Eve First began with a Nequaquam moriamini ye shall not dye Hereupon Saint Augustine after the Serpent was accursed by God from the Earth saith thus unto the Serpent O n quam ubi jam esi tua nequaquam O thou wicked serpent Where are now thy lying words Ye shall not dye at all For the wages of sin is death Rom. 6.23 but the gift of God is eternall life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Mors fructus à fruendo dicitur as one observeth of it Death is the fruit so called from the enjoying of it and so death is the fruit or wages of sin Quotidie morimur S. Bernard quotidie enim demitur pars vitae tunc quoque cum crescimus vita decrescit ut S. Bernard That is We do dye daily and even every day a part of our life is cut off as St. Bernard observeth Homo est fatuus usque ad quadraginta annorum deinde Luther ubi agnovit se esse fatuum vita consumpta est ut Luther That is A man is as a fool and full of ignorance till he attain unto the age of forty yeares and then so soon as he comes to know and so to acknowledge himself to be a fool to be ignorant and to know nothing of himself even then and at that very time his life here is as it were ended gone and spent as Luther observeth Mors tua mors Christi fraus mundi gloria coeli Et dolor inferni sint meditanda tibi That is These things thou oughtest to take into thy serious consideration and duely for to meditate thereon as namely On thy own death on the death of Christ of the fraud and deceit of the world of the great glory of heaven and on the unsufferable paines and torments of Hell as one observeth It is well observed by one That death in Christ killed life for a time that afterwards life in him might kil death for ever For since by man came death 1 Cor. 15.21 22 25 26 55 56 57. by man came also the resurrection of the dead For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Death as one observeth is a quiet sleep The soul when death comes puts off the body and the body buried lives in the earth the grave being the bed thereof there to remain till the morning of our resurrection at the day of Iudgement appearing It is observed by one That the true servants of God are so farr from being any wayes discontented or troubled with the thinking of death as that they rather earnestly desire and thirst after it with a Cupio dissolvi Philip. 1.23 a desire with St. Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ For death as a Father well observeth is but provectio a journey or a laying down of this our earthly tabernacle Nihil certius quod quilibet debet mori sed tempore quando quo leco vel quomodo uihil incertius There is nothing more certain then this that every one must die but when in what place or the manner how nothing is more uncertain Statutum est omnibus semel mori It is dereed that all men must once die Rom. 5.14 As by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned For this is the sentence of the Lord over all flesh Eccles 4.3 As by one mans disobedience Rom. 5.19 21. many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous That as sin hath reigned unto death even so might Grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. When Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth Sin Iames. 1.15 and Sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death Now nothing is more uncertain than the time when we shall die the place where or the manner how we shall die This was therefore the meditation of Seneca daily with himself as is recorded of him Dic tibi dormituro Seneca potes non expergisci Dic exerecto potes non dormire amplius Dic ereunti potes non reverti Dic revertenti potes non exire amplius VVhen thou liest down at night in thy Bed to sleep and to take thy rest say thou unto thy self It may be thou shalt never live to awake again to behold the light of the ensuing day When thou awakest in the morning and dost arise out of thy bed say then unto thy self It may be thou shalt never live to lye down in thy bed to take thy rest and sleep again When thou goest forth of thy house about thy necessary affaires say then unto thy self It may be thou shalt never live to return unto thy house again When thou doest return in safety to thy house say then unto thy self It may be thou shalt never live to go forth of thy house again These meditations ought to stirr us up unto a daily and continuall preparation for death that so death may never take us unawares and unprepared Mors sanctis refrigerium improbis autem supplicium Death to the godly is but as it were a refreshing but to the wicked death is a punishment Cujus vita est Christus mors ei lucrum maximum Sed Cujus vita est mundus mors ei damnum maximum ut Pater He who liveth like a Christian and maketh Christ his life here death unto him is the greatest gain that can be But he who liveth here like a worldling and maketh the world his life and chiefest delight here death unto him is the greatest detriment and dammage that can be Boni moriuntur bene etiamfi mors ipsa mala ut Pater Good and godly men do die well and make a happy end although death it self in it self be evil Num. 23.10 This made the prophet Balaam to cry out and say Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his Upon which place one well observeth thus much as namely That he which desireth to die the death of the righteous must labour and strive here in this life to lead and live the life of the righteous and then his death will be happy like unto his Vita est vivere vitam Deo sed vivere vitam mundo mors est ut Pater To live here a godly and a Christian life and to devote our selves here wholly to the service of God this is the onely way for us after this our life here ended to attain unto the everlasting life of glory in the kingdome of heaven But He which
