selves and soules too No lesse uncomfortable will the estate of self-livers be at the last True many do very much blesse themselves while they live in their heaped up and reserved stores and men may prayse them while they do well unto themselves but marke the sad catastrophe He shall go to the generation of his fathers Psa 49.18 19. they shall never see light they are shut out from the least glimps of comfort after death but what comfort have they in death Man being in honour understandeth not inebritated with present comforts or distracted with worldly cares they apprehend not the true scope of life and end of their being to direct their indeavours after that but drowne themselves in the cares and pleasures of life as if they had been borne only thereunto thus they live but how dye they like the beast that perish as in other respects so especially in this there is no regard had of the death of a bruit beast doth God take care for oxen living or dying no more care takes he for selfe-seeking men that that dyes let it dye will God say Zach. 11.9 Rom. 14.7 that that is to be cut off let it be cut off they lived to themselves and therfore let them dye to themselves Let all self-seekers Gallioes in the matters of Christ know as little as they care for God and his cause in life so little will he regard them in death but will say unto them goe unto the gods whom you have served do you come to me and commend your soules to me go to your lusts these were your lords in life to those you offered your service gave up your hearts see if they can now save you in the day of your trouble Cold comfort to a drooping dying soule yet this wil be the forlorn and cast off condition in death of a selfe-seeking life the greatest self-seekers wil prove the greatest self-losers at the last 2 Get the life of Christ in you If Christ be in you you cannot but live to him Quest. Answ But how may this be done I can hardly stay to tell you briefly this is effected on Gods part inwardly by his Spirit outwardly by his Word On our part only by beleeving so farre as any man knows Christ and beleeves in him 1 Joh. 5.11.12 so farre he lives in Christ God gives us life in his Sonne and faith takes it there is no difference betwixt beleeving and having in the language of the holy Ghost The stung Israelites looking on the brazen serpent though but with a squint weake yet a pitifull wishly eye were healed he that but looks on Christ in the Gospell earnestly fastning his minde on him reaching out his soule after him a broken selfe-denying heart affectionately desiring that Christ may come and live there cannot go off empty but while we are thus beholding Christ in the myrrour of the Gospel we are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Cor. 3.18 To clear this mystery yet a little more life is in the will and affections to love is to live now the Gospell is the ministry of love and therefore of life Would you have life goe not to mount Sinai Galath 4.24 Psal 133.3 that gendreth to bondage and works feare but goe to mount Sion there the Lord hath commanded a blessing of love and life for evermore Hebr. 12.18 19 20. That which keeps many in a state of strangenesse from the life of God is that they look on God as on a terrible Judge offended with them his wrath kindled ready to consume them in their transgressions this amazeth fils with confusion perplexity and feare they looke upon the Law as impossible to be kept charging duty without giving any strength to performe written in letters of blood threatning wrath and curse and death to the disobedient this makes men ready to flye in the face of God or to flye from him willing to give all the world if they had it to be free of the terrours of the Lord and challenge of conscience upon so fearefull a sentence as the law pronounceth against them they desire to heare no more of God to have no more to doe with him seeing Justice only in God and no mercy impotency in their natures to fulfill the law an vtter impossibility to helpe themselves by any thing they can doe or to doe any thing better then they have done no drawing neare to God for them think they But when they come to mount Sion see the goodnesse and mercy and tender compassion of God toward them see the covenant of grace and the blood of sprinkling that their sinnes shall be forgiven and nature cleansed and they inabled by the spirit for keeping the new covenant in such a manner as God requires and will accept this melts the heart renders it pliable to God begets a disposition of love to God which the Scripture calls the new life 3 Get your hearts filled with the graces of Christ They are all springs as it were living principles in abling and inclining to live to God 1 Cor. 13. Especially labour to get your soules filled with the love of Christ love is bountifull 't will make a man thinke nothing too much to be done for Christ no zealous and godly walking no reading hearing humbling confessing no duties too much whereby Christ may be exalted and it selfe expressed yea love will make a man not thinke his life too deare for Christ and his Gospell I count not my life deare unto my selfe that I might finish my course c. Act. 20.18 so he so in effect this noble Colonell whose funeralls we now solemnize he was of Saint Pauls spirit he thought nothing too much too deare to be layd out for Christ his Church and you He might truly say with our Apostle I am willing to spend and to be spent for you and I think go on although the more I love the lesse I am beloved of you I intend not any portraiture of him if I did or he needed my attestation I could tell you of his sweete temper mildnesse to admiration yet resolutions gallant and vigorous in all publique expeditions not fearing to take the lyon by the beard nor turning his back to the sword I could tell you of his gentlenesse to all indulgence to the Gospell best Ministers meeknesse in packing up injuryes to himselfe digesting without the least perturbation harshest carriages as if with St. Paul he tooke pleasure in reproches persecutions for Christ and his cause yet was he impartially active in punishing malignants against the cause of Christ therein another Moses indeede he was of a very sweete humble self-denying frame Concerning his last service in these parts it being his owne choyce and desire to do worthily in Ephratah be serviceable in his owne countrey I must professe as St. Paul once of his Timothy I know no man like minded
