away that was a suror to him Witnesse thou Salomon when thou didst pray for Wisedome thou Paul when for strength against Sathans buffets thou Ezekias and Dauid when you called for deliuerance from enemies you Israelites when you cryed in bondage thou Moses for preseruation at a dead lift thou Prodigo thou Publican thou penitent Theefe thou Manasses thou mourning Mary when you prayed and sued with teares for mercy thou Anna thou Isaack thou Zachary with thy Wife Elizabeth intreating for Children nay lastly let the experience of all Gods Seruants for this fiue thousand yeeres speake and speake thou mine owne Soule in thy young yet true experience what thou hast found and felt and declared in the great congregation if euer petition were put vp from a sorrowful soule a beleeuing and a touched heart a zealous spirit that receiued not a gracious answere in euery request concerning body or soule that concerned eyther Gods glory to giue or his seruants good to receiue For thou Lord wilt blesse the righteous thou wilt shine vpon him with the light of thy countenance and with fauour wilt crowne and compasse him as with a shield Psal 6.12 For Mirth the Lords Seruants shall reioyce and sing for ioy of heart Esay 65.14 they shall reioyce vvith ioy vnspeakeable 1 Pet. 1.8 and their ioy shall no man take from them Iohn 16.22 For Pleasures though they be not fatted with the carrion of the world like the Diuels Crowes nor taste not of this bitter Ratsbanes sweet-sower poyson of Sinne which at last stings like a Cockatrice yet they haue pure and perfect pleasures such as the worlds swine neuer tasted they are fed with hidden Manna they keepe a constant Iubilie and a perpetuall Christmas feasting Christ as feasted by him in that communion they haue with him in the Word the Sacraments Prayer c. In vvhich they are satisfied with the fatnesse of Gods House and drinke abundantly out of the riuers of his pleasures Psal 36.9 These wages with many moe are as the earnest penny and the Hirelings entring penny with vs called the Gods penny which God giues as assurance and part of greater and better payment hereafter being but a little portion and pittance of that which they shall haue hereafter but as the Prologue to the Comedie as a Beauer to a Banquet as a Mite to a mountaine of Gold as the Candle light to the Sunne For hereafter indeede is the great reward Mat. 5.12 so great so shining that as it hath dazeled the Aegles eyes of the dearest of Gods Seruants when they haue set themselues to behold it as of Augustine and others so I can but shew it you a-farre off as Moses was shewed Canaan a type of Heauen Then for the comfort of those that haue imployed their bodies and their soules in Gods seruice here to prouoke others now to sacrifice their bodies to God as is most reason as the Apostle cals it a reasonable seruice Rom. 12.1 let them know these bodies shall then be like the Angels in heauen Mat. 22.30 they shall shine as Starres Dan. 12.3 yea at the Sunne in the Kingdome of the Father Mat. 13.46 For their Soules they shall be glorious without spot or wrinckle Ephes 5.17 they shall behold the face of God in righteousnesse and haue fulnesse of ioy in Gods presence Psal 16.11 For their estate they shall be Kings and raigne with God and Priests to sing Haleluiahs vnto him Reu. 1.6 for as they haue serued Christ on earth so they shall serue him in glory Reu. 22.3 yea and they shall be Iudges to to sit vpon thrones and iudge the twelue Tribes of Israell Mat. 19.28 I could tell you further of their ioyes out of the Scripture in their eminencie excellencie fulnesse glorious greatnesse and perpetuitie Psal 36.8 Mat. 25.11 Esay 21.11 1 Cor. 2.20 how incorruptible the Crowne is how stedfast the Kingdome how constant the ioy how euerlasting the feast how secure the rest how endlesse and infinite the pleasure is which is prouided for Gods seruants after their departure out of this vaile of misery 1 Pet. 5.4 Reu. 21.6 2 Thes 3.7 Iohn 16.22 Heb. 12.28 c. with all the accruments and additions and amplifications incident to this poynt eyther in respect of the place the highest heauens or the company innumerable Angels the congregation of the first borne God the Iudge Christ the Râ—deemer Heb. 12.22 c. but I contract my sailes and leaue the rest to your search and meditation and to the spirit to make application onely desiring euery soule that is as yet a slaue to his vsurping sinnes to consider as Hell that hee gaines so the gaine that hee looseth that is Heauen thinke of it seriously and betimes least thou thinke of thy gaining losse thou getst by sinne when thou must for euer stand to the bargaine as the rich Diues did in Hell when he saw Lazarus in Abrahams bosome Luke 1.6 when his bad and base choise was repented but not redressed Lastly if these blessings here and hereafter moue thee not yet lend mee thy patience a while to peruse and ponder the curses and plagues and euils that thou shalt auoid by being Gods Seruant Many a man thou knowest is exempted from many common calamities by the countenance of some great man to whom he retaines as from being a common Souldiour in the time of warre and the like so in any common plague or iudgement the Lord knowes how to deliuer his yea though thousands fall on their right hand And surely this is a wondrous priuiledge that the Saints haue first that as God blesseth oft the wicked for their sakes as hee did Laban for Iacobs cause and Potiphar and Pharaoh for Iosephs cause his blessings being not onely vpon the houses and families but vpon whole Nations Countries and Cities for the cause of his Seruants euen as heathenish Empyres amongst the Babilonians prospered for Daniels cause and so Cyrus Artaxerxes and Darius for the cause of Ezra Nehemias and other captiue Iewes that serued the true God and the Heathenish Romanes for the persecuted Christians causes as Histories manifest and as it is a further priuiledge that God oft not onely preserues from dangers but saues from destruction sinfull Sodomitish and profane places and persons for their cause to as hee did those in the indangered ship for Pauls cause and Noahs kindred for Noahs cause and would haue spared Sodome for Abrahams and the righteous sake if they could haue beene found so it is a wonderfull prerogative to that when the Lord by the prouocation of the vnrighteous is minded to bring destruction vpon a Land or Country hee first deliuers his Seruants 1. eyther by death as hee did Iosias and good Augustine before the sacking of Hippo by the Vandales 2. Or by conueying them to some other place as he did Lot when Sodome was burned 3. Or by providing some meanes for their escape as the Arke for Noah
of death and blesse God for it tenne thousand times following the foot-steps of worthy Fathers and Saints in the Church whose feeling of this point God hath directed them to leaue behinde them in their writings O tu vita quam praeparauit Dexs ijs qui diligunt eum vita vitalis vita beata vita secura vita tranquilla c. O thou life saith Augustine prepared of God for them that loue him thou liuing life thou blessed life thou secure life thou quiet life thou beautifull life thou life that knowest no death thou life that knowest no sadnesse thou life without blot without sorrow without care without corruption without perturbation without any varietie or change Would God that laying aside this burthen of my flesh I might enter into thy ioyes O quam fortunatus ero si audiuero c. O how happy shall I be if I might heare those sweet Songs of thy Citizens and those honey sweet verses but O more happy if I my selfe may finde grace and fauour to sing a song vnto the Lord Iesus Christ of the sweet Songs of Sion O verè foelices qui de Pilago c. O truely happy they that come out of the Sea of the World to the Hauen of Heauen out of Banishment to their owne Country and out of a foule Prison to a glorious Palace O Coelestis domus luminosa ad te suspirat c. O Heauenly House full of glorious light to thee tendeth my pilgrimage that he may possesse mee in thee that made both mee and thee Inter Brachia Seruatoris mei viuere volo mori cupio In the Armes of my Sauiour I wish to liue and desire to dye Many such feeling speeches I could repeate from the auncient militant warriours in this mortalitie whom we call Fathers when they went to the Father of Spirits shewing how farre they were from any vnwillingnesse to die which if wee make vse of as wee ought assuredly they will vvorke in vs through the blessing of God the same effect To shut vp this the godly cry come Lord Iesus come quickely Now they are in the world then they shall come to their owne now they are in the skirmish then shall they be in their victory now in the tempestuous Sea then in the quiet Hauen now in the heate of the day then in rest and coole euening now in place absent from Christ then with him following wheresoeuer hee goeth Now their life is hid with Christ but then shall they appeare with him in glory and that glory for euer and euer without change or end 1 Iohn 4.2 Comforts against the feare of Death by which the Christian Soule may be made willing to her Dissâ—lution CHAP. V. THE feare of death is not one of the least temptations to a weake Christian for Death is not onely fearefull to a naturall man whose hope is in this world being in it owne nature the most terrible of all terribles as Heathen men haue tearmed it for which cause wicked men are agast at the apprehension of it as appeares in the example of Bâ—ltazar of Hamon and others being as vnwilling to dye as the Beare vnto the Stake and the Swine vnto the Shambles but euen the godly themselues haue some combats and conflicts in this kinde as had our Sauiour Christ himselfe Ezekias and Dauid c. by reason that Nature abhorres her owne abolishion and feares the dissolution of the soule and body which are naturally as vnwilling to be seuered and sundered as two friends that haue beene borne and bred and brought vp together are loath to depart and to take their long leaue eyther of other therefore to make that easie and facile vnto thee which of it selfe is harsh and difficult that thou maist submit thy selfe willingly to that which all flesh haue vndergone and must vndergoe of necessitie Arme Grace against Nature and the Spirit against the Flesh with these comfortable considerations 1 Consider that by corporall death God onely cals againe for that soule which at the first hee created and infused into the body to informe and animate it and that this Soule of thine flits not out of her terrestriall tabernacle by chance or hap-hazard or casualtie or fortune or by the Climactericall yeere the reuolution of seauens and nines or by the position of the Heauens or course of the Starres or by thy disease or sicknesse occasioned by bad dyet superfluities of meates or drinkes ouer-great heates or taking of cold or the like accidents which are but meere instruments of thy mortalitie but looke at the superiour Agent GOD himselfe who hath now determined and disposed thy death Hab. 9.27 who hath numbred thy dayes and appointed thy limits who turnes thy dust into his dust Gen. 3.19 thou being a Sonne of Adam and cals for thy Spirit to returne to him that gaue it Psal 90.3 Eccles 12.7 And therefore seeing it is the Lord that cals be thou as willing to sleepe with thy Fathers as Samuel was to awake out of his naturall sleepe at Gods call 1 Sam. 3.10 Thinke that thy Soule is giuen vnto thee as a precious pledge to be safely kept and therefore grudge not to returne thy holy pawne to God the chiefe owner when hee requires it but commit it to him as into the hands of a faithfull Creator and louing Redeemer Why should the Tenant at will stand out with his Land-lord for an old rotten Cottage when he would remoue him to a better Mansion why should the Souldier be refractorie to leaue his station and place to be otherwaies disposed of by his Generall and Commander Now thou art here but a Tenant at will thou hast no fee-simple of thy life thou art a war-faring Souldier professed in Baptisme therefore like the Centurions Souldiers be willing to goe when thy Captaine bids thee goe Mat. 8.9 2 Let this comfort thee that thy sinnes the cause of thy death is taken away by the Messias Christ in whom thou beleeuest by whom thy sinnes being pardoned thou art blessed Psal 32.1 his death being the death of Sin and the conquest of Hell Hos 13. 1 Cor. 15. And therefore comfort thy selfe with Dauids holy Meditations encouraging thy soule to returne vnto her rest because the Lord hath beene bountifull vnto thee since he hath deliuered thy Soule from death euen the second death thine eyes from teares and thy feete from falling and since thou shalt walke before the Lord euen with the foure and twentie Elders in long white roabes in the Land of the liuing Psal 116.7.8.9 For all thy bitter griefe in corporall death which yet is sweetened to the Elect the Lord will deliuer thy soule from the pit of corruption for hee hath cast all thy sinnes behinde his backe as hee did Ezekiahs Esay 38.17 And therefore as there is no danger in handling an Adder or Viper or any other Serpent when her sting is taken away so there is no perill in Death since Sinne which is
the sting of Death is to thee not imputed but in the mercies of God pardoned and in the merits of Christ couered 1 Cor. 15. Rom. 8.1 Remember that God is the same God vnto thee in thy death that hee was in life good gracious propitious mercifull and mindefull of thee in thy last and greatest exigent Enoch found it so who walking vvith God in his life vvas taken away by the same God in his death that he was no more seene Gen. 5.24 Therefore it was Iobs dying comfort that his Redeemer liued whom as hee desired so hee hoped to see with the eyes of his body as he had beheld him with the rest of the Patriarkes with the eyes of Faith Iob 19.25 This consideration made him confident in the midst of his combats that though the Lord should kill him yet hee would trust in him Iob 13. This made prophecying Iacob ioyfull in his last farewell out of the few and euill expired dayes of his Pilgrimage in the inioying that Shilo the blessed Messias and his saluation which so long hee had waited for Gen. 49.18.33 This made old Simeon so comfortably caroll out his Swan-like song a little before his death euery particular of vvhich dittie expresseth his delight to dye and his desire to depart when hee had the worlds Sauiour in his armes and his Spirit in his heart Luke 2.25.26.27 28.29 And sure if thou haue the same grace and feele God in so many particulars now gracious vnto thee in thy life as did Enoch Iob Iacob and Simeon thou oughtest vpon the same grounds to seâ—tle thy heart in the sweet assurance of Gods speciall presence in thy last dissolution that hee will make thy bed in thy sickenesse and send thee that very Comforter his owne Spirit which according to his promise he sent his Disciples euen when all externall comforts faile if thou now worship him in spirit and in truth Iohn 4.24 For Salomon the wisest of men from the wisdome of God taught what Dauid his Father blessedly felt 1 Kings ch 1. v. 48. ch 2. v. 1.2.3 v. 10.11 that the righteous hath hope in death euen then when the wicked is cast off by reason of his malice as was Antiochus Epiphanes Herod and others And therefore you of the Israel of God you the Seede of Abraham the friends of God feare not for the Lord is vvith his Seruants with those whom hee hath chosen and he will be with you and not cast you away but vvill strengthen help and sustaine you yea againe I say Feare not thou worme Iacob and yee men of Israel I will helpe thee saith the Lord and thy Redeemer the holy One of Israel Esay 41. v. 8.9.10 v. 14. If the Lord be thy friend as hee vvas a friend to Abraham to Lazarus and to his Disciples and is still to all that seeke him and his grace then sure hee will play a sure friends part hee will sticke fast to thee in thy last conflict in this thy vvarrefare remembring thee euen in death as hee did his friend Lazarus Iohn 11.11 Therefore apply Dauids meditation as balme to thine owne sore in thy feares and say to thy soule Why art thou sad oh my Soule and why art thou so disquieted within mee still trust in God and giue him thankes for the comfortable helpe of his presence Though I walke through the shadow of death yet will I feare none euill for thou art with mee thy Rod and thy Staffe shall comfort mee Psal 23.4 God is my God euen the God of whom commeth my saluation God is the Lord by whom I escape death by whom indeede death is no death Psal 68.20 4 Remember what death is properly to the godly not a dying but a departing Luke 2.29 not an abolishion but a dissolution Phil. 1. a loosing out of Prison a Goale-deliuery to the soule not a curse but a blessing a freedome and a libertie out of captiuitie not pernitious but precious in the sight of God is the death of his Saints Psal 116. A walking with God Gen. 5. A going to our Fathers in peace A gathering to our people and A yeeldding of the spirit Gen. 25.8 Gen. 49.33 A sweet sleepe Deut. 31. A rest of our flesh in hope Psal 16. 116. A resting from our labours Reu. 14. with diuers such Epithites that the Scripture giues speaking of the death of Abraham Iacob Moses Dauid Iosias c. and the rest of the Saints of God Oh then why shouldest thou feare thy freedome Doth any Iewish Turkish Romish or Athenian Bond-man take it ill to be infranchized Doth any Apprentise distaste to be made a Free-man Is any Prisoner daunted vvith the newes of his deliuery out of colde Irons Is any Captiue discomforted when hee perceiues the meanes of his ransome oh then why shouldest thou be daunted with that messenger that is sent from the King of heauen to deliuer thee from all the maladies and miseries of this life from all the distresses crosses and cares that are incident to this mortalitie in bonds sickenesse diseases paines of body burthen of minde incurable sores with an hundred such like afflictions which make life to be loathedly vnpleasant and vnprofitable besides Is any man afraid of his bed is not rest comfortable to a iournying foot-man to a trauelling pilgrime or a drudging labourer Oh how glad is hee to repose his wearyed limbes in his wished couch Oh how acceptable is sleepe to refocillaite and recouer the ouer-spent spirits and to reuiue the decayed powers Now thy death is but a sleepe as the Word testifies there being such a proportion betwixt death and sleepe that the Heathen could tearme sleepe the Image of Death and the elder Brother of Death and our graues are our beds in which our bodies resting and sleeping the holy Ghost vvhose liuing Temples they were vvatching ouer them vvhen they are dead shall rouze them vp at the last day in beautie glory and splendor like the Sunne refreshed like a Gyant ready to runne his Race 5 Further to inlarge and diffuse this meditation a little further doth any man dislike to accept of these opportunities where hee shall not onely see and visite but inioy the company and conference of his friends his longed for his louing and beloued absent friends their sight is gracious the communion and conuersation with them is more gracious now by death we come to enioy and to ioy in the presence of our friends vvho haue broke the Ice before vs and haue led the way to this common Inne of death we shall see the face of CHRIST wee shall looke vpon him whom our sinnes haue pierced behold his wounds in his glorified body as the Angels now behold them wee shall inseperably be vnited vnto him and so ioy in him that our ioy shall be full in those blessed mansions which hee hath gone before to prepare wee shall liue and conuerse with Abraham Isaack and Iacob
