Twenty-Six Sermons, Sermon 21
A Sermon Preached at St. Dunſtans January 15. 1625. The Firſt SERMON after Our Diſperſion, by the Sickneſs. SERMON XXI.
Exod. 12.30.
For there was not a houſe where there was not one dead.
GOd intended life and immortality for man; and man by ſin induc'd death upon himſelf at firſt: When man had done ſo, and that now man was condemned, man muſt die; yet yet God gave him, though not an abſolute pardon, yet a long reprieve; though not a new immortality, yet a life of ſeven and eight hundred years upon earth: And then, miſery, by ſin growing upon man, and this long life which was enlarged in his favour being become a burden unto him, God abridged and contracted his ſeven hundred to ſeventy, and his eight hundred to eighty years, the years of his life came to be threeſcore and ten; and if miſery do ſuffer him to exceed thoſe, even the exceeding it ſelf is miſery. Death then is from our ſelves, it is our own; but the executioner is from God, it is his, he gives life; no man can quicken his own ſoul, but any man can forfeit his own ſoul: And yet when he hath done ſo, he may not be his own executioner; for as God giveth life, ſo he killeth, ſays Moſes there: not as the cauſe of death, for death is not his creature; but becauſe he employs what perſon he will, and executes by what inſtrument it pleaſes him to chuſe, age or ſickneſs, or juſtice, or malice, or (in our apprehenſion) fortune. In that Hiſtory from whence we deduce this Text, which was that great execution, the ſodain death of all the firſt-born of Egypt; it is very large, and yet we may uſefully, and to good purpoſe enlarge it, if we take into our conſideration ſpiritual death, as well as bodily: for ſo in our houſes from whence we came hither, if we left but a ſervant, but a child in the cradle at home, there is one dead in that houſe. If we have no other houſe but this which we carry about us, this houſe of clay, this tabernacle of fleſh, this body, yet if we conſider the inmate, the ſojourner within this houſe,Serm. 21. the ſtate of our corrupt and putrified ſoul, there is one dead in this houſe too. And though we be met now in the Houſe of God, and our God be the God of Life, yet even in this houſe of the God of Life, and the ground enwrapped in the ſame conſecration; not only of every ſuch houſe, but let every mans length in the houſe be a houſe; of every ſuch ſpace this Text will be verified, There is not a houſe where there is not one dead.
God is abundant in his mercies to man, and as though he did but learn to give by his giving, as though he did but practiſe to make himſelf perfect in his own Art, which Art is bountiful Mercy; as though all his former bleſſings were but in the way of earneſt, and not of payment; as though every benefit that he gave, were a new obligation upon him, and not an acquittance to him; he delights to give where he hath given, as though his former gifts were but his places of memory, and marks ſet upon certain men, to whom he was to give more. It is not ſo good a plea in our prayers to God, for temporal or for ſpiritual bleſſings, to ſay, Have mercy upon me now, for I have loved thee heretofore, as to ſay, Have mercy upon me, for thou haſt loved me heretofore. We anſwer a Beggar, I gave you but yeſterday; but God therefore gives us to day, becauſe he gave us yeſterday: and therefore are all his bleſſings wrap'd up in that word, Panis quotidianus, Give us this day our daily bread: Every day he gives; and early every day; his Manna falls before the Sun riſes, and his mercies are new every morning. In this conſideration of his abounding in all ways of mercy to us, we conſider juſtly how abundant he is in inſtructing us. He writes his Law once in our hearts, and then he repeats that Law, and declares that Law again in his written Word, in his Scriptures. He writes his Law in ſtone-Tables once; and then thoſe Tables being broken, he repeats that Law, writes that Law again in other Tables. He gives us his Law in Exodus and Leviticus, and then he gives us a Deuteronomy, a repetition of that Law, another time in another Book. And as he abounds ſo in inſtructing us, in going the ſame way twice over towards us, as he gives us the Law a ſecond time, ſo he gives us a ſecond way of inſtructing us; he accompanies, he ſeconds his Law with examples. In his Legal Books we have Rules; in the Hiſtorical, Examples to practiſe by. And as he is every way abundant, as he hath added Law to Nature, and added Example to Law, ſo he hath added Example to Example; and by that Text which we have read to you here, and by that Text which we have left at home, our houſe and family, and by that Text which we have brought hither, our ſelves, and by that Text which we finde here, where we ſtand, and ſit, and kneel upon the bodies of ſome of our dead friends or neighbors, he gives to us, he repeats to us, a full, a various, a multiform, a manifold Catechiſm, and Inſtitution, to teach us that it is ſo abſolutely true, that there is not a houſe in which there is not one dead, as that (taking ſpiritual death into our conſideration) there is not a houſe in which there is one alive.
