and most affectionate Children It is enough for me to be among of the least of thy House amidst the greatest sinners that have obtained pardon of thee and that have some shelter in thy Palace where there are so many Dwellings That even in thy House I may be as little as thou shalt please provided that thou wilt preserve me thine for ever O Merciful Father I beseech thee that for the love of thy well beloved Son my only Saviour thou wouldst give me thy holy Spirit which may puriâ—â—e my heart and strengthen me in such sort that I may always dwell in thy House there to serve thee in Holiness and Justice all the days of my Life Amen Prayers WHat do we in this world but heap sins upon sins So that the morrow is always worse then the day before and we do not cease drawing thy indignation upon us But being out of this world in thy heritage we shall be altogether assured of our perfect and eternal felicity the miseries of the bodies shall be abolished the vices and filthiness of the Soul shall be done away O Heavenly Father increase our Faith in us for fear lest we should doubt of things so certain Imprint thy Grace and thy Love in our Hearts which may lift us up to thee and strengthen us in thy fear And because thou hast lodged us in this World there for to remain as long as it shall please thee without declaring unto us the day of our departure the which thou alone knowest I do beseech thee to take me out of it when thou in thy mercy pleasest and then to do me that good that I may acknowledge the same that in the mean while I may fit my self thereuuto as thou hast appointed by thy holy Name through Jesus Christ our blessed Saviour and Redeemer Amen Another THis body is the Prison of the Soul yea a dark Prison narrow and fearful we are as it were banished men in this world our life is but woe and misery on the contrary Lord it is in thy heavenly Kingdom that we find our Liberty our Country and our perfect Contentment A wake our Sould by thy word to the remembrance and apprehension of such a good imprint in our Hearts the love and the desire of the Everlasting good things and only to be wished for give unto our Consciences some taste of that joy wherewith the happy Souls which are in Heaven are filled that I may hold as dung and filth all that which the Worldlings find so fair and covet so much which so obstinately they retain and do adore with such fervency Cause that finding taste but in thy verity and grace I may wait for calling upon thee the day of my perfect deliverance thro' Jesus Christ thy Son to whom with thee and the holy Spirit be glory Everlasting Amen Another O Lord Jesus the only Salvation of the Living Life everlasting of the dead I submit my self to thy holy Will whether it be thy pleasure yet to suffer my Soul to be some space within this body for to serve thee or that it please thee to take it out of prison being assured that what thou keepest cannot perish I am content with all my heart that my Body return into the Earth from whence it was taken believing the last Resurrection which shall make it immortal incorruptible and full of Glory I do beseech thee to fortifie my Sould against all temptation environ me with the buckler of thy Mercy to beat back the darts of Satan As for me I am weakness it self but I rely upon thy strength and goodness I cannot alledge any good thing before thee whereof to boast on the contrary alas my sins infinite in number accuse and torment me but thy merit assures me that I shall be saved for I hold for certain that thou wert born for me that thou wert tempted that thou hast obeyed to God thy Father that thou hast taught and brought Life Everlasting for me seeing thou hast given thy self to me with all these good things let not such a gift be unprofitable let thy blood wipe out the filth of my faults thy Justice cover my Iniquities thy Merits make me to find Grace before the heavenly Throne If my Evils do increase augment thy Grace in me so that Faith Hope and Charity may not dye but rather wax strong in me that the apprehension of Death do not daunt me but that even after this body shall be as it were dead cause that the Eyes of my Soul may lift themselves up to Heaven that the Heart may then cry fervently unto thee Lord I commend my Soul into thy Hands fulfil thy work for thou hast bought me I am thine by the Gift of thy Father to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be Everlasting Glory Amen The Humble Suit of a Sinner for the Pardon of his Sins O Most just and dreadful God equitable in all thy Judgments who sufferest no Sin to pass unpunished either in this Life or in the Life to come Let me have with Job this Consolation That afflicting me thou wouldst not spare me here to punish me hereafter Here rather burn here cut that hereafter thou mayest spare me That Union O God which thou didst put at my Creation betwixt my Soul and my Body I have not employed for to serve thee therefore I will that henceforth it be dissolved For too great affection I had to Riches and for my ill employing of them I will deny my self of all things under the Sun and will have no more but a Sheet Coffin and an hole to lye in and wait for thy Coming For the too great love I carried to my Husband Wife Children Parents Friends Companions Conversation and Company I will now willingly abandon them all and their Embracements and kindly Usage I will also have an end put to all my Senses that henceforth I neither See Hear Touch Taste nor Smell any thing for not having ruled them nor shut them up by mortification when the Devil was seeking entry into my Soul From henceforth Lord I will put silence to this wicked Tongue of mine which hath been so great an Instrument of Impiety swearing lying cursing defaming backbiting detracting and breaking forth so often in impure dishonest and injurious Speeches against thee and my Neighbour For the too great mind I had to run go and walk in the ways of the wicked For the too frequent impure postures gestures and motions of my Body I will lye dead in the Grave and desire that henceforth none do so much as name me or speak a word of me by reason I was too desirous to be in every ones mouth and to be praised and conserved in their Memories and because I did so much affect Honour Dignity and the things of the Earth and did so much search after delicate fare soft bedding and good cloathing and did nourish and pamper this flesh of mine with too great care for honour I will lye in abjection and for that I aspired to have others bowing their heads to me and to be lifted above them I will have them to trample over me For my love to the Earth I will return to it for my Food I will have the Worms to crawl in and out at my Mouth for my Bed I will have a Grave for my Garments a Sheet and for thy dainty usage of my Body I will henceforth turn all my Beauty into Corruption Receive then O just God all these things in Punishment of my many Offences for so this being thy just Will it is also mine Only O god of Justice let my Punishment be here in this Life that I may find thee to be a God of Mercy in the Life to come for thou hast declared by thy Servant David that thy Mercies are above all thy Works Grant this O Lord for the Merits of thy only Son my Saviour Jesus Christ Amen FINIS
Christian Exortation against the fearc of Death For since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead Corin 15 Ch. p 21. TWO DISCOURSES The FIRST A CHRISTIAN'S EXHORTATION Against the FEARS OF DEATH The SECOND A brief and clear Declaration of the Resurrection of the Dead With suitable Meditations and Prayers touching LIFE and DEATH Recommended as proper to be given at Funerals By W. S. LONDON Printed for Tho. Bever at the Hand and Star next to the Middle Temple-Gate near Temple Bar 1690. Price bound 1 Shilling A DISCOURSE Against the Fears of DEATH PLATO said That the Philosophy wherein Man living in this World should principally exercise himself is the Meditation of Death That is to say of his condition in the World frail diseased and mortal of the divers accidents of this humane Life and of the Hour of Death so uncertain and unknown to the end that considering these things he might withdraw his affection and trust from this World that he might despise it and all temporal things wherein he sees and discovers so much inconstancy and such suddain and frequent mutations or changes and that by such a despising of uncertain and casual things he should stir up himself unto a contemplation of those that are Divine and Heavenly and forsaking that which is here perishing and transitory he should choose his part in Heaven and should stay himself at that which is permanent and eternal For the like reason Philip the Father of Alexander the Great a man of good understanding and of very great consideration to the end that in the midst of his great prosperity he should not forget himself in his Duty gave order that one of his Gentlemen should every day at his waking come and speak these words unto him King have in remembrance that thou art a mortal Man Jesus Christ also our Saviour and Master intending the same doth exhort us to Watch and to lay up Treasures in Heaven and not on Earth where all things are uncertain and changeable We see by this that during our Life we cannot do better then to think upon Death and our Body being upon the Earth to accustom our selves to have always our Spirit and Heart in Heaven Now because that the remembrance of Death is a fearful thing to many I have bethought my self to pass away my Griefs and to recreate my self from my other Studies and also to give you a testimony of the Obligation which I think I have towards you as well for the good which you have done unto me as for the Friendship which you bear me to write unto you and to present this small Treatise wherein I have briefly touched certain Points wherewith the Faithful may Arm themselves against Death which he ought to do in time and prepare himself to receive it with assurance at such time as it shall please God to send it for that which doth astonish many is that the coming thereof is suddain unto them and that they are surprized unlooked for We see by experience in a frontier Town that when it is well Victualled and provided of all things necessary to with-stand a long Siege those within are a great deal the more assured and bold whereas if it were unprovided they would stand amazed and tremble with fear if they should chance to see the approaching of the Siege It is easie to judge by that of what importance it is to have prevented a danger and to be prepared for it To provide therefore and arm the Faithful