comfortable end made Abraham Iob old Simeon Moses and other of the Saints in the old and new Testament The like wee read of Ambrose whose conclusion in his death-bed was that hee was neyther ashamed to liue nor fearefull to dye because he had a good Lord. Bernards death was grounded vpon the sure hope and Anchor of Gods mercy though hee liued in corrupt times Oecolampadius told his visitors newes in the last speech hee vttered namely that hee should shortly be with the LORD IESVS Mr. Caluin with Dauids heart repeating Dauids Psalmes mourning in the Spirit for his sinnes his soule was sent out of his body like Noahs Doue out of the Arke Melancthon in his last farewell to life professed he was exceeding willing to dye because it was the Lords will praying for a happy and ioyfull departure hee had his desire presently sealed Peter Martyr gaue a comfortable farewell to his brethren and deare friends acknowledging saluation onely in Christ the Redeemer in which faith as he liued so he dyed That halfe miraculous man Luther in his death abounded as with prayer so with praises and thankesgiuings that the Lord had reuealed Christ vnto him and made him an instrument to discouer Antichrist and to oppose him Annas Burgius cryed in her last cryes Lord forsake not mee least I forsake thee Mauritius the Emperour in his last fainting gaue glory vnto GOD that was righteous in all his wayes and holy in all his workes Saint Augustine wept vpon his sicke couch for many dayes together and so was his soule ferryed to Christ in a floud of teares as Peter walked to Christ on the Sea of waters I might giue your meditations matter enough to worke vpon in reflexing vpon infinite examples related by Authors to which euery faithfull Minister that vseth to performe this dutie of visiting the sicke like a spirituall Physitian discerning the estate of the soule addes his Probatum est in ioyfull experience of many whose dying hath beene suted and sorted to their liuing both gracious both glorious Why then shouldest thou feare for to the righteous there shall be peace at the last Esay 57.2 therefore liue by Faith beleeue the Promises and apply them and be comforted in Gods mercy to others but as for the wicked it is not so with them they shall bee like the chaffe scattered in the winde for there is no peace to the wicked saith my God Esa 57.21 the prolong of their wicked life ends in a fearefull Tragedie in death for though in respect of the body and the outward man there is the same condition to the vvise and the foolish to Nabal and Salomon godly Ionathan perishing in the field as well as wicked Saul 1 Sam. 31.2.3 Ezekias strucke with the plagues boyle Esay 38.21 Asa goutie in his feete nay euen good Iosias wounded in the Battell and the rest of the godly being afflicted in sickenesse as pittiously and dying oft times as painefully whether in a naturall or a violent death euen as the wicked as appeares in the exquisite torments of the Martyres in the Primitiue Church in the crucifying of Peter and Paul with their heads downewards c. yea euen in the very Passion of Christ himselfe yet in respect of the inward man and dispositions of their soules in death there is as great difference betwixt them as there was in their carriage and conuersation in life And therefore as you haue heard the godly praying or praysing and blessing GOD speaking graciously sending out their spirits ioyfully and dying comfortably so prophane men dye eyther carelesly and blockishly for the most part their hearts being frozen and their consciences benummed and scared without any touch in soule or remorse for sinne which kinde of dying though our sottish silly common people commend as the most happy and blessed death when they goe away quietly like Lambes as their stupiditie and blindnesse thinke yet indeede they dye like Beasts and Dogs without any life of grace or feeling of the Spirit in the power or comfort of it nay senslesly like stockes and stones as is said of Nabal whose heart was like a stone within him 1 Sam. 25.37.38 or else desperately and ragingly impatiently as impenitently belching out blasphemies against both the Maiestie and the Mercy of God Thus Iudas cryes hee hath sinned in betraying the innocent bloud but hath no Faith to apply that bloud to the washing away of his bloody treason Thus Antiochus Epiphanes dying is tormented inwardly with the gripes and conuulsions of conscience as with the rage of his sickenesse so Iulian the Apostate in his last act of life from his infected lungs sent out venome against Christ calling him in dirision victorious Galilean Thus Eccius dyes execrating his Popish on-setters in frustrating his golden hopes when they had clapt their hands to animate him to barke at Luther and the Protestanrs The like end made Latomus Hoff-maister Spira and other Antichristian Champions being not vnlike in their sinne Thus Gardiner dyes confessing that hee had sinned with Peter but could not repent vvith Peter Cornelius Agrippa cursing his attending Spirit that stood by him in the forme of a blacke dog Others paralel in the like sinnes making like proportioned ends vnlesse it be in some particulers as once in the Scripture in the Theefe vpon the crosse that a theeuish and licentious life should haue the promise of Paradise in Death which as it was first the conclusion of Christs life secondly the present magnifying of the power of his Passion so it is not to be vrged nor peremptorily pleaded 1. in defence of ill liuers 2. nor imitated in deferring repentance 3. nor presumed vpon no more then a man ought to presume to be a Traytor a Witch a murtherer in hope for a pardon when he is to be turned off the Ladder because some one man in an age hath by Gods prouidence this priuiledge to be repriued and released from these facts committed For in place of one example that hath had his inueterate old sores cured his crying treasons pardoned at the last houre like Gregories good theefe that begd heauen wee haue millions that haue perished rot and consumed in body and soule in the last exigent of life as they haue not spared GOD liuing God hath not giuen them any tokens of his fauour but rather of his wrath and indignation dying forgetting them dying as in their life they forgat him turning away his eare from hearing of their prayers though they houle vpon their sicke-beds like Wolues Ose 7.14 because in their health and prosperitie they haue like deafe Adders stopped their eares in not hearing his Law and Word and in not considering the cryes of the poore Prou. 28.9 Prou. 21.13 Prou. 15.8 Therefore for thy present instruction and future consolation worke thou out betimes thy saluation with feare and trembling Giue all diligence to make thy Election sure Breake off all thy sinnes by
repentance Dan. 4.24 Turne to the Lord with all thine heart in fasting weeping and mourning Ioel 2.12 Turne from the wickednesse thou hast committed with the Niniuites Ionah 3.7.8 Wash thee and make thee cleane Esay 1.16 Cleanse thy heart from euill thoughts Ier. 4.14 Leaue thy formalitie in Religion and worship the Lord in truth and spirit Iohn 4.24 Get faith and learne to liue by faith Hab. 2.4 and to dye by faith Be a Nathaniel in thy dealings with men let thy heart be vpright as thy hand Ioh. 1.47 Remember the poore and needy then the Lord will remember thee in the day of thy sicknesse Christ will visite thee as hee did Iairus Daughter and Peters wiues Mother he shall be thy Physitian when the simples of Nature and the arme of Flesh faile his Angels shall pitch their tents about thee and carry thy flitting soule as they did Lazarus his into the seates of the blessed Make vse of this and the LORD giue thee vnderstanding in all things 16 As the examples of the Saints of God that hauing liued conscionably and dyed comfortably must comfort thee in this houre so their willingnesse to dye must encourage thee willingly to drinke of that cup which the Lord offers thee without resisting or relucting Looke vpon old Simeon singing that Swan-like song prophecying his death Lord now leâ—tâ—st thou thy Seruant depart in peace Luke 2.29 But especially of Saint Paul vveary of this mortalitie desirouâ— to be disburdened of the burthen of his corruptions to be deliuered from the body of sinne Rom. 7. to be present with the Lord to be dissolued and to be with CHRIST 2 Cor. 5. Phil. 1. But the best president that wee haue in life and death as the best comfort is the practise of Christ who although hee feared death as man desiring conditionally the passing of that bitter cup yet neuerthelesse wee shall see in him a great alacritie chearefulnesse propensitie and willingnesse to dye for besides his often conference with his Disciples about his death the frequent nomination of it vpon all occasions which shewes how vehemently hee was affected towards it the tongue speaking from the hearts abundance all his words and acts declare it for to shew his desire to dye hee counts it but a Baptisme or as it were a sprinkling of cooling water Mat. 20.22 nay it is meate and drinke to him to doe his Fathers will which was that hee should dye hee counts it a Iourney to goe which hee was willing to vnder-goe nay hee was euen payned vntill it was past when it came to the push that his houre was come hee seekes death as it seekes him hee goes forth to meete and welcome it as his friend as Abraham and Lot to meete and entertaine the Angels hee offers himselfe to the instruments of his death his backe to the smiters and finally his soule is not taken from him compulsorie but as hee commended it so hee resigned and gaue it vp to his Father willingly hee gaue vp the ghost hauing power to lay downe his life sending out his spirit as Noah did the Doue out of the Arke which after three dayes returned againe to quicken the body from heauen from whence also Lazarus his soule returned after foure dayes Now apply this to thine owne particular art not thou a Christian so denominated of CHRIST then euery one of Christs actions ought to be thy instruction chiefely in his death all whose dying gestures are worthy to be writ in thy heart in letters of Gold Did hee then vnder-goe such an extraordinary vnnaturall painefull shamefull cursed death the worst that euer was for therefore Christ dyed the worst death that euer was both for the ignominie of it and the exquisite tortures in it that a Christian should not feare any death since euery death is sanctified vnto him in the death of Christ Did Christ not onely indure his pangs and paines in death so patiently as a Lambe before the shearer but was euen desirous of this bitter pill for the ioy that was set before him and the loue hee bore to redeeme thy enthralled soule and art thou scrupulous and timerous of a naturall and an ordinary passage from life to life through this dead Sea Wilt thou mutter and murmure and shew thy selfe refractory to come to the Kings Court when thou art so gently summoned by such a sweet messenger as a lingring sickenesse Hast thou so little longing to goe to him by the rupture of a weake thread of life who was so desirous to come to thee from heauen to earth from the earth to the Crosse from the Crosse to the Graue euen through a red Sea of blood thorow Pikes and Speares and nayles and thornes being dieted in this his bloody march with the bread of affliction and the water of teares with gall vinegar oh hast thou so little delight in him so little desire towards him so small liking of him so little loue to him that thou list not step ouer the narrow bridge of this life to meete him to greete him and to inioy him Expostulate with thy soule how it comes to be so dull so dead so lumpish so leaden how it is that thou professest thy selfe to be a Spouse of Christ a member of Christ a branch of Christ which thou must beleeue and professe if thou hast any part in him and yet hast no desire to put off the outward mantle of this bodies couering to be inseparably imbraced in the armes of this Bridegroome not to leane with Iohn but for euer to rest in his bosome to be ioyned to thy Head to be fixed in this vnion But if Christs loue and desire to dye and to dye for thee be too high a pitch for thee to soare to which yet ought to be aymed at yet imitate the desires and the patience of the Saints in this kinde so farre as the Apostle speakes of himselfe as they imitate Christ for as the examples of the wicked are recorded for our detestation 1 Cor. 6.10 so the examples of the godly are written for our comfort and consolation Rom. 15.4 You haue heard saith Iames of the patience of Iob and what end God made with him You haue heard of the desires of Paul and Simeon of the graces that appeared in Dauid Iacob Steuen c. Ambrose Augustine c. Caluin Luther c. and vvhat ends they made vvith God Then thou vsing the same meanes that they did euen Faith and Repentance why shouldest thou demurre or be vnwilling to goe that Iourney vvhich they haue gone 17 Yet if examples and presidents of others as of Christ and Christians set not an edge on thy desires to dye yet let the mutabilitie breuitie and vncertaintie of life with the certaintie of death cause thee to make a vertue of necessitie as Esay said from God to Ezâ—kias thou must dye and as God to Moses thou
againe in their Pharisaicall Orisons Paganish Prayers Heathenish Bablings vse this word Lord in their Tantologies and repetitions as the Papists the word Iesus euen like a Superstitious Popish charme thinking to be heard for their much babling nay imagining which is the grosse and foggy ignorance of our both vulgar and vicious common and carnall people that if euen in the houre of death like the Theefe on the crosse or in their old age with Simeon they cry Lord Lord if they can haue time but to say Lord haue mercy vpon them they are cocke-sure of heauen it is no matter how they liue Ans It is true indeede if they had the Faith of Simeon and the penitent Theefe if they had the Spirit of God and zealous hearts like them they should be heard and helped yea inter Pontem Fontem crying betwixt the Bridge and the Riuer betwixt the Axe and the necke for Velox Spiritus sancti gratia the Spirit is nimble and speedy like the winde in breathing grace and Penitentia vera non sera True Repentance is neuer too late and hee that cals vpon the Lord shall be saued But alas then thou must call vpon the LORD with such an heart as did Simeon for the Lord reiects and abhors all prayers that come not from the heart as hee did Caines Sacrifice as execrable and abhominableh. But now thou that hast liued in sinne in health and in youth in thy old age and in sickenesse by these sinnes art likely to be depriued of Gods Spirit and of thine owne heart For as Sinne quencheth the Spirit as vvater quencheth fire so it takes away the heart Ose 4. verse 11. therefore Nabal vvhen hee dyed hee vvanted his heart it was dead like a stone Now thou Nabal thou foole thou stony heart what profit wilt thou haue in crying Lord Lord thou maist cry so till thy tongue cleaue to the roofe of thy mouth thou maist howle vpon thy bed like a Wolfe and yet the Lord stoppe his eares from hearing and folde vp his hands from helping The foolish Virgins knocked and cryed Lord open vnto vs yet were shut out so shalt thou Mat. 25. For not euery one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heauen Math. 7.21 But hee that doth the will of God as Simeon did now the will of the Lord is that thou shouldest repent betimes call vpon him pray vnto him and prayse him but all from a touched heart His desires Limitation In this word Now. THE second thing obseruable here is his Desires Limitation in this word Now which denotates the Time present Which word like all the rest in the Scripture hath his weight for as S. Ierome once obserued Nulla Littera nulla Syllaba c No Letter no Syllable nay no Tittle no Pricke wants his energie and force or is vnsignificant in the originall Here Simeons minde may be thus expressed Lord it hath pleased thee of thy mercy not my merit to giue mee a reuelation that I shall not see death vntill I see the Annoynted of the Lord verse 26. now by the motion of thy Spirit comming into the Temple verse 27. I perceiue that this Babe that is brought in hither to be done vnto according to the custome of the Law by his Parents is annoynted and appoynted to be the Prince and Priest and Prophet of his Church therefore Lord now I am willing nay desirous to depart in peace since I haue in mine armes the Prince of peace in my heart the spirit of peace in my conscience inward peace thou hast kept touch and performed what thou hast promised I haue my expectation satisfied my desires accomplished therefore I desire not to liue any longer I am an aged man and ready to be gathered to my Fathers A ripe apple fit to fall from the tree I cannot liue long by the course of nature I desire not to liue long by the instinct of grace it is better for mee to remoue out of this Tabernacle then to runne further in the Pilgrimage of my few and euill dayes better to depart in peace then continue in this worlds Prison I know I must dye neuer so well neuer so willingly as now euen now when I haue in mine armes the conquerour of death the Lord of life Wee see in Simeon that the godly haue oftentimes diuers raptures and sweet ioyes as in life so chiefely in their dissolutions So had Steuen when about to be stoned hee saw the Heauens open and the Sonne of man standing at the right hand of God Acts 7.56 Such feelings diuers of the Martyres haue had at the Stake nay euen in the heate of flames and fires so experimentally that Mr. Glouer knew as well when Gods Spirit came to him as a cold body feeles externall heate or warmth so comfortably that good Craâ—mer indured the burning of his once guilty hand with lesse motion then some abide the Goute or Tooth-ach Many such rauishments and inward comforts diuers of the Saints haue felt how euer at other times with perplexed Iob and penitent Dauid so deiected as though they were reiected of God that they haue desired the Lord a while to with-draw his presence the weake vessels of their fraile nature not being able to containe that fulnesse of the Spirit which they haue felt Such an extasie was Paul in when rapt vp into the third heauens hee heard Verba ineffabilia words not to be vttered himselfe transposed from himselfe whether in the body or without the body hee wist not hee was more then in an ordinary rauishment in his sure Sanctuary that he had against Principalities and Powers life and death c. built vpon the sure anchor and Corner-stone of Gods loue to him in Christ so in his annihilating and vilifying all things as Pharisaicall learning birth knowledge riches and the like as drosse and dongue in respect of the excellent knowledge of Christ IESVS and him crucified so when hee was ready not onely to goe to Ierusalem to bee bound but to dye for Christ so in his expectation and assurance of that Crowne vvhich Christ that righteous Iudge would bestow vpon him hauing fought a good fight and finished the Faith his affections were inflamed his Spirit wondrously reioyced his heart ouer-ioyed and his desires transcendent The like Iubilies haue many of Gods Children kept with their God in such extasies of ioy as haue shewed themselues like the Sunne-beames through a cloud through the vaile of the flesh euen in outward alterations and Symptomies Some in their Meditations hauing their thoughts so sequestrated and their spirit so abstracted from all earthly things that their corporall senses haue not perceiued outward obiects no not so much as the sound of Bels neare ringing Others haue forgot their repast and feeding the loue of Christ being better then wine and the taste of the Spirit sweeter then honey and the honey-combe such things the Papists write
