more pleasures then at feasts this estate of heauenly life is both a kingdome and a feast A kingdome for they that are in it haue ouercome and shall sit on thrones Apoc. 2.7 A feast yea the marriage feast of the sonne of God in which he shall euer be espoused to the Church his wife The contract is made below the marriage shall be consummate aboue with solemnities vnspeakeable But if these excellent things spoken of the citie of God cannot winne our loue thither remember we the rich man in torments Luc. 16.23 and by this burnt child learne to dread the fire of hell The places are contrarie and all things contrarie that be in them As therefore Heauen is a place of ioyes and honour eternall so hell is a kingdome of shame and perpetuall contempt Dan. 12.2 And now if so great glorie and pleasures so many and so endlesse cannot please you doe but a litte cast downe your eyes into that deepe lake where are nothing but flaming fire palpable darknesse and perpetuall burning and nothing but teares shrikes and outcries of hopelesse and reprobate consciences and nothing but torments and places of torment prepared for damnable sinners where is no intermission of complaints nor end of paine as farre from ease millions of yeeres to come as at their beginning The rich man in torments craued but one drop of water when whole riuers of water would not quench those riuers of brimstone that fed that fire and could not haue it Luc. 16.24.25 And if the rods wherewith God chastneth his children in this life be so smart and galling that they haue brought them downe to the brimme of despaire and so low in affliction that they haue wished for death what smart and galling plagues doe the damned suffer in the torments of hell who are beaten not with rods of chastisement but with an iron rod of destruction in whose confusions remedilesse the Lord will say euen he whom here they despised I will ease me of mine adâ—ersaries and auenge me of my fees Esa 1.24 And thus the feare of hell may be reason inough to draw our affections from these things below if the loue of heauen cannot But neither the loue of heauen nor feare of hell can worke in some any little distast of this worldly Egypt that they may eat of this Manna that is hidden Apoc. 2.17 That is of the bread of heauen in the kingdome of heauen A reproofe therefore to those who altogether mind the earth and earthly things Vse 2 not caring for that kingdome that cannot bee shaken Some haue an eye still in Sodome and hoofe in Egypt and so sticke to the place of their banishment in which they take case purpose coÌ„tinuance that they neuer mind their countrey nor affect their remoue vnto it They cloy their stomacks with the grose dinners of this present world and so haue no appetite to the Lambs dinner where Christ being gouernour keepeth his best things last Ioh. 2.10 When we speake to them of peace they prepare themselues to battell Ps 120.7 In heauen is peace and here on earth is nothing but warre within and without within in our selues without in the world and yet men had rather liue in a field thus swimming in blood then by walking before God dwell in tabernacles of peace A signe that heauen is not there citie nor Christ their head For they that belong to the citie of peace will seeke heauens peace and they that belong to Christ desire to bee with him Colos 3.1 Where the head is there would the body be If then we doe not ascend to heauen by a spirituall life but digge downe to the hels by a carnall if couetousnesse hold vs in the world and the loue of God cannot draw vs out if to be thus absent from Christ be our happinesse and we count it our greatest vnhappinesse to come vnto him by going hence Christ is not our head but he that hath the Dragons head the world is our citie and heauen our strange citie to which either we meane not to come or would not willingly but by the violence of death when we can liue no longer For can Christ bee our head whom wee care no more for and heauen our countrey which we seeke no sooner after Therefore while we are on the earth in our bodies if we will be the members of Christ and the citizens of heauen let vs dwell before God in our soules framed in the forme and manner of a ship which is close downeward and shut to the world but open aboue enlarged to heauen where our treasure is and expectation ought to be So did our fathers who walked with God to whose righteous soules this peace is come and who now are most safe vnder the shadow of their Altar Christ vpon whom whiles they liued they offered all their spirituall sacrifices and now being taken vp to heauen in their soules praise him with ioifull lips continually and follow him in white whether soeuer he goeth A comfort to those Vse 3 who for this peace-sake fight lawfully in all the warre of the world against it They who in such a presse of worldly affaires beeing with Zacheus vpon too low a ground to see Christ doe therefore climbe vp in their affections aboue earthly matters and worldly desires treading the Moon vnder their feete shall heare one day perhaps this present day their sweet Sauiours voice saying Come to mee at once for this day is saluation come to your houses Luk. 19.5.9 And then as God said to Abraham Arise and walke about this Land this is the countrey that I will giue thee Gen. 13.17 So he will one day say to euery child of Abraham Behold thy heauenly land that is the place of thy perpetuall aboad come to it walke about it and liue in it for euer Then wee shall haue that blessing that all our prayers hearing readings in the word and other godly striuings like that of Iacob with the Angell before hee blessed him laboured vnto Gen. 32.26 Herod promised much when he promised halfe his kingdome Mark 6.23 But Christ both promiseth will giue a whole kingdome Math. 25.34 And where among men the elder onely doth inherit here all sons are heires and all receiue not some few Manors and small Lordships but crownes of righteousnesse Rom. 8.17 O then what should let our desires with the tribes of Renben Gad to passe ouer this Iordan of death by the parting not of waters but of soule body to come to our Land of promise Num. 32.3.4.5.6 Iacobs 7. yeeres seemed light vnto him in regard of Rahel for whom he serued Ge. 29.20 And why should the labour trauel not of 7. yeares for it may be as was said we shall not serue 7. dayes we serue not a churlish Laban but a most bountiful redeemer I say why shold this short labor of ours trauell of so short time seeme any thing in respect of that faire
bee without their honour whom Christ will bring with him and whom hee will make to sit with him on thrones in the ayre The Iudges of assise haue much honour And therefore the Iustices that sit with them sit downe on an honourable bench So Christ being exalted Shall not his Saints reioice When Dauid was made King all Dauids children sate neere the throne though not in the throne His sonnes were the kings sonnes and the posteritie he had the Kings children Thus Dauids honour honoured those that come of him And such honour haue all the Saints Such Nay greater For they all are Kings all sit on thrones who come with Christ 1. Cor. 6.2 More is spoken of this in the next doctrine But the Saints are a part of Christs company attendance that is he will bring them with him when hee commeth to giue iudgement against the world of the vngodly Doctr. From whence we learne that the faithull though despised here shall haue the honour from Christ at his comming to bee companions with him in the last Sessions This is the prerogatiue of the Saints and their proper glorie They shall meet Christ in the clouds and raigne with him for euer in heauenly places When the wicked shall stand vpon the earth as vpon a burning floore the fire flaming high about their cares they shall bee receiued into fellowship with Christ and then shall the iudgement begin The Prophet aimed at this Psa 50.4 5 who speaking of this great day of the Lords comming sheweth whom the Lord would call vnto it either to stand before him as witnesses or to be ioined with him as companions The witnesses are heauen and earth They whom Christ will haue in company with him are the Saints And therefore hee saith Gather my Saints together vnto mee Psal 50.5 Math. 24.31 As if hee had said Let heauen and earth come to iudgement but let my elect come to the bench And Dauid speaking of the Saints glorified doth not set them in the outward courts of Gods house but in the presence Psal 16.11 In thy presence saith hee that is in place where thou art This is resembled in the Lambes standing on mount Sion and in those hundred fourtic and foure thousand that were with him hauing his fathers name written in their forheads Apoc. 14.1 For by the Lamb is meant Christ and by the hundred fourty and foure thousand the company of the Saints who shall be with Christ So in the Virgens that went to meete the Bridegroome Math. 2â— 1 But more specially in those who being ready when the Bridegroome went in went in with him to the wedding ver 10. But the Apostle S. Paul speaketh plainely and not in a figure where speaking of the great honour that the Saints shall haue in the sight of the damned he saith They shall be caught vp in the cloudes and meet Christ in the aire 1. Thes 4 17. And addeth So they shall euer be with the Lord. The meaning is and it is as if he had said they shall neuer be strangers but companions Christ himselfe hath said it who speaking to his Disciples and in them to the rest of the thousands of his Saints that haue followed him in the regeneration promiseth that they shall sit on seats or rather on glorious thrones Math. 19.28 Luc. 22.30 Now he is faithfull who hath promised and will surely doe it Therefore shall the righteous abide with Christ for euer The reasons The Saints are Christs seruants Now where the Master is there must the seruants bee that waite vpon him Ioh. 12.26 nay they are Christs friends Ioh. 15.5 and where should a friend be but in the presence of his friend or they are Christs court Therefore where he is there must they be for where the King is there the court is And they be more then of his court for they are of his court and counsell too Ioh. 15.15 And so Christs presence is not only where they are as the Kings is at court but they be his counsell-table or court of power wherein he sitteth gloriously as the King in his throne Secondly and to reason from the lesse to the greater If a good Master will preferre his good followers when himselfe is preferred Christ being so highly exalted in glorie will much more honour those thousands that haue beene of his company and attendance here And so they who haue had fellowship with Christ in his afflictions shall haue fellowship with him in his glorie and they who haue suffered with him shall raigne with him 2. Tim. 2.12 Thirdly Luc. 12.32 this is the hope of the faithfull and shall the hope and patient abiding of the faithfull deceiue them Vse 1 This teacheth the righteous to beare the iniuries of the world quietly and willingly For the day will come when their persecutors shall be troden downe to hell and second death and they presently receiue the crowne of their sufferings who haue suffered for Christ Here hee that refraineth from euill maketh himselfe a prey Esa 59.15 and it is safer to doe wrong then to complaine of an iniury we but let me not too much discourage Gods children for that which is thus and so here shall bee contrary hereafter when the Lord shall requite the furie of his aduersaries with a recompence verse 18. then they who here despised the righteous mans life will say that they whom they thought to bee fooles and their end without honour are now counted among the children of God and their portion among the saints Wisd 5.4.5 what though the companions of the diuell set themselues as in battell array against those whom it pleaseth Christ in a gracious fellowship thus to call his and the companions of his comming after a while they shall be gathered to Christ and be free from all wrongs of men and at Christs comming see the iust iudgement and vengeance of all those who cruelly hurt them themselues sitting on the bench and giuing a kind of iudgement against them with Christ and the thousands that are with him But shall the Saints be in company with Christ at his comming Vse 2 and bee made a part of his attendance Then let vs consider our high calling and not company with sinners that must haue fellowship with Christ We cannot alway auoide those that be such yet we must in affection seperate from them when we cannot in place and not delight to sit down with them on one stoole There is a large fellowship of men in the world whose whole studies and desires are bent to passe the time in drinking gaming rioting and other beastly exercises and hee that will not be combined in fellowship with such loose mates is counted no bodie but Gods children and they who meane to haue fellowship with Christ must abhorre this vngodly fellowship of lewd men and not haue one purse or communion with them who beleeue the communion of saints not communion of light with such darknesse Prou. 1.14 2.
