transformed into a spiritual nature as St. Paul expresly tells us 1 Cor. 15. 42 43 44. It is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption it is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sown in weakness it is raised in power it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body For as he adds 50 v. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God neither can corruption inherit incorruption Which is true of a fleshly Soul but here is understood of a Body of flesh and blood which is of a corruptible nature As our reason may satisfie us that such gross earthly Bodies as we now carry about with us cannot live and subsist in those pure regions of Light and Glory which God inhabits no more than you can lodge a stone in the Air or breathe nothing but pure Aether and therefore our glorified Bodies will have none of those earthly passions which these earthly Bodies have will relish none of the pleasures of flesh and blood that upon this account we may truly say that when we once put off these Bodies we shall ever after live without them Now the use of this Observation is so very obvious that methinks no man can miss it for when we consider that we must put off these Bodies and for ever live without them the very next thought in course is that we ought to live without our Bodies now as much as possibly we can while we do live in them to have but very little commerce with flesh and sense to wean ourselves from all bodily pleasures to stifle its appetites and inclinations and to bring them under perfect command and government that when we see it fit we may use bodily pleasures without fondness or let them alone without being uneasie for want of them that is that we may govern all our bodily appetites not they govern us For a wise man should thus reason with himself If I grow so fond of this Body and the pleasures of it if I can relish no other pleasures if I value nothing else what shall I do when I leave this body For bodily pleasures can last no longer than my body does what shall I do in the next World when I shall be striped of this body when I shall be a naked Soul or whatever other covering I may have shall have no flesh and blood about me and therefore all the pleasures I value now will then vanish like a dream for it is impossible to enjoy bodily pleasures when I have no body And though there were no other punishments in the next Life yet it is a great pain to me now to have my desires disappointed or delayed and should I retain the same fondness for these things in the next World where they cannot be had the eternal despair of enjoying them would be punishment enough Indeed we cannot tell what alteration our putting off these Bodies will make in the temper and disposition of our minds We see that a long and severe fit of sickness while it lasts will make men absolute Philosophers and give them a great contempt of bodily pleasures nay will make the very thoughts of those pleasures nauseous to them which they were very fond of in health Long Fasting and Abstinence and other bodily Severities are an excellent means to alter the habits and inclinations of the Mind and one would think that to be separated from these Bodies must needs make a greater alteration in our Minds than either Sickness or bodily Severities That I dare not say that a sensual man when he is separated from this body shall feel the same sensual desires and inclinations which he had in it and shall be tormented with a violent thirst after those pleasures which he cannot enjoy in a separate state But this I dare say that a man who is wholly sunk into flesh and sense and relishes no other pleasures is not capable of living happily out of this body unless you could find out a new Scene of material and sensible Pleasures to entertain him for though the particular appetites and inclinations of the body may cease yet his very Soul is sensualized and therefore is uncapable of the pleasures of a spiritual Life For indeed setting aside that mischief which the unruly lusts and appetites of men and the immoderate use of bodily pleasures does either to the persons themselves or to publick Societies and the true reason why we must mortifie our sensual inclinations is to improve our minds in all divine Graces for the Flesh and the Spirit cannot thrive together sensual and spiritual Joys are so contrary to each other that which of them soever prevails according to the degrees of its prevalence it stifles and and suppresses or wholly subdues the other A Soul which is ravished with the love of God and the Blessed Jesus transported with the spiritual hopes of another Life which feels the passions of Devotion and is enamour'd with the glories and beauties of Holiness and divine Vertues must have such a very mean opinion of Flesh and Sense as will make it disgust bodily pleasures or be very indifferent about them and a Soul which is under the government of Sense and Passion cannot tast those more intellectual and divine Joys for it is our esteem of things which gives a relish to them and it is impossible we can highly esteem one without depretiating and undervaluing the other It is universally true in this case what our Saviour tells us No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other Ye cannot serve God and Mammon 6. Matth. 24. The least beginnings of a divine Nature in us is to love God above all the World and as we every day grow more devoutly and passionately in love with God and take greater pleasure in the spiritual acts of Religion in praising God and contemplating the divine Nature and Perfections and meditating on the spiritual Glories of another Life so we abate of our value for present things till we get a perfect conquest and mastery of them But he who is perfectly devoted to the pleasures of the Body and the service of his Lusts has no spiritual Life in him and tho' putting off these Bodies may cure our bodily appetites and passions yet it cannot give us a new principle of Life nor work an essential Change in a fleshly Nature and therefore such a man when he is removed from this Body and all the Enjoyments of it is capable of no other Happiness Nay though we are renewed by the divine Spirit and have a principle of a new Life in us yet according to the degree of our love to present things so much the more indisposed are we for the Happiness of unbodied Spirits And therefore since we must put off these Bodies if we would live for ever happily without them we must begin betimes to shake off Matter
this Life be our time to work in we should not consult our ease and softness and pleasures here for this is a place of labour and diligence not of rest We are a travelling to Heaven and must have our eye on our journeys end and not hunt after Pleasures and Diversions in the way The great end of living in this World is to be happy in the next and therefore we must wisely improve present things that they may turn to our future account Must make to our selves Friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness that when we fail they may receive us into everlasting Habitations What concerns a better life must take up most of our thoughts and care and whatever endangers our future happiness must be rejected with all its charms It would not be worth the while to live some few years here were we not to live for ever and therefore it becomes a wise man who remembers that he must shortly leave this World to make this present life wholly subservient to his future happiness SECT II. The second Notion of Death that it is our putting off these Bodies II. LEt us now consider Death as it is our putting off these Bodies for this is the proper Notion of Death the separation of Soul and Body that the Body returns to Dust the Soul or Spirit unto God who gave it when we die we do not cease to be nor cease to live but only cease to live in these earthly Bodies the vital Union between Soul and Body is dissolved we are no longer encloister'd in a Tabernacle of Flesh we no longer feel the impressions of it neither the pains nor pleasures of the Body can affect us it can charm it can tempt no longer This needs no proof but very well deserves our most serious Meditations For 1. this teaches us the difference and distinction between Soul and Body which men who are sunk into flesh and sense are so apt to forget nay to lose the very notion and belief of it all their delights are fleshly they know no other pleasures but what their five senses furnish them with they cannot raise their thoughts above this body nor entertain any noble designs and therefore they imagine that they are nothing but flesh and blood a little organized and animated Clay and it is no great wonder that men who feel the workings and motions of no higher principle of life in them but flesh and sense should imagine that they are nothing but flesh themselves tho' methinks when we see the senseless and putrefying remains of a brave man before us it is hard to conceive that this is all of him that this is the thing which some few hours ago could reason and discourse was fit to govern a Kingdom or to instruct Mankind could despise flesh and sense and govern all his bodily Appetites and Inclinations was adorned with all divine graces and Vertues was the glory and pride of the Age And is this dead Carkase which we now see the whole of him Or was there a more divine Inhabitant which animated this earthly Machine which gave life and beauty and motion to it but is now removed To be sure those who believe that Death does not put an end to their being but only removes them out of this body which rots in the Grave while their Souls survive live and act and may be happy in a separate state should carefully consider this distinction between Soul and Body which would teach them a most Divine and Heavenly Wisdom For when we consider that we consist of Soul and Body which are the two distinct parts of Man this will teach us to take care of both for can any man who believes he has a Soul be concerned only for his Body A compound Creature cannot be happy unless both parts of him enjoy their proper pleasures He who enjoys onely the pleasures of the Body is never the happier for having a humane and reasonable Soul the soul of a Beast would have done as well and it may be better for bruit Creatures relish bodily pleasures as much and it may be more than Men do and reason is very troublesome to men who resolve to live like Bruits for it makes them ashamed and afraid which in many cases hinders or at least allays their pleasures And why should not a man desire the full and entire happiness of a man why should he despise any part of himself and that as you shall hear presently the best part too And therefore at least we ought to take as much care of our Souls as of our Bodies Do we adorn our Bodies that we may be fit to be seen and to converse with men and may receive those respects which are due to our quality and fortune and shall we not adorn our Souls too with those Christian Graces which make us lovely in the sight of God and men The Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which is in the sight of God of great price which St. Peter especially recommends to Christian Women as a more valuable ornament than the outward adorning of plaiting the hair or wearing gold or putting on of apparel 1 Peter 3. 