Persecutors Lord lay not this sinne to their charge Acts 7.60 Last words reuealed of the Theefe on the Crosse that bonus Latro good Theefe that so happily stole Paradise were Lord remember mee when thou commest into thy Kingdome Luke 23. The seauen last words that Christ spoke vpon the Crosse to the Daughters of Ierusalem to his virgin-Mother to his beloued Disciple Iohn to God his Father to the penitent Theefe as recorded by the Euangelists explained by Ferus Nahumius and Gueuarra these and all these of holy men in the sacred Cannon and of Christ himselfe as one speakes of Cyprians Epistles referunt pectus ardore plenum shew their deaths were full of peace as their liues were full of grace If I should instance in all the rest of this kinde and set downe at large the gracious words like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Siluer that haue proceeded out of the mouthes of Saints euen when they lay vpon their sicke couches drawing their last breath testifying their faith in Christ their hope of Heauen their zeale for Gods glory their sorrow for sinne their sealed pardon Or when they were to be martyred and sacrificed by fire as they are collected and recorded by Ecclesiasticall Authors Eusebius Nicephorus the tripartite History the Centuries Mr. Foxe his Martyrologie Grineus Mr. Perkins and others to whom I referre you It would easily appeare that where the Premisses are Grace in Life the Conclusion will be Peace in Death Let vs chew the cudde in the Meditation of some particulars The last words of Peter in his crucifying death were thus to his wife O Coniux memento Domini Oh Wife remember the Lord Iesus Of Polycarpus were prayses and prayers Of Cyprian Salus mea virtus mea Christus Dominus Christ the Lord is my strength and my saluation Of Ambrose Nec pudet viuere nec piget mori c. I neyther am ashamed to liue nor grudge to dye because I haue a good Iesus both in life and death Of Augustine It is no great matter that wood and stones fall and ruine or that mortall men dye vsing that sentence of Dauids Psalmes which also Mauritius the Emperour vsed when hee was slaine by Phocas his Centurion Iust is the Lord and righteous is his iudgement Zwinglius thus when hee was wounded in the wars mortally Well goe to they may kill my body my soule they cannot Erasmus dying in the house of Ierome Strobenius breathed out his soule crying thus Chare Deus c. Deare God oh God my mercy deliuer me make an end oh Christ and saue mee Peter Martyr saith Simler and Bullinger that were present at his departure confessed his faith acknowledged Christ his Sauiour expounded and applyed Scriptures exhorted his Brethren and in his death was wholy diuine So was Oecolampadius that burning Lampe in Gods house who supplyed with the oyle of grace gaue a wondrous light euen in his death as appeares by Grineus his Epistles to Fabritius Capito and others Luthers death resounds ioyfull prayses for Gods reuelation of the truth vnto him and victory ouer the Romish Antichrist Caluin as Beza reports that heard him with Dauids heart dyes not speaking but sighing out Dauids Psalmes Ridley Latimer Hooper Saunders with many moe constant Professors dyed desirous of the fire saluting the Stake professing their Faith confirming their Brethren and calling vpon God If I should ascend a little higher and looke into the sicke Couches of Emperours Kings Queenes Dukes Earles Nobles which like those Bereans Acts 17. were truely noble indeed I should occasion you to magnifie Gods mercies in calling some great ones vvho by their workes and words as liuing so dying testified that their Graces did equalize their Greatnesse I might instance in Charles the fift in Theodosius the great in Maximilian the second in Stephen King of Poland in Fredericke the third Prince Elector in Ferdinand in Queene Anne Bullen in Ioahn Gray the Duke of Suffolks Daughter with diuers others To omit the last words of Chrysostome dying in his exile of deuout Bernard of Ignatius the Martyr of these Belgicke Lights Phillip Melancthon Tremellius Musculus c. with mamy moe some whereof thankefully recording the benefits they had receiued from God in life spirituall and temporall some powring out their soules for the good of the Church which they haue bequeathed vnto Christ some discoursing of the vanities of this life of the fruits of sinne of the miseries of man some reioycing in the Spirit for the mitigation of their paines the consolations vvhich they felt from the Spirit their vnion vvith Christ their happy passage into Paradise their transmigration vnto their Sauiour exulting at the ioyes of Heauen which then they haue seene as Moses saw Canaan and in part tasted nay some as it were by a Propheticall Spirit illuminating them as it did Iacob and Ioseph fore seeing and fore-telling what should happen after their deaths as Iohn Husse and Ierome of Praige did concerning the Papacie haue all of them here with Simeon departed in peace And though some amongst the Heathens as Cyrus Caesar Augustus Titus Tratan Seuerus Adrian Pompey as also some of their Philosophers and Poets as Aratus Socrates Aristotle Anacharsis Antisthenes Theophrastus with others haue spoke to admiration concerning the necessitie of dying the miseries of life the exprobration of Tyranny the soules immortalitie the true God which they called The thing of things to whom they haue called and committed their Children as their Apothegmes and speeches are recorded by Plutarch Zenophon Laertius and others yet they haue come so farre short of Christians eyther in their ciuill acts and morrall workes liuing or their words dying that it is as easie to discerne betwixt them the strength of Nature and the fruits of the Spirit as betwixt conduit water and Aqua vitae by the taste Now the Reasons why the godly depart in peace are these First the Promise of God which must needes be acccomplished that Peace shall come that they shall rest in their beds euery one that walketh before the Lord Esay 57.2 which promise as it was verified in Enoch and Elias that vvalked vvith GOD so it shall be in all the faithfull Secondly they haue peace with God with whom they are reconciled by Christ which is their peace and therefore they must needes haue peace in God going out of the world to God who haue had peace with God in the world from whom they haue beene absent in the body Thirdly they haue that peace of God in their owne conscience which passeth all vnderstanding Phil. 4. which setteth them in an assured perswasion of the loue of God to them in his Christ the Lord shining in their hearts with the beames of his Spirit and the memory of all their well done deedes then reflexing vpon their vpright consciences fill them euen full of hidden ioy and inward peace These Reasons might be amplified
Latomus and Hoffmeister haue tryed it in their despayring deaths so the inioying of a good conscience is the greatest ioy Hugo cals it the Temple of Salomon the Field of Benediction the Garden of delight the treasurie of the King the house of God the habitation of the holy Ghost the Booke sealed and shut to be opened in the day of Iudgement the very thing saith Ambrose that makes a blessed life yea and I may adde withall a blessed death for to vse the words of Bernard as hee prepares a good dwelling for God whose Will hath not beene peruerted nor Reason deceiued nor Memory defiled so God prepares a dwelling for him that is pure in heart and soule Psal 15.1.2 and in whose spirit there is no guile Psal 32.2 Of which blessed mansion they haue some taste euen in death that keepe a good conscience in life Hence is it that the godly take there deaths patiently like sheepe sing ioyfully like the Swanne as Martyres haue done at the stake and as did our good Simeon when the wicked dye like Swine repiningly like the Hiaena ragingly Naturalists write that the warme sweet bloud recoyling to the heart of the Swanne tickleth her with such a secret delight that it makes her sing euen in her death Contrariwise when the Hiaena is in dying the blacke and distempered bloud gathers to her heart which makes her sad and mournefull This is worth applying the conscience of holy actions so warmes the hearts of Gods Seruants with that inward ioy that they dye singing their Hosanna's tryumphing and reioycing in spirit but the consciousnesse of wicked wayes and workes of darknesse oathes vncleannesse profanenes c. like streames of blacke bloud recoyles backe vpon and clogs the hearts of the Sonnes of Belial which makes them dye as wofully and cursedly as they haue liued retchlesly and wickedly oh therefore good Readers who euer you are Ministers or Lay-men keepe a good conscience I intreate you with God and with man in all your wayes and walkings in your courses callings functions and tradings that in your deaths you may shew your selues the Lords Sheepe the Lords Swannes like Simeon not the Diuels Swine and Hels Hiaena's Now thou art to be directed in some dueties in thy sicknesse the probable summoner of thy death for though God onely know when death is nearest he hauing as the keyes of the heauens and the keyes of the heart so the keyes of the earth and of the graue of life and of death 1 Sam. 2.6 yet it is probable that life is nearest expiring when sickenes is approaching as the wals are nearest ruine when the Cannon is laid to batter them Now these Directions I referre to these three heads First respect God secondly thy selfe thirdly others In respect of God first renue thy former repentance seeke earnestly to be reconciled to God in CHIRST get more assurance of the Mercy Fauour and Loue of God towards thee gather together all thy spirituall forces striue and wrastle couragiously against Diffidence Distrust Infidelitie and Despayre like an actiue runner shew some brunts as it were of inward strength euen when thou seest the Goale and art nearest the end of thy race Now for strengthening thy Faith and renuing thy Repentance the better take this course First when Sickenesse or Infirmitie ceazeth on thee consider that it ariseth not from 1. Chance 2. Fortune 3. Rawnesse of Weather 4. Ill Ayre 5. Bad Dyet 6. Catching of cold or the like which are eyther no causes at all or else onely secondarie but by an immediate prouidence Secondly search out the cause for which God afflicts thee and thou shalt by the light of the word and of thine owne conscience find that the cause is thy sin other causes there may be as CHRIST shewes in the case of the blinde man who neyther sinned nor his Parents Iohn 9.2 As 1. tryall of Faith 2. of Patience as in Iobs case 3. exciting to Prayer and Repentance as in Ezekias case Esay 38.1 4. to preuent sinne to which Nature and corruption inclines 5. the Humiliation of pride 6. manifestation of the workes of God oft cause the Lord to visit euen his owne sonnes with sicknesses and diuers diseases but in Gods reuealed will sinne is the ordinary cause as appeares Deut. 28.21 Leut. 26. c. Sinne caused the Aegyptians Botches Exod. 9.10 the Philistines Emerods 1 Sam. 5.6 the Widdow of Sarepta's Sonnes sickenesse 1 King 17.18 and therefore when CHRIST cured the bodies of his Patients hee first remits the sinnes of their soules so remoues the cause Mat. 9.2 Iohn 5.14 as in the blinde man and the sicke of the Palsie Thirdly when thou hast felt thine owne pulse and laid the finger on the right cause which is sinne then by examination of thine owne hart find out what speciall sin causeth thy present scourge oh search thy selfe thorowly Zeph. 2.1 examine thy soule narrowly Psal 4.4 Play the selfe Constable make priuie search in euery roome within the house of thy heart for thy secret sinnes as for priuie Traytors Fourthly when thou hast found them out confesse them bring them to the strict barre of Gods Iustice arraigne them nay be thy selfe a Witnesse against them yea a Iudge to condemne them as Paul prescribes the Corinthians in the like case 1 Cor. 11.30.31 and as Dauid practised in his owne particular Psal 32.5 Fiftly supplicate and intreate the supreame Iudge of Heauen that may condemne thee or repriue thee to pittie thee and pardon thee Ieremy and Hosee will direct thee how to put vp thy supplications in forma pauperis as a poore penitent and what words to vse that will plead and preuaile for pardon Lam. 3.40.41 Hosee 6.1 Dauid sets thee an holy President most beseeming thy imitation who when hee was sicke at least vpon the occasion of his sickenes penned speciall Psalmes of repentance as namely Psal 6. the 22. the 38. the 29. which I prescribe to be read of thee repeated and applyed with Dauids heart also as spirituall Physicke 1. to purge the ill humours of thine heart 2. to quicken thy dulnesse 3. to excite thy deadnesse 4. to inflame thy desires 5. to comfort thy conscience 6. to strengthen thy faith 7. to prepare thee to Prayer reade seriously the History of Christs Passion recorded Luke 22.23 Chap. the 29. Psalme the 42. Psalme the 51. Psalme the 143. Psalme the 14. Chapter of Iob the 11. the 14. the 17. Chapter of Saint Iohn Ecclesiastes Chap. 1. Dan. Chap. 9. Romanes Chap 8. the 7. Chap. of the Apocalypse 1 Cor. 15. Chap. these will giue thee some holy heate Thus thou hast the true preparatiues in thy sickenesse in respect of God they are the more worthy remembrance because so few follow them for alas how many that haue liued long in the bosome of the Church are so farre from renuing their Faith and Repentance that when they lye sicke and are drawing to
SEAVEN Helpes to Heauen Shewing 1. How to auoid the Curse 2. How to beare the Crosse 3. How to build the Consciencè 4. How with Moses to see Canaan 5. Simeons dying Song directing to liue holily and dye happily 6. Comforts for Christians against distresses in Life and feare of Death 7. Feruent Prayers to beare sicknesse patiently and dye preparedly The second EDITION much enlarged by Steuen Ierome late Preacher at S. Brides Seene and allowed IOB 14.14 All the dayes of my appointed time will I waite till my change come Nascentes morimur finisque ab origine pendet LONDON Printed for Roger Iackson and are to be solde at his Shop neare to the Conduit in Fleetsheete 1614. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE MY HONOVrable good Lord RALPHE Lord Eure Baron of Malton and Wytton and Lord President of his Maiesties Honourable Councell within the Principalitie of Wales and the Marches of the same all Blessings be multiplyed temporall and Graces spirituall MY Honourable good Lord it was once an Axiome in the Ethnicke Schooles that the whole life of a wise man should be a continuall meditation of Death which as it was a Principle amongst them so it was the practise not onely of the Saints and Seruants of GOD the auncient Patriarkes Primitiue Christians retyred Hermites mortified Anchorites and zealous professors of Religion but euen of the wisest and worthiest of the Heathens themselues The euidence of which will easily appeare to those that are studious in the Word diuine or conuersant in Authors Ecclesiasticall or humane Let vs reflect vpon Adam the first man as his name signifying Red earth the Command giuen him mixt with the curse of tilling the earth his Sinne the cause of the dissolution of that part which was earth his Garments made of the skins of dead Beasts cloathing his members which were like the rest of the Creatures nought but earth his Sickenesse and Distempers the fruits of his sinne and preambles of his death Gods Statute-Law that he should returne to his earth tolde him truely contrary to the Sâ—rpent and the Woman that he was a sinfull man and therefore mortall so it seemes these remembrancers not onely occasioned but caused his meditation of his death For though he called his eldest Sonne Caine or Possession yet he called his younger Sonne Abel or Vanitie as being now experienced and schooled in that misery in life and mortalitie in death which was incident to him and all his originally and actually sinning seede In this Meditation to omit Noah the worlds restorer Sem or Methushaâ—em that Prince of peace Enoch that walked with GOD with the rest Abraham the Father of faithfull men imitated Adam the Father of men who in his suite for Sodome confessed himselfe to be but dust and ashes Isaack who after the death of his Mother Sarah went out to meditate no doubt as of her death so of his owne Iacob that in his greatest crosse humiliation thinkes how his gray head should be brought to his graue and in the height of his earthly ioy and contentation speakes from the abundance of his heart of the few and euill dayes of his Pilgrimage Ioseph thaâ— amongst all his honours in Aegypt thinkes and tels of the carrying his dead bones into Canaan so the rest had their thoughts mortified from the world and fixed on their mortalitie which appeares as by other proofes so by two demonstrations in their Buildings in their Buyings The first being not seiled houses or gorgeous Pallaces like Nabuchadnezzars Babell Nimâ—ods Tower or Cyrus his House but silly Tents like Shepheards Cottages or Boothes in a Faire or Lodges in the Campes such as the Zwitzards vse ready euery instant for remouall The second being onely limited in a burying place for their dead for that is the greatest purchase that euer wee reade any of the Patriarkes made and the possessions which they most frequently mention What should I mention these Fathers that liued vnder the Law Ioshuah the sonne of Nun the Seruant of the LORD faithfull Caleb Aaron the Lords high Priest or Moses himselfe the greatest of Legall Prophets who mindefull of his mortalitie euen before the Lord tolde him as hee did Ezekias that hee should dye made that Prayer which the Fathers say the people of GOD vsed daily as a forme of Prayer pathetically inserting this Petition that God would so teach them to number their dayes that they might apply their hearts to wisedome the rest succeeding sympathizing in the like thoughts Iob wayting till his changing should come Dauid making no more reckoning of himselfe then of a Pilgrime and stranger here amongst men summoning others also to the consideration of their vncertaine condition and certaine end I might extend the line of this vnlimited practise from the Patriarkes to the Prophets from the Prophets to the Apostles Paul as oft desires as hee deliberates of his dissolution Peter counts his continuance here but as an abode in a Tabernacle Reflect backe to Christs Disciples hee no sooner speakes of the death of Lazarus but their thoughts worke vpon dying with him nay CHRIST himselfe as most frequently hee talkes and discourseth of his death in the Gospell so in that Transfiguration of his the reflection and Idea of his Glorification to strengthen his Disciples in their dying meditations hee not onely tels of his owne death when he comes from the Mount but euen in the Mount there appeares two dead men with him Moses and Elias And with the rest here old Simeon the subiect which in all obsequious dutie submisly I present to your Honour as desiring your Honourable patronizing and deseruing your holy practise euen when hee had in his armes the Lord of Life seeing Canaan with Moses and the Heauens open with Steuen to receiue his flitting soule as Abrahams bosome did Lazarus thinking of his death and dissolution to his dust hee sings that truely Cygnean and Swan-like song recorded Luke 2.29 Which Song I haue diuided into his parts and according to those talents and parts which Grace and Nature hath lent mee haue descanted vpon by Illustration Explication and Application to our secure sensuall and sinfull times wherein I haue reuealed to the world what GOD hath reuealed vnto mee by all meanes vsed speculatiue and practicall from Reading Study Meditation Conference with the Learned and Reference of the Labours of approued Authors both testimonially and exemplarily to the sacred Cannon of the Orthodoxe Truth but principally from that young yet true experience which GOD hath taught mee by obseruing as a Physitian his Patients the seuerall carriages and conditions of diuers men in their healths sicknesses liues and deaths occasioned by those frequent visitations of the sicke which by reason of my place I vsed these last yeeres in a great and populous Parish in which particulars the searcher of the heart and reynes and the intelligencer of all Spirits euen the Father of Spirits knowes that I haue not aymed at any base seruile or sinister
