LXXX sermons preached at the parish-church of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street, London whereof nine of them not till now published / by the late eminent and learned divine Anthony Farindon ... ; in two volumes, with a large table to both.

The Six and Thirtieth SERMON. (Book 36)

PHILIPP. I. 23.

For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to de∣part, and to be with Christ, which is far better.

Or,

For I am greatly in doubt on both sides, desiring to be loosed, and to be with Christ, which is best of all.

WE may here behold our blessed Apostle S. Paul as it were between heaven and earth, doubtfully contemplating the happiness which his Death, and the profit which his Life may bring, perplexed and labouring between both, and yet concluding for neither side. To be with Christ is best for him; to remain on earth is best for the Philippians. What can be better for him then heaven? and what can be better for his brethren then by his ministery to be fitted and prepared for heaven? It is much better, saith he, for me; there he laies hold on Abrahams bosome:* 1.1 But it is more needful for you; and I know I shall abide with you all;* 1.2 there he doth as it were pull his hand back again, as willing to loose so much time out of paradise to serve his brethren on earth, a valley of tears and misery. There be poor to be fed, poor souls to be delivered out of the snare of the Devil, and snatcht out of the fire, the Church to be increased, God to be honoured in his Saints; and now though pressing forward to the prize and price of his high calling, he stayes and demurs, he checks his desires; he desires, and he desires not; he is in a great streight; he feels a double motion in himself, and in appear∣ance a contrary motion, a desire to live, and a desire to be dissolved, a de∣sire to be with Christ, and a desire to remain with his brethren, both spring∣ing from the same principle, the Love of God. He would lay down his earthly tabernacle because he loves him, and he would abide in the flesh because he loves him. Mortem habet in desiderio, vitam in patientiâ, saith S. Hierome; He desires to dye, and yet is willing to live; and to both the love of Christ constraineth him. For, saith he, I am in a great strait, desiring to depart (or, to be loosed) and to be with Christ, which is far better.

In this speach S. Paul presents unto us his Doubt and his Desire: his Doubt, which to chuse, Life or Death; and his Desire fixt on the last, his Departure and Dissolution; a desire so reasonable that it leaves no room for doubt. For 1. he doth not simply and absolutely desire it, but upon

reason; and his reason is most warrantable, most undeniable, he would depart, to be with Christ. 2. That reason is backt with another, with a MƲLTO MAGIS MELIƲS, It is far better. These carry strength e∣nough, one would think, to deliver S. Paul out of his strait, to redeem him from all perplexed doubtings. For it is an easie matter to chuse when we know what is best. When the object appears unto us with a multò magis melius, it is a foundation sure and firm enough, and we may soon build a resolution on it. What doubt, when the object appears in such beauty and excellency? When heaven gates stand open, who can doubt to go in? When Christ is so near a man, as but to be dissolved and loosed is to meet him, shall he draw back and doubt: and yet S. Paul doubts and is in a great strait, and professeth he knows not what to choose. We will therefore in the first place behold him in his Srait, and consider his Doubt; and then in the second commend to you his Desire. And the topicks or reasons to commend it by are wrapt up in the object, even in Death it self: For 1. it is but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a dissolution, a resolving of the whole into its parts. 2. It brings us to Christ; and then we cannot but conclude that that is much the best, and the fittest object for our desire to fasten it self upon. These are the particulars; and with these we shall exercise your devotion at this time.

