purchase a fall and there is no fall so great as from heaven It is a sign that Lucifer if he long for dainties shall be cast out of heaven It is a sign that Adam if he desire the Apple shall be cast out of Paradise It is a sign that Nebuchadnezzar if he glory in Babel he shall be cast out of his Kingdom It is a signe that Haman by abusing his promotion shall be exalted to the gallows To comprize it in aword the greater the dignity of eminency and honour the greater the execution of pains and horror The sum then is this in a world of promotion and temporal advancement in worldly possessions and unmeasurable treasure the covetous and ambitious man may lose his own soul Now for a word of Application if this be so how taxable then are the thousands of worldlings in this kind that imagine the gain of this earth to be the greatest happiness That say to the Gold thou art my God and to honour thou art my glory That make Gold their God and Mammon their Mediator Saith Saint Bernard Yea covetous generation that glory in silver and gold in that that is not yours nor precious precious it cannot be but by the avarice of the sons of Adam that prise them Again if they be yours take them away with you when you go hence Yet the children of the world are wholly for great Diana Gods of silver and gold multitudes of lands and revenues and advancing of their secular estate Many can complain of the vanity of this world and the deceivableness of it but few complain of that Idolatrous confidence that themselves repose in this false world there are few that recount how in enjoying outward things Martha without Mary prosperity without piety they may lose their own souls O let a word of exhortation prevail against this sore disease if riches encrease take heed of covetousness be covetous of spiritual things for immortality there hoard up your treasure in heaven Again for ambition take heed of it be honourable for humility and ambitious for heaven Love not the world and the things of this world exalt not your selves against the Lord of glory Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth boast not of to morrow O fool this night shall they fetch thy soul And what is a man profited if he gain the world and lose his own soul So much for the third point the compossibility of outward prosperity a man may lose his soul in gaining the whole world The fourth and the last is the woful disadvantage by such an exchange What is a man profited You may call it not unfitly the account of the careless Merchant or a Summary collection of gains and losses For a little to countenance the allegory every unsatiable worldling is but merchant adventurer a ventrous Merchant he exchangeth his precious Soul for the deceivable riches of this world But when God in his judgement transports him to his own place the infortunate Island of damned spirits then he begins when the time is past to cast up his doleful account to campare his gains and his losses and after all the ennumeration of his imaginary gain so much by usury so much by extortion so much by fraudulent dealing the total sum is collected to his hand What is a man profited whence the observation might be this that When the gain of the world is attended with the loss of the soul the over plus will be just nothing The bargain is such as that there is nothing gotten by it That is too sparing an expression it is short of Christs meaning who conceals the worst and refers it to our own collection for by the way it were a happiness to be nothing it were profitable for the damned but this comes neerest Christs meaning it is a loss unredeemable and such as the world cannot countervail when a man for the gaining of the world forfeits his soul Let us see it in some particulars First if it be a man that glories in the resplendency of his fortunes and blesseth himself in magnifying his estate a Commander of Kingdoms and Nations an ingrosser of preferments and dignities yet First Death will attach him there is no carrying it away he must of necessity take his leave of his Mammon and then whose shall all these things be for which he hath lost his soul Who gains by the smallness of the Epha the greatness of the shekâ—…e the refuse of the wheat Where is the man that gloried in his abundance and store and thought himself the only happy man saith the Prophet David I went but by and he was gone I sought him and his place could not be found There is a lively expression that illustrates it Jer. 17. As the Partridg gathereth young that she brought not forth so he that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the middest of his dayes and at his end shall be a fool What not before Yes he was alwayes a fool but then by conviction his own conscience shall call him so by the confession of his own tongue which shall call him so by the proclamation of just men they shall proclaim him so
what it is our life is resembled unto and how filthy the resemblance holds The second is wherein it is compared to a Vapour In two things The shortness of abiding The suddenness of departing The shortness of abiding it appears for a little while Where first observe the Apostle useth the word of appearing it is a thing rather in appearance than in deed of shew rather than substance such is a Vapour when it first ariseth and breaks out of the Earth it makes a great swelling to the eye as though it would fill the ayre and darken the Sun yet it hath no solidity nor substance with it but it is a meer empty tumor it seems and appears to be something but really it is nothing And such is our life it is rather a life in appearance than indeed and therefore Saint Austin knew not whether to call it a living death or a dying life for truly it is another manner of thing that deserves to be called Life only that deserves to be called so by which the Soul lives to God and by which the Soul lives hereafter with God that is the life of the Soul this is the life of the body that is the life of Faith The life that I live is by Faith in the Son of God He calls not that life by which the body is united to the soul but that he calls Life whereby the Soul is united to God the Soul may be dead though the body be alive if it be a stranger to the life of God Dead in trespasses and sins it may be dead while it lives Eph. 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest and a rise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light He that lives in sin is dead in sin and the Soul lives when the Body is dead therefore that cannot be the true life by which the body breaths but that by which the Soul subsists if the Soul when it is separate from the body may have happiness and live with God that deserves truly the name of life but if it be a stranger to it though it live that Life is a dead life nay the worst death the Scripture calls it the second Death where though we never die yet we are ever dying the Life that we live here it is rather a thing in appearance than a being So all these things that belong to this life all the joyes and all the sorrows of it they are rather appearing joyes and appearing sorrows than true joyes and true sorrows Consider first the joyes of our Life they are not sound and true but false and vain joyes if any wicked or ill thing be the object of joy as it is of too too many they rejoyce in doing wickedly that is a false joy they rejoyce in that they should sorrow and mourn for and not only wicked and unlawful but worldly outward things such as we may rejoyce in honours pleasures riches and friends yet these being well examined there is no solid true joy but a vain joy in them for they afford no rejoycing to the Soul it is only matters of spiritual joy the joy in the Holy Ghost that the Soul rejoyceth in and with that joy the Soul is ravished though it be bereft of other as again the Soul may be overcome with spiritual sorrow though there be abundance of outward joy presented to it Prov. 13.14 our joyes are but appearing joyes Consider our sorrows and they are but appearing too whether it be loss of comfort that we sorrow for or sense of pain being rightly examined we shall find that they be rather shews than true griefs for there is nothing can bring true grief upon the Soul but only the pain of sin nor no loss can bring any true sorrow upon the Soul but the loss of Gods favour sorrow bestowed upon other things it is but counterfeit sorrow in comparison of this therefore in Heb. 12.11 the Apostle faith that the chastisements that we suffer here they seem grievous and not joyous they seem grievous as if all that we suffered here were rather seeming than real and undoubtedly the Apostle said right for whatsoever chastisement a man hath here he may possible have more matter of joy than of sorrow to the same purpose the Apostle 2 Cor. 9.6 where he describes the afflicted estate of the Saints as God knows they are subject to many afflictions he doth it with an As it were because he would vilifie the terror of it and not grant their condition so miserable as it appears as it were dying as it were wanting as it were sorrowing it is but as it were such as they were not so in Isai 29.8 the Prophet there tells us how it is with a hungry man and with a thirsty man when he dreams he dreams he eats and he dreams he drinks But it is only the fancy of a dream he finds it quite otherwise he finds his stomack as empty as his hand so it is with our life here it is no better then a waking dream where we seem to do what is done and we seem to be what we are Saith the Poet what is one and what is another Man is like a shadow of a dream he that seems something now anon he falls and comes to nothing and he that seems nothing now anon he riseth and comes to something Thus you see that all that ever we have here it is but only seeming it is not real whether they be our joyes or our sorrowes they are but seeming joyes and seeming sorrows yet again this appearing and seeming life of ours it indures faith the Apostle but a little while Indeed vapours last not long for the first matter they are made of affords not them any continuance and besides that they are easily dispelled and dispersed by the Sun such a vapour is our life Out of the same Argument you may see that our life can continue but for a while it cannot last long First it is but a breath as a vapour is Again as vapours are apt to be dispersed and dispelled easily by the hot Sun and the cold wind so hot and cold diseases and insinite sort of other casualties are easily apt to dissipate it it is true some vapours hang longer in the ayr then others so this vapour of life it may keep longer residence in some bodies then in others but when it is longest it is but a little while David determins the date of it within the tearm of 80. years the strength and vigour of it in the opinion of the Philosopher is of less continuance the mind decayes at 45. years and the body decayes at 35. If we compare the life of man with other creatures then we will say it is but a while the Raven the Elephant the Stag they out-live man double and treble If you compare it with the life of the world then you will confess it is but a little while for the world hath continued and lasted some thousands of years
Bayliff that arrests men at the suit of Death but many a one hath been made the prisoner of Death that was never arrested at the suit of Death yea know Abel was murthered in the field Eli broak his neck from the chair Absalom was snatched up in an Oke the disobedient Prophet was slain by a Lyon the disobedient Prince was trodden to death in a crowd Abimelech was slain by a peece of a milstone Pope Adrian was choaked with swallowing a flie Pelus slain with a fall of a tile Such is our life as a vapour as the sand of an hour-glass ever spending and ever running out as Gregory hath it in his Morals Look how many dayes a man adds to his life so many steps he takes to his death So Jeremie to Heliodorus we are ever dying for we every day change when I am writing this all the points of my pen spends a point of my life nay while we are hearing this Sermon we are passing on I will make a little Use of it and then I have done First make the Use the Apostle doth to them that build upon futurity and think they may do what they list you that think you will do to day and to morrow what you list Oh faith the Apostle what reason have you to build on to day and to morrow when ye know not what a day will bring forth We may not promise our selves life for to morrow much less may we do as the fool in the Gospel promise years when we cannot assure our selves of a moment of life if we might assure our selves of a moment of life in which it might be said it were impossible to die we might possibly be immortal and not die at all but as Ambrose faith corruptible is not so capable of incorruption but since it hath been subject to fall till it doth fall it is ever declining there is no building nor trusting to uncertain futurity we must not rest and trust on those things which are to come but only upon God and speak conditionally of them not absolutely refer the success and disposing of all things to come to the will and good pleasure of God remembring what our life is so make less accompt of our life and of our selves and all Secondly seeing our life is so vanishing let us ever prepare for death for sudden death because life is vanishing Thou knowest not in what hour thy master will come Therefore every hour we should so bestow our selves that our Master may find us at work For this two things are requisite First ever think of death death cannot be sudden to that man that ever thinks of it Secondly be careful to lead a godly life the goodness of the life consists not in the long continuance of it but in the well imploying of it it may be any mans case to live well it can be no mans to live long our comfort is though our life be momentary yet notwithstanding this very moment of time is enough to gain to us here-after eternity and how much better is a short time well spent for the purchasing of eternal happiness then a short time ill spent for the purchasing of eternal misery your life is momentary yet eternity depends on it if it be spent ill eternal misery if well we are eternally happy howsoever here we vanish as a vapour yet one day we shall become as fixed starrs in the right hand of Christ we shall shine as starrs for ever Thus I have shewed how the life of man is compared to a vapour that appears for a little while and then vanisheth away Beloved I pray let not this Sermon pass as a vapour let not all of it pass away in the found you here but fix it as a nail in a sure place in your understanding in your memory in your affections and remember how short and sudden every mans end and life is or may be O that my people were wise they would understand this they would consider their latter end We have a spectacle here before us that was a real comment upon this Text She did understand the Doctrine of it and was excellent in the practice of it A Gentlewoman that deserved a better Orator to commemorate the vertues that were in her and to give her praises due it had been a fitter work for your reverend and worthy Minister whose absence at this time I supply he could have spoken more fully of her then I can because he was acquainted longer with her then I was I account it a part of my unhappiness that I knew her so little a while and peradventure you will say it is a part of her unhappiness that this office is done by one that knew her so little a while It is true indeed I am not able to say much of her for my knowledge of her was but a few weeks or months by reason of our neighbour-hood in the Country but then I observed her to be one of the ornaments of her sex and every thing that came from her was graceful and comely the sweetness of nature and grace in my opinion concurred in her But I must deliver the most that I have to say from the report that I have from others yet from very good hands Solomon faith A good name is as a good oyntment poured forth like the precious Alablaster-box that Mary broke on the head of our Saviour the smell of it perfumed all the house I may say of her as the Apostle faith of Demetrius She was well reported of by all and I am perswaded she was reported well of the truth it self she had a name answerable to her vertues Solomon faith A prudent wife or a good wife is the gift of God she was a Theodosia that was her name The gift of God and a gift God bestowed to the comfort of him that had her She was constant both in the performance of publike duties and private in hearing Gods word not only on the Lords day but as occasion gave leave on the week-dayes and she was not only constant at good exercises abroad but which was the crown of her commendations she was so at home also she was constant in reading the Word I am credibly informed that she read over the Bible seven times in the seven years that she was married she constantly made use of that she heard I my self saw no less then two quires of paper writ out with her own hand collected partly out of other books out principally out of Sermons not noted at Church when she heard them but when she came home being in this like Mary that laied up the sayings of Christ in her heart her daily spending of her time was commendable and exemplary in the morning up to prayer with her family and then unto private prayer by her self from prayer to reading and then to work and then to prayer and to dinner and then to work this was her continual course of life without interruption She was
this is the death and dissolution of nature of which the Scripture speaketh Dan. 12.2 They that sleep in the dust shall rise again And Act. 7. ult When Steven had spoken these words he fell asleep that is he died Spiritual sleep it is the sleep of sin and security this is the death and privation of grace in the soul as the other is the privation of life in the body of this our Text speaketh It is time to arise or awake out of this sleep the sleep of sin and security Now the state of sin and security is compared here to the state of sleep because there are many resemblances and likenesses between the state of a sinner and a sleepy man for what effect sleep hath in the body the same effect hath the sleep of sin in the soul I will shew it you in a few instances and so pass it First They that sleep saith the Apostle sleep in the night The same that the Apostle aims at here It is time to awake out of sleep because the night is past The night is a time to sleep in So those that sleep in sin it is because they are in the night of sin there is a darkness the Canopy is spread over them the Sun of grace and the day of salvation shines not upon them their eyes are closed up in darkness as it is with a sleepy man Again when a man goes to sleep he puts off his cloaths he lies naked exposed to all dangers And when a man is in the sleep of sin and security he wants his garments to be cloathed with Christs righteousness and holiness he lies naked exposed and open to all Gods displeasure and all the arrowes of Gods wrath So in Deut. 32. when the Israelites the people of God had made a Calfe Moses came and saw them naked that is destitute of Gods protection and wanting that garment that armour of proof that righteousness that before they had upon them Again a man naturally layes himself down willingly to sleep he is willing to take his rest So it is in the sleep of sin every natural man is willing to lay himself down to sleep in sin to take his ease and rest in sin for there is no man but hath free will to sin though no man bath free will to good And again as sleep it surprizeth a man suddenly oft-times before he is aware or before he can remember himself where he is or what he is doing so the sleep of sin it oft surprizeth a man before he is aware As we see in the Disciples of Christ themselves Mat. 26. bodily sleep surprized them even then when they intended to watch and when Christ appointed them to watch but the sleep of their minds and souls was much more for that was not a time to sleep if they had known what they had been about Again further as the sleep of the body binds up the senses and makes a man sensless of that which is good or evil he that sleeps offer him a Kingdom it moves him not threaten him draw a sword offer a stab him he stirrs not he is not sensible he is unmoveable a man that is asleep where you left him there you shall find him still So it is in the sleep of sin it binds up all the spiritual senses that a man that is in this sleep he wants a seeing eye and a hearing ear he knows nothing he sees nothing of God but that which will make him in-excusable he tastes not he feels not how good God is to him Offer him the kingdom of heaven and grace in the means it moves him not threaten him draw out the sword the weapons of Gods wrath against him he fears nothing As he is insensible in these courses so he is immovable look where he was at the first there shall you find him still there is no difference but he is as a dead man as long as he sleeps thus in sin To conclude this point sixtly the sleep of the body deludes a man with many vain dreams and foolish conceits false joyes and false fears and false hopes c. which are nothing true So the sleep of sin in the soul it hath the same effect it feeds a man up with false joyes and false hopes it casts him down with false fear where no fear is A man in the state of sin he fears the face of man the eye of man the word of man the hand of man he fears not the eye of God nor the word of God nor the mighty power of God So likewise for false joyes a man that is a beggar he dreams that he hath gold enough that he tumbles in it So beggars in grace those that have not a rag of righteousness upon them they dream that they are rich and encreased in goods and that they have need of nothing when they know not that they are poor and beggarly and naked as the Church of Laodicea So this spiritual sleep it fils a man with false conceits A man sometime when he goes to sleep he thinks not to sleep long but to take a nap and wake by and by yet it may be he sleeps beyond his compass sometime he wakes no more So it is with a man in sin he hopes to wake he thinks to sleep but a little but sometime he sleeps long and sometime he never wakes So we see how aptly the spirit compares the state of a man in sin to sleep This is the first thing in the meaning of the words Now the second thing is what is meant by waking or arising out of sleep To wake or to rise out of sleep is for a man to do in the matter of Christianity as a man that awakes out of sleep And for a man that wakes out of sleep there are three things he doth and so out of the sleep of sin First there must be an opening of the eyes and a beholding of the light And this is the first thing in awaking out of the sleep of sin and security a man must labour to open his eyes to behold the light of Gods word and that shining grace that the Lord propounds to him in the Scriptures he must open his eyes to behold the light and that will discover such objects as will keep him awake Therefore men sleep so much in the night because they are in the dark and not in the light they see objects in the day time that keeps them awake So for this sleep of sin if we would keep awake let us open our eyes to behold the light of grace and in the light of the Scriptures we shall see objects that will help to keep us waking we shall see Gods displeasure the wrath of God we shall see those things that eye cannot see nor ear hear nor hath entred into the heart of man We shall see them in their beginning and degrees though the full
And this will cut sore and lie heavy on our conscience and therefore let us do it betimes Not only to prevent the Divel and his temptations but because you see how suddenly they may be taken away from us in a moment So Children should be admonished to learn to know the Lord God in the dayes of their youth how soon that evil day may come we know not that the wise man speaks of therefore betimes while ye have opportunity do it And for our own part let us learn this First when God crops such flowers that rise in the bud when he takes away such Children be thankful to God that he hath given us a longer time that he hath enlarged our dayes and prolonged our years that he hath given us such a great deal of space and opportunity to glorifie him here to do him service in the land of the living to get evidence of our Calling and election and to get assurance of our peace with him Let us praise God for the length of our dayes a blessing of God in it self and a blessing to us if we improve it Again every one remember if Children do die old men must die any man may die For it Death strike such as do but begin to live then we that have lived long it is time and reason to expect death and not to fear it I speak not this as if we should be slavishly afraid of death while we are so our lives are not comfortable What is the reason that we fear it inordinatly because we love our lives we love our bodies and the world inordinatly and not in and for God And then by the continual spectacles of mortality let us be acquainted with death A vizour and apparition to a Child scares him and he runs from it at the first but at last he grows throughly acquainted with it and fears it not so it is in regard of death many men will not endure to hear of death they will not endure to think of it they will not endure to hear a Funeral Sermon or to come to the hous of mourning to be put in mind of their latter end Death is a strange vizour to these men and women they are afraid of it and run from it but if we did oft think of it as oft as we think of sin in the cause of it And when we feel sorrow think here is a harbinger of death I feel pain in me ere long I must surrender to the stroak of Death And as oft as we see spectacles of mortality to read a lecture of Death And when we lay our selves down in our beds think of Death And upon all occasions come to the house of mourning and think of Death If the Serpents sting be plucked out a man may handle it he is shie at the first but after finding it cannot hurt him he fears it not So we have cause to thank God for death as well as for other things thus far because he hath changed the nature of it and made it a sweet passage to another life And then though God take Children or friends or goods or any thing in this world he will be our exceeding great reward he will be All in all to us here and hereafter THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGE OR THE RULE OF JUDGEMENT SERMON XXVIII JAM 2.12 So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty VPon the like sad occasion I have already handled something out of these words The last thing that I came to was That in the day of Judgement God will call both the words and actions of men to account He will bring their words and their actions to judgement not only their works 2 Cor. 5.10 God will bring every work to judgement and so Eccles 12. He will bring every thing to judgement whether good or evill But besides that he will bring every word to judgement too even the very vain words of men of every idle word men shall give account Matt. 12.36 And the very rash and passionate speeches of men what they speak in passion and repent not of even those passionate speeches that they thought might have easily been passed by He that calls his Brother fool shall be in danger of hell fire Matth. 5.22 Then much more those evil speeches against God Jude 13 14. He shall come with thousands of his angels in judgement against all those that have spoken against him They have spoken against God they have reviled him he shall judge them for all their evil and cursed speakings against him saith the Apostle They in fury and madness fell to evil and cursed speaking and slighted God and despised him therefore he shall come in great glory with thousands of his Angels to make it appear that he is more glorious then they thought him to be and he will now stand for the vindicating of his honour and the manifesting of his glory in such a terrible appearance at that day Against all those that speak evil and against all their cursed speakings against him saith the Text evil speaking against God is cursed speaking Because it exposeth a man to a curse it leaves him under a curse that shall appear at that day to be just against him so we see God will bring both words and works to judgement at that day And the reasons are First because the Law of God binds men in their speeches as well as in their actions I say the Law that shall judge them doth now bind them in their very speeches as well as in their actions You have two commandements expresly taking notice of the words of men The third commandment of the words of men concerning God he that takes the name of Godin vain he will not hold him guiltless And then the ninth commandment of the words of men concerning men Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour Now God that hath made a Law to bind and to order men in the matter of speech certainly he will judge men by that Law You know that Kings and Princes and Parliaments and Kingdoms they make not Lawes in vain but they are the directions whereby the judges proceed in their course of judgment upon malefactours So I say Gods Law it is not in vain it is not a bare direction onely to us in point of obedience but also the express rule whereby Christ himself will proceed in matter of judgement Again secondly there is great reason that words as well as actions should be brought to judgement because God and men are injured by words as well as by actions First concerning God you read of some Psal 73. that set their mouths against God and against heaven Indeed they can do no more hurt to God then a man that shoots an Arrow at the Sun can hurt the Sun by shooting at him but in their intention they set themselves against God in as much as their tongues are set against
before Christ so in judgment If not repent of thy guilt in this kind that thy sins may be done away when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of Christ And in the mean time set thy self in a contrary course to that thou hast been do as one that would have Death find thee in a good course for as death leaves thee judgment shall find thee If Death find the in a state of repentance in a course of reformation of thy evil wayes judgment shall find thee so too Let Death therefore find thee as a man interest in Christ as a man humbling thy soul abhoring thy self for thy former sins let Death find thee as a man reforming all those evils that are condemned in the Word and in thy conscience Now when I say let Death find the so I mean set about it presently for how soon Death may set upon thee thou knowest not whether to night or no and if this be not now done if thou set not about it now it may be too late thou shalt have no more time therefore do that now and go on constantly after knowing that Death may find thee every moment Therefore it is that God keeps from us upon purpose as it were the certain knowledge of the time of Death that we may be alwayes prepared for Death SINNES STIPEND AND GODS MUNIFICENCE SERMON XXIX ROM 6.23 For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. THe latter part of this Chapter from the 12 Verse to the end is spent in a grave and powerful dehortation of the faithful from security in sin against which the Apostle useth sundry arguments That which he presseth most is drawn from the several ends to which sin and righteousness doth lead men The end of sin is death verse 21. therefore that is not to be served The end of righteonsness is life everlasting verse 22. therefore that is to be imbraced Because there is now difference in the manner of the proceeding of these two ends Death coming from sin as from the meritorious cause but life from Righteousness another manner of way therefore the Apostle adds this Epilogue and Conclusion in the last Verse plainly shewing and more clearly expressing the manner of them both For the wages saith he of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In which words we have a description of a twofold service Of sin in the former clause And of God or righteousness in the latter And how both these are rewarded The one with death it payes us well And the other with life which is bestowed by the free gift of God through Christ These are the two parts the two general points that we are to consider First the wages of sin is death saith the Apostle Of sin That is of the depravation and corruption of our nature and so consequently of every sin that being not only it self sin but the matter and mother of all sin when sin hath conceived it bringeth forth death when sin is put forth whereby he signifieth the general depravation and corruption of our nature from whence all sin flowes So it is here The wages The word in the original signifieth properly victuals because victuals was that that the Roman Emperours gave their souldiers as wages in recompence of their service but thence the word extends to signifie any other wages or Salary whatsoever The wages of sin is death by death here is signified and meant both temporal and eternal death especially eternal death for it is opposed to eternal life in the next clause of the sentence therefore that is that that is principally meant The wages of sin is death that is eternal death This for the exposition of the terms The point to be observed from this first part of the Text is this that Death is due to sin as wages to one that earns it To such a one wages is due in strict justice if a man have a hired servant he may bestow a free gift on him if he will if he will not he may choose but his stipend or his wages he must pay him unless he will be unjust for it is the price of his work and so is due to him that he cannot without injustice with-hold it After such a manner is death due to sin the very demerit of the work of sin requires it as being eraned God is as just in inflicting death upon sinners for their sins as any man is in paying his labourer or hired servant their wages for this is the general plain scope of the Apostles words here So in the beginning God appointed Gen. 2.17 where he told Adam concerning the forbidden fruit in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shallt die the death As if he should have said when thou sinnest death must be thy wages The same is repeated Ezck. 18.20 where it is said the soul that sinneth shall die expressing the wages of sin it is death that is the recompence of sin if sin have his due then death must follow So the Apostle had shewed before in this Epistle Rom. 5.12 that by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin so death went over all men for as much as all men had sinned All had sinned therefore all are payed with death And Saint James shews the consequence and connexion between these two the work and the wages he tels us Jam. 1.15 that when sin hath conceived it bringeth forth death All these places are evidences that death by Gods ordinance by his appointment is the due of sin as due to it even as wages is to a hired servant or one that hath earned it What death is it that is due to sin Both temporal and eternal death I say both deaths concerning both which the truth is to be cleared from some doubts It was the Pelagians errour to think that man should have died a natural death though he had never sinned so they thought that the natural temporal bodily death was not the wages of sin Contrary to the Apostle in the place I speak of Rom. 5. where he makes that death that goes over all men which must needs be natural death to enter by sin sin brought in death no sin no death at all But it may be objected when God told Adam in the day that he eat the forbidden fruit he should die the death he meant not temporal death there as the event shewes for such a death was not inflicted upon Adam in the day that he sinned for after he sinned he lived still in the world naturally he continued living many years after I answer not withstanding all this Adam may be said to die a natural death as soon as he sinned because by the guilt of his sin he then presently became subject to it and God straight-way denounced upon him the sentence of death therefore it may
it is death What a world of people run blindly and desperately on they turn to the race of sin as the horse to the battel without fear as if the Psalmists Tremble and sin not were rather sin and tremble not Whereas we have great cause every one to tremble at the least motion of sin in our selves to which so dreadful and woful wages is due Lastly for this point so many of us as have repented and have already left the service of sin we must hence learn as to be humbled in our selves considering what danger and misery we have escaped so to be more thankful to Christ that hath freed us from so wretched wages due to our sins and that by taking the whole punishment upon himself For we must know beloved that the best of us by nature are children of wrath as well as others the stipend that we have earned is eternal death and surely it hath been payed to us nothing could have kept it from us but only the satisfaction of Christ coming between Gods justice and us Think we then if we can what misery it is that we have escaped as many of us I mean as be in the state of grace we have escaped death the hurt of temporal death we have escaped eternal death What is that a separation from the blessed presence and glory of God destruction of body and soul for ever unutterable torments company with the divel and his angels and the rout of reprobates darkness blacker and thicker then that of Egypt Weeping and wayling and gnashing of teeth in the infernal lake that worm that never dies and the fire that never goeth out This is the wages of all sin and that it is not rendred to all sin and to all sinners the cause is only this that the payment hath been already exacted of Christ in the behalf of all true beleevers therefore in their own persons they are discharged how infinitely are we bound in thankfulness to him and how careful should we be to walk worthy of it resolving never to return to the service of sin again but to make it our whole study that we may please and honour such a Redeemer that hath redeemed us from such misery as this that we may please him for we had deserved eternal death as well as others and he hath not only freed us from that that we had most worthily deserved but most freely also bestowed that upon us that we could never deserve for so it followes in the next point The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is the second thing to be considered the reward of the service of God You have heard of the reward the wages of sin Now the reward of the service of God is eternal life it is called life There is a twofold life belongs to men The one is natural and is common to all good and bad in this world The other spiritual proper to the faithful begun by the union of God and the soul and maintained by the bond of the spirit and this life hath three degrees The first is in this life unto death and it begins when we begin to beleeve and repent and come to a saving knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ as it is said This is eternal life to know thee to be the very God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ Joh. 17.3 The second degree is from our death to our resurrection for in that time our souls being freed from our bodies are withal free from all sin original and actuall Thirdly after the Resurrection when body and soul shall be reunited we shall have immediate communion and fellowship with God and so enjoy a more perfect and blessed life then ever 〈◊〉 could here And this spiritual life with all the three degrees of it is the life here spoken of especially the last degree the perfection of it in heaven It is called eternal life because it shall never end For a thing is said to be eternal three wayes First which hath neither beginning nor end so God alone is eternal and none but he Secondly which hath no beginning and yet shall have an end so Gods decree is eternal for it never had a beginning yet when all things decreed are fulfilled it shall have an end Thirdly which hath a beginning but never shall have end and so the life of Gods Saints had a beginning as all created things have but it shall never have an end and this eternal life it is called here The gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Because we cannot deserve it but it is given and bestowed on us freely for Christ So then the point of observation from the latter part of the words is this that Our salvation it is the free gift of God given us only for the merits of Christ For observe I beseech you the Apostles words when he had said The wages of sin is death he doth not add and say but the wages of righteousness is eternal life but he calls that the gift of God To make us understand saith Damascene that God brings us to eternal life meerly for his own mercy not for our merits or else surely the Apostle would have made the latter part of the sentence answerable to the former But here perhaps some may ask why eternal life should not be the wages of righteousness as well as death the wages of sin I answer because there is not the same reason between sin and righteousness For first sin is our own it merits it but righteousness is none of our own it is the holy Ghosts and it is due to God Then again sin is perfectly evil and so it deserves death but our righteousness inherent is not perfectly good it is imperfect in this life and nothing that is imperfectly good can merit as wages eternal life therefore the Apostle makes such a manifest difference between them he calls death the wages of sin but eternal life the gift of God it is the free gift of God through Christ Indeed eternal life sometimes many times in Scripture is called a reward But there is a reward of mercy as well as of justice Nay God is said sometimes to reward his children in justice How is that Though the reward come originally from mercy yet accidentally it comes to be justice thus because God hath tyed himself by promise to reward now promise is debt from a just man Thus the Lord may be accounted a debtor How saith Saint Austin as a promiser if he had not promised eternal life otherwise he ows us nothing at all much less eternal life which is so great a thing Yet it may be doubted how eternal life is the free gift of God seeing it is given for the merits of Christ as it is here exprest the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord that is for the merits of Christ now a
all the Angels and Saints in Heaven the spirits of just men made perfect to Abrahams bosome to be with Christ Et quanta 〈◊〉 felicitas What greater happiness It was much that Moses obtained to see the back-parts of God but how much greater favour is it to see him face to face to have eternal fellowship with God the father with Christ the Redeemer with the Holy Ghost the sanctifier The knowledg of this benefit of Death makes the face of it comfortable to Gods servants and causes them to strive with their own natural weakness that so they may even long for their day of dissolution But now against this point divers Objections may be alledged For first the Apostle Paul sayes that Death is the wages of sin And else-where he stiles it Christs enemy the last enemy that he shall subdue is Death How should not death then be rather a day of misery to be trembled at then a day of happiness to be longed for To this I answer that we are to distinguish touching Death for it must be considered two wayes First as it is in its owe nature Secondly as it is altred by Christ in the first sence it is true that Death is the wages of sin and the very suburbs and the gates of hell But in the second taking of Death it ceases to be a plague and becomes a blessing inasmuch as it is even a door opening out of this world into Heaven Now the godly look not upon Death simply but upon Death whose sting and venome is plucked out by Jesus Christ and so it is exceeding comfortable But then secondly it is objected that we read of many that have prayed against death as namely first David Return O Lord faith he and deliver my soul oh spare me for thy mercies sake for in death there is no remembrance of thee Secondly Hezekiah when the message of death was brought to him Thirdly Christ himself Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me To all these I answer first touching David that when he composed that sixt Psalm he was not only grievously sick but also exceedingly tormented in mind for he wrastled and combated in his conscience with the wrath of God as appears by the first Verse of that Psalm therefore we must know that he prayed not simply against Death but against death at that time in asmuch as the coming of it was accompanied with extraordinary apprehensions of Gods wrath for at another time he tells us that he would not fear though he walked through the valley of the shaddow of Death And the like I say touching Hezekiah that his prayer proceeded not from any desperate fear of Death but first that he might do more service to God in his Kingdom And with such a kind of thought was Saint Pauls desire of dissolution mingled Secondly he prayed against Death then because he knew that his death then would be a great cause of rejoycing to evil men to whom his reformation in the State was unpleasing Thirdly because he wanted issue God had promised before to David that there should not fail a man of his seed to sit upon the throne of Israel so that his children did take heed to their wayes Now it was a great discomfort to him to die chidless for then he and others might have thought that he was but an Hypocrite in as much as God had promised issue to all those Kings that feared him and for this cause God heard his prayer and after two years gave him a son Manasseh by name And so I say the same touching our Saviour Christ that he prayed not against Death as it is the separation betwixt Body and Soul as appears by what the Apostle faith that he was heard in that he feared for he stood in our room and became a Curse for us it was the Curse of the Law which went with Death and the unspeakable wrath and indignation of God which he feared and from this according to his prayer he was delivered But thirdly we see in most good men a fear of Death and a desire of life and I my self may some godly man say do feel my self ready to tremble at the meditation thereof and yet I hope I belong unto God I answer that there are two things to be considered in every Christian Flesh and Spirit Corruption and Grace and the best have many inward perplexities at times and doubtings of Gods favour Now it is a truth which our Saviour delivers that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak And as in all other good purposes there is a combate betwixt the flesh and the spirit so is there in this betwixt the fear of Death and the desire of Death sometime the one prevails and sometimes the other but yet alwayes at last the desire of Death doth get the victory Carnal respects do often prevail far with the best care of wise children and the like These are their infirmities but as other infirmities die in them by degrees so these also at last are subdued and the servants of God seeing clearly the happiness into which their Death in Christ shall enter them do even sigh desiring to be clothed upon with their house which is from Heaven Here then is a good Mark by which we may know our selves to be Gods servants viz. by the state of our thoughts and meditations touching Death I will so deliver it as may be most for the comfort of those that truly fear God I demand therefore of thee Dost thou know that the confident and comfortable expectation of Death is the work of the Holy Ghost in Gods servants Dost thou desire unfeignedly that the same may be wrought in thy heart Dost thou labour to know what happiness comes by Death to those that feare the Lord Dost thou grieve at thine own weakness to whom the thought of Death is sometime troublesome and unsavory Dost thou pray the Lord so to assure thee of his favour in Christ that death may be desired before it comes and welcome when it is come Dost thou when thou hearest this speech of Simeon wish that thou wert able to use the like words with the like resolution Surely these things shew that thou art Gods servant and that by Death the Lord will draw thee to a place of rest If these thoughts which I have now named be strangers to thy heart and thou dost not love to trouble thy self to study about Death it is an evil sign The servants of God are not wont to be so secure in matters of this quality And thus much for the first particular in the first general part the desire in the godly of death the second is their care for it the point thence is that It is the care of Gods servants to be alwayes so prepared for death as at what instant soever the Lord shall send it they
not your souls with these vain conceits with your Popish and carnal imaginations I say and testifie from this place that that man or woman which careth not to be taught out of Gods book cannot die like a Christian Who can teach thee the way to die well but God And where doth God teach but in the Scripture If our thoughts of Death if our provision and preparation for Death be not warranted and guided by Gods word it is all in vain Lord faith Simeon my desire of dissolution is according to thy Word my care to be prepared hath been ordered by thy Word he cannot die with comfort that cannot make the like profession And this may serve for the next general part the ground of this desire and preparation for Death it is Gods word Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart according to thy Word The third and last part follows the nature and quality of the death of the Righteous A departure in peace or a peaceable dismission Here are two things first a dismission secondly a dismission accompauied with peace The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Let thy servant depart may well be Englished thus let thy servant loose Lord free me enlarge me set me at liberty Hence we learn that The servants of God do by Death receive a final discarge from all manner of misery This is evident out of the force of the phrase here used Simeon knew that so long as he lived his soul was as it were imprisoned in his body and in it he was held in bondage under the remnants of Original corruption subject to the assaults and temptation of Satan in continual and daily possibility to trespass and sin against Cod beside other afflictions and grievances in the body and estate but he had withal this knowledge and understanding of the nature of Death that it was an enlargement to the soul and a freeing of it utterly and finally from all those and the like incumbrances The same may be gathered from the phrase used by Saint Raul I desire faith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be dissolved and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read the time of my departure the words shew that there coms a liberty by death to the souls of Gods servants The phrase that Saint Peter useth is worthy our observation for this purpose First he terms death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laying down of a burden and by that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laying down of a burden and by that means the soul is lightned and eased Secondly he terms it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a going out from a place and condition of hardship The second book of Moses which relates the dyparture of the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage hath the same name Exodus As for the point it self namely that the death of the Righteous is to them a discharge from all misery the Scripture bears witness to it Blessed said he are the dead which die in the Lord even so faith the spirit that they may rest from their labours As long as they live here they are diversly troubled when they die their labours are at an end and they are received into rest Saint John tels us that in his vision he saw the souls of them that were slain lye under the Alter Now the Alter in the time of the law was a place of resuge and safety and thence it appears that by death the servants of God are est-soons received into a place of holy security where there is no expectation of any further misery They are said to be received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into Abrahams bosome into the fellowship of the same happiness with Abraham the Father of all true believers The Doctrine in the first place makes against those of the Church of Rome which maintain a place of torment even for the servants of God after this life where they must be tryed for a time before they can enter into Rest and happiness This place they term Purgatory the torment here they hold to be unspeakable far surpassing any torment which the wit of man is able to devise But this place among others is sufficient to overthrow this dotage for how were death to the Righteous a dismission a loosing a freedom from misery if there followed after it a torment of far greater extremity then at any time before was ever tasted of So that the death of the servants of God being as I have proved it to be an enlargment from misery certainly the soul is not bound in any new Prison whence it must expect and wait and pray for a second dismission In the next place this Doctrine makes much for the comfort of Gods servants the face of Death to the wicked is very dreadful the day of it is to them the beginning of sorrows their souls are instantly arrested by the damned spirits and kept in everlasting chains of darkness but to those that are the servants of God it is otherwise I may by way of allusion to the phrase of my Text compare their day unto that which happened unto Joseph in which he was brought out of prison to be Ruler over all the land of Egypt So is their death unto them a day of Bailment out of prison a day in which all tears shall be wiped away In which they shall have beauty for ashes and the oyl of gladness for the spirit of heaviness and the long white robes of Christs Rightcousness by which they shall be presented blameless unto God That day shall be to them even as was the day of escape to the Jewes a feast and a good day in which they shall see God as he is and know him as they are known of him But happily thou maist say how shall I know that the day of Death is the day of dissolution and this kind of dismission A very necessary quaere indeed this is for every man almost is ready to challenge to himself a part of this happiness and it is a matter presumed upon by many which shall never enjoy it I will therefore give you one certain mark by which we may know assuredly that the day of our death shall be to us a day of enlargment and of final discharge from all both former and following miseries and that is this if in the time of our life here our being subject to corruption and sin hath seemed unto us the greatest burden and bondage They which have groaned and mourned under their own natural corruptions as it were under some heavy and tyrannous yoak or as the Israelites mourned under their Egyptian Task-masters to them only shall the day of death be a day of freedome If sin be not a burden to thee if thou dost not many times lament and even mourn to think how thou art carried captive unto evil if thou dost not with griese feel how thou art clogged with corruption
and the more difficult work and if I be able to do the greater I am able to do the less he that believes ix me faith Christ though before he were dead in trespasses and sins yet he shall live he shall live the life of grace Then followes the Fxplication and confirmation of the second member of the Proposition in these words Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die I am the life faith Christ for whosoever believeth in me and so is restord to spiritual life he shall never die he shall never die to speak properly for he shall never perish he shall never die this life shall never be taken from him neither here nor hereafter not here for he shall continue to live the life of grace not hereafter for though the body shall die yet this separation of the body from the soul it is not so properly a death as a passage to life a passage from the life of grace to the life of glory And this body also that is separated from the soul it shall be quickned again and shall be raised up to live for ever therefore he that believeth in me shall never die Thus you see the words expounded Now from the first member of this Proposition I am the Resurrection and the Exposition and confirmation of it in these words He that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live Hence the point of Doctrine I will observe is this that Jesus Christ is the Fountain and Author of all life He is able to give and restore life to those that are dead He is the Resurrection Now whereas there is a double death and a double Life and consequently a double Resurrection we must understand that Christ is the Author of both in this place we are not to exclude either Therefore we will endeavour to expound this general doctrine in these three particulars First Christ hath such a quickning power in him that he is able to raise up those dead bodies of his that now lie in the Grave Secondly Christ hath such a quickning power in him that he is able to raise up the soul that is dead in sins to a spiritual life Thirdly we will shew you why Christ as in this place so else-where doth express both the state of the faithful here and their estate after under the same phrase of speech he comprehends both under this term I am the Resurrection For the first of these Christ is the Author of life he hath such a quickning power in him that he is able to raise up the dead bodies of his out of their graves We will speak first of this Resurrection that is of the body though it be later in time Because that naturally we are more apt to conceive of the death and life of the body then of the death and life of the soul And secondly because that the understanding of this Resurrection of the body will give light to the understanding of the other of the soul And here first we will shew briefly what this Resurrection of the body is And then prove that Christ is the Author and the fountain of it First the Resurrection of the body is this when the soul that was actually separate from the dead body returns again to its proper body and being united to it the man riseth up out of the Grave with an immortal incorruptible body to lead a glorified life This it the Resurrection of the body Now that Christ is the Author of this Resurrection of the body it is evident For as Christ himself by his own power raised himself being dead in the Grave John 2.19 faith Christ destroy this Temple and in three dayes I will raise it again speaking of the Temple of his body And so again Joh. 10.18 I have power faith Christ to lay down my life and to take it up again so likewise Christ by his quickning spirit he will raise up the bodies of those that are now dead in the grave as we may see Joh. 5.28 29. Marvel not at this faith Christ for the hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of man and shall come forth they that have done good to the resurrection of life c. In this regard Christ is called the first fruits of them that sleep For as the first fruits being offered to God did sanctifie the whole crop and the owner hereby was assured of the blessing of God upon all the rest so Christ is the first fruits of the dead and his Resurrection it is an assurance to the faithful of their Resurrection and the cause of it both an assurance a pledge of it and likewise a cause of it Therefore herein Christ the second Adam is opposed to the first Adam As the first Adam who was the root of all man-kind did communicate death and mortality to all those that spring from him so likewise Christ the second Adam by his Resurrection he conveyes life and a quickning power to all his members as we may see 1 Cor. 15.21.22 For since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead for as in Adam all die Adam he communicates death and mortality to all that spring from him even so in Christ shall all be made alive Christ he conveyes life to all his members and they are all quickned by his Spirit therefore Christ is called a quickning spirit 1 Cor. 15.45 The first Adam was made a living soul but the last Adam a quickning spirit not only a living but a quickning spirit And this quickning power and vertue Christ did manifest before his resurrection by raising up three from death namely by raising the Widdows son Luke 7. and Jairus his Daughter Luke 8. and Luzarus here in this chapter And at his resurrection also he manifested this his quickning power in that he rose not alone but raised the bodies of many of his Saints with him many of his Saints arose with him and as they rose with Christ their head so also they ascended to glory together with Christ their head and the resurrection of these it was an effect of the resurrection of Christ it was by the power of Christs resurrection Of these we may read Mat. 27.52 53. The graves opened and many bodies of the Saints that slept arose and came out of their graves after his resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared to many Thus you have the first conclusion proved that Christ is the Author of the resurrection of the body Now in the next place the second conclusion is this that Christ is the Author and Fountain of spiritual life also He is the Author of the Resurrection of the soul and the resurrection of the soul it is this when the Spirit of grace of which we were all deprived in Adam returns again to the soul of a natural man and so quickens the man that the man begins to
infirmities that the body had before he shall rise to lead another kind of life a glorified life so in this resurrection of the soul the sinner riseth and is raised up to lead a new kind of life a spiritual life and therefore it is called Newness of life Rom. 6.4 that we should walk in newness of life both in regard of the new principle and fountain of iâ—… the spring of grace in the soul And in regard of the new effects and new operations which are answerable to the new root Fourthly there is a proportion also in regard of the perpetuity of both for as in the Resurrection of the body the body shall rise an immortal body not subject to death any more so here in the resurrection of the soul when the sinner is restored to spiritual life he is raised up to a durable immutable estate he shall continue to live this life of grace and the immortal seed that is put into him it shall never die so Christ saith verse 26. He that believeth in me saith he and so liveth he shall never die he is raised to an immutable estate to such a life as shall never be subject to spiritual death again Thus you see that analogie and proportion between these two and in this respect they may both be comprehended fitly under one term Secondly in regard of the infallible connexion between these two for wheresoever the resurrection of the soul to the life of grace goes before there the resurrection of the body to the life of glory will certainly follow after for as the spiritual death of the soul did necessarily draw after it the mortality and death of the body so the spiritual life of the soul doth necessarily draw with it the immortality and the resurrection of the body therefore as in the Sacrament the name of the thing signified is given to the sign in regard of the neer conjunction and relation between them so here in regard of the neer conjunction between these two that they are never separate therefore they may both fitly be comprehended under one term Thus we have endeavoured to expound the general doctrin in these three particulars We have shewed you that Christ is the Author and fountain of the Resurrection of the body he hath the quickning power in him wherby he is able to raise those bodies that are dead in the grave Then he is the Author of the Resurrection of the soul too he is able to quicken those souls that are dead in sins And then we have shewed the reasons why these two the Resurrection of the body and of the soul are both comprehended under one phrase of speech I am the Resurrection Now I come to the Use and Application of that that hath been delivered And the Use of the point is First for comfort Secondly for tryal and examination Thirdly for exhortation and direction First the Use of the point may be for comfort here here is matter of sound comfort to all those that are the faithful members of Christ Jesus if thou be united to Christ by saith Christ is the Fountain of life he will be the Fountain of spiritual life therefore here is comfort against Death against the death of the soul and against the death of the body Comfort first against the death of the Soul comfort against sin that is the ill of all ills and is the death of the soul If thou be united to Christ Christ by his divine power he is able to free thee from the power and dominion of sin from the bondage of sin Dost thou complain that thy understanding is dark and blind remember Christ is able to give thee more light Ephes 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Dost thou complain that thy heart is hard and stony remember that Christ is able to soften thy hard heart and to give thee a heart of flesh as he hath promised Ezek. 36.36 I will take away their stony heart and give them an heart of flesh Dost thou complain that thy affections are unruly and set upon wrong objects remember to thy comfort that Christ is able to rectifie these affections he is able to plant in thee the true love and fear of God as he hath promised Deut. 30.6 I will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed that thou shalt love me with all thy heart and with all thy soul And in Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall never depart from me Dost thou complain that thou canst not bear afflictions patiently remember that Christ thy head he is able to strengthen thee and he will do it as he did the Apostle Phil. 4.13 saith he I am able to do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me But here the weak Christian will be ready to object but I have so many strong corruptions in me that I am afraid that I am not yet raised out of the grave of sin that I am not yet raised out of my natural estate To which I answer remember this to thy comfort that the first Resurrection is unlike to the second in this regard in regard of the measure and degree of it as soon as ever the soul quickens the dead body the dead body leaves the Grave and the state of corruption wholly and all at once but it is not so in the Resurrection of the soul When the spirit quickens the soul the soul begins to rise again from the grave of sin but yet the bands and setters of sin and corruption still remain upon the soul Indeed as soon as the Spirit of grace quickens the soul the soul presently hates all sins and begins to shake off these setters of sin and corruptions and shakes them off by little and little but I say it shakes them not off all at once In this spiritual Resurrection sin indeed receives a deadly wound but yet it is not wholly abolished In the spiritual Resurrection sin is like a beast whose throat is cut that lies striving and strugling for life so sin hath life in it but yet it hath a deadly wound therefore remember to thy comfort that that will be true here between the power of grace and the remainders of sin that is affirmed of the house of Saul and the house of David 2 Sam. 3.1 there was long war between them But the house of David grew stronger and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker So it will be between sin and grace sin will grow weaker and weaker and grace stronger and stronger But yet the weak Christian may object further but I feel the spirit so weak in me and the flesh so strong in me that I am afraid the flesh will prevail and so I shall return again to my natural estate To this I answer remember that this is contrary to the nature of a true Resurrection to return to death again
for at the last Resurrection the bodies that are raised shall be immortal never to die again so here those souls that are quickened to the life of grace they are raised to a durable immutable immortal estate never to die again That which Christ saith of those that shall be accounted worthy to attain the second Resurrection the Resurrection of the body it is true here also he saith those that shall be accounted worthy of the world to come of the Resurrection to life they shall never die for they are as the Angels of Heaven Luke 20.35 39. Those that partake of that Resurrection can never die so here those that partake of this spiritual Resurrection to the life of grace they shall never die this Resurrection to the life of grace it shall continue in them For the spirit of grace when he once cometh into the soul and quickens it it continues there and remains there for ever it is as a Well of water springing up to eternal life as Christ speaks Joh. 4.14 Whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life Now we know a stream of water is of a vanishing nature yet if it be nourished with a continual Fountain that can never be dry the stream will continually run so it is with the stream of grace in the soul it is nourished with a continual fountaine such a one as can never be dried up Thus you see here is comfort against sin against the death of the soul Those that are united to Christ by faith they may be assured that Christ will be to them a Fountaine of spiritual life Secondly here is comfort against the death of the body against natural death If thou be united to Christ thou needest not to fear temporal death remember that though the body be dead because of sin yet the spirit is life as it is Rom. 8.10 The body that is dead that is it is mortal and subject to death because of sin but the spirit the soul that liveth it passeth from the life of grace here to the life of glory Yea and the body too that is laid in the Grave notwithstanding shall be raised again by the quickening power of Christ Remember Christ is thy head and therefore he being risen from the dead thou shalt not perish You know as long as the head of the natural body is above the water none of the members of the body can be drowned so it is here as long as Christ is risen none of his members can be held captive in the Grave Remember Christ is the first fruits of the dead the first fruits of them that sleep therefore his Resurrection may be a pledge and an assurance to thee of thy resurrection As we have borne the Image of the earthly saith the Apostle so we shall bear the Image of the heavenly 1 Cor. 15.49 As we have borne about us these corruptible bodies so when we rise again we shall rise with immortal and incorruptible bodies and live a glorious life with Christ and so be made conformable to Christ our head therefore fear not the death of the body Remember that Death can destroy nothing in thee but sin therefore fear not This consideration may comfort us as against our own death so against the death of our friends Let us therefore receive comfort hence as Martha in this Chapter I know that my brother shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day and that did comfort her But here this question may be demanded but is not this Resurrection of the body a benefit common to the wicked are not they partakers of this benefit from the resurrection of Christ as well as the godly shall not they be raised and quickned as well as the godly by Christ his Resurrection To this I answer that this Resurrection of the body to life it is a benefit proper to the faithful to the true members of Christ for though unbeleevers and wicked persons shall be raised up again yet By a different cause And to a different end I say first by a different cause the wicked that are out of Christ cannot have any benefit from the Resurrection of Christ because they are out of Christ therefore they shall be raised indeed but not by a quickning power flowing from the resurrection of Christ but by the divine power and command of Christ as a just Judge and they shall be raised by vertue of that curse pronounced in Paradice Gen. 2. In the day thou eatest thou shalt die the death that includes eternal death therefore this curse must be executed upon them and therefore they must rise out of the Grave again that body and soul may die eternally but the faithful members of Christ shall be raised by the quickning power of Christ as their head and Saviour Again as the wicked shall be raised by a different cause so to a different end for they shall not be raised to life to speak properly that state is stiled eternal death therefore their Resurrection is stiled the resurrection of condemnation Job 5.27 they that have done good shall come forth to the resurrection of life and they that have done ill to the resurrection of condemnation they shall not rise to life but to eternal death but the godly only shall attain this Resurrection of life and therefore they only are stiled the sons of the resurrection Luke 20.36 So much may suffice for comfort A second Use of the point may be for trial and examination since we profess to be Christians to be members of Christ let us here try the truth whether we be so in deed or no. Christ is the Resurrection he is the Author of the first Resurrection to a spiritual life The first thing that Christ doth in the soul of a sinner is to raise the soul to a spiritual life therefore examine whether thou have felt this quickning power or no this first Resurrection to a spiritual life When Christ was upon the earth he had power to raise up all those to life again that died but yet he raised but few there are but three that we read of those that we named before The Widdows son Jairus Daughter and Lazarus here So likewise Christ now hath power to quicken all those that are dead in sin to raise them to spiritual life but yet he quickens but few in comparison of those that continue still in their sins Therefore let us all examine our selves upon this point whether we have attained the first Resurrection or no. If we be true members of Christ we partake of the first Resurrection for Christ is a fountain of spiritual life to all his members therefore examine this look to the first resurrection to the Life of grace thou maist know it briefly by three signs First by forsaking of sin
others with whom she had long and private intimacy of many years acquaintance I must and will speak That which I told you was recorded of Rachel that she was fruitful in procreation of Children may in a great measure be spoken of her for if the Scripture account bearing but of two children fruit certainly it will make an extraordinary fruit in bearing of twelve which she did It is a certaine token of a true and faithful servant of God to frequent his house to pray unto him to praise him in his Church earnestly to labour to be instructed in his will out of his Word then and there read and preached to them all which evidences of a good Christian were found in this our Sister For her constant coming to Church I my self can now speak upon my own knowledge I have seriously and strictly examined my self and I profess ingeniously before God that knows my heart and you that here me speak that I cannot call to mind that ever she mist coming to Church twice a Sabbath day since I came which I would be heartily glad I could speak as well of others of this Parish as of her For some of them have got such a fisking trick up and down to go to other Churches as if there were no rellishable food at their own that I fear at the last they will come to none at all I pray God they amend this fault It was a vertue in her that deserved commendation and it is a vice in them that deserves reprehension When she was in Gods house she did not as too too many do imploy her time in sleeping or some such ill course but I ever observed her to listen very diligently and attentively to what was delivered for the nourishing of her soul I confess I do not remember that ever I saw her take any notes in the Church of Sermons that were preached for it seems she did it when she came home for since her death going to her house accidentally I met with a book of hers wherein she had written many texts of Scripture with notes the day when they were preached and the persons by whom most of those which I have preached I saw and perused and others of strangers that I my self have heard these qualities are not to be past over in silence but are worthy of your serious imitation Neither did she think it fit barely to set them down for her own instruction only but what she heard upon the Sabbath day that she constantly practised upon the week dayes She catechised her children in those points spending some time in training them up in the knowledge of God and putting them in mind of their duty to him in whom we live and move and have our being by repeating Gods word delivered by hearing them read Gods word printed and by singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs That she was a most provident and careful Wife and a most indulgent and loving Mother all that knew her can best testifie and some of them have informed me And this let me speak and I have it from the mouth of some that prehaps did not think I would have mentioned it at this time and would have had it concealed but for reasons best known to my self I hold it very fit to relate she was ever held to be of a most sweet nature and of a very loving disposition that she was very charitable and inclined to relieve the poor It is likewise testified of her she was liberal alway but more liberal now then usually having had a consideration of the hard and needy times to which end as if she had prognosticated her own death she laid some money according to that ability that God had blessed her with for the relief of the poor Let no man censure me for speaking these things I do for if I should not have given her her just and deserved praises some that now hear me and knew her from her cradle might justly have censured me for too much remisness Thus for her life As for her death I can say little touching it It pleased God not to give her any long time of sickness but to take her away though not unprepared yet on a sudden with a short warning When her bitter pangs first came upon her she called to her Husband and desired him to joyn with her in hearty prayer to Almighty God that he would be graciously pleased to extend his mercy towards her that he would be pleased to let her live longer that she might repent of her sins and beg mercy at his hands for them that she might amend her life And if he would not grant this for her yet for those many poor Children that were young that she was to leave behind her she desired him to be a careful Father over them all she prayed to God devoutly to send a blessing both upon him and them Much she could not then speak because of her pains that now began still to increase upon her When she was in the extremity of her labour he being absent as it was fitting she sent down to him to desire him to pray to God on her behalf that he would ease her of those grievons pains and preserve her in the great pain and peril of Child birth The propitious God it seemed heard him and granted his request for presently to the thinking of the standers by she was well delivered Not satisfied with this having received so great a blessing from God she sent down again to desire him to give God thanks for her safe delivery But God that had determined to take out of this miserable life quickly turned that hope of the standers by into a fear and suddenly she changed which perceiving as long as she was able to speak she cried Lord Jesus have mercy on my soul Lord have mercy on me Lord pitty me poor miserable wretch and when she could not speak she held up her hands to heaven as desirous to make her peace with that God whom she knew she had highly offended I make no question but God hath translated her from the valley of tears to the Mount Sion of blessedness whither God of his infinite mercy bring us all THE DEATH OF SINNE AND LIFE of GRACE SERMON XXXVII ROM 6.11 Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. THe intent of this Chapter is to take off an abuse of the Doctrine of the Gospel which publisheth the free Grace of God to great sinners The Apostle had said in the latter end of the 20. Verse of the former Chapter where sin abounded Grace did much more abound From hence some did infer that therefore under the Gospel they might take liberty to sin the more their sins were and the greater they were the more they should occasion God to manifest his abundant Grace upon them This the Apostle answers in this Chapter and he answers it two wayes
