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mans which is Gods. Laftly, this labour hath a date and an end, it hathtempus refrigerii; upon the amending your lives, God will put away your finnes, and a time of refreshing shall come from the prefence of the Lord, Acts 3. 19. Let this be laftly your comfort, that though you labour long, yet you shall have a refting after your labour.

In fudore vultûs tui vefcitor cibo, donec revertaris in humum, Gen 3. 19: cum ex ea defumptus fueris: nam pulvis es, & in pulverem

revertêris.

:

Ow are we to handle the other part of Adams Sen. O&ober 29;
tence and punishment; and in the Sentence we 1598.
are to confider the ground of it, and the nature
or form of it Difobedience is the ground of The ground
this fentence, and this Sentence is made even a and nature of
Law; for according to that of Paul, Romans 6. 2.

the Sentence.

The Law of life which is in Chrift Fefus, bath freed me from the Law of finne and of death, fo that fiane is the cause of death. Hence fprung the Pelagian herefie, condemned by the Councell of Carthage; That faid that though we finned, yet we concil Carth.. were freed, though we lived never fo diffolutely, yet we were faved. After Chrifts comming death was not the reward of finne :\ but mark what St. Fames, in his first chapter and thirteenth verse, faith, when luft hath conceived, it bringeth forth finne, and finne, when it is finished, bringeth forth death; and St. Paul, in the fifth to the Romans the nineteenth and the twenty firft, faith, That as by one mans· Death, difobedience many were made finners, so by the obedience of one many were made righteous and further, That as finne reigned unto death, sograce. by righteousness might reign to eternall life. Truth it is, that through fin came death, and that death hath rule over all; Adam at the first by finne brought death, the last Adam by obedience brought ever> lafting life; and as Paul, in the first to the Corinthians the fifteenth: chapter and the twenty fixth verfe, faith, That the last enemie that? Chrift fhould destroy was death, for as it is in the fame chapter, Asing Adam all die, fo in Christ all shall be made alive; and the very wages of lievinu finne is death, but the gift of God is eternall life, faith Paul in the fixth to the Romans and the twenty third verfe. Touching the nature and The nature form of the finne, God is not the agent in finne, but the caufe of and form of finne is only from Adam himself. And according to that of the God is not Wife man in his firft chapter and thirteenth verfe, God hath not made caufe of finne death, neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living; and inther Adam and fin eighteenth of Exekiel and the twenty third, God hath no defire that cause of deaths the wicked should die, but if even the wicked return from his waiès he fball, Live: fo that Adam and his finne was the cause of death, death was

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finne.

A Law.

thou return.

made by him, for God is the God of life. It was the finne of Nineveh that made God to threaten deftru&tion to Nineveh within fourty dayes; but when, as it is in the third of Fonah and the eighth, they returned by repentance from their evill waies, God fhewed mercie and they were not destroyed. Adam he forfook God of himself, and fo he brought death to himself: So long as he fhewed his obedience unto God, the other Creatures were obedient unto him, there was no enmity between him and the other Creatures; in time of obedience he was not in danger of death: God breathed into Adam life, Adam brought death. The Prophet inthe 194. Pfalme 29. faith, If thou take away their breath, they return to their duft, lo that life is Gods, but duft is their own, ground and they have their moisture, and when that moisture is dried up and taken away it turneth to duft; ex argilla fabricavit hominem Deus: Fob in his tenth chapter and ninth verfe faith to God, Remember that thou haft made me as the clay, and wilt thou bring me to duft Again: for if the moisture of the grace of God be taken away, what are we but duft. The Heavens fend down the dew from above to moiften the Earth, falah 45. 8. It is the spirit of God that giveth the moisture to beliefe, Fohn 7. 39. It that be taken away we are but duft. Thus farre of it as a Sentence.

Now of this as of a Law: Firft touching the certainty of it in To duft fhalt these words, to dust thou shalt return; of the uncertainty when, donec, untill. There are those that escape the first part of this punishment of Adam, that live not in the fweat of their face, qui non vivunt ex Labore fudoris, there are those that live at cafe and yet fare daintily, that have aboundance and take no pains, that lie upon their Beds as the door turneth upon his hinges, Proverbs 26. 14. But though they escape that part of the Sentence, this part takes hold of all, for all must die; this is univerfall this is certain Statutum eft, it is a Statute and a Law that all muft die, from the first to the laft Adam, the fift to the Romans the fifteenth. David himself faith of himself in regard of mortalitie of the body, Pfalme the twenty fecond and the fixth, 1 am a worm and not a man. We have comfort in Jefus Chrift to live for ever this was it that Jefus faid, that Fohn should not die, the twenty first of Fohn and the twenty third, and by him we look for the refurection of the body. This it was that made Fob, in his nineteenth chapter and twenty fixth verfe,to fay That though after my skin wormes deftroy this body, yet fhall I fee God in my flesh. Touching the extent of this,that it is univerfall to all to die, it is plain not to be denied, for as it is in the eighty ninth Pfame and the fourty eighth verse: What man liveth and shall not fee death? fhall be deliver his foul from the grave? Though God hath faid to Kings and Princes and Judges of the earth, yee are Gods and Children of the Almighty, yet yec fhall die as men and fall like others, Pfalme the eighty fecond and the seventh, laquei mortis, the fnares of death compass about the Godly, their body goeth tothe grave, but their foul returneth to reft, Pfalme the one hundred fixth and the feventh verfe; and as it is in the fe

