ΘΑΝΑΤΟΚΤΑΣΙΑ. OR, DEATH DIS ARMED: And the Grave swallowed up in Victory.  
A Sermon preached at S. Mary's in Cambridge, Decemb. 22. 1653. At the public Funerals of Dr. Hill, Late Master of Trinity College in that University. With a short account of his Life and Death. To which are added two Sermons more upon the same Text, preached afterward in the same place.  
By ANTHONY TUCKNEY, D. D. Master of S. John's College in Cambridge.  I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plague; O grave, I will be thy destruction. Hosea 13. 14. 
LONDON, Printed for J. Rothwel, at the Fountain and Bear in Goldsmiths-row in Cheapside; And S. Gellibrand at the Ball in Paul's Churchyard, 1654.   

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL my ever honoured Friend, Mr. FRANCIS ASH. Merchant, and Governor of the Muscovia Company of the City of LONDON.  
SIR,  
THat I print this Sermon, is not out of any compliance with the scribbling humour of these times, or from the least thought, that by it I shall add any thing to the Argument it treats of, which from other abler men's labours may not be had with better advantage: But only from the importunity of some friends, whom I could not well deny, and whose aim in it was the glory of God, and the keeping alive the memory of That his faithful servant at whose Funerals it was preached.  
But seeing that, such as it is, it must be Printed, That I dedicate it to yourself, I have many great causes, which although you be not, yet I am desirous that others may take notice of: Amongst them, I may not, without ingratitude, omit your undeserved respects to myself.  
But I must especially reckon your plain and single-hearted Candor and Integrity, which the painted Pageants of many others now a days set off with a greater lustre.  
Your cordial love of God's truth, and of that good old Doctrine according unto godliness, which those Worthies of God, under whom you and I have been trained up, preached, and lived, and died in the belief, practice, and comfort of, to which you do well firmly to adhere, whilst too many in this giddy Age are turned aside to vain janglings, and 
1 Tim. 1. 6 2 Pet. 2. ●.  pernicious errors;  
Your fervent zeal for Christ's Ministry and Ministers, so that whom others despise, you honour; and whom the foot of pride, even of the basest, is ready to tread down and trample upon, your humility and love endeavour to uphold: Witness that your great, and for many years rarely paralleled bounty, in giving (and that in your life time) the large sum of very nigh three hundred pounds per annum, to most pious uses, viz. towards the maintenance  
Of poor Ministers Widows.  
Of a Lecture in London, the place of your longest abode.  
Of two Schools, the one in the place of your Birth, and the other of your 
Derby, ashby de l● Zouch.  Education.  
And especially of that happy Society of Emmanuel College in this University, on which you have been pleased to confer the greatest share of it.  
That this plentiful shower of your bounty should be directed to fall on that fruitful Field, which God all along hath so abundantly blessed, was his good hand guiding yours to lay it on the head of that fruitful Ephraim.  
That your favour to myself should in any measure incline your heart to that College of which I was then an unworthy Member, was your goodness so much to honour me. But that which rendereth both yourself, and your gift more highly valued and honoured by All, is  
1. The greatness of it making you a second Founder, at least (after their most pious Founder) the greatest Benefactor that ever that College had. Like Solomon's Clouds, which when full 
Eccl. 1●. ●  of rain, empty themselves abundantly upon the earth; herein you have obeyed God's command, in opening your hand 
Deut. 1● 11. 1 Tim. 6 17. 1●.  wide. Followed his example, who giveth to all richly. Answered has expectation, who requireth much where he hath given much. Ten talents, 
Luk. 12. 48. Matth. 25. 20. Deut. 26. 10. & Prov. 3. 9, 10. Math. 25. 24, 25, 26, 27. etc.  where he hath given five.  
As Sovereign Lord he will be acknowledged by all. Something he expecteth from them on whom he hath bestowed least; but much, on whom more. So that he who in this or the like kind doth nothing, is an evil servant, a practical Atheist, thereby in true interpretation saying, that he hath received nothing: and he who having received much, giveth but little, doth but tell over again Saphira's lie in saying, yea, so much, when it was much more, that 
Acts 5. 8, 9, 10.  made her doom very heavy; whilst you, whose pound hath gained ten pounds may comfortably expect to hear that blessed Euge, Well done good and 
L●k. 19 16, 17.  faithful servant. And whatever others may think and say, yet if Scripture may be Judge, you have herein done the part of a good husband: hereby making God your debtor, who being eternal, 
Prov. 19 17.  will have time enough to show himself a true paymaster, and a most plentiful rewarder of your bounty with his. The prudent husbandman, whatever else he is sparing of, will not scant his seed-corn; it seemeth you intent 
2 Cor. 9 6. Prov. 11. ●7.  by sowing liberally to reap liberally; thus you have done good to yourself, whilst you have withal honoured 
Prov. 3. 9  God, our Nation, and the whole Reformed Religion. Papists boast much of their great good works; but some of our Divines have truly 
Dr. Willet,  made it out by Induction of particulars, that (for their time and ability) Protestant's have equalled and exceeded them; and let your happy name be added, and in fair letters written in that lovely Catalogue.  
2. The pious and religious Grounds and ends of giving it; it was not in way of any Popish penance to expiate the guilt of some fouler crime, which in those blind times built many of their Churches and Monasteries, nor a Legacy bequeathed by the will of some cruel oppressor, who after that in his life time by his exactions he had made many poor, on his deathbed from sting of conscience is enforced to take care for the maintaining of some of them, this was no such trucking either with God or man, with the Papist to merit at God's hands, or with the vainglorious Pharisee to blow a Trumpet to gain 
Math. 6. 2. Hos. 12. 7. Joh. 2. 14.  applause with men, which is but to play the Merchant and money-changer in the Temple, and in making up their last accounts to close up all former oppressions with a new kind of usury; your eye was more single, did not look so asquint, when it looked so favourably upon that College, but as you were pleased to build upon their honourable Founders religious foundation, so you both had the very same pious intention. He expresseth his in the Preface to his statutes in those words, Pro mea facultate Religionis, & vitae puritatem ad posteros nostros propagare, that according to his ability he might propagate purity of life and doctrine to posterity; from whence some great men, and their small friends then at the very first thought they smelled a Puritan: you as clearly manifest yours in the words of your Donation to be, For and towards the furtherance of godliness and learning, that so the Church of God may be thereby the better provided of godly, learned, and Orthodox Ministers. Blessed be God, that both of you so happily meet in the same work, with the same heart, and as He in the view of all, hath manifestly obtained his end, whilst that little younger sister hath been as fruitful as any; so may you also yours, in her continuance and increase of yet more fruitfulness answerable to Gods wider opening his hand to her, in his and your bounty.  
3. The time and season in which it was given. This, as it rendereth every thing beautiful, so it presents 
Eccl. 3. 11 Prov. 2. 5. 11.  your rich gift, as apples of Gold in pictures of Silver: as a smile from heaven, when earth frowned; a Cordial in a fainting fit. When our Almanac Diviners could read in the Heavens our Ministry and Universities to be falling Stars; and our ABC Divines, pretending to more divine inspirations both in Pulpit and Pamphlet, could foretell the sudden ruin of both, and then like a Jonah return to their boo●● to see what would become of 
Jonah 4. 5.  them; When Ignorance driveled, and madness foamed and raved with distracted nonsense, and malice plotted our overthrow, and all (Edom-like) cried Raze it, raze it to the foundation, than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or rather in 
Psal. 137. 7. Psal. 46. 1.  Scripture-expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then our God from on high looked through the pillar of fire upon the host of those Egyptians, 
Exod. 14. 24, 25.  and took off their Chariot-wheels when they drove so furiously. And then also it was that you in your place and rank reached out your able and friendly band to hold and lift us up, when others would have cast us down; and if he who helpeth to uphold the weak man at any time doth a friendly office, he who beareth him up when he is now stumbling and ready to 
Job 12. 5.  slip, and so is as a despised lamp, subject to be trod out as a snuff, doth him a double courtesy: by this God himself commendeth his love to his people, in that he is a Strength, but that to the poor and needy, and that in his distress, 
Isa. 25. 4.  a refuge from the Tempest, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall: such blasts we have felt; but blessed be God, and those his servants, who have been as 
Isa. 32. 2.  an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from such Tempests; and blessed be you also who durst set your shoulder to uphold a falling wall, and then to appear for us, when so many so violently opposed us; and others who wished us well, could better pity then help us: a piece not so much of Roman gallantry, which adventured upon the 
Florus l. 2  purchase of that field in which Annibal had pitched his camp, as of true Christian magnanimity, like Joseph of Arimathea, who in that hour and power of darkness in extrema desperatione intrepidè in lucem prodiit, and 
Calvin in Joh. 19 38. Mark. 15. 43.  boldly appeared for a crucified Saviour. Let others admire the gay Tulip, which will close up when night or a cold blast comes; in my eye that is a pleasant plant that will bloom and blossom in an hard Frost; and that a stately bird which will swim up against the stream, while light straws and such trash are carried down with it.  
In this you have proved yourself a true friend, to love thus at all times, 
Prov. 17. ● 17.  and more than a brother that is born for adversity. Constancy in such times when the generality of the world ran a contrary course, made Athanasius in 
Ornt. 21. in Laudem Athanasii.  Nazianzens esteem both Adamas and Magnes; and you in this have proved both; the Adamant in your invincible resolution, notwithstanding all discouragements; and thereby must needs prove the Loadstone to draw both ours and all good men's hearts to you. Although therefore they were too bold to tell our Saviour that the Centurion was worthy to be gratified by him, because he loved their Nation, and built them a 
Luk. 7. 4.  Synagogue; Yet you who plead no merit with God, are deservedly worthy to be honoured by men, and shall ever be by me, for the like love and bounty. This hath begot you the trouble of this Dedication; and may your perusal of the book conduce any thing to the guidance of your life, or the comfort of your death, I shall account myself to have received a rich reward of this poor labour.  
You read of Isaac's going out into the field to meditate in the evening; 
Gen. 24. 63.  Sir, it is about that time of the day with you; shall you therefore please in this your evening-walk and meditation, that it may sometimes bear you company, I hope you and I shall have the more cause to rejoice at our last most comfortable meeting. Now that God and Father who hath been the guide of your youth, be the staff of your age, that you may be so planted in his house, and flourish 
Psal. 92. 13, 14.  in his Courts, that you may still bring forth more fruit in your old age, and your fruit may remain and perpetuate 
Joh. 15. 16. Isa. 56. 5.  you a name better than of sons and daughters, which (God enabling me) shall be the constant and instant prayer of  
SIR, Your affectionate friend, very much obliged to love and honour you, ANTHONY TUCKNEY. Cambridge, March 27 1654.   

DEATH DISARMED. AND THE GRAVE Swallowed up in Victory.  

SERMON I.  1 COR. 15. 55. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 
THE Apostle calleth it, the good fight of faith, 1 Tim. 6. 12. every way good, and best, because at last it always ends well, in victory, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
1 John 5. 4  it overcomes; nay, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, proves more than conqueror as many other 
Rom. 8. 37.  ways, so this for one, that as this fight ends in victory, so this victory in triumph. For here (otherwise then with the Romans of old) the Conqueror always triumpheth; and so we have this our Conqueror ever and anon brought in triumphing, over sin and misery, and death itself.  
Over sin; Miserable man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Rom. 7. 24, 25.  
Over all accusers, and all outward evil▪ and enemies; Who shall impeach? who shall condemn? who shall separate? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, & c? nay, I am persuaded, that none of all these, that nothing at all shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, Rom. 8. 33, 34. etc.  
And lastly, over the last enemy of all, which is death and the grave; as here in the Text, and following Verses: O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law; but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.  
In all, observe, that it is still through Jesus Christ our Lord, and through our Lord Jesus Christ: Happy man that could say it! and more blessed grace of faith that could prompt and enable him to it! but above all, most blessed be the Captain of our Salvation, who gave that faith such strength, and thereby this man of God such a conquest, that when world and sin, death and hell had done their worst, they had done him none, but themselves all the mischief, by bruising his heel had broken their own head: so that now as vanquished, and lying prostrate at his feet; as Joshuab over the Ganaanitish 
Josh. 10▪ 24.  Kings, or as a little David over a great Goliath, he treads on 
1 Sam. 17. 51.  their necks, trampleth on the Lion and Dragon, without fear of hurt, their teeth being broken, and their sting taken out, and in this joyful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, at once  
Both insulteth over them; O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?  
And withal exulteth and triumpheth in God through Christ. Now thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.  
The enemies here triumphed over, are death and the grave, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the latter whereof answereth to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; which if Del-Rio will needs have to be always in 
Adagial: Sacr: in 2 Sam. 22. Digress: 2.  Scripture meant of Hell, I must needs say, that I think Job was not of his mind, for than he would not have so desired to be hid in it, as he doth, Job 14. 13. And therefore the Jesuit 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  when he undertakes to prove that it is so understood in all the places of Scripture where it is used, though he endeavour to clear no fewer than 87 places, did very wisely overlook and leave out this, which (it may be) he could not so well satisfy: I grant that you may here find Hell set down in the Margin of your Bibles, but it's not to be found in the Text, for that Hell never loseth its victory, nor will the prayer, no not of a Gregory, though never so great, (whatever they fable) rescue any that is once become its prisoner. Ours oft translate it the grave, and so both here and in many other places it must be meant: Generally it signifieth the state of the dead after their dissolution: and so the latter word may only hold out a continuation of what was in the former: both very near of kin, and as such you 
Cant. 8. 6. Rev. 1. 18. Rev. 6. 8. Rev. 20. 13, 14.  have them often in Scripture linked together. In effect, they are the same, and so the Vulgar Interpreter here in stead of these two words Death and Grave, hath the same word Death in both clauses of the Verse: and besides, transporteth the other words, as Beza, and others also do, 
Junius in Parallelis.  who read them thus, O death, where is thy victory? O grave, where is thy sting? Contrary to the Greek, Syriack, and Arabic Copies, yet in Beza's judgement better suiting with the following Verse, in which I crave leave to descent; for I find the word sting joined to the word death there also: He might rather have said, that so it would be more agreeable to the Hebrew in Hos. 13. 14. from which place this Text is taken, with some variation of words, (which I now pass by) but fully agreeing in the same sense. Which is, to represent death and the grave to us in a double, but much different view and posture.  
1. As an enemy in himself armed, and so formidable to all, and so death hath its sting, and the grave hath, or will have the victory.  
2. As the same enemy by Christ the Captain of our Salvation disarmed, and so to the believer made contemptible, and so (as to such) by Jesus Christ, death hath lost his sting, and the grave shall at last be swallowed up in victory.  
For that is the true meaning of this question, O death, where is thy sting? etc. In which the Apostle doth not ask, where that was, which they never had, but what they once were possessed, but now by Christ, as to his servants, are despoiled of. I begin with the first.  
Death (in itself, and as to those Doct. 1 
1 Sam. 26. 16.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, those sons of death who are not rescued from the power of it) hath its sting, and the grave hath, or will have the victory: to which agreeth that proverbial expression, Cant. 8. 6. Strong as death, which overcometh all, and cruel as the grave, which spareth none. But more particularly,  
1. Death hath its sting: A Metaphor taken from some poisonous Serpent, or Scorpion, which with its sting poison's, wound's, kill's, and this sometimes suddenly, unavoidably, irrecoverably.  
And this death doth  
1. To the bodily life, as it is the destruction of it; and so life and death are opposed, Deut. 30. 15. and if Hezekiah must die, he cannot live, Isa. 38. 1.  
And were this all; yet thus, as it is the dissolution and destruction of nature, and the violent parting of soul and body, those two long acquainted 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Plat. Gorgias. Ethic. l. 3.  and near united friends,  
Even pure nature (and that in our Saviour himself, Matth. 26. 36, 37, 38, 39) innocently recoileth from it.  
But to mere natural men, even in the Philosopher's account, is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and although some of them, whilst death was at a distance in a Philosophic bravery, could call them fools that were afraid 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Sophocl. Aeschylus Epictetus.  of it, and call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Hermach: with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as though not death itself, but only our opinion of it were terrible: yet usually (as divers of them confess) when after all those vaunts and braves, death indeed came near them, it had a more grim visage that affrighted them: and although some of them even then either out of brutish senselessness, or some passion of pride, could in a desperate frolic rush upon it as the horse doth into the 
Jer. 8. 6.  battle; yet in cooler blood, it was wont to put them into a shaking fit, with the great Emperors pallidula, rigida, nudula; and if Epictetus will except Socrates, yet the common rule which obtained with the most sober of them, was, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; 
Euripid:  the Scripture of truth (I am sure) saith of all such, that through fear of death, they are all their life time subject to bondage, Heb. 2. 15. And if life (as you use to say) be sweet, it can be no less than the bitterness of death, 1 Sam. 15. 32. How bitter is the bare 
Ecclus. 41. 1.  remembrance of it to him that is at ease? but the approach of it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, bitter bitterness, (as the case was then with him) even to an Hezekiah, Isa. 38. 17. and if the message of it made him weep, v. 3. then 
1 Sam. 28. 20.  wonder not if Saul at it swooned quite away.  
It is a bitter sting, that with the 
So Socrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Apud Justin. Mart. ad Graeces adhortat. 1.  prick of it letteth out the life-blood of the dying man, if when it taketh away from him this life, he hath no assurance of a better, but dieth with Aristotle's word in his mouth, dubius morior, quo vadam nescio, be he never so wise a Philosopher, or Adrian's, quos nunc abibis in locos? should he be (with him) never so great an Emperor.  
