Forty Sermons

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which Participle expresseth a continued Act, it's from Christ still enabling me, for should he leave off never so little, I should presently stand still and do nothing. And lastly, it's not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but still 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which signifieth not only a lighter outward touch, but an inward enacting and enabling, as from a Vital Principle, which David phraseth by God's strengthening him with strength in his Soul, Psal. 138. 3. And Paul by being strengthened with Might by the Spirit in the inward Man, Ephes. 3. 16. All this our Apostle feels and acknowledges that he hath need of from Christ in his living to him, and acting for him, as being very sensible of the truth of what he before had said, Ephes. 1. 19. that it's no less than the exceeding greatness of his Power, according to the working of his mighty Power, which is to us-ward who believe. The Expression according to our Translation is most full: But the Greek far more Emphatical, which runs thus: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in which Piscator observeth, and admireth a wonderful heaping up of very many most Significant and Emphatical words, and all too few to express that inconceivable Greatness of God's Power, which we need, and he puts forth in his People. It is, 1. The Power of God. 2. The Greatness of that Power, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . 3. The excess of that Greatness, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . And, 4. The Energie or effectual Working of all: And all this every faithful Soul finds and feels it hath need of from Christ to any spiritual vital operation, and therefore accounteth the Motto of the Spider (if applied hither) to have deadly Poison in it, Ego debeo nulli. No: It oweth all to Christ, and judgeth that a most profane and blasphemous saying of Mezentius, Dextra mihi Deus, My Righthand is my God. Oh! no; but on the contrary, my God is my Right-hand, my Christ is my Strength, my Life, my All, I depend for all upon Him, I receive all from Him; my Head, Root, Life, the Strength of my Life, Psal. 27. 1. The Fountain of Life, Psal. 36. 9. which if by my sin obstructed and intercepted from me, I can do nothing; am nothing, but dead, dry, empty, as some Allegorize that of the Psalmist, Psal. 74. 15. If thou dividest the Fountain and the Flood, then thou driest up 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 even the fullest and mightiest Rivers.

2. Christ is a Christian's Life, as the Causa exemplaris, as the Sampler and Pattern, which (as you use to say) to the very Life he desires and endeavors in his Life to imitate and express, so as it may both be like him, and beseem him. Christ is my Life, when in my Life I am not a Counterfeit, but as it were a lively Picture of Christ, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , after Christ, or according to Christ, as the Apostle's phrase is, Col. 2. 8. As a dead Parent may be said to live in his Child that is like him, and Christ in us, when we live after his Example.

1. When (as I said) we imitate him, and follow his steps, as the Apostle speaketh, 1 Pet. 2. 21. he speaks there of like-patient Suffering, which Paul calls the filling up of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , of what was behind of the Sufferings of Christ: Not of Christ personal for Satisfaction, but of Christ Mystical for Edification, and so from our Union with him and Assimilation to Him our Afflictions are called Christ's; Christ is as it were seen suffering in us, and so in our Christian Christ-like walking, Christ is seen walking, and working, and living in us; that when some say, Lo, here is Christ in this way, and others say, Loe, here it Christ in another, it may be truly said of us, Lo, here is Christ indeed, where is to be seen so much of Christ, and when Christians are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Imitations and Transcripts of Christ's Holiness and Humility, and Love, and Meekness, &c. when I say we thus imitate Him,

2. And thereby lively express Him, showing forth not our own weakness and corruptions, but his Virtues and Praises, 1 Pet. 2. 9.

And this especially when our former Customs, or natural Tempers, are or have been more unlike and cross, and contrary to Christ, proud, froward, malicious, revengeful, &c. If now such a former sinful self disappear, and instead thereof on the quite contrary more of Christ look out, in our or rather his Humility, Meekness and Love, truly then Christ more eminenly is our Life; when He looks out so much in our Lives, and liveth more in us, than we in ourselves, that the World may know what Christ is whom they do not see, by beholding what we are and do whom they do see, that He is Holy and Harmless, and separate from Sinners by finding us so. Christ is then our Life, when in our life we thus imitate and express Him. And,

3. Thereby thirdly, Take care so to live as may be worthy of Him, Phil. 1. 27. may become and beseem Him, be a Praise and Honor to Him, and so what the Apostle, 1 Pet. 2. 9. saith of the Faithful (who are like to Christ, living Stones, ver. 5. as He is, ver. 4.) that they show forth his Virtues: The Syriac (whom our English follow) renders it His Praises, the Son of Righteousness shining out gloriously, as reflected on the lives and graces of his Servants. Whereas on the contrary, for professed Christians to live viciously and scandalously, whereby he is dishonored, and his Name blasphemed, Rom. 2. 24. as the Apostle said in another case, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper, so truly, this is not to live the Life of Christ, or Christ to live in us; this is not that Christ which the Apostle meaneth, when he saith, to him to live is Christ. No, this is a false Christ, or rather an Antichrist, when the true Christ is thus disguised and dishonored by us; as when the Jews had muffled and spit upon Christ, then for Pilate to bring him forth, and say, Behold the Man, was rather in way of Derision than anything else, and no better do we yet deal with him, when whilst we profess Him we thus dishonor Him.

3. But thirdly, Christ is a Christian's Life, when He is Causa Finalis, when He, his Honor and Service is the main End and Scope, at which in the course of his Life he chiefly aimeth and labors to promote, as knowing or designing no end of his Life than to live to God, according to that, Psal. 119. 17. Deal bountifully with thy Servant, that I may live and keep thy Word. This is that, which Interpreters generally agree in to be the principal thing intended by the Apostle in this Expression, which divers of them diversely paraphrase, but to the same purpose. If I live it is to Christ, so the Ethiopic reads it. Non alia causa volui vivere, nisi Christi, I would not live for any cause else, but Christ's. So Jerome, I have consecrated my life to Christ and his Gospel. So Estius, He is the scope of my life. So Piscator, Si vixero, nihil aliud mihi proposui, non alia mercede vivo, &c. I propound nothing else in my whole Life, I desire no other Stipend or Wages for all my Work and Warfare, but only to honor and serve Christ in the Gospel. So Calvin. Aquinas (methinks) well resolveth it. Life importeth Motion, and is the active Principle of it; and therefore as in other Cases, the end that moves the Agent to act he properly calls his Life (Ut venatores venationem, amici amicum): So Christ and his Glory (as being that, which as his main end, setteth the Christian on working) may well be called his Life, in which he liveth, and in the Design and Prosecution whereof the strength of his Life is spent and exercised. Christ is his A and Ω, All he hath or is, he hath from Him, and all he is, hath, or can do, is all for him. All manner of pleasant Fruits, new and old, I have laid up for thee, O my Beloved, saith the Spouse, Cant. 7. 13. The Best, the All of a Christians Abilities, Gifts, Graces whatsoever, and how precious soever they be, they are all for Christ, ready pressed to serve Him, paid in as a Tribute to Him. As of Him, so to Him are all things, Rom. 11. 36. As there is one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for Him, so one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him, 1 Cor. 8. 6. yea, and to Him and for Him: for of Him it's else-where said, Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord; and so whether we live or die, we are the Lord's, Rom. 14. 8. And these last words give a sufficient Reason of the former: if we are the Lord's, then we should live to the Lord; if we be not our own Men, but Christ's ransomed Servants, then, as the Master's Service, Honor, and Advantage, is or ought to be the Servant's aim and scope in his whole Employment, so Christ's should be ours, and so He becomes our Life. For we live much in our Ends and Designs which we project and endeavor to promote, and according to them, though not only yet especially, our Lives are to be judged of; as in other Cases, so in this Particular, if the constant Tendencies and real Intentions of our Souls be seriously for Christ, to please, honor, and serve Him, this is to have Christ for our life, and thus to live (in the Apostle's Phrase here) is Christ, when (as he spake in the Verse foregoing) our 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the earnestest out-lookings of our Souls are, that Christ may be glorified by us, whether by Life or by Death. And this is best, when it is in our more frequent actual Thoughts and Intentions of it; however it must be in our inward general and habitual Disposition, Frame, and Purpose of Heart, and constant course of Life, as a Traveler's resolved intention of his Journies end at his first setting out, and after progress in the way to it, though at every step he maketh he do not actually think of it. In a word, when we own no other Interests but Christ's, or at least none that are contrary, but only such as are reducible and subordinate to it, when we neither start nor pursue any other false Games, which (adversâ front) broadly look and run counter contrary to him, no nor with a squint Eye look aside to these golden Apples of Pleasure, Profit, or other Self-advantage cast in our way, when we seem to take never so speedy and straight course to him: but when our Eyes look right on, and our Eye-lids look straight before us, as Solomon speaketh, as they Jer. 50. 5. who asked the way to Zion with their Faces thitherward, and as it's said of our Savior, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that his Face was going, or, as though he would go to Jerusalem, Luke 9. 53. so when with a single Eye and Heart we directly and indeclinably eye and look at Christ and his Glory, so that all that observe us may well take notice which way our Eye and Heart look, this is to have Christ indeed fully both in our Eye and Heart; and so Christ is our Life, when thus in our Heart the seat of Life.

Otherwise to drive a Trade for ourselves, whilst we profess ourselves only Factors for Christ, to seek our own advantage (as Paul, Phil. 2 21. saith most do) and not the things of Jesus Christ, or if at all, yet only in subordination to our own Ends and Interests, this is Self, not Christ; to seek and find the Life of our own hand (as the Prophet's phrase is, Isa. 57. 10.) not to express Christ living in us, as its said of Gad, Deut. 33. 21. that he provided the first part for himself, and as Pharaoh said, my River is mine own, and I have made it for myself, or I have made myself, Ezek. 29. 3. as the vulgar Interpreter reads it, and both the words and the sense of the place will bear it, and so proved his own both Creature and Creator together. But the Creature, whose Life Christ is, knoweth that God hath created all for himself: and therefore in the Apostle's sense here in the Text, makes his Life to be Christ. Si quidem vita mea, mea (inquam) Christus est, as the Syriac renders it, Christ is all the Life, which is any way mine: because nothing I own as mine, which is not Christ's, and which I do not enjoy or pursue in a tendency and subordination to Christ. For none of us liveth to himself, and no Man dieth to himself: but whether we live, we live unto the Lord, or whether we dy, we dy unto the Lord; whether we live or dy, we are the Lord's, as the Apostle speaks in the place before cited.

