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A03695 Life and death Foure sermons. The first two, of our preparation to death; and expectation of death. The last two, of place, and the iudgement after death. Also points of instruction for the ignorant, with an examination before our comming to the Lords table, and a short direction for spending of time well. By Robert Horne. Auspice Christo. Horne, Robert, 1565-1640.; Horne, Robert, 1565-1640. Points of instruction for the ignorant. aut 1613 (1613) STC 13822.5; ESTC S118515 156,767 464

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him but deale kindly with him nor run from him but towards him to bid him welcome not to bid him be gone Luc. 15.11 c. His very miserie was sufficient matter to worke vpon his fathers heart would not this ouercome a man the Lord is kinder to vs and how can we setting him before vs in so great loue but breake of the course of sinne and with a yeeding heart returne to our father Fourthly we must set the Lord before vs in his prouidence not onely generall to all but particular to vs which being well considered must needs doe something with vs for a better course For who will not seeke to please him or her vpon whom he must rely for al the turnes of life Seeing then wee depend on God for all things and that our life is at his only pleasure who breath in the aire of his mercies how can we thinke of this and thinke indeed and earnestly thereof and not striue to obey him in his word of whose prouidence we moue and haue beeing Acts 17.28 Fiftly and lastly for it were infinite to speake of all we must set the Lord before vs in Christ in whom he so loued vs not then friends but enemies Ro. 5.8.10 that he gaue his Son to death for vs Ioh. 3.10 Now what enemie will not bee reconciled and dearely loue him who shall but offer to die for him Christ died and made not an offer onely to die for vs and is not this sufficient beeing well and deepely thought of to reconcile vs to God by submission to Christ by spirituall life By all this wee may easily iudge why God is so little regarded among vs. Vse For we set him seldome before vs and as seldom we appeare before him rather we say Depart from vs wee desire not the knowledge of thy waies Iob. 21.14 So did Dauids enemies of whom hee maketh complaint in diuers Psalmes For he saith they sought not God and which made them more securely to doe euill they thought there was no God And after he giueth this for a reason of their so desperate and bold madnesse The iudgements of God were high aboue their sight that is they set them so farre off that they neuer looked after them nor did remember them Ps 10.4.5 Further speaking of strangers that rose vp against him and of tyrants that sought his life that which made them so cruell as he saith was they set not God before them Ps 54.3 86.14 God was not in their thoughts nor the feare of God before their eies therefore they kept no measure in sinning Let vs for our selues remember this who haue the Lord set before vs in the preaching of the Gospell euerie sabbath day Let vs remember him in his Sonne and not forget him in his iudgements specially in his last iudgement The end of our daies and the beginning of that draweth on the Sun is long since past the meredian line and death we know will not be answered with an I pray thee haue mee excused Luc. 14.19 Let vs not therefore put off till the flood come not of waters but of insufferable fire or till the Lord come with deuouring fire and with his tempest of the last iudgement to kindle it Let vs rather frame that course for our selues now that hereafter may proue in our dying houre or at this worlds last houre an arke for our bodies and a tabernacle for our soules If we would set the word before vs or God in it we should see our dangerous waies and by so cleare a light better direct our steppes Ps 119.105 If we would well remember Gods prouidence ouer vs and care for vs we should not doe as we haue done we would beare euils more patiently and doe euill more vnwillingly seeing whatsoeuer commeth to vs commeth by his appointment and whatsoeuer euill is done against him by vs is done against his bounties and loue And if we would set him before vs in Christ how could we sinne against the sacrifice of such a Redeemer or if we wold set Christ before vs in that day wherein this world that must be destroied shall crackle about our cares being all on fire and the large Ierusalem of the earth be brought downe by him who will send forth his voice and that a mighty voice Ps 50.3.4 how little would we regard the short and deare-prized pleasures of this our momentany and fading life But because God is so farre out of our sight and so late in our hearts therefore doe offenders so multiplie among vs and sinne so abound that the regions begin to grow white and we cannot but thinke that the Angell will shortly thrust in his sicle Men are at no paines and bestow no care in Gods seruice Men are mercilesse without naturall affection false accusers and despisers of them which are good 2. Tim. 3.3 Men want faith and some goe cleane against it both in word and in bookes written Sin is full ripe now which in our fathers daies was but greene in the eare and iniquitie that then stroue with righteousnesse hath now gotten the vpper hand what doe all these shew but that God