First let us behold S. Paul in his strait, and there see him ignorant, and yet knowing, what to chuse; doubting, and yet resolving what is best. What to chuse I wot not, and, to be with Christ is best, in the Text;* 1.3 and in the next verse, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. And we may say with Bernard, Affectus locutus est, non intellectus, that it was the language of his Love and Affection, not of his Understanding. Yet he spake with the spirit, and he spake with his understanding also. His Un∣derstanding did dictate what was best for himself, and he well understood what was best for them; but his Love to Christ and them put upon him these golden fetters, bound him within this strait, and swallowed up his Love to himself; nay to his Will and Understanding, in victory. And now he will not have what he desires, he knows not what he knows, and cannot chuse that which he cannot but chuse. Such riddles doth Love make, and yet unfolds them; such perplexities doth it bring us to, and yet resolves them; such seeming contradictions doth it put us upon, and yet makes them plain. The Apostle would be with Christ, and yet remain with the Philippians; he would be dissolved, and yet live; he would be in paradise, and yet stay on earth; he would have what is best for him∣self, and yet will have what is best for the Philippians furtherance and joy of faith; and his Love of Gods glory and the Churches good reconciles all. This hath the praeeminence in all; this bows and swayes his will from that which was best for himself to that which was best for others; this answers all objections; this is able to justifie the greatest soloecisme; this hath a priviledge, that it cannot be defamed. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, saith Plato; By a kind of law Love hath the prerogative of Honour, makes slavery free and disgrace honourable, makes earth a fitter place for a Saint then heaven, makes service more necessary then reward, and made this Apostle willing to retire even when he was entring into his Masters joy. The Glory of God and the Good of his Church, being put in the scales outweigh our Will and earnest Desire, and make us willing prison∣ers for a while, longer in these tabernacles of flesh. S. Paul here was willing to prolong his trouble, to defer his joy, and to stay some time from Christ, that he might carry more company along with him. From this heroick spirit and height of love was that strange wish of his to be accursed from Christ for his brethrens sake. Pro amore Christi noluit habere Christum,* 1.4

saith Hierom, his Love of Christ did seem so far to transport him that no honour him he would even loose him. And so some of latter time have interpreted those words, That he was willing to purchase the salvation of his brethren with the loss of his own, and to redeem them from de∣struction to fall into it himself. But this had been such a love, cujus non audeo dicere nomen, a love which was never yet heard of in the world. This had been a wish inconsistent with Love. For how can one mans soul be the price of another? Nor can it be lawful for any Christian to wish the loss of that which he is bound to work out with fear and trem∣bling; Or, if it were, it would far exceed the love of Jesus Christ him∣self, who was Love it self. The Apostles love was great unto his bre∣thren, but not irregular: It laid aside all respect of himself, but not of the precepts of Christ: It trod down the Man, but not the Christian under its feet: It devoted the Honour and Repute and Esteem which he had in Christs Church to his brethren, but not his Soul. I could wish to be accursed, to be Anathema, i. e. to be in esteem as a sacrilegious person, who for devouring holy things is Anathema, cut off and separa∣ted from the society of men, to suffer for them the most ignominious death, (for so the word doth often signifie) to be separate from Christ, from the body and Church of Christ, and of his Apostle and Embassa∣dour, to be made the off-scouring of the world, the most contemptible person on earth, a spectacle to God and to men and to Angels. And this could not but proceed from an high degree and excess of Love. Love may break forth and pass over all privileges, honours, profits, yea and life it self, but it never leaves the Law of God behind it. For the breach of Gods law is his dishonour; and love, if it be spiritual and hea∣venly, is a better methodist then to seek to gain glory to God by that which takes it away; at the same time to cry Haile to Christ, and cruci∣fie him. It was indeed a high degree of the Love of Gods Glory and his brethrens salvation which exprest this wish here from the Apostle, and which brought him into this strait: but his wish was not irregular, and his Doubt was not of that nature but he could make himself away to e∣scape, and did resolve at last against himself for the Glory of God and for the good of his brethren.