Man against Death we must note that there are two sorts of it the one is temporal of the body which Christians ought to desire the other is eternal of body and Soul which they ought not to fear persevering in the Faith of our Lord. That it is so all Fear pre-supposeth evil and danger we do not fear that which is good but long after desire and pursue it and when it offers it self we receive it joyfully but an evil we apprehend and fear we fly from it and when it happens unto us we sorrow and do complain If then it doth appear by good and evident Proofs that the Faithful Man is not in danger of this second Death may we not then conclude that if we fear it it is foolish and without occasion And surely if we had judgment and never so little Faith it were sufficient presently to take away the fear of it from us For first the proper nature of faith is to animate and quicken our heart so soon as it is received in us The Just saith the Prophet shall live by Faith Now even so as the Body whiles the Soul is in it liveth and dieth not until such time as it be separated from it no more doth the Faithful Man persevering in the Faith which hath been inspired and put into his Heart by the Grace of God Although saith David I should walk in the midst of the shadow of Death I will not fear for Thou art with me O Lord What was the cause of this assurance was it not Faith Armed wherewith we ought no more to fear Death then we do Sickness when we are in perfect health well disposed and in good liking or Poverty when we have plenty and abundance of all good things Secondly By Faith we have remission and an abolition of all the faults which we have done Why do we then fear Death There is no Death where there is no Sin 〈…〉 Death 〈…〉 Paul and elsewhere The Reward of Sin is Death Sin causeth God to be angry with us and that in His Anger He condemneth us to Death Now all Seeds doth bring forth according to their sort and quality The Wheat bringeth forth Wheat and the Rye Rye and we must not hope for any Fruit if there be not Seed before hand This being true and witnessed in a thovsand places of the Scripture that unto a Christian all his Sins and debts are acquitted by the Grace and Mercy of God that they are forgotten that they are covered that they are not imputed and that they are remitted and pardoned that they are cast as far from us as the East from the West provided that there be no more Seed thereof we need not look for any Fruit That is to say if there be no more Sin there is no more anger of God nor of death and by consequent that also there ought to be no more fear Thirdly By Faith we have the Word and the Promises of GOD whereupon it is grounded Among others this Whoso Believeth shall not Die but is passed from Death to Life Now this promise can no more fail than He that gave it us It is Eternal and all that God saith is as sure and permanent as Heaven and Earth For this cause when we look into them we ought in them to consider the vertue and power of this Word by the which they were once Created and ever since preserved and maintained in that estate wherein
happiness to die Others say he was so honest a Man therefore is it that God took him as he did Enock for fear lest by the Malice and Corruption of this Age he should change When the Fruit is ripe must it not be gathered for fear lest it should rot on the Tree Others say be died in the prime of his Age by so much the happier is he for as said Anacharsis That Ship is happiest which arriveth first at the Port. Moreover there is no certain time determined for all Men to die But as we see in Fruit time some are gathered sooner than the others so is it amongst Men. There are some also that say we must honour the Dead by mourning for them falling into the superstition of the Jews who holding his opinion did hire certain Singers and Musitians to sing pitiful and funeral Songs for the Death of their Friends which Jesus Christ did reprove in the House of the Prince of the Synagogue and not without cause for it is not good in praise o a Body to mourn for it Complaints and Tears are rather signs of Misery than any thing else We do not now weep for the holy Martyrs which yet we should do if in Tears there did consist any Honour but we honour them by a remembrance of them with blessing and thanksgiving and by Pain and Study we endeavour to follow them If likewise we have a Friend whom we will honour after his Death it must not be with Tears and Lamentations but rather by an honourable mansion which we are to make of him and of his Vertues and by a desire which we have to imitate and follow his good and laudable course of Life It is time to conclude this present Treatise and to resolve on the precedent Reasons that we must neither fear nor fly Death but rather love and desire it more than Life and prefer the day of our Death before the day of our Birth for by our Birth we come to Pain and Affliction and dying we go to God and to perpetual rest Let us then strictly examine them and judge of them that we may take away the fear of the one and the excessive love of the other God through his holy Spirit give us the Grace to do it So be it A Clear Declaration Of the RESURRECTION Of the DEAD FOrasmuch as in all times there have been some who have mocked at the Resurrection and have utterly denied it Mat. 12. Acts 17. 1 Cor. 15. It is not without good Cause that the Apostle St. Paul doth so carefully teach us that the Dead shall rise again for even as the Knowledge doth bring unto us a Soveraign Joy and Consolation and doth give us a Will and Affection to follow unto the end JESUS CHRIST our Head and Spouse to be Crowned with him with that Eternal Beatitude which God hath prepared for his Children Mat. 25. So also those that are not assured of the Resurrection which is the Foundation of our Religion are less affectionate to follow the Lord and to give themselves to Piety and Justice And we must not doubt but the wicked who abandon themselves to all impiety against God and who without remorse of Conscience do exercise all sorts of Wickedness against their Neighbours they do it so much the more freely as to perswade themselves that if they escape the Judgment and Punishment of Men they shall hear nothing of it after this Life For seeing that to avoid only the vengeance of the Magistrate in this World they hide as much as they can their iniquities and give such good Colours to their mis-deeds as possibly they can that they may not be convicted Wicked how much more do you think they would be bridled from doing Evil if they were perswaded that although their Bodies die yet their Souls shall remain Immortal and shall endure the Judgment of God which it hath deserved and that one day their Bodies shall rise again that both Body and Soul may be Eternally tormented in Hell Heb. 10. by the Judgement of God so horrible and fearful Heb. 10. whereupon we may see how necessary it is to know that the Dead shall rise again this Doctrine being the principal upholder of Christian Religion of which if a Man be not altogether perswaded all is nothing And it is impossible to persevere amongst so many Difficulties and Afflictions which are daily present at the serving of the Lord For if the hope of the Resurrection were not we should be the most miserable of the Earth Cor. 15. seeing that in this World the Faithful are ordinarily more afflicted than the Infidels but our Consolation is the Promise of Jesus Christ that although the World shall rejoice for a time and that we shall weep Joh. 16. Rom. 8. Psal 37. and 73. the time will come that our Head will visit us and rejoice our Hearts with a Joy that shall never be taken from us Now for to understand this Article of Faith we must well consider these three Points First we must know whether the Soul now dieth with the Body or no. Secondly Whether the Body returns so to the Earth that it cannot â—ise again Thirdly If it doth rise who is â—t doth raise it and in what estate it shall be when risen The first Point AS for the first Part. The Lord for to declare unto us the Immortality of Souls compares Death â—o the Sleep of Man and saith that those that are dead sleep assuring us that even so as when the Body doth sleep the Soul doth not sleep as appears by so many Dreams which Men have that also although the Body shall be put into the Sepulcher as in a place of Sleep nevertheless the Immortal Soul shall be gathered and assembled in its place from whence it shall come again at the day of Judgment to put on her Body that therein she may enjoy the happy Life or suffer Eternal Punishment Rom. 2. Mat. 25. Luk. 8. The Apostle speaking of the Daughter of Icairus whom the Lord did raise again saith That the Spirit did return into her shewing that it was not dead like the Body but only that she was gone to the Place from the which by the Commandment of Jesus Christ she came again to re-enter into her Body as also that of Lazarus of Bethleem Joh. 11. For ever so as the Body doth return to the Earth from whence it was taken so the Spirit doth return to God who gave it The same Evangelist declares that the Soul of Lazarus lives in Heaven and that of the evil Rich Man in Hell Luc. 16. And the Lord dying to shew that the Soul was not subject to Death as the Body did recommend his Soul to his Father Luk. 22. Act. 7. Saint Steven the first Martyr recommended his to Christ Saint Paul desired to be dissolved and to be with Jesus Phil. 1. knowing that after his Soul should be delivered out of the Prison of his Body it should go