nor care that is care of man hath heard the like neither can they enter into our heart which yet hath a large mouth of capacitie to conceiue and vnderstand them if they were told vs which are reuealed by the spirit and but lisped of by Iohn in those earthly similitudes of gates of Pearle of walles of Iasper and of a streete whose pauement is gold Apoc. 21.18.19.20.21 1. Cor. 2.9 Dauid calleth them ioyes and fulnesse 〈◊〉 also pleasures and pleasures eternall Psal 16.11 that is blessednesse without end and the same without want Paul calleth them an eternall waight of glorie 2. Cor. 4.17 as if he should call them glorie endlesse and the glorie that waigheth downe there is such fulnesse in it And they are called the well and riuer of life Apoc. 22.1 as beeing alway full and hauing springs that come from God to feede them Or an inheritâ—nce immortall 1. Pet. 1.4 An inheritance and therefore a possession in the best tenure and an inheritance immortal therefore not for yeares but for euer Life in it selfe is good good life is better but eternitie maketh it excellent Obiect But in heauen some shall shine as the firmament some as the starres for euer Dan. 12.3 Now the firmament hath not so much light as the starres haue that lighten it and the starres haue lesse light then the Sun hath that lighteneth them It seemeth therefore that in heauen there should be to some rather some want then such fulnesse of heauenly glorie Ans I answere though in this condition of our heauenly life there may be degrees of glorie yet there shall be no want Some may bee like the skie some like the starres of the skie yet all shall shine Some vessels may hold more some lesse yet all bee full One may haue more ioy then another and there are sundry measures of more or lesse glorie in heauen but no measure shall lacke his fulnesse of life or glorie there He that hath least shall haue inough The reasons are Hell is contrarie to Heauen In hell there is a fulnesse of torment In he 〈◊〉 therefore there must be a perfection of glorie Secondly earthly kingdomes and the Kings thereof haue as great an absolutenesse as earth can giue them and shall we thinke that heauen which can giue an entire will giue an imperfect crowne of righteousnesse Will not the Kings of the earth dwel in base cottages but in royall courts And shal these Kings of a better kingdome want glorie where mortall Kings haue so great glorie and power Princes on earth dwell in royall palaces and sometimes in Cedar and Iuorie Apoc. 1.6 But they whom Christ hath made Kings Priests to God his Father who dwell in tabernacles not made with hands shall raigne in a citie whose twelue gates are twelue Pearles whose wall is of Iasper and building of Gold and whose streetes shine as cleare glasse Apoc. 21.18.19.21 So said he who saw all this glorie but darkely or as Moses saw the land of Canaan in a very short Map or Card a farre off Deu. 34.1.2.3.4 We see but the outward wall of this heauenly citie new Ierusalem yet how glorious is it and how decked with starres as with sparkling Diamonds What would we say if wee could see into it and behold though with Peter Iames and Iohn at a glance blush superficially the goodly pauement of heauen within whose floore is of gold and wall about is garnished with precious stones Apoc. 21.19 Thirdly if Adams paradise and garden was so pleasant and delightsome how pleasant and glorious is Gods owne garden and seat of his owne residence Hee spake of it with a wondering tongue whose finite heart could not comprehend so infinite an excellencie very glorious things are spoken of thee thou Citie of God Psal 87.3 For though in the letter this worthy Prophet spake of that earthly heauen which he confessed to bee in the materiall tabernacle because of Gods presence and the godly exercises of Gods people performed there yet his meaning was vnder the cloud of the phrase to direct Gods children to a higher tabernacle and house of greater glorie then that which was earthly and vnder the doome of time An instruction aboue all things Vse 1 to affect the things aboue and to draw our mindes with strong cordes of desire vnto them Col. 32. For what place haue we here but of trouble There wee shall haue our place of peace The joyes of our earthly life do much affect vs sometimes too much which yet haue their gall of bitternesse in them and crosse of short time For no sooner doe they begin but their end borders vpon their beginning and many times they rather seeme to begin then begin indeed being like to a false conception that comes not to bearing Many are vnwilling to leaue this world because of the acquaintance they haue in it and which when they die they must leaue behinde them in it And yet in this worldly fellowship there is much sowre ioined with sweet But if there be so great a portion of content in this worldly fellowship what pleasure is there and how perfect in the societie of glorified soules the ancient worthies of the old world and the flower of this when wee shall see but with other eyes and in a spirituall manner Abraham of whom we haue heard so much Isaac Iacob Iob Samuel and the Prophets whose names we haue loued When with Eliab we shall see Christ clothed with our flesh who hath immortalitie at his right hand and shall make vs raigne for euer Wee admire the building of Kings and hee was a Disciple who said to Christ speaking of the temple see what stones what buildings are here Mar. 13.1 But as Christ to him so let me say to all that wonder at these things are those the things ye looke upon Luk. 21.6 The sumptuous buildings of Kings and stately Nobilitie though all the rich entrals of the earth had conspired to giue them varnish and glories what are they but base Cotes compared to this frame not made with hands And doe we so much wonder at mortall lime and stone and so little care for our eternall house The three Disciples who in the transfiguration saw but a glimpse of this heauenly glorie shining vpon the face of their Sauiour would needs build taberbernacles in it what if we saw the whole Sunne of it and not some glimpses onely Math. 17.2.4 Moses saw God but a little in the mount and with mortall eyes and his face so show that the people were afraid to come neere him Exod. 34.30 How then shall they shine in roabes of perpetuall glorie who do behold not with these but with other cies the face of God for euer Lastly to draw our affections to the place where our life is and directly to God in whom we liue let vs consider the honour and pleasures of this Citie Whereâ—â— greater honour then in soueraignty and where are
learned Father compareth conscience which is the knowledge that we haue with our selues of some good or euill to water in a Well which when it is troubled sheweth no image of any face but waxing cleare doth So if we suffer this christall of our conscience to bee mudded with foule trespasses of habit or impenitencie wee shall neuer see our naturall face in it neither perceiue how deadly we sinne against God and our owne soules Where if we purge daily for our daily offences and greatly for our greater sinnes if we haue an eye alway to the Lord and his proceedings in vs making good vse of those priuie secret pinches that our consciences giue vs when we doe amisse wee shall in so cleare a fountaine of our good conscience as in a true glasse behold with sanctified profit the many faultes of our life and so the sooner and more conueniently bee humbled for them Or if when our consciences reproue vs of our waies wee listen vnto them and make present good vse of the strokes of our heart for euill deedes and that while we be tender and sensible of sinne wee shall auoide the plague of a foolish heart or heart past feeling Ephes 4.19 and not goe desperately on with bold sinners in the way that leadeth to destruction Thus may wee profit greatly by the iudgement that is begunne in vs in these mulcts of our consciences or mid-hearings preparing vs with comfort to the hearing of the last day A confutation of all Atheists Vse 1 whether Atheists in iudgement or in life Atheists who deny the iudgement to come or liue as if there should bee none Of such we reade who slandering the footesteps of Christs comming said where is the promise of that day 2. Pet. 3.4 that is what is become of it and of all this talke about it So there were in Esay who said when they heard of such a day Let him make speed let him hasten his worke that wee may see it as if they should haue said if it shall bee at all let it be now Or he had need to hasten it if we shall beleeue it Esay 5.19 And in Amos time there was a large fellowship of these mates who put the euill day the day of their death and iudgement which they called euill farre off Amos 6.3 But haue we none of this knot and conspiracie in our own time Yes too many whom I leaue to the mercie of God to be amended or as the drosse of the earth to bee consumed with the fire of his comming who will come with fire and his chariots like a whirlewinde Esay 66.15 A reproofe of their securitie Vse 2 who by certaine slumbering delaies and puttings off walke in no reuerence of the Lords comming or remembrance of their owne death For the yong man presumeth that he shall liue long and the oldest that he may liue one yeare longer But knowing these terrours of the Lord what care should bee in vs presently to set our house and nature in some good order for the comming of Christ the iudge or for our own last end in which we shall be iudged 2. Cor. 5.11 Schollars who come to render to their Master the lesson or part giuen them doe it not without feare and shall we not feare to thinke of that day in which wee must giue account to Christ the iudge for all the things that hee hath put in our hand and keeping When Paul willed the men of Athens to repent it was vpon this ground that the Lord had appointed a day wherein hee would iudge the world in righteousnesse Act. 17.31 As if he had said yee shall be sure to be iudged and therefore repent And yet wee liue in sinne and our hearts are not turned If we were sure that Christ would come to iudgement the next May day what an alteration would it worke in many of vs and how would it change vs and moue vs