THe LORD being now about to settle Israel in the land of Canaan, the lot of their inhe­ritance, which he had entayled upon them by promise to their father Abraham; their Prince, and Priest, Moses, and Aaron for tempting the LORD at Meribah: and the whole number of the men of strength for their infidelity must not take possession: so he wears them out by long journeys for forty yeers in the Wildernesse, and consumes them by fatall wars, while they were wasted. Yet to make his word good to their posterity, hee drived out and destroys the Amorites before, S [...]hon and then King, with Og the King of Bashan: their army coasting about the Wil­dernesse, did now verge upon the borders of Moab. Balaac be­ing somwhat surprised with feare, as successe strikes dread into the hearts of adversaries, casts about to secure himself. Poore man had he been quiet, he might have been secure, but his feare which made him forecast to prevent, might betray him to a future ruine. The LORD had not said it. Israel had no commission signed a­gainst Moab: but if he will oppose himself an enemy to them, he may justly provoke GOD, and them against him. Hee sends to the Midianites, with whom hee was inleague to consult for their future safety. Who together sent Elders with the Ambassa­dours of Balaac to Balaam, on whom they so doted, as if he had commanded the power of Heaven, and could curse and blesse whom he pleased. Foolish thoughts, the mannage, and order of [Page 2]men and their affairs is from no other but from the wisdom, and order of an eternall providence: who giveth victory to some, and layeth the honours of other in the dust. Who is pleased to reveal the purpose of his proceedings to particular men, which neither yet are principalls in the successe, nor any way carry on the de­signe, though he gives them to foreknow the event. To Balaam, GOD gives to foresee the happy and flourishing estate of Israel under the grace of divine protection, and their successe ordered by Heaven, which caused him to break forth into this patheticall peroration. Let me dye, &c. The wicked man (as wicked men may have) had good words in his mouth, the Wizz [...]rd had a good wish, I dare joyn with him in his prayer, praying it may be with a better spirit and affection. My hearty desire to Heaven shall be, when I shall have accomplished as an hireling my dayes, and shall return unto my dust. I may dye the death of the Righ­teous: in the mean time the LORD grant mee the guidance of his grace, I may so live, that my last end may be like his. The text presents us with Balaams wish concerning his end of this present life, and the happinesse of his future being. When we shall have premised somthing of this Balaam, what hee was, and a word or two of the phrese of speech, wee shall fall upon these three mayn quaeries of the text. 1 Who is the righteous man? 2. What is the difference between the death of the righ­teous and the wicked? 3 The ultimate end of either, which will fully discover unto us the reason, and cause of this his desire.

1 To derive his pedegree, to describe his countrey, to descant on his name were but a dry discourse, which would have more of pomp then weight, more bulk then substance. I shall onely touch at his condition to term this; Balnam a Prophet is a better chara­cter then the Scripture yields him, which entitles him at best but a Divinour, a term admitting a worse sense. The Hebrews say be had been a Prophet, but the ambition of preferment lost him the honour of prophecie, and hee wannow onely a Divinour: and so they apply to him that Proverbe. The Camell seeking horns lost her eares: the Closse says in plain terms he was a Magitian, and did foretell things by the ministery of the Devill. That hee spake here Prophetically it cannot be denied, but that was by an espe­ciall [Page 3] Dispensative contigii illi ser­mo non pro me­rito sed pro te­poris opportuni­tate. Bal. Pro­em. in es. dispensation for the present, which proves him no more a Prophet then the act of speech did prove his Asse a man though once he spake more reason then his master. Nor does it conclude him such that GOD ordinarily revealed himself unto him, and put words into his mouth, who may, and doth make known his truth by Prophetae dae­monum nonnun­quam vera di­cunt quae tamen non propriae ab ipsis, sed potius à Spiritu San­cto profiscun­tur. Aquin. 2. 2 ae q. 173. art. 6 conc. wicked men. The phrase of Scripture may seem to put a difference between them who were not, and them who were the Prophets of the LORD. When it speaks of the first sort it says, and the LORD came to Laban, and the LORD came to Abimelek, and the LORD came to Balaam. When it speaks of the second sort it lays. The word of the LORD came unto them, thus sayth the LORD the hand of the LORD is upon me, This may in part fatisfie, but the discovery of his affe­ctions shew him wholly vile. At the first time he was lent for by Balaat, berefuses to go, it was well yet hee would not stirre ere GOD would figne him his Commission. The King not here rest­ing (as it is no easie matter to satisfie fear, and jealousie) sends a­gain the second time. Larger proffers are propounded, and the promise of great promotion to him 2 Pet. 2.15. Who loved the wages of un­righteousn [...]sse, was a sharp spur to set him forth. The Kings coun­tenance, Court honour, on his own terms over-weighed his am­bitious affections, and wrought upon his coverous desires: to run greedily for reward, Jude 11. which bee conceals, and it must rest whether yet he LORD will give him leave to go. Did he think him changeable in his counsels? or could he imagine to move GOD by an importunity to abet his iniquity? had his heart been right with GOD as he would pretend he would ne­ver have tempted him the s [...]cond time, after so de [...]r an intimation of his will, and purpose: it is no piety to tempt GOD by an importunity to what he is not willing: but when hee gives a flat denyall, it is high temerity there not to cease. May my corrupt affections be eversilent while my soul utters it self unto my GOD. Lest they prompt mee with unjust desires, which may neyther stand with his glory, or my good. May a religious feare ever bound my peritions, that GODS grant may be a free act of grace that hee gives mee not, nor permits me in his anger what in his gracious pleasure hee would deny. Balaam would wrest a [Page 4]grant, and go hee shall, GOD permits him: but how hee was thereat offended is evident, in that he would rather work a mira­cle, and open the Asses mouth then there should want one to re­prove the masters madnesse, and when Balaam came thither, what ever his heart was, there was a spirit that moved his tongue, Chap. 22.25. and put words into his mouth other then which hee could not utter. Nothing pleasing unto the King, or which might much implead him upon his promise, Antiq. Jud. lib 4.6.6. Josephus frames Balaam this excuse to Balaac. Thinkest thou that it is in us so oft as we speak the fates what we will say and wherein we will be silent, who are inspired with the Holy Ghost: which utters what words and o­racles it pleases, wee not knowing or thinking of them. Who so soon as he enters into our breasts, there remayns nothing of ours there. The last words must be laid hold of, because I perceive them a setled opinion in after times, which the sounder Fathers opposed. Some say Proem. in Jes. (says Basill) that the divinely illuminated do prophesie their humane soule being swallowed up of the Spirit, but it abhorreth from the professed truth, and goodnesse of the divine presence to make him a mad man who is inspired by GOD. And when hee shall begin to be filled with divine Oracles, that then he should be out of his own wits.] What is there such an antipathy between a man qualified by the Spirit of GOD, hea­venly endued with those rare and excellent gifts of knowledge, and understanding, and between divine inspirations, that he must be wholly emptied of the former, that the latter may be infused? Must the Oracles of divine wisdome be uttered by men beside themselves? Does the eternall wise GOD so provide for the salvation of his people, that the sober truths of heavenly know­ledge must be preached by mad men? they spake not themselves but as the Spirit gave them utterance, Acts 2.4. yet not what they understood not. Prophetia primo & prin­cipaliter in cog­nitione consislit secondario au­tem in loquutio­ne. Aquin. 2. 2. ae. q. 173. art. 1. concl. How is it then a prophecy? I can allow it of Caiphas whom yet I will not so readily grant to be a Prophet, though as high Priest hee spake prophetically. Who as hee spake not of himselfe, so neither understood hee the burden of his Word. His minde meditated on one thing, the Spirit intended another: Dum crudeli­tatem necis ap­petiit redempti­onis gratiam prophetabit. Greg. Mor. 23.3. hee thirsted for bloud, and thought on murther, while hee prophecied of the grace of our Redeemer. But wee, [Page 5]sayes the Apostle, have a sure word of prophecy as a light shining in a darke place, 2 Peter 2.19. and therefore Saint Paul calls it [...], an illumination or manifestation of the Spirit, 1 Cor. 12.7. I read of an Idoll in Quest Rom. qu. 56. Carmeata quasi carens mente. Plutarch who was called Carmenta, her Worshippers Carmentae, the deduction of the name is a fit expresse of such fool Idolaters. The Devill by objecting phantasmes may elude the understanding, and distract the rationall faculties: but the good and wise GOD works not so. What Hosea speaks, the Prophet is a fool, the spirituall man is mad, Hosea 9.7. Ezekiel explains it, that prophecy out of their own hearts, feolish Prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing, Ezek 13.2, 3. Such Montanising mad Enthusiasts that pretend to divine inspirations the World hath known (that I may not say this age hath) too many. I grant some Prophets might be in an extasie and rapture at the admiration of divine re­velations. But there is a Fuerunt pro­phetae in extasi non in extasi mentis, Epiph. l. 2. tom. 1. haer. 48. twofold extasie.

1 From the outward and inward senses, the minde temayn­ing the more enlightned, the more the soul is abstracted from sen­sitive objects: Conticescant mihi omnia ani­ma mea sibi sile­at. Aug. Med. c. 37. as she is more full in her devotions: so the more free for divine inspirations.