in the subject too not only a certainty that those that are in Christ shall live but it is certain to you make account of this make this conclusion for your selves build on it know it for your selves as he said to Job it is certain if you be in Christ you are dead with Christ and you shall live with Christ make account of this Lastly the efficient cause of this great change exprest in these terms it is Jesus Christ our Lord make account of this if you be in Christ there comes a vertue from Christ an effectual working of Christ by his spirit in your hearts such a powerful work as will conforme you to Christ dead and to Christ risen that you shall be dead to sin and alive to God not by any sttength in your selves or any excellent endowment in your own natures not by any natural inclination and ability but through the vertue and power of Jesus Christ our Lord working in you Thus you have the Text opened We will speak first of the Analogy and proportion the agreement between the metaphors here used and the things exprest by them That which the Apostle would express is that there is a marvellous spiritual real change in all those that are in Christ from what they were before Now let us see how sitly it is exprest in these words that he saith you are dead to sin and alive to Ged that he chuseth to express it by life and death Had it not been fit to have said thus much you are changed in your dispositions in your inclinations in your intentions in your actions you are changed in your conversations you are other kind of men in the inclination of your hearts you bring forth other fruit you lead other lives then you were wont to do But he expresseth it here yet more fully that is by that that includes all these and if there be any thing more may be added it includes that too ye are dead and alive Then we will consider First generally how death and life express the state of them that are in Christ Secondly consider them in their particular application how death expresseth the first part of a mans change in sanctification and life the second part First we take them in general and let this be the point that A man that is indeed effectually changed by vertue of his union with Christ he hath such a change wrought in him as in a dead and living man as in life or in death Now first take it in general you know life and death they imply first a general change when a man is alive or when a man is dead there is not a change in some part only but in the whole So it is here when a man is effectually changed from what he was by vertue of his union with Christ A member may be dead and yet nevertheless the man alive but if the man be dead there is a general change that goes throughout it possesseth every part every member so that now there is no member of him but death rules in it then he is a dead man So it is in this when a man is dead spiritually there is not a change in some particular actions only in some particular opinions only there is not an alteration of some of his old customs only but it is a general change so it goes through the whole man It is a change in the understanding he judgeth things otherwise then he was wont to do And there is a change in the will the inclination of it is to other objects then he was wont to be inclined to And thence there is a change in his intentions he propounds other ends to himself then he was wont So there is a change in respect of the whole the Word is the rule of all a mans actions There is a change from particular evils from one as well as another that when any thing is discovered to him to be a sin to be a transgression of the rule he is turned from it So likewise when any thing is discovered to him to be a duty agreeable to the rule according to the will of God revealed in his Word he is a vessel of honour prepared for it and that is it the Apostle especially means when he compares them to vessels and he describes them thus they are vessels of honour fit for the service of their Master prepared for every good work So that now as the Apostle saith there remaineth no more conscience of sin That is there remains not now any sin to cleave to the conscience to defile it to cleave to the conscience so as a ruling enemy would do that would take away all true and perfect peace all boldness and access to the throne of Grace there is no such conscience of sin This making conscience of every sin is that that frees conscience from being defiled in that sence with any sin so much for the first Well secondly it is expressed by death and life to shew the orderliness in the proceeding of this change When a man is changed by the efficacy and working of Christ to whom he is united it proceeds in such a manner as the change in death or life You know death or life begin within first it begins in the inward man in the heart first And as in natural death or natural life there is a dying first of the root and a quickning first at the root So likewise in spiritual death or life it is an orderly proceeding it begins first within Our Saviour Christ gives this direction First make the inside clean and then all will be clean against the hppocrisie of the Scribes and Pharisees that looked more to outward actions So this change it is not only a meer civilizing of a man a conforming of him to that society he converseth with in outward actions but renewing of a man in the spirit of his mind Rom. 12.2 So the change begins from within Hence it is that first he is good and then he doth good according to the speech of Christ make the tree good and then the fruit will be good we will not stand upon it you see the Analogie and agreement holds between these two in general Now we come to take them apart more specially First how this being dead to sin agrees with that change that is in a man that is in Christ from sin Reckon this saith the Apostle make account of this that you are dead to sin that is now there is such a change and turning from your evil courses from whatsoever it is that is truly and properly called sin in Scripture you are changed from it Now in whatsoever sence a man may be said to be dead in that sence a man in Christ is changed from sin there is somewhat in his change expressing that death Now there is a threefold death A Civil Death A Judicial Death A Natural Death We begin with the judicial first
as Gods great Work begins in the judgment There is a judicial death so one that is alive now in respect of natural life may yet be said to be judicially dead when he is dead in sentence when by the Judge he is condemned to death when he is adjudged to die So reckon ye your selves dead to sin make account of this that now in your judgment there is a sentence passed out against sin that it shall be slain that it shall be mortified thus your judgment stands and thus you look upon it as a thing dead in sentence and that is the first It is that in Ezek. 36.31 saith the Lord When I shall be pacified to thee this shall follow upon it thou shalt judge thy self worthy to be destroyed for all thine iniquities and abominations When God is reconciled to a man which is as much as to say when a man is in Christ for by Christ we are reconciled to God this follows upon it that man comes now to judge sin to be a deadly thing to judge sin to be dead and to judg himself worthy to be destroyed for it He looks on sin as it should be looked upon his opinion is right concerning it he accounts it an iniquity a thing against that rectitude against that equity and righteousness wherewith man was once endowed in the Creation and from which so far as he swarves so far he is plunged into death As you know that curse was denounced against man when he sinned he should die so he cannot look upon iniquity upon that that is contrary to that righteousness wherein he was made but he looks upon it as on death it self and a deadly thing he looks upon it as upon an abomination That look as persons that sinned capitally were an abomination to the Land and people among whom they sinned as the Scripture speaks of murtherers and the like the land was defiled if the sentence of death were not executed so it is here in the opinion and judgment of a man that is in Christ he accounts this the greatest defilement that his soul remains so far polluted and defiled as there is any life left in sin That is the first thing reckon this then that sin is dead immediatly that is that you now come to pass as Judges do a sentence of death against sin and that howsoever a Malefactour be not naturally dead when he is judicially dead yet he is in an order to it the next thing that follows will be to be cut off So it is with sin when a man comes to judge himself for his iniquity worthy to be destroyed for his abominations this is the next thing that follows he will not rest till that be slain and subdued till that Malefactour be condemned to death and cut off and took out of the way Here is the first thing herein this change is like death Secondly there is a civil death too so one that lives naturally may be dead civilly so one that is under the subjection and power of another such a one is dead civilly The civil Law accounts any one that is under subjection to be Civiliter mortuus as they speak that is he is in that sence not accounted among living men he is one dead because he is not annimated and acted by his own will but by the will of him that rules him so reckon ye your selves dead saith the Apostle Make account that when you are in Christ sin is no more to be ruler and commander to act and animate and quicken you to obey its lusts that you should be acted and animated by it that as soon as sin tempts you should obey presently make account in this sence you are dead to sin that is sin is dead in you civilly it hath not a ruling power it comes not now as one that hath power to sway all before it that is it the Apostle saith in this Chapter sin shall not have dominion You have a new Master a new Lord you are no more under the rule and dominion of sin that is the second Thirdly there is a natural death as well as a judicial and civil death so things are said to be dead naturally two wayes Imperfectly Inchoate Perfectly Consummate Natural death imperfect and but begun is this as when there is a great blow given with an axe to the root of a tree whereupon certainly it will wither and die and be made altogether unfruitful for the time to come though for the present it have leaves upon it and though for the present all the fruit that is on it be not quite shook off yet now the tree is said to be dead because there is a blow given at the root whereupon it will wither and certainly die So a man is said to be dead when he hath a deadly wound given him though he be not now dead though he may stir and live after and perhaps do some hurt to him that wounded him yet he is dead because he is irrecoverably wounded every one that looks on him will say he is dead So as soon as a man is in Christ by vertue of his union with Christ there is such a blow given to the root of sin not in the judgment only but in the affections also so as it never recovers its strength again to bring forth fruit in that abundance as before and it alway withers and decayes more and more till it be quite removed Now as it is in this case with a tree will you know when it is dead take it in the Spring All the trees in Winter seem to be dead but come in the Spring and in Summer and then if a man see there are no leaves if he see no fruit upon the tree now he concludes it is dead indeed because it brings not forth fruit in the season of fruit So take a man when there is an occasion an opportunity to turn to folly when upon deliberation and judgment he may consider of that opportunity to mannage it for the service of sin it will appear now if he be dead he will not in such an occasion yeeld but at such a time especially resist sin at such a time he will not bring forth the fruit of sin Look what the Spring is to the tree that is occasion to the sinfulness of mans heart Indeed when sin takes a man upon disadvantage upon unequal terms that he deliberates not and considers not what he is doing as David saith I said in my hast then many times sin prevails and binds him as a theef doth the master of the house hand and foot yet nevertheless when he well weighs and considers things at such a time it will appear that sin is dead Thus you see how sitly the terms hold to express the change of a Christian his judgment is right he condemns sin as death in the purpose and covenant of his heart whereby he is bound to God he disposeth it from its
power of godliness spoken of in Scripture What powerful matter were there in Religion if a man might hold his sins and yet be a Christian and a beleever and be in Christ too a drunkard and yet be saved a prophaner of the Sabbath and yet be in Christ what great matter were there it were nothing to be a Christian nay who would not be one What need Saint Paul expose himself to such watchings and fastings and sufferings if he might have gone on in the way of the World and yet be in Christ too No beloved it is another-gates matter to be a Christian then for a man to hold his old customes and wayes and courses and yet hope to be saved too Let no man deceive himself with this the matter of Christianity it is a laborious work Religion is a very serious thing A man that indeed will be Religious he must follow Christs rule first deny himself and take up his Cross and follow him what need a man deny himself if he might hold his sins and yet follow Christ Well know this the ground is clear there must be a turning from sin as wel as a turning to God if a man have union with Christ Now to conclude with a word of application First if it be so It serves to convince us this day in the presence of God the multidude of us now before the Lord to hear the Word and profess our union with Christ and yet there is no such matter If we were united with Christ there would be living to God by vertue of that union with Christ It is living to God in the course of our life that gives us comfort of our union with Christ Deceive not your selves we may say of many as the Lord saith of Sardis Thou hast a name to live but art dead There are abundance that have a name to live but are dead A man wonld wonder at it that we should say to a Congregation of so many people that there were few alive among them all that the most whose eyes are now upon the Minister and whose eares are open to the Word yet they are but dead they are not alive though they walk and though they speak and do the actions of a natural life they live naturally but are dead spiritually they have a name to live but are dead The Lord tells Jeremy Jerem. 5. That there was such want of good men in Jerusalem that he might go up and down the Stteets of Jerusalem and not find a man A man would wonder that the Lord should use such an expression He might have said he should not find a good man a just man a godly man but not find a man saith he as if he were not worthy the name of a man in the Streets of Jerusalem that was not appliable and conformable to Gods will That a man should go in the Streets of London and not find a man that he should go into Moore-fields on the Sabbath day and see a multidude of dead Ghosts walking there that he should go in the Streets and see a multitude of dead persons sitting at their doors that he should go up and down to the houses of men and see a multitude of dead creatures talk of worldly things on the Lords day a man would wonder he should find so many dead men eating and drinking and talking and walking and yet dead still The Text makes it clear here If we be not dead unto sin we are not alive to God there is no being alive to God except a man be first dead to sin Shall we come to the trial Beloved there we shall find among the many of you that hear the Word many are dead in sin What means the prophanation of the Sabbath what means the great neglect of Family-duties Come to your houses there be not the prayers of living men there there be not the meditations and conferences of men that are spiritually alive in your Families and shall we think you are alive Come to men in their shops and dealings and see them dead in their worldliness and covetousness and shall we say they are alive to God Alas beloved go to the particulars of mens lives you shall hear them speak the words of dead men spiritually dead in swearing and cursing and reviling and blaspheming and bitterness and yet shall we say that they are alive Look upon all the actions of men it were an endless work where we find dead works we conclude there is a dead man when men do the things that are the actions of a man spiritually dead we conclude they are spiritually dead the Holy Ghost saith so for they are dead in trespasses and sins therefore now let us come a little closer There are abundance that perswade themselves that they are alive therefore a little try your life by your death to sin What are your opinions and judgments concerning your own wayes those things that the Word of God condemns for evil those things that out of the Word are preached to you daily by way of reproof of sin that are spoken to you by Christian friends by way of admonition to bring you out of your sins how do you take them and digest them are they pleasing to you because they tend to the killing of sin or are they distasteful because they give you not rest in your sins What do you judge sin worthy to live and your selves not dead the while It is a note of a man that is alive in sin that hates reproof that hates him that reproveth in the gate he that hates him that reproves his ill works he is not dead to sin for he doth not judge his sin worthy to die Again come to your assections what is it you delight in When a man looks upon a thing that is dead if it be indeed dead the sight of it is terrible and gastly and troublesome to him When Sara was dead though Abraham loved her dear in her life remove my dead out of my sight If sin in thee be as a dead thing how dost thou look upon it dost thou look upon it as a thing that thou art afraid of as a thing that thou art the worse when thou seest it When the objects and occasion of sin are presented to you how stand you affected then all that are dead in sin take thought to fulfil the lusts of the flesh as the Apostle saith they delight in it sin is sweet to them as Job saith but if on the otherside you look on it with indignation loathing and detesting and abhorring sin and your selves for sin then it is a comfortable sign of your death to sin Again when you do look on it do you look upon it as a ruler or as an enemy for there is a great deal of difference A theif was come into the house as well as the master of the house but they come not with the like authority nor with the like acceptance the thief comes but you
So the Church of God is called the house of God and sometime it is understood of the Church militant and sometime of the Church triumphant Of the Church triumphant In my Fathers house are many mansions There it is heaven the place of the blessed Then for the Church militant Moses was faithful in all his house faith the Text. And Paul exhorts Timothy how he should carry himself in the house of God that is in the Church militant As for those that live above us they need not our good works and actions therefore it is intended of those that are here in the Church militant that is called Gods houshold because there is such a communion amongst beleevers as amongst those that live in the same house that abide under the same roof that live under the same government that eat at the same Table c. So then you have the meaning of all which is no more but this Take those advantages of times which you can obtain or else many will slip unprofitably to be conversant in such actions of mercy which tend to the relief of those that want them If there be extream necessity do good to all but if you may make choyce of persons to whom you may do good choose the houshold of faith Thus you have the substance and the meaning of the words In them you may observe briefly these three parts The first is a determination or limitation of time to which the Saints are tied in the performance of the duties that are in joyned them as you have opportunity and while you have time Secondly there is a declaration of duty do good Thirdly there is a description of the persons to whom this good must be done first more generally Do good to all and then more particularly and with an especial note Especially to those of the houshold of Faith Of these in order First for the determination of time to take the words as they lie while you have time therefore or as you have opportunity the words themselves do render the main point It is the duty of Christians to take their advantages of times to take the best opportunities of their life to do good I will speak somewhat by way of Explication of the point and something by way of Application and so proceed to what follows First for the Explication what is intended or meant in it when we incite you to embrace times and opportunities Briefly these two things are meant in it First that you should be sure not to lose the time of life And Secondly that you should not forego the advantages and opportunities of estates You shall not alwayes have life to do good and it may be if you have life you shall not alwayes enjoy means and ability to do good While you have life therefore and time do good or while you enjoy means and so power to do good embrace these opportunites That is the meaning of the Apostle in this place First then there must be a doing good while you have life let your good works go before you do things while you live and defer not the performance of them till your death Make you friends of the unrighteous Mammon that when you want they may receive you into everlasting habitations He calls that unrighteous Mammon not that it is unrighteously gotten only though that may be meant but that which is unrighteously kept is unrighteous Mammon to you if you procured it never so justly unless you do rightly dispose of it and if you be desirous to do right in disposing of your Mammon of your wealth do it now That when you want that power and those times you may enjoy the comfortable fruit of the well-redeeming of the time of your life to receive you into everlasting habitations In the 25. verse of the 16. Luke it is the challenge of Abraham to Dives Son remember that thou in thy life-time haddest thy goods for so the word signifieth thou haddest thy opportunities of life and of goods too but now thou hast neither life nor goods left thee to do good with and therefore he is blessed and thou art tormented It was the folly of those five Virgins they took not the opportunity of life for that is the thing meant there but they posted over all to the last and hoped that all might be effected in a trice or miniute of their life which would have held them employment enough all the dayes of their lives And therefore they came short of heaven the gates were shut against them as you see when the Bridegroom came If any man imagine because it is said Blessed are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them That therefore it matters not so long as a man doth good at his death though he have neglected the wayes of goodness all his life Let them know that by works there is not meant the actions of men but the fruits of their actions Their works follow them not the works they have deferred untill death but the fruits of those works they did while they were living and received not the benefit of them untill death Their works follow them that is the fruits of their works It is more good and pleasant by far to have the actions go before and the fruits and comfortable effects to succeed and follow after But if any man yet suppose that he may make that up in his Will which he hath neglected all his life long and though he have lived miserably covetously and unprofitably all the dayes of his life yet his thoughts may tell him that by the Charitable Requests of his last Testament as bequeathing largely to the Church and Common-wealth and to all sorts of people be may at the last make fit compensation and satisfaction for neglect of former duties Let no man deceive himself with such a bad resolution for first it argues a sign of infidelity that a man will not trust God for fear he should want in his life-time what is the reason else that he defers the doing good in health unless it be for fear of wanting himself such distrust he hath in the providence of God Besides the same God which bids thee do good when thou hast opportunity and while thou enjoyest the advantage of life he expects it now And it may be truly said of many that neglect those times of doing good while they lived and have now supplyed that defect in their death by the large benevolence of their Wills Their will is good but their deed is naught So much for the first point I proceed unto the second that is thou must not only take the time of thy life but also the opportunity of thy means and thy estate while there is yet a price in thine hand while thou hast opportunity and enjoyest wealth to do good with redeem the advantages and opportunities by employing them in
Why must there be such a waiting for this â—… these grave cloths are too sad for the freshness of our life and would you have us be like the mad-man in the Gospel who lived among the Sepulchres Nay I beseech you let us consider and settle our thoughts a little you shall be stayed with reason there are many strong Arguments reasons why we should thus wait both by expectation 〈◊〉 preparation First it is the main errand of our life God did not send us into the world to sin and to adorn our selves with the creature but to bring him some honour and then to die the factor is not imployed to take his pleasure abroad but to do his Masters work and then to return home Tortullien confesseth he was a great finner and therefore born to repentance therefore doth God give us life and the Master allows the servant a candle to work by that we may repent of our sins and get our hold in Christ and work out our salvation and do the great business of believing to be good and to do good and so by Death to go up to heaven Secondly death is but once and that needs to be well done which can be but once done if there might be another space after death a second edition to correct the faults and escapes of the former then a present and speedy preparation were not altogether so necessary but faith the Apostle It is appointed for all men once to die and after death to come to Judgment Heb. 9.27 no more but once We usually shadow out Death with an hour-glass A fit emblem but that when an hour-glass is run out it may be turned again but this once out can be set up no more thou shalt never live to amend thy errours in dying O then how needful is it before-hand to prepare for Death Thirdly when death hath done with thee then God will begin with thee thou must once die and after this come to judgment Heb. 9.27 To judgment what is that thou must be presented before the holy and just and great God who is the Judge of the quick and the dead and with all that thou art and with all that thou hast done there must appear then before him all the courses of thy life all the bent of thy affections all the secrets of thy heart shall then be pulled in peeces and opened and all thy works and all thy words shall be exhibited scann'd and surveyed and that with severity and righteousness how say you then is it not fit to be preparing for Death to sit thy soul to reforme thy heart and life wilt thou be presented before Gods severe Judgment-seat with Usury in thy bags with bribes and oppression in thy hands with a scum of holiness in thy mind with uncleanness in thy members with drnnkenness in thy mouth with swearing in thy tongue O Lord I tremble to think of it Fourthly the soul when it is once gone by Death can never be recovered any more the tree may be cut and that may grow again the ship may be lost and the wealth laboured up again but if the glass be broken in peeces it cannot be made whole again the soul of man is but one and the loss of that one is the loss of it for ever when death hath closed up thy eyes thou shalt never have opportunity to pray more to weep more to humble thy self more to fast more Never any Prophet or Apostle shall come unto thee in the name of God more after death all the Ordinances cease unto thee for ever and all the space of returning shall cease unto thee for ever thou shalt not lie a few years in flames of wrath and then get leave to come out and take a better course O no if once there then for ever there this life is the time of mercy and space of repentance but when Death shall deliver thee up to be judged by the Lord thou must stand for ever to his sentence therefore as Christ spake Agree with thine adversary while thou art in the way lest the Judge deliver thee to the officer and he cast thee into prison I tell thee thou shalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the last mite Luke 12.58 And get oyle into your lamps before the door be shut Fifthly consider it will be as much as thou canst do to do the work of Death when Death doth come therefore prepare and get all thy other work done before For my Beloved consider three things First Conscience usually is most active at the time of death a man that could withstand and silence it in his life yet when he comes to die he shall here his voyce and perhaps not be able to stand under the bitter indictments and manifold accusations of it then it will spread the book of thy life before thee and then and there thou shall see thy sins as gastly presented as if they were so many wounds newly made Secondly thy patience will be tried with variety of pain interruption of sleep every place will be a thorn to thee and every action a burden Thirdly thy faith may be tried to the utmost if thou lookest to thy Wise her tears may trouble thee if to thy Children their cries may perplex thee if to thy friends they may be discomforters to thee and will Satan let the alone all this while will he let him lie down in comfort who would not scarce let him live an hour in peace oh what a victory would it be if he could at the last make thee cast away thy considence it is true the cannot attain it but he may desperately attempt it Why brethren who knoweth the power of these sharp temptations which may then beset him Verily all the holiness which we have attained already all the duties we have performed already we may then look on them with tears and cry out O why no sooner why no better why no more then all the strength of thy faith will be little enough to support thee Will there then be a change befall even all the sons of men Then to make some Use and Application of what hath been said to our selves First build no Tabernacles here We have here no abiding City And brethren saith the Apostle 1. Cor. 7.29 30 31. The time is short it remains that they that have wives be as if they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they reioyced not c. Why this thirst for riches there will be a change why this unwearied seeking after the things of this life as if thy soul were to go into a barn or a bag and there tumble it self for ever Thou fool this night may thy soul be taken away and whose possessions shall then thy careful and only gettings be the glass will be broken and all the wine will fly abroad though thou hast with much eagerness grasped the world in
I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was naked and you clothed me I was sick and in prison and you visited me or an Allegory as Where the body is there the Eagles will be gathered or an Apostrophe as Hear O heavens and hearken O earth or an Exclamation Oh that they were wise then they would understand this Oh that my people would have hearkned io my voyce and that Israel would have walked in my wayes In other passages a conjunction and combination of many figures and ornaments of speech as in that Text of the Prophet Jeremy Is there no balm in Gilead no Physitian there Why then is not the health of my people restored In which one verse you may note four figures First an interrogation for more emphatical conviction Secondly a communication for more familiar instruction Thirdly an Allegory for more lively expression Fourthly an Aposiopesis for safer reprehension and the like we observe in our Saviours exprobration O that thou knewest in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace O Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest those that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children as a hen doth her chickens and thou wouldst not Here is a posie of rhetorical flowers an Exclamation O si câ—…gnovisses a reticentia at least in this thy day saltem in hoc die tuo A repetition Jerusalem Jerusalem an interrogation how oft would I quoties volui And lastly an Icon or lively expression to the eye sicut galina congregat pullos suos As the hen gathereth her chickens under her wings Where are now our Anabaptists and plain pack-staff methodists who esteem of all flowers of Rhetorick in Sermons no better then stinking weeds and of all elegancies of speech then of prophane spells For against their wills at unawares they censure the holy Oracles of God in the first place which excell all other writings as well in eloquence as in Science doubtless as the breath of a man hath more force in a Trunk and the wind a lowder and sweeter sound in the Organ-pipe then in the open ayr so the matter of our speech and the theam of our discourse which is conveyed through figures and forms of Art both sound sweeter to the ear and pierce deeper into the heart there is in them plus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more evidence and more efficacie they make a fuller expression and take a deeper impression secondly where are our prophane criticks who delight in the flesh-pots of Egypt and loath Manna admire carnal eloquence in Poets and heathen Oratours and task the Scriptures for rude simplicity and want of all Art and eloquence It is true the Scripture is written in a style peculiar to it self the elocution in it is such as Lactantius observeth that it befitted no other books as neither doth that we find in other books befit it As the matter in Scripture so the form is divine nec vox heminum sonat which consisteth not in the words of mans wisdome but in the evidence of the Spirit Yet is there admirable eloquence in it and far surpassing which we find in all other writings Wherefore Politian the Grammarian who pretended he durst not touch any lease in the Bible for fear of defiling the purity of his language or slurring the gloss of his style is condemned as well by learned humanists as Divines And Theopompus who went about to cloath Gods word with gay and trim phrases of heathen Orators and Poets was punished by God with loss of his wits Thus have we viewed the form let us now have an eye to the matter our Lords conquest over Death and the Grave There are two things most dreadful to the nature of man Death and the Grave the one severeth the soul the other consumeth the body and resolveth it into dust the valiantest conquerours that with their bloody flags and coulors have struck a terrour unto all Nations yet have been afrighted themselves at the displaying of the pale and wan coulours of Death the most retired Philosophers and Monks who have lived in Cells and Caves under the ground yet have been startled at the sight of their Grave How much then are we indebted to our Christian saith that not only overcometh the world but also conquereth the fear of Death and the grave and dareth both in the words of my Text O death sting me if thou canst O grave conquer me if thou be able O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory In which words the Apostle like a Cryer calleth Death and the Grave into the Court and examineth them upon two Articles first concerning the sting of the one secondly concerning the victory of the other Will it please you then to fix the eye of your observation upon the parts of this Text as they are laid before you in terms of Law 1 A Citation 2 An Examination In the Citation upon 1 the manner of it 2 the parties cited 1 Death 2 Grave In the Examination 1 Upon the first Interrogatory put to Death touching the ledging of his sting 2 Upon the second Interrogatory put to the Grave touching the field of his victory First for the manner of Citing it is by an Apostrophe a figure often accurring in holy Scripture as in the book of Kings O Altar Altar O ye mount ains of Gilboa and of the Psalmes lift up ye gates and be ye lift up you everlasting doors and of the Canticles Arise O North and blow O South and in the Prophets O earth earth earth In imitation of which strings of rhetorick the Auncient Fathers in their funeral Orations many times turned to the dead and used such compellations as these audi Constantine vale Paula hear O Constantine farewel O Paula From which passages our advesaries very weakly if not ridiculously infers the invocation of Saints departed making weapons of plumes of feathers and arguments of ornaments and which is far worse Divinity of rhetorick and articles of faith of tropes of sentences By a like consequence they might conclude that hills and trees and the earth and gates and death and hell have eyes to look upon us or ears to hear us or that we ought to invocate them because the holy Ghost maketh such Apostrophes to them as the Fathers do to the souls of Saints newly departed out of their bodies Secondly for the parties here cited and called in their order first Death and then the Grave Death goes before the Grave because men die before they are buryed and the Grave is properly no Grave till it be possessed by a dead body before it is but a hole or pit O Death In Hebrew Maveth from Muth whence mutus in Latine is derived and mute in English because Death bereaveth us of speech and for a like reason the Grave is termed Domus silentii a house of silence In Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either
quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either from a word signifying to stretch because death stretcheth out the body or from words signifying to tend upwards because by death the soul is carried upwards returning to God that gave it In Latine Mors either quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our fatal portion or as Saint Austin will have it a morsu because the biting of the Serpent caused it The letter or word is but like the bark or rind the sence is the juyce yet here we may suck some sweetness from the bark or rind From the hebrew Muth we learn that our tongues must be bound to their good behaviour concerning the dead we must not make them our ordinary table talk or break jeasts upon them much less vent our spleen or wreak our malice on them we must never speak of them but in a serious and regardful manner de mortuis nil nisi bene From the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mutando 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tenuem in 〈◊〉 aspiratam we must learn to extend our hands to the poor especially near death which stretcheth out our bodies and to send our thoughts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the things that are above whether if we die well the Angels shall immediately carry our souls From the Latin mors so termed quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divido we are to learn to be contented with our lot and bear it patiently considering first that we brought it upon our selves secondly that we gain this singular benefit by it that our misery shall not be immortal O Death to which Death speaketh the Apostle for the Scripture maketh mention of the first and second death and Saint Ambrose also of a third The first Death with him is the death of nature of which it is said they shall seek death and not find it The second of sin of which it is said the soul that sinneth shall die the death The third of grace which sets a period not to nature but to sin The Death here meant is the first death or the Death of nature which the Philosophers diversly define according to their divers opinions of the soul Aristoxemis who held the soul to be an harmony consequently defined Death to be a discord Galen who held the soul to be Crasis or a temper Death to be a distemper Zeno who held the soul to be a fire Death to be an extinction Those Philosophers who held the soul to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as Tully interpreteth it continuam motionem Death to be a cessation The vulgar of the Heathen who held the soul to be a breath Death to be an expiration Lastly the Platonicks who held the soul to be an immortal spirit Death to be a dissolution or separation of the soul from the body and this is two-fold 1 Natural 2 Violent 1 Natural when of it self the natural heat is extinguished or radical moisture consumed for our life in Scripture is compared and in sculpture resembled to a burning lamp the fire which kindleth the flame in this light is natural heat and the oyle which feedeth it is radical moisture Without flame there is no light without oyle to maintaine it no flame in like manner if either natural heat or radical moisture fail life cannot last 2 Violent when the soul is forced untimely out of the body of this Death there are so many shapes that no Painter could ever yet draw them We come but one way into the World but we go a thousand out of it as we see in a Garden-pot the the water is poured in but at one place to wit the narrow mouth but it runneth out at 100 holes Die Some 1 By fire as the Sodomites 2 By water as the old World 3 By the infection of the Ayre as threescore and ten thousand in Davids time 4 By the opening of the earth as Corah Dathan and Abiram Amphiraus and two Cities Buris and Helice Some meet with Death IN 1 Their Coach as Anteochus 2 Their chamber as Domitian 3 Their bed as John the Twelf 4 The Theater as Caligula 5 The Senate us Caesar 6 The Temple as Zenacherib 7 Their Table as Claudius 8 At the Lords-Table as Pope Victor and Henry of Luxenburge Death woundeth and striketh some With 1 A pen-knife as Seneca 2 A stilletto as Henry the Fourth 3 A sword as Paul 4 A Fullers beam as James the Lords Brother 5 A Saw as Isaiah 6 A stone as Pyrrhus 7 A thunderbolt as Anustatius What should I speak of Felones de se such as have thrown away their souls Sardanapalus made a great fire and leaped into it Lucretia stabbed her self Cleopatra put an Aspe to her breast and stung therewith died presently Saul fell upon his own sword Judas hanged himself Peronius cut his own veines Heremius beat out his own brains Licinius choaked himself with a napkin Portia died by swallowing hot burning coals Hannibal sucked poyson out of his ring Demosthenes out of his Pen c. What seemeth so loose as the soul and the body which is plucked out with a hair driven out with a smell fraied out with a phancy verily that seemeth to be but a breath in the nostrils which is taken away with a scent a shadow which is driven away with a scare-crow a dream which is frayed away with a phansie a vapour which is driven away with a puffe a conceit which goes away with a passion a toy that leaves us with a laughter yet grief kild Homer laughter Philemon a hair in his milk Fabius a flie in his throat Adrian a smell of lime in his nostrils Jovian the snuff of a candle a Child in Pliny a kernil of a Raison Anacyeon and a Icesickle one in Martial which causeth the Poet to melt into tears saying O ubi mors non est si jugulatis aquae what cannot make an end of us if a small drop of water congealed can do it In these regards we may turn the affirmative in my Text into a negative and say truly though not in the Apostles sence O Death where is not thy sting for we see it thrust out in our meats in our drinks in our apparel in our breath in the Court in the Country in the City in the Field in the Land in the Sea in the chamber in the Church and in the Church-yard where we meet with the second party to be examined to wit the Grave O Grave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the language of Ashdod it signfied one thing but in the language of Canaan another The Heathen writers understand by it First the first matter out of which all things are drawn and into which they are last of all resolved So Hippocrates taketh the word in
his Aph. Secondly the rule of the Region of darkness or prince of Hell so Hesiod taketh it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hes op dies Thirdly the state and condition of the dead or death it self so Homer taketh it Il. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Language of Canaan it is either taken for the place of torment of the damned And in hell he lift his eyes being in torments and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosome Secondly for the Grave and that most frequently in the Seventy Interpreters as namely I will go down into Hades to my son that is the Grave and let not his hoary head go down into Hades that is the grave in peace and in death there is no remembrance of thee and who will give thee thanks in Hades that is the Grave and what man is he that liveth and shall not see death and shall he deliver his soul from the hands of Hades that is the Grave and Hades that is the Grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee and so it must be here taken For though Hell in regard of the Elect be conquered yet it eternally possesseth the reprobate men and Devils neither shall it be destroyed at the day of judgment or emptied but inlarged rather and replenished with the bodies of all the damned whose fouls are there already But Hades that is the Grave shall lose all her captives and prisoners for the earth and sea shall cast up all their dead We have the parties to be examined let us now hear the Articles upon which they are to be examined First Death is to answer to this Interrogatory where is thy sting these words may be understood two manner of wayes 1 Actively 2 Passively 1 Passively where is thy sting that is the sting thrust out by Death in which sence the sting of Death is no other then the present sence of the desert of death and guilt of conscience and a dreadful expectation of damnation and hell to ensue upon it take away this sting from the death of the body that it is a punishment for sin and an earnest as it were of eternal death and it can hurt no man This sting Christ hath plucked out of the death of all his Saints and of a curse made it a blessing of a torment an ease of a punishment of sin a remedy against all sin of a short and fearful cut to eternal death a fair and safe draw-bridge to eternal life 2 Actively where is thy sting that is the sting which causeth and bringeth Death In this sence the sting of death is sin non quem mors fecit sed quo mors facta est peccato enim morimur non morte peccamus as Saint Austin most accutely and eloquently Sin is said to be the sting of Death as a cup of poison is said to be a potion of death that is a potion bringing death for we die by sin we sin not by death sin is not the off-spring of death but death the off-spring of sin or as the Apostle termeth it the wages of sin And it is just with God to pay the sinner this wages by rendring death to sin and punishing sin with death because sin severeth the soul from God and not only grieveth and despightfully entreateth but without repentance in the end thrusteth the spirit out of doors And what more agreeable to Divine justice then that the soul which willingly severeth her self from God should be unwillingly severed from the body and that the spirit should be expelled of his residence in the flesh which expelleth Gods grace and excludeth his Spirit from a residence in the soul This sting of death is like the Adders two forked or double for it is either original or actual sin original sin is the sting of death in the day thon eatest of the Tree of knowledge thou shalt surely die and as by one man sin came into the World and death by sin and so death passeth upon all men for that all had sinned Secondly actual sin is the sting of death the soul that sinneth it shall die the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father nor the father the iniquity of the son the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him Howbeit if we speak properly original sin as it is a proness to all sin so it maketh us rather obnoxious to death then dead men but actual sin without repentance slayes out-right Adam did not die the day he eat the fruit but that day became mortalis or morti obnoxius guilty of death or liable to it original sin alone maketh us mortes but actual mortuos dead men The Devil like to a Hornet sometimes pricks us onely but leaveth not his sting in us sometime he leaveth his sting in us and that 's far the more dangerous He is pricked only with this sting who sinneth suddenly and presently repenteth but he who the Devil bringeth to a habit or custome in sin in him he leaveth his sting Now we know what the sting is let us enquire where it is The answer is if we speak of the reprobate men or Devils it remaineth in their consciences if we speak of the Elect it is plucked out of their souls and it was put in our Saviours body and there deaded and lost for he that knew no sin was made sin for us to wit by imputing our sin to him and inflicting the punishment thereof upon him That we might be made the righteousness of God in him for the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes were we healed who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree Athanasius representeth the manner of it by the similitude of a Wasp losing her sting in a Rock Vespa acculeo fodiens petram c. as an angry Wasp thrusteth her sting into a rock cannot pierce or enter far into it but either breaketh her sting or loseth it all so Death assaulting the Lord of life and striving with all her might to sting him hurt not him but disarmed her self of her sting for ever The first interrogatory is answered we know where Deaths sting is let us now consider of the second interrogatory concerning the victory of the Grave O grave where is thy victory If the Grave as she openeth her mouth wide so she could speak she would answer My victories are to be seen in Macpelah Golgotha in all the gulphs of the Sea and Caves and pits of the Earth where the dead have been bestowed since the beginning of the world My victory is in the fire in the water in the earth in all Churnels and Caemitaties or dormitories in the bellies of fish in the maws of beasts in holy shrines Tombs and sepulchers wheresoever corpses have been put and are yet reserved Of all that ever Death arrested and they by order of divine Justice have been
committed to my custody never any but one escaped whom the heaven of heavens could not contain much less any earthly prison he might truly say and none but he O grave where is thy victory all save him I keep in safe custody that were ever sent to me Yet may all that die in Jesus and expect a glorious Resurrection by him even now by faith insult over the Grave for Faith calls those things that are not as if they were it looketh backward as far as the Creation which produced all things at the first of nothing and as far forward to the resurrection which shall restore all things from nothing or that which is as much as nothing Faith with an eye annointed with the eye-salve of the spirit seeth death swallowed up into victory and the earth and sea casting up all their dead and upon this evidence of things not seen triumpheth over Death and Hell saying O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victory We have spoken hitherto of Death and the Grave let us now hear what they have to say to us Death saith fear not me the Grave Weep not immorderately for the dead Death bids us die to sin the Grave Bury all thy injuries and wrongs in the pit of oblivion both say to us slie sin and neither of us can hurt you both say to us Give thanks to him who hath given you victory over us both the sting of death pricks you not but if you die in the bosome of Christ rather delights and rickles you Death is no more Death but a sleep the Grave is no more a grave but a bed Death is but the putting off of our old rags the Grave is the Vestry and the Resurrection the new dressing and richly embroydering them Enough hath been said to convince us that Death which before was like a Serpent armed with a deadly sting is now but like a silly flie that buzzeth about us but cannot sting Yet as long as there is sin in us we cannot but in some degree fear Death and as long as natural affection remains in us take on for them that are taken away Neither doth Christian religion pluck out these affections by the root but only prune them All that my exhortation driveth unto is but to moderate passion by reason fear by hope grief by faith and nature by grace Let love express it self yet so that in affection to the dead we hurt not the living Let the natural springs of tears swell but not too much overflow their banks let not our eyes be all upon our loss on earth but our brothers gain also in heaven and let the one counter-ballance at least the other The parish hath lost a great stay his company in London a special ornament his Wife a careful Husband her Children a most tender Father the poor a good friend for besides that which his right hand gave in his life-time which his left hand knew not of by his Will he bequeathed certain sums of money for a stock to those Parishes wherein he formerly lived and to the poor of this twenty pounds to be distributed at his Funeral Many shall find loss of him but he hath gained God and is found of him no doubt in peace for there were many tokens of a true child of God very conspicuous in his life and death He loved the habitation of Gods house and the place where his honour dwelleth He was just in his dealings and sought peace all his life and ensued it he forgot nothing so easily as wrongs and though he enjoyed the blessings of this world in abundant measure yet he joyed not in them his heart was where his chief treasure lay in heaven he foretold his own death and the manner thereof that it should be sudden and sudden it was yet not unexpected nor unprepared for for three dayes before he set his house in order and desired to converse with Divines and all his discourses was of the kingdome of God and the powers of the life to come When the pangs of death came upon him he prayed most earnestly and desired if it so stood with Gods good pleasure to be eased yet uttered no speech of impatiency but being asked how he did answered that he was in Gods hands to whom he committed his soul as his faithful Creatour and so died as quietly as he lived wherefore sith he lived in Gods fear and died in his favour and shall rise again in his power though the loss of him be a great cut unto us as the loss of their children were to Pericles and Horatius Pulvillus yet as the one hearing of their death as he was at a solemn sacrifice kept on his Crown the other as he was at a dedication held still the pillar of the temple in his hand till the whole Ceremony was performed So let us continue our devotion notwithstanding this Parenthesis of sorrow and make an end of our evening sacrifice concluding with the words of the Apostle immediately following my Text Thanks be unto God who hath given unto our brother and will give unto us all victory over Death and the Grave yea and Hell to through Jesus Christ c. FATO FATVM OR THE KING OF FEARES FRIGHTED AND VANQUISHED SERMON XLIV HOSEA 13.14 O Death I will be thy plagues THe Rose is fenced with pricks and the sweetest Flowers of Paradice as this in my Text are beset with thorns or difficulties which after I have plucked away the Holy Spirit assisting me I will open the leaves and blow the flowers in the Explication of this Scripture and in the Application thereof smell to them and draw from thence a savour of life unto life The Thorn groweth upon the diversity of Translations for Rabbi Shelamo larchi reads the words Ego ero verba tua ô mors I will be thy words O Death Aben Ezra ero causatuoe mortis I will be the cause of thy death Saint Jerome Ero mors tua ô mors O Death I will be thy death O Hell I will bite thee and he conceiveth that when our Saviour descended into Hell and his flesh in the Grave saw no corruption he spake these words to Death and Hell O death I will be thy death for therefore I dyed that thou mightest be slain by my death O hell I will bite and devour thee which devourest all things in thy chops The Septuagint render the Hebrew ubi causa tua ô mors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where is thy plea or thy indictment what hast thou now to say against the chosen of god Saint Paul ubi stimulus tuus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O death where is thy sting that is faith Saint Austin where is sin wherewith we are stung and poysoned Is not this Ghius ad Choum do not these Translations as well agree as harp and harrow neither can it be answered to salve the repugnancy and solve the difficulty that
singular comfort if we take them as a commination and they afford us much or more if we take them as Saint Paul and S. Chrysostome do by an insultation As a man offering sacrifice for victory and full of mirth and jollity he leaps and tramples upon Death lying as it were at his mercy and sings an Io Poean a triumphant song wherewith Gerardus a great friend of Saint Bernards breathed out his last gasp of whom he thus writeth In the dead time of the night my brother Gerard strangely revived at midnight the day began to break I sent for to see this great miracle found a man in the very Jaws of death insulting upon death and exulting with joy saying O death where is thy sting Death is not now a sting but a song for now the faithful man dyeth singing and singeth dying And so having plucked away the prickles and opened the leaves by the Explication of the letter I come now to smell to them and draw from thence the savour of life unto life Ero pestes tuae ô mors As Saint Jerome writeth of Tertullian his Polemmical Treatises against hereticks Quot verba tot fulmina Every word is a thunderbolt so I may truly say of this verse quot verba tot fulmina So many words so many thunder-bolts striking Death dead by the light whereof we may discern three parts 1. The menaced or party threatned Death 2. The menacer or party threatning I. 3. The judgment menaced plagues 1. The menaced impotent mors Death 2. The menacer Omnipotent Ego I. 4. The judgment most dreadful pestes plagues 1. First of the party menaced Death Christ threatneth destruction to none but to his or his Churches enemies But here he threatneth Death Death therefore must needs be an enemy and so the Apostle termeth it the last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death For albeit Death by accident is an advantage as oftentimes an enemie doth a man a good turn which occasioned that excellent Treatise of Plutarch wherein he sheweth us how to make an Antidote of poyson and a good use of other mens malice yet is it in it self an enemy alwayes to Nature and to grace also it sets upon the elect and the reprobate the believer and the Infidel the penitent and the obstinate but with this difference it flyes at the one with a deadly sting but at the other without a sting the one it wounds to death the other it terrifieth and paineth but cannot hurt But there being divers kinds of death which of them is here meant Death is a privation and privations cannot be defined but by their habits that is such positive qualities as they bereave us of for instance sickness cannot be perfectly defined but by health which it impaireth nor blindness but by sight which it destroyeth nor darkness but by light which it excludeth nor death but by life which it depriveth us of Now if there be a four-sold life spoken of in Scripture viz. 1. Of nature 2. Of sin 3. Of grace 4. Of glory There must needs be a four-fold death answerable thereunto 1. The death of Nature is the privition of the life of nature by parting soul and body 2. The death of sin is the privation of the life of sin by mortifying grace 3. The death of Grace is the privation of the life of grace by reigning sin 4. The death of Glory is the privation of the life of Glory by a total and final exclusion from the glorious presence of God and the kingdome of heaven and a casting into the lake of fire and brimstone prepared for the devil and his angels Of Death in the first sense David demandeth who is he that liveth and shall not see death and shall he deliver his soul from the hand of hell of Death in the second sence Saint Paul enquireth how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Of Death in the third sense Saint Paul must be meant where he rebuketh wanton Widdows Shee that liveth in pleasure is dead while shee liveth Of Death in the fourth sense Saint John is to be understood blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection for on such the second death hath no power Saint Austin joyneth all these significations and maketh one sentence of divers senses he is dead to death that is Death cannot kill burt or affright him who is dead to sin And another of the Ancients makes a sweet cord of them like so many strings struck at once he that dyeth before he dies shall never die he that dyeth to sin before he dyeth to nature shall never die to God neither in this world by final deprivation of grace neither in the world to come of glory Of these four significations of Death the first and last sort with this Text for that the first is to be meant it is evident by the consequence here O grave I will be thy destruction And by the antecedents in Saint Paul When this corruptible shall put on incorruption c And that the second is included may be gathered both from the words of Saint John And Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire and of our Saviour I was dead and I am alive and have the keyes of Hell and of Death And so I fall upon my second Observation viz. the person menacing J the second person in Trinity our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ The word here used Ehi is the same with that we read Exod. 3. Ehi Ashur Ehi I am that I am and if the observation of the Ancients be current that wheresoever God speaketh unto man in the old Testament in the shape of man of Angel we are to understand Christ for that all those apparitions were but a kind of preludia of his incarnation then the Person here threatning can be no other then he besides the word Egilam in the former part of this vers being derived from Gaal signifying propinquus fuit or redemit jure propinquitatis pointeth to our Saviour who by assuming our nature became our Alie by blood and performed this office of a kins-man by redeeming the inheritance which we had lost But we have stronger arguments then Grammatical observations that he who here promised life to the dead and threatneth plagues to Death was the Son of God the Lord of quick and dead for the same who promiseth to redeem from the Grave threatneth to plague Death but we all know that Redeemer is the peculiar stile of the Son as Creator is of the Father and Sanctifier of the Holy Ghost tu redemisti nos thou hast redeemed us to GOD by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and Nation To the redemption of a slave that is not able to ransome himself three at least concur the Scrivener who writeth the Conditions and sealed the Bonds the party who soliciteth the business and mediateth for the captive and layeth down
are required at our hands we may be sure that we have spiritual life in us we may build upon it that Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith and that we live in him by grace 3. Our benefit by them is manifold in this life and the life to come In this life peace of conscience their soul shall dwell at ease 2. Good success in all we undertake what soever we do it shall prosper 3. The service of the creatures for all things work for the best to them that love God Lastly a comfortable pass out of this world we are sure our end shall be peace In the life to come the benefits are such as never eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor ever entred into the heart of man God grant therefore our heart may enter into them quia Aristoteles non capit Eurispum Eurispus capiat Arist otalum because we cannot comprehend the joyes of heaven let them comprehend us You expect something to be spoken of our dear Sister deceased and much might be said and should by me in her praise but that one of her chiefest commendations was that she could not endure praise Laudes quia merebatur contempsit quia contempsit mag is merebatur becanse she deserved praise she desp ised it and because she despised it she the more deserved it Silent modesty in her was her crown in her life and modest silence of her was the charge at her death Her life was well known to most of this place and her death was every way answerable to her life all that visited her in her sickness might behold with sorrow a pittiful anatomy of frail mortality and yet with joy a perfect pattern of Christian patience and a heavenly conversation and though she were full of divine conceptions and she had a spring by her of the waters of life in the devotion of her dearest helper especially in the best things yet when I came to her she desired she might be partaker of some of my meditations they were her own words and when I prayed with her and for her she joyned not so much with me with her tongue as her affections and answered more in sighs and tears then in words often she complained of her tuff heart that would not yeeld to her dissolution and long long she thought it till she should come to appear before the God of Gods in Sion Her last words were sweet Father help me and she had her request for presently he helped her both by the zealous and most feeling prayers of her Husband and by the holy spirit assisting her in her own prayers with sighs and groans that cannot be expressed and immediately her sweet Father released her of her pangs and received her to himself on his own day On the Lords day morning before the morning watch I say before the morning watch she entered into her rest and began to keep her everlasting Sabbath in heaven where she reapeth what she sowed and seeth what shebelieved and enjoyeth what she hoped for and is now entred into those joyes which never entred fully into the heart of any living on earth nor shall into ours till we with her be made perfect and all of us come to Mount Sion and the heavenly Jerusalem and innumerable company of Angels and to the Congregation of the first-born whose names are written in heaven and to the spirits of just men and women made perfect Whither the God of peace bring us in our appointed time who brought again from the dead the great shepheard through the blood of the everlasting Covenant To whom with the holy Spirit c. FAITHS ECCHO OR THE SOULES AMEN SERMON XLVI REVEL 22.20 Amen Even so come Lord Jesus THese words they afford to us a comfortable and sweet argument to be conversant in From the sixt verse of this Chapter is set down to us the confirmation of the whole Prophesie and Book of the Revelation partly by the affirmation of God as likewise of Jesus Christ and of John himself that heard and saw all these things and likewise of the Church of God in verse 17. It is likewise confirmed by the promise of Blessing and Happiness pronounced upon them that shall do all these things and shall faithfully expect the accomplishment of them This Verse a part of which I have read to you is the Repetition in few words of all that matter that goeth before from verse 6. to it and hath in it First an attestation of our Lord and Saviour Christ in the former part of the Verse Behold I come quickly Secondly an acclamation of the Church in the latter part these words I have read to ye Amen even so come Lord Jesus In the attestation of Christ he promiseth he will come to his Church he will come shortly both for the accomplishment of all his promises and likewise for their safety and deliverance from all enemies and all miseries and molestations whatsoever To this the Church makes an acclamation and saith Amen even so come Lord Jesus In this acclamation of the Church to which we must now come we are to consider First the person of the Speaker whose words they be Secondly what is the matter or substance contained in them Ye shall see whose words they be if ye look back but to the 17. verse of this Chapter there ye shall find that first it is said the Spirit saith Come By the Spirit is not meant the third Person in Trinity the holy Ghost because he is not subject to these passions to these desires but he resteth himself in the execution and present disposing and dispensing of things according to his own will and pleasure Neither by Spirit here is meant any wicked spirit or Angel for they do with fear and horrour expect the same coming of our Lord and Saviour Christ because his coming shall be the accomplishment of their misery and eternal infelicity But by Spirit here is meant the spirit in all the Elect and holy people of God in whomsoever the Spirit of God is that Spirit doth say come and doth wish the accomplishment of all these most gracious promises For this is not the desire of the flesh or of nature but an earnest and vehement desire of the Spirit of God in the Elect that saith come Again secondly the same verse telleth us that the Bride saith come That is the Church of God in general the Catholick Church the whole Church of God being now hand-fasted to Christ and entred into a spiritual contract with him She desireth the consumation of the Marriage the solemniation of the Marriage which is already begun in the contract of it and not only every particular member of the Church in whom the Spirit of God is saith come but the Church of God in general the Bride saith come the whole Church saith come wishing and desiring the accomplishment of the Marriage which is already begun In the third place the same verse
angry with the World they feel not the wrath of God therefore they conclude he is no God and as long as God holds off from punishing they hold off from praying His Judgments prove him a God when his Mercies cannot perswade the world so much Every man hastens to seek the Lord when he is angry his Justice terrifies us his Mercy hardens us his Goodness makes us to rebel his Anger teacheth us to pray we forget God when he is gracious and fly amain to him when he threatens Let us often think of the wrath of God and let the thought of it so far work upon us as to keep us in a constant awe and fear of God and let this fear drive us to God by prayer that fearing as we ought we may pray as we are commanded and praying we may prevent the wrath of God If our present sorrows do not move us God will send greater and when our sorrows are grown too great for us we shall have little heart or comfort to pray Let our fears then quicken our prayers and let our prayers be such as are able to avercome our fears so both wayes shall we be happy in that our fears have taught us to pray and our prayers have made us to fear no more Now is the time for us to pray before grief wax too strong for us for the time may come when we shall not be able to pray by reason of the sense and feeling of the wrath of God upon us Now our prayers in the time of health may be as Incense before the Lord as a sweet odour in the nostrils of God but if we neglect to offer up this Incense we must look for the Incense of Vengeance to fall down upon us Apoc. 8.5 If God take the Cenfer in his hand and fill it with the fire of his wrath then follows nothing but thundrings lightnings and terrible commotions in the Soul Vespasian Gonzaga gave for his Symbol three Flashes of Lightning the first did touch the second did burn the third did rend and tear in pieces The first affliction haply may lightly touch and affect us the second may scare us and stir up the fire of devotion in us but the third will prove so terrible as that it will tear asunder all our prayers so terrifie our spirits as that we shall not be able to pour out our complaints before the Lord or acquaint him w th our troubles The anger of God at the first may be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a little Cloud as big as a Mans hand but if we neglect it it may break out upon us with that fierceness violence as that it may interrupt our prayers and hinder the ascent of them to the Throne of Grace Therefore before the wrath of God break forth upon us let us seriously think of it and prevent it by our prayers Let a timely fear incite our prayers and quicken our devotion This holy fear will kindle an holy devotion in our hearts and as a watchful keeper of the heart shall suffer no thoughts to break forth but such as shall amount alost to Heaven As cold water makes the fire more fierce and vehement so does this fear make our prayers more earnest and servent And this is our first Observation The fear of Gods wrath drives us to our prayers and makes us the more importunate with God for mercy The second Conclusion now follows which ariseth from the Context after the prophet had given us a description of the wrath of God he pitcheth his next thoughts upon Death And this brings in our next Observation The wrath of God thought upon makes us to think of Death He that ruminates upon the wrath of God which he hath incurr'd by sin must needs think of Death the sad effect of sin When I remember how far I have provoked the anger of a just God by Sin I cannot choose but think of Death This was Jobs case who while he was under the wrath of God and felt not the comfort of the pardon of his Sins he did imagine there was no other way but death with him Job 7.21 Why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquities for now shall I sleep in the dust and thou shalt seek me in the morning but I shall not be As if he had said Deliver me O Lord from thy wrath and grant me the pardon of my sins otherwise I am but as a dead man before thee Solomon speaks of the wrath of a King Pro. 16.14 that it is as messengers of death Surely then the wrath of God may very well be a Messenger sent from God to put us in mind of Death If the Wrath of man be so fierce what is the wrath of God if the frown of a King strike a man dead what power is there in the looks of an angry God to bring us to nothing If the smoke of mans anger can do this what cannot the flame of Gods wrath do even consume us to very ashes Does the fear of Gods Wrath put us in mind of Death 1. This discovers our own guilt what a weight of sin lies upon our Souls otherwise what reason had we to tremble at the denunciation of Gods wrath against us if we were not conscious to our selves of a world of wickedness which harbours in our breasts Were we not privy to a masse of Corruption lurking within us the fear of death would never affright us A strong wind is able to shake and bend the strongest tree and the wrath of God will make the most godly man alive to quake and tremble Imagine the easiest death that is it cannot be but that Nature will have some struglings with it It is impossible to die such a death as shall have no pangs to attend upon it Thus it is even in the death of the greatest Saints there must needs be some strivings and wrestlings in the Conscience with the wrath of God The heart of no Christian is so far quieted and appeased at the hour of death as that all fear is banished out of it and a man hath not the least remembrance of sin and of the wrath of God due to sin lodging in his breast This holy fear is in the best of Gods children and proves as an excellent preparative for death He is best fitted for Death that meditates of tenof the wrath of God due to sin We see we have many occasions presented to us to put us in mind of Death we are never without some Watchword or other to beat the remembrance of Death into our thoughts David had Death ever in his eye Psal 119.109 My soul is continually in my hand like a Souldier he carried his life in his hand and was prepared for the next encounter and made ready for it In all the Judgments of God Death like the ashes which Moses sprinkled is scattered and cast over all our heads Death like
