doctrine As was his doctrine so was his life and conversation most holy for he never did sinne nor knew sinne his very enemies could not rebuke him of sinne He came not to breake but to fulfill the Law And he fulfilled all righteousnesse indeed His righteousnesse farre exceeded the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisies For it was the righteousnesse of God Now was that fulfilled though hee lay among pots yet had he silver wings and his feathers like gold Psal 68. 13. He did converse with sinners and yet was separated from them he touched pitch and yet was not defiled As he was most holy so most meeke he did not strive nor crie nor lift up his voice in the streets most patient being led as a sheepe to the slaughter and as a lambe dumbe before the shearer he opened not his mouth most humble he did not ride into Ierusalem like an earthly Emperour in Skarlet Purple glistering roabes cloth of gold not mounted on a lustie Palfrey with stately saddle and Princely trappings attended on with great troopes and guard in soft garments and with chaines of gold but he rode on an Asse used to the yoake a poore base contemptible and ridiculous beast in his poore seamelesse coat and in stead of any rich saddle sate upon some poore garments that his Disciples had spread under him attended by a few fisher-men and others of base qualitie in the world yet all the Citie was moved and said who is this And when you heare these things will yee not also marvell and say What manner of man is this so holy harmelesse meeke patient and humble Againe How glorious were his miracles in the eyes of the beholders which hee wrought Giving sight to the blinde hearing to the deafe speech to the dumbe strength to the lame cleansing Lepers casting out devils raising the dead Rebuking Fevers healing all manner of sicknesses and diseases rebuking winds and seas whereat the beholders were astonished And when you heare it wil not ye also marvell and say What manner of man is this for even the winds and the sea obey him How marvellous also in the Sacraments which he hath ordained and instituted for the use of his new Testaments Church Did the Iewes so marvell at their Passeover when but the bloud of a Lambe was shed saying What meane you by this service Exod. 12. 26. And will not you marvell at the Sacrament of the body and bloud of the Sonne of God Did they at the Type and will not you at the Truth Did they at the shadow and will not you at the body Oh marvell inquire and I will informe you I purpose not to sound the Trumpet to warre and perplex your minds with intricate questions and fruitlesse disputes which are endlesse about this subject Christ ordained them for the comfort of our soules and not for the exercise of our curious and subtill wits to seale up a sweet union with Christ and communion one with another not to occasion division and contention yet through Satans malice and our weaknesse it is come to passe that in nothing are Christians more divided nor have more bitter conflicts than about these things I will briefly lay downe the positive truth according to the Scriptures and the Tenet of our Church and labour to prepare you to the worthy receiving thereof And first let mee provoke you to admire the love of Christ and his desire of our salvation who not contented to speake unto our eares in his word doth adde Sacraments as the seales thereof for confirmation of our faith and let us see with our eyes what we heare with our eares the Sacraments being a visible word yea whereas the Word conveyeth grace to the heart but by the one sense of hearing the Sacrament of the Lords Supper conveyeth grace by seeing handling tasting that as David saith We may see and taste how good the Lord is and with the Apostle That which wee have heard and seene and handled These Sacraments properly so called are but two as ours and the other Reformed Churches doe truly teach I say properly so called because the Greeke word Mysterie by some translated Sacrament is of larger extent in the Scriptures and the Fathers in their writings call all Articles which are peculiar to the Christian faith and all duties of Religion containing that which sense or naturall reason cannot of it selfe discerne Sacraments but none are properly called Sacraments but such as have these three things viz. First an outward and visible signe Secondly an inward and invisible grace Thirdly the word of Institution all which doe onely concurre in the New Testament in two viz. Baptisme and the Lords Supper both instituted of Christ both having outward signes in Baptisme Water in the Lords Supper Bread and Wine and both of them one and the same invisible grace Christ being the invisible grace represented and exhibited in the Sacraments both of the Old and New Testament For they did eat the same spirituall meat and drinke the same spirituall drinke that wee doe Yet have the Sacraments some things peculiar to themselves for by Baptisme we once receive Christ to new birth and Regeneration but in the Eucharist wee receive Christ to continuall nourishment of that spirituall life wee received in Baptisme and therefore that but once as we are but once borne this often as our bodies are often fed The outward Elements in