That therfore we may take in light at all theſe windows that God opens for us,Diviſio. that we may lay hold upon God by all theſe handles which he puts out to us, we ſhall make a brief ſurvey of theſe four Houſes; of that in Egypt, where the Text places it; of that at home, in which we dwell; of this, which is our ſelves, where we always are, or always ſhould be within; and of this in which we are met, where God is in ſo many ſeveral Temples of his, as are above and under ground: So that this Sermon may be a general Funeral Sermon, both for them that are dead in the fleſh, and for our ſelves, that are dead in our ſins; for of all theſe four houſes it is true, and by uſeful accommodation, applyable to all, There is not a houſe where there is not one dead.
Firſt then to ſurvey the firſt Houſe, the Houſe in Egypt, Part 1.Pharaoh, by drawing upon himſelf and his Land this laſt and heavieſt plague of the ten, the univerſal, the ſodain, the midnight deſtruction of all, all the firſt born of Egypt, hath made himſelf a Monument, and a Hiſtory, and a Pillar everlaſting to the end of the world, to the end of all place in the world, and to the end of all time in the world, by which all men may know, that man, how perverſe ſoever, cannot weary God; that man cannot add to his Rebellions ſo many heavy circumſtances, but that God can add as many, as heavy degrees to his Judgements. Firſt, God turns their Rivers into blood; Pharaoh ſits that proces, and more, many more; and then in this bloody maſſacre of all their firſt-born, God brings blood out of the channels of their Rivers, into their chambers, into all their Chambers; not only to cut off their children from without, Jer. 9.21.and the young men from the ſtreets (as the Prophet ſpeaks) but (as he ſays alſo there) Death came in at their windows, and entred into their Palaces. Matt. 26.13.As Chriſt ſays of Mary Magdalens devotion, That whereſoever his Goſpel ſhould be preached in the world, there ſhould alſo this which this woman had done, be told for a memorial of her: So we may ſay of mans obduration, Whereſoever the Book of God ſhall be read, Pharaoh ſhall be an example, that God will have his ends, let man be poſſeſt with the ſpirit of contradiction as furiouſly, with the ſpirit of rebellion as ragefully as he will. Fremuerunt Gentes, ſays David in the beginning of the ſecond Pſalm, The Heathen rage, and they break their ſleep to contrive miſchief. And within three verſes more we finde, The Lord ſits ſtill in heaven, and laughs, and hath them in deriſion. The building of the Tower of Babel did not put God to build another Tower to confront it; God did nothing, and brought all their labours and their councels to nothing.Dan. 2.34. God took no hammer in hand to demoliſh and caſt down Nebuchadnezzars Image, but a ſtone that was cut out without hands, ſmote the image, and broke it in pieces. Si inceperit, if God once ſet his work on foot,1 Sam. 3.12. If I begin, I will alſo make an end, ſays God to Samuel; if he have not begun, ſi juraverit, if the Lord have ſworn it, it ſhall be, (thoſe whom the Lord ſwore ſhould not enter into his Reſt, never entred into his Reſt.) If he have not ſworn, ſi locutus fuerit, that's ſecurity enough, the ſecurity that the Prophet Eſay gives through all his Prophecy, os Domini, thus and thus it muſt be, for the mouth of the Lord hath ſpoken it: if he have not gone ſo far, ſi cogitaverit, if he have purpoſed it,Iſai. 19.12. 2 Chro. 25.16. Lam. 2.17. as that word is uſed in Eſay; if he have determined it, as the word is uſed in the Chronicles; if he have deviſed ſuch a courſe, as the word is in Jeremy; God will accompliſh his work, if he have begun it; his oath and word, if he have ſaid or ſworn it; his purpoſe and determination, if he have intended it; nothing ſhall fruſtrate or evacuate his purpoſe, he will atchieve his ends, though there be never a ſoul that doth not ſigh, never a heart that doth not ake, never a vein that doth not bleed, never a houſe in which there is not one dead.