as the bed Nothing more resembles our resurrection than our awaking and rising again in the morning This ought to put us daily in mind of our death and resurrection Et Lathi consanguineus sopor Virgil. ut Virgil. Sleep is a Cousin of death Speculum mortis somnnm Tertullian ut Tertullian Sleep is a very spectacle of death Quoties dormis vigilas toties morieris resurgis As often as thou sleepest and awakest again so often by way of resemblance dost thou dye and rise again as a Father observeth Dies iste Seneca quem tanquam extremum reformidas aeterni natalis est ut Seneca That day which thou so much fearest as being thy last day the same day for thy joy and comfort is thy everlasting birth-day Cur igitur doles Tertullian de patientia si periisse non credis ut Tertullian De patientia Why dost thou therefore grieve and lament to think of this thy last day if thou dost believe thou shalt not perish thereby We have rather cause of rejoycing when we think of this our last day of the day of our death the same being the day of our happy change All the daies of my appointed time Iob 14.14 will I wait till my change come Ultimus optimus medicus morberum etiam immedicabilium est mors Aeschilus ut Aeschilus Death is the last and the best Physitian and that of incurable diseases Mors aeterna quies ut Pater Aerumnarum requies mors Death brings us to our everlasting rest and puts an end unto all our miseries The antient Counsels termed the blessed Sacrament Or Viaticum morientis Viaticum Aeternitatis A blessed bate that the devout Soul useth to take in this life when he is even ready to travell for the other life It is very memorably observed by Nazianzen of St. Basil Nazianzen of S. Basil that in his life time he desired that when death came he might be so happy as in the ending of his daies to die with some divine sentence of piety in his mouth at the instant before his death Death is as a Father observeth a passage from Earth to Heaven from a World of endless miseries here to a happy Heaven of everlasting happiness in Heaven And he said unto Iesus Luke 23.42 43. Lord remember me when thou commest into thy Kingdom And Iesus said unto him Verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Death as one observeth is a temporary separation of the Soul from the body A location or placing of the body in the Earth from whence it was taken and there to remain till the last day the day of Iudgement being the day of the happy re-uniting of the Soul and Body together again And a translation of the Soul and Spirit of man unto God that gave it who at the first breathed into him the breath of life And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground Gen. 2 7. and breathed into his Nostrils the breath of life and man became a living Soul All in whose Nostrils was the breath of life Gen. 7.22 In the sweat of thy face Gen. 3.19 shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the Ground for out of it was thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou teturn Cease ye from man Isaiah 2.22 whose breath is in his Nostrils All flesh shall perish together Iob 34.15 and Man shall turn again unto the dust His breath goeth forth Psal 146.4 he returneth to his earth All are of the dust Eccles 3.20 and all turn to dust again Thou takest away their breath Ps 104 29. they dye and return to their dust The Lord created man Ecclus. 7.8 of the earth and turned him into it again Then shall the Dust return to the earth as it was Eccles 12.7 and the Spirit shall return unto GOd who gave it I also am formed out of the clay Iob 33.6 But now O Lord Isaiah 64.8 thou art our Father and we are the clay These and such like meditations cannot choose but make the thought of death to be very happy and comfortable unto us A good name is better than pretious ointment Eccles 12.1 and the day of death than the day of ones birth A promise of Gods mercy A Promise of Gods mercy to comfort us against the day of our death For thou hast delivered my Soul from death Psalm 56.13 I will ransome them from the power of the grave Hosea 13.14 I will redeem them from death O death I will be thy plague O grave I will be thy destruction Verily Iohn 5.24 verily I say unto you He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life He will swallow me up in victory Isaiah 25.8 9. and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth for the Lord hath spoken it And it shall be said in that day Lo this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us This is the Lord we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation For thou hast delivered my Soul from death Psal 116.8 mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling For the Lambe which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them Rev. 7 17. and shall lead them unto living Fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes Rev. 21.4 and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away But we had the sentence of death in our selves 2 Cor. 1.9 10. that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raised the dead who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will deliver us 2 Tim. 2.19 The Lord knoweth them that are his Who hath saved us 2 Tim. 1.9 10. and called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Iesus before the world began But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Iesus Christ who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel Forasmuch then as the Chlidren are partakers of flesh and blood Heb. 2.14 15. he also himself 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 fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage We know that we have passed from death unto life