2 From the minde it selfe when it understandeth not, Non excide­bant mente pro­phetae. Orig. hom. 6. in E­zek. 16. so never were they in an extasie: but did utter all things Epiph. ubi supra. with firme reason and understanding, and spake from the Holy Spirit with a perfect minde, and body. So that I ground not so much on the speech of this wicked man, as his after advice proves him full. Who seeing enchantment failed, and divinations could do nothing: because GOD had beheld no iniquity in Jacob, nor perversnesse in Israel. Numb. 22.21. Ioseph. ubi supra. counselled Balaac to tempt them by the Midianitish women to commit fornication. And if the opinion of the Antiquary seems too light, it may have allowance from that of Saint Iohn to the Church of Pergamus, I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the do­ctrine of Balaam, who taught Balaac to cast a stumbling block be­fore the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to Idols, and to commit fornication, Revel. 2.14. For which wicked advice of his, when God set Israel upon the revenge of Midian this Di­vinour as hee ran for the wages, so hee had full paid the reward [Page 6]of iniquity. They killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword. Joshua 13.22. where wee will leave him in his unhappy end.

Though the originall runs in the futuretense yet is not to be in­terpreted as a prophecy that so it should, but as it is translated in the sense of the optative mood (which the Hebrews wanting ex­presse desires in the future of the Indicative) signifying a wish or desire that so it might be, To dye is Heavens heavy doom upon the sons of Adam. An unrepealable Statute hath passed [...] [...], it is appointed for all m [...]n (without any limitation) once to dye Heb. 9.27. Other are the limits and bounds of nature, other are the extraordinary ways of working with the Almighty. He may if he please dispense with this law, as hee hath done [...] Enoch, and Elijah: and there shall be a more generall di­pensation for them which shall be found alive at the last day. We shall not all dye, but we shall all be changed, 1 Cor. 15.51. Which change shall be answering to a death, though without any reall separation of the soul from the body. Which I ground

1 On the term used by Saint Paul, [...], Wee shall not lye down to sleep in the dust, or wee shall not dye as it is rendred, which imports a dissolution of soul, and body.

2 On that circumstance of time in which this shall be done, in a moment in the twinkling of an ere, [...] in an atome, an unconceivable instant of time. Which I take to be an after copy of Adams condition, had hee retained his innocency, he had been translated, not knowing death to a blessed immor­tality, but he fayling in his obedience, considerable not onely as a person, but as the nature of mankind, all transgressed in him. Rom. 5.12. [...], by one man, and in, and by the one sin of that one man, all man sin and dyed. So that as no man can acquit himselfe from the contagion of his unrighteousnes, nor yet from the guilt of personall practice: [...], Samon. So none may expect to be exempted from the penalty due thereunto: no not the righteous man who is now to be considered of.

[...]signifies to be right [...], 1 Chron. 13.4. And this was [...]ight in the peoples eyes it did please them, or they did ap­prove of it: so the righteous man is hee who is right in the sight [Page 7]of the LORD, he pleases GOD, and hee approves of him: For the righteous GOD loveth righteousnesse, his countenance doth behold the upright, Psal. 11.7. Hee looks on him with content, as we eye the things we love with delight.

2 It signifies the perfect man. Whom that wee may the better describe wee must lay downe a rule of perfection, according to which wee are to judge of him. GOD being only wise, and good, and all perfection, that absolute Idea, must be in a Mat. 5.48. con­formity unto him, this conformity wee held by the vertue of the Image of God stamped upon us in our creation, so long as wee kept that Image undefiled, and undefaced. For the modell of our nature, we were holy and just, and good: but soon was this hap­py condition forfeited by our disobedience, and there followed such discrasie in our intellectuall, such disorder in our practicall faculties; that we could neither know, nor will, nor doe, those things which were of God, who in his gracious goodnesse that hee might repaire this unhappy losse, gave us his Law a cleere manifesto of his Rom. 12.2. perfect will, that in our obedience thereunto, we might recover our holinesse, and reforme our lapsed nature by a rule of righteousnesse: a Directory for the ordering of this pre­sent life to futured lisse and happinesse, mans desirable end. The L [...]w of God is perfect, converting the soule, Psal. 19.7. [...] The summe or perfection of perfection, Psal. 119.96. Thus ha­ving found the rule of practicall righteousnesse, for my Text leads not to speake any thing of imputative, we must apply mans acti­ons thereunto, that so from his agreement therewith, we may discover the righteous man, Blessed is the undefiled or perfect in the way that walketh in the Law of the LORD, Psa. 119.1. this man from the manner of his conversation, God himselfe in Job briefly describes. The perfect and upright man is he who fea­reth GOD, and escheweth evill, Job 1.8. He feares, honours, loves and serves GOD; and shuns, and avoids, whatsoever comes under the notion of sin: these two turn ever one upon the other, Yee that love the LORD hate evill, Psal 97.10, In odio mali dilectio boni comprobatur, Arnob. in loc. the hatred of sin is the best argument of our love to GOD. And no other testimony can we yeeld of our love to him, if we neglect to heare his commandements; and where may we better learn the [Page 8]love and service of GOD then from his Law, for as it is neces­sary serve him we should: so considering how disinabled we are in all our faculties, it is not fit we should tak [...] upon us to deter­mine de modo, and state that service, lest not knowing to doe what we ought, we dishonoor him in our honour of him, or set up an Idol of [...], will worship, which the Lord will not approve of, who as it is most meet, will be served as himselfe pleases, again, the knowledge of sin is by the Law, Rom. 7. which in the nature of an exact rule, shews both what is streight and what is crooked: Sin being nothing else Peccare est tanquam lineas transilire, Cic. Paradox. but as it were to passe the line, to transgresse that rule of equity, which is the bound of all our actions. According to this Law the righteous man regulates himselfe in an universall, constant, full and finall, obedience. 1 He loooks to all and every precept. I love all thy commandements, and all false wayes I utterly abhor, Psal. 119.128. 2. He hath not heats of Religion but is constant in his practice: he worketh righteousnesse at all times. 3 He takes the common­dement in the full latitude and extent, and looks to the letter, and to the life of the Law. 4 He continues and perseveres in this o­bedience unto his end, perfecting holinesse in the feare of God. Which end will discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God, and him that serveth Him not, Mal. 3.18.

Which we come to state the difference of the death of the righ­teous and the wicked: the maine thing the Text drives at, wherefore I passed the other more briefly, as taking them upon a firme supposall cleerly granted, this will discover the very soul of the desire, and the height of the blessing of Balaams wish. The carnall eye will scarce discerne the difference, for as dyeth the wicked, so dyeth the righteous, as dyeth the foole, so the wise, Eccles. 2.15. that is the end of all, natures debt must be discharged by a dissolution, and a generall guilt of sin layes all under an equall forfeiture, Death passes upon all men in that all have sinned, Rom. 5.12. So that death following ever upon sn, and both of them being as generall as humane nature: we must finde some spe­ciall difference. Hath the righteous man a better death? but yet it is as questionable which is the best. Suet. in vit. Iulius Caesar on all [Page 9]occasions, when he little thought his own end to be so neere, even the night before he was slain in the Capitoll, prefers a so­dain death. Idemin Aug. Augustus calls it [...], a good death, where the Vbi moriendi sensumceleritas abstulit. Cic. deam. sodamnesse takes away the sense of dying, and these two great Caesars according to their desires, the last of them not violent, yet both of them had a sodain death: this, they say, he prayed against, that he might dye Nec morte violenta nec im­matura quod Israelitis pro­missum fuerat. Grot. ex Ge­mara. neither a violent, nor a so­dain death, which was promised to the Israelites, to be sure, this might be a wicked mans end: how sodainly doe they perish? they goe down quick into hell, Psal. 55.15.

The Moralist thought to dye well Bene mori est libenter mori. Sen. Epist 61. was to dye willingly, and Optanda mors est sine metu mortis mori. Sen. Trag. such a death was to be wished, as was without the feare of death. The good man may with Moses on the top of Nebo, even see the Land of blisse, yet be loth to depart: the wicked may without any comfortable assurance of Gods favour, without any ravishing apprehension of future happinesse, and joyes after this life, be willing to leave the world: the very troubles and misery he may here meet with, may move the man with the burthen at his back, to call for death and to embrace it, [...]. Anacr. hoping that may put an end to all his evills, of which otherwise he cannot appre­hend how to be acquitted, for there the weary be at rest, Iob. 3.17. Therefore they rejoyce exceedingly, and are glad when they can finde the grave, vers. 22. when the sorrows of death may compasse a­bout the good, and they may finde trouble and heavinesse, Psal. 116.3.

1 From the pangs of death, which that expresse of humane feare speaks in my Saviour. Father, if it be possible, let this cup passe from me.

2 From the conscience of their own infirmity.

3 From the feare of divine judgements, at which the Prophet trembled, Psal. 119.12. Good Agathon, death approaching, be­ing somwhat troubled, his friends about said unto him, and dost thou father feare? to whom hee replyed, Doroth. doct. 2 I have endevoured to keepe the Commandements, but I am a man, and how know I whether my workes please God: for other is the judgement of God, and other the judgement of men.