the Lords Supper are but few and poore to the eye of flesh and bloud common and ordinary bread and wine in some Countries as common as bread and in all places of the knowne world to be had bread made of graine and wine without mixture of water a great corruption though ancient these continuing in their naturall substance to the end though the Papists in their metaphysicall faith beleeve Christ to be present I will not say really for that our learned Divines acknowledge and in candide construction as Reall is synonimall with truth and veritie I will not deny it may be warily and soberly used but corporally and that by Transubstantiation of the substance of bread and wine into the very flesh and bloud of Christ so as after words of Consecration there remaine not the substance of bread and wine but only the Accidents colour and taste No no the words of Consecration doe not change the nature or substance of the signes which once destroyed the Sacrament ceaseth but changeth the qualitie in separating them from a common to an holy use S. Paul to make that out of question doth in one Chapter after the Consecration thrice call it Bread Neither indeed is there any need that there should bee such a change as if Christ could not feed us or our soules be nourished without orall manducation for did the woman by her faith finde such good in touching but
the sea wrought and was troublous the ship like to be broken so as the mariners were afraid and cried to their gods and cast forth their wares into the sea but the sea would not be calme till Ionah was cast into it A like we have in the New Testament in Pauls dangerous voyage towards Rome there rising so great a tempest that all hope to be saved was taken away and though they cast out the very tacklings and all yet upon boards broken peeces of the ship all came safe to land The letters of which storie afford many excellent and usefull instructions and specially to sea-men yea and to be laid up for future use of us all for howsoeuer we have beene borne and lived long upon the land yet it may be we have beene or we know not how we may be endangered and tossed upon sea before we die But specially the mysterie doth greatly concerne us all for preparation whereunto be pleased to note that there are many histories in the word which either are Allegoricall in signification or may be Allegorically compared and resembled we haue good warrant from the Scriptures for it It is a plaine storie that Abraham had two sons the one by a free-woman Sarai the other by a bond-maid Hagar yet the Apostle saith these things are an Allegorie and signifie the two Testaments or Covenants of Works and Grace Noahs Arke wherein eight persons were saved a true storie yet S. Peter maketh it a figure of Baptisme wherby we are saved The children of Israels passing thorow the red sea a true storie yet the Apostle maketh that also a figure of Baptisme The children of Israel did drinke of the water out of a rocke a true storie yet the Apostle saith that rocke was Christ God fed them with Manna from heaven a true storie yet Christ saith I am that bread of life which came downe from heaven Solomons mariage with Pharaohs daughter a true storie yet representeth vnto vs Christ his espousing of the Churches of the Gentiles Many such there might be produced of which nature this present storie is as all that I have seene commenting on the same doe unanimously affirme And therefore reserving the truth of the storie by sea here we may understand this world so it is compared by S. Iohn Before the throne there was a sea of glasse like Crystall like a sea for as it is sometimes calme so doth it many times rage is in wonderfull motion agitation full of rocks syrtes sands by allusion whereunto the Apostle speaketh of some tossed to and fro carried about with winds of doctrine yea and speaketh of some that haue made shipwracke but a sea of glasse for no glasse so brittle subiect to cracks as this world but a sea of Crystall too Sathan is the prince of darknesse and his children are children of darknesse and their works are works of darknesse such subtill and politick plots and projects against the Church as no eye can see or discerne them but as a mans eye will easily discerne the least spot yea or mote in Crystall so and a thousand times more clearely doth God see and discerne euen the secretest thoughts of mens hearts all things being naked and open before his eies with whom we haue to doe and the eyes of Christ being like a flame of fire carrying light which way soeuer it pleaseth him to look And as the Arke of Noah so this ship into which Christ and dis disciples entred may represent vnto vs the Church militant wherein Christ and all the faithfull do passe towards the haven of happinesse and in most resemblances is wonderfull fit as hereafter more fully Thirdly this great tempest upon the sea endangering the ship doth liuely represent the great troubles and persecutions which the Deuill and bloudie Tyrants raise in the world against the true Church of Christ threatning in mans iudgement the utter ruine destruction thereof whereof David thus speaketh in one metaphor The sorrowes of death compassed me the flouds of ungodly men make me afraid and againe If