to the Joy of the Children of god Unto the Thief it was said This Day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Luk. 23. Joh. 5.6 which cannot be understood of the Body but shews that the faithful Dying makes the passage from Death to Life The which ought only to be understood of the Soul seeing that the Body must first be brought to Earth and that it must put off all Corruption for to rise at the last Day Incorruptible and in Glory Mat. 22. Thus Jesus Christ against the Saduces who denied the Immortality of Souls shews that forasmuch as God calls himself the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob Exod. 3. infallibly the Souls departed do live for he is not the God of those that are dead in such sort that they are no more but he is the God of those that are and that live and doth good to the Posterity of those that are and not of those that are not which cannot be understood but of their Souls seeing their Bodies were returned to the Earth Whereby we see that they deceive themselves greatly that say that their Souls die and vanish with the Body where they Sleep also those likewise who think that they enter into other Bodies Mak 6. Luk. 9. Even the Pagans by natural Apprehensions have believe that the Souls were Immortal a we see that Euripides in the Tragedy which he intituled Hecuba doth declare it when he brings in Polixen speaking to Hecuba and dying saying to her What shall I say to Hectâ— thy Husband who was dead she aâ— swered her tell him that I am the most wretched in the World And in that which he entituled The Supplicant he says The Spirit shall return to Heaven Likewise Pholicides says That the Soul is immortal and living always waxeth not old Pythagoras in his Golden Verses said If when thou hast left the Body thou comest into Heaven thou shalt be as God living always and being no more Mortal Cicero likewise Writes of it in his Book of Friendship and in that which he writ of Age in some sort comforting himself in the hope which he had of the immortality of his Soul We see then that it is a thing most assured that the Soul is immortal as the Lord by his Word which is the Infallible Truth of Heaven doth shew it us And likewise the Pagans how Ignorant soever they were of the true Religion have well understood it Wherefore those that deny the Immortality of Souls accuse God of lying and make themselves in worse estate than the Pagans This Knowledge is a great Consolation to the Faithful in all their Afflictions and doth take from them the fears of Death knowing that their Souls being separated from their Bodies live in Heaven 1 John 2 in which they are admonished not to settle themselves upon the transitory things of this Life and not to load their Souls with the burthen of Sin to the end that dying they may be raised up towards God our Father and Jesus Christ our Saviour unto whom we ought with a stedfast faith to recommend them Now even as the faithful do rejoice at it the unfaithful on the other side knowing the Souls to be immortal are so much the more fearful of Death seeing the eternal pains and torments to be prepared for them at their going forth of this World James 1. 1 Pet. 1.4 So that which serveth to the Elect for Joy and Instruction is unto the wicked nothing but Sorrow and occasion of Despair The Second Point TOuching the Body it is all apparant that it is subject to die as well because that we know that those that were in times past are dead and that we see that those of our time die one after another as principally because that the Lord declares to Adam that by reason of his Sin he with his posterity shall be subject to return into the Earth from whence he was taken Gen. 3. The Apostle says Rom. 5.8.6 That by Man Sin came into the World and by Sin Death and so Death came unto all Men by reason that all have sinned â—nd the reward of Sin is Death whereof the hour is uncertain unto us â—uke 12. Although we are certain â—hat it is the Journey that every man must go by reason that unto them â—ll it is ordained to die once Jos 12. 1 Kings 2 The Scripture is full of Testimonies upon this matter although it be well enough known of all by every days Experience Heb. 9. Job 14. The Pagans themselves without Instruction of the Word of God have well understood that unto Man it is a thing that cannot be avoided as Euripedes shews it in the Tragedie of the Supplicants saying That every part of Man must return from whence it came the Spirit into Heaven the Body into the â—â—â—ih which is the Mother and Nurse thereof Wherefore it is a thing known to all that we must die but now by how much it is easie to believe that necessity to die is imposed upon us by so much is iâ— more difficult to believe that our bodies being returned to dust shall risâ— again And indeed the sensual Maâ—â— cannot comprehend any thing there in neither hath any thought of it as we see that the Pagans never thought of it although that they have disputed of the immortality oâ— Souls But the Man that is regenerate by the Spirit of God doubt not but that the Lord can raise the dead seeing he will have it so and that nothing can hinder his Will Psal 115. For as sayth the Prophet he doth what he will Apoc. 4. We must then fee how the Scripture dotâ— assure us that the Bodies as well oâ— the good as of the wicked shall rise again the first â—o be crowned with Glory the other with perpetual Infamy Dan. 12. For to teach us thâ— Resurrection it compares Death to a â—leep as hath been already said to â—he end we may be certain that as the bodies after they have laboured shall rest by Sleep that they being awaked may with so much more alacrity return to work so when we shall have made an end of this present Life our Bodies shall be brought to the Tomb as in a Bed of rest for to rise again from thence at the latter day and be put into their place Job prophecying of the Resurrection the which he did firmly believe says I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he will stand up at the latter day upon the Earth and although after my Skin this Body shall be devoured by Worms yet with my Flesh shall I see God I shall behold him and my Eyes shall look upon him and none other for me although my Reins are consumed within me Job 14. 19. David foretels the Resurrection of Christ by whom we shall rise again the which was figured by this that Jonas was three days and three nights in the Whales Belly as Jesus Christ himself declares it Johu 2. Mat. 12. The Prophet Isay
this true Life even in this World thou dost quicken by thy Truth us that are poor wretched and dead in Sin thou dost augment that life by the Ministry and Efficacy of thy holy Gospel and dost confirm it by the use of the Sacraments which thou hast established to confirm the Faith of those that are thine until that our Corruption and what we have in mortality in us being abolished by the Resurrection we shall be and live everlastingly with thee both in Body and Soul when thou shalt be all in all Life Everlasting is to know the true God and thee his Son which wert sent unto us Now we see thee by Faith in a Glass and in Obscurity but one day we shall behold thee face to face and shall be transformed into thy Glory nd wholly reformed unto thy Image I do beseech thee merciful Saviour to increase my Faith that I may be so well grounded in the Doctrine of my Salvation that nothing may turn me from it Increase in my Heart the Reverence which I owe thee that I may never turn from thy Obedience Strengthen me in such sort that the allurements nor threatnings do neither intrap nor astonish me but that constantly I may cleave unto thee who art my Life till Death Cause that in vertue of thy holy Promises and of thy Spirit I may increase more and more in thy Love and leaving behind me the things of this World I may tend to that which is firm and perfect Increase thy Grace in me that every day I may dye in my self for to be quickned and guided by thy Favour fearing no other but thou God Almighty loving nothing but thee as there is nothing but thee to be beloved boasting my self in nothing but in thy only Grace and Mercy which is the Glory of all thy Servants seeking no other good but thee nor desiring any thing but thee who art the full and entire felicity of all the Faithful Amen Another LOrd Jesus who art always merciful who dost not stick to be my Saviour as well in Adversity as in Prosperity Give me the Grace in all humble obedience to yield unto thy will when it shall please thee to mingle bitterness amongst so many sweet things which thou causest me to taste in living under thy Protection Thou art admirable and most good in the time of Afflictions In that by such means thou dost heal spiritual Diseases and in visiting of us in this World thou disposest us to meditate of a better Life having thy self shewed us the Example thereof True it is that I find it very hard to digest but thou hast been brought to a more strange condition when for to draw me out of Hell thou wentest down into it thy self and for to reconcile me to thy heavenly Father thou hast undergone his Curse by reason of my Sins I have so often deserved Hell and the fiery Torment and thou deliveredst me assuring me that I have part in the merits of thy Death and thy Obedience and that I am one of thy Co-heirs for to reign one day with thee in thy Kingdom and at this present in the midst of so many Afflictions to be nevertheless set in the heavenly Places Having part in so many good things why shall I vex my self for a little endurance by the means whereof thou wilt awaken me and make me better and draw me so much the more to thee But seeing thou knowest me better then I know my self if it be thy pleasure to put me to any tryal give me necessary force and patience to glorifie thee converting all the evil that may happen unto me to good and Salvation And if in supporting my weakness thy goodness is pleased to advertise me by some light affliction cause that this thy well-willing may draw me more and more to love and honour thee to give thee thanks for the care which thou hast of thy poor Servant and by that means to dispose me to weight for thee at my Death that after it I may find the Life which thou hast purchased for me by thy Death and therein with thee to have part in Joy and Rest for Ever Amen Another Lord God Heavenly Father when I consider in how many sorts I have sinned before thy Face and against thy high Majesty I have horrour in my self in thinking that I have so often turned from thee Propitious and favourable Father I detest my ingratitude seeing in what servitude of sin I have been too often precipitate selling as much as in my lay of the precious Liberty which thy Son had purchased for me I condemn my folly I altogether dislike of my self I see nothing but Death and mishap hanging over my head and my Conscience rising for a Judge and Witness of my Iniquities But when on the other side I enter into a Contemplation of thy infinite mercy the which surmounteth all thy works and in the which if so I dare to speak thou surmountest thy self my soul is comforted And indeed why should I make my self believe that I cannot find grace before him that summons and so often and gently calls the sinner to repentance protesting expresly that he desires not the death of a sinner but rather that he turn from his wickedness and live Moreover thy only Son hath so well assured us that we shall find favour in thy sight by the sweet words which himself had uttered as that of the lost sheep and of the prodigal Son the image of whom I acknowledg'd my self to be that I should be most unthankful incredulous and wicked to go back and to be ashamed of thy presence although I am wretched seeing thou dost so stretch forth thy hand unto me and draw me to thee with such wonderful affection I have very vildly forsaken thee O merciful Father I have unhappily let slip thy Graces and adhering to desires of my flesh and straying from thy Obedience I have wrapped my self in the base servitude of sin I am fallen into extream misery I know not whether to retire unless it be towards thee whom I have abandoned Let thy mercy receive this poor supplication whom thou hast supported during his errors I am unworthy to lift up mine Eyes unto thee or to call thee Father But I pray thee bow down thine Eyes to me seeing thou wilt have it so being without that in the power of thine Enemies The sight of thy Face will revive me and bring me again to thee Seeing I have some displeasure in my self I know thou lookest upon me that thou hast given me Eyes to see the danger wherein I was thou hast sought and found me in death and in the world and hast through thy mercy given me a desire to enter into thy house I dare not desire that thou shouldst kiss and embrace me nor that hou shouldst weep for joy that thou hast found thy poor Servant and Slave I do not demand the precious Ornaments wherewith thou doest honour thy great servants