That is Ye that continue still in your wickednesse and think that Gods plagues are not at hand but give your selves to all idlenesse wantonnesse and riot Exposition Obadiah 15. as the exposition is For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen as thou hast done it shall be done unto thee thy reward shall remain or return upon thine own head When I heard Habbak 3.16 my belly trembled my lips quivered at the voice rottennesse entred into my bones and I trembled in my self that I might rest in the day of trouble I will utterly consume all things from off the land or destroy all things saith the Lord God I will consume man and beast Zeph. 1.2 3. I will consume the fowles of the heaven and the fishes of the sea and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked and I will cut off or destroy man from off the land saith the Lord. Or I will destroy man and beast I will destroy the fowles of the heaven and the fishes of the sea and ruines shall be to the wicked and I will cut off man from the land saith the Lord. Note Exposition that God was not angry with those dumb creatures but because man was so wicked for whose cause they were created God maketh them to take part of the punishment with him Hold thy peace or be still Zeph. 1.7 8. at the presence of the Lord God for the day of the Lord is at hand for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice he hath bid or sanctified his guests And it shall come to passe in the day of the Lords sacrifice that I will punish the princes and the kings children and all such as are clothed with strange apparel Who may abide the day of his coming Mal. 3.2 who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope He sheweth Exposition that the hypocrites which did so much desire the Lords coming will not abide when he draweth near for he will consume them and purge his and make them clean as the exposition is For behold Mal. 4.1 the day cometh that shall burn as an oven and all the proud yea and all that do wickedly shall be stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of hosts and it shall leave them neither root nor branch But unto you that fear my name Mal. 4.2 shall the sun of righteousnesse arise with healing in his wings and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall Meaning Christ who with his wings or beams of his grace should lighten and comfort his Church as the exposition is Wherefore he saith Eph. 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest and rise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Again Amos 1.14 The day of Judgement called the day of battel and the day of the whirlwind FINIS A SERMON Preached by Mr. MASTERS Master of the TEMPLE in the TEMPLE-CHURCH At the Funerall of Henry Croke Esq one of the Society of the Inner Temple February 8. 1608. LONDON Printed by Fr. Leach and are to be sold by William Lee at the Turks-head in Fleetstreet 1657. A Sermon Preached by Mr. Masters Master of the Temple in the Temple-Church Febr. 8. 1608. 2. Cor. 5.10 For we must all appear before the Judgement-seat of Christ THis Text divides it self into these five parts following Text divided The first touching the certainty and the necessity of the day of Iudgement contained in these words For we must The second concerning the generality of our appearance in these words We must all appear The third concerning the severity of this Iudgement The fourth concerning the manner thereof Before the Judgement-seat of Christ And the fifth concerning the person before whom we are to appear being Christ our Judge and Saviour Of these severally in their order First Of the certainty of the day of Iudgement and that in these three respects First above the Law as appeareth in the generall Epistle of Jude Jude 14 15. 14 15. And Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of such meaning the wicked there before named Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints To give Judgement against all men Secondly Under the Law And Thirdly Under the Gospel as appeareth Matth. 25.31 32 33 34. Matthew 25.31 32 33 34. And when the Son of man cometh in his glory and all the holy angels with him then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory c. The Reasons hereof First To whomsoever a dispensation is given at the end there must be an account by him made and this appeareth to be so Luke 16.1 2. There was a rich man Luke 16.1 2. which had a steward and he was accused to him that he wasted his goods And he called him and said Give an account of thy stewardship Secondly As the life of man is the time of working and death is the period thereof so of necessity there must be a Iudgement and censure of every mans work with a reward thereof Again In the generality all this is to be observed that there is then to be a two-fold Iudgement that is to say First A Iudgement of condemnation Secondly A Iudgement of Declaration And this appeareth in the book of the Revelation chap. 20. ver 10 11 12 13 14. And the Devil that deceived them Rev. 20.10 11 12 13 14. was cast into a lake of fire brimstone And I saw a white throne and one that sat on it And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened And another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged of those things which were written in the books according to their works And the sea gave up her dead which were in her and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to his works There is to be a two-fold Iudgement The one a Iudgement of dissolution for the righteous The other a Iudgement of condemnation for the wicked The first a Iudgement of dissolution or of acquittall The other a Iudgement of condemnation Reason The reason why there is to be a twofold Iudgement of the bodies and souls reunited is this The soul receiveth the first Iudgement being the first and principall actour in sin and then the body being quickned by the soul and so conjoyned and associated with the same in the acting of sin and in this respect it is requisite that there should be a second Iudgement when both body and soul might together receive their Iudgement as they had been both of them joynt actours in sin And this may serve to answer an Objection which may be made of some shew of injustice to be twice punished by two Iudgements for one and the same sin Again at our appearance there we shall be naked and where we shall be manifested