It is not death, as death, that even the godly desire or rejoice in; for in that sense Paul would not be 
2 Cor. 5. 4. Joh. 21. 18.  unclothed; and Peter is said in that respect to be carried whither he would not. It is some greater good which God vouchsafeth to such at death, and after it, which whilst others then want, and have no assurance of, it must needs be a dolorous and deadly sting, that thus, first letteth out their dearest life.  
2. And therewith, (which is a second stinging wound) all the comforts of life.  
Which should they abide, yet the man is gone, whose very soul was wrapped up in them, but now hath no benefit by them; and then the stateliest room, though never so richly hung and furnished, is but a sad sight, where's nothing else to be seen but the dead master in his coffin in the midst of it.  
All dearest Relations are at once then snapped asunder.  
The pleasantest child (now half fatherless) turns away his face, as not being able to endure to see a dear Father die.  
The dearest wife, which was before the desire of thine eyes, thou now 
Ezek. 24. 16. 21. Gen. 23. 4.  desirest (with Abraham) to have buried out of thy sight.  
Thy most loving friends may then stand by and weep over thee, but cannot help thee; and at last with a longum vale, bid thee good night, and so part: and doth not this 
●uth 1. 17  sting?  
As for Honours and outward greatness, 
1 Sam. 4. 10.  Phinehas his wife now dying, calleth them Ichabod: this sting prick's that swollen bladder, and so his breath goes forth, and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, all his thoughts, all his goodly glistering thoughts, (as that 
Psal. 146. 4  word seemeth to signify) perish. Which words hold not forth a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Pope John the 22. would gather out of them, as though after death his soul should sleep, and think of nothing; but to express that all his former great high thoughts in his life time, then at death come to nothing.  
For pleasures, and former facetious and jovial merriments; old Barzillays 
2 Sam. 19 35.  eyes grow dim in that evening, when he was but now entered within the shadow of death, but are quite closed up in this midnight; in old 
Eccles. 12. 5.  age desire faileth, but in death it is wholly extinct. Death (if nothing do it before) will break many a knot of good fellows: & then adieu sworn fellow-drunkard, & well if you and I can now come to a good reckoning; and adieu also you sweet Mistress, and all that dalliance you wots of, till you and I stand before our Judge, and all that be brought to light which was done by us in secret. And adieu to you too my more innocent merry companion, nec ut soles dabis jocos; the whole club of wits are now all amort, and not one Jest more; for now that God and Death are in good earnest, it is passed Jesting, past Drinking, Whoring, yea, rejoicing in wife, or children, or friends:  
Or Riches, which should they (as with some Nations they are) be buried with thee, yet in that day of 
Prov. 11. 4  wrath they will not be able to profit thee; for if in thy life time they do not (as often they do) make themselves 
Prov. 23. 5  wings and flee away from thee, yet in death thou wilt be taken from them; thy close fist will be then open, and all that dust which before thou gripedst in thy hand, will then 
See Shickard in his Jus Regium cap. 6. Luke 12. 20.  run through thy fingers; and then thou fool, whose shall all these things be? Blessed Hezekiah! who in this case could say of God's Word and Promises, and Providences, In these things is the life of my spirit; but 
Isa. 38. 16.  the very spirit of the worldlings life, is wrapped up in this bundle of outward contentments: so that if that thread be once cut, and so all these be scattered and lost, then as Micah said, What have I more? the man is 
Judg. 18. ●4.  utterly undone, and to whom in time of his life, it was death to part with a penny, it will be an hell at death to part with all; as it was once said by one to a great Lord, upon his showing him his stately house and pleasant Gardens, Sir, You had need make sure of Heaven, or else when you die, you will be a very great loser.  
Nor is this all; for were it only the loss of life, and outward comforts of it, that sting death fasteneth even in the heirs of life.  
3. Thirdly, therefore there is a deeper sting in it, which the godly are freed from: of which we read in the following Verse, in these words, The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law, ie. sin 
Rom. 5. 12. Puncturâ peccati morimur. P. Martyr.  armeth death with its sting, which otherwise could never have had power to hurt or touch us, whatever the Socinian saith to the contrary; and the law now broken doth ex accident irritate, and per se declare, and manifest, and aggravate sin, and so giveth it its strength, and death its warrant thus to arrest and execute us: and hinc illae lachrymae, hence is the deepest sting of death, and deadliest groan of the dying sinner; for that with death, the weight both of sin and the law fall on him together, which presseth him yet lower, and woundeth him deeper even to the soul and conscience, whilst he is hereby made sensible, that his death is the wages of his sin, so that he dieth not as a 
Rom. 6. 23  Martyr, or barely as a Man, but as a Malefactor, under the guilt of sin, and sense of God's wrath; and if there was a painful sting of death in the two former particulars, then in this third is the very poison of it. That, as the sting of a Bee may be very painful, but This is the Hornet and Scorpion: This Scorpions sting in the tail (as those Rev. 9 10.) in the end of our life is most deadly; as they use to say, Maximè mortiferi morsus bestiarum morientium, the biting of a dying beast is most deadly, the sting of death, if dipped in the venom of God's wrath, is both intolerable and incurable. That facies Hypocratica, (which Physicians speak of) of a spent dying man looks very ghastly; but no sight in all the world more dreadful, than to see an awakened dying sinner (as a Saul, Judas, Francis Spira, etc.) conflicting with death, and sin, and the law, and God's curse, and wrath altogether. If in a dying hour, in stead of Gods reviving smile, the sinner meeteth with his deadly frown, so that when death hath made his grave, his sin like a massy grave-stone 
Isa. 24. 20.  lie heavy upon him, how miserably is that poor wretch pressed to death? and how deadly is that groan when you may hear him sighing out his soul with this saddest moan; Oh! I am so sick, that I cannot live, and yet (woeful wretch that I am!) 
Dr. Harris.  so sinful that I dare not die? Oh that I might live! Oh that I might die! O that I might do neither! At non sic abibunt odia, Friend, you shall do both: because you are a sinner, you must die; but because you die in your sin, you shall live in torment to eternity.  
4. For that is the last and worst sting of death, which thrusts the sword in to the hilts; that it is such a sting, quo mortales ex hac vitâ 
Del-Rio Adag: pag. 250.  expellens ad mortem secundam exstimulat, that this first death when come, (if better care be not before taken) will prick us on, and thrust us into a second; for so was the tenor of the first sentence, In dying, thou shalt die. So that one death 
Gen. 2. 17.  leadeth on to another; the first to the second, that whatever it be which the unpardoned sinner suffereth in the first death, it is but the beginning 
Matth. 24. 8. Deut. 32. 22.  of sorrows; the fire now kindled will burn to the lowest hell: for so we read of death mounted on his pale horse, and hell following him, Rev. 6: 8. (and that was in the time of the 
See C. à Lapide in Hos. 13. 14  Gospel, and not only of the Law) that after death cometh judgement, Heb. 7. 29. and that when the body returneth to the dust, the spirit shall return unto God who gave it, Eccles. 12. 7. if not to him as a Father, to be received into his bosom, then as to a Judge, to receive its everlasting doom: and if (as the Apostle saith) the Devil hath the power of death, 
Heb. 2. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Targum, habet imperium mortis. Grotius.  you may easily gather that with some, death and hell are not fare asunder; and although he helped the Heathen, to put out of their minds the dreadfulness of it, by the dream of their Elysian fields, as he doth the Turks now by that of their Paradise: yet to an awakened sinner, now at the point of death, to be but in danger of it, as not knowing whither he shall go, leaveth him at a woeful loss; but if (as they say of the Molle) he hath then first his eyes open, and so cometh to see himself now on the brow of the the hill, and from that precipice now certainly falling into the lake of fire and brimstone, he giveth himself utterly lost for ever. And thus in all these four respects, we see that death hath his sting.  
2. And Hades, or the grave, hath, 
2. Prov. 30. 15. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 5. 24. 2 Kings 2. 11. 1 Cor. 15. 51. Immutatio illa species mortis erit. Beza in Heb. 9 27.  or will have the victory; it being that open Sepulchre, which still crieth, Give, Give, till it have swallowed up all; for it is appointed (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) for all men once to die, Heb. 9 27. even enoch's and Elijahs assumption, and the change of those, who shall be found alive at the last day, being a kind of death, and an analogical dissolution: so that death having one age after another (as it were) mowed down the whole field of the world, and as a last enemy, having conquered all the great Conquerors of the earth, and with them vanquished all else; and still keeping the field, will have thereby obtained a complete victory.  
1. In thus bringing down all.  
2. So as never to have risen more, as some conceive, had it not been for Christ, who as he is the Resurrection and the Life, John 11. 25. so by him only (either as Head or Judge) is the resurrection from the dead, 1 Cor. 15. 21.  
3. And yet further, so as that the most of them that rise again, shall presently sink down again into eternal death: and so this sting proves that worm which never dieth, where the fire never goeth out, Mark 9 48. 
Igne quasi salietur; vide Brugensem in locum. Myrothec in John 3. 36.  but where, the sacrifice is salted with fire, ver. 49. burns but consume's not; fire being of a burning, but salt of a preserving nature. Perdit sed non disperdit, & cruciat ita ut nunquam perimat, as Camero somewhere expresseth it: So that to them the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, will answer the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it will be both in victoriam, and in perpetuum, and so a signal and a final victory.  
Now consider this, ye that forget Use. 
Psa. 50. 22. 1 King. 14. 6.  God; for as the Prophet said to Jeroboams wife, I am sent to you with heavy tidings this day; if there be such a four-forked sting in death, as we have seen in the former particulars; then to you, who are not as yet made partakers of the grace of 
1 Pet. 3. 7.  life, here is matter of 1. Fear. 2 Care.  
First, of Fear: and O that the Use 1 consideration of this sting might now prick your hearts kindly, that the sting itself may not at last mortally wound them: Seneca according to his surly Stoical Principle, would persuade himself and others, that it is ill to desire death, but worse to fear it. But the Word of God teacheth us, that such as they, have no cause to desire it, but great cause hearty to fear it; and that by reason of their fear of it, they are all their life time subject to bondage. 
Heb. 1. 15.  Whence it is, that  
1. In their health and life they cannot endure (their thoughts being fears) seriously to think of it. Like them, who put far away the evil 
Amos 6. 3, 4, 5. 6.  day; and for that purpose, chanted to the sound of the viol, and drunk wine in bowls, to sing and drink away such heart-qualms, as Lewis the 11. who charged all about him not to name the terrible name of death to him; and must not that then be a terrible sight, which a stout man dare not look on?  
2. In their sickness, when death now approacheth; if their eyes be but open, they are horribly affrighted at it. Pashur is then a Magor-missabib. Saul though a King, and 
Jer. 10. 3.  valiant, at the news of it, falleth all along 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, quantus quantus erat, as P. Martyr rendereth 
1 Sam. 28. 20.  it; and the taller he was, the heavier was his fall. Belshazzar a mighty 
Dan. 5. 1, 2 3, 4, 5, 6.  Emperor, and now in the height of his jollity, upon the like occasion is struck all amort, his countenance is changed, his thoughts trouble him, the joints of his loins are loosed, and his things smite one against the other: But what is the matter, that casts him into this shaking fit, and trembling astonishment? It was only the fingers of a man's hand, writing something 
ver. 5.  on the wall; and that, something which he could not read, and so understood not; and why then should he be so amazed at it? Alas! he feared that it was (as indeed it proved) a Letter written to him from him, whom Bildad calleth the King of 
Job 18. 14.  terrors, & that was it which so terrified him: for so we read the in Scripture,  
Of the shadow of death, as a very gloomy thing, Job 10. 21, 22. ca 16. 16. and 24. 17.  
Of the messengers of death, Prov. 16. 14.  
Of the snares, sorrows, and terrors of death, Psal. 18. 4, 5. Psal. 55. 4. as most terrible; and indeed having in them all that which Aristotle 
Rhet. l. 1. c. 6.  mentioneth in the proper object of fear.  
1. It is evil; and the evil of it in the former particulars, we have seen was very great.  
2. And this near at hand; for although 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  He instanceth in this very particular of Death, and saith, that because we think it fare off, therefore we do not fear it: yet at all times (for any thing that we know) it may be near enough; and now to the dying man it's very near, even at the doors.  
3. And (which according to his rule, maketh all terrible things the 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  more terrible) it is irrecoverable; if not then well done, can never be mended, and so the man is utterly undone for ever; and this can be no less, then of all terribles the most terrible. For with what a trembling hand, and aching heart, doth the sick man take that potion, which he certainly knows will either mend him, or end him? but with how much greater horror and amazement, must that sinner needs taste of death's cup, who knoweth that it will do neither? Neither mend him, no, nor yet end him, only end his former enjoyments, but begin his endless torments. Can then the most careless and obstinate sinner be persuaded to sit down, and but for one hour, and in good earnest sadly bethink himself thus: This day and hour I may die, and then not only all the delights of sin and the world, which I have hitherto taken up with, at one clap are gone for ever: but I have then an incensed Judge to appear before, an irreversible sentence and doom to be then passed upon me, and extremest torments to be endured by me, and those never to end, when my life and all the comforts of it are ended, but after millions of millions of years, yet (as it were) to begin still, and all this (for any thing that I can be sure of to the contrary) may begin with me this day, this hour, this moment. Were this, in his more secret retirement (when the hot fit of a wantoness lust is a little cooled, and the drunkard's wine evaporated, and the good fellows closet door shut, and he withdrawn from the noise of his ranting companions, and conscience suffered in this self-parly to speak out freely:) were this, I say, but seriously thought on, and sadly laid to heart, were it possible that he should desperately go on in his sin, and thus madly kick 
Acts 9 5.  against these pricks, against this sting of death, so sharp, and so deadly? Thou, who (it may be) with Hagar, 
Gen. 21. 16.  canst not endure to see another die, how will thy heart die quite away within thee (as Nabals did) when 
1 Sam. 25. 37.  thou seest thine own death approaching? If the stingings of Bees and Wasps be so painful, how deadly will the sting of death be to thee? Miserable would that man's death be, who should be buried alive in a Vault, full of Serpents and Scorpions. Friend, thou art the man, and unless betimes thou look better to it, such will thine be, thou wilt be stung to death. And whatever they story of Exagon, who was cast into a 
Plin. lib. 28. c. 3.  great vessel of Serpents, which (they say) circummulcentibus linguis, did gently lick him, and not sting him: yet not Psylli, or Marsi, or Ophiogenes, are armour of proof against the sting of death, but it will sting deadly.  
How vain therefore and desperate is the course of such, who in stead of fearing death,  
1. Out of grief, fear, discontent, or despondency and despair, being 
Job 3. 1 Kings 19 4. Jer. 20. 14, 15, etc. Jonah 4. 8 1 Sam. 31. 4. 2 Sam. 17. 23. Matt. 27. 5  weary of life, either wish or procure their own death? We read of Job, Elijah, Jeremiah, Jonah, faulty in the former, and Saul, Ahitophel, Judas, and many in our times, have been sad instances of the latter. But O woeful delusion! as though death had not a more deadly sting then any thing which in this life they can feel or fear. This is then but è fumo in flammam, as the man's flying from a Lion, and a more savage Bear meet's him, or going from it into the house, (that house, Job 30. 23.) and this more venomous Serpent there bites him, Amos 5. 19  
2. Or out of a brutish senseless stupidity and blockishness, harden themselves against it. I say, brutish, 
Exercit. 307. dist. 33.  because as Scaliger well observeth, Death being a privation, and so only discernible by understanding. Brutes because they do not understand it, do not therefore rationally fear it; and so proportionably the more brutish men are, the less thoughts and fears they have of death usually. But notwithstanding the Leviathans scales are otherwise impenetrable, yet he that made him, can make his sword approach unto him. 
Job 40. 18, 19  Death's sting can pierce such armour, even to the quick through such a callous brawnynesse. The great block, though it do not so soon take fire, yet when throughly kindled, burns more fiercely.  