For the Glory of God first. That that must be the first, the first mover of our Christian obedience. For though there be other mo∣tives, and we do well to be moved by them, the Perfecting of our reason, the Beautifying of the Soul, and the Reward it self, yet this is first to be looked upon with that eye of our faith wherewith we look upon God. Heaven is a great motive, but the Glory of God is above the highest Heavens, and for his Glories sake we have our conversation there. We do not exclude other motives as unfit to be lookt upon. For it is lawful, saith Gregory, for a Christian remunerationis linteo sudores laboris sui tergere, to make the sight of the reward as a napkin to wipe off the sweat of his brows, and comfort the labour of his obedience with hope. But the chief and principal matter must be the Glory of God. The o∣ther ends are involved in this, sicut rota in rota, as a wheel within a wheel, a sphere within a sphere: but the Glory of God is the first compassing wheel, which must set all the rest a working. We must neither live nor dye, but to God's glory. The Glory of God and our Happiness run round in the same cord or gyre, but the Glory of God is primum mobile, still on the top. And then our Love to God comes nearest and hath the fairest resemblance to the Love God hath to us; whose actions are right in themselves, though they

end in themselves; whose glory is the good of his creature. In a word, he that loveth God perfectly, cannot but deny himself, neglect himself, perish and be lost to himself; but then he riseth a∣gain and is found in God, whilst he thinks nothing but of him, whilst he thinks he is loved of him, and thus lives in him, whilst he is thus lost. Amor testamentum amantis, Our Love to God should be as our last will and testament, wherein we deliver up all to him, our whole life on earth, and some few years which we might have in heaven, to him we thus love. To this high pitch and unusual degree of love our Apostle had attained. What is his desire but to be with Christ? Oh for the wings of a Dove! for he cannot be with him soon enough. But then the desire of Gods Glory stays him in his flight, and deteins him yet longer among the sons of men, to make them the sons of God, and so to glorifie God on earth. And this inclination to glorifie God is in a man∣ner natural to those who are made partakers of the Divine nature; and the neerer we come to the nature of God, the more do we devote and surrender our selves for his glory. We will do any thing, suffer any thing, for the glory of God.

In the next place; This Love of Gods Glory hath inseparably united to it the Love of our brethrens Good. For wherein is Gods Glory more manifested then in the renewing of his image in men, who are filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to the glory and praise of God. It is true,* 1.5 the Heavens declare the Glory of God: But the glory of God is not so resplendent in the brightest Star, in the Sun when he runneth his race, as in the New creature, in Man transformed by the renewing of his mind. There is Gods image, nay, saith Tertullian, his similitude and likeness: There he appears in glo∣ry; There is Wisdome, his Justice, his Mercy are displayed and made manifest; There his glory appears as in his holy Temple. For as the Woman is the glory of the Man, in being subject to him, so are we the glory of God when we are Deiformes, when our Will is subject and conformed to him, when our Will is bound up in his Will. For then it may be said, that God is in us of a truth, shining in the perfection of beauty, in those graces and perfections which are the beams of his, in our Meekness, and Liberality, and Justice, and Patience, and Long-suffering, which are the Christians Tongue and Glory, and do more fully set forth Gods praise then the tongues of Men and Angels can do. Thus Gods Glory is carried along in the continued stream and course of all our acti∣ons; Thus doth it break forth and is seen in every work of our hand, and is the eccho and resultance of every word we speak: The eccho of every word, nay, the spring of every thought, which begat that word and work. Now to improve the Glory of God in his brethren, to build them up in their most holy faith, and upon that foundation to raise that Holiness and Righteousness which are the fairest representations of it, did S. Paul, after that contention and luctation in himself, after he had lookt upon that place which was prepared for him in heaven, and that place of trouble and anxiety to which he was called on earth, determine for that which was not best for himself but most fit and necessary to pro∣mote Gods glory by the furtherance of the Philippians faith. And thus as every creature doth by the sway of Nature strive to get something of the like kind, something like unto it self, as Fire by burning kindles and begets it self in every matter that is combustible, so doth every true Disciple of Christ strive to make every man he sees a disciple. Abra∣ham; as he was called faithful Abraham, so made himself the father of the faithful, and did command his children and his houshold after him