In the building of the material Temple, there was no hammer, nor tool of noiſe uſed: In the fitting and laying of us, the living ſtones of the myſtical Temple, God would uſe no hammer, no iron, no occaſion of noiſe, or lamentation; but there are diſpoſitions which will not be rectified without the hammer, and are not malleable neither, not fit to be rectified by the hammer, till a hot fire of vehement affliction have mollified them. Theſpeſius they ſay was a man deſperately vicious, irrecoverably wicked; his friends asked the Oracle whether ever he would mend? The Oracle anſwered, he would when he was dead; he died of a ſodain fall, at leaſt to the eyes, and in the underſtanding of the world he died; but he recovered, and came to life again, and then reported ſuch fearful viſions which he had ſeen in the other world, upon the ſouls of ſome of his companions, and of his own father, as that out of the apprehenſion of thoſe terrors in his extaſie, in his ſecond life, he juſtified the Oracle; and after he had been dead, lived well. Many ſuch ſtories are in the Legends; but I take this at the fountain where they take moſt of theirs, that is, out of Plutarch; for Plutarch and Virgil are two principal Evangeliſts of the Legendaries. The Moral of them all is, That God will imprint a knowledge of his Majeſty, and a terror of his Judgements, though the heart be Iron: Exod. 12. Verſ. 33.He would bring the Egyptians to ſay with trembling, We are dead men, though they would not be brought to ſay it, till there was not a houſe in which there was not one dead.
But as in a River that is ſwelled, though the water do bring down ſand and ſtones, and logs, yet the water is there ſtill; and the purpoſe of Nature is to vent that water, not to pour down that ſand, or thoſe ſtones: ſo though God be put to mingle his Judgements with his mercies, yet his mercy is there ſtill, and his purpoſe is, ever in thoſe judgments, to manifeſt his mercy. Where the Channel is ſtopped by thoſe Sands, and Stones, and Logs, the Water will finde another Channel; where the heart is hardned by Gods corrections, and thereby made incapable of his mercy, (as in ſome diſpoſitions, even Gods corrections do work ſuch obſtructions and obdurations, as in Pharaohs caſe it was) yet the water will find a Channel, the mercy of God will flow out, and ſhew it ſelf to others, though not to him; his mercy will take effect ſomewhere, as (in Pharaohs caſe) it did upon the Children of Iſrael. And yet God would not ſhew mercy to them, but ſo, as that at the ſame time they alſo might ſee his judgments, and thereby be brought to ſay, God hath a Treaſury of both, Mercy and Juſtice; and God might have changed the perſons, and made the Egyptians the objects of his Mercies, and us of his Juſtice.
The firſt act of Gods mercy towards me, when I ſee him execute a judgment upon another, is to confeſs, that that judgment belonged to me, and thereby to come to a holy fear, being under the ſame condemnation; as the one Thief ſaid to the other, upon their ſeveral croſſes; Feareſt not thou, being under the ſame condemnation? At this time God delivered his Children out of Egypt; then was fulneſs of mercy: but God let them ſee his power and his powerful indignation upon others, for their inſtruction. God brought them out; there was fulneſs of mercy towards them: but he brought them out in the night. God would mingle ſome ſhadow, ſome ſignification of his judgments in his mercies, of adverſity in proſperity, of night in day, of death in life. The perſecuting Angel entred into none of their houſes, God let them live; but God, though he let them live, would not let them be ignorant, that he could have thrown death in at their windows too: For they came not into a houſe where there was not one dead.
We ſtay no longer upon this firſt ſurvey of the firſt houſe,Part. 1. Domus Noſtra. That in Egypt: The next is, our own houſe, our habitation, our family. We have in the uſe of our Church, a ſhort, and a larger Catechiſm; both inſtruct the ſame things, the ſame Religion, but ſome capacities require the one, and ſome the other. God would catechiſe us in the knowledge of our mortality; ſince we have deveſted our immortality, he would have us underſtand our mortality; ſince we have induced death upon our ſelves, God would raiſe ſuch a benefit to us, out of death, as that by the continual meditation thereof, death might the leſs terrifie us, and the leſs damnifie us. Firſt, His Law alone does that office, even his Common Law, Morte morieris, and ſtipendium peccati Mors eſt: All have ſinned, and all muſt die. And ſo his Statute Law too,Heb. 9.27. Statutum eſt, It is enacted, it is appointed to man once to die: And then as a Comment upon that Law, he preſents to us, either his great Catechiſms, Iſai. 37.36.Sennacheribs Catechiſm, in which we ſee almoſt Two hundred thouſand Soldiers, (more by many then both ſides arm and pay, in theſe noiſeful Wars of our Neighbors) ſlain in one night;2 Chro. 13. or Jeroboams Catechiſm, where Twelve hundred thouſand being preſented in the field, (more by many, then all the Kings of Chriſtendom arm and pay) Five hundred thouſand men, choſen men, and men of mighty valor, (as the Text qualifies them) were ſlain upon one ſide in one day; or Davids Catechiſm, 2 Sam. 24.where Threeſcore and ten thouſand were devoured of the Peſtilence, we know not in how few hours; or this Egyptian Catechiſm, of which we can make no conjecture, becauſe we know no number of their houſes; and there was not a houſe, in which there was not one dead; or God preſents us his Catechiſm in the Primitive Church, where every day may be written in Red Ink, every day the Church celebrated Five hundred, in ſome Copies Five thouſand Martyrs every day, that had writ down their names in their own blood, for the Goſpel of Chriſt Jeſus; or God preſents us his Catechiſm in the later Roman Church; where, upon our attempt of the Reformation, they boaſt to have ſlain in one day Seventy Millions, in another Two hundred Millions of them that attempted and aſſiſted the Reformation; or elſe Gods preſents his leſſer Catechiſms, the ſeveral Funerals of our particular Friends in the Congregation; or he abridges this Catechiſm of the Congregation to a leſs volume then that, to the conſideration of every particular peece of our own Family at home: For ſo, there is not a houſe, in which there is not one dead.