4. Fourthly, Christ is a true Christian's life, as he is the subject or Object of his Life, for so we are said to live, not so much in ourselves, as in those things which our Hearts and Lives are either wholly or chiefly taken up with. And so the Christian if true to his rule, lives not in himself, but Christ in him, and he in Christ. When the whole Man is fully taken up with Christ, as to fear God, and keep his Commandments is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the whole Man, Eccles. 12. 13. So Christ, who is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , all in all in himself and to all his, is the whole of a Christian, whilst he dwells in his Heart by Faith, Ephes. 3. 17. and so as to take up all the room there, that the whole Soul is full of Christ, as that which it liveth upon, and the Object which he is possessed, entertained and taken up with,

1. In his Thoughts and Meditations, and we live much in our Thoughts, as being the first out-goings of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or emanations and Issues of a rational Life, which Solomon speaketh of Prov. 4. 23. and those, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 those Possessions of the Heart, Job. 17. 11. which the Soul of a Man is possessed with. Job there speaks of the thoughts of other things: but to a true Christian as such, Christ is that which his thoughts are chiefly possessed with, and which the first natural Issues of his Spiritual Life go out to, the Gospel (not a Crucifix ) being that Glass which he is ever looking into, to behold in it the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ. It's made the black Mark of an ungodly Man, that God is not in all his thoughts, Psal. 10. 4. but it's the lively Character of a true Christian, that Christ is ever in his, whom as God 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , hath set or held forth as a propitiation, as a Brasen Serpent for him that is stung to look upon and be healed, so a long-looking wist Eye of Faith is intently fixed upon him in saddest and sweetest, most constant and serious Meditations: amidst all other most beautiful Objects chooseth out Christ to pitch his Eye on, as they, John 12. 21. to Philip, Sir, we would see Jesus, and as Statius of Domitian, Ipsum Ipsum cupido tantum spectare vacavit. Then, then Christ is our Life, we live very much in Christ, and Christ in us, when our most serious and least interrupted thoughts are pitched, fastened on him, as the Eyes of his Hearers were sometimes on him, when he Preached, Luke 4. 20. and his Disciples, when he ascended, Act. 1. 10. where the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is used, which signifieth a steadfast and earnest beholding, such a steady contemplating of Christ is the Life of the Life of a Christian. We live (said Paul to his Thessalonians) if ye stand fast in the Lord: and how happily should we live, if our Thoughts and Hearts were more fast fixed on Christ? If the Philosopher was born to look on the Sun, truly the Christian's Life may well be in a steady eying and contemplating the Sun of Righteousness. It is the happiness of the glorious Angels in Heaven always to be beholding the Face of his Father, Matth. 18. 10. and it will be ours in that beatifical Vision at last, constantly to behold Christ's Glory, John 17. 24. But alas! It's here too often hid, veiled, and overclouded, and more often such Fools are we, that our Eyes are in the ends of the Earth, wandering here and there: our thoughts of Christ broken off, and shamefully interrupted by others sinful and impertinent crowding in. In contemplationis altitudine libere volant angeli, sed saltant tantum homines miseri, as Bonaventure speaks. Angels and glorified Saints are upon the Wing, and make an even and steady flight: but alas! we poor Grashoppers here on Earth do but hop and leap, bolt up sometimes, it may be, in a holy Meditation or Ejaculation, but are presently down again, and then so entangled and ensnared with other multitudes of thoughts (as the Psalmist calls them) that the Rabbins account may be too true, who so cast it up, that they say that all the time of Methuselah's idle thoughts being defalked and taken away, of the 969 years of his Life, he lived but 10 years. And truly a great deal of precious Time, and of our Life, is often spent, and little or nothing done through the intercurrence of vain thoughts of other things, which if pitched upon Christ, would help to make up the best part of our Life, whilst Christ thus more fixedly looked and thought on, would animate and enliven it. This the Apostle in the narrow compass of four Verses expresseth and urgeth with great variety of words very Emphatical, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , neglect not, take heed, give attendance, meditate on these things, give thyself wholly to them, be wholly in them, 1 Tim. 4. 13, 14, 15, 16. Were Christ and the things of Christ thus heeded and studied; so to live, and think, and live thinking, were to live Christ, Christ would so be our Life, when our thoughts (which take up so great a share of our Lives) are constantly busied about him.

2. When our Hearts and Affections, Desire and Love, Content, Comfort, Joy and Delight, do as fully and constantly close with him, and act towards him and upon him, and rest in him. Such warm breathings argue Life: And as the Party loving lives in the Beloved, and the Beloved back again (yea though dead) may be said to live in him: So here, a Christian even lives to love, and lives in loving. Christ is his very Life, when he is the constant Object of his Desire and Love, Delight and Comfort. The lamenting Church called Josiah the Breath of her Nostrils, Lam. 4. 20. typifying out (as Interpreters observe) what Christ is to a Christian, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as Theophylact upon my Text, Light, and Life and Breath, and all things, whilst he breaths in from Christ Comfort and Joy, and breaths out Love and Praise. O Lord by these things Men live, saith Hezekiah, Isa. 38. 16. and in these things is the Life of my Spirit, saith a true Christian, I cannot live without them, without Christ, and Interest and Comfort in him; I am weary of my Life, as Rebekah said, and what good will my Life do me? Gen. 27. 46. Sine Christo enim vanum est omne quod vivimus. (Jerome) It's vain and to no purpose, not worth the while, not worth all the vanity and vexation we here meet with to live, if we live out of Christ, or not to him, or not in communion with him. Indeed our Riches and Possessions and outward Enjoyments are usually called our Livelihood or Living in the World's Dialect, and according to it the Scripture sometimes so stiles them, Luke 15. 12, 30. and 21. 4. but withal, it elsewhere tells us that which our Experience finds to be most true, that a Man's Life confists not in the abundance of such Possessions, Luke 12. 15. I am sure a Believer's doth not, notwithstanding the greatest affluence of such Livelihoods, if he want Christ, his is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a lifeless Life. As the Spouse in Christ's absence is sick of Love: so the faithful Spouse dieth away, and cannot live without him. The whole World is not a Paradise, but a Wilderness without this Tree of Life in it. And although they told Naomi, that Obed her Grandchild would be the Restorer of her Life, Ruth 4. 15. yet it is neither Child, nor Father, nor Friend that is either Giver, or Restorer, or Preserver of a Christian's, but Christ only, and he alone alsufficiently. Quamdiu Christi gloria incolumis perstat, &c. (as he saith) as long as Christ's Glory and my Interest in him is entire and whole, I am well, I live, and am lively, amidst all other cool fainting Qualms and Swoons. This is the Life-Blood of my Heart, which keeps it warm, and alive, whilst my Desires, Loves, Joys, close with him, and are animated by him.

SERMON XL.

ANd as thus our Life is seated in the Heart, so (as I may say) it breaks forth in the lips. And so,

3. In the third place, Christ is our Life, when in the course of our Life we much breath Christ, making him the Subject of our Discourse, and ever frequently and freely setting forth his Truth, Grace and Praises; when whatever we do 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in Word, all is in the Name of the Lord Jesus, as the Apostle speaks to this purpose, Col. 3. 17. This I the rather mention, because it's a great part of the Apostle's meaning here in the Text, where, when he saith to him to live is Christ, he meaneth, that if he live, his Life shall be spent in preaching, and setting forth of Christ in the Ministry of the Gospel, as Calvin and others jointly interpret it. And he was as good as his word, his Practice herein being very observable for our imitation in these following particulars:

1. In delighting very often, and upon all occasions to make mention of the Name of Jesus Christ, above 450 times in his fourteen Epistles, hoc patiebatur Paulus ex nimio amore Christi, ut quem diligebat superflue & extraordinary nominaret, as Jerome expresseth it. It seems Christ lived much in his Heart, when out of the abundance of it he breathes him so fast, and his Mouth so abundantly speaks of him, and that so very often, that by Heathen Elegancy it would be counted a Tautology, but yet no Popish Battology, which appears in some of their superstitious Prayers, too too affectedly repeating the Name of Jesus to make as it were a Charm of it, and with the upstart Sect of Jesuits would be known by their continual both at home and abroad naming the Name Jesus. But Paul, that had none of their superstition, had more love of Christ in this his so frequent (not affected, but) affectionate naming of him.

2. Observe likewise, that to this purpose he studiously taketh, (nay, often in his Writings maketh) occasions to make mention of him, and as it were casts about to bring him in, as we often do to meet with a Friend, or to give occasion of Speech of that which our Heart is set upon. So the Vain-glorious Man is wont to hook in a Discourse, which may give occasion of speech of that, by which he might fan to himself his own praise: But humble Paul so, as that thereby he might take opportunity to Exalt the Honor of Jesus Christ.

3. Take notice also, when he hath so gotten an Opportunity of mentioning Christ, how then he runneth Descant upon it; and, as though he had left and forgotten what formerly he was speaking of, what large and long Excursions he makes into this happy Latifundium, even to Hyperbatons and Anantapodotons, which an Heathen Orator would reckon Inter viti • Sermons, and even Jerome notes in him as Soloecisms. But our holy Apostle chose rather to forget himself than Christ, and to be esteemed rude and barbarous in Speech, than to be tonguetied, nay not exuberant in the Praises of his Lord and Savior.

4. To this purpose in the last place observe, when speaking of Christ, and the things of Christ, how he delights in most emphatical and superlative Expressions, in augmentative Compositions of words, heaping Comparatives upon Comparatives, and Superlatives upon Superlatives, when the word signified Eminency, adding an augmentative Particle to heighten it, as though he could never speak enough, or high enough of Christ and his Excellencies: in which, though something is to be given to that Fervidum ingenium, which is observed to be naturally in him; yet more to that transcendent high Admiration, that Fervour of warm, zealous, lively, vigorous Love of Christ, which so abounded in his Heart, that it thus burst forth in these Superlative and almost Hyperbolical expressions of it. Of this sort are his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Ephes. 1. 2. & 4. 10. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Rom. 8. 37. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Phil. 2. 9. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 1 Tim. 1. 14. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Phil. 1. 23. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 2 Cor. 4. 17. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Ephes. 3. 20. as Grotius observeth upon that place, and on Rom. 5. 20. We need go no further for this, than to the 3 d. Chapter to the Ephesians, in which we have a full constellation of these Emphatical and Transcendent expressions. There you meet with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , unsearchable Riches, ver. 8. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Variegata, multiformis sapientia, manifold Wisdom, ver. 10. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , rich Glory, or Riches of Glory, ver. 16. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Breadth, Length, Depth, and Height, ver. 18. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , even all the Fulness of God, ver. 19. And so 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , above all we can ask or think, ver. 20. Blessed Soul! indeed full with all the Fulness of God, and with the Love and Life of Jesus Christ! to him indeed to live was Christ, when he as it were only lived to preach Christ, and to speak of him so frequently, so fully, so affectionately and emphatically: in which many holy Men since have closely followed him; amongst others Mr. Fox, whose Advice to his Friend was, Brother, Preach Jesus Christ, Preach Jesus Christ; and his complaint was, that Christ was not, as He should be, Preacht in England then: and I wish he were more now, that instead of so much said of Nature and Reason, we had more of Christ, and Faith, and Grace. But amongst others in this kind eminent, few exceeded Mr. Dod, that Man of God now with God, in conversing with Christ, who made it his very Life always and in all Places and Companies upon all occasions to be speaking and discoursing of Him.

Such, as they should be our Examples, so they may justly shame us for falling so short of them in this particular, while at our Meetings and in our Companies (which here in the University, we have the happy opportunities and advantages of, had we Hearts to improve them) amidst much other Talk, so little of matters of Learning, but much less of Christ, but an altum silentium of him, as of one either unknown, or unloved, unremembred, or one that we are either afraid or ashamed to make mention of, whilst our Mouths are filled either with Froth, or Poison, either with foolish Vain talking and Jesting, the Scholars, the Universities great sin both in private Companies, and public Exercises; or (it may be) more corrupt Communication, in lascivious Speeches, which under Edward the Fourth were accounted Court-Elegancies; Reviling and Back-biting of others, compared in Scripture sometimes to Swords that cut deep; to sharp Arrows which wound at a distance; to sharp Razors, which take hold of the least Fault, as they of the least hair: And by Plutarch, likened to Cupping-Glasses, that draw out the worst Blood, and to the Sca • venger's Dung-Cart, which carries the Filth of the City, or that which carries the Malefactor (it may be with us, the Innocent) to Execution.

I wish God and Men might not over-hear things of yet a higher and worse nature, that whereas Macrobius tells us, that the Heart and the Tongue a Graecis nigra membra vocantur, were wont to be called black Members; it were well that some of us did not make ours so by hellish Thoughts and Lusts, and black-mouthed Blasphemies.