to keep the way of the Lord, which was to beget them in the Lord. Jo∣shua and his houshold will serve the Lord. David, having tasted how gra∣cious the Lord was, calls others to make trial, and drink of the same cup. This is the good mans, nay the Angels, Jubilee, to see others turn unto the Lord. The weeping Prophet wished his head a fountain of tears when men dishonoured God by their rebellion. Moses wish was that all the people could prophesie. One Prephet draws on a goodly fellowship of Prophets, one Apostle a glorious company, one Saint a noble army. For when the spirit of Holiness, whose operation is like that of Fire, is hot within men, it spreads it self violently like that element which hath vo∣racitatem toto mundo avidissimam, as Pliny speaks, is a restless element, and either spreads or dyes. Grace being kindled from the Father of Lights, from him who is Light it self, takes in others, and licks up every thing about it, as the fire did which Elias called down from heaven. S. Paul being inflamed with this heat, what would not he do? what would not he suffer? He would spend and he spent; he would offer up himself a sacri∣fice for the Philippians; he would stay on earth when he desired to depart; he would abide in the flesh, an irksome thing to one so spiritualized, and now ready to put on the crown which was laid up for him; he would re∣tire for a while even from Joy it self, that the Philippians might become what he was truly stiled, the Servants of Jesus Christ. We may think it perhaps a strange sight, to see so great an Apostle, so filled with revela∣tions, one that had been in the third Heaven, to be now in such a strait; one that had received the Truth, neither by men, nor of men but by the revelation of Jesus Christ, to doubt and to be ignorant what to do. But thus to be at a stand and in doubt, thus to consider both conditions, of this and the next life, and then to conclude against himself for the Glo∣ry of God and the Salvation of his brethren, could not but proceed from a most heroick and divine Spirit, a Spirit that had subdued the Flesh, nay conquered it self, and preferred the Glory of God before his own Will, though regular and warrantable, the same Spirit which was in Christ, qui quod voluit effici, id ipsum concedi sibi non voluit, as Hilary speaketh, who would not have that granted which he would have done. I say, none but those who have such a spirit are subject to such a doubt, none but those who are thus free are brought to such a strait. They who are fleshly and wordly-minded, the children of this world, are so wise indeed in their genaration, that they are never thus perplext, they never demur or doubt with S. Paul, they are never shut up in his strait. No; as they have not tasted of the powers of the world to come, so it is not in all their thoughts. Nusquam aqua haeret, they never stick or are in perplexity, but are sudden and positive, and soon conclude for them∣selves, Here, here let us build us a tabernacle; Here amidst the fading pleasures and flying vanities of this world; here, amongst shadows and apparitions, amongst those killing tentations which we love, amongst those occasions of evil which we will run and meet and embrace; in the midst of all the snares the Enemy can lay, which we delight to be caught in, and look upon our fetters as ornaments: Here let us dwell for ever, for we have a delight therein. What is the Glory of God unto us, who thus glory in our own shame? What will we do to save our brothers Soul, who so prodigally prostitute our own? Not a spark of the fire in us which was in S. Paul, no trouble, no doubt in us, not the least consi∣deration of God, our selves and our brethren. And thus we pass on securely, wantonly, delicately, not fearing the bitterness of death, never in any strait till we are shut up in that prison out of which we shall ne∣ver come out. And this is the most pleasing and the most sad condition we