I Have perused this Sermon intituled Deaths advantage and finding it to be sound and judicious pious and profitable I License it to be Printed and published JOHN DOWNAME DEATHS ADVANTAGE OR A SERMON PREACHED AT THE FUNERALL OF THAT Noble and Valiant Gentleman Colonell WILLIAM GOULD High Sheriffe of Devon By order of Parliament and late Commander of the Fort and Island in Plymouth By STEPHEN MIDHOPE Mr. of Arts. REVEL 14.13 Write Blesse are the dead which die in the Lord from hence-forth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their workes do follow them LONDON Printed by L. N. for FRANCIS EGLESFIELD and are to be sold at the Marigold in Paul's Church-yard 1644. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVL SIR JOHN BAMPFIELD BARONET THE WELL-DESERVING AND Honoured Commander of the Fort and Island in Plymouth Grace and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ NOBLE SIR THAT there is a life above that of sensuall pleasure the Heathen by the twy-light of Nature could discerne who thought him not worthy the name of a man that spent a whole day together in sensuall pleasure reckoning such amongst beasts in humane shape but that there is a life of faith as far above that of reason as it is above the life of sense that comming from God returnes to him againe moves by higher principles and to higher ends acts all for the honour of the great God aymes in all at the setting up of Christ and making him glorious before the world this is such a dark and hidden path that had we not the fiery Pillar of Gods truth to cleare it to us together with a cloud of many witnesses especially in these last dayes that have beaten it out before us whose life is not in carnall pleasure nor civill transactions no nor yet in philosophicall speculations who lay out all their strength are ready to exhaust all their bloud from Christ and his truth we must have been for ever ignorant of it This is not to be found in the Schoole of Socrates nor in the pit of Democritus What those Masters of morality groped after in the darke but could never reach viz. the right way of living I have adventured to present to your and the publique view in this poore and plaine Sermon which I confesse hath no other argument to procure either your view or patronage but this one that it hath the Name of Jesus Christ in it the want whereof when Austin espied after conversion in Tullies Booke abated the heat of his delight which he once took in it When you meet with weaknesses may you be pleased to Remember that not any selfe-forwardnesse or over-valuing hath obtruded these unpolished Meditations into the publique light but my willingnesse to put a stop if it may be to the false and slanderous aspersions on the dead that I perceive have already cankered the hearts and mouths of many and to raise though upon the ruines of my own credit a monument of deserved praise to him to whose fidelity and resolution in the cause of Christ the Kingdome stands so much indebted to this day And now Noble Sir these rude Notes being forced to looke abroad whither shall they run for shelter but to you Surely your right is greatest to them as succeeding the man in his honour and intrustments as well as in his holy activity for the publique good But I perceive by Austin Retr lib. 1. cap. 2. who repented him that he attributed more to Theodorus to whom he wrote a booke though otherwise he were a godly man then was meet that it is easie to over-lash in the commendation of a good man Only this therefore let me name without flattery to give the world an accompt of my choise Your love to Christ in his Ministers and members your constancy in sticking to his Cause with the losse of friends and lands in these back-sliding and forwardnesse in acting for him in these bleeding times doe more then satisfie me that I have found a Patron sutable to my subject Wherefore praying your favourable construction and acceptance of this poor mite I commend you to the Lords grace who double the spirit of his deceased servant on you make you high and Noble in all your ends faithfull and constant in all your instruments couragious and valiant in all your undertakings for Christ and his truth Remember Sir riches honours high places may make you great not gracious not happy they passe away daily and often much faster then they came I 'le ad deum copiosus ille opulentus adveniet cui astabunt misericordia patientia charitas fides Lactant. lib. 7. c. 27. and if they tarry with you to your last yet then must you leave them to others as they are now left to you We shall carry nothing with us but a life spent in and for Christ Worke apace then be diligent to take in and put off as much as you can for your Masters advantage that you may go richly laden to the Haven at the last and when you have fulfilled your time receive the crowne of righteousnesse and glory for which he prayeth who is yours Devoted to serve you in all Gospell offices STEPHEN MIDHOPE DEATHS ADVANTAGE PHILIPPIANS 1.21 For me to live is Christ and to dye is gaine THE Text is a compendious expression of S. Paul's scope in life and hope in death The inference is thus After salutation and gratulation from the 1. verse to the 12. he proceeds for the better incouragement of the beleeving Philippians to boldnesse and constancy in the profession of the Gospell and fellowship with Christ and his Church to declare unto them 1. His present estate in bonds and the good God had wrought out thence from the 12. verse to the 18. 2. His hope of the like for the future verse 19 20. viz. I not only have had and now have but I shall still have great cause of rejoycing in my sufferings For 1. I know what-ever the adversaries worke against me all through the helpe of your prayers and assistance of the Spirit of God shall still turne to my salvation 2. I know likewise that Christ shall be hereby glorified in my body which whether it be by life or death by living to him or dying for him 't is all one to me For to me to live c. The words are diversly rendred by Interpreters The Syriack reades them as do our English Translators so all the Ancients so Erasmus with others Calvin and after him Beza render them thus Christ is in life and death advantage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supplying the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the sense will be 'T is indifferent to mee whether I live or die for having Christ I must be a gainer by both estates for 't is Christ alone that makes me happy in life and death For my part as I take no pleasure in dissenting from such eminent lights so I dare not