3 4. The ornaments of Wisdom and Prudence of well governed Passions of Goodness and Charity give a grace and beauty to all our actions and such a pleasing and charming air to our very countenance as the most natural Beauty or artificial Washes and Paints can never imitate Are we careful to preserve our Bodies from any hurt from pains and sickness from burning Feavers or the racking Gout or Stone and shall we not be as careful of the ease of the Mind too To quiet and calm those Passions which when they grow outragious are more intollerable than all natural or artificial Tortures to moderate those Desires which rage like Hunger and Thirst those Fears which convulse the Mind with trembling and paralytick motions those furious Tempests of Anger Revenge and Envy which rufle our Minds and fill us with Vexation Restlesness and Confusion of Thoughts especially those guilty Reflections upon ourselves that Worm in the Conscience which gnaws the Soul and torments us with shame and remorse and dreadful expectations of an Avenger These are the Sicknesses and Distempers of the Soul these are Pains indeed more sharp and pungent and killing pains than our Bodies are capable of The spirit of a man can bear his infirmity natural Courage or the powers of Reason or the comforts of Religion can support us under all other Sufferings but a wounded spirit who can bear And therefore a man who loves ease should in the first place take care of the ease of his Mind for that will make all other sufferings easie but nothing can support a man whose mind is wounded Are we fond of bodily Pleasures are we ready to purchase them at any rate And if we be men why should we despise the pleasures of the mind if we have Souls why should we not reap the
Christ will secure the life of our Souls and translate us to a happy state after death but it will not secure us from the necessity of dying Our Bodies must die as a punishment of Sin and putrifie in the Grave but yet they are not lost for ever for if the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Iesus from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit which dwelleth in you that is if your Bodies be cleansed and sanctified be the Temples of the Holy Spirit he will raise them up again into a new Life Therefore brethren we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live If ye subdue the fleshly principle if ye bring the Flesh into subjection to the Spirit not only your Souls shall live but your Bodies shall be raised again to immortal Life And this is a mighty obligation on us if we love our Bodies and would have them glorious and immortal not to pamper the Flesh and gratifie its appetites and lusts not to yeild your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity but to yeild your members servants to righteousness unto holiness that being made free from sin and becoming the servants of God ye may have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life As the same Apostle speaks 6. Rom. 19 22. it is our relation to Christ that our very Bodies are his Members it is our relation to the Holy Spirit that our Bodies are his Temples which entitles our Bodies to a glorious Resurrection But will Christ own such Bodies for his Members as are Members of a Harlot Will the Holy Spirit dwell in such a Temple as is defiled with impure Lusts And therefore such polluted Bodies will rise as they lay down in Dishonour will rise not to immortal Life but to eternal Death For can we think those Bodies well prepared for a glorious Resurrection to be refined into spiritual Bodies which are become ten times more Flesh than God made them which are the Instruments and the Tempters to all Impurity Is there any reason to expect that such a Body should rise again spiritual and glorious which expires in the flames of Lust which falls a Sacrifice in the quarrel of a Strumpet which sinks under the load of its own Excesses and Eats and Drinks itself into the Grave which scorns to die by Adam's sin but will die by its own without expecting till the Laws of Mortality according to the ordinary course of Nature must take place Holiness is the only principle of Immortality both to Soul and Body Those love their Bodies best those honour them most who make them instruments of Vertue who endeavour to refine and spiritualize them and leave nothing of fleshly appetites and inclinations in them those are kindest to their Bodies who consecrate them for Immortality who take care they shall rise again into the Partnership of eternal Joys All the severities of Mortification abstinence from bodily pleasures watchings Fastings hard lodging when they are instruments of a real Vertue not the arts of Superstition when they are intended to subdue our Lusts not to purchase a liberty of sinning are the most real expressions of honour and respect to these Bodies It shews how unwilling we are to part with them or to have them miserable how desirous we are of their advancement into eternal Glories for the less of Flesh they carry to the Grave with them the more glorious will they rise again This is offering up our Bodies a living Sacrifice when we intirely devote them to the service of God and such living Sacrifices shall live for ever for if God receives them a living Sacrifice he will preserve them to immortal Life But the highest honour we can do these Bodies and the noblest use we can put them to is to offer them up in a proper sence a Sacrifice to God that is willingly and chearfully to die for God when he calls us to suffering first to offer up our Souls to God in the pure flames of Love and Devotion and then freely to give up our Bodies to the Stake or to the Gibbet to wild Beasts or more savage Men. This vindicates our Bodies from the natural shame and reproach of Death what we call a natural Death is very inglorious it is a mark of dishonour because it is a punishment of Sin Such Bodies at best are sown in dishonour and corruption as St. Paul speaks but to die a Martyr to fall a Sacrifice to God this is a glorious Death this is not to yeild to the Laws of Mortality to Necessity and Fate but to give back our Bodies to God who gave them to us and he will keep that which we have committed to his trust to a glorious Resurrection and it will be a surprizing and astonishing Glory with which such Bodies shall rise again as have suffered for their Lord for if we suffer with him we shall also be glorified together Which seems to imply that those shall nearest resemble the Glory of Christ himself who suffer as he did This is the way to make our Bodies immortal and glorious We cannot keep them long here they are corruptible Bodies and will tumble into Dust we must part with them for a while and if ever we expect and desire a happy meeting again we must use them with modesty and reverence now We dishonour our Bodies in this World when we make them instruments of Wickedness and Lust and lay an eternal foundation of shame and infamy for them in the next World it is a mortal and killing love to cherish the fleshly Principle to make provision for the Flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof but if you love your Bodies make them immortal that though they die they may rise again out of their Graves with a youthful vigour and beauty that they may live for ever without pain or sickness without the decays of age or the interruptions of sleep or the fatigue and weariness of labour without wanting either food or raiment without the least remains of corruptions without knowing what it is to tempt or to be tempted without the least uneasie thought the least disappointment the least care in the full and blissful enjoyment of the Eternal and Soveraign Good. SECT III. Death considered as our Entrance upon a new and unknown State of Life III. LEt us now consider Death as it is an Entrance upon a new and unknown State of Life for it is a new thing to us to live without these Bodies it is what we have never tried yet and we cannot guess how we shall feel ourselves when we are stript of Flesh and Blood what entertainments we shall find in that place where there is neither eating nor drinking neither marrying nor giving in marriage what kind of