the Lord had not been on our side when men rose up against us the waters had overwhelmed us the streame had gone over our soule Then the proud waters had gone over our soule And the Lord thus threatneth I will bring upon them the waters of the river even the King of Assyria And David thus prayed Save me O God for the waters are come into my soule I am come into deepe waters where the flouds over-flow me Fourthly Christ his being on sleepe in this storme when the ship was in such danger doth represent Christ his seeming to neglect his Church in her persecutions and to leave his people in their enemies hands about which they thus expostulate Why doest thou absent thy selfe in this needfull time of trouble we crie and thou hearest not O God how long shall the Adversarie doe this dishonour how long shall the enemie blaspheme thy name for euer why withdrawest thou thine hand eve thy right hand plucke it out of thy bosome arise O God plead thine own cause Arise O Lord to save me c. And againe more plainly in the metaphor of my text Arise O God in thine anger lift up thy selfe because of the rage of mine enemies and awake for me to the iudgement that thou hast cōmanded c. And again Awake why sleepest thou O God arise cast us not off for ever wherefore hidest thou thy face and forgettest our affliction and oppression The like in other places whereof more hereafter The Disciples comming unto Christ and as it were with out-cries awakening him doth shadow out the prayers of the faithfull who in the distresses of the Church doe day and night call and crie to him to awake arise and defend his Church whereof I have even now alledged some examples out of the Psalmes Christ his arising and rebuking winds and seas and causing a great calme doth represent Gods entring into judgement with the enemies of his Church apparently rebuking them with sudden death or some great and visible judgement whereupon great peace commeth to Gods Church and people So that I know no Story which may be allegorized by greater authority frō the Scriptures than this And as by authoritie of the Scriptures so of the learned Fathers witnesse that short metaphrase of Tertullian lib. de Baptismo cap. 12. a very learned and one of the ancientest Fathers for there were but Iustin Martyr and Irenaeus before him Clemens Alexandrinus was his synchronos or coetaneus viz. within two hundred yeares after Christ so rarely qualified humanis divinis disciplinis that both Ierom and Lactantius commend him and Cyprian usually called for his works thus Da magistrum Sixtus Senens Navicula Ecclesia est quae
and all that know not God doe behold it and thus to looke upon it is fearefull It is true that many Heathen men have seemed very valorous and have contemned it but it was rather rashnesse and desperate madnesse than true valour or courage The Prince of Philosophers himselfe hath said not only that Death is fearefull but of all evils the fearefullest What need we their testimonies when the Scripture it selfe is so cleare Iob calleth it The King of Terrors And the Apostle saith Without Christ all men through feare of death are subject to bondage Oh it is the enemie of Nature separater of soule and bodie most loving twinnes depriver of all earthly comforts which so sarre depend on life as it ceasing they also cease to be David saith When men die they must leave their wealth and honour to others God asked the foole Whose shall these things be And Abraham gave Dives begging but a drop of water a cold answer Sonne remember thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things Wherefore it is impossible for any man utterly ignorant of Christ and only seeing Death thorow the glasse of Nature but he must needs feare and either die sullenly or desperately The second glasse wherein death is seene I may with reverence to Gods providence call the glasse of Fortune as the goods of this world are called the goods of Fortune and in this glasse death appeareth more fearefull than in the former Circumstances doe greatly increase the feare of death as if a man be young healthy lustie and in strength of nature bloud runnes fresh in the veines and marrow in the bones Quanto natura fortior tanto dolor acerbior The sweeter the conjunction the more bitter the separation Also if a man be in high place of honour or great hope of preferment If a man be rich and have all things at his hearts desire how fearefull are such to die Oh death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at râ—st in his possessions to the man that hath nothing to vex him that hath prosper it iâ— in all things Oh death how bitter is thy remembrance to him that with Peter thinketh it is good to be here that hath much to leave and little to hope for Againe a violent death more fearefull than that which is naturall and according to the meanes of violence and instruments of execution fearefull to die by the hands of man more fearefull to die by the mouths of wilde beasts but of all most fearfull to die by raging fire waters Which thing an Heathen Poet hath excellently expressed I feare not death but drowning a miserable kinde of death Againe to die suddenly and specially when God sheweth some token of anger doth wonderfully increase the feare of