A GOLDEN-CHAIN OR A MISCELANY OF DIVINE SENTENCES Of the Sacred SCRIPTVRES And of other Authors Collected and linked together for the souls comfort By EDWARD BULSTRODE of the Inner-Temple Esquire Lex Christi est Lux Christiana LONDON Printed by F.L. for W. Lee D. Pakeman and G. Bedel and are to be sold at their shops in Fleetstreet 1657 To the RIGHT HONOURABLE Sir Bulstrode Whitlock Knight One of the Lords Commissioners of his Highnesse Treasury and Speaker pro Tempore of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland Right Honourable IT is a generall Scandall upon what grounds I know not thrown upon the Professours of the Law especially in this age that the practicall knowledge of the Lawes of God and of our own Nation do seldome meet together in one person whereby they seem to put an incompatibility of devotion and sanctity into the life of Lawyers whereas Religigion is sutable with all sorts of vocations and he that is not Bonus Theologus as to himself and that does not make Religion his Primum and his Ultimum can never be well fitted for any Profession whatsoever It is true in the Creation God commanded the Plants to bring forth their fruits every one according to its kind and so he commands all Christians who are living Plants of his Church to bring forth fruits of Devotion every one in his quality and vocation For at ought to be differently exercised by different men and the practice of it must be accommodated to the capacity and imployments of each particular person and when Religion is not sutable with the lawfull vocation of any man then without doubt that Religion is false For true Godlinesse is so farr from prejudicing any imployment that it adorns and beautifies it all persons becoming more acceptable in their vocation joyning it with true devotion And as knowledge is the glory of a man so Divine knowledge is the glory of a Christian especially that of sacred Scripture which is most sublime and makes a Christian happy to salvation The Brick and Straw of Egypt is not comparable to the Gold and Silver Vessels in the Temple neither are Divine Instructions borrowed from Humane Learning to be compared with the inestimable value of those golden Precepts contained in holy Scriptures For this cause my Lord have I linckt together this Chain of Golden Sentences out of the holy Scriptures and gathered this handfull of Flowers out of that Garden of Paradise to present to your Lordships hands which if your Lordship please sometimes to smell unto I doubt not but they may yeeld some fragrancy and sweetnesse For the written Word of God affords extraordinary sweetnesse chearing a breast full of perplexities the power of it reforming the disordered lives of men and snatching us from the gates of death to eternity And since God himself in the Old Testament commands us and Christ in the New enjoyns us to read his holy Word and to search the Scripture I have therefore in the first place made choice of those places of Scripture that concern our hearing and reading the word of God the knowledge of which fully understood and conscionably practised is or should be the main and principall end of every true Christians endeavour I have likewise observed the severall texts concerning the severall Books mentioned in Scripture and the difference betwixt the Old and New Testament and of the necessity of the Virtue and the Benefits of Prayer And that we may with more ease digest those inconveniencies and distresses which we have been acquainted with and which do daily threaten worse unto us I have therefore produced severall Scriptures concerning afflictions and the benefit of them if seriously considered For how can a man suffer his heart to be dejected at the privation of any temporall blessings or at the load of any afflictions which God shall lay upon him if he consider the vanity of the first Gods Justice in imposing the last and that nothing is worth his serious thoughts but what may accompany him to the Mansions of Eternity Certainly if we seriously reflect upon the excellency of our own nature and think upon that happy estate which we shall arrive unto if we make the Law of God our meditation day and night we shall then wean and take off our affections from this world the cares whereof do very much clog our souls flight to heaven and tedder us here below I must confesse prosperity is a great blessing of God and duely used is no mean advantage both to ones self and others yet if the hand that gave shall take away we must not repine at what God formerly lent us and thinks not fit any longer to permit us the use of In the next place since our whole life ought to be a continuall preparation for death I have collected many meditations concerning it And since to perform any action well a man must propose the end of that action to himself and since of all mans actions the government of himself in relation to his future estate is most important and neerliest concerning him a mans being in this life being but instrumentally good as being the means for him to be well in the next I have in the last place observed some things concerning the day of Judgement and the happinesse we expect in the life to come For there remains an