to pass it did ever miscarry when the Children of Israel did fear at the passage of the Red-Sea Moses did shew unto them that if they would trust in God they should see his Glory and Power which they did see passing safely through the midst of the danger where their Enemies did perish So shall all the Faithful through the straights of Death provided that they commend themselves to God and do only set their trust upon him They being in the Desarts although they were bitten by the Serpents yet were they preserved from the danger in looking upon him that Mofes had caused to be erected So also although the cursed and envious Serpent hath tainted us with his Venom yet shall we not die if by faith we look upon Jesus Christ Crucisied Let Death come let it take us let it bind us yet shall we break the bonds as easily as did Sampson those of the Philistines his Enemies let it swallow and devour us as the Whale did Jonas yet shall it fain to disgorge and cast us up again if in the midst of the depth we do remember God and call upon him Let it bury us as it once did Jesus Christ yet shall we rise again as he did and it shall be impossible for this Tyrant to retain us under his Power After having shewed how we should arm our selves against the apprehensions of Eternal Death Let us also shew that we ought not only not to fear the temporal but also desire it and when it pleaseth God to send it unto us to thank him for it to rejoice at it to embrace it and to sing for Joy whether it be that we behold the Misery the Mishaps and evils of this Life from which it doth deliver us or else the joy and contentment of eternal Life whereto it doth bring us As for the poverties miseries incertitudes accidents and mutabilities of this Life not only the Scripture but also diverse wise and great Philosophers doth shew them unto us And there is one amongst them who declaring the Original of the Greek Phrase signifying Life sayeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is that Life hath been so called of the Greeks because of the violence of the assaults excess pains and out-rages which therein we suffer which are innumerable both in Body and Soul Our Bodies are subject to cold to heat to hunger to thirst to time to age and to so many Diseases that there is no part but hath his particular infirmity The feet are subject unto the gouts the belly unto gripings the sides to pleurisies the stomach to rawness the lungs to the cough the head to a thousand Diseases we need but a spider or other little worm to kill us we need but a hair or a crum to strangle us in sum the flesh with all its strength is nothing else but grass Is it to day green and pleasant let but the Sithe pass it will cut down a thousand leaves at once which in an hour will be drie and withered The Greeks do call the body of Man in their Language Soma and Demas whereof the one is taken from a phrase which signifieth to bind and the other comes near to that which signifieth Sepulchre for to shew unto us in what estate and disposition soever he be he doth represent rather Death unto us than Life and Servitude than Liberty As for the Soul it is first subject to all the evils and diseases of the body for it is unpossible if that be ill but that for the conjunction and amity which is between them it must endure and feel pain Moreover she hath her own distempers as ignorance sin mistrust suspicion jealousie hatred envy love lust ambition and passions the which as tormentors do hale her the one one way the other another as if they would pull it to pieces I leave a million of importunities which she hath and which man taketh to attain to his purposes to live in rest and at ease to be in honour to maintain his alliances and friendships to beware of his Enemies to encrease his House to amintain and keep it in its greatness the which do torment us oft-times in such sort that we can neither eat or sleep at ease And we must not think that there is any estate exempt from this misery begin at the highest Prince or Emperour that ever was in the World and so discoursing descend to the poorest begger that ever the Earth did bear and you shall not find one content neither the Artificer nor the Merchant nor the Advocate nor the Gentleman nor the Duke nor the King enter into their closets there you shall often find them as said Menander laid upon their Beds with a mournful Voice and pitiful crying Alas alas Valeri IX speaketh of a King unto whom the Scepter and Diadem were offered before he put it on his head he took it in his hands then having looked long upon it he cryed out O Diadem if one knew the miseries and incumbrances which thou doest bring there is no man that finding thee upon the ground would once take thee up shewing by that exclamation that the Life of Kings is less happy than that of private Persons Tyberius Caesar under whom Christ was crucified and who commanded that he should be worshipped as a God also as Tertullian records it after the Death of Augustus his Predecessour who by will had left him Heir as well of his Goods as of the Empire which being offered him by the Senate according to custom doubted a great while whether he might accept of it by reason of the fear that he had of the weight of this charge and of the pain that he was to suffer in the undergoing of it Dioclesian after he had held the Empire some twenty years left it of his own accord and chose for the rest of his time to live a peaceable and domestical Life wherein after the great agitations and storms of trouble which he had during the time of his Government he found the rest to be so sweet and pleasing and his mind so contented and freed that many times amongst his familiars he did witness that the time had never seemed so good to him nor his Sun-shine days so pleasant shewing by these words how he did abhor the Imperial Life although that few Emperors before or after him had had such Honours in Victories and other prosperities as he had These Examples do sufficiently shew that the Life of Kings is not so happy as some men sometimes esteem them more by errour than by reason and they are far from being at quiet and without trouble For by how much a Tree is planted and seated in a higher place by so much the more is it subject to the wind so also are the great men more than the commons to divers fortunes and accidents the Thunder-bolts and the Tempests fall ordinarily in high places so do the greatest misfortunes upon Men of state and renown And if in this
in the desert that they had lost the Quails and Flesh pots of Egypt But we in Heaven at the first taste of the meats which there shall be served us shall loose then all appetite to the Pleasures of this World We have hear eaten of the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil against the Command of the Physitian Whereupon followed the Sickness and Death of all But in the Kingdom of God and of Paradise we shall eat of the Fruit of the Tree of Life which shall always keep us young and fresh and which is more will make us incorruptible and immortal This is that which we shall taste what then shall we smell A Hall of Perfumes the Garments of the Bride and the Bridegroom perfumed with all odoriferous and fragrant things It shall be then that he Church shall Triumph and that the Vine being blossom'd shall give such a pleasant odour that the whole Heavens shall be filled with it There shall be no stink for there shall be no Corruption we shall there plainly smell the sweetness of the Sacrifice which Jesus Christ made for us on Earth so great and pleasant that the Father for the Pleasure which he took in it was reconciled with the world and his anger towards us hath been appeased What a pleasant Sacrifice and precious Incense is also the praises of the Saints who with one accord do glorifie God and sanctifie his holy Name More over what an odour gives that fair flower sprung from the root and sap of Jess now that it is in its force and strength To conclude we cannot miss then to smell good odours for our Winter shall then be past and we shall be in a perpetual spring time where in all things shall grow and flourish for the Delectation and Pleasures 〈◊〉 the Church For to satisfie our dâ—sire and content all our affection we shall touch no more neither shat we be touched of any thing that mâ— hurt us We shall be gathered up by Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour who will come at the entrance to receive us saying Come hither faithful Servant thou hast served me faithfully in the World while thou hast been in the World enter now into the Joy and rest of the Lord. He will kiss and embrace us and will keep us near to his Person without suffering us to depart or go far from it Now if the greatest good and that unto the which all others are referred be this felicity which doth consist in a possession and enjoying of all good to the contentment of our Will and of all our senses with what a desire should we wait for Death by the which we attain it Moreover Death doth deliver us out of all dangers In this World night and day within and without we are always in fear of peril Our Life is a cruel and bloody War we have a great many Enemies that invade us continually and do assay by all means to destroy us The Devils Watch for us and cease not compassing about like devouring Lyons and as ravening Wolves to see whether they cannot surprize us and carry us