is forgotten and that the fearefull God is cast behind vs in this age of so great liberty and fulnes of sinne The Lord giue vs the due consideration of these things pardon our great sinnes for his owne great names sake to whom be praise and glory for euer The end of the third sermon THE FOVRTH SERMON IVDES Epistle verses 14.15 Vers 14 Behold the Lord commeth with thousands of Saints Vers 15. Togiue iudgment vpon all men and to rebuke all the vngodly among them of all their wicked deeds which they haue vngodlily committed and of all their cruell speakings which wicked sinners haue spoken against him THis prophecy was ancient for he to whom this testimonie is ascribed was the seuenth from ADAM And it is like it either passed as Enocks from hand to hand by tradition or was found in the daies of the Apostles extant in some booke bearing Enochs name For the Iewes had some vnwritten truths which were profitable and good for instruction and yet were not made articles or rules of faith to saluation This prophecie of Enochs and testimonie of Iudes might bee one yet was it as common water till it passed through the sanctuarie Ezech. 47.1 Till the Apostle Iude or the holy Ghost by him set it down in scripture it was to be receiued but as other truths which are to haue their allowance from the booke of faith But now that the Lord hath brought it into his treasurie among the other golden plates which beare for letters of credence the stampe of his Spirit wee must take it for his owne coine and sacred metall distinguishing it from baser metall that hath receiued but common impression and is marked with the finger of man That which the Apostle would proue by this testimoni● is that those seducers of Gods people of whom he had spoken
Scripture speaketh of such an one crucified at the right hand of the Sonne of God who crauing with faith mercy to saluation receiued this answer To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise But it speaketh but of one that was so saued And it speaketh of another in that very place and at that very time that was damned And here a Father saith Wee reade of one that no man should despaire and but of one that no man should presume This example therefore is a medicine against desperation no cloake for sinne Let vs therefore passe the time of our dwelling here in feare seeing wee are redeemed from our vaine conuersation not with corruptible things as with gold and siluer but with the precious bloud of Christ as of a Lambe vndefiled and without spot 1. Pet. 1.17 To whom with the Father and Holy-ghost be all glory for euer Amen The end of the first Sermon THE SECOND SERMON IOB Chap. 14. Vers 14. All the daies of my appointed time I would waite till my change were come THese words were spoken by Iob of whose patience and prouocations to impatiencie this whole booke and the testimonie of Saint Iames are liuely proofes Iam. 5.11 In the thirteene verse of this chapter Iob hauing as it seemed to him beheld Gods anger in the chastisements that his soule felt wherein as hee said the Lord wrote bitter things against him desiring to bee hid in some secret place of the earth till the Lords face were changed toward him and till hee might see those frownes to goe out of his countenance that had cast such knots vpon his soule In this verse he professeth that if he could perperswade himselfe of any hope yet behinde God shewing himselfe to be an enemie and setting him vp as a marke for all his arrowes he would wait for it euen till death And this I take to bee the occasion of these words of Iob in this Scripture Where it may be thought a strange thing that a man commended for such patience should so distemperately plead the cause of his affliction with God But no man meerely man and clothed with the garment of mortalitie could euer so wait vpon God as not to be led aside from his attendance for a season when he saw the Lord to fasten in him his sharpe arrowes and to let him vp as a Butt to shoote at And in this respect it is that this glorious patterne of patience could not beare his griefe in a minde so battered with sorrowes For the bodie of sinne which in our weakest times and estate thrusteth into the motions of our minde diuers carnall distrusts and fleshly feares will neuer cease to molest keep vs downe so long as we liue here and a wounded spirit who can beare Pro. 18.14 Neuerthelesse Iob stil waited on God for a good end in these matters and lost not his hope as appeareth by the last chapter of this booke where hee receaueth the crowne of his patience and is exceedingly blessed in his person and children And therefore though in the storme he spake with some distemper yet his meaning was that he did and would wait for Gods help and deliuerance though it should bee deferred till hee must put off this tabernacle and change mortalitie for immortall Where let vs consider the attendance spoken of and the terme or continuance The terme is expressed by the mid-times or extremitie of naturall life The mid times are called largely daies and with limitation the appointed daies The extreame point of this is called a change The attendance is in respect of the season wherein hee attended or of the attendance it selfe The attendance was in a time of trouble and much anguish which he quietly endured Doctr. Which doth teach vs in euery hard estate