my dayes what it is that I may know how frail I am As if he had said Lord Give me grace to consider how little a time thou hast allotted me here that I may learn to die well As the Sea-man numbers the degrees of the Sun that he may the better provide himself to pass the AEquinoctial Line So ought we to number our dayes that we may the better prepare our selves to pass the last Line of Death God takes account of our very Hairs they are all numbred by God If God number our hairs for the discovery of his Providence towards us then the argument holds a pari that we should remember to number our dayes for the promotion of his glory and the furthering of our own eternal welfare Especially as many of us as are well stricken in yearts it concerns us most to account with our selves what dayes we have yet to run out A Traveller that is somewhat near the end of his journey is the most curious and exact in counting the miles which he is yet to go Even so the older we are the more careful ought we to be of the dayes that are yet behind and watchful of our time which yet remains to be spent in this Tabernacle of the flesh Are our dayes to come to be numbred Surely then the last day is to be thought upon even the last day of life which we shall see in this world We spend all the rest of our dayes the better when this last day is remembred by us David had this day ever in his thoughts to provide for it and he desired only to live to fit himself for that day Psal 39.13 O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more All dayes wait on this last Day and the spending of all the dayes of our lives tends only to the wise ordering of this last day All our dayes are well spent if we have made provision for this day Thou hast lived well all thy dayes if thy last day of life prove comfortable unto thee Let us live so as that we may have alwayes this day in our eye and the longer we live let us strive the more to fit and dispose our selves for death by the serious consideration and meditation of this last Day As a stone moves the faster to its Centre so let us the nearer we are to Death make the most hast to bid it welcome Are we commanded to have an eye to the time that is yet to come Why then this points out unto us the preciousness of our time what an high esteem and value we are to set upon the dayes that are to come and seeing we have made so light of the time that is past we must count the time that remains to be the more precious There is not an hour in the day not a minute of that hour but ought to be highly prized and valued by us Epictet us the Philosopher was of that esteem and account with all men as that a Candle which he had made of Earth only was sold for 3000 drachms Whatsoever value or price men set upon other thngs sure I am there is nothing we ought to prize at an higher rate than our time As we use to prize our Gold by grains so ought we to value our time by minutes every minute of our time ought to be as precious in our account as every grain of Gold We will not lose the least drachm of Gold neither ought we to ravel out the least scantling of time Nay the very drops of our blood ought not to be more precious unto us than the least scruples and particles of our time Every minute of our time well improv'd is an helping us forward to Eternity Therefore we ought to prize every moment of our time because Eternity bangs upon it The second Request which Moses makes to God is this That he would vouchsafe to teach him this one lesson to number his dayes An hard lesson indeed as hard as Pambo's was who was fifteen years a learning that one verse of David of guiding his Tongue Psal 39.1 I said I will take heed to my wayes that I sin not with my tongue But all the dayes of our lives will not be sufficient to learn this one lesson of numbring our dayes aright therefore we must fly to God to teach us to know our time It is from God that we learn how to compute our time the wise ordering and managing of our time is taught us by God David desired to know this of God Psal 119.84 How many are the dayes of thy servant 1. It is a piece of Art which none can teach us but God A man may know how to number his dayes but not how to guide his dayes A Fool knows not how to make use of a Clock nor an ignorant Christian how to spend his time aright unless God teach him Every man can tell how to count an Army and reckon what men there are in it but few know how to guide it and to rank the Souldery in right File and Order So it is easie for us to number our dayes to count how old we are how many years are gone over our heads but to order our dayes aright to know how to improve them to Gods glory and our own benefit this is beyond our Art and Skill and God only is able to instruct us and lead us in the right way wherein we ought to walk 2. It is from God that we are taught how to fit our selves for death We are unwilling to hear of the approach of Death and it is God that prepares us for the stroke of Death and makes us willing to die It is very unwelcome news to most of us to hear that we must die and be brought before God to give an account of our wayes and actions When the Apostle Paul reasoned with Felix of Death and Judgment he would fain have put off that unpleasing discourse till some other time Act. 24.25 Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee We count no discourse so unseasonable and distastful to us as for our Minister to put us in mind of Death there is time enough we think to consider of our latter end many years hence It is a lesson soon learnt and when we are fit for nothing else then it is soon enough to think of Death As slight as others make of this duty let us pray to God to teach us the right knowledge of our time that we may order our steps aright and so lead our lives as that we may provide for death and be ready to give up our account to God when he is pleased to summon us from hence It was a good prayer of David Psal 13.3 Lighten mine eyes lest I sleep the sleep of Death We have need of Gods direction and guidance in all our wayes that he would teach us
this world Heathens themselves were wont to say that the chiefest wisdome and the main study of Philosophy was only this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even a careful and serious thought of death The memory of a Christian is never better employed then when the thought of death is presented before it This is our wisdome to consider and study how to die well He is a wise man whose memory serves him to think of death The soundness of the stomack is the strengthening of all the rest of the parts of the body so the vigour and strength of the memory in thought of death is the chief support of the soul and if the remembrance of death decay not in us there is no want of wisdome in the soul Is it the meditation of death that makes us wise Judge ye then how many fools there are in the world that never entertain the least thought of death into their hearts that live and run on in sin and never think of the hour of death It is the folly which the Prophet chargeth Ierusalem with that she did not consider her latter end Lam. 1.8 She remembreth not her last end therefore she came down wonderfully In the height of her pride she never thought of death It is strange to see that we should neither think of our own departure nor heed the death of others who are constant Monitors and Remembrancers to us of our own frailty If the Sun chance to be eclips'd we stand amazed at the sight of that darkness which over-spreads the face of that glorious body but we never regard the declining and eclipse of man who is the more noble and glorious creature If the Sun be darkned we wonder at it if man die we never heed it Why then let me stir up your thoughts to the meditation of death that ye may be so wise as to have ever in mind the approach of death 1. Let us think of others that are daily going to their long homes Do we not see some continually coming into the world and others making as much speed out of the world some entring upon the stage others going off As it is in the constant revolution of the heavens some Stars rise and others set and fall so it is with the Sons of men some live others die some daily come forth out of their Mothers wombs others daily return to the womb of their common mother even the earth from whence they were taken 2. Let us look upon our selves and consider how neer death is approaching to us and what hast it makes towards us We know not how soon death may surprise us therefore let us be so wise as to provide for his coming Death for all that we know is now digging of our graves even now he thinks of us when we little think of him let us then be as watchful for death as he is for us let us think of sickness in the time of health and in the day of prosperity remember the hour of death Even in the midst and height of all the glory and happiness of this world let us bring into our remembrance the time of our change and dissolution It is observeable that at the very time of Christs glorions transfiguration the conference which past between Christ and Moses and Elias was concerning the death of Christ Luk. 9.31 They speak of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem to shew unto us that when we are in the height of our glory and honour our thoughts should be busied with the remembrance of our death and departure out of this world I do not like the proverb which is too frequent in your mouths I thought of such a thing no more then of my dying day Let us remember the old Canon in another sense Finis primus sit in intentione Let our end be first in our thoughts and intention let the time of our death be the first thing we think of either morning or evening that so the constant thought of death may take away the terrour of death and being so well acquainted with death before hand we may never he terrified with the approach of it but being guarded with faith and a good Conscience we may boldly look death in the face and triumph in the conquest of the Conquerour through Christ our Saviour by whom we obtain victory over death and the fruit and benefit of our conquest even the Salvation of our souls in Jesus Christ I have done with the text now I fall upon the more careful part of this duty We Ministers at such solemn times as these have an hard Province put upon us in these occasions commonly the wind stands in our faces and we have a crabbed Dilemma cast in our way even that of Agathon in Athenaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If we seek the truth we shall not please if we please we shall hardly speak the truth We walk between two fires the displeasure of God and the frown of man We value not the latter so we may not run the hazard of the former Our chief care is in respect of God that while we seek to give to breathlesse man a little breath of praise we do not dare to dishonour the living God And if this we aim at we need not be afraid to give some satisfaction to the world and right the honour of the dead provide that while we seek to keep up the Fame of another we do not lay to pawn our own reputations or which is far worse make shipwrack of a good conscience On the one hand charity binds me to speak all the good I can of my Neighbour on the other hand conscience in joyns me to utter nothing but the truth Therefore while charity guides me and conscience awes me I hope I may promise to my self a favourable construction from you of all that I now speak I shall not flie out into any empty schemes of Rhetorick concerning the birth of this Worthy Knight Sir William Armyne well known and belov'd in these parts ye all know his descent and extraction he was cut out of no mean quarry Here his bones now rest where he once liv'd with honour and many of his Ancestors before him Do you think I lay any great weight upon all this It is not Birth but Breeding not Breeding but Geace that ennobles a Family Blood without Manners is base Blood Manners without Grace like a glorious Shadow without the Substance I remember what a good man mean of birth answered one that was Noble in Blood and base in Manners 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As my Birth and Parentage is a shame to me so art thou a shame to thy Birth Grace in the heart not Gold in the Purse is the best Inheritance of a Christian There are some stains in the best in the Purse is the best Inheritance of a Christian There are some stains in the best Coats there are spots in
Saints have right to eternal life by inheritance Vse 1. For Confutation Vse 2. For Consolation Vse 3. For Direction 1. 2. The fourth branch of the Text. All of all sorts have a right to eternal life Acts 10 34 Vse 1. For Admonition Vse 2. For Consolation general Particular 1 Tim 2.17 1 Tim. 2 21.12 Isa 49.23 Doctr. 1. The servants of God have a comfortable and willing expectation of death Proved Phil. 1.13 2 Cor. 5.8 c. The ground of the desire of death in the Saints Eccles 7.1 Rom. 7.24 Psal 120.5 Thilip 1 23. Exod. 34.23 Object 1. Rom. 6 23. 1 Cor. 15.26 Respons Death considerable two wayes Object 2. Psal 6.4 5. Isa 38.3 Math. 26.39 Respons Why some of the Saints in the Scripture have prayed against death Psal 23.4 Phil 1.23.24 1 Kings 8 25. Heb. 7.5 Object 3. Respons Two things consider able in a Christian Mar. 26.41 2 Cor. 5.2 Vse For Trial. Doct 2. A special care in the servants of God to be alwayes ready for death 2 Tim 4.6 1 Cor. 15.31 Job 14.14 Psal 90.12 Heb. 13.14 Luk. 12.36 Reas 1. Psal 89.48 1 Pet. 4.19 Reas 2. 2 Sam. 4.5.6 Job 1 19. Reas 3. Note Vse Deut 32.29 Esa 28.15 Job 28.14 How to be prepared for death 1 Tim. 5.6 Jo. 17.13 Doct. 3. Ignorant men can neither take comfort in nor be truly prepared for death Math 22.29 Psal 119 24 Psal 119 9 93 Vse Doct. 4. Death freeth Gods servants from all misery Phil. 1.23 2 Tim. 4.6 2 Pet. 2.14 2 Pet. 2.15 Rev. 14.13 Rev. 6.9 Luke 16.22 Vse 1. Consutation of Purgatory Vse 2. For consolation of the Saints Gen. 41.40 Rev. 21.4 Esth 8 17 1 Joh 3.2 1 Cor. 13.12 Quest Answ How to know whether the day of death be a discharge from all former and following miserles Doct. 5. The Saints at their going hence have a comfortable and peaceable debarture Psal 37.37 Prov 14.32 Gen. 49.33 Gen. 13.25.2 King 22.20 Reas 1. Rom. 8 9. Chap 16. Reas 2. 2 Tim 4.7 8. Isa 38 3. Ephs 22 10. Object 1. 1 Respons Joh. 7.24 The unqulet departure of many of the Saints cleared with the grounds thereof Eccless 9.2 Rev. 12.12 Mark 9.26 2 Cor. 4 6. Esa 54.8 John 13.1 Object 2. Respons The seeming-quiet departure of the wicked with the grounds thereof Psal 73.4 1 Sam. 25.37 Luk. 11.11 Excles 8.12 Esay 57.11 Vse Confutation of Purgatâ—…y Vse 2. Exhortation Gen. 3.19 Prov. 11.7 Job 27.8 2 Tim 4.7.8 Joh. 17.4 5. Psal 119.1.1 Sam. 2.20 Luk. 13.3.2 Thes 5.24 2 King 9.22 Heb. 10.24 Dan. 4.27 Parts of the Text. Doct. Jesus Christ the Fountain and Author of all life 1 Of the body Resurrection of the body what 1 Cor. 15.20 2 Of spiritual life 3 Why both comprehended under one term 1 In regard of the Analogie 2. 2 In regard of the connection Vse 1. Comfort 2 Against the death of the soul Object Answ Object Answ 2 Against the death of the body Quest Answ Difference in the Resurrection of the godly and wicked 1 In the cause 2 In the end Vse 2. Trial. Signs of the first Resurrection 1 Forsaking sin 2 Newness of life 3 Progress in both Vse 3. Exhortation direction Quest Answ All men must die 1 To manifest Gods truth 2 His power 3 Our benefit by Chrst 4 To conform us to Christ Rachel was 〈◊〉 Fruitful 3 Obedient 4 Her death Coherence Observat 1. Observat 2. Observat 3. Observat 4. Doctr. 5. There is a change in all that are in Christ as from death to life 1 The analogy between spiritual and natucal life and death 1 In general 1 A General change 2 The orderlyness of it 2 The Analogie in particular Death threefold 1 Judicial 2 Civil 3 Natural 1 Imperfect Simile 2 Newness of life expressed by life in three respects 1 The principle of life 2 The actions of life 3 The properties of life Appetite 2 Tropagation The order Observat Men first die to sin and then live to God Reason 1. From our union with Christ 2 From the cotâ—…ariety of them Vse 1. Conviction Vse 2. Exhortation No loss in dying to sin Not life 2 Not peace 3 Not esteem 4 Not wealth 5 Not pleasures Sin a needless thing 2 The gain by death to sin 1. Conclusion The faithful are hopeful Rom. 5 Definition of Hope 1 Pets 1 9. Rom 8 24 Vse 1 Trial of Hope Rom 4 18 Isa 21 16 Hab 2 3 Isa 8 17 2 Pet 3 9 Psal 73 9 Psal 102 13. 2 Pet 3 3. Iob 2 9. Mal 3 14 2 Cor 6 8 2 Sam 6 22 Vse 2. Hindrances of hope 1 Iohn 4.18 Rev 21 8. Psal 118 6. Psal 91 5. Psal 40 1. Luke 21 19.1 Cor 15 16 Iob 17 13 Heb 11 27 Heb 11 35 Phil 1 23 2. Conclusion Christ the object of Hope Phil 1 21. Psal 38 15 Psal 71 5 Gen. 49.18 Iob. 13.15 Vse 1. Trov 23.5 Psal 146.3 Psal 62.3 Vse 2. Phil 3.8 Eccles 1. Isa 55.4 2 Cor. 1 20. Iohn 14 6 Iob 6 68 3. Conclusion This life-time is our hope-time Vse 1. Isa 55 6 1 Iohn 3 2 Vse 2. 2 Pet 1 8. 1 Thes 1 3 Heb 6 19 Psal 84 7 2 Per 3 18 1 Cor 7 20 Col 4 17 4. Conclusion Hope is no for the things of this life 2 Cor. 5.1 Isa 57.13 Vse 1. Vse 2. 5. Conclusion Our life is a misery Iob 14.1 1 Cor 7 29. Iam 4.14 Vse 1 Iohn 2 15. John 11 25. Psal 8 4. Vse 2. 6 Conclusion The hopeful are not miserable Vse 1. Vse 2. I am 5.11 Revle 14.13 Exod 33 20. Explication Rom. 12.2 I am 2.15 16. Heb 13 31 Rom 12 15. Mat 5. 2 Thes 3 10 1 Peâ—… 1 Division Doctr. 1. It is the duty of Christians to take the best opportunities of their life to do good A twofold opportunlty to be taken of doing good 1 The time of life Luke 16 9 Mat. 25.10 Objection Answ Objection Answ 2 Of outward estates Trov 23.5 Eccles 11 8. 1 Tim 6 17. Iob 13 15 16 17 18. Vse 1. Prov 3 28 Psal 78. Vse 2. Gen. 18.19 2 Sam 9.1 Doctr. 2. It is the duty of Gods servants to relieve others Deut 15.7 Eccles 11.4 Isa 58.7 2 Cor. 8 9. Heb 13 16. Iohn 15 19. Reason 1. Pro 3 26 27. Luke 16 9. Reason 2. Psal 41 1. Tsal 37 6. 1 Tim. 6 19. Vse Iames 5. Vse 2. Quest How to give so as to do good Answ 1 Give justly Eccles 11.1 2 Give wisely Psal 1 2 In respect of the quantity In respect of the quality 3 Give in simplicity Rom 11 8 Mat 6 4 Cive chearfully 2 Gor 8.6 The persons to whom good must be done 1 Generally to all Luke 10 Reason 1. Mala 2 10 Reason 2. 1 Iohn 4 20 Vse Object Answ 1 Sam 25 Object Answ Rom 12 Object Answ Eccles 11.1 Objection Answ Objection Answ Objection Answ Objection Answ Objection Answ Objection Answ Doct. 1. Doct. 2. 1 There are
's the reason of this but that man may come to this conclusion with himself that he may bring his own heart to a reckoning for his former carriage This is that the Apostle faith for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep some were taken with sickness upon others there was a consuming weakness and others were strucken with death what is the end that God propounds in all this For this reason that we should judge our sevles for if we judge our selves wee shall not be judged of the Lord but when we are judged wee are chastned of the Lord that we should not be condemned of the world As if he should say God now calleth you to a reckoning in this life to the end you may prevent that heavy and grievous one that comes after this life Againe when outward afflictions prevail not God hath spiritual afflictions to awaken men Thus David when he was in a deepe sleep of securitie God awakned him with a spiritual judgment see his speech in the 32 Psal When I kept close my sinnes my boues were consumed and I roared for the disquietnesse of my soul what followed God by this means brought him to confession I will confesse my transgressions to the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquitie of my sinne Thus God in this life calleth men to a reckoning sometimes by the preaching of the Word sometimes by judgments upon the outward man or by terrours upon the soule But if all this prevaile not to make a man reckon with himselfe in this life then God hath another reckoning after this life where every man must give an account and cannot avoid it and there he must abide the sentence of the Judg that would not prevent it before That there is such a Judgment to come it appeareth By the Equitie of it By the Necessitie of it In respect of God In respect of the Saints In respect of the wicked First I say in respect of God there is a necessitie of it That his Decree may be fulfilled and executed Hee hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousnesse And his counsell shall stand and he will doe all his pleasure Secondly it is necessary that Gods honour may be vindicated Now things seeme to go in some confusion and disorder in the world good men the children of God are not alwayes best in the place of judgment I have seene saith Solomon an evil under the Sunne that in the place of judgment wickednesse was there and in the place of righteousnesse that iniquitie was there this observation Solomon makes therefore I said God will bring to judgement every thing both good and evill for there is a time for every work and every purpose God hath a time to doe that great work that he hath now purposed What is that work that is to bring every work to judgement whether it be good or evill I say if we consider this it is necessary that there should come a judgment that shall set all right againe It is necessarie likewise in respect of the Saints The very tribulations of the Saints in 2 Thes 1.5 are called Indigma an evident demonstration or a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God There is a necessitie of it in respect of them in two regards First that there innocencie that is traduced here may be manifest They undergoe many disgraces and hard censures amongst men the world accounts them proud hypocrites singular foolish vaine-glorious and I know not what now saith Iob my witnesse is in heaven and saith Saint Paul I care not to be judged of you or of mans judgment he that judgeth me is the Lord. The Word in the Greek is mans day as if he should say Men have their day here but God hath a greater day after the Lord will judg in another manner and upon other grounds than men doe Secondly it is necessary also That their works may be rewarded When we speak of reward wee meane not the reward of merit wee meane the reward of grace called a reward because God is tied to it by his promise The servants of God though they serve him with all care they have not the fatt of the earth as sometimes the Ishmaels of the world have they doe not abound with outward things as many others doe nay sometimes they are in the worst condition and that makes Gods wayes the more despised as if God were not able to maintaine his servants in the world in his wayes and worke God therefore hath a time when his servants shall have full measure heaped up pressed down shaken together and running over When God shall make up his jewels as he saith in Malac. 3. then shall yee discerne between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Marke yee shall discerne God will make it appeare to the whole world in the day when he makes up his jewels that not withstanding his servants are dispised and lie here under divers pressures yet that they are a people whom he delights in and accounteth as his treasures Thirdly it is necessarie in respect of the wicked too that is First that Gods righteousnesse may fully be manifested Secondly that their unrighteousnesse may fully bee punished First I say that Gods righteousnesse may fully bee manifested therefore the day of Judgment in Rom. 2.5 is called a day of wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgment of God As if he should say As God will manifest his wrath against the vessels of wrath so he will make it appear to the world that he proceedeth in a right manner and by a right rule in judging For wee must know that howsoever God cannot bee unjust and how soever that the ungodly men in this life contend with their owne consciences such is the hardnesse of their hearts and abundance of corruption that they would faine justifie themselves amongst men and againe howsoever it bee true that the soule when it is departed out of the body is under Gods particular judgment by an intelectuall elevation of it that it may receive the sentence of the Judge by an illumination and by such a spiritual and contemplative discourse and observation and understanding of Gods actions as that by reflection upon it selfe it may know it selfe to be accursed or acpuitted and accordingly is entred into the possession either of happinesse or miserie Yet all this is secret in the world till the day of Gods tribunall come wherein secret things shall be made manifest and things that have beene done in darknesse shall appeare before men and Angels Secondly Gods justice must be cleared and fully manifested so the wicked and unrighteous must be fully punished They are not fully punished when they are under the sense of Gods wrath in this life or when the soule is judged at death there must be yet a
but when he doth not use it in the service and for the glory of the Creator God hath given the creature a beeing for himself I have forfeited my beeing when I glorifie not God with it that man forfeiteth his wit his memory his strength his time his life and all that he is or hath when he doth not imploy them in Gods service to Gods glory Now sin is that that makes us deny the service and glory we owe to God sin is that that makes a forfeiture of our lives and all unto him Here is the first thing God hath given the creature a beeing for himself he preserveth the creature in beeing for himselfe when the creature therefore sinneth it forfeiteth its life and beeing to the Creator This makes sin odious Secondly this is it that declareth the wonderful justice and truth of God He said to Adam in the beginning assoon as ever he had fallen he should die and we find it true on him and all his posterity for Adam stood and represented the person of all men before God that one man was all men in him all men were under the sentence of death And we see it is true to this day We find God true in this let this make us beleeve his word in every thing else He hath been as good as his word he hath declared his justice and his truth in the death of all man-kind upon the sin of Adam he will declare it in every thing else in every promise in every threatning in every passage of his word let us give him the glory of his truth as we find it in this Thirdly it is advantagious very much for our selves as a means to prepare us for death the better When a man seriously concludeth Death is the end of all men then if I reckon and account my self amongst men it will be my end too and it may be my end now And we shall see what use Job makes of this All the dayes of my appointed time I will wait till my change shall come I make account a great change shall come such as hath been upon all my fathers before me so it will come upon me I will make account of it and therefore I will wait all my dayes So should we make account every day that this may be the day of my change in every thing you do make account that your change may begin then in that very action and this will be a means to make you wait for your change make you prepare for death It is that that Drusius noteth of Rabbi Eleazer that he gave his counsel and advice that a man should be sure to repent one day before he died He meant not that a man should defer his repentance till it did evidently that Death had seized upon him But because a man may conclude if it be possible I may live to day it is probable I may die to morrow therefore I will repent to day Do it now and do not delay it till to morrow This is that we are to do to account of every day as that which may be the day of our change and so to carry our selves in all our actions and occasions as if we should have no more time to do our work And this is especially to be observed in three things First in matter of sinning be careful to amend sin every day labour to mortifie sin this day as if thou shouldest have no more dayes to mortifie it in take heed of sinning now as if thou shouldest die now Some we see have been taken away in the very act of sin Ananias and Saphirah were taken away in the very act of sinning when they were telling a lie to the Apostle they died Zimri and Cosbie were slain in the very act of uncleannesse Corah and his company they died in the act of murmuring and resisting of God and his ordinances and ministers Let a man now reason with himself these were taken away in their sins it may be my case as well as theirs if I be found in sin That is the first Secondly bring it home to this particular also in another case and that is in redeeming of the opportunities of the time of our life Besides the general time of life there be certain opportunities certain advantages of time that the Scripture calleth seasons be careful to redeem them though you may enjoy your lives yet you may have none of these such as are seasons of glorifying God seasons of doing good seasons of gaining good to a mans self be careful therefore I say to mannage those opportunities and advantages of time so that you may glorifie God Whether you eat or drink or what soever you do do all to the glory of God Which way soever you may most advance Gods glory and pormote his worship which way soever ye may promote the cause of God drawing men to God and incouraging them in the wayes of God which way soever you may be useful employ your self at that time the present time because you must die and you may die now you may have no more opportunities to do it in And so likewise in all advantages wherein men may do good to men Exhort one another while it is called to day and while you have time do good unto all Do all the spiritual good and all the outward good that you can while you have seasons to do good Happy is that servant that his master shall find so doing when he cometh leading a fruitful and profitable life So do good to your own souls while you have time pray while you have time to pray hear the Word while you have time to hear it exercise repentance while you have time to repent perfect the work of mortification while you have time to mortifie your corruptions do your souls all the good you can by the advantages of all the ordinances of all the opportunities that God hath given you This is the end of all men it hath been the end of good and bad before and it shall be the end of good and bad now men must die their houses will be houses of mourning therefore mannage the time in doing all the good you can that God may be glorified men may be benefited and your own souls furthered that is the second thing Lastly in the manner of your conversation consider the time that you have to do every thing in Will a man be found idleing in the market-place when he should be working in the Vineyard Would you be feasting when God would have you mourning you shall see some that have been taken away when they little thought of it Belshazzer he was in his feasts and then cometh the sentence of death against him and other the like examples you may see in the Scripture Consider therefore the particular actions that you doe whether they be such as hold agreement with the state of a dying man So for the manner
of doing holy duties Would you be found praying pefunctorily and carelesly Would you be found coming to the Sacrament unprepared What though you do holy actions that are good for the matter would you be found doing of them with unfit and unprepared hearts You see what the Apostle saith 1. Cor. 11. For this cause many are sick and weak and many sleep they slept they were dead for this even because they came unworthily to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Would you therefore be found doing of holy duties and not in a right manner The serious consideration of this that Death is the end of all men with the particular application of it to a mans selfe that as it is the state of all men so it is mine in particular I must die and I may die now it hath an influence into all the actions of a mans life To conclude In the last place This point is of use to us also in the death of others First to moderate the mourning of Christians for the death of others Why It is the end of all men it is that that is the common condition of all men it should not be too grievous not too doleful to any man We would not have our freinds to be in another condition in their birth then others we would not have them have more fingers or more members then a man and would we have them have more dayes Let this serve as a brief touch upon that Secondly it teacheth us to make good use of our fellowship while we are together Not only we may die but those that are useful to us may die also let us make good use of one another while we live therefore This will make the death of others bitter and will be worse than the death and losse of our freinds the guilt upon a mans conscience that he hath not made that use of them while they were alive that he might have done let us therefore make the death of our freinds easie by making good use of them while they live It did smite the heart of those Ephesians that they should see the face of Paul no more specially above the rest it grieved them that they should see him no more how would it have grieved them think you if they had alwayes hardned themselves against his ministry before Think with your selves seriously here is such a Minister such a Christian freind that husband and wife that parent and child a time of parting will come let us make it easie now by making good use of one another while we live that when freinds are took away we may have cause to thank God that we have had communion and confort of their fellowship and society the benefit of their graces the fruit of their lives and not sorrow for the want of them by death So much for that I come now to the second and principal reason why it is better to go to the house of mourning then to the house of feasting it is this because the living shall lay it to his heart What shall he lay to his heart That that is the end of all mèn he shall lay the death of all men to heart The point I observe from hence is thus much It is the dutie of those that live to lay to heart the death of others That is seriously ro consider and make use for themselves of the death of others You see the Text is clear for the point And there is good reason why it should be so First in respect of the glory that cometh to God Secondly in respect of the good that cometh to our selves by it First God is glorified by this when we lay to heart the death of others there is a dishonour to God to slight any of his actions this is one of Gods works in the world the death of men this is a thing wherein Gods hand is seen he saith to the sons of Adam Return The spirit returneth to God that gave it It is he that hath the power of life and death If a sparrow fall not to the ground without the providence of God much lesse the servants of God the precious ones upon the earth the excellent ones as David calleth them I say God is seen much in these works and it is a great dishonour to God when men do not consider the works of his hands David by the spirit of prophesie in Psal 28.5 wisheth a curse upon ungodly men and for this reason among the rest because they consider not the operation of his hands this is that that puts men into a curst estate and exposeth them to the wrath of God when they regard not the works of the Lord. The actions of Princes and great men upon earth every man considereth of them and weigheth them It is that wherein we give God the glory of his wisdome and of his truth of his power of his justice of his mercy of his soveraignty and dominion and Lordship over the whole earth when we labour to draw to a particular use to our selves the works of God in the world specially the death of men of all men good and bad for we must give it the same latitude and extent and scope that the Text doth here he speaks here of the death of men in general and he saith of all men that their death shall be laid to heart by the living Secondly as their is reason that we should take to heart the death of others in respect of the glory that cometh to God thereby so in respect of our selves also much benefit cometh to our selves by laying to heart the death of other men There be three special things considerable in the death of any one that is matter of profit and benefit to those that live and survive after them Therein we see the Certainty of Death Therein we see the Nature of Death Therein we see the Cause End of Death First therein we see the certainty of death For now we have not only the word of God that tels us that we shall die but the works of God taking others before us that as the Sacraments are called visible instructions because they teach by the eye and the outward senses so the death of others are visible instructions to the living it teacheth by the eye a man is guided by the eye to see his own condition and as it were in a glasse there is represented to him his own state what we are they were once the time was that they converst with men as we do that they spake for Gods glory upon earth as we do and what they are now we shall be there will come a time when our works shall cease as theirs do when we shall be in the place of silence as they are I say it confirmeth to us the former certainty and assurance of our death when we see others fall before us And there is great profit and benefit that
for a better world Thus much shall serve briefly for the opening of these words and for that that is appliable from them For the present occasion a word Funeral Sermons are not intended for the praise of the dead but for the comfort of the living Therefore I have chosen such an argument to handle at this time as might be of use and profit to you that live Besides that I am in particular and by particular order debarred of speaking any thing concerning our deceased Sister though I might have spoken much and that very useful to you The best use that you can make will be this to consider the life that she led amongst you She was a pattern and example of holinesse of a wise and upright carrirge in her wayes follow her in that Mark the Godly and upright man the end of that man is peace There was none that knew her but upon good assurance are perswaded of her happinesse now Would you then have the same happinesse after take the same course that she did be much in prayer and dependance upon the ordinances and in fellowship with the servants of God be profitable in doing good profitable in receiving good mannage the opportunities and times well that God giveth you as she did gaining much in little she did much work in a short space let that be your care and then this will be your comfort in the end Thus if you make this use of the death of others before you you shall prepare for your own death and that shall be only a passage for you to Eternal life DELIVERANCE FROM THE KING of FEARS OR FREEDOME FROM THE FEAR OF DEATH SERMON III. HEBR. 2.15 For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through the fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage IN these words that I have read to let pass other parts of the Chapter the Apostle sets down the humiliation of Christ with the fruit of it His humiliation in his Incarnation and death The fruit of it in subduing him that had the power of death and delivering those that were kept under the fear of death in bondage all their life At this time we will speak only of the last part the fruit of Christs death in delivering those that were kept under the fear of death The persons that are kept under this fear are said to be the children Gods own children those for whom Christ died yet they were kept under the fear of death and that not at some particular time when tentation had got some special advantage over them but it was a trouble and a burden to them all their life long and that not a small burden or an easie trouble but such as kept them as in bondage The words you see are easie There are two points that arise from them First that Gods children those for whom Christ died are many times hold strongly under the fear of death Secondly that Christ by his death freeth them from those fears I shall onely insist at this time principally on the first That Gods own children the Children that were partakers of flesh and bloud it is taken either for the humane nature or the infirmities of that nature even these children were held under the feare of death I will shew the grounds of it The fear of death in the children of God ariseth either from some causes without or from somewhat within them From without them and so the fear ariseth from God an act of his providence upon his children Or from Sathan a work of his malice These are the causes from without For the first God in his providence and that in his special and fatherly providence whereby he doth order all things for the good of his children for the present increase of their grace and the fitting them for glory hereafter He I say in his providence ordereth it thus that they shall be kept many of them a great while under the feare of death and this he doth for special good ends The first is to humble them Adam as soon as he had sinned against God as his fall was by pride he would have had a higher condition then he was in so when God would bring him back again he beginneth first to humble him and how doth he that Dust thou art saith he and to dust thou shalt return he sheweth him that he was a dead man by sin and so would have the meditation of death to humble Adam and in him all his posterity after him So David when he desired that some means might work upon his enemies for their good he prayeth Put them in fear that they may know that they are but men He doth not onely pray that mortality might be presented to them but so presented that it might leave an impression of fear upon their affections that they might know what they are that they have not their beeing or the power of subsisting in themselves but that they must look for it above themselves to him that hath the issues of life and death in his own hand And this is necessary that all the servants of God should be kept humble by some means or other The Apostle Paul you see he had attained a great measure of grace yet he standeth in need of something to humble him therefore the messenger of Sathan was sent to buffet him that he should not be exalted above measure that he might be kept humble God intendeth to raise up his children to a glorious estate therefore as men lay a low foundation when they intend to erect a high building so God layeth the foundation of all grace and comfort in his servants in humiliation therefore he will not only have them mortal but he will have them apprehend their mortality and dying condition with fear that they may be humbled by this fear That is the first thing Secondly God aymeth at the strengthening of faith in his servants While a man looks to sense and is upheld by sensible comforts there is not that exercise of faith now every grace is strengthened by exercise that God therefore may have faith exercised and so strengthened in his servants he will expose them to the fear of death The Apostle Paul found this we received saith he the sentence of death that we might not turst in our selves but in him that raiseth us up from the dead He doth not onely say thus we acknowledge this to be a truth that we must die but we received the sentence of death received it as a man receiveth a sentence of death from a Judge received it so as it made some impression upon our hearts received it with some inward sense with some inward feare which was a violent work such a work as knocks us
comforts are gone So if a man love honour and applause amongst men it ceaseth in the grave all honour there is laid in the dust contempt is cast upon Princes this is that that affecteth men exceedingly that they shall lose their honours and pleasures and acquaintance and business and all when they come to the grave and that because mens hearts are set too much upon these things That is the second reason There is a third thing which is a sinful cause of this fear of Death and that is the want of Assurance There be two things that a man not being assured of makes him fear Death and these may be in the children of God and as they are more in any one so the fear of death is more in them The first is when they are not assured of reconciliation with God that God is at peace with them pleased with them in Christ The want of this assurance makes death fearful for now they look upon Death as a Sergeant as a Jaylor either it is a Sergeant to take them off their present comforrs or as a Jaylor to hold them under those bonds and fetters that they would fain escape Now when a man looks upon Death either way it is terrible As a Sergeant so the rich man in the Gospel This night they shall fetch thy soul from thee they shall come to thee as a Sergeant to a Debtour to require a debt they shall require thy soul of thee Now we all know that a man that is in debt and either hath not to pay or is unwilling to part with that he hath such a man cannot indure the sight of a Sergeant above all men because he cometh to fetch that from him that he would not part with Or if he look upon Death as a Jaylor so Christ saith Agree with thy adversary quickly lest he deliver thee to the Judg and he give thee to the Jaylor and then he holdeth thee in prison from whence thou shalt not go out till thou hast paid the utmost farthing Now when a man looks on Death as a Jaylor that holdeth all in the grave till the great Judg of heaven and earth calleth for them at the generall day of Assizes that great day of appearance when all the world shall be gathered together and every prison shall give up their prisoners The sea and the grave shall give up their dead I say when a man standeth thus as unreconciled to God or at least as one that doth not apprehend this reconciliation is not perswaded of this that God is reconciled to him it is no marvel if Death be terrible to him Therefore in the sixth of the Revelation The Kings and Captains and the great and mighty men they cryed to the mountains to fall upon them and to hide them from the presence of the Lamb because the great day of wrath was come and who could stand So we see in 33. Isa 14. there is crying out concerning the coming of God the sinners in Sion the hypocrites are afraid what is their fear who shall dwell with everlasting burnings and who shall remain with cousuming fire when they shall see nothing but terrour and wrath in God fire and consumption when they see nothing but such terrible things then feare cometh upon them Now mark hypocrites stand all together unreconciled and therefore it is no marvel if they be afraid and the Saints of God so farre as they are defective in the assurance of Gods love so farre they conceive themselves in the state of Hypocrites and therefore they are so full of fears Again a second thing that they stand unresolved of is concerning the future estates of their souls and bodies after death they are not sure of this that there is a better condition afterwards this is that great question Whither go we I go now out of the body and whither then I go out of the world and whither then I am going out of the company of men and whither then shall I go to Angels and Saints or to divels shall I go to Heaven or to Hell shall I have a beeing or not in misery or in happiness They know not what shall become of them they are unresolved of this point of their own state to come whether they shall be in happiness or horrour after death and therefore Death is terrible You have the point opened I will answer an objection or two and then come to the use It may be objected It seemeth the servants of God are not kept under the fear of death all those that are in the state of grace have faith faith that spendeth these fears and therefore since they are in the state of beleevers how can they be held under the fear of death To this I answer briefly there is faith in all the children of God that are effectually called but we must know that Faith is considerable two wayes first as it is in conflict and secondly as it is out of conflict Now the Faith of Gods servants in conflict so sometime it is in conflict with fear and sadness of spirit Why art thou cast down oh my soul why art thou disquieted within me c. Sometime it is in conflict with reason and sense thus the people of Israel when they came into the Wilderness they looked for nothing but dying and destruction of nature for sense presented it to them therefore saith Moses which is the voice of faith Stand still and see the salvation of God c. Now in this conflict the success is doubtful sometime as it was between Amalek and Israel fighting together Amalek prevailed and Israel had the worst sometime Israel prevailed and Amalek had the worst so somtime Faith prevaileth against sense and those fears that arise from sense and sometime again carnal fears and Sense prevaileth against Faith now accordingly are those effects in the hearts of Gods children But secondly sometime Faith is out of conflict it now triumpheth in assurance it is come now to full assurance of Faith as it is called in the Scripture and then there is nothing so comfortable and desirable as death it self to the servants of God So we see David in the 23. Psal Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear none ill for thou Lord art with me And so the Apostle Saint Paul triumpheth over all things Nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ neither principalities nor powers nor life nor death nor things to come nothing shall do it the Apostles faith now was out of conflict it had got the field the day of Sense and now he looks on Death with comfort So that I say in that measure that Faith works in that measure fear of death ceaseth Secondly it may be objected But we see the servants of God are said to love the appearance of our Lord Iesus Christ and the Apostle Paul is said to
commanded fire from heaven yet you see how he bore with them and rebuked his Disciples You know not of what spirit you are He was lead as a lambe dumb before the shearers and he opened not his mouth Again you have the examples of the servants of God Take my brethren faith Saint James the Prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an ensample of suffering affliction and of Patience The Prophets suffered long and endured the frowns of the world and the rage of Princes they endured a thousand miseries and all to discharge their duty But amongst all the servants of God You have heard of the Patience of Job and what end the Lord made with him Every man can speak of the patience of Job but this was written for our ensample to teach us to be patient as he was Whatsoever things were written afore-time were written for our learnings that we through Patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Again secondly as it is necessary for a Christian to strive for the perfection of Patience in the degrees of it because of the conformity that should be between him and those examples of God of Christ and of the Saints between God the Father and beleevers his children between Christ the head and beleevers his members between the Saints of God children of the same Father and servants of the same Master that should honour him in the same grace of Patience So There is a necessity likewise of it in respect of the tryals whereunto a Christian may be put you had need to strive that you may be perfect in Patience because you know not what tryals ye shall be put to what times ye are reserved to Every man must expect troubles and afflictions they are called Tribulations and you know what Tribulum was the Iron ball that was full of pikes round about so that wheresoever it was cast it did stick and Engine used in war Tribulations are unavoydable they will fall and stick ye cannot escape them on any side by any turning to the right hand or to the left It is the will of God that through many tribulations we should enter into the kingdome of heaven and whosoever will live Godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution Now beloved is this so that this is a Statute in heaven decreed and ordained by God and will not be reversed like the lawes of the Medes and Persians that every man must passe to heaven through tribulation and affliction upon earth then it concerns every one to be armed to get such a measure of patience as may support him in such afflictions Ye know not what afflictions ye may have what particular tryals God may put ye to In what a miserable case then is a man if he be to seek of his armour when he is in the middest of the pikes if he be then to get patience when he is in the middest of tryals when he is disturbed and distracted with vexation of spirit What foolish disorderly speeches proceed from men in the time of affliction We may see it in David so foolish was I and ignorant and in this point a beast before thee What foolish sensual beastly speeches unreasonable absurd passages proceed from men in those times of trouble if they have not got to themselves before hand this grace and are not fitted to a Christian carriage in time by patience Thus ye see the necessity of patience to the perfection of a Christian and the necessity of the perfection of patience to the ornament of a Christian Now we come to make use of both these together First it serveth for the just reproof of Christians that are careful for other parts and acts of religion and are not so seriously mindful of this duty of patieuce as they should be but are so farre from striving for patience that they seem rather to strive for impatience that make their crosses more heavy and their afflictions more bitter then they would be Indeed we make Gods Cup that of it self is grievous enough to nature and to sense by putting into it our own ingredients that are inbred in our own passions and pride and self-will and our own earthly minds farre more bitter then else it would be But how doth a man make afflictions worse There are divers wayes that men take wherein they are so far from perfecting Patience in themselves that they wholly destroy Patience The first is by their agravating of their afflictions by all the several circumstances that possible they can invent All their eloquence is used in expressing the grievousness of that cross and affliction that is upon them They that in the times of mercy could scarce ever drop a word in thankfulness and acknowledgement of Gods goodness to them now they can pour out flouds of sentences in expression of Gods bitter and heavy dealing with them in such afflictions and crosses and distresses that befal them As the Church speaks in the Lamentations Consider all that pass by is there any affliction like my affliction wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me The like speech you have ordinarily in the mouths of persons Is there any affliction like mine there is no body so wronged in their name as I nor hath such pain in their body nor never went with such an heavy heart as I never any man suffered so many injuries by freinds and enemies and all sorts of people as I have done at if all the afflictions in the world the flouds and waves of tryalls were all met upon one person This is the language of men whereby they aggravate their afflictions and increase impatience in themselves Again another way whereby they do is is this By giving vent and free course to their passions Passions are like a wild horse if they have not reines put upon them if they be not pulled in they will flie out to all excesse If once we give our Passions vent there is no stoping of them David we see checks himself he had a curb to bridle his passions Why art thou cast downe oh my soule But otherwise when men give the reines to their passion and doe not stop their course but think they have reason for it they break out into all exhorbitancie Ionah when the Lord challenged him for his anger Dost thou well to be angry I saith he I doe well to be angry even to the death So David Oh Absalom my sonne would God I had died for thee Oh Absalom my sonne my sonne What hurt was done to David what wrong had the man to take on thus his sonne was tooke from him but it was Absalom Absalom died but it was Absolom that would have killed his father and yet he takes on as if the father could not live because the sonne that sought his death was tooke from him Such unreasonable Passions such causelesse distempers oft-times are in the soules of men that
beyond and short and above and below us in those that are elder and younger and richer and poorer all forts he will strike us at last this thing I say should stirr us up to prepare for our own dissolution A man would think that there were no need of such a thing the very bare sight of a Corse or a Hearse the bare sight of a deed corpse the bare ringing of a bell or a Funeral Sermon should be warning enough to the living to tell him of death When a man sees a company carrying a dead body to the grave he should say to himself It may be the feet of these may carry me next But how cometh it to pass hat it is not thus Certainly there is not power in all examples to work this it is the work of Gods spirit Though a man observe the death of never so many before him yet his cannot work in him a serious care to make preparation for his own death except God adde a further work to it We may see this in the expression of Moses when so many died in the Wilderness Lord teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdom As if he should have said Though so many thousands died in the Wilderness and that by so many several kinds of death yet we shall never apply our hearts to wisdom by those examples except God teach us that wisdom Therefore we should pray to God to teach us by his Spirit to make use of Examples Men must give account for examples as well as for rules men must give account for examples of mortality as well as for Sermons of mortality therefore let the example of others mortality stir you up to prepare for your own and that you may do so be much in calling upon God Lastly He shall not return to me that is in this sense to converse on earth as he had done before I shall return to him but he shall not return to me He doth but reitterate and repeat what he had said before in effect This is the thing then that Parents must make account of both for themselves and their children For their children It should make them moderate therefore in their sorrow for them God now hath shewed his purpose and declared his will therefore we should rest in that will of God This is the thing that David aymed at Gods will was not only to take away his child but so to take him away as never to return to him again in that manner Now God had declared his will and therefore Why should I fast saith he as if he should say I will now rest in the will of God In all the things which we account crosses and losses in children and friends c. The main business of a christian is not to expresse sorrow but submission and subiection to God to exercise and inure his heart to patience and to rest in Gods good pleasure and will As Eli though he failed in his carriage to his sons yet he shewed a dutiful respect to God his heavenly father When Samuel told him the judgement of God that should come upon his house It is the Lord saith he let him do what seemeth him good in his own eyes though it were a heavy judgement such as whosoever should hear of it both his eares should tingle yet it is the Lord let him do what seemeth him goad As if he should say I have nothing to do in this business but to subject my self with patient submission and contentedness to his will it is the Lord it becometh not me to contend with him and to reason with God concerning his work I confess he is righteous let him do what see meth him good in his own eyes And so Aaron There was a heavy judgement befallen him his sons were consumed with fire yet the text saith Aaron held his peace When God manifested so great wrath to his house in wasting and consuming and burning his sons for offering of strange fire yet Aaron held his peace that is he did only mind how to glorifie God by a contented submission to his will So Job he heard not only of the losse of his children but that he lost them in such a manner by a violent death by a house falling on their heads yet the Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Whereas a carnal worldly man would have fallen to strugling and contending and quarrelling against God and so trouble and perplex his own spirit We do exceedingly imbitter Gods cup by mingling with it ingredients of our own passions and so make the affliction more heavy and grievous then God intends it Here is the reason we possess not our souls with Patience When we are sensible of the losse of friends and children c. let us learn to make it our business to think I have a greater work to do to prepare for my own death God in the death of this man speaks to me to prepare for my own And then to glorifie God by submission to his will make it appear that thou acknowledgest a power in God to dispose of thy house to do every thing by patiently resting in his will And yet this comfort is added though children be took away that they shall not return in an earthly manner yet they shall in a better manner Parents are contented to part with their children for a time for their preferment Children though they are very young that are commended by the prayers of the godly Parents into the hands of God these whose hearts God hath inlarged and quickned fervently and faithfully to pray in the besalf of their children they may rest in this assured that they shall meet at the Resurrection in a better manner their children shall be better preferred then if they were on earth and shall be raised up to perfection Here you see there is not a tooth bred in a child without a great deal of pain and every tooth cost some pain but this mortal body shall put on immortality and this corruption shall put on incorruption This weak body shall be made strong weak children strong without pain Death endeth these things and the Resurrection shall present him in a perfect measure of strength in a glorified estate So much for this text and for this time THE STING OF DEATH OR THE STRENGTH OF SINNE SERMON VI. 1 COR. 15.56 The Sting of Death is Sin and the Strength of Sin is the Law SOlomon telleth thus that there is a season for every thing there is a time to be born and a time to die These two are the two great seasons of all men we are as sure to die as we are sure we have lived and every degree of our life is but a step to our death Every man of us hath but a part to act here in the world when we have done that that God hath appointed us we are drawn off from
me shall never see death He meaneth to hurt himselfe Again This is the message that God hath given us life and this life is in his Son And He that hath the Son hath life Our Saviour Jesus Christ came into the world as the Apostle telleth us that he might destroy him that had the power of death and so set them at liberty that all their life-time were in bondage under the fear of death And Saint John saith He came into the world to destroy the works of the devil which are sin and death So that now Death hath lost his sting because Christ overcame it in dying he slue Death and was the death of Death this man Christ God and Man he offered himself to his Father as a Sacrifice for the sins of the world and dying a cursed death upon the Cross so satisfied the justice of God on the behalf of all those that are in him that death can do them no harm It is nothnig else but a passage to eternal blessedness Oh blessed be the name of God that hath been pleased to provide so perfect a remedy against so mortal an enemy and to lay it open so clearly and plainly in the Gospel Ye have heard of those things that I thought to put you in mind of concerning Death and so I have done with the first point The second is That Death is an enemy Therefore the Apostle Paul telleth us of a certain sting it hath Oh death where is thy sting It is an armed enemy it cometh as a Serpent with a sting that entreth into a mans soul putteth it to exream perplexity if he taks not order to disarm this enemy An enemy ye know is a person that setteth himself wilfully to hurt a man may hurt his neighbour either through indiscretion or unadvisedness against his will or he may lay wait to do him hurt intending misceif and seeking to peforme somewhat that shall be injurious to him We call not him an enemy that we receive a little hurt from against his will contrary to his purpose and intention but he that studieth and before-hand desireth to be an enemy Now Death as we may say studieth our hurt in all extremity before-hand There is but two sorts of hurt that can come to a man One is to deprive him of that which is beneficial and comfortable to rob him of all that is contentful to him in this life As when a company of Foes break into a Nation they burn their goods and spoyle their houses and rob and take away all that is comfortable to them so much as they can Death is such an enemy It desireth to bereave a man of that necessary contentment he hath When it meeteth with a learned man it takes away all his learning at one blow assoon as he is dead he ceaseth to be a great scholler It cometh to a rich man and robs him of all his goods at one blow too though he have millions Death causeth all to be another mans When it cometh to a King it pulleth him beside his Throne takes his Crown off his head and casteth both him and it into the dust he is King no longer when he is dead And so in all the benefits of this life it takes away the pleasure and contentments of a man it takes away the husband from the wife and the wife from the husband it devideth children from Parents and Parents from children all the benefits that this life afford Death strippeth a man of them all and turnes him naked out of the world just as he came he must goe and carry nothing in his hand Death will not admit him to take one farthing or any thing else with him So he is an enemy for he spoileth us of whatsoever is desirable in this life But he is an enemy also in inflicting a great deal of ill upon men So death bringeth torment for the present It is a terrible thing to wrestle with it makes a man bleed and sweat as it were No man can incounter with death but he feeleth anxiety and vexation of body and mind unless he have comfort from above to enable him to wrestle with it but in his own proper nature it is so furious an enemy that it doth not cease till it hath dragged the soul into the presence of God and after from his Tribunal to the torment of eternal fire in Hell That succeedeth death for naturally of its own nature it tendeth to the destruction of man because it is a fruit of sin and therefore must needs he the perdition and overthrow of the soul For sin bringeth destruction in regard it makes God angry with us and separateth from him and by consequence from all manner of comfort and in regard it separateth from him it bringeth all manner of ill his wrath his hatred and ill will the greatest of all Death I say properly and of it selfe intendeth and seeks to draw all those that it layes hold on to a state of everlasting unhappiness therefore it is an enemy So you see the second point opened The third is that Death is the last enemy after which there shall be no more But I must tell you to whom it is the last not to all For there are a generation of men that shall feel death to be the last of enemies and in a manner the first But to the Saints and those that are prepared for death and those that will use the remedy to these and these alone death is the last enemy after once they have grappled and fought and encountred with this enemy they are at peace and rest as he saith Happy are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours There is no more toyl and misery to a good man after death And why Because death separateth sin from his soul as well as the soul from the body and so taking away the cause of unrest it must needs take away misery and unhappinesse it self Indeed properly Death doth it not but the Lord Jesus Christ by death For it pleaseth him when his servants leave this world then they are fit to enter into a place of happiness in another world which they could not be except they were freed from sin Death is the daughter of sin and with a happy patricide as it were at once it destroyeth it self and sin and therefore it takes away all misery because it takes away all sin Therefore it is the last enemy because it killeth the worst of our enemtes for when we are dead there shall be no more enmity between God and us and so no more enemy This is the third point The last is that this enemy shall be destroyed A thing is destroyed abolished when its self ceaseth to be and it took out of the way and when all the ill effects that it would produce and effect or hath are removed So the Lord Jesus Christ abolisheth Death he destroyeth it that it
sins the ilness of thy nature and carriage rehearse thy wayes as much as thou canst condemn thy self before God mightily crie for pardon in the meditation of his Son and never leave sobbing and mourning till he hath given thee some answer that he is reconciled And then strive to get faith in Christ call to mind the perfection of his redemption the excellency of his person and merits that thou maist repose thy soul on him that thou maist say though my sins be as the Stars and exceed them yet the merit of my Saviour and his satisfaction to the justice of God it is full in him he is well pleased and reconciled I will stay on him Lord Chiist thou hast done and suffered enough to redeem me and Man-kind thou hast suffered for the propitiation of the world though my sins deserve a thousand damnations yet I trust upon thy mercy according to the Covenent made in thy Word Thus when a man laboureth to cast himself on Christ to lay the burthen of his salvation and to venter his soul on him now he hath beleeved this Breast-plate Death is not able to thrust through And then labour that this faith may work so strongly that it may breed Hope a constant and firm expectation grounded on the promises of the Word that thou shalt be saved and go to Heaven and be admitted into the presence of God when thou shalt be separated from this lower world He that is armed with this hope hath a Helmet Death shall never hurt his head it shall never be able to take away his comfort and peace He shall smile at the approach of death because it can do nothing but help him to his kingdome And then labour for Charity to inflame thee to him again that hath shewed himself so truly loving to men as to seek them when they were lost to redeem them when they were captives and to restore them from that unhappiness that they had cast themselves into Oh that I could love thee and thy people for thy sake thou diddest die for them shall not I be at a little cost and pains to help them out of misery Thus if ye labour to be furnished with these graces then you are armed against Death those will do you more good then if you had gotten millions of millons of gold and silver As you have understanding for the outward man as you have care to provide for that top reserve and comfort life while you are here so have a care for the future world and that boundless continuance of eternity If a man live miserable here death will end it if he be prepared for death he shall live happily for ever but if a man live happily as we account it and die miserably that misery is endless Ye mistake beloved ye account men happy that abound in wealth and honour that have great estates I say ye mistake in accounting men happy that enjoy the good things of this life that can live in prosperity to the last time of their age possessing what they have gotten If such a man be not prepared for death Death makes way for a greater unhappiness after death For the more sin he hath committed the more misery shall betide him his life being nothing but a continued chain of wickedness one link upon another till he settle upon a preparation for Death And in the last place here is a great deal of comfort to those that have laboured to prepare for death though to them Death is an enemy yet it is an enemy that is utterly destroyed The Philosopher said that Death is the terriblest of all terrible things so it is to nature because it doth that that no other evil can do it separateth from all comfort and carrieth us we know not whether Death is terrible to a man that is unarmed for death but to the poor Saints that have bestowed their time in humiliation and supplication and confession that have daily endeavoured to renew their faith and hope and repentance Death hath no manner of terribleness in the world if it be terrible to a Christian at the first it is onely because he hath forgot himself a little he doth not bethink how he is armed If God have fitted his servants for death he hath done most for them if they have not riches yet they are fit for death if they have not an estate amongst men it mattereth not a whit if they be fit for Death if they be miserable here in torments and sickness when others have health it is no matter all these increase their repentance makes them labour for Faith and Hope and Charity whereby they are armed against Death Nothing can save us from the hurt of Death but the Lord Jesus Christ put on by Faith and that furnished with Hope and Charity If God give a man other things and not these graces Death is not destroyed to him But if he deny him other things and give him these graces he doth enough for him Death is destroyed to him His body indeed falleth under the stroke of Death as other mens but his soul is not hurt Death layeth him a rotting as the common sort but the soul goeth to the possession of glory and remaineth with Christ When he is absent from the body he is present with the Lord. Nay when the last day shall come Death shall be utterly swallowed up then the poor and frail and weak body that sleepeth in corruption and mortality shall be raised in honour and in immortal beauty and glory a spiritual body free from all corporal weaknesses that accompany the natural body it shall be made most glorious blessed even as if it were a spirit all the weaknesses that accompany the natural being of the body shall be baken away and it shall enjoy as much perfection as a body can and therefore it is called spiritual Therefore I beseech you rejoyce in the Lord if your souls tell you that you are armed against this death THE WORLDS LOSSE AND THE RIGHTEOUS MANS GAINE SERMON VIII ISAIAH 57.1 And merciful men are taken away none considering that the Righteous is taken away from the evil to come WHen I first began this Verse I did never think that all things would have been so sutable to the finishing of it as now I find they are For there is no circumstance that can be required to make a correspondency between a former and a latter handling but is to be found in the two surveyes I took upon this Text. The occasion of handling it now is the same that was before I began it at a Funeral and now at another Funeral I shall end it The place of handling the same as it was before I began the former part of the Verse in this very street at the other end of it Now I shall finish it at this And the time it is the same and every way answerable to that it was before It was begun in a time of Mortality seared
there will be no mercy there is no mercy where there are the fruits of uncharitableness and if there be no mercy there will be no piety Let this therefore be the touch-stone of piety love and peace with men as the Apostle speaks As much as is possible have peace with all men I will speak no more of the meaning of the first part Marciful men are taken away It is the Commentary upon the former The second is the Predicate of the Proposition they are taken away that hath reference to this they perish It is great wisdom in the Spirit of God thus to expound one word by another That as in the body of a man those parts that are of most use God in wisdom hath made them double hath made them pairs two eyes two hands two ears c. because these are parts of great use that if one part fall away and miscarry the other part may supply if one eye be out a man loseth not his sight he hath another and so in other parts so it is in the Scripture if we mistake one word here is another that is more plain to lead us right in the meaning of the Scripture for else men would have been offended Godly men perish That is more then to die that that perisheth is lost But it is plain they are not lost in death Perishing is one step beyond death If it had been predicated of merciless impenitent unrighteous men it might have been said so they perish they not only die But what hath the righteous done who ever perished being innocent Who ever suspected and dreamed that it was possible for merciful men to perish Here cometh in the interpretation No be not deceived It is a word frequently used in the world carnall men think so but they perish not they are but took away Ye see how one word helpeth the other so this word giveth us assurance of the meaning of this Scripture and of the state and condition of a merciful man he perisheth not though the Atheists of the world think so he perisheth not to himself for then beginneth his happiness when death cometh though they perish to mens memorial and remembrance there is no remembrance of the wise man more then of the fool saith Sollomon that is worldly men that mind the world and their bellies they take no more to consideration when a righteous man a wise man dieth then a fool that is an impenitent man though I say they perish to the memorial of the world they perish not to God not to the fruition of his happiness for Death is but a porter a bridge to everlasting life then beginneth their glory Heaven that was begun before in a mistery then it is set open to them literally and personally They perish not because they are taken away there is the proof of it A man that is removed only from an Inn no man will say that he is lost That that is transplanted from one soil to another doth not perish A grast or syens though it be cut off and it is to have a more noble plantation It is so far from perishing that it is more perfect it is stablished in its nature it is set into a better There are but one of these two interpretations of perishing and neither of them can befal a godly merciful man Either it is a passage from a beeing to a not beeing and so the Beasts when they die perish because their souls are mortal as well as their bodies it is no more a living creature there is no more life it it it resolveth to its first principles the soul it is nourshed as well as the body there was a beeing before but now there is a nullity of beeing in respect of a living creature there is nothing liveth Here is a perishing from a beeing to a not beeing Again perishing may be a passage from a beeing to a worse beeing so an impenitent man when he dieth he passeth from life to death yea to an eternal death to a worse beeing that is a perishing and a proper perishing that is worse then to be lost It is better to have no beeing then to have either of these But in neither of these senses the righteous man perisheth he hath a beeing and a well-beeing after death His soul hath a eral beeing with God in happiness his body hath a beeing of hope though it be in the grave Nay it hath a real beeing of happiness as it is a member of Christ in regard of the mystical union So in no sense he perisheth he is but took away he is but removed it is but Exodus but transitus his death is not a going out of the Candle it is but a translation a removing of it to a better frame it is set upon a more glorious table to shine more bright The word is well expounded in Heb. 11. concerning Enoch whereas in the fifth of Genesis the Scripture saith Enoch walked with God and God took him in the Hebrews it is said he was translated In the one he was took away that is in respect of the world In the other he was translated that is in respect of heaven They are tock away that is from the place of misery the Dungeon the prison to a place of glory and happiness They are took away from the house of clay to the house Eternal not made with hands in the heavens they are translated upward that is meant in this So that there are two observations in this First That Piety and Mercy excuseth not from death Godliness it self freeth not a man from death Death it is that end that is propounded to all men The bodies of godly men are of the same mould and temper of the same frame and constitution as other men their flesh is as frail their humours as cholerick their spirit as sading their breath as vanishing they owe the same debt to nature to sin to God to themselves and their own happiness They are bound under the weight of the same Law the statute law is It is appointed to all men to die once It is well said to die once for the impenitent man dieth twice he dieth here by the separation of his soul from his body that is the first death and there is the second death that succeedeth that the death of the soul by a separation of it from God which is far worse But righteous and merciful men die once the first death seizeth upon them It is appointed to all It is the end of all flesh In one place It is the end of all the earth in another place It is the end of all living the end of all men even merciful and godly men are brought within the compass of this law of Nature to yeeld up this debt and due Righteousness excuses not it frees not It is a law that bindeth one as well as another As Basil of Seuleucia observeth though Adam was the first that finned