â— â—neidomastix it appeales not onely to your Honourable but Learned and iudicious pâ—otection Fourthly and especially that I might at last accomplish not the least of my earthly desires to shew my selfe in some measure gratefull to your Lordship for so many and manifold aâ—cumulated fauours euen to my desires exceeding my desarts from whom and from whose Honourable House as primarily from God so instrumentally next vnto my King from whom I draw the common ayre my Parents from whom I had my being the Vniuersitie my Mother and Tutors from whom I had my education and well-being besides those that are my selfe and from my selfe in my Familie as I know I haue receiued most good so I acknowledge my selfe to be most oblieged for that good not onely participating in those generall and common fauours with my friends and bloud but in speciall reflecting vpon those by whose meanes I was first furnished with meanes in the Ministerie competent and certaine vnder the shadowes of whose wings I haue been protected by whose Graces I haue beene countenanced by whose countenance encouraged nay by whose very counsels I haue beene directed in my best courses in my calling and lastly by whose largesse I haue beene prouided for not onely for the present but with a free donatiue for the future For all which fauours if I should not thinke my selfe as much indeared and indebted as Virgil to his Augustus Horace to his Mâ—câ—nas Varro to his Asinius Pollio Cicero to his Pomponius Atticus Oppian to his Anthome Euripides to his Archilaus or to leaue Heathenish Parallels as a Preacher can be to his Patrone I should shew my selfe as Viperously vngratefull as the continuation of these fauours is submisly desired Accept therefore Right Honourable and in my heart truely honoured Mecaenas this Rapsodicall poore Paper present this Persian gift as an argument of my vndoubted and redoubled Loue and Dutie to you and yours my much respected Lady your Honourable Coniugall Yoake-fellow my Honourable Fauorites Sr. William Eurie together with his no lesse wise then religious Lady with my vnfayned Prayers to the God of Heauen for the continuation and augmentation of all Blessings temporall and spirituall with accumulation of all Graces externall internall and eternall vpon your Honours and vpon those pleasant and fruitfull Oliue branches the hopefull Honours of the House of the Euries in all humilitie I take my leaue submisly resting in all duties to be commanded Old Malton March 10. Your Lordships truely deuoted Chapleine STEVEN IEROME To the Readers chiefely his late Auditors at S. Brides in London CHristian Friends whom I loue vnfainedly in truth and for the Truth as I haue published this myrrhour of dying Moses and Song of holy Simeon for the good of Gods Church in generall to whom I haue deuoted my selfe my life my labours so in my reserued thoughts more peculiarly I tender and present it vnto you my late Auditors aboue the rest First as your due by right being some few Gleanings after the Haruest and some few Grapes of the Vintage of my Ministery amongst you or more plainely and properly the flowers of some Funerall Sermons occasionedly preached now printed for you Secondly that you might receiue by this single and simple labor a double benefit by a redoubled reflexion vpon your vnderstandings memories and affections as through the organ of the eare by hearing so of the eye by reading both which Philosophie cals Sensus doctrinae the senses of learning For which respect I haue turned my tongue into a penne and the gesture of a liuing man into a dead letter writing the same things with Peter as Paul spoke twise the same words Which penning though in respect of preaching it be but as a painted fire to the powerfull Element as the dead portraiture to the liuing person like the dead corps to fighting Hector yet the same things red to those that before heard them haue the place of the Moone at least to enlighten the brain though Hearing the power of the Sunne to heate the heart Besides that you may act the noble Beraeans part the better in trying the spirits more retentiuely and deliberately examining the Truth then infirme and weake memories could conueniently from a voluble tongue Thirdly they are as desiredly so deseruedly yours euen as my selfe was with my labours by mutuall consent and therefore I send you onely backe those Exercises which you haue payed for and withall in my occasioned corporeall absence the presence of my spirit the pledge of my heart the argument of my well-wishes and constant desires towards you an Epistle of that zealous affection which I iustly beare you a testimonie of my gratefull remembrance of all those true effects of your Christian loue towards me the answering of which loue is not the least of my earthly desires As a true seale whereof I send you this poore Paper-present desiring your acceptance as of the gift so chiefely of the heart of the giuer Good it may doe you if God concurre with his grace and his spirit weake meanes may worke Mortification euen the Cockes crowing may awaken Peter hurt it can doe none vnlesse accidentally the fault be in your selues euen as to some the Word it selfe and the Sacraments with all holy things are the sauour of death euen as meates and medicines to a weake stomacke and distempered body turne to diseases and Anguors by reason of vicious humours To giue you a fore-taste and relish of what you shall further finde in these vnited Treatises the chiefe marke that I ayme at is after the patterne of two myrrours of men the one the Pronouncer of the Law the other a Trumpe of the Gospell to teach you how to dye as well as willingly A Lesson which the wisest amongst the Heathens euen their Sages Philosophers and Gymnosophists nay many learned Scribes Disputants and great Rabbies amongst Christians eyther neuer knew preecptorily or forgot to prâ—ctise as their Tragicall ends some whereof I haue exemplified doe demonstrate A point taught onely in the Theorie in the Schoole of Christ to his Disciples his docible Simeons wrought in the practicke part by his spirit in the hearts of the Saints of Sion Further I haue let you see your owne faces in two examplary Glasses what you ought to be euen Gods Seruants righteous with mâ—n religious with your God that so your worke may receiue the reward euen true beatitude the soueraigne good Labouring moreouer so to wash the foule spots and â—spâ—â—sions of your sinne-soyled soules that you may appeare beautifull and gracious as Hester to Aâ—â—neâ—â—s when Death Gods Purseuant fetcheth you to stand before the King of Kings being not defectiue at least in desire and endeauour to lay before you the true exemplary forme and perfect modelâ— how to liue holily so to die happily What I haue done further thousands will iudge I neyther prayse nor disprayse mine owne doings a Heathenish Master tels mee the one were vanitie the other folly onely I
shalt dye so hee saith to thee Set thine house set thine heart in order for thou canst not liue thou must dye nay thou canst not long liue and thou must soone dye certainely dye therefore it is wisedome for thee as in outward things so in this to doe that voluntarily which thou must doe necessarily and compulsorie thy life thou knowest is but a short life frayle and brittle as glasse As it is a flower for the mortalitie of it Esay 40.7 A smoake for the vanitie of it Psal 102.3 so it is a house of clay soone crusht downe Iob. 4.17 A tent or tabernacle soone pluckt vp 2 Cor. 5.1 A Shepheards Tent soone pulled downe Esay 38.12 A Shippe in the Sea Wisd 5.10 soone sliding soone ouer-throwne by the Rockes ouer-blowne by the windes nay as a Weauers Shittle Iob 7.6 for the volubilitie of it as a dreame Iob 20.8 as a shadow Iob 8.9 for the vanitie of it nay vanitie it selfe which is nothing it being in very deede nothing in respect of eternitie Learne therefore by this mirrour of dying Moses so to spend these thy dayes of vanitie that for shortnesse of dayes in this world thou maist with Moses and all the glorious Saints of God inioy eternitie of dayes in the world to come SIMEON'S dying-Song HANDLED IN sixe Sermons LVKE 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy Seruant depart in peace according to thy Word IT is the Position of some that Examples moue more then Rules that Practise perswades or disswades aboue Precepts eyther in Imitation or Aemulation of Vertue or Detestation of Vice and aboue others wee are pronest to write after the Copies of great men and to tread in the steps of old men Therefore the Scripture propound vnto vs the patternes of the greatest of men euen Kings who were as good as great Dauid Ezekias Iosias Asa Iehosaphat c. that wee should follow their footings so farre as they followed Christ and walked with God Of the most aged amongst men as of Abraham Noah Methushalem Iob c. and here of old Simeon whose liues and deaths are so many pleading Orators and preaching Sermons to excite vs to Christian courses that like them wee may liue holily and dye happily and arriue at the common Hauen of all flesh peaceably and safely Now amongst the rest I haue called out and selected Simeon as a Candle set on a hill as a Beacon on fire to giue light to the world if shee will open her blinded and beetle eyes how to walke to Sion through this vaile of life euen in the darke and shadowie night of death Simeon a fit obiect for vs to reflect the eyes of our intellectuall powers vpon in the prosecution of this sad and sable subiect of death in which consider first the Title of the Text secondly the Text it selfe For the Title Antiquitie and our Church denominates it The Song of Simeon meerely Swan-like and Cygnean pious and propheticall I might easily runne Descant and Diuision vpon it sorting it out into his seuerall parts shewing 1. the Ditty 2. the Matter 3. the Manner 4 the Harmony 5. the Time 6 the Tune with all such obseruances in vocall Musicke substantiall and circumstantiall euen from the ground of this Scripture But my part now is rather to sigh then to sing vnlesse Dirges and Madrigals fitter for Heraclitus his part then Democritus yet I cannot but so farre condescend to this Cantion as to commend this diuine Canticle for the excellencie and to consider in it the ground of it nature and proprietie For the excellencie it is of that puritie and perfection that I wish it might be a rule and a square to our irrigular and vnlimited licentiousnesse in singing that our hearts were rightly tuned by the Spirit of God as was Simeons verse 25. that our tongues were the Pennes of this ready Writer in our Ditties that so wee might sing the prayses of the King but alas our Songs are commonly rather from Sodâ—me then from Sion rather sensuall then spirituall carnall then Christian Satanicall then sacred rather to the honour of Bacchus Priapus and Venus pleasing the Flesh the World and the Diuell the vvorlds worshipped Trinitie thâ—n to the glory of the immortall and indiuisible Trinitie witnesse the vaine vile wanton vicious loose licentious venerious Songs and Sonnets of Poets and Poetasters of our times 1. Which may not onely be seene extant 2. but euen are chaunted and carolled out by Fooles and Fidlers vnprofitable Moathes of the earth which liue eyther in no calling or in a sinfull calling 3. heard receiued applauded approued laughed at by all the licentious Prodigals loose gull-Gallants Epicures and Carnalists ordinarily in euery Ordinary Inne Tauerne Ale-houses and the like Oh therefore whose heart smites him in this kinde let him reforme this sinne whether actiue or passiue in delighting or desiring to say sing or heare these Organs of Sathan and those Bellowes of sinne and vncleannesse Turne now the streame another way let Iordan runne backe-ward If thou beest afflicted pray take out this rule so did Moses Manasses Dauid the Israelites and all Gods Saints Art thou merrily affected sing but what Psalmes Psal 119. Hymnes and Songs and spirituall Psalmes making melody to the Lord in your hearts therefore as I would propound Dauid and Ezekias as true patternes for all mourners so Simeon and Zachary as spectacles to all singers As in Instrumentall Musicke the strings that are out of tune must be set vp to those that are in tune so when thou singest vanitie thy heart and tongue which are distracted distempered and out of tune must be set in the right Key as was Simeons then thou shalt sing at thy departure out of this worlds Prison as Paul and Silas did in Prison Thou shalt sing Hosanna's in Heauen when thy Friends sing thy Funerall Neniae on earth The ground of this Song is Christ the Messias Sauiour and saluation of Israel the Redeemer of his people as the Word cals him as the Angell christens him from God which Sauiour as he was promised to Aâ—am the promise renued to Abraham prefigured in the Leuiticall Law and those Mosaicall Types and Ceremonies Aarons Rod the Pot of Manna the watry Rocke the scape-Goat the brazen Serpent the blood of sacrificed Beasts and Bullockes and the like prophesied of by all Prophets great and lesser from Moses to Malachie so being now reuealed and exhibited is the ground of Simeons Song and the matter of his inward mirth breaking forth like a fire long kept in into these outward Modulations His practise is our precept all our ioy must be in Christ and for Christ In Christ reioyced the Patriarkes when they did but see Christs day a farre off thorow the cloud and the vayle as did Abraham In Christ reioyced the Prophets Esay Ieremâ— Ezekiel c. in the
of their Aquinas Bonauenture Katheran of Sienna c. and other their Monkes Friars Virgins vestall Votaries but Surius is vnsure in his reports Lippomanus his lips are not freed from lies and Marrulus makes and marres many Fables It is more likely vvhat is writ of Augustine and Bernard in their Soliloquies in this kinde Others haue expressed their inward raptures in their very countenances as Moses and Steuen whose faces so shined when the one had beene on the Mount with God the other disputing for God that they seemed like the faces of Angels Acts 6.15 Others haue beene so carryed away in such glimpses of glory as the Lord hath shewed them they haue beene so inebriated and spiritually drunke with the wine of the Spirit that they haue not knowne what they haue said as Peter in Christs Transfiguration Mat. 12. Others haue neuer beene satisfied vvith commerse with God in speaking with God and speaking to God by reading the Word and Prayer some reading ouer the Bible foureteene times in a yeere as Alphonsus others as constantly as Cyprian read Tertullian or Alexander Homer others trauelling in their iourneyes as Phillips Eunuch Acts 8. Others at their Tables as duely as their meate others praying three times a day with Daniel thrice with Paul frequently yea at midnight with Dauid and Silas so long so oft till their knees were growne as hard as the earth they kneeled on as Ierome in the Desart others seauen houres together yet obseruing none canonically as Father Latimer so haue they chawed their chud on that hidden Manna which God gaue them hauing still a godly dropsie like the Worldlings golden dropsie vnstanched Others haue fallen into bodily dead sownes by their heauenly visions and rauishments of the inward man as Iohn surnamed the Diuine Reuel 1.10.17 such Daniel Dan. 8.16.17 when groueling on the ground hee lay as dead so Ezekiel by the Riuer Kebar with many moe Now the Reasons why God doth thus delight and oft as it were ouer-ioy his Children are First to giue them some taste and feeling of his loue and fauour to them euen as a Master will oft shew to his Seruant some argument of his loue and a Father declare to his childe some testimonie of his fatherly affection so deales God with his Secondly to incourage them against crosses the Marriners heart would breake if he should alwayes be tossed in such stormes as Ionas and Paul tryed without euer any merry gales The Traueller would be too much perplexed with continuall shâ—wrings and tempests without any intermission or interposition of refreshing Sunnie beames so were the world and worldly woes insufferable and intollerable to a weake and wearied Christian if the holy Ghost the Comforter should not wonderfully blow and breathe and reflexe vpon vs. Thirdly that they may haue some good relish and feeling of those better and more lasting and euerlasting ioyes of which they shall haue ere long the fruition of which these are certaine Images and Ideaes sparkes and reflexions for euen as the wicked and the reprobate in the rage and hell of their conscience feele oft-times certaine flashings of hell-fire which are as it were summoners to iudgement Heraulds of their damnation and Prologues of their Tragicall execution so God distils into the hearts of the righteous hidden and holy heates as it were drops of that fountaine of life with which they shall be refreshed and glimpses from the Sunne of Righteousnesse with whose beames they shall be rauished Vse 1 This then first reformes their mindes or refutes their madnesse that thinke the estate of Grace to be most comfortlesse Many millions in the world thinke the Professors of the Word to be depriued of all inward and outward ioyes men as retchlesse as richlesse as forlorne in their soules as forworne in their bodies they appeare to them as budlesse and beautilesse Trees and withered branches and why because they cannot discerne any thing in them but sighing and sobbing and wayling and weeping and Melancholy and solitarinesse they will not be sociable with their neighbours in gossipping and company-keeping in walking abroad and talking in pratling and prating at home in meetings and merriments in Tauernes and Tipling-houses in feasts and frolickes in sports and pastimes in dallyances and drinkings in gurmundizing and gluttony they neyther care for worldly play as Carding or Dicing c. nor to see Playes the Baudes of loose lust therefore they maruell how they liue since they are neuer merry Hence the Lords owne Simions gracious and godly men such as haue set their faces to Sion framed aright their life and fitted for death are censured and derided as dastards and dotards as silly and simple as Monkish Monasticall Stoicall and vnciuill men nay as fantastiques and fooles hence comes the hellish Prouerb Gods follower Gods fooles that Gods Sheepe Gods Geese Gods Gauders and such like Blasphemies but alas poore deluded Soules they must know that as our Sauiour Christ had meate to eate vvhich the Iewes knew not of and as he was to goe whither his Disciples wist not of so the true Christian and beleeuer hath comforts here that the world knowes not of and is to goe to endlesse and prizelesse comforts hereafter such as worldlings wot not of here they haue the testimony of a good conscience as had Paul which is a continuall feast a continuated Christmas alwayes Iubile yeere the golden bed of Salomon the beautifull Porch of the Temple Fidus acbates a holy and a happy companion Secondly they haue the loue of God shed abroad in their hearts by the Spirit of God Thirdly they haue those extraordinary ioyes and sodaine extasies chiefely in their Soliloquies and deuotions with God the Sunne of his goodnesse shining vpon them in the heate and light in the comfort and power of the Spirit euen after they haue rayned powred and showred downe their teares into the Lords bosome which they would not exchange for Crownes and Empires Fourthly like Steuen and Paul and Simeon here they are euen filled with the holy Ghost tasting of such ioyes which are but the first fruits of the Spirit and the earnest of their inheritance in heauen as none know but those vvhich experimentally feele For as none knowes the loue of a Parent to his Childe but those that are Parents nor of a good Shepheard to his Sheepe a good Pastour to his people but hee that is a good Shepheard indeed so none knowes the comfortable condition of a good Christian liuing and dying but hee that is a Christian indeede a common Christian a naturall man a wicked man a ciuill honest man knowes it no more then a young childe doth Greeke and Hebrew discernes it no more then a blinde man doth colours feeles it no more then a stocke or a stone or a dead man esteemes it no more then Esau doth his Birth-right or the Prodigo his patrimonie then Aesops Cocke a Pearle accounts of it as the Iewes and Gentiles