eternity to us after the short revolution of time we so swiftly run over here on earth and all that which in this world we call happinesse is not valuable in respect of the future nor is any thing we do here considerable otherwise then as it conduceth to our eternall well-being hereafter And thus having given your Lordship an account of this small Tract I must beg your Lordships pardon for putting your name in the Front of it being I fear an undervaluing your Lordship to prefix your name to so slender a piece but it being a right hand errour I hope it will be lookt upon the more favourably by your Lordship my obligations to your Lordship being so many great that I am bereft of all other means of shewing my thankfulnesse but by laying hold of any opportunity of subscribing my self My Lord Your Lordships most faithfull and humble Servant Edward Bulstrode The heads of the following Chapters CHAP. I. TOuching the sacred Word of God with certain directory rules and observations to be made use of for the more profitable and better understanding thereof when we read or hear the same And herein is set forth and shewed First How that the constant and frequent reading and hearing of the Word of God is a duty and service commanded and enjoyned us by God himself Fol. 1. Secondly How we are to fit and prepare our selves for the due performance of these so religious duties by our prayers unto God for his blessing thereon 5. And herein four observations are set down for our better direction in the reading of the
set and the books were opened But thou O Daniel Daniel cha 12. ver 4. shut up the words and seal the book even to the time of the end many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased And these shall go away into everlasting punishment Matthew cha 25. ver 46. but the righteous into life eternall For the hour is coming John chap. 5. ver 28 29. in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice And shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of damnation Let them be blotted out of the book of the living Psalm 69. ver 28. and not be written with the righteous He that overcometh Revelation chap. 3. ver 5. the same shall be clothed in white raiment and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life but I will confesse his name before my father and before his angels And I entreat thee also Philippians ch 4. ver 3. true yoke-fellow help these women which laboured with me in the Gospel with Clement also and with other my fellow labourers whose names are in the book of life And it was given unto him Revelation ch 13. ver 7 8. to make war with the Saints and to overcome them and power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lambe slain from the foundation of the world The beast that thou sawest was Revelation chap. 17. ver 8. and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomlesse pit and go into perdition and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder and whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they behold the beast that was and is not and yet is And I saw the dead small Revelation ch 20. ver 12 13. and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works And the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works And death Revelat. chap. 20. ver 14 15. and hell were cast into the lake of fire And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecie Revelat. chap. 2 r 2. ve 19. God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy City and from the things which are written in this book Books named in the Scripture and not to be found as namely Is not this written in the book of Iasher the marginall note of an old Bible Ioshua chap. 10. ver 13. being as some read it In the book of the righteous meaning Moses The Chaldee text reading In the book of the Law But it is like that it was a book thus named which is now lost All this in the marginall notes of an old Bible As it is written in the book of Iasher 2 Samuel cha 11. ver 18. or righteous as the marginall note is Wherefore it is said in the book of the warres of the Lord Numbers chap. 21. ver 14. or of the battels which by a marginall note in an old Bible seemeth to be the book of the Iudges or a book which is lost Concerning the acts of David the king behold 1 Chron. chap. 29. ver 29. they are written in the book of Samuel the Seer and in the book of Nathan the prophet and in the book of Gad the Seer The marginall note in an old Bible is that the books of Nathan and Gad are thought to have been lost in the captivity And there shall in no wise Revelation ch 21. ver 27. enter into it any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination nor maketh a lye but they which are written in the Lambes book of life There is as One well observeth a two fold Book of God as namely First there is Liber Providentiae that is the Book of Gods Providence whereby we are taught to know our duties to God and to referre our selves and all our actions to his Divine Providence and mercy and to use his good blessings on us bestowed to his glory All which if we thus do we shall then receive all things necessary in this world and life eternall in the world to come But if we are disobedient and do contrary to all this then there is a second Book which will be opened against us as namely Secondly there is Liber Judicii the Book of Gods Judgement whereby we shall receive all the Judgements of God therein mentioned and pronounced against the wicked and disobedient Then shall the king say unto them Matthew cha 25. ver 34. on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world Then shall he say also unto those Matthew cha 25. ver 41. on the left hand Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels It is observed by a Father That