live to himself is bound to serve every man with every gift he hath If God have furnished a man with inward gifts the graces of his Spirit If a man have knowledge and faith or experience or comfort whatsoever graces of the Spirit he hath there are duties appointed and a Communion of Saints exprest that men may be stirred up to exercise those graces in that communion for the good of all the Saints Therefore we are said to have knowledge to profit with And gifts to edifie with All that a man hath God hath given him for this end that God may be glorified by it Hercin is my Father glorified that you bring forth much fruit Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Men have much benesit by the graces of the Spirit in others when they are improved as they ought they are as lights amongst men in the world Grace when it is opened like the Box of oyntment raiseth a desire in others after it Grace exercised and communicated to others it sheweth the amiableness of it Christians should therefore do it that they may make Christianity lovely that they may make the profession of Religion amiable to the world that is by communicating the graces of God to others This every man should do in his place in his person take all advantages this way And as it is good for others so it is good for a Mans self to do thus a man increaseth his own store Liberality we say is the best husbandry There is no promise in the Scripture for hoarding up there are many to distribute I say it is the best husbandry in the world especially in spiritual things it is as the oyl increased in the pouring out like the loaves the more they were broken the more they multiplied still We see the hand noursheth it self by administring food to the mouth so a Christian not only exerciseth but increaseth grace in himself by communicating grace to others And what I say for spiritual I say for outward things If a man have wealth or honor or any of these outward things and an opportunity he should imploy them for others that it may appear that he doth not live to himself He that layeth up riches only for himself and his family liveth to himself He that followeth his calling only for himself and his family liveth to himself He doth that which a man out of Christ would do but a man that would live to God he must glorifie God with his estate To do good and to distribute forget not for with such sacrifices God is pleased Heb. 13. Charge them that are rich in the world that they be not high-minded but ready to distribute to the necessities of the Saints 1 Tim. 3. It is a charge laid upon all to glorifie God with their estates with their Authority as they are magistrates as Job faith I was a foot to the lame an eye to the blind a father to the fatherless a husband to the widow He did all things for the good of others All men are ambassadours sent from God for the good of the bodies and souls of others Am I a neighbour it is for the good of the body and soul of every one that converseth with me according to the manifold gifts bestowed upon me and I live no further to God then I do extend and communicate all my particular gifts to the good of others both for soul and body Thus you have the point opened and pressed concerning living to our selves as a mark of those that are Christs that they do not live to themselves I beseech you brethren let this be the advantage of Funeral Sermons that are preached upon the occasion of the death of our deceased brethren to teach us how to live Let every man hereaster resolve to lead a profitable and fruitful life to do all the good he can while he liveth that for much good done to many thanks may be given by many on his behalf THE IMPROVEMENT OF TIME OR THE RIGHT USE OF TIMES SHORTNESSE SERMON XI 1 COR. 7.29 30. But this I say bretrhen the time is short It remaineth that both they that have Wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fassion of this world passeth away THat I may briefly come to open to you the sum of that that I have to deliver out of this Scripture I desire you beloved in the Lord in few words to take notice of the drift and scope of the holy Apostle in this place and that is this The Corinths as it seemeth in the beginning of this chapter had written a Letter to Saint Paul wherein they did propound to him divers Cases of Conscience and did intreat him that he would send him judgement concerning those points Some five or six we may gather they did write to him about One was this whether he thought it either a lawful or a fitting thing for a man to marry The second was Whether if a man were married his Wife and he might not separate themselves one from another The third was If they did live together whether it were lawful for the one to deny to the other matrimonial benevolence The fourth Whether if one of them being a Beleever and the other an Infidel it were lawful or convenient for the beleever to remain a yoke-fellow to the Insidel These and divers other cases of concience they intreated Saint Paul to resolve them in Now the Apostle in the beginning of this Chapter writeth an Answer to every one of these Questions they propounded To some of them he answered thus Indeed I canuot give an absolute determination what is to be done but I suppose this and this is best And to another I advise such a thing I cannot directly determine the will of God but I have received mercy of God to be accounted faithful and if you would know my opinion it is this And so he giveth divers doubtful answers to their Questions only he telleth them this is fittest for the opportunity When he hath done all he cometh to this I have read But this I say brethren c. As if he should say The Questions I have given you an Answer to I think you know not what to resolve upon because I say only this is my counsel or this is my opinion But this I am peremptory in that is That they that have wives be as if they had none they that weep as if they wept not and they that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not This I do not come to say I suppose and I think it sit or I give my advise or for the present occasion it is fit to be thus But brethren herein I am consident and
Host of the house who is living there and is right owner and hath the whole estate No he only resteth there for a night after his weary journey but on the morrow God be with you then he is gone So a worldly man he may say here is my estate here is my stock all that I have is laid up here But a beleever saith I am now in my journey I am here no other then a pilgrim my home is in Heaven and while I am passing through this pilgrimage If I have a piece of meat in my hunger and a cup of drink in my thirst and clothes in my nakedness there is all that I care for Thirdly the last and the main Argument to prove that every true beleever must be as if not in all the things of this world is because if he be any otherwise in them hee will be so intangled that he shall not be fit for the service of God And this third Argument will be of the greatest force to a true beleever For the other two you will say if they be none of mine why do I meddle with them and if they be empty why likewise do I meddle with them But now thirdly if I meddle with them they will make me directly that I shall not be a Christian they will hinder me from the service of my God this will make a beleever of all things to look about him The Apostle saith directly that none that warreth intangleth himself that is thus Suppose a man have received press-money to go a souldier will he be so mad as to lay out his money upon a Farm in the Countrey when upon the command of his Captaine upon pain of death he must follow presently Beloved he that intangleth himself with the things of the world and of the flesh if his wife his pleasures his credit or any thing have taken up his heart or if sorrows and afflictions drink up his spirits and eat up his very soul when God calls this man now to come to prayer to come to the Church to hear his Word to fight against his lusts or to do any duty alas his head his heart and all are eaten up with his Farme with his oxen with his wife with his crosses and afflictions so that he is altogether unfit for any service that God hath called him to Therefore saith Saint John he that intangleth himself with these things below he cannot possibly have the love of the Father dwelling in him This shall suffice for the clearing of the point I have spent the more time in it because I would fain lay as good a foundation as I might that the Application may take the deeper impression in your hearts We that live in the Country when we come up by occasion into the City and here see all men so full of trouble every man so toyled in his work so full of business and so little time taken for any thing else me thinks that such a point as this to Brethren to beleevers should be of special use Now beloved this is the sum of that I have to say Be in all these things as if not Shall we all resolve as obedient children to carry this point home and examine indeed and in truth whether we be in these things as if not But alas what shall I say I remember a story of one Thomas Lennot a learned English-man who reading once in the fifth sixth and seventh Chapters of S. Mathews Gospel how our Saviour Christ faith You have heard how it hath been said of old you must do thus and thus but I say unto you you must love your enemies pray for them that curse you do good to them that hate you and persecute you and so he goeth on in injoyning such strange duties to flesh and bloud He breaks out Oh Jesus either this is not thy Gospel or we are not Christians Truly beloved I would to God a Minister might not have just cause to say so in this point that when he cometh and reads this of the Apostle It remains brethren that he that hath a wife be as if he had none he that useth the world as not abusing it and he that buyeth as if he possessed not c. And must it be thus if we mean to be Christians I would to God I say a man might not break out and say Oh Paul either thou art not the writer of this or we are no Christians We talk and prosess it in words that we purpose to do it but if we come to the deed and the truth it is clean contrary we are not at all moderate in the use of these things In matters of Heaven and in things that concern our everlasting welfare where God would have us take the kingdome of heaven with violence Where we should cry out as the Horse-leach his daughter Give give and never say it is enough We are even like children that go to school that care not how little they have for their money In hearing if the Sermon be but half an hour we think it enough and in prayer and in conference a little will serve the turn Like the Jesuit that when he thought he had a revelation he cryed out Satis Domine enough Lord I have revelation enough So we in matters of Religion Enough Lord. But turn us to wives to children to cloaths to honours to preferments to riches to ease to pleasures and the like there we are as the barren womb that never faith it is enough Brethren is it not thus But me thinks I should bring you some particular instances to convince you that it is thus and I would to the Lord I could throughly convince you of it that thus it is with you But to instance a little Suppose now a man comes and meets with a Citizen in his business and say to him How have you spent this day Truly he will say I am so full of business that I have not time so much as to eat my meat But I hope you have been at prayer in your family have you not Alas will he say I cannot get so much as a quarter of an hours time Do you call this as if not brethren Come to another that hath a wise all his care is for her oh my wife and children if I should die and leave them poor what should I do when I sleep I dream of them when I awake in the morning my thoughts are of them Is this to be as if you had no wife and children Another he is ever a complaining and mourning oh I have such crosses I am so full of affliction I have lost such and such friends and such and such an estate and though I go to Church and hear such and such comfortable doctrines one after another and all telling me of the all-sufficiency of God of the comforts and joyes of the Spirit of the good things that are laid up in Heaven yet like Rachel
Will not God be offended and displeased Shall I go on in this vanity Would I have the judgement of God find me in this company would I have it seize upon me in this imployment in this business in this action Fear lest God should strike thee in such an act lest Death should seize upon thee in such a place and let that make thee keep a constant watch against the shares that are in those places Fourthly keep good company Company you know is a good means to keep men awake Two are better then one and wo to him that is alone saith Solomon I say good company for there are a company that will infect you Keep not company with a froward person lest thou learn his frowardness So keep not company with drunken and swearing persons these are the Divels instruments to keep a man in carnal security No keep company with those that have a charge given them to exhort one another daily and to consider one another to provoke to love and good works Keep company with the Saints and make use of all opportunities to provoke others and to be provoked by others That is the fourth help Fifthly would you be kept from this sinful security then keep God alwayes in your sight It is a good way for a man that would keep himself awake to fix his eye upon some object Fix your eye upon this main object God Whether shall I depart from thy presence faith David This is that the Lord would have his people to consider to keep them from sin in Jer. 23.23 Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God a far off Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord Can a man hide himself from God in any secret place Think in thy chamber in thy parlour in thy shop in thy house in thy friends house in the street in the Church in every place wheresoever thou art that there God is also If a man had but alwayes some one before him as a witness he would not venture upon many things that he now doth If a malefactour should see the Judge before him if the child had alwayes his fathers eye upon him or the servant had alwayes his Master sitting about him and above him though there are many that are unjust servants yet nevertheless he would serve him at least with eye-service Now set your selves in the eye of God that sees you in the dark hears you in your most secret whisperings knows every action of your life and every circumstance of those actions This will be a means to keep thee from security I will add but one more which is the sixt Consider thy latter end The night is now coming upon us If it were told any of us that this night thou shalt die as it was told the rich man in Luke 12. Thou fool this night shall they take away thy soul I think there is none that heareth me this day but he would certainly keep waking this night But it is not bodily waking we plead for but spiritual waking a waking from sin a waking to repentance And we tell you that Death is now at the door ready to seize upon you We speak not only to you that are aged that are at the brink of the grave but we speak also to you that are young Death may seize upon you and strike you this night be awakened now to repentance I remember what God said to the Church of Sardis Be watchful and strengthen the things that remain That Church was asleep as many of us are at this day God cometh to awaken you now as he did them that that little goodness you have left may be renewed and confirmed You that are quite out of the way of grace and go on in a course of sin sit now down and humble your souls get into a secret corner wherein you may consess those many provocations whereby you have provoked God all your dayes and resolve to amend if the Lord spare you Begin now delay it no longer it may be the last night the everlasting night to you take this warning now therefore be awakened to repentance This is that the Scripture calleth upon so much Eccless 11. Rejoyce O young man in the dayes of thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in thy youth and walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all this thou shalt come to Judgment As if he should say You that are in the middest of your delights that solace your selves in the middest of the abundance of the earth which you enjoy that sport your selves in the pleasures of this would know that there will come a Judgment day see therefore now what will best answer God then Since the end of all things is at hand saith the Apostle let us be sober and watch We know not how neer the end of the world is we know indeed it shall not be yet be cause Antichrist must be destroyed and the Jewes called before that day come but nevertheless certainly thy end is neer thy day thy particular death and that is the time of thy particular Judgment may be sudden It is appointed for all men once to die and after that cometh the Judgment That is the particular Judgment that cometh upon Death so I say this may be the night of thy death and the morning may be the day of thy particular doom Judg your selves now that you may not be Judged of the Lord It was the use that the Apostle made even to good men For this cause saith he many are sick and weak and many sleep that is they are dead what then If we would Judg our selves we should not be judged of the Lord. So say I to you judg your selves now bring your selves as prisoners before the Bar arraign your selves as malefactors before the Judg bring out the particular bills of inditement against your selves whereby you have provoked God yet there is mercy the day of grace and opportunity of repentance and turning unto God yet lasteth therefore do it now I might add many other helps to this purpose but these shall suffice at this present We have an example before our eyes enough to warne us of this Here is an example of Death which should teach us now to awaken our selves and not to live securely as men that dream of a long life for many years Here is a young man dead took away in the prime of his time in the beginning of his dayes his sickness though it held him not long yet it was somewhat violent How know you what a short time you have though you are now young or if you live longer what sickness you may have it may be you may be deprived of your reason and senses therefore now while health and reason and sense while these Warning Sermons are afforded take time and make use of time lest your security make good
find it out What a sort of diseases we are subject to you may imagine how many Nay yea cannot imagine how many when the very eye as some Occolists observe have above sixty diseases What a many casualties there are every moment when as oft as we step over the threshold we cannot tell whether ever we shall come home again The fire saith Death is in me and the water saith Death is in me the earth we tread on hath Death in it the Ayre we breath in that which we continually take in and put out at our nostrils hath death in it Death dwelleth with us in our houses it walketh with us in the streets it lyeth down with us in our beds it is wrapped about us in our cloaths that stick to us Benhadad is slain in his Bed Ammon at his Table Zachariah in the Temple Joah at the Altar The disobedient Prophet is torne with a Lyon The unbeleeving Prince is trod to Death in the croude Abimelech slain with a Mill-stone and Pyrrhus with the fall of a Tyle Adrian is choaked with a flie Victor is poisoned with Wine And one of the Emperours with the bread he received in the Sacrament Thus Death waiteth every where and yet we spie it not It is a secret Enemy and therefore the more dangerous Thirdly it is a Spiritual Enemy And it is the more dangerous for that Spiritual I call it First because it is invisible for the spirits are invisible they cannot be seen Such an enemy is Death though we must all feel it yet we cannot see it were it any way discernable we might think of some way how we might shift and shun it but it is beyond the ken of our eyes we are no more able to see that then the Ayre being therefore out of sight it is out of our reach we know not how to grapple with it we know not with what weapons to encounter it And a Spiritual Enemy I call it because though it seize on the body it strikes at the soul By Gods decree the death of the soul is a concommitant of the death of the Body and were it not by Gods mercy reverst they wouldstill come like lightning and thunder and strike both together Again it is a spiritual enemy because it fighteth against us in the strength of sin It cometh armed with a Sting the sting of de ath is sin Some make question whether if Adam had never sinned he should ever have died But me-thinks the Apostle Saint Paul putteth it out of question By one mans disobedience sin came into the world and by sin death All those Death 's that S. Austin reckoneth up First when the soul is deprived of God separated from him Secondly when the body is separated from the soul Thirdly when the Soul is separated from the body and from God and suffereth torments for a time Lastly when the soul is separated from God and rejoyned to the body to suffer torments eternally All these are the recompence and reward of sin Therefore Death coming and being an Enemy thus armed whatsoever kind of death it be we may well say it is a spiritual enemy and the more spiritual the more dangerous Fourthly and Lastly it is a continual enemy And it is the more dangerous for that It laies hold of us in the womb and never leaves us till it hath brought us to the Grave Beloved we do not only die when we die but all the time we live assoon as we begin to live we begin to die As Seneca saith Every day we die because every day some part of our life is gone As a candle it is no sooner lighted but presently it begins to waste as an hour-glass it is no sooner turned but presently the sand begins to run out So our life it is no sooner breathed but presently it begins to vapour out As the Sea what it gaineth in one place it loseth in another so our life what we gain one way we lose it in another look what is added to it so much is took from it the longer a man liveth the less he hath to live Death doth by us as Jacob did by Esau catcheth us in the wombe and never leaveth us So we see it is a Common a Secret a Spiritual a Continual Enemy Next we are to consider How and wherein Death sheweth it self an Enemy What Death deserveth at our hands to be thus accounted and seared Fearful and terrible it is that is certain So Aristotle It is the most terrible of all terribles Bildad in Job calleth it the King of terrours What doth Death bring with it to make it fearful I answer Death hath sundry concomitants and companions that attend it that make it a formidable Enemy First the Harbingers that come along with it Sicknesses and diseases infirmities old age and difficulties These are all fearful to nature and through fear of these Death keepeth men all their life in bondage They make our lives as it were a life rather like a life then a life indeed So that howsoever the Apostle said in another place as it were dying and behold we live There Death hath the tanquam and life the Ecce yet here we may say as it were living and behold we die here life hath the tanquam and Death the Ecce Life is but as it were a life it is but the shadow of a life that man walketh in Man walketh in a vain shadow and disquieteth himself in vain It it true it lighteth not on all alike some it cometh on as a Lyon and breaking their bones from morning to evening it makes an end of them to others it is as a Moth in the garment secretly in their lives by degrees insensibly pining and consuming them Howsoever what Harbinger soever it bringeth it visiteth us with many touches and twitches before it come falling pell-mel thick and three-fold on us when they come In respect of these it may be said to be an enemy Secondly the dissolution that Death bringeth For it dissolveth the frame of nature It divorceth and separateth the Soul from the Body those two companions that have lived so lovingly together and perhaps have lived a long time together This is another thing that makes Death look like an Euemy Friends and companions that have lived long together are loath to part we see in experience old folk commonly are more loath to part when they are old then when they are young Now there is none neerer then the soul and body there is none have lived so long or so loving it must needs be tedious for these to part and be an affliction and vexation when neither the body can longer retain the fleeting soul or the soul longer sustain the drouping body Therefore in respect of this also Death being the cause of this no marvel though nature reluctate and we look upon it as on the face of an Enemy Thirdly the horrour of the Grave
the men of darkness as Job calleth it the place of oblivion the pit of stinch and rottenness this is another thing that nature shrinketh and relucts at For there we must bury out of our sight that that once was the delight of our eyes as Ezekiel said by his wife And though it were never so lovely before yet it quickly becometh loathsome Our Beds must be made in darkness where corruption and wormes must be the Mattress and Coverled to lie under us and spread over us Thou shalt say to Corruption thou art my father and to the worme thou art my mother and my sister That body of thine that God in the wombe so wonderfully made that thou all thy life-time paradventure hast delicately cherished lapped in Silk in Fur pampered with sweet wines Death as a proud Tyrant will set his foot upon it and throw thee down to the horrid dungeon where thy flesh shall putrifie and thy bones rot and the beauty of it though somtime it were as the Rose and the Lilly of the field shall soon become as loathsome as the dung in the streets This is another thing that makes the face of Death dreadful and terrible when we think of such privations and annihilations as these that we shall come from a beeing to no beeing These cannot but make Death look with the face of an Enemy Fourthly The loss and deprivation of all worldly contentments and worldly imployments that is another thing that makes Death terrible and fearful to us Look whatsoever contentment we took in any thing here we must bid it farewel then Farewel to all to prophets and pleasures and honours we shall carry none of them away with us None of our pomp and glory shall descend after us as the Psalmist saith Farewell to all the gold and silver we have gathered together to all the goodly lands we have purchased to all the stately houses we have built to all the pleasant gardens and orchards we have planted to all the sports and pastimes we have had to all our merry consorts we have kept company with to all our Jewels and wardrope to our dauncing and feasting and musick Death pulleth us from all these and layeth us levell with the Dust It mingleth shovels and Scepters together It makes rich and poor the Prince and the Peasant alike I shall see man no more All relatians we have now shall be broken off then between Husband and Wife Parents and children Master and servants neighbour and neighbour friend and friend we shall dwell apart with our selves and not so much as shake hands one with another All the services and imployments we are took up with here shall cease then there shall be no frequenting of the Exchange no exercising of Trade no bearing of Office no working in our Calling Death is the night that no man can work in and Death is the place of silence where all affairs are cut off Where there is no work nor invension nor wisdome nor counsel as Solomou saith in the book of the Preacher Oh saith good Hezekiah I shall see the Lord no more in the Land of the living There is no more service to be done to the Lord nor no more in the Church in that manner as it is now there is no exercise of Religion no Word no Sacraments no Fasting no Almes no Preaching no Prayer no Confession and thanksgiving The Corse cannot praise thee the Grave cannot give thanks they that go down into the pit cannot honour thee Oh Beloved how careful and active and vigilant and diligent should this make us to be when we consider it for the well improving of that time that we have lent unto us and for the well-discharging of those places and offices and duties that are now laid upon us Considering that Death is an enemy that will cut us off from all affairs and bereave us of all opportunities of receiving or doing or performing any service to God at all either in Church or Common-wealth Fifthly and lastly Conscience of sin and certainty of judgment and uncertainty of salvation for brevities sake I put them together these things come along with Death and make the face of Death terrible and fearful Conscience of sin first of all For Sin it is the sting of Death And which of us is there that doth not arm Death with that sting Who can reflect on the passages of his life but he shall find it as full of sin as the Leopard of spots We find nothing in sin now but oblectation and delight and therefore we hide it under our tongue and hugg it in our bosomes Oh but when Death cometh once it thrusteth these things out and oh the horrour and anguish that the poor conscience is tormented and made to smart with Again with conscience of sin certainty of judgement that is another dreadful Arrow in Deaths quiver After Death cometh judgement And we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ to receive according to what we have done in our bodies First the particular judgement that passeth upon the soul it shall never be reverst for as the Tree falleth so it lieth And then the General judgement when the Body and Soul shall both be wrapped up in the same condemnation Oh who can dwell with devouring fire with those everlasting burnings And then lastly The uncertainty of our future estate For how many thousands be there that die that can not tell what becometh of them when they die but they must sing that Farewel to their souls as Adrian to his My poor wandring soul whether art thou going What will become of thee Death then being accompanied with such an Army of Terrours as these the Apostle might well call it as it is in the Text an Enemy That is the first thing Secondly we are to consider how it is called the last Enemy For two reasons First because it is the last that shall assault us So Caietan Secondly because it is the Last that shall be destroyed So the common stream of Interpreters It is the Last Enemy that shall assault us And here I have to note two things First that while we live in the world we have more Enemies in the world For when there are some last there must be others going before If Death be the last Enemy there are some others beside I we have so God knoweth Enemies on every side Without us within us The Divel he is an Enemy to us and vollies of tentation he hath to discharge against us So many tentations so many Enemies The World is an enemy to us An enemy when it seemeth a friend When it smileth it betrayeth it kisseth and killeth On the right hand it hath prosperity to allure on the left hand adversity to affright in every corner wicked counfell and company and examples to seduce and insnare us Lastly our own flesh is an enemy It is a Serpent
before hand with the patient and quiet bearing and enduring of these many troubles and crosses that befall thee As Agamemnon first overcome the Lacedemonians by wrastling and then by fighting and Bilney first burnt his finger in the Candle that after he might the better endure the burning of his body at the stake So think with your selves If I cannot endure a little how shall I endure more If I cannot endure a light cross a small affliction do I murmur at that Am I impatient and repine at that How shall I bear the pangs of Death when they come Therefore let us inure our selves to a meek and quiet bearing of lesser stripes so we may be better able to endure heavier strokes Many of us lay out a great deale of care how to live in the world we had more need take care how to die when we shall leave the world Study the Art of dying That is the third Lastly that we may the better subdue Death that it may not be an Enemy too strong Learn before so to dispose of our selves and order our affairs that when Death cometh we may have nothing to do but to die Get all differences reconciled all doubts settled all reckonings ordered sequester our selves from all other avocations that nothing may interrupt us when that work is to go inhand with Put thy house in order saith God to Hezekiah I say so to every one of you First your outward house that which concerneth your worldly estate put that house in order What wouldest thou make thy Will and testament and be troubled about that when thou hadst more need to have that Will and testament confirmed that Christ hath made And then set thy soul and conscience thy inner house in order let not conscience be to seek then of any thing that concerneth thee for thy peace toward God and man Die thus and die happily Though Death be an enemy yet thou shalt not be hurt of it because it is subdued and at last thou shalt get the victory over it when thou shalt see it uttery destroyed And now as I have exhorted you to do this by way of counsel so yet a little further I crave patience that I may encourage you to do it by way of example By the example of this blessed servant and Saint of God for whose occasion you have given this meeting and I have preached this Sermon Give me leave to do by her as Mary Magdelen did by our Saviour Christ to break a box of Spiknard and pour it on her that I may anoint her for her burial Concerning whom though I could say a great deal yet knowing how well she was known to you I should not be afraid to say too much Yet on the other side because the night is farr spent and because she was sufficiently known to you although I speak but a little I shall speak enough She dwelt among you who is he that can speak ill of her who knew her but reported well of her The Apostle Saint Paul reduceth all the practical parts of Christianity to three heads Living soberly and righteously and holily The grace of God saith he hath appeared and teachth us to do all this She had learned to live soberly She was a pattern of sobriety Sober in her countenance in her diet in her apparel in her speeth in all her behaviour And the grace of God taught her to live righteously both in those things that concern the works of justice and those things that concern the works of mercy both are referred to righteousness For her justice I am perswaded she was exceeding careful in all her wayes to keep a good Conscience I am sure she was a woman very diligent and painful in her Calling she was truly one of those good house-wives that Solomon describeth in Prov. 31. and had studied that Chapter well and attained the practise of it she could never endure idleness in any there was no plague she said to idleness and that diligence in our Callings sets open a door to many blessings and shuts up the door to many tentations I may call her a discreet woman that was a crown to her husband so Solomon said a vertuous woman is He had a rich portion when God gave him her Houses and lands come by inheritance but a Prudent wife cometh of the the Lord. She was an excellent guide to her family to her servants Children she had none She had such children as S. Austin speaks of and he saith they are those children that women are saved by What children saith he Good works and those children she was full of She did the part of a Mother in bringing up her servants that were with her insomuch as she would say sometimes though they were none of her own children Behold here am I and the children that God hath given me And for works of mercy aswell as justice she was most open-hearted and handed not only to do according but beyond her ability alwayes ready upon every occasion to distribnte and administer to the necessities of the Saints and provoked and stirred others to the doing of the like Among her neighbours she lived unblameably A woman of a meek and quiet spirit and Saint Peter saith Such of God are much set by She was no tatler nor busie medler in other folks matters For Piety she was remarkable She shewed it both in her health and sickness In her health both publikely and privately In publike She was a religious frequenter of the ordinances on the Lords day and on the week dayes a diligent hearer and attender an exceilent rememberer one of the best Remembrancers that I have heard of And in private she was excellent for duties there both for the discharge of her own duty by giving ensample to others and many times by good and godly exhortations and instructions and daily by private reading and prayer she set apart some time for her self for private meditation In her sickness she was a spectacle for thousands to look on It pleased God to lay a long and heavy affliction upon her She had a Cancer in her breast that had been on her three years in the two last years she suffered a great deal of extremity as you may imagine by one thing that I shall say She was fain to endure a great deal of dressing with Corrasives and sharp medicines a great deal of cutting and searing and burning she was above fifty times burnt with hot Irons but Lord with what patience did she still endure it She would say It was no matter sanctified afflictions were better then unsanctified prosperity Apelles said when the picture of a beautiful woman was to be compleatly drawn he must borrow one part from one and another from another and put all together She had learned this She had looked on many good patterns in the Scripture and had drawn to her self an imitation of them all so that she was a perfect and
avoids the corruptions that are in the world through lusts But this looking for the second coming of Christ This Argument John the Baptist used to press upon his hearers the Doctrin of repentance because the king dome of God was at hand This is that upon which Saint Peter groundeth his exhortatoin unto the people Acts 3.18 Repent saith he and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord Therefore repent and return unto God do away your sins because there will a time of refreshing come and you had need then to be found in another hue in another state then in your old rotten withered condition and sinful lusts This is the Argument that the Aposte used to the Athenians to bring them from Idolatry to serve the living God because God hath appointed a time to judg the world in righteousness by that man whom ho hath ordained Even for that reason because God hath appointed a time to judg the world in righteousness therefore they should turne from their Idols to serve the living God There is nothing that doth so unbottome the heart nothing so shakes and looseneth a mans hold of sin and unrighteousness as the consideration of Christs coming to Judgment What will it boot me will the soul reason to keep my sins when Christ will come to judg me for my sins What shall I get by going on in a course of sin when I can look for nothing then but a sentence of wrath to be denounced against me This then is that that doth settle a man in a holy conversation in that respect Nay fourthly this is that also which quickneth a man to the practise of all holy duties in his place both in his general and particular Calling It is the very argument which the Apostle Saint Peter useth to stir us up to holiness of conversation Seeing saith he that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat As if he should have said Look now about the whole world and see what it is that now can comfort you if you be such as go on in a course of sin It may be you will say I fear not much for I have many friends Yea but all these shall die It may be thou hast store of lands but all that shall be burnt with fire It may be thou hast many pleasures but then there shall be nothing but Judgment The coming of the Lord that shall then put an end to all these and turn the course of things the expectation thereof is a special means to take us off from a course of sin and put us on to a course of obedience to make us walk in another kind of fashion while we are in the world Therefore the Apostle Saint Paul when he would â—…ir up Timothy to the work of the Ministry what is the Argument that he useth I charge thee before Christ who shall judg the quick and the dead As if he should say there shall be an appearing before the Lord and therefore if thou wilt give thy account up with joy at that day I charge thee to look to thy Ministry So may I say to every man in his place I charge thee that art a Master of a Family look to the business of thy family to the salvation of the souls of thy people I charge thee that art a father or a mother to look to the salvation of the souls of thy children I charge thee that art a Christian to look to the salvation of thy own soul And how is the charge I charge thee before the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judg the quick and the dead Because there shall come a time when both thou and they shall be present before Christ at his appearing therefore if thou wilt have comfort in them and in thy self and in Christ be careful to do the duty that concerns thy place Looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus So then you see in this respect also there is nothing so forcible an Argument to settle a man in a holy conversation in a heavenly course as this for a man alwayes to look for the second coming of Christ Lastly there is nothing fixeth a man so constantly in a holy course as this Our conversation faith the Apostle is alwayes in heaven We alwayes walk on earth as those that aspire to heaven because we alwayes look for the coming of Christ Wert thou carefnl to serve God yesterday do it to day also it may be Christ may come now and take thee away by death to day and there is no preparation for judgment afterward Little children saith Saint John now abide in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming What is it that giveth a man boldness and takes away shame from him at the coming of Christ What is the reason that a man hath not that spirit of fear and trembling upon him that shall be upon the hearts of all those that go on in sin when they shall cry to the mountains to fall upon them but this that he hath continued in a holy conversation and constantly walked before the Lord with an upright heart I have finished my course saith the Apostle I have fought a good fight I have kept the faith hence-forth is layd up for me a crown of righteousness which Christ the righteous Judg shall give to me and to all them that love his appearing Still the servants of God have incouraged themselves to persevere in a holy course from the expectation of the coming of Christ that will give them a reward for their constancy in his service It is the Argument that the holy Ghost useth to the Church of Philadelphia Rev. 3.11 Hold fast that thou hast and let no man take thy crown As if he should say There is a time coming when Crowns shall be given but to whome to those that hold out that persevere in a godly course Be thou faithful to the death and thou shalt receive a crown of glory This is that I say that will make a man go on will make him that is good in youth be good in age also because whensoever he dieth he shall receive his Crown This will make a man that he shall not begin in the spirit and end in the flesh this will make him that having put his hand to the plough he will not look back because he no further looks for comfort in the appearance of Christ then he hath had care to walk on constantly in a good course Thus you see the point proved to you that a Christian soul hath a main benefit by his looking for the second coming of Christ
and that this is it that makes him careful to mortifie his secret lusts that this is it that makes him careful to purge himself from worldly affections that this is it that makes him industrious to avoid evil courses that this is it that makes him diligent in good actions that this is it that makes him constant and to persevere to the end in all holy wayes and in avoiding of all evil because he looks for and waites for the coming of Christ Now then take this for a main tryal of your selves concerning the former point Whether you can with comfort looke for the coming of Christ or no There shall be abundance at that day that shall hang down their heads I saw saith Saint John the Divine the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief Captaines and the mighty men and every bond-man and every free-man men of all sorts hide themselves in the dens and in the rock of the mountians and said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand Would you therefore hold up your heads with comfort and with joy that when you hear a Funeral Sermon it might comfort you to think It will not be long before my time shall come before my time shall be would you in truth have freedome from the fear of death which Christ hath purchased for he tooke upon him the same nature because the children were partakers of flesh and blood that he might free them who for fear of death were hold in bondage all their life Would you have comfort in Christs coming to Judgment See how effectually this works in you Is it thus effectual that because you look for Christs coming therefore you prepare your selves therefore you purge out your lusts and corruptions because there shall be nothing then when the secrets of all bearts shall be manifest that shall be displeasing to him when he shall come Are you careful to let fall worldly affections because you have a comfortable apprenension of heavenly joyes Are you careful to turn your course from sin because you would not lie open to the judgement of condemnation Are you careful to do good to persevere in the practise of godliness because he that shall come will come and will not tarry If it be thus with you then you may with comfort think of that day then you may with chearfulness look upon the day of death the day of death then is better then the day in which thou wert borne It is better to thee then the day of thy marriage it is the day of that great Marriage that shall be made between Christ and thy soul to all eternity It is better then the day that thou obtainest thy freed one then the day that thou comest out of thy Apprentiship it is the day wherein thou art set free and brought unto the glorious liberty of the sons of God It is a day that is better then the day of the enjoyment of the greatest comforts of this life because it sets thee in the possession of pleasures that are at Gods right hand for evermore Take this consideration therefore to heart and that you may walk in a holy course the better and with more constancy keep the object alwayes close to your eye Think with your selves and say If we would walk as Saints in heaven we must live as Saints on earth But how shall we do this Be often thinking of the coming of Christ often put this question to your souls What if Christ should now come If he should come now I am in the Church am I hearing the Word with that affection that I ought to here it with If he should come now I am in my calling in my world business do I follow it with a heavenly disposition as I ought to do What if he should come now while I am feasting should he take me as one feasting with fear lest I should sin against God in my mirth What if he should come and take me asleep have I made my peace with God before I went to rest Work these considerations upon thy soul When the morning cometh think it may be Christ will come and take me away before evening how shall I walk this day that I may have comfort in the coming of Christ When the Evening is come think it may be I shall never see morning before the great day of the Resurrection what now shall I do that if I die in my sleep I may rest in the Lord and so may have comfort in his appearance Either this moment either this minute settle thy comfort and peace with Christ or it may be the next hour it will be too late And remember that if ever you will live a holy life if ever you will have a heavenly conversation on earth you must be much and seriously settled in this meditation slight it not pass it not in your thoughts as a matter of discourse but let it be a working meditation let it be effectual to produce somewhat in you that may warm and heat your hearts and to set on fire the whole soul and to purge out the dross of corruption that remains in you Thus you see what it is that the Apostle here undertakes for himself and for as many as walked as he did they had a heavenly Conversation and that which made them have a heavenly conversation was the looking for the coming of Christ This was the fruit of their looking for the coming of Christ it made them walk in a heavenly conversation on earth There is another fruit of this by their looking for Christ they shall find him to be a Lord and Jesus We look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Which word sheweth that all that Christ did for the purchase of our redemption he did it by price and by power He did it by price he satisfied his Fathers Justice and so he is a Saviour We wait saith the Apostle 1 Thes 1.10 for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come And by power to over Sathan so he is a Lord the Lord of might Thou shalt find at the day of Christs that he will both be Saviour and Lord to thee A Saviour to free thee from sin and condemnation A Lord to bestow upon the heaven and glory with the Saints This is another benefit of our looking for Christs coming in the manner before spoken of we shall find him then to be a Lord and Jesus one that will save us from our sins and one that hath power to bestow heaven upon us Wouldest thou then have this comfort at that day Let him be so here to thee in this life let him be thy Lord and commander of all thy
affections of the whole man yeeld obedience now to his will and thou shalt find him a Jesus then He is not a Jesus a Saviour except he be a Lord and Commander also But you see I cannot stand to insist upon this The occasion of our meeting at this time is to commit to the Earth the body of our Sister departed She hath now the termination and conclusion of all her waiting and expectation And after so long a waiting there remaineth a sleeping in the Grave awhile when the soul resteth in the hands of Christ and waiteth for that great day when body and soul shall be joyned together I perswade my self well of her that She was one of the number of those waiters that shall have joy at the coming of Christ I had not much knowledg af her only I observed in her sickness a good purpose and desire of new and better obedience and performing better service to Christ then she had done if God should have spared her longer And she expressed also a great desire of Christs second coming a desire that he would receive her to himself and that these dayes of sin might be finished Much she was in these desires and she had good warrant for it for she was careful as I am informed to set up the kingdome of Christ in her Family It is the duty of a good Wife to be a help to her Husband especially in matters of piety and the worship of God and therein her example should teach wives to strive herein She was alwayes stirring him up to prayer in his Family to a more careful sanctifying of the Lords day herein She was frequent She was much mortified to the world for some late years as it was observed in her daily course by those that knew her Thus she laboured to fit her self and her Family that she might have comfort in the great Day of the appearing of the Lord Jesus I speak upon information for your edification to stir you up to labour to fit your selves for Christ by purging out of sin in your hearts and lives Labour to fit your Families for Christ that when you and your servants and children shall appear before him you may look on them and look on Christ with comfort as men that before have prepared themselves for the coming of Christ and as those that then shall lift up their heads because the day of their redemption draweth nigh CHRISTS PRECEPT AND PROMISE OR SECURITY AGAINST DEATH SERMON XVII JOHN 8.51 Verily verily I say unto you if a man keep my saying he shall never see Death IT is not long men and brethren since Death rode in triumph thorow this City and did bear down all before him he locked up your houses pulled down your windows and made the wealthiest among you put upon them the semblance of Banckroutness by locking up their doors and turning their backs to their houses and running away so it plaid the Tyrant then there died thousands a week and the Grave that alwaies cryeth Give give was almost cloyed with carkasses Death served himself so fast that the Prison could scarse hold the Prisoners It might almost have been said then of this City as once it was of AEgypt There was scarse a house wherein some were not dead at least where there was not the fear of Death Now it hath pleased God to shew you more favour and men now die but by scores Death goeth his old pace and takes away a few secretly without observation But Death is amongst you still and still will be so long as sin is among you and therefore it will not be unseasonable upon this occasion for me to speak and you to hear somewhat that may arme you against this last and worst Enemy Death which though he make not such a stir in these times of less Mortality yet he will certainly take us all away one by one And who can tell but he may be amongst the number of the hundred or fewer hundreds that die now as no man could tell wether he should be amongst the number of the thousands then Since Death therefore is alwayes an enemy and alwayes fighteth against us though not alwayes with like fury and violence it is a part of wisdome in us alwayes to hear and to practise that which may secure us against the danger of death And that is taught in this Text. Verily verily I say unto you If a man keep my saying he shall never see death Wherein not to speak any thing of the Context I pray take notice who speaks the words The Author of truth the Death of Death he that can best tell by what means a man may shun the hurt of it he that hath vanquished it and overcome the uttermost of his assaults Our Lord Jesus Christ that hath slain death and brought life and immortality to light He giveth us this direction for the avoyding of the hurt of Death Then observe the manner of his speaking Verily verily I say unto you with an affirmation earnest and redoubled He never affirmed any thing unture therefore that which he speaks is an undoubted verity He never spake any thing rashly therefore that which he affirmed so earnestly is a weighty thing and of great consequence And lastly observe that which I only shall insist upon the matter of his direction here comprehended in a hypothetical proposition which hath as all such have two parts An Antecedent and a Consequent In the one he sheweth the Duty to be done as a necessary condition for the obtaining of that which is specified in the other The first hath the Duty The second the benefit that floweth from the Duty These two are knit together in a most necessary consequence If a man keep my word he shall never see death You see now the only and perfect remedy against the evil of Death that is to keep the saying and word of Christ If any would know by what means he may be secured against the terrible of all terrible things as one calleth Death here is a sure and certain rule for him and he need not doubt of it it cometh from the mouth of Christ let him keep his saying and then Death shall never do him harm I will first interpret these words unto you and then make them good by Scripture and Reason and then apply them and commit my self and you and all at last to the blessing of God First then when our Saviour Christ saith If a man we must conceive him to mean generally at least indefinitely If any man whatsoever for so it pleaseth him to in large his promise in the redoubling of the word that no man may have cause to say he is excluded except he exclude himself Keep my sayings Here first I must shew you what is meant by sayings and then what it is to keep those sayings The Saying or words of Christ is the doctrine of the Gospel the Covenant of Grace which by an excellency
God for by faith we are become the children of God This Faith in Christ the Law doth not teach the former Covenant would not accect What to bring to the Law the Righteousness of another the satisfaction of another and to trust upon that to be entertained and received the Law rejects it Thou must pay thy self in thy own person and with thy own goods thou must yeeld perfect obedience to the Law and fully accomplish it in thy own person it will not receive payment of another for thee it will not accept satisfaction of the righteousness of another on thy behalf But oh the sweetness of the Doctrine of the Gospel If we have a Treasurer that is able and willing to pay the debt that will tender and make payment of it we shall be accepted for his sake so that we give him the glory of resting upon this payment and be not so absurd as to mix any action of our own to that payment that â—…e hath made fully and compleatly for us This is a Doctrine of sweetness and favour and great compassion that though we cannot do it of our selves we shall be accepted if our Surety will do it for us so that we give our Surety the glory of being a prefect and able pay-master and relye wholly upon his satisfaction The last part of the condition on our side is that we yeeld New obedience to the Law Perfectly to obey it to which we are tyed hy the former Covenant But now this is the obedience of the Gospel a thing far different from the obedience of the Law that was formerly required in the old Covenant there a man was tyed and bound to obey perfectly fully compleatly without any defect In a word he must pay the uttermost farthing he must do his duty his whole duty in in all the parts and degrees with all fulness of perfection absolutely without any defect or want without any imperfection at all An impossible labour for corrupted men a service that none all having lost those abilities that God gave man at the first can ever reach to But then cometh the sweet Gospel the Doctrine of grace and favour of tender compassion and faith thus If thou wilt consent to obey thou shalt eate the good things of the Land If you mortifie the deeds of the body by the spirit you shall live Rom. 8.13 But if you though never so much in shew under the Covenant of Grace live after the flesh you shall die Ye see New Obedience is required absolutely as a Condition of the Gospel for the obtaining of everlasting happiness for the escaping of Death and Saint John faith If we walk in the light we have fellowship one with another and the bloud of Christ shall purge us from all sin so that this walking in the light and New Obedience is obsolutely required of all those that intend to be made partakers of Christ and his benifits they must give up their souls and bodies as instruments of his glory and not serve sin any longer in the lusts thereof they must not give their members as weapons of unrighteousness to sin but live as becometh them that are one with Christ mortifying all the lusts of the flesh and quicken themselves or being quickened with him to parctise all good things required in his word and to obey all his commands which was first written in Adams heart and then in Tahles of stone This New Obedience is the same in substance that was required in the former Covenant but now with a gracious acceptation of endeavour after perfection instead of perfection the former tyed us to the obedience of all that was required in all fulness and then promising acceptance but the obedience that the Gospel requires is striving to this perfection in truth and sincerity desiring and labouring after it in putting out our selves towards it and then promising acceptance through the perfection of Christ in and by which our imperfections are done away Now Brethren you understand what this saying of the Lord Christs is by vertue of the keeping of which we must be secured if we be secured from the hurt of Death What is it now to Keep the saying of Christ It is to inform our Judgements in the understanding of these truths and assent to them as truths and to practise and follow them to do the duties which we have heard to practise the Doctrine of Repentunce and Beleeving and Obedience I confess our Saviour doth proclaim it thus Repent and beleeve the Gospel but for the more clear explaining of it we make new Obedience a thing of it self and not included in the Doctrine of Repentance for it is an act of that whereof Repentance is a resolute wishing and desiring A man cannot possibly rest on Christ for salvation till he hath so asked pardon as he resolveth an amendment and when he hath this resolution and relyeth on Christ for the pardon of his sin then from him he receiveth power to amendment of life and so his purpose cometh to action and his desire to execution Thus alone these two things differ as far as I conceive Now I say this is the Doctrine of the Gospel and to keep it is to know and beleeve and follow it to beleeve and obey as Christ faith If you know these things there is one part of the duty happy are you if you do them there is a second for they can never be done except they be done as known And thus I have interpreted the first part of the Proposition namely the Antecedent Let us say somewhat of the latter too the benefit that followeth upon the former duty and for the obtaining of which the former duty is necessary namely that he shall never see death What is it to see Death And what Death is meant here To see good things in the Scripture phrase is as much oftentimes as to enjoy them to have the benefit and commodity of them to receive them to entertain them Without holiness no man shall see God that is no man shall enjoy God Blissed are the poor in spirit for they shall see God that is thay shall enjoy God On the contrary to see a thing that is tearmed Evil is to be annoyed with it to have the hurt of it lying upon a man and pressing him down as they in Jeremy said Let us go into Egypt where we shall not see sword or famine meaning that they should not be pursued by war and want of things needful so that by seeing evil is meant the evil lying upon one and annoying and hurting one and so I suppose it is meant here And by Death is meant Natural and as we may tearm it supernatural and eternal Death For the keeping of Christs sayings so freeth men from the latter as they never come neer it and so freeth them from the former as they never dread to be under the power of the latter And the first Death of
the outward man which is the separation of the Body from the Soul it is no Death if it separate not both from God which it can never do if a man keep the sayings of Christ therefore though his body that keepeth the sayings of Christ be took from his soul yet he seeth not death so as to have any hurt by it he feeleth no ill by it nay it is good to him for it is a passage from misery to rest and felicity Thus ye have these words as faithfully interpreted to you as I know how And now I will make proof of this Doctrine thus explicated namely that thus to keep Christs sayings to know and follow the Doctrine of the Gospel is the only sure way to escape the danger and hurt of Death Saint Peter acknowledgeth as much when he said to the Lord Jesus Christ that he had the words of Eternal life then he that keepeth them is certainly safe against the hurt of Death So the Angel speaks to the Apostles whom the Pharisees had imprisoned when he brought them forth of Prison he biddeth them speak to the people the words of this life since Christs Doctrine is the word of life it must needs follow that the keeping thereof is a perfect Antidote against the poyson of Death And Saint Peter when he gave an account to the rest of the Apostles and the brethren of Judea of his going to the Gentiles he saith that an Angel appointed Cornelius to send for him that he might speak words to him whereby himself and his family should be saved and those words which cause a man to be saved you know will give him freedome enough from Death Thus I have proved the point by expresse Texts and there are two reasons of it The first is delivered by the Apostle Saint John in the first Epistle and second Chapter where he faith let that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning that is the Doctrine of the Gospel which Christ taught his sayings if that remain in you you also shall continue in the Son and in the Father He that hath fellowship with the Son and with the Father can never see Death for God is the fountain of life therefore those that are one with him and continue in him cannot see Death no more then he can be overwhelmed with darkness that is where the Sun shineth fully no more then the body can be dead as long as it hath communion with the soul so those in whom the word of Christ remaineth and stayeth they are assured that they shall remain with the Father and the Son and therefore being united to that that is life God the Father and the Son it is impossible that ever they should be hurt by the first or ever at all taste of the last Death Again the Word of Christ freeth him in whom it remaineth from the power and hurt of sin bringing to him remission of sins and sanctification And being free from sin the cause of Death it is easie to conjecture that he shall be freed from Death it self Let a mans Debt be satisfied and let the favour of the Prince be obtained and a Pardon granted the Prison shall never hold him long he shall not be brought to the place of Execution but when his guives are knocked off he is set at liberty so when we have obtained power against sin by the powerful work of the Spirit of God which alwayes at the same time doth bend the heart of man to rest on Christ for salvation and heartily to indevour to walk before him in holiness and righteousness when I say we are thus freed from the power and guilt of sin it is impossible that Death should lay hold upon us as his prisoner to carry us to the dungeon of Hell and to hold us under the wrath of God and that fiery indignation of his that causeth Hell to be Hell Therefore certainly the words of Christ are an undoubted truth and we must rest upon them without all distrust and wavering that he that keepeth his sayings shall never see death and that the knowledge and beleeving and obeying the Doctrine of the Gospel is the only sure way to escape the hurt and ill of Death it self Let us make some Application of this Doctrine to our souls First to stir us up to a right hearty thankfulness unto Almighty God that is pleased to cast our times and dayes into that age and those places where the Doctrine of the Gospel this Saying of our blessed Saviour is so clearly and plainly and evidently laid open to you and frequently and earnestly prest upon your souls where the Lord cometh to declare unto you the way to life where he scoreth you out a path that will bring you quite out of the clutches and danger of Death this is the happiness of our present Age and place where we live and this whole kingdom too The grace and mercy and favour of our loving God hath so disposed of us that we do not live in times of Paganisme and darkness where there was no news of Christ that we live not in places of Popish darkness where the Doctrine of the Gospel is so mixed and darkned with tricks and devices of their own that they cannot see Christ clearly It is our happiness I say that we do not live in those places and times where either Paganisme or Popery with their darkness covered Christ from us and caused us that we could not clearly see or hear him and so not keep his sayings But now grace is offered light is tendered to us we may be saved we may escape the danger of damnation if the fault be not solely and wholly in our carelesness and wilfulness and neglect and abuse of the means that God hath afforded us The heathen men that have not heard of Christ cannot possibly attain to life as far as we can judge by the Scripture And it is very difficult for the Papists that hear so darkly and are told of the Doctrine of the Gospel with so many sophistications to come to be saved But for us that have the Doctrine of the Gospel so plainly and carefully taught us and revealed unto us we may be saved and may easily see the way to obtain salvation So we go beyond them in happiness Oh blessed be the name of the Ever-living God that beside the peace and plenty and other temporal benefits wherewith he hath crowned this unworthy Nation of ours he hath added this blessing of blessings this King of favours to give us so clear a revelation of the Doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ alone Blessed be his name and let your hearts say Amen to this thanksgiving and let it be one part of your endeavour this day to give solemne praise every man apart and his Family apart for this unspeakable mercy of his in making you live in the dayes of Light and in the bright Sun-shâ—…ne of
the Gospel and you shall prove your selves to have begun to have kept Christ saying if you be thankful for his making of it known unto and for writing of it in your hearts This is the first Vse Next I beseech you let me take boldness to reprove I fear a great number of you of a sin whereof I will make it appear you are guilty Men there are that make large promises to themselves that they shall never be damned they shall not go to Hell they hope Death shall not have power to dragg them from this world to the place of darkness Thou hopest so Come render a reason of thy hope To hope without a ground is to deceive ones self with extream folly As for example there are a number of prisoners in New-gate or in some other Prison should they hope for some man of great wealth to pay their debts and save them from hanging should they not be arrant fools to hope except they could shew some ground for their hope and some evidence for their expecting of such a kindness Thou that hopest thou shall never see Death come answer God in thy conscience dost thou keep the saying of Christ or no Where is the knowledge of the Doctrine of the Gospel Dost thou beleeve that which concerns thee touching thy misery and so apply that to thy self to make thee a penitent sinner Dost thou beleeve the Doctrin concerning the Remedy and so apply that to thy self to make thee perfect thy repentance by being not only grieved for sin but taking boldness to confesse it and ask pardon and by framing thy self in thankfulness to amendment of life and new obedience Dost thou I say know this Doctrine and so know it as to practise it Hope and spare not the more thou hopest the better thy hope is the stronger and surer it is the more thou glorifiest God and the more it shall comfort thee But oh unhappy man if thou findest not in thy self the care and power in some measure to do these things cursed be thy hopes because they be disgracefull to Almighty God tending to make him a lyar and an unjust person and because they are dangerours to thy own soul tending to rock thee asleep in the cradle of security Cursed be those unsound and sandy-built hopes of most men that never yet applied themselves to confesse and lament their sins that never applied themselves to crave pardon and to resolve upon amendment that never studied to throw themselves into the Armes of Gods mercy in Christ for pardon that never intended to mortifie the deads of the body and to subdue the flesh with the lusts thereof and yet they hope they shall not be damned thou maist as well hope that the Divel shall come out of Hell into Heaven as thou to go out of earth into Heaven If thy hope be not grounded upon the workings of these graces because thou findest thy self penitent because thou findest thy self careful to strive to rest wholly upon Christ for salvation because thou findest thy self industrious in the study of newness of life except I say thy hope be thus grounded it is the vainest thing in the world and it will never do the good at the last hour Brethren give me leave to tell you that there are two Gospels in the world the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Belzebub as I may call it the Gospel of the Divel that comes from Hell and tendeth to bring men thither Christs Gospel is Repent and beleeve and obey and be saved The Divels gospelis say you beleeve make your selves imagine that you have faith and then never care for repentance and obedience and you shall be saved Christs Gospel is summed up thus by the Prophets Return to him and live But the Divils goeth thus Assure thy self thou shalt live though thou care not for repentance Oh let not the Divel beguile you with that false and counterfeit Gospel of his whosoever leaneth to it shall find it like the Authour of it a Lyar and when he hath trusted to it that confidence and hope of his shall be as the Spiders web the Beesome of destruction shall sweep it and him down to the depth of Hell Death shall have dominion over him and carry him from this present world to the region of darkness into eternal torment he shall see Death in the grimness and terribleness of it he shall feel it in all the extremity that the wrath of God can inflict upon the children of disobedience Thirdly I have to command and require you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that you apply your selves to a thing tending so much to the honour of him and to the commodity and comfort of your own souls I have shewed you that Jesus Christ hath revealed a way how you should escape the danger of Death eternal and the hurt of Death natural I beseech you now fall a doing one while as you have been busied in hearing To what purpose is it that you flock to hear Sermons and throng to receive the Word except you lay it up in your hearts and apply your selves to practise If thou hast not begun before now begin if thou hast begun before now resolve to proceed with more life and courage Either begin or persist in the practise of the Doctrine of the Gospel If thou hast not repented I require thee in the name of the living God to make this hour the first beginning of thy repentance and apply thy self to lay the foundation of that work before thou lay thy head to sleep Go and call to mind thy sins and make thy cheeks wet at least thy heart heavy for the multitude of thy great offences down on thy knees in thy Closet make thy confession of them to God sigh for them mourn for them labour to weep for them afflict thy soul with great sorrow and remorse then cry for pardon and remission as the thiese begs at the bar for mercy so do thou for the forgiveness of thy sins through Christ Jesus and put upon thy self a firm resolution and stedfast purpose to go on no more in the wayes of wickedness to practise grosse sins no more nor no more to allow any sin that thou knowest to be a sin though it be never so small Doe thus my brethren and then you may and will it will follow almost of it self rest on Christ for salvation He that so seeth his own sins as unfeignedly to lament for them and to judge himself before God if he apprehend the truth of the Doctrine of the Gospel he cannot for his life but come on amain and throw himself down before Christ to imbrace and receive and entertain him and lie in his Bosome And that man cannot for his life when he seeth the sweetness of the grace of God in Christ but resolve to obey him and determin to walk in the wayes of holiness and take pains and use industry for the