and all profane men account of the Gospell euen meere foolishnesse and therefore they so blatter and blaspheme and like bruite beasts speake euill of those things and those persons which they know not but I will assure thee how ere thou thinke the poore and penitent Christian the sincere and zealous to raue as the Iewes thought of Ieremy to be distract or mad or besides himselfe as Festus thought Paul as Christs Country-men thought of our Sauiour to bee simple men and fooles c. yet neuerthelesse they know with Dauid that it is better to be a doore-keeper in Gods house nay to suffer affliction with Moses and Gods people then to inioy the pleasures of sinne then to inioy all the priuiledges in Pharaohs Court then to reioyce here for a while with Diues and Salomons young man and then to quake in Iudgement and be damned in hell yea they euen in this vaile of teares haue more ioy in their fasting then thou in feasting more in praying then thou in playing more in sighing then thou in singing for euen in the midst of mirth the heart of the vvicked is heauy vvhen GOD strikes and Conscience gnawes but the godly are merry in prison are comforted in persecution reioyce after stripes prayse God in the deepe and in the Whales belly blesse GOD after hee hath smit them and exult in Spirit in their old yeeres as did Simeon Besides thy ioyes are vaine vile carnall sensuall like thy selfe like the Horse and Oxe that delights onely in a good fat pasture though the Pinfold and the slaughter-house be the next dish but theirs are pure chaste sincere heauenly eternall like that God that sends them like that Spirit that workes them therefore get thine eyes opened to see thy miserie and ioyne thy selfe to them whom now thou despisest as Rahab and Ruth did to the true Church that thou maist finde mercy Secondly whereas Simeon is now willing to depart hauing seene Christ and so reioyceth in this expected obiect it is obseruable that the Patriarkes all of them in their times and ages expected CHRIST euer since the promise of this Messias was made vnto our Protoplasts our first Parents Adam and Eue Simeon lookes for him here in his generation so did the Church of Ierusalem so did the rest in their generations Eue thought he was then come when shee bore Caine confessing that shee had receiued a man from the Lord Gen. 4.1 Abraham desired to see his day Iacob wayted for his saluation Gen. 48.18 Moses desired GOD to send him to deliuer Israel out of Aegypt Exod. 4.13 Iob vvas comforted in this expected Redeemer Iob 19.25 Yea many Prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which wee see euen the Maiestie of God clothed with flesh as a man is shod with Sandals on his feete And sure the Ancients for this cause much extenuate the Polygamie and multiplicitie of wiues of the Patriarkes as of Iacob c. as also in taking their Maides as Concubines which they say was done non propter libidinem sed propter prolem not for lust but for multiplying a holy seede euery one in their dayes desiring to propagate the promised Seede of the woman In which wee see Gods great mercy to vs now vnder the Gospell more then to those vnder the Law for then came into the world the great Physitian of the world to cure the great Patient which was the world which so long did languish when we stood in most need of him The former ages had but a glimpse of this light of the world they saw him but darkely and obscurely tanquam in speculo tanquaÌ„ in anigmate as it were in a cloud in a glasse in Leuiticall shadowes but wee see him clearely euen fully as the Sunne at noone day perspicuously in the Gospell euen as the Wise-men saw him in the Stable as Simeon and Anna in the Temple wee haue an happier vision of him then they euen as the Angels more then wee hee came indeede to the beleeuers comfortably powerfully Typically but wee receiue him as Simeon did personally hee came to Adam with the promise in the time of despayre to Abraham with supply in time of Sacrifice to Isaac with reliefe in time of famine in time of exile with honour to Ioseph in time of persecution vvith comfort to Elias in time of battell with an hand on Gideons hilt with an eye to the stone from Dauids fling in time of inuasion with triumph to Ezekias alwayes hopefully helpfully to his Church For which cause hee is called The Starre of Iacob The Lyon of Iudah The Rod of Isaack c. Typically hee came in Circumcision Rom. 3. in the Paschall Lambe Iohn 1. in Manna Iohn 6. in the brazen Serpent Iohn 3. in the Arke and on the Altar c. Hee came figuratiuely as our rest in Noah our increase in Ioseph our loue in Dauid our peace in Salomon our saluation in Ioshuah c. But now hee is come to vs personally in the assuming our nature in the fulnesse of time saith Paul Gal. 4.4 to free vs from all time saith Bernard Note his mercy hee came to vs voluntarily non compulsu Patris sed consensu sui not by compulsion from his Father but by his owne consent Non ex necessitate mandantis sed ex voluntate venientis saith Chrisostome Yea Vltro venit sponte se videndum attâ—lit occidendum obtulit Greg. Of his owne accord yeelding himselfe to be seene of men to be slaine for men Yea Prepria benignitas inuitauit misericordia traxit veritas compulit His benignitie to vs inuited him his mercy drew him his truth compelled him Basil Here is his Mercy for our Consolation Vse 2 Oh let vs walke worthy of this grace and Mercy for an vse of Instruction let vs runne after the sweetnesse of his odours let vs follow his footings since hee came to leade vs let vs worke out our saluation with feare and trembling since hee came to saue vs 1 Tim. 4.9 Luke 19.10 Let vs returne to the Bishop of our soules since hee came to finde vs as lost sheepe let vs be no more the slaues of the Diuell since hee came to dissolue the workes of the Diuell 1 Iohn 3. let vs entertaine him as did Zacheus and retayne him as did Iacob when hee would not let him goe till hee blest him let vs feast him as did Mathew wash his feete with our teares as did Mary seeke him sorrowing as did his Mother prepare for him an vpper lodging to eate his Passeouer in as did his Disciples euen our bodies and soules the Temples of his Spirit let vs walke nearer to Sion in this our light since the Sun is come so neere vs nay euen to vs then the Patriarkes did in their darkenesse vnder the vayle and cloud of the Law Vse 3 Let vs
now come to the tryall and bring our practise to the Touch-stone and wee shall be found as vnworthy of Christs reuelation to vs as vnthankefull for his manifestation amongst vs as the very Iewes themselues nay let vs compare our selues with them and wee shall iustifie them as they did Sodome Euer since CHRIST dwelt amongst the sonnes of men the kinde of his vsage hath beene too vnkinde the course of his entertainment hath beene too course the forme and manner of his welcome deformed and vnmannerly the world hath beene still so weake through ignorance as not to know or so wicked through ingratitude as not to acknowledge or so corrupt by nature as not to welcome the Word incarnate the Lord of Nature For euen in his birth at Bethlem howsoeuer hee had the hearts and admirations of some few some handfuls as of Anna Simeon Zachary Elizabeth c. As also after of his Disciples of Nathaniel Nicodemus Ioseph Mary Martha Lazarus some healed Patients conuert sinners penitent Publicanes and such like yet the grossest and the greatest part despised and dispited him Looke vpon him from the wombe to the earth from the Cradle to the Crosse from the Crosse to the Graue and you shall see him still crossed by cursed instruments so looke on him from Bethlem to Aegypt from Aegypt to Nazareth from Nazareth to Capernaum from Capernaum to Ierusalem from Ierusalem to Golgotha yâ—â— shall see him tost from place to place from post to pillar Herod the Diuell the Iewes the People the Scribes the Pharises the Lawyers the Herodians the Gentiles the Romanes the Souldiers Dogs and Foxes and Diuels Iudas and Pilate and Herod Earth and Hell all opposed madly and maliciously euen against the Lords Annoynted whose rage from the first houre of his birth till the last of his death could not be quenched without his bloud Hee came vnto his owne but his owne receiued him not Iohn 1.11.20 We surely are in the same predicament if not worse Compare vs with the Patriarkes and we come as short of their faith in Christ obedience and sanctification as they of our knowledge and illumination we come nearer vnto the infidelitie of prophane Esau flowting Ismael wicked Cham cursed Canaan and their seede then wee doe to the Faith of Abraham Isaack and Iacob c. to Noahs Obedience and the holy liues of the rest For the Iewes wherein are wee inferiour in the highest measure of ingratitude against Simeons Lord wee lodge him not at all but cast him out of the Inne of our hearts with the Bethlems wee shut our gates against him with the Samaritanes when wee reiect his Word and Ministers wee bid him depart from vs with the Gadarens when wee preferre our Swinish lusts before him we crucifie him worse and oftner in his immortall body then the Iewes in his mortall when like mad dogs wee flye in his face and by swearing and blaspheming wound his wounds tearing and renting euery part of his humanitie and yet wee will be Christians But I know not how vnlesse on the contrary as the Cynick named his Man as some say Mons à mouendo when it moues not for wee moue not after the motion of Christ We are like the Hare running one way when wee looke another way Well let vs looke to it Christ is come to vs Iohn 1.14 but if wee come not vnto him by Prayer and into him by Faith and hee into vs by his Spirit Iohn 14.18 he will come to vs and against vs in Iudgement to our ruine and destruction Acts 7.31 Oh therefore Kisse the Sonne least hee be angry Psal 2. Thirdly in that Simeons desire of life was not simply for any loue of life but onely to see and proclaime and prayse Christ the Messias to blesse God for this fountaine of blessings to his Church It is worth our animaduersion more worthy our Imitation that wee ought not simply to desire life for it selfe but that wee might liue to glorifie God and to the good of his Church and Children This point is plaine by the Apostles precept Rom. 14.7.8 and by his practise Phil. 2.23.24 For as here prescribes to others that none should liue or dye vnto himselfe but vnto the Lord that whether Christians liue or dye they should be the Lords yea that whether they liue in the body or remoue out of the body they might be the Lords 2 Cor. 5.8.9 So hee himselfe being in a strait what to doe whether to liue in the flesh or to be loosed and be with CHRIST is ouer-swayed with the loue of his brethren to dwell vvith them still onely for the furtherance and ioy of their Faith So it must be with thee in that rancke wherein thou art Vse 1 Art thou a Minister thy desire to liue must be onely to preach the Word for the gathering of the Saints for bringing home the wandering Sheepe for planting and watering Gods Vineyard for feeding his people vvith knowledge and vnderstanding for propagation of the Gospell for conuersion of soules and addition vnto his Church such as shall be saued and for this end thy life and thy liuings must not be deare to thee that by Preaching or Printing Disputing Conferring Writing Praying and Meditating the things wherein that holy Augustine and zealous Bernard were constantly and continually imployed thou mightst be beneficiall to the soules of thy brethren yea for the accomplishment of these ends as thou art called A Light and Salt it must not be grieuous vnto thee to consume and melt thy selfe in spending thy spirits to giue light vnto and to season others Thy ends in thy Ministery must neyther be ambitious like Diotrephes his that loued preheminence nor to be exalted on the right hand or the left with Zebidee's Sonnes not to sit onely in Moses his Chayre vvith the Scribes and Pharisies not couetous like Balaams and Iudassâ—s but Christian and consciâ—nable like Paul's and Peter's and Iames who tâ—â—t they might feede the flocke endured not onely labours and stripes and imprisonments but euen death it selfe Art thou a Magistrate thy desire to liue must be the discharge of thy duety the execution of thy function the decision of Controuersies the cutting off of strifes in their causes courses and euents the iudging rightly betwixt man and man c. to be a nursing Father to the Church to stand for Gods Truth and Orthodoxe Religion to be zealous for Gods glory to defend the fatherlesse right the oppressed to let the cause of the Widow come before thee to draw out and vse the sword committed vnto thee for the defence of the righteous and the right for the offence of the wicked and their wrongs these are the ends thou must aime at in thy place whether superiour or inferiour Art thou a gouernour a Master of a Familie hast thou a charge committed to thee thy desire to liue must be rightly to discharge it and thy duety in it as
Apollo I would trauell farre on my feete to finde such a Phoenix For the other sort that liue eyther in no calling or in a sensuall sinfull calling such as riotous Prodigoes profane Esau's vaine Gentlemen gull Gallants retchlesse Ruffians licentious Lechers gracelesse Gamesters filthy Brothellers Queanes Curtizans and beastly Bawdes with all the rest of that restlesse and retchlesse crew alas what good doe they in the world what ayme they at but like Swine to feede like the rich Churle to goe brauely and faire deliciously with the Sabarites and Sardanapalus to inuent and wallow in polluting pleasures to feede their fancy please their owne humours content themselues delight the flesh and damne the soule liuing to eate eating to liue the life of sinne doing as much good to others as the Moath to the garment the Caterpiller to the fruit the Cantharides to the Oyntment spoyling and infecting like plaguy people vvhom thy liue amongst Therefore these and all these as they are vnprofitable burthens to the earth they shall be swept away from the earth like Iabin and Sisera and the Sodomites euen into hell Psal 9.17 As they glorifie not God which was the end of their Creation and Redemption which thy forget so God will neuer glorifie them Therefore let vs all both men with Simeon and women with Lidia Dorcas and Deborah c. doe good here in life that wee may receiue good in and after death liue and desire to liue onely to God and for God here that vvee may liue vvith God for euer hereafter Fourthly and lastly here wee are to take notice of that which wee haue obserued in Moses before namely that Simeon is willing to dye for the whole Text imports and carries it that there was in him no vnwillingnes to dye not so much as in show but a great willingnesse propensitie and disposition to his dissolution whether wee take his vvords here as Optatiue Oh that thou wouldest let thy Seruant depart as some doe or Indicatiue Now thou dost let c. or Precatory Lord now let c. or plainely as they are here all import perspicuously that hee dyed voluntarily From whence note that a good Christian is willing to dye wee may see this as in Simeon so in Paul Phil. 1.23 who desired to be dissolued and to be with CHRIST The like might be instanced in the death of Moses who at Gods command went as voluntarily vp to the Mount to dye and to be sacrificed himselfe as Abraham went to sacrifice his Sonne So if wee consider the death of the Patriarkes of Abraham himselfe of Iacob of Dauid c. that dyed naturally as also of Saint Steuâ—n of our Sauiour Christ himselfe in the Scripture as also of blessed Martyres that were put to death violently we shall finde that they went vnto their deaths and into the Graue as voluntarily as Noah into the Arke taking Gods stroke vpon themselues as patiently as Aaron did when God smote his two Sonnes Nahab and Abihu and as Eli did Samuels report of his houses ruine 1 Sam. 3 The Saints very last words being of the same straine and Dialect with Simeons import so much as wee may see Moses Deut. 32. with this good old man here concluding his life with a Swan-like Song So also Dauid 2 Sam. 23. So Babilas the Martyr feared not that his soule should returne vnto her rest neyther did Ignatius care when hee dyed or of what kinde of death hee should dye nay though hee were grinded by the teeth of Lyons because hee was the Lords Manchet and must be made cleane bread for Christ So Melancthon almost in the same words with Simeon If it be the will of God I am willing to dye and I beseech him to grant mee a ioyfull departure With many moe Now the Reasons which make the childe of God so willing to die are many the principall are these First because hee findes no good in this life no ioy no content more then a Prisoner in his bonds a bird in the snare or a beast in the ginne his ioyes being imperfect and mixed with a thousand sorrowes hauing for one Sunny day a hundred tempestuous stormes his best dayes being like Iacobs few and euill his worst many and miserable Secondly because there is nothing in this life which giues true and sollid satisfaction to his soule finding with Salomon all Sublunarie things to be vanitie and vexation of spirit as Honours riches wisedome vvealth knowledge Babels building Moses and Daniels Aegyptian and Caldean learning Cressus and Crassus his wealth Midas his gold Policrates good successe Ezekias his Treasure Nero's Musicke all other things which should doe good to the nature of man or delight the minde of man giuing him no more content then ayre and winde to an empty stomacke for as a Quadrangle cannot fill a Triangle but some corner will be capable of more so the whole circuit of this round Orbe this Quadrangular world cannot content the heart of man which Anatomists say is Triangular in the forme God onely Christ and his Spirit the blessed Trinitie that made the soule can fill it with true delights and fulfill the true desires In which respect the Christian to whom all things else are bitter but Christ is not quieted till hee inioy Christ no more then the animate or inanimate creatures are at peace till they haue their rest in that centre whitherto they moue his heart still trembling till it be with God like the Needle touched with an Adamant still quiuering and shaking till it looke directly to the North Pole and therefore as Noahs Doue sent out of the Arke found no rest to the sole of her foote till shee returned into the Arke againe so the true Christians the Lords mournefull Doues finde no resting place here till their soules returne to the Arke of their strength that God that sent them out into their bodies euen as the Iewish Tabernacle had no rest but was carryed from place to place till it entred into Canaan Exod. 26.1 33.7 Thirdly because of the crosses and afflictions which are incident vnto him in this life for as the whole humane nature is subiected to the Crosse so chiefely the Christian The world which is a Paradise to the carnall is a Purgatory to the Christian Many are the troubles of the righteous all that will liue godly in Christ must suffer affliction euery Disciple must take vp one crosse or other if hee vvill follow Christ which crosse-way is the way to heauen euery childe of God is corrected ere hee be receiued the purest Gold must be in the furnace the Lords owne Wheate is thrashed winnowed and grinded and Gods trees must be pruned Vt vnda vndam as waue succeedes waue so crosse succeedes crosse as Dauids Lyon succeedes his Beare 1 Sam. 17.37 and Goliah the Lyon 1 Sam. 18.27 and the Philistines Goliah and Saul the Philistines 1 Sam. 21. Now the Christians