But whilst we are thus sitting, or walking, and talking, should Christ come and join himself to us, as he did to those Disciples going to Emmaus, Luke 24. 17. and ask us on the sudden, as He did them, What manner of Communications are these that ye have one to another, as you walk and are sad? (It may be we then are too merry) How should we stand speechless? But is Christ our Life, if in all our life, unless in danger, or on a Sick-bed, our first unforced savoury word of Christ is yet to be spoken? Solomon sometimes calleth a righteous Man's wholesome Tongue, a Well of life, Prov. 10. 11. and sometimes a Tree of life, Prov. 15. 4. And saith, that the Roof of the Spouse's Mouth, is like the best Wine that goeth right to her Beloved, causing the Lips of those that are asleep to speak, Cant. 7. 9. Holy Conference and good Discourse is like the best Wine that moves aright, and that is, directly up to Christ, which as it awakens others, and with God's Blessing, may be a Well, and Tree of Life to them; so (as speech in Nature) it's a sign and evidence of Life in us; and that that Life is Christ, which is thus busily and constantly employed in speaking of Christ to his Praise, and our own and others Benefit. This is part of Solomon's meaning, Prov. 2. 3. in that Phrase 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , where he calls upon us to give our voice to Wisdom, as it were to dedicate and consecrate it (as Cartwright expounds it) to Christ's Service. This was that which David made the very end and product of his Life, Let my Soul live, and it shall praise thee, Psal. 119. 175. John the Baptist could neither make or name himself anything else, but Vox Clamantis, the voice of a Crier in the Wilderness, to prepare the Way for Christ, John 1. 23. And Paul here, another of His chief Heralds, can make nothing of his Life but Christ, because wholly in a manner spent in Preaching of Christ, as the full object of his Thoughts, Desires, Words and Speeches.

4. But withal, in the last place, of His Works and Actions: For that's also a great part of his meaning in these words, To me to live is Christ, i. e. The Interest and Service of Christ, is the Business of my life, Vita mea non nisi in Christi rebus occupatur, as Grotius paraphraseth it. As though he had said, I profess myself a Servant of Jesus Christ, (for so he often styleth himself) and so my whole time and life is not my own, but to be spent in his Service: I have no other Interest or Business in the World, but to mind and promote His: And this with all diligence and seriousness, and when it is once done, I desire to live no longer, but then to go to Him, and rest in Him in Death, which is far better, and my greatest Gain and Advantage.

But more distinctly,

1. More generally it holds forth a Christian's Work. Christ is his Life, because his Service is the business of his Life. To live to him is Christ, because the business of his whole Life, is to serve Christ, Totus in illis, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 1 Tim. 4. 15. Give thyself wholly to them. And this according to our Savior's own Example, Luke 2. 49. wist you not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that I must be about my Fathers Business. Or if as some will have it read, in my Father's House, it's still as much for my purpose, for he was in his Father's House, there to do his Father's Business; or (as the word is) to be in it, and wholly employed in it, to give us an Example, that as He was in his Father's, so we should be in his: for although our life is said to be hid with Christ in God, Col. 3. 3. viz. as to its being safely laid up with Christ, and what it will be at last in Glory, yea here in Grace not always clear to ourselves, and much less to others in the World through our own Infidelity and their Prejudice, yet not so but that others may see, we are alive by our Working, and our Works wro • ght in God and for God, and that we are not so much about our own Business, as God's and Jesus Christ's. This the Apostle calleth for, Col. 2. 6. As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him; as you have received Him for your own comfort, so walk in him to his Glory. If you have received Jesus Christ as a Lord, you must walk in him and to him, as his Servants. But what is it to walk in Christ? To persevere and proceed, to continue and increase in the Faith of Christ. But that is not all, significat vitam ex fide Christi & ad ejus praescriptum at{que}, ex ejus spiritu traducere, so Zanchi, to lead our whole Lives and wholly to act from the Faith and Spirit of Christ, that that be the business of our Life. And this walking in Christ makes Christ to be our Way, as he stiles himself, Joh. 14. 6. in which we are to walk and ever to be found, so that so much as we act and move not from him, and to him, though we bestir ourselves in the World busily, and run swiftly, yet (as we have it in the Proverb) its besides our work and way, per de via, so that without better aid and guidance, as we have lost our way, so we may come finally to lose God and ourselves to Eternity. In a word, there, Christ is our way which we must walk in, here, our Life: and the main business of it, which before all other things we are chiefly to be taken up with.

This in general.

2. But more particularly,

1. This, directly & immediately in our frequent and constant more immediate Applications to Christ, and so living in him, and upon him: for what is more immediate to a living Creature than its Life? And therefore this includeth and holdeth forth the first and most direct emanations of our Life, like that Wine before mentioned, Cant. 7. 9. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which mo • e directly and immediately to our Beloved, as in Prayer, Praises, Meditations, and the like outgoings and outstreamings of the Soul in Faith, Love, Delight, desire, and such other immediate Addresses to Christ. It's Heaven and the Angels happiness in nearest and directest view, to behold the Face of God there, Matt. 18. 10. and it's the Porch and Gate of Heaven to have much of our Life spent in like blessed interviews between Christ and our Souls here. It's a pleasant thing to see the Light, to have our dark hearts gilded with the Golden Beams of the Sun of Righteousness in such nearer Approaches, and more happy and benign Aspects. It is good for me to draw nigh to God, said the Psalmist, Psal. 73. 28. It was so cheering and enlivening to the Apostles in his Transfiguration, that they would have pitched down Tabernacles, and sitten down by it, Matth. 17. 4. but it's not so fully to be enjoyed here in our Tabernacle-condition, being reserved for our Mansion-state hereafter, when being caught up to meet Christ in the Clouds, we shall forever be with the Lord, 1 Thess. 4. 17. and to behold his Glory, John 17. 24. When Christ who is our Life shall appear, and we shall appear with him in Glory. And therefore although I cannot allow of such Monkish Devotion, as (upon pretence of endeavors after uninterrupted converse with God and Christ) neglecteth such other services of God and Man, as they are necessarily called to, much less of such as under this pretext give themselves over to Idleness and Luxury; how contrary is this to the Life of Christ? at least how little of the Life of Christ is to be found among such unfruitful and unprofitable ones? Whereas Paul (v. 22.) doth join his abiding in the Flesh, and the fruit of his work together; so I must needs account them the most happy Men living, and that they have an Heaven upon Earth, who in their even treading in the ways of general and particular calling, (which some say, was meant by the cleaving of the Hoof in the Law) do walk and abide under these more full and direct Rays and Influence of this Sun of Righteousness, whilst they can either step out of the crowds of other avocations into this more free Air, as Psal. 116▪ 7. Return to thy rest O my Soul, Or even in the midst of them can (with Stephen) look up and view Christ, and converse with him. This will be the happiness of the Elect at the last dreadful day, to be able with joy and without hurt to look up and lift up their Heads, when the Elements shall be melting and dropping down. And next to it is this, for Believers here in the midst of all other incumbrances of doing and suffering to be vacant for God, and to have free and immediate converse with Christ, and even in the Fiery Furnace, with those three Worthies, Dan. 3. 25. to have the Son of God walking with them. Thus, Oh, thus to live is Christ, this would be most eminently to have Christ to be our Life: and happy we, if we had more of it, in these more immediate addresses and enjoyments.

2. But Secondly, Christ would be our Life, though not immediately, yet reductively, if in all businesses of this Life, and our particular Callings, we did direct and subordinate all to him, that they do not, as an opake dense Body, terminate our Eyes and Heart so, but with them and through them we may look to Christ, for in that we live much, that (notwithstanding other things, yea and in them) we mind most. So the Apostle would have Servants in doing their Masters work, to serve the Lord Christ, Col. 3. 22, 23, 24. So, as we are Scholars, with our Books we are to study Christ too, and how we may be most and best serviceable to him; and so in all other Callings and Employments, as we are Men, so we are to remember we are Christians; and so not to be content in them to serve ourselves and live to ourselves, but to think and design how we may live and be subservient therein to Christ. His Interest should direct, determine, subordinate and qualify all. As the Box smells of the Musk that is in it, so should all our designs and undertakings of Christ; and as the Artery goeth along with the Vein, so should Christ with whatever our warmest Life-Blood runneth in; and therefore our thoughts should run much in this Channel. Jacob said to Laban, thou knowest how I have served thee, but when shall I provide for my own House? Gen. 30. 29, 30. I have lived thus long, and thus much to myself, but how much mean while to Christ? By all these Employments and Attainments, I have exalted myself, but have they been as so many understeps to lift up Christ the more, and me nearer to him? I have other ways gained so much, and so much, but how much, or rather how little have I gained to my Lord and Master by them? This were a right Anagogical Sense and Interpretation of our Lives and Actions. And thus to live were Christ, whilst we reduce and subordinate all to him.

3. And this, if with all diligence and seriousness, earnestness and liveliness, for we do not loiter it, when we labor for Life. Then Skin for Skin, and all that a Man hath, will be give for it. And so when Moses told Israel, that their obedience to God's Commands was not a vain thing, but it was their Life (as much as their Life was worth) he thinks he hath cause to bid them set their hearts to it with all seriousness, Deut. 32. 46, 47. and indeed Life is active and lively. I am sure a Christian's should be so, if Christ be his Life, for 〈◊〉 was not idle, but still in his Fathers business, ever going up and down doing good; and Paul, who labored, as he said, that the Life of Christ might be manifested in him, how active and serious and unweariable was he in Christ's service? He in another sense said to the Corinthians, so then Death worketh in us, but Life in you: but it was Ironically, for he was very far from being a dead-hearted Servant. No, the Life of Christ was exceedingly operative in him, according to that Colos. 1. 29. in which almost every word hath a quick Emphasis, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Whereunto I also labor (and the word signifieth a cutting labor) striving against Dangers and difficulties, as the Actors in the Olympic Games, with all contention and earnestness) yea this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , secundum efficacem illam vim, according to the Energy and most effectual power and efficacy and that of Christ, which wrought in him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , potenter, mightily.▪ I, thus to live was Christ, when Christ and his Spirit thus effectually and mightily lived and wrought in him: and the like he called for in others, not to be slothful in service, but fervent in Spirit, whilst they served the Lord, Rom. 12. 11.

For on the contrary, nothing almost is so unlike, yea and contrary to Life, especially the Life of Christ, than a dull listless Dead-heartedness, a cold benumbed Frozenness, or an indifferent Lukewarmness in service, unworthy and falling short of that animi presentia and vigor of Spirit, which was found in Heathen Worthies; as in him, who said, se malle mortuum esse, quam non vivere, that he had rather die out-right, and be dead, than to be dull; and rather not to live at all, than not to be lively: for which Drones and Dullards the Pythagoreans would have prepared a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : And therefore how much more unworthy is it for Christians, who pretend to the Life of Christ, whilst they say Christ is their Life, to be either all amort (Nabal-like) through Dejections, or to be dull and dead through the Lethargy of Spiritual Sloth, Listlesness and Negligence? to be, as the Scripture speaketh, either dull of hearing, Heb. 5. 11. when we should be swift to hear, James 1. 19. slow of heart to believe, Luk. 24. 25. when we should receive the Word, as they, Act. 2. 41. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , gladly, or as the more noble-spirited Bereans 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , with all readiness of mind, Acts 17. 11. when the work of Christ is a weariness to us, and we puff at it as under a burden, Mal. 1. 13. when Christ's Yoke should be easy to us, and his Burden light, and no command of his grievous; In a word, when what is said of the wanton Widow in regard of her wantonness, may be said of us for our sloth and negligence, that we are dead whilst we live. But is not this to seek the living among the dead? Or, is the Life of Christ in this deadness, whilst we thus present God with dead Hearts, dead Prayers and Services? Is this, as the Apostle requireth, to offer to him that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , living Sacrifice? Thus to live is it Christ? Or expresseth it anything of the Life of Christ, whom the Scripture calls a quickening Spirit, not only at the last day to raise up our dead Bodies, but now also by his Grace and Spirit to enliven our dead Hearts? Is this any partaking of the Divine Nature, which is a pure Act to be thus restive? Sure those that come nearer to it, give another kind of resemblance of it. The Heavens in their unwearied motion; and the Sun, that like a mighty Man rejoiceth to run his Race; the glorious Cherubims, whose pictures God would have made in his Temple, delighting in them (as Stella observeth) as Emblems maximae velocitatis, of greatest swiftness and cheerfulness in his Service; as also the Seraphims of burning Zeal, who in Isaiah's Vision are described to have six Wings, to show (saith Cornelius a Lapide) that vere obediens est totus alatus, and are there said both to stand and fly, to signify (as he addeth) that Deo adstare, volare est, that to stand before God as his Servants, is speedily and cheerfully to fly at his Commands. But to come lower, to them in a lower Orb, who dwell in dull and heavier Houses of Clay, yet if the Spirit and Life of Christ dwell there, especially if with some more freedom; Paul often expresses his Course by the metaphor of running, which expresseth speed and earnestness; and David, 2 Sam. 6. 14. 16. danceth before the Ark, which manifesteth his cheerfulness, but the words in the Hebrew are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 words not so usual, and one of them in formâ duplicatâ, to hold forth David's extraordinary and double vigor in that Service, and which signify intense strength and seriousness, and therefore translated Saltabat omnibus viribus, & contentissime, to express the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the whole might and vigor which is cheerfully put forth by them that are spirited and inlivened by the Spirit and Life of Christ: the true Sabbatism which Philo Judaeus speaks of, and describes to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which the Lord and our Consciences know how far we fall short of: and of Paul's Copy which he here setteth us, to whom to live was Christ, and that expressed great Liveliness and Activity.