Some may thinke it a happy death to depart in a full age, in a [Page 10]calme, quietly upon their beds, with their friends about them, to have a solemne Funerall, an honourable Interment, a stately Sepulcher, all these may a wicked man have, when the good by some unhappy accident may be taken off, the waters may swallow him up, or the beasts devoure him, the indiscriminating sword of the enemy, or the noysome pestilence, common calamities may sweepe him away, the fury of persecution may uncaske his soule, yet this makes not the end of the one happy, or the other wretched, the Divine must give us some more reall difference.

1 The wicked man departs this life in the displeasure of the Almighty, he laboured not to please him while here he lived, and he must not looke to dye in his good pleasure, he would live without Law, and he must perish by the sentence of the Law, he may expect no mercie at his death, who contemned mercie while he lived, if he hath Psal. 73.4. no bands in his death, he hath no com­fort, having no hope to rest upon, but what an evill life can afford, which ever ends in misery, if he be taken away in his green years, yet his sins are ripe, if he hath filled his dayes, and lives while he be an hundred years old, he shall be accursed, Isay 65.20. He hath heaped up wrath against the day of wrath, and God takes him away as with a whirlewinde, both living, and in his wrath, Psal. 98.9.

2 The wicked goe down into the inward chamber, or the closet of the chambers of death, Prov. 7.27. that dungeon or prison where they are fast locked up in misery and iron, reserved in everlasting chains untill the judgement of the great day, Jude 6. the Prophet sayes, they goe down into hell, Psal. 55. the second interpretation of [...] is there in chiefe, their grave is hell, not onely the out­ward courts, but the very depth of hell, Prov. 9.18.

3 The grave hath dominion over them, Psal. 49.14. They sold themselves slaves under sin, and now death hath power over them, the first transmits them to a second death, and eternall mi­sery, the worme doth not onely feast upon them, but [...] death feedeth, or banquetteth upon them, and is never satisfied nor they consumed.

4 They have not rest in their death, Nec mihi mors gravis est posi­turo morte do­lore. Ovid. Metam. 3. that which men looke upon as the end of troubles is to them but the beginning of misery, [Page 11] the soule of my Lord shall be knit in the hundle of life, but the soule of my Lords enemies shall be in a sling, 1 Sam. 25.19. The soules of the enemies of God, as in a sling are ever restlesse, their good things are at an end, their Sun is set, and a darke night over-spreds them. If hell be their grave, though there be horrid darknesse, and eternall night, yet no sleepe, there they rest not, who here slept, when they should have watched.

The death of the righteous far otherwise.

1 He lies down in peace, he hath been long travelling a tedious pilgrimage, and he is now arrived at his journies end, he is come [...] to his long home, Eccles. 12.5. and is quiet, the spirit returns to him that gave it, Eccles. 12.7. as may be read in the let­ters of that [...] sacred name, they are all quiescent: so the good man, returning to him his originall, in him rests as in his center: Marke the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace, Psal. 37.37. he lyeth down, and nothing can make him afraid, he is confident of the favour of God Anima mea quid dubitas sexaginta annis servisti Christo & mortem ti­mes? Hilar. a­pud Hier. as whom he hath faithfully served, in a holy endeavour, keeping the Law with his whole heart, Psal. 119.34. and where he hath fallen short of his obedience, he hath returned by repentance, and sup­plication to his God, 1 Kings 8.47. and hee hopes that he whose paths are mercie, and truth unto such as keepe his Cove­nant and Testimonies, Psal. 25.10. will shew mercie unto them that love him and keepe his Commandements, Exod. 20.6.

2 The death of the righteous puts an end to his sin, he hath been in a constant endeavour of deading sin in his mortall body, and now it is done, he hath gained a state of innocency, in perfe­ction: then man had a power not to have sinned, but now he shall have no power, or rather not so much weaknesse, or imperfection that he may further sin, a great blessing which onely the pious soul is truly apprehensive of. Who hath observed the perversnesse of his will, and the frowardnesse of his affections? Who hath felt the reluctancy of the flesh against the spirit, and the motions of sin mutining in his mortall body? Now to be translated into such a condition, as he cannot further displease God, but freely and faithfully serve him, not being carryed away with any temptations unto sin. Excellent is that passage in Nazianzen. Adam sinning [Page 12]against God, though he were rejected Paradice, yet he doth gain thereby death, and the cutting off of sin, lest the evill should have been immortall, [...] Naz. Orat. 42 so the pu­nishment it selfe became to man a mercie, and he is well seconded by his comment, Nicetas. after man was fallen, had he not been obnox­ious to a necessity of dying, he had incurred the greatest misery, viz. sin working, here therefore he hath a benefit which is death, because it stops and breakes off sin, for although death hath the nature of a punishment, yet it became a mercie, not suffering the sinner to be immortall, for how should we without any, either feare of God or dread of judgement, have added sin to sin if wee had been immortall? who are so sinfull to day, dying to morrow, with the immortall devill, we should even have vyed offences, without either endeavour of new obedience, or remorse by hum­ble repentance. O munde im­munde si sic me tenes breviter transeundo quid facere diu per­manendo. Bern. If the unclean world so entangle us so soon pas­sing, what would it have done long remaining? if our vile affe­ctions so entise us while we are but pilgrimes, what would they have done had we been of constant abode here? Cicero spake well, Mihi non à diis immortali­bus vita erepta est sed mors do­nata est. Lib. 3. de Orat. if he understood what he sayd: Life is not taken away from me by the immortall gods, but death is given unto me, for as it is [...], [...]. Chim. Sca. Pad. Gr. 6. a powerfull act of God, so is it likewise, [...], an act of grace and favour, a blessing rather then a curse, as if it had been given rather for a Non pro poena mortem dedit Deus sed pro re­medio, Ambr. de side res. remedy then a punish­ment, while viper like it kils its mother sinne, and destroys our destruction.

3 Death puts an end to the miseries of the righteous, thus the divine goodnesse turns all to the best for them that love him, as mans punishment to his benefit, by stopping of his sin, so to his greater happinesse by ending of his misery. Augustine from a passage in Plato or Plotinus, that father Jupiter having compas­sion on men, made their bands soluble, draws this collection, Lib. 9. de Civ. Dei c. 10. that the Philosopher thought that this very thing that men are mortall in body, proceeds from the mercie of our divine Father, lest they should alwayes be held with the misery of this life. Thus far the Text of Scripture is plain, that after Adam had tasted of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evill, whereby I am sure he became accursed, God thrust him out of Paradice, [Page 13]and set a guard upon the Tree of life, lest man should taste of that fruit and live for ever, Gen. 2.22. and so in that he shortened his dayes, he ended his misery, which there at once hath its period, from whence that custome tooke its stirt of planting a lawrell Crown at the head of the dead mans cossin, in token of triumph and victory obteined over the troubles and miseries of this life, for to be sure in the other he shall meet with none. Paradice would not admit of pain, much lesse will heaven. Sorrow was part of the curse: misery was inconsistent with the state of in­nocencie, it cannot then stand with eternall happinesse. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, there shall be no more sor­row, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for former things are passed away, Rev. 21.4. the presence of God shall be our joy, our delight to doe his will: Paris. de Rhet div. our constant worke the praise of our Creator, to sing eternall hallelujahs unto our God, and the Lambe that sits upon the Throne.

4 The death of the righteous is their birth day, [...]. Oec. in coll. 3. for of a truth the Christians life is hereafter, though in the ordinary phrase of speech, a man is sayd to live while here he is, and to dye when he makes an end of dying, death being not the end of life, but the end of death, and our birth day unto eternall blisse, for if it be accustomably sayd, a man childe is borne, when he breaks forth out of the wombe of his mother into this light, may not he be as rightly said to be borne who loosed from the bonds of flesh? is brought forth into the land of the living? it had obteined a custome in the Church, that the day in which holy men departed this life, they called it the day of their nativity: and the usuall solemnities they called them Beda hom. in Ioh. 16. not funeralls, but birth day feasts, to raise this to a higher speculation. God is the life of the soule, as the soule is of the body. While here we live our soule is separated from its life, which is God: which St. Paul hints, While we are present in the world, we are absent from the Lord, 2 Cor. 5, 6. It is true, he cherishes us with the breathings of his spirit, he streams the rayes of his grace into our hearts, but we enjoy not his glori­ous presence, which gives fulnesse of life and vigour into the soule. Again, the state and condition here we are in being so transient, [Page 14]our life but a blast, but a bubble, such a nothing deserves not the title of life, but that state of incorruption to which death transmits us, that fixed immortality that and that onely is life indeed.

5 Death is gaine unto the righteous. It is the end of the day, when they receive their penny, the reward of that faithfull service they have yeilded unto their God, Bene moritur qui cum mori­tur lucrum fa­cit. Sen. he dyes well, says the mo­ralist, who makes a gain by his death, that does the righteous man he exchanges this cottage of clay for a mansion in the new Jerusalem, a house not made with hands, eternall in the heavens: he exchanges his poore possession for a glorious inheritance: he changes this fading miserable, for an ever blessed life: he O preclarum diem cum ad il­lud divinorum animorum con cilium caetum (que) proficiscar & cum ex hac tur­ba & colluvio­ne dis [...]edam, Cic. de Senect. chan­ges the company and fellowship of sinfull men, for the blessed society of God, and his holy Angels, by whom he shall be most lovingly entertained. Suet. in Aug. Augustus at the Epilogue of his life, de­sired his friends about him to give him a plaudite, as if conscient to himselfe that he had acted his part well upon the stage of this World: the righteous man shall have his plaudite from a better Theatre. God the Father entertains him with a well done thou good and faithfull servant, Mat. 25.21. God the Son entertains him with, come yee blessed children of my Father. Mat. 25.34. The whole hoast of heaven congratulate him: for if there be joy in heaven at the repentance of a sinner, Luk. 15.7. what ex­ultation will there be at the entertainment of a righteous man into blesse? if they rejoyce when he is but set in the way, what will they doe when he comes to heaven?