away the World sometimes by enticings and allurements some time by threats and violence endeavours to try and turn us out of the right way Our Flesh on the other side doth flatter us and the better to undermine us with great cunning doth propound and lay before us things wherein we have most delight It weepeth also sometimes to stir us up to pity it all to the intent towin us and cause us in all points to yield unto it and that it may master us Now if we consider our infirmity our stupidity and negligence the little wariness and watchfulness that is in us we may judge in what danger we live It is impossible that we should live in this World among so many that are infected and that with so great a Contagion without falling often into Sickness Is it possible that we should so often grapple with such strong and mighty Enemies without being sometimes staggered and over-thrown Is it possible that we should go in such durty and muddy ways without being defiled We see it in good Saints of old time who could not govern themselves so well but the serpent who always dogs us at the heels hath reached them with his venom but that they have fallen in divers faults some in incredulity others in idolatry others in adultery others in excess and drunkenness others in murthers there is none of them but hath his fall yea sometimes so great and heavy that they had been altogether bruised if God had not upheld them with his hand Ought not we then follow the example of St. Paul and as he did cry Who shall deliver us from these dangers wherein wherein we live while our Soul is in this miserable and mortal body Let us confess that it is our gain and profit for to die that by death we may be fully delivered from all mortal things Again death put us in full possession of all the promises of God and of those good things which Jesus Christ hath purchased for us and that we hope for him He in dying hath freed us and purchased our liberty and nevertheless we see our selves still in great scrvitude We are Kings Lords Judges hers of God co-heirs with Jesus Christ the Prince of Heaven and Earth yet it seems not so while we live this World for there we are beaten and used like servants like children under age we have as yet no use nor managing of our goods Kings and great Lords tho' we be we are often in such necessity that we have neither Bread to eat nor Water to drink nor Wool to cover us Moreover Jesus Christ hath purchased for us the Grace of God a perfect Justice life Eternal an immortal Incorruption glory and vertue to our Bodies and to our Souls an assured peace and quietness a joy and a contentment but this good hath not yet been delivered unto us for oftentimes we experiment the Wrath and Judgment of God we seel the concupiscences and vicious desires of our flesh In our bodies their is Corruption Mortality and Weakness and in our spirit Troubles Anguish and as it were a studious and intestine war between our good and bad desires which fight the one against the other and because these evils are more grievous so are the abovesaid goods more great and more to be desired If then altho' they be already purchased for us and that they be ours we nevertheless cannot come to the possession of them but by death are not we for this reason much bound unto it Ought not we to love and desire it The children of Israel being arrived at the River of Jordan seeing on the other side thereof the fruitful Land which god had promised them and that being passed they should begin to enjoy it and to rest had they not great cause to rejoyce and to pass the River with great alacrity And why
and the world shall rejoyce 2 Tim. 3. And the Apostle declares that whosoever will live holy in Christ he shall endure affliction Act. 5.20 21. We see that the Apostles and those which received their doctrine have almost always been in continual afflictions Col. 1. Heb. 10.11 In our time the afflictions of the faithful have been notorious that there is none so simple but may see them Mat. 6. Marc. 14. 1 Cor. 10 11. 1 Thes 1.3 On the contrary part the wicked instead of receiving punishment in this world are ordinarily better at their ease than the faithful and do flourish like the bay Tree as saith the Prophet Psal 37. Wherefore there must necessarily be another place where the good shall be recompenced with joy and the wicked with sorrow otherwise God should not be just and Christ should have dyed in vain But some one will say God doth accomplish his promises upon the souls of the just and his threatnings upon those of the unjust and by that means God shall not cease to be just although he should not raise again the bodies of men With this we must consider that if it be so that a free retribution is done to the soul as according to the promise of God it ought to be done to the just and punishment is justly inflicted upon the soul of the reprobate to the end that the justice of God may be safe so must it also of necessity be that the bodies be recompenced some with honour others with disdain to the end that God may remain just for ever For even as the Soul of man renued by the holy Ghost giveth it self to serve God so doth the body when it ceaseth from evil doing and being even ready to be martyr'd for professing the Lord serving to Justice and Holiness Rev. 12. For Example we have the Prophets Rom. 6. Act. 7. St Stephen the Apostles and so many Martyrs and true Servants of God whose bodies have greatly given themselves to serve God Rev. 6.8 Also in like manner as the spirit of the wicked doth imploy it self but only to offend God likewise they employ their bodies to serve to filthiness and iniquity and to do all evil Rom. 6.7 therefore just it is that the bodies of the Saints which served God and of the wicked which disobeyed God should both be raised by him to receive according to what they have done for or against him Furthermore they who deny the Resurrection of the body do likewise make the incarnation and bodily passion of Jesus Christ unprofitable For if the body do not rise again what needed he to take humane nature upon him and to suffer in it to deliver our bodies from the everlasting curse Seeing that if it were so that the bodies being dead should so return to the Earth that they should have no more being and so could neither enjoy happiness nor suffer pains and sorrows had it not been enough that he had only suffered his soul being heavy to death for to deliver the Souls from Hell Marc. 14. Whosoever then denies the re-establishment of bodies thro' ignorance makes the humanity of Christ unprofitable and accuseth God the Father of cruelty as if he had taken pleasure to see his well beloved Son so cruelly entreated without having for his part deserved it and without that it should serve to the Elect he maketh him also for his part in blaspheming a Lyer with his Father because he says that he will raise his at the last day In like manner doth he accuse the holy Ghost of vanity which by the mouth of the Prophets hath prophesied and foretold the Resurrection of the Dead Also he disanulleth Christian Religion for if the dead do not rise again Christ also is not risen and so the preaching of the Apostles should be false and we should be abused to believe their doctrine and those which are dead in Christ should be cast away Cor. 15. The Lord fitting himself to our capacity as the mother to the child teacheth us the Coelestial things by the comparison of the things Terrestrial to the end we comprehend that which otherwise is incomprehensible unto us And touching the matter which we have now in hand the Prophet Esay declares unto us Esai 19. that even as in Winter the grass of the field seems to be dead and in the spring after it hath felt the dew it springs and waxeth green again so likewise our bodies being dead shall rise again when at the latter day they shall feel the dew of the grace of God hearing the voice of the Son of man The Apostle saith Mat. 24. that as the seed must die before it be quickned 1 Thess John 5. and then it riseth by vertue of the sap which it hath had in the Earth in greater glory then it was sown 1 Cor. 15. so likewise all men must die that they may rise again the elect in greater glory then they were set upon the Earth by the vertue of the eternal Spirit of Jesus in whom they died Rom. 1. Thess 4. the probate in greater dishonour then they were before by the vertue of the immortal spirit of Satan in whom they are departed For seeing the Lord doth excellently unfold his power towards the insensible creatures we ought not to doubt but he hath at the least as much will to shew his power in making them to rise again for whom he died to the end to crown them with glory and his enemies to be charged with shame and infamy seeing they have so much dishonoured him When a nut or the kernel of a Pear or Apple is rotted in the ground God causeth it to rise again to a great tree for to bear much more fruit being risen again then it did before and a grane of Wheat being put into the ground and dying brings forth much fruit John 12. do we think that the Lord hath not as great power to raise up men as he hath to raise these things so small and as it were of no value Shall it not be easie for him to raise us again as it hath been easie to him to draw us forth of the matrix of the mother alive where before we were born we were as it were in a Sepulchre If the Prophets and Apostles in the name of God have raised up the dead Psal 18 shall it be impossible to the Lord by his power to raise them 2 King 4. Acts 9. Let us assure our selves that nothing can separate the body and soul of the faithful from the love which God beareth them neither hinder but that he shall make the wicked both in body and soul to be his foot-stool Now by reason that the Apostle saith John 6. that the body which is sown is not that which riseth again Heb. 10. 1 Cor. 15. there are some that will infer thereupon that at the Resurrection our souls shall not return into those bodies which now we have but into other bodies which the Lord