the objects only of a subordinate fear or hope when the fear of man comes in competition with the fear of God it is wise counsel which the Prophet Isaiah gives Say ye not A confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say A confederacy neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid Sanctifie the Lord God of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread and he shall be for a sanctuary 8 Isai. 12 13 14. There is a vast difference between the power of God and men which is our Saviour's reason why we should fear God more than men Be not afraid of them who can kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but I will forewarn ye whom ye shall fear Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him 12 Luke 4 5. But whatever power men may have to hurt while they live they can do us no hurt when they are dead and their lives are so very uncertain that we may be quickly eased of those fears The same may be said with respect to hope and confidence in men though their word and promise were always sacred yet their lives are uncertain Their breath goeth forth they return to the earth in that very day their thoughts perish all the good and all the evil they intended to do But happy is he that hath the God of Iacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God which made heaven and earth the sea and all that therein is who keepeth truth for ever 146 Psal. 5. 6. 6. For a conclusion of this Argument I shall briefly vindicate the wisdom and goodness of God in concealing from us the time of our Death This we are very apt to complain of that our lives are so very uncertain that we know not to day but that we may die to morrow and we would be mighty glad to meet with any one who could certainly inform us in this matter how long we are to live but if we think a little better of it we shall be of another mind For 1. though I presume many of you would be glad to know that you shall certainly live twenty or thirty or forty years longer yet would it be any comfort to know that you must die to morrow or some few months or a year or two hence which may be your case for ought you know and this I believe you are not very desirous to know for how would this chill your blood and spirits how would it overcast all the pleasures and comforts of life You would spend your days like men under the sentence of Death while the execution is suspended Did all men who must die young certainly know it it would destroy the industry and improvements of half Mankind which would half destroy the World or be an insupportable mischief to Humane Societies For what man who knows that he must die at twenty or five and twenty a little sooner or later would trouble himself with ingenious or gainful Arts or concern himself any more with this World than just to live so long in it and yet how necessary is the service of such men in the World what great things do they many times do and what great improvements do they make how pleasant and diverting is their conversation while it is innocent how do they enjoy themselves and give life and spirit to the graver Age how thin would our Schools our Shops our Universities and all places of Education be did they know how little time many of them were to live in the World for would such men concern themselves to learn the Arts of living who must die as soon as they have learnt them Would any Father be at a great expence in educating his Child only that he might die with a little Latine and Greek Logick and Philosophy No half the World must be divided into Cloysters and Nunneries and Nurseries for the Grave Well you 'll say suppose that and is not this an advantage above all the inconveniencies you can think of to secure the salvation of so many thousands who are now eternally ruined by youthful Lusts and Vanities but would spend their days in Piety and Devotion and make the next World their only care if they knew how little while they were to live here Right I grant this might be a good way to correct the heat and extravagancies of Youth and so it would be to shew them Heaven and Hell but God does not think fit to do either because it offers too much force and violence to mens minds it is no trial of their vertue of their reverence for God of their conquests and victory over this World by the power of Faith but makes Religion a matter of necessity not of choice now God will force and drive no man to Heaven the Gospel-Dispensation is the trial and discipline of ingenuous Spirits and if the certain hopes and fears of another World and the uncertainty of our living here will not conquer these flattering temptations and make men seriously religious as those who must certainly die and go into another World and they know not how soon God will not try whether the certain knowledge of the time of their death will make them religious That they may die young and that thousands do so is reason enough to engage young men to expect death and prepare for it if they will venture they must take their chance and not say they had no warning of dying young if they eternally miscarry by their wilful delays And besides this God expects our youthful service and obedience though we were to live on till old Age that we may die young is not the proper much less the only reason why we should remember our Creator in the days of our youth but because God has a right to our youthful strength and vigour and if this will not oblige us to an early Piety we must not expect that God will set death in our view to fright and terrifie us as if the only design God had in requiring our obedience was not that we might live like reasonable Creatures to the glory of their Maker and Redeemer but that we might repent of our sins time enough to escape Hell. God is so merciful as to accept of returning Prodigals but does not think fit to encourage us in Sin by giving us notice when we shall die and when it is time to think of repentance 2dly Though I doubt not but that it would be a great pleasure to you to know that you shall live till old Age yet consider a little with yourselves and then tell me whether you yourselves can judge it wise and fitting for God to let you know this I observed to you before what danger there is in flattering ourselves with the hopes of long life that it is apt to make us too fond of this World when we expect to live
Heaven Nothing but the hopes and fears of the next World can enforce these Duties on us and this justifies the wisdom and goodness of God in making the present exercise of these Vertues necessary to our future Rewards I shall only add that whatever complaints bad Men may make that their future Happiness or Misery depends upon the government and conduct of their Lives in this World I am sure all Mankind would have had great reason to complain if it had been otherwise For how miserable must it have made us to have certainly known that we must be eternally happy or eternally miserable in the next World and not to have as certainly known how to escape the Miseries and obtain the Hapâ—iness of it And how could that be possibly known if the trial of it had been reserved for an unknown state What a terrible thing had it been to die could no Man have been sure what would have become of him in the next World as no Man could have been upon this supposal for how can any Man know what his reward shall be when he is so far from having done his work that he knows not what he is to do till he comes into the next World. But now since we shall be rewarded according to what we have done in this Body every Man certainly knows what will make him happy or miserable in the next World and it is his own fault if he do not live so as to secure immortal Life and what a blessed state is this to have so joyful a prospect beyond the Grave and to put off these Bodies with the certain hopes of a glorious Resurrection This I think is sufficient to vindicate the wisdom and goodness of God in making this present Life a state of trial and probation for the happiness of the next But to proceed 2. If this Life only be our state of trial and probation for Eternity then Death as it puts a final period to this Life so it puts a final end to our work too our day of Grace and time of Working for another World ends with this Life We shall easily apprehend the necessity of this if we remember that Death which is the punishment of Sin is not meerly the death of the Body but that state of Misery to which Death translates Sinners and therefore if we die while we are in a state of Sin under the Curse and under the power of Death there is no Redemption for us because the Justice of God has already seiz'd us the Sentence is already executed and that is too late to obtain a Pardon for in this case Death answers to our casting into Prison from whence we shall never come forth till we have paid the uttermost Farthing as our Saviour represents it 5 Matt. 25 26 for indeed Sin is the death of the Soul and those who are under the power of Sin are in a state of Death and if they die before they have a principle of a new Life in them they fall under the power of Death that is into that state of Misery and Punishment which is appointed for such dead Souls and therefore our redemption from Death by Christ is begun in our dying to Sin and walking in newness of Life which is our conformity to the Death and the Resurrection of Christ 6 Rom. 4. This is to be dead to sin and to be alive to GOD as Christ is and if we die with Christ we shall rise with him also into immortal Life which is begun in this World and will be perfected in the next which is the sum of St. Paul's argument v. 6 7 8 9 10 11. thus he tells us 8 Rom. 10 11. If Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness That is our Bodies are mortal and must die by an irreversible Sentence which God pronounc'd against Adam when he had sinned but the Soul and Spirit has a new principle of Life a principle of Righteousness and Holiness by which it lives to God and therefore cannot fall into a state of Death when the Body dies But if the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you That is when the divine Spirit has quicken'd our Souls and raised them into a new Life though our Bodies must die yet the same divine Spirit will raise them up also into immortal Life This is the plain account of the matter If Death arrests us while we are in a state of Sin and Death we must die for ever but if our Souls are alive to God by a principle of Grace and Holiness before our Bodies die they must live for ever A dead Soul must die with its Body that is sink into a state of Misery which is the death and the loss of the Soul a living Soul survives the Body in a state of Bliss and Happiness and shall receive its Body again glorious and immortal at the Resurrection of the Just but this change of state must be made while we live in these Bodies a dead Soul cannot revive in the other World nor a living Soul die there and therefore this Life is the day of God's Grace and Patience the next World is the place of Judgment And the reason St. Peter gives why God is not hasty in executing judgment but is long suffering to us ward is because he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3. 