6 Death to the righteous is his marriage day, in which he is conjoyned to his espoused Lord Christ. Death is but the Para­nymphus, which presents the faithfull soule unto her bridegroom. Oh happy meeting of a happy day, to be evermore happy in the imbraces of her loving and beloved Lord! Suet. Augustus tooke the farewell of his life at the lips of Livia, and dyed in the comple­ment so he left her whom he loved. The righteous man dyes [...] Deut. 34.5. at the mouth of God In osculo Do­mini. Virg. in Apoc. 14. at a kisse of Gods mouth, but it is a kisse of welcome, and friendly entertainment of him in whom his soule delighteth, as the indulgent mother takes her little one into her armes when it is about to sleepe: So God takes his [...] his little righteous ones, when they [Page 15]sleepe in death into the armes of his mercie, and kisses them with the sweet imbraces of his love and favour, and though a while he may lay them by to rest in Abrahams bosome, while the num­ber of the elect shall be gathered together, yet his eye is ever on them, and they enjoy his presence, in which is fulnesse of joy. If I should adde no more, is not this enough to make good, and to give us to joyne issue with Balaam, Let me dye the death of the righteous? but we will follow him to the ultimate period of his wish, and let my last end be like his. Though death be the end of all; yet not the last that betideth man, [...] and let my afterwards, or let it be to me after death as to him. We will consi­der then what follows death, [...] Heb. 9 27. after death judgement. The punctuall circumstance of time is not limi­ted by any verbe, neither [...], nor [...], so that whether it shall follow presently, or in a longer tract, the Text leaves undetermi­ned, and the terme after may as well signifie the precedencie of things done, and order as reference to any particular time. In loc. Are­tius would streighten it by altering the preposition [...] up­on that. I like not this liberty with the sacred Text in the least Iota, neither will that conclude it. For circumstantiall notes of time, as were easie to evidence, are in Scripture largely, or more streightly taken for yeares before or after, and it is not peremp­torily to conclude from the Apostles phrase. It may be more easily resolved if we consider man according to his essentiall principles: the judgement of the soule follows presently upon the dissolution, that receiveth sentence, and is carryed by the Angels into Abra­hams bosome, a place of rest and happinesse, or thrust into torment, the body is to expect its doom, while that great day of the gene­rall judgement, these two being now separated, we will take some liberty to speake of some things, though of lesser note, and might not so fully lie in Balaams wish, that betide the body after death. There being some small difference observable.

1 The grave. What ever the humerous Cynicke thought, Laert. in vita Diog. who cared not what became of his corps when hee was dead, yet the wiser man said, that an untimely birth was better then he that had no buriall, Eccles. 6.3. it was the curse of that wicked woman, the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the walls of Jezreel. [Page 16]1 King. 21.23. and she shall be as dung upon the face of the field, 2 King. 9.37. it was the doom of Jehojakim, that he should have the buriall of an asse, Jer. 22.19. which implies that the civill in­terment of the body, and committing of it to earth was honou­rable. And as the old Law was full of types and ceremonies, so they whose soules wereseparated to severall mansions, as if they would expresse this truth in a type, the faithfull were buryed by themselves, from whence was that phrase, to be gathered to their Fathers, Gen. 25.8. As Jacob gave commandement concerning his bones, that he would not be buryed in Egypt Gen. 47.29.Gather me not with the wicked, prayes the Prophet, Psal. 26.9. not to take notice of the solemnities used at their funerals, and to passe the customes from hence derived to other Nations, looke we onely to our own. They who deny the common faith, or whose more vileactions have been a scandall to their profession, we eyther bury them not at all, or dishonourably, but they who live and dye in the faith of Christ, and their good conversation hath given us to hope, that their bodies shall one day be partakers with their souls in bliffe, we give them a more decent buriall in places set a part for that use, the Church yard, which the Germanes call Godw. ant. Gods Acre, or his field, where the bodies of his Saints are sown corrup­tible, to spring and arise again incorruptible and immortall.

2 The resurrection though our bodies doe moulder, and re­solve into, yet they doe not lose themselves in the dust, they onely leave their weaknesse and corruption which adheares unto them by the contagion of sin, from which being purged, the substance of the body returns again: to prove that there is a resurrection were too large a digression, and a needlesse labour, it being so cleere a constat among Christians, that we hold it an article of our faith. We are baptized not onely for the remission of sins, but also into the resurrection of the flesh, 1 Cor. 15. from whence I conceive the Greeks call baptisme, [...], the clo­thing or putting on of immortality, and again, we lay down out bodies in the dust, in the sure and certain hope thereof. It was an ill reading of that Text, the wicked shall not arise in judgement, Psal. 1.5. which strained that glosse [...] Cyr. Hier. cat. 18. & Theoph. in Joh. 3. not to judgement but to condemnation, the true reading is, they sholl not stand in judgement, [Page 17]according to the Stare in ju­dicio. Latine phrase, they shall not be acquitted, but fall when they are judged. For as Aquinas rightly argues Suppl. 3. par­tis qu. 75. art. 2. that which is taken from the nature of the species, is alike found in every individuall of the same species: the resurrection is such, and therefore it belongs to every particular. Every one must arise, the most wretched liver and the false beleever, but here is the diffe­rence, Resurrectio & incredulis parata est glo­ria autem re­surrection is so­la credentibus repromissa est: Eus. Em. hom. 1. de Symb. though all arise, yet the glory of the resurrection is onely promised unto the faithfull. Which was that Saint Paul so earnestly endevoured after,if I may by any meanes obteine the resurrection of the dead, Phil. 3.11. that of the wicked not deser­ving the title, being but an upstanding to everlasting death. Here the body being raysed by the power of GOD out of the dust, meets it soul again, and are conjoyned together, to the righteous a joyfull meeting, one of them being happy in the other, and both of them in a full expectation of a never ending felicity. Sad to the wicked soul, being fettered again to the body, like malefactors ac­cessories in the same guilt, to receive together a just, but fearfull recompence of reward.

3 Judgement is an act of justice terminated upon man. A sen­tence given by GOD upon his actions. There is a twofold judg­ment assigned by Divines; a Session, and a grand Assize; a par­ticular and a generall. For every man is to be considered as he is a singular person, in himself, and as his sins have had influence into others. And as he is a member of mankind.

1 As he is an individuall, and particular person, so is he ad­judged by God presently after his death, when he is doomed ac­cording to what he hath done in the body, although not fully, because not in the body, but onely in the soule, that onely ap­pearing, and having its sentence, the body lying asleepe in its dust.