men oft rejoyce they are prudent and wise And you see that this is a vain thing In the second place if a young man rejoyce in his honour and credit amongst men this also is vain Solomon hath shewed it Eccles 2.16 He declareth to us that all the honour of the world will end in oblivion there is saith he no remembrance of the wise more then of the fool for ever for that which now is in the dayes to come shall be forgotten and how dieth the wise man as the fool Again if a man rejoyce in honour and much glory he cannot beleeve so faith Christ John 5.44 How can you beleeve since you seek honour one of another and not the honour that cometh of God only And it is noted to be the reason why many of the chief Rulers that beleeved on Christ did not confesse him without which faith cannot be unfeigned because they loved the praise of men more then the praise of God John 10.43 Nay further the Apostle sheweth us that this is the cause of envy Gal. 5.26 Be not desirous of vain-glory envying one another Envy is a vexing affection this vain-glory is the cause of this envy whereby we shall pine away when we see the happiness and welfare of our brethren Further if young men delight in pleasures which is the common course of youth these also are vain things I said in my heart saith Solomon Eccles 2.2 Go to now I will prove thee with mirth therefore enjoy pleasure and behold this also is vanity Kings that have had the greatest wisdome to invent them and the greatest leisure to use them yet they never found full contentment in the same I made me saith he vers 4. great works I builded me houses I planted me vineyards I made me gardens and orchards and planted trees in them of all kind of fruits I made me pools of water I got me servants and maidens also I had great possessions of great and small cattel above all that were in Jerusalem before me I got me men-singers and women-singers and the delights of the sons of men as musicall instruments of all sorts Here were the pleasures of Solomon But vers 11. Behold saith he I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought and on the labour that I had laboured to do and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit and there was no profit under the Sun The wise Solomon that had been trying every creature whether it had any thing in it that might give him a true rellish profest that there was no profit under the Sun Yet further these pleasures shall cease there shall be an end of them 1 Cor. 7.29 The time is short it remaineth that those that have wives be as though they had none they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not they that buy as though they possessed not they that use the world as not abusing of it for the fashion of this world passeth away Lastly our Saviour Christ in Luke 8.14 sheweth that the pleasures of this life choak the word of God that it cannot bring forth grateful fruit to God Fourthly if young men delight in riches and rejoyce in their estates that God that given them this likewise is a vain thing For first many times wealth is gotten by deceit and then God bloweth on it Jer. 5.27 As a cage is full of birds so are their houses full of deceit therefore they are become great and waxen rich shall not I visit for these things saith the Lord and shall net my soul be avenged on such people as this Again wealch is kept with much sorrow Eccles 5.12 The sleep of the labouring man is sweet whether he eate little or much but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep Thirdly wealth is lost with a great deal of sorrow and vexation Rev. 18.18 when the smoak of Babylon ascended up to heaven Oh what lamencation there was they cryed out What city is like unto this great city and they cost dust on their heads and cryed weeping and wailing saying Alas alas that great city wherein were made rich all that had shipps in the sea by reason of her costliness for in one hour is she made desolate But suppose further that a man should get and keep his wealth in the fear of God yet these things are most uncertain as the Apostle faith 2 Tim. 1.16 Charge them that are rich in this world that they trust not in uncertain riches Lastly these riches cannot preserve our life so faith Christ himself Luke 12.25 Take heed and beware of Covetousness for no mans life is preserved by the abundance of that he possesseth In the last place If young men rejoyce in friends and Allies this also is a vain thing For Psal 62.9 The man of low degree is vanity and the man of high degree is a lie to be laid in the ballance they are lighter then vanity Again no friend can deliver us from Death Psal 49.7.8 No man can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransome for him for the redemption of their soul is precious and it ceaseth for ever that he should still live for ever and not see corruption Thus I have shewed several things that young men rejoyce in and have shewed likewise that their joy is founded upon vanity upon nothing And this is the second means to heal young men of the inordinateness of their Joy to meditate with themselves how vain and frivolous all things are that they delight in The third means is to betake themselves to seek spiritual joy The well-head of this Joy is God whom the Scripture calleth the God of cousolation The instrument to convey this Joy is Faith Rom. 5.1 Being jnstified by faith we have peace with God The grounds of this Joy are twofold First the good things exhibited Secondly the good things promised The good things exhibited That God hath written our names in the book of life Here is the fountaine of spiritual joy to a true Christian Rejoyce saith Christ not that the divels are fallen before you but that your names are written in the book of life Secondly the other ground of spiritual joy is the good things promised us And those may be reduced to two heads God hath made promises either in regard of evil things as we call them of afflictions that befall us Or the weakness of the graces that are in us Now in the evil of Affliction we may rejoyce first In the promise of protection in affliction 2. In the promise of Edification by affliction 3. In the promise of deliverence from affliction All in the best season Again for the defects of grace in us which indeed is a thing exceeding grievous to a true Christian Here we may rejoyce First In the promise of preserving of grace 2. In the promise of augmentation and
still a generation to praise God their Creator and so being a temporal thing ordained for the office of this life it ceasoth when Death cometh there is nothing but Death and that which Christ speaks of in the Gospel can make a separation when death cometh all relations cease and a wife is no wife and a husband is no husband Behold out of this the infinite love of God in Christ that hath made all things all unions and contracts hath made all to be void but his own for our Lord Jesus in life and death is our Husband our Lord our Master our Father as well in the one as in the other whereas by the intercourse of death all things are dissolved two of the best friends that are may part upon discontent and body and soul must part at Death and Husband and wife the Symbol of Christ and his Church must part one from another yet when all societies and contracts part Christ doth not part from us but he is in the Grave as well as in the highest heavens our Husband and Lord and Spouse and we are his Church still we keep the same relation and as strong bonds in death as in life My Dead Yet not withstanding though she was not Abrahams Wife yet she was Abrahams dead This must teach a man after he is freed by Death to the combination and contract yet that there is a care remaining from the Dead a love to that though not as to a Wife the respects of Man and Wife are carnal and fleshly Death cometh and cutteth down the flesh therefore cutteth off that respect too but because she was dead and there was such bonds hetween them formerly therefore a man is bound to lament and sorrow for his dead as Abraham did here to love the memory of the dead to speak well of the dead when occasion serveth to commend them for their vertues to use the friends of the dead as far as is in their power with all courtisie to be good to the children of the Dead those that the mother hath left and not to cast them into the hands of a furious woman a new Wife that neither careth for dead nor living but to have a special regard to the bonds and familiarity and that spiritual acquaintance that God made in this life and so to be good to all that come of that issue for their sakes Let me bury my dead Lastly it followeth why he would bury his dead Out of my sight A strange thing Out of my sight Was his grief so aggravated as he could not still behold her face or was it necessary that the carkasse it self must be conveyed away must it needs be that the body being now no way amiable but noisome must be conveyed out of a mans sight The best friend in the world cannot endure the sight of a dead body it is a gastly sight especially when it cometh to that dissolution that the parts begin to have an evil savour and smell as all have when they are dead then to keep themselves in life and health it is necessary to avoid them to bury their dead out of their sight And what so sweet a sight once to blessed Abraham as Sarah What so sweet a spectacle to the world as Sarah The great Kings of the world set her as a Parragon and she came no where but her beauty enamoured them she was a sweet prospect in all eyes every man gazed on her with great content to see the beauty of God as in so many lines marked out in the face of Sarah Yet now she is odious every eye that looked upon her before now winks and cannot endure to look upon her she must be taken out of sight Oh bethink your selves of this you that take pride in this frail flesh that prank up your selves to make you graceful in every eye you that study to please the beholders you that are the great Minions of the world you that when age beginneth to purle your faces begin to redeem your selves with paintings think of this Mother Sarah the beautifullest woman in the world is loathsome to her husband her sweetest friend therefore I heseech you in the fear of God leave these fooleries and vain fancies remember what danger Sarahs beauty cast her into though it were a great gift of God yet she had better have been without it then to have that hazard of soul and body that she was brought to by Abrahams travels and necessity and know it that your best beauty is to please the eye of God to look beautiful in his sight for the sight of God is never weary the sight of men will be weary of you the best friends you have will loath to see you dead you will then be grisly in the eyes of men but the eye of God it is all one even in the dust and nothing can make you so ill-favoured but God will like you therefore labour to please Gods eye that never ceaseth nothing will make him after his affection whereas the eyes of men this life is so full of foul alterations as the least sickness bringeth an abomination unto them I see the time prevents me I will speak a little to the present occasion We have here a depositum a gage a pawn of a dear Sister of ours a woman known to you all to be of a holy Christian conversation a neighbour full of peace and quiet and of good works according to her calling She was also in the spiritual part a woman of a very good inclination loving the Word of God curious and attentive in the hearing of it She was much delighted in it and desired to communicate the knowledg she had in the Scriptures to others and to speak of it as often as occasion permitted By this study it pleased the Lord to work a constant and lively faith in her to put all her trust and considence in him She was now taken upon the sudden therefore the Lord hath left her as a pattern for us to look upon to take heed to our selves that we may make our peace with God and look for death every moment because we know not how soon we may be arrested She was indeed a woman of great trust and faith in God and one whose mouth was full of his praise still admiring and recounting the wondrous grace of God to her in all the course of her life in sparing her in giving her comfort in her conscience concerning the pardon and forgiveness of her sins and providing for her worldly helps which she thought never to attain to and in many other particulars She did open the grace of God according to her best understanding still giving the praise to his holy Name and no doubt if the stroke upon her had not been so fatal and as deadly as now it was we should have had the like fruit more abundantly at this time Howbeit she was not as one altogether destitnte but she called for and craved
the prayers of Gods people that they would lift up their hearts and hands and voyces to the Lord to look upon her and release her of her misery and trouble either by life or death for she was content either way She had some touches also of Divine Scripture as occasion offered themselves As when the light was brought in she desired to have the light of Gods countenance to shine upon her And when her eye-strings were broke that the tears did distill down she desired the Lord God to put her tears into his bottle and many such Luminations there were that came from her Her surcharged spirits were so taken and strucken as a man might perceive at the first there was no way but one her self drawing her self within as though that in the outward man there were no room for the soul to dwell there or to have a fit and opportune habitation I must needs advertise you of one thing that this cnstome of praising and commending of the dead is very full of danger because a man may be a lyer and a flatter before he be aware when he never intended it But truly for ought that I could discerne this Sister of ours was one that was very well deserving of a quiet and moderate spirit intentive and careful to govern her house and children and no way exorbitant for any thing that I can hear It is true that all are not of one Model as the bodies of men and women are not of one height and colour so the souls and spirits are not all of one elevation neither but we esteem the children of God according to that they have received and not according to that that they have not received as the Apostle speaks I say therefore according to the grace she had received I verily beleeve she was faithful and true to it that she received not the grace of God in vain she sought by all means to nourish and cherish it from one degree to another and to proceed from grace to grace And therefore I conclude in the judgement of Charity that we have very strong hopes and great probabilities of her happy translation She was a Daughter of Sarah as Saint Peter speaks of Women that he would have them demean themselves as Daughters of Sarah and such a one she was in her habit and attire in the manner of her life and society and company and therefore I doubt not but she inheriteth with Sarah the place of blessed mansions that the Lord hath made infinite specious and wide and capable for all blessed souls that put their trust in him Now this let us make use of to our own souls In that she had not that largeness of time she supposed to have had but was surprised so soon and vehemently as she could not dispose of her self in that manner as we know by experience she would have done it should be a lesson to us to be ready for God to be acquainted with God We have had two Corses one after another one a man another a woman both taken suddenly in respect of the time though they had thought to have made an overture of themselves to the world and thought to have made all things fair and easie by the confession and expression of their faith to the world but they were not suffered to do it So all presume to have time to make the world know that they be humble and penitent and to make their confession but many put it off till it be too late Let us not be put off with vain presumptions the Lord giveth and the Lrod takes we know not how soon We were born we know not when we shall die we know not when The Lord prepare us all for it GODS ESTEEM OF THE DEATH OF HIS SAINTS PREACHED At the Funeral of Mr. John Moulson of Hargrave at Bunbury in Cheshire By S. T. SERMON XX. PSAL. 116.15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints THe Psalm was composed by David to be an acknowledgment of that favour and grace of God which himself had experience of at some time or other but when or what the particular occasion of it was we are uncertain Some refer it to that escape which he made when Saul and his Troops had compassed him about upon the discovery of the Ziphites 1 Sam. 23.26 27 28. Others because Jerusalem is mentioned in the Psalm and Jerusalem at that time of Saul was not built as they conclude well against the time of the penning of it so they find also another occasion his escape from Absolom and that great plot 2 Sam. 15.14 Others include also his spiritual Conflicts his combattings with Gods wrath and his dispairs because of his sins together with some sicknesses and strong diseases accompanied with griefs and anxieties of mind In all which he found God benevolous and merciful unto him in the sense of which he rejoyces and as it was in his duty gives thanks and praises unto God He saith in the fourteenth vers he would make publique business of it and would pay his vowes corum populo in the presence of all the people and good reason he had for God hath oft releeved him and taken much care to preserve his life as he is ever tender of the safety of all his people for Pretiosa in oculis Jehovae c. Pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints The words are a Simple universall affirmative proposition wherein 1. The subject or thing spoken of is The death of Gods Saints 2. That which is spoken of it is That it is precious in the sight of the Lord. Which proposition may be resolved into these three observations 1. That there be some that are Gods Saints 2. That Gods Saints do also Die 3. That the Death of Gods Saints is precious in Gods sight 1. There be some that are Gods Saints Sanctorum ejus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the vulgar latine reads it Misericordium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Pagnin after S. Hierome Bonificorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Piscator Piorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Mollerus The Kings translators have rendred it in our last English His Saints though they have given themselves a liberty in other places to render the Hebrew that is here by our English Holy as Ps 16.10 hhasideka Thy Holy one and the Hebrew word that properly signifies holy by our English Saints as Psal 16.3 Kedoshim To the Saints The Saint in the Text is in Hebrew hhasid and hhasid is beneficus and but in a secundary sence Sanctus Yet whereas it is rendred by the Septuagint once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 venerandus venerable which our English translates The good man Mic. 7.2 and once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reverend or as our English hath it Righteous Prov. 2.8 Yet in all others places it is translated by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sanctus Saint or Holy and it
Your Fathers where are they and the Prophets do they live for ever Zach. 1.5 God cuts off both the righteous and the wicked Ezek. 21.4 The righteous perisheth and the hhasidim the merciful men or the men of godliness are taken away Isa 57.1 Yea and often-times as Menander was able to observe it Whom God loves best he takes soonest An observation much like that in 1 King 14.12 13. That son of Jeroboam who only of that family had some good thing in him was taken away young But whether sooner or later their holiness frees not from death rich gilding upon an earthen pot keeps it not from breaking They are made of the same mettal of the same clay with other men The Apostles that brought the treasures of grace to the world were themselves Testacea vasa so Saint Hierome Vasa fictilia so Saint Gregorie but only earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4.7 clay in the hand of the potter Isa 64.8 And therefore all things in this respect come alike to all Eccl. 9.2 Vse 1. If such die then Death is not alwayes evil for sure it is not evil to them to whom all things work for good Rom. 8.28 The sting of it is gone And though it have not a pleasant look to entertain us with it is but as a rude Groom that opens the gate by which we must pass to a better place and to better company The godly have many advantages by death 1. Rest from their labours 2. A Crown when they have finisht the race 2 Tim. 4.7 8.3 Freedom from danger of sinning any more Rom. 6.7.4 Death frees from a possibility of further dying 2 Cor. 5.1 Let me die saith Seneca and what hurt comes by that I can be bound no more I can be sick no more I can die no more 5. They go presently to God While we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord We are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 8. I desire to be dissolved to be with Christ Phil. 1.23.2 Tim. 4.6 We wrong death when we call it horrid it is sin which makes it to be so else it is but conceit There is often more pain in a tooth-ake then in dying Tears and black cloth and the tremblings of the guilty do disguise Death and make it look terrible He that said it was of all terrible things the most terrible was himself an Heathen and knew not what Christ had done to alter the property Once indeed it was uncouth and hideous but since Christ dyed it hath a more fair and pleasant face There can be no danger in that way which all the Saints have gone As Phocion said to one that by the same sentence of the Judges was to die with him Art thou not glad to fare as Phocion doth So are we not glad to fare as the holy Patriarks Prophets and Apostles have done and to go after them He that went this way the first of any man-kind was holy a Saint it was Abel whom God accepted We use to call those passages and Streights which have been first found and discovered by any by the names of the first Discoverers as the Streights of Magellanus and that a little lower Schouten Streight or Fretum le maire So if it may afford us any comfort for the passage let us call Death no longer Death but Abels streights Let us learn if not to love yet to contemne Death that so we may have the more easie conquest over all other hard things It was a bravery in Damindas an heathen which Christians should be ashamed to come short of When Philip had broke into Peloponesus and some Lacedemonians said They were likely to sustain much evil unless they could reconcile themselves to Philip Damindas said O Semi-viri quid nob is poterit acerbè accidere qui mortem contemnimus Ah poor spirited men what can be sharp or hard unto us who have learned to despise death it self Vse 2. Because Saints or holy men do also die let us make the best use of them while they are with us To benefit and profit our selves by our religious friends acquaintance neighbours and kindred When God raises up some man eminent for wisdome and a godly life he is set up as a light for the town or neighbour-hood to walk by Yet oft-times such as dwell neer are careless and neglect their benefit when strangers farther off draw neer unto the light and gain by it as we use to let our own books lie by and rather make use of such as we borrow to take notes out of them because we know not how soon they may be called for by the owners and presume that the other will still be in our keeping We should improve our good acquaintance and walk by the light while we enjoy it because many times the Sun sets and it is night in a neighbour-hood or a family when a good friend a good Parent or a good Master dyeth Remember Joash and Jehojada 3. The Death of Gods Saints is precious in Gods sight When David was opprest with griefe it seems he had such thoughts as these Surely man is res nihili a vain and worthless thing too low and too unworthy that God should take any notice of him or be careful of him But at last he overcame such thoughts when he had found the experience of Gods tenderness towards himself in particular and towards all his people and now resolves That God neglects not his as if he were not affected with their miseries but their souls lives and safeties are dear and tender unto him as a treasure which he will not carelesly lose or suffer men or divels to take away by force or treachery Their Death is pretious Jakar the word of the Text is in pretio fuit magni estimatum est God sets them at an high and dear rate The Septuagint renders it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Noun by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pretiosus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 probatus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multi pretii God honours and accounts well and hath high thoughts of the sufferings of his See how the word is translated in other Texts 1. Honourable Isa 43.4 Jakarta Thou wert pretious in my sight thou hast been honourable 2. Much set by 2 Sam. 18.30 His name was much set by 3. Dear Jer. 31.20 An filius Jakkir presiosus mihi Ephraim Is Ephraim my Dear son 4. Splendid clear or glorious Job 31.26 Si vidi lunam Jaker pretiosam abeuntem The Moon walking in brightness Put all these expressions together and then we have the strength of Davids word The death of the Saints is pretious that is 1. Honourable 2. Much set by 3. Dear 4. Splendid and glorious in the sight of the Lord. God is so tender of his people that 1 He will not have them take wrong he orders their death
he takes care for them he visits and comforts and assists them in their dying he helps them with strength with memory in their understanding their senses c. 2. He takes much delight in their sweet holy calm deaths and resignations of their souls 3. He takes care of their very bodies too to lay them up sweetly to rest in Repositories or Dormitories as the Ancients were wont to call Church-yards and Graves 4. Lastly he entertains their souls immediately when they are breathed forth and places them In Sinu Abrahoe in Abrahams bosome wheresoever that is to possess present joy and quietness And no wonder that he doth all this because he hath bought them and redeemed them unto himself with so great a price as his Suns bloud and hath graced them with so many gifts and priviledges and hath made over unto them as Co-heirs with Christ so great and large benefits We may make this Use of it to serve for the establishment of us in our belief of him and our waiting on his providence If their Death be so pretious their sufferings also in any kind are dear unto him That word in the Text which is Death and which by the Seventy is ordinarily turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet is taken in the Scripture sometimes for sickness or any affliction Exo. 10.17 For infection 2 King 4.40 For wounds Prov. 26.18 and sometimes in the Septuagint for the soul The very sicknesses and afflictions and dangers and wounds and griefs of his holy ones are dear unto God But especially their souls their lives their good and safety God writes a Ne perdas Touch not Destroy not as a notable caveat for the safety as of Kings most particularly so also of all that fear him and that trust in his mercy I have hastned over these points that I might come to the testimony that I am to give to our deceased Brother Master John Moulson which I may not omit nor to be particular in it having never such a subject of discourse before such an exemplary man I would not be bought to flatter a prophane and wicked great one but here Gods glory in this his Servant and the edification of you that are present require of me that I speak fully for he was Vir nec silendus nec dicendus sine cura He copied out in his life the old way of Christianity and writ so fair after those Primitives that few now can imitate his hand And truly as in a garden in which there are variety of flowers we know not where to pick so in those many commendable parts of his I know not which to choose to present unto you or in what method But you may take notice I. Of his moral parts where I commend four things 1. His Calmness and moderation of affection No passion was observed to be a tyrant in him they had an oequipoise 2. His sober taciturnity an imitable wisdome in this age of talk and pratling 3. His affable carriage and easiness of access by which like another Poplicola he gained reputation and the love of the neighbour-hood where ever he dwelt Some are so hairy and rough like Esau that they may be discerned by their handling and some so churlish as Nabal that a man cannot speak unto them Which sourness and clowdiness of spirit I wish were not a blemish to many that give their names unto religion He honoured it by his sweetness and affalibility 4. His grave deportment and carriage As nothing is more contemptible then a light youthly wanton old man so the gray head and wrinkled cheeks accompanied with sage gravity commands respect from the beholders as that old grave Bishop Paphnutius though he had lost an eye did from the Emperour Constantine Gravity dwelt in the face of this man and his very presence was such as would discountenance the rude and prophane But all these are but mean commendations in respect of the next II. His practice of holiness Where I will observe and commend unto you 1. His unoffensive youth of which they that can remember him since that time are confident to say of him as the Emperour said of Piso Hujus vita composita à pueritia His life was composed and settled even from his very child-hood and then began to sort himself with the gravest company chiesly with that learned and godly Master Christopher Harvy sometime incombent in this Church to whom he was dear He was observed to be so sober and modest in his youth that he was desired to accompany and attend an honourable Nobleman to Oxford where he was very watchful and careful of him and prayed twice a-day with him in his chamber So ready was he to bear the Lords yoak from his youth 2. His unmarried estate which was chast and modest He lived above fifty years unmarried and in that state expressed two vertues his wisdome not to be rash and his care to keep his vessel clean 3. His married estate course of hous-keeping 1. When it pleased God to dispose his heart to marriage he married in the Lord. 2. When God gave him Children he nurtured them and his Family in Gods fear 1. He prayed four times a-day 2. He read three chapters in the old Testament and three in the New every day 3. After dinner he called not for game for digestion but read a Chapter before he rose from table 4. He catechised his children and servants constantly according to some plain form 5. He usually rose early on the Lords day which time he gave to meditation and prayer and what he could remember of the Sermon he usally repeated to his people 4. His exemplary vertues in his whole course of life 1. His meekness and peaceableness of disposition A grace which in the sight of God is much set by and a notable testimony of inward holiness according as it runs Jam. 3.17 pure then peaceable He was not apt to quarrel in matters that concerned him not never being observed to bear a part in any faction a favourable interpreter of things not evident readier to reconcile then to make differences and choosing rather to part with his right then with peace as appeared in a suit known unto many here 2. Though he were meek in his own cause yet he was zealous in Gods He could not endure any thing repugnant to holy Scripture nor would he neglect either seasonably to admonish or reprove the faulty that were within the compass of his admonition or to whet on and exhort others to love and good works 3. Yet his Zeal did not miscarry being allayed and tempered with wisdome as the heart is by the brain and as the conceit is of the Primum mobile with the Chrystalline heaven neer it His wisdome appeared first in his disscreetness in his undertakings and all affairs an argument of which some take to be this That he was never troubled not so much as questioned in any Court concerning any fact Second in
his observing a fit season when and a fit decorum in speaking Third in his choyce of company and specially of such acquaintance as he would be neer with and intimate which were only such as might be able to afford him spiritual assistance in a time of need 4. His freeness from worldlyness and contentedness with his estate not as those in Horace Quocunque modo rem but he would not improve his estate by the raising it as haply he might have done and as others do upon his tenants He counted himself rich because he needed not all that he had but could have lived with less for he that can make a little to be his measure all else that he hath is his treasure which was the observation of a good Poet but a better and a more mortified Divine 5. His humility and even among the very temptations to pride It is an hard thing to be humble in an humble and low estate but much more difficult in the affluence of outward things You know his kindred and his relations yet as he manifested this grace in his whole carriage so in particular in not being puffed with his brothers and sisters greatness or the advancement of his children 6. His diligence in the use of the means of grace 1. He had a right conceit of Sermons most relishing such as were most wholesome and useful for edification 2. He took pains to hear He was often known in his younger time to go ten miles on foot in those times of greater scarcity 3. His behaviour in the Church in the time of prayer and in hearing was very observable for his reverend attendance and devotion 7. His answerable practise fitted and proportionable to his exterior profession 1. He was much in private prayer If you would have a tryal of sincerity follow a man home and to his closet and see what he doth within doors for there may be many respects that may set a man on work coram populo Secret prayer if it be constant cannot lodg long with hypocrisie in the same heart 2. He was often as they say in secret fasting by himself alone a Duty not ouly lamentably neglected in these lazie times of easie Christianity but ill spoken of too as a character of a Pharisie by such as are loath to be at the pains of subduing their bodies and yet are desirous to come off with the credit and reputation of religion 3. He was temperate in his dyer and in his habit sober and grave as counting wisdome and grace a better and trimmer dress then Lace or the fashion and so he was in his recreations though constantly chearful yet a man of little mirth or delight in any thing but spiritual 4. He was full of charity which appeared in these particulars 1. Alwayes upon the Lords day he had six poor at dinner to every one of which he gave a piece of beef away with them besides and at night he sent what was left to other poor Besides what he gave at his door and what he gave privately to the poor houshold of faith 2. His hospitality according to his rank was such as Peter Martyr reported of Martin Bucer whose table was ever open to any good people especially to Ministers whom he much respected 3. He sate up many nights for the comfort of the sick not thinking that work of mercy sufficiently performed by an How do you or a cold visit 4. He had a Sympathy with the condition of Christs Church abroad 5. In the last place let us view him in his last act his sickness and death which as the Text hath told us is pretious in the sight of the Lord. 1. He prepared himself to die not only being willing but desirous also to be set at liberty being often at S. Pauls Cupio dissolvi which they that were with him say was much in his mouth 2. He was very thankful for Gods assisting him with memory and understanding to the very last for the continuance of which he prayed and desired others that were about him to pray 3. He employed both his memory and speech for the comfort and counsel of such as visited him 4. He made a confession of his faith but chiefly in the matter of Justification by faith which an eminent Roman Prelate called a good supper doctrine and in the comfort of that point he resigned his soul to Christ and slept sweetly in the Lord. Thus as his life was holy his death was pretious He made no great noyse in the world nor raised greater expectations of himself then he could well mannage like many exhalations that rise out of dunghils as if they meant to reach the skie but presently fall down again and wet us But as a taper he gave light till he went out and now he is gone we will leave upon his Grave Memoria ejus in Benedictionibus and apply to him the words of the Text Pretiosa in oculis Jehovoe pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints THE DESIRE OF THE SAINTS AFTER IMMORTAL GLORY SERMON XXI 2 COR. 5.2 For in this we do groan carnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven WHen I read these words I am in a great doubt whether I should rather admire the excellency of the temper of these Saints or deplore the vileness of ours so celestial the one so terrestrial the other so noble the one so ignoble the other so magnanimous the one so abject the other These Saints they did duly consider that our life it is but a Pilgrimage that this whole world is but a Diversory or Inn to refresh us for a while that it is a warfare all things within us without us our enemies that this body is but a Tabernacle a Tent a Cottage an carthen vessel a Gourd the scabbard the prison of the soul more brittle than glass decaying mouldering of it self though it be preserved from eternal injuries of air or weather they saw the vanity the vacuity the emptiness of the things of this life their affections were alienated estranged and divorced from the world they had by watchings fastings grovelings on the ground tears and groans scoured off the drosse of their souls and made them polished statues of piety they had made up their accounts between God and themselves and had sued out their pardon for their defects and failings and had that seated in their consciences they did penetrate the clouds with the eye of faith and did see the immense good things laid up for them in heaven with which being ravished and impatient of cunctation and delay they desire to be vested in the possession of them though it were with the deposition of their honse of clay which they did bear about them Of these things they had not a bareconjecture but a certain knowledge For we know vers 1. that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved we have a building not made with hands eternal in
the beavens from this full perswasion did arise this heavenly affection in this we green earnestly But alas how different is our disposition from this heavenly temper how pale how wan is our countenance at the mention of Death at the least summons of our last accounts as vinegar to our teeth as smoak to our eyes as a sudden damp to our lights as an horrid crack of thunder in the middest of our jollities so is the mention of Death If any ask the reason of this it is too manifest Want of judgement what is the true good of the sons of men Want of apprehension of the happiness of the Saints Want of faith in God of Union with Christ our souls never make any holy peregrination from the body and seat themselves with Angels and Archangels and trace the streets of New Jerusalem we anticipate not the joyes of the life to come by devout meditations and contemplations we have not our conversation in heaven from whence we look for our Redeemer Our soul thirsteth not our flesh longeth not after the living God The reason of this is we hang upon the teats of the world like babes and children we suck venome out of it to our souls we walk upon our bellies as unclean beasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we jutt against God and offend him our accounts are not streight and even therefore we are afraid at the appearance of our Saviour and of our citation to appear before his Tribunal we groan when we hear of death we groan not that we may die this is our condition and are not these different one unto another Doth not this stain the verdure of our countenances and cover us with shame and confusion to observe so manifest a declination of the fervor of the Spirit That you desire this heavenly temper I doubt not I should offer violence to Charity the Queen of Graces if I should think otherwise For this cause many of you are strict in the perforamnce of holy duties agreeable and convenient to this sacred time That your devotions may attain a happy end let me lend you a helping hand whilst I discourse these words which even now founded in your eares In this we groan earnestly c. Which I will resolve into three Propositions 1. That we are strangers in this life without our house 2. That the Saints desire their true and proper house 3. The intention of their desire In this we grown c. That we are strangers do not the sacred Oracles declare our conversation our polity is in beaven faith the Doctor of the Gentiles Our life it is hid up with Christ Col. 2. We are fellow Citizens with the Saints of the houshold of God Ephes 2. Doth not the chief of the Apostles intreat us as Pilgrims and strangers to abstaine from fleshly lusts which fight against the soul and do not these and the like demonstrate unto us that a Christian lives with men yet above men in earth yet in heaven bound yet free detained with us yet far above us living a doubble life one manifest the other Hid with Christ one contemptible the other glorious one natural the other spiritual that his Parentage is from heaven that his Treasure is in heaven that his heart is in heaven that his root is fastened in the everlasting mountains though his branches are here below that his dwelling is in heaven though his peregrination be here on earth and did not these Oracles tell us thus much yet are there not enforcing arguments to convince us of this Truth Are not they strangers that are out of their proper place and are not Christians while they are here out of their place Is this world made for Man an Ark of travel a School of vanity a Laborinth of errour a Grove full of thorns a Meadow full of Scorpions a flourishing garden without fruit a fountain of misery a river of tears a feigned fable a detestable frenzy and is this the place of man What means the fabrick of our body lifted up to heaven our hands eyes head upward but to shew us as Chalcidius the heathen man observed that our Progenitors are from heaven that our place is in heaven Every place is adequate to the thing placed in it is this world adequate to man are not his desires infinitely extended beyond the same Every place hath a conserving vertue in it Doth this world Preserve man well may it minister a little food to this beast of ours which we carry about us but can it afford the least savory morsell to the soul it were to be wished that it did not poyson contaminate and desile the soul so that the safest way for the soul is to flie from the world as from the face of a Serpent Is this world the place of man why doth our tender Mother the Church assoon as we come into the world snatch us out of the world and as assoon as we breath in the ayre bury us by Baptism in the grave of Christ and assoon as we move in this world consigne us with the sign of the Cross to fight against the the world and all the pomps of the same and are not we strangers Are not they strangers that have different lawes and divers customs and another Prince to rule and command them You have heard of the Prince of the ayre and the Lawes of the flesh of the fashions of the world of the wisdome that is from below and earth-creeping Are Christians guided by these rules have they not the God of heaven and earth the Lawes of the Spirit and the wisdome that is from above and customes that are from heaven whereby to regulate them Who are the men of this world are they not those who have the God of this world to reign in their hearts who are led captive by him whose understandings are darkned their wills obfirmated their hearts hardned their consciences seared their conversation defiled with all uncleannesses their senses open breaches for sin to enter their tongues blaspheming the name of God and are these conversations fit for the Saints and are they not strangers Are not they strangers that are not capable of honours of possessions in the place wherein they live as being not free Denizens of the place and is not this proper to Christians whose duty it is to vilisie riches and honours and pleasures in themselves as much as they that have these do others that have them not to account riches the greatest poverty and pleasures the greatest torments and honours the greatest ignominy and power the greatest weakness not to possesse the world not to enjoy it not to account any thing good that maketh not the owner better not to admit any thing from the world but so far as it may advance the true Nobility of man the purity of the Image of God his restitution to his ancient descent his re-estating him in the possession of heaven and the society of Angels and Archangels to rise
Lo this is the man that took not God for his strength but trusted in the multitude of his riches and strengthened himself c. Secondly having lost his supposed good he loseth the fruition of God the chief good the countenance of the beatifical presence the fellowship and melodious harmony of the glorious Angels his place and portion with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdome of heaven And all proportionable to his own deservings In his life-time he refused God being dead God refuseth him he turned his face from the poor and needy God in his affliction eternally turns his face from him A loss so exceeding great that whosoever descends deepest in the meditation of it yet he shall be at a loss and to seek for a full definition of it For as Chrysostome truly affirms though a man tell thee of ten thousand hells all is one in comparison of this misery to be discarded of blessedness and glory and to be hated of Christ But if this be so what shall we say to further misery having lost the chief good he receives his punishment with hypocrites and unbeleevers in the dungeon of extream ill A place where there is nothing but horrour of conscience and desperation a company of affrighting divels and with all this weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Instead of merriment and jovial laughter and scurrulous lascivious songs and wasting and abusing the creatures of God nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth So that having come into the chambers of death and closed in the straits of the grave the man like the hedg-hogg leaves the apples behind him and only reserves the prickles of a wounded spirit in that sentence of Babilon As much as she bath gloryed her self and lived delitiously so much terment give her Lastly that that is the hell of hells that nothing may be wanting to his diserved wo he is out of hope of all gracious means of deliverance he must never look for the revokation of Gods sentence though with Esau he seek it with tears he must never look for mittigation of his horrour though he heg with the unmerciful glutton for one drop of water The date of repentance is out the day of grace will never dawn again the justice is implacable the fire unquenchable the worm unsatiable and all continual without intermission for ever-more O! bottomless depth of horrour oh unexpressible torment of a forsaken soul what greater misery saith devout St. Bernard then alway to be wishing for that which shall never be and for the removing of that that shall never cease to be Therefore the sum is this Hath the covetous exchanged his soul for riches the ambitious for honours hath he lost it for the riches of Cressus the power of Alexander the Empireof Augustus the glory of the whole world yet in consideration of The end of his life The loss of his God The extremity of his pain The eternity of all What is a man profited Now then for some application and to draw toward a conclusion suffer the word of exhortation brethren and captivate your thoughts to the obedience of Jesus Christ You especially whom God hath blessed above others concerning the enjoyment of outward temporal things If ever you be desirous to escape the direful slaughter-house of Hell to escape those burnings and those everlasting yellings while you have time bethink your selves of some saving course to flie from the wrath to come And now in time cast up your accounts take heed lest for the love of this present world you lose your God the life of your souls There is a way that seems right to a man saith Solomon but the end of it is the manifold wayes of death Some Babilonish garment some Naboths Vineyard some sweet preferment but if the means be unlawful if it disturb conscience and prejudice the glory of God and occasion the destruction of thy soul then say What shall I doe when God shall rise up and when he shall visit what shall I answer This will be the reckoning of fools at the last What hath pride profited us and what hath riches brought us Surely the gain will be no other then what Promethius is fabled to have had by Pandora's box a place to be tormented Or what Hercules got by Dianira's garment Such will be the final issue of all Mammonists that live amongst Christians and under means of better reformation and more sanctification in their wayes I say this will be the final issue The worm of despair alway gnawing and never dying and the flames of eternal Tophet never to be extinguished Therefore in such a case if thou tell me thou knowest what thou dost and what thou gainest Let me tell thee thou little knowest thy dammage and what thou hast lost Alas what are the goods of this life when they are compared with eternal damnation and the sweetness of imaginary gain what proportion hath it with the bitterness of so great a loss Riches have wings they take their leave honour is transitory pleasures flie away whereas the soul of man is the subject of immortality And thy poor neglected soul must bide by it for an everlasting pledge and pay the debt O! then contemn this glory that is nothing First seek Gods kingdom and the glory of it suffer not heaven to stand at so great a distance to thy soul taste and see how gracious the Lord is by one drop of water from that celestial fountain by one crum from that heavenly table and then as concerning the things below thou wilt account them as dross and dung in comparison of that joy and peace of conscience Resolve as Themistocles when he saw a goodly booty he would not stoup to take it up leave these things for the Children of this world But let your care be to please the Lord and to gain the peace of a good conscience First seek the kingdom of God which consists not in meat and drink but in righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost Remember the vanity of the things of the world remember how unable the soul is to enjoy hell and to lose heaven without eternal horrour and in consideration hereof Use the World as though you used is not and use this as a proof hide it in a sanctified memory and write it in the table of a sanctified conscience if it were possible with a pen of Iron and the point of a Diamond What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul CHRIST HIS SECOND ADVENT OR THE APPROACH OF The God of Recompences SERMON XXIII REVEL 22.12 Behold I come shortly and my reward is with me to give every man according to his works THe Angel having described to Saint John in the Chapter immediately before and in the former part of this Chapter the exceeding great joy and glory and felicity that all the godly shall have in the kingdome of heaven by
is the Antichrist so that the second sign being fulfilled the end cannot be far The third is the general departure of the most from the Faith There hath been a general departure in former times when Arrius spread his heresies almost all the whole world became an Arian and for the space of 500 years together from the time of Boniface the world was so infected with Popish heresies that the faith of Christ could scarsely be discerned they were as a handful of wheat to a great deal of chaff so that this sign it is already fulfilled in part but there shall alway be a falling away and a departing from the faith till Christ come to judgement The fourth sign stands in exceeding great corruption in the manners of men And the Apostle makes this a sign of Christs last coming to judgement 2 Tim. 3. This know that in the last dayes perrillous times shall come men shall be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce dispisers of those that are good traitours heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God The Apostle makes this a sign and mark that shall be in the last dayes Beloved if ever this were fulfilled in these dayes of ours for there is a general corruption in the manners of men It is very hard to find those that in all truth and sincerity labour to discharge a good conscience towards God and men And Christ hath said himself that when he comes to judgement he shall scarse find faith on earth such a general corruption there shall be in the manners of men so that this fourth sign being already past the end cannot be far The fifth sign is exceeding great persecution and affliction of the Church and the Saints of God This hath been fulfilled in former times You know there were ten fearful persecutions in the Primitive Church And so it is fulfilled even in these dayes of ours for the Whore of Babylon that spotted beast she laboureth to make her self drunk with the bloud of Gods Saints There are but few years nay months or weeks wherein some of the bloud of Gods Saints is not sacrificed to appease the wrath of the Persecutors Then if in these dayes this sign be fulfilled the end cannot be far The sixt is a general security so that men will not be moved neither with the preaching of the word of God nor yet with judgements from heaven they have such exceeding dulness and deadness of heart that neither of these will move them For the former you know God hath sent many judgements amongst us we have had fire and famin and pestilence and invasion of forrein enemies inundation of waters thunder and lightning from heaven but all these will not work upon our hearts The Lord he hath scourged us oft but yet we set light by his corrections we harden our hearts against all his judgements our hearts will not be softned and mollified what effect hath all these wrought where is our humiliation our repentance and reformation And for the preaching of the word of God alas that can get no entrance at all mens hearts are so crusty and so hardned that the seed of Gods word it lies uncovered it takes no root at all in the heart it works no reformation at all so that if ever this sign were fulfilled it is in these dayes It shall be saith Christ speaking of the general security that shall be when he comes to judgement as in the dayes of Noah and of Lot they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage till the fire came from heaven and burned them and the water over-flowled the world so that this sixt sign being past the end cannot be far The seventh and last sign of Christs coming to judgement is the calling of the Jewes which the Apostle Rom. 11.25 calls the fulfilling of the Gentiles When God hath the number of his Elect among the Gentiles then the Jewes shall be called again but of the time and the manner and number the word of God doth not reveal it so that it is likely this sign is yet to come all the rest are fulfiled and therefore the end cannot be far The second sort of signs are such as are immediately before Christs coming to Judgement and that is the darkness of the Sun Moon and Stars The Sun shall be darkned the Moon shall lose her light the Stâ—…rs shall fall from heaven the very powers of heaven shall be shaken the foundations of the heavens shall tremble Alas what shall the little shrubs in the Wilderness do when the tall Cedars of heaven shall be shaken what shall poor sinful man do when the Angels shall be afraid The last sign shall be in Christs coming to Judgement Mat. 24.29 it is called the sign of the Son of man Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man and then all the tribes of the earth shall mourn What this sign of the Son of man is Divines do vary Some hold it is the sign of the Cross which all eyes shall behold even they that pierced him as John saith Revel 1. Some others which I rather assent unto take it to be the glorious beams of Christs Majesty immediately before his personal appearance to enlighten the world being darkned by reason of the want of the light of the Sun and Moon So you see what these signs shall be The signs that prognosticate Christs coming Those that shall be fulfilled long before they are all effected but one as you heard Therefore it stands us all upon as wise Virgins to prepare oyl in our lamps that when our Bride-groom Christ shall come we may be ready to enter into eternal joy So we come from the signs that prognosticate the judgement to the judgement it self Concerning the judgement it self You must know that after death there are two judgements There is a particular and there is a general Judgement The particular Judgement is immediately as soon as ever the breath is gone out of the body As soon as ever the soul is gone out of the body it is conducted by the Angels before the Tribunal seat of God and there receives the particular sentence either of joy or torment according as it lived in the body in this life We need not speak of this we have example for the proof of it in Scripture of Dives and Lazarus the one whereof being dead was presently carried to joy the other presently to torment The other is a general judgement so called because it shall be of all men in general that ever lived and breathed upon the face of the earth men women and children all shall be presented before the Tribunal seat of Christ all must hold up their hands at the Bar of his judgement all must give an account of all their words thoughts and actions all must
are still looking for this second coming Let me give you but a place or two of Scripture The Apostle saith Phil. 3.20 Our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour saith S. Jude vers 21. Keep your selves in the love of God as men that look for the mercy of God at that great day to eternal life Gird up your loyns saith our blessed Lord and let your lights be burning in your hands that you may be as men that look for the coming of the Bridegroom Indeed beloved if we look into the lives of men I cannot tell whether I shall say they look for his coming or no this blessed hope Wilt thou prophane the sanctified day of rest wilt thou blaspheme the great and glorious name of God wilt thou wantonly abuse the creatures of God in drunkenness wilt thou lie and steal and whore and yet tell me thou lookest for that blessed hope surely thou dost not If quoth the Apostle we do look for these things in the place named before 2 Pet. 2.14 Then let us do our diligence that we may be found of him in peace If thou do not thy diligence that when he comes thou maist be found in peace never tell me thou lookest for him There was never time yet for us to lie and wallow in sin to think nothing that we do dishonest there was never time for these things since time was Surely there is no time for it now All the dayes since Christ are called the last dayes all of them are the last dayes since that day of the first Epiphany but there is a day that will be the last of all those last dayes And me-thinks it will not be long before that last day of all come me-thinks I see the day broke already it is break of day already Therefore brethren if you do indeed look for the coming of Christ for this blessed hope at his appearing be diligent that you may be found of him without spot in holiness I have done with the Text. I come now to the occasion at this time You have brought hither a dead body of a very good neighbour of ours and whom I acknowledg I ever found a kind and a loving friend You have brought it here to be laid up in the Grave in hope of a blessed and joyful resurrection I need not speak much of his life here an ancient inhabitant When it pleased God to call me first to this place 26. years since I found him then in the chief office of the Church and divers times since he hath been in it and I have seldome known any more painful and more industrious and more honest in those places then he was We have all known him a man humble in his conversation just of his word true in his promises merciful in his dealing charitable to the poor ready to every good work His life was such a life as the Apostle would have ours to be a life sober and just and pious in this present evil world He lived and lead a life pious in regard of God just in the regard of men sober in regard of himself I can say no lesse of him and I will say no more of him I know you desire to hear of his death and it hath much afflicted my soul to hear what unjust aspertions have been upon the manner of it There was a sudden stroak indeed of Gods hand and it was in my house and seeing that it so pleased God I am glad that it was in my presence and sight that I might give the better testimony of it The suddenness of the stroak made him liable to some misconstruction and hath given many men occasion to passe a very uncharitable and unchristian verdict of him I beseech you let me give you a true naked relation how it was I never knew any men of so peaceable a disposition but there might be sometimes some difference between them there was between Abraham and Lot between Paul and Barnabas and there was between another honest neighbour and him both men of a peaceable disposition They did not desire to go to law they desired the matter might be put to Arbitrators they chose four honest Gentlemen to take up the matter between them they made me as an unworthy Umpire in case they did not agree On Thursday last they met and each of them pleaded their cause And let me say thus that if this brother of ours had been judg'd to do any wrong in that cause if he had uttered one word of falshood to help his cause if he had used one word of imprecation wishing any curse to himself then it had been peradventure a just thing with God to have taken him at his word If he had sworn one oath if he had uttered but one uncharitable word against his neighbour if he had shewed but any malice or spleen against him if he had been but transported with passion as a man may easily be in his own cause we are but men I say if he had been but transported with passion then peradventure some men might have thought it had been the stroke of divine justice upon him but let me tell you I have the witness of honest Gentlemen that were the arbitrators and will justifie First that his cause was good and that there was not one word spoken but was confirmed by honest witnesses present Then he used no kind of imprecation in the world no not as I remember so much as a protestation or any asseveration there was not one oath sworn either by him or by others that were present There was not one uncharitable word spoken by him there was not any malice or ranckour or hatred appeared either on the one side or the other between them he was no way transported with passion He did plead his cause but with that meekness of spirit with that quietness with that sweet temper and that Christian moderation as more could not be required in any Saint of God Therefore brethren let me only tell you thus much while this was in agitation I could not perceive that he was moved at any thing he was not stirred he was not earnest in his cause Till it pleased God to touch him and he had some sense and feeling of it rising from his stool he sate rubbing of his cheek or his neck with his handkercheif He fell upon the neck of a Gentleman that sate close to him who perceiving that he was not well asked him how he did he was scarsely able to give us an answer I perceived that he was stricken with the dead palsie Brethren considering these things that I have told you before I beseech you judge not that you be not judged condemn not that you be not condemned You owe a duty to the truth every one of you and by that duty that you owe to the truth I was about to say I charge you as before God but I beseech you as before God stop the
grows idle and unfit for the exercises of man-hood or of his Calling and the like So it is when a man is immoderately and excessively fast asleep with the cares of this Life the lusts of his heart the pleasures of this present world or whatsoever it is that luls him and rocks this Cradle when he is thus asleep he grows fat and pursie his natural heat is gone he falls from his first zeal and affection and desire and practice Alas Brethren we may speak to the shame and sorrow of many I doubt that hear me that have exchanged their care of godliness that have exchanged their seeking of God in the means with company with good-fellowship with Drunkenness And let the Lords Marriners come to them and say Up sleeper call upon thy God why dost thou not do thy first works Why art thou lazy he grows angry as Jonas was that thought he did well to be angry to the death This is the misery of many that live under the teaching of the Gospel in the light of the Gospel This is another mark and a signe of sleep when we cannot abide of any thing to be wakened To draw to a Conclusion the last Use of this Point it serves to rouze and to raise us from this sleep and security this slumber that is in the best of us And know my Brethren I speak not now to those that are out of the Church and those that are notoriously wicked those that are scandalous and rebellious to good Counsel but I speak to those that live in the bosom of the Church those that profess goodness and godliness yea those that are Disciples and are near the side of Christ let this exhortation be to them to raise and rouze themselves out of this sleep It is time saith the Apostle that we rise out of sleep The sum of this Exhortation I will propound and then draw to a conclusion First consider how unprofitable a man a Christian man is when he is asleep What is a man when he is asleep but that there is hope of awaking and to come to the actions of life again a man that is asleep he lives but the life of a Plant there is nothing but being and nourishment a waking Beast is more profitable but that I say there is hope that afterwards he will awake So when we sleep and slumber and tumble and toss our selves in dead security how unprofitable are we to Gods glory and to our own selves Saint Paul saith that Onesimus was unprofitable before his conversion but now saith he he is profitable both to thee and me A man that is asleep is unprofitable and certainly he that is asleep in security and sin this man is most unprofitable to Gods glory and to his own soul Secondly consider when a man sleeps and slumbers in sin how unfit he is for any Christian duty and exercise for the main parts of Godliness and Christianity How unfit is a sleepy man for the actions of life and of his calling and how unfit and unable and indisposed is a man that sleeps in sin to the actions of spiritual life There be some main parts and branches of our general Calling to which this sleep makes us unable The first of them is the exercise of godliness the main thing in the profession of a Christian to exercise himself in godliness how unfit is a sleepy Christian for this who sees a man that is asleep that works in his Calling that can do any good in it So how can a Christian exercise himself in the actions of his general Calling when he sleeps in his praying in his hearing in his reading if these duties be done coldly what are they worth Actions that are done in a mans sleep they come to nothing so a man that sleeps in sin let him do never so many good actions they are of no value A second main branch of our Christian Calling is the spiritual combate to fight against our corruptions Now alas how unfit is a sleepy man either to expect or to repel an enemy when he is asleep he lies open to all disadvantage Sisera himself a strong and noble Captain was so weak that a silly woman Jael shew him when he was asleep therefore we know this part of our Christian calling cannot hold as long as we sleep in sin Thirdly another part and main branch of Christianity is to expect our Masters return to wait for the coming of our Lord that we may enjoy that sweet blessedness that he hath promised and made us expect and wait for now how unfit is a sleepy man to wait for his Masters coming to set things in order Thus we see in these particular main duties of Christianity they cannot be performed by men that are asleep therefore we had need to wake our selves if we will either honour God or profit our selves if we will be fit to do service to God or to his Church we must keep our selves awake especially in the main duties of Christianity Thirdly consider while we sleep and are secure the enemy never sleeps he is then most watchful against us We may sleep and think we do well enough to take our ease but Satan sleeps not we have a watchful enemy to deal with And then he hath some advantage by our sleeping in Mat. 13. in that Parable The enemy sows tares while men slept he comes into the field of the heart where the word of God the good seed is sown and what doth he do there he sows a crop of thorns and they make the heart of a Christian like the field of Solomons sluggard Prov. 24. I passed by the field of the sluggard and it was all thorns c. Thus is the heart that is neglected of a man that is sleepy and secure in sin When do robbers and theeves assault the house In the dead time of the night when they may take men at advantage in their first sleep then they come and break into the house Shall theeves and burglaries watch at mid-night to break the house and cut mens throats and wilt not thou watch to save thy self Further consider as the enemy never sleeps so Gods mercy never sleeps Gods mercy is ever watching over us to do us good and it watcheth to keep us watchful for what should all the mercies of God do to us but keep us watchful Our God that we serve is not as Baal the God of Idolaters perhaps he is asleep and must be awaked or he is chasing his adversaries No no the strength that keeps Israel slumbers not nor sleeps Therefore let not Israel slumber nor sleep because God watcheth over his children let them watch with him and keep themselves neer to him Fiftly if this will not move thee then consider as Gods mercy sleeps not so Gods judgments sleep not Thaâ—… man that sleeps in sin let him know that Gods judgments sleep not As Balaam when
he was out of the way the Angel watcheth him and catcheth him in this corner and in that corner he could go into no corner but the Angel with his drawn sword was ready to meet him and to slay him And the Apostle saith of those that were led away by false teachers Their damnation sleepeth not Gods judgments are alway waking thou maist sleep on both sides in sin but Gods justice sleepeth not And thou that art the Lords if thou sleep know that correction and chastisement sleepeth not and they will awake thee thou wert better to awake by slighter means To conclude all consider that all of us there is no man upon the earth but we are all going to meet the mortal sleep of death and if we shall when that meets us have our own consciences tell us that we have also a spiritual sleep within us that we carry a spiritnal sleep to meet that mortal sleep what a miserable and mournful state will that be when the heart of man or woman that is coming to die shall say and speak aloud and witness against his Master O thou hast been a sluggish and sleepy Christian thou hast had good means but thou hast not kept thy watch thou wouldest sleep do what the exhortations of the Word could thou wouldest be a drowsie Christian Hence it comes to pass that so many when on their death-bed they come to grapple with that mortal sleep and then conscience porclaims against them then they cry Oh that I had but one day but one hour more that I might waken and strengthen the things that are ready to die and that it might be better with me then it is But alas now their short day is past and one perpetual night to come and now it is too late as it proves many times Therefore let not time go but know that that mournful day must come upon us we must meet that mortal sleep Let us labour to shake off spiritual sleep drowsiness of spirit and make our peace in the mean time that conscience may witness with us and for us at the day of death and judgment Let us labour to be watchful and desire to be ready for the Lord and to have our accounts ready for him This shall suffice for the words Now for our occasion because this is my first occasion of this kind I must enter with a preface and that is this that as I have ever been in the course of my ministery so I shall be very sparing in the praise of the dead because I know that these exercises are appointed for the instructing of the living and the consolation of those that survive and not for the praise and commemoration of the dead Besides I know and see by daily experience every where how few there be that in their life time deserve the praise of Religion in their death For my part I never did nor never will gild a rotten post or a mud wall or give false witness in praising to give the praise of Religion to those that deserve it not I desire those of my congregation would make their own Funeral Sermons while they be living by their vertuous life and conversation As the Apostle saith He hath not praise that is praised of meh but he that is praised of God THE RIGHTEOUS MANS RESTING-PLACE OR AFENCE AGAINST UNNECESSARY FEARS SERMON XXVII GEN. 15.1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abraham saying Fear not Abraham I am thy shield and they exceeding great reward THe tender mercy of God is seen in nothing more than in afflicting his own people for he proportions his castisements not to our deserts but to our streugth and you shall ordinarily observe where Almighty GOD laies a heavy affliction he gives an extraordinary assistance when he leads any of his people through a hot fire he is with them in extraordinary manner This holy Saint Abraham as he was the Father of the Faithful so he was a pattern to all the faithful in both these both in his tryals and in Gods assistance There was never any man called to more tryals than he to leave his Country and his Kindred and his Fathers house and after to sacrifice his own Son And there was never any man more assisted from God as we see in those many apparitions that God vouchsafed him Comforting him sometimes in Dreams and Visions Sometimes he appeared to him in an admirable and most friendly manner talking with him as a man doth with his Friend One of them are in this Chapter The Lord appeared to Abraham and comforted him in the midst of his tryals and troubles Where you may see an admirable incouragement that God gives to his servant Abraham You may note First the incouragement it self that is not to fear Secondly note the time when God gave him this incouragement when he had encountred with those Kings immediatly before as we see in Chapter 14. And when he was to encounter with many evils and troubles after then the Lord appeared to him Thirdly note the manner how God is pleased to reveal this comfort that is by way of vision God appeared by vision Fourthly note the ground of this comfort and incouragemeat that God gives him and that is taken from a twofold Argument First what God was to him in regard of any evils that he did feel or fear he was his shield to bear them off Secondly in regard of all the good things that Abraham could lose in the world an exceeding great reward he would be to him all in all So you see this portion of Scripture affords plentiful matter for instruction and consolation All that I will speak of at this time I will wind up in this proposition that is that They that are in covenant with God and labour to keep his covenant as faithful Abraham was and did they may be a people without all carnal and inordinate fear For Abraham felt much and had just cause to expect more but in the middest of all God appeared to him and bid him he should not fear And what was spoken to Abraham is spoken to us for he was the Father of the faithful and they that are of the faith with Abraham are blessed with him So then the blessing of Abraham and all the incouragements that were given to him they belong not to him only but to all that are the spiritual seed of Abraham to all the faithful so that the Proposition is not limitted to him but extends to all A Doctrine if ever needful it is now We know how it is with all men that are out of Covenant with God Adam as soon as he had sinned he runs from God he was afraid and hid himself from the face of God so every unregenerate man is except his conscience be ignorant in a dead sleep and cauterized for he seeth God on the one side a revenging Judge and he knows himself on the other side to be guilty and
therefore he cannot but with amazement and fear continually tremble before God and he desires if it were possible that there were no God at all that he might never be called to account for his doings But now the child of God a faithful Abraham that is in covenant with God he may in the middest of all evils lift up his head with joy and comfort even when wicked men are at their wits end and know not whether to turn themselves It is I say a point needful to urge in these times wherein we hear abroad of wars and rumors of wars and so many distractions and what they feel we have cause to fear but now it is seasonable at this time when we see the King of fears act his part before our eyes he that the Philosophers call the most terrible of all terribles that is Death that tends to the extirpation and abolition of nature in regard of our being here I say there cannor be a better argument treated of then somewhat that may fence us against the fear of this evil Now for the opening of this point First consider what fear is And then what fear a Christian should be freed from And then how it comes to pass that a Christian is exempted from all slavish and inordinate fear And then come to make some Use of it to the present occasion First that we may know the point the better let us consider what fear is in general And fear beloved is such An affection or passion of the soul that is stirred up with a through apprehension of some future evil that is very difficult to be resisted by the party or patient It is an affection or passion of the soul for it makes a real transmutation in the man It is such an affection as is stirred up with the apprehension of evil for evil is properly the object of fear we do not primarily fear any thing that is good axcept the loss of it and it is ill to lose any good thing Again it is evil future for if the evil be present we grieve and not fear And it is such an evil as is difficult and hard to resist an overcome with patience for if it be a small evil that is easily conquered you contemn it you fear it not You see then what fear is in general Is all fear prohibited Not the fear of God c. Fear is oft commanded in Scripture know then there are divers kinds of fear First natural fear and that is called natural either in regard of the material or efficient cause When the party that doth fear is phlegmatick or melancholly and so is naturally inclined to fear this may be called a natural sear Or in regard of the object when there is somewhat in that which is destructive to nature and therefore the fear of death it is natural to man and so whatsoever may prejudice nature Now this natural fear is an affection that Almighty God concreated with the soul it is naturally good it is morally neither good nor evil but according as it is determined by circumstances Again there is a carnal evil fear namely when a man fears the evil of punishment more then the evil of sin a corporal evil more then a spiritual a temporal more then an eternal He is afraid of losing something he enjoyes or of not getting something he desires c. In either regards there may be a carnal fear as I shall explain it to you more anon and this so far as it is carnal is ever to be condemned Thirdly there is a servile fear and this is such a fear as looks at the punishment only and not at the sin when a man is afraid of the judgements of GOD and never fears sin that is the cause of it And so withal when this fear is only servile and is retained in the heart that man desires still to sin there is a love of sin a wishing that God would give him leave to sin and let loose the reins to him that if it were possible there were no God no Devil no Heaven nor Hell that he might sin were possible there were no God no Devil no Heaven nor hell that he might sin freely And if he abstain from sin at any time the cause is that there is this punishment that is the consequent of sin and not out of love to God or obedience to his commandements Now this servile fear though in it self it be not savingly pleasing to God yet it is a thing that is good as S. Austin observes for that man that fears servily he doth that which is good though he doth it not well because that is a thing that depends upon the disposition and will of him that doth the thing though the thing be good as far as it goes It is good for the restraining of evil men from outrages in the world and it is a preparative in the way to conversion as it is Act. 2. Lastly there is a filial son-like fear that ariseth out of the consideration of the greatness and especially of the goodness of God whereby a man so hates punishment as he hates sin also the cause of it Now there are divers degrees of filial fear One degree we call innitial fear in this World And a degree of perfection in the world to come In this world the fear we have hath one eye upon the punishment and another eye upon the commandement or love of God And here many make a doubt whether they are to do that which is good having an eye to the recompence of reward or to abstain from evil out of the fear of punishment For answer briefly And thing almighty God hath made a motive to us to incourage us to do well or to deter us from evil we may make a motive to our selves and as long as we do so we do well It was so with Adam in Paradice this was propounded as a motive In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die Then to abstain from the forbidden fruit partly out of fear of punishment If Adam did so he did well So every one of us in regard of any evil we may have an eye to the punishment that will be the consequent of the thing for Christ urgeth this to his own Disciples Fear not him that can kill the body c. And to do things meerly without any respect to punishment at all I know no reason why any man should aspire to that perfection For God while we are here hath given us these motives to stir us up to avoid evil and it is well if we can heartily and truly out of love to God do it by all the motives that God hath propounded To have a fear meerly for punishment and still to retain the love of sin and no respect or love to the commandement of God this is not acceptable to God in a saving manner but to have an eye to God and to abstain from sin