Prov. 19.18.Have you not left a dead ſon at home, whom you ſhould have chaſtned, whileſt there was hope, and have not? Whom you ſhould have beaten with the rod,& 23.13. to deliver his ſoul from Hell, and have not? Whom you ſhould have made an Abel, a Keeper of Sheep;Gen. 4.2. or a Cain, a Tiller of the Ground; that is, beſtowed him, bound him, to ſome Occupation, or Profeſſion, or Calling, and have not? You may believe God without an oath;1 Sam 3.13. but God hath ſworn, That becauſe Eli reſtrained not the inſolencies of his ſons, no ſacrifice ſhould purge his houſe for ever. And ſcarce ſhall you finde in the whole Book of God, any ſo vehement an intermination, any judgment ſo vehemently imprinted, as that upon Eli, for not reſtraining the inſolencies of his ſons: For in that caſe God ſays, I will do a thing in Iſrael, at which, both the ears of every one that heareth it ſhall tingle: That is, he would inflict a ſudden death upon the Father, for his indulgence to his ſons. Have ye not left ſuch a dead ſon, dead in contumacy, and in diſobedience, at home? Have you not left a dead daughter at home? A daughter whom you ſhould have kept at home, and have not; but ſuffered, with Dinah, to go out to ſee the daughters of the land, and ſo expoſe her ſelf to dangerous tentations, as Dinah did? Have ye not left a dead ſervant at home,Gen. 34.1. whom ye have made ſo perfect in deceiving of others, as that now he is able to take out a new leſſon of himſelf, and deceive you? Have you left no dead Inmates, dead Sojourners, dead Lodgers at home? Of whom, ſo they advance your profit, you take no care how vicious in themſelves they be, or how dangerous to the State.Deut. 31.12. Gather men, and women, and children, and ſtrangers within thy gate, ſays God, that they may all learn the Law of the Lord. If thy care ſpread not over all thy family, whoſoever is dead in thy family by thy negligence, thou ſhalt anſwer the King that Subject, that is, the King of Heaven that Soul.