A univerfall
Law.

cond

cond of the Preacher and the fixteenth, The wife man dieth as well as the fool Look what fentence is given upon man, falls upon the reft of the Cicatures, for man is the great Count-palatine of the world, and the chief mover in the Sphear; as he moveth all are moved, and the Elements, and Birds, and Beats were fubje&t to Mans change; his disobedience made all disobedient and out of order; yea as the Wile-man faith in the nineteenth of Ecclefiaft. and the fifth All the living know affuredly they shall die. So much for the certainty to all.

323

Now of the uncertainty of the time, donec untill, which is veric uncertainty. uncertain. Ifaack though he were old and neer his death, yet in Donec untill. the twenty seventh of Genefis and the fecond he faid, fenex fum & diem mortis nefcio, I am now old and know not the day of my death. The men of this world have their Portion in this life: there are the gates of death, as David (peaketh, and laquei mortis, the snares of death. This time cannot be difcerned, it is nigheft us when we think our felves moft fecure: For when the rich man had layed up ftore for many years, and faid to his foul take thou thy reft, even then came it, hac nocte, this night thou shalt die. Death is pronounced upon all, but a flaming fire and vengeance belongeth only to the ungodly, the fecond to the Theffalonians, the first chapter and the eighth and ninth verses.

Now touching the mittigation of this death in this fentence of Mercy in death death, for as the Wife-man fpeaketh in the feventh chapter and the feventeenth verfe The vengeance of the wicked is fire and wormes; this bitterness must be alayed, for as Bernard faith, non eft crux fine Chrifto, non eft punitio fine unitione, there is no cross without comfort, no punishment without ointment. Chrift delivereth them from the fear of death (that is Gods anger) that all their life were Subject to bondage, the second to the Hebrews and the fifteenth fo then the fear of death must be alayed with the hope of life. For The fear of though the wicked be caft off for his malice, yet the righteous bath hope in death. his death; the fourteenth of the Proverbs and the thirty fecond. This life. The hope of is joy to us even in death, that Chrift will change this vile body, that it may be fashioned like his glorious body, the third to the Philipians and the twenty firft, and according to the fourteenth of the Revelations and the thirteenth, their hope is with a bleffing; beati mortui qui in domino moriuntur, bleffed are the dead which die in the Lord, for they rest from their laboares. Now in the verie words of the Sentence are implied two forts of this delay: Donec implieth that they fhall la- Donec implieth bour untill, then untill implieth no eternity: there is a confumma. an end of la tion of labour there is end of labour and an affurance of reft, the bleffed reft from their labours: tempus eft refrigerii, there is a time of refreshing, the third of the Acts and the nineteenth. They that live in cafe are weary of it: Salomon, in the firft of the Kings the ele venth chapter and the fourth verfe, died in his age. Abraham, in the twenty fifth of Genefis and the eighth, yeelded the spirit and died a good Death is a age; and death is not only a refting from labour,but from fione allo. refting from Labour and Paul from finne.

:

Tt 2

bour.

A delaying of the punish

ment.

A bodily

The Soul immortall.

Paul, in the seventh to the Romans and the twenty fourth, defireth to be delivered from the body of finne, which he calleth the body of death. The holy Fathers on that place, but this difference, that the Martyrs defire to die that they might not finne, the Malefactors because they have finned.

The other part of the delay is the chiefeft, which is the confideration, that there is an exemption of death from the best part of man a qualifying of the punishment, for the foul and body both offended, but the body only is punished, the foul mans better part is punishment. free, that is not touched. He faith not here thon fhalt die the death, but thou shalt return to duft; for as it is in the third of the Preacher and the twentieth, all was of the dust and all shall return to duft: It is the body only that returneth to duft, but the foul returneth to God that gave it. Mans heavenly part shall be free from this sentence: the head of man, his foul, which is neereft God fhall be safe, though his heel be bruised: The earthly part fhall return to that it was, but the heavenly part reteineth ftill the immortality. If Chrift be in us, the body is dead, because of finne ; but the spirit is life for righteousness fake, the eighth of the Romans and the tenth. This then giveth comfort in death, that though the body die the foul fhall live for ever: This gave comfort to Adam that he had thus well escaped, that in the very next verfe he calleth his Wife with joy Hevah, which is the Mother not of the dead but of the living, for Hevah is mater viventium. In the twentieth of Luke the thirty leventh and thirty eighth verses, The Lord is called the God of Abraham, of Ifaac, and of Facob; yet is he not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live unto him yet then the Patriarchs were dead, but though the Grave had their body, God had their foul: the Patriarchs died, their foul lives, the third of Exodus the fixth, to be compared with the former place; for after death they were not dead, but removed to another state of life. God will bring his again from the depth of the Sea, Pfalme the fixty eight The firft death and the twenty fecond, fo the godly fhall fuffer the first death; Reve