patiently to beare what commeth relying on God and waiting for his word The Prophet was in great miserie who praying to God said My soule fainteth for thy saluation Psal 119.81 His affliction was great and through the infirmitie of the flesh he fainted yet he waited on Gods promise for deliuerance and beleeued his word by which he was deliuered Dauid opened not his mouth in great troubles to any impatience because God had sent them Ps 39.9 The same Prophet Psal 37.5.7 exhorteth others to a like silence and yeelding in trouble because God hath done it and therefore saith Commit thy way to God and trust in him And againe Wayt patiently on the Lord and hope in him His meaning is reason not in your affliction with God but in patience possesse them vnder his mighty hand seeing you haue sinned against him then shall you see your hope and God will surely bring your soule out of aduersitie Also the speech of Moses to the Israelites at the red sea and when they had the sea before them the Egyptians their enemies behind them and steepe mountaines and high hils on euery hand side of them was Stand still and you shall see the saluation of God Exod. 14.13 As if he had said Go not backe by despaire nor forward by presumption and though you see nothing but death in men and destruction in creatures you shall see life in God and the saluation of God for life to euery one of you in your present helpe and deliuerance if you faint not The reasons further prouing this doctrine are first we haue deserued the paines of Hell by our sinnes much more the sharpest paine temporall Now if God inflict a light chastisement and we deserue the chaines of hell if he punish for a short time we deserue for euer to be afflicted haue we cause to complaine though the arrowes of the Almighty sticke in our flesh and his hand lie heauy vpon vs Psal 38.1.2 c. Secondly it is the Lord and we must patiently attend his worke He doth not deuise and leaue the execution to another but whatsoeuer is done he doth it himselfe in the point of correction and sense of paine his head and hand goe together Act. 4.28.2 Sam. 16.10 Thirdly we must be followers of Christ in affection to Gods will Now Christ seeing his father had so appointed desirously entred into his bath and passions for our sakes yea thought the time long and was greeued till he fell into his last agonie and cold sweat in the which he was couered after a sort with clodded blood that ran abundantly from his face downe to the ground Luc. 12.50 22.44 and shall a little so trouble vs who as the theefe said to his fellow receaue things worthie of that we haue done where Christ suffered innocently and so much for vs Luc. 23 41. or shall we see the sonne of God all in goare blood and all in a sweat though no man touched him though no man came neere him and in a cold night when he lay out in the open aire and vpon the cold earth to sweat so plentifully not a thin faint sweat but a sweat of great droppes and those
is sufficient for vs to know that such a day will come and it shall be our wisdome alwayes to be ready for it that it come not vpon vs as the snare vpon the bird The reasons of the certainetie of this day of iudgement are First it is the will and decree of God for the Apostle saith He hath appointed a day in the which hee will iudge the world in righteousnesse Act. 17.31 Now the wil and decree of God is vnchangeable His counsell shall stand Esa 46.10 Secondly it is an article of our faith grounded on the word of God But the articles of our faith are all certaine and most certaine Thirdly the scripture saith that God will make manifest euerie mans worke and iudge the secrets of men Eccles 12.14 Luc. 8.17 Rom. 2.16 This is not done here and here many matters are cloked and carried in a mist that deserue iudgement and merit condemnation Therefore and that God may be iust in his sayings there must be a sessions of gaol-deliuery which we call with the scriptures the iudgement of the last day Fourthly the godly doe here groane vnder many miseries and the vngodly wallow in delights the rich liue delicately and Lazarus is in paine therefore is it necessary as it is certain that a day should come wherein the Lord may make knowne his righteousnesse and magnifie his iustice before his glorious throne that they who haue liued merrily dishonouring God might liue in torments of fire and they whose life hath beene miserable seruing the Lord might be comforted for euer Some haue offended deepely and haue not beene touched by the Magistrate some haue suffered great rebuke somtimes death deseruing fauour therefore a day must come and is appointed wherein the Lord that is iust will recompence tribulation to all that haue troubled the righteous and to such as were troubled by them rest 2. Thes 1.6.7 On the other side would it not be hard for the godly who here haue endured the crosse for the ioy that was set before them if there shold not come a time of refreshing from God and would it not too much indu●rate the wicked who drinke iniquity as water if they should escape all punishments and vengeance here and after death Fiftly this is shadowed out in that housholder who when euen was come called the Labourers and gaue euery man his hire and pennie Math. 20.8.10 And if a wise Master will reckon with his seruants Math. 25.19 shall we thinke that the wisest will not