4. And lastly this, that when we can no more live so to Christ to be content, and willing, and with submission desirous to live here no longer: I say with submission to the Will of God to wait his good pleasure; for we must not be so proud, as, when by reason of Age, Sickness, or other disablements we cannot be longer Christ's Servants to do his work, to disdain to be his Beadsmen to live upon his Alms, nay, by God in his Servants, as well as by us in ours, it's taken as Service to wait as well as to work, as it was with the Aged Levites of old: and when thou art past thy work, meekly, and humbly, and thankfully to wait and receive all from him when thou canst do nothing for him, for the setting out and magnifying of his free and munificent Largess and Bounty, as well as for the relief of thy necessity. But yet (saving this humble submission) if to us to live be Christ, and to do him service, then, when we can no longer so live to him, it beseemeth us to be content and willing with his leave to die in him, when our Day is done, to be glad to go to Bed, and when our Work is over to go to our Rest, as David, Act. 13. 36. and Christ himself, John 17. 4, 5. I have glorified thee on Earth, I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do, and now, O Father, Glorify thou me with thine own self; and so our Paul, when he had once fought the good Fight, and finished his Race, then he reacheth out his hand to the Garland and Crown, 2 Tim. 4. 7, 8.

And this not out of an impatient taedium of waiting, which even Holy Men have been sometimes overmuch overtaken with, much less out of a proud discontent, that we out-live our former serviceable active selves, and are now proved unprofitable burdens of the Earth, truncus ficulnus, inutile liguum, burdensome to many and profitable to none; a strong tang of which Seneca expressed in that his ultimum malorum est, ex vivorum numero exire antequam moriaris, to be dead before we die; and elsewhere ante mortem periit, as though he would not be beholden to God for holding all he hath from him, in the Tenure of F, rank Almonage, and free bounty, or as though none else could or at least he should be discontented, that any should do service, when he is once laid aside: Far be such proud thoughts from humble Christians.

But yet this will well consist with their Humility, with old Simeon now become Miles emeritus, meekly to breath forth their Nunc dimittis with submission to God's Will, to desire that he would please to dismiss him, at least when God doth express his will in that kind, not only contentedly, but most willingly and gladly to comply with it. And this not only for our own ease and advantage, but also for God's further and better service; that as Paul when he had no further service to do for Christ in one place, was desirous to go to another, Rom. 15. 23. so when through weakness or other hindrances we have no more service that we can do for Christ here on Earth, we should be well content and glad and desirous, when all weaknesses and oppositions shall be once removed, and the Eagle's Age renewed, to be upon the Wing for Heaven to wait upon him with our praises there, where to live will be Christ indeed, where we shall be perfectly transformed into him, and forever live with him.

And thus to us to live will be Christ: in these particulars Christ is our Life.

Which in the Application of it calleth upon us in the general, [Use.] that all of us in our several standings and capacities in this endeavor earnestly to write after our Apostle's Copy here in the Text, that everyone of us in particular may with him be able truly to say, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , vita mea, mea in quam Christus est, as the Syriac (I said) reads it, my Life, even mine is Christ; that what ever others do, yet in all the former particulars, for Principle, Pattern, End, Object of my Thoughts, Affections, Word and Actions, I live Christ, and so it is not so much I that live, as Christ that liveth in me.

And this, either as we are Ministers, or ordinary Christians.

And first as Ministers, for in that capacity especially Paul here speaks these words, being confident, v. 20. that Christ should be magnified by him whether by Life or by Death; if he lived by Preaching of Christ and his Truth; or if he died, by sealing it with his Blood: thus to him as an Apostle to live was Christ, and thus it should be to us as Ministers, whilst our Life is spent in preaching Christ: the Vigour and Life of our Ministry should be exerted in preaching the whole Counsel of God, but especially in preaching Jesus Christ. This was the first and best Preachers Text and Theme. They Preached Christ, as we have it oft expressed in the Scripture, (Act. 8. 5. & 9. 20. & 17. 3 1 Cor. 1. 23. Philip. 1. 15, 18.) when in their Preaching to Jews and Heathens they laid Christ as the Foundation: and he is the Corner-Stone still, that by wise Builders must be carried up to the top of the Building.

1. From him they have their Commission, and therefore are signanter styled the Ministers of Christ, 1 Cor. 4. 1 2 Cor. 11. 23. Col. 1. 7. and Ambassadors for Christ, 2 Cor. 5. 20.

2. Their Errand and Message is characteristically called the Gospel of Christ, Rom. 15. 19. 2 Cor. 2. 12.

• The Testimony, Revel. 1. 9. & 12. 17. & 19. 10.
• The Doctrine, Heb. 6. 1. 2 John 9.
• The Mystery, Col. 4. 3.
• The unsearchable Riches, Ephes. 3. 8.
• But all of Christ. The Covenant of God, but in Christ, Gal. 3. 17.

3. The End and Fruit of their labors in their Hearers was, that the Word of Christ might dwell richly in them, Col. 3. 16. that they might learn Christ, Ephes. 4. 20. and every Thought in them might be brought into Captivity, to the Obedience of Christ, 2 Cor. 10. 5.

4. And accordingly their care was,

That Seducers should not spoil them through Philosophy and vain Deceit, after the Traditions of Men, and Rudiments of the World, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and not after Christ, Col. 2. 8.

And for themselves: To say the Truth, but in Christ, Rom. 9. 1. 2 Tim. 2. 7. To speak as of Sincerity, as of God, as in the sight of God, but in Christ, 2 Cor. 2. 17. & 12. 19. that their Hearers might have a proof of Christ speaking in them, 2 Cor. 13. 3. And that where-ever they came they might triumph, but in Christ, and be unto God a sweet savor in all, but a sweet savor of Christ, 2 Cor. 2. 14, 15.

To teach us, that for the Matter of our Preaching, we should not read a Lecture of Philosophy, or bare Morality, which they that never heard of Christ might do as well as we, and so (as some complained of the Schoolmen.) make Aristotle's Ethics our Bible, or the Documents of Plato, whom we call Divine, our Divinity: And so none might find Christ in our Sermons more than Austin did his Name in Tully's Works.

Nor for the manner of it, to make some Nose-gays of our own Wit; Fansie, and affected Eloquence, to smell to ourselves, which to do to the holy Perfume in the Law, was deadly; or to fan to ourselves the sweet scent of it, by the Breath or Applause of others, but that the Matter we Preach be Christ, and a Crucified Christ in a Crucified manner, and so prove a sweet savor of Christ, and that such a savor of Life, as may quicken dead Sinners to the Life of Christ, which other affected Discourses fall wholly short of, Animam non dant quia non habent. Thus, let Christ as a Quickening Spirit, be the Life of our Preaching, and in such like Preaching let our Life be spent, and so to us to live will be Christ, as we are Ministers, in our Preaching.

2. And secondly, whether as Ministers, or other Christians, this calls for the like care of us in our Lives and Practices, that in the Sense aforesaid, To us to live may be Christ: The Grace and Interest of Christ may be that which the whole business of our Life upon a true account is sum'd up, and resolved into. I, say Christ.

And not,

1. Self: Not Self-ends and Self-interests. I mean our own Profits, Pleasures, or Preferments, which too usually the very spirit and vigor, the whole of most Men's lives is intensely fixed and so spent upon, which should they be taken out of their Lives, it would be a lifeless Life that would be left; when in those otherwise very active Spirits, you can scarce discern the least moving, or so much as breathing after God in Christ: But how empty a Vine is Israel, whilst he bringeth forth Fruit only to himself? Hos. 10. 1. Or if they be called Christians, what another kind of Christ do they make of him than He was, who said, that His Kingdom was not of this World? John 18. 36. and then not his Life neither. In all this thou hast but found the life of thy hand, as the Prophet calls it, Isa. 57. 10. and that's but a poor withering dying Life. It's but Wind, Job 7. 7. A Vapour, James 4. 14. Thin, vain, empty, and if full, only of Vanity and Sorrows, that we are weary of it, Job 10. 1. Despise it, Job 9. 21. Hate it, Eccles. 2. 17. Acts 20. 24. Even our own frail Life consists not in the abundance of those outward things we possess, Luke 12. 15. much less the Life of Christ. Our bodily Life is more than Meat, &c. Mat. 6. 25. And therefore the Life of Christ sure is much more. Even our natural Life is not that which in itself, especially in compare with Christ we should so much look after: for if to us to live, be only to live; yea, or to live delicately with the Courtier, Luke 7. 25. or with the Whore, Rev. 18. 7. Deliciously, is not Operae pretium, not worth the while; for Christ's being our Life in the Text, is called the fruit of our Labor, in the following Verse. Christ and Self are two things very distinct, and otentimes directly opposite, so that we may be forced to deny the one if we would own the other; even be dead to the World and Self, if ever we would live either to Christ, or with Him, who therefore died, that they which live, should not henceforth live to themselves, but unto him who died for them, 2 Cor. 5. 15. And accordingly you read of their Resolution and Practice; for none of us liveth to himself, and no Man dieth to himself, but whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we did unto the Lord; yea, and sometimes for Him too, with Ittai's professed Resolution to David, and the like should ours be to Christ, As the Lord liveth, and as my Lord the King liveth, in what place my Lord the King shall be, whether in Death or in Life, there also will thy Servant be, 2 Sam. 15. 21. Hoc scilicet vere est Christo vivere & mori, cum nobis posthabitis ferimur quo Christus nos vocat, & rapimur. To us to live must be Christ, not Self.

2. Much less Sin, or sinful Self, or Satan, for they always stand in a flat contrariety to Christ; What concord hath Christ with Belial? 2 Cor. 6. 15. or sin with him who is Holy, and Harmless, and separate from Sinners? And yet should we observe many Men's lives, should we not see that the vigor and very life of their lives is exerted and run out in the eager pursuit of dead Works, who do evil with both Hands earnestly, whose whole course is evil, and their force is not right, as the Prophet speaketh; who in a course of Sensuality live the Beast, not the Man, much less the Christian, do not eat to live, but rather live to eat; and to whom Bibere est vivere, or in a mischievous way live the very Devil, who breaths in their Oaths and Blasphemies, and playeth the very Devil in their mischievous Impieties; cannot live unless they take away some others Lives, or do some other Mischief, Prov. 4. 16.

But is this Christ, or anything like the Life of God or Christ, who (you heard) was Holy and Harmless, and came to save Men's lives, and not to destroy them? If Peccatum be Deicidium, it cannot partake of that Life, which it doth destroy; it put Christ to Death, and therefore cannot consist with his Life: To live in Sin, and to live to Christ, are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and therefore we must Die to the one, if ever we would Live to the other. If to live to us be Christ, it's not Self; much less Sin and Satan.