We have (as we propoſed to do) ſurveyed this Houſe in Egypt, Part. 3.where the Text lays it, and the Houſe at home where we dwell; there is a third Houſe, which we are, this Houſe of Clay, and of Mud-walls, our ſelves, theſe bodies. And is there none dead there? not within us? The Houſe it ſelf is ready to fall as ſoon as it is ſet up: The next thing that we are to practiſe after we are born, is to die. The Timber of this Houſe is but our Bones; and, My bones are waxen old, ſays David; and perchance not with age, but as Job ſays, His bones are full of the ſins of his youth. Pſ. 32.3. Job 20.11. Job. 6.12.The lome-walls of this Houſe are but this fleſh; and Our ſtrength is not the ſtrength of ſtones, neither is our fleſh braſs; and therefore, Curſed is the man that truſteth in man, and maketh fleſh his arm. Jer. 17.5.The windows of this Houſe are but our eyes; and, the light of mine eyes is gone from me, ſays David; and we know not how, nor how ſoon.Eſai. 59.10. The foundation is but our feet; and, beſides that Our feet ſtumble at noon, (as the Prophet complains) David found them ſo cold, as that no art nor diligence could warm them. And the roof and covering of this Houſe, is but this thatch of hair; and it is denounc'd by more then one of the Prophets,Eſai. 15.23. Jer. 48.37. That upon all heads ſhall fall baldneſs: The Houſe it ſelf is always ready to fall; but is there not alſo always ſome dead in this Houſe, in our ſelves? Is not our firſt-born dead? Our firſt-born (ſays St. Auguſtin) are the offspring of our beloved ſin; for we have ſome Concubine-ſins, and ſome one ſin that we are married to: Whatſoever we have begot upon that wife, whatſoever we have got by that ſin, that's our firſt-born, and that's dead: How much the better ſoever we make account to live by it, it is dead. For, as it was the miſchievous invention of a Perſecutor in the Primitive Church, to tie living men to dead bodies, and let them die ſo; ſo men that tie the reſt of their Eſtate to goods ill gotten, do but invent a way to ruine and deſtroy all. But that which is truly every mans firſt-born-childe, is his zeal to the Religion and Service of God: As ſoon as we know that there is a Soul, that Soul knows that there is a God, and a Worſhip belonging to that God; and this Worſhip is Religion. And is not this firſt-born childe dead in many of us? In him that is not ſtirr'd, not mov'd, not affected for his Religion, his pulſe is gone, and that's an ill ſign. In him that dares not ſpeak for it, not counſel, not preach for it, his Religion lies ſpeechleſs; and that's an ill ſign. In him that feeds not Religion, that gives nothing to the maintenance thereof, his Religion is in a conſumption. In a word, if his zeal be quenched, his firſt-born is dead. And ſo for theſe three Houſes, That in Egypt, that at home, that in our ſelves, There is not a houſe in which there is not one dead.
Part 4.The fourth Houſe falling under this ſurvey, is this Houſe in which we are met now, the houſe of God; the Church and the ground wrapped up in the ſame conſecration: and in this houſe you have ſeen, and ſeen in a lamentable abundance, and ſeen with ſad eyes, that for many moneths there hath ſcarce been one day in which there hath not been one dead. How ſhould there be but multiplicity of deaths? why ſhould it be, or be looked to be, or thought to be otherwiſe? The Maſter of the houſe, Chriſt Jeſus, is dead before; and now it is not ſo much a part of our puniſhment, for the firſt Adam, as an imitation of the ſecond Adam, to die; death is not ſo much a part of our debt to Nature, or Sin, or Satan, as a part of our conformity to him who died for us. If death were in the nature of it meerly evil to us, Chriſt would have redeemed us, even from this death, by his death. But as the death of Chriſt Jeſus is the Phyſick of mankinde, ſo this natural death of the body is the application of that Phyſick to every particular man, who only by death can be made capable of that glory which his death hath purchaſed for us. This Phyſick, all they whom God hath taken to him, have taken, and (by his grace) received life by it. Their firſt-born is dead; the body was made before the ſoul, and that body is dead. Rachel wept for her children, and would not be comforted, becauſe they were not. If theſe children, and parents, and friends, and neighbours of ours were not, if they were reſolved into an abſolute annihilation, we could not be comforted in their behalf; but Chriſt, who ſays, he is the Life, leſt we ſhould think that to belong only to this life, ſays alſo that he is the Reſurrection. We were contracted to Chriſt in our Election, married to him in our Baptiſm, in the Grave we are bedded with him, and in the Reſurrection eſtated and put into poſſeſſion of his Kingdom: And therefore, becauſe theſe words do not only affect us with that ſad conſideration, That there is none of theſe houſes in whieh there is not one dead; but miniſter withall that conſolation, That there is none ſo dad, but may have a Reſurrection, We ſhall paſs another ſhort ſurvey over all theſe Houſes.
Thus far we have ſurvey'd theſe four Houſes, Egypt, our families, our ſelves, and the Church, as ſo many places of Infection, ſo many temporal or ſpiritual Peſthouſes, into which our ſins had heaped powder, and Gods indignation had caſt a match to kindle it. But now the very phraſe of the Text, which is, That in every houſe there was one dead, There was, invites us to a more particular conſideration of Gods mercy, in that, howſoever it were, it is not ſo now; in which we ſhall look how far this beam of mercy ſhines out in every of theſe houſes, that it is not ſo now, There is not one dead in every houſe now; but the Infection, (Temporal and Spiritual Infection) is ſo far ceaſed, as that not only thoſe that are alive, do not die, as before; but thoſe whom we called dead, are not dead; they are alive in their ſpirits, in Abrahams boſome; and they are alive in their very bodies, in their contract and inherence in Chriſt Jeſus in an infallible aſſurance of a joyful Reſurrection.