2 As he is a part of mankind, so he is called at the great and generall day, when there shall be a full summons, and an universall appearance of all the living that ever were, and as generall a sen­tence, neither yet does God judge twice for the same thing, and inflict double punishment for one sin, but that which before was not compleatly inflicted, then shall the wicked be given up to be [Page 18]tormented, and the good glorified in soule and body both, and thereseems to be in this equity, that the body which hath been a fellow worker with the soul, either of holinesse unto life, or un­righteousnesse unto death, should have her part proportionable in the reward, by which generall judgement the righteousnesse of God shall be acquitted and vindicated from all slander not onely from the testimony of every guilty conscience, but also by the cleere acknowledgement of every one summoned to appeare at the barre: Righteous O God art thou, and just are thy judgements. The secrets of all hearts being then revealed, and the full num­ber of each mans sins being then made up, for wicked men finish not their sins with their dayes, some mens sins following after judgement, 1 Tim. 5.24. they give while they live bad examples, which are drawn into practice, they leave behinde them the me­mory of unrighteous deeds which multiply to posterity, and ac­knowledge them their first and proper parent. So the vertuous lives of good men lead others by the hand unto holinesse, and their faith is filed for posterity. Abraham is long since in blisse, yet is his faith impressed in the hearts of his children who walke [...] In the steps of the faith of that holy Father, Rom. 4.12. how will it adde to the crown of rejoycing as glory, of that blessed Saint to see so many trails after him in that tread of faith and righteousnesse which he hath before trodden out? how will it blisse those faithfull dispensers of the word, and other holy men, who by their devout faith and religious practice, have con­verted many unto righteousnesse, to appeare with those they have brought to fight under Christ his banner? might I rather in the rerelead up but one convert, then to march in the van of all the worlds happinesse, or triumphant glory. The Son of man be­ing mounted on the throne of his Majesty, then follows disquisi­tion of actions. Heavens records shall be brought forth, the books shall be opened, the book of life, and according to their works writ­ten in that book, the dead shall be judged. Apoc. 20.12. Not to enter into any nice School disputes concerning this book what it is, how mens actions are therein registred, and enrolled: when the Holy Spirit is pleased to besilent, I will not over-sawcily de­termine. [Page 19]It is enough our actions are all therein recorded: not a good work, word, alms-deed, prayer, but it is there noted: not a tear of contrition for sin that fals to the ground, but GOD lat­ches it: Put thou my teares in thy bottle, are not these things writ­ten in thy book? Psal. 66.8. As on the other side not a wicked a­ction, idle word, vile thought, but they are there recorded like­wise. These things thou hast done and I kept silence, and thou thoughtest I had been such an one as thy self, but I will reprove thee, and set them inorder before thine eyes, Psal. 50.21. He now unseen, sees, and observes what afterwards openly he will produce: when he shall sit in righteousnesse to judge the world. When hee shall come to try our actions, and accordingly sever the good and bad with his discriminating fan in his hand: parting the chaffe and soyle from the cleaner grains: where the good wheat shall be layd up in Gods granery: and the evill like the tares cast into the fire. Having thus spoken of what betides man after death I now come to close with the ordinary reading, and discover unto you the ultimate period, the last end of the righteous man. The LORD hath taken him unto himselfe to be with him eternally blessed, blessed to eternity, but the difficulty will be to describe unto you what blessednesse is, Futura bea­titudo acquiri potest aestimari non potest, Eus. Em. though here wee must labour, and lay earnest for it, yet we cannot rightly esteem of it, to say it is Est status o­mnium bonorum congregatione perfectus. Boet. de cons. Phil. 3. lib. 3. pros. 2. a perfectstate consisting in the aggregation, and collection of all good things. While we take it thus up in the grosse, it lesse affects us. And to take it up in particulars, thinking thereby more fully to explain it, wee shall fall as short. When as Saint Paul, who was rapt up into the third heaven, sits down in an extasie, ney­ther eye hath seen, neyther eare hath heard, neyther hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive the good things that GOD hath layd up for them that love him: 1 Cor. 2.9. It were I think impu­dent temerity in any one to go about to determine. None I am sure did ever yet by a Jacobs ladder scale Heaven, and make fuller discovery of that land of the living; that hee might make us a more perfect relation. App. ad Aug. tom. 9. The kingdom of GOD is greater then all report, it is better then it can be praysed, it surpasses all know­ledge, it is more excellent then all glory that can be imagined: ney­ther [Page 20]ought I therefore to be silent in what I can say, because I cannot what I would, neyther because we say GOD is ineffable, therefore may we not speak of him what we are able, so that we be­leeve more then we speake.] And ever bound our words with fear, and piety. What we cannot conceive GOD hath revealed unto us by his Spirit. 1 Cor. 2.10. But it is observable, where the Spirit hath revealed unto us these unconceivable things, condescending to our understanding, to move us it hath set them forth under the notion of temporall goods, which wee make great account of. Which yet in our conceits thereof if we rest, we are as far beneath them, as earth is heaven. The Spirit sayth the righteous shall have a Kingdom, and weare upon their heads a crown of righteousnes, they shall be clothed with long white robes of innocence, they shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at his table in that Kingdom: which shall be richly furnished; to do the will of GOD, Delectatio erit cibus, Paris. and our delight in him shall be our meat: and he shall give us to drink of the rivers of his pleasure. This kingdom shall be theirs by a sure inheritance, being coheirs with Christ the eter­nall Son of GOD. They shall enter into their masters joy, where they shall bear a part in that heavenly quire, to sing perpetuall hallelujahs unto the Lambe that sitteth upon the throne. Heaven shall be theirs, a treasury of riches, and all wealth: and to adde to the perfection of these, of that kingdom there shall be no end. The crown of glory shall bee immarcessible, it shall not breed like Jonahs gourd, a worm to eat it; our garment of immortali­ty no moth shall fret it: those riches no canker shall destroy them; those joys shall have no alloy of grief to abate them. Those de­lights shall breed no surfet. Those streams of pleasures shall not run dry, but be mayntained by a continuall spring: that day shall know no night, the Sun shall not be ecclipsed, nor clouded by darknesse, for the Lambe is the light of the new Hierusalem, that eternall city affords all things eternall; and they shall be for ever to enjoy them. The righteous shall enter into everlasting life. Aug. Ser. 74. because men love to live here on earth, life is promised them; and because they are affraid to dye, therefore eternall life is pro­mised them. What doest thou love to live? thou shalt have it. [Page 21]What dost thou feare to dye? thou shalt not suffer it. ô living life, and everlastingly blessed! where is rest, without labour; wealth without losse: health, without languishing: abundance, with­out want: perpetuity, without corruption, life, without death: where is light, without darknesse: knowledge without ignorance: understanding, without errour: reason, without obscurity: me­mory, without forgetfulnesse: where what ever is desirable is to be enjoyed, and nothing shall be desired that is not meet. Where GOD shall be seen without end, loved beyond measure, praysed without wearisomnesse, who in that he is the perfection of being, shall satisfie the understanding; perfection of goodnesse, shall sa­tisfie the will: and truly amiable, shall fill our affections. Wee shall be amazed at his justice, admire his mercy, be ravished with his goodnesse. What shall I adde more? The righteous shall sit at the right hand of Christ, they shall not onely enjoy GODS presence, but shall be ever happy in a gracious union, and constant communion with the Godhead. De cons. Phi. lib. 3. pros. 9. Boetius rayses a high pitch: because by the gaining of blessednesse men are made blessed, and blessednesse is the divinity it self, it is manifest men are blessed by obteining the divinity: and as by obteining of justice, men are made just: and by obteining of wisdom, men are wise: so (says he) by obteining the divinity men are made gods: every blessed man therefore is a GOD, who though but one by nature, it hin­ders not but that there may be many by participation. GOD pro­mises himselfe indeed to Abraham an exceeding great reward, Gen. 15.1. of which the Prophet David lays hold, the LORD is the portion of mine inheritance, Psal. 16.5. heare Saint John, We are now the sons of GOD, but it doth not yet appear what wee shall be: but wee know when hee shall appeare, wee shall be like him: for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3.2. The sight of GOD which is the promise of a righteous man, makes him like even unto GOD. I can rayse my meditations no higher, I must here rest: adde, onely if I may rayse your affections more to desire the righteous mans end, by shewing you on the contrary, the fearfull, and miserable end of the wicked man.

1 As he dyes in GODS displeasure, so is he deprived of his [Page 22]glorious prefence for ever. The greatnesse of this punishment is not to be valued, in that so great an evill is the privation of any good to be esteemed, as is that good which it deprives us of: when as therefore the good of which the damned are deprived is infinite, so must the punishment be: to be cast out of GODS presence, to be under his eternall enmity, ten thousand hels is not such an evill; as to have omnipotency an irreconciled enemy, and he who is all Goodnesse.

2 Hee is given over to the tyranny of the Devill: and just that who while he lived here was subject, served, and obeyed Sa­tan, when hee dyes should be enslaved to, and possessed of him. And with whom by a disobedient will hee would partake in sin, hee should though unwilling, partake with him in the punish­ment, and be tormented of him.

3 Torture in hell fire, which burns, and yet consumes not, but the wicked are repaired to everlasting flames: as the Poetsfabled of Premetheus, [...], &c. Hesiod. Theog. whose liver the devouring Eagle eat in the day, and what was then devoured grew again in the night: so in the midst of those consuming flames, Damnata na­tura dat pabu­lum & accepit incrementum. Euseb. Em. ho. 1. ad Mon. the damned nature yields fuell, and receives increase. If the finger in the flame (yea, but a little time) is not now to be endured; how unsufferable will it be, body and soul to be scorched in hell flames eternally?

4 The punishment in all his senses: not onely his feeling with smart, but his sight shall be grieved with most horrid apparitions, his hearing terrified with bitter out-cryes, and gnashing of teeth, his smelling offended with intollerable stench, his taste tormented with hunger and thirst, and infested with a more bitter humour then gall or wormwood.

5 A collection of griefs, and all miseries shall flow in upon him: I will heap mischiefs upon them, I will spend mine arrows upon them, Deut. 32.23. not one, or a second, or some few, but a heap of mischiefs shall fall upon the wicked: and GOD setting him up as a butt, will even empty the quiver of the arrows of his fury upon them. Greatnesse of grief may now take away the sense of grief, but then it shall sharpen them.

6 A worm never dying, a conscience of sin: now sins are [Page 23]veyled under the huke of delight, and appear not so foule, then shall they appear in their filthinesse, to the grief of the guilty: in the sight of which they shall displease themselves, and repent without any profit.

7 And that which makes him fully miserable to suffer all these eternally, the greatest punishment if it may have a period may better be endured, but so great, and endlesse is the sum of mise­ry. It may well be noted for injustice, and tyranny in Tiberius, who would not be reconciled to the offender: and loved to re­serve men to torment. So that a guilty man dying ere hee came to the rack, he cryes out, Carnulius hath escaped: and passing by the prison, one entreating of him to hasten his punishment, hee made this reply, Suet. in Tib. Nondum tecum in gratiam redii. I am not yet returned into favour with thee. GOD is no Tiberius, no ty­rant, yet will not be reconciled to the guilty soule, the reason is dif­ferent. For sin being an offence against an infinite goodnesse, de­serves an infinite punishment, which man being not able to endure, must suffer eternally. And again, the sinner dying unrepenting sins eternally, and then it is just that if man sins, GOD should punish unto eternity. Who is it now that shall deeply consider the blessed departure and happy end of the righteous: and on the other side the desperate death, and unhappy end of the wicked, but will conclude, that there was good cause which did move Ba­laam thus to wish? and who is not ready to joyn in request with him, that his last end may be like the righteous man: What re­mains shall be to shew you, how our last end maybe like his.