there is another book and that is called Codex Conscientiae the book of a mans conscience St. Chrysostome observeth thus much S. Chrysostom sc That Conscientia est codex in quo quotidiana nostra peccata rescribuntur The Conscience is a book in the which our daily sinnes and offences are writ down registred and recorded against us as S. Chrysostome observeth And as touching Conscience There is a Threefold quality of the Conscience Of Conscience as One observeth as namely First Testificare de praeterito that is to bear testimony and witnesse of what is done by us and past Secondly Accusare vel excusare to accuse us of what we have done or else to excuse us Thirdly Solvere vel ligare That is either to let us loose or else to bind us fast up For when the Gentiles Romans chap. 2. ver 14.15.16 which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves Which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their Conscience also bearing witnesse and their thoughts mean while accusing or else excusing one another In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel Conscientia est quasi cordis scientia S. Bernard ut S. Bernard The conscience is as it were the very knowledge of the heart By strength stratagems and policy men do overcome their enemies But God
good to them that love God to them who are called according to his purpose Bonis bona malis mala Good things to good men and ill things to ill men as one observeth Tametsi non bonum tamen in bonum ut St. Augustin Nay St. Augustin though the things be not good yet they work for the good of the godly And as St. Bernard observeth Afflictions do make a man to be more humble wary S. Bernard and cautious in his wayes Afflictions and crosses though harmfull to others yet prove helpfull to the godly Yet even their sins though not not good yet they turn to their good as a means to make them more lowly more wary Yea death it self though in it self it be evil and the punishment of sin yet it is a means to free them both from sin and from all the fruits and effects of it and to restore them to that life again which by sin once they lost But now Rom. 6.22 23. being made free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit unto holinesse and the end everlasting life For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Jesus Christ our Lord. For thou wilt save the afflicted people Psal 18.27 but wilt bring down high looks For he hath not despised Psal 22.24 nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted neither hath he hid his face from him but when he cried unto him he heard him Afflictions do make us fit vessels for Gods choice I have chosen thee Isaiah 48.10 in the furnace of affliction Whatsoever is brought upon thee Ecclus 2.4 5 6 take cheerfully and be patient when thou art changed to a low estate For gold is tried in the fire and acceptable men in the surnace of adversity Believe in him and he will help thee order thy way aright and trust in him As gold in the furnace hath he tried them Wisd 3.6 and 4.5 and received them as a burnt-offering For though they be punished in the sight of men yet is their hope full of immortality And having been a little chastised they shall be greatly rewarded for God proved them and found them worthy for himself For we know 2 Cor. 5.1 2. that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved We have a building of God a house not made with hands eternall in the heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea Isaiah 26.9 with my spirit within me will I seek thee early in the morning for when thy Judgements are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousnesse Meaning Exposition That by afflictions men will learn to fear God as the exposition is Afflictions are chastisements for our sins Jesus said unto him John 5.14 Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee Thereby shewing that the afflictions which we endure The marginall note and observation Nehem. 9.38 are chastisements for our sins as the marginall note and observation is Now because of all this we make a sure covenant and write it and our Princes and our Levites and our priests seal unto it Thus by affliction they promise to keep Gods commandements The marginall note and observation whereunto they would not be brought by Gods great benefits as the marginall note and observation is Wo unto him that striveth with his maker Isaiah 45.9 the potsherd with the potsherds of the earth shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it what makest thou Hereby he bridleth their impatiency Exposition which in adversity and trouble murmure against God and will not tarry his pleasure willing that man should march with his like and not contend against God as the Exposition is But Hezekiah the king 2 Chro. 32.20 and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amos prayed against this or for this cause and cried to heaven This sheweth what is the best refuge in all troubles and dangers Exposition as the Exposition is After troubles and afflictions God comforteth his afflicted children with his blessings God useth to comfort his children and servants which do cry unto him with his blessings powred down upon them And many brought offerings unto the Lord to Ierusalem 2 Chro. 32.23 and presents to Hezekiah king of Iudah so that he was magnified in the sight of all Nations from thenceforth Thus after trouble Exposition God sendeth comfort to all them that patiently wait on him and constantly put their trust in his mercies as the exposition is Misery and afflictions are of this good use as that they do excite Afflâ—ctions work in a man repentance and humiliation and stirr up a man to repentance as a Father observeth and that punishments with afflictions will open the eyes of a mans understanding and draw him to God by repentance and humiliation when nothing else will And when he was in tribulation 2 Chron. 