3. Or for some outward profit and advantage, or popular applause daringly adventure upon it;  
As Thiefs and Robbers do, to 
Prov. 1. 13. 19  maintain a sharking life; yea, and those braver sparks in former and latter wars, if it be (not for God and their Country, in a good cause, way, intention, but) that they may go out in the blaze of a proud affectation of bravery and renown. But Solomon though (it may be) not so stout and hardy a Soldier, yet a far wiser man, may 
See Mercer and Baynus in locum. Prov. 21. 6  assure them, and that from the Spirit of God, that such rufflings and bravery are but a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death. It is an undoing gain to break their arm by catching at a feather, to lose their precious lives and souls for such unjust spoils, a vanity tossed to and fro, like straws and feathers, which neither in their bodies, souls, estate, name, posterity, they are the better for, but in all every way the worse, which will therefore appear to have been a very bad bargain at their last reckoning: as it will also be found by those other, who account it their gallantry readily and cheerfully to breathe their last, if thereby they may gain the vain breath of popular applause: too great a price for so mean a purchase; and too daring a brave, if they would consider that death's sting is sharper than their enemy's sword point. Such should first 
Suetonius in Nerone.  with Nero feel the point of the poniard, before they stab themselves with it, and get themselves more fit for death, and this sting of it taken out before they thus fool-hardily venture upon it, otherwise what was said then to Nero, usque adeone mori misorum est? was but cool comfort to his fainting heart in that agony. 
So Tacitus of Vitellius, praeterita, instantia, futura par● oblivione dimiserat, mirum apud ipsum de bello filentium & prohibits per levitatem sermons. Psal. 90. 12   
4. There is a fourth sort of men not so daring as the former, but every way as secure, who yet are most hearty afraid of it, but therefore labour to put away all thoughts of it, their habitually being afraid, puts them upon all means by which they may prevent and banish all actual fears; and so they feast without fear, Jud. 12. Tell over their cash, that they may not be troubled with numbering their days. Lie down and sleep on their heaps, and then dream of goods laid up for man●●ears, Lu. 12. 19 and of Lands and Houses to endure to all generations, Psal. 49. 11. But is it the way to overcome an enemy, to get as fare as we can from him, or never to think of him? or by shutting my eyes, to keep the Bees from stinging me? Although these men sleep, yet their judgement slumbreth not. Death mean while 
2 Pet. 2. 3.  maketh his approaches, and so is upon them before they are ware, and then their covenant with death is disannulled, 
Isa. 28. 18.  and their agreement with hell will not stand; then thou fool, this night, is a dreadful sound in their ears, when in his prosperity, the destroyer 
Job 15. 21.  cometh upon him; when it cometh in the dead of the night, when they slept so securely, and never 
Exod. 12. 29, 30.  dreamt of it: as Egypt's cry for their dead at midnight was very dreadful; and Laish is so much the 
Judas 18.  more affrighted at such an enemy's approach, by how much further off she was from thoughts of him; but how much more comfortable and happy would it be to prevent those after sinking terrors of death, by present more safe and saving fears of it?  
An answerable care to prepare Use 2 
Heb. 11. 7.  for it, as Noah moved with fear prepared an Ark; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith the Philosopher, fear should stand Sentinel, is the consultive and watchful affection, as the fearful Hare sleepeth (they say) with her eyes open. O that ours could so look about us, that (seeing those of us that are young may die soon; and they that are old cannot live long; the ripe apple will drop down of itself, and the green may be soon plucked or shaken down) that when (it may be) on the sudden we are gotten into the gloomy shadow of death, our feet may not stumble on 
Jer. 13. 16.  those dark mountains; but that when our death cometh, we may be found in such an estate, frame of spirit, and way of life, that our hearts may not then die, when our bodies do, but that upon better ground we may use Cheraeae's words. Nunc tempus prosecto est, cum perpeti me possim interfici. I thank God I dare die; so that although I see I must now die either a natural or a violent death, yet (I bless him) I can say with Steph: 
Mylii Apoph. pag. 61.  Brunus the Martyr, Mors sanè mihi terribilis non est, death though it look grim on me, is not terrible to me, and with Ambrose; I have not so lived, as that either I am ashamed to live, or afraid to die.  
It was a great word of Lucan's, which he said of the Gauls and Britan's: animaeque capaces mortis, and this because they believed the immortality of the soul, happy should we be, if upon a better account, it might be said of us Britain's, that because Christ hath brought life and 
2 Tim. 1. 10.  immortality to light by the Gospel, and hath by his death taken out the sting of ours, that therefore we are indeed capaces mortis, we dare die, and in 
Rom. 5. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psa. 22. 26.  death itself, our hearts can live. Sweet bird that can sing so sweetly and pleasantly, and that in winter!  
Quest. But how may this Nightingale thus sing; with this thorn (this sting of death) at her breast? what are we to do in the time of our life, that when death cometh, this sting of it may not hurt us?  
Answ. Pliny in his Books up and down telleth us of many things, which either prevent or cure the stingings of Bees and Serpents, and you meet with them almost in every page of your ordinary Herbalists: but when you have read and known all them, you must seek and search for remedies against the sting of death in more sacred Volumes. The Heathens (I confess) in their writings, have in their kind many excellent meditations of death, and consolations against it. Speak much and high of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too: but after all that, death is like that deaf adder, that here's not 
Psal. 58. 4, 5.  the voice of such charmers, though they charm (at least as they themselves, and too many now amongst us think) very wisely: this lesson is learned to purpose only in the school of Christ; whose blood alone takes out this sting, and cures the wounds made by it, whilst miserable Physicians and of no value are they all, sigh 
Job 13. 4.  all their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, are but as so many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which help to stupefy the part affected, and to make it senseless (which Mountebanks easily can do) rather then to work any perfect cure: And therefore Ficin●s prescribes a better method of Physic, who after his Tracts, de Sanitate tuenda, and then the Sanitate restituenda, and de vita producenda, because after all those courses gone through, death will not at last be put off, and if better course be not taken, when it cometh, will bring its sting with it; he wisely addeth another Tract de vita coelesti comparanda, to show how when at death we can live no longer here, we may then live with God in Heaven for ever: which is only by Christ, who alone can then make us happy, and our deaths comfortable: what therefore the Poet's fable of Persius his borrowing of armour from several of their Deities, to harness him against his conflict with Medusa: may direct and 
See Bacon's Augm. lib. 2. cap. 13. p. 137.  quicken our diligence and carefullest endeavour to get that from the true God in Christ, which may completely arm and secure us against this our last enemies deadly sting.  
Many are the precepts of the 
* De Arte moriendi. Perkins, Bellarmin, I. Beust. M. Cyrus, Mi. Franciscus.  Art of dying well, as Mr. Perkins calls it, which he and other Christian writers afford us, to whom I must for the present refer you, and all that I shall now say, is,  
That in the general, something, nay, much, nay, all is to be done in this time of our life, that we may not meet with this sting in death: nor will it be done with a baalam's wish that he might die the death of the 
Numb. 23. 10.  righteous: as Euchrites (who in this did not make good his name) would be Croesus' vivens, and Socrates mortuus; but he who would die 
Rom. 14. 8.  comfortably, must live holily: we must live to the Lord, if ever we would 
2 Cor. 5. 15.  die in him.  
But in particular, would we not have our death too stingy, and its sting deadly: many are the directions which are held forth to us by the Scriptures, and from them by several Christian writers, some of which I shall touch upon in the application of the second Doctrine, which is, that  
The sting of death, and the victory Doct. 2 of the grave by Jesus Christ is taken away as to true believers, who may with Paul triumph over both, as the Apostle both in his own and their name doth here in the Text, O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory? A most blessed and comfortable Gospel-Truth, mainly intended in the Text, and was by me to have been now treated upon in my first choice of it, as best suiting with the present occasion; but an ill-made pen makes double letters; mine was such, and so instead of one, wrote two Sermons: the latter though more comfortable, and better agreeing with our present business, yet may be now the better spared, because all that I should have said in the prosecution of it, is so fully exemplified in the life and death of our lately deceased reverend and dear brother Dr. Thomas Hill, late Master of Trinity College, and a most useful and happy prime member of this our University, whose 
Mr. Withrington the University Orator at St. Mary's, & Mr. Templar, one of the signior Fellows of Trinity College in their Hall. Camero. Myrothreiu Luk. 11. 47, 48. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Talm. Hierosol.  sad Funerals we now celebrate.  
Concerning whom, if any Panegyric be expected of his deserved praises, that will by and by be better performed by them whose work it is. But as for him, I believe that he was not ambitious with Augustus, to go off the stage with a Plaudite; so for my part, I came not up hither to paint Sepulchers, when the building and adorning, even of those of the Prophets, with our Saviour had no favourable construction.  
The Jews have a saying, that non facienda sunt monumenta justis, whose words and works are their best monuments, and which praise the righteous man, as well as the virtuous woman in the Gates, Prov. 31. 31. And truly, if when we have done well, to hear ill, be a royalty; then 
Be●è agere, & male audire regium est.  much more after a life well led (whether we be rich or poor) to have no more said of us than was of Lazarus, that the poor man died, and was carried by the Angels into Abraham's 
Lu. 16. 22.  bosom. I shall ever judge to be a very large Funeral Encomium.  
But yet when I read of all Judah and Jerusalem, doing Hez●kiah 
2 Chron. 32, 33. Act. 9 39  honour at his death, and of the widows weeping, and showing the coats which Dorcas made while she was with them, I am not so straitlaced or superstitious, as when any man's life hath been eminently remarkable and exemplary, lest I should be guilty of idolatry in adoring him, to commit sacrilege, in robbing both the dead of his just praise, and the living of an useful pattern for their imitation.  
That this our Brother was such an one, is so generally known to you all, and more fully to myself by 34 years' experience and acquaintance, that I am the more secure, that what I shall say of him, will be less suspected of flattery or falsehood.  
He was born at Knighton in Worcestershire, of godly Parents, (and David accounteth it his great honour 
Psal. 86. 16  and blessing to be the Son of God's Handmaid:) both yet alive, and they happy in so blessed a Son, and although justly sad that he died so soon, yet so as that they may cheerfully bless God, that he lived so long, to do so much good in his generation.  
As they dedicated him to God, so in order thereto, they trained him up to School-learning in the Country, and when he was fit, they sent him for further ripening to Emanuel College in this University: where the Rose was not cankered in the bud, his youth not corrupted and debauched, as with grief we have seen many so tainted and poisoned, that they have been irrecoverably undone themselves, and have also infected others. But this morning (like that 2 Sam. 23. 4.) was without clouds, not sullied with any noted miscarriage, that I can remember; but on the contrary, as it is said of Samson, when young, that 
Judg. 13. ●5.  the Spirit of the Lord began then to move him: so in his then sober and studious behaviour, the Sun looked out betime in that Summer morning, and through grace (otherwise than it oft falls out in nature) gave promising hopes of an after clearer day.  
This was taken notice of by the Governors of the College, who thereupon chose him Scholar of the House, he (as his Saviour) still 
Luke 2. 52 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Theag.  growing in wisdom and stature, and in favour both with God and man. O that young scholars in that vigorous, but yet dangerous age of theirs, would look on such patterns, and go, and do likewise.  
Some good time for his further perfecting, and the more happy seasoning of his spirit, he spent with that man of God, now also with God, Mr. Cotton at Boston in Lincolnshire; where, upon God's rich blessing of his most godly directions and example, and the society he had with him, and other eminent Christians there, he was much improved and furthered, as otherwise, so especially heaven-way, which most happily went along with him to his Journeys end.  
Upon his return from thence to the College, it was not long before he was chosen Fellow, with general approbation, though upon a most strict & double examen, more (I think) then ever was in that College before, or hath been since, though it still is, and ever hath been according to the Statutes very strict and serious, and which hath been blest to be a special means of holding up true worth and learning in that happy Society.  
And now, through God's good hand, leading and strengthening him, he proves a diligent and successful Tutor of very many Pupils, and divers of them of quality, who have proved great blessings, both in Church and Commonwealth. And thus, as he was before a pattern for young Scholars: so in this, of Tutors, great is the trust, which Parents, the University, the whole Nation, and God above all puts in them; and great may be the blessing, which upon their faithfulness, may come by them; whilst so many Towns, Congregations, Countries, are blessed with so many good Magistrates, Ministers, and Schoolmasters, as they have had Pupils, whom they have been means of doing good to. No one part of their lives (I believe) is of more consequence, or may be of more service, or will come to a more strict account at their last great reckoning. And therefore I both desire, and hope their care will be answerable, especially now, when, as they have more liberty to be, and to do as much good as they will; so there will not be wanting such as will be very ready to take the advantage from the miscarriage either of ourselves, or of them that are under our charge, to ruin all.  
But this our wise Masterbuilder satisfied not himself, as a Tutor in polishing of Builders, but as a faithful and painful Minister, he laboriously endeavoured to square other lively stones for God's Temple; and 
1 Pet. 2. 5.  so as he read to Scholars in the College, so he diligently and conscionably Preached to a neighbour- Congregation 
S. Andrews  in the Town. Which, I believe, many poor souls do to this day bless God and him for.  
Nor was he an hireling, to fly when the Wolf came; but when the 
John 10. 12.  plague in this time of his Ministry raged in the Town, he then continued with them in the work. The better Shepherd he, that not only 
Ezek. 34. 4. 16.  fed the sound, but also healed and bound up the torn and weak of the flock. This I am sure in all unkindnesses afterward taken by some, should not have been forgotten.  
But this Alabaster box of precious ointment thus poured out, filled the whole house with its odour, and the 
John 12. 3  sweet fragrancy of it spreadeth abroad, so that now he comes to be more taken notice of by many both great and good men, and so by some of eminent worth and honour, he was called to the Pastoral charge of Tichmersh in Northamptonshire, where he laboured faithfully in God's Harvest about eight or nine years, and partly by Preaching and conversing up and down with others; but especially (otherwise then our Erratic Itineraries use is) with his own Parochial charge, he proved a great blessing not only to that Town, but also to the whole Country: like another Bernard Gilpin, in every 
See his life written by Bishop Carlton.  place where he came, spreading a good savour, and leaving it behind him.  
Whilst he was thus at his work there, for more public service he was chosen by the Parliament for one of that County, to attend and assist in the Assembly of Divines, called together by their Authority: where being of very good use, he was often Ordered by the Parliament to Preach before them at their public Fasts, and upon other their more solemn occasions; was also chosen by them to be one of their morning weekdays Preachers in the Abbey at Westminster. Besides, 
S. Martin's in the fields.  his constant sabbath-days pains in another great Congregation, where he was a blessing to thousands.  
Thence he was Ordered to be Master of Emanuel College in this University, which not being a sphere large enough for his activity, he was from thence removed to the Mastership of Trinity College. Where what great good he did, they there can best tell; and that happy change proclaime's, from that confusion (by reason of those distracted times) in which he found it, to that orderly composure and frame, in which, through God's blessing, he left it. How solicitous he was for their best welfare, his very frequent Preaching in their Chapel to them all, and his writing to their Seniors, speak out fully. And we with them can truly bear witness, how humble and loving to them he was in his carriage, how studious to keep up Colledg-Exercises, how zealous to advance Piety and Learning; and for that purpose to countenance and prefer such as he observed to be eminent in either. Long so may that famous Society flourish, and long may such be continued with them, who shall industriously endeavour to carry on his happy beginnings to perfection.  
As he was an University man, he was zealously careful of  
Its honour, (which the Parliament House can witness) in an unkindly contest about it: and also his care in collecting the decayed Antiquities of it, whose pains in that Argument, I desire may not die with him.  
Of its privileges, as always, so especially the two years together, in which he was Vicechancellor, for which he suffered in some men's reputes unjustly.  
Of its profit and emolument, being 
By Archbishop bancroft's will. Sir John Wollaston Alderman of the City of London.  a special means of procuring to it from the Parliament, the Lambeth Library, which of right fell to us: and from a noble Knight, both a yearly stipend for a Mathematic Lecturer, and also large sums of money for the fitting of the public Library, that it might be of public use, which others do not more desire, than he endeavoured; for the accomplishment whereof the University is more ways than one his debtor.  
Finally, of the general good, and well-ordering of it: surely it was his careful thought in private with himself; for I am sure it was the matter of his private discourse with others. Scarce was there a time that he met with us, but he was ask or proposing something or other that way. It seemeth his care was to keep up those Universities, which others would ruin: which made Grotius pronounce many Christians 
De jure belli ac pacis lib. 3. ca 11. sect. 10.  to be worse than the Philistines; for they 1 Sam. 10. 5. would let the company of Prophets alone, even where they kept Garrison: it hath been not from the good will of these men, but from the favour of God, and our Governors, that in the midst of wars we have enjoyed the like safety and protection. However, seeing as the Philosophers of old 
Hieronym. Mercurialis de arte gymnastica. Aristotle's de anima lib. cap. Jer. 29. 7.  were wont to dispute in the Temple of Peace, till it was demolished, and Intellectus being in quiet, such a Temple is a Students best sanctuary. Pray we for the Peace of the State, for in it we shall have peace, and not be given up to the fury of those whose little Learning serveth them only to declaim against what they want: near of kin to the Fox in the Fable, or to them whom the Prophet calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Ardaliones, Burning or brutish 
Ezek. 21. 31.  men, and skilful only to destroy. But to return to our Brother. This he was as an University man.  