who would set his heart vpon riches who would deceiue and oppresse who would spend so much in apparell and so many daies in vanitie who durst be drunke who durst sweare and lie and commit adulterie what would become of our May-games dauncing greenes and bowres and such conuenticles of spirituall fugitiues from God on his Sabbaths who would not rather passe the time that remaineth in Gods seruice and run to sermons and reade and pray deuoutly and bestow good houres well and not spend time in chambering and wantonnesse But we are not sure that that day shall tarrie till May next And we know not that Christs day will come this weeke or the next or this present day and houre or while I am speaking of it and yet we walke in as great security and as desperately in sinne as if we were certaine it would not come in our time If we heare a sudden crie of fire fire we are astonied out of measure and yet hearing by our Preachers the Lords trumpets so many and fearefull threatnings by the word concerning the fires of hell and iudgement when not a few houses but the whole world shall burne like an ouen we are not moued Euerie one almost will giue his best helpe for the quenching of a materiall fire but who regardeth to saue himselfe or to preserue others from the vnquenchable fire of hell and terrible fire of the Lords comming that will most certainely we know not how soone flame out to the burning of this great Sodom of the Earth in the which the heauens shal passe away with a noise the elements shall melt with heat and all things corruptible shall be dissolued most speedily as if they did flee away 2. Pet. 3.10 Apoc. 20.11 Christ euen now standeth at the doore of thy Christian heart to wit as a guest and stranger that would be entertained Apoc. 3.20 and thou by continuing in sinne deniest to receaue him He threatneth by the law he reproueth by the law and condemneth by it all impenitent sinners By these he knocketh ernestly and crieth vehementlie at the dore of thy heart to open vnto him and wilt thou tarrie till by thy death he breake in or by his particular comming If a great man should knocke at our doore what stirring would there bee to receiue him presently and as is meâ—te Is there any greater or more worthy guest then Christ who knocketh by the ministerie of the Gospell at the gate of our heart who reacheth forth the hand of his threatnings to beate vpon our consciences day and night that we might turne with all speed which is our opening to the sonne of God and shall we giue him no entrance after so long a time of waiting at our hearts for our conuersion A great man will not be so abused and shall we thinke that the mighty God will take it well that after so many knocking 's and long standing without he should finde no dore of admission into vs or opening by vs and should still be deferred and put off or can these
Cor. 6.14 Or shal they sit on the throne of iniquity who must sit on thrones with Christ And make a league with the world who must iudge it and the Angels 1. Cor. 6.2.3 That is shall they now iustifie the world with their talke and conuersation who must hereafter condemne it and the hels of the diuels with the sentence of their mouth and sinceritie of their waies That holy Author of the 119. Psalme had an eye to this blessed hope of being one of Christs attendants hereafter and therfore would not be for all companies but professed himselfe a companion onely to such as feared God and kept his lawes Psal 119.62 He would not hazard his fraile pot-shard vpon the rocke of euill company for any thing And wherefore did Dauid hate the assembly of the euill and not company with the wicked Psal 26.5 but because hauing fellowship with God he feared to haue any fellowship with Gods enemies and was perswaded that as God will not take a wicked man by the hand Iob 8.20 so none of Gods company should Also he was loth to make them his companions on earth of whom he could haue no hope that they should bee his companions in heauen Let them consider this who cast in their lots with a wicked generation for their ends in the flesh and mingle heauen and earth together in a sociâ—tie whereof wee may say the head is gold but the legges are yron and the seete stand vpon clay Dan. 2.33 I speake to the faithfull whom I would not haue to goe out of the world to auoide the wicked that are in it but entreat by the tender mercies of God to be as carefull as they can to auoide them and their assembly and if they must vse them for necessitie not to vse them as companions neither to draw with them in any yoke of affection but rather to draw back when the wicked are in place A comfort to the godly Vse 3 whom the wicked thrust out of their company and would thrust out of the world because of their conscience to God For though they bee not accepted where euill men beare sway which is no disparagement to them but glorie nor losse but gaine Yet they are esteemed of the good and admired of the euill though not followed of them Or doe the wicked hate them They shall loose nothing by such hatred for God good men will loue them Will not the vnrighteous haue any fellowship with them It is the better for them For they are in lesse danger of corruption and more possibilitie of grace And where men that be euill auoide them Christ and his thousands will stick vnto them Those worthies of whom we reade in the eleuenth to the Hebrewes were vilely and cruelly dealt with in the world But what saith the text The world was not worthy of them Heb. 11.36.37.38 The wicked drâ—ue them out of their companies by sharpe persecution into deserts and mountaines and holes of the earth But they were worthy and had farre better company hauing a kinde of fellowship with Christ and all the Saints that were gone before them ver 40. So for the faithfull that now liue if the vngodly make no more of them then of the filth of the world the of-scouring of all things 1. Cor. 4.13 It is because they are good to liue among them and too precious to be cast before Swine that so tread them vnder foote and rent them Mat. 7.6 And where they say Away with such fellowes from the earth Act. 22.22 Christ will in his time take them from the earth by a blessed sweet death to haue fellowship with him his thousands Wherfore let vs comfort one another with these sayings 1. Thes 4.18 A comfort against death Vse 4 or instruction not to feare death but rather to long for the houre of our happy death by which we shall haue so great preferment as to bee with Christ and his Saints Wee desire and greatly affect earthly preferments and shall this prerogatiue of the Saints get from vs so small affections and weake desires Shall wee not rather preferre to our chiefe ioy not Ierusalem onely the Church of Christ but Christ himselfe the head of his owne Church that he may be honoured in vs in the thousands of his Saints Againe if we be hated in a place we will long to goe out of it to a place where we know or hope to bee otherwise and better regarded Here the true Christian is hated for the name of Christ that hee loueth and few places shall he come into where the good course hee followeth and the profession hee is of is not spoken against What comfort then can we haue to remaine in the Meshech of those assemblies where such haters of God be Psal 120.5 And what great comfort must it needs be to him to remoue to that place and glorie where all loue the Lord Iesus with all their hearts which place is heauen and glorie in heauen and not in these tents of Kedar Therefore that wee may comfortably looke for this day of the Lord or day of our remouing to him and to the company of all his thousands Let vs loue the appearing of Christ here loue to goe out with the Saints to meete him in Christian assemblies loue his truth and brethren with all our hearts and decline the waies of the wicked that wee may escape their iudgement So much for the iudgement it selfe the ends of the Iudge his comming follow To giue indgement vpon all men c. Verse 15. The ends of Christs comming are to iudge generally all men particularly all vngodly men The generall is of good and bad the particular here mentioned is of bad onely The good shall receiue a sentence but it shall be of absolution the bad shall haue their iudgement but it shall bee of rebuke For the first which is the iudgement that concerneth all men it administreth this doctrine Doctr. That there must be an vniuersall iudgement or iudgement of all men iust and vniust So the Apostle S. Paul speaketh where he saith wee must all appeare before the iudgement seat of Christ He saith we that is the righteous and all that is both godly and sinners must appeareâ— and not by their Attourney but in their own persons No mans absence shall be excused by securitie or baile neither will any caution be receiued for an after-comming For the Apostle doth not say wee must appeare hereafter but wee must appeare that is presently appeare and without delay before Christ the iudge Saint Mathew saith that all nations shall bee gathered before him Mat. 25.32 His meaning is that in euery nation euery man Ioh. 5.28.29 woman little child high low poore and rich shall personally be cited to iudgement by the voice of the Sonne of God in the ayre But shall they be cited and shall they not come The Euangelist saith they shall bee gathered that is they shall not