1 Live the life of the righteous, Rest not in a bare wish as Balaam did, good desires are like good dreams, which vanish [Page 24]when we awake, and come to nothing: and doe but deceive him that trusts in them, the worst of men may wish so well unto them­selves, but I dare not promise them they shall so obtein it. All would have the Crown, but they will not try the combat: they would have the penny, but they would not sweat in the vineyard: they would wish the righteous mans death, but they will not live the life of the righteous. Cor. à Lap. For to dye well is happinesse, to live well is labour: but one is not granted without the other. Eternity depends upon death: that upon a good or bad life, once to perish is to perish eternally. Plut. in La­con. Iphicrates sayd it was a speech unwor­thy of an Emperour to say, I had not thought, how much more unworthy of a Christian is it to say, I had not thought there had been such difference between a holy and an unholy life. I had not thought that Eternity had depended upon this momentany being. To all the advertisements thou hast had before, take this at last, which I shall again repeat: Upon a holy life depends a good death, and upon that Eternity, and if thou perishest once, thou perishest eternally. Eus. Em. ho. 7. de Pass. It is in the power of this present life that that may be happy which is everlasting; for if thou leadest this present well, the future cannot be miserable: if thou fearest to die evill, feare to live evill, but feare not, he cannot die evill who liveth well. Now as that is a good and wel-led life, which is passed in holinesse, and vertuous actions, that an evill one which is led in wickednesse; answerably the death is to be weighed from the forepassed actions of life, so that if the life be led in a religious ob­servance of God his Law, in a holy obedience to his will, the death cannot be bad: for it is a translation to immortality. But if otherwise, it is necessary it must be evill, for it transmits to eternall misery: how comfortably could a good old Simeon pray that hymne, and sing while he prayed, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace: with what a religious confidence could old Hilarin farewell with his soule Hier. de Hi­lar. who had served his God sixty years? the conscience of that faithfull service, satisfied, that his future being could not bee unhappy. A heavenly life here on earth, must needs give security of a happy life in heaven, he that lives here, hath no cause to feare to die here­after, [Page 25] [...], Doroth. doctr. 8. for indeed I call the holy, the onely life: the wicked man hath a being here, but onely the righteous man lives. We use to count our dayes, and number our years according to the time we are on earth. Deceive not thy self who ever thou art: Compute thou hast only lived that day in which thou hast denyed thine own will, in which thou hast resisted thy corrupt affecti­ons, in the which thou hast not transgressed the rule of equity. Compute thou hast onely lived that day which malice, and wick­ednesse, envy, or pride hath not clouded, which hath not been wasted in sin, in which thou hast stood upon thy guard, and hast not been foyled by fleshly temptations. Compute thou hast only lived that day, which pious meditation and holy practice hath enlightned; not which the darknesse of sin hath turned into a night, apply only unto thy life, that day the benefit of which by a holy conversation hath redounded unto thy soul. The rest is but idle pastime, a phrase which humours most men well, but such empty cyphers will prove nothing but reall woes, at heavens account. Shall we compute that a day of life in which men con­sume eternity, and heape unto themselves punishments never to have an end, such a life tends unto, and ends in death, and is in truth but a death, live therefore while here thou art, sow the seeds of holinesse, that thou mayst reape happinesse. Bud forth in the blossomes of a future life, that thou mayst gather the fruit, here­after: the present must answer to the future, the worldly lusts subdue thy corrupt appetites, let the spirit of God rule in thy heart, set thy affections on things above, let thy conversation be in hea­ven, and hope well, one day thou mayst come thither, as Cicero said of Hercules, he had never been inrolled among the gods in heaven, if he had not laid out his way thither while he lived: so if we walke not in that holy way while here we live, we shall ne­ver be registred with the Saints in blisse. Beru. There is no way unto the Kingdom, without the first-fruits of the Kingdome, neither may they hope to reign there as Kings, who have not here ruled over their properlusts. If yee looke God should take you as he did Enoch, you must as he walke with God: a holy, ever ushers in a happy life. It was a bold and sharpe reply of those Philoso­phers [Page 26]to Alexander, an exemplary Prince for Armes and Arts, who passing some territories where his conquering sword had made him master, hearing of learned men (as his manner was) sent for them, and propounded to them many questions, they gi­ving him good resolution, as an argument of his royall satisfacti­on, he would have them aske him what they pleased, that hee might grant it to them: they joyntly asked of him immortality: the Prince began to smile, before, sayes he, I thought you wise men, but now I thinke you fools, to aske of me immortality, who my selfe am mortall. While I consider the condition and man­ners of the most of men, I may make the like demand, give me immortality: if nature prompts them, or Religion hath better taught them that they are mortall: I make my reply with them to Alexander, why then doe you live evill, letting loose the reynes of all kinde of sin and wickednesse, as if you were immor­tall? as if you had no thought of death or feare of judgement. For if we weigh well the actions of the most, can we judge any otherwise of them? for where is he who lives according to the decorum of heaven? whose practice answers to that holy faith, he would be accounted to make profession of? Philosophy tels us that naturally men desire the chiefest good, eternalll happi­nesse. But all this while Religion hath been preached in the world, it cannot worke so much upon mens affections, as to win them to the right means of gaining of it, they would obtein the chiefe good, yet they would not be good. Aug. Ser. 12. ae verb. Dom. Doest thou not see how thou oughtest to blush at thy selfe, who wouldest have all things good, yet thy selfe wouldest not be good? thy house thou would­est have filled with goods, and shall it have thee an evill master? What is it that thou wouldest have ill, not a wife, not a childe, not a servant, not a house, not a garment, not thy shoos, and yet thou carest not though thy selfe be evill: thinke better of thy life then of thy shoos. All things about thee, if they be elegant and faire please, and wilt thou be vile and filthy in thy selfe? if thy good things could speake unto thee which thou enjoyest, would they not say unto thee, as thou wouldest have us good, so doe we desire thee to be, and may they not secretly murmur to God [Page 27]against thee? behold, thou hast given so many good things to this man, yet he himselfe is evill. Cannot he who gave these good things, and makes them good unto thee, if thou displease him take away the comfortable enjoyment of them, turne the blessing into a curse, thy prosperity into thy destruction? get therefore with them his good will, by doing his good will, that at last he may give thee better, and more reall, the true goods. Conjoyne thy selfe to the fellowship of Saints, be of the holy Church here below, that thou maist be one of the Church triumphant in glory. Labour according to the grace of God given unto thee to doe the will of God here on earth, as they doe in heaven, that so thou maist doe it more perfectly hereafter with them. Cum quibus fuerit vobis consortium de­votionis erit & communio dig­nitatis, Leo Ser. 5. de Epip. For with whom we have a consort devotion, we shall have a community of dignity. If thou wouldest have the righteous mans end, live as doe the righteous: let it be thy delight to doe the will of God, order thy actions according to that perfect rule he hath given thee: walke in an universall obedience to all the Laws. There is, says the Moralist, a concatenation of vertues, and it is not one but all that entitles the vertuous man. The Jews say that God ut­tered all the Commandements in one breath, I am sure they are linked together. Thou shalt not kill Neither shalt thou commit adul­tery, Neither shalt thou steale, &c. Deut. 5.17, 18. the breach of one dissolves the chaine. An offence is not in this or that onely, but in any, and he that offends in one is guilty of all, Jam. 2.10. in that he offends against justice, and the will of the Law-giver, who gave the one and gave the other, and is equally disobeyed in ei­ther. He that observes one commandement, not another, he does his own will, not Gods, and did his corrupt affections equally prompt him, he would disobey in what he doth observe. Looke not onely to the affirmative precepts, but also to the negative, knowing the latter may be as destructive as the former, Peccat ille qui imperata neglexerit, sed plus peccat qui interdicta non servat Hier. p. 3. Ep. 2. if not more: looke not onely to the greater, but also to the lesser, know­ing that there is an obligation upon thee from God to both. [...], Mat. 5.19. He that shall unbinde or unloose one of these least Commandements, one, and of the least he shall be called Minimus nullus, Gloss. Chrys. the least in the Kingdom of God. Contemptus cujuscunque praecepti praeci­pientis iniuria est. Hier. par. 3. Ep. 18. the contempt of any [Page 28]command is the injury of him that does command, and therefore the holy Prophet, I love all thy commandements, and all false wayes I utterly abhor, Psal. 119.128.