3. No, nor most accurate virtuous Carriages abstracted or separated from Christ. Not that I judge Moral Goodness to be bad, or not necessarily required in that which is truly Evangelical. It's Antinomian Non-sense as well as Blasphemy, to pretend to Evangelical Perfection, and mean-while (nay, thereupon) to live in all Moral Impieties. A Christian is a Man, and a great deal more. Take Morality from him, and you Unman him; but yet if you stay him there, you keep him from being a true Christian: As under-steps must necessarily be ascended, but he that abides upon them, will never get to the upper Room in Heaven. For that, it is necessary that we be Justified by the imputed Righteousness of Christ, and Sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, and that our best Works and Graces be Enlivened and Spiritualized with the Tincture of the Blood of Christ, which though it be not enough (as some would have it) to our Justification, yet is necessary to the truth of our Sanctification. And therefore here fall short

The so much admired Virtues of the Heathens, or other mere Moral Men, Deists, not Christians, who know not Christ either at all, or not savingly:

As also the good life of the Socinians, so much cried up and made their Character. But the Lord grant us something better than the Socinians good life, which denieth both the Satisfaction of Christ, without which in point of Guilt, we are dead Men in ourselves, and also the Deity of Christ, without which we cannot live to God.

Let us therefore to our utmost labor to live in all good Morality as we are Men, but with all and above all, let us be careful that to us to live may be Christ, as we are Christians. That ought to be done, but it will go ill with us if this latter be left undone. In what we do, let Men behold our good conversation in Christ, 1 Pet. 3. 16.

And in what we suffer, let us suffer not as a Stoic, or a Philosopher, but as Christians, 1 Pet. 4. 16. Whatsoever things are True, whatsoever things are Honest, whatsoever things are Just, whatsoever things are Pure, whatsoever things are Lovely, whatsoever things are of good Report; if there be any Virtue, or any Praise, let us think of these things; that may answer all precepts of Morality, yet let the same Apostle show you a more Excellent Way, when he calls upon us to have our Conversation as becomes (not a Philosopher, but) the Gospel of Christ; and in what we suffer, (as the Apostle Peter exhorts us) both for the Cause and Manner of it, let us be not only Witnesses, but also Partakers of the Sufferings of Christ. To induce and force us hereto, consider,

That we are Christians, Acts 11. 26. & 26. 28. not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , not mere Men, not Heathens, not Deists. And therefore above what they come or pretend to, let something, yea, much of Christ be felt in our Hearts, and expressed in our Lives. Christians, as such, both for Name and Nature, are Anointed ones with the Grace of Christ, 1 John 2. 27.

2. That Christ is our Lord by a dear Purchase, and Servi toti Domini sunt: And therefore none of us should live or die to himself; but whether we live, we should live to the Lord, or whether we die, we should die to the Lord; because whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.

3. That if Christ (in the sense before expressed) be our Life on our parts, he will be our Life also on his part.

He is our Life of Nature, John. 1. 4.

And, He will in this way be

Our Life of Grace, in the Power and Vigour of it. I live by the Faith of the Son of God, Gal. 2. 20.

Our Life also of Peace, and Joy, and Comfort: That sweet Relish which we feel in eating of the Tree of Life, Rev. 2. 7. For if with Christ, John 4. 34. it be our Meat to do the Will of God; that phrase expresseth what sweet and satiating Content God vouchsafeth, and we shall find in it.

Our Life also of Glory at the last: for, To me to live is Christ, will hold in Heaven, as well as here, though in another way of Dispensation. Christ there will be our Life most fully, eternally. If we here live Christ, if we live to Him, we shall there live with him. For the same Apostle, that here said this, said that also, Col. 3. 4. When Christ who is our Life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in Glory. And although Death came between, it did not dead and bury his Confidence, as being but that dark Entry, which leads to that Light and Life, upon which grounds when he had said, To me to live is Christ, he presently adds as the infallible consequent of it, and to die is Gain: Which leads to the second part of the Text, To me to live is Christ, and then, to die is Gain.

And that without further Preface is the Point.

That Death is Gain to the Godly. A Christian Paradox [Doct. 2] which the great and wise. Men of the World cannot Skill of. But what? Is that which the great Philosopher of all Terribles counted most Terrible, is that become gainful and desirable? It may be you will say, they that use to be most Wise are most fearful, and therefore less to be heeded what the Philosopher said: But what say you to the great Spirits •• the brave Sparks of the World? They'l be of Paul's mind, and say, it's Gain for them to die valiantly. But it's one thing what such say in the flush of a Brave, and another what they think in cool Blood, and on more mature deliberation; and then such as have most to lose, think that they can least gain by it. Greatest Men if they be not more than Men, if not true Christian Men, of all Men can least be willing to hear on this Ear. And therefore Lewis the 11th of France, though a very both great and wise Man, when now a dying, gives charge that Death be not named to him. And our Elizabeth, though one of the most Wise and Couragious of Women, and best of Princes, yet had this as one of her weaknesses, that she was displeased with Bishop Rudd, for his plain telling her of her tokens of old Age, and Harbingers of Death, which to great ones (as he calls it) is Ingratissimum acroama: It grates too hard upon such tender Ears; but was the very Joy of our Apostle's founder Heart, who when he could say, that to him to live was Christ, could cheerfully add, and to die is Gain. Much to this Argument, I have spoken out of another Text, 1 Cor. 15. 55. in which I especially shown, that Death being disarmed, could privately do us no hurt, or procure our loss. But here we are principally to make out, that on the contrary it positively brings us in much Gain: But because even of this many particulars were there spoken to, there is less now to be Insisted on. Now what our Apostle more plainly expresseth concerning himself, saying, that his death was his Gain; in effect he enlargeth to all true Believers, 1 Cor. 3. 22. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Whether Life, or Death, or things present, or things to come, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , all is yours, and Death as well as Life, or the whole World and all the Comforts of either. The Apostle here writes the Godly's Inventory, and inter peculia, amongst all their other Goods, he sets down Death for one part of them: and therefore, as other Goods are therefore so called, because they are for the good of the Owner; so Death is reckoned amongst them, because by Christ it's for the great good and gain of the Believer: For if all things work together for the good of them that love God, Rom. 8. 28. then Death also, for it is also reckoned among those all things, ver. 38. Hither also refer that of Solomon, Eccles. 7. 1. The day of Death is better than the day of ones Birth: And that in Rev. 14. 13. where a Voice from Heaven ploclaims, Blessed 〈◊〉 they that die in the Lord. So that if Blessedness be Gain, Death is so too, which puts them into the possession of it.

And for further Proof, it appears that they are fully persuaded and assured of it: Else

1. They would never so desire it before it come: For Evil and Loss, as such can never be the object of Desire, but it must appear to be good and profitable if desired; but so Death hath been, and that earnestly by the Faithful. Old Simeon's Nunc dimittis, Luke 2. 29. tells us what he did; and our Apostle, because he could here say, that his Death would be his Gain, doth in the next Verse save one say, that he had a desire to depart; and well he might, for then he should be with Christ, which is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , much more better, best of all, and that is Gain with an advantage. How ambitious were Primitive Christians to die for Christ? And how earnestly desirous have others been to Die, if it might be in Christ? Making use of the Psalmist's expressions, my Soul thirsteth for God, for the Living God, When shall I come and appear before God? The Moralist's Maxim is, Summam nec metuas diem, nec optes, that we should neither fear Death, nor desire it: But a truly believing Christian goeth higher, hath Vitam in patientiâ, mortem in desiderio, fears not Death because it can do him no Dammage, but, desires it, because it brings with it greatest Gain.—And upon this ground as he desires it before it come:

2. So with Joy he welcomes it when it doth come; yea, though in a violent way: As Ignatius blessed God upon Trajan's condemning him, Cum gaudio circumponens vincula: The Martyr could kiss the Stake, and say, Welcome the Cross of Christ. And well he might, when he could add, welcome everlasting Life; in which expressions we have his joyful Welcome of it, with the Ground of it, because he gained no less than everlasting Life by it. And if so with them that went up to Heaven with Elijah in a fiery Chariot, and a Whirl-wind: Then, no wonder, if so with them that are carried hence by the conduct of a more placid and easy departure; and if some only from weariness of this troublesome Life account Death such a Gain as to dig for it as for bid Treasure, and rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they find the Grave, Job 3. 21, 22. then we may well conceive how glad the assured Believer may be of it, when he knows he shall be greater Gainer by it, as not only resting from his Labors of this Life, but also then entering into his everlasting both Rest and Joy in a better Life, which those others may not then meet with, but the contrary. But if upon this ground the Righteous hath such hope in his Death, Prov. 14. 32. then I hope you will not deny him Joy in it, and if Joy then Gain also.

But this will more particularly be made out, if we consider the several kinds of Deaths of Believers. And (as I even now touched) they may be either for Christ, or only in Christ.

1. If for Christ, then as their outward Loss is the greater, so is their eternal Gain too: no less, than of a Crown. It is the Crown of Martyrdom. Sciant Christi milites se non perimi, sed coronari; and more massy than others. And if there be any such things as Aureolae, they will be found on their Heads; God's First-born, and therefore have a double Portion. Tot mercedes in caelestibus, quot nunc dies numer antur in paenis; as Cyprian speaketh, who compares them to that good Ground that brings forth an Hundred-fold, and therefore their Harvest-joy will be greater. And therefore Ignatius professeth, that it's better to Die for Christ, than to be King of the whole Earth. He therefore thought it was the greatest Gain. To be sure, Christ will see they shall be no losers; who hath given his Word that he that findeth his Life shall lose it, and he that loseth his Life for his sake, shall find it, Mat. 10. 39. & 16. 25. And because we know not what God may call us to, it will be good to encourage and comfort ourselves with these Words, and with firm belief of this undoubted Truth, that they who Die for Christ are greatest Gainers.

2. And if it be but in Christ, most happy Gains will come in to us by that also: And that both Privative and Positive.

1. First Privative; for such a kind of Gain we find in Scripture, as Acts 27. 21. that phrase of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , where Paul tells them that were in the Ship with him, that if they had followed his advice, they might have gained that Loss; that is, they might have prevented it: And such▪ a first kind of Gain the Faithful have by Death, in freeing them from that both Sin and Misery, either by ending what before they were in, or preventing what, if they had lived longer, they might have fallen into.

1. It ends

Sin, which all our Lifes-time we were woefully encumbered with, which made Paul so sadly groan out that complaint, Rom. 7. 24. O wretched Man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of Death? That is, either this outward mortal Body, or this inward body of Sin which is more mortal. Both may be taken into the Sense, because both are together in the Event; not till the death of our Bodies is the body of Sin quite dead in us; but then it will be: for as Sin entered into us at the first union of Body and Soul, so it goeth not out till their last dissolution. But being then parted,

As to the Body, for fins of omission, this lump of Earth doth no longer aggravare animam, clog the Soul from doing duty; nor as to sins of commission, doth this Earthly dusty tabernacle any longer defile the Soul, as being a fomes, and an Instrument by which it acts its self-pollution.

And as to the Soul, though wicked Men's Souls are in statu separato as sinful as they were before, yet the spirits of just Men are then made perfect, Heb. 12. 23. and therefore not liable to sin, which is the greatest imperfection. And what a gain this is, a holy Heart will tell you, when now groaning under the Burden and Pollution of some defiling lust, would give a whole World to be rid of it, even exchange his life for Death, because by it he shall gain a full deliverance from it.

And as Death ends the Believer's sin: So also all that misery, which by reason of his sin he more or less all his Life long was exercised with. No more inward sorrows or fears, or anguishes and perplexities in and from himself, no more temptations from Satan, no more molestations or persecutions from the World; or if any, he is no more sensible of them. There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest; there the Prisoners rest together, they hear not the voice of the oppressor▪ Job. 3. 17, 18. And if you say, that for these outward troubles it is then as well with the wickedest sinners as with the holiest Saints: I say, but it is not so as to those inward anguishes and perplexities, which are the greatest miseries; for they in the wicked are not then ended, but (as to their greatest extremities) then begin. But for the Godly no more [then] any of these: They then cease from all their Labors, Revel. 14. 13. and rest quietly in their Beds, Isa. 57. 2. not one bodily pain, or disquieting thought more: as Mr. Knox on his death-bed, being asked▪ whether his pains were great, answered, that he did not esteem that a pain, which would be to him the end of all trouble, and the beginning of endless Joys. Serve the Lord in Fear, and Death shall not be troublesome to you. Blessed is the Death of those that have part in the Blood of Jesus. And is not he who hath attained to this proved a great Gainer, having all his former sins and miseries so well and forever ended?