And if for should it not much concerne vs without putting off presently to turne vnto God presently to repent and beleeue the Gospell and presently to enter into and keepe the way of truth and vertue which are so seldome birds in our dayes A terrour to all the enemies of Christ Vse 2 who wil not haue him to raigne ouer them For now the Kings writs come forth for the execution of all vngodly men and of such he will say at his second comming bring them hither and slay them before mee Luk. 19.27 Then shall Kings be bound in chaines and the Nobles that would not be linked to Christ in linkes of yron till the appointed vengeance come And when that time is come the King will say Executioners doe your offices Bind these Kings and these great men binde them hand and foote that they may neither defend themselues nor flye and cast them into vtter darknesse that if they would flye they may not know whether to flye in the darke Mat. 22.13 They haue had their time and this is mine Men durst not rebuke them but I will rebuke them in iudgement And not them onely but all the vngodly of the earth This is my great day wherein I will burne with the fire of rebuke and perpetuall torment with the intolerable fire of hell all mine enemies Thus Christ will rebuke all the vngodly among men when hee sendeth the damned to their owne place At his comming when hee shall put on these garments of rebuke hee will sharpely reproue the world with a fire burning before him At mignight shal a cry be made by the voice of an Angell and trumpet of God Mat. 15 6. Now canst thou heare a sudden and long crie of fire fire at midnight and not be afraid Thou wilt be worse afraid if the fire shall be in thine own house and worse then that if it shall burne in the timber and along the floore of thy bed chamber But the vngodly shal suddenly and wofully heare a greater cry and cry of greater feare For the fire of hell and not the bare crie of fire shall be in their eares and begin to kindle in their bodies at their first rising out of their graues They shall see heauen and earth burning before their eyes and the chambers of their graues all on a fire They shall see the fire about them and flames of euer-burning fire ready to enter into them to torment them day and night So terrible shall this day of rebuke be to sinners and vngodly men And shall not the expectation of all this make the vnrighteous to melt with feare If the downefall of two or three houses can giue such a cracke what a terrible cracke and great burst will the heauens aire sea and all the elements with all the buildings and houses of this large and great frame make when they shall all runne togither like a scroule in the fire Therefore if wee would not haue this cry at midnight to condemne vs let vs now in this mid-day of the Gospell heare to obedience the cry of the word that we may liue If we would haue a comfortable rising let vs goe to our beds that is graues in the peace of faith and a good conscience And if we would not feare hereafter let vs feare now and now be Saints if we meane to be as the Saints then that is at that great day of Christs comming So much for the forme of the last iudgement the persons to whom it extendeth follow All the vngodly among them c. The persons who shall be rebuked in iudgement are the vngodlie yea all the vngodly none excepted By this propertie of vngodlinesse and by these persons who are called vngodly the Apostle vnderstandeth impenat◠wickednesse and the impenitent wicked against God and the people of God who shall rise to damnation Vngodlinesse is a sinne directly against God and vngodly men are fighters a-against him Either their thoughts are that their is no God Ps 10.4 or if they beleeue a God yet they denie his prouidence and distinguish of his presence they make an idol of his mercy and a sport of his iustice Or if they confesse that God is Ruler yet they will not confesse his rule by his word Iob 21.14 nor worship him as he hath commanded but as they themselues thinke good They neither pray for their necessities nor giue thanks for their receipts Iob. 21.15 They loue not the Lord and they abhorre his inheritance they make much of his enemies and smite downe his people liuing as if there were no God nor iudgement to come Ps 44.5 These are vngodly men and against these this iudgement of rebuke is threatned Doctr. From whence we learne That God will not iustifie the wicked though he beare with them nor count them innocent though he suffer them long When the Lord stood before Moses and proclaimed his name before him he speaketh of his mercie grace and slownes to wrath yet with a reseruation and prouiso of taking his iustice vnto him when he seeth time for he addeth that all this shall not make the wicked innocent as if he had said Indeed I am slow to anger but iust in my anger to all those who shall abuse these graces of my patience mercie and fauour to sinners Exod. 34 6.7 When the haters of God and they who cast his words behind them powred out themselues to all vngodlinesse and vnrighteousnesse the Lord held his tongue that is seemed not to dislike so great disorder and excesse of wickednesse in vngodly men therefore they thought that he was like to them and liked 〈◊〉 sinne as well as they that he toke pleasure in wickednesse and would neuer punish those that did wickedly But God assureth them that all is contrarie telling them that he will reproue them as here and draw forth his hand to punish them as in a day of rebuke and make them ashamed of all their sinnes that he will bring in order before them and as they committed them before him not sparing any Psal 50.21 The sinner saith Salomon doth euill an hundred times that is makes no end and keepes no measure in sinning because God prolongeth his daies or is patient not cutting him off so soone as hee hath done wickedly But though God beare neuer so long presume neuer so much it shall not be well to him or it shall be farre otherwise with him at the last For as the shadow that flyeth away so shall hee post to his graue and his soule flye to destruction Eccles 8.12.13 The reasons If God should euer iustifie the sinner it were either because hee did want power to punish him or instice to punish sinne But neither is lacking to God who for power is almightie and for zeale against sinne of pure eyes that cannot see euill Habac. 1.13 That is cannot abide it Secondly if God should beare euer with sinners men would thinke that God delighted in them or made some
ordered bring forth the greatest Masters of vice and Guides to wickednesse and as a weede if it grow in a ranke soile will grow out of measure noisome so the tender youth of great families brought vp in ease and pampered with the delights of gentry if they prooue weeds must needs riot most vnmeasurably and prooue most hurtfull members in the Commonwealth and not members but diseases in the Church Lastly to excite our gentry to traine vp their yong Gentlemen to the feare of God and to good sciences let them remember that a gentleman without vertue learning is like a darke heauen in the night without moone or starres and let them not forget that if they would haue the blessing of being blessed fathers of a blessed seed they must bring them within the couenant endeuouring to make their sonnes by nature the sons of God by grace The like for their daughters if they would haue their daughters by birth to become the daughters of Abraham by new birth and godlinesse An admonition to yong persons Vse 2 to striue against all impediments of godlinesse in yong yeeres For are parents bound to teach youth then are youth bound to learne of their parents or must al feare God yong then young and all must learne betimes to feare him and can none feare him but such as arme against the impediments of his feare then where are most as in youth and where most are hindered as tender youth there must this armor chiefly be put on The first impediment of early godlines in yong men is a reckoning but without their host that they shall liue to be old which causeth theÌ„ to say peace peace Iâ—r 8.11 til with Sisera they fal into their last sleep of destruction Iudg. 4.21 go from their house to graue Psal 49.14 But who can be ignorant that on the stage of this world some haue longer and some shorter parts and who knoweth not though some fruits fall from the tree by a full and naturall ripenes that all doe not so nay that more are pulled from it and wither vpon it in the tender bud or young fruit then are suffered to tarrie till they come to their perfect ripenes and mellowing so do not mo without comparison fall from the tree of time young either violently plucked from it by a hasty death or miserably withering vpon it by a long death perishing in the bud of childhood or beaten downe in the greene fruit of youth then come to their full age of ripenesse by a mellow and kindly death Further doth not God call home from his worke some in the morning some at noone and some at night For as his labourers enter into his vineyard so they goe out that is in such manner and at such houres Math. 20.1.2.3 c. Some dye in the dawning of their life who passe but from one graue to another Some dye in youth as in the third houre some at thirtie and some at fiftie as in the sixt and ninth and some very old as in the last houre of the day Yet more dye young then old and more before tenne then after threescore Besides all this the fresh life which the youngest haue here is cut off or continued by the same decree and finger of God that the oldest and most blasted life is prolonged or finished For say that a man had in his keeping sundrie brittle vessels as of glasse or stone some made fortie fiftie yea threescore yeares age and some but yesterday we will agree that that vessell wil soonest be broken not that is made first but which is first striken or first receiueth a knocke So for these brittle vessels of our earthly bodies they that soonest receiue the blow of death though but made yesterday first perish not that were first made and haue longest liued What then is our life and how vaine and false is our hope of long life seeing no man can tel who hee is that shall receiue the first stroke or knocke to the destroying of this his mortal tabernacle In a prison where are many condemned should some riot and forget death because they first are not drawne out to die or because one goes before another to execution shall he that comes last come forth pleasantly with Agag and say Surely the bitternes of death is past 1. Sam. 15.32 because we die not so soone as others and we shall not all die at once shall we therefore count our selues immortall If we be old wee may bee sure our turne is neere and if we be young it may be as neere for they that be old may trauell longer but we that are yong may haue a shorter way home Seeing then this hope of liuing till we be old is so vaine and deceitfull wee should make as great haste to God at twenty as at fourescore When we heare a solemne knell we say some bodie is departed and why should we not