shall give us He himself in that place sheweth us that he speaks not that but only to shew us that although our bodies shall rise in the same substance which now they have they shall notwithstanding be changed in quality and glory seeing that this corruption most put on incorruption and that this mortality shall be swallowed up of life and put on immortality 1 Cor. 15. declaring that they shall be these self same bodies in substance but divers in qualities St. Paul saith Phil. 3. Christ will transform this vile body that it may be made like unto his glorious boâ—y according to the power by which he is able to make all things subject unto himself Mat. 27. Whereon followeth that as Jesus Christ rose again in the same body which was crucified for us being cleansed and discharged of all infirmity Luke 24. John 20. also we shall rise again in the same bodies which now we have in this world having in them cold heat hunger and thrist poverty sickness banishment imprisonment and such like adversities Heb. 10. 11. being cleansed and disrobed of all that which by sin did cause us any grief for Justice of God cannot consist without remunerating the bodies of those that have sought for his glory in crowning his graces in them and punishing those which have laboured to offend him Moreover we see that those which the Prophets and Apostles and Jesus Christ himself have raised again Mat. 27. it hath been in the self same bodies in the which the had lived before Who doubts but those that rose again at the death of our Lord did rise in the self same hodies which they had before for otherwise how should they have been known by those to whom they did appear The Apostles puts us out of doubt of it saying 1 Cor. 15. That if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead doth dwell in us he that hath raised up Christ from the dead will also quicken our mortal bodies because his spirit dwelleth in us he saith more over that the body which is sown in corruption shall rise again in incorruption It is sown in dishonour it shall rise again in glory it is sown in weakness it shall rise again in power it is sown a sensual body it shall rise a spiritual body Wherefore we ought to believe that the bodies which now we have shall be the self same which shall rise again in the same substance but the earthly qualities shall be changed into heavenly which is no small consolation seeing that we love our bodies so much although that in this world they be laden with so many miseries The Third point AS concerning the Authour of the Resurrection the Scripture doth declare unto us that God the Father in the beginning made man by his word Gen. 1. 2. which is his son John 1. and having made his body breathed into him a living soul by his spirit Gen. 2. Psal 33. so in the Resurrection of the dead 2 Cor. 4. he shall raise us again by his Son in a quickning spirit And when the Son of justice shall come in judgment for to judge the quick and the dead Mal. 4. the Sun shall wax dark Revel 1. and the Moon shall not yield her light 2 Tim. 4. and the brightness of the Stars shall be seen no more then if they were fallen from Heaven and the vertues which are in the Heavens as the Stars Mat. 24. the Planets and other coelestial creatures with Heaven and Earth shall be shaken Luke 21. Revel 6. then the Sea and her waves shall roar after an unaccustomed manner 2 Pet. 3. and when the order of nature shall be changed those shall be signs of the coming of the Son of man Mat. 16. And when that Jesus Christ the Son of God shall come who took humane nature upon him in the Virgins womb Luke 1. Acts 1. he shall come in the same body wherewith he did converse here below upon the Earth before and after his death as he himself declares calling himself the Son of man sent of God his Father Mat. 24. Mark 13. who gave him power to do judgment in so much as he is the Son of man Luke 24. John 5. set above the clouds at the right hand of the power of God Mark 16.24 1 Thess 4. accompanied with the voices of Archangels and of Angels with Gods Trumpets Rev. 1. and all eyes shall behold him Mat. 24. for he will cause his sign to appear in Heaven 1 Cor. 15. and his voice to be heard the which at the last trump shall be heard of those that have been put into the Sepulchres to the end that first they may rise again 1 Thess 4. and those which shall be found living shall hear it also to the end they may be translated which unto them shall be a kind of death being changed from mortal and corruptible to immortall and incorruptible bodies 1 Cor. 35. and shall rise again and shall be changed in a moment and twinckling of an eye This day shall not surprise the elect that are in the light because it shall be the day which they have so long waited for and wished with the other creatures 1 Thes 5. 1 John 1 for to those who have overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb 1 Cor. 1. and by the word of their testimony Rom. 8. and have not loved their lives to death 1 John 2.4.8.5 it shall bring unto them an unspeakable joy Rev. 12.21 making them lift up their heads aloft seeing their perfect deliverance come For their Saviour shall send his Angels with great sound of Trumpets to gather them together Esay 35. how far in sunder soever they be from the four winds Zach. 9. from the end of the earth to the end of heaven Luc. 22. Rom. 8. and then they shall be altogether caught within the clouds to meet the Lord in the Air 2 Thes 4. for to be joyned with their head as members of his body and shall be always with him who will separate them from the reprobates as the Shepheard doth the Sheep from the Goates Mat. 25. to put them both in body and soul in full possession of the everlasting heritage and happiness by them so long hoped for The Estate of the Elect that are Risen again THen their bodies which shall be risen again in triumph shall be changed not in substance but in quality being discharged of the earthly heaviness for to be made spiritual bodies 1 Cor. 15. to the end to be fit for the heavenly habitation where they have no need of meats which do corrupt Rev. 7. for they shall be no more hungry nor thirsty and they shall dye no more but shall use the heavenly food which is the word of God Luc. 20. they shall also be delivered from the bondage of sin for to serve evermore to Justice For these are the two principal things which hinder man from beholding the face of God this heavy earthly body
and infectious sin And for the first we see that the Lord said to Moses Exod. 33. who was desirous to see him Man shall not see me upon the Earth and live As for the other it was cause that the wicked Angels were cast down from Heaven and man out of Paradice Gen. 3. for there is nothing common between God and a sinful man Wherefore the faithful shall have a spiritual body discharged and purified from all sin There shall also be no defect in their bodies nor imperfection and all deformity and vice which cometh of sin shall be done away for the Lord will transform their vile and contemptible bodies and make them conformable and like unto his glorious body Phil. 3. 1 John 3. Moreover they shall no more suffer any torments pains sickness nor any other adverse thing because there shall 〈…〉 rning nor weeping nor â—â—â—â—uring for the Lord will wipe away all tears from their Eyes And there shall happen no more corruption to them by death Rev. 25. whereof there shall be no more remembrance Isa 25. but being made immortal they shall be made incorruptible Rev. 7.21 and delivered from all suffering for to be in a happy state for ever Their Soul which before was a living Soul Gen. 2. shall be changed into a quickning spirit 1 Cor. 15. then it shall be delivered from all sorrows griefs annoy perturbations and fear which came thro' sin Psal 61. and shall be set in rest joy consolation happiness and perpetual assurance without being any more perplexed nor defiled with troublesom affections Then being put in so excellent estate both of Body and Soul the Image of God shall truly shine upon them having this power to serve God being perfectly wise holy pure irreprehensible innocent without spot 1 Cor. 1. good just true immortal and incorruptible being resplendant in glory and honour before the Throne of God Col. 1. The which shall be the white vesture wherewith St. John saith Rev. 14.21 They shall be cloathed which is the pure and shining Vestments Rev. 3.4.6.7 which are the justifications of the Saints that shall hold the Palms in their hands in sign of Victory Rev. 19. after that the books being opened they shall hear the Voice full of meekness Rev. 7. grace and mercy receiving in the presence of the wicked who judged them the out-casts of the Earth Rev. 10. the sentence of eternal blessing being found written in the book of life which is the book of the Lamb Sap. 4.5 being clothed with the innocency of Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 4. and having the name of their Father written in their forehead Rev. 13.21 they shall be with Christ the Spouse 2 Cor. 5. crowned with the incorruptible crown of life Gal. 3. and eternal glory Apoc. 14. being pronounced the sons and heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus Christ Rev. 2. and Judges with him of the Apostate Angels 2 Tim. 4. and of the reprobate 1. Pet. 5. for all power and judgment is so given to the Son Rom. 8. Gal. 4. that he will participate in this honour as his assistants Wisd 3. they shall be put in possession of the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 19. having praise of God Luc. 22. which is the incorruptible heritage 1 Cor. 6. which cannot contaminate nor wither and which is preserved in Heaven for them John 5. they shall shine therein as the Firmament Rev. 2. and as the Sun Mat. 25. and as the Stars for ever 1 Cor. 4. Then they shall have their right in the Tree of Life Pet. 1. and shall enter into the new Coelestial Jerusalem Dan. 12. in the which there shall be no Temple Mat. 13. for the Lord Almighty is the Temple thereof and the Lamb Wisd 3. They shall be in it everlasting Kings and High Priests Rev. 2.21 22. offering sacrifices of Praise and Thanksgiving unto the Lord. Then being in the House of God Rev. 15.7 which is the blessed house which the faithful have in Heaven which is not made with hands 2 Cor. 5. they shall be filled with the magnificence of the Lord and shall bud like the Olive branch and blossom like the Palm and like the Cedar which is in Lebanus Psal 16.17.52 92. being immortal and incorruptible and shall not be importuned by Satan to sin and offend God The face of God which is the Fountain of Light 1 Cor. 13. the River of Pleasure Psal 16. and Ocean of Goodness Rev. 22. they shall see which shall give them such a great and perfect Joy that all the Joys which may be compared to that are but as a sparkle compared to a great Fire Marc. 9. It will make them forget all Terrestrial Heb. 11.12 what pleasure soever they could take in them in the world and they shall not remember any thing that may bring them sorrow or grief They shall be led to the Mountain of Sion and to the City of the living God which hath no need of the Sun nor Moon to shine in it Rev. 21.22 for