to the outward man if a man keep himself in order in regard of these thought is free and the Law doth not take hold of a man for his affections but the Law of God doth therefore you know that lusting after a moman in Gods account is reputed adultery the hating of a mans brother in his heart is accounted manslaughter he is accounted a murtherer that hates his brother so he that is angry unadvisedly you know what he is in danger of and that man is accounted guilty before God that cannot order his affections in regard of those unruly passions that are within him This I observe by the way God in Scripture takes especial notice of it and I am perswaded it is an infallible distinguishing character between an hypocrite and a sincere child of God an hypocrite labours to wash the outside he hath a demure countenance clean hands smooth language c. these things are good but he goes no further he makes no conscience of secret contemplative wickedness of the lusts of his heart and the thoughts of his mind these things he never enters into himself to mortifie But that man that is conscionable so walks with God as that a wrie affection an inward lust after somewhat that is evil troubles him and humbles him before God the vanity of his thoughts in secret cause him to mourn before God this is a sign of a man that walks before God and accounts God a Spirit that searcheth the hearts and tryeth the rains and therefore if ever we will approve our selves to God let our Religion be practical and reflect upon our selves and among other things upon our inward man to set that in order Secondly by way of instruction we see what happy men and women we might be if we were not our own foes if we could attain this pitch to live without fear that nothing should trouble us were it not a happy condition surely it is a thing feazable some Saints have attained it in a great measure you know David when Ziglag was taken his wives gone all the spoyl taken and the people were ready to stone him what did poor David he can incourage himself in the Lord his God notwithstanding this So it may be with a poor Christian his friends may forsake him perhaps the world is gone riches take to themselves wings it may be his body is crazy and all things are out of order yet this man can incourage himself in the Lord his God he can say to himself fear not Saith David though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death a doleful condition yet I will fear none ill Psal 23. And in another place though ten thousand should compass me in on every side I would lay me down and rest Though the Apostles were watched by souldiers laid in the stocks and for ought they knew the next day they should be brought to execution yet they sing as merrily and sleep as heartily as if they had been on a Throne and had been Kings in a Pallace Thus a good conscience will make a Christian happy if he be not his own foe but our hearts are intangled with the world and worldly things that for the most part we see not this priviledge But I leave that Next it may serve to reprehend and chide the most of us yea all in that we are distracted with fears unnecessary such as spend our spirits and consume our precious time such things as make our lives uncomfortable and dishonour God and our Religion and profession and all to no purpose Some things we fear a great while before we need perhaps that we need not fear at all One faith Lord what would become of me if I should loose my wife if I should loose my children or loose my estate What would become of me if the times should be hard if there should be a dear year I can scarse bring both ends together now Another faith what shall I do when I am old and cannot take pains for my living thus men fear a thousand inconveniences What need we meet evils half way what need we create to our selves such troubles sufficient for the day are the troubles of it But in regard of carnal fear all things make us afraid more then we need and the fear of ill oft-times perplexeth a man more then the ill it self that lights upon him And men of a melancholly disposition they frame to themselves such strange Chimera's Imaginations of things that perhaps shall never come to pass and so trouble themselves with a great deal of fear Thou art afraid of such and such losses perhaps thou maist die first and such things perhaps shall never befall thee labour to prepare thy heart before hand and then fear them not I will shew you the inconveniences of this briefly First of all these fears of losses and crosses and the like they often bring a great deal of ill to men nay it brings a great deal of ill as the natural event and consequent of it partly by the judgement of God Isa 66.4 I will bring their fears upon them And that that wicked men fear shall come upon them This is the way to bring ill upon them when men will needs be miserable is it not just with God they should The Romans will come and take away our Empire and so it was Saul was afraid that David should succeed him and so he did When men will not learn to live by faith it is just with God to bring that that they fear upon them because they dishonour him by unbelief In the second place it not only brings ill but it makes the heart unfit for ill when it comes In the fear of man their is a snare but in the confidence of the Lord there is a sure reward In the fear of man there is a snare what doth fear do It insnares a man it binds a man hand and foot and layes him flat before his enemy when he comes and then his enemy tramples upon him It so weakens the Spirits and disheartneth a man before it comes that when it comes he is no way able to bear it For the fear takes away all the joy and content that a man may take in the present good that he enjoyes at the hand of God that he cannot enjoy that because he fears I know not what ill that may come and then when that ill comes he is not able to bear it his spirit is so weak I might shew much hurt that this fear doth both to the soul and to the body of man To the body of man how doth it weaken and contract the Spirits and bring diseases and some times death it self Fear doth much hurt to the soul Naturally Spiritually Naturally it weakens a man in regard of the operations of his sonl that the body is not a fit instrument for the soul to work by It makes a man do divers things
be said he straight-way dyed As a condemned person is called a dead man though he be respited for a time Besides the Messengers and Sergeants of death presently took hold of him and arrested him for sin as hunger and thirst and cold and diseases daily wasting of the natural moysture to the quenching of life Indeed God suffered him that the sentence was not presently executed so to commend his own patience and to give to Adam occasion of salvation the promise of Christ being after made and he called to repentance by that means to attain a better life by Christ then he lost by sin It is objected again Christ redeemed us from all sin and all the punishment thereof but he did not redeem us from bodily death from temporal death for the faithful we see die still even as others do therefore it is concluded by some that temporal death is not the wages of sin for then when we were free from sin by Christ we should be freed from that Our answer to this is that Christ hath freed all his elect not only from eternal but even from temporal death though not from both in the same manner From temporal death first in hope of which the Apostle speaking 1 Cor. 15. saith The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death meaning temporal death at last then it shall be destroyed mortal shall put on immortality as the Apostle speaks but in the mean time it is destroyed in hope though it remain indeed and must be undergone even of the faithful in this life Howbeit to them Christ hath changed the nature of it and now they no longer undergo it as the wages of sin but for other causes As first the exercise of their graces their faith and hope and patience and the rest all these are exercised as in other afflictions so even in the death of Gods Children Secondly the total removal and riddance of the reliques of sin from which they are not freed in this life but when they die then all sin is taken away for as at the first sin brought death into the world so to the faithful now death carries it out again Thirdly their entrance into heaven and to be at home with the Lord from whom we are absent as long as we are at home in these bodies Fourthly to prepare their bodies for renuing at the last day that is done by death for as a decayed Image or statue must first be broken that it may be new cast so these bodies of ours must be broken by death that they may be cast into a new mould of immortality at the general resurrection But here as some sin remains so death remains though we be in Christ yet we are still in that estate wherein it is appointed to all men once to die Thus even temporal death is left to the Children of God to be undergone before they come to heaven It is left to them I say and that justly in respect of the remnants of sin yet they undergo it no other way but for their own good and benefit However temporal death in its own nature to an unbeleever is the wages of sin And as temporal so eternal death for when God told man that in the day he finned he should die the death he meant not only temporal but eternal death he meant that principally as I shewed before in that the Apostle opposeth it to eternal life in the next clause of the sentence Now Christ hath freed all beleevers actually from eternal death But how eternal death should be the wages of sin may be doubted because between the work and the wages there must be some proportion that seems not to be between sin and eternal death for sin is a finite a temporal thing committed in a short time and that death is eternal Now to punisha temporal fault with an eternal punishment it seems that it is to make the punishment to exceed the fault and that is against justice But for an answer to this doubt we must know that however sin considered in the act and as it is a transcient action it is finite yet in other respects it is infinite and that in a threefold consideration First in respect of the object against whom it is committed for being the offence of an infinite Majesty it deserves an infinite punishment for we know oftences are reckoned of for their greatness according as the greatness of the person is against whom they are committed If he that clips the Kings coyn or deface the Kings Arms or counterfeit the broad Seal of England or the Princes privie Seal ought to die as a traytor because this disgrace tends to the person of the Prince much more ought he that violates the law of God die the first and second death too because it tends to the defacing of the Image and the disgracing of the person of God himself who is contemned and dishonoured in every sin Secondly sin is infinite in respect of the subject wherein it is the soul of man Seeing the soul is immortal and of an everlasting substance and that the guilt of sin and the blot together stain the soul as a crimson and skarlet die upon wooll and can no more be severed from the soul then the spots from the Leopard it remains as the soul is eternal and as that is everlasting so sin is infinite in durance and continuance and deserves an infinite wages and punishment which is eternal death Thirdly it is infinite also in respect of the tie between the desire and endeavour of an impenitent sinner for his desire is to walk on still in sin and except God cut off the line of life never to give over sinning but he would run on infinitely committing sin even with greediness And it is reason that as God accepts the will for the deed in godliness so he should punish the will for the deed in wickedness if we sin according to our eternity in our will and purpose to sin God will punish us according to his eternity it is just that they that would never be without sin if they might have their own will should never be without punishment Thus we see eternal death is the wages of sin though sin be committed in a moment though it be a transcient action in it self yet it is just with God to give it the wages of eternal death So you see Death both temporal and eternal is the wages of sin We come to the Use of the point being thus declared First it teacheth us contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome that original lust and concupiscence in the regenerate is a sin for how else should God be just in inflicting temporal death upon infants that are regenerate actual sins they have none and if they have no original sin neither then God should inflict the wages of sin where there were no sin which connot be because there is no
iniquity with God Therefore certain it is that after regeneration this original lust though the guilt of it be taken away yet as sin it remains the substance of it still remains and will as long as we live in this world For it is in us as it is well compared as the Ivy is in the wall which having taken root so twines and incorporates it self that it can never be quite rooted out till the wall be taken down so till body and soul be taken a sunder by death there will be no total riddance of Original corruption and the depravation of our nature it is still in us as appears by the temporal death even of the best Saints of those that are most sanctified in this life it shews there is remainders of corruption in them still for if there were not sin there would not be the wages of sin there would not be death if there were not sin Secondly the Use of it is to take away a fond Popish distinction of mortal and venial sin they teach some sins to be venial that is such sins as in their own nature deserve not death whereas the Apostle here speaking of all sin in general he saith the wages thereof is death And how can it be otherwise when all sin is the transgression of the Law and Saint John defines it and all transgression of the Law deserves and is worthy of the curse which is both the first and second death for Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are witten in the book of the Law to do them There is no sin then but it is worthy of death therefore there is no such venial sin as they dream of We deny not but that some sins are venial and some mortal in another sence not in respect of the nature of the sin but of the estate of the person in whom the sins are so we say all the sins of the Elect are venial because they either are or shall be pardoned And all the sins of reprobate persons are mortal because they shall never be pardoned It is the mercy of God and not from the nature of the sins that makes them venial for otherwise every sin in it self considered be it never so small is mortal for if it work according to its own nature it works death of body and soul It is a foolish exception that they bring against it that thus we make all sins equal and that we bring in with the Stoicks a parity of sin because we say all are mortal It is a foolish cavil for it is as if one should argue because the Mouse and the Elephant are both living creatures that therefore they are both of equal bigness Though all sins be mortal they are not all equal some are greater and some are lesser according as they are extended and aggravated by time and place and person and sundry other circumstances Suppose one should be drowned in the middest of the Sea and another in a shallow pond in respect of death all were one both are drowned but yet there is great difference in respect of the place for depth and danger So there is great difference in this though the least sin in its own nature be mortal as the Apostle saith here the wages of it is death Thirdly seeing the wages of sin is death it should teach us what Use to make of death being presented before our eyes at such times as this hereby we should call to remembrance the grievousness of sin that brought it into the world by the woful wages we should be put in mind of the unhappy service Had there not been sin there would have been no death upon the death of the soul came in the death of the body first the soul died in forsaking God and then the body died being forsaken of the soul the soul forsook God willingly therefore it was compelled unwillingly to forsake the body This is the manner how death came into the world by sin therefore death must put out sin That housholder when he saw tares grow among his wheat he said to his servants the envious man hath done this So whensoever thou feest Death seize upon any say to thy self sin hath done this this is the wages of sin and if man had never sinned we should have seen no such thing Fourthly this must deter us from sin since it gives such wages Indeed the manner of sin is for the most part if not alwayes to promise better but it is deceitful and this is the wages it payes thee The wages of sin is death The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated wages some take it quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the evening because wages are paid in the evening So the morning of sin may be fair but the evening will be foul when the wages come At the first sin may be pleasing but remember the end the end of it is death Like to a fresh River that runs into the salt Sea the stream is sweet but it ends in brackishness and bitterness Or like to Nebuchadnezzars Image the head was gold but the feet were of clay Or sin may be compared to that Feast that Absalom made for Amnon there was great chear and jollity and mirth for a while but all closed in Death in bloudshed and murther It deales with men as Laban dealt with Jacob he entertains him at the first with great complements but used him hardly at the last Or as the Governour of the feast said Joh. 2. All men in the beginning set forth good wine and then that which is worse so sin gives the best at the first but the worst it reserves for the last This should keep us from every sin though it seems never so pleasing and never so sweet to us remembring that the worst is still to come We read that when the people saw that Saul forbad them to eat though they were exceeding hungry yet not one of them durst touch the honey for the curse though they saw it so the pleasures of sin may drop as honey before our eyes but we must not adventure to taste of them because they are cursed fruit and because of the wages that will follow Never take sin by the head by the beginnings as the greatest part do but take it as Jacob took Esau by the heel look to the extream part of it Consider thy end and thou shalt not do amiss Jezabel might have allured a man when having painted her face she looked out of the window but to look upon her after she was cast out eaten of doggs and nothing remaining but her extream parts her scull and the palms of her hands and her feet it could not be but with horrour so sin may allure a man looking only on the painted face in the beginning but if a man cast his eye upon the extream parts it would then affright and deter him for the wages the end of
with borrowed and received comfort but by this Because the state of Gods servants in respect of the spiritual quiet and satisfaction and contentment of heart is not alwaies alike but sometime they have abundance of joy that they seem to be as it were in heaven Sometimes they are perplexed with many disquiets and griefs that they seem to be cast down to the deep as it is said of the Marriners in Psal 107. what is the reason of this but that no flesh should glory in it self that every man might know that whatsoever he hath to make his life comfortable and pleasing to him it is from God that dispenseth it to men in that proportion as seemeth good to his own wisdome God will have us know that all the happiness of our spirits is in their union with the chief of spirits with himself and that when they are but a little separated from him when he doth but a little withdraw himself from them they are as a thing that is dead how shall we know that the branches have sap from the root that it is that that makes them flourish and grow but by this If you do but cut them off from the root they whither presently So it is with the spirit with the heart of man if God do but a little withdraw himself let sin but make a separation between God and man now a man is like a withered branch he hath nothing now to revive him because he is divided from the root At the least it is with him as it is with a tree in Winter though the sap remains in the root so though he remain in union with the root yet the moisture is gotten into the root it self and doth not now infuse it self into the branches I confess the servant of God that is once united to Christ shall never be separated the union it is now and alwaies shall be but nevertheless the sap and comfort of the Spirit it may remain in the head our life may be hid in Christ and may not appear in us at all And we are then in that estate as if we were branches cut off whereby it may appear that whatsoever life and comfort and strength of heart we had it was from Christ and by the influence and work of his Spirit And then for the time to come God doth it to prevent some distempers that might grow on the hearts of his servants if they should alwaies be in a like state of spiritual joy God doth it to prevent pride Paul was apt to be lift up with those revelations therefore a messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him And so it may be to prevent carnal confidence in the creature a man would begin to ascribe somewhat to himself to his present condition if it were alwaies thus with him you know what the Apostle Paul saith 2 Cor. 1.10 We received in our selves the sentence of death that we might not trust in our selves but in God that raised the dead look to what end Paul received the sentence of death to that end Gods faithful servants sometimes receive the very sence of death as it were and the sence of the destitution and want of all spiritual comforts for the present Why That they might not trust in themselves or in those habits of grace and comforts they have or in any creature whatsoever The work of Gods spirit in the regenerate soul it is but a creature a work of God and God will not have men trust in any such thing in what then In him that raiseth from the dead God will bring them to such a state that they shall seem as dead men as destitute of all spiritual comforts they have that they might trust in him that is able to raise them out of such a state as that that look as he is able to give life to the dead body so he is able to give comfort to the distressed soul that is at that time in the shaddow of death Secondly it comes sometimes from Satan and that is thus Satan wonderfully sets himself against the seed of the woman especially against the promised seed Christ he will alway be at his heel Gen. 3.16 and in his opposition against Christ he sets against the very glory of Christ among men and that is his kingdom he would not have Christ exalt his kingdom over men Now the kingdom of Christ consists as the Apostle speaks not in meat and drink but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost If he cannot keep a Christian a true beleever from unrighteousness he will labour to interrupt his peace if he cannot keep him from the habit of peace peace in the grounds of it yet he will keep him from the exercise and effects of that peace from joy he will hinder that as much as he can that he may not have the sence of his blessedness he knows that spiritual joy strengthens a man to all spiritual duties and his endeavour is to weaken all the servants of Christ in all their services and therefore he doth at least labour against that with all his might that if they will needs go on yet nevertheless to propound and occasion as many things that may be troublesome to them and disquiet their hearts as he can And there are two principal wayes that I may but touch them whereby Satan wondrously prevails in this particular The one is by stealing out of their hearts those precious promises those comforts whereby the Word of God revives the soul You have forgotten saith the Apostle the consolations of God And the devil meets in man with two advantages to help him in the effecting of this First he turns the thoughts upon new objects and herein he doth diametrically and directly set himself against God in the way of his special providence that very thing that God in wonderfull wisdom hath wrought in the heart for the ease and comfort of man Satan makes it an occasion of trouble and that is this the variety of mans thoughts what is the reason that God hath framed the mind of man to change his thoughts continually and to have innumerable thoughts Certainly for the very ease of the Spirit of man for the very ease of the soul of man For if the mind should keep intent upon any one thought long it would so work upon that that it would weary it self out in working as we see men by excess of grief in particular cases grow to be phrensie and destracted and the like Now this aptness of the mind to run to variety of thoughts that God hath made for the ease of man Satan turns it as a help to hurt him A man shall run on into a world of business of temptations and distractions that shall draw him from the thought of those things that he hath heard for the relieving of his Spirit wherein God spake comfort to his heart that he may the better fasten those
soul is heavy unto death yet be not troubled was he so careful when he was in his own troubles on earth to comfort them and will he not now be so in heaven when he is in blessedness certainly the soul that hath recours to Christ shall not return empty therefore see how Christ is exprest in heaven Matth. 25. Come ye blessed c. For what you have done to these you have done to me he is in heaven and so Saul why dost thou persecute me he is in heaven yet in respect of his Church he is below therefore be assured that Christ hath not put off the bowels of love to his people he will be the same if thou receive him as a Lord and Saviour as ever he was to his Disciples But it may be objected we are exposed to many uncertainties though we beleeve in Christ and we find not the comfort of it here Therefore Christ saith rest not upon things present here you are in Tents but you shall come to your fathers house there is a place provided for you between which and this there is as much difference as is between a house and a Tent between a mans own mansion and an Inn. And though you have hard entertainment in the world yet you shall have an abiding place after But you will say indeed there are mansions but there are abundance to receive them what shall we do There are many masions therefore look as there are many children to be brought to glory so there are many places to receive them in glory and to settle them there we see what a vast body the Sun is and the Stars are yet they seem but little sparks in comparison of the heavens above us but what is the heaven of heavens that contain all these infinitely beyond in its own compass there are many mansions But how shall we come to heaven Saith Christ I go to prepare a place for you as if he should say all that I have done is for your sakes I die and ascend and sit at the right hand of God for your sakes I will come at the day of judgment to bring you to glory all that Christ doth now as God-man as Mediator between God and us all is for our sake But when Christ is taken from us how shall we get thither Saith he I will come and bring you with me I will come in glory at the day of Judgment in the clouds and inable you to meet me and thence bring you to those heavenly mansions in my fathers house never doubt how these things shall be done I will do them all Thus Christ would confirm their faith there is the greatest happiness and comfort in this wherein he would have them setled this should stir us up to settle our hearts this way But the time is past this shall be sufficient for this time FAITHS TRIUMPH OVER THE GREATEST TRYALS SERMON XXXII HEB. 11.17 By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up his son Isaac and he that had received the promise offered up his onely begotten son THis Chapter doth speak in the commendation of the Faith of many of the Patriarchs and Abraham among the rest is brought in with a manifest testimony of his Faith there be two things observable which Abrahams Faith strengthened him to act one was to give up his Country the other was to give up his Son to give up his Country in verse 8. By Faith Abraham when he was called of God to go out in a place which he should after receive for an inheritance obeyed and he went out not knowing whether he went To leave our friends our parents to take our journey we know not whither to live among we know not whom and all this upon a bare word this was not an easie thing to part with good Land for some good words this was a hard matter sence derides it and reason contemns it and will not hearken to it but Faith can see more in Gods promise than sence can find Abraham will leave his Country when God calls him to it but never shall lose his inheritance by beleeving and obeying no man did ever yet hazard his estate who could part with it upon obedient terms A second thing that he is to part with is with his Son his only son his first begotten son in this Act of faith Abraham sails against wind and tide where he breaks through the contentments of the world not only of sence and reason but of natural affection The story in a word is this God after many years patience at length gave Abraham a son in his old age he was the child of many prayers and of many teares the parents delight and to Abrahams thinking an heir of life because a child of the Promise he had not long spent his gray hairs in a strange land but God on a sudden calls upon Abraham to give back his son his very son Isaac as we may read in the 22 of Genesis Now what doth Abraham do how doth he behave himself doth he expostulate with God Any thing Lord but spare my son Isaac Nay the Text saith he offered up his son Doth he murmure and grumble against God in this manner Lord why dost thou single out this delight of mine why dost thou seem to envy this blessing of mine No he offered up his Isaac as if the Text had expressed Ahrahams language thus O Lord my God what is it that thou callest for whom is it that thou callest for is it for my only son Isaac the son of my love the son of thy promise the son of my age verily Lord thou shalt have him it is true I love him dearly well but I love thee better I got him by beleeving and I shall never lose him by obeying if Isaac were a thousand sons thou shouldest have them all though I am a father yet Lord thou art a God if I give him he is a sacrifice acceptable and though I kill him yet thou canst quicken him and raise him again I shall never lose my Isaac though I part with my son for thou hast said in Isaac shall thy seed be called Now the parts of these words are two First we have Abrahams great tryal Secondly we have Abrahams acquitment First his tryal Abraham was tried when he offered up his son Secondly his acquitment by Faith Abraham offered up his son In the former we may observe three particulars First the person that is tried Abraham Secondly the Person that tried him God Thirdly the thing wherein he was tried it was no ordinary thing it was to part with a part of himself to offer up his dear son Isaac In the latter part two things are observable First his quickening up himself in his obediential act he offered up Isaac saith the Text. Secondly the powerful cause which did inable Abraham to so difficult a work By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up his
gone riches are soon gone the life of man is soon gone the life of man is but a breath a vapour which is presently consumed but a glass of a brittle substance all our comforts are of a changeable nature that whereon we set our affection is taken from us in a moment Thus I have opened these two points now give me leave to make some use I will spare to speak to you of the occasion of our meeting together for Funeral Sermons are not for the advantage of the dead but for the instruction of the living there are two Uses that I will make of those two propositions I know many more may be produced but I consider the time The first Use is this Since great tryals may befal great Christians then let us prepare for great tryals for as much as such kind and degrees of affliction and crosses may besal us There are two things that a man should alwaies provide for one is while we live to provide for Death the other is while we are in prosperity to provide for affliction for a change and for this consider two things First our outward condition is but a shadow it hath a natural aptness to change there is not a person that hears me this day but this may concern his outward condition Man is born unto trouble saith Job as the sparks fly upward as if trouble were his natural sphear wherein he is to move Thou canst not assure thy self of life no not a moment nor of any of these outward comforts neither canst thou promise thy self security in any state or condition though thou maist get assurance that God wil save thee yet thou canst never get assurance that God will never try thee we see that Death enters into many houses of this City at this time in one house one hath lost a Father another hath lost a Wife another hath lost a Husband another hath lost a Child another is in sorrow for the loss of a dear friend and therefore we should provide for a change because the next commission of Death may enter into our houses it is our sins that puts our lives upon these conditions our sins do alwayes leave something contrary to our comforts to alter and change our present condition Death takes away our life and plucks away our comfort and dis-inherits us of all these outward things how soon doth Death lay honour in the dust how soon is beauty ecclipsed by deformity our strength laid down by weakness our health overcome by sickness our life overtaken by Death all these may ecclipse our comforts these clouds may soon darken our sun one thing or other every moment is ready to put out our candle to darken our day to cease our life alas what is life but a shadow What is honour but a blast what are the things we do so much pride our selves in they are but as Jonahs Gourd which perisheth in a moment and many times the cause of our sorrow and affliction the loss of them a greater griefe then the want of them this staffe on which we lean will soon be broken a Ship may last for a while but she will sink at the last What is the Wife mans verdict of all things under the Sun he concludes they are all vanity that is not enough they are nothing but vanity that is not enough neither they are nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit things less then nothing then how little is it that we are to expect from them we should provide for a change not only our outward condition is thus changeable but our inward condition too our spiritual comfort is changeable though there is stability in the main yet a Christian meets with many intermissions Beloved if our condition were not changeable I would hold my tongue from exhorting you to provide for a change Secondly as our outward condition is cast upon many changes so when these changes do befal us when they come to strip us of our comfort verily they will put us to it Thou art mistaken thou thinkest thou canst bear a loss or a cross it is not so easie a matter to bear the loss of a Child or a Husband or a Wife or a Father or the loss of a dear friend it is not so easie a thing to bear the loss of an estate as thou thinkest thou shalt find it a hard matter to bear in worldly sorrow we may seem to take courage before affliction comes but when afflictions and trials fall upon us then we are put to it it is with us as with a Ship when the Sun doth shine and the Seas are calm and the Wind fair then she goes on pleasantly in her motion but in a storm all little enough to keep her steady in our easie dayes in our dayes of peace in our calm estate then we can hold up our heads well enough but in our losses and crosses we shall hardly bear up unless the Lord do mightily support us We may observe two sorts of persons in the world some are insensible persons who are like the Rock that nothing can break it who are so hardened that though God do scourge them yet they feel it not though God doth threaten them they fear not though Gods hand be already upon them they regard it not a condition not so much now to be checked as to be deplored To such persons it is all one whether God bless or whether God curse whether he speak by his Word or by his Rod it is all one to them they feel nothing nor fear nothing Secondly there is another sort of persons who are sensible persons sensible of Gods love and sensible of Gods anger they know that God is good and wife that he doth not strike off our comforts from us but upon some special cause Now to stay upon God and to yeeld to the Lord It is the Lord let him do what seems good unto him God doth not deprive me of such a comfort but he sees it best for me Beloved it were good to learn this lesson it will cost thee something in a neer trial to acquit thy self by faith to acquit God and to submit to his chastisement to kiss the rod to judg the sin to bend the soul to better the life this were an excellent lesson to learn in all our trials and afflictions Secondly if great trials may befall great Christiaus and faith is that which will make a man acquit himself in great trials then get faith use faith What faith is I have divers times discovered in this assembly whence it comes from heaven how we may attain it by the word and Prayer but to omit these I say get faith labour for this grace of faith if there were no other reason but this it is able to support us in our dayes of trial it is able to give us comfort in our greatest sorrow this were motive enough to make us labour to get faith the day of trial
specially when she was both husband and wife both master and mistris Death making a division between her dear Husband and her self she used to pray her self and those that heard her and have given testimony thereof admired her gifts that way Frequent she was as apeared in her often retiring her self to her Closet in her constant and secret devotion yea also she took occasion of much fasting specially when she heard of the troubles of the Church The cause of the Church much affected her either in matter of rejoycing or griefe she continued it till her dying-day and still her heart was upon the peace of the Church praying for it As thus she exercised her self in this holy manner so she did likewise wonderfully respect those that were the Ministers of God Amongst many others I have heard long ago that worthy Minister before mentioned from whom I have received most of what I have now related speak much of her and of her worthy Husband in this respect The feet of those that brought the glad-tydings of salvation were beautiful to her And as she was careful to testifie her respect to them so she her self gained no little recompence thereby for she was still asking them questions still desiring to have such and such doubts resolved by them As thus her piety was manifested so likewise was her Charity constantly every week giving relief to the Poor ready upon all occasions that she was moved to to open her hands and to open them wide and that again and again not wearied in doing good Sober and grave she was in her carriage and attire and therein a good example to the younger sort And thus she continued even to her dying day full of sweet meditations upon her death-bed my self partaked of some of them Being asked what evidences she had for her salvation she answered good whether she doubted not she replyed no though she were of a tender conscience yet she had laid such a foundation as her faith remained firm She sweetly ended her dayes with prayers of her own with desire of the prayers of Ministers still as they came to her for as she hearkned to and desired the benefit of their counsel when she lived so she desired the comfort of their prayers now in her death thus I say with a sound testimony of her faith and of her good estate she ended her dayes and we may be assured that she is in the Number of those that are Co-heirs of the grace of life I remember the Philosophers make mention of a word which contains in it a kind of collection or combination of all in one I may say of her that the graces and vertues and ornaments of others seemed to be gathered together and to meet in her And so her piety toward God resembleth her to the two pious Hanna's the one the Mother of Samuel the other the Daughter of Phanuel Her charity resembleth her to Dorcas her love to the Ministers of God to the Shunamite that provided a Chamber a Table and a Candlestick for Elisha In her relation to her Husband she shewed her self a true Daughter of Sarah In her relation to her children which she had a Bathsheba and Eunice To others a Priscilla the Wife of Aquila ready to instruct as occasion was offered And so my bretheren she hath shewed her self a follower of those that through faith and patience inherit the Promise It remaineth to us to set such examples before us and to be followers of them as they have been followers of others and as others have been followers of Christ that so walking in their steps we may also be in the number of such as have the comfort of this Text to be Co-heirs of the grace of life which that you may do c. PEACE IN DEATH OR THE QUIET END OF THE RIGHTEOUS SERMON XXXIV LUKE 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy Word IN the Text it self to let pass other things you have First a Request and secondly a Reason upon which the Request is grounded Of each of these in order and first of the first The Request The sum whereof is That he may die Whereof is considerable First the disposition of the servants of God in respect of death viz. 1. A desire and longing after it 2. A care to be alwayes ready for it Secondly the warrant or guid of that desire according to thy Word Thirdly the nature and quality of the death of the Righteous a departure in peace Of each of these apart The point that ariseth from the first branch of the first general part viz. the desire and longing of the Saints for their day of death is this that The servants of God have in them a contented comfortable and willing expectation of death The rise of this Observation is obvious enough one spirit works in all Gods servants and brings forth like effects though not alwayes in the same measure that therefore which is true in Simeon which the very first view of the words import that the coming of Death was expected and desired by him is in some degree verified sooner or later in all that are the Lords Hereunto agrees that of Saint Paul I desire faith he to be dissolved c. And he averrs the same of all true beleevers viz. that they groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with their house which is from Heaven and that they are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 c. The foundation of this desire is the knowledg and right understanding of the truth of that speech of Solomon to wit that the day of death is better then the day of a mans birth They have learned to know that the day of death to Gods servants is the day of freedome from all miseries and of entrance into eternal happiness The miseries of this life which even the best are subject unto are many Loss of goods loss of credit loss of friends aches pains diseases severs consumptions c. bondage under original corruption and the fruits thereof as unbelief pride of heart ignorance covetousness distrustfulness hatred lust c. the buffetings and temtations of Satan society with the wicked all these miseries even the Holiest and dearest servants of God are exercised with and divers of these do make them many times mourn exceedingly and to cry one while O wretched man that I am and to groan out another while Woe is me that I am constrained to live in Mesech and to have my habitation in the tents of Kedar of all these miseries Death is the end to Gods servants And so also it is an entrance into happiness for albeit their bodies rot in the Grave and be laid up in the Earth as in Gods store-house untill the last day yet the soul forthwith even in an instant comes into the presence of the ever-living God of Christ and of
may be comfortably ready to entertain it So much may easily be gathered out of Simeons words here Nunc dimittis Now let thy servant depart He did not as it were take a day over in which and against which to be provided as though he should have said Lord now will I settle my self to make provision for my last end but even now Lord at this very instant if thou wilt Death hath been my ordinary meditation and if thou wilt now call me home to thee I am ready to depart As in the former point I shewed you how Saint Pauls longing agreed with Simeons Oh let thy servant depart faith Simeon I desire to be dissolved faith Paul So here I will shew you that there was the same care in respect of Death in Saint Paul as in Simeon Now if thou wilt faith Simeon I am now ready to be offered faith Saint Paul And else-where I did daily I am ever thinking upon death and daily making provision for my end This was holy Jobs mind All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my change come there was a continual expectation So teach us to number our dayes prayeth Moses that we way apply our hearts to wisdome And what wisdome did he wish he might apply his heart unto but this a holy care to make provision for another world seeing in this there was no continuance The same in effect the Authour to the Hebrews professeth touching himself and those that were like to him that they had here no continuing City but did seek one to come We know faith he here is no abiding we dwell in tents which must remove in houses of clay which will be broken therefore we desire to be ever ready for that place which is of more perpetuity And so much may be gathered from that which is upon record concerning Joseph of Arimathca he did not only make ready his Tomb in his life-time but in his garden his place of solace and delight and how could so good a man so often think on death without labouring and caring to be ever provided for the same and therefore our Saviour Christ compares his faithful servants unto those which daily wait for their Masters coming Now the reason which so much prevails with the godly in this particular and which ought to be of sufficient force with every one is first the certainty and uncertainy of death Morte nihil certius As sure as Death is an ordinary Proverb What man is he that liveth and shall not see death faith the Psalmist That all must die it is Heavens decree and cannot be revoked The thing it self we see is most certain yet for some circumstances most uncertain for first Tempus est incertum No man knows when he shall die in the night or in the day in Winter or in Summer in youth or in his latter age Secondly Locus est incertus None know where they shall die whether at home or abroad in his bed or in the field who knows but that he may die in the Church of God even while he is asleep at the Word Thirdly Mortis genusest incertum No man can determine how he shall die whether suddenly or by a lingring sickness whether violently or by a natural course These things the servants of God know full well and seriously weigh the same and that makes them to make conscience of continual preparation that whensoever or wheresoever or howsoever they die they may with comfort commend their souls into the hands of God as into the hand of a faithful Creatour Secondly they know the misery of being taken by Death unprepared put case a man should die as Ishbosheth lying upon his bed at noon or as Jobs children while they are seasting or that a man like the rich man in the Gospel should have his breath taken from him at the very instant having made no provision for another world what hope can there be that such a one should be saved They know thirdly that the time of sickness is the most unfit time for this business of preparation the senses are then so taken up with the pain of sickness that a man cannot think seriously upon ought else and besides it is not in our own power to turn to God when he will ordinarily God forgets those in sickness that forget him in health And it is commonly seen that that preparation for Death that begins but in sickness is as languishing and faint as is the party from whom it comes And although Vera poenitentia be nunquam sera yet sera poenitentia est raro vera Though I say true repentance be never too late yet late repentance is seldome true when men leave their sins because they can continue to practise them no longer what thanks have they or what can that repentance be These things work with Gods servants to study to be ever ready for the Lord not to delay preparation but to seek continually to be provided My exhortation hence shall begin with that speech of Moses Oh that men would be wise to understand this and that they would consider their latter end I would there were a heart in us to entertain this doctrine in our best thoughts I remember the Complaint of old that men had made a Covenant with Death and were at agreement with Hell Death indeed will make truce with no man but here is the meaning Evil men perswade themselves that they are in no danger of hell or of the grave Death will not come yet thinketh the oldest man and when it comes I hope I shall do well enough thinketh the most godless man Thus men couzen themselves with their own fancies and so Death steals upon them at unawares and becomes Gods Sergeant to arrest them and to carry them away to eternal condemnation Who amongst us is able to say truly and upon good ground as Simeon Now Lord if thou wilt now command Death to seize upon me welcome shall it be unto me I am even now ready to receive it How many are there that are extraordinary ignorant in the means how to escape the sting of Death How many extreamly secure that never in their lives yet thought earnestly upon this how they may die with comfort and end their dayes in peace How many prophane ones that set light by Death being apt to say like those Epicures Edamus c. Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die How many that do put all to a desperate adventure God made us and he must save us and we shall do as well as please God and there is an end How many are there whose hearts albeit they be in the house of God and in his presence are notwithstanding fraughted with malice with envy with worldliness with disdain with secret scorning repining at the Word which they hear with wearisomeness with spiritual sleepiness and security You
troublesome thoughts no perplexed motions shall we say that these were good men because they seem to go away in peace It is true indeed it is the common opinion Doth a man lye quietly hath he his memory to the end died he like a Lamb surely then he is gone to heaven but this is an absurd collection for First sometime this outward calmness is an ordinary consequent of some diseases as Consumptions and such like by which Nature being formerly weakned hath not power left to make resistance Secondly this outward calmness is no argument of a peaceable and quiet soul The Psalmist tells us of the wicked in whose death there are no bands Thirdly we must distinguish between security and peace betwixt carnal senssesness and true spiritual quietness Nabals death was quiet enough yet he were but a fool that would adventure his soul with Nabals I see many ignorant persons many of heathenish and brutish comversation very quiet in sickness without any fear of hell and judgment to come making no doubts casting no perils asking no questions complaining of no sins and so away they go without any more adoe What shall I say that these died in true peace God forbid No when I compare together their ignorant secure benummed hardned kind of life with their sensless and drowsie kind of death I must say that these are fearful signs these things argue that the Devil had quiet possession where he made so small a doe Thus then notwithstanding these Objections I will conclude that a peaceful death is the peculiar and individed priviledge of Gods servants However it be yet I know saith Solomon that it shall go well with those that fear the Lord but there is no peace to the wicked saith my God We may make Use of this first to be a trial betwixt our Religion and the Romish for from this Doctrine I avouch that Religion to be no true Religion because a Papist by the Rules of his own Religion can never die in peace This is a hard saying thou maist object or how can I make it good I answer by two reasons First every Papist is taught to beleeve under pain of Anathema and the great curse that whosoever dieth if he have not in this life attained to perfection and throughly purged himself from the remainders of sin by works of satisfaction his soul must after-death go into Purgatory and there continue untill he hath made a full satisfaction now the pain of Purgatory is held for the time to be as great as the pains of hell differing only in this that it is not perpetual Now I would fain know how can a man die comfortably and in peace and with a joyful heart when he thinks with himself that albeit perhaps after some years he shall go to heaven yet in the mean space his soul must go into such a place of unspeakable torment where if the matter be not well plyed by the prayers of them that are alive and by well seeing the Priests they may hap to lie for many years I say how can the Doctrine of Popery beget a peaceful death when it teacheth an expectation of such an hellish Purgatory Secondly every Papist as he is bound of a certain to beleeve a Purgatory so further must he beleeve that he cannot in this life be assured of salvation otherwise then by a kind of confused hope which may deceive him Now he which by the witness of his own conscience is sure that he hath deserved hell and cannot attain to any certainty of discharge what comfort can such an one have to die he knows that when he is dead he must come to his account before God but yet can have no assurance that the Lord will acquit him in Christ Jesus I wish that this may seriously be considered by us for the establishing of us in the truth of Religion I say again and testifie these reasons which I have alledged being weighed that a Rapist by his own doctrine can never expect that which Simeon did a departure hence in peace He knows he must to torment he is caught that he cannot know in this world that God will pardon him In the next place let us come neerer home to our selves that we must all die nothing more certaine Dust thou art and to dust thoushalt return God hath decreed it and it cannot be revoked if our end be not peaceable our estate after cannot be happy Let our care then be spent about this one point how one may attain to this to end our dayes in peace I doubt not but we will all be ready to say we hope so to do but this is nothing for when the wicked man dieth his expectation perisheth What becomes of the hope of the Hypocrite said Job when God takes away his soul But what course then shall we take that we may finish our course with joy I will tell thee in few words I touched it a little before the best means for a peaceable departure is a godly and religious life I have fought the good fight saith Saint Paul and he could comfortably from thence infer that therefore there was laid up for him a crown of righteousness It was Christs own inference I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do and therefore now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self The reason of it is first Gods promise blessed shall be the undefiled in the way Those that honour me I will honour said God Now this promise God will not break He that goeth this way though it be with much weakness with many falls with sundry imperfections with divers wandrings yet he cannot miss of the promised peace Secondly life eternal hath three degrees the first is in this life when a man repenteth and beleeveth and is purged from dead works to serve the living God The second is in death when the body goes to earth and the spirit returns to him that gave it The third is at the last judgment These three degrees hang together like three links the second followeth the first and the third the two former the last cannot be hoped for where the first is wanting for except ye repent ye shall all perish The first being obtained the last must needs ensue for he is faithful that hath promised So then wouldest thou have peace in death labour for grace in thy life wouldest thou end thy dayes happily make conscience to spend them holily A godlesse man that lives in sin may die senslesly or sullenly he cannot die peaceably Oh consider this all ye that forget God that spend your dayes in vanity and your years according to the lusts of your own heart that have hitherto hated to be reformed and will not be reclaimed from your former fashions but live yet still as you were wont to do Think a little with me of your last end which how neer
it is you do not know when your consciences a little awaked shall make report of your life past how in matters of God you have been ignorant superstitious careless neglecting his worship despising his Word blaspheming his Name mispending his Sabbaths in dealing with men you have been cruel false unmerciful oppressing in the usage of your own bodies unchast vicious lustful proud wanton wallowing in excess what peace can your souls have when these things be thought upon what calmness of spirit what hope of entring into rest how can you think that the end can be comfortable when the life hath been abominable What answer made Jehu to Joram when he demanded Is it peace Jehu What peace said he so long as the whoredomes of thy mother Jezabel and her witchcrafts are so many So when Death comes like Jehu marching furiously against you and you enquire of him whether he comes with peace or no he will answer what peace when your whoredoms and your gross and crying sins are yet in great number What peace when these make a partition betwixt your souls and the Lord Certainly there can be no peace but a fearful expectation of judgement and violent fire to devour Suffer me then to conclude this exhortation as Daniel did his speech to Nebuchadnezzar O King break off thy sins by righteousness and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor So say I break off your sins by repentance your ignorance by seeking after knowledge your contempt of Gods word by a reverent yeelding to it your security by a standing in awe of God your neglecting the exercises of Religion by careful using of them your whoredom by chastity your drunkenness by sobriety your malice by charity your oppression by mercy your falshood by fidelity this is the way that will bring peace at the last thus and thus only you may find rest for your souls THE VITALL FOUNTAIN OR LIFES ORIGINAL SERMON XXXV JOHN 11.25 26. I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die THese Words that I have read to you they are part of the conference between Martha and Christ when Christ was coming to Bethany to awake Lazarus from the sleep of death The conference is laid down from the beginning of the 21. Verse to the end of the 27. and Martha meeting with Christ begins the conference as we may see verse 21 22. Then said Martha to Jesus Lord if thou haddest been here my brother had not died but I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of God God will give it thee Here Martha manifests her affection to her dead brother and her faith in her living Master she manifests the strength of her natural affection and the weakness and imperfection of her faith The strength of her natural affection appears in this that she was perswaded if Christ had been there present her brother Lazarus had not died he would not have suffered Lazarus to have dyed which for ought we know is more then she had sufficient ground for Then the weakness and imperfection of her faith appears in this that she rested too much upon the corporal presence of Christ that she ascribed no more power to Christ then that by his prayer he could attain at Gods hands as much as ever any holy man did namely the life of her brother I know saith she that ever now whatsoever thou askest God will give it Whereas Christ being true God was able to work any miracle by his own power Now the answer of Christ is laid down verse 23. Jesus said unto her thy brother shall rise again Christ to comfort Martha passeth by her infirmity and promiseth to her that he will restore her brother to life again that she shall enjoy her brother again but this promise is only laid down in general and indifinite termes Thy brother shall rise again Christ doth not say expresly I will raise up thy brother to life but he speaks only in general terms Thy brother shall rise again which we are to ascribe to the modesty and humility that alwayes may be observed in the speeches of Christ Thy brother shall rise again Then we have the reply of Martha laid down in verse 24. Martha said unto him I know he shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day Martha was not satisfied with this promise of Christ for it seems she durst not take it in the full extent of it therefore she replies that as for the last Resurrection she knew indeed that her brother and all others that were dead should then rise again this did comfort her but for any other matter of comfort she could not gather any from the answer of Christ and his promise therefore Christ replies again in the words of my Text And Jefus said unto her I am the Resurrection and the life he that believes in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die Christ would have Martha know that he was true life yea the fountain of all life and such a fountain of life that whosoever did believe in him and cleave to him nothing should hurt him no not Death it self Thus you see briefly the coherence and the scope of the words We come now to shew you the meaning of them In these words we may observe these two parts First here we have laid down a compound proposition And then the distinct Exposition or explication thereof First here we have laid down a compound Axiome or Proposition a copulative Proposition wherein Christ affirms two things of himself First I am the Resurrection Secondly I am the Life I am the Resurrection I am the Life Now the difference between these two we may conceive with reverend Calvin to be this I am the Resurrection That is I have all quickning power in me I am able to restore and give life to those that are dead And then I am the life I have such quickning power in me that I am able to preserve and continue the life that I have given or restored to any I am the Resurrection and the life And then follows the Exposition of this Proposition and of the several members of it for the truth of a copulative Proposition depends upon the truth of both the parts and members of it therefore there followes the Explication and confirmation of both the parts of this Proposition First of the first part I am the Resurrection this is explained and comfirmed in these words He that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live I have such a quickning power in me faith Christ that I am able to restore spiritual life to that soul that is dead in sins therefore I am able to raise up the body that is dead in the grave I am able to give spiritual life to the soul which is greater
rise out of the grave of sin and to lead a new life a spiritual life the life of grace this is the resurrection of the soul Now that Christ is the Author of this Resurrection also of this spiritual Resurrection we may demonstrate this by a multitude of Divine testimonies but we will single out some few of the chiese we need go no further then this Evangelist which affords plentiful testimony for the confirmation of this truth As in Joh. 4.10 There Christ speaking to the woman of Samaria he said unto her If thou haddest known the gift of God and who it is that said unto thee give me drink thou shouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water Here the Spirit of Christ it is compared to living water by an allusion to the water that continually springeth out of a Fountain And the Spirit of grace is compared to living water from the effects of it because the Spirit of grace restoreth spiritual life to the soul and then preserveth this life therefore it is living Water and Christ is as the Fountain of this water that yeeldeth and giveth this living quickning water of the Spirit Again in Joh. 5.21 there Christ challengeth this power to himself As the Father raised up the dead and quickneth them so the Son quickneth whom he will As Christ when he was upon the earth he raised whom he would from the death of the body so now being in heaven he raiseth whom he will from the death of the soul Yea the voyce of Christ sounding in the ministry of the Word accompanied with his quickning Spirit is of power and efficacie to raise those that are dead in sins as we may see Joh. 5.25 Verily verily I say unto you faith Christ the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voyce of the Son of God and they that hear it shall live Again in Joh. 6.35 there Christ stileth himself the Bread of life and the Living bread Jesus said unto them I am the bread of life and in verse 48. I am the bread of life and again verse 51. I am the living bread Christ is the living bread the bread of life who as he hath life in himself so he communicates spiritual life to all those that seed upon him And here is a broad difference between this Bread of life and ordinary bread ordinary food for though ordinary food can preserve natural life where it is yet it cannot restore life where it is not but Christ is such living Bread that he restores life to those that are dead in sins and preserves that life that he hath restored thus he is the living Bread Again Joh. 15.1 there Christ compares himself to a Vine and the faithful to so many branches I am the true Vine faith Christ and my Father is the husbandman And in verse 5. I am the Vine ye are the branches Now as the branch of the Vine sucks juyce and sap from the stock and root of the Vine so all the faithful receive spiritual juyce and life from Christ their head As Adam he is a common root of corruption and spiritual death to all that come from him so Christ is a common root of grace and spiritual life to all those that are his members And in this regard Christ is compared to a head and the faithful to his members Collos 1.18 Christ is the head of his body the Church Christ is the head and the faithful are his members therefore as in the natural body the head that is the principium the fountain of sence and motion it is the head that by certain nerves and sinews conveyes sence and motion to all the members of the body so in the mystical body the Church Christ is the head that conveyes spiritual life and motion to all that are his members to all the faithful Thus you see the second conclusion explained and proved also that as Christ is the Author of the resurrection of the body so he is of the resurrection of the soul too it is he that raiseth the soul to spiritual life Now in the third place we are to shew the reason why this double quickning power is here comprehended under one term I am the Resurrection Now that this double power of quickning is to be understood here under this one term we need not I hope spend time to prove for that Christ speaks here of the spiritual resurrection and the spiritual life this I take to be evident from Christs own exposition in the words following He that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live He that believeth in me though he were dead in sins and trespasses before yet he shall live the life of grace therefore I am the Resurrection Again that the resurrection of the body is not here excluded it may appear from the scope and intent of these words of Christ for the scope of these words here is to perswade Martha that he was able of himself by his own power to raise up her dead brother to restore him to life saith he I am the resurrection I have power to restore spiritual life to the soul that is dead in sin and this is the greater work therefore I am able to restore natural life to the dead body to restore the body that is dead in the Grave to life again Now the reasons why this double power is here comprehended under one term I am the resurrection the chiefe reasons I take to be these two First this double quickning power is here comprehended under one term in regard of the Analogie and proportion between these two between the restoring of the body to life and the restoring the soul to life Secondly in regard of the certain inseparable connexion between these two First I say in regard of the Analogie and proportion between these two the resurrection of the body and of the soul now the proportion and analogie consists especially in these four things First as in the resurrection of the body the living soul must first return to the dead body and quicken it before it can rise again so here in the Resurrection of the soul the Spirit of grace must return to the soul that is dead in sins and quicken it before it can rise again so that there is a similitude in regard of the first beginning and principle of this Resurrection Again secondly there is an analogie and proportion in regard of the point and term the state from which the Resurrection is for as in the resurrection of the body the body riseth from the state of corruption from the bondage of the Grave So here in this resurrection of the soul the soul and the whole man riseth from the state of spiritual corruption from the bondage of sin The third proportion is in regard of the estate to which a man riseth for as in the resurrection of the body a man shall rise again without those
Minister that was with her asking how she that had a Husband and Children enjoying an estate and many other comforts could be willing to forgo so many blessings and exchange them all for death She from that inward sence and perswasion of Gods love to her in Christ concluded my Husband is dear and my Children are dear to me but Christ is dearer Therefore I am willing to forgo Husband and Children and all the contents you can number in this life that I might live with Christ to partake of greater felicity then this world can afford me And now the Lord Jesus hath received her into his own protection and satisfied her expectation with the performance of his love But wherefore have we spoken all this what that we might add any praise unto the dead no But to quicken those that are living and incite them to the like duty Some may think it impossible there should be such activeness in doing of good and such unwearedness in performing of the acts of mercy and where say they shall we find such an example you have it before your eyes and know that examples will rise in judgment against you and condemn you as well as precepts If you follow them not while they invite you The Text saith Do good to all especially to the houshold of faith And here is an example before our eyes of one who took her time and opportunity to do good to all especially to them of the houshold of Faith Go thou and do likewise DEATH PREVENTED OR MORTALITY CHANGED SERMON XL. JOB 14.14 All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait to my change come THis Book of Job comprehends the History of a good man and of his many tryals Though goodness deliver from Hell yet it priviledgeth not from temptatious or crosses yea the more eminent Holiness is many times the more it is exposed to sharp and manifold assaults Job is set upon on all sides he found the Devil a fore enemy and his great estate a suddain shipwrack his Children in a moment crusht to pieces He had but three Points of Land to look at in this troublesome sea and every one of them seemed rather to augment than to lessen the storm His Wife whose breath should have sweetned and eased his grief was an impatient vexation His friends whose counsels and compassions should have been an easie harbour and tender relief they became his bitter and censorious judges Yea his God who by his own testimony he served and feared with singular uprightness and whose bowels are ever tender and compassionate to such and upon whose gracious acceptance he thought to quiet and anchor his troubled spirit yet anon he seemed not only a stranger but an enemy and this went deep that even Mercy it self seemed cruel and Kindness so unkind and harsh But what was his behaviour under all these For the general sweet and heavenly For some particulars sad and weak when saith did work he was above all his storms In the deepest calamity saith can settle and compose the soul and fill it with the sweetest comforts When sence and nature did work then he was much impatient and the wind had the better over him In the one be shews himself a Christian In the other a man In the one Job is beyond himself in the other below himself According to the time and manner of these several workings he is like or unlike himself Thus it is with the best whose outward change doth not more vary but their inward carriage doth as much change At length Job after many disputes with his friends and conflicts with himself concenterates his thoughts in two main Points 1. One was still to trust in God let him be what he will and let him do what he will though he should continue his present trials yea and exceed them though he should kill me yet saith he Chap. 13.15 though he stay me I will trust in him and there he disposeth of his soul 2. Another was to prepare for death all the dayes of my appointed time I will wait till my change come and there he disposeth of his body Many arguments he layeth down in this Chapter which did occasion him to these thoughts and resolutions The first is the brevity of mans life Vers 1 2. Man that is born of a Woman is of few dayes he cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not He saith not years nor moneths nor weeks but dayes and these dayes not many but few and these few dayes not long but short as quickly set as the shadow as quickly cropt as the flower Secondly the misery of that short life in the same place and full of trouble as if every Article of life were replenished with sorrow even as every vein of the body is with bloud this his own experience could tell him Thirdly the certainty of Death The Sun hath his appointed race which in the Winter is short in the Summer long but in both it hath a certain time of setting so the race of mans life to some it may be shorter to some longer but the night will come and all must be closed up in Death vers 5. His dayes are determined the number of them they are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds which be cannot passe and if so then high time for Job to think of it and prepare for it Death began in a manner to seize on him already in several parts in his feet for his wealth was gone in his loynes having lost his children in his heart his friends leaving him in his bosome for his wife was a discomforter nay in his very life it self so much as was wrapt up in the outward part of his body for that was diseased in his speech and spirits they grow hoarse and faint all these were the harbingers of a future dissolution Well therefore might Job conclude ever I must not live and long I cannot live therefore though in much misery and in had dayes I will think of Death and fit my self for a good end and apply my self seriously and wisely for a good work All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my change come Which words contain in them two parts First his future dissolution which he calls a change and a change that is coming upon him as if he had been the next man till my change come Secondly his present disposition I will wait he thinks of death before death and prepares to die while yet he lives Neither was this a death pang a sit a humour which began quickly and expired suddenly Nay he will make it a serious business as if this should be his every dayes work All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait Some read it of my appointed warfare and others of my appointed labour they all intimate that he means by his appointed time his appointed life the lease or term of breathing which