As a Divine, he was sound in the 
Tit. 1. 13.  Faith, Orthodox in his Judgement, firmly adhering to the good old doctrine of the Church of England; that which in this our University our famous Whitaker, Perkins, Davenant, Ward, and others maintained in their times: and in the other University among other great Names there, he was a very great Admirer of the right Reverend and Judicious Dr. Robert Abbot, Bishop of Salisbury, and I wish he had there many more such Admirers. The Doctrines of God's Sovereignty in his decrees, of his inconditionate most free electing love, of his free grace against free will, and the power of nature in spirituals; of justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ, against the perfection o● inherent righteousness now attainable by us in this life; of perseverance in grace against the Apostasy of the Saints, and the like. Were not with this our Brother, (as they are now called by some) Sects and Notions, matters only of 
* Steven Gardener's dialect, who calls justification an Article of Learning-Fox Acts and Monum. Tom. 2. pa. 726.  Learning, and curiosity, and of the Presbyterian faction. But of the life-blood of Faith, which at his death, (as he expressed to his friend) he had singular comfort from; and in his life firmly believed, constantly Preached, and by his Pen endeavoured to maintain and defend, and that against the great daring Champion of the contrary errors, whom the abusive wits in this University with an impudent boldness could say, none here durst adventure upon, whose immodest scurrility his Learned answer to that daring adversary (which he had made so fair a progress in) had shordy confuted, had not he by his more sudden death been therein prevented. This of him as a Divine.  
As a Minister of the Gospel; In his Preaching he was plain, powerful, spiritual, frequent, and laborious; for besides, what in that kind he did, as to the University in this place, and in the College Chappel, which was very happy in his often pains there.  
In the Town he set up one Lecture 
St. michael's.  every Sabbath morning in one Church, performed only by himself, and cheerfully frequented by a great confluence of both Scholars and Townsmen. And another in another 
All-Hallowes.  Church every Lord's day in the afternoon, in which he bore at least, the fourth part of the burden, and both gratis, as there are many more such Lectures here performed, much about the same rate, weekly by other pious learned men, and more (I believe) then are in any Town or City upon those terms in all England. In Cambridge now, more than any where I know, or in these latter times have heard of, you may have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the more to 
1 Cor. 9 18.  the honour (I say not of such thrifty hearers, but) of God in the first place, and then of that Reformation which so many do so traduce and spit at: as also of those more noble spirited Preachers, who so freely offer to God that which costeth them so much, for which of men they receive nothing.  
But this place did not bound the course of this our laborious Preachers Ministry; but as it is said of 
Matth. 9 35.  our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that he went about all Cities and Villages teaching and preaching, and of Paul, 
Rom. 15. 19 Vulg.  that from Jerusalem, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, per circuitum, round about, and that to Illyricum, which was in a right line 3●0. German miles, (as Pareus upon the place computes it) he did fully preach the Gospel, imitating herein, (as Hierome observes,) his Lord and 
in Amos ●.  Master, that Sun of righteousness, whose going forth is from the ends of 
Psal. 19 6.  the Heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: ut ante eum terra deficeret, quam praedicandi studium. In these their blessed steps, this our Brother trod and followed them in his painful Ministry, diligently Preaching (when he had occasion to be abroad) in remoter parts; but especially in many Towns and Villages nearer hand, round about the University, being a means to set up Lectures in many of them, and very often assisting in them: and as our Saviour is observed, by some Divines to have Preached more frequently, the nearer he was to his departure: so this his faithful Servant, as it were presaging that his day would be but short, towards his evening made the more haste and speed in his journey, towards his end, yet more abounded 
1 Cor. 15. 58.  in this work of the Lord, and now finds that his labour is not in vain in the Lord. This of him as a Minister.  
And lastly, as he was a Christian-  
He was active for God, as his Saviour, going up and down, and doing 
Act. 10. 38  good. And although otherwise modest, yet when the case required it, bold in a good cause.  
Spiritual in communion, so that now he is dead, I fear we shall want such a quickener.  
Fruitful in discourse, by which we might discover the frame of his 
Loquere, ut te videam.  spirit; frequent in ask questions, which was both his humility, and Christian good Hushandry, thereby to improve himself, and time, and company.  
Affable to others, of much humility in low thoughts of himself, and of great integrity and singleness of heart, towards God, his truth, ordinances, ways, and servants.  
Of a very public spirit, and much affected with the various conditions of the State, especially of the Church and people of God.  
A most loving Husband to his Wife, and dutiful Son to his Parents.  
And in his life time much helpful to his other relations, many poor, both of the University, and Town, will now feel the want of his bounty, which they tasted of in his life, and both they and others had done more at his death, (as appeareth by his intentions of it in the draught of his Will) had not the suddenness of it prevented it.  
In a long continued Quartan, God had knocked at his door, which in the interim of his recovery awakened him to get all within ready against his now coming in, which though to us unexpected, yet found not him unprepared.  
In his short sickness, to one of his friends he expressed (as I before hinted) his great comfort and joy in Gods free discriminating electing love, which therefore I would have none among us dispute a way against the time that their turn cometh; to myself, about half an hour before his departure (which I hoped had been much farther off) when I enquired of him about the settling of his outward estate, and inward peace, he readily and without the least hesitancy answered me, through the mercy of God in Christ it was made, and that he quietly rested in it. It seemeth that (as it was said of one) he had his faith at his finger's ends, and having before given all diligence to make his calling and election sure, though somewhat suddenly called out of this life, he had an abundant entrance now set open to him into the everlasting Kingdom 
2 Pet. 1. 10, 11.  of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  
And thus from this University (as the Jews use to say of a Learned man when he dieth) requisitus est in Academiam coelestem.  
As to himself, having lived a fruitful and gracious life, as Clemens 
Epistol● prima ad Corinth. pag. 58.  Romanus speaks of some of the first and best Bishops, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he closed up all with an happy and blessed death.  
As to others, he lived approved, and died desired; and by myself (I am sure) and by very many, by most that ever rightly knew him (I believe) very much lamented. So that although we leave Ennius to his Nemo me Lachrymis, etc. yet this our Brother with Solon (if his humility would have suffered him) might have said, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. I have heard, that at Dr. Whitakers Funerals, in this place there were very many wet eyes, and I believe now at Dr. Hills are very many sad hearts; but why should we grudge him his happiness? who may say to us, as our Saviour did to the Jews, Weep not for me, but weep 
Luk. 23. 28  for yourselves, and for the many sad evils, which he is taken from, you may be left to see and feel, Isa. 57 1. answerable to which the Jews have 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  a saying of such good men's deaths, Quando luminaria patiuntur Eclypsin signum malum est mundo, It is an ill sign to the world, when the Luminaries of Heaven are eclipsed. Deus avertat omen: But certain it is, that we have lost in him a great good help to keep off such judgements, and that at such a time, in which he could be ill spared. But we most humbly submit to the Sovereign will of that Supreme All-sufficient God, who can of stones raise up children 
Matt. 3. 9  unto Abraham, and who, (whatever we do) standeth not in need of his best fitted servants for the accomplishment of his work. Only the fewer and weaker our hands are which are left, the more we have need to bestir them for his truth, and in his service: or rather, the more earnestly spread and lift them up to him, that he would carry on his own work by his own strength; and if it be his will, (as the Jews from that in Eccles. 1. 5. of the Suns 
Antequam occidere sinat Deus solem justi alicujus, oriri facit solem justi alterius. 2 Kings 2. 13. Serm. 87.  rising, and the Suns going down, are wont to say, that the same day wherein one great man dieth, another is raised up, a Joshua to succeed Moses, and Samuel Eli) that the mantle of this our Elijah may fall upon some Elisha, that some may arise in his spirit and power, and that doubled, as Ambrose saith of Elijah, plus gratiae dimisit in terris quam secum portavit in coelos; so that the place of this our David may not be left empty, 
1 Sam. 20. 25. In Dr. Arrow smiths succeeding him in Trinity College.  but what is already happily supplied to the College, may also be made up to the whole University, and the Church of God.  
Mean while, let not us or his sometimes nearest Relations sorrow as men without hope:  
Either of our selves, as though because he hath left us, God should have left us also; but by his death let us take occasion to love the world 
robinson's. Essays, cap. 62.  less, out of which he is taken, and heaven more, whither he is gone before us, and where once we shall for ever enjoy him, and be there 
Phil. 1. 23.  with Christ, which is best of all.  
Especially, because there is no cause at all to weep as without hope of him, who undoubtedly resteth in Christ; and though dead, liveth and triumpheth in Heaven, where in that blessed Consort he now sing's this joyful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Now thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.   

SERMON II.  1 COR. 15. 55. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 
THE Text presented death and the grave to us as an enemy, in a double, but very different posture.  
1. As armed, and so formidable: Death with its sting, and the Grave with the victory.  
2. But secondly, (and which is principally intended) disarmed, and so made contemptible: and here Death hath lost its sting, and the grave the victory.  
The former we have lately considered upon a more sad occasion, when we took view of the dark side of the cloudy pillar, and whiles the 
Exod. 14. 30. Luke 9 14.  true Israelite looketh on it only, he may, with the Disciples begin to fear, as he entereth into that cloud. But now the bright side is turned to us, and the true Disciple of Christ may hear out of this cloud that sweet voice, This is my beloved Son. After 
Luk. 9 35.  a dark night, the day now breaks, and the shadows, (even the shadow 
Cant. 2. 17.  of death) fly away. The last enemy is destroyed, and the true Believer who had fought under Christ's banner, after the conflict ended, and the victory obtained, is now gotten into the valley of Berachah, there in 
2 Chron. 20. 26.  God, to triumph over these his enemies. With this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, O death, where is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory? And so the point which remaineth to be treated on is, That  
Doct. 2 As to a true Believer, in and by Jesus Christ, death hath lost its sting, and the grave which swalloweth up all, shall at last itself be swallowed up in victory: For so our Apostle here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as chrysostom and Theophylact 
In locum.  flourish the words; as a victorious triumphant Conqueror treading on the necks of these vanquished enemies, cries victoria, and shout's out with triumphant song, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?  
In which words, as to the strength and elegancy of the expression, take notice of  
1. His Rhetorical Prosopopaeia and Apostrophe, in this Cataclevasticall compellation, O death— O grave. It seems this man of God durst look these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, bugbears in the face, and speak out to their heads without fear and astonishment.  
2. His as elegant, but stinging Interrogation. Where is thy sting? Where is thy victory? Which addeth weight to the expression, but yet more elevateth and sleighteth the adversary, as wholly vanquished, and his power and terror quite vanished, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, when 
Chrysost. in● locum.  sought for it cannot be found. This question of the Apostle, being like that of Zebul to Gaal, Jndg. 9 38. Where is now thy mouth? when he stood before him speechless. Or rather like that chap. 1. of this Epistle, Where is the wise man? where is the Scribe? etc. v. 20. which he had answered before, ver. 19 in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they were destroyed and brought to nought. And so here, when he asketh the question, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? he also had before answered it, in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ver. 26. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ver. 54. both words being strongly significant to our present purpose.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it is destroyed, abolished, made idle and vain, that it can do nothing, at least to our hurt, whilst its sting is broken, and quite taken out, the Bee is become a Drone. It is as a vipera medicata, that whatever good it may do, to be sure it can do us no harm, but rather as Moses his Serpent, becometh a staff in his hand to support him; which before he was afraid of, and ran away from, and might he not then well ask the question, O death, where is thy sting?  
And then add, O grave, where is thy victory? when he had immediately before in the foregoing verse said, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, itself was swallowed up in victory.  
Thus the strong man is overcome by 
Luke 11. 21, 22.  the stronger, who by taking out this sting, hath taken from him his armour: and so even the lawful captive of the 
Isa. 49. 24. 25.  mighty is taken away, and the prey of the terrible delivered, whilst this terrible enemy is thus despoiled, and this painted Lion is not armed, which is now a foul fault in Death's Heraldry: Now as an Exconsul, a quondam Tyrant, like the beast that was, and is 
Rev. 17. ●.  not, and miserum est fuisse, our enemy's misery, but our happiness; when, being once landed on the shore of Eternity, we shall with everlasting joy, look on death, and the grave, with all their power and terror, as at waters that are past; and amongst 
Job. 11. 16.  the many other dead corpses of our Egyptian enemies, see Death itself 
Exod. 14. 30. with 15. 1. Revel. 15. 2, 3.  also dead on the seashore; and then having the harps of God, sing the song of Moses and the Lamb: Or if you will this of the Apostle in the Text, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? In which 
Myrothec. pag. 37, 31.  words Came●o think's the Apostle hath special respect to that great promise of our Saviour, Matth. 16. 18. that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church; which gates of Hell, he expound's of the power of death and the grave, which being weakened and annulled by the death of Christ, he saith, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall not be able altogether to prevail, as that compound Verb signifieth. Something indeed death and the grave are able to do, and that to the elect of God; those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, those cords and chains of 
Psal. 18. 4.  death, will be able to draw them to the grave, and there for a time keep them bound under their dominion, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, valebit, sed non praevalebit, as he speaketh of death; but at worst this will not be always, time will be when this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text, which have so long kept us prisoners in the grave, shall at last themselves, as condemned prisoners, be cast into the lake of fire, Rev. 20. 14. when the the Elect, after all their fore-tastes of this mercy here, as it were by faith, antedating this Triumph, and beforehand tuning the Instrument against that blessed Consort, being then fully and for ever freed from this last enemy, as well as all others, shall sing out aloud this blessed triumphant song, which shall then fill Heaven and Earth with the sound of it; O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?  
But more particularly, That death even in this life, hath lost its sting to such, appeareth from this, that 1. for any hurt it can do them, they have been enabled to sleight and despise it. 2. In regard of that great good it bring's with it, they have earnestly desired that it would come, and as cheerfully welcomed it, when it did.  
1. For any hurt it can do them, they have been able to sleight and despise it, and (as it is here in the Text) to triumph over it, O death, where is your sting? As though he had said to this Serpent, you make an hissing, but you hurt not. Your Canon makes a roaring, but it's no bullet that you shoot but powder, which cannot blow me from Christ, and my steadfastness, such Shaw-fowls do not scare me, which instead of being affrighted, I can smile at. Mors Christianis ludus est. So Vincentius, nay, (as chrysostom expresseth it) 
In 1 Cor. 10.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it is such as tenderest Virgins, and weakest children could laugh at; and although they were more serious then with Sir Thomas More, to die 
Bacon Aug. meant. l. 4. ca 1. p. 205 So also Vespasian died with a jest, and Augustus in a compliment. Ecce miser tuam partem assasti, verte alteram.  with a light jest in their mouths, yet they could with an holy derision of their cruelest Tormentors, as Laurentius, when now broiling on the grid-iron to Decius, in that facetious Sarcasme. Behold, wretched Tyrant, thou hast roasted thine own part, turn the other. It would be too long to relate in particular how ambitious, and sometimes too forward Primitive Christians have been by crowds to press to death and martyrdom, blunting the edge of the keenest persecutors swords, and choking those ravenous beasts of prey, whose throats were as open sepulchers; or, 
Rom. 3. 13.  like the Behemoth, Job 40. 23. thinking to swallow down all, the tenderest age being enabled cheerfully to endure the greatest hardship, and the weakest sex to overmaster strongest pains and torments, as so many fleabites, or medicinable bloodletting. So Anne Ayscough in that case could subscribe herself, Such an one as 
Acts and Monum. Tom. 2. pa. 776.  neither wished death, nor feared his might, and as merry as one that was bound for Heaven. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as chrysostom upon these words said of Paul in the Text, and the same may we of Hers and many others. Noble souls! that could despise that, which others trembled at, like Christ himself, and by his mighty conduct, leading captivity captive, triumphing 
Ephes. 4. 8  over death, the fear whereof keep's others in bondage. Such a miracle 
Heb. 2. 15. Serm. 26. in Cantic.  Bernard saith, he saw in dying Gerardus, hominem in morte exultantem, & insultantem morti, exulting in death, and insulting over it; a miracle indeed in regard of the greatness of the thing, but none in respect of the ordinarinesse of it, in many new, in more in former times of persecution; but eminently in our Apostle, who might well ask death, where its sting was? when in the first place for any hurt it could do him, could thus despise it, and triumph over it.  
2. But secondly, in regard of the 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Phil. 1. 21.  great gain he should have by it, could earnestly desire that it would hasten to come, and as cheerfully and joyfully welcome it, when it did. 
Mors omnibus est finis, multis remedium, probis etiam votum.   
1. A believer can hearty and earnestly desire it, cui vita in taedio, or rather in patientia, mors in desiderio, is weary of life, or patiently content to live, but willing and desirous to die.  
And this not out of extremity of present anguish and pain, or heat of passion, as Elijah, Job, Jonah, and 
1 Kin. 19 4 Job 7. 15, 16. Jonah 4. 3  others, who upon that account long for death, and dig for it more than for hid treasures, Job 3. 21.  