thinke that the feet of them who carried out that bodie is at the doore readie to cary vs out also Act. 5.9 He was not an old man and he had much peace in his dayes to whom it was said O foole this night they will fetch away thy soule Luc. 12.20 So death worketh in vs whether we prepare for it or no. a Mr. Perk. in his right way of dying well A certaine writer vseth this comparison A man pursued by an Vnicorne in his flight fals into a dungeon and in his fall hangs by the arme of a tree as he thus hangeth looking downeward he sees two wormes gnawing at the root of the tree and looking vpward he sees an hiue of sweet hony which makes him to climbe vp vnto it to sit by it and to feed vpon it While he thus feedeth himselfe and becommeth secure or carelesse of what may come the two wormes gnaw in sunder the root of the tree which done both man and tree fall into the bottome of that deepe pit This Vnicorne is swift Death the Man that flieth is euerie sonne of Adam the pit ouer which he hangeth is hell the arme of the tree is his short life the two wormes are day and night which without stay consume the same the hiue of honie is the pleasures of this world to which while men wholly deuote themselues not remembring their last end the root of the tree that is temporall life is spent and they fall without redemption into the pit and gulfe of hell Another impediment of godlinesse in a young man is his strong constitution which perswades him that he shall liue long that therefore he may at leasure inough turne to God hereafter but no constitution in man can enlarge his Charter of life one poore houre Indeed the good complexion of a man may be a signe of long life but he that prolongeth our daies on Earth he onely can make vs to liue long Exod. 20.12 A third impediment of godlinesse is parentage abused For some thinke that God neuer required
their bed of death they go to it in vtter darknesse where is weeping and gnashing of teeth So farre for the time which is called largely dayes that which is limitted called the appointed time followeth Of mine appointed time c. By appointed time Iob here meaneth his bounded life which can no more be extended beyond the appointed time then the Sea can passe her bounds Ps 104.9 Doctr. From whence this doctrine may be gathered that we liue by Gods decree not at our owne pleasure So Paul told the men of Athens for hauing taxed their superstition who wold bound the boundlesse presence of God to a temple made with hands and to Idols the worke of mens hands he she wecht hat the Almighty Maker of this Worlds-masse is not to be straitned who hath shut in with the straites of time fore-seâ— by himselfe all men and creatures hauing assigned their times and the bounds of their habitation Act. 17.26 And in this Booke of Iob it is moued by a question but taken for granted that there is an appointed time to man vpon Earth Iob 7.1 or a set time of mans warrefare here that is he is a Souldier and his life militant but how long and for how short a time he shall be and continue in this field of his bodie vnder corruption fighting against the strangelusts that are in the world it is ordered by him who hath summed vp all the number of his daies and measured his short time with a decree or Law which he cannot passe after it is said that God hath set Mans daies and numbred his moneths and limited his time that is that he hath set bounds to all the moments of his life here Iob 14.5 By which it is plaine that the maker of man hath in his hand the whole number of mans time such as it hath pleased himselfe to adde to the Moneths and yeeres that he hath giuen him in this vale of miserie The reasons First if God had not numbred the daies of man vpon earth they who loue the world would neuer leaue it nor they who suffer in it without speciall grace waite till God should worke their deliuerance from it They who liue in pleasure would neuer resolue to die and they would presently seeke their owne death and find it who liue in paine Secondly as wee are not borne at our owne pleasure so it is reason we should liue and die at his pleasure who hath formed vs in the wombe Thirdly God taketh small matters into his hands to order them Mat. 29.30 and shal we think that he hath not taken to himselfe the great matter of life and death to dispose of it A confutation of those who think that man can either shorten his owne life Vse 1 or draw it beyond the Lords score to make it longer Indeed man may by offering violence to himselfe become an vnnaturall instrument of the Lords iustice to cut of those daies that God hath finished but no man can later or sooner die then the Lord of death and time hath set his end Quest But hath not the Magistrate power ouer the life of a Malefactor and is it not in his hand to giue him his life or to take it from him when his sinne hath giuen him into the power of the Law and of the Magistrate vnto death Answ In this case the Magistrate hath no power but what is giuen him as when either the spite of time or sinne of Man shall accomplish what God hath purposed Ioh. 19.11 So Christ told Pilate who because he had the soueraignty of iudgement thought he had also the soueraigntie of life verse 10. But he had no power but what the decree of God and determined moment of mans saluation had then giuen vnto him If then the Magistrate saue a man who is iudged to die it is secretly to fulfill Gods time concerning him which is not yet come or if he cut him of it is because the time appointed to him by God is first come and he is Gods Minister to doe what God hath purposed to be done An instruction Vse teaching vs patience and contentment when any of our friends shall be taken from vs for God hath taken them from vs their time was come which as we cannot preuent so we may not enuie 2. Sam. 12.20.21 c. So for our own death we must willingly beare it seeing that God hath appointed that we shall once die and that once must once come Hebr. 9.27 It is I confesse naturall to all to be loth to lay downe this tabernacle but our obedience to the will of God must correct nature in so direct an opposition to his decree that hath made vs we must call to our remembrance not what we could wish but God hath purposed reasoning euerie man apart and priuately in his heart thus I must needes die because it is Gods ordinance and I will willingly die that I may shew my obedience to his will I must needes die to put of corruption and I will willingly die that I may see God Or I must needs die Looke Deerings 11. Lecture on the Epistle to the Hebrues that sinne may haue his pay the wages of sinne is death Rom. 6.23 and I will willingly die that sinne may be no longer and death may loose his sting and power So much for the mid-times of that naturall life in which Iob became attendant and did waite for a better life the period of time which he expected followeth Till my change were come Here Iob sheweth how long hee would waite by hope in his afflicted estateâ— euen till that period of time should come which he calleth the time of change when hee should finish the daies of his warre-fare on Earth and receaue the Crowne of his sufferings in glorie And here by the day of change he meaneth the day of death which is therefore called a change because it is the remoue of the faithfull from labour to rest in their bodies and from an Earthly to an Heauenly life in their soules which are taken vp to God Somewhere it is called the losing as of a Prisoner from the Prison and fetters of the flesh that hee may be with Christ Philip. 1.23 Also the godly in their blessed death are for this said to be taken away Esa 57.1 In their bodies from their house to graue from feare to security from sense of paine to ease and from their bodies of labour to their beds of rest in their soules from an house of clay to an house not made with hands from Men to Angels from Earth to Heauen from prison to libertie from mortalitie to immortall and from death to liue And we reade of the gathering of the righteous as of things scattered and straying from home to their people fathers Gen. 25 8. Iudg. 2.10 Thus we haue heard why Iob and other scriptures call the death of the godly a change From whence the doctrine is Doctr. That there is nothing in
the good mans death but what is profitable and excellent In the third to the Philippians vers 21. the Apostle calleth this alteration by death not the losse of our body but the change of our vile body that it may bee facioned like to the glorious body of Christ And is there any thing in this but what is excellent and worthy if any thing be worthy our trauell best paines here Iohn speaking of the Saints glorified saith All teares shall be wiped from their eyes Apoc. 21.4 His meaning is that as soone as death shall let them out of the world they shall haue no more sorrow that is sorrow that causeth teares And the same Iohn saith Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord Apo. 14.13 that is they who hauing liued righteously die wel in him are in the hand by the helpe of death leade presently to blessednesse The Saints militant did alwaies with the eyes of faith in the Gospell behold this great honour and preferment by death in the happy ends of the righteous and therefore sighed desiring their house from Heauen 2. Cor. 5.2 for they knew that if it were an honour to be remoued from a base cote to a Princes court it could not but be a double that is singular honour to bee translated from the Cotes of the Earth to the Court of Heauen Therefore they sighed that is could not be merrie till that change should come Paul saith that to be losed to wit from the bonds of his corruptible bodie was best of all Philip. 