Now in the ſurvey of the firſt ſort of houſes, of Egypt, Egyptus.herein we are interrupted. Here they were dead, and are dead ſtill: We ſee clearly enough Gods indignation upon them; but we ſee neither of thoſe beams of mercy, either that there die no more, or that we have the comfort of a joyful Reſurrection in them who are dead: For this fearful calamity of the death of their firſt-born wrought no more upon them, but to bring them to that exclamation, that vociferation, that voice of deſpairful murmuring, Omnes Moriemur, We are all dead men: v. 33.And they were miſchievous Prophets upon themſelves; for, proceeding in that ſin which induc'd that calamity and the reſt upon them, they purſued the children of Iſrael through the Red-ſea, and periſhed in it; and then they came not to die one in a houſe, but as it is expreſſed in the Story, and repeated in the Pſalms,Exod. 14.28. Pſal. 106.10. There remained not ſo much as one of them alive; ſo that in their caſe there is no comfort in the firſt beam of mercy, that this phraſe, They were dead, or They did die, ſhould intimate, That now they did not die, now Gods correction had ſo wrought upon them, as that God withdrew that correction from them, for it purſued them, and accompanied them to their final and total deſtruction. And then for the other beam of mercy, of transferring them which ſeemed dead in the eyes of the world, to a better life, by that hand of death, to preſent happineſs in their ſouls, and to an aſſured reſurrection to joy and glory in their bodies, in the communion of Gods Saints, Moſes hath given us little hope in their behalf; for thus he encourageth his Countreymen in that place, The Egyptians whom you have ſeen this day, Exod. 14.13.you ſhall ſee no more for ever: No more in this world, no more in the world to come. Beloved, as God empayl'd a Goſhen in Egypt, a place for the righteous amongſt the wicked; ſo there is an Egypt in every Goſhen, neaſts of Snakes in the faireſt Gardens, and even in this City (which in the ſenſe of the Goſpel, we may call, The Holy City; as Chriſt called Jeruſalem, though ſhe had multiplied tranſgreſſions, The Holy City, becauſe ſhe had not caſt away his Law, though ſhe had diſobeyed it: So howſoever your ſins have provoked God, yet as you retain a zealous profeſſion of the truth of his Religion, I may in his name, and do in the bowels of his mercy, call you, The Holy City) even in this City, no doubt but the hand of God fell upon thouſands in this deadly infection, who were no more affected with it, then thoſe Egyptians, to cry out, Omnes Moriemur, We can but die, and we muſt die: And, Edamus, & bibamus, cras moriemur, Let us eat and drink, and take our pleaſure, and make our profits, for to morrow we ſhall die, and ſo were cut off by the hand of God, ſome even in their robberies, in half-empty houſes; and in their drunkenneſs in voluptuous and riotous houſes; and in their luſts and wantonneſs in licentious houſes; and ſo took in infection and death, like Judas's ſop, death dipt and ſoaked in ſin. Men whoſe luſt carried them into the jaws of infection in lewd houſes, and ſeeking one ſore periſhed with another; men whoſe rapine and covetouſneſs broke into houſes, and ſeeking the Wardrobes of others, found their own winding-ſheet, in the infection of that houſe where they ſtole their own death; men who ſought no other way to divert ſadneſs, but ſtrong drink in riotous houſes, and there drank up Davids cup of Malediction, the cup of Condemned men, of death, in the infection of that place. For theſe men that died in their ſins, that ſinned in their dying, that ſought and hunted after death ſo ſinfully, we have little comfort of ſuch men, in the phraſe of this Text, They were dead; for they are dead ſtill: As Moſes ſaid of the Egyptians, I am afraid we may ſay of theſe men, We ſhall ſee them no more for ever.
But God will give us the comfort of this phraſe in the next Houſe;Domus noſtra. This next Houſe is Domus noſtra, our Dwelling-Houſe, our Habitation, our Family; and there, They were dead; they were, but by Gods goodneſs they are not. If this ſavor of death have been the ſavor of life unto us; if this heavy weight of Gods hand upon us have awakened us to a narrower ſurvey, and a better diſcharge of our duties towards all the parts of our Families, we may ſay, to our comforts and his glory, There was a ſon dead in diſobedience and murmuring; there was a daughter dead in a dangerous eaſineſs of converſation; there was a ſervant dead in the practice of deceit and falſifying; there was, but the Lord hath breath'd a new life into us, the Lord hath made even his tempeſt a refreſhing, and putrefaction a perfume unto us. The ſame meaſure of wind that blows out a candle, kindles a fire; this correction that hath hardned ſome, hath entendred and mollified us; and howſoever there were dead ſons, and dead daughters, and dead ſervants, this holy ſenſe of Gods Judgements ſhall not only preſerve for the future, that we ſhall admit no more ſuch dead limbs into our Family, but even give to them who were (in theſe kindes) formerly dead, a new life, a bleſſed reſurrection from all their ſinful habits, by the power of his grace, though reached to them with a bloody hand, and in a bitter cup, in this heavy calamity; and as Chriſt ſaid of himſelf, they ſhall ſay in him, I was dead, but am alive; and by that grace of God, I am that I am.