5. Hence the Apostle to the Hebrews exhorts them Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your fathers tempted me proved me and saw my works forty years Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said They do alway err in their hearts and they have not known my ways So I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest There is some dispute what is meant by to day whether it be the day of this Life or such a fixt and determin'd day and season of Grace as may end long before this Life The example of the Israelites of whom God swear in his wrath that they should die in the Wilderness and never enter into his Rest that is into the Land of Canaan seems to incline it to the latter sence for this sentence That they should not enter into his Rest was pronounc'd against them long before they died for which reason they wandered forty Years in the Wilderness till all that Generation of Men were dead and if we are concern'd in this example then we also may provoke God to such a degree that he may pronounce the final sentence on us That we shall never enter into Heaven long before we leave this World Our day of Grace may
IMPRIMATUR Z. Isham R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. Ã Sacris Septemb. 11 1689. A Practical Discourse CONCERNING DEATH BY WILLIAM SHERLOCK D. D. Master of the TEMPLE LONDON Printed for W. Rogers at the Sun over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street MDCLXXXIX To the Worshipful THE MASTERS of the BENCH And the rest of the Members of the two Honourable Societies OF THE TEMPLE My much Honoured Friends ONE reason of Publishing this Plain Discourse is because I cannot now Preach to you as formerly I have done and have no other way left of discharging my Duty to You but by making the Press supply the place of the Pulpit Part of this You have already heard and should have heard the rest had I enjoyed the same Liberty still which God restore to me again when He sees fit if not His will be done And the only reason of this Dedication is to make this publick and thankful Acknowledgment before I am forced from You if I must be so Unhappy of Your Great Respects and many singular Favours to me which have been always so free and generous that they never gave time nor left any room for me to ask especially that obliging Welcome You gave me at my first coming I mean Your Present of a House which besides the Conveniencies and Pleasure of a Delightful Habitation has afforded me that which I value much more the frequent opportunities of Your Conversation Though I am able to make You no better Return than Thanks I hope that Great MASTER whom I serve will and that GOD would multiply all Temporal and Spiritual Blessings on You is and always shall be the sincere and hearty Prayer of GENTLEMEN Your Most Obliged and Humble Servant W. Sherlock THE CONTENTS THe Introduction Page 1 CHAP. I. The several Notions of Death and the Improvement of them 4 SECT I. The first Notion of Death that it is our leaving this World with the Improvement of it 6 SECT II. The second Notion of Death that it is our putting off these Bodies 35 SECT III. Death considered as our entrance upon a new and unknown State of Life 69 CHAP. II. Concerning the Certainty of our Death 89 SECT I. A Vindication of the Iustice and Goodness of God in appointing Death for all Men 92 SECT II. How to improve this Consideration that we must certainly die 110 CHAP. III. Concerning the time of our Death and the proper Improvement of it 125 SECT I. That the general Period of Humane Life is fixt and determined by God and that it is but very short 128 SECT II. What little reason we have to complain of the Shortness of Humane Life 184 SECT III. What Use to make of the fixt Term of Humane Life 144 SECT IV. What Use to make of the Shortness of Humane Life 162 SECT V. The time and manner and circumstances of every particular Man's Death are not determined by an Absolute and Unconditional Decree 185 SECT VI. The particular time when we are to die is unknown and uncertain to us 196 SECT VII That we must die but Once or that Death translates us to an unchangeable State with the Improvement of it 234 CHAP. IV. Concerning the Fear of Death and the Remedies against it 328 The Conclusion 351 ERRATA PAge 130. l. 8. for unreasonable read unanswerable p. 214. l. 13. r. at present A Practical Discourse CONCERNING DEATH 9 Hebrews 27. It is appointed for Men once to die The INTRODUCTION THere is not a more effectual way to revive the True Spirit of Christianity in the World than seriously to meditate on what we commonly call the four last things Death Judgment Heaven and Hell For it is morally impossible men should live such careless lives should so wholly devote themselves to this World and the service of their Lusts should either cast off the fear of God and all reverence for his Laws or satisfie themselves with some cold and formal Devotions were they possest with a warm and constant sense of these things For what manner of Men ought we to be who know that we must shortly die and come to Judgment and receive according to what we have done in this World whether it be good or evil either eternal Rewards in the Kingdom of Heaven or eternal Punishments with the Devil and his Angels That which first presents it self to our thoughts and shall be the Subject of this following Treatise is Death a very terrible thing the very naming of which is apt to chill our Blood and Spirits and to draw a dark veil over all the Glories of this Life And yet this is the condition of all Mankind we must as surely die as we are born For it is appointed unto Men once to die This is not the Original Law of our Nature for though Man was made of the dust of the Earth and therefore was by nature Mortal for that which is made of dust is by nature corruptible and may be resolved into dust again yet had he not sinned he should never have died he should have been immortal by Grace and therefore had the Sacrament of Immortality the Tree of Life Planted in Paradise But now by Man Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned 5 Rom. 12. and thus it is decreed and appointed by God by an irreversible Sentence dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return Now to improve this Meditation to the best advantage I shall 1. Consider what Death is and what Wisdom that should teach us 2. The certainty of our Death that it is appointed unto Men once to die 3. The time of our death it must be once but when we know not 4. The natural fears and terrors of Death or our natural aversions to it and how they may be allayed and sweetned CHAP. I. The several Notions of Death and the Improvement of them 1. WHat Death is and I shall consider three things in it 1. That it is our leaving this World. 2. Our putting off these earthly Bodies 3. Our entrance into a New and Unknown state of Life for when we die we do not fall into nothing or into a profound sleep into a state of silence and insensibility till the Resurrection But we only change our place and our dwelling we remove out of this World and leave our Bodies to sleep in the Earth till the Resurrection but our Souls and Spirits live still in an invisible State. I shall not go about to prove these things but take it for granted that you all believe them For that we leave this World and that our Bodies rot and putrifie in the Grave needs no proof for we see it with our eyes and that our Souls cannot die but are by nature Immortal has been the belief of all Mankind The Gods which the Heathens Worshipped were most of them no other but dead Men and therefore they did believe that the Soul survived the Funeral of the
Reason and by that time he has got a little Knowledge and is earnestly seeking after more by that time he knows what it is to be a Man and to what purpose he ought to live what God is and how much he is bound to Love and Worship him while he is ennobling his Soul with all Heavenly Qualities and Vertues and Coppying out the Divine Image when the Glories of Humane Nature begin to appear and to shine in him that is when he is most fit to live to serve God and Men then I say either this mortal Nature decays and dust returns to its dust again or some violent distemper or evil accident cuts him off in a vigorous age and when with great labour and industry he is become fit to live he must live no longer How is it possible to reconcile this with the Wisdom of God if man perishes when he dies if he ceases to be as soon as he comes to be a man. And therefore we have reason to believe that death only translates us into another World where the beginnings of Wisdom and Vertue here grow up into perfection and if that be a more happy place than this World as you have already heard we have no reason to quarrel that we live so little a while here For seting aside the Miseries and Calamities the troubles and inconveniencies of this Life which the happiest men are exposed to for our experience tells us that there is no complete and unmixt happiness here setting aside that this World is little else than a Scene of Misery to a great part of Mankind who struggle with want and poverty labour under the oppressions of Men or the pains and sicknesses of diseased Bodies yet if we were as happy