the light of God hath lightned it and the Lamb is the Candle thereof and of thousands of Angels and of the assembly of the first born which are written in Heaven 2 Cor. 11. and to God which is the Judge of all Col. 1. and to the sanctified Souls of the Just Eph. 1. and to Jesus Christ their Head and their Spouse Mediator of the new Covenant Rev. 19. and of the blood shed speaking better things then that of Abel then with all his company and the other Saints with whom they shall be fellow Citizens being domesticks of God they shall be called to the nuptial banquet of the Lamb and shall enjoy the Kingdom of God their Father Rev. 19. the felicity which Jesus Christ by his death hath conquered for them Heb. 2.5.9.10 in whom they have put their whole trust Gal. 3.4 as he himself promiseth saying Rom. 4.5 Father I will that those which thou hast given me be with me Eph. 1.5 and see my glory which thou hast given me Rom. 5.9.10 and then I dispose the Kingdom unto you as the Father hath disposed it unto me John 12.14.17 to the end that you may eat upon my Table in my Kingdom The Apostle saith Luc. 22. If we dye with him we shall live with him and if we suffer with him we shall reign with him 2 Tim. 2. and shall be glorified with him Rom. 8. Of these promises the Children of God need not doubt for seeing that the Lord when he died gave Paradise to the Thief can be not more easily give it to those to whom he hath promised it Luc. 23. when he shall come into such great Glory and Majesty And now being with him and seeing him as he is they shall have a much greater Joy then had the Disciples seeing him transfigured that shall be so understanding Mat. 17. that they shall know all the Saints that ever have been Marc. 9. Luc. 9. and even those with whom they have conversed in this
world joyfully and according to God For if it be so that in the transfiguration of our Lord which was but a little demonstration as well of the Glory of the Body of Jesus as of the estate and condition in the which the Children of God shall be in Heaven for their meanness and infirmity could not have been able to see the incomprehensible Majesty of the Lord without being destroyed The Apostles although they had never seen the body of Elias and of Moses nevertheless they knew them How much sooner shall the Elect know one another when they shall be endued with this perfect knowledge and intelligence of the Image of God which shall be in them And if Adam in his first estate which was a great deal less glorious then that of the sanctified by Christ 1 Cor. 13. did know the beasts which God brought before him 1 Cor. 1. and did properly impose a Name to each one and even knewn Eve to be bone of his bones and flesh of his Flesh although that the Lord took the rib from him without his feeling it shall not we in this admirable glory have more wisdom to know each other Luc. 16. Now this knowledge shall be disrobed of all carnal and corrupt affection for the Elect shall not be known for loving the one more then the other or hating one reprobate more then another or in calling to mind the injuries and displeasures which they may have received in this world But they shall love directly without respect of persons those which God loveth and shall hold in abomination those which God shall detest For then all Paternity brotherhood and Mariage shall be abolished and there shall be but God alone Father of all whose Children we shall be and Brothers and Sisters one to another the Children of God shall be made Partakers of the divine Nature Marc. 12. for God shall be glorified in his Saints Eph. 4. and shall be made admirable to those that have believed 2 Cor. 6. 1 Pet. 1. Wherefore seeing God will communicate his Glory Vertue and Justice to his Elect imparting himself unto them let us know that this benefit contains the soveraign good of man which all desire and which the wisdom of man could never comprehend And indeed when by all the similitudes which the Scripture doth teach us we shall have said and learned much of the excellency of the children of God it is almost nothing in comparison of that which shall then appear surely then the Apostle with the Prophet hath good reason 1 John 3. having tasted in spirit the inestimable glory of the Elect in the heavenly life to say the things which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard and which is not come into the heart of man are those which God hath prepared for them which loveth him which are unspeakable and it is not impossible for man to tell them 1 Cor. 2. For although Adam was created in a very noble estate Isai 64. yet so it is that if the Elect were to re-assume that estate 2 Cor. 12. they should be miserable in regard of the soveraign excellency in the which they shall be set For First he had an earthly and sensual body Gen. 2. the Elect shall have Spiritual and Coelestial bodies 1 Cor. 14. 2. He had a living soul they shall have a quickning spirit 3. He could fail and render himself subject to death they shall not be able to fail nor fall in danger of death 1 Cor. 15. the which then shall be abolished 4. Satan had power both to tempt him and to make him to fall but he shall not have power of either to them 5. He was husbanding in an earthly Paradise they shall be in rest and enjoy the Heavenly Paradise 6. He had command over the birds of the Air the fishes of the Sea the beasts of the Earth Gen. 2. they being in greater power shall condemn Satan and all the wicked and the holy Angels shall be their companions Mat. 22. and shall have power in the Kingdom of their Father 7. Adam had such great wisdom that he named every beast according to their property 1 Cor. 9. they shall be endued with such wisdom all filled with such a perfect knowledge Rom. 2.3.5 that they shall be ignorant of nothing 1 Pet. 3 Surely then we ought to be much moved and stirred up to worship and serve God 2 Cor. 1. who without any desert of ours Rom. 15. Rom. 3.4 will for the love of his well-beloved Son so admirably unfold his incomprehensible goodness unto us Mat. 3.17 The Estate of the reprobate NOW this day shall surprize the wicked and reprobates which are in darkness Rom. 2.2 whom the Lord hath borne and suffered with great patience to the end to bring them to repentance as the Thief by night stealeth upon the Master of the family while he sleepeth and they shall be found without cloaths and shall walk naked Rev. 3. and their shame shall be seen Rev. 16. for when they shall say peace and security 1 Cor. 4. then shall sudden destruction come upon them like to a woman in travel 1 Thes 5. and they shall not escape but shall be marvelously affraid by reason that it shall be a day of darkness unto them Amos 5. and not of light an obscure and not a clear day and then they shall be condemned by their own consciences like unto Cain giving praise to God seeing the Lord with his Saints come which are by millions for to give judgment against those that have not had the fear of God before their eyes and to the end to convince all the wicked of all the evil works which they have wickedly done Sap. 4.5 and of the rude speeches which the wicked have preferred against him Gen. 4. then for to weigh down the Wine-press of the anger and wrath of Almighty God Rom. 14. because they have persecuted Jesus Christ in his members Jude Rom. 3. which are bones of his bones and flesh of his flesh Rev. 19. Eph. 5. so that they shall be in such great Agonies and Afflictions feeling the terrible judgment of God to come upon them Heb. 10. that they shall hide themselves in holes and between the stones of the Mountains Rom. 2. and shall say to the Mountains and stones fall upon us and hide us from the Face of him who is set upon the throne Rev. 6. and from the wrath of the Lamb Rev. 9. for the great day of his wrath is come and who is it shall be able to subsist They shall seek for Death and not find it and shall desire to die but Death shall fly from them they shall strike themselves with despair and shall be as dead for fear by reason of the expectation which they have of those things which shall suddenly come upon them Luk. 21. they shall lament before the Lord who shall have a flame of fire to do Vengeance and Judgment according to Truth and Justice upon those which
have not acknowledged God and who have not obeyed the Gospel of the Lord Mat. 24. Rev. 1. and shall punish them in Body and Soul with eternal perdition in the Face of the Lord 2 Thes 1. and in the Glory of his strength Rom. 2.2 The bodies of those which are dead before shall come out of the Earth Job 5. 1 Thes 4. and of those which shall be found living shall be changed and put on immortality and shall be charged with opprobrious infamy before God and his Saints for he shall make clear the things that are hid and shall manifest the counsels of hearts And then their immortal Soul shall be loaden with fear with sorrow with terrors with grief with desolation and with such despair Mat. 24. Luke 21. that it is impossible for us to comprehend it Mar 13. Rev. 1. Then being in such confusion of Body and Soul the image of Satan their heard shall appear upon them that is to say infidelity iniquity wickedness abomination filthiness hatred cruelty tyranny perjury lying envy and all that is of impiety and unjustice which is the black Roab of the reprobate and even so as the Elect have Christ for their head 1 Cor. 11.12 of whom they are the body unto whom they shall be made alike Eph. 1.5 so likewise the reprobates have Belzebub for theirs Mat. 25. unto whom they shall be made conformable For although that all the Devils are all Apostate Angels nevertheless the Scripture in sundry places attributes the principality to one alone to the end to gather all the wicked unto him as members in one Body for to be put to perpetual ruin Then the wrath and indignation of God shall shew it self clearly upon all the infidelity and unjustice of the unbelievers and execrable 2 Cor. 4. Ephes 2. which shall not be found written in the book of Life Mat. 9.10.12.25 for which they shall receive sentence of Condemnation Mark 3. and being separated from Christ Luk. 11.21 shall be driven from before the presence of the Lord as the dust before the wind Rom. 1.2 Rom. 2. and cast like dogs forth of the City of the Children of God Rev. 21. 17. Rom. 9. and sent with their Captain Satan and his Angles who did accuse the elect before God night and day Psal 1. Isa 17. Rev. 21. 22. in perpetual malediction for to drink of the wine of the wrath of God Rev. 12. Mat. 25. filled into the cup of his wrath and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone before the holy Angels and before the Lamb and the smoke of their torments shall mount for ever Rev. 14. 