But in cool blood, upon most serious debate, Paul is in a straight between two, and when he hath disputed the case Pro and Con, he concludeth for a conclusion of this life, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Phil. 1. 23. desiring to be dissolved or to be loosed, as some read that word, or rather reverti, 
Genev.  as Ruffinus, or, as our last Translators render it to departed, as a traveller to return home, and there to be loosed from this world's entanglements, as Chariot or Coach-horses use to be from their harness, when they come to the end of their journey; for so the words both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 
Beza. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dimissio mors. Shindler 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signify; and so old Simeon in the same case maketh use of a like word, Luke 2. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praying for a dismission, as a prisoner from his chains, and a stranger to his home, where as a weary traveller, he may lie down and take his rest: for so death, to such, is frequently in Scripture, and other Authors expressed by sleep, and the burying place is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sleeping place, and both the grave is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Bier 
Isa. 57 2. 2 Sam. 3. 31.  that carrieth to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both words signifying a bed to rest and sleep on; which they could not well have done, if death had retained its sting, and so their graves had been as so many Vaults full of Scorpions, and themselves like the Leviathan that hath sharppointed stones spread under him, Job 41. 30. If so, it had been no molliter ossa cubant, would have proved but a very uneasy bed, not so to be desired quietly to take our rest in; this sting therefore must of necessity be gone, seeing so many in their right wits have so hearty and earnestly desired that it might come.  
And what then? when it did 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Eurip. Alcestis.  come, were they then as much troubled and affrighted at it, as the old man in the Fable, who weary of his burden, wished for death; but when it came at his call, all in a fright, got up with his load, and trudge away as fast as his feet, or rather his fear could carry him? No, but  
2. Did not more earnestly before desire it, then at its approach most gladly welcome it.  
Nor this neither with them, Job 3. 22. and some others, who by reason of extremity of outward or inward anguish, and weariness of life, (as Saul said, anguish is come upon me, 
2 Sam. 1. 9  because my life is yet whole in me: do therefore exceedingly rejoice, when they can find the grave; which many of them then too late find they have little cause for, when, to their smart they will meet with infinite more misery after death, than they did before. But they that have a lively faith in Christ, and in a dying hour can then act it, even when in a manner they lie speechless, (from consideration of that greater good they then partly meet with, and are more fully then entering upon) can say, that the day of their death, is 
Eccles. 7. 1.  better than the day of their birth; so that whereas they cried in that, they rejoice in this. And (as the Martyrs did the day of their Martyrdom) account it their Natalitia, and accordingly 
Mar. 6. 21. Gen. 40. 20.  (as the manner was) most joyfully welcome and celebrate it. If it came in a natural course peaceably, nay, were it never so violent, yet receive the cruelest sentence of it, as Cyprian did, with a Deo gratias. So they story of S. Andrew, saluting the Cross on which he was to be crucified, and saying, Take me from 
Accipe me ab hominibus, & red me magistro meo.  men, and restore me to my Master; as of Laurence Saunders, who when come to the stake at which he was to be burnt, kissed it, saying, Welcome the Cross of Christ, welcome everlasting life: That whereas the messenger 
Prov. 16. 14.  of death, to most men, is in itself, and is so described in Scripture, very terrible, yet to a dying Believer, then acting a lively faith, is nothing so, but is entertained by him as a welcome messenger sent from the Father, as to a child at nurse, to 
Robinson.  bring it home, where it shall be better provided for, whilst it transmitteth him from all his sins and sorrows into that place and estate of 
Brown's inquiry into vulgar errors, li. 3. cap.  bliss, where he shall never sin nor grieve more. Solinus his relation of the Swan's singing a little before her death, is now accounted but a Fable; yet Aristotle in one 
* De histor. Animal. li. 9 cap. 12.  place confirmeth it, and in another rendereth this reason of it, that then generous blood goeth to the heart, making it cheerful, and that thence cometh the melody. I shall not undertake to assert either the relation, or the reason of it; but thus far may apply it, and say, that God promiseth to his meek servants, that their hearts shall 
Psa. 22. 26.  live for ever; and if for ever, then in death itself; and thence it is that such generous blood indeed cometh then to such hearts, which enableth many to end their lives, not in mournful Elegies, but in most joyful songs of praise and thanksgiving, or without any dolorous sense, or mournful complaint of the sting of death: and where is it then, when it is thus earnestly desired, and so welcomly entertained?  
I grant that this is not so with all believers; Hezekiah in this case, did not sing like the Swan but chattered 
Isa. 38. 14.  as the Crane, and mourned as the Dove. And many may be the reasons, why God in wisdom and faithfulness may let some Believers setting Sun, (at least for a time) be muffled up in a cloud; & the fault is in themselves, that whereas Satan useth then most fiercely to cast his fiery darts, they then are not careful 
Ephes. 6. 10.  to hold up the shield of faith, which might quench them; but by their willing or wilful unbelief, take a course to thrust them in deeper. The Bee 
Animasque in Vulnere ponunt. Virg. Geor 4.  dieth when she hath left her sting in the wound; but if the man who is stung, carelessly let it alone, he may come to more smart by it, which, by his care timely to get it out, might be prevented; like carelessness of a worse sting, breedeth greater smart in the case we now speak of. What therefore hath been said of a Believers security and comfort in this kind, is to be understood of him as such, viz. as he approveth himself to be a true believer, stirring up, and acting his faith in Christ. Otherwise although the second death shall have no power over him, yet as he may be found careless and negligent, the first death, if it surprise him in that posture, may very sorely sting and wound him: for as it is said of man's laws, so it is as true of God's promises they favour not them that are asleep, but such as are awake and watchful; and so to such a wakeful Christian, death is but a sleep, indeed not itself, not death but an entrance 
Miseri infideles mortem appellant, Fideles vero quid nisi pascham? Bernard. de natura & dignit. divini amoris.  into life; as Bernard saith, miserable unbelievers call it death, but to faithful believers, what is it but a , but a Jubilee? Though in itself it be an enemy, yet by the death and life Christ, it is so disarmed, that his servants can earnestly desire it, and gladly welcome it, by reason of the great good it bringeth with it; and as for all the evil it may seem to threaten or inflict, can securely despise it, and victoriously triumph over it, and with Paul here, say, O death, where is thy sting? etc.  
For the further clearing whereof, that we more distinctly see in what sense the sting of death is taken out, and the power of the grave abolished, as to believers, we are to take notice.  
1. Negatively, that is not so to be understood, as though they should never either die, or meet with any anguish in death.  
1. That death should not so far sting them, as not to take away their bodily life from them, that was once given out of John should be true of them, that they should never die; for 
John 21. 23.  so the longest lived of them have done, Gen. 5. and the wisest shall, Psal. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  49. 10. and the best oftentimes soon, as sadly appeared in the untimely deaths of Judah's, and our English Josiah: for as for this death, God's sentence, in dying, thou shalt die, or 
Gen. 2. 17.  thou shalt surely die, upon Adam's sin both to himself, and his whole posterity in ordinary course was, and continueth irreversible; so that it is appointed for men (that is, generally 
Heb. 9 27.  for all men) once to die, and because the best are sinful whilst they live, therefore they must die once, that once at last they may sin no more.  
Obj. And if it be replied, that that sentence upon the first Adam is taken off from the faithful, by Christ the second Adam;  
Answ. I answer, true; but yet in Gods most wise order and method, and that appeareth in two particulars.  
1. That although as to all curse and wrath, and vindicative Justice, that was at first in it, all that is taken away by the imputation of Christ's satisfaction in our justification, yet the full freedom from it, yea, and from worse evils then death is, (that we might be kept more humble, and dependant on God, and Heaven at last more welcome) is carried on and perfected by degrees. As on the one side, when the sentence of death was passed upon Adam, and so he was a dead man, yet he did not at that instant presently die; as deadly poison taken doth not always kill presently, but some after a shorter, and some after a longer time; so here on the other side, the most Sovereign medicine may not perfectly cure at the first, but when it hath had its perfect work; and although our Redemption by Christ be full, and our recovery by him will be made complete, before he have done with us, yea even at the first we are (as I said) in our justification, freed from the state of death, yet the guilty malefactor is not always presently taken out of prison upon his first receiving of his pardon, nor we at the first wholly quit from the miseries of this life, nor from bodily death, no, nor from sin, which to a godly heart is more bitter than death. Did not our Heavenly Father know, how both for the present and the future to improve them all to his own glory and our good, he could & would cut short his work in righteousness, and at the first, 
Rom. 9 28▪  at once pardon guilt, extinguish sin, remove sorrow, and abolish death, simul & semel omnia; but a man, (and so sin and death in the godly) may have his death's wound before he be quite dead, and a conquered captived enemy may for some time be kept alive, and have much good use made of him before he be finally executed; and so it is in this divine Oeconomy of God's grace to his servants, and in his process against these our enemies: he rescueth us orderly, and by degrees, from one enemy after another, from one insult of the same enemy after another.  
2. And (which is the second particular in this divine method of God observable) he doth deliver us from the worst first: first, from that which is wholly inconsistent with his favour to us, and our interest in him: as,  
First, from his revenging wrath, and the condemning guilt of sin, and so from the state of death, in our justification, Rom. 5. 1, 2. and 8. 1, 2, etc.  
And therewith from the dominion of sin, in our sanctification, Rom. 6. 14.  
From the being and inexistence of sin, at death, Heb. 12. 23.  
And from death itself, (which is left last, as least hurtful) at the resurrection, 1 Cor. 15. 26. 54. and it is abundantly enough for our comfort, that if not in this life, yet at death; or to be sure at that last day, we shall have the full 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and perfect accomplishment of this great work, when Christ's rescue of us shall be complete, and death our last enemy shall be wholly and for ever swallowed up in victory. And this is the first Negative, Death hath not lost its sting, so as that believers should never die.  
2. Nor so neither, that at their death they should never feel any kind of smart and pain by the sting of it. 
Isa. 38. 3.  You heard that Hezekiah then wept sore, and you read partly how poor, and partly what desperate shifts, even Abraham, Gen. 12. 12, 13. & 20. 2. 11. and David, 1 Sam. 21. 12, 13. and Peter, Matth. 26. 70. 72. 74. (three of the Scriptures greatest worthies; the first famous for faith, the second for valour, the third for boldness in the cause of Christ) were driven to through fear of it; and sad instances of latter times have shown that when many: secure obdurate sinners have died (as you use to say) like lambs, some of the true sheep of Christ's pasture have been then half worried by this evening wolf; in such evenings these frogs of the insernal pit oft croak aloud, and Belzebubs flies then swarm apace. Satan when now to be cast out teareth most; in Israel's 
Mar. 2. 26. Exod. 14. 5, 6, 7, etc.  Exodus, or out-gate from Egypt, Pharaoh pursueth with all his Charets, because if then once gone, they will be out of his reach for ever; the Devil cometh down with greatest wrath, 
Rev. 12. 12. Deut. 25. 17. 18.  because than he hath least time; and when Israel is weak, Amalek must fall on the Rear, and do something now or never. And hence it hath been, that possibly you may have overheard some dying Saints groans to have been very deep, and seen their deathbeds, (as David's Couch) watered and swimming with tears. Especially 
Psal. 6. 6.  if  
Either guilt of sin be then charged on the conscience, as not pardoned.  
Or some defilement of sin then discovered and aggravated; if our faith then stumble, our hearts will sink and fall, and be much bruised against the gates of death: a body of 
Rom. 7. 24  death will then lie very heavy on the weak sick man, now hasting to his bodily death; and that sin which so defiles him, that he cannot with freedom and serenity of spirit at other times appear before God in duty, will more abash him, when now he is to appear before him in death to receive his doom.  
And thus far (for the Negative) death hath not lost its sting, but partly doth, and partly may retain it, as to true believers.  
2. But (for the Affirmative) so, as that in this life, at death, and at the resurrection, they may with Paul in the Text, ask where is it? For  
In the General, it is but this outward life that death can seize on; as our Saviour said of other enemies, so may we of this our last enemy, it can kill only the body, and after that hath 
Lu. 12. 4.  nothing more that it can do.  
Obj. Or, if you say, that it was before granted, that it can, and sometimes doth sting their souls also.  
Answ. All I answer is, that thanks be to God, yet it is not mortally, for on such the second death hath no power: 
Rev. 20. 6.  and then, if they escape that second death, this first to them is but Larva mortis, (as he calls it) but a grim vizard of death, in the Scripture account is reckoned for no death indeed, for whosoever believeth in me (saith our Saviour, john 11. 26.) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, shall not die for ever: so in the Original which our last Translators, not unfitly (but as the Greek phrase will bear) read it, shall never die, if not for ever, faith construeth it never; though I die temporally, yet Scripture calleth it a sleep, rather than death, if I do not die eternally. This in the general.  
But more particularly this sting of death is taken away from believers  
1. In this life, partly, in justification, and partly in sanctification; for the Apostle in the words following the Text, telleth us, that the sting of death is sin; and sin stings us, both in its terrifying condemning guilt, binding over to punishment, and in its enslaving power and pollution.  
1. Now the first we are freed from in our justification, there is then peace, Rom. 5. 1. and no condemnation, Rom. 8. 1. we are passed from death unto life, 1 john 3. 14. the destroying Angel passeth over and strikes not, when the door-posts and lintel are first struck with the blood 
Exod. 12. 12, 13. Luk. 2, 29, 30.  of the Paschal Lamb. And how cheerfully then doth old Simeon sing his Nunc dimittis, when he hath got his Saviour in his arms, and his eyes have seen God's salvation? There is no sting of death that he complaineth of, the kisses of Christ's mouth have sucked that out from a justified Believer; and than although the shadow of death should sit on my eyelids, as they did on jobs, yet if 
Job 16. 16.  I can but then discover the eyelids of the morning, but the first and least 
Job 41. 18.  out-lookings of Heaven upon my soul, in pardon and peace, especially if broad day light, and the more glorious shine of the Sun 
Mal. 4. 2.  of righteousness; how painful soever death's sting might otherwise have been, my Phoebus is my Physician, so that there will be full healing under his wings; and O death, where is then thy sting?  
2. And as for the defiling pollution, and enthralling power of sin, though it be as painful as the very guilt of it, is as a prick in the flesh, sting's deep, and prick's 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 2 Cor. 12. 7.  the very heart, Acts 2. 37. yet a Believer in this life hath an healing plaster for this wound also, from the spirit of grace in his sanctification: and how quickly doth a clean wound heal? with how little pain doth a formerly wellordered body die? and with how much less, doth a soul, not Philosophically purged, but spiritually sanctified, depart from this earthly tabernacle, which is so subject to be foul, and the very sweeping raiseth a dust, our repentings not being without new defilings? Death is not dolorous when my death and my sin do not meet, but so part, that when the one cometh, the other is gone for ever; and how doth the undefiled Dove (which had before lain among the pots) then shine and glister, when now in her flight to Heaven, the Sun of righteousness shines on her wings, which are covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold? That I may allude to that of the Psalmist, Psal. 68 13, 14. with what joy and delight doth the now chaste soul, when it hath given a bill of divorce to all her former Paramours, ruere in amplexus, now cast herself into the bosom and embraces of her best beloved? Truly it is no terrible sight to see death, when the pure in heart (though now 
Matth. 5. 1.  closing their eyes in the gloomy shadow of death) can even then see God, in the clear glass of a pure conscience: there is no such sting in it to such, to disquiet them, but that without the help of other friends, they may close their own eyes, and take their rest in their Saviour's arms, and their Heavenly Father's bosom.  
Which leadeth me from the first part of the Believers freedom from the sting of death, In this life, to the  
2. Second and greater, and that even in death itself. So that when it 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Justin Martyr Apol. 1.  kills, it hurts, it stings not; but when they lose their lives, death then loseth its sting, and this many ways: for whereas in the former poi●● we shown that to a worldly carnal man, one sore prick of this sting of death was, that it let out all that comfort which the life of his soul was wrapped up in. On the contrary here it will appear, that a Believer in the outlet of his life, hath his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (as it is called, Luke 9 31.) his out-gate from all that which in this life most troubled and wounded him, when the world shall never trouble, or the Devil tempt, nor God frown, nor we sin any more for ever, then (I say) we are freed▪  
1. From all the troubles of this world, which, as to others, so especially to the godly useth to be very vexatious and troublesome.  
A tempestuous sea; and am I hurt if a tempest drive me out of it into harbour?  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Psal. 84. 6. a valley of tears (so some read it) or of Mulberry trees (so others) the one are moist, and others use to grow in more dry places, between them they may serve to make up a more complete Emblem of this miserable world, made up of woes and wants; and how often may you overhear the sad mourner complaining, Now woe is me that I sojourn in 
Psa. 120. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lxx.  Meshech? and that word signifieth how long he thinks the time is protracted; and may you not see those mourning Doves of the valleys mantling the wing, and saying, O that I indeed had wings like a Dove, that I 
Psal. 55. 6.  might flee away, & be at rest. And that rest death and the grave bring's us, for there the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest, job 3. 17. at rest, from all sicknesses, pains, sorrows, persecutions, etc. which here they either feel or fear, the one death end's and cure's, the other it prevent's.  