as this World could make us we should have no reason to complain that we must exchange it for a much greater happiness We now call it death to leave this World but were we once out of it and enstated in the happiness of the next we should think it were dying indeed to come into it again We read of none of the Apostles who did so passionately desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ as St. Paul and there was some reason for it because he had had a tast of that happiness being snatched up into the third Heavens Indeed could we see the Glories of that place it would make us impatient of living here and possibly that is one reason why they are concealed from us but yet reason tells us that if death translate us to a better place the shortness of our lives here is an advantage to us if we take care to spend them well for we shall be the sooner possest of a much happier Life III. From this Notion of Death that it is our leaving this World I observe farther what this life is only a state of growth and improvement of trial and probation for the next There can be no doubt of this if we consider what the Scripture tells us of it that we shall be rewarded in the next World as we have behaved our selves in this That we shall receive according to what we have done in the Body whether good or evil Which proves that this life is only in order to the next that our eternal happiness or misery shall bare proportion to the good or evil which we have done here And when we only consider that after a short continuance here man must be removed out of this World if we believe that he does not utterly perish when he dies but subsists still in another state we have reason to believe that this life is only a preparation for the next For why should a man come into this World and afterwards be removed into another if this World had no relation nor subordination to the next Indeed it is evident that man is an improvable Creature not created at first in the utmost perfection of his Nature nor put into the happiest state he is capable of but trained up to perfection and happiness by degrees Adam himself in a state of innocence was but upon his good behaviour was but a probationer for Immortality which he forfeited by his sin and as I observed before it is most probable that had he continued innocent and refined and exalted his nature by the practise of Divine Vertues he should not have lived always in this World but have been translated into Heaven And I cannot see how it is inconsistent with the Wisdom of God to make some Creatures in a state of Probation that as the Angelical Nature was created so pure at first as to be fit to live in Heaven so Man though an earthly yet a reasonable Creature might be in a capacity by the improvement of his natural powers of advancing himself thither As it became the manifold Wisdom of God to create the Earth as well as the Heavens so it became his Wisdom to make Man to inhabitate this Earth for it was not fitting that any part of the World should be destitute of reasonable Beings to know and adore their Maker and to ascribe to him the glory of his Works but then since a reasonable Nature is capable of greater improvements than to live always in this World it became the Divine Goodness to make this World only a state of Probation and Discipline for the next that those who by a long and constant practice of Vertue had spiritualized their Natures into a Divine Purity might ascend into Heaven which is the true Center of all intelligent Beings This seems to be the original intention of God in making man and then this earthly life was from the beginning but a state of growth and improvement to make us fit for Heaven though without dying But to be sure the Scene is much alter'd now for Adam by his sin made himself mortal and corrupted his own nature and propagated a mortal and corrupt nature to his Posterity and therefore we have no natural right to Immortality nor can we refine our Souls into such a divine Purity as is fit for Heaven by the weakned and corrupted powers of Nature but what we cannot do Christ has done for us he has purchast Immortality for us by his Death and quickens and raises us into a new Life by his Spirit but since still we must die before we are immortal it is more plain than ever that this life is only in order to the next that the great business we have to do in this World is to prepare ourselves for Immortality and Glory Now if our life in this World be onely in order to another life we ought not to expect our complete Happiness here for we are only in the way to it we must finish the Work God has given us to do in this World and expect our reward in the next And if our reward cannot be had in this World we may conclude that there is something much better in the next World than any thing here If
signifie an eternal and unchangable Kingdom a thousand years being a certain earnest of Immortality but there is an unreasonable Objection against that because we read of the expiring of these thousand years and what shall come after them even the final Judgment of all the World. But this is a great Mystery which we must not hope perfectly to understand till we see the blessed accomplishment of it But though before the Flood some persons lived very near the thousand years yet after the Flood the term of life was much shortned Some think this was done by God when he pronounced that Sentence 6 Gen. 3. And the Lord said My spirit shall not always strive with man for that he also is flesh yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years As if God had then decreed that the life of man should not exceed an hundred and twenty years but this does not agree with that account we have of mens lives after the Flood for not only Noah and his Sons who were with him in the Ark lived much longer than this after the Flood but Arphazad lived five hundred and thirty years Salah four hundred and three years Eber four hundred and thirty years and Abraham himself a hundred seventy five years and therefore this hundred and twenty years cannot refer to the ordinary term of man's life but to the continuance of God's patience with that wicked World before he would bring the Flood upon them to destroy that corrupt Generation of Men that is that he would bear with them a hundred and twenty years before he would send the Flood to destroy them But afterwards by degrees life was shortned insomuch that though Moses himself lived a great deal longer yet if the 90 Psalm were composed by him as the Title tells us it was the ordinary term of life in his days was but threescore and ten or fourscore years 10 v. The days of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow so soon passeth it away and it is gone And this has continued the ordinary measure of life ever since which is so very short that David might well say Behold thou hast made my days as an hand-breadth and mine age is as nothing before thee verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity 39 Psal. 5. I shall not scrupulously inquire into the reason of this great change why our lives are reduced into so narrow a compass Some will not believe that it was so but think that there is a mistake in the manner of the account that when they are said to live eight or nine hundred years they computed their years by the Moon not by the Sun that is their years were months twelve of which make but one of our years and then indeed the longest livers of them did not live so long as many men do at this day for Methusalah himself who lived nine hundred sixty nine years according to this computation of months for years lived but fourscore years and five months But it is very absurd to imagine that Moses should use two such different accounts of time that sometimes by a year he should mean no more than a month and sometimes twelve months without giving the least notice of it which is unpardonable in any Historian And therefore others complain much that they were not born in those days when the life of man was prolonged for so many hundred years There had been some comfort in living then when they enjoyed all the vigour and gaiety of youth and could relish the pleasure of life for seven eight or nine hundred years A blessing which men would purchase at any rate in our days but now we can scarce turn ourselves about in the World but we are admonished by gray Hairs or the sensible decays of Nature to prepare for our Winding-sheet And therefore for the farther improvement of this argument I shall 1. shew you what little reason we have to complain of the Shortness of Life 2. What wise use we are to make of it SECT II. What little reason we have to complain of the Shortness of Humane Life 1. WHat little reason we have to complain of the Shortness of Life and the too hasty Approaches of Death to us For 1. such a long Life is not reconcileable with the present State of the World. And 2ly our Lives are long enough for all the wise purposes of living 1. Such a long Life is not reconcileable with the present state of the World. What the state of the World was before the Flood in what manner they lived and how they employed their time we cannot tell for Moses has given no account of it but taking the World as it is and as we find it I dare undertake to convince those men who are most apt to complain of the shortness of Life that it would not be for the general Happiness of Mankind to have it much longer For 1. the World is at present very unequally divided some have a large share and portion of it others have nothing but what they earn by very hard Labour or extort from other mens Charity by their restless Importunities or gain by more ungodly Arts Now though the Rich and Prosperous who have the World at command and live in ease and pleasure would be very well contented to spend some hundred years in this World yet I should think fifty or threescore years abundantly enough for Slaves and Beggars enough to spend in Hunger and Want in a Jaol and a Prison And those who are so foolish as not to think this enough owe a great deal to the wisdom and goodness of God that he does So that the greatest part of Mankind have great reason to be contented with the shortness of Life because they have no temptation to wish it longer 2ly The present state of this World requires a more quick Succession the World is pretty well peopled and is divided among its present Inhabitants and but very few in comparison as I observed before have any considerable share in the division Now let us but suppose that all our Ancestors who lived an hundred or two hundred years ago were alive still and possessed their old Estates and Honours what had become of this present Generation of Men who have now taken their places and make as great a show and busle in the World as they did And if you look back three or four or five hundred years the case is still so much the worse the World would be over-peopl'd and where there is one poor miserable man now there must have been five hundred or the World must have been common and all men reduced to the same level which I believe the rich and happy People who are so fond of long Life would not like very well This would utterly undo our young prodigal Heirs were their hopes of Succession three or four hundred