can fall into. This security is our danger. This lifting our selves up is our ruine. A diligent, troubled, perplexed Christian shall find light in darkness, resolution in doubting, and a way to escape in the greatest streit. To conclude this; If the same mind were in us which was in S. Paul, if the same mind were in us which was in Christ Jesus, we should then look up∣on our calling to be Christians as the most delightful and the most trou∣blesome calling. We should not hope to pass through it without rubs and difficulties, without doubts and disputings in our selves: We should compare one thing with another, often put up questions, and have fightings and struglings in our selves: We should desire that which is best for our selves, and conclude for that which is best in the sight of God. For this we must do, even sometimes curb and restrain our selves in our lawful desires, and, when we set forth forth for the Glory of God, leave them behind us, stay his leisure to do him service; deny our selves in our own desires; desire to put off the flesh, and yet resolve to abide in the flesh; lay down all our wills and desires, and bow to the will and Glory of God. With S. Paul here, we may retein both, a resolution to glorifie God in our mortal bodies, and a desire to be loosed and to be with Christ, cheerfully entertein the one, and yet earnestly desire the other. They were both here in the Apostle, and the same Love was mother and nurse to them both. I am in a great strait; It was Love per∣plext him; and the Love of Christ raised up this desire to be with him. For I am in a great strait, desiring to be loosed, and to be with Christ. And so we pass from S. Pauls Doubt to his Desire.

And indeed had be not been in this strait, he had not had this desire; which nothing can raise up but the Love of God and his glory. This Desire carries nothing in it that hath any opposition to the will of God. It is not wrought in us by Impatience, or Sense of injuries; for the Chri∣stian hath learnt to forgive them: Not by Contumelie and Disgrace; for the Christian can bear & contumeliam contumeliae facere, and so fling disgrace upon Contumelie it self. It is not the effect of any evil; for the Christian can overcome evill with good. The Stoicks indeed thought quaerendam potiùs mortem quàm servitutem ferendam; That the best remedy for Slavery, Contumely, or a tedious Sickness was to force the Soul from the body, which was now become a prison and place of tor∣ment to it. And in this they did contradict themselves, who brought in their Wiseman sensless of pain, even on the rack and wheel. When the Body is an unprofitable burden, unserviceable to the Soul, oportet educe∣re animam laborantem, we ought to do drive the Soul out of such an use∣less habitation. Cum non sis quod esse velis, non est quod ultrà sies; When thou art what thou shouldst be, there is no reason thou shouldst be any longer. Quare mori voluerim quaeris? En, quia vivam; Would you know the reason why I would dye? The onely reason is, because I do live. These were the speeches of men strangers from the common-wealth of Is∣rael, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, of those who were without, without Christ, and so without God in this world. But the Christian keeps his station, and moves not from it injussu Imperatoris, but when the Lord of all the world com∣mands; who hath given us a Soul to beautifie and perfect with his gra∣ces, but hath not given us that power over it, when it is disquieted and vexed, as he hath given to the Magistrate over us if we offend and break the peace of the common-wealth. Qui seipsum occidit, est homicida, si est homo, He that kills himself is a murderer and homicide, if he be a man. And he that thus desires death, desires it not to that end for which it is desireable, to be with Christ, but to be out of the world, which frowns upon him, and handles him too roughly, which he hath not learnt

to withstand, nor hath will to conquer. This desire is like that of the damned, that hills might cover them, and mountains fall on them, that they mig•••• be no more. No; this desire of S. Paul is from the heaven, heavenly, drawn from that place where his conversation was, wrought in him by the will of God, and bowing in submission to his will; a long∣ing and panting after that rest and sabbath which remains, after that crown which was laid up for him. And this Desire filled the hearts of all those who with S. Paul loved God in sincerity and truth, in whom the Soul, being of a divine extraction, and like unto God, and cleaving and united to him, had a kind of striving and inclination to the things above, and was restless and unquiet till it came to rest in him who is the centre of all good. Here they acted their parts in the world as on a stage, contemned, hated, reviled it, trod it under foot, and longed for their exit to go out. Vae mihi, quia incolatus meus prolongatus est, saith David; Wo is me that I sojourn in it any longer. So Elias, who could call down fire from heaven, give laws to the clouds, and shut and open heaven when he would, cryes out unto God, It is enough; Take away my life: for I am not better then my fathers. And this affection the Gospel it self instills into us in that solemn Prayer, Thy kingdome come, wherein we desire, saith Tertullian, maturius regnare, & non diutiùs servire, to reign in heaven sooner, and not to stay longer and serve and drudge upon the earth. Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death, this whole state and generality of sins, of Cala∣mities, and those evils which the world swarms with, life brings along with it. So Pharaoh speaking of the Locusts which were sent, Intreat, saith he, the Lord your God to take away this death from me. This desire that vvas in S. Paul, in some degree possesseth the heart of every regene∣rate person and is nourished and fomented in them by the operarion of the blessed Spirit, as a right spirit, a spirit of Love, vvorking in us the Love of God, and as a spirit of Peace filling our hearts vvith Peace, ma∣king our conscience a house of Peace, as the Ark of God, as the Temple of Solomon, where no noise was heard; We love Christ, and would be there where his honour dwelleth, our conscience is at rest, and we have confidence in God.