The ſame comfort alſo ſhall we have in this phraſe of the Text, in our third Houſe; the third Houſe is not Domus noſtra, Domus nos.but Domus nos, not the Houſe we inhabit, but the Houſe we carry; not that Houſe which is our Houſe, but that Houſe which is our ſelves: There alſo, They were dead; they were, but are not. For beloved, we told you before in our former ſurvey of theſe ſeveral Houſes, That our firſt-born, (for ſtill ye remember, they were the firſt-born of Egypt, that induce all this application;) Our firſt-born in this Houſe, in our ſelves, is our Zeal; not meerly and generally our Religion, but our zeal to our Religion. For Religion in general, is natural to us; the natural man hath naturally ſome ſenſe of God, and ſome inclination to worſhip that Power, whom he conceives to be God, and this Worſhip is Religion. But then the firſt thing that this general pious affection produces in us, is Zeal, which is an exaltation of Religion. Primus actus voluntatis eſt Amor; Philoſophers and Divines agree in that, That the will of man cannot be idle, and the firſt act that the will of man produces, is Love; for till it love ſomething, prefer and chuſe ſomething, till it would have ſomething, it is not a Will; neither can it turn upon any object, before God. So that this firſt, and general, and natural love of God, is not begotten in my ſoul, nor produced by my ſoul, but created and infus'd with my ſoul, and as my ſoul; there is no ſoul that knows ſhe is a ſoul, without ſuch a general ſenſe of the love of God. But to love God above all, to love him with all my faculties, this exaltation of this religious love of God, is the firſt-born of Religion, and this is Zeal. Religion, which is the Worſhip of that Power which I call God, does but make me a man; the natural man hath that Religion; but that which makes me a Father, and gives me an off-ſpring, a firſt-born, that's Zeal: By Religion I am an Adam, but by Zeal I am an Abel produced out of that Adam. Now if we conſider times not long ſince paſt, there was ſcarce one houſe, ſcarce one of us, in whom this firſt-born, this Zeal was not dead. Diſcretion is the ballaſt of our Ship, that carries us ſteady; but Zeal is the very Fraight, the Cargaſon, the Merchandiſe it ſelf, which enriches us in the land of the living; and this was our caſe, we were all come to eſteem our Ballaſt more then our Fraight, our Diſcretion more then our Zeal; we had more care to pleaſe great men then God; more conſideration of an imaginary change of times, then of unchangeable eternity it ſelf. And as in ſtorms it falls out often that men caſt their Wares and their Fraights over-board, but never their Ballaſt, ſo as ſoon as we thought we ſaw a ſtorm, in point of Religion, we caſt off our Zeal, our Fraight, and ſtuck to our Ballaſt, our Diſcretion, and thought it ſufficient to ſail on ſmoothly, and ſteadily, and calmly, and diſcreetly in the world, and with the time, though not ſo directly to the right Haven. So our firſt-born in this Houſe, in our ſelves, our Zeal, was dead. It was; there's the comfortable word of our Text. But now, now that God hath taken his fan into his hand, and ſifted his Church, now that God hath put us into a ſtraight and crooked Limbeck, paſſed us through narrow and difficult trials, and ſet us upon a hot fire, and drawn us to a more precious ſubſtance and nature then before; now that God hath given our Zeal a new concoction, a new refining, a new inanimation by this fire of tribulation, let us embrace and nurſe up this new reſurrection of this Zeal, which his own Spirit hath begot and produced in us, and return to God with a whole and entire ſoul, without dividing or ſcattering our affections upon other objects; and in the ſincerity of the true Religion, without inclinations in our ſelves, to induce; and without inclinableneſs, from others, upon whom we may depend, to admit, any dramms of the dregs of a ſuperſtitious Religion; for it is a miſerable extremity, when we muſt take a little poyſon for phyſick. And ſo having made the right uſe of Gods corrections, we ſhall enjoy the comfort of this phraſe, in this Houſe, our ſelves, our firſt-born, our Zeal was dead; it was, but it is not.