God if he sincerely repent of his sins and reform his life but it only proves that a wicked ungodly Christian who prefers the pleasures and enjoyments of this World before the hopes of Heaven and defiles his Soul with impure and worldly Lusts what pretences soever he may make to the Blessing or how importunate soever he may be for it shall receive no Blessing from God that is that without holiness no man shall see God which is the very thing the Apostle intended to prove by this example as you may see v. 14. I grant the case is different as to Churches and Nations sometimes their day of Grace is fixt and determin'd beyond which without Repentance they shall no longer enjoy the light of the Gospel Thus the appearance of Christ in the Flesh and his preaching the Gospel to them was the last trial of Ierusalem and determin'd the fate of that beloved City and therefore when Christ rode into Ierusalem in order to his Crucifixion When he was come near he beheld the city and wept over it Saying if thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes For the days shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round and keep thee in on every side and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation 19 Luke 41 c. And this our Saviour warned them of before 12 Joh. 35 36. Yet a little is the light with you walk while ye have the light lest darkness come upon you for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth While ye have light believe in the light that ye may be the children of light Which signifies that unless they believed on him while he was with them they must be utterly destroyed The kingdom of God should be taken from them and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof as he proves by the Parable of the Housholder who planted a Vineyard 21 Mat. 33 c. And this was in some measure the case of the seven Churches of Asia to whom St. Iohn directed his Epistles to summon them to repentance and to threaten them with the removal of the Candlestick if they did not repent The judgments of God in the overthrow of some flourishing Churches and in transplanting the Gospel from one Nation to another are very mysterious and unsearchable but as for particular persons who enjoy the light of the Gospel unless they shorten their day of Grace themselves God does not shorten it as long as they live in this World they are capable of Grace and Mercy if they truly repent 2. Men may shorten their own Day of Grace not by shortning the time of Grace and Mercy for that lasts as long as this Life does but by out-living the possibility of Repentance and when they are past Repentance their Day of Grace is at an end and this may be much shorter than their lives that is Men may so harden themselves in sin as to make their Repentance morally impossible and God in his just and righteous Judgments may give up such Men to a state of Hardness and Impenitence Every degree of love to Sin proportionably enslaves Men to the practice of it makes repentance as uneasie and difficult as it is to pluck out a right eye and cut off a right hand 5 Mat. 29 30 as painful as dying as crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts which few Men will submit to 8 Rom. 13. 3 Col. 5. An habit and custom of sin turns into nature and is as difficultly altered as nature is Can the Aethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil 13 Jer. 23. Some sins are of such a hardening nature that few men who are once entangled by them can ever break the snare such as Adultery or the love of strange Women of whom Solomon tells us Her house inclineth unto death and her paths unto the dead none that go unto her return again neither take they hold of the paths of life 2 Prov. 18 19. Covetuousness is such another hardening sin that our Saviour tells us It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven those who love and those who trust in their riches 10 Matth. 23 24 25. Those who have been once enlightned and fall back again into Infidelity who have been instructed in the reasons of Faith and the motives of Obedience who have had the heavenly Seed of God's Word sown in their hearts but have not brought forth the Fruits of it are near the Curse of barren Ground which drinketh in the Dews and Rain of Heaven and brings forth briars and thorns which is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burnt 6 Heb. 4 5 6 7 8. When Men obstinately resist the perpetual motions and solicitations of the holy Spirit he withdraws from them and gives them up to their own counsels as we leave off perswading those who will not be perswaded And when the spirit of God forsakes such Men the evil Spirit seizeth them that Spirit which ruleth in the Children of Disobedience 2 Eph. 3. for the World is divided into the Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of Light 1 Col. 13 and those who are not under the government of the Divine Spirit are led captive by the Devil at his will 2 Tim. 2. 6 and therefore our Saviour hath taught us to pray to be delivered from Evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Evil One that is from the Devil for that is a hopeless state when God gives us up to the government of evil Spirits Nay when Men harden themselves in sin they are rejected by the good Providence of God which secures good Men from or delivers them out of Temptations as our Saviour has taught us to pray Lead us not into temptation as a Father keeps a watchful eye over a dutiful Child to preserve him from any harm and to choose the most proper condition and circumstances of life for him but suffers a Prodigal to go where he pleases and undo himself as fast as he can And whoever considers the weakness and folly of humane Nature and the power of Temptations must needs conclude that Man given up to ruine who is rejected by the good Spirit of God and cast out of the care of his Providence Into this miserable state Men may bring themselves by sin which though it does not make them uncapable of Mercy if they do repent yet it makes it morally impossible that they should repent It is this the Apostle to the Hebrews warns them against from the example of the Hardness and Infidelity
of the Israelites in the Wilderness of whom God swear that they should not enter into his rest as appears from the application he himself makes of it 3 Heb. 12 13. Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God But exhort one another daily while it is called To day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin This is a plain account of that great Question concerning the length of the Day of Grace Men may out-live the time of Repentance may so harden themselves in sin as to make their Repentance morally impossible but they cannot out-live the Mercies of God to true Penitents This is reason enough to discourage Men from delaying their Repentance and indulging themselves in a vicious course of Life Lest they should be hardned by the deceitfulness of sin and should be forsaken by God but it is no reason to discourage true Penitents from trusting in the Mercy of God how late soever their Repentance be for while we live in this World the door of Grace and Mercy is not shut against true Penitents 3. But yet the reasons of lengthning the Day of Grace and Mercy do not reach beyond this Life This sufficiently appears from what I have already said and for a further confirmation of it I shall add but this one comprehensive Reason viz. That the Grace of the Gospel is confined to the Church on Earth and therefore this Life is the only time to obtain the remission of our Sins and a title to future Glory We shall be finally absolved from all our Sins and rewarded with eternal Life at the Day of Judgment but we must sue out our Pardon and make our Calling and Election sure in this World. The Gospel of Christ which is the Gospel of Grace and contains the promises of Pardon and immortal Life is preached only to Men on Earth and concerns none else For this reason Christ became Man cloathed with flesh and blood as we are that he might be the Saviour of Mankind which he need not have done had not their Salvation been to be wrought in this World for could they have been saved in the next his Grace might have met them soon enough there and therefore at the birth of our Saviour the Angels sang Glory be to God in the highest on earth peace good will towards men 2 Luke 14. The Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross as all Iewish Sacrifices which were Types of the Sacrifice of the Cross were was offered for the expiation of the Sins of living Men or at least considered as living not of the dead He carried his blood into Heaven as the High-Priest did the blood of the Sacrifice into the Holy