2 Do righteousnesse at all times, Psal. 106.3. Have not heats of Religion, but ever regulate thy actions, by the rule of truth, with a perpetuall constancy; the school observes well, that affirmative precepts binde always, but not at all times: negative always and at all times, and it may be observed, all the morall precepts of God, (the fourth of the first Table, and the first of the second excepted) for which there is good cause, in that imperious insolent superi­ors may counter command the eternall, run in the negative, hol­ding us to a continuall performance. Let opportunity beare no plea, nor privacie give thee no advantage to commit iniquity: in that the eye of justice ever watches over thee, though the cu­stome of corrupter times would connive at some faults, yet ken that Text in the righter reading [...], not [...], Rom. 12.11. Serve the Lord, not the time, though the multitnde of transgressors might seeme to beare thee out: yet know, Vbi maior est peccantium turba, maior est divinitatis in­iuria. Salv. de gub. li. 3. the greater number of offenders the more God is offended, and take not licence for the least offence, knowing the Law being of eter­nall truth, is not variable by circumstances of time, place, or looser practice, but tyes to a constant and perpetuall ob­servation.

3 Walke in the full latitude of every commandement. Looke to every branch, every Iota, and point thereof, rest not in the out­ward, but minde likewise the more inward and spirituall perfor­mance: abstain not onely from the outward act, but keepe close sentinell upon the heart, which if thou canst not keepe free from injected thoughts, yet delight not thy selfe in them, lest they win consent, but smother them there, so soon as they be discovered, the Cockatrice is with more ease and lesse danger, crushed in the egg ere it be disclosed. My Saviour will not acquit him from a­dultery, who hath abstained from the forbidden bed, but tels us the lustfull looke carries a guilt with, and is adultry in the heart, Mat. 5. man is not innocent, when the act does not perfect the will, when hee brings not forth the evill which the heart [Page 29]conceives, Concupiscere nefas est, quod fieri crimen est, Hier. par. 3. Ep. 15. when it is an iniquity to think what it is a sin to do.

4 Continue in this obedience unto thy lives end. Faint not, nor be we ary of well doing: Finish thy course, be faithfull unto the death for the crown of life, Revel. 2.10. Non inchoasse sed persecisse iu­slitia est, Idem Ep. 22. It is not to begin well, but to persevere in what is well begun, that is perfect justice. Nay, I may say, In cassum bo­num agitur si ante vitae ter­minnm desera­tur, quia fru­stra velociter currit, qui pri­usquam ad me­tam venerit de­sicit. Greg. Mor. it is in vain to begin if wee persist not, as to run in the race if we hold not unto the mark. Evill beginnings may be corrected by a following practice, but an evill end transmits us to remedilesse eternall misery. If the Word of GOD may carry it, divine Truth speaks thus much. The righteousnesse of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression, as for the wickednesse of the wicked, hee shall not fall thereby in the day that hee turneth from his wickednesse: neyther shall the righteous be able to live in the day that hee sinneth, Ezek. 33.12. the like is to be read, Ezek. 18.21, 22, 24. Ill beginnings do not prejudice the true convert, the benefit of good beginnings are forfeited through future failings. If we at last forsake GOD, and list our selves in the Devils service, it may be just with him there to leave us under his power, [...]. Jon. Ep. ad Magn. whose we are, while to him we yield our selves, to have our reward from and with him. It is not enough to be, and live, but we must likewise dye Saints, if we expect to be, and live such for ever. It is the end crowns the a­ction, perseverance confirms the righteous man. Thus the righ­teous man orders himself though hee rests not in his own righte­ousnesse which is of the Law; but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousnes which is of GOD by faith, Phil. 3.9. So De sanctis pa­tribus annotan­dum est ita sub vet. Test. vixis­se ut uon illinc restiterunt, sed aspirarunt sem­per ad novum adeoque certam cius communionem amplexi sunt. Calvin. Instit. lib. 2. c. 11. Sect. 10. the holy Patriarchs which lived under the old Testamentrested not there, but ever aspired unto the grace of the Gospel, and so embraced its certain communion. Omnis anti­quitas colentium verum DEVM omnis numerus apud secula priora sanctorum, sacra fide vixit & placuit, & neque Patriarchis, neque Prophetis, neque quisquam omnino sanctorum, nisi in redemptione Domini nostri Jesu Christi salus & iustificatiofuit, Leo Serm. 1. de Pass. Faith hath been the sure means of salvation to so many as have obteined it. The promise of faith, the law which was after given could not disanull. Gal. 3.17. The object of faith though not so cleerly exhibited, untill these [Page 30]latter ages of the World, yet faith in the promise did bear date, and that of grace was (after the fall) the first, if not the onely cove­nant: without question the onely possible means of obteining ju­stification before God. Order therefore thy life as if there were no Gospel, but dye as if there were no Law, live as if there were not anothers righteousntsse to plead for thee, but dye in the con­fidence of thy Saviours merit. Walk towards Heaven in that Nihil crit in­commodi, sivitae sanctitatem, ex­istimemus esse viam, non qui­dem quae adi­tum aperiat in gloriam coelestis regni, sed qua clecti à Deo suo in eius m [...]nise­stationem du­cantur: quan­do haec bona eius voluntas est, glorificari quos sanctifica­vit. Calvin. In stit. l. 3. c 18. Sect. 4. perfect way, a strict obedience to GODS Law, but let faith open for thee the gate to blessednesse, let such be thy life, that such may be thy last end.

2 Dye the death of the righteous. There is 1 a death for sin, 2 a death in sin, 3 a death to sin. A death for sin, that is, that we all suffer a just punishment for our offences. Aug. de hae­res. c 88. It was a branch of the Pelagian Heresie, that Adam though hee had not sinned, yet he should have dyed; not by the merit of sin, but by a necessity of nature. Such a principle might better be allowed in a Mors naturae finis est non poe­na Sen. sual. 7. Mo­ralist then a Christian. For though Adam were a mortall Ideo factum est per peccatum non mortale quoderat, sed mortuum quod non sicret nisi peccaret. Lomb. Sent. li. 2. dist. 19. crea­ture, yet had hee kept his innocency, by grace hee had been con­served from death. For the body is dead, because of sin, Rom. 8.10. and so my Saviour while hee would stand in our stead to answer for us, he dyed for the ungodly. Rom, 5.10,

2 A death in sin, so we dye yea, daily dye and will not con­sider it. The drunkard that drinks down iniquity, & swils himself into the condition of a beast: thinks not that there is death in the pot 2 Kings 4. The lustfull Wanton that awayts the twylight, and then slips to his carrion, considers not that the harlots house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death, Proverbs 7 27. The doubling tongue that dallies with the heart, feels not when it kils its own soul. Thus too many Felons play with their own destruction.

3 A death to sin, this is the Saints death: who mortifie their members on earth, and kill sin in their mortall bodies. Pr [...]cious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his Saints. Psal. 16.15. Vbi homo occiditur mundo non ter­minatione sen­suum sed fine vitiorum. Leo Ser. in nat. Machab. When men dye unto the World, not by an end of being but by an end of sinning: forsaking those former accustomed ways of wickednesse, and living in godlinesse, which before they did not, which is a kind of death and resurrection in us. Blessed, [Page 31]and holy is he who hath his part in the first resurrection, of such the second death shall have no power. Apoc. 20.6. If the conside­ration of that blessed life which follows upon the death to sin may nothing affect us: wee might rayse (I think) arguments from the other members of the division to move us. Death in sin is the soul of death, [...], Naz. Orat. 19. the death of the soul: it divides GOD from the soul who is the life thereof. How circumspect, if wee observe it, are men to preserve bodily life, and the life of life how do they neglect. Wee will avoid the infected house, and the 1 King. 8.38.plague of our heart wee cherish in our bosome. If our body be wounded wee run to the Chyrurgeon, and we wound our souls by our sins which cut deeper then any two edged sword, killing that which is immortall, and yet we are senslesse of the misery. If nature, or art could help us, we would preserve our bodies everlasting: and our souls shall we voluntarily murther? Oh! what pity is it to see how men trifle away life, soul, salvation, and imbezle eternall blisse for a thing of nought. They dote upon and humour every vile affection, though to their endlesse destruction. Man drinketh iniquity like water, Job 15.16. like hungry Rats that raven down their own bane wee thirst, wee drink, wee dye. Again, for sin wee dye, that it is which hath caused all those sorrows, and vexations, troubles, and infirmities; hath brought all that in­undation of evils that hath broken in upon mankinde. That it is which hath separated the soul from the body and layed in its dust. Peccatum mortis pabulum Lact. li. 4. Sin is that whereby death lives, and wee dye: it procured the death of the Son of God. Hee dyed for our sins, that wee should dye unto sin, that as Christ was raysed from the dead by the glory of the Father: so we also should walk in newnesse of life. Rom. 6.4. Oh, let not that precious bloud of the Son of GOD be spilt in vain! he gave himself for us, that hee might redeem us from all iniquity, Titus 2.14. and he reedeemed us by such a price that hee may worthily possesse us. I cannot read that passage in Serm. 1. de elem. Cyprian without a moved passion, nor take it into deeper meditation with­out a melting heart, where hee brings in the Devill at the day of judgement, as it were, insulting over my ever blessed Saviour. I (says he) for those whor thou seest with me, have neyther been buffeted, nor scourged, nor born the crosse, nor shed my bloud, nor [Page 32]redeemed them by the price of my passion; neyther do I promise unto them an heavenly Kingdom; neyther do I recall them to Paradise restoring immortality: yet what precious and great gifts, gotten in a long time, and by large expence, by pawning, and imbezelling their goods; even while they are scorned and deri­ded at, and somtime by a popular fury even ready to be stoned: shew mee the like president in the pale of thy Church, those rich men flowing with abundance, are they so free towards thee? will they give so much to thee? though they might thereby translate their possessions into everlasting treasures. Yet in these expences for me none are fed, none are clothed, none are comforted, but all things are prodigally and foolishly wasted. In thy poor, thou art clothed: in thy hungry thou art fed, thou dost promise eternal life to them that labour in thy service: yet thine whom thou dost honour with the recompence of eternall reward, are not to be equalled in number to mine which perish. Oh what a sad thing is it, that although Christ hath done, daily does and hath pro­mised to doe so much for us, yet we should voluntarily leave his service, whose yoake is so easie, and put our necks under the ty­ranny of Satans subjection, the professed enemy of Chrisl, the underminer of our salvation, the adversary of our souls eternall blisse. who makes himselfe mirth at our misery, and onely tri­umphs in our torment let us therefore withdraw subjection from such a vile tyrant, draw our necks out of the yoake of so wilfull, so wofull a slavery. Let us dead sin in our mortall bodies, that death may have no dominion over us. So may our departure be in peace, we may have a happy end, a gloriors resurrection, a gra­cious acceptance, an acquitting sentence, a crown of righteous­nesse, and to help us the better in these two to live, and dye the life, and death of the righteous. Be