33.12 13. he prayed unto the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers And prayed unto him and God was entreated of him and heard his prayer and brought him again to Ierusalem into his kingdome Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God Thus Affliction giveth understanding Exposition for he that hated God in his prosperity now in his misery he seeketh unto him as the exposition is The due consideration hereof will be a continuall comfort unto us and as our souls cordiall in all times of affliction and even then most of all when all other comforts fail us CHAP. VI. A Meditation upon Life and Death and how we are at all times and upon all occasions to fit and prepare our selves for death that so it seize not upon us at unawares FIrst of our life First Of our life here and the due consideration thereof Our life here is a sea-fare a way-fare and a warr-fare First Our life is a sea-fare They that go down to the sea Our life here is a sea-fare Psal 107.23 24 25 26 28 29 30 31. in ships that do businesse in great waters These see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind which lifteth up the waves thereof They mount up to the heaven they go down again to the depths their soul is melted because of trouble Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and he bringeth them out of their distresse He maketh the storm a calm so that the waves thereof are still Then are they glad because they be quiet so he bringeth them to their desired haven Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse and for his wonderfull works to the children of men Secondly Our life here is a way-fare full of troubles Our life here
even all our actions words and thoughts not only which in darkness but also the abscondita tenebrarū even the very hidden and secret things of darknesse shall be then clearly manifested Gods books shall then be laid open as appeareth Revelation 20.12 Rev. 20.12 The severall books of God The book of his knowledge and the book of our own consciences and the book of his covenant they shall all be then laid open by which all our words actions and thoughts shall be laid open before us And then our only appeal will be to the book of the covenant or of Gods mercy in and through Christ Jesus And this may serve for an Answer to an Objection how our thoughts should then be manifested Again a reason of the necessity of the second Judgement when the righteous shall not onely receive the sentence of joy of Come ye blessed c. but of praise likewise Well done good and faithfull servant And the wicked shall not onely then receive the sentence of torment of Go ye cursed c. but also of shame as bad as the torment And so to this end That the praise with the joy of the righteous and the shame with the torment of the wicked might be both manifested for this end a second Iudgement must be As touching this day of Iudgement Use fro similitude drawn from thunder and applied to the day of Judgement it is observed That as thunder strikeing one being asleep killeth him leaving his eyes open but those it striketh waking it killeth them leaving their eyes shut even so in the day of Iudgment those which are then found securely sleeping in their sins and in the pleasures of this world they shall then have their naturall life taken from them that is by sentence and Iudgement pronounced against them they shall be cast into Hell fire yet with their eyes open that is They shall perpetually see feel and enjoy the endlesse torments of hell fire But those contrariwise which are then found waking that is those elect children of God continually expecting the same being alwaies ready and prepared with oyl in their lamps the oyl of faith to attend the bridegroom at his coming evermore rejoycing at the expectation of the last sound of the trumpet those I say although they be deprived of this their naturall life yet they shall have their eyes shut that is They shall be for ever freed from those perpetuall Hell torments pronounced against the wicked of Go ye cursed c. but shall contrariwise perpetually enjoy endless joy happiness Next as touching the Iudge before whom we must appear being Christ our Saviour For as he came first in humility to be judged so then shall he come triumphing in his glory to be a Iudge both of quick and dead And then shall they which were his judges and executioners behold him in all his glory who despised him in his humility and they shall then be all judged by him St. Augustin Of Christs coming to Judgment the manner how And as St. Augustin observeth Veniet Judicaturus Christus eadem carne qua judicatus sed non eadem infirmitate carnis Christ our Saviour shall come to Iudge the world in the last day in the same flesh as he himself was judged but not in the same infirmity of the flesh From hence Objection Why Christ shall come to Judge the world an Objection may be made why Christ the second person in the Trinity rather than the Father or the Holy Ghost shall come in Iudgement at the last day Resp The Answer hereunto is this First For the comfort of the faithfull and elect children of God That he which suffered for them being flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone shall come in the end to be their Iudge And so by way of Simillitude Similitude as Joseph making himself known to his brethren saying to them I am Joseph your brother whom ye sold This was a very comfortable saying to them being in great fear and especially unto Benjamin his beloved brother even so it is with us in Christ his coming to be then our Iudge being also our Saviour and Redeemer Secondly For the greater torment and