of Holies there to make expiation and to interceed for us but this Intercession though made in Heaven relates only to Men on Earth as his Sacrifice did The earthly Tabernacle was a Type of the Church on Earth and that only and the Worshippers in it was expiated by Sacrifices There are two Sacraments whereby the Grace of the Gospel is applied to us and which are the ordinary means of Salvation Baptism and the Lord's Supper and they are confined to the Church on Earth and if they have not their effect here they cannot have it in the next World These unite us to Christ as Members of his Body and then the holy Spirit which animates the Body of Christ takes possession of us renews and sanctifies us but if we prove dead and barren Branches in this spiritual Vine if the Censures of the Church do not cut us off from the Body of Christ Death will and then we can never be re-united to him nor saved by him in the next World. Faith in Christ and Repentance from dead Works are the great Gospel-terms of Pardon and Salvation and these are confined to this World there may be something like them in the next World such a Faith as makes the Devils tremble such a Repentance as is nothing else but despairing Agonies and a hopeless and tormenting Remorse but such a Faith as purifies the heart as conquers this present World as brings forth the fruits of Righteousness such a Repentance as reforms our Lives as undoes all our past Sins as redresses the Injuries we have done to our Neighbours and the Scandal we have given to the World such a Faith and such a Repentance which alone are the true Christian Graces of Faith and Repentance are proper only for this Life and can be exercised only in this Life while we have this World to conquer and the Flesh to subdue to the Spirit while we can restore our ill-gotten Riches and set a visible Example of Piety and Vertue From hence it is very evident that no Man who dies in a state of Sin and Impenitence can be saved by Christ and by the Grace of the Gospel in the next World for the whole ministration of Gospel-grace is confined to this Life and if they cannot be saved by Christ I know no other Name whereby they can be saved And thus Death puts an end to all the flattering hopes of Sinners 3. Now if this Life be our only state of trial and probation for Eternity if Death puts a final end to our Day of Grace and time of Working then Death must translate us to an immutable and unchangeable state By this I do not mean that as soon as we go out of these Bodies our Souls will immediately be as happy or miserable as ever they shall be the perfect rewards of good Men are reserved for the Day of Judgment as the final punishments of bad Men are when our Lord shall say to those on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world And to them on the left hand Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels 25 Mat. 34 41. But though the Happiness or Miseries of the next World may increase yet the state can never alter that is if we die in a state of Grace and Favour with God we shall always continue so if we die in a state of Sin under the wrath and displeasure of God there is no altering our state in the other World we must abide under his wrath for ever This is the necessary consequence of what I have already said which all aimed at this point that once dying puts us into an immutable and unchangeable state and therefore I shall wave any further proof of this and only desire you seriously to consider of it 1. Now first since Death puts an end to our Day of Grace and determines our final State for ever and this Death comes but once all Men must confess of what mighty consequence it is to die well that Death find us well disposed and well prepared for another World. Men use their utmost prudence and caution in doing that which can be
to decide this Controversie but thus much I will say and that I think is all that is needful for a Christian to know about it That to be in a state of Grace is to have an inward principle of Holiness which brings forth the fruits of a holy Life that to persevere in a state of Grace is to persevere in the practice of Holiness and Vertue that many who have begun well and have thought themselves and have been thought by others to be truly good Men have afterwards been overcome by the Temptations of the World and defiled themselves with the impure Lusts of it that if such Men ever were good Men and in a state of Grace they fall from Grace when they forsake the paths of Holiness and that those who do thus fall away who after promising beginnings do all the abominations of the Wicked and live and die in such a state shall never enter into Heaven We shall receive our final Doom and Sentence according to that state and condition in which Death finds us What is said upon another account that we must call no Man happy before death is true in this sence no Man is a Conqueror but he who dies so Those Men deceive themselves who confidently pretend to be still in a state of Grace and Favour with God because formerly they were good Men though now they are grown very bad this is to persevere in a state of Favour with God without persevering in Holiness which overthrows the Gospel of our Saviour and will miserably deceive those Men who have no better foundation for their hopes 3. We hence learn how dangerous it is to die in the actual commission of any known and wilful sin Such Men go into the other World and go to Judgement with actual guilt upon them they die in their sins for they could not repent of them before they died because they died in the commission of them and there is no repentance and therefore no pardon in the next World. This has been and very often is the miserable and I fear the hopeless state of a great many Sinners How many are there who not only drink themselves into a Feavour which takes some time to kill them and gives them some time to repent of their sins and to ask God's pardon but drink themselves dead or which is much at one as to this case drink away their reason and senses and then fall from their Horses or down a Precipiece and perish by some evil accident or when they are inflamed with Wine forget their old friendships and fall by each others hands How many others have perished in the very act of Adultery or which is much the same in quarrelling for a Strumpet in the rage and fury of Lust How many die in the very act of Theft and Robbery All such Men receive the present punishment of their sins in this World and carry the unrepented guilt of them into the next and if Men shall be damned who die in their sins without repentance such Mens condition is desperate And this may be the case of any Man who ventures upon a wilful sin he may die in the very act of it and then his repentance will come too late in the next World and this so often happens that no wise Man would venture his Soul upon it But there are two Sins especially which this consideration should deter Men from viz. Duelling and Self-murder When Men have such a resentment of Affronts and Injuries as to revenge themselves with their Swords and either to thirst after each others blood or at least to stake their lives and to venture killing or being killed to decide the Quarrel these Men have the hearts of Murderers who would kill if they could or at least will venture killing their Brother to appease their resentments or revenge which is a mortal and a murdering revenge whether it murder or not and therefore if such Men fall in the quarrel as many do without time to ask God's pardon with their last breath they die under the guilt of Murder unrepented of though they do not kill but are killed yet they die with murderous intentions with a mortal hatred and revenge for they would have killed if they could and St. Iohn tells us He that hateth his brother is a murderer and we know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him 1 John 3. 15. So that these Duellers do not only venture their Lives but their Souls too if they fall in the quarrel and how little soever they value their Lives it is a little too much to pawn their Souls upon a point of Honour As for Self-murder if we will allow it to be a Sin it is certain that no Man who commits it can repent of it in this World and there is no pardon for sins in the next World which are not repented of in this And yet why we should not think it as great a sin to murder ourselves as to murder our Brother I cannot imagine for it has all the marks of a very great sin upon it It is as much Murder to kill ourselves as it is to kill another Man and therefore it is a breach of the sixth Commandment Thou shalt not kill The reason against Murder is the same For in the image of GOD made he man 9 Gen. 6 and he who kills himself destroys God's Image as much as he who kills another Man. The more unnatural the sin is or the greater obligations we have to preserve the life of the person whom we kill the greater the sin is to murder a kind Friend and a Benefactor is a greater evil than to murder a Stranger to murder a Parent or a Child a Wife or a Husband is still a greater evil because they are so much nearer ourselves and if the nearness of the relation increases the sin no body is so near to us as our selves and therefore there is no such unnatural Murder as this The excuses which are made for Self-murder will not justifie the Murder of any other Man in the World Though we should see a Friend whom we love like ourselves labouring under intolerable pains or insupportable misfortunes and calamities of life though he should importune and beseech us to put an end to his sufferings by putting an end to a miserable life though out of great kindness and compassion we heartily desire to follow him to his Grave yet we must not kill him neither the Laws of God nor Man will allow this And yet if Self-love be the measure of our love to other Men and will justifie Self-murder when we are grown weary of life when we either despise the World or think it best to make our escape out of it I cannot imagine why we may not do the same kindness for a Friend or a Brother when he desires it as we may do for ourselves the reason is the same in both and if it will not justifie both it can justifie