2. And whatsoever of both kinds, if he had lived longer, he might have fallen into, most happily prevented. The Apocryphal Solomon saith, that Enoch was speedily taken away, lest wickedness should have altered his understanding, Wisdom 4. 11. But I am sure from authentical Scripture, that Josiah was, that he might not see that desolation which was coming upon his people, 2 Chron. 34. 28. and that the Righteous are taken away from the evil to come, Isa. 57. 1. of which some expound that Revel. 14. 13. Blessed are they that die in the Lord, namely at that time there meant, because after that time there would be greater misery. It may be we cannot but think how miserable some Men would have been, if they had lived any longer, yea, and what sinful Snares some of God's Servants would have been in danger to have been taken in, if they had not died the sooner. But when they were now falling, a Fathers watchful eye saw their danger, and with a wary hand snatched them out of it, and took them into his own Bosom, out of the reach of it. Blessed Father! Happy Child! And gainful Death! that put them into harbor, when the storm was coming that would have sunk them, prevented those sins and miseries that might have undone them. And thus Death to the Godly is gain privatively in preventing loss.

2. Secondly, Positively in bringing in reallest Gains.

1. Of Grace made perfect, and that in the most perfect exercise and operation of it. Faith then completed in Vision, and Hope in Fruition, and therefore called the end of our Faith, 1 Pet. 1. 9. not so much of cessation, as the consummation and perfection of both: and for Love; what was here imperfect shall then be done away, 1 Cor. 13. 10. So that it shall be perfectly then exerted toward God, and one another, when we shall be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Luke, 20. 36. like to the Angels of God every way pliable and expedite in doing his will: And we, who think how well it is with us, when we can here in any measure of freedom and liveliness meditate and pray, or in any other kind with enlarged hearts run the way of God 's Commandments, and feel how burdensome it is to lie under the burden of Sin, and have our Chariot-Wheels taken off, so that we drive heavily in what he sets us to, what invaluable a gain shall we esteem it, when all these cloggs shall be taken off, and we shall find our Souls as upon the Chariots of Amminadab, freely to expatiate in those latifundia of Eternity, and with those Angels in Ezekiel's Vision, whither the Spirit is to go, to go without hindrance and weariness. Now a true Christian estimates Gain, not by that of Money (as it's called Judge. 5. 19.) or other commodities which the Men of the World traffic in, but that which ariseth from being Rich in Faith, James 2. 5. and God's fear, Prov. 22. 4. Which is the true and the everlasting Riches, as our Savior and Solomon calls them; and therefore when such Riches and Gains are come in fullest, he accounts himself the greatest gainer, and that will be when in Death Grace is perfected.

2. And happiness completed, and that will be then also, if you will only abate that which will arise from the Souls reunion with the Body, which will not be till the last day. But at Death Paul makes account, that when he departs hence, he shall be with Christ, which he esteems to be best of all, v. 23. of this Chapter, in a more full Vision and Fruition of God, and what attends that Estate, and in what else can be our best happiness. Mr. Mede indeed saith, that he remembers not, that Death is ever in Scripture said to be the time of reward. Nor it may be is it so said in those express words, nor indeed is it the time of the reward of the most full and complete payment of it, which is reserved to the Resurrection-day. But I am sure, if Paul said true, that upon his departure he should be with Christ, that the greatest part of the reward is then given, and that not only to him, and such like him, which the Papists grant, but even to all the faithful that die in Christ, whose Souls are not to be sought for in the Papists Purgatory, or our new Philosophical Divines lower or upper Quarters, where they can tell you in their several Vehicles, what Meat they eat, and what Recreations they sport themselves with. In former times with Protestant Divines, and others before them, there were but two Receptacles of Souls departed, either Heaven, or Hell; and if they that die in Christ be not in Hell, I hope they are in Heaven, and if there, then most happy: and if Death send them thither, then what gain they get by it, they will think of, and bless God for, to Eternity.

The sum of all these particular proofs is epitomized in that short saying of Austin, Mors beatitudinis principium, laborum meta, peremptoria peccatorum; It kills Sin, ends Misery, begins Happiness in Grace and Glory, and therefore upon all Accounts it's gain to the Godly.

And then 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 O the blessedness of that Man whom [Use. 1] this may be truly said of! Well might Solomon say the Righteous Man is more excellent than his Neighbor, in that when to all other (wicked or Worldly) Men, Death is the loss of all which they account gain, as of Life, and all the outward comforts of it, so that when they are gone, they say with Micah, when he had lost his Idols, what have I more? Judge. 18. 24. he can say I thank God I have lost nothing, nay I am so far from being a loser, that I am a most happy gainer by the bargain; and he that is a gainer by Death itself, can, as to other matters be a loser by nothing, nay he is a loser by Life, (as Paul was v. 23.) if Death be gain to him, how great is the difference? Some would have it hinted by the Psalmist, Psal. 49. 10. where he saith Wise Men die, but Fools Perish. The Godly-Wise are subject to Death, as well as others, but Christ by his Death hath changed it to his from a Curse to a Blessing, that it's not now itself, not a Death, but a Carcase of Death, a vanquished Goliath, before terrible, but then by every little David trampled on, a dead Lion, whose very roaring (the noise or mere naming of it) was before affrighting (as we saw before) but now so far from terrifying, that as Sampson's Lion it hath sweetest Honey in it, when sweetest and greatest gain comes by it. Thus Death sitteth upon 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Revel. 6. 8. we translate it a pale Horse, but the word (both according to its derivation, and more frequent use) signifieth also green and virdant. To the wicked it's pallida mors, pale Death, because it makes them look pale, but green and pleasant to the Godly, they that in old Age being planted in God's Courts, are green and fruitful, Psal. 92. 13, 14. even in Death itself, which blasts all else, retain their flourish, and never more than then, when they are now sprouting out to Eternity. Hezekiah now sick, and in his own sense dying, and that in some respects so sorrowing, that it's said he wept sore, and as it were now receiving the fatal stroke from God's hand (thou wilt make an end of me Isa. 38. 13.) yet useth a word to express it, that had peace and comfort contained in the signification of it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which signifieth peace, so that although it be an end, yet it is a peaceable one, and so makes good what David said, that the end of that Man is Peace, Psal. 37. 37. as how full of Peace and Comfort are David's own last words, 2 Sam. 23! and some conceive he made Psal. 72. on his death-bed.

At non sic impii, non sic. The ungodly are not so, it is far otherwise with them. Mors peccatorum pessima, as the 70. and vulgar read, Psal. 34. 21. In the last part, and end of a sinner's Life, it's worst with him. They had in their lives been busily trading in the World, buying and selling and getting gain, and ruffling it in the World, but mean while by their sins they run deep in debt with God, and for want of Interest in Christ to be their surety, at Death (it may be on the sudden) it comes to that of the Psalmist 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Ps. 55. 15. let death seize upon them, & let them go down quick into Hell. Death seizeth on them unawares, as a Serjeant, or Pursuivant, & casts them into Prison, which is expressed by their going down quick into Hell, (as it's said Numb. 16. 32, 33. that Korah and his Company did) and there the Psalmist saith, they lie like Sheep, (or Wolves rather) and Death feeding on them, as they before (it may be) preyed on the Sheep of Christ. Bernard thinks it's said as Sheep, because their former warm Fleeces of Riches and worldly contentments will then be close shorn, and their Skins flayed off, and then Death feeds on them, though they never die, quia semper moriuntur ad vitam, & semper vivunt ad mortem, and there, as Prisoners with the Devils, are reserved in everlasting Chains under darkness, unto the Judgment of the great day, as the Apostles Peter and Jude express it: though it may be they lie on their Death-Beds like Logs, either senseless, or smothering in disquietness of mind; yet that's but in the smoke of the Furnace, but the worst is, that at last they will burn in Hell. Of them at Death you may say (as you use to say of some miserable Man here) that their best days are past; but of the Godly if Death be their gain, even in the saddest days of their Life, that their best days are yet to come, even the day of Death, and of the Resurrection. Oh what a great Gulf will there then be betwixt the Righteous and Ungodly, Luke 16. 26? What a distance? what an odds between them, when both their Accounts shall then be cast up? when the one, who counted gain to be godliness, shall lose all, and the others Death shall prove their greatest gain? And therefore let Hannah's words be said to the head of the proudest profane Worldlings; Talk no more so exceeding proudly, let not Arrogancy anymore come out of your Mouth, speak no longer grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the Righteous. Say not (as they would have had Job to have said) it profiteth a Man nothing that he should delight himself in God? What advantage will it be to thee, and what profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin? or as they in Malachi 3. 14. It is in vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinances, and walked mournfully before him? What profit? Why (as the Apostle saith in another case) much every way, for us and ours, for Body and for Soul, in Prosperity and Adversity in Life, and especially in Death and after Death; When Christ is our Life, and Death our gain, when such Scoffers will call themselves Fools for accounting such Men's lives Madness, and their end to be without honor; when they shall see it's their greatest gain, and they numbered amongst the Children of God, and their lot among the Saints, and those Deriders then have those two questions returned upon them to answer, that in Job 27. 8. What is the hope of the Hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his Soul? And that other▪ of our Savior, Matth. 16. 26. What is a Man profited, if he shall gain the whole World, and lose his own Soul? and what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul? These they will never be able to say, though they will be sadly thinking of them in Hell to Eternity.

And therefore, what should our greatest care and endeavor be, but that we may attain to this happiness, that Death which [Use. 2] is most Men's greatest loss, may with Paul's be our gain? It's a busy World we live in, and except only such slothful Drones, or debauched Prodigals, who labor for nothing, but to gratify their Ease or their Lusts, all that would not be idle and sensual Bruits, are busy in trading, in something or other, that they think will turn to account, and bring in some advantage, and procure at least a livelihood; but alas it's only a livelihood, it's for a short life only: but there are too few that think what will be gain to them at Death, when they will be in greatest need of something that may make their hearts then to live, upon which they may live to Eternity. And therefore it would be a great part of their Wisdom and Thrift, whilst they think they have too little time to compass their other ends and projects to gain time (as the phrase is Dan. 2. 8.) to get ready a Cordial against that swooning Fit, that they may be gainers not only at Death, but by it, when time shall be no more. So they may be gainers indeed, and be profitable to themselves, as Eliphaz saith, a wise Man is profitable to himself, Job. 22. 2. and that gain will not be only great, but so sure, that there will be no undoing after-claps, as Job saith there will be with others after their greatest gains, when God takes away their Souls, Job. 27. 8. Socrates, the night before he died, was desirous to learn Music: happy we, if then▪ instead of fears and sorrows for the losses we shall then undergo, we can make melody in our Hearts, but it will be good to have been tuning of them to it before.

And for this purpose

1. Let it be one great part of our good Husbandry not to deal in, or to make a trade of any sin, which in other respects we may account most gainful and profitable; for it will certainly eat out all our gains, it may be in this Life, whilst God blasts them, or our Souls be blasted, and (it may be here) tormented by them. Solomon's word will for certain be found true, the wicked worketh a deceitful work, Prov. 11. 18. and it is the word of him that repents for sin, I have sinned, and it profited me not, Job. 33. 27. And how frequent in the Prophesies of Isaiah and Jeremiah are those expressions, that they do not profit, they shall not profit, that they cannot profit, that such Idols are profitable for nothing? But to be sure at Death it will more fully appear to be so, when such gains will not only be lost, but prove loss, whilst we are forever lost by them. The very Sting of Death is Sin, 1 Cor. 15. 56. and then, although we before thought the gain of sin was sweet, yet it will then be as bitter as Death, when with the Honey we have got this Sting with it, which will prove the Worm that never dies, Mark 9. 44.