one day reckon with sinners and call them before him for his money that is precious graces of wit learning authoritie wealth and other ontward and inward ornaments of life which they haue consumed on their lusts Sixtly euery wicked mans conscience doth by a trembling feare as in Felix at one time or another iustifie this point of a iudgmēt to come Act. 24 26. And therefore as the flood of waters once drowned the world except a few who were saued in the arke Gen. 7 1.7.2 Pet. 2.5 So it is certain that the flood and tempest of the last daies fire shall burne it and all in it except such as Christ hath or wil then gather into the little arke of his Church In the euening of this world and when there shall be no more time he will call the labourers before him giuing them the pennie or pay of euerlasting life but for the idle and loiterers forth of the vineyard and out of Christ he will let them goe with sinners to the place prepared for them as they haue liued without the Church or idlie in it so when the labourers receaue their pennie they shall heare depart from mee ye that worke iniquitie I know you not Math. 7.23 Thus it is proued not onely to be certaine but necessarie that there should be a iudgment But some will say Quest seeing men come to their account at their death what needeth any other day of audit or hearing I answere Answ Men at their death receiue but priuate iudgement here they shall receiue publike sentence Then they are iudged in their soules onely here they shall bee iudged in soule and bodie that is but a close Sessions that an open or solemne assise There much of their shame is hid here they shall be shamed to the full And if our owne lawes doe not condemne and execute malefactors in prison but for their greater shame in open place and manner It is great reason that wicked sinners should not priuately in their graues as in prison bee iudged and led to execution but be brought to the publike scaffold and barre of solemne fession there to receiue their shame and sentence together and not to bee executed by a close death in the goale but be broght forth to suffer vpon the high stage of the world in the sight of Saints and Angels where all eyes may see them But is not Christ iudge in this life Quest And is there not a iudgement begun here Indeed Answ there is a iudgement begun already a iudgement that goeth before this of the last day For God hath erected in the consistorie of euerie mans heart a certaine iudgement seat where conscience is iudge The wicked securely despise or scornefully deride this iudge and iudgement seat but it giueth them many secret gripes though they profit not by them Oftentimes Gods children themselues because that the noises and sounds that the ring of the world maketh in them doe too much neglect these loude cals of their consciences to amendment of life But this is the iudgement that the Lord beginneth here with which they must well bee acquainted who meane to stand before Christ the iudge at the last day And this one well compareth to our quarter-Sessions which are kept for mulcts and meddle not in matters of life and death as Sessions of goale deliuerie doe For in this mid-space betweene these Sessions and that day of assise the Lord executeth a kind of iudgement among his houshould people and enemies by taking his grace from his seruants for a season from the wicked for euer Or by taking something from his children that they loued to much and did hurt them and that from the wicked that they seemed to haue The first to prepare the righteous for a better world the other to make the wicked readie for the sentence of their last and iust damnation begunne in this world That we may be fitted for this comfortable meeting of the Lord in the ayre and not liue in sinne as those workers of iniquitie do● vpon whom these mid-Sessions haue passed sentence binding them ouer to the close sessions of their death or more publike assise of the last day when all prisons must be rid and graues emptied let vs not sleightly passe ouer those seuerall penalties that the Lord inflicteth at his quarter-sessions in the twitches of our conscience for some good omitted or euill done But when he thus calleth vs let vs answere here am I. A
chuse but come And the Euangelist Iohn the third witnesse of this truth vnto vs saw this in a vision wrote it in a booke His words are And I saw the dead both great and small stand before God Apoc. 20.12 Not some dead but all the dead little and great And they were iudged Not some men but euerie man according to his workes ver 13. But shall the dead onely stand before Christ not they who shal be found aliue at his comming Yes euen they shall stand before Him and the elect then aliue shall come vp vnto him 1. Thes 4.16 The elect shall be with him in the Mount the wicked and sinners shall stand at the foote of the hill The reasons First euerie thought and worke must bee brought into iudgement Eccles 12.14 11.9 and if euery secret thing and worke then the persons out of whose hearts those thoughts came and in whose hands those workes were must be iudged Secondly among the sonnes of Adam some are gold and they must be purged and some drosse and they must be burnt vp with the fire of the Lords comming Here goates and sheepe feede together as in one common pasture and here tares and wheat grow vp together