it This made such a cry thorowout all Egypt when at midnight their first-borne were slaine I doe not judge such as die suddenly and extraordinarily by water or land The wise man hath taught us not to judge of any mans estate before God by outward things God knoweth whose case it may be I am sure it hath beene the case of such as the holy Scriptures assure to have beene godly as Eli Ionathan Iosiah Sampson The Apostle saith Nothing can separate the Saints from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus not death not manner of death Sudden death to Gods children is but like the translation of Henoch and Elias which was in a moment yet let me say againe though we judge charitably of such yet to be suddenly and unlooked for surprized of death with any note of divine anger is both fearefull to the parties themselves and others For though we know we must die and ought alwaies to be ready yet who so prepared especially in times of health and prosperitie but hath many things to set in order And seeing all dependeth upon the last act the whole life being but as a levelling and drawing death as the discharge of the arrow our mother Church hath godly taught us to pray if it be his blessed will to deliver us from sudden death and to give us time of repentance and preparation with understanding memory hearing and speech to the last breath Did not Lot know that his wife should die Yes but to him and all that shall heare the storie it is fearefull that shee was suddenly turned into a pillar of salt Aaron well knew that his sonnes must die but to see two of them Nadab and Abihu consumed at once by fire from heaven it did strangely astonish him Iob knew so much too but to heare that all his children were suddenly destroyed with the downefall of their eldest brothers house wherein they were feasting made him rise and rent his clothes Yea and David knew so much and comforted himselfe after the death of another saying I shall goe to it but it shall not come to me But when he heard of the sudden death of his sonne Absolon it made his heart even turne and ouer-turne within him he never so bitterly lamented any thing as that Oh my sonne Absolon my sonne my sonne Absolon would God I had died for thee O Absolon my sonne my sonne Come we to our disciples They see death in the glasse of Nature and it is fearefull they see it in the glasse of their Fortune they are now in middle age strong and lustie in great hope of preferment by their Master and striving for supremacie and who shall sit on his right hand and who on his left in his kingdome death commeth upon them suddenly robbeth them of all they now are or hoped to be they have not leisure to set themselves or houses in order nor bid wife and friends farewell not leisure to swallow their spettle nor say their praiers but shortly and abruptly for life they are like to die by waters and become meat for the fishes and that by such a sudden and raging storme as if heaven meant to destroy them so as now their feare is much increased and they cry out Lord save us we perish The third is the glasse of the Law which representeth death as the wage and punishment of sin the demonstration of Gods displeasure and the gate of hell when all the curses and maledictions of God come fully and for ever to be powred out Oh in this death appeareth most fearefull and like that dreadfull and terrible strong beast which Daniel saw in his Vision which had great Iron teeth and ten hornes and devoured and brake in peeces and stamped the rest under feet Good Lord how greatly are the wicked and all guilty sinners affrighted at this sight of death Saul being a wicked man having a guilty conscience no sooner saw death at hand through this glasse but he fell straight-way all along upon the earth was exceedingly afraid and there was
this Land in the daies of Queene Mary so cheerefully to receive sentence of death so joyfully to sing in their prisons darke and loathsome dungeons so comfortably embrace faggots kisse stakes clap hands in flaming fire because all this was for a good cause even for Christ the Gospell and a good conscience sake and the holy Ghost hath pronounced Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord This made them rejoyce in death with joy unspeakable and glorious This was Iosephs comfort in prison that he was falsly accused And Daniels that he was cast to the Lions for the matter of his God Therefore Saint Peters charge is Let none of you suffer as a murtherer or as a theefe or as an evill doer or as a busie-bodie in other mens matters but if any suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God in this behalfe But how great is the horror of malefactors No doubt but it pierced Ahabs soule more than the arrow did his bodie that this was the just judgement of God upon him for his sinne How fearefull was death to all such whose carcasses God overthrew in the wildernesse and destroyed them with fiery Serpents and other fearefull meanes Who knoweth the unconceiveable dread and horror which wicked men have in their soules in their prisons death-beds or executions when their owne consciences tell them This miserie is come upon me for murther theft adultery riot and such like wicked courses I doe not deny