15. 16. and they shall have no rest neither day nor night Now this place of torment for the wicked is so horrible 2 Thes 1. that it is incomprehensible unto us and even as God is eternal also this ruin shall be eternal The Scripture for to declare it unto us useth many comparisons David saith Psal 55. That the wicked shall be cast into the Pit of ruin and of the bottomless Pit Rev. 9. Isa saith Isa 30. That the torture is already prepared for the wicked which God hath made deep and large the Building of it is fire and much wood and the breath of the Lord like unto a stream of Brimstone doth kindle it Isa 66. then he saith that the worm of the wicked shall not die and therefore shall not be quenched and they shall be hateful to all flesh Daniel sayeth also Dan. 12. That they shall be in perpetual shame and contempt Malachy declares Mal. 4. That the day of the Lord shall come burning like an Oven and all the proud and those that do wickedly shall be like stubble and the day of the Lord shall burn them and shall leave them neither root nor branch St. John Bapist saith Mat. 3. that the chaff shall be put into the fire which shall never be quenched Mat. 3. The Lord saith that they shall be cast into the Furnance of Fire Mat. 25. which is the everlasting Fire Saint Luke sheweth Luc. 16. that the evil rich man whose Soul is in Hell is in such great heat that he greatly desires to have a drop of Water which he shall never be able to get how much more shall he be tormented when he hath put on his body The Apostle saith Heb. s10 that they shall feel a ferventness of fire which shall devour them St. John declareth Rev. 19 20 21. That they shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone which is the second death For although they shall live yet by reason of these incredible torments they ought rather to be called dead then alive Now although that by all these similitudes it is demonstrated unto us that the damned shall be grievously and everlastingly tormented yet nevertheless man cannot think nor comprehend how great the everlasting sufferings shall be no more then he can comprehend the joy of the Children of God Mat. 9. 1 Cor. 2. Wherefore with good cause the Author to the Hebrews saith Heb. 10. that it is a terrible and fearful thing to fall into the bands of the living God For although that we should see one continually knawed with worms and burnt with fire that torment should notwithstanding be as nothing in regard of that which is prepared for the wicked For besides that their bodies shall be horribly afflicted their souls shall be in incredible distresses and sorrows This ought well to stur us up to watch and pray and to refrain from doing evil and to move us to serve God Rev. 3. Mat. 24. 1 Thes 1. Psal 25. 51. and to desire him with the Prophets and Apostles Jer. 31. to change review and increase our faith that so being made new creatures we may escape this place of torment and be numbred amongst the Sons of God Lamen 5. Cant 1. Luc. 17. Joh. 3. Wis 4. 5. Which the Lord grant for the love of his well beloved Son our Saviour to whom be all honor and glory for ever and ever Amen Prayers and Meditations touching Life and Death Meditation the First THe life of Christians ought to be occupied in considering the things that follow and to put them in practise to wit to have always in remembrance the benefits which they have received at the hands of God to give him thanks for them without ceasing both with heart and mouth to love him who is goodness it self to fear and worship him seeing he is the Almighty and only Wise to be stirred up by the love which they bear to God also to love their Neighbours The love of God draws us from the love of corruptible things lifts us up to Heaven and inflames our hearts to a holiness of life The love of our Neighbour turns us from all troublesomness in will or in deed and doth stir us up to integrity and well doing Another LEt us often think what we are The principal part of us is the Soul the which
is endued with understanding with reason and with judgment to know the soveraign good which is God to love him to adhere and unite our selves unto him that we may have part of his immortality and happiness Now we forsake and contemn this great good for to grovel upon the earth and to go down into the pit of carnal desires applying the vigour of our understanding and judgment to things that are not worth the pains that we employ in them We bury our selves quick of heavenly we become earthly and of men created for eternal life we endeavour as much as in us lieth to set our selves in the rank of brute Beasts God doth not forsake us nevertheless although that our ingratitude hath well deserved it but calls us unto him by his word presents unto us infinite testimonies of his grace continues it daily he supports exhorts counsels chides and fatherly chastiseth us Nevertheless we continue blind deaf and negligent despising his goodness or use it not as we should or indeed abusing it nay which is worse we love vain and transitory things better and have our minds too much fixed and setled upon them God stretcheth forth his hand to conduct us we draw back ours and fly when he calleth us If he put us into the way of salvation we grudge and repine for the world we look behind us deferring and remitting our amendment till to morrow Let us awake then let us not always stick in the mire let us strengthen our selves in the vertue of him that supports and succours us let us a little undertake to despise corruptible things and to desire those that are truly good and everlasting When God calleth us let us hearken if he guids us let us follow him that we may come to his house let us receive his good things and himself too for he gives himself unto us in the person of his Son He shews us the means to get to Heaven let us then desire of him to give us the will and courage by faith repentance charity and hope to aim thither and that he would maintain his grace in us until the end to sigh in this mortal life and to wait through the assurance of his mercy for our departure out of this world and our last day which shall be the beginning of our true life Prayers and Meditations HOW great are the illusions and impostures of the enemy of our salvation He sheweth us afar off things that are ridiculous and vain and perswades us that it is all good and happiness he scares us with things that we ought not to fear and makes us to fly from those things which we ought to imbrace He calleth inticeth and flattereth us by the means of our desires if that will not serve he roars and storms and endeavours to astonish us within and without O eternal Light and Verity O Lord and merciful Father disperse those clouds of ignoranee and error illuminate our understanding and do not suffer us to come near to that which thou hast commanded us to flie from and which is hurtful and pernicious unto us let us not desire but what is truly to be desired to wit thy self who art the spring-head of all goodness of our life and of eternal happiness All flesh is grass and the glory of the man is like the flower of the field cause then that we may seek for our firmness and contentment in the grace which thy Son hath brought us let our life lye hid in him so that at the day of the separation of our souls from our bodies we may find it holy in Heaven waiting with assured rest and joy the happy Resurrection of this flesh in which all corruption infirmity and ignominy being abolished and death being swallowed up of victory we shall live eternally with thee in an incomprehensible happiness in thee by the which thou shall be glorified Maintain then thy Children O Lord in this faith and hope finishing thy work in us until they be altogether with thee for to enjoy the inheritance and the glory which thine only Son hath by his Merit purchased for them Amen Prayer OLord Jesus Christ Creator and Redeemer of Mankind who hast said I am the way the Truth and the Life I do bessech thee by this unspeakable Charity which thou hast shewed in yielding thy self to Death for us that I may never stray any jot from the who art the way nor that I doubt of thy Promises seeing thou art the Truth and dost accomplish that which thou promisest Cause that I may only take pleasure in thee who art the Eternal Life beyond the which there is nothing to be desired neither in Heaven nor Earth Thou hast taught us the true and only way to Salvation because we should not abide erring like stray'd Sheep in the lost ways of this World shewing us clearly that which we ought to believe to do to hope and wherein we ought to yield and settle our selves It is thou that hast given us to understand how cursed we are in Adam and that there is no way to escape from this Perdition in the which we are plunged but by Faith in thee Thou art that true Light which dost appear to those that walk in the desert of this Life and who having drawn us out of the darkness of the spiritual Egypt hast driven away the darkness of our Understanding and dost enlighten us to the end we may tend towards the promised Inheritance which is the Life Everlasting into the which the Unbelievers does not enter but those that have assuredly relied upon thy holy Promises O what a Goodness is it that thou hast vouchsafed to descend from thy Fathers-Bosom and from the Everlasting Throne to the Earth to put on our poor Nature of Master to become Servant to the end that by thy Doctrine thou mightest do away the darkness of our Ignorance to guide our feet into the way of Peace and to make plain the way of Salvation unto us which if we follow we cannot stray nor wax weary seeing that thy Grace and Power do accompany us therein all the days of our Life Moreover by thy Spirit thou dost strengthen us in it and double our Courage Thy word is Bread which nourisheth us therein thy promise is the staff which upholds us Thou thy self by thy secret and incomprehensible vertue dost bear and maintain us in it in an admirable manner to the end that both in fair and foul weather we may walk with all Alacrity unto thee And as in preserving us thou hinderest that we do not fall into the snares of Satan and the World also seeing thou art the Truth thou takest away all doubts scruples and mistrusts which may trouble and let us or turn us during our course thou causest us to behold the supernal Vocation the misery and vanity of the World the frailty of this present Life the Gate of Death and the most happy Life which is beyond that And as thou art