as in one common field But when they come to the fold the Porter of heauen not Peter but Christ will open the doore of life to his sheepe and open hell for damned goates and reprobates and when they come to the haruest the Master of the field will command his Reapers the Angels to gather the wheate of his election into his garner but for the chaffe of his wrath he will scatter it with the wind of his iudgement and burne it vp with the vnquenchable fire of hell Math. 3.12 13.30 It is necessary therefore for the triall of euery mans worke and person that there should be a generall iudgement and a generall appearing at it Thirdly it is more for the glory of God and the solemnitie of the day that all without exception shall be cited to it and be present at it It is more to the glorie of God for then the glory of his iustice shall more appeare in the reprobation of sinners and the glorie of his grace be more and more gloriously manifest in the saluation of his people And for that daies magnificence what can be imagined to make it more solemne stately and glorious then to haue all countreyes tongues and kindreds of the earth to come together to it for what a great day will that be and how full of maiestie beautie and honour when the whole world shall appeare together at once that is at one session and iudgement If a King should marrie his eldest sonne and bid many Kings and some Emperours to the marriage would not that be a great marriage but at the day of Christs marriage wherein he shall be eternally espoused to his Church all the world shall be present all Kings and Emperors that euer were shall be at it some as guests to honour it some as enemies to be driuen from it Math. 22.11.13 Quest But if the godly shall be iudged and if all persons both the godly and sinners shall and must appeare before Christ in iudgement how is it true that the Saints shall come with Christ and that no iudgement shall passe by Christ against the saints and why doth Saint Iohn say that he who beleeueth in the Sonne shall not come into iudgement Ioh. 3.18 For answere I say that Answ though all persons must come vnto iudgement yet the righteous onely shall stand in the iudgment Ps 1.3 and with boldnesse before Christ the Iudge Luc. 21.36 who therefore shall receiue sentence with them not as the wicked against them and here the sentence of come yee blessed not the wofull sentence of goe ye cursed into euerlasting fire Math. 25.34.41 where it is said that he who beleeueth shall not come into iudgement the meaning is and so our bookes haue it into iudgement of condemnation Quest Answ But the text hath against all men I answere the me anng is and the greeke preposition may well be rendred vpon all men and so the last translated Bible copie hath it Will Christ giue iudgement vpon all men Vse 1 good and bad then the bodies of all men that sleepe in the dust good or bad must be raised For if they be not raised how shall they be iudged or shall they be iudged in their soules onely then not men but the soules of men onely are to be iudged This point of the resurrection is a point or article of faith to saluation wherein we professe to beleeue by the scriptures that when the soule goeth out of the bodie to rest or paine the bodie it selfe is laid in some graue till the day come wherein the Lord Iesus will raise it by his voice in an Archangell either to eternall happinesse or to eternall miserie I speake of the soules going out of the body For some haue thought that the soules of men which die not are kept in still within the body that dieth as in a sleepe or swoune till the last day But we reade to the contrarie in the word of God as of soules vnder the altar not still in the body and of crying soules not of soules asleepe or soules in a traunce Apoc 6.9 So Lazarus soule was carried to heauen Therefore not least in the bodie but taken out of the bodie Luc. 16.22 Other groser opinions of the soules estate after death I leaue to the Mowles and to the Backes from which they came Esa 2.20 My purpose being to speake of the bodies estate as it shall be at the last day not of the soules as it is at the day of our death And here for the resurrection of bodies which we beleeue with all the true Churches of Christ Satan hath raised some in all ages to cauill against it or flatly to denie it For all haue not altogether denied it who were enemies to it as Himineus and Philetus who granted there was a resurrection but said it was past 2. Tim. 2.17.18 And the Sadduces did not generally resist it but had their false glosses and diuers interpretations of it Indeed the Stoikes and Epicures among the Philosophers were peremptorie ad●ersaries to it Act. 17.18 and Libertines among Christians doe in their liues denie it But the truth of it shineth brighter in scripture and reason then that it can be darkned by any cloude how blacke soeuer of humane opposition Iob saith that after the wormes haue done with his bodie yet euen in that bodie he shall see God Iob. 19.26 Ezechiel foresheweth the bringing againe of the people out of captiuitie vnder an excellent figure of the rising and restoring of our flesh at the last day Ezech. 37.5.6 as if he should haue said He that can restore flesh and breath to rotten bones can restore the Israelites to their country Esay speaketh plaine of this matter saying Thy dead men