death is most welcome that changeth his Mâ—ra to Naomi his bitternesse into beauty which deliuers him from dangers and dolours as the Angell did Lot from the fire and the three Children from the flames and Daniel from the Lions death like Zerobabel deliuers the Lords Israel out of Babilon Zach. 4.6 therefore death must needs be welcomed like a day of deliuerance a yeere of Iubilie which brings Ioseph out of Prison Iacob out of seruitude and Iob from the dung-hill Mors enim malâ—râ—m remedium portus humanis tempestaâ—ibus Plutarch de consol ad Apol. Fourthly in respect of their sinnes which cleaue so fast on which they cannot shake off Sinne with which they are at opposition and deadly feud dogs them at the heeles like a Serieant waytes on them like a Catchpole insinuates into them like a claw-backe creepes into their bosomes as a Serpent stings them at the heart like an Adder followes them as their shadow stickes close to them like their shirt vpon their skinne their skinne vpon their flesh and their flesh vpon their bones insomuch that it burnes and frets them as Dianiraes poysoned shirt did Hercules and as the Ticke vexeth the Oxe which makes them crye out in the anguish of their soules vvith Paul and the faithfull Rom. 7. Oâ— miserable man that I am who shall deliuer mee from this body of sinne They complaine of the strife of the Flesh and the Spirit as Rebeccah of the strugling betwixt Iacob and Esau Now death comes and rescues and makes thy baile and playes the Mid-wife and ends the broyle therefore welcome to the well disposed Fiftly they are here Pilgrimes and strangers 1 Pet. 2.11 as was Dauid and the rest in their ages they are here exuls and banished men as Children put forth to nurse from their Mothers as Schollers and Pupils sent to forraine Schooles and to farre Vniuersities and therefore their returning home to their owne Country their restitution to their prouided Kingdome their fetching home to their Father and friends their retyring to their Fathers house though it be through the shadow of death must needes be acceptable Sixtly they know that the day of their death is better then the day of life Eccles 7.3 because they dye prepared their soules purged their hearts by Faith purified As they haue entered into the first degree of eternall life in this life when they beleeued and receiued the gifts of the Spirit the earnest of their Saluation so they enter into the second degree in death when their soules are carryed into heauen and they dye in assurance of the third degree when body and soule shall be re-vnited to participate of happinesse as they haue liued together in holinesse Seauenthly they dye as with a desire so in an expectation to see and behold the face of Christ of which with Steuen they haue some glimmering in their deaths and therefore death to the godly so farre as regeneration rules is no more burthensome then the stripping off the cloathes vnto a louing Spouse to goe into the Marriage-bed of her contracted Bridegrome Hos 2.19 Eightly they haue kept a good Conscience with God and man like Paul Acts 24. And therefore they feare not iudgement no more then a true man feares to looke the Iudge in the face Ninthly wherein they haue offended God they haue their sinnes remitted and therefore feare not to hold vp their hand at the barre since they are quit before by Proclamation of all the promises in the Gospell and haue the Kings Pardon sealed them in the Sacraments Tenthly they haue oft in life invred themselues to thinke speake record and meditate of death euen as did Christ their head and his Seruants Iacob Moses and Paul as appeares in the Word and therefore Deaths dart foreseene wounds them lesse being fore-warned of it they are fore-armed for it Euen as the Souldier that hath beene long trayned and in many skirmishes is more couragious in the maine Battell and as hee that hath long exercised himselfe in foyles is more hardy to fight with sharpe so the petty conflicts that the godly haue had in their owne breasts vvith Deaths feare make them more hardy to encounter Deaths force Eleuenthly they entertaine it as a reward for their worke as a rest from their labour as willingly as the hired labourer receiues his hire and reposeth his wearied limbes Dan 12. Esay 57.2 Twelfthly they are perswaded and haue their Faith grounded in an happy and blessed change they expect a Metamorphosis and an alteration a comfortable transmutation of Earth for Heauen of the Sea for the Hauen of Griefe for Glory of the outward Court for the Sanctum Sanctorum of a Mortall for an Immortall body of Enon for Salem Sodome for Segor Aegypt for Canaan the Wildernesse of Sin for the Land of Promise of a House of day terrestriall for a House celestiall aboue the Clouds 2 Cor. 5.1 And therefore they are as willing to make this exchange as a poore begger would be to exchange his poore rags for some Princes robes or some poore man to leaue his smoaky rainy Cottage for a pompous Pauilion and decked Chamber in the Court. To reape the Vintage of this discourse the vse to vs is first of examination in that it is an argument of a good man to be willing to dye as here was Simeon Lay thou thy hand on thine heart and search in thy soule what propensitie and disposition thou findest in thy selfe to dye Many arguments there are in the Word and tryals both of a holy and a happy man both affirmatiue in shewing what hee doth and negatiue in shewing what he auoids Dauid points at him in the first Psalme as also in the 32. Psalme verse 1.2 as also in the 15. Psalme So doth our Sauiour Christ in the first eight Verses of the fift of Mathew So the Apostle Paul in the 2. of Cor. ch 7. ver 11. with other such places as namely delighting in the Word meeknesse mourning for sinne hunger after righteousnesse c. care to please God Feare Zâ—ale Indignation against sinne not letting Mony to Vsury and the like yet sure there is no greater euidence of an honest and holy heart then so to walke vprightly with God in life as alwayes to be willing to imbrace the strictest Summons of death to be as ready to depart out of this world as the Israelites were to depart out of Aegypt Againe it is most vsually a note of a soule eyther altogether soyled in corruption or indued with a smaller measure of Sanctification to be violently possessed with a continuated feare of death and therefore in this particular finde out thy selfe and trye in what case thou standest for the more vnwilling thou art to dye commonly the more Nature rules in thee the more earthly fleshly and carnall thou art the more willing commonly the more Grace raignes the more thou art holy heauenly and spirituall in
and thy bed with weeping Where didst thou mourne like Ezekias 2 Kings 20.3 Alas thy dry eyes and stony heart polluted soule and guiltie conscience tels thee this part of Gods Seruice is yet omitted Moreouer where didst thou volly out thy broken sighes for thy Sodomitish and crying sinnes What times morning euening day or night What place what Chamber Closet Gallery Garden Groue Wood Field can witnesse thee smiting vpon thy breast with Ephraim Ier. 31.19 ashamed of thy sinnes with the Princes and Iudges of Israel like a Theefe taken in the manner Ier. 2.26 casting downe thine eyes and knocking vpon thy breast with the penitent Publican Luke 18.13 mourning like a Doue in the Desart and a Pellican in the Wildernesse for thy transgressions and enormities this part of Gods seruice is pretermitted When didst thou commune with thine owne heart in thy priuate Chamber searching the secret sinnes of thy soule with the light of the word finding out thy present corruptions and recounting the by-past follies of thy youth in the bitternesse of thy soule confessing them vnto God with the repenting Prodigall laying open the wounds Leprosies and ruptures of thy soule to Christ thy Pihsitian I doubt this sacrifice of a wounded soule a broken hart and a contrite spirit is eyther not at all or very coursorily performed this seruice and sacrifice pleaseth God too well Psal 51.17 for the Diuell to suffer it to passe without long delayes many interruptions and in too many absolute omissions But lastly tell mee seriously how oft hast thou poured out thy soule before the Lord in Prayer for the pardon and remission of sinnes for a new heart a renued soule for conuersion and turning to God for increase of Faith for the holy Ghost for the gifts of Grace Wisedome Chastitie and the like as Dauid the Apostles and Disciples of Christ Paul and other of the Saints haue done hast thou done this I aske thee not whether thou hast oft babbled or not like the Heathen and our ignorant Papists in pattring ouer thy Lords Prayer as they doe their Pater Nosters and their Auees without Faith or feeling without heart and affection with that lip-labour that Christ condemned in the Gentiles and God in the Iewes Neither doe I aske thee if Parrat-like thou hast said ouer thy Creed and thy tenne Commandements sometimes when thou didst rise and goe to bed which are as far from being Prayers as the Diuell is from truth or as ignorance is from knowledge that tels thee they are Prayers which are none With these Heathenish and Idolatrous Seruices perhaps thou had lodened the Lord as the Iewes once ouer-wearied him with the like vanities Esay 1.11.12.13 But I aske thee how oft thou hast indeede prayed how oft indeede with a Sacrifice of Prayer kindled with zeale inflamed with the fire of the spirit heated with feruency directed with knowledge grounded on Faith in the Promises prosecuted with Humilitie and Reuerence attending with Constancie and Perseuerance accompanyed with Repentance for sinne and her hand-maides Contrition and Confession how oft I say with such a qualified Prayer hast thou approached the Throne of Grace put vp thy petitions to heauen knocked at the gate of Grace for graces to be giuen sinnes forgiuen how oft with such Incense hast thou visited the Lords Altar Seauen times a day with Dauid nay three times with Daniel nay once nay none in many dayes vvill thy heart tell thee if it continue not still hypocriticall deceiuing thee as Sathan hath deceiued it Well and yet thou thinkest to be saued But vpon what grounds rotten God knowes Indeede euery one that cals vpon the name of the Lord shall be saued so saith the Prophet so the Apostle Ioel 2.32 but thou callest not on the name of the Lord saith thy heart at least not as thou oughtest to doe which makes thy prayer an abhominable sacrifice therefore thou thus continuing shalt not be saued But let mee goe further with thee Dost thou pray in priuate that 's well but dost thou pray for with and amongst thy family in thine owne house as did Abraham Ioshuah and the faithfull in their dayes here thou art mute and thy heart giues the negatiue It is apparent God is as frequently and as feruently serued in the Houses Tents Tabernacles and Campes of many sauage and Scythian Souldiers as in thy house Mahomet hath better seruice in most families of the Turkes and the Diuell of the Virginians then God hath in thy house For Prayer is such an excellent part of Gods worship that it is oft vsed for the whole seruice of God as Gen. 4.26 and else-where being a dutie whereby as man is profited so wherewith God is wonderfully pleased and his name glorified Psal 50.15 euen in all his Attributes both 1. in his Wisedome in acknowledging that hee is infinitely vvise in knowing our wants 2. in his Power in that hee is able 3. in his Mercy in that he is willing 4. in his Omnipotencie and his Omnipresence that hee is alwayes ready and present to heare and helpe his Church and children 5. as also in his Knowledge in that wee confesse him by Prayer to be the sâ—archer of the hart and the onely Intelligencer of the desires of man Now where this principall part of Gods Seruice and Worship is omitted or but slubbered ouer as Elies Sonnes did the Sacrifices in publike or priuate how can a iealous and a zealous God indure it When thou omittest neglectest despitest or despisest this whole Seruice of God how shall the Lord be pleased with thee thou depriuing God of the principall part of his Glory hee will frustrate thee of thy hoped glory for who euer are glorified of the Lord in heauen must glorifie him in some measure on earth I might also examine in this Quere how thou performest other parts of Gods seruice namely those which are Eucharisticall and Gratulatory in praysing God for his blessings temporall and spirituall as did Dauid in his Generation with others Psal 100. Psal 130. A dutie though commanded by God Psal 50.15 and as a part of his Seruice so of his Glory Psal 50.23 yet neglected as frequently as fouly as it was of the nine cleansed Lepers Luke 17.17 and of Ezekias 2 Chron. 22.25 vvhereby Gods vvrath is kindled against many a man and his seede and posteritie as it was against Iudah and Ierusalem Secondly they are both depriued of former blessings for their ingratitude and Gods hand shut from pouring out any new mercies into the riuen dishes of such vnthankfull soules Many moe parts of Gods seruice omitted by an vngratious and vngratefull vvorld might be prosecuted whereby it plainely appeares that there are great troupes and swarmes of profane and godlesse men amongst vs that haue not God in all their thoughts like the Hypocrites in Iob 27.10 that haue no delight in God such Atheists as Dauid describes in the Psalmist Psal 14. Psal 53. and as Zephanie Ieremie
then I blame the Calling of the Apostles for that Iudas was a traitor yet I cannot but bewayle the great forgetfulnesse of God and neglect of his worship amongst vs in this our outward prosperitie beautified with the marueilous and miraculous continuated light of the Gospell Thus did Israell as wee now as appeares by the reiterated phrases in the Psalmist and else-where that in their prosperitie they forgat God The Lord hath laboured to excite and waken vs as hee did them by plague pestilence and other Iudgements from the Heauens and all the Elements yet our heads are still heauie and our hearts are asleepe Let vs feare the rod of Ashur the inuasion of forraine powers let vs not prouoke him to procure out cryes and oâ— seruice by giuing vs ouer into the hands of Chaldeans and Assyrians If euer Israell be carryed captiue which God forbid and be oppressed with a Spanish or a Romish yoake we shall then wish that wee had drawne neare vnto God in the Sunnie day of peace ere we had beene humbled like Manasses Dauid and Israell by pressures and afflictions A third part of this vse extends it selfe to those that running into a further degree of sinne and measure of iniquitie as indeed sinne like ill fame still growes greater in his progresse and swels more vast and poysonous like the Dragon that hath eaten the Serpent after once one sinne be retained doe not onely in their owne particulars and with those that depend vpon them neglect reiect and refuse the seruice of God though they weare the Liuery and Cognizance of their Master being called Christians but they maligne calumniate and storme at others that are more zealous and forward then themselues aemulating as it is said of the Grey-hound that thinkes much that any thing should out-runne him that any shoud outstrip them in the sinceritie or measure of grace or out-runne them in the course of Christianitie accounting with politique Gallio Religion to be but Ceremonies and circumstances quirkes and quiddities 〈◊〉 the Lords true Nathaniels that serue him in truth in whose spirit is no guile Psal 31.2 to be but foolish and froathy fellowes more precise then wise Gods followers Gods fooles as Michâ—l thought Dauid nay mad distracted rauing men as the Iewes Christs Kinsmen and Festus esteemed CHRIST Ieremie and Paul yea Gods faithfull Seruants as they haue alwayes beene so still are as signes and wonders in Israell in this our blinded age Esay 8.18 Yea monsters euen to the great men of the world as Dauid was Psal 71.7 Yea a scorne reproach and dirision to them that are round about them Psal 79.4 accounted as men of an odde fashion and carriage from all others Wisd 2.15 nicknamed Precissians singularists humorists factious hypocriticall and the like which censures they vndergoe from naturall and carnall men but chiefely from those that haue in them some morrall goodnesse as Iulian himselfe had for our ciuill honest men and formall hypocrits contenting themselues with meere externall showes and shadowes in the Seruice of GOD without any sinceritie of heart or life of Religion flattering and securing themselues in that dangerous and damnable estate wherein they feed their soules with a vaine an ayrie hope that they are as safe as the best thinke whatsoeuer is more in Gods Seruants then they finde in themselues to be precisenesse and affected singularitie as needlesse as fruitlesse in their friuolous conceits And hence ariseth their Ismaelitish scoffes and tongue-persecutions against those that are more aeminent and transcendent then themselues in many graces because the conscionable carriage and gratious deportment of the Seruants of God doth swart censure and condemne their outwardnesse and formalitie at which they are as oft gauled and grieued and fretted at the very hart as they compare their tinckling Cymbals with the others holinesse But leauing those whited wals and painted Sepulchers to his Iustice or Mercie that sees their rottennesse and guilded rubbish there are another sort of men if I may call them men forgetting what the very composure of their body and the instinct of Nature tels them which being void of all grace and emptie of goodnesse neyther knowing nor willing nor working what is pleasing and acceptable to the Almightie deriding and detesting good men and disliking good dutyes with the former sort as neither fearing God nor caring for his worship nor furthering his seruice nor fauouring his seruants casting behinde their backes all thought of God and their owne saluation they serue themselues and their owne end their lusts their darling sinnes and consequently the Diuell Gods and their mortall enemie And of this sort there are not so few but they may brag as the Spirits in the Gospell of their number their name is Legion All places professions trades callings conditions estates sexes and sorts and ages from youth to gray hayres afford trained Souldiers in these sinfull seruices marching to hell vnder the conduct of the Prince of darknesse the God of the world and worldlings that rules in and ouer those children of disobedience Alas how many be there of couetous Mammonists churlish Nabals that as truely as Dauid and Simeon professed and confessed to the Soueraigne Creator Lord I am thy Seruant so they say to Mammon to the Wedge of Gold to their Siluer Shrine their Mettall-Idoll Lord I am thy Seruant How many Epicures Drunkards and riotous persons whose belly is their God and their end damnation say to the deuouring gulph of their vnsatiable guts I am thy Seruant How many lustfull liuers and lasciuious louers offering the sacrifice of their vncleane bodies to bewitching women say to Asmodius the vncleane Spirit Lord I am thy Seruant How many proud aspiring spirite in Court and Country flying in their thoughts faster then Pegasus or Mercurie vpon the wings of high hopes plumed with the feathers of their selfe-conceited worth making greatnesse not goodnes the marke of their mounting may say to the high climbing Lucifer Lord I am thy Seruant How many such saying desperately with that Nation which once was called stubborne and crooked Surely we will walke after our owne imaginations and doe euery man after the stubbornnesse of his owne wicked heart Ier. 18.12 forsaking the Rocke of the field and the Cedar of Lebanus for the cursed Thistle the fountaine of waters for broken pits the liuing for the dead the great Iehouah for Belzebub and the God of Eckron the God of Abraham for the Gods of Nations the seruice of God for the seruice of Sinne and Sathan the Diuell may iustly claime and challenge them in death plead and preuaile to haue them in Iudgement since they haue by an explicite or implicite couâ—nant as it were sold themselues like Ahab and Ieroboam to worke wickednesse in their life time as wittingly and willingly dedicating and consecrating themselues to his seruice as did once desperate Raffus who as is reported vpon the two sides of