It put's an end to them, so that either they are not, their malice then ceaseth, post fata quiescit, or in case it prove immortal, so that their cruelty rageth against the dead bodies, estates, good name, and posterity of Saints departed; yet the best is, they then feel it not. Bucer and Fagius did not cry out from Heaven as hurt, when their bones (suppose the wise Inquisitors mistook not some others for theirs) were ridiculously burnt here in Cambridge divers years after their deaths, the dead man neither pine's nor starves, and though you stab him, he neither sighe's nor groans: the weary before, (however others trouble themselves with them then) are at rest, and although men will not let them live in peace, yet in spite of their malice, with old Simeon, they depart in peace, what evil they before felt, is then ended.  
And what they feared, is then prevented, they being taken away from the evil to come, Isa. 57 1. as usually evil is then coming, when good men are going; and if so, it is then the Father's love and care even hastily to snatch away the child, when the wild bull is broken lose from the stake, and is now running upon him; as also the wise Husbandman hasteneth to get in his Corn, before the swine be put out into the field to root up all: the ordinary instances in this kind, are, Josiah, suddenly taken away, that his eyes might not see the evil that was to be brought upon his people, and so, though he died in war, yet he is said to be gathered to his grave in 
2 Chron. 34. 28.  peace; and so Daniel is bid to go away and rest, chap. 12. 13. before those great clashings and confusions should come, which had been foreshewn to him in the foregoing visions of that Book. Saint Augustine dieth a little before Gensericus took Hippo, and Paraeus before. Heidelberg was lost, to whom (if you please) 
Wilson of the life of ●. James.  you may add Mr. Brightman, for whom the Pursuivant was sent a day or two after he was buried. And is then the man hurt, who by this means is set out of harms way? Or, is our traveller to Heaven the worse traveller, or in a worse case, for taking up his Inn betimes, before the storm come, or he be benighted in a wilderness? At death the world will never fight or fright us more, and where then is its sting?  
2. Nor will then the Devil be ever able to tempt us any more; his 
Ephes. 6. ●6.  are fiery darts, but then (thanks be to God) we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, out of gunshot; 
2 Cor. 12. 7.  his temptations are pricks in the flesh, and there let them stick; but the happiness is, that in death we have left our flesh behind us. This Pharaoh may then (as was before showed) pursue us most fiercely with all his forces; but than it may confidently be spoken to the Israel of God, Fear not, stand still, and see the 
Exod. 14. 13.  salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you this day, for these Egyptians whom you have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.  
The Devil who had the power of 
Diabolus per quod potestatem habuit, victus est. Ambros.  death, Heb. 2. 14. hath by death his commission and power abrogated and abolished. For,  
The souls of departed Saints, are then out of his reach.  
And as for their dead bodies, although they may be, and have been abused by wicked men, the Devils instruments, yet it hath been justly questioned, whether the Devil himself immediately have any such power over them. We read once of his 
Judas v. 9▪  contending with Michael the Archangel, about the body of Moses, and if the thing he contended for, were (as it is usually conceived) to have the place where it was buried discovered. It is plain from Deut. 34. 6. that in that conflict he was worsted, and is there then any sting in death, when after it the world shall never any more trouble, nor the Devil tempt?  
3. Nor (which is a far greater word) God frown, which yet in the time of our life he seethe just cause sometimes to do, and to veil his face from us; but then we come to live, not by faith, which admits of doubting, but by 
1 Cor. 13. 12. Rev. 22. 4.  vision, and that face to face: that morning will be (as 2 Sam. 23. 4.) without clouds, because we shall be above them, and in nearest conjunction with the 
Jam. 1. 17.  Father of Lights, with whom there is no over shadowing; whatever the loansom estrangments be that we meet with here, yet when Lazarus is once dead, he who was kept out of the rich man's 
Luke 16. 32.  gates, is then found in Abraham's bosom, the place of warmest love.  
And that most lively warmth, most lively felt, in this i'll and dark evening of death, in it there is light, Zech. 14. 7. in grace as well as in nature, the afternoon Sun is oftentimes very warm, and the setting Sun shines out sometimes most gloriously. So Oecolampadius making good the splendour of his own name) now dying, and that of an uncomfortable death, viz. the plague, could lay his hand upon his breast, & say, hic abundè lucis est: here, here in this dark evening is abundant light, then then in that gloomy shadow of death have humble Believers (and oftentimes none more than they who before had been most sad and ) met with divinest raptures & ravishments of God's love, with gloriousest shines, and most pleasing smiles of his countenance, and sweetest kisses of his mouth, as the loving mother kisseth the sweet babe, and so layeth it down to sleep. So the 
Maimonid. More. Nevoch. parte tertia cap. 51. ad finem. Buxtorf. Lexic. R●bin. ad vocem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem in Florileg. Hebr. pag. 205.  Jewish Masters expound that Deut. 34. 5. of Moses his dying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad ●s Jehovae, as though God did take away his soul with a kiss; and so of their 903 kinds of death which they use to reckon up, this their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the death which cometh by such a kiss, they say is omnium placidissima, of all most pleasant and comfortable: which, they say also, Moses and Aaron, and Miriam only died of; but many besides them, through God's mercy have at that time known what the kisses of Christ's mouth mean. And yet this both in Moses and Aaron's deaths is to this purpose singularly remarkable, that whereas you read of Gods bidding Moses to go up to 
Deut. 32. 49. 50. Numb. 20. 25, 26. Heinsii exercit. sacrae in Matth. cap. 16.  mount Nebo, and there die, and of Aaron, to go up to mount Hor, and strip him of his garments & die there, you shall not find in either places, that ut capistrati ad mortem mali trahebantur; that as Malefactors they were dragged to it as to an execution; but on the contrary, without the least reluctance, they did as they were bid, like (me thinks) well natured children, although others of the Family sit up latter, and it may be have greater provisions preparing for them, yet without crying, or the least whimpering, make themselves ready, and go up to bed when their Father bids them, and well they might, although others stayed behind, and were to be entertained with Canaan's milk and honey, which they were cut short of, seeing they were thus sent to bed with a kiss, never to have the least appearance of a frown more.  
4. But might we here add and never 
Ezek. 28. 12.  sin more, you may say, this would seal up the sum, complete all, and leave of this sting neither mark nor remembrance. Nor will this be wanting, and therefore in the last place I shall be bold to add this too. For as sin in this life, had (as to the Believer) lost its condemning guilt, and dominion, so in death, it will be deprived of its being, or inexistence; indeed as long we shall here continue to dwell in these houses of clay, it will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that which will keep possession, and have its dwelling in us, Rom. 7. 17. but when our souls shall then be dislodged of our bodies, this encroaching and troublesome Inmate shall once for ever be thrust out of doors from both bodies and souls together; the death of our body delivering us perfectly from this body of death, by which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it's controverted whether be meant this our mortal body, or the body of sin, which 
Rom. 7. 24. Docet non finiri hos conflictus quandiu mortale corpus circumgestamus, quando corpus peccati aliquando exuemus, Paraeus in locum.  is more deadly. I grant the latter, but would not exclude the former, because both of them are put together, as when Samson died, the Philistines died also together with 
Judg. 16. 30. Vide Annotat. in V T. incerti Autoris. Canta brig. 1653. In Leu. 11. 25. See Mr. Cotton on Eccles. 7. 1.  him. This (some think) was typed out by that in the Law, where it is so often spoken of men's being unclean until the evening; but more fully and plainly asserted in the New Testament, where the souls of just men once got to Heaven, are said to be made perfect, Heb. 12. 23. Other places are brought by some to the same purpose, as that Rom. 6. 7. He he that is dead is freed from sin, which though meant of a death to sin in mortification, yet alludes to what is in natural death, as Interpreters agree upon the place, and those expressions of Christ's presenting us to himself, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, faultless, Judas 24. not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, Eph. 5. 27. which to our particular persons is done in death, Ecles. 12. 7. and that also, 1 Cor. 15. 26. where death is said to be the last enemy which is to be destroyed, which they conceive it could not be, if sin should remain in us undestroyed after death: but because these places may seem to be capable of a satisfying answer, I wave them, and content myself with that one before mentioned. I Confess some 
* See Mr. B. his vindiciae legis pag. 118.  Divines of very great worth, conceive it is not death, but Cinerefaction that wholly rids us of sin, i. e. that we are not wholly freed from it, as soon as the soul is departed, and the body is now dead, but when it is turned into dust and ashes: and this they would infer from the instance of Lazarus, who after he had been 
John 11.  dead four days, was raised up to life, yet so as he died again, which yet he should not have done, if the Image of God had in his first death been perfected in him, and so he wholly freed from sin. To which I briefly answer  
1. That it is no good way to prove that to be the ordinary and general course which God takes with all others, because possibly it might be so in Lazarus his particular and extraordinary instance, concerning whom busily to inquire what kind of death his was, or in what state his soul was, in that quatridium mortis, I think would be too presumptuous curiosity.  
2. Although the Image of God in him might not be made perfect upon his first dying, and therefore he might die again the second time, whilst some consequents of sin, (as mortality) yet clavae to him, yet it will not thence follow, that sin abode in him, no more than that a Saint departed lieth under the power of sin, though he do continue under the power of death, which is a consequent of sin, till the resurrection. Not that I determine that Lazarus, after his first dying and rising again, lived all his time after without sin, in which to define any thing either way, were rashness; but only to deny the inference, that because the Image of God was not every way completed upon his first death, so that he died again, therefore it was not restored in this, as to his being freed from sin, which I conceived saints departed are, though till the last day they lie under the power of death, which yet was brought into the world by sin, Rom. 5. 12.  
3. For the ordinary course, as I believe the dead body is no proper subject for sin, so I conceive all Protestants, who deny a Popish Purgatory, 
Rev. 14. 13. Rev. 21. 27.  or middle state after death, must needs confess, that the soul before the body be turned to dust and ashes, is 
Sicque malorum omnium tela abrumpitur Paraeus.  got to Heaven, into which no unclean thing entereth; and therefore as soon as it is loosed from the body, it is so loosed from sin, that it may have a ready flight, and free entrance unto that undefiled Mansion.  
And therefore I cannot but subscribe to him who calls Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and say with Ambrose, quid est mors nisi peccatorum sepultura? that however it be the curse of the wicked, to die in their sins, John 8. 21. 4. yet for the godly, death in them kills sin, and is buried in their grave, and so sin and death, which were before friends, in our death prove deadly enemies; peccatum peperit mortem & filia devoravit matrem, sin at first begot and brought forth death, and death 
Jam. 5. 17.  at last destroyed sin as the worm kills the tree that bred it. Death came by sin, 
Rom. 5. 12. Mr. Brightman in his Sermon on Luk. 4. 18. pag. 66.  and sin goeth out by death, and so sin disarmeth itself, taketh out its own sting; and may we not then well say, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? viz. when death itself, is thus killed, as you use to say, quicksilver is killed, when so qualified, as it is made medicinable.  
And the grave, which swallowed up all, is itself swallowed up in victory, Captivity led captive and this our enemy not only subdued that it cannot hurt us, but also made to serve under our victorious Conqueror, so as to destroy our worst enemy, sin I mean, which we had most cause to be afraid of, and which above all made death terrible.  
And thus we have seen how the sting of death is taken out both in life and death from a Believer; but for all this all is not yet done, for all the time that we continue dead, death in some respect continueth his dominion, and whilst the grave keeps our body's prisoners, how hath it lost the victory? There is therefore something yet behind, and will that good God who hath thus far led us, here leave us? that as Rachel died, when now it 
Gen. 35. 16.  was but a little way to come to Ephrath, so when one stroke more would bring us to shore, we should sink in the harbour? O no.  
As on the one side David from good experience could style God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 
Psal. 57 2.  a God, who performeth, or finisheth, or perfecteth all for me, and whom he loveth, he loveth to the end, John 13. 1.  
So on the other side, as for his and their enemies, when he beginneth, he will make an end, 1 Sam. 3. 12. nor will he with Joash, when he hath 
2 Kings 13 18, 19  smitten twice or thrice, for want of giving the last stroke fall short of completing the victory.  
3. And that will be at the last day of the general Resurrection, till which time, death as it were lived, 
Rom. 5. 14  reigned, and kept the field, and the grave continued his victory; but as in death (we heard) sin lost its being, so at the resurrection death and the grave shall forever lose theirs, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it shall be destroyed, ver. 26. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be swallowed up, In the 54. ver. immediately preceding the Text, to which the Apostle relates in these words, O death where is thy sting? etc. which he speaks by way of anticipation of faith, and (according as before I expressed it) as it were before hand tuning his voice, that he might sing them out aloud in that last great Jubilee, and then death and the grave 
Rev. 20. 13  shall give up their dead, and disgorge themselves of all that they had before swallowed, and then not only the sting of death, but also death itself shall die and cease for ever, for there shall then be no more death, than our 
Rev. 21. 4.  dead bodies shall again live, Isa. 26. 19 so as thenceforth they can die no more, Luke 20. 36. but what is said of our Saviour, shall then be made good of his servants, they shall then live who were dead, and shall live for ever, Rev. 1. 18. and then Death and Hell as vanquished enemies shall be dragged after our glorious Conquerurs' Chariot, whilst his Redeemed ones shall follow him with their joyful and thankful acclamations, and make Heaven and Earth echo this triumphant song O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Nor will they forget to add that which the Apostle doth, v. 57 Now thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Which fitly leads me to the Application.  
ANd let the first be everlasting 
SERM. III  Use. 1 Praise and thanksgiving to the Prince of our peace, and captain of our salvation. Now and ever blessed be our God, who hath given us the victory 
Ver. 57  through our Lord Jesus Christ: and truly it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a most free gift if we have it, for did we fight and win it, that we should wear it? No, he tread the winepress 
Isa. 63. 1, 2▪ 3.  alone, and of the people there was none with him when he came from Edom with his garments died in the blood of these our enemies, travelling in the greatness of his strength, mighty to save, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Theophylact upon the Text. He endured the conflict, and in and by him gained the victory; or as chrysostom expresseth it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Ille pugna●● sustinuit, nos coronis & triumphis suis ornavit. P. Martyr. Rev. 4. 10, 11. Ezek. 21. 26, 27.  He got the victory, and let us wear the Crown. But shall not then humble and thankful ingenuity cast down our Crowns at his feet, or rather set them on his head, whose right it is? and say, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created; all is by him, and from him, and therefore let the praise of all be to him for ever. It was,  
1. His death, which gave death its deadly wound, and by death be destroyed him who had the power of death 
Heb. ●. 14.  which is the Devil. And this  
As most gloriously, whilst thus in his greatest weakness, he foileth Satan in his greatest strength, vincit dum 
2 Cor. 13. 4  vincitur, when as a weak man he is overcome of death, as the mighty, Almighty God he overcometh both death, and him that had the power of it, and on the very Cross made a show 
Coloss. 2. 15. Musculus. Rom. 6. 23.  of him openly, when he himself was there made a spectacle.  
So most justly; for seeing death is the wages only of sin, he most righteously forfeited that his power and authority, by inflicting death on him who 
2 Cor, 5. 21  knew no sin; and thus Jeroboams arm 
1 Kin. 13. 4 In Epitaph: Nepot.  Hydrus Crocodilum interficit. P. Dammian: li. 2. ep. 18. Dentes infringes in nimis solido: concoquere non poteris, sed sicut Danielis bolo Babylonius draco, eruciaberis & crepabis. Del Rio Adagial. pag. 250.  drieth up, when stretched out to lay hold on God's Prophet; and the waspish angry Bee fastening her sting where she should not, hath lost both it and her life together. This made Hierom insult over death, illius morte tu mortua es, devorasti & de●orata es; but withal he blesseth Christ for it, Gratias tibi Christ Salvator, quod tam potentem adversarium nostrum, dum occideris, occidisti, its most just that death should die, for seizing on the Lord of Life, who never deserved it; and although we did, yet just too, that we should be delivered, seeing our Surety hath satisfied. And thus our blessed Redeemer, by being lifted up on the Cross, fought with these our enemies from the higher ground, and so mortally wounded their head; and that spear which pierced his heart broke this string, which else would have wounded ours; in hoc sign● vinces; so that however other Soldiers are wont to be dismayed at the death of their Captains, yet we are delivered, and so animated by the death of ours; his death is our life, & therefore let him have that praise, which he purchased at so dear a price.  
2. His Resurrection is both the cause and pledge of ours, 1 Cor. 15. 20, 21. hath a special influence into our justification, Rom. 4. 25. & 8. 34. affording faith (by which we are justified) 
Rom. 5. 1.  a sure handhold; in that it clearly manifesteth, that he had paid the debt, when the prisoner was set free, satisfied God's Justice, when the arrest of death was taken off, and then, O death where i● thy sting? and by opening his own grave, had done as much for ours, and then, O grave, 
Ezek. 37. 12.  where is thy victory?  