2. Learn to undervalue the World more, with all the gains, profits, and contentments of it: for if we be of the Men of the World, who have their Portion in this Life, and they be our Portion, they

Will make us unwilling to die, according to that, O Death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a Man that liveth at rest in his Possessions?

And it will be Death indeed to us, when we must die; when all that is lost and scattered, which the very Life of our Souls was wrapped up in; when such Men (with him, Act. 16. 19.) see that all hopes of after -gains are gone, they then sink into Despair, before their Souls do into Hell; nay when they see all their former gains are lost, they are lost too, and so end their lives with that Emperor's last words 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , I have been all things, and all now profit me nothing. It was therefore no bad husbandry of Matthew the Publican to leave his Toll-Booth to follow Christ, nor will it be to us to loosen our Hearts from our most profitable employment in Life▪ to, get nearer to Christ, that by his Death our Death may be gain to us, and we may then be no losers; which leads to

3. The third Direction, which is a high valuation of Christ, so as to be willing to part with all for him; for so the same Paul, who here saith, that Death is his gain, in the third Chapter of this Epistle, v. 7, 8. saith, that those things which were gain to him, he accounted loss for Christ. If we account gain, loss for Christ, then Death with the loss of all things will be gain to us by Christ. If the main Pillar by which the House is held up do but stand, it will not fall down, though other props be taken away; and if Christ be our All in all, then although all things else at Death be taken from us, and we from them, we have lost nothing; no, have gained by it, fullest union with him, and possession of him, which is our greatest gain, because our greatest happiness.

4. Improve the Talents we are betrusted with, so as our pound may gain ten pounds, Luke 19. 16. and that at Death, when thou comest to thy account, will gain thee Authority over ten Cities, v. 17. Beest thou a private Christian, especially if a Minister of the Gospel, labor carefully to gain Souls to Christ, and that will bring thee plentiful gain both at Death in inward Comfort, and after Death in a more plentiful reward. Paul was very industrious in this Trade, as you may see, 1 Cor. 9. 19, to 23. and Chap. 10. 33. in which his Life was so laborious, that you find here his Death was gain to him.

5. But add Perseverance to all: else we lose all that we have gained, 2 John 8. As the Nazarite in the Law, if after his Vow he were polluted, he lost all his former days, Numb. 6. 12. or as he that runneth a Race, though he hath gone on far in it, loseth the prize, if he give over before he come to lay hold of it: and therefore although either the length of the way, or our pains in getting on in it, put us to it; yet with that worthy Knight on his Death-Bed say, Hold out Faith and Patience yet a little longer, and it will not be long before Death pay for all.

6. Lastly, Remember what went before these words in the Text, To me to live is Christ; and then, to die is Gain. Labor that Christ in all the fore-mentioned Particulars be our Life, and then we be very certain that Death will be our Advantage: A Christ-like though painful Life, will certainly end in a most gainful and joyful Death. He went up and down doing good, and finished the Work which his Father gave him to do, suffered those things which were appointed Him, and so entered into Glory. And we following Him in His steps, need not doubt but we shall into it also: But to live like a Beast or a Devil, and to think to die like a Saint; to live so unprofitably that neither Christ hath service from thee, nor any Body any benefit by thee, and to hope that Death will be Gain to thee, how vain and unreasonable? Epictetus could say, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , where there is true Gain, there must be true Godliness; and the Apostle saith, Godliness is Gain, 1 Tim. 6. 6. and profitable for all things, having promise not only of the Life that now is, but also of that which is to come, 1 Tim. 4. 8. And therefore the profit of it is not ended in Death, but then more than ever before comes in, and is made over to be enjoyed in everlasting Life and Glory.

Which therefore, for the third Use of the Point, should encourage [Use 3] the Faithful against the fear of Death, and calls upon them rather to desire it, than be afraid of it. Our Gain doth not use to be the Matter of our Fear, but of our Desire and Joy. The Tradesman is not wont to be afraid of a profitable Bargain, nor the Labourer of his Day's work in the evening to receive his Wages and Reward: Now this (if we believe Paul) Death is, or brings with it. He confidently saith here, that it is Gain, and therefore, as such, is not afraid of it, but ver. 23. desires it. Indeed he speaks of some, Heb. 2. 15. who through fear of Death, were all their life-time subject to Bondage: But who were they? I confess such he speaks of as were to be saved by Christ, as the beginning of the Verse showeth in those words, that he might deliver them, &c. But yet so as they were out of Christ for the present, or if in Christ, yet not assured of it, but still under a spirit of Bondage according to that Legal Dispensation before Christ. And yet I do not remember, I read in Scripture of any either under the Law or Gospel truly Godly, that were much affrighted at the approach of Death. Hezekiah indeed wept sore at the Message of Death, and some (I confess) think he was then under some inward auguish of Spirit: But I cannot easily believe that it was simply from any fear of Death, whilst he even then had so clear a testimony of his Conscience, that he could appeal to God that he had walked before him in truth, and with a perfect heart in his life, but it was because he yet wanted a Son to continue the Promised Seed, or for some other like cause. And as Death is an Enemy to Nature: so Nature may, with submission to God's Will, without sin be ready to turn from it. So our Savior desired that the Cup might pass from him. And it is said of Peter, that some should gird him, and carry him whither he would not. But our Savior's was more than an ordinary Death, than any Martyr's death, that suffered never so great Torments in it; and was it out of fear of Death, when his Face was set to go to Jerusalem to be Crucified? When he went out to meet His Apprehenders? when He saith, that no Man took away his Life, but that He willingly of himself laid it down; and therefore was not thrust out or driven, but saith, I go to my Father, as some observe? When even He deprecated to be delivered from that Hour, yet saith, even for that Cause He came to that Hour? And therefore quietly and submissively said, Father not my Will, but Thine be done? And even in the Pangs of Death so quietly could say, Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit? And for Peter, when now near to Death, we do not find him bewailing it, but calling of it only a putting off his Tabernacle, 2 Pet. 1. 14. Nor doth the Story of his Death mention any such affrightment of him then, but the contrary. And for others, Moses and Aaron went up the Mounts to die, as a quiet Child doth at his Fathers command go up to his Bed to sleep (as I have else-where shown). Simeon sings his Nunc dimittis. Paul knows his departure is at hand, but he calls it his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and that word signifieth such an Unbinding and Taking off of Burdens, as we do to our Beasts when we come to our Inn, or return to our Home; and that (I hope) is not dreadful, but desirable and welcome, as his was there, when after his good fighting of his good Fight, and finishing his Course, he had his hand upon the Crown of Righteousness. And it was a breaking of his heart, that they should weep and pray him not to go to Jerusalem, who was ready not only to be Bound, but also to Die for Christ there, Acts 21. 13. As Ignatius in the very like case said to his Friends, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . How cheerfully did the Martyrs in former and latter Times make haste to their Torments, (as fast as an old Man can, said old Latimer) embrace the Flames, and had less trouble to endure the Torments, than their Torturers had to inflict them? I do not say that all, especially weak Christians do, or can arise to the Heroic spirit of these Worthies, and God forbid that I should fear the safety of their Estates, who from weakness of Faith and want of Assurance are afraid of Death, and because they dare not as yet die, pray with David, Psal. 39. 13. O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.

But yet this I must say to such, that whilst thus they pray for time to recover strength, they must acknowledge that it is their weakness, which is not to be rested in. And if it be from their former careless neglect of preparation for Death, or contracting of, and continuing under the guilt of some favored Sin, which makes Death terrible, they have the more need to make haste to get out of it. Or if it be (as it may be sometimes it is) because in their former Life, they among their other many Petitions, have not so much pressed that for comfort in Death; they had then need plie it the more, and listen to holy Bradford's Counsel, who thus adviseth, Pray when the tide of Death comes, that we may hale forth of the Haven of this Flesh, this World, cheerfully. Nor indeed should it be a Haling, but a ready going with the Stream, as St. Austin saith: In Death we should be like live-Honey, which is the best, not to need pressing out of the Comb, but to flow freely from it. But the Wax of this Comb sticks too fast to us, and makes us cleave too much to this present Life, that we have need to chide out our restive Souls with him, Egredere, O anima, egredere, rouse up, O slothful Soul, get up and get out. Go forth, O ye Daughters of Zion, and behold King Solomon with his Crown. Are you afraid to shut your eyes from seeing the World and Men, that you may open them to see God and Christ, as Cyprian speaketh? Is Death to the Godly but an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , an Exitus, Heb. 13. 7. an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 2 Pet. 1. 15. an Out gate, as of Israel out of Egypt? Nay, as Cyprian else-where saith, Non exitus, sed transitus, & temporali itinere demenso ad aeterna transgressus? And shall we be unwilling or fearful to go out of our Prison into our glorious everlasting Mansion? Is it but an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; (as even now we heard) and after a long tedious and dangerous Journey, should we be troubled to return Home, and there to have our Burdens taken off, as we said that word signifieth? Is it but an Accersitio, as Lucianus in Cyprian stiles it, but our Father's sending for us Home after a long absence from him either by our wild Vagaries, or upon his sending, and occasions? and should not then even the Prodigal, when come to himself, say, I will arise and go to my Father? Luke 15. 18.

And lastly, In the Text is it a Gain? Then what bad Husbands we, if we be backward from making out after it? But is it indeed Gain? Then all the time before we arrive at it, if it be not Damnum emergens, accruing loss, as too often by our prodigal Mispenses we make it, yet at best it will be but Lucrum cessans, it's a ceasing and intercepting of that Gain, which we might have had by it. And then Quis hic anxietatis & sollicitudinis locus est? Quis inter haec trepidus & moestus est, nisi cui spes & fides deest? What place is here left for Anxiety and Fear, as the Father speaks, unless it be in them that have no hope, or but a weak Faith if any? It's for Heathen Romans to have a God, whom they made the president of Death, and therefore called him Viduus, (because he did Corpus animâ viduare) and therefore would let him have no room in their Houses, but shut him out, and let him stand without; and so Romanà Religions damnatur potius quam colitur. But the assured Christian with Joseph of Arimathea, may well place his Sepulcher in his Garden of delights, and put Death and the thoughts of it in his Bosom, (not as a Snake to sting it, but) as a Jewel, as his Gain to enrich him: Ejus est mortem timere, qui nolit ad Christum ire, It's for them to fear Death that would not go to Christ, and they that have no assurance of a better Life may be loath to leave this, because they know not where to mend themselves; & so Earth in possession they think is better to them, than Heaven in reversion. But how more happy will it be, if, after Christ hath been our Life, Death prove our Gain? After whatever I have in this Life lost for Christ, if not here, yet at Death I shall be sure to be no loser by Christ, but there may be able with David, and our Blessed Savior to commend my spirit into God's Hands? then when there will be enough to take our Goods and Honors, and other Earthly possessions to enjoy them, and some (it may be) to take our dead Bdies and bury them, but none but God to receive our Spirits, who only can secure and save them: Then, then to be able with much peace to say, Father, take my Jewel, and lay it up in thy Bosom, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 my only One, my Darling, my Glory, and glorify it with thyself forever: How happy will that be, and how blessed shall we be then? Which in a way of close walking with God, and working for God, we should labor now to get assurance of, and then after a longer or shorter days labor not to fear Death, but be glad to go to Bed and to rest with God forever.

This at all times, but especially in these times

Of the Old-age, and Ruin of the World, and (it may be) of some of our now almost spent Lives.

And of these our troublesome and perilous Days. It's good dying in Evil-days, if assured that we shall then live with God forever. No hurt to be taken away from the evil to come: For the Ship to be put into the Harbor, when the Storm threatens a Shipwrack. Upon this Ground the Father exhorted the Christians in his hard Times, to be willing to Die though it were by Martyrdom; Ut qui cernitis caepisse gravia, & scitis imminere graviora: Because they saw sad things, and fore-saw sadder coming on. Death should not then be bitter, when such things as are more bitter than death are in view for those that live longer.