calling or in omitting good duties first eyther of Pietie to God in stretching out thy hands in Prayer secondly or of charitie to man in closing them towards the poore Now keepe thy hands from doing euill and consecrate them vnto the Lord in doing good so thou shalt be blessed Esay 56.2 Exod. 32.29 If iniquitie be in thine hand put it farre away Iob 11.14 If thou hast stolne steale no more but worke with thine owne hands Ephes 4.28 Keepe them innocent and pure Psal 24.41 Shake thine hands from taking any gifts Esay 33.15 Let no blot or stain cleaue vnto them Iâ—b 31.7 Strengthen them to doe good workes Nehem. 2.18 Open thy hand to thy brother to the poore to the needy Deut. 15.11 Stretch thy hand out of the increase that God giues thee Prou. 31. And stretch out thy hands also to the Lord. Psal 143. yea in euery place lift vp thy heart with the hand to God in heauen 1 Tim. 2. Lament 3.4 So shall thy hands serue God For thy Feete if they haue declined and made haste to deceit Iob 23.11 if they carryed thee with lewd company out of the way of Gods Commandements to vanities or to vices to filthinesse or to follies to Playes or to Brothell-houses now remoue thy foote from euill Prou. 4.26 Make straight steps to thy feete Heb. 12. Refraine thy feete from the pathes of the wicked Prou. 1.15 And keepe the way of the righteous Prou. 2.20 So shalt thou serue God and keepe thy soule Prou. 16.17 Walke not in vanities Iob 31.5 nor in the counsell of the wicked Psal 1.1 but run the wayes of Gods Commandements Imploy them to carry thee to the house of God to the holy Exercises of Religion where God is serued Delight to stand in the gates of Ierusalem Psal 122.2 looking narrowly to thy foote when thou enterest into the house of God Eccles 4.17 Thus did those two good Anna's in Samuel and Luke a mother and a widdow as also good Dauid and here old Simeon rightly and religiously vse their feete in Gods seruice in visiting so frequently so constantly so zealously the house of Prayer where they met with God with Christ and with a blessing vpon their seeking and seruing God And so must thou if thou set thy selfe with thy heart and soule and strength and spirit and minde and body to serue the Lord as they did consecrating these and the rest of thy members parts and powers externall and internall to Gods seruice which that thou maist more willingly performe let these Motiues for conclusion of this Vse adde Spurres vnto thee to runne along with old Simeon to the seruice of this best Master to whom I recommend thee First thou wast created for Gods seruice as the Apostle instanceth in one sinne so I may in all the body was not made for fornication nor vncleannesse nor adultery nor drunkennesse nor for any other workes of the flesh which are recited Gal. 5.19 but for the Lord 1 Cor. 6.23 and the Lord for the body Therefore Dauid makes this an argument that wee should fall downe and worship the Lord because wee are the Sheepe of his pasture and the worke of his hands hee hath made vs not we our selues Doth any man keepe sheepe but hee will eate of the milke of the flocke and be cloathed with the wooll Doth any man build a Palace a Castle or a sumptuous house for his enemie to dwell in Did the Lord thinkest thou oh vaine man that seruest thy lusts thy pleasures the World the Diuell forme and frame this excellent Fabricke and composure of thy body more sumptuous artificiall magnificent then the Aegyptian Pyramides then Salomons Temple then all splendent and glorious buildings vnder the Sunne that are made of Lime Stone Lead Wood Glasse Mettals and the like and did infuse as it were inward proportionable furniture such an vnderstanding spirit an immortall soule into this externall structure and building of the body for the Diuell his mortall enemie to dwell in to take possession and keepe habitation by his eldest Sonne Sinne Will any earthly Monarch suffer a Traitor a Tyrant an Vsurper to intrude vpon his Territories to dwell in his fortified Cities to possesse his Crowne and vsurpe his Throne I trow not And will the King of Kings suffer it Can a meane man indure another man which means to abuse him to inioy his Table his Bed his Wife chiefely that shee to whom hee is betroathed and wedded should prostitute her selfe to his enemie And will the Lord that is as a zealous so a iealous God suffer thy spirituall whoredomes and fornications with the triple enemies of thy soule the deceiuing Flesh deluding World and destroying Diuell Will he endure his Sanctuary to be polluted his Temple abused the holy Vessels profaned Thy body is the Temple of the holy Ghost thy members called Vessels now if thou suffer this great Temple-spoyler this Dionisius the Diuell to abuse thy vessels by offering them to him by vncleannesse to pollute this Temple this body of thine by sinne he that thus destroyes the Temple of God him will God destroy as hee threatneth seuerally twise together Take heede therefore that thou suffer not any sinnes to take vp the best roomes in this earthly Tabernacle and Temple least by hardening thy heart corrupting thy conscience deprauing thy will blinding thy minde ecclipsing thy reason dulling thy memory disordering thy affections spoyling and defiling thy whole man giuing ouer that body of thine which God made for himselfe to be sinnes Brothell-house and the Diuels Play-house wherein all sinnes are acted least the Lord burne thee downe sticke and slower eyther with fire from heauen as hee did Sodome or with fire in hell as hee did Diues Prepare thy body and soule therefore betimes dresse it and sweepe and garnish it as a Chamber for Christ to keepe his Passe-ouer in that the destroying Angell may passe ouer thee vvhen hee comes in Iudgement I might adde secondly how fitly by Creation thou art made in euery part as an Organ and Instrument to Gods seruice with a body vpwards to heauen whereas all other Creatures looke low and groueling vpon the earth with eyes to looke vp to the Hils and to the heauens from whence commeth thy helpe and downe vpon the fragrant and verdant earth fit to behold how euery creature Celestiall and Sublunarie in their kinde as it were in a dumbe Oratorie tels thee there is a God and a God to be serued beginning and continuing the Quire vnto thee to sing and ring forth his prayses thy tongue fitted to speake Magnalia Dei the wonderfull workes of God and to confesse to Gods glory as Ioshuah tels Achan Iosh 7. those numerous and haynous sinnes of thine wherewith thou hast offended God more then all the vnreasonable creatures how euer the ill Angell eyther strikes thee dumbe as the good did Zachary or if thou speakest Sathan oyles the Clocke of thy tongue
of God Rom. 1.30 Rom. 8.7 vnruly and vntamed Heffers Hâ—s 4.16 Spurners against God Deut. 32.15 A rebellious and a false seede Esay 57.3.4 Conspirators and such as stretch their hands out against God as Iob and Ieremie call them Ier. 11.9 Iob 15.25 Dispisers of the Spirit of Grace Heb. 10.29 Stout against God in their words Mal. 3.13 Contemners of his wayes Iob 21.14 Setting their mouthes against heauen Psal 73.9 Dispising both the Word of God vvith the Iewes 2 Chron. 24.19 Psal 50.17 and the Workes of God as did the Gentiles Rom. 1.21.22 And the Ministers of God as the Elders of Israell and the People did Moses and Samuel Exod. 16.8 1 Sam. 8.7 And the Iewes CHRIST and his Disciples but euen the person of GOD himselfe as did the Aramites Nabuchadnezzar Senacherib Rabsekah and others so the Lord hath threatned to despise such despisers 1 Sam. 2.30 to deride such deriders and to lay their honors in the dust Psal 2.4 Cursed are they of the Lord like the inhabitants of Meros Iudg. 5.23 euen with all the curses pronounced from Mount Eball Deut. 27. Because they serue not the Lord the Lord accounts basely and vilely of them euen as of Oxen and Asses Dogs and Swine Esay 1.3 2 Pet. 2.22 As drosse and dung and vnsauory Salt fit to be cast away yea though Coniah the Sonne of Iehoâ—akim were as the signet vpon the Lords right hand yet if hee despise the Lord hee shall be pluckt thence accounted as a despised and broken Idoll or as a filthy vessell Ier. 22.24 28. Nay though Saul be a King if hee reiect and forsake the seruice of God God will reiect and cast him away to 1 Sam. 15.16 Yea Ierusalem if shee refuse to obey her God shall be an habitation of Diuels Reu. 18.2 The Iewes though Ruhamah shall be Lo-ruhamah though Ammi Gods people yet if they forsake the seruice of God they shall be Lo-ammi none of Gods people Hos 1.6.9 But as at this day it is seene a disgraced despised and contemptible Nation and so will the LORD deale with all other wickedly wretched contemners and despisers of his Glory his Word his Workes his Ordinances they shall be blamed and shamed and come to an ignominious and odious end Euery creature shall conspire their destruction that serue not their Lord and Master the Creator The Angels shall smite them as they did Pharaohs first borne Zenacharibs Hoast and Herod Acts 12.23 Men shall laugh at them and the righteous shall haue them in derision Psal 32.6 7. They shall not continue in honour but be like the dumbe beasts that perish Psal The Diuell shall tryumph ouer them and cry at their deserued Plagues So so there goes the game They hiding their sinnes and not confessing them to Gods glory shall not prosper Prou. 28.13 Their soules shall be smit with feares like Pushur and Cain Gen. 4. Ier. 10.3 There shall be no peace to them but sonitus terroris a sound of terrour round about Esay 57. Iob 15.20 c. For their good names these shall rot and perish Prou. 10.7 euen like their wealth and substance vpon which Gods curse shall seaze Deut. 28.16.17.18 They shall be made a wonder a Prouerbe and a reproach amongst all people an astonishment an â—issing and continuall desolation Deut. 18.37 Ier. 25.9 And for their seede it shall not prosper the sword shall destroy them Iob 27.14 for the Lord will root out the memoriall of the wicked from the earth Psal 34.16 Therefore as Dauid concludes to the comfort of Gods Seruants after the enumeration of many blessings Thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord so I may say in these particulars and many moe plagues denounced from the mouth of GOD as in Leuit. 26.16 Psal 49.12 Psal â—07 10 Prou. 3.33 vpon the wicked in this life besides those which they shall feele and finde in their death Iob 13.26 Psal 49.14 And in Iudgement Dan. 12.2 Esay 2.11 Reu. 1.7 Reu. 6.15 Mat. 25. and 41. and in hell Marke 9.43.44 Luke 13.28 Reuel 9.6 Loe thus shall the man be plagued that serueth not God If any beleeue not these testimonies let him looke his owne face in the glasse of the examples of Pharaoh Herod Nebuchadnezzar Holofernâ—s of Iulian the Apostate Valerian Antiochus Nero Domitian Decitis Dioclesian Baiazâ—t with infinite others from the Word and Histories as they are recorded by the Machabees Tacius Suetonius Dion Orosius c. and they will speake that from the beginning of the world till now sinne alwayes brought shame and that Gods dishonour brought Gods disfauour death to the body damnation to the soule which considerations may be whips and goads to driue vs to the dutie vrged It is contrary with the godly their seruice is the path way to honour the people that hearken vnto Gods voyce are a precious people vnto him high aboue all Nations in praise in name and honor Deut. 26.17.18.19 Aske the verdict and censure of all the Prophets and Apostles and the Seruants of God Esay Micah S. Paul S. Iames S. Peter yea of Christ himselfe and according as they were inspired by the Spirit of Truth and knew in their owne experience they will say that the way to be great is to be good to rise is to fall to be exalted is to be humbled vnder the mighty hand of God 1 Pet. 5.6 The way to seeke glory and honour and immortalitie is to continue in well doing Rom. 2.7 to be fixed established and to indure for euer is to beleeue and to fulfill the will of God Esay 7.9 1 Iohn 2.17 and that the onely thing that is good for man is to walke with God Mâ—c 6.8 Yea Tâ—lly and Aristotle that made Honour the subsequent and effect of Vertue and Goodnes the Aegyptians that painted it betwixt Humilitie and Labour the Romanes that so composed their Temples that a man must first passe by the Temple of Humilitie and Vertue ere hee could touch the Shrine of Honour saw with the eyes of Nature that the way to be great is to be good Yea to serue that goodnesse which the Heathens onely coniectured but Christianitie defined to be the soueraigne good and that is God himselfe who is both more willing to preferre his Seruants to earthly dignities here if it be good for them to be exalted yea and infinitely more able then Assuerus was to honour Mordocheus Hest 6.6 Nabuchadnezzar Daniel Dan. 5.7 Pharaoh Ioseph yea or Saul any of his Captaines or followers for all his baosts of his Fields and Vineyards 1 Sam. 22.7 since his alone is Greatnesse and Power and Glory and Victory since all that is in heauen and Earth is his Riches and Honour Power and Strength c. as Dauid acknowledgeth Hannah singeth and Cirus confesseth 1 Chro. 29. 11.12 1 Sam. 2.7.8 Ezra 1.2 For I pray you what was the most that any of those great Monarchs could doe for any of their
Fauourites and Followers in their chiefest graces when they set their wits a-worke what to doe for such a man whom the King will honour Cloathing in Purple and royall apparrell setting on their heads a Princely Diadem putting a Chaine of gold about their neckes Rings vpon their fingers mounting them on their Steedes or setting them in a gorgeous Chariot with Proclamations before them of the Kings fauours towards them was the chiefe luster and eminencie that earthly Kesars could dignifie their chiefest Seruants withall Gen. 41.42.43.44 Hest 6.9.11 c. But what are all these Honours that the King of Aegypt the King of the Medes or of the Babilonians could profer in respect of that Honour which God bestowes vpon the meanest of his Saints and Seruants Surely toyes and trifles for in stead of these fine Linnens and royall Roabes that are exposed to the corrupting Moath and consuming Time God will clothe his with the externall and internall Roabes of Grace the righteousnesse of Christ Esay 49.16 Rom. 13.14 they shall not haue a fading but a flourishing not a mortall but an immortall Crowne not of Gold but of Glory that is they shall not haue a Chaine of Gold onely Psal 45.13 but of golden Graces knit together by Saint Peter 1 Pet. 1.4.5.6 c. In stead of a Ring they shall be placed as Signets on the Lords right hand Ier. 22.24 I cannot say they shall ascend vp in a chariot though Elias were so taken vp but they shall be aduanced to choise mansions in such a Kingdome as surpasseth all the Kingdomes of the earth as much as the Sun the Clouds or Salomons Throne Iobs Dunghill Ephes 2.6 Iohn 14.2 Rou. 3.12 where they shall be Kings and Priests for euer Reu. 1.6 Such honour haue all his Saints Psal 149.9 If any man obiect that he sees no such honour that Gods Saints haue that they are rather made here a gazing stocke to men and Angels despised reuiled and euill spoken of yea reputed as the filth of the world 1 Cor. 4.9.12.13 and the off-scouring of all things Answ It is true indeede But of whom Of such whose neyther prayse nor disprayse is to be respected of profane men children of Beliall of fooles and naturalists for so are all vngodly men tearmed Psal 14.1 Psal 53.1 Luke 12.20 Ier. 4. c. Of such wee are reputed fooles for Christs sake yet are wee wise in Christ though weak yet strong though despised yet honourable 1 Cor. 4.10 Honourable though not with wicked men yet wee shall be hereafter when wee must sit in ioynt Commission with Christ in Iudgement vpon them In the meane space wee are honoured of God and if he be with vs who can be against vs Rom. 8.31 Besides if this Motiue will not fixe vpon thee yet let the greatnesse of reward the excellencie of the wages the liberall allowance of Gods Seruants stirre thee vp at last to sing this best part of Simeons Song with heart and voyce that thou wilt be Gods Seruant It is a blasphemous scandall that the Iewish Atheists cast vpon God that it is a vaine thing to serue God and they had got no profit in keeping his Commandements Mal. 3.14 For sure there is a reward for the righteous doubtlesse there is a God that iudgeth the earth Psal 58. 10. A reward euen in this life euen before the Sonnes of men Psal 31.19 Euen at Dauid was annoynted long before hee was crowned 1 Sam. 16.13 2 Sam. 2.4 So here the Lord annoynts vs with the oyle of Gladnesse in the Church militant though wee haue not the Crowne till Christs appearing tryumphant 2 Tim. 4.8 Yea euen here the Lord is a Sunne and a Shield to his Seruants he giues grace and glory and no good thing will hee with-hold from them that liue vprightly Psal 84.11 For what good thing doth mans heart desire which God doth not promise and performe to his league Subiects 1 For their Wealth he giues them wealthy wages an hundred-fold Marke 10.30 Hee builds the Hebrew Mid-wiues houses Exod. 2. and giues his Seruant Dauid a great portion for he loueth the prosperitie of his Seruants 2 For Health the Lord will make their bed in their sicknesse Psal 41.3 Yea the voyce of ioy and health is in the habitations of the righteous Psal 110.1 3 For Strength the Lord himselfe is their strength Psal 27.8 and they shall be strong in the power of his might Esay 6.10 4 For Fame their memoriall shall be blessed Prou. 10.7 yea their righteousnesse shall shine as the light and their iudgement as the noone-day Psal 37.6 euen as Salomons did to the furthest South 5 Yea their Enemies that haue traduced them shall will they nill they acquit them and iustifie them euen as Saul twise iustified Dauids integritie 1 Sam. 18. and Chap. 26. and Pilate Pilates Wife the Centurion nay euen Iudas himselfe together with the Sunne the Earth and the Stones acquitted CHRIST who is tearmed Gods righteous Seruant in Esay and proclaimed his innocencie 6 Nay rather then they should want their deserued commendations God himselfe will prayse them liuing and dead as hee did in Moses funerall Sermon Iohn 1. 7 Nay iustifying them euen against the accusations of the old accuser Sathan as hee did Iob Iob 1. Hence wee haue these Encomiums of Dauid Ezekias Asa Iosias Moses himselfe with others in the old Testament to be men after Gods owne heart men of vpright perfect and relenting hearts and of meeke spirits Hence also Christ himselfe so famouseth the Centurion the Canaanitish woman the good Seruant Nathaniel Mary Magdalene c. Hence Paul so commends Mnason Gaius Philemon Appia c. Luke in the Acts Steuen Dorcas the noble Baraeans Bernabas vvith others for their Faith their Sinceritie Zeale Almes deedes Liberalitie Hospitalitie Loue to the Word searching the Scriptures Holinesse with other Graces so much doth God delight in the flourishing fame of his Church and Children For Peace where righteousnesse flourisheth there is abundance of peace Peace keepes her Throne amongst Gods Seruants for though they be at warre with the black Prince of Hell and his blacke Guard the wicked and with the World and chiefely with their owne corruptions yet they haue peace with GOD with Christ with the Angels with the Church with her Children with their Brethren vvith the Creatures with their owne Soules and Consciences such as none knowes saue those that inioy it For Fauour they are in wonderfull grace with their Masters they haue freedome of accesse to the throne of Grace vpon all occasions the golden Scepter is alwayes stretcht out vnto them they may haue easier accesse to the God of heauen and more gratious welcome with obtayning of their Suites and Petitions and Prayers then any Courtier with a temporall Prince it being as truely verified of God towards his Seruants as it is recorded of Augustus Caesar and Traian these morrally good Emperours that hee neuer sent any discontented or empty