Laſtly, in this fourth Houſe, the Houſe where we ſtand now, the Houſe of God, and of his Saints, God affords us a fair beam of this conſolation, in the phraſe of this Text alſo, They were dead. How appliable to you, in this place, is that which God ſaid to Moſes, Put off thy ſhoes, for thou treadeſt on holy ground; put off all confidence, all ſtanding, all relying upon worldly aſſurances, and conſider upon what ground you tread; upon ground ſo holy, as that all the ground is made of the bodies of Chriſtians, and therein hath received a ſecond conſecration. Every puff of wind within theſe walls, may blow the father into the ſons eys, or the wife into her husbands, or his into hers, or both into their childrens, or their childrens into both. Every grain of duſt that flies here, is a piece of a Chriſtian; you need not diſtinguiſh your Pews by figures; you need not ſay, I ſit within ſo many of ſuch a neighbour, but I ſit within ſo many inches of my husbands, or wives, or childes, or friends grave. Ambitious men never made more ſhift for places in Court, then dead men for graves in Churches; and as in our later times, we have ſeen two and two almoſt in every Place and Office, ſo almoſt every Grave is oppreſſed with twins; and as at Chriſts reſurrection ſome of the dead aroſe out of their graves, that were buried again; ſo in this lamentable calamity, the dead were buried, and thrown up again before they were reſolved to duſt, to make room for more. But are all theſe dead? They were, ſays the Text; they were in your eys, and therefore we forbid not that office of the eye, that holy tenderneſs, to weep for them that are ſo dead. But there was a part in every one of them, that could not die; which the God of life, who breathed it into them, from his own mouth, hath ſuck'd into his own boſome. And in that part which could die, They were dead, but they are not. The ſoul of man is not ſafer wrapt up in the boſome of God, then the body of man is wrapt up in the Contract, and in the eternal Decree of the Reſurrection. As ſoon ſhall God tear a leaf out of the Book of Life, and caſt ſo many of the Elect into Hell fire, as leave the body of any of his Saints in corruption for ever. To what body ſhall Chriſt Jeſus be loth to put to his hand, to raiſe it from the grave, then, that put to his very God-head, the Divinity it ſelf, to aſſume all our bodies, when in one perſon, he put on all mankinde in his Incarnation? As when my true repentance hath re-ingraffed me in my God, and re-incorporated me in my Savior, no man may reproach me, and ſay, Thou waſt a ſinner: So, ſince all theſe dead bodies ſhall be reſtored by the power, and are kept alive in the purpoſe of Almighty God, we cannot ſay, They are, ſcarce that they were dead. When time ſhall be no more, when death ſhall be no more, they ſhall renew, or rather continue their being. But yet, beloved, for this ſtate of their grave, (for it becomes us to call it a ſtate; it is not an annihilation, no part of Gods Saints can come to nothing) as this ſtate of theirs is not to be lamented, as though they had loſt any thing which might have conduced to their good, by departing out of this world; ſo neither is it a ſtate to be joyed in ſo, as that we ſhould expoſe our ſelves to dangers unneceſſarily, in thinking that we want any thing conducing to our good, which the dead enjoy. As between two men of equal age, if one ſleep, and the other wake all night, yet they riſe both of an equal age in the morning; ſo they who ſhall have ſlept out a long night of many ages in the grave, and they who ſhall be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord Jeſus in the aire, at the laſt day, ſhall enter all at once in their bodies into Heaven. No antiquity, no ſeniority for their bodies; neither can their ſouls who went before, be ſaid to have been there a minute before ours, becauſe we ſhall all be in a place that reckons not by minutes. Clocks and Sun-dials were but a late invention upon earth; but the Sun it ſelf, and the earth it ſelf, was but a late invention in heaven. God had been an infinite, a ſuper-infinite, an unimaginable ſpace, millions of millions of unimaginable ſpaces in heaven, before the Creation. And our afternoon ſhall be as long as Gods forenoon; for, as God never ſaw beginning, ſo we ſhall never ſee end; but they whom we tread upon now, and we whom others ſhall tread upon hereafter, ſhall meet at once, where, though we were dead, dead in our ſeveral houſes, dead in a ſinful Egypt, dead in our family, dead in our ſelves, dead in the Grave, yet we ſhall be received, with that conſolation, and glorious conſolation, you were dead, but are alive. Enter ye bleſſed into the Kingdom, prepared for you, from the beginning.
Amen.