Let this be the Rule by which we estimate true Gain, viz. If [Use 4] it prove so to us at Death, and Death itself be Gain to us; for then our accounts will be sum'd and made up, and then Gain and Loss will best appear; as Solomon said when he came to his Audit, Eccles. 2. 11. Then I looked on all the Works that my hands had wrought, and on the Labor that I had labored to do: And that was very great, as we may see in the fore-going Verses, where you find him as a diligent Chymist very busy at his work, to extract and gain an Elixir and Quintessence, even the Spirit of whatever Contentment the whole Mass and Body of the Creature could afford. But alas! when all else was evaporated, there was nothing left but that Caput mortuum; Behold, all was vanity and vexation of Spirit, and there was no profit under the Sun: And as little do all our great Traders (and Gainers, as they themselves thought) that say, as James 4. 13. Tomorrow we will go to such a City, and buy and sell, and get Gain: As little profit do they find, when at Death they come to their last reckoning. In their life and enjoyment ofttimes no other profit by what they have Gained, but the beholding of them with their Eyes, Eccles. 5. 11. But to be sure at Death, when they must leave them, Riches will not profit in such a day of Wrath, Prov. 11. 4: will not be able then to purchase a Freedom, no not a Reprieve from Death, Psal. 49. 6, 7, 8, 9. much less everlasting Life, and it will be well if not Death eternal. And here let me name some few things, which Men usually for the present think very Gainful to them, which will not at Death turn to account.

1. All sins, even the gainfullest. Demetrius may get no small Gain by making Silver shrines for Diana his Idol, and the Master of the Pythoniss by her divination, and many others now a days by unlawful Callings, and unlawful and dishonest Gains, at which God, as very angry, smites his hands, Ezek. 22. 12, 13, 27. But none of these can in themselves be true Gain, which is wont to be defined to be Boni utilis acquisitio, quod ad venerandi boni consecutionem conducit. It's the acquiring of something that is profitable towards the acquisition of the chief Good. But if the wages of sin be Death, this must needs be quite contrary, the greatest Loss, loss of Peace with God in Life, and the loss of God and everlasting Life at Death. And then (as they said) Why should Dammage grow to the hurt of the King? Ezra 4. 22. So I to thee, But why should such an utterly undoing Loss grow to thy Soul? Or, as Paul said to them, Acts 27. 10. Sirs, I perceive that this Voyage will be with hurt, and much Dammage not only of the Lading and Ship, but also of our Lives: So I must say to every such Sinner, unless he strike Sail and steer another Course, though thou beest now Top and Topgallant, and goest before the Wind with all Sails spread, and filled with (as thou thinkest) a most prosperous Gale, yet this Voyage will be to thy hurt, and much Dammage not only of Lading and Ship, of that Saburra of outward Contentments, that thou art so deeply laden with, and of thy Body's brittle Bark, but of the Life, and that of thy Soul forever, Acquisivit pecuniam, perdidit Justitiam, lucrum in arcâ, damnum in conscientiâ: Gain in the Chest, and Loss in the Conscience, he hath gotten Money and lost Piety and Justice, are sad words, but sadder things. Such Gainers I compare to such prodigal Unthrifts, that lavish it at their Inns; and what Gainers they, who have got so much Mirth and good Chear! Ay, but Friends, there is a great reckoning that must be paid before, or when you go to Bed in Death, which will not suffer you to sleep quietly. Whilst you by these sinful means increase your Gettings, you like such Prodigals run fast and deep into debt, which, whilst you find the life of your hand, as the Prophets phrase is, that which supports you with a livelihood, you are jolly and never think of it. O but there will at Death come a day of payment, and then a Prison, out of which you will not get, till you have paid the utmost farthing, and that will never be; and so you lie in chains of darkness to Eternity. What gain by sin will you then think you have got, by that of which you are then ashamed, because by it utterly undone? You may then put it all into your Eyes; and be there weeping it out forever. Penny-wise and pound-foolish will be then a sad Proverb, which you will be sadly thinking of, when all is lost and you with it; to have gained Lordships and Kingdoms by sinful ways will be found greatest loss at last. They will then appear to have been the Devils gifts rather than God's: and as they use to say, that the Devil's Gold which he gives to Witches is found to be but leaves and trash; so you will find these to be such trash, as will yet make Fuel for everlasting burnings. What therefore (you heard out of the Prophet) God in anger smites his hands at, we should with an holy despising (with him, Isa. 33. 15.) shake our hands of, namely of the gain of oppression, bribes, and whatever other unlawful profits, which will then prove loss with a witness. No, then Godliness will appear to have been profitable for all things, 1 Tim. 4. 8. and although in the profession and practice of it, we have met with inward repentant grief, and outward loss and mischief, yet (as Paul saith) we shall in the upshot find, that we have received damage by it in nothing.

2. Nor will all, even lawful acquisitions of outward profits or pleasures, or honors, or the like contentments (as we use falsely to call them) if not better improved and husbanded, make Death gainful, or be gain to us then, when (I say not the unlawful getting or using or keeping of them, for that I spake to in the former Head, but) the bare resting and satisfying ourselves in them, without making out after, and sure of Christ, who is both in Life and Death advantage, will be the loss of our Souls; and what hath a Man then gained, though he had gained the whole World? Matth. 16. 26. In regard of usual events in ordinary providence, Solomon saith, there is a time to get, and a time to lose, Eccles. 3. 6. and all our Life should be a getting time to get Grace and Peace, that so at length we may gain Glory; but there is no time to lose, at least to lose our Souls, especially death is no such time, when, if they be lost, they are lost forever.

Saul's lost Asses may be again found, and so the lost Sheep (and such were the best of us) in this Life may be also; but Souls lost at Death will never be able afterward to find the way to Life: nor will all the riches of the World be able to purchase then a Guide to it.

Indeed in the right improving of them for God and the Poor, thou mayst be laying a good foundation (as the Apostle speaks, 1 Tim. 6. 18, 19.) against time to come, that, when Death comes, thou mayst lay hold of everlasting Life: but the bare enjoying of them, though it may set thee on higher ground amongst Men here below, yet it will never be able to lift thee up to God's favor in Life, or to Heaven in Death. The gain of these things is the Devil's Bait, and therefore he cast it out as his last device to take our Savior with, All this will I give thee, &c. Matth. 4. 9. and with which 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he enticeth Men to the loss of their Souls, and so the same Greek word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifieth both Gain and Craft or Deceit, because by gain he craftily deceives Men to their perdition. And so his prime Scholar Simon Magus, (because, as Solomon saith, Money answereth all things) would be chaffering with it for Spirituals: but Peter gave him his Answer, that his Money was not current in God's Market, but bade it perish with him; so that it seems he might perish for all it with it: and if gain be all his Godliness, all that his gain will be found to be loss at his last reckoning, and then the Covetous, who are most greedy of gain, will be greatest losers, as the Prophet pronounceth a Woe against such, Hab. 2. 9.

3. Nor will the bare enjoying of outward Ordinances, though more gainful, make Death our gain, which yet Men are too ready to fancy and promise to themselves. Now know I (saith Micah) that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my Priest, Judge. 17. 13. and it is a Plea which some even at Death and Judgment will knock boldly at the Gate of Heaven with, to have it opened to them, We have eaten and drank in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our Streets, Luke 13. 26. And to this day it's a very short cut that some are ready to make from a Death-bed to Heaven; they have been Baptized, and by it Original sin was taken away from them, and they have gone to Church to Prayer, Sermon, and Sacrament, and if then at the point of Death they may have their actual sins taken off by Absolution, and receive the Sacrament upon it for confirmation of it, they make no question but they shall go bolt right up to Heaven; and whatever their lives be, Death will be their gain without all peradventure. But Friend, be not too hasty to reckon without your Host, sit down a little, and think seriously of these Scriptures. Bodily exercise profiteth little, 1 Tim. 4. 8. It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the Flesh profiteth nothing, John 6. 63. Circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the Law; but if thou beest a breaker of the Law, thy Circumcision is made uncircumcision, Rom. 2. 25. It's not the bare having them, but profiting by them in one sense, if either in Life or Death thou wouldst be profited by them in another. Indeed we read Rom. 3. 1, 2. What advantage hath the Jew, or what profit is there of Circumcision? Much every way, and chiefly, because unto them were committed the Oracles of God, saith Paul; and so say I, great is the gain that in Life and Death we get by them, if we in Life gain saving-Grace, and Souls-advantage by them: but they will not be so if we live wickedly, or but unfruitfully under them, and so have our condemnation aggravated by them, as some would gather out of Revel. 14. those that will not be gathered in the Gospel's Harvest. v. 15, 16. will be pressed in the Vintage of God's Judgments, v. 17, 18.

4. Nor will outward Profession, and a fair show under those Ordinances, which too many rest in, and hope to gain Heaven by, accrue to their advantage at Death, and their last account then. Paul could say, Though I speak with the Tongues of Men and Angels, and though I have the gift of Prophesy, and Faith to remove Mountains, and bestow all my goods on the Poor, and have not true Charity, it profiteth me nothing, 1 Cor. 13. 1, 2.

And more near to my purpose; that's a sad question, Job. 27. 8. What is the hope of the Hypocrite though he hath gained this and that, and the repute with Men, with Christians of more than ordinary proficiency in Grace and Holiness, when God takes away his Soul? Man, thou wilt then be stripped (for we shall all be judged) naked, and then, as Solomon saith in another case, Prov. 23. 8. The Morsel thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words: the hid corruption of thy Heart will then up and out, to the loathing of both thyself and others: and all those sweet words and pretences by which thou didst impose upon others, and endeavouredst upon God also, will be all lost, and thou with them, when thou shalt find that of the Apostle Rom. 2. 28, 29. made good, He is not a Jew, who is one outwardly, neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the Flesh: but he is a Jew, who is one inwardly, and Circumcision is that of the Heart in the Spirit, and not in the Letter, whose praise is not of Men but of God.

There are several literal Mistakes, and some mispointings in the Hebrew words, which the Candid and Learned Reader is desired to amend. The other most material here follow.

PAge 3. Line 13. Read by. p. 4. l. 3. r. notional. p. 9. in the margent, r. John the most Eagle-eyed Evangelist. p. 21. l. 32. r. Michal. p. 24. l. 8. dele self after him. p. 32. l. 31. r. add some. p. 81. l. ult. r. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . p. 88. l. 11. r. Josh. 4. 18. p. 91. l. 17. r. lumber. p. 112. marg. r. legis sectam. p. 122. l. 8. r. in Christ. p. 182. l. 35. for God himself, r. Godliness. p. 183. l. 36. for cross, r. crass. p. 224. l. 18. r. meant. p. 230. l. 8. r. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . p. 232. l. 9. r. adore him for. p. 233. l. 13. r. could bestow. p. 239. l. 38. for crimes, r. aims. p. 247. l. 4. r. is terminus. p. 378. l. 1. r. quid. p. 403. l. 15. r. this. p. 415. l. 8. dele why. p. 441. l. 23. r. faedus. p. 462. l. ult. & 463. l. 1. r. none before the guide. p. 469. l. 30. r. persons. p. 471. l. 15. r. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . p. 474. l. 21. r. Anaxagoras. p. 478. l. 35. r. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . p. 489. l. 20. r. Rearward. p. 511. marg. l. 21. r. prima q. 105. p. 537. l. ult. r. conflatus à Vulcano. p. 538. l. 2. r. firmer. p. 542. l. 34. r. there, by. p. 560. l. 23. r. main chance. p. 561. l. 21. r. left. p. 564. l. 1. after small, insert But the King. p. 566. l. 27. r. Abject. l. 26. r. rescued. p. 594. l. 35. r. the Psalmist saith. p. 614. l. 25. after come, add when it doth come. l. 37. r. enjoying. p. 652. l. ult. dele of it. p. 661. l. 26. r. Jesuates. p. 666. l. 24. r. move. p. 668. l. 12. after Gen. 30. 29. add, But a Christian should say thus with himself. p. 672. l. 8. r. inquam. p. 678. l. 15. r. privatively. p. 686. l. 12, for say, r. answer. P. 692. l. 31. r. enow.