3. The imputation of his sufferings, death, and unrighteousness, is that which in our justification takes off God's revenging wrath, and the condemning guilt of sin, which our Apostle saith, is the sting of death, and so he saveth us from going down into the pit, or at least bringeth us up out of it, because he hath found a ransom, Job. 33. 24.  
4. It is the grace of his Spirit, by which we are enabled to mortify the the deeds and lusts of the flesh, Rom. 8. 13. which was another sting of sin, and so of death, which the finger of the Spirit of Christ only takes out.  
It is not our strongest purposes or resolutions that will be able to overmaster these enemies; a foul sore, till it be indeed healed, will run, though we say it shall not.  
Nor will the Heathens, and Philosophers Purgative virtues, cleanse this sink, in which the best of them so foully wallowed.  
Nor the Papists Purgatories, penances, watch, whip, lousy shirts, or S. Francis his kissing 
Bonavent. in ejus vita cap. 2.  or licking of Lepers sores, which will cleanse this fretting leprosy. The poor woman in the gospel after she had spent all she had on other miserable Physicians, could not get her 
Mark 5. 25. 26, 27.  issue of blood stopped, till she got a touch of Christ's garment. Porphyric himself confesseth that nothing else can effect this cleansing, sola principia 
Morn: de veritat. Rel. cap. 27  hanc purgation● perficere possunt. By which Principia some conceive, were meant the 3 Persons in the blessed Trinity; but whatsoever he meant by them, I am sure it was the blood of the sacrifice, 
Leu. 14. 14. 15, 16.  and the oil that cleanseth the Leper in the Law, and that by them was meant the blood of Christ, and the grace of his Spirit which alone hath power to cleanse and heal both them then, and us now under the Gospel.  
5. They are also the consolations and comforts of the same Spirit of Christ, which are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and Lenitives, which actually & formally take away all that pain and anguish, which the sting of sin and death make 
Gal. 5. 22. Rom. 14. 17.  in our consciences, such joy and peace are fruits of this spirit, and spring from no other root. It is the Lord 
Joh. 10. 11. See Ainsworth on Gen. 25. 2.  Jesus who is our good Shepherd, and as it is the good Shepherd's work and office, first to feed his sheep, and then secondly, to make them lie down and rest, so he only doth both these to our souls, feedeth us in green pastures, Psal. 23. 2. and makes us lie down at noon, yea, and at night too, Cant. 1. 7. the first in our life time, and the other event in death, and thence no sting in death to a good Christian.  
6. Finally, it will be his last glorious appearing, at the bright lustre whereof the shadow of death will then quite vanish, and death itself (which till then had continued and prevailed, and just then having cut down all before it, had (as it were) completed its conquest) shall then for ever be swallowed up in victory.  
And thus we see our Christ, who is our all, from first to last in this 
Col. 3. 11.  great achievement of our victory over death, put down all, and therefore to him most deservedly let be all the praise; and if the Philistims when 
Judg. 16. 23, 24.  they had gotten Samson into their power, praised their Gods, and offered a great sacrifice to Dagon, and rejoiced that he had delivered their enemy into their hands, who had destroyed their Country, and slain many of them; then what Lebanon is sufficient to burn, 
Isa. 40. 16. Psa. 50. 10.  or what cattles on a thousand kills sufficient for a  sacrifice? what Hecatombs of praise and service, of whatever we are, have, can do or suffer, are due to our great God and Saviour? who hath delivered the destroyer of our both bodies and souls into our hands, and us out of his; who hath slain not only many of us, but either hath or will make havoc of us all, heaps upon heaps, fare more and greater than ever Samson did of 
Judg. 15. 16. Asa. 115. 1.  them. Now not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but to our most mighty and most merciful God and Saviour, be all the praise, who hath thus delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath 
Colos. 1. 13 Davenant in locum.  translated (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) i. e. hath as a Colony, transplanted us into a new and better Country) from under the power of sin and death into the kingdom of his dear Son; the Lord of life and glory, hath opened for us that iron 
Judas 6. Heb. 7. 16.  gate, and broken those everlasting chains of darkness asunder and, having perfectly vanquished hell and death, hath instated us in that power of an endless life. Now glory to God on high, and on earth peace.  
Use 2 For as this matter of his endless praise, so of strong and everlasting consolation and good hope to 
2 Thess. 2. 16. Heb. 6. 18.  all those that are made partakers of the grace of life. For so Calvin rightly observeth, that the Apostle here in the Text, tam animos â exclamatione erigere voluit Corinthiorum animos; by such an hearty and triumphant exclamation as this, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? He intended to rouse and raise up the drooping, trembling, sinking hearts of Believers, and by this Prosopopoeia, (as P. Martyr 
Proponit ob oculos mortem prostratam & confossam.  addes) he presenteth death as having got a deadly wound, and now lying prostrate at their feet, for them securely to trample upon, and to triumph over, the sting being gone, and the honey only remaining, whilst it hath delivered them from their worst enemy, sin; and more nearly united them to their best friend Jesus Christ their Lord and Head. It doth indeed part them from the bodily presence of other dearest relations here on earth, and from their bodies too, which they must leave also for a time, till they at last come to a more joyful meeting. But not from God, who as Saul and Jonathan, in death are 
2 Sam. 1. 23. Bernard in Cant. Serm 26.  not parted. So that what was before porta inferni, is now introitus regni, the gate of Hell is now become the entrance into Heaven; or as Mr. Brightman expresseth it, what was before the Devil's Sergeant to drag us to Hell, is now the Lords Gentleman-usher to conduct us to Heaven.  
Prov. 31. 8. dying men are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a phrase which hath troubled 
Vide Mercer. in locum.  Interpreters, to give the true sense of it; the word usually signifieth a change of raiment, and so indeed death strip's us all, but happy they whom Christ hath spread his skirt over, they then will not be found naked, but clothed upon with their 
2 Cor. 5. 2● 3, 4,  house from Heaven. This a Believer hath in death, yea by death, and what conclusion then should he infer from it, but the Psalmists Ergo? 
Psal. 16. 8, 10, 11.  Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth, my flesh also shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell, but wilt show me the path of life, etc. and therefore I will not only rest in peace, but leap for joy, whilst I can thus insult over so deadly an enemy; the righteous may well have hope in their death, when 
Prov. 14. 32.  from this Text, they may be sure of the victory.  
Use 3 Which therefore should arm the heirs of life against the fear of death; we read, Cant. 3. 7, 8. that the valiant of Israel have their swords on their thighs, because of fear in the night; which implieth, that as 
So the Greeks, amongst their many words for a night have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for one which imports fear.  other nights usually strike men (at least children) into fears, so this long and more darksome night of death, is subject to raise fears even in those that are men of God. Especially whilst they are weak children, they are oft weary of life, and yet afraid of death, that God (in a manner) knoweth not what to do with them; as the Angel (in Cyprian) chideth such, pati timetis, exire non vultis, quid faciam vobis? and truly such children should be chid out of such childish fears, but from the valiant of Israel God expecteth more spirit, if not wholly to prevent such insults, yet with courages to repel them; for else to what purpose serve their swords on their thighs? and a lively faith in their hearts, if the fears of death can dead it? It is a sad word of Calvin upon Heb. 2. 14, 15. He 
Si quis anima● pacare non potest mo●tis contemptu, is sciat p●●um se adhuc profecisse in Christi fide; ●a● ut nimia trepidatio ex ignorantia Christi gratiae nascitur, ita certum est infidelitatis signam.  that cannot quiet his heart in all holy contempt of death, let him know that he hath as yet profited but a very little in the faith of Christ, because this trembling ariseth from too much ignorance of his grace, and is a certain sign of too much infidelity: For so Paul, Rom. 10. 7. affirmeth, that doubtingly to ask, who shall descend into the deep? is to bring Christ again from the dead, as though he had not died, and by his death overcome death and Hell: but on the contrary,  
1. The example of Christ our Saviour dying, should animate every Christian Soldier against fears of death; his tasting of it for us, 
Heb. 2. 9  should keep it from being to us a c●p of trembling: for if the weak silly sheep freely followeth, where the dux gregis, before hath led the way, why should the sheep of Christ's Pasture be at a stand, though it be in the valley of the shadow of death, from following the Lamb whither soever 
Rev. 14. 4.  he goeth?  
2. But the merit and efficacy of the death of Christ should in this kind be most operative; as it pacifieth the wrath, satisfieth the justice of God, removeth guilt, and purchaseth 
Maledictionem sube●ndo sustulit quod in morte formidabile erat. Cypr.  life; had we the skill of faith to apply it aright to our wounded souls, it would be able so perfectly to take out the sting of death, that we should have no cause to be troubled with the fear of it; for so it is signanter dictum, by death he hath 
Heb. 2. 14, 15.  destroyed him who had the power of death, so as to deliver them that were all their life time in bondage, by reason of their fear of it: so that if we shall fear, it is some body's fault, it is none of his; for on his part actiuè, quoad causam & fundamentum, (and in the sense that fear is sometimes taken for the thing feared) we are delivered from the fear of death.  
Though on our part, through weakness of faith, or want of due exercise of it, passiuè, quoad effectum vel eventum, we may be too much disturbed with this passion, and accordingly fear it; as a man before in danger, if now by his friend indeed set in safety, we may truly say he is put out of fear, though for his part (as not sensible of it) you may possibly see him yet stand quaking and trembling, like him who after a storm which he hath been in, is now safe on the shore, and yet his head is so dizzy and turns round, that he think's he is still rolling and tossing in the tempest.  
But shall we be so silly, that when Christ hath knocked off our chains, the Devil through these fears should tie and keep us bound with straws?  
Nay, shall we be so unkind (I had almost said, so profane) as with Ahaz, Isa. 7. in such a trembling fit as you read of v. 2. not only to weary men, but God also, v. 13▪ not only be injurious to our own peace and life, but also to the worth and efficacy of Christ's death, as though it were not able to fetch out the sting, and all the poison of ours.  
Especially seeing that after his death followed his Resurrection, those 
Act. 2. 24.  chains of death being too weak to hold him, but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that exceeding greatness of his mighty 
Ephes. 1. 19 Judg. 16. 9 12.  power Samson-like easily snapped them, as so many  threads asunder, and so disruptis mortis, sepulchri inferni repagulis, he riseth in the glory of that his might as a Conqueror over death, and so dieth no more, 
Rom. 6. 9  that we might fear no more. Death hath no more dominion over him, that the terror of it may have none over us. Thus our Elisha hath cast that 
2 King. 2. 21.  salt into these bitter waters, and so healed them, that from thenceforth there might be no death in them; and although there were sometimes death in the pot, and a deadly poisonous sting in that death, yet by casting in of this meal, there is now no harm, 
2 Kings 4. 40, 41.  but meat and medicine, life and strength in it; and how long then shall we be so weak as like children to be afraid of our Physician and Physic? Or like such timorous men, who, when in the dark, are afraid of any thing they see, thinking it to be a Devil, or an enemy, which when it comes near, proves their very friend? But when shall we once attain to that boldness of faith as not to 
1 Tim. 3. 13.  fear death, which by the death and resurrection of Christ is become a Serpent without a sting, and although an enemy, yet such an one as hath lost the victory?  
The way to our help herein, will 
Helps against fear of death.  be  
1. To inquire into the occasions and causes of this our malady; and then  
2. To apply to each their several proper remedies, that so although we must all die, yet we may die in peace; and whereas some say, that all die of a Fever, yet we may not in a cold shaking fit, but with such peace, comfort, joy, and triumph, that we may then say Paul's words, with Paul's spirit and faith, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?  
1. Now amongst those causes of 
Causes of this fear.  our fear of death, some may be more blameless and excusable, if not justifiable, for a true believer (and that as acting faith) may lawfully in some cases desire the continuance of life, and so far in a regular way and measure fear death.  
1. From a natural aversation from death, if not as a fruit of sin, yet as an enemy and destroyer of nature, which before I hinted was in Peter and Paul, yea, in Christ himself; as appeared in his agony and bloody 
Lu. 22. 44.  sweat, in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, being amazed, and very heavy, and his soul being exceeding sorrowful unto death, Mark 14. 33, 34. so that again and again he prayeth the same words, v. 39 that if it were possible that Cup might pass from him, Matth. 26. 39 I confess there was more bitterness in that Cup, then of a bare natural, or a more ordinary violent death, but yet death as it is in itself a privation of life, and so a natural evil; so it was no sin in our Saviour in way of natural affection to turn from it, but the perfection of his obedience to subject himself, and his natural desires and 
Matth. 26. 42. Mark 14. 36.  fears to his Father's will in it.  
2. From some more special grounds of desire of continuance of life:  
As, till he attain some mercy desired: so Moses desireth to live to go over jordan, and see that goodly Mountain and Lebanon, Deut. 3. 25. and Hezekiah weeps 
* When he heareth he must die before he had an heir. Isa. 28. 3. .  
Or some mercy promised, as no doubt Simeon could not have been willing to see death, till (as was revealed to him) he had seen the Lords Christ, though then he desired to departed, Luke 2. 26, 28, 29, 30.  
Or till he effect and accomplish some work and service which God hath called and fitted him unto; so the Psalmist desireth to live to propagate God's praise, Psalm 119. 17. 5. Psalm 71. 18. as a true labourer will desire his day may last, till his work be done; but in these and the like particulars, there is rather a desire of life then fear of death, though where there is a true desire of any thing, the fear of the contrary to it must needs be proportionable.  
3. In some other respects there may be more formal fears of death, and yet less sinful, and more excusable.  
As in general, by reason of the greatness of that change and task, which in death every man, the best Saint, is brought to and put upon.  
For so, All changes usually affect us; let it be but the turning of the blood, (as they use to call it) after the opening of a vein, the man is oft at a swooning fit.  
But as all Greatness is awful, so 
Ezek. 1. 18.  great tasks are wont to make us very thoughtful and solicitous; and great changes use greatly to affect us, and therefore the great change at the last day will make even the powers of Heaven to shake, Matth. 24. 29. by which some understand the Angels of Heaven, though they be safe enough: so proportionably the day of our death being the day of our particular doom, in which we have one of our last and greatest changes to be undergone, and one of our most important tasks to be set upon and gone through with. Wonder not if you should then see the wary, busy, thoughtful, careful soul trembling: as for instance,  
The parting of the soul and body, so nearly united, and so long acquainted, and never yet severed, is a very hard twitch.  
The leaving of this world of men, to go now into the world of souls, into that fare strange Country, is a great change.  
The pains and pangs of death with some are very strong, so that possibly you have sometimes seen some of strong bodies, yea, and faith too, though they had nothing else then to do, yet then finding it a work great enough to be able to die.  
Our last accounts are, then to be given up, Eccles. 12. 7. Luke 16. 2. and that is a very awful business.  
And this to a most glorious Lord and Judge, whom we are then to appear before, and if here we find a dread Majesty in his very smiles, when he is on a mercy-seat, now that he is on the Judgement seat, his presence cannot but be very dreadful.  
Remembrance of former sins, though pardoned, may make the dying man's pale cheeks blush.  
And sense of present defilement and weakness, though now dying with him, may make the pure in heart shrink back from appearing before so pure an eye.  
And those last conflicts with the world, sin, and Satan, are oft then most fierce and violent, and unless the Sun of righteousness do then more gloriously shine out upon us with his more enlightening and enlivening beams in this i'll and gloomy shadow of death, even the man of God may tremble, and yet all this, in these and the like cases, but as an Isaac's trembling, Gen. 27. 33. or a Moses his quaking, Heb. 12. 21. Reverential, holy, comfortable, and more awful than fearful.  
2. But farther than God helpeth and strengtheneth, the best of us may then be subject to worse and more sinful fears; some of the causes whereof may be these, to which I shall particularly subjoin their cures & remedies.  
1. First, a more general cause of this fear of death, is a secure careless neglect seriously beforehand to meditate of it, and accordingly to prepare for it in time of life, for so by coming suddenly and unexpectedly, it puts all on heaps and confusion. So suddenness and fear 
for 5. ult.  in other cases are joined together, Prov. 3. 25. and suddenness of destruction coming upon any, is a description of a most careful and doleful condition, 1 Thess. 5. 3. it is so here, when in our life time we have not taken a due and timely estimate of the antecedents, concomitants, and consequents of death, of all the evil that is in it, and so have laid in no provisions of those cordials and comforts that should antidote and sweeten it, before we are ware of it, or prepared for it, to taste of it, rendereth it that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cup of trembling, the 
Heb. 2. 9 Zech. 12. 2  man unawares hath set his feet on a Bog, and he and it tremble, and quake, and sink together, like Nabal, whose heart died before he did, 1 Sam. 25. 37.  