Lives much beyond the short Period of them in this World. 5. If Death puts an end to our Account methinks a Dying-bed is a little of the latest to begin it for this is to begin just where we must end The Account of our Lives is the Account of the Good or Evil we have done while we lived And what account can a dying Man give of this who has spent his whole life in sin and wickedness If he must be judged according to what he hath done in the Body how sad is his account and how impossible is it for him to mend it now For when he is just a dying it is too late for him to begin to live If without holiness no man shall see God how hopeless is his condition who has lived a wicked and profligate life all his days and is now past living and therefore past living a holy life A Man who is confined to a sick and dying Bed is uncapable of exercising the vertues of life his time of work is over almost as perfectly over as if he were dead and therefore his account is finished and he must expect his reward according to what he has already done No you 'll say he may still repent of his sins and a true Penitent shall find mercy even at his last gasp Now I readily grant that all true Penitents shall be saved whensoever they truly repent but it is hard to think that any dying sorrows or the dying vows and resolutions of Sinners shall be accepted by GOD for true repentance The mistakes of this matter are very fatal and therefore I shall briefly explain it In expounding the Promises of the Gospel we must take care to reconcile the Gospel to itself and not make one part of it contradict or overthrow another now as the Gospel promises pardon of sin to true Repentance so it makes Holiness of life as necessary a condition of Salvation as true Repentance Without holiness no man shall see GOD. GOD will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil but glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good Be not deceived GOD is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting The Promises of forgiveness to Repentance are not more express than these Texts are which declare that we shall be rewarded according to our works and we have as much reason to believe the one as the other and if we believe the Gospel we must believe them both and then Repentance and a holy Life are both necessary to Salvation and then the dying sorrows of Sinners who have lived very wicked lives and are past mending them now cannot be true saving Repentance If sorrow for sin without a holy life can carry Men to Heaven then I 'm sure Holiness is not necessary then Men may see God without Holiness and then the promises of pardon to Repentance if this dying Sorrow be true Repentance overthrows the necessity of a holy Life the necessity of a holy Life contradicts the promises of pardon to such Penitents and then either one or both of them must be false To state this Matter plainly and in a few words we must distinguish between two kinds of Repentance 1. The Baptismal Repentance 2. Repentance upon a Relapse or falling into any known and wilful Sin. I. By Baptismal Repentance I mean that Repentance which is necessary in adult persons in order to their receiving Christian Baptism this is the Repentance which is most frequently mentioned in the New Testament and to which the promise of Remission and Forgiveness is annexed this our Saviour preached Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand 4 Matth. 17. This he gave authority to his Apostles to preach That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name among all nations 24 Luke 47. Now this Repentance both as to Iews and Heathens who embraced the Faith of Christ was a renouncing all their former Sins and false superstitious or idolatrous Worship and this qualified them for Baptism in which they obtain'd the remission of all their Sins in the Name of Christ and for this reason remission of Sins is promised to Repentance because all such Penitents are received to Baptism which is the washing of Regeneration which washes away all their Sins and puts them into a state of Grace and Favour with God as St. Peter tells the Iews Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ for the remission of sins 2 Acts 38. And much to the same purpose Ananias told St. Paul Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins calling on the Name of the Lord 22 Acts 16. And I know not any one Text in the New Testament wherein the remission of Sins is absolutely promised to Repentance but what must be understood of this Baptismal Repentance and then Repentance and Remission of Sin are inseparably annexed because such Penitents wash away all their Sins in Baptism and come pure and undefiled out of that mystical Fountain which is set open for Sin and for Uncleanness to wash in and to be clean Now I grant should any person who comes to Baptism rightly qualified and disposed with a sincere Repentance and stedfast Faith in Christ die soon after he is baptized before he has time and opportunity to exercise any of the Graces of the Christian Life such a Man shall go to Heaven without actual Holiness the remission of his Sins in Baptism upon his Repentance will save him though he have not time to bring forth the fruits of Repentance in a holy Life and this is the only case I know of wherein a Penitent can be saved without actual Holiness viz. by Baptismal Grace and Regeneration Only the Primitive Church and I think with very good reason allowed the same to Martyrdom when it prevented the Baptism of young Converts as we know under the Pagan Persecutions young Converts who made bold confessions of their Faith in Christ were hurried away to Martyrdom before they had opportunity of being baptized but such Men were baptized in their own Bloud and that supplied the want of Water-baptism which they could not have Now in this case also if Martyrdom be instead of Baptism as the Primitive Church thought it then had any Heathen been converted from a lewd and profligate life to the Faith of Christ and been immediately apprehended and halled to Martyrdom before he could either be baptized or give any other testimony of the reformation of his Life and Manners but by dying
or the constant and uniform practice of an universal Righteousness And a great many such Signs have been invented which like strong Opiates asswage their pain and smart till their Consciences awake when it is too late in the next World. For all this is Cheat and Delusion as St. Iohn assures us Little children Let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous He that committeth sin is of the devil for the devil sinneth from the beginning for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil Whosoever is born of GOD doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of GOD. In this the children of GOD are manifest and the children of the devil whosoever doth not righteousness is not of GOD neither he that loveth not his brother This is the only sure Evidence for Heaven and therefore every Sin Men commit makes their state doubtful and this must fill them with perplexities and fears Men may cheat themselves with vain hopes and imaginations when they come to die but nothing can be a solid foundation for Peace and Security but an Universal Righteousness The CONCLUSION FOr the Conclusion of this Discourse I shall only observe in a few words that it must be the business of our whole Lives to prepare for Death Our Accounts must be always ready because we know not how soon we may be called to give an account of our Stewardship we must be always upon our Watch as not knowing at what hour our Lord will come A good Man who has taken care all his life to please God has little more to do when he sees Death approaching than to take leave of his Friends to bless his Children to support and comfort himself with the hopes of immortal Life and a glorious Resurrection and to resign up his Spirit into the hands of God and of his Saviour His Lamp is full of Oyl and always burning tho' it may need a little trimming when the Bridegroom comes some new acts of Faith and Hope and such devout Passions as are proper to be exercised at our leaving the World and going to God but when the Bridegroom is at the Door it is too late with the foolish Virgins to buy Oyl for our Lamps unless we be ready when the Bridegroom comes to enter in with him to the Marriage the Door will be shut against us Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh Some Men talk of preparing for Death as if it were a thing that could be done in two or three days and that the proper time of doing it were a little before they die but I know no other Preparation for Death but living well and thus we must every day prepare for Death and then we shall be well prepared when Death comes that is we shall be able to give a good account of our Lives and of the improvement of our Talents and he who can do this is well prepared to die and to go to Judgment but he who has spent all his days wickedly whatever care he may take when he comes to die to prepare himself for it it is certain he can never prepare a good Account of his past Life and all his other Preparations are little worth The END ADVERTISEMENT A Preservative against Popery in two Parts With a Vindication in Answer to the Cavils of Lewis Sabran a Jesuit By William Sherlock D. D. Master of the Temple Printed for W. Rogers 2. Heb. 14 15. See 5 Prov. 22 23. 7. 22 23 26 27. 3 Heb. 12. 12 Heb. 15. 2 Pet. 2. 20 21 22. 12 Heb. 14. 2 Rom. 6 7 8 9 10. 6 Gal. 7 8. 20 Mat. 1 c. 15 Luk. 11 c. 1 Rom. 18. 1 Cor. 6 9 10. 7 Mat. 21. 18 Mat. 21 22. 2 Acts 38 41. 3 Rom. 20 21 22 24. 5 Rom. 1. 2 Eph. 8 9. 5 Gal. 2 3. Ibid. 2 Rom. 13 25 26 27 28 29. 8 Rom. 4. 1 Cor. 15. 55 56 57. 7 Heb. 25. 1 John 3. 20 21. 1 John 3. 7 8 9 10. 25 Mat. 1 c.