Hevab the

Mother of the

living.
The Lord is

Dem viven

tium.

The fecond

death,

lations the twenty firft and the eighth, expoundeth that place: But the wicked and the accurfed fhall have their part in the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the fecond death the first death is the death of all, the first death only is the death of Saints, but the fe cond death is the death of finners. Davids foul is delivered from the Sword, Pfalme the twenty fecond and the twenty first; but death feedeth alwaies upon the wicked as fheep feed upon a Common, and as their life was without repentance, fo their death fhall be without end: the godly wish for death to reft from their labours,the wicked wish for death that live in torment, which is great, Revelations 9.6. The gates of death are mentioned in the Pfalmes, and in the seventh of the Proverbs and the twenty seventh, Penetralia mortis, the Chambers of death. The wicked live not only in the Gates, in the Courts, in the Chambers of death, but even in the Dungeon of death, in the twenty third Pfalme and the fourth verse, and in the feventh of the Romans the twenty fourth, are to be delayed: in the one is

mention

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Refurre&ion,

Return,

mention of umbra mortis, in the other corpus mortis; they are to be delayed, with the 9. of Marke, the 1. where it is faid, that fome there are that shall not taste of death, till they have feen the Kingdome of God come with power: So that the first death takes hold of the gody, but the fecond death toucheth them not; For they that be faithfull untò death, fhall be crowned with a crown of life, Revel. 2. 10. and in the II. verfe, the godly that overcome shall not be bure of the second death: Ifaiah 26. 19. they are subject to the naturall death, but tree from Death naturall the eternall death: This is their comfort in the first death, to have and eternall. deliverie from the second death, By the refurrection of the dead to life is a fecond return, for by the first return the body retur neth from duit to duft, but the second is from duft to gloric, which is a return not of the foul, but of the body allo; according to that of Fob, This body of flesh shall be covered with immortalitie : and accor ding to that of Hofea, the 13. chapter and the 14. verfe; The godly fhall be redeemed from the power of the grave and death: and according to that place of the Prophecic, Chrift will be the death of death it self; but most plain of all, is that of the 1. of the Revelations the 18. fpoken of Chrift, That he is alive but was dead, but now he is alive for evermore, and he hath the keyes of bell and of death: This then doth alay and qualifie the bitterness of this fentence. Hence now may The ule hereof we gather use to our felves in these five things: The firft is though is diverse to it be bitter yet it is wholfome: the firft ufe is taken out of pulvis es, learn. Learn hence unde es from whence thou art; thou art but of a clod, be not proud; thou treadeft upon that thou art made, let that put Humility thee in minde of humilitie, boaft not of thy honour, for thy honour is in the duft. There is nothing in the grave whither thou goeft, Preacher 9. 11. Quid ergo attollis cervicem in pulverem reverfuram ? this is a means to learn humility, learn of your felves what you are and then be humble. Austin luth that the time will come to give an account to God of thy doings; remember thy own frailty and be not proud, for God knoweth whereof we be made, he remembreth we are but duft, Pfal. 103. 14.

I.

2.

To regard

life as duft.

The fecond ufe is out of pulvis in pulverem, dust to duft. We must remember whither we are to goe: we are now duft, but fub alienâ formâ in the likeness of flesh, but we shall be duft in the likeness of things of this duft it felf; our flesh of dust shall be turned into duft: and according to that of the 14. of the 11. Thy pompe and pleasure is brought down so the grave, the worms fhall cover thee: then with Fob. 17. 14. then maist fay to corruption, thou art my Father, and to the worm, thou art my Mother and Sifter; and as it is in the 26. of Isaiah and the 19. the duft must be our dwelling: joy not then in the joyes of this world which are but duft and corruptible; they are as Austin faith gaudie privanda; but forrow for gaudia aterna privanda, sorrow left thou be deprived of eternall joyes.

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The third ufe for instruction is out of revertêris, shalt thou return,
The ftate of our life is alwaies in motion and in revolving like a Our life
Ship a failing. Fob, in his 14. chapter and 14. verfe, called the te

T13

unconftant

or death furre&tion uncertain,

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