God had allotted allowed and decreed There are two propositions which naturally issue from the words and comprehend the juyce and marrow of the Text. First that there is a change which will befall the sons of men Secondly we should alwayes wait till it come I begin with the first that There is a change which will befall the sons of men Be we poor or be we rich be we noble or be we ignoble be we prosperous or be we afflicted be we strong or be we weak be we old or be we young be we good or be we bad be we male or be we female whatsoever our natures be whatsoever our parrs be whatsoever our places be whatsoever our ages be whatsoever our courses be whatsoever our wayes be how fair and how durable our estates may appear yet at length there is a change which will befall us That which Jacob spake in a pathetical way Joseph is not and Simeon is not may truly be said of all the sons of men once they were now they are not though once we reckoned them upon our account yet at length they are shut out and stand aside as cyphers But that you may the better understand what change it is that is here meant you are to know that there is a fourfold change First a change of the condition this I call a temporal change wherein some or more or all of our outward comforts are shrivelled and seared up by some present misery When poverty breaks in upon us as the hunter doth upon his game and causeth our riches as so many birds to which Solomon compares them to take to themselves wings and flie away When sickness stayeth our health in the bed and imprisoneth us to the chamber When our friends glide away from us like a river through their Apostacy or start aside like a broken bow through their falshood or treachery When the neer relation of Husband and Wife Parents and Children is cut asunder and the many sad tears for their loss imbitter all our former comforts But this is not the change intended in the Text. Secondly there is a change of the Body and this I call a corporal change for even these vild bodies of ours shall be changed Look as the spring is a refreshing change to the season of the year so shall the Resurrection be an exceeding change to our bodies or as the morning is a change to the night so at the Resurrection shall our bodies awake and their corruption shall put on incorruption neither is this the change which Job here intends immediatly though some expound his aim to be at this from whom I cannot absolutely dissent yet I think they hit not the right scope Thirdly there is a change of the Soul that I call a Spiritual change wrought in the soul by the spirit of God nothing makes in this life such a change as true grace We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 This change is like the turning of a disordered instrument or like the refining of corrupt mettal or like the clearing of the dark air or like the quickening of a dead Lazarus but neither is this change that the text intends Fourthly there is a change of the life and this I call a mortal change we shall all be changed faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.5 life hath the first course but death will have the second As in a Comedy several persons have several parts to act which when they have dispatched they all draw off of the stage so though in life we all present our selves on the stage of this world and act several Scenes and parts yet at length we must all retire and pass away through one and the same door of mortality This is the change which Job speaks of to wit a change of this life by Death Here then are two things to be demonstrated and proved for the making good of the point in hand viz. 1. That death is a change 2. That this change of death will befall all the sons of men First that Death is a change not an anihilation A change is a different and a divers order or manner of being Anihilation is one thing and mutation is another thing there the thing ceaseth utterly to be here the thing only ceaseth to be as once it was so it is with Death it doth not reduce us to nothing but alter our former something it changes our manner or order of being not our being absoluteâ—…y Now observe Death is a change in five respects First it changes that neer union of the Soul and the body and makes of one two severals they that were as the hands mutually clasped or as two persons conjugally tyed together when Death comes it plucks them asunder and divides one from the other as far as heaven is from the earth Secondly it changes our actions or work Whiles life remained here in our bodies while our day lasted we might have sed the hungry clothed the naked visited the sick relieved the distressed frequented the ordinances bewailed our sins but when death once enters the night is come in which no man can work thou art then turned changed into an insensible rotten and loathsome carkass Thirdly it changes our country Whiles we live here we are as children put abroad to school in a strange place hence it is we are so often in the Scripture called Pilgrims and strangers This earth this lower world is not the proper home of the Soul But when Death comes we change our country we go home to our own place to our own City the wicked shall go to their own place as it is said of Judas and the godly to their own Mountain to their own Kingdome Fourthly it changes our company In this life we converse with sinful men empty creatures infinite miseries innumerable conflicts but when Death comes all this shall be changed we shall go to our God and Father to our Christ and Saviour and to the innumerable company of blessed Angels and Saints and the spirits of just men made perfect Fifthly it changes our outward condition When Death comes thou shalt never see the wedge of gold again thou shalt never find thy delights in sin any more all the excellency of the creature and the contentments of them and the sensual rejoycing in them shall go out with life Death shall shut and close them up in an eternal night which shall never rise to another day So much for the first thing that Death is a change I come now to speak briefly of the second that this change of Death will besal all the sons of men Psal 89.48 What man is he that liveth and shall not see death shall be deliveâ—… his soul from the hand of the grave We love to see most things the eye is never satisfied with seeing and yet
in a holy course and then assuredly we shall live with joy and die with peace when we can get grace in our fouls sorrow for our sins new ness in our natures reformation in our lives uprightness in our wayes faith in Christ a discharge from God peace of conscience oh what a happy day the day of death will be to our Souls ITER NOVISSIMUM OR MAN HIS LAST PROGRESSE A SERMON Preached at the Funeral of the Right Worshipful Sir THOMAS THINNE Knight SERMON XLI ECCLES 12.5 Man goeth to his long home and the Mourners go about the Streets ALthough I might in the Kings King Solomon name command yet I will rather in the Preachers his other stile humbly entreat your religious attention to the last Scene and Catastrophe of mans life consisting of two Acts and those very short 1. The dead his pass he goeth c. 2. The Mourners march they go about c. Where as the whole Scripture is a Volumn of divine Sermons and the Author of every Book a Preacher and every Chapter a lesson and every verse and piece of a verse a Text. Gregory Nysscen reasonably demands why this Book which treateth throughout of the vanity of the world and misery of man is intituled The Book of the Preacher To pass by other answers rendred by him and others not so pertinent to our present purpose I conceive this title of the Preacher is in special set over this Book to intimate unto us that according to the Argument thereof there is no Doctrine so fit for all Preachers to teach and all hearers to learn as the vanity of the creature and the emptiness of all earthly delights and comforts And in very deed there is no meditation more serious then upon the vanity of the world no consideration more seasonable then of the brevity and uncertainty of time it self no knowledge more wholsome then of the diseases of the mind no contemplation more divine then of humane misery and frailty Which though we read in the inscription of every stone see in the fall of every leaf hear in the knel of every bell taste in the garnishing and sauce of every dish smell in the stench of every dead corpses feel in the beating of every pulse yet we are not sensible of it we will not take knowledge of it though we cannot be ignorant of it In which consideration the Wise man whose words are as goads and nails vers 11. pricks us deep with the remembrance hereof so deep that he draws blood sanguinem animâ—…e the blood of the soul as Saint Austin tearmeth our tears lachryme sanguis animâ—…e For who can read with dry eyes that those that look out of the windowes shall be darkned Who can hear without horrour that the keepers of the house shall tremble or consider without sorrow that the daughters of musick shall be brought low or comment without deep setched sighs upon mans going to his long home and the mourners going about the streets to wash them with tears and sweep them with Rosemary Origen after he had chosen rather facere periculosè quam perpeti turpitèr to burn Incense to the Heathen gods then to suffer his body to be defiled by a Blackamore and the flower of his chastity which he had so long time preserved to be some way blasted at a Church in Jerusalem goeth into the Pulpit openeth the Bible at all adventures intending to preach upon that Text which he should first light upon but falling upon that vers in Psal 50. But to the wicked saith God what hast thou to do to declare my statutes or that thou shouldest take my covenants in thy mouth which contained his suspension shutteth his book speaketh not a word more but comments upon it with his tears some thinks having read this Text in which I find all our capital dooms written I cannot do better then follow that Fathers president and shut up not only my book but my mouth also and seal up my lips and comment upon the coherence with distraction the parts with passion the notes with sighs the periods with groans and the words with tears for alas as soon as a man cometh into his short booth in this world which he saluteth with tears he goeth to his long home in the next And the mourners go about the streets It is lamentable to hear the poor infant which cannot speak yet to boad his own misery and to prophecy of his future condition and what are the contents of his Prophecy but lamentations mournings and woes Saint Cyprian accords with Saint Austin in his doleful note Vitâ—…e mortalis anxietates dolores procellas mundi quas ingreditur in exordio statim suo ploratu vel gemitu rudes animae testatur Little Children newly born take in their first breath with a sigh and come crying into the world assoon as they open their eyes they shed tears to help fill up the Vale of tears into which they were then brought and shall be after a short time carried out with a stream of them running from the eyes of all their friends And if the Prologue and Epilogue be no better what shall we judge of the Scenes and Acts of the life of man they yeeld so deep springs of tears and such store of arguments against our aboad in this world that many reading them in the books of Hegesias the Platonick presently brake the prison of their body and leaped out of the world into the grave others concluded with Silenus Optimum non nasci proximum quam primum mori That it was simply best never to be born the next to it to die out of hand and give the world our salve and take our vale at once How-be-it though this might pass for a sage Essay and a strong line amongst Philosophers yet we Christians who know that this present life to all that live godly in Christ Jesus how full of troubles cares and persecutions so ever it be is but a sad and short Preface to endless Volumnes of joy an Eves fast on earth to an everlasting feast in Heaven ought thus to correct the former Apophthegme Optimum renasci proximum quam primum mori That it is best to be new born and then if it so please God after our new birth to be translated with all speed into the new Heaven But soft we cannot take our degrees in Christs school per saltem we must keep our Terms and preform our exercises both of faith obedience and patience we must not look from the Font to be presently put into the rivers of pleasures springing at Gods right hand for evermore We must take a toylsome journey and in it often drink of the waters of Marah We must suffer with Christ before we reigne with him We must taste of the bitter cup of his Passion before we drink new Wine with him in his Kingdome we must sow in tears here that we may reap in joy
hereafter Every man goeth though some set out sooner some later and shall arive at his home but let him look to his way as the way is he taketh so shall the home be into which he is received if he take the way on the right hand and keep within the paths of Gods commandements his home shall be the New Jerusalem descending from God most gloriously shining with streets of gold gates of pearl and foundatious of pretious stones where all tears shall be wiped from his eyes but if he take the broad way on the left hand and follow it his home shall be a dungeon or vault in Hell where he shall be eternally both mourner and Crops But to shoot somewhat nearer to the mark Marriages and Funerals though most different actions and of a seeming contrary nature yet are set forth and as it were apparelled with parallel rites and ceremonies our rayments are changed in both because in both our estate is changed Bels are rung flowers are strowed and feasts kept in both and anciently both were celebrated in the night by Torch-light He that hath but half an eye may see in the Rituals of the Ancients the blazing and sparkling as well of the funeral as the unptial lights and no marvail the shodows meet when the substance concur the pictures resemble one the other when the faces match the accessaries are corresponding where the principals are sutable as here they are for in marriage single life dieth and in death the soul is married to Christ The couple to be married in ancienter times first met and after an enterview and liking of each other and a contract signed between them presently departed the Bride to her Mother the Bridegroom to his Fathers house till the wedding day on which the Bridegroom late in the night was brought to his Spouse and then he took her and inseparably linked himself unto her Here the couple to be married in man are the body and the soul at our birth the contract is made but after a short enterview and small abode together the parties are parted and the body the Bride returneth to her Mothers house the earth but the soul the Bridegroom to his Fathers house the Father of spirits in Heaven as both their guests are set forth in this chapter verse 7. the dust returns to the earth as it was and the spirit to God that gave it But in the evening of the World at that dreadful night after which the Angel swore there should be no more day or time here the soul is given by God to the body again and then the marriage is consummated and both for ever fast coupled and wedded for better for worse to run an everlasting fortune and to participate either eternal joyes or torments together Thus man is brought to his long home or as the Seventy and Saint Jerome renders the Hebrew his house of eternity and the mourners go about the streets here is a short reckoning of all mankind like to that of the Psalmist who alluding to the name of the two Patriarchs faith Coll ADAM ABEL All men are altogether vanity so here upon the foot of the account in Bonaventures casting all appear wretched and miserable describitur miseria mortis in morientibus compatientibus all are either dead corpses or sad mourners corpses already dead or mourners for the dead and their courses and motions are two 1 Straight man goeth c. 2 Circular mourners go about The dead go directly to the long home the living fetch a compass and round about the termini of which their motions shall be the bounds of my discourse at this present Wherein that you may the better discern my passage from point to point I will set up six Posts or standings 1 The Scope 2 Coherence 3 Sense 4 Parts 5 Doctrine 6 Vse The scope will give light to the Coherence the Coherence to the Sense the Sense to the Parts the Parts to the Doctrine the Doctrine to the Vse Wherefore I humbly entreat the assistance of Gods Spirit with the intention of yours whil'st in unfolding this rich peece of Arras I shall point with the finger to 1 The main Scope 2 The right Coherence 3 The litteral Sense 4 The natural Division 5 The general Doctrine 6 The special application of this parcel of holy Scripture First the Scope Although all other Canonical books of this old and new Testament were read in the Church yet as Gregory Nysscen acutely observes this book alone is intituled Ecclesiastes the Preacher or Church-man because this alone in a manner tendeth wholly Ecclesiastical policy or such a kind of life or conversation as becometh a Preacher or Church-man For the prime scope of this book is to stir up all religious minds to set forth towards Heaven betimes in the morning of our dayes Chap. 12. verse 1. Remember thy Creatour in the dayes of thy youth to enter speedily into a strict course of holiness which will bring us to eternal happiness to dedicate to God and his service the prime in both senses that is the first and best part of our time For as in a glass of distilled water the purest and thinnest first runneth out and nothing but lees and mouther at the last so it is in our time and age Optima queque dies miseris mortalibus avi prima fluit Our best dayes first run and our worst at the last And shall we offer that indignity to the Divine Majesty as to offer him the Devils leavings storem at at is diabolo consecrare fâ—…ecem Deo reserv are to consecrate the top to the Devil and the bottom to God feed the flesh with the flower and the spirit with the bran serve the world with our strength and our Creatour with our weakness give up our lusty and able members as weapons to sin and our feeble and weak to righteousness Will God accept the blind and the lame the lean and the withered for a sacrifice How can we remember our Creatour in the dayes of our age when our memory and all other faculties of the soul are decayed How shall we bear Christs yoak when the Grashoppers is a burthen unto us when we are not able to bear our selves but bow under the sole weight of age What delight can we take in Gods service when care and fear and sorrow and pain and manifold infirmities and diseases wholly possess the heart and dead all the vital motions and lively affections thereof Old men are a kind of Antipodes to young men it is evening with them when it is morning with these it is Autumne in their bodies when it is Spring in these the Spring of the year to decrepit old men is as the Fall Summer is winter to them and Winter death it is no pleasure to them to see the Almond-tree flourish which is the Prognosticatour of the Spring or the Grashopper leap and sing the Preludium of Summer for they now mind not
the Almond-tree but the Cypress nor think of the Grashopper but of the worm because they are far on in their way to their long home and the mourners are already in the streets marshalling as it were their troops and setting all in equipage for their funeral no dilectable objects affect their dull and dying sences but are rather grievous unto them as the Sun and Rain are to old stumps of trees which make them not spring again but rot them rather and dispose them to putrifaction And so I have past the first and am come to the second Post or standing The right Coherence When they shall be afraid of that which is high and fear shall be in the way and the Almond trce shall flourish and the Grashopper shall be a burthen and desire shall fail because man goeth to his long home If this Consequence be firth the Coherence must needs be good but if this be infirm and lame that must needs be out of joynt let us then Consider of the Consequence Surely Aristotle seemeth to be of another mind whose observation it is old men that have their foot on Deaths threshold would then draw back then leg if they could at the very instant of their dissolution are most desirous of the continuance of their life and seeing the pleasures of sin like the Apples of Tuntales running away from them they catch at them the more greedily for wants is the whestone of desire and experience offereth us many instances of old men in whom Saint Pauls old man grows young again who according to the corruption of nature which Saint Austin bewaileth with tears malunt libidinem explers quam extingai they are so far from having no lust or desire of pleasures as being cloyed therewith that they are more insatiable in them then in youth the flesh in them like the Peacocks 〈◊〉 coct a recrudescit which after it is sod in time will grow raw again so in them after mortification by diseases and age it reviveth Sophocles the Heathen Poet might pass for a Saint in comparison of them for he thanked God that in his old age he was free from his most Imperious Mistris lust these men on the contrary desir 〈◊〉 inthral themselves again in youthly pleasures and concupiscence in them is kindled even by the defect of fewel it vexeth them that their sins for sake them that through the impotency of their limbs and faculties they cannot run into the like excess as in former times their few dayes before death are like Shrovetide Before Lent they take their fill of flesh and fleshly desires because they suppose that for ever after they must fast from them Thus they spur on their jadish flesh now unable to ran her for met Stages saying let us crown our selves with Rose-buds for they will presently wither let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die To reconcile the seeming difference between the miracle of humane wisdome Aristotle and the Oracle of divine Solomon two distinctions may be made use of Of old Age. 1 In the entry when it is vigorous 2 In the exit when it is decrepit et ne ad mala quidem bona Of old Men. 1 As they ought to be 2 As they are When Euripides was taxed as too great a favourer of the semale Sex because in all his Tragedies he brought in vertuous women and fitted them with good parts to Act whereas Sophocles and other Poets of that Age brought lewd and immodest women upon the Stage and put odious parts upon them he made this Apology for himself others faith he in their Poems set forth women as they are but I such as they should be Solomom words are capable of a like construction desire faileth because man goeth to his long home that is it doth in the best and should in all for what a preposterous thing were it for a man that hath one foot already in the grave and is drawing the other after to desire to cut a cross caper and dance the morice or for him that is neer his eternal Mansion house to hanker by the way and feast and revel it in an Inn. Moreover Solomon here speaketh of a Bâ—…rzillai who hath no taste of his meat no sence of delight no use in a manner of sense to whom dainties are no dainties because he cannot taste them musick is no musick because he cannot hear it sweet odours are no sweet odours because he cannot small them precious stones are no precious stones because he cannot value them the fairest becaues are no beauties because he cannot discern them In a word he speaketh of an old man in whom all carnal lusts are either quite extinct or happily exchanged into spiritual or swallowed up with sorrow and fear of death and a horrible apprension of judgment And so I come to the third Stage which is the litteral sence and genuine interpretation of the words As in Origen his Hexapla every word almost had an Asterisk or star upon it so there needs a star or some other light to be put upon every word of this Text for there is a mist of obscurity upon each of them and a man may well miss his way if he know not exactly who is here the man what 's meant by his going or gate where is his long home and whence are these Mourners First whether man be taken Collectivè for the whole kind or Species as the Logicians speak or Distributivè for every man in particular we shall seem to be at a loss Man taken Collectivè stirs not a foot to his long home for Philosophy reprieveth universal natures from death or dissolution and true it is though single men every day die yet mankind dieth not If man be taken Distributivè for all particular men of what rank or quality soever we shall have much to do to distinguish the men in the former part of the Text from the mourners in the latter If all are attended with mourners to their funeral then mourners themselves must have mourners and so either the train will be infinite or the lag will be destitute of mourners Secondly why useth he this phrase of going if it import death sith some expect death and move not at all towards it some run to it to some it is sent some leap into it as Cleombrotus some ride to it in state as Antioches Epiphanes some are tumbled down into it as S. Purius Melicus some are dragged to it as Seinus In a word when death surprizeth most men and that in all postures of the body why is dying here called going man goeth Thirdly where is this long home in Heaven or in earth Purgatory or Hell If we speak of Heaven or Hell the Epithet long fals short for they are eternal habitations of Purgatory or the grave suppose there were any Purgatory yet neither of them may be properly termed a long home fith neither the body stayes long in
up all the sons of Adam shall be swallowed up it self into victory Till then we shall all go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our several rank and order take our last walk the way of all flesh and it is happy if we go it as Abraham did here in peace and a special blessing if we be gathered as he was to his Fathers in the Autumne of a good old age In which words we have two Acts of a Tragedy the former acted upon his Stage thou shalt go to thy Fathers the latter under the scaffold and be buried in a good old age None die better then they who have life in their hope and none live better than they who have death in their mind and thought especially if it be in the time of their health and bloom of their beauty and pride of their youth and top of their earthly happiness For this cause Joseph of Arimathes is supposed by many to have set his Sepulchre in his Garden as it were to sawce his sweetest pleasures with the sad thoughts of his Funeral and John surnamed the Almoner began his Sepulchre on the day he was Consecrated Patriark of Alexandria and it was the manner of the ancient Emperours at their Coronation feast to have several sorts of Marble shewed them to the end that they might choose one of them for their Tomb-stone and agreeable hereunto the interlineary gloss yeeldeth a reason why God commanded that the oyle wherewith the Kings were annoynted should be compounded with Cinnamon and other spices quod sit cinericii coloris because it is of the colour of Ashes or rather such mould as is digged out of Graves to put them in mind that very day in which they were made Gods upon earth that they should die like men In which regard we have great cause to Bless the providence of our heavenly Father who in the midst of our Marriage feasts and many occasions of mirth and joy presents us with such sad spectacles as here we see to the end we should not exceed in our mirth or too far set our heart upon the pleasures and comforts of this life which like sticks under a pot after a blaze fall suddenly into ashes Let us learn from all the changes and chances of this mortal life not to sing a requiem to our souls here with the fool in the Gospel because we have wealth laid up for us for many years for if our riches take not their wings and fly away from us we shall be taken away from them we shall be arrested by Gods Bayliff Death and then we must go But thou shalt go Our observations from this Scripture ariseth from two springs 1. The manner 2. The matter The former divides it self into two Rivelets the latter into three In the former to wit the manner I observe 1. That these words were spoken to Abraham in a Dream when the Sun was going down a heavy sleep fell upon him 2. That they were spoken by way of Gracious promise In the latter to wit the matter I observe three blessings bestowed upon Abraham 1. A comfortable death Thou shalt go in peace 2. An honourable burial and be buried with thy Fathers 3. A seasonable time for both in a good old age First of the manner When the Sun was setting a deep sleep and dreadful darkness fell upon Abraham and God shewed him in a dream the misery and thraldome of his postetity in Egypt Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them 400. years vers 13. and lest at the sight hereof his heart should utterly have failed him and his bowels dryed up within him like a pot-sheard God cleareth the skie which was clouded with a smoak of a fiery furnass vers 17. and cheareth his heart reviving him with a promise of safety and peace for himself and of deliverance of his posterity also out of their grievous servitude after a certain period of years allotted for the promise of the growth and ripeness of the Amorites sins For dreams in general the great Secretary of Nature discovereth unto us that the Dreams of good men are better than the Dreams of bad and he will have his foelix or happy man to have a singular priviledge above other men even in his sleep And doubtless as a good conscience is a full feast in the day so it is a light banquet in the night for better thoughts and phantesies in the day beget better dreams in the night as the brighter colours in the Window when the Sun shineth cast clearer species intentionales or reflections from them on the Wall God is with his children as well in the night as in the day and he imparts his counsels and discloseth his secrets as well by dreams in the one as by visions in the other That prophesie of Joel I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams though it were fulfilled in the day of Penticost as Saint Peter instructeth us yet ought it not to be restrained to that day or the Apostles time only For it hath been verified in all after-ages and holdeth still for profitable and comfortable irradiations of Gods Spirit upon the soul by day and night though not for supernatural and prophetical revelations or not so frequent Dreams therefore as they are not with the Eastern people supertitiously to be observed so neither are they utterly to be neglected as idle and vain nocturnal phantasies The Poet could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jupiter sends Dreams and Ariflotle dreamed not when he wrote his exact discourse of Divination by dreams nor Artemidorus when he published his curious tract intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgment of Dreams for the experience of all times proveth that the Dreams of many men especially a little before their death have been very considerable When the window of the senses are shut the soul hath best leisure to look into her self and after sickness hath battered down the walls of the dark prison of the body in which she was close kept more light breaks in upon her and she seeth farther off then she could before and this is the meaning of the Platonicks in that their Apophthegme anima promonet in morte the soul looks out as it were neer death For this particular in my Text God is gracious to many of his children now adayes by Dreams or otherwayes to give them notice of their departure hence To some he maketh known the year to some the moneth to some the very day and hour when they shall go the way of all flesh And as here he fore-shewed Abraham his departure from hence per viam lecteum by the milky way as it were that is by a sweet and pleasant passage of a natural death in the autumn of his life so also in a Dream he
represented to Saint Polycarpe and Saint Cyprian their passage per viam sanguineam The bloody way of martyrdome Policrape not many moneths before he was sacrificed for a whole burnt-offering to God dreamed that his bed was all on fire under him and Saint Cyprian saw in a Dream the Proconsul-give order to the Clerk of the Assizes to write down his sentence which was to have his head cut off with a Sword which when the Clerk by signs made known to Saint Cyprian the godly Bishop earnestly desired a little delay of the execution that he might set his house in order and the Clerk answered him in his dream that his petition was granted and so it sell out accordingly that that day 〈…〉 Dream this Saint of God closing first his own eyes 〈…〉 ceived a glorious crown of martyrdome in heaven The second thing I observed in the manner was that these 〈…〉 way of promise to Abraham whence Galvin rightly 〈…〉 life was a favour of God unto him not the purchase of his own merits 〈…〉 the fruit of his own care for although speaking in ordine 〈…〉 a man may be said by the observation of physick rules to prolong his dayes upon 〈…〉 did who was otherwise a man of a very crazie body and could not 〈…〉 have held out half so long yet if we speak simply 〈…〉 that as no man can by his care add a cubit to his stature nor an hour 〈…〉 the period set by God before all time for my times are in thy hands 〈◊〉 David and our dayes are determined faith Job the number of our months is with 〈◊〉 thou bast appointed man his bounds which he cannot pass Job 14.5 and 〈…〉 appointed time to man are not his dayes as the day 〈…〉 tree groweth not upon the head of any without 〈…〉 bloomed in a seasonable time If life be a blessing long life is a 〈…〉 specially if it be crowned with a happy death for the last Act maketh 〈…〉 medy or a Tragedy and as the evening proves the day so a man 〈…〉 and after over-run the verdict of his life Dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet and so I fall into the road of my Text and begin to treat of the peaceable end of those who die in the faith and lie in the bosome of Abraham Go to thy fathers in peace There is a great difference about the interpretation of this phrase 〈…〉 and the reason of the difference is the difficulty which insueth upon every interpretation For if we refer these words to the body of Abraham and the 〈◊〉 thereof in the Sepulchres of his Fathers this Exposition complieth not with the truth of the story for none but Sarah lay in this cave Abrahams Fathers were 〈◊〉 where bestowed If we refer them to the soul of Abraham and illustrate them with this gloss Thou shalt go on in thy soul to the glorious troup of thy 〈…〉 then will grow what that place is whither his Fathers went before him 〈◊〉 Heaven but some of Abrahams Fathers were Idolatours and we have no warrant to place any Idolatour there Is it Hell thither no man goes in peace neither did ever yet any Jew or Christian so rub his forehead or rather arm it with brass as to affirm that the soul of Abraham in whom all generations of the earth were blessed was in Hell shall we then send him to the Rabbins Limbus or the Popish purgatory or the ancient Fathers occulta receptaâ—…ula hidden receptacles or unknown places wherein Tertullian conceiveth that the souls of the faithful departed resemble those among the Romans who stood for offices and the day of the election while the voyces were in calculation expected in a white gown whether they were chosen 〈…〉 Saint Austin also is very express for these hidden Cells from the death of 〈…〉 the last Resurrection the souls are bestowed in hiddeâ—… 〈…〉 as every 〈◊〉 worthy either rest or pain To dispel this mist which hath 〈◊〉 many to miss their way first by the light of the Scripture I will clear the 〈…〉 question and then interpret the phrase First then for the souls of the faithfuls flight 〈…〉 is free from this clog of flesh I answer that it is straight to Heaven 〈…〉 of the first born there and the spirits of just men made perfect for of 〈◊〉 who 〈…〉 that he might 〈◊〉 with God and of Elias who was carried up into Heaven in a fiery Chariot there is little doubt can be made and less of Abraham to whose besome in Heaven Lazarus was carried and least of all on the Thief to whom Christ promised on the Cross this day thou shall be with me in Paradise Why should Saint Paul so earnestly desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ if after his dissolution till the day of judgment he should not come near him nor see his face Why should all godly Christians be so willing to be absent from the body that they might be present with the Lord if after they were absent from the body they should not come into the Lords presence who dare question that which the Apostle so expresly and so considently delivers we know that if the house of our earthly tabernacle be dissolved we have an eternal in the Heavens As for the phrase thou shalt go to thy Fathers it is but an elegant circumlocution of the period of our life a quaver upon the close thereof for the meaning is thou shalt die or go the way of all flesh Quo pius AEneas quo dives Tullus Ancus Whither all thy Fathers went before thee good and bad rich and poor for Deaths sickle like the Italian Captaines sword which could not distinguish between a Guelf and Gibelive slaies all and makes a prey of all The righteous soul must for a time be divorced from the body as well as the soul of the wicked and in the graves the Worms claim kindred of the elect as well as of the reprobate the consideration whereof put the Preacher into a passion how doth the righteous man die as well as the wicked as it is said of Abraham that he is gathered to dis Fathers so it is said also of Ishmael and may be of the wickedest man that breaths And herein the language of Canaan and the lauguage of Ashdod do not much differ for what the Romans mean by that their phrase abijt ad plures he is gone to the many The Hebrews in a sanctified phrase express by abiit ad patres he is gone to his Fathers or gathered to his people whereof some interpreters give this acute reason It cannot be said of us here whilest we live that we are gathered to our own people in a spiritual sence because here good and bad are gathered together Elect and Reprobate sojourn together all are as it were joynt Comminers upon the earth the City of God and the City of the world sayl in the same ship to
Saint Paul 1 Cor. 15.55 his words have no reference to this Text in the Prophet for the last Translation approved by our Church in the marginal note upon the 1 Cor. 15.55 sends us to this verse in Hosea and we find no other place in all the Scriptures of the old Testament to which the Apostle should allude but this And although Calvin endeavouring to untie this Gordean knot saith peremptorily that it is evident that the Apostle 1 Cor 15. doth not alledg the testimony of the Prophet to confirm any Point of Doctrine delivered by him yet Calvin hi◠evidence for it seems to me obscure and inevident his satis constat minime liquet for the express words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.53 54 55. are for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory What shall we say then hereunto With submission to those who out of better skill in the original and upon more exact examination of all Translations may bring them to a better accord for the present I thus resolve First that Rabbi Iarchi his translation is utterly be to rejected for it is like the white of an egg that hath no taste what sense can any man pick out of these words ero verbo tua ô mors I will be thy words O Death unless we help them with our English phrase I will do thine errand Secondly Aben-Ezra is to go packing with his fellow Rabbin for his interpretation is a manifest contradiction to the former words of the Prophet I will ransome them from the power of the grave I will redeem them from death he that will redeem them from death can in no sense be said to be the cause why they die but why they die not Besides both he and Iarchi stumble at the same stone to wit the word Deborica which they derive from dabar signifying verbum or causa whereas they should have derived it from Dever signifying pestem or a plague Thirdly for Saint Jerome his translation though it differ somewhat from the original yet it is no Antithesis to the Text but an elegant Antanaclasis or at least a Metonymie generis pro specie mors pro peste I will be thy death for I will be thy plague Fourthly for the translation of the Septuagint which Saint Paul most seemeth to follow because writing to the Gentiles who made use of that translation and understood not the original he would not give them any offence nor derrogate from it which was in great esteem among all in regard of the antiquity thereof and it stood the Christians in those dayes in great stead to convince the unbelieving Jewes It well agreeth with the Analogie of faith and the meaning of the holy Spirit and the Hebrew letter also will bear it for Ehi as Buxtorphius the great Master of the holy tongue out of David Kimchi observeth signifieth ubi where as well as ero I will be and a venemous sting and pestis the plague differ but little so that although the words in the original seem to be spoken by an affirmation but in Saint Paul and the Septuagint by an interrogation in the one by a commination in the other by an insultation yet both come to one sense and contain an evident prophesie of Christ his conquest over Death and Hell I have pluked away the thorn and now I am come to blow the flower and open the leaves of the words O death I will be thy plauges that is I will take away from Death the power of destroying utterly and from the Grave the power of keeping the dead in it perpetually If we take the words as spoken by way of insultation ô mors ubi est aculeus tuus O death where is thy sting thus we are to construe them as a hornet or serpent when his sting is plucked out can do no hurt to any other but soon after dyeth it self so Death is disarmed by Christ and left as good as dead for as David cut off Goliahs head with his own sword and Brasidas ran through his enemy with his own spear so Christ conquers over Death by death in as much as by his temporal death he satisfied both for the temporal and the eternal death of them that believe in him And as he conquered Death by his death so he destroyed the Grave by his burial for suffering his body to be imprisoned and afterwards breaking the gates and barrs of the prison he left the passage open to all his members to come out after him their head These sacred and heavenly mysteries are shrined in the letter of this Text for although the Prophet speaketh to the Israelites and maketh a kind of tender unto them of redemption from temporal death and deliverance from corporal captivity yet to confirm their faith therein he bringeth in the promise of eternal redemption from whence they were to infer if God will redeem us from eternal how much more from temporal death if he will deliver us out of the prison of the grave how much more out of common Goals what though our enemies have never so great a hand over us what though they exceed in their cruelty and put us to all exttemity and do their worst against us their cruelty cannot extend beyond death nor their malice beyond the Grave but Gods power and mercy reacheth farther For he can and he promiseth that he will revive us after we are dead and raise us after we are buried he will pluck deaths sting out of us and us out of the bowels of the Grave Death hath not such power over the living nor the grave over the dead as God hath over both to destroy the one and swallow up the other into victory For therefore the Son of God vouchsafeth to taste death that Death might be swallowed up by him into victory Although Death swallow up all things and the Grave shut up all in darkness yet God is above them both therefore when we are brought to the greatest exigent when nothing but death and torments are before us when we are ready to yeeld up the buckler of our faith and breath out the last gasp of hope let us call this Text to mind O death I will be thy plagues neither Death nor the Grave shall be my peoples bane because I will be both their bane and change their nature which destroyeth all nature For to all them that believe in me Death shall not be a postern but a street-door not so much an out-let of temporal as an in-let of eternal life and though the grave swallow the bodies of my Saints yet it shall cast them up again at the last day Thus the words yeeld us
for the Lord so they Others will have the words not to be restrained to Martyrs only but to belong to all that die in the fear of God and the faith of Christ And they alledg for themselves also a parallel Text 1 Cor. 15.18 where to fall a sleep in the Lord is spoken generally of all true believers departing this life Besides Saint Bernard and other of the Ancients apparantly distinguish these phrases mori in Domino mori propter Dominum to die in the Lord and to die for the Lord mori pro Domino martyrum est mori in Domino omnium confessorum si beati qui in Domino moriuntur quanto magis qui pro Domino moriuntur to die for the Lord is the glory of martyrs but to die in the Lord the glory of all Confessors if they are happy who die in the Lord how much more they that die for the Lord Thirdly the reward here promised is common to all believers and not peculiar to the Martyrs for all true believers when they die rest from their labours and their works follow them If the Spirit had meant Martyrs only he would rather have said they have ease from their torments then rest from their labours and their trophies and victories follow them All that die for the Lord die also in the Lord but all that die in the Lord do not necessarily die for the Lord we deny not that the Martyrs have the greatest share in this blessedness but all Confessors have their parts also the Martyrs Crown is beset with a Rubie or some richer jewel then ordinary their Garland hath a flower or two more in it to wit some red flower as well as white yet the Crown and Garland of all Confessors are compleat And therefore not only Beda and Bernard and Richardus and Andreus and Primasius and Haymo and Ansbertus and Ioachimus but also the Greek and the Roman Church yea and the reformed also understand these words of all that die in Gods favour for they read these words at the Funerals of all the dead and not only at the Funeralls of Martyrs Yea but how can any be said to die in the Lord that is continuing his Member sith Christ hath no dead Members I answer that the faithful die not in the Lord in that sense in which they live in him but 〈◊〉 ther they die not spiritually nor cease to be his mystical Members but naturally that is they continuing in Christs faith and love breath out their souls and so fall asleep in his bosome or die in his love laying hold of him by faith and relying on him by hope and embracing him by charity All they die in the Lord who die in the act of contrition as Saint Austin who reading the penetential Psalms with many tears breathed out his last gasp sighing for his sins Or in the act of charity as Saint Jerome who in a most fervent or vehement exhortation to the love of God gave up the Ghost Or in the act of Religion as Saint Ambrose who after he had received the blessed Sacrament in a heavenly rapture and a holy parley with Christ left the body Or in the act of Devotion as Aquinas who lifting up his eyes and hands to heaven pronouncing with a loud voyce those words of the Spouse in the Canticles Come my beloved let us go forth went out of this world Or in the Act of gratulation and thanks-giving as Petrus Celestinus who repeating that last verse of the last Psalm Omnis spiritus laudet Dominum Let every breath or every one that hath breath praise the Lord breathed out his soul Or in an Act of divine contemplation as Gerson that famous Chancellor of Paris who having explicated fifty properties of divine love concluded both his Treatise and his life with fortis ut mors dilectio Love is strong as death To kint up all six sorts of men may lay just claim to the blessedness in my Text. First Martyrs for they die in the Lord because they die in his quarrel Secondly Confessors for they die in the Lord because they die in his faith and in the confession of his name Thirdly all they that love Christ and are beloved of him for they die in the Lord because they die in his bosome and embracings Fourthly all truly penitent sinners for they die in the Lord because they die in his peace Fifthly all they who are engrafted into Christ by a special faith and persevere in him to the end for they die in the Lord because they die in his communion as being members of his mystical body Lastly all they that die calling upon the Lord or otherwise make a godly end for they die in the Lord because they die in the works of the Lord and happy is that servant whom his Master when he cometh shall find so doing From hence-forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza and some other render the word in the original perfectly because the dead obtain the blessedness they hoped for but this Exposition cannot stand unless we restrain this blessedness to the soul For the persect and consummate happiness of all that die in the Lord consisteth in the glorisication of their bodies and souls when they shall see God face to face and the beams of his countenance directly falling upon the soul shall reflect also upon the body and most true it is which Paraus observeth the deads blessedness far exceeds the blessedness of the living for here we have but the first fruits of happiness but in heaven we shall have the whole lump here we hunger and thirst for righteousness there we shall be satisfied To this we all willingly assent but it will not hence follow that they have their whole lump of happiness till the day of judgment blessed they are from the hour of their death but not perfectly blessed but not consummately blessed intensive as blessed as the soul by it self can be for that state in which it now is not blessed extensive not so blessed as the whole person shall be when the soul shall be the second time given to the body and both bid to an everlasting feast at the marriage of the Lamb. Others therefore more agreeable to the Analogie of faith render the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from hence-forth and refer the hence-forth not to the time of the uttering this Prophesie as if before it none were blessed for before this prophecie all the Apostles Saint John only excepted and thousands of Saints and Martyrs had dyed in the Lord and were at rest from their labours but to the instant of their dying in the Lord they no sooner lost their lives for Christ then they found happiness in him So soon as Lazarus dyed his soul was carryed by Angels into Abrahams bosome So soon as the Thief expired on the Cross he aspired to paradise and was with Christ So Nazianzen teacheth concerning every religious soul I
ill in this fain he would stisle the light in his conscience which if he would open his eyes would clearly discover unto him a future tribunal yet sometimes he cannot smother it and therefore as Tully who saw a glimering of this truth observeth he is wonderfully tormented out of a fear that endless pains attend him after this life Well let the flesh and fleshly minded men deem or speak what they list concerning the state of the dead the Spirit of truth faith that all that die in the Lord are blessed But where faith the Spirtt so In the Scriptures of the old and new Testament and in this vision and in the heart and conscience of every true believer First in the Scriptures let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like unto his refrain thy voyce from weeping and thine eyes from tears for thy works shall be rewarded and there is hope in thine end faith the Lord precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints the Righteous shall wash his foot in the blood of the wicked so that a man shall say verily there is a reward for the righteous Christ is in life and death advantage for I am in a straight between two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Secondly in this vision for Saint John heard a voyce from Heaven saying Write it as it were with a Pen of Iron upon the Tomb of all that are departed in the Lord for so faith the Spirit Lastly the Spirit speaketh it in the heart and soul of every true believer lying on his death bed or on the Gridiron or in the dungeon or on the gibber or on the saggot did not the Spirit seal this truth above all other at such times to his servants were not then their hope full of immortaility they could never have welcomed death embraced the flames sung in their torments and triumphed over death even when they were in the jaws of it When Job was in the depth of all his misery the Spirit spake in his heart I know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shal I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my rains be consumed within me offered and the time of his departure was at hand the Spirit spake in him I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to them also that love his appearing Likewise when Gerardus was giving up the ghost the Spirit spake in him O death where is thy sting Mors nonest stimulus fed jubilus And though Robert Glover the Martyr all the night before his Martyrdome prayed for strength and courage but could feel none yet when he came to the sight of the stake he was mightily replenished with Gods holy comfort and heavenly joyes and clapping his hands to Austin the Spirit the Comforter himself spake in him He is come he is come You have heard where the spirit faith so give ear now to a voyce from heaven de claring why the Spirit saith so for they rest from their labours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth as well pain as pains broyls as toyls as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in greek so pain and pains in english are of kin for labour is pain to the body and pain is labour to the spirit and therefore what we say to be punished and tormented with a diseafe the latine say laborare morâ—…o and the throngs and throes which women endure in Child-bearing we call their labouring Here then the dead have a double immortality granted them 1 From the labours of their calling 2 From the troubles of their condition freedome from pain and pains taking What then may some object do the dead sleep out all their time from the breathing out their last gasp to the blowing the last trump as they suffer nothing so do they nothing but are like Consul Bibulus who held onely a room and filled up a blank in the Roman fasti Nam bibulo factum consule nil memini or like mare mortuam without any motion or operation at all that cannot be the soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most perfect act or as Tullie renders the word a continual motion as the word is taken in that old proverbial verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it can no more be and not work then the wind can be and not blow the fire and not burn a diamond and not sparkle the sun and not shine therefore it is not said here simply that they rest from all kind of motion or working but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but from toilsome labours sore travels and again from their own labours or works not the Lords They keep an everlasting Sabbath in not doing of their own works but Gods they rest from sinful and painful travels but not from the works of a sanctified rest for they rest not day and night saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was which is and is to come The rest of the soul is not a ceasing from all motion or opperation that cannot stand with the nature of a spirit but a setling it self with delight upon an all-satisfying and never satiating object such was the rest the sweet singer of Israel called his soul unto return unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee Bodies rest in thier proper places but spirits in their proper object in the contemplation fruition admiration and adoration whereof consisteth their everlasting content This object is God whom they contemplate in their mind enjoy in their will adore in both and this is their continual work and their work is their life and their life is their happiness which the Divines fitly express in one word glorification which must be taken both actually and passively for they glorifie God and God glorifyeth them God glorifieth them bycasting the full light of his countenance upon them and they glorifie him by reflecting some light back again and casting their crowns before him saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created They rest from their labours This Text of holy Scripture containeth in it the waters of Siloah not so much to refresh those that are tyred with their former labours having born the heat of the whole day as to lave out the false fire of Purgatory for blessedness cannot stand with misery nor
rest with trouble nor reward with punishment but all that die in the Lord are blessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a tempore mortis from the time of their death as venerable Beda and other expound the words and so blessed are they that they rest from all pain and pains and so rest that their works follow them that is as I shall declare hereafter the reward of their works If this lave not out the Romish fire which scareth the living more then the dead and purgeth their purses and not their soul we may draw store of water to quench it out of divers other Texts of holy Scripture as namely First If the tree fall towards the South or towards the north in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be Which Text Olympiodorus thus illustrateth in whatsoever place therefore whether of light or of darkness whether in the work of wickedness or of vertue a man is taken at his death in that degree and rank doth he remain either in light with the just and Christ the King of all or in darkness with the wicked and Prince of the world To little purpose therefore is all that is or can be done for the dead after they have taken their farewel of us after we are gone from hence there remains no place for repentauce or penance no effect or benefit of satisfaction here life is either lost or obtained but if thou O Demetrian saith Saint Cyprian even at the very end and setting of thy temporal life dost pray for thy sins and call upon the only true God with confession and saith pardon is given unto the confessing thy sins and saving grace is granted to thee by the divine piety or mercy and at the very moment of death thou hast a passage to immortality Secondly Eccles 12.5 Man goeth to his long home and the Mourners go about the streets Which words Gregorius of Neocesarea thus paraphraseth The good man shall go to his everlasting house rejoycing but the wicked shall sill all with lamentations And S. Cyprian alluding to this passage resolveth that after this temporal life is ended we are diversly bestowed at the Innes of death or immortality at neither of which hangeth any sign of Purgatory as any man may see Thirdly Luke 16.22 The beggar died and was carried by Angels into Abrahams bosome This beggars case Machareus a learned Monk of Egypt maketh a president for all the servants of God who when they remove out of the body the quires of Angels receive their souls into their own side into the pure world and so brings them unto the Lord. And Saint Jerome raiseth a strong fort of comfort upon the ground of this parrable Let the dead be lamented but such a one whom he doth receive for whose pain everlasting fire doth burn but let us whose departure a troup of Angels doth accompany whom Christ cometh forth to meet account it a grievance if we do longer dwell in this tabernacle of death And as Machareus and Saint Jerome so Saint Hillary also draweth a general rule from their example that as soon as this life is ended every one without delay is sent over either to Abrahams bosome or to the place of torment and in that state are reserved till the day of Judgment Fourthly Luke 23.43 This day thon shalt be with me in Paradise and Philip. 1.23 I desire to be dessolved and to be with Christ and 2 Cor. 5.18 If our earthly tabernacle be dissolved we shall have an eternal in the Heavens and when we are ab sent from the body we are present with the Lord From whence Justine Martyr inferreth After the departure of the soul our of the body there is presently made a distinction betwixt the just and unjust for the souls of the righteous are carried by Angets into Paradise where they have commerce and sight of Angels and Archangels but the souls of the unjust to hell and Tertullian colletcteth that it is an injury to Christ to hold that such as be called from hence by him are in a state that should be pittied whereas they have obtained the chief aim of their desires If we repine at this that others have obtained this their desire by this our grudging at it we seem to be unwilling to obtain the like and his schollar S. Cypriam censureth them yet more severely who either fear death or leave this world in dis-content it is for him to fear death who is not willing to go to Christ it is for him to be unwilling to go to Christ who doth not beleeve that he beginneth to reigne with Christ if thou dost truly beleeve in God and art secure of his promise why doft thou not embrace the message that thou art called to Christ why dest thou not rejoyce that thou shalt be rid of the devil Fifthly 1 John 1.7 the blood of Christ purgeth us from all sin no sin is therefore left for Purgatory fire to burn out Were there sins to be purged yet after the night of this present life there is no place left saith Gregory Nazianzen for purging it is better to be corrected and purged now saith he then to be sent to torments there where the time of punishing is and not of purging But to leave other springs this in my Text affordeth store of water to extinguish Purgatory sire and therefore our adversaries seek to dam it up two manner of wayes First by restraining this Text to Martyrs onely who die in the Lords quarrel though their souls flie to heaven their wings being not singed with this fire yet others say they are not saved but after some time of abode in it Secondly by cooling the heat of this fire and making it not only tollerable but also comfortable bearing us in hand that they that are in Purgatot may be said to be blessed because they rest from the labours of this life and they are secure of their eternal estate they are sure to feel no other hell From the first starting-hole I have beaten them already by demonstrating that all that beleeve in Christ are ingrafted by faith into his mystical body and consequently that as they live in him so they die in him in which regard the Apostle speaking of all that depart in the faith of Christ saith they sleep in the Lord and die in Christ Their second starting-hole is less safe then the former for to say that this blessedness and Purgatory pains may subsist in the same soul is an affertion neither politique nor reasonable First it is not politique for if they cool Purgatory fire in such sort they will stop the Popes Mint from going perswade the vulgar that the souls in Purgatory are in a tollerable nay in some sort in a blessed estate because they rest from their labours and their works follow them and the Priests may set their heart at rest for gaining any remarkable sums for Dirges and the Popes tole-gatherers also for sucking
any great advantage out of pardons to ransome souls out of Purgatory And as this answer standeth not with their profit so neither agreeth it well with their own tenents for they teach that Purgatory fire is as hot as Hell for the time surpassing the smartest torment that can be devised or ever was endured on earth and call they those happy who lie soultring in this fire yea but when they are there they receive singular comfort in this that they are sure they shal never go to hell Surely small comfort to one who is in hellish torments and shall continue there he knows not how long to tell him that he is sure he shall go to no other Hell and how prove they that Purgatory is a supersedeas to Hell What security have they for it Gods Word but in all Gods Word there is no syllable of purgatory neither let they the people to know Gods Word for in Spain and generally where the inquisition is in force the proverb is that he smels of a Faggot who is found with a Bible about him in the mother tongue These things being so I wonder that any ordinary Papist be willing to die seeing the best he can hope for is to be cast presently into the flames of Purgatory and there to fry he knows not how long perhaps a hundred perhaps a thousand years But God be blessed for it we have otherwise learned of Christ and his blessed Apostles We know that if our earthly tabernacle be dissolved we shall presently have not a temporary habitation in Purgatory but an eternal in Heaven we know that those who beleeve in Christ come into no condemnation but pass from death to life Wherefore let us not take on too much for those whom God hath taken away from us let us not trouble our selves for them that are at rest let us not shed over-many tears for them who can now shed no more tears let us not too much grieve for them who are free from all pain and grief And for our selves let us not be as some are strucken dead with the very name of death let us not draw back when God calleth for us when we draw on and our Sun is setting when the pangs of death give us warning again and again to go out from hence out of our houses of clay let us embrace the day which bringeth us to our everlasting home which having taken us away from hence and losed us from the snares of this world returneth us to Paradise and the Kingdome of Heaven It followeth And their Works follow them In the handling of this branch before we taste of the sweet juyce we must pill the root wherein we shall find a four-fold difficulty 1. How works are here distinguished from labours 2. How works may be said to follow them 3. Whither they follow them 4. When they overtake them The first difficulty is thus expedited the works of the dead are here distinguished from their labours as the fruit from the branches that bear them the hire from the day labour the prize from the race As those who taste the fruit of a tree are said by an Hebraisme to eat of the tree to him that overcometh saith the Spirit I will give to eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God So here in this Text works are taken for the fruit of works or their recompence of reward But how are works in this sence said to follow the dead For all the works of the dead are either transient as meditations prayers pious ejaculations present relieving the poor and the like or they are permanent as their writings their building Colledges Hospitals Churches and other Monuments of Piety the former cannot follow the dead because they remain not now nor the latter because they stay behind them here on earth I answer the speech is figurative and signifieth no motion of the deads works but rather promotion of their persons and plentiful remuneration for their works the phrase imports no more then that all their works whether they be actions of Saints or passions of Martyrs shall not come short of their guerdon but shall be most certainly and undoubtedly rewarded If we follow this interpretation of the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may some say will not Popish merit follow thereupon is not Heaven compared to servants wages to the souldiers crown to the racers garland and here to the labourers pay and doth not a true labourer merit his pay a faithful servant his wages a valiant souldier his crown a speedy racer his prize this doubt may be cleared and the question resolved by these Assertions following 1 That our good works shall undoubledly be rewarded for it is the very dictate of nature that he that soweth should reap and it is one of the first principles of Divinity that there is a God and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him yea so exact a rewarder is he that not a widdows Mite not a cup of could water but shall have an allowance for it Did Abraham did Isaac did Jacob did Joseph did Job did Solomon did Constantine did Theodosius and other prime servants of God serve him for nought did he not open the treasure of his bounty in such sort to them all that they could not but in thankfulness subscribe to that protestation of the Prophetical King verily there is a reward for the righteous even in this life and much more in the life to come for Ecce venio behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give to every man according as his works shall be to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life whence Saint Bernard draweth this corollary though charity is not mercenary yet she never goes from God emptyhanded 2 That this reward is some way due unto our works for the labourer saith Christ is worthy his hire and the Apostle is bold to say it is just with God to recompence them that trouble you tribulation but to your rest and he seemeth to claim a crown to himself as his due I have fought a good fight henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give unto me it is said to be given indeed but given by a righteous judge and as a crown of righteousness and therefore some way due 3 Our good works concur actively to the attainment of this reward the words of our Saviour seek ye first the kingdome of God and the righteousness thereof labour for the meate that perisheth not and strive to enter in at the narrow gate and of the Apostle work out your salvation with fear and trembling and this momentry affliction worketh unto us a superexcellent weight of glory import no desire 4 Notwithstanding all this our good works no way merit at Gods hand their reward
neither absolutely neither by the contract of the Law nor by the covenant of grace Not absolutely 1 Because no creature can simply merit any thing of the Creatour as Saint Austin proves by many invincible arguments 2 Because our works are no way advantagious or beneficial to God we indeed gain by them but he gains nothing 3 Because there is no proportion between our work which is finite and the reward which is infinite Neither can we be said to merit by the contract of the Law as our Romish adversaries would bear us in hand 1 Because what God requireth by the written Law we are bound to performe even by the Law of nature and when we do but that which we ought to do our Saviour teacheth us not to tearm our selves arrogantly meritours at Gods hands or such as he is engaged to recompence but unprofitable servants 2 Because we do not our work sufficiently and therefore cannot challenge as due by contract our reward our best works are scanty and defective 3 Because we loyter many dayes and though at sometimes we do a dayes work such as it is yet many times we do not half a dayes work nay for one thing wherein we do well we fail in a thousand Lastly neither can we be truly said to merit no not by the covenant of Grace 1 Because the Grace which worketh in us all in all is no wayes due to us but most freely given us of God our works as they are good they are not ours as they are ours they are not good 2 Because whatsoever we do in fulfilling the Covenant of Grace we are bound to do for the inestimable benefits which we receive by our Redeemer 3 Because we imploy not our Talent to our Masters best advantage no man walketh so exactly as he might do by the power of grace which would not be wanting to us if we were not wanting to our selves But because we may seem partial in our own cause and take these reasons for demonstrations our Adversaries will not acknowledge to be so much as probable arguments let the ancient Fathers give in the verdict Saint Austin When the Apostle might truly have said the wages of righteousness is eternal life he chose rather to say but the gift of God is eternal life that we might understand that he brings us to eternal life not for our merits but for his mercy sake And Saint Basil There remains an everlasting rest to those who fight lawfully not for the merits of their works or verbatim according to the Greek original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not according to the due debt of their works but of the grace or by the favour of our most munificent god And Fulgentius To possesse the kingdome prepared for us is a work of grace for of meer grace there is given not ouly a good life to those that are justified but eternal life to those that are glorified And Saint Ambrose our momentary afflictions are not worthy the glory that shall be revealed therfore the form or tenour of the heavenly decrees upon men proceed not according to merits but the mercy of God And Mark the holy Hermite The kingdome of heaven is not a reward of works but a gift of God prepared for his fruitful servants And let Pope Gregory conclude all As Eleazar who killed the Elephant yet was killed by the Elephant in his fall upon him so those who subdue vices if they grow proud of their victory as all do who conceive they merit heaven by it are subdued by and lye under those vices which they before subdued for he dies under the enemy whom he hath discomfited who is extolled in pride for the vice which he conquered The third difficulcy was whither the works follow the dead which may thus be expedited their good works follow them not to the grave for there the soul is not nor to Purgatory for I have already proved there is no such place nor to Hell for none are blessed that come there The works of the damned indeed follow them thither there they meer with them and with the Devil who seduced them to torment them for them there the swearers and blasphemers gnaw their tongues there the lascivious wantons are cast into a bed of fire there they who swum here in pleasures are thrown into a river of brimstone But the works of the godly follow them to the place where they receive their recompence for them The fourth difficulty was when the works follow the dead which may be thus expedited some of their works follow them immediatly after their death others at the day of Judgment Those works which they have done by and in the soul only without the help or use of the body follow them immediately after death when the soul receives her reward for them but those which were performed partly by the soul and partly by the body follow them at the day of Judgment When the King shall say Come ye blessed of my Father possess the king dome prepared for you for I was hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and in prison and ye visited me We have peeled off the rhine let us now taste of the sweet juyce if our works shall most certainly and plentifully be rewarded Let us be Zealous of good works let us be filled with the fruits of righteousness let us in no case be weary of well-doing let us not cast away our confidence which hath great recompence of reward if a cup of cold water shall be reckoned for what think ye of a glass of hot water to revive many a fainting soul If two mites cast into the treasury shall be taken notice of what think ye of ten talents If Christ hath a bottle for every tear shed for him how much more for every drop of bloud There are infinite motives in holy Scriptures to incite us to good works I will touch at this time only upon three 1. Our great Obligation to them 2. Our exceeding comfort in them 3. Our singular benefit by them First our Obligation to them is twofold 1. As men 2. As Christians As men we are bound to serve him with our hands who gave us them As Christians we are to employ them in his service who loosened them after they were manacled and restored unto us the free use of them 2. Our comfort in them is exceeding great they assure us of our spiritual life for as the natural life is discerned by three things especially 1. The beating of the pulse 2. The letting out of breath 3. The stiring of the joynts or limbs so also is the spiritual if the pulse of devotion beat strong at the heart if we breath to God in our fervent prayers and lastly if we stir our joynts in walking in all holy duties and performing such good works as
this was in their eye this bore them out against all the threatenings and sufferings of the World this was that that did give them encouragement and comfort above all discouragements And to conclude above all let us encourage our selves by the fruit and recompence of all this expectation what is that the Apostle Saint John saith that when this hope shall come into our hand when our faith shall meet with fruition then we shall see Christ so as to be like him here is such a sight of Christ as never the eye of flesh saw nor can see to see Christ and to be like him to see him as he is here is such a sight as would ravish us if we knew what it was and we cannot know while we are on earth eye hath not seen that which we shall see in Christ but when we shall enjoy this expectation we shall see him as he is and see him so as to be like him Father saith he John 17.24 I will that where I am they may be that they may see my glory Wicked men see his glory what priviledge then between them and the godly It is true indeed wicked men see the glory of Christs person and they shall see and feel the glory of his justice but the godly see the glory not onely of his person not onely of his justice but the glory that no wicked man ever shall see the glory of his Mercy and goodness and grace here is the difference God getteth himself glory upon Pharaoh in drowning of him but God getteth himself the glory of his Mercy in Israel in saving them in the bottome of the Sea so the godly they see the glory not onely of the person of Christ and that is infinite and surpasseth apprehension but they see the glory of his Mercy of his eternal goodness and they see it so as to be like him to be translated into that glory to get a part and share of it as much as they are capable of they make themselves all glorious with his glory and shine with his brightness and beauty Alas brethren all the sight we can get of Christ in this world it is like the sight of the blind man that Christ cured he bad him look up and lift up his eyes and he saw men walking as trees an imperfect sight so we have here but an imperfect glimpse of Christ we see him through a glass through the Word and Sacraments and these means that he hath appointed an imperfect sight till Christ give us a clear sight and makes us see perfectly and this is in the day of his return All the sight and vision of Christ in this life it is but to see him in a glass faith the Apostle as in a looking glass but then we shall see him face to face we shall see him as he is What difference there is between the shadow in a glass and the face it self so much difference there is between the sight of Christ here and hereafter when we shall see him as he is when we shall see him with open face and not in a mirrour Therefore let this incourage us and stir up our hearts to expect and wait for the coming of Christ with vehement and daily prayers with fervency of spirit with the Church and the Bride and the Spirit to say Even so Amen Come Lord Jesus FINIS DEATHS PREROGATIVE SERMON XXXXVIII GEN. 3.19 For dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return AS the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel Pro. 12 10. or the seeming cruelties at the highest but severities of the God of Heaven have much of mercy in them Witness this carriage in this Chapter towards our first Parents not to speak of his mercy of mercies obvious to every eye Christ the Second Adam promised before the first Adam was punished the woman is sentenced in sorrow to bring forth Children It might have been better and better whereas it is Bitter-sweet though sorrow yet she shall bring forth Chrildren Travellers will assure us that there is a small Island nigh Nombre de dios in America where no woman as yet could be delivered of a child and therefore when neer their time are conveyed over to the neighbouring continent whether this proceedeth from the Astringency in the Aire Earth or Water or any other occult Quality let the privie Counsellors of Nature discuss and deside God might have extended the Malignity of this Island all over the World Caine might have been the Ben-nony to Eve but his goodness was so merciful that her comfortable pain was for the time abated with the hope for future forgotten with the fruition John 16.21 That a man was born into the Word Secondly for Adam he is censured vers 17. In sorrow to eate of the ground all the dayes of his life In sorrow there is Justice shall eat there is mercy God might have made the Earth Deaf and Dumb to the desires of the Husbandman ut non parerent arva colono Man might have Fallowed and Stirred and Plowed and Sown and Harrowed and Rouled and Weeded and Mown and yet not have brought home to the Barn or not have eat of what he brought home How easily can God make an ill conditioned and unseasonable autumn defeat the promises of the most pragnant Spring and Summer How may a Snowy January Frosty February Dusty March Showry Aprill Windy May Warm June Hott July all very kindly in their kinds be married with a constant and continued raign in August even to the famishing of all man-kind had not God gratiously promised that man should though in sorrow vers 17. and in the sweat of his face vers 19. eat bread from the ground A Second favour is herein conferred on Adam that God in his due time would put a period to his painful life his toil trouble and turmoil occasioned by his tilling the earth and other interveining afflictions should not last alwayes but end and expire with his life for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return This text I may tearm the GRAND LEVELLER as which equalleth Showels and Scepters Penknives and Swords Scholars and Souldiers Captains and Captives Princes and Peasants high and low rich and poor one with another Saint Paul 2 Tim. 4. compareth mans life to a race I have finished my course and Heb. 12.1 Let us run with patience the race that is set before us let us improve his Metaphor into an Alegory and it will serve us very conveniently for the deviding of our text wherein we may observe 1. Carcer the Bar from whence we do start for dust thou art 2. Meta the mark to which we run and unto dust thou shalt return Be it here remembred that this Metaphor is confined to the Terrestial and earthly part of man without the least reference to his best moity I mean his Soul man consisteth of two parts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soul and dust the former not