NOW followes the last part of this holy Hymne Simeons Quletâ—s est or his Pacification God suffering him to depart in peace Caluin and Bucer renders Simeons minde thus Nunc libenter sedato quieto animo moriar Lord now I depart willingly with an appeased heart and a setled soule since I haue seene thy Christ From whence I gather that a good man that liues piously alwayes dyes peaceably It appeares here in Simeon so in the rest of the Saints as in Abraham to whom it was promised Gen. 15.15 that hee should goe vnto his Fathers in peace and should be buryed in a good age which promise was plentiously performed to Abraham for he yeelded the spirit dyed in a good age an old man and of great yeeres Gen. 25.8 So Isaack the Sonne of Promise gaue vp the ghost and dyed peaceably being old and full of daies Gen. 35.29 Neither was the death of good Iacob that preuailing Israel discrepant to his holy life for he dyed quietly making an end of his charge vnto his Sonnes hee pluckt vp his feete into his bed and gaue vp the ghost Gen. 49.33 After the like manner was the death of chaste and mercifull Ioseph Gen. 50.26 of penitent and patient Iob after hee had seene his sonnes and his sonnes sonnes euen foure generations Iob 42.16 Of zealous and sincere Dauid 1 Kings 2. after hee had counselled and charged his Sonne Salomon to walke in the wayes and Statutes of the Almightie Of Moses the faithfull Seruant of the Lord who dyed when his eye was not dimme nor his naturall force abated though he were an hundred and twentie yeeres old God himselfe being present at his death and buriall So Ioshuah that couragious Leader of Israel Iosh 24.29 Aaron the Lords Priest who dyed before the Lord in the Mount Hor Numb 20.28 Eleazar Aarons Sonne Iosh 24.33 Samuel the Lords Prophet 1 Sam. 25.1 with all the rest of Gods Children Patriarkes Prophets Iudges Kings Martyres Confessors the learned Lights of the Church such as Ambrose Augustine c. as they haue liued holily they haue dyed happily of which in their seuerall Histories they haue giuen demonstrations most of them if not all in these three particulars First that they were gathered to their Fathers in a mature and full age full of yeeres reaped like a Ricke of ripe Corne into the Lords Barne taken like mellow Apples from the Tree of life in which full age Abraham Isaack Iacob Ioshuah Iob with the rest before mentioned as also the Patriarkes before the Floud which out-liued them with others of the faithfull did blessedly yeeld their spirits and quietly slept in the Lord which blessing of long life being the promise annexed to that fift Commandement of Obedience is peculiarly incident to the godly rather then the wicked whose sinnes as the Iuie kils the Oake ordinarily abbreuiate their dayes or if any of the faithfull dye young or in their middle age before they haue attained to the yeeres of their Fathers eyther by a naturall dissolution as Iosias or by a violent death as the auncient and moderne Martyres eyther they are taken away from the euill to come as Augustine was immediately before the siege of Hippo by the Gothes and Vandals or else because they are ripened already in grace and come to that maturitie which GOD in his fore-seeing wisedome knowes they would or could attaine to and so are fitted for glory or else they testifie the truth here to others confirmation Gods glory and their owne consolation Secondly the Elect vsually haue their wishes and the fruition of their desires ere their departure to the great satisfaction of their soules the contentation of their hearts the corroberation of their faith and the sealing pledge of Gods speciall loue vnto them thus Simeon ere his death had CHRIST in his armes which was the desire and longing of his heart So Abraham saw Christs day before his death in the spirit and reioyced what did old Israel so long after in the whole world except the sight of Shiloh the Messias in the flesh as to see his darling Ioseph which longing of his the Lord satisfied at the full ere his death for his dying eyes did not onely see Iosephs face but his seede Ephraim and Manasses Gen. 48.11 What did Moses desire more then the fruition of Canaan the promised Land Now euen before the Lord shut his dying eyes the Lord tooke him vp into a mount and as a rellish and a taste of his fauour gaue him a sight of Canaan Deut. 34. ver 1.4 In what could Dauids heart be more setled then to see his Throne setled in Salomon his Sonne which his desire was accordingly accomplished for his eyes did see what his heart desired for which hee blessed God 1 Kings 1.48 And the like ordinarily fals out as many aged Christians at this very day can bring in their experienced probatum est as many that are fallen a-sleepe before them could haue testified how the Lord hath heard their requests and granted the desires of their soules in these and these particulars before their deaths Thirdly the godly expresse the hidden ioy and inward peace which they finde within their soules by their seasoned and sanctified words of grace which they breathe out as a sweet Perfume from holy hearts to the refreshing of others vpon their sicke beds with which they vsually winde vp the thread of their life words so good so gracious that they are worthy to be writ in Letters of Gold and for euer to be remembred as they are recorded in the sacred Cannon and collected by holy men from the Saints of latter times For example vvhat a sweet gratulatory speech is this of Simeons in his farewell to the world Lord now lettest thou thy Seruant depart in peace c. Euery word hauing his waight and Emphasis Ponder the last Sermons that Moses and Ioshuah and Samuel these faithfull Seruants of the Lord made immediately before their deaths vnto the Israelites Gods chosen people how zealously they perswade to the seruice of the true God disswade from Idolatrie and false Gods enumerate Gods speciall mercies exhort to obedience dehort from rebellion against God and their Superiours proclaime the promises to the obedient pronounce mercies to allure denounce iudgements to terrifie the disobedient blessing GOD by gratulatory Songs for his benefits and blessing the people in their Tribes Deut. 32. ch 33. Iosh 12. 1 Sam. 12. and a man shall see the peace they had in their hearts by the grace of their lips The last words of Iacob were blessings and prophecies Of Ioseph were admonitions and cautions the one to his Sonnes the other to his Brethren Gen. 49. Gen. 50. The last words of Dauid were his charge to Salomon his Son concerning Gods worship and the gouernement of his Kingdome 1 Kings 2. vers 3.4.5.6 c. The last words of Steuen the first Martyr after CHRIST were prayers for his
were wise euen in this particular oh how should vvee auoid many snares of Sathan that preuailes ouer vs euen by our securitie in this kinde And therefore Quos viu â—ntes blanditijs decipit c. whom hee deceiâ—es by fraud liuing hee deuoures by force dying Oh how should wee be prepared for the second comming of CHRIST if wee had but an eye to the pale Horse and him that sits thereon Apoc. 6.8 Oh that wee had but the wisedome of the Cocke that eating his meate hath euer an eye vpwards to looke at the Eagle or the Hawke Oh that wee as wee looke downewards with the eye of Reason to the things of this life would with the eye of Faith looke vp for the comming of Christ who as hee rose like a Lion is ascended like an Eagle and will descend againe to iudge vs then should wee be fitted with the good Seruant come when he will come to entertaine our Master with ioy Mat. 24.23 But alas woe be to the secure world vvee neither thinke of Iudgement generall nor speciall after death or in death sometimes indeede deede wee can say wee are all mortall but ex vsu magis quam sensu as some pray it is a word rather of custome then feeling wee seeme to be a little more moued when wee follow a Funerall then wee weepe and waile and cry out This is the end of all flesh but as soone as wee are at home the most we doe is a carnall fruitlesse mourning for the dead wee make no spirituall vse of it to dye to any sinne in which as some compares vs wee are like to Swine who when some one in the Heard is bit with a Dogge all flocke about and gruntle but presently it is forgot they fall againe to wallowing and rooting or like little Turkies and Chickens who if the Kite or Buzzard swap and catch one all the rest with their dammes are in an vprore but instantly they fall againe to feeding so when Death that deuouring Dog that rauening Kite that preyes vpon all flesh snatcheth away any of our Friends and Neighbours wee complaine and exclaime of lifes breuitie the worlds vanitie wee mourne and pretend mortification vvee lament and seeme to repent but within few dayes all is drowned in the Leth of Obliuion wee forget Death as Nabuchadnezzar forgot his Dreame wee fall againe to our former sinfull securitie and so wee continue till vvee dye excaecati insoporati impraeparati excecated insoporated vnprepared God reforme this and teach vs as Dauid prayes Psal 38. the number of our dayes and make vs vvise to saluation Besides this Meditation which wee make a part of preparation to the attaining of this peaceable departure other duties are to be adioyned some whereof are to be performed in health some in sicknesse some in the immediate summons of Death it selfe of all which briefely in these subsequent directions First let him that will die in peace liue by Faith Hab. 2.2 let him not content himselfe with an Historicall Faith such as the Diuels haue Iames 2.14 nor with a Ciuill Faith such as mortall men haue and as the Heathens haue nor with an Implicite Generall Faith which the Papists haue euen the Coblers Faith to beleeue as the Romish Church beleeues for alas all these kindes of Faith bring no more peace and comfort to the soule in any extremitie then cold water to a man that is in a sowne And therefore many men are deceiued which thinke they shew themselues exquisite Christians and haue enough to saluation if to their Pastor or others in their sicknesse they can repeate and render their Faith according to Gods Word and the Articles of the Creede with a renunciation of all points of Poperie of Heresies and Superstitions for alas this generall illumination this knowing Faith which onely swimmes in the braine without a particular applying Iustifying Faith which workes by Loue and brings forth the fruits of Prayer Repentance godly Sorrow for sinne Zeale Sanctification new Obedience c. neuer heates the heart nor comforts the conscience nor hath the answere of any sound peace from God Oh therefore labour for a Iustifying sauing Faith for a speciall and an applying Faith such as Paul preacht to the conuert Iaylor Acts 16.31 Phillip to the baptized Eunuch Acts 8.37 such a Faith as is commended in the auncient Patriarkes and Primitiue Worthies Hebrewes the eleauenth Chapter such as CHRIST commended in the Centurion Mat. 8.10 and the Canaanitish woman Mat. 15.28 such as Thomas had after his incredulitie calling Christ his Lord and his God Iohn 20.28 such as Paul had when hee profest that he liued euen by Faith in Iesus is Christ Gal. 2.20 such as Simeon here had Oh get Christ into thy heart by Faith as this good old man had him in his Armes and in his heart and thy death shall be peaceable like his Secondly if thou wilst die in peace repent speedily of thy fore-past and present sinnes for sinne hinders all true peace There is no peace to the wicked saith my God twise for surenesse in expresse words Esay 48. verse 22. so Chap. 57.21 Iniquitie makes a diuision and seperation from God Esay 59.2 euen in life much more in death for then the soules of the wicked goe to Hell Psal 9.16 much more in Iudgement Mat. 7 23. Where there it plaine and palpable whoredome discouered there can be no peace betwixt man and wife all sinne is whoredome and sinners are called Adulterers and Adultresses Iames 4. verse 4. they are spiritually and corporally polluted by the Flesh the World the Diuell for which cause rebellious Israel and Iudah are compared to Whores and Harlots Ier. 3. v. 8.9 c. Now if any wicked soule should aske with a desire of resolution as the two Messengers of Iehoram and as Iehoram himselfe asked Iehu Is it peace Is it peace 2 King 9.18.19 Is there peace or shall there be peace betwixt God and my soule I resolue him roughly from God as Iehu did Iehoram verse 22. What peace What hast thou to doe with peace since thou wantest Grace the inseparable companion of Peace 2 Tim. 1.2 What hast thou to doe with peace whilst the whoredomes of thy Mother Iezabel and her witchcrafts are great in number whilst the pollutions of that whorish Iezabel thy vncleane soule are daily increased whilst thy Treasons and Rebellions against thy God which as Samuel tels Saul are like the sinne of witchcraft 1 Sam. 15.23 are with an obdurate and obstinate heart continued Was there any peace to Absolon though a Sonne when hee was a Traytor against his Father Can there be any to thee not a Sonne of God but a slaue of Sathan rebelling against the Father of Spirits Had Zimri peace saith Iezabel to Iehu that slew his Master 2 Kings 9.31 Zimri was a Traytor and slew Elah as hee was drinking till hee was drunke in the house of Arza his Steward an vsuall end for drunkards
to visit thy sinnes in Iustice but in Mercy 13. To preserue thy soule from the Hunter and thy darling from the Lyon 14. To giue his Angels charge ouer thee in thy extremitie 15. To keepe thee from 1. Impatiencie 2. Frenzie 3. Distraction 4. Idle fancies 5. Rauing 6. Raging 7. Blaspheming c. least thy death be scandalous 16. To touch thy tongue with a coale from the Altar that thou maist speake 1. to Gods glory 2. and to Edification 17. To dye the death of the righteous 18. Lastly to receiue thy soule into that new Ierusalem which is aboue Such Prayers we haue vpon record in holy Writ as of Dauid Psal 39. and Moses Psal 90. true patternes of our Prayers in this kinde And sure who euer approacheth oft to the throne of Grace and supplicates to a pittifull God from faith and feeling in these and the like petitions he shall be sure to finde an answere from God euen when hee lyes vpon his sicke-bed as the fruit of his formâ—r desires Besides that his former acquaintance with God in speaking to him and talking as it were with him oft-times in life by Prayer will increase in the sicke Patient euen a holy boldnesse in a filiall feare to come to that God as one friend to another in extremitie with whom he hath so oft conuersed and conferred with by the Word and Prayer in health and prosperitie Fiftly that thou maist depart in peace make sure to thy soule the inheritance of life eternall euen here in this thy life naturall for as worldlings are something at quiet vvhen they haue made sure such houses lands leases and purchases as they haue long gaped after so assurance of life eternall is the onely pacification to the spirituall man this is the lot the portion and inheritance that his soule longs after the estate that hee preferres before all the flesh-pots of Aegypt or the Iewels of Aegypt Now for the purchase of a fixed place in the heauenly Canaan thou must prouide these treasures 1. sauing Knowledge 2. Faith 3. Sanctification of more price vvith God then Gold Pearle and precious Stones with men For the first there is no traffique with God or purchase from heauen vvithout it Iohn 17.3 This is life eternall to know God and whom thou hast sent Iesus Christ For Faith the Truth affirmes it with asseueration Verily verily hee that heareth my word and beleeueth in him that sent mee hath eternall life Iohn 5.24 Iohn 3.16 For Sanctification whosoeuer submits their hearts and liues to the regiment of the Spirit of Christ they are the children of God Rom. 8.14 Now God hath an heauenly inheritance for all his Children get therefore these graces and saluation instantly comes to thy heart as it did to Zacheus house Luke 19. Sixtly it will make much for thy dying peace to doe all the good thou canst in life to all men in generall to the Church the Saints and houshold of Faith in special by thy 1. Wit 2. Wealth 3. Power 4. Place 5. Authoritie 6. Credit with great men as Nehemias and Mardocheus did to the Iewes or by any other meanes whatsoeuer Therefore hath God put it into thy heart to build an Hospitall for the distressed to giue some annuall contribution to the poore to mend some common wayes for a publike ease to erect or repayre some Grammer-Schoole for the trayning vp of youth to found some Fellowships or Schollerships in some Colledge as a furtherance to learning to plant some Library for a help to good Letters like that famoused BODLEY the Phoenix in this kinde of our time or to erect and maintaine in some barren place a preaching Ministerie the best worke of all because conuersant about the best obiect the sauing of soules or any the like Oh then strike whilst the Iron is hot goe about this worke speedily euen as speedily as Dauid went about the building of Gods house vvho would not haue giuen any rest to the temples of his head till hee had finished what hee intended had not God staid his resolution And here I cannot but take notice of the preposterous charitie of some that doe little or no good liuing vnlesse to themselues and those to whom Nature tyes them yet after their death they doe some good by their Deputies and Assignes and Executors which oft-times ayming at their owne ends by some quiâ—ques and euasions proue executioners of the desires of the deceased rather then Executors yet suppose the Will be Legally performed what may be censured of thine intent that hast beene close-handed in life and now art seemingly open-hearted at thy death First that thou giuest what thou canst no longer retaine Secondly or thou giuest to good vses what thou hast got by ill meanes or thirdly that conscience accusing thee thou wouldest stop the mouth of it by this sop cast to that barking Cerberus within thee as Iudas did by casting away his thirtie pieces of siluer the price of bloud Mat. 27. Fourthly or else from some opinion of satisfaction for by-past sinnes or present merit with our blinded Papists but chiefely the censorious Criticall world will iudge that if thou hadst not parted with the world thou hadst not departed with thy bewitching wealth therefore All that thine hand shall finde to doe doe it with all thy power Eccles 9.10 For there is neyther worke nor inuention nor knowledge in the place whither thou goest to Salomons counsell I ioyne Pauls Doe good to all whilst thou hast time Gal. 6.10 Doe what seruice thou canst to Gods Church to the Common-wealth to euery particular man chiefely to the poore members of CHRIST Oh what a comfort will it be to thee if thou hast beene bountifull and beneficiall to the distressed when thou canst say on thy sicke Couch with Nehemias in another case Lord remember mee concerning this good worke and concerning that good worke Nehem. 13.22 Oh blessed is hee that iudgeth wisely of the poore the Lord shall deliuer him in the time of trouble the Lord will strengthen him â—pon his bed of sorrow thou hast turned all his bed in his sicknesse saith the Psalmist Psal 41. ver 1.3 Seauenthly keepe a good conscience with God and man that it may be a continuated comforter vnto thee as in life so in the agonies of death as it was to Paul in all his pressures Acts 24.16 and as it is to the Saints in all their sorrowes a continuall feast Prou. 15.15 a perpetuall Christ-tide a Iubilee in the iawes of death a peace passing all vnderstanding Phil. 2. For as the want of this is the Racke and Gybbet vnto the wicked the greatest heauinesse and plague Sirach 25.15 as the Wiseman tearmes it a plague of plagues an euill which goes beyond all euill that tongue can speake as euen Plautus and Seneca haue thought it the greatest wound and griefe that can be sustained as Salomon determines it Prou. 18.14 nay the very flashes and Prologue to hell as Iudas