1 23. which hee would not haue said if any preferment had beene better then that by death which is from basenes into the glorious libertie of the sonnes of God The reasons And further that there is so much good in the godlie mans death which is his change may be and is euident First by the things to which that their happie and blessed change by death is compared as to a hauen that after they haue passed the troublesome waues of the sea of this world carrieth them to their owne key or backe in the which they ride safely to their iourneys end after which they come home to their owne house being strangers here 1. Pet. 2.11 to the medicine that cureth most perfectly the sicknesse of life to the messenger that biddeth them to the marriage dinner of their great King Mat. 22.2.3 to their returne from banishment into their owne countrey and naturall land to their deliuerance from the gaole of sorrow where they are taken with Ioseph out of prison to be set with Princes to the laying downe of their tabernacle and to the putting on of their house from Heauen to a deliuerance like that out of Egypt from the bondage of corruption to the libertie of saints from a land of darknesse to a land where the sunne neuer goeth downe and from a land of destruction to the land of the liuing Now what is there in all these that is not perfitly good and desirable Secondly death abolisheth in the faithfull departed all power of sinning and sting of sinne Thirdly the bodie feeleth no more paine nor shal euer againe be sensible but of that which is excellently good desireable and comfortable and for the soule it shall presently be glorified Luc. 16.22 Fourthly death is but the dore of the soule out of an earthly dungeon such as the bodie is that must be destroied before the wormes into an heauenly kingdome or passage from death to life from a short death to a long life Lastly God executeth his iudgements vpon the damned and purgeth his Church by death An instruction to correct all vnreasonable and faithlesse weeping for our godly friends and brethren departed in the faith of Christ Vse 1 The Apostle to the Thessalonians exhorteth Christians if they sorrow for such not to sorrow for them as men that haue no hope 1. Thes 4.13 When Hester was taken from Mardochay who had brought her vp as his owne daughter to be married to King Assuerus and to receaue the crowne of Queene in the kingdome did he either bewaile or enuie that her great preferment the faithfull are taken from sorrowfullmen to be espoused to Christ and to receaue the crowne of glorie and shall they that liue by such vnmeasurable sorrow and taking on as is too commonly vsed at the graues of their friends vnwish to them in a sort so great happinesse Will a father be sorrie or can he without imputation of enuie repine that his sonne or daughter is with Ioseph taken out of prison to be set with Princes when thou giuest forth thy child to nurse and shee hath kept it long inough should shee because thou takest it home againe complaine thou wilt say she hath no reason for it Then what reason hath any father to murmure against the owner of the child hee taketh for taking of his owne Parents that so lose their children if they may be called lost that are so found are but nurses to them in their absence from their owne fathers house to nurse them with the milke of the Gospel and religiously to nurture them for the Lord who by death sends for them home to himselfe when he seeth time and when he so doth haue they cause to complaine of wrong father mother sonne wife husband brother are but lent goods which we must restore when the creditor and hee that owneth them calleth for them And shall we count our selues spoiled or vndone because they are required If one should lend vs a thing of price or thing that is costly would wee for a recompence of the vse of it vpbraid the owner because he sendeth for it or if we should might not he who was the lender iustly say is this my thanks and shall I be recompenced with so great impatiencie for my so great good will So if God should lend vs tenne deare children as he did to Iob and we should be made to part with them all in one day would it become vs with rough words to receaue that supposed losse or would we complaine of wrong where none is offered and where our good is sought and our childrens gaine be vnthankfull if we should may not the Lord of them and of vs iustly taxe our vnthankfulnesse and complaine of wrong May he not say did Iob my seruant so from whom I tooke ten children in one day and in a few daies all the honour and substance that he had did he not rather confesse my vnquestionable right in such moueables and say the Lord giueth the Lord taketh away blessed be the name of the Lord. Iob 1.21 If a great Lord should call vs and our child promising to both much honour and great wealth would we weepe and take on because our child is gone before and we our selues must shortly follow after would we not rather with much ioy so order our iourney and affaires that we also might with as great dispatch as might be receaue such preferment as wee know
our child hath entred on alreadie And why are we vnquiet seeing the Lord of Heauen and earth hath called our child from a base condition to noblenesse to bestow honours vpon him and ritches that shall not faile promising the like to vs by the way of death should we not rather so dispose our occasions and life that we may ioifully follow him whom wee haue not lost but sent before But you will say my child was young and died in his flowers well be it so yet they who die young so they die well are old inough to goe to God besides did not Ieroboams childe in whom were found good things die young 1. King 14.13 And did not Iosiah die old whom the Lord in a battle at Megiddo tooke from the filthy will of Iudah to plant him before himselfe in the garden of his owne presence in glorie 2. King 24.29 Neither can they be said to die yong whose perfection is growne to a blessed ripenesse before the Lord. But young or old if you haue reioiced in your child as in the Lords interest you will not think it much and why should you that the Lord should haue his owne or will you with Phurao offer to hold in the prison of life as in Egypt any seruant of his whom hee shall send for by death his last messenger and that aâ— supper time when all things are ready Luc. 14.17 While he liued God gane him to you as a pledge of his fauor now that he is taken away you must freely resigne him as a pledge of your obedience But you wil say He was my onely child Indeed the death of an onely childe is very greeuous to the Parents Zechar. 12.10 Am. 8.10 yet Abraham was readie to haue sacrificed his onely sonne Isaac at Gods commandement Gen. 22.3.10 and God gaue his onely sonne Christ to death for our salâ—ation Ioh. 3.16 wherefore as Elkanah said to Annah so and much more may the Lord say to vs am not I better to you then ten sonnes 1. Sam. 1.8 or are not our ten sonnes and all the children of the wombe his gift Ps 127.3 Then though he be your onely child and all you haue whom God thus by death taketh from you there is no cause of griefe or of complaint seeing the Lord hath but his owne when he hath taken him and seeing also that he taketh him and you giue him but as your pledge and earnest to binde vnto you the right of that inheritance that you looke for or as your Feof-fee of trust gone before to take the possession for you A reproofe to those Vse 2 who can see nothing in the death of their friends or in their owne deathes but what is dreadfull beyond measure and simply the end of man Such conceiue death not as he is to the righteous and as Christ hath made him to bee by his glorious death but as fooles iudge of him who behold him through false spectacles as he is in his owne vncorrected nature considered out of Christ that is vgly terrible and hideous So did they behold him in Amos who put the euill day of his comming that which they iudged to bee euill and the godly iudge to bee happie no day happier as far from them as they could by carnall delicacie and wantonnesse Amos 6.3 So did Belshazzar looke vpon him whose heart would not serue him to reade the hand-writing of his owne end so neare Dan. 5.5.6.30 And Nabal had no heart to die who when he must needes die died as a stone that is died blockishly and so faintly that he was as good as slaine before death slew him 1. Sam. 25.37.38 He had no comfort in death which hee could not see one that was as righteous but as churlish and prophane And no maruell for this Aduersarie death armed as Goliah and vaunting as that proud Gyant of Gath commeth stalking toward such in fearefull manner infulting ouer weake dust and daring the world to giue him a man to fight with Therefore at the sight of him the whole hoast of worldlings bewray great feare turning their backes and going backward as men readie to sinke into the earth with abated courages and lookes cast downe stained with the colours of feare death trembling like leaues in a storme and striken with the palsie of a sudden and violent shaking through all the bodie 1 Sam. 17.10.11 But the true Christian armed as Dauid with trust in God and expectation of victory by the death of Christ who by death ouercame death as Dauid cut off the head of Goliah with his owne sword dares and doth boldly encounter with this huge Philistian death supposed inuincible and seeming great but neither with sword nor speare but in the name of the God of the hoast of Israel by whose might onely hee woundeth and striketh him to the earth trampling vpon him in the returne of his soule to the place out of which it first came and singing ouer him this ioiful and triumphant song of victorie O death where is thy sting 1. Cor. 15.55 Hee hath Steuens eyes to looke into heauen and therefore cannot but haue the tongue of the Saints who say Come Lord Iesu come quickly Apoâ— 22 2â—â— For the ioy that is set before him he with his good Sauiour endureth the crosse of death and despiseth the shame of corruption to which the dust of his bodie must bee turned Heb. 12.2 Ob. Quest But you will say Is not death to be feared that worketh so fearefully beeing also enemie to nature and the wages of sinne Rom. 6.23 Ans Answ Indeede death is dreadfull out of Christ and in it selfe and wee haue reason to feare it as it is an effect of sinne for so God setteth his angrie countenance in it and so Aristotle it is simply fearefull and euill Which made an heathen man to say that of all terrible things death was most terrible Hee saw in the darke that death had much euill in it and that it was properly euill and but accidentally good but he could not see through the dark cloud that which made it so euill Therefore euill it is I confesse and fearefull And to this we haue a greater witnesse then the witnesse of man For the Apostle saith the sting of death is sinne 1. Cor. 15.56 Now so farre as it hath a sting and is in it strength it is to be feared The reason is so it is properly death and death in kinde But we speake not of death considered out of Christ or considered in it selfe but of death altered by the death of Christ and which by such a change is made our passage from death to life for so it is no dreadful thing but a thing desireable and so the sting is taken from it which is of force and carieth an edge of second death against all the workers of iniquitie who dying out of Christ die miserably hellishly and with horrible feare By Christ the doore death is made a doore out