And therefore the Prophylactick here is a frequent and thoughtful meditation of it, and a daily answerable preparation for it, and so, when it cometh, it proves less terrible. Whatever the Philosophers meant by defining their Philosophy to be a meditation of their Metaphorical death, I am sure that in plain terms the frequent and serious meditating of this death, we now speak of, is a great part of true saving Christian Divinity; and if with Joseph of Arimathea, we 
John 19 41.  would have our Sepulchers, in our Gardens, if thoughts of death did oft recur in our best life, especially if in every sickness, disease, and danger, in which God knocks at our door, 
Luke 12. 36.  and tell's us that he is coming, we could more livelily see death's face, and so grow more acquainted with it, (as Soldiers are wont) we should at last be less afraid of it. I protest by your rejoicing in Christ Jesus, I die daily, saith our apostle, v. 31. of this Chapter; a daily dying, is joined with a last days rejoicing, and our continual putting our lives into our hands, as 
Judg. 12. 3. Psal. 119. 109.  ready to offer them up to God, will be a means willingly to part with them, when God shall please to call for them; a dying before hand in thought will make dying indeed less troublesome: for how forcible and effectual would forethoughts of death be to make us to fear to sin, and thereby not to fear to die? whilst the eye of Faith hath before taken view of death, in all the evil that any way is in it, and of all that good which to a believer cometh by it.  
But so, as this meditation be accompanied with an answerable preparation, for otherwise as Solomon in another case saith, he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow, Ecles. 1. 18. so here the more I know, the more I fear, and grieve, whilst I know so much evil in it, which then abides me, and withal that all that good which may be in it, I, for my part, shall fall short of. With how much shaking doth the unripe apple fall off, when a ripe one drops down without that trouble? the Vine weepeth, when the branch is cut off before the harvest, and 
Isa. 18. 5.  the sour grape is but yet ripening in the flower; but with what harvest joy shall we come to the grave, when we shall be like a shock of ripe corn, which cometh in in his season? Job 5. 26. to which for a close of this, let me add what there followeth, Lo this, we have 
Ver. 27.  searched it, so it is, and therefore hear and know it for your good.  
2. And because in this preparation for death, prayer is one special part of it; therefore the neglect of prayer is one great cause of the anguish and and fear of it; and so we find that want of prayer is joined with want of hope at such a time in the hypocrite, Job 27. 8. with 9 10. they that use not to look up to God to seek him before, will then hardly find him; and then for the child in that dark entry, not to have the Father by the hand will be very terrible: the true children of God may possibly be more to seek for their comfort at their deaths, by reason of their less seeking it in their lives, in that it oft falleth out, that amongst their many and earn●●●uits for grace to carry them on in ●●eir way, they have not been so mindful as they should to beg for a smile in their Journeys end, which God makes account, is a mercy worth ask, and therefore we receive not because we ask not Jam. 4. 2.  
For remedy therefore, ask that you may have, now seek, that you may then find, and all your life time be knocking 
Matth. 7. 7  hard at the gate of mercy, that at your out-gate of this life an abundant entrance 
2 Pet. 1. 11.  may be administered unto you; into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Have you ordinarily known the man, who was much in prayer while he lived, to be full of fears and anguish when he came die? No, those sweet and strong breathe blow away such darksome clouds, and thereby the setting Sun shineth out brightly. For prayer,  
1. Through mercy procure's it, it can get any good thing, at a good God's hand, and why not comfort in death? nay, then especially, for than begins a believers harvest, when he re●●'s the fruit of hi● for●●● la●●●● 
Job 5. 26. Revel. 14. 15.  and hath oftentimes a ●ost ●ensibl● return of all hi●●●●●er prayers, which before (i●●●●y be) he thought God, as well as himself, had forgotten.  
2. As prayer thus impetrate's it, so it naturally (as it were) trains us up to it; for by constant acquaintance with prayer, we come to more familiar acquaintance with Christ, and so come to see and feel how happy it is to be near him, which cannot but make us the more ready and desirous of getting out of the body, 
Phil. 1. 23. 2 Cor. 5. 6.  that we may be no longer absent from him; and besides, the happy soul, which, with the sweet bird is continually soaring upward, and keepeth much aloft, is so well acquainted with those approaches to Heaven, that now when it fitteth on the dying man's lips, it is ready on the wing to take its last flight, as in that dark night very well knowing its accustomed way thither, and having so often sent its prayers, those winged messengers, thither beforehand, now with joy and singing mounteth up it self thither, and therefore be much in prayer now, if in death you would have an answer of peace.  
3. False heartedness is another cause of faintheartedness, in these animae deliquia, the rotten quagmire quakes and sinks when trod on; and so fearfulness (we read) surpriseth hypocrites, 
Isa. 33. 14.  when death and danger layeth hold on them, God then takes away their souls and their hopes together, Job 27. 8. as else where their hope is said to be as the giving up of the ghost. Miserable 
cap. 11. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  man! if thy soul and thy hope go out with the breath of the same dying groan.  
But on the contrary, (by way of remedy) hezekiah's walking before God perfectly, and with an upright heart, 
Isa. 38. 3.  was the best stake in his hedge, when the news of death made all crack; and so much truth & sincerity as we have, just so much peace & comfort shall we have in dangers & death, and no more. The Heathens under their Fables of Minos, Aeacus, & Rhadamanthus, hinted 
See Plato in Gorgia. Hora mortis, hora ve●itatis.  to us, that at death there will be a strict Scrutiny, and however in our life time we have been judged by ourselves and others with our  on, yet than we shall all be judged naked, than all vizards will be laid aside, all black patches and beauty spots that covered foul sores will be plucked, off & the pure heart only will be able to lift up their face without spot, and be steadfast 
Job 11. 15  and not fear.  
4. Too much love of the world is another great cause of our as much fear of death, when we are to leave it, for fear ever presupposeth love, and so much as I love any thing, so much I am aggrieved & afraid to part with it; with what crying is the child plucked from the breast, when it hath tasted of the sweetness of it, and as yet skill's of no other nourishment? things fast glued together, are torn & broken when violently plucked asunder, & if thy cloth cleave to thy skin, as it is a sign that there is some sore under it, so it will make all smart when plucked off, and answerably if thy portion (with them Psal. 17. 14.) be in this life, thou art utterly undone, when it is ended: Job 
Cap. 29. 13  somewhere speaks of dying in his nest, but as chrysostom observeth, Nestlins are wont to be but weaklins, and they that have feathered their nests in the world, have mind to be on the wing to fly out of it, O death, how bitter is thy remembrance to him that 
Ecclus. 41. 1.  liveth at ease in his possessions? how sad a sight is the hand-writing on the wall to a Belshazzar in his cups? and when 
Dan. 5.  the rich man is dreaming of goods laid up for many years, how dreadful a sound in his ears was that, Thou fool, 
Luke 12. 12, 20.  this night, & c? when in prosperity the destroyer cometh upon him, Job 15. 21. It was a wise and Christian speech of Charles the 5t. to the Duke of Venice, who when he had shown him the glory of his Princely Palace and Earthly Paradise, instead of admitting it, or him for it, only returned him this grave and serious memento. Haec sunt quae faciunt invitos mori: these are the things which make us unwilling to die, and so sharpen deaths sting, and make it more painful; it is a double death to him who is alive to the world, to part with it.  
Whereas on the contrary (again for the remedy) if with Paul we were before hand crucified to the world, 
Gal. 6. 14.  and had it crucified to us, and (as Chrysostom descan'ts upon the place) lay like two dead bodies one by another, as there was no mutual desire, or delight in each other, when they lay together, so there would be as little grief when they are parted asunder, the world not caring for us, and we as little for it, and so by our parting no hurt done; were we indeed strangers and pilgrims here, we would not go home weeping; were we and the world two, at our parting there would not be a painful dissolutio continui, sitting lose now, would prevent such convulsion fits, and renting then.  
5. On the contrary, too much carelessness of the things of this world, makes some men's deaths more careful, and themselves more fearful.  
In particular, (I mean) our neglect of a provident and timely setting our house in order when we are now leaving the world, is apt to leave us in heaps and confusion. It is expressed in Scripture, as the dying man's task, but 
Isa. 38. 1. 2 Sam. 17. 17. 23.  it would be much better if it were the living man's care, that when we have made up our Accounts with men, we might be more ready for God's Audit, and when we have disposed of our goods to others, we might be at more leisure and vacant, the more safely to bequeath our souls to God, & so enter upon our heavenly inheritance; but it is but our sin and misery, that we lay this double burden on the tired horseback, that the ending of our reckon with the world, and the beginning of our accounts with God, are both put off to be made on a deathbed; and hence cometh many men's fear of death, the man would not die till his Will be made, and so he than setteth about it, but it usually beginning with his bequeathing of his soul to God, and then this sad thought cometh in; but upon what acquaintance or grounded assurance? which puts the poor man to a stop; & the will is for the present laid aside, and the sealing of his pardon he then thinks needeth first to be looked after, and so (it may be) at the last, neither of them is effected with comfort; such men being like those who have neglected to do their work on the weelday, and so cannot rest when the Sabbath comes. but Heaven sets us a better copy to write after; God having finished his works in six days, 
Gen. 2. 2. Exod. 31. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  rested and was refreshed on the seventh; and our Saviour when he had said, it is finished than he quietly gave up the ghost, and so rested in the grave, 
John 17. 4. 19, 20.  which was typified by the Jewish Sabbath. Happy we, if in this working day of our life, we could dispatch our greatest business first, but yet all our other worldly occasions also in time, that the day of our death may be our Sabbath, in which we may rest from our labours, and feriari 
Rev. 14. 13  Deo, even keep a true holy day indeed to God, that then with our Saviour we may say, it is finished and with Paul, we have finished our course, and in running our race, have outgone all 
2 Tim. 4. 7. 8.  our griefs and fears, and then may have nothing else to do, but only quietly to take our rest, and receive the Crown.  
6. But because our apostle telleth 
V 56.  us, that the sting of death is sin, and this (as was before expressed) both in the guilt and defilement of it; they both make death terrible, and us then fearful.  
1. The guilt of sin, if then unpardoned, or but so apprehended, much terrifieth the conscience, and so rendereth death very formidable, whilst it is looked at as the wages of sin, or 
Rom. 6. 13  Gods arrest, and so the forerunner or beginning of a more terrible execution; and as its death to a malefactor to go even out of prison, if to be brought 
So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendered, let him be condemned.  before his Judge, so to such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, i. e. a guilty condemned sinner, his death is phrased to be a bringing him to the King of terrors, Job 18. 5. with 14. and well it may, when even a beloved child is afraid to come into his loving Father's presence, when he is angry; some such trouble of spirit some 
Isa. 38. 3.  Divines conceive Hezekiah lay under, when he wept so sore at the message of death, and David also when he desired that respite, Psal. 39 13.  
And therefore our cure here is faith's timely and effectual application of the blood and death of Jesus Christ, the only tried cure of this tremor cordis, for so it's expressly said, that he by death hath delivered us 
Heb. 2. 14, 15.  from the bondage of the fear of it. So that the more or less that we are able to apply Christ and his death, the more or less we are afraid of our own; and hence it is, that  
1. Believers by the clearer discoveries of Christ and his death, under the brighter light of the Gospel, are less in the dark, in the gloomy shadow of death, than the faithful under the 
See Calvin in John 19 40. Rom. 8. 15▪  Law. Their darker vails and shadows had less of the spirit of Adoption and confidence, and more of the spirit of bondage and fear; as the Apostle hinteth in the  place to the Hebrews, where he showeth, that Christ by taking part with the children of flesh and blood in his Incarnation, did free us from that bondage, and so, whereas Moses the giver of the law desired to live, Deu. 3. 24, 25. Paul a Preacher of the Gospel, desireth to be dissolved, Phil. 1. 23. when once the Sun of righteousness was now more up, yea, Simeon crave's leave to departed, Luke 2. 29. as its first rising.  
2. Hence also it is that among several Believers now under the Gospel, such use to be more joyful, and less fearful of death, who by faith have more fully applied Christ, and to whom he hath been most manifested; and of all such, none more than they that have been most humbled, & their hearts most broken with sense of sin, and afterwards have had them more sound healed, and more feelingly comforted and enlarged with the assurance of God's favour in Christ; the bone broken, and well set again, proves stronger; and the Lute broken if well put together, makes not the worse but rather the better music. Of all the Apostles, Paul at his conversion, and in after-sufferings was most humbled, and none of them express more (none so much) cheerful readiness and desire to die in Christ, yea, to die for him.  
And therefore as our Saviour said, 
Mar. 11. 22  have we faith in God, oh that we had more, and then could act more faith in God Can the sting of a fiery serpent make us daily look more up to the brazen Serpent, sense of sin drive us more to Christ, to get more assurance▪ of part in his death, we should thereby (even when we receive the sentence of death) be more able to trust in him who quickeneth the dead; 
2 Cor. 1. 9  then should we not be pinioned, as condemned Malefactors are wont to be, but have an hand of Faith free and at liberty to lay hold on Christ, the Lord of Life, yea, and gladly reach it it out to receive death itself, as that which will more fully unite us to him: when the babe is in its mother's arms, or laid down with a kiss, it than sleeps quietly.  
2. But Secondly, the defilement of sin, although faith can see it pardoned, will make a childlike shamefacedness blush and fear so to come into a Father's presence. My little 
1 John 2. 28.  children, (saith the Apostle) abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming; and although the most loving wife hearty desireth her husband's coming home, yet she could be content that he would stay out so long, till he have righted things in the house, if for the present they lie unhandsomely and out of order. With Vzziah to be lepers to the day of 
2 Chron. 26. 21.  our death, will make a very foul corpse, and a body foully distempered in life, (especially if the soul be found so in death) will make deathbed-groanes more deadly; strong bodies use to have strong pains in death, 
John 8. 5. Numb. 25. 8. 2 Sam. 17. 23. & 18. 14. 15. 1 Sam. 28. 7, 8, 9 etc. with 19 Matth 27. 5.  and so have strong lusts; especially if we be taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Zimri and Cozbi in the very act of uncleanness, Absalon and Ahitophel of rebellion; if Saul consult the Devil this day, and go to him the next, and Judas by an untimely and woeful death, be suddenly brought before his Judge, whilst he is yet reeking with the blood of his betrayed Lord and Saviour; with what horror and amazement must such needs appear before the Judgement seat? Joseph, though 
Gen. 41. 14  under no such guilt, yet being in the squalid condition of a prisoner shaveth himself and changeth his raiment, when hastily brought out of the dungeon before Pharaoh, an infinitely inferior presence to that which we at death are to appear before.  
And therefore here again, the death of Christ applied by faith, proveth a Sovereign remedy; for it is then safe drawing near to God, when our hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience, Heb. 10. 22. and that is by the blood of Christ, Heb. 9 14. labour therefore in the way of mortification to be implanted into Christ's death, and 
Rom. 6. 5.  this sweet fruit amongst others, will spring out of his grave, that what mortifieth sin, will kill the fear of death, which is caused by it.  
1. Partly as this daily practising of dying to sin, will inure us with more ease to die to the world, not only whilst we live to be weaned from it, but when God shall call, in death willingly to leave it. Lust's are members Col. 3. 5. and the content which a sinner taketh in them, in his very life Isa. 57 10. dearer than his natural life, and therefore it is that he is so often ready rather desperately to hazard it, than not to gratify and satisfy them, he therefore who in a course of mortification hath done the greater, will not stick at the less; will not stick to part with his dear life, who by the grace of Christ hath already parted with his dearer lust, and so by continual losing the tie of his soul and sin, he may expect the last lose of his body and soul with more comfort.  
2. But mortification effecteth this more directly, in that it properly and formally taketh away sin which is foams morbi, the very matter of the disease, and of all these shaking fits in death, and then as a sound and well ordered body, dieth with little pain, so a sanctified purged soul departeth with less anguish; a great deal of grace in our life, brings a great deal of comfort in death; and why should I fear that which at once freeth me from sin, which in this course of mortification, is the cause of my greatest grief, and perfect's grace, which is the object of my chiefest desire? what therefore now remaineth, but that we labour to live holily, that we may at last die comfortably; and as they were 
Acts 9 37. Luke 23.. 56. Matth. 26. 12.  wont to wash dead bodies, and to anoint them for their burial, so that we would do as much for our souls, get them washed in the blood of Christ, and daily more and more anointed and embalmed, and perfumed with the graces of his Spirit; So our deaths would not be more precious to 
Psal. 116. 15.  God, then comfortable to ourselves: So with Asa we should be laid in our graves as in a bed filled with sweet odours 
2 Chron. 16. 14.  & spices; and what the Romans were wont to do in their Pageants, at 
Herodian: l. 4.  the consecration of their dead Emperors, would have more realty at our death and Funerals: no Eagle (as with them) to carry the soul up to Heaven, but our souls as the renewed Eagle would mount up out of such a bed of spices, to those mountains of spices, where 
Cant. 8. 14. Brightman Psal. 16. 11 Matth. 25. 4, 6, 7.  are pleasures for evermore. O that we were once so wise, as with those wise Virgins to get oil enough into our Vessels, and then our Lamps will burn bright at midnight, in this midnight of death and judgement; when, with them, we shall either go to Christ, or Christ will come to be married to us, and then this shall be one strain of our marriage, of our Triumphant Song, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?  
Tibi Domini Jesus, qui spes es viventium & resurrectio mortuorum.   
FINIS.