but such malefactors may die sullenly or desperately Others may be deceived and thinke they die in a good cause when they doe not So the ancient Donatists and Arrians and in our times the Priests and Iesuits thinke they die for Religion and the true Catholike cause and deserve to be Canonized for Saints whereas they suffer deserved punishment for their rebellion and sedition yea they would in death be accounted Martyrs before they have led the life of a Christian yet being thus abused and deceived by Satan and God in his justice giving them over into a reprobate sense they may even astonish men to behold their seeming patience joy and Christian resolution but yet this standeth firme that no man suffering or dying for an evill cause and his minde be rightly informed can die with comfort and peace but with exceeding dread and horror such an one must needs be exceedingly fearefull to die Yea this that I have said must also be understood with exception of Repentance Many men justly suffer pressures and miseries tortures and torments for their sinnes and evill deeds yet upon true repentance finde peace and comfort in life and death Moses died in the wildernesse and might not enter into the promised Land because hee did not sanctifie God at the waters of Strife but repenting he died with comfort Iosiah fighting rashly and without warrant from God was wounded to death but repenting of his folly he died with comfort and was gathered to his Fathers in peace The theefe on the Crosse died justly for his sinnes but repenting he died with comport and went to Paradise Our Prodigall suffered hunger and misery justly for his riotous and luxurious dilapidating and wasting his goods but repenting he found comfort Many a man commeth to great misery poverty sicknesse ache imprisonment banishment death for his disordered life yet truly repenting findeth peace and comfort But these cases excepted no man that is rightly informed in his minde and continueth impenitent can but be exceedingly afraid to die wherefore every one that would moderate the feare of death must be sure to live and die in a good cause The second meanes for moderation of the feare of death is to live an holy and sanctified life The Apostle compareth death to some fierce and truculent beast or serpent which killeth all men that grapple with it with a poysonfull sting and telleth us the sting of death is sinne As a man then would not feare but with great boldnesse encounter that Serpent when he knoweth the sting is gone so may we boldly and comfortably die when we know the sting thereof is gone Oh it is the guilt of sinne maketh men so fearefull to die But great is the peace they have that love thy Law Mark the upright behold the just the end of that man is peace The righteous are bold as Lions Oh such as here live in the feare of God making conscience of their waies eschewing evil Walking in the Spirit Mortifying the flesh with affections and lusts having their conversation in heaven And ever beholding the face of God thorow the perspective of holinesse Setting their minds on those things which are above Being passed from death to life and alreadie entred into the first degree of glorification sanctification being glorification inchoate and glorification sanctification consummate What comfort joy boldnesse have such in sicknesse and death How comfortable to the living to visit such and to heare and see their cheerefulnesse patience prayers praises benedictions valedictions if infirmitie of flesh and bloud or strength of disease doe not hinder on the other side such as walke in their life time after the flesh drinke up iniquitie like water and are continually strengthening and adding poison to the sting of death How are they distracted with feare if they see that beast but gape upon them or hisse at them How comfortlesse to visit such see their impatience observe their worldly mindednesse and heare their words of discontent discomfort and distrust if God have not laid on them the spirit of slumber Therefore let him that calleth on the name of Christ depart from iniquitie And whosoever would with comfort and boldnesse looke for death or Christ to judgement Let him deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and live righteously godly and soberly in this present world The third meanes of moderation is by a lively and stedfast faith This is our victory even faith How can that man be immoderately afraid to die who doth in his heart stedfastly beleeve that Christ died for him and hath conquered Satan death and hell for him disarmed the strong man Satan deprived Death of its sting that it cannot hurt that the nature of it is changed an end of all evill the beginning of all true good It is not possible with the cleare eye of Faith to behold death in the Crystall-glasse of the Gospell and to be immoderatly afraid of it Here then was the Disciples want they had a good cause they followed their Master into the ship they lived honestly Iudas excepted but their faith was weake and therefore their feare so strong Why are yee so fearefull O yee of little faith Wherefore let all such as desire to moderate the feare of death pray for increase of Faith Oh see what an inestimable Pearle Iewel Faith is in