3 In a continuall meditation of death. Plato. Which is the life of a wise man, and surely considering the certainty of death, and the uncertainty of the time he wants discretion who doth not fre­quently thinke upon it. Strange it is, the Devill should yet foole us, after so long an experience with the like temptation that hee flattered our first parents, yee shall not dy, onely here the diffe­rence, they did take that at once, which wee doe at smaller [Page 33]portions, as thou shalt not dye this yeare, this moneth, this day: so, we receive in smaller pils, what they received in one bole, and all of us swallow the same dose, but a surer word tels us, we are here of no continuance, like a poast that stayeth not a bubble, a smoake, a vapour, a dream, a shadow, wee are somthing, wee are nothing, wee are here, wee are gone, [...]. Pind. Pyth. Od. 8. the very dreame of a shadow, and yet that we should dote of a long stay here, of a truth, the life of a Christian is hereafter, in the mean time, the mediation of death makes a life, it draws us neerer, and sets us in view as it were of our life, and certainly makes a ho­ly life: for he that continually thinks he must die, will so live as he is willing to dye: he that looks upon every day that passes not as one of that number of his dayes, which his desiring hope may promise him but as his last, he fits himselfe accordingly for it, as Eumolpus, if he spake not better then he did. Ego sic sem­per & ubi (que) vixi tanquam ulti­mum diem nunquam re­diturum consu­merem, Petron. Sat. I have so every where lived, and at all times, as if I had spent my last day, never a­gain to have been recalled, and surely we never spend a day so well as that which we thinke to be our last, those three vertues, sayes the In Clim. sca. parad. grad. 6. Scholiast, are effects of this meditation. 1 That we are without passion. 2 That wee pray without intermission.

3 That we keepe our selves unspotted from sin.

1 That we are without passion.

• 1 It unlinkes our love from the world, so transient, so uncertaine, so unsatisfying to the soule of man, so unworthy of our affecti­on, while we looke of it in a deepe consideration of our own and its mortality, we discover its vanity, we conclude its no­thing, and we loath it.
• 2 It allayes our anger,
  Hi motus ani­moruma t (que) haec certamina tanta pulveris exigui iactu compressa quiescunt Virg. Georg. 4.
  as the tetchy Bees which fight in troops, in their bitter conflicts, cast up a little dust among them, and you part them presently, nothing sooner cools those hotter di­stempers of choler then the dust of mortality, remember thy end, and let emnity cease, Eccles. 28.6. that which kils them utterly would kill them instantly, were it well applyed; death which shall destroy them with the body, the thought of it would soon dead them in the body, were it serious. Oh how sedate, and peaceable would we be, were we christianly mortified.
• [Page 34]3 It abates the feare of death. A fore-warning is a fore-arming against miseries, he that acquaints his thoughts with them before they come, is better able to endure the shock. As Pal­ladius reports of an Eremite, who being neere his death was merry and cheerefull, his disciples about him trembled, and mourning said unto him: Doest thou suffer, and art nothing moved, and we but suffer with thee and weepe? to whom hee replyed, I am quiet, because I have often walked this way by meditation, I have often dyed, so no new thing happens unto me.
  [...]. Clim. sca. pa­rad. grad. 6.
  The memory of death is a daily death, and he that dies daily, dies not discontentedly: nothing betides him but what he hath before thought, and he is well provided for it: hee knows how to dye before he dyes, and it nought amates him.

2 It quickens our prayers, as a spur to our devotion, the soule the more it is abstracted from the body, the neerer it draws to God, and taking heat, and warmth as it were from that fountain of light, and life, it is more active and vigorous in fervent af­fection.

3 It is a sentinell upon the soule, and keepes the good man that he consents not to any sin. Titles of honour may court, but they shall not coozen him. Pleasures of the world may tempt, but they shall not entangle him. Affections of the flesh may flatter, but they shall not entise him. Facile con­temnit omnia qui semper co­gitat se moritu­rum. Hier. Ep. ad Paul. Hee slights them all, he is resolved to persevere in his integrity, and to preserve himselfe unspotted as the spouse of Christ.

And cast an eye yet a little further, thinke on judgement when thou must give an account Luke 16.2. of thy Stewardship. Not an evill action which thou hast unjustly committed, but thou must answer for, which though thou happily hast forgot, yet are they not slipt out of the divine memory. Dost thou not watch over my sin, My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sowest up mine iniquity, Job 14.17. When the Pharisees brought the adulteresse, and ac­cused her unto my Saviour, he wrote upon the ground: he speaks not, but yet he writes: sinner observe: although God is silent, yet he writes, he seems to dissemble thy sin, yet he records it, and at last those records shall be produced, and according to those [Page 35]things written in that booke shalt thou be judged. Thy idle words vanish not, nor dye in the aire, they are breathed out into. Yea thy vile thoughts shall not be smothered in thine own breast, but as they are manifest and known to him who tryeth the heart and reines; so shall they be filed upon thy account to answer for.

To conclude. Thinke on the death of the righteous, who lies down in peace: thereby puts an end to his sin, and to his misery. Whose death is his birth day unto blessednesse, the day when he receives a gracious reward of his well doings: his marriage day unto Christ, and union with God, thinke on his last end. Glory and honour, and immortallity, and eternall life, the crown of righteousnesse, the kingdome of heaven, to be admitted to the inheritance of the Saints in glory, to be like the Angels, to sit down on Christs right hand, and to reigne with him, to see the face of God in blisse for ever, and to be satisfied with his likenesse, is it possible these should not affect thee? if not, let the death of the wicked affright thee, to ly down in sorrow, and to goe into the inward chambers of death, where the grave shuts her mouth upon them, and have no rest from their trouble and misery, but it is to them a beginning of torment, weigh their end, to be depri­ved of Gods favour, to be ejected out of his presence, to be given over to the tyranny of the Devill, to be tortured in hell, where the worme dyeth not, and the fire is not quenched, where they shall in soule and body in all parts endure all kinde of misery, and these eternally, without any hope of reconciliation with God, or end of pains. If the thought of eternity cannot ballance thy thoughts what will? O that men were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! Deut. 32.29. So consider as they might escape the fierce anger of the Lord, in that great day to be revealed against offenders, for to understand, as to doe what is right, lest our knowledge be our misery, for better were it not to have known the way of righteousnesse, then ha­ving known to turn from the holy commandement, 2 Pet. 2.21. For he that knows his masters will and doth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes. Earnestly endeavour after holinesse and pray to him who is the way, the truth and the life, to establish thee in [Page 36]his truth, to lead therein the right way, that tends to life.

To close your ears in a short meditation of that which one day will close all our eyes, death, the weary mans rest, the Christians comfort, the solace of afflicted souls, the greatest blessing next a Saviour, conferd on sinfull mankind, the rode of paradise, the scal of heaven, the gate of happinesse, a haven secure from all tem­pests, a Physician to cure all diseases, a restoring cordiall in a pill of alloes, working health and salvation to mankinde, a good midwife, by whose hands we are broughtforth into the land of the living a blessed day whose Sun sets in glory, or happy night whose morning dawns in blisse, or blessed twi-light between time and eternity, blessed lying down, which arises to immortality, blessed sleepe that awakes to eternity. Sweet death, may I never looke a squint on thee, but with an eye full of hope of that happinesse which thou dost usher in, that I may as willingly lay down this body, as leave a prison, be undressed of this clothing of mortality, as I would of my wearing cloaths, and commend my body to the dust, as I would my weary bones to a bed of down. May I never so dote on this dirty hovell, that I would not willingly exchange it for a house not made with hands, or be so enamoured of this cot­tage of clay, that I would not readily lapse my lease unto my great Creator.

In the mean time may I so live, that I may die to live to eter­nity, that I may die while here I live, that I may live for ever, walking in that right and perfect way which leads to that door that opens to those heavenly lodgings, blessed eternity may my thoughts lose themselves, while my soule find it selfe blessed in eternity.