Now first, to love God is not a duty of so quick despatch as some ima∣gin. It is not enough to speak good of his name, to call upon him in the time of trouble, to make laws against those which take his name in vain, to give him thanks for that he never did and will certainly punish, to make our boast of him all the day long. For do not even hypocrites and Pharisees the same? But to love him is to do his will, and keep his commandments.* 1.6 By this we glorifie him. I have glorified thee on earth, saith Christ, and the interpretation follows, I have finished the work thou gavest me to do, that is, I have preached thy law, declared thy will, pub∣lisht both thy promises and precepts, by the observation of which men may love thee, and long after thee, and be delivered from the fear of death. Idem velle, & idem nolle, ea demùm est firma amicitia; then are we truly servants and friends to God, when we have the same will, when we have no will of own. The sting of Death is sin; and there is no way to take it out, to spoil this King of terrour of his power, but by subduing our Affections to our Reason, the Flesh to the Spirit, and sur∣rendring up our wills unto God. Then we dare look Death in the face, and ask him, Where is thy terrour? Where is thy sting? God loves them that love him, nay he cannot but love them, bearing his Image, and being his workmanship in Christ; And he that is thus loved and thus loves cannot but hasten and press forward, and fly like the Doves, as

the Prophet speaketh, to the windows of heaven. It is a famous speech of Martin Luther, Homo perfectè credens se esse haeredem Dei, non diu superstes merueret; A man that perfectly and upon sure grounds doth be∣lieve himself to be the child and heir of God, would not long survive that assurance, but would be swallowed up and dye of immoderate joy. This is that transformation and change by which our very nature is alte∣red. Now Heaven is all, and the World is Nothing. All the rivers of pleasures vvhich this world can yield cannot quench this love. What is Beauty to him that delights in the face of God? what is Riches to him vvhose treasure is in heaven? vvhat is Honour to him vvho is candidatus Angelorum, vvhose ambition is to be like unto the Angels? This true un∣feigned Love ravisheth the soul, and setteth it as it were in heavenly places: This makes us living dying men, nay dead before we depart; not sensible of Pleasures which flatter us, of Injuries vvhich are thrown upon us, of Miseries vvhich pinch us; having no eye, no ear, no sense, no heart for the world; vvilling to loose that being which vve have in this shop of vanities, and to be loosed, that vve may be with Christ.

