The blessedness of the death of these that die in the Lord and more…The blessednesse of the death of these that die in the Lord and more…

and they are happy that are taken away from the evil to come, as Solomon says Eccles 4: 2. I praised the dead which are already dead, more then the living which are alive, meaning they are freed from these troubles vanities & vexations that the living were waited with; they are (as if the Spirit had said) freed from a toilsome and troublesome world, more so now and at this time then at other times. 2. They are happy in this respect that now when the Gospel is broken out, they die with more confidence, being freed from the ⟨p. 4⟩fear of purgatory, being clear in the matter of their salvation, and assured of their going immediately to paradise; and this is holden forth in the end of the words in that it is said their works do follow them; though they have no expectation to receive any thing by way of merit, yet it shall be well with them who have kept a good conscience, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings, as it is Isai. 3. for though God give not any thing to his people for their works, yet he rewards them according to their works, so proportioning his proceeding with them as nothing shall be found to have been done by them for him for nought; and this is a special part of their happiness, that they shall be freed from the anxiety that the darkness of these superstitious times kept men under being now cleared by the light of the Gospel. 3. Comparing this with vers. 11. they are blessed that die now in the Lord after life and immortality are brought to light by the Gospel, because they are freed from the scorching hell that these got who worshipped the beast; now when the light is come are they not blessed who die in the Lord and are freed from that which they would have met with if they had not lived and died in him but in darkness and ignorance of him? And so the words say, that when the Gospel breaketh forth men must resolve to live and die in Christ, or to live and die in a more damnable condition then the heathens that lived before them without the Gospel.

and they are happy that are taken away from the evil to come, as Solomon sayes Eccles 4: 2. I praised the dead which are alreadie dead, more then the living which are alive, meaning they are freed from these troubles vanities & vexations that the living wer waited with; they are (as if the Spirit had said) freed from a toilsome and troublesome world, more so now and at this time then at other times. 2. They are happie in this respect that now when the Gospell is brocken out, they die with more confidence, being freed from the