this experiment and cannot secure a corps from mouldering into it first matter Dust For proof hereof let us suppose first that which I may call an healthful corps viz. of one not weakned and wasted with a long lingering and languishing disease but of one cut off suddenly in the prime of his youth Secondly Suppose an Artist expert in his profession of Embalming no whit inferiour to them who made the last bed for the repose of King Asa's corps 2. Chron. 16.14 of sweet oders by the art of the Apothecary Thirdly allow him the most and best of spices not only a mixture of Myrrhe and alloes about an hundred pound weight the proportion assigned by Nicodemus for our Saviours body John 19.39 but as many as India and Arabia doth produce the Embalmer being stinted to no number but his own pleasure Lastly because moist Countries be accused to invite corruption let us lay the scene of this experiment in Egypt it self where the dryness of the clymates may contribute something to the affecting of the work The premises thus provided in matter and manner in kind and degree to the Chyrurgions full desire let him not begin his opperation and fall on working according to the rule of art Here I suppose he will with his instruments first take out the brains and bowels of both which conclamatum est it is granted on all sides that they cannot be preserved from putrefaction and juditious art will not adventure on a labour in vain Next I conceive he will curiously incorporate his spices into those vacuities and concavities out of which the brains and bowels those hags of corruptions were taken out Thirdly after the using of much art in order to his design he will build the body many stories high in perfumed Sear-cloaths Lastly he will deposite it in some dry place perchance where no earth shall touch it lest as ill company often solicite good natures to badness the corps may be tempted by contiguity to the earth the sooner to return to dust Now when all this is done all in effect is still undone as to the thing undertaken I deny not but that a corps may thus be preserved some hundreds or perhaps for some thousands of years And yet give me leave to say of such a body minima est pars sui ipsius there is the least of flesh and body in that flesh or body the matter thereof insensibly resolving into dust and that dust vanishing into nothing that doth appear so that the most of what remaineth is the substance of spice and flesh and that at last passeth to dust as its general matter Yea such prodigious cost of Embalming bestowed on bodies hath accedentally occasioned their speedier corruption Many a poor mans body hath slept quietly in his grave without any disturbance whilst the corps of some Egyptian Princes might justly complain with seeming Samuel to Saul 1 Sam. 28.15 Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up their Fingers and Hands and Armes Toes Feet and Legs and Thighes and all their body tug'd and torne out of their tombs tumbled and tossed many hundred miles by Sea and Land bought and brought by Drugists for Mummy and buryed in the bellies of other men they it seems being canibals who feed on mans flesh for food though not for Phisick all which may seem a just judgment of God on the imoderate cost and curiosity in their embalming as if endeavouring thereby to defeat and frustrate Gods sentence and to consure the truth in my Text. Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return In a word as a loving child which is violently kept from his tender Mother will wait and watch his first and best opportunity to return to his Mother again So every mans body is a child of the Mother Earth and though the vigilant eye and powerful hand of art endeavoureth its utmost to detain this child from the arms of its Mother maugre all obstruction it will make its way unto her for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return First Use this teacheth us what to think of Popish Reliques their Priest pretending many of their Saints bodies to remain in their shrines at this day uncorrupted thus they fabulously report that the hand of Saints King Oswald Nullo verme perit nulla putredine tabet Dextra viri c. That no worm or putrifaction tainted his right hand which had been so abundantly bountiful to the poor If so he had far better success then he who was a better Kind and Saint even David himself Acts 13.36 Who after he had served his Generation was laid to his fathers and saw corruption But most of these Popish forgeries were discovered at the desolution and such bodies found as rotten as their superstition who adored them Second Use Seeing it is impossible to preserve our bodies from returning to dust let us labour to keep our souls from being turned to damnation Eccles 12.7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it Wherein observe all Spirits both good and bad after death return to as to the Father of Spirits to do their homage unto him I say they all instantly return unto him from him alone to recerve new orders and instructions how and where he will have them for the future disposed of in an eternity of weal and woe God grant that our souls may so return to God as never to return from him but abide with him in endless happiness O consider the worth of your soul and value them accordingly Saint Matthew saith 16.26 What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole World and loose his own Soul But Saint Luke Chap. 9.25 hath it if he gain the whole World and loose himself His body is without him only an appendant and that seperable but his Soul is his very self loose that loose all There lived lately in the City of Exeter a person well known generally remitted by all a right religious man though in my mind more to be commended for his devotion then discretion his custome was to apply himself to strangers in all companies and sequestring persons by themselves demanded of them If you die at this instant what assurance have you of the eternal salvation of your Soul A question which hath posed many a great Scholar to give a good answer with truth and comfort thereunto I confess his Christianity was better then his civility in surprizing people with so sudden an Interrogatory However it is a question if not fit for him to ask of others fit for every man to demand of himself the Preacher in the Pulpit the People in their Pewes the Taveller on his Horse the decumbent in his bed every one at all times in all places Now it is not the least part of Gods mercy unto us that before our bodies after our deaths finally return to dust they even whilst we are living begin for to ungive and to
that grief was willingly poured Forth as what he understood did well become him We are not only to bewail our sins but all those miseries which proceed from them and therefore tears were not only lent us to declare Compunction but also to express Commiseration We read our blessed Saviour twice did weep once for the sins of Jerusalem once for the death of Lazarus whom he loved Two eyes Nature bestow'd upon us though perfectly distinctly we can see but with one at once and both are equally made the fountains of tears as we are sinners for Contrition as we are Brethren for Compassion When the first Martyrs bloud was shed for the Christian faith devout men carryed Steven to his burial and made great lamentation over him such were the tears of the Infant Church When Peter found Dorcas a woman full of good works and Almsdeeds dead all the Widdows stood by him weeping Thus the first which dyed in Christianity were followed with solemn tears and it was a wise observation made by the Apostate Julian that one of the means to convert so many Heathens to our Religion was the care of the bodies and the solemnities alwayes used at the Funerals of the dead Thus far of the Action He made a mourning The occasion of this sadness is expressed in a word but must be considered in many more as being the principal concernment both of the Text and Time The mover of his passion the object of his grief the cause of his tears was his Father And he made a mourning for his Father This was so truly the occasion that it was the only cause that there can be no reason imaginable assigned why Joseph should mourn but only because he had lost a Father Though he was aged to extremity though he was holy unto eminency though he was happy to eternity though no way disadvantageous by his death to any yet because dead and that a Father dead he made a mourning for him We usually say of ancient Persons that they have already one foot in the grave and the rest of their life is nothing else but the bringing of these feet together Why then should we weep for the death of aged persons when it can be but the second part of their Funeral That sorrow seems to be but useless which is spent upon necessities and that grief irrational which would create impossibilities The dayes of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow What reason then can we produce that the life of a man whom we esteem should be sorrow to himself and his death be grief to us Now Jacob gave this account of his age to Pharaoh when he came down to Egypt The dayes of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years and he lived in the land seventeen years so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years This extremity of his age had fastned him to his bed the perfect embleme and short forerunnner of his grave The eyes of Israel were dim so that he could not see he was already in the shades of darkness Nay the time drem nigh faith Moses that Israel must die there was a natural necessity of his death an apparent impossibility of longer life and yet this consideration is no excuse to Joseph but he made a mourning for his aged Father Secondly the death of the righteous is to be desired rather then lamented and it were a dishonour put upon Religion to think a pious man less happy dead then when he liv'd Weep not for me was the language of the immaculate Lamb when he went to a shameful and a painful death and why should he which yeelds up his soul with comfort leave his body to be covered with so must forrow Those which live in impiety and depart in their iniquity they which have here provoked the wrath of God and goe hence with that wrath abiding on them as they could create nothing to their relations but sorrow in their life so must they necessarily increase it at their death But Jacob was a Patriarch of eminent and constant piety particularly and remarkably belov'd of God highly blessed by him and powerfully blessing in his name and yet when Jacob dyeth Joseph weepeth And be made a mourning for his pious Father Thirdly Death is nothing else but a change of a short and temporary for an unalterable and eternal condition From whence it followeth that those which die in their sins from thence begin to feel those torments which shall never cease and therefore they leave behind them a sad occasion of grief and sorrow to such as are apprehensive of the pains they feel If the Rich man in the Gospel were so careful of his surviving brethren and so concerned in their welfare if they had as well understood his sad and irreversible condition what floods of tears would they have shed for him who call'd so earnestly for a drop of water to cool his tongue But as for such as pass from hence into a place of rest and joy who change the miseries of this sinful world for the blessed presence of a good and gracious God weeping at their departure may seem improper and unkind officiousness as 't were a sorrow for their happiness and envy at their felicity Now the soul of Jacob was certainly at rest and Joseph sufficiently assured of his happiness He knew that his Father was heir of the same promise with Abraham for he looked for a City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God he dyed in faith imbraced the promises he confessed that he was a stranger on the earth and that he sought a better country that is an heavenly and therefore God had prepared for him a City he was in the bosome of Abraham the place of felicity But the happiness of his soul is no excuse to Joseph for the Funeral tears due at the interment of his body And he made a mourning for his happy Father Fourthly many persons expiring give too sad occasions of sorrow to their relations left behind they which depend upon them whose subsistance liveth and dyeth and whose hopes are buried with them may go to their graves with unfeigned tears lamenting not so much the departure of their friend as their own loss something they may weep for them and more for themselves But the death of Jacob was not of any such condition there could no disadvantage arise from that to Joseph no interest of his could suffer by it He had already blessed all his Sons and Joseph principally there could be no more of heavenly favours expected from his prayers or prophesies Had he dyed before he laid his hands upon Ephraim and Manasseth had Joseph and his Sons been absent when he blessed the rest he might have sadly mourned for the loss of his Father and
of the Benediction If Esau lift up his voyce and wept because he was defeated of the blessing while Isaac lived Joseph might well have made a mourning had he been prevented of the Benediction by an unexpected or a distant death But Jacob blessed them and with his blessing gave order for his burial and with that blessing and that order dyed And as his death was no way prejudicial to the spiritual so was it not at all disadvantageous to the temporal condition of his Son He suffered loss of no enjoyments by his Fathers death Jacob had lived long by the favour and the care of Joseph his filial gratitude alone preserv'd his life but no such narrow thoughts abated the freeness of Joseph's forrow And he made a mourning for his Father If none of these considerations which work so powerfully on other persons did move this Mourner to express such sorrow what were the Motives then which caus'd so deep a sense what meditations wrought so powerfully on the heart of Joseph I answer they were but two Mortality and Paternity the one supposed the other expressed in the text Jacob was the Father of Joseph and that Father dead and therefore Joseph mourned for him Mortality is a proper object to invite our pity and privation of life alone sufficient to move compassion in the living Weep for the dead faith the Son of Sirach for he hath lost the light If for no other reason yet because a man is dead and by death deprived of those comforts which those that live enjoy they which survive may providently bewail their future privation in his present loss Thus every Grave-stone bespeaks or expects a tear as if all those eyes which had not yet lost their light were to pay the tribute of their waters to the dead Sea This Fountain Nature never made in vain nor to be alwayes sealed up that heart is rock which suffers it never to break forth and be it so yet if the rod of Moses strike an affliction sent from God shall force it Let us therefore be ready with our sorrowful expressions when we are invited by sad occasions especially when a Father who may command them calls for them as that Wise man did My Son let tears fall down over the dead And if paternal authority demands them at the death of others it is no filial duty which denies them to attend upon a Fathers Funeral Joseph a man of a gracious and a tender heart moved with common objects of compassion had a vulgar forrow arising from the consideration of mortality Joseph a Son full of high affection and of filial duty and respect was touched with a far more lively sense by the accession of paternity And he made a mourning for his Father he made a mourning for his Father which begat him for his Father which loved him for his Father which blessed him for his Father which had mourned for him for his Father which came down to die with him First he made a mourning for his Father who begat him had there been no other but that naked relation it had carryed with it a sufficient obligation There is so great an union between the Parent and the Child that it cannot break without a deep sensation He which hath any grateful apprehension of his own life received cannot chuse but sadly resent the loss of that life which gave it If the fear of the death of Croesus by a natural miracle could unty the tongue of his Son who never spake before that man must be miraculously unnatural the flood-gates of whose eyes are not open'd at his Fathers Funerals though he never wept before The gifts of grace do not obliterate but improve nature and it is a false perswasion of Adoption which teacheth us so far to become the sons of God as to forget that we are the sons of men Joseph a person high in the esteem of Pharaoh higher in the favour of God great in the power of Egypt greater in the power of the Spirit yet he forgets not his filial relation yet he cannot deny his natural obligation but as a pious Son he payes the last tribute of his duty to Jacob And he made a mourning for his Father who begat him Secondly he made a mourning for his Father who loved him Love when in an equal commandeth love and this is so just that fire doth not more naturally create a flame In this the similitude is so great that there is no difference in the nature of the love produced and that which did produce it But when it first beginneth in a superior person the proper effect which it createth in an inferior is not of a single nature but such a love as is mingled with duty and respect The love of God to man challengeth love from us but that of such a nature as cannot be demonstrated but by obedience and that of a Father to his Son is of the same condition though not in the same proportion The Father loveth first with care and tenderness with a proper and a single love the Son returns it with another colour mingled with duty blended with respect Now Jacob had many children and as an eminent example he lov'd them all but among the rest there was one clearer and warmer flame for be loved Joseph more then all his children the off-spring of Rachel the Son of his old age the Heir of his Vertues the Corrector of his Brethren the Beloved of God had a greater share in Jacobs affection then the rest of his issue He did not so much prefer his wives before his hand maids he did not so highly value Rachel before Leah as he did esteem Joseph before the off-spring of them all This was the paternal love of Jacob and this was answered with as high a filial respect in Joseph which after death could not otherwise be expressed then in tears And therefore he made a mourning for his Father who loved him Thirdly he made a mourning for his Father who had blessed him Blessing is the soveraign act of God and the power of benediction like the power of God He delegateth this power unto his Priests who stand between God and Man and bless the Sons of men in the name of God He derives the same upon our natural Parents that children honoring them may expect his blessing upon their desires and prayers And what greater favour could we ask of God then that those persons who have the most natural affection toward us should also have the greatest power to bless us Now when the time drew nigh that Israel must die when his body drew nearer to the Earth and his soul to Heaven when his desires were highest and his words of the greatest efficacy he called unto his Sons and blessed them every one according to his blessing he blessed them But as he loved Joseph more then all his Brethren so he blessed him above them all he made one Tribe of every
Son and two of him his affection shew'd it self Rhetorical in his Benediction saying The blessings of thy Father have prevailed above the blessings of my Progenitors unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills they shall be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his Brethren Giving this Benediction Jacob dies receiving this Blessing Joseph survives who can render no other Retribution after his death but care of his Burial and tears at his Funeral And therefore he made a mourning for his Father who had blessed him Fourthly he made a mourning for his Father who had mourned for him The Parents cares and fears are equal and when any infelicity betides their children their griess are great and all these bear a proportion with their love Now the love of Jacob to Joseph was transcendent and being so it rais'd as high an hatred in the hearts of his Brethren by which he was in their intention and in his Fathers opinion dead And now the Funeral is Joseph's let us see how Jacob does appear He rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his Son many dayes Here is a real demonstration upon a supposed death and a serious mourning at a feigned Funeral Had his dearest Son been dead yet he might well take comfort in his numerous off-spring but he did not for all his Sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him but he refused to be comforted and he said for I will go down into the grave unto my Son mourning thus his Father wept for him Thus it pleaseth God to permit this happy deceit of envious Brethren this pious mistake of an affectionate Father not only for a great example of Paternal love but also to teach all Sons to measure their griefs at their Fathers death by a consideration of those sorrows which their Parents would have expressed had they dyed before them Howsoever Joseph was but just in this he made a mourning for his Father who had mourn'd for him Lastly he made a mourning for his Father who came down to die with him It was the old expression of Parents comfort that at their deaths they might have their children to close their eyes and it hath been equally the desire of children to be made happy by that occasion in shewing the last testimony of their duty at their Parents Death Now Jacob who upon the supposed death of Joseph had said I will go down into the Grave unto my Son upon the certain intelligence of his life and safety resolveth to go down and die with him For when he saw the Waggons which Joseph sent and his spirit revived Israel said it is enough Joseph my Son is yet alive I will go and see him before I die and when Joseph first presented himself unto him in the land of Egypt the first words he spake were these Now let me die since I have seen thy face because thou art yet alive Now he which said at first I will go and see him before I die and when he saw him said Now let me die resolved nothing in that journey but to die with Joseph And he made a mourning for his Father who came down to die with him For all these reasons Joseph mourned for his Father who begat him remembring his natural generation for his Father who loved him not forgetting his singular affection for his Father who had blessed him considering his double Benediction for his Father who had mourned for him meditating a pious retaliation for his Father who came down to die with him embracing the opportunity of a dutiful expression And thus I close up the first general part of the Text or the Solemnization of the Obsequies The Second general Part of the same presents us with the Continuation of the Solemnity Which ministers a double Consideration one as consisting of not many dayes the other as determining how many dayes And he made a mourning for his Father seven dayes Immediately after Jacobs death in Egypt forty dayes were fulfilled for his embalming and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten dayes They which have no hope of a life to come may extend their griefs for the loss of this and equal the dayes of their mourning with the years of the life of man But so tedious a Funeral Solemnity is a tacite profession of Insidelity When Moses went up into the Mountain of Nebo and dyed there the children of Israel wept for him in the plains of Moab thirty dayes The plains of Moab were nearer to the Land of promise then Egypt was and some light of the joyes of the life to come was discovered under the Law and therefore more then half of the Egyptian Solemnity was cut off by the Faith of the Israelites But this Patriarchal Funeral was made in Canaan the Land of promise the Type of Heaven it was appointed by Joseph a blessed Patriarch and a Type of Christ it continued some dayes to declare his natural affection but those not many to express his religious expectation Had it been extended longer it had demonstrated more of duty but less of faith he had shew'd himself more a Son but less a Patriarch But now he is become a great Example in mourning some dayes of filial duty in mourning few dayes of Divinity Which is our first Consideration The Second leads us to the determinate number of the dayes which are expresly Seven And he made a mourning for his Father seven dayes The Jews took special notice of this act of Joseph and in the land of Canaan observed the number of these dayes Seven dayes do men mourn for him that is dead faith the Son of Sirach and though it be not unto us a law yet it is a proper subject of our Observation It was afterward one of the laws of Moses He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven dayes And therefore well did Joseph teach the Israelites to mourn the same number of dayes that with their tears of natural affection they might mingle some thoughts of their natural pollution Again the number of Seven is the number of rest In six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and he rested on the Seventh day from all his works which he had made Now Joseph knew that there remaineth a rest to the people of God he was fully assured that as the dayes of the years of his Fathers pilgrimage were evil so they ended in rest and happiness that as sure as his body was past all weariness and pain so his soul was placed above all possibility of grief or sorrow A Dove brought Noah word into the Ark that waters were on the face of the Earth and he stay'd seven dayes and then the Dove sent forth returned and loe in her mouth was an Olive leaf pluckt off so Noah
knew that the waters were abated from off the earth If we mourn for the death of any person departed and the waters appear upon the face of man yet after the seventh day when the Olive leaf is pluckt when we have considered the peace and rest and joyes of the souls departed in the fear of God 't is time for the waters to abate for mourning to cease Thirdly the number of Seven is the number of holiness as God rested the seventh day so blessed and hallowed it Seven dayes Aaron and his Sons the Priests were consecrated seven dayes an Attonement was made and the Altar was sanctified Seven dayes hath Joseph set apart for his Fathers Funeral to shew that mourning for the dead is something sacred the tenth of the Egyptian mourning an act of Piety a part of Religion The Jews observed that the Circumcision was deserred till the eighth day that a Sabbath might pass upon the child and so sanctifie it before it was circumcised and Joseph appointeth seven dayes for mourning one of which must necessarily be that day which God blessed and sanctified in the beginning to procure a blessing upon that duty and to sanctifie his sorrow Upon which seasonable Consideration I shall take leave to conclude my meditations on the Text and apply my self to the present Solemnity which gave the occasion to consider it that I may make such use of the work of this holy day as may sanctifie the sorrow of it And now most Honorable Sir the Joseph of this time the chief Mourner of this day be pleased to endeavour the Sanctification of your mourning by these reflexive Meditations First learn from hence to meditate upon your own Mortality and be now assured by this neer and home example that your self shall die This may seem but a cold monition but a dull reflection every Grave preacheth that Doctrime and every Skeleton readeth as good a Lecture when we come into the House of God our feet will learn thus much and the ground we tread upon will thus far instruct us 'T is true the examples of our mortality are numerous but they are not equally efficacious the nearer our relations are to those which die the more we are concerned in their death and there is none so neer in his concernment as that of the Father and Son There is a difference between the language of the Scriptures and such a Prophet as Nathan was one tells us that all men are sinners the other says thou art the man So common Funerals tell us all men are mortal but that of a Father speaketh not only plainly but particularly thou art so From his vivacity the Son receiveth life and in his death must read his own departure 'T is possible to imagine an immortal family and then the deaths of others concern'd that not but where the Father 's dead there can be no pretence or thought of immortality Beside there 's something more then propinquity of nature in a Father Religion teacheth us that our dayes are otherwise bound up in our Parents lives Remember the first Commandement with Promise Honorthy Father and thy Mother that thy dayes may be long in the land consider that you have lost in his death all further opportunity of improving the hopes of that promise and that you stand now only as to him upon what comfort you have in your former duty and in your past obedience Thus learn to fix a more immediate and more concerning meditation of your own mortality upon the death of him in whose life yours was involved both by a natural and spiritual dependance Secondly reflect upon that love and entire affection which you have lost and could no otherwise be lost but by losing him in whom it lived Love is of that excellent nature that it is esteemed by the best of men and accepted from the meanest persons what then is the affection of a Father what is the purity of that fire which God and Nature kindles in the brest of man what were the flames which ever burnt upon the Altar of your Fathers heart who never hated any man See but the nature of Paternal love in David who when Absalom his Son but a most rebellious Son openly sought his life and Crown and dyed in that unnatural attempt went up into his chamber and wept and as he went thus he said O my Son Absalom my Son my Son Absalom would God I had dyed for thee O Absalom my Son my Son Measure by this example the affection you have so lately lost who never gave any offence as Absalom did and yet had in your Fathers eye all the reasons of love which Absalom could have Know then you make a mourning as Joseph did for a Father that loved you remember that the love of Jacob was divided between twelve Sons and therefore though it was high it could not be whole and entire to Joseph as for many years your Fathers hath been unto you Thirdly I speak not this out of design to renew or advance your grief to tell you what you have lost alone but I propound this privation that I may contrive it for your imitation endeavouring to stir up the same fire and to kindle the same affection in your self who now are wholly to be considered in the same relation What you were to him others are now to you and what he was to you you are now wholly unto them Before your natural affection was partly taken up with duty respect honour and obedience due to a Father from a Son it is now taken off from those expressions as to him that it may descend the more entire upon those which come from you as you from him Thus far you have been the Joseph of the Text be now the Jacob that those two great names may be concealed not only in the Text but in your breast Thus far you have been the better part of Absalom learn now to be the David that we may truly say that tender affection that Paternal love dyed not with your Father but survives in you to your and his posterity Fourthly I desire you to look not only upon that which you have lost but also upon that which he hath left behind him Vulgar and common persons as they carry nothing out of this world so they leave nothing in it they receive no eminency in their birth they acquire none in their life they have none when they die they leave none aâ—… their death But honorable persons as they die like common men so that only dyeth with them which was common unto all degrees of men their singular respects the priviledges of their greatness their honors survive them and descend unto their Heirs with their Inheritance Give me leave then yet to speak unto you as to the Heir of your Fathers Honors consider what the nature and design of honors are remember they were first graciously conferred as a reward of the vertues of your Ancestors and were
effectually but God alone no man can shew us the right way to heaven but God Therefore let us pray So teach us c. We now come to the end wherefore Moses begs of God to teach us to number our dayes That we may apply c. In which we meet with three particulars 1. The kind and nature of this wisdome wherein it consists and it is in making the best provision we can for the eternal welfare of our Souls 2. The Subject of it our Hearts 3. The means of obtaining this wisdome and that is by the meditation of Death 1. Of the kind and nature of this wisdome wherein it chiefly consists that is in having an eye to heaven in looking after the eternal welfare of our Souls Our next Conclusion is this It is the only true wisdome of a Christian to provide for his Soul Then are we wise indeed when we are wise unto Salvation when we know how to provide for Eternity True wisdome consists not in gathering riches but in living in the fear of God and ordering our steps so as that we may make sure of heaven another day It is our obedience to Gods Commandments which cries us up for wise Christians in the repute of God and man Deut. 4.6 Keep therefore and do them for this is your wisdome and your understanding in the sight of the Nations which shall hear all these statutes and say Surely this great Nation is a wise and understanding people What is it for a man to be wise for the world and a fool for heaven what 's the wealth and honour of the world to the happiness of the Soul what 's a man the better for being rich and honourable in this world if in the end his Soul be lost Mat. 16.26 What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own Soul What the people said of David 2 Sam. 18.3 Thou art worth ten thousand of us the like I say of the Soul It is more worth than a thousand worlds and the Salvation of thy Soul is more to thee than the gaining of many worlds What the man pleaded to Joab for not slaying of Absolom 2 Sam. 18.12 Though I should receive a thousand shekles of Silver in my hand yet would I not put forth my hand against the Kings Son The like maist thou reason within thy own breast Though I might purchase the riches of a thousand worlds yet would I not seek the destruction of my Soul whatsoever thou dost still have an eye to thy Soul that that perish not in another world what if all other things go amiss with thee in this life â—…f thy Soul be in safety It is wisdome I confess to provide for the world for the body but the main wisdome is to provide for the Soul Be careful of the outward man but be sure thou dost not neglect the inward man Provide for both the body and Soul but let thy chief care be for the Soul which is thy better part It was the Symbol of Rodolphus the second Emperour of Rome who gave an Eagle with a double Head with the one he lookt upwards to the Sun and with the other downwards upon the Earth with this Motto Utrumque I have an eye to both Thus it is Lawful for a Christian to look downwards to the Earth and provide for the body but he must have one eye chiefly sixt upon the Soul and in the first place provide for it we must look directly to heaven obliquely upon the earth fix our eyes upon the one cast a glance upon the other It becomes a Christian to consider what may become of him hereafter and whither he is going Consider thy beginning from whence thou camest and consider thy end what will befal thee hereafter He cannot be a wiser man faith the Healthen wo does not know either from whence he came or whither he must go Sure enough he cannot be a wise Christian that knows not what will become of his Soul It is by way of just Reproof of such as are wise for the world but meer fools for heaven The wisdome of the flesh is meer folly in the sight of God Some men would be reputed wise in the world and yet know not which way to take for the gaining of heaven Such a man passeth in the world for a crafty subtile worldling that knows how to mannage his affairs with the best advantage to himself and yet he knows not a step of the way to heaven It is a Maxime amongst the Jesuites Uti scientia to live by their shifts so do many in the world who have only a little wit to carry them out in secular affairs and their brains serve them to gather a little wealth and muck but they are meer Idiots in all that concerns heaven and salvation and the purchasing of the true riches of the Soul And yet see the fondness of these men that though they know not which way to take to get heaven yet they make themselves sure of it as if Salvation and eternal life were within their reach and power to command it when they please Papyrius Massonus writes of the Jesuites that count themselves so wise ut se putant soelo vel ipsi quandoque imperaturos as that they think they shall one day have the command of heaven it self The like presumption is in many Christians at this day that they believe heaven is at their command and they shall easily obtain it though they do nothing for it Oh shake off this folly make what provision thou wilt for other things thou art but a fool if thou dost neglect thy Soul As provident as the rich man was in the Gospel God gave him the title of a Fool and Cajetan gives the reason of it because he did not provide for himself in such things as were needful for the Salvation of his Soul He is a fool that prefers and Apple before a piece of Gold who keeps those things that are to be cast away and neglects such things as are to be preserved who heeds not his house where he must abide for ever and beautifies that place where he is to lodg but for a night Such an one is he that forgets his Soul and is careful for all other things Give me leave to speak the truth and not alwayes to drop oyl into your ears and speak unto you smooth things Where shall we find the man that desires to save his soul that would willingly part with this world to gain a better We daily hear the word of God we talk much of Religion we boast of our interest in heaven but when the matter comes to decision when we are put to our choice whether Heaven or Earth whether we will forego the profits of this world for the love of heaven this is the fiery Chariot which divides between Elijah and Elisha which parts us and God and makes us to cast away our hope
exceeding great The Jailor hearing her cry out in her pangs If you cry said he to day I will make you shreek worse to morrow when you are to be burnt at a stake The woman replied Not so to morrow my pain will be abated for to day I suffer as an offender for the punishment justly imposed by God on our sex for our disobedience and breach of his law but to morrow I shall die for the testimony of the truth in the defence of Gods glory and his true Religion Thus it is strange to see what alacrity a good cause insuseth into arighteous man deriving comfort into his heart by insensible conveyances so that he imbraceth even death in self with a smiling countenance seeding his soul on the continual feast of a clear conscience Besides this it clears divine Justice and comforts the righteous man perishing temporally in his righteousness that his cause shall be heard over again and rejudged in another world If one conceive himself wronged in the Hundred or any inferiour Court he may by a cretiorari or an accedas ad curiam remove it to the Kings Bench or Common Pleas as he is advised best for his own advantage If he apprehendeth himself injured in these Courts he may with a Writ of Errour remove it to have it argued by all the Judges in the Exchequer chamber If here also he conceiveth himself to find no justice he may with an Injunction out of the Chancery stop their proceedings But if in the Chancery he reputeth himself agrieved he may thence appeal to the God of heaven and earth who in another world will vindicate his right and severely punish such as have wilfully offered wrong unto him And so much to assert Gods justice in suffering the righteous man to perish in his righteousness Now on the other side God may without any prejudice to his justice suffer wicked men for a time to thrive in this world and not suddenly surprise them with punishment so giving them a space to repent if they would but make use thereof Indeed David saith Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him But God is a fair hunter he might in the rigour of his justice knock wicked men down as he finds them sitting in their forms But God will give them fair law they shall for a time run yea sport themselves before his judgements ere they are pleased to overtake them Know also to the farther clearing of his justice that wicked men notwithstanding their thriving in badness for a time are partly punished in this world with a constant corrosive of a guilty conscience which they carry about them The Probationer-Disciple said to our Saviour Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest what is promised by him is preformed by a guilty conscience that Squire of the body alwayes officious to attend a malefactour Fast and I will follow thee and thy empty body shall not be so full of wind as thy mind of dismal apprehensions feast and I will follow thee and as the hand on the wall bring in the sad reckoning for thy large bill of fare stay at home and I will follow thee or else meet thee in the way with my naked sword as the Angel did Balaam Wake and I will follow thee sleep and I will follow thee and affright thee with hideous fancies and terrible dreams as I did King Richard the third the night before his death I have read of one who undertook in few dayes to make a fat sheep lean and yet was to allow him a daily and large provision of meat soft and easie lodging with security from all danger that nothing should hurt him This he effected by putting him into an Iron-grate and placing a ravenous wolf hard by in another alwayes howling fighting scenting scratching at the poor sheep which affrighted with this sad sound and worse sight had little joy to eat less to sleep whereby his flesh was suddenly abated But wicked men have the terrors of an affrighted conscience constantly not onely barking at them but biting of them which dissweetens their most delicious mirth with the sad consideration of the sins they have committed and punishment they must undergo when in another world they shall be called to account This thought alone makes their souls lean how fat soever their bodies may appear And as sores and wounds commonly smart ake and throb most the nearer it is to night so the anguish and torture of a guilty conscience increaseth the neerer men apprehend themselves to the day of their death Now not onely wicked men but even the children of God because of the corruption of their hearts too often make bad uses to themselves of the righteous mans perishing in his righteousness These may be divided into three ranks 1. Such as fret at Gods proceedings herein 2. Such as droop under Gods proceedings herein 3. Such as argue with Gods proceedings herein The first are the Fretters for if the perishing of the righteous cometh to the serious observation of a high-spirited man one of a stout and valiant heart he will scarce brook it without some anger and indignation fuming and chasing thereat Thus David we know was a man of valour of a martial and warlike spirit and he confesseth of himself that beholding the prosperity of the wicked his heart was grieved and he was pricked in his reins Nor was it meer grief possessed him but a mixture of much impatience as appears by that counsel which in like case in one Psalm he gave himself three several times Fret not thy self because of evil doers and again fret not thy self because of him who porspereth in his way and the third time fret not thy self in any wise Our Saviour observeth that there are a sturdy kind of Devils that will not be cast out save by fasting and prayer But this humour of fretting and repining at Gods proceedings herein which he understood not could not be ejected out of David but by prayer no doubt and that very solemnly not at home but in Gods temple When I thought to know all this it was too painful for me until I went into the Sanctuary of God there understood I their end O let them of high spirits and stout hearts not lavish their valour and mis-spend their courage to chase and fume at such accidents venting good spirits the wrong way but rather reserve their magnanimous resolutions for better services and besides their private devotions address themselves with David to Gods publike worship in his house who in his due time will unriddle unto them the equity of his proceedings But if men be of low and mean spirits pusillanimousand heartless natures and if these narrow souls in them meet with melancholly and heavy tempers such fall a drooping yea despairing at the perishing of the righteous they give all over for lost concluding there is no hope they rather languish then live walking
wounded afresh with some gross act of sin this made David afraid yea to roar out and to make a noyse through the disquietness of his spirit Psal 38.8 Psal 55.2 and under that state of soul to begg earnestly to be spared that he might recover strength in Gods favour before he went hence and was no more Psal 39.13 or else when the Lord shall for divers ends and reasons surcharge the soul and conscience with the sins of youth for which perhaps men have not as became them been sufficiently humbled thus dealt he even with his servant Job writing bitter things against him Job 13.26 see also Job 16.4 But out of those cases it is proprium quarto medo onely the Saints love it all such love it and alwayes and no marvaile sith by this second coming and appearance of Christ in the day of the last Judement they receive very great and inestimable benefits such as are final Redemption of the Body from corruption Rom. 8.23 Freedom from the society of the wicked which here afflict the godly by their violation of Gods Law and Precepts Deliverance not onely from the raign and dominion but even from the inhabitation and being of sin which here they find as a clogg and a burthen too heavy for them and so long to be rid of it Rom. 7.24 and lastly the beatifical vision and perfect fruition of the ever-blessed and all-glorious Trinity in the Heavenly Hieru salem among the innumerable company of Angels being admitted to the general Assembly and Church of the first-borne which are enrolled and written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore And thus my brethren after my measure as I could upon so short notice of about a day though not so full after my desires as I would in so great so learned and serious an Auditory have I dispatched my discourse upon the Scripture your candour will I hope connive at the want of polishing and entertain it as it is according to the weight and importance off the matter of it And may the God of grace reap the Total glory Amen FINIS The coherence Devision of the words Prospos Every man in the world is Gods Steward Proved 1. By what every one receiveth from God 2. By what God expects from every one Psal 24 1. Men do not waste his goods 2. That they do not abuse them to ill ends Luke 19 27. James 4 3. 3 To do him Homage Acts 10 33. 4 To return him fruit Matt. 21.33 Vse Two things required of a Steward 1. Dispensation Rom 13 4. Rom 1 14.1 Tim 5 8. 2. Right ordering of his dispensations Luk. 12.42 1. Faithfully Heb. 3.5 Exod. 32.19 2. VVisely Rom. 3.7 1 Tim. 3.17 Gen 18.19 Propos 2. All Gods stewards must give an account Two dayes of reckoning 1. In this life By the VVord Gen 3.11 1 King 19. Matt 3. Acts 2. By the rod. Job 33.14 Mic 6.9 Job 33.19 1 Cor 11.30 Psal 31.5 2 After this life A necessitie of a day of judgement 1. In respect of God his decree Acts. 17.31 Isa 46.10 His honour Eccles 3.16 2. In respect of the Saints 2 Thes 1.5 For the manifestation of their innocency For the reward of their works Mal. 3.17.18 3. In respect of the wicked For the manifestation of Gods righteous proceeding against them Rom. 2.5 For the perfecting of their punishment Why God is said to call all men to an account 1. Because he will proceed in particular Job 27.18 Jam. 5.1.2 James 4.3 Mat. 16. Mat. 5 22. Mat. 15.19 2. Because he will proceed by me hod and order Psal 50. Psal 51. Rom. 7. A direction in the exercise of repentance 3. Because he will proceed by books Dan. 10. Rev. 20. John 12.48 Jer. 17.1 4. Because God will exact of every one according to what he hath been trusted with Luke 12.48 Vse 1. For confutation Atheists in the Church 2 Pet. 3. Vse 2. For instruction 2. Not to judge others Rom. 14.10 1 Cor. 4.5 2. To judge our selves here A two sold reckoning to be made here 1. Reckon with out selves Jer. 8.6 Lam. 3.39 Psal 4. 2. Reckon with others 2. Sam. 12.3 Acts 20.26 Iames. 5.3 3. To Exercise daily repentance Acts 17.31 4. To get an interest in Christ Rom 8.1 Exod. 25.21 5. To lead a holy conversation 1 Pet. 3.11 2 Cor. 5.9 Acts 26.15 16. Vse 3. For Comfort James 5. Heb. 9.27 The Coherence The meaning of the words The devision of the words Observat 1. The death of others is a just occasion of Mourning Gen. 23.2 Gen. 27.41 Gen. 50.10 2. Sam. 25.1 Zach. 12.10 John 11. Act. 20.38 Reas 1. Reas 2. Ier. 5.3 Vse Object Answ A twofold distempe In mens affections 1.2 1 These 4.13 Deut. 14. Observat 2. Death the end of all men Iob 3.14 Zach. 1.5 Reas 1. In regard of Gods decree Reas 2. In regard of the matter whereof men are made Iob 13 12. Reas 3. In regard every man in him hath the cause of death Object Heb 11.5 2 King 2.11 Answ Object Answer Rom. 8.28 Matt. 22. Vse 1. Make account of it for our selves The benefit of the particular application of death to a mans selfe 1. Sin will be made more odious Rom. 5.11 2. The truth and justice of God will bee the more acknowledged 3. Death will be the b 〈◊〉 prepared for Job 14.14.5 Three things wherein here is oâ—… a particular application of â—…h to a man 1. In matter of sinning Acts 5. 2. In redeeming of the time of life 1 Cor. 10.35 Heb. 3 13. Gal. 6.10 3. In the manner of our conversation Vse 1 In respect of the death of others 1. To moderate our mourning for the death of others 2. To improve he life of others Observat 3. It is the duty of the living to lay to heart the death of others Reas 1.1 God is glorified hy it Psal 28.5 Reas 2. Our selves are benefited by it 1. Thereby we come to see the certainty of death 2. Thereby we come to see the nature of death The proper worke of death 1. To separate the body from the soule 2. To separate a man from his estate 3. To separate a man from his friends Gen. 23. 2 Sam. 1. â—… 1 Cor. 7.19 3. Thereby we come tosee the end and cause of death 1 Kings 14.13 2 Chro. 34.18 Isa 57.1 Ezek. 9.4 5. Vse 1 For reproof of the generall neglect of this duty Vse 2. For reproof 1. Of the excess of sorrow for dead freinds Judg. 8.24 Gen 31.30 2. Of the rash censuring of the manner of others death Luke 13.4 Eccles 9.2 Vse 3. For Instruction Luke 2.29 Observat Gods children are subject to the fear of death The outward causes of the fear of death 1. God
further degree for all this And there be these two reasons for it The first is because the wicked not only sinne in soule but in body too the body hath beene the instrument of the soule in sinning and therefore it cannot serve the turne that the soule is punished and the body lie in the grave no but those that have joyned in sin must also joyne in Punishment Secondly howsoever the sinfull actions of the wicked are transcient and seem to die with them yet in respect of the contagion and evill effects these actions worke upon others and upon posteritie bp the ill example of their predecessors the actions I say of those wicked men continue to the day of Judgement Thus wee shall see the Iewes in Ierem. 44. revived the sinnes of their fathers Our fathers say they made cakes to the Queene of heaven and so will wee So the succeeding Kings of Israel that went on in the steps of Ieroboam who made Israel to sin they continued the sin of Ieroboam As long as men goe on in the steps and sins of their forefathers the sins of their forefathers live So that some mens sinnes by a continued imitation are perpetuated to the day of Judgment therefore their must be a judgment then that may fill up a measure proportionable to their sin This was that that Dives feared in Hell and that made him crie out as he did that one might goe and tell his bretheren upon earth that they might not come into that place Why would he have them tell his brethren was there such love to the kingdome of Christ in hell that Dives would have his brethren converted no such matter Was it love to the souls of his brethren that he would not have them damned no such matter neither What then Certainly it was nothing else but a sence of his own guilt he knew what evill example he had given and what a counseller he had been to his brethren and if they should go on in his steps and their children follow the same steps all this would but adde to his punishment and torment in the great day when soule and body shall be joyned together to make up the full measure of their torment For this reason I say it is therefore necessary that their should be a judgement after this life at the end of the world The second thing remaineth and that is why the holy Ghost expresseth Gods proceedings by way of reckoning or calling to an account What need the Lord reckon with men he may proceed by way of a Judge but he saith come give an account of thy Stewardship I answer There are four things implied in this all shewing the manner of Gods proceedings at the day of Judgment with his Stewards that it shall be like the proeedings of a Master with his servants in an account and reckoning The first is this that it shall be a proceeding in particulars God shall then proceed not by grosse sums and in the total ye have done evil in the general none will deal thus with an Accountant but he will run over the particulars and Account for pounds for pence for every thing Thus God will deal with all his Stewards when he bringeth them to a reckoning he will reckon on particulars for all things that he hath enabled them with for his service Those that are rich men first how they have gotten their estates whether they have built their houses as a moth as Job speaks that is raised their estates to the hurt of others as men do that raise themselves by usury and oppression and fraud and bribery and such like courses Secondly how they have kept their wealth whether with the injury of others with-holding the goods from the owners thereof from the poor for I call them in case of want the owners of their goods because God hath given them to his Stewards for their sakes therefore mark how Saint James expresseth it Go to now yee rich men weepe and houle why so your riches are corrupted and your garments moth eaten your gold and silver is cankered c. As if he should say you have been hoarding up your treasures you had rather be laying of it up then laying of it out and therefore because you have not laid out your estates for the service of your master rust is come upon your gola and the moth hath eaten into your garments ye have heaped treasure together for the last day Thirdly how they have spent what they have had whether on their lusts or no Ye ask and have not faith S. James because ye ask amiss to spend it on your lusts so ye lay out amiss ye spend it on your lusts When men for pride in apparel for excesse at their tables for vain buildings for sinfull upholding of wickednesse for unnecessary and injurious proceedings in law sutes or in what soever indirect course men lay out their estates it is a mis-spending of their Masters goods And as he that hath got his wealth unjustly and he that keepeth it unjustly shall give an account so he that layeth it out in a confused sinful profuse way shall be called to give a reckoning for that And not only for matter of a estate but besides for matter of place and authority Moses knew this well enough and therefore when he was to go out of the world he first cleares all reckonings with the people of Israel I have been a Ruler thus long let any man come and stand up and say I have done him wrong let every man come clear me this day before the Lord that I have walked all my life-time unblameably inoffensively promoting the glory of God and suppressing all the evill that I could with my might this was the account that Moses made with the people of Israel before he died that he might lift up his head with comfort in the day of the Lord. Thus it must be with you ye must give an account of your places And so for the state of your bodies The health thou hast had how hast thou spent thy strength and thy health Mark the speech of the Wise man to the young man Rejoyce faith he in the dayes of thy youth as if he should say Doe if thou wilt do if thou dare but know that for all these things thou must come to judgment Now thou hast a great deale of health a great deal of strength but hast thou been the better for Gods service hast thou imployed it fot Gods glory or no And so for the members of thy body thou must give an account for thy imployment of those instruments Thy tongue every idle word faith Christ that men shall speak they shall give an account of at the day of judgment If for every idle word what then for thy swearing and cursing and lying what for the abundance of filthy obscene and rotten communication that cometh out of thy mouth Thou must give an account for thy
this a meeting for the solemnization of a Marriage I might further descan upon this plain-song that ariseth from the inference of Mens honouring of Women What have I said if it were a Marriage solemnity surely howsoever here be before our eyes the eyes of our bodies a visible object of mortality yet notwithstanding here is before us an invisible occasion of rejoycing as at a Marriage solemnity to the eye of our soul understanding and faith for while here we live in the world Jesus Christ our Spouse he hath his friends friends of the Bridegroom his Ministers and messengers that in his name come to us woo us use all the means that may be to move us to accept of Christ for our Lord and Husband When a man accepts of this offer there is then the contract consummated in regard of the Mutual consent that passeth between the one and the other Christ having his Proxies here we the Ministers being for him and every believing soul for himself This contract continueth so long as here we remain in this world when we depart the body is laid in the Bride-bed quietly to rest and sleep till the Bride-groom be pleased to come and awake his Spouse and it will be a blessed voyce that he shall come withal Come ye blessed of my Father receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world As for the soul that goeth immediatly to Christ and is in his Fathers house with him the Spouse in that part with her Husband the Lord Christ enjoying an eternal inviolable communion and sweet society But howsoever this is thus to the invisible eyes of the soul we now must look upon the object here before us and answerably order out matter and therefore with this touch I let pass the inference and come to the substance of the Text. You heard the sum you heard the parts But we must hear proceed Huesteron and Proteron and clean invert the order of the words as I hope your selves will discern if you do but well mark the order and method Life is in the last place grace before it the right that cometh before it and the extent of that right before all I suppose therefore you will think that first it is meet to lay forth the priviledge it self Life and then to speak of the ground of it then of the right that we have and then of the Extent of that right and this order I purpose to follow First therefore concerning the Priviledge it self Life For brevities sake I forbear to speak much of the divers acceptations of life and distinctions thereof as it is in the Creatour the only true God Father Son and holy Spirit or as it is the invisible and glorious creatures the Angels or as it is in men who are animated by a reasonable soul or as it is in those creatures that are guided only by sense Beasts Fowl Fish or otherwise as it Trees and Plants that come forth out of the earth having a vegetative life only The life here meant is that we call eternal life consisting in our communion with Christ our Spouse and this is a life proper to the Saints proper unto them because coming from the grace of God extended unto them alone proper unto them because they are heirs of it And in this extent there is a restraint howsoever the extent be in divers considerations yet a restraint a qualification only believers only found true Christians to them it is proper And this life is to be considered either in the Inchoation and beginning thereof or in the consummation and accomplishment thereof In regard of the Inchoation of this special life of the Saints it is here begun in this world I now live faith the Apostle speaking even of this life by the faith of the Son of God And the Just shall live by faith This life it is by Christs dwelling and living in us I now live yet not I but Christ liveth in me faith the Apostle in the place before quoted The other it is in the world to come and it is by a sweet feeling and fruition it is by our abiding with Christ and living with him in which respect faith our Lord Christ to the penitent believer upon the Cross This day the very day that he dyed shalt thou be with me in Paradise and so Saint Paul saith of himself I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ implying that upon the dissolution immediatly there is a fruition a communion with Christ And the same Apostle speaking of those Saints that shall be upon the earth at the very moment of Judgment when the dead faith he are raised then shall we also that are alive and remain be cought up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the ayr and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Now then mark here you see the soul hath present communion with Christ upon the dissolution of the body and the body also shall have communion with him at the great day of the Resurrection of all flesh Now this life and communion with Christ is proper to the Saints by vertue of their union with Christ A mistical union For Christ the Son of God he is life originally in himself for as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself He is also Life communicatively communicating life unto us therefore he is said to be the Bread of life and in this sence because he is that Bread which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world The Use of this point my brethren is manifold I will but touch it First it doth instruct us in the great love and good respect that God beareth to us children of men that of his own good pleasure hath written our names in the book of life and hath sent his Son to purchase life for us and to bring us also to this life Beloved what love the Father hath shewed to us in Christ Secondly this is a demonstrrtion of the woful plight wherein naturally men are in this world they may seem to be of some account they have a life that is far different from the life of Plants and also from the life of Beasts they have a reasonable soul to animate them Oh but this this is not the life Natural life indeed is a death compared to this life that is here noted to be proper to the Saints which cometh by grace wherof we are heirs and therefore of all natural men it may be said as the Apostle said of the wanton Widdow she is dead while she liveth even so are all such dead while they live dead in sins and trespasses and if so be those that are in this kind dead continue so till the death of the body seize upon them wo wo wo to them upon this followeth an eternal death endless easeless
and remediless torment upon body and soul for ever Thirdly the Saints have here consolation against the mortality and corruption whereto they are subject here in this world wherein their condition is common with the condition of all for that that befalleth one may befall every one in regard of the outward estate and condition All must die Nay further here is consolation against the distresses and afflictions and pressures whereto the Saints are subject above others for their profession sake in this very respect they are hated they are persecuted all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution and through many afflictions we must enter into the kingdom of heaven Where is now there comfort surely this that is set before us you heard that natural men are dead while they live but those that are in Christ do live while they may seem to be dead Jonah lived when he was cast into the Sea swallowed up by a Whale and was even as it were in hell so the Saints though swallowed up as we may say in the tempestuous sea of this world by cruel Whales yet notwithstanding they stil live that life that is begun here in the world whereof you heard before And to this purpose the Apostle Saint Paul in 2 Cor. 4.9 10 11 12. sheweth plainly that though they are given up unto death daily for Jesus sake yet they are not destroyed not clean swallowed up but that they live in Christ and that Christ liveth in them We are perplexed but not in despair perseouted but not forsaken c. And this is it that doth comfort them both the fruition of that life that they have here and their expectation of the accomplishment and fulness thereof in the kingdom of heaven Now my brethren this is the rather to be observed of us because of all others the Saints seem to be most subject to death And the truth is here is matter of admiration in regard of their happiness that notwithstanding that condition whereto they are subject there is a life they enjoy in this world there is a better life prepared for them hereafter And what can be more desired Life of all things else is most esteemed Men are ready in sickness and in other distresses to spend all that they have as the Woman that was troubled with the bloudy issue spent all that she had upon the Physitians to preserve life to recover health Solomon speaking according to the conceit of men saith that a living Dog is better then a dead Lyon any life better then a death thus they imagine and Satan well knew mens account of life when he could say Skin for skin yea all that a man hath will be give for his life Now if so be that this temporal life here that is but a flower but a bubble but a blast but a breath yea that life that in the shortness thereof is subject to so much perplexity as it is be notwithstanding so highly esteemed what is the life here promised that while here in the enjoying in regard of the first fruits thereof is accompanied with such a peace as passeth understanding accompanied with the very joy of the Holy Ghost and in the consummation thereof such contentment such glory as the tongue of man cannot express the mind of man cannot conceive It is noted of the Apostle Saint Paul when he was caught up to the third heaven and saw but a glimps of this life he did there see they are his own words unutterable matter things that cannot be exprest And therefore in this respect he saith and that which he saith may be most fitly applied to this the things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath entred into the heart of man are such as God hath prepared for them that love him This is that Life which we are so to consider of as it may make us say with the Apostle I account that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be campared with the glory which shall be revealed in us for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory It will be here said whence cometh this or what may be the ground thereof My Text telleth you It is stiled here Grace of Life Neither will I here insist upon the divers acceptations of grace as it is in man as it is Gratis data or as it is in God as it is Gratis faciens making us accepted with himself It is more clear then need to be proved that eternal life it cometh from divine grace Grace is the ground of it Being justified by grace saith the Apostle and again by Grace you are saved And indeed all things that bring us thereto are in Scriptures attributed to Grace And needs must it be so For First out of God there can be nothing done to move him to do this or that as if it should be done for our sakes either meriting or procuring of it He is independant and we are depending upon him and whatsoever we have is out of our selves and cometh from him Again in Man there can be nothing What is there in man but misery whatsoever man had or hath if there be any good thing he hath it from this fountaine of goodness all our sufficiency is of God And this is briefly to be noted against that proud and arrogant position of our Adversaries concerning the merit of mans works as if man by any thing in him could merit or deserve this life it is not the merit of life but the grace of life Surely they know not God they know not his infiniteness his all-sufficiency they know not man his emptiness his impotency his vileness his cursedness they know not this life they know not the reward the excellency of it the disproportion between any thing that man can do and this life that is thus graciously bestowed that have such a conceit Let them therefore pass with their foolish opinion For our own parts it affordeth to us another ground of comfort and that in regard of our unworthiness for as we are creatures we are less than the least of Gods mercies but as we are mortal creatures dust and ashes much more unworthy of any favour but as we are sinful creatures having provoked the Justice of God most most unworthy of any grace of any life most worthy of all judgements and vengeance of eternal death and damnation Where is now our hope what ground shall we have that have nothing in our selves surely this the ground of this life the grace of God What God doth he doth for himself for his own names sake Grace is free And these two joyned together give evident demonstration of God to be a God in the thing that he doth confer upon thee and in his dealing of it the greatness of the
the Haven of death The Draw-net of the Gospel catcheth sweet and stinking fish in Gods field Tares grow with Wheat in his floar there is much Chaff with good grain But after death God taketh his Fan in his hand and purgeth his Floar After we depart hence God placeth and sorteth his Children by themselves and the Children of the World and the wicked are by themselves and so every man is exactly gathered to his own people every star is set in his own constellation every grain is put in his own heap every person and family is joyned to his own tribe we all pass by the same gate of death but presently after we are out of it some take the right hand and are ranked with sheep others the left hand and are ranked among his goats We are all like Plate worn out of fashion and we must all be altred and therefore of necessity must be melted that is dissolved by death but after we have run in the fire of the judgment of God of that which was pure mettal God will make Vessels of honour but of the drossy and alcumy stuff that is the prophane or impure person or hypocrite vessels of dishonour and these shall shine like the sun in the Firmament those shall glo like coals in the fire of hell for evermore By this it should seem may some object that the righteous have no prerogative in death above the wicked but only after death and consequently that God promised Abraham no blessing in these words thou shalt go to the fathers it had been rather a singular favour to have kept him out of the common track with Enoch and have translated him that he might not see death this objection is answered in the next words In peace it is no special blessing or favour to bring us to our fathers by death for statutum est omnibus haminibus semel mori the Statute provideth sufficiently to send us to the place where we were born but to send us thither in peace is a singular favor which God vouchsafeth his dear Children especially in such a peace as Abraham went in wherein a three-fold peace concurred 1 Peace of estate 2 Peace of body 3 Peace of conscience First thou shall go to thy fathers in peace that is in a peaceable time or the dayes of peace the storms I foreshewed the hanging over thy Posterity shall not fall in thy time but thou shalt die in a blessed calm thy house being set in order and thy friends about thee thy children shall close thine eyes and they whom thou broughtest into the World shall carry thee with honour out of the World Secondly thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace that is thou shalt have an easie and a quiet pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there shall be no great strugling at thy departure but a kind parting of soul and body thy soul shall earnestly desire to return to the Father of spirits and though thy body shall contend in courtesie to stay it a while yet it shall without much adoe yeeld thou shalt like a ripe Apple fall from the Tree without plucking or a violent blast of Wind thou shalt go out of thy self as a golden Taper when the waxe is spent and thou shalt leave a sweet smell a good name like a precious perfume after thee Thirdly thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace that is in peace of conscience and peace with God which passeth all understanding thou shalt have no trouble in thy mind at the hour of death no terrours of conscience no fearful conflict with despare no dangerous assault of Sathan or flashes of hell fire all thy sins shall be blown away like a cloud and the beams of Gods countenance shall shine brightly upon thee and dry up all thy tears non sic impij non sic it shall not be so with the wicked it shall not be so with them for there is no peace to the wicked faith my God neither in life nor death but as a ruff sea is ruffest of all and most foaming and raging of all at the shore so the life of a wicked man is alwayes unquiet but most troublesome at all near the end If he die not in some garboil as Sylla or in the act of uncleanness with John the Twelf or voyding his entrals with Arrius or rending his bowels with Julian or falling upon his own sword with Nero or rayling and raging with Latomus if he be not punished in body with some violent fit of sickness or unsufferable pang of torment yet he goeth not to his fathers in peace for there is sent a hue and cry after him to apprehend him and lay him in chains of darkness till the general Assises at the dreadful day of Doom when he shal not be found of God in peace but in wrath and reading in the look of the Judge of quick and dead his dreadful sentence he shall cry to the hils to fall apon him and to the mountains to cover him from the presence of God and wrath of the Lamb. And thou shalt be buried in a good old age Although the heathen Philosophers made little account of Burial as appeared by that speech of Theodorus to the Tyrant who threatned to hang him I little pass by it whether my carkass putrifie above the earth or on it and the Poet seems to be of his mind whose strong line it was Caelo tegitur qui non habet urnam which was Pompeys case and had like to have been Alexanders and William the Conquerours Yet all Christians who conceive more divinely on the soul deal moreh umanly with the body which they acknowledg to be membrum Christi and Templum Dei a member of Christ and Temple of God If charity commands thee to cover the naked saith Saint Ambrose how much more to bury the dead when a friend is taking a long journey it is civility for his friends to bring him on part of the way when our friends are departed and now going to their grave they are taking their last journey from which they shall never return till time shall be no more and can we do less then by accompaning the Corps to the grave bring them as it were part on their way and shed some few tears for them whom we shall see no more with mortal eyes The Prophet calleth the grave Miscabin a sleeping chamber or resting place and when we read Scriptures to them that are departing and give them godly instructions to die we light them as it were to their bed and when we send a deserved testimony after them we persume the room Indeed if our bodies which like garments we cast off at our death were never to be worn again we need little care where they were thrown or what became of them but seeing they must serve us again their fashion being only altered it is fit we carefully lay them up in deaths Wardrope the grave though a man after he