where others meete with shadowes and shall liue in miferie that liue in vnrighteousnesse The reasons The things that cause errour in iudgement and accepting of persons are imperfect knowledge and respects in the world of good to our selues or of our bond to others But these are not in God whose knowledge is wonderfull who needeth no mans good and is no Mans debter Ps 139.3.4.5.6 16.2 Math. 20.15 Secondly God forbiddeth his Seruants who are the Iudges of the Earth to accept the persons of men and commandeth them to iudge indifferently not accepting faces 1. Sam. 16.7 2. Chr. 19.7 It was Iehosaphats charge to his Iudges or rather the Lords by him And so being Gods law to others and a law of great iustice will he himselfe breake it and will not the Iudge of the world doe iudgement Gen. 18.25 Thirdly God hath made many promises to those that walke before him and vprightly in his commandements The scriptures plentifully speake of this And will an honest man keepe his word and shall God falsifie his truth Ps 51.4 shall he say it and shall he not doe it God forbid wee should so thinke As Gods promises are generall to all that walke before him Vse 1 so they that endeuour so to please God and to walke in his truth must haue bands of particular faith to receaue them God is generall in his gifts and we must be particular in our receit and euerie man liue by his owne faith Habac 2.4 Anothers good life will not bee imputed to vs nor anothers faith saue vs. Therefore all that thine hand shall find to doe doe it saith Salomon with all thy power Eccles 9.10 He saith thine hand not anothers hand For he that will not doe good but by a deputie shall goe to heauen by a deputie and to hell in his owne person Some say let Ministers liue precisely and let Diuines walke before God but for themselues because they are not in that calling they take liberty and giue themselues leaue by a dispensation sealed by themselues to walke other wise as much as if they should say let Ministers be saued and diuines goe to God but for vs let vs perish if we must perish and because God will not haue vs let the diuell haue vs. This is fearefull and their case no lesse fearefull who post off goodnesse to others Let this confute superstitious poperie and carelesse Atheisme One saith well why art thou proud of another mans gift and thou giue nothing Euerie one that will haue peace must walke vpon his owne feete and worke with his owne hands Ephes 4.28 And Papists who with the foolish Virgins trust vnto the store of the wise shall receaue answere we haue not inough for our selues and for you Math. 25.9 But some feare too much as others feare too little who though they haue liued orderly and are sorrie with the sorrow of true repentance where they haue not yet are short-handed in receauing what God hath promised to those who walke before him But will a condemned malefactor at the barre not faile to apply the Kings generall pardon to himselfe for life and shall a iustified sinner feare to make the generall promise to all beleeuers particular to himselfe who is a beleeuer that be may liue Paul saith Christ came to saue sinners of whom I am chiefe 1. Tim. 1.15 He pleaded the Lords generall pardon though a sinner and the chiefe of sinners So the father of Iohn the Baptist Zacharias in his canticle putteth in for the horne of saluation Christ drawing that great redemption in him to himselfe as he applied it to others saying for vs that is for others in Israel and for Mee an Israelite Though in other cases a man cannot with good manners be importunate in matters and for things which concerne himselfe in commoditie or preserment yet here a godly man can neuer be too earnest nor lay too much vpon such a foundation Somtimes we wil applie hastily catch where we should not but if we wold be prouidently captious without offence let it bee here And as it is written of the seruants of Benhadad who were sent to the King of Israel that they tooke diligent heed if they cold catch any thing from him towit for his aduantage who sent them which made them when the King of Israel had said Is Ben-hadad yet aliue hee is my brother Presently to reply saying Thy brother Ben-hadad so let faith and hope our seruants confessing guilty with humbled necks and ropes about them watch what the King of the Kings of Israel hath spoken and set downe vnder his hand in his word concerning repentant sinners and we shall finde it written in the volume of the book concerning them Is he yet aliue he is my brother That is Doth the hungry soule pant for my saluation and the thirstie for my righteousnesse Doth it yet trust in God Doth it still beleeue Behold saith the mercifull King of Christendom Christ Iesus and hee that saueth vs from our sinnes I haue brought many brethren to my father and many sonnes to glorie and this is one Let vs now well obserue and diligently marke what hee saith Benhadad is the Kings brother Therefore say we thy brother Benhadad and catch him in his words that is God my father and Christ my elder brother The father will not cast away his penitent child nor one most kinde brother betray another to death 1. King 20.33 Indeed the deiected soule of man cannot alwaies being laden with troubles thus raise vp it self into confidence and some in the brunt haue complained that they haue been cut off from God whose voices in their feare haue been these or such as these Christ indeed came into the world to saue sinners but not such as we are and was appointed a Sauiour but not for vs singling out themselues Some in their hast haue said Here is the fire and wood but where is the Lamb for sacrifice Ge. 22.8 But let such remember that peace shall come to euery one that walketh before God or that would that is vnfainedly would walke before him We see not the Lambe for sacrifice but God will prouide nay God hath prouided it and open wee the eyes that blind distrust hath shut vp and wee shall see it Christ spake as one forsaken and a man would thinke that he had despaired when he twice said My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Math. 27.46 But if we dig through the bitter barke of the letter deeper into the words we shall finde an hony combe in them of perfect consolation Iudg. 14.8 For he calleth him yet his God and as if he wold adde another cord of faith to his first and make it a two-fold cord that cannot be broken he calleth him againe the second time his God that is the God in whom he trusted in whom hee will trust If God shall fashion any of vs to our head in the similitude of such a sorrow euer let
or make full account of it that it is so The same Prophet speaking as we heard Psal 15. ver 4. of a citizen of heauen in one of his properties saith that hee honoureth the godly that is loueth and reuerenceth Christ whom they loue and honour Then howsoeuer they be despised in the world as the scum of the earth and of-scouring of all things yet because they honour God good men will reuerence them and take them out of contempt as gold out of the mire to make them their treasure They are fellow-heires with the righteous at the inheritance of heauen And therefore doe the righteous performe all good offices of loue and fellowship toward them in this vale of want and scorne Though euill men make them their mocke they make them their fellowes where bad men take away their right good men inrich them Great therfore is the consolation of the righous who though contemned in the world yet are precious to God and to all the sonnes of God So much for the generalitie of the promise the condition vnder which it runneth followes That walketh before him We haue heard of the promise what it is tho persons to whom it is made and to how many The condition vnder which it runneth is that such persons must be and continue godly which is expressed by a phrase of walking before God Where wee may consider two things as the act of walking and the obiect before whom By walking the Prophet meaneth according to an vsuall Metaphor in Scripture a common vsuall course of mens behauiour or their ordinarie trade of life And by walking before God a scruing of him without hypocrisie or doing of all our matters as in his sight The word which is here translated walketh is rendred in a tense or time which in the owne tongue noteth a continuance of walking or walking forward vnto the time when God should take them hence And the meaning is that peace shall come to all those who continue to serue God in their outward behauiour and in their hearts or who liuing and dying are found so doing Not that begin well and goe one for some time but that continue and encrease in well doing from the time of their enlightening to the time of their last breath From whence the doctrine is Doctr. 