terrifying to the wicked his executioners saying to them I am he whom ye tortured and crucified and so that he which they had so judged might be their Iudge and they might be judged by him Thirdly That as they had been unjust Iudges in their condemning of him so he might sit in Iudgement pronouncing the just sentence of condemnation against them The reason why God the Father hath given all Iudgement unto his son is this that he might be honoured of all as he is honoured and so to come at the last day to sit in Iudgement It appeareth in Matthew 25.33 Mat. 25.33 34. That there is and then shall be a twofold Iudgement that is to say First Judicium separationis vers 33. the Iudgement of separation for the righteous and Secondly Judicium condemnationis the Iudgement of condemnation vers 34. for the wicked God hath right unto us by Creation the Devil by usurpation and by his seducing of us And Christ our Saviour to loose us out of the hands and bonds of the devil he hath right unto us by purchase and redemption and that by the shedding of his own most precious bloud for us Object Hence an Objection may be made That Christ is not then to be the sole and onely Iudge seeing that in one of the Psalms it is said that the Saints shall judge the earth Dan. 7.22 and so in Daniel 7.22 And Judgement was given to the Saints of the most High Answ The answer hereunto is this That the Saints may then be Iudices aggravantes amplifying Judices aggravantes the Saints and enforcing the matter against us and righteous men may be Iudices approbantes Judices approbantes the righteous approving of the Iudgement of the wicked and the Apostles they are Iudices assistentes Judices assistentes the Apostles Matt. 19.28 assisting of Christ in his Iudgment And though it be said Matth. 19.28 And Iesus said unto his Apostles Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones and Iudge the twelve tribes of Israel this is not to have a literall construction but was spoken by way of similitude Propter similitudinem Judicii dicuntur Judicare quia post corum separationem sedentur cum Christo in throno suo per eos Iudicia sua approbantur laetantur in illis and so interpretativè Quia consentire ad cum facere interpretantur ipsi facere sic sunt coadjutores cum illo in Iudiciis suis For the likenesse and similitude of his Iudgement and by way of interpretation they are said to Iudge because that after their separation they shall sit with Christ in his throne and by them his Iudgements shall be approved of and they shall rejoyce in them and so by way of interpretation because they do consent agree and approve of the Iudgement of Christ for this cause they are said to Iudge and so they are Coadjutors with him in his Iudgements and not otherwise are these words to be taken Christus Iudex Iudicans But Christ alone shall be then Iudex Iudicans he onely shall pronounce the Iudgement and sentence and this appeareth Matth. 25.31 32 33 34. Mat. 25.31 32 33 34. The righteous come not into that Iudgement of condemnation but into that of dissolution or separation The use of all this is The use of all That seeing it is certain that there will be a second Iudgement and that we all must of necessity whether we will or no appear then before the throne of Christ Let us therefore not onely leave off to mind the world and worldly things but let us have all our thoughts affections and desires mounted and elevated up to heaven and there let us settle all our affections and so let us live here in this world that when at the last we shall be summoned by death and then by the Angels to appear before the Tribunall throne of Christ let us so lead our lives here that when we shall appear we may there for ever remain and have the full fruition of everlasting joy and happinesse and not be thrust out amongst the number of those which shall then receive this fearfull doom and sentence of Go ye cursed into everlasting fire Matth. 25.41 Matt. 25.41 But that we may be then embraced with the arms of grace and mercy and may be and remain amongst the number of those which shall receive the happy and joyfull sentence Matth. 25.34 of Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdome prepared for you Matth. 25.34 And then by way of Exhortation he advised all to be carefull and diligent in their due preparation for this last day in regard that morte nihil certius tempore mortis nihil incertius nothing is more certain than death and nothing more uncertain than the time when or the manner how we shall die and the rather ought we for to be carefull in the whole course of our lives in regard that all our actions are registred For there is the book of Gods knowledge in which book there is registred all our proceedings in our sins whether the same be through infirmity wittingly or willingly Nay therein is likewise recorded all our sighs and grones for our sins And the book of our own Consciences shall be then laid open which is now shut and we do here labour by all the means we can through our own obstinacy and rebellion to keep the same still shut but then in despite of us it shall be laid open before us The due consideration hereof ought to make us the more wary and carefull of all our actions and seriously to think of Solomons advise in Ecclesiastes 11.9 Rejoyce O young man Eccles 11.9 in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the dayes of thy youth and walk in the wayes of thy heart and in the sight of thy eyes But know then that for all these things God will bring thee into Iudgement And so he concluded with this Rule to be by all observed that is Do violence to none accuse no man unjustly and be content with thy wages Fear God and keep his commandements this is the whole duty of man Ecclesiastes 12.13 Eccles 12.13 FINIS