easily depart from the simplicity of the words of the Holy-Ghost without manifest reason especially having the consent of all Antiquity I do therefore approve our English Translation so the sense is plaine and sweetly agrees with the precedent and following verses 1. With the fore-going words vers 20. According to my c. viz. this is that I ayme at heartily look and hope for that Ghrist be magnified if so 't is all one to me whether I live or die for this is my maine scope in living my very life to glorifie Christ by professing preaching loving his Gospell and suffering affliction for his Name and if I die now in my bonds besides that I shall seale his truth with my bloud this will turne to my great advantage in that being dissolved I shall be with Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non connectit sed insert Sicut in illo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heinsius in locum John 15.16 2. As sweetly doth this agree with the following verses which I reade thus But if to live in the flesh this be the fruit of my labour What then shall I choose I wot not For I am in a strait c. What fruit the conversion of soules that 's the only fruit of the ministry for that end were the Apostles sent So then if I live I shall have an occasion of bringing forth fruit to God by my ministry And what then shall I choose for to abide in the flesh is better for you Why because this is the fruit of my life to preach Christ and win soules to him and I have destined my whole life thereunto there 's his TO ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST but better for me to be dissolved Why because then I shall be with Christ There 's his AND TO DYE GAINE In these short words of the Text you have described the life and death of a true Christian in a double proposition his life by its object and end Christ. His death by its consequent and concomitant Gaine The necessary combination of these Christ with Life and Gaine with Death is intimated in the manner of enunciation which though it be not substantiall and formal but causall only and per concomitantiam as Logicians speake yet it is as like it as may be his life was so wholly devoted to Christ spent on Christ that Christ and nothing but Christ was to be found in his heart and wayes his gaine so inseparably conjoyned with his dissolution glory so sure to follow at the heeles of death as if there had been no difference betweene them but that Death had now put off with its sting its nature also and were now become not a privation but advancement of his being not a losse of life but a gainfull addition of glory Not to detaine you longer from that I principally intend from the propositions thus briefly explained arise two maine points of truth which I shall desire severally to open and then for a close joyntly to apply 1. Doctr. The maine object of a godly mans employment is Christ and his glory Or Christ is the life of a true Christian. 2. Doctr. A life truly Christian ever ends in a happy and gainfull death For explication of the former of these two termes must have some light here 1. Christ. What is carried in that 2. To live How Christ is life to a Christian 1. Christ is not here simply and absolutely considered in his person Act. 9.5 natures c. but Christ in his relations As Paul once lived against Christ so now he lives Christ in his Church Kingdome Gospell wayes ordinances Christ that is the magnifying of Christ by preaching his Gospell serving his Church building up his body obeying his will doing suffering for his Name So much is evident to an observant eye from the context as hath been already opened 2 How this is called his life For the fuller understanding whereof we must note 1. More generally Every thing is evidenced to live by its operation Sum. 1. q. 18.2 that is most proper to it As the life of a Plant consists in this that it receives nourishment and growth Of a beast in sense and motion Of men in reason and working according to reason So that the life of a man stands in that which he delights most in which he most intends Now there are not only naturall faculties in men inclining them to sutable operations but also superadded principles as habites vertuous or vicious inclining them to some kind of actions as it were naturally and making them delightfull to them Hence by way of similitude that operation that is delightfull to man in which he takes pleasure to walk to which he directs his course is called his life Hence some are said to live a voluptuous others a worldly life their thoughts and study are all on the world all their care is for it their delight wholly in it 2. But more particularly there is a life of the heart and of the hand 1. Love 1. Of the heart where the first weight and springing of the soule is love that so joyns the soule and its beloved that it lives as it were and enjoyes it self Non ubi animat sed ubi amat not in the body where it breathes but in that which it loves 2. 2. Care Hence for love is a commanding passion the mind the thoughts are imployed about that which the soule loves Lord saith David how I love thy Law Psal 119. al the day long is my study in it And this is set down as a characteristicall difference betwixt the life of a married and unmarried person by the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.32 Esay 32.6.8 the one careth for the things of the world the other for the things of the Lord And by the Prophet betwixt the life of the wicked and the godly the heart of the one works iniquity he devises wicked devices the other devises liberall things 3. 3. Desire Reinolds of Passions Hence also ariseth desire that is the wing of the soule whereby it moves and is carried to the thing which it loves as the Eagle to the carkasse to feed it self upon it and to be satisfied with it And this the Scripture holds forth as the very best character and truest lineament that can be drawn of the life of God and of the world Actions may be over-ruled by ends but desires are alwaies genuine and natural Pro. 11.23 The desire of the righteous is only good but the expectation of the wicked is wrath What-ever other defects may attend his actions this is an inseparable character of a pious soule that the maine streame of his desires the course and current of his heart is to God and goodnesse though he cannot shew himselfe in doing as he would yet hee desires good because it is Christ in whom is good and nothing but good Hag. 2.7 after whom are drawn all the affections and inward longings of his soul