1 That Christians must not begin onely or stand still but goe forward with encrease and not goe out of the walke of godlinesse For therefore is our course of new life compared to a way because as men goe in their way and goe forward in it so new men keepe godlinesse and increase in it All that came into the Vineyard were labourers till the euening and to these the househoulder gaue the hire of the day Math. 20.2.8 So in the vineyard of the new-birth none must be idle from the first houre of their entring in to the last day of their going out by death and to these God giueth the pennie of his endlesse peace in glorie For this the Spirit is called winde Ioh. 3.8 they spiritual whom that winde driueth forward to saluation with a diuine gale who wax not worse nor keep at a stand in godlinesse but striue to be better and better by going on in the good way of eternall life So did the Apostle S. Paul who therfore forgate that which was behinde and endeuoured himselfe to that which was before and followed hard toward the marke to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus Phil. 3.13.14 He was not as a vain foolish man who running in a race will bee euer and anone looking backe to see how much ground hee hath rid but his eye was alway vpon the marke or goal to consider how much he had to runne how farre off hee was to perfection and what was further to be done to an absolutenesse in his Christian course that hee might finish the same with ioy And as the Apostle himselfe did so he would haue the Philippians to do and all Christians in them that is hee would haue them to proceed in that grace to which they were come Phil. 3.16 as if he should haue exhorted them to abound more and more in all wisedome and godlinesse Rom. 15.14 And to goe forward therein not to fit downe or goe backe If wee haue prayed once a day in priuate and coldly we must after pray twice or oftner and more feruently If wee haue read and meditated in the word seldome and with great weakenesse we must mend that seldome and vse those exercises more frequently and with more spirit If we giue something to the poore this yeare we must giue more the next as God shall blesse our increase If wee doe some good now vnwillingly wee must hereafter doe much good and with great pleasure So then wee must continue to walke before God as we ought to walke and to please him that hath called vs growing in grace and increasing in goodnesse 2. Pet. 3.18 1. Thes 4.1 The end makes all and hee that endureth to the end shall be saued Math. 24. So saith hee who saueth vs whose words are true and faithfull He saith not he that endureth for a season or for some daies but that continueth to the end and not he that runneth for all runne but who so runneth that he may obtaine 1. Cor. 9.24 Apoc. 2.7 and not he who fighteth for wee may fight and be foiled but hee that ouercommeth shall bee saued and receiue this prize of peace and crown of life The reasons He is not crowned that proueth masteries but hee receiueth the crowne who doth Master 1. Cor. 9.25 Not hee that commeth into the field but he that ouercommeth in the field is praised And who will giue him the garland of a good runner who sitteth downe or giueth ouer before he come to the Goale Now will not men and will God praise those or giue saluation to those who shall begin onely to doe well and not continue in well doing Will he crowne those that giue ouer or saue those that fall away It is certaine these comparisons vsed in scripture shew plainly and conclude soundly that he will not Secondly The way of the righteous is compared to the way of the Sunne that shineth more and more vnto the perfect day Prou. 4.18 Now the Sun is not in full glorie till full noone Neither perfect till he haue runne his course like a Gyant So Christians receiue not their glorie at their morning and nine of the clock but when their Sunne is come to his full point nor when they begin to beleeue Rom. 13.11 but when they come to the end of faith 1. Pet. 1.9 Apoc. 2.10 nor when they are baptized but when they die in the faith of their baptism Thirdly that we must continue and not begin onely to walke before the Lord is plaine by the word which in the tense wherein the Prophet vseth it signifieth to continue walking not giuing ouer till we come
shall liue together with my dead bodies shall they rise Esa 26.19 where the Prophet testifieth without any figure his hope in the resurrection both of his owne bodie and the bodies of all beleeuers His drift is to proue that same thing whereof we spake before out of Ezechiel namely the restoring of Israel after their long captiuitie in Babylon where he sheweth that as herbs which in winter seem dead are fresh again in the spring so the people who seemed to die as winter herbs in their captiuitie shall in the spring of their return rise as it were from death to life And yet hee plainely sheweth that the bodies of the faithfull though they seeme vtterly to porish when they are in the earth shall rise at the last day through that seed which they haue in Christ Daniel speaketh yet more plainely and saith Many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall awake Dan. 12.2 He saith many as if he should say an infinite number shal awake an infinite number of the iust and an infinite number of the wicked Or by many hee vnderstandeth all as the Apostle in a like case doth Rom. 5.15.19 Where speaking of many dead by the sinne of Adam he sheweth in the 18. verse that by those many hee meaneth all The Iewes gather from the text in Daniel that there shall be no resurrection of the wicked which also they doe from the first Psalme But they gather that the holy Ghost neuer scattered And they may as well say that all the godly shall not rise because it is said many not all as that the wicked shall not be raised But to proceed wherefore did Dauid lay vp his flesh in such hope but because hee had greater faith in the resurrection Psal 16.9.10 Martha neuer staggered at the resurrection but confessed it as a doctrine of the faith of those times For when Christ had said thy brother shall rise againe shee readily answered I know that hee shall rise againe in the resurrection at the last day Ioh. 11.23.24 As if hee had said I doubt nothing of that Saint Paul in the whole 15. chapter of his former Epistle to the Corinthians maketh the resurrection the subiect of all his disputes there And this was his hope that he had toward God that the resurrection of the dead should bee both of the iust and vniust Act. 24. The Epistle to the Hebrews speaking of the manifold martyrdomes of the Saints sheweth that they quietly endured al those sharpe stormes in their faces because their hope was to receiue a better resurrection that is better then any deliuerance here Heb. 11.35 Also how could Christs argument hold that God is the God of the liuing being the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob if Abraham Isaac and Iacob should not liue as now in their soules which are before God so hereafter in their bodies which are in Gods keeping Mat. 22.32 Neither doth the Lord say I am the God of Abrahams soule but the God of Abraham that is of Abrahams whole man Thus the point of the resurrection is plaine by Scripture It followeth briefely to shew what euidence it hath in reason that we may take heauen earth to witnesse against the oppugners of it Deut. 30.19 It is sufficient to weigh these matters in the weights of the sanctuarie and not needfull to trie them at the bulke of humane reason yet to giue them ouer measure that will not receiue this truth Let it first bee considered that as the soule of the righteous did not please God without the body nor the soules of the wicked sinne against him but in their bodies so it is requisite that as the soule of the one is glorified and the soules of the other are condemned to hell that I say their bodies also should in Gods time bee brought to pleasures or torment Secondly without the bodie the soule is imperfect And beeing imperfect how can it enter into an entire estate of happinesse till the body bee raised that the bodie may bee ioined to it Thirdly if the bodie should not bee raised the fulnesse of grace should not be shewed to the Saints nor the fulnesse of wrath to sinners Fourthly if there were no resurrection God shold promise that which he minded not to giue who promiseth a reward to the iust but it is at the resurrection Luke 14.14 Fiftly the reuolutions of so many springs summers haruests hard winters as it were so many deaths and resurrections the dying of the day in the night the graue of that day and the vprising againe of it in the morning from that den of darknesse are and doe become so many liuely testimonies to the world of the generall great resurrection of all bodies at the last day Sixtly doe we not see in the spring how that from a dead dry tree leaues proceed and sprout forth by a kinde of resurrection And doe wee not see the same tree to beare further fruit and to be adorned with a new rinde as it were fresh and beautifull skin do wee not fee in a small seede a tall and great tree is that which is sowne quickened except it die 1. Cor. 15.36 Doe not our Meddowes pastures and pleasant gardens which in the winter appeare dead without all beautie returne with the returne of the Sunne to their former full life and glorie This winter is our death and this spring our rising from death to life Seuenthly the swallowes wormes and flies which lie dead all winter doe with the returne of the Sunne and comming of Summer receiue a new life Now shall the force of this earthly Sun worke so in birds and wormes and shall the Sunne of righteousnesse be lesse able to giue life then the sunne of the heauens And if it was an easie thing with God at first to make man of nothing is it a lesse easie thing with him to make him againe though he be as nothing seeing hee is not meerely nothing but nothing out of that which was before Before we were borne where was our forme and matter Yet wee feee to what bignesse wee are come and what forme wee haue and what being Where was the seede of Leui when to speake as the Scriptures do hee was in the loines of Abraham his great grand-father Heb. 7.20 Many alterations corruptions and changes came between yet God purposed that Leui should be so borne that is of the feede of Abraham and not all the corruptions that came betweene could alter his purpose Lastly all the resurrections that we reade of in the Scriptures of the old and new testament as of the Shunamites sonne 2. Kin. 4.33 Of the body that was cast into the Prophets graue 2. King 13.21 of Lazarus Ioh. 11.43 of Iairus daughter Mat. 9.25 yea of the bright Sunne himself and of many Saints with him Mat. 27.52.53 are as so many pledges to vs of the resurrection that shal be of all dead bodies at Christs comming But must all