Secondly, this Love of God and this Obedience to his will not onely placeth us upon, but, as Solomon speaks, makes us an everlasting foundati∣on, by raising up in us a good conscience. And this it doth as necessarily as fire sendeth forth heat, or the Sun light. For it is impossible to love God sincerely, and not to know it; and it is as impossible to know it, and not to speak it to our own heart, and comfort our selves in it. For Con∣science follows Science. A light it is which directs us in the course of our obedience; and when we have finished our course, by the Memory it is reflected back upon us: It tells us what we are to do, and what we have done. We have a kind of short but useful Genealogy in S. Paul,* 1.7 The end of the commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and a good con∣science, and faith unfeigned. From Faith unfeigned ariseth a good Con∣science; from that, the Purity of the inward man; from that, that Peace which maketh us draw near with confidence to the throne of Grace. A golden chain, where every link fits us in some degree for a dissolution; nay where every link is unseparably annexed to each other, and with it we cannot but tend naturally and cheerfully, yea and hasten, to our place of rest. For our Conscience is our Judge, our God upon earth: And if it be of this royal extraction, the product of our Faith and Obedience, it will judge aright: it will draw the Euge to us, and tell us what sentence the Judge will pass at the last day: and we even now hear in our ears; Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into thy masters joy. And when our Conscience hath past this sentence upon us, we have 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, boldness and confidence, towards God. This, this is an everlasting foun∣dation; and upon it we build as high as Heaven. Our thoughts and de∣sires, our longings and pantings, soar up even to that which is within the vail, which is yet hidden, and we are earnest to look into. Let us then exercise our selves to have alwaies a conscience void of offense, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. The word intimates the clearness of a way, where no spy can dis∣cover any thing amiss. For 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in Suidas is speculator, explorator, a Scout, a Spy: So that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is a conscience clear and free from offense. The want of this makes Death a King of terrours, and puts more horrour in the Grave then it hath. When Death comes towards wicked men on his pale horse, it comes as a Serjeant to arrest them, to put them out of possession of that which they had taken up as their habitation for ever; to banish them out of the world, which they made their paradise, and to let them into eternity of torment, If we love the world, how

can the love of God abide in us? We plead for titles, saith a learned Gen∣tleman of our own, who had large experience of the vanity and deceit∣fulness of the world, and was exemplum utriusque fortunae, an example of both fortunes, good and evil; We plead for titles till our breath fails us; we dig for riches whilst strength enables us, we exercise malice whilst we can revenge; and then when Age hath beaten from us both youth and plea∣sure and health it s lf, and Nature it self loatheth the House of old Age, we then remember, when our memory begins to fail, that we must go the way from whence we must not return, and that our bed is made ready for us in the grave. At last looking too late into the bottom of our conscience (which the Vanities of the world had lockt up from us all our lives) we behold the fearful image of our actions past, and withal this terrible inscription, THAT GOD SHALL BRING EVERY WORK INTO JƲDGMENT. Thus he. And this our vvay uttereth our foolishness, in increasing the fear of Death and Judgment by striving to chase it away; never thinking of Deaths sting till vve feel it; putting by all sad and melancholy thoughts in our way, till they meet us again vvith more horrour at our journeys end. This is it which makes Death, vvhich is but a messenger, a King, yea, a King of terrours. We can neither live, nor are vvilling to dye, vvith such a conscience; vvhereas had vve learnt, as Seneca speaks, and studie•• Death; had vve not fed and supplyed this enemy with such vveapons a make him terrible; had we cut from him now this, now that desire, an anon another (for Death 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, fights against us with our selves vvith our Wantonness, and Luxury, and Pride, and Covetousness,) ha•• vve spoiled him of those things vvhich make Death terrible and the D••••vil our accuser, vve might have boldly met him, nay desired to meet him For vvhy should they fear Death vvho may present themselves vvith com••fort before God, and shall meet Christ himself in all his glory coming i•• the clouds. To conclude; Death shall be to them vvho love God and keep a good conscience, a messenger of peace, a gentle dismission into a better vvorld, an Ostiary to let us in to the presence of God, vvhere there is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore. Our Apostle here calls it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, but a departing or dissolution. To vvhich vve should lead you, but vve cannot now so fully speak of it as vve vvould, and as the matter re∣quires: vve will therefore reserve it for some other time.

Notes

• * 1.1

  v. 24.
• * 1.2

  v. 25.
• * 1.3

  v. 21.
• * 1.4

  Rom. 9.3.
• * 1.5

  Phil. 1.11.
• * 1.6

  John 17.
• * 1.7

  1 Tim. 1.5.