The Christian in Complete Armour

and as a breeding woman cannot hinder the hour of her travel, (that follows in nature upon the other) so neither can man hinder the bringing forth of death with which his life is big. All the pains and aches man feels in his life are but so many singultus morientis naturae, groans of dying nature; they tell him his dissolution is at hand. Beest thou a Prince sitting in all thy state and pomp, death dare enter thy Palace, and come through all thy guards, to deliver the fatal message it hath from God to thee, yea, runs its dagger to thy heart; wert thou compassed with a College of Doctors consulting thy health, Art and Nature both must deliver thee up when that comes. Even when thy strength is firmest, and thou eatest thy bread with a merry heart, that very food which nourisheth thy life, gives thee withal an earnest of death, as it leaves those dregs in thee which will in time procure the same. O how unavoidable must this evil day of death be, when that very staff knocks us down to the: grave at last, which our life leans on, and is preserved by! God owes a debt both to the first Adam and second; to the first he owes the wages of his sin: to the second, the reward of his sufferings. The place for full payment of both is the other world, so that except death comes to convey man thither, the wicked who are the posterity of the first Adam, will miss of that ⟨p. 358⟩full pay for their sins, which the threatening makes due debt, and engageth God to perform; The godly also who are the seed of Christ, these should not receive the whole purchase of his blood, which he would never have shed but upon the credit of that promise of eternal life, which God gave him for them before the world began; This is the reason why God hath made this day so sure, in it he dischargeth both bonds.

and as a breeding woman cannot hinder the houre of her travel, (that follows in nature upon the other) so neither can man hinder the bringing forth of death with which his life is big. All the pains and aches man feels in his life are but so many singultus morientis naturae, groans of dying nature; they tell him his dissolution is at hand. Beest thou a Prince sitting in all thy state and pomp, death dare enter thy Palace, and come through all thy guards, to deliver the fatal message it hath from God to thee, yea, runs its dagger to thy heart; wert thou compassed with a Colledge of Doctors consulting thy health, Art and Nature both must deliver thee up when that comes. Even when thy strength is firmest, and thou eatest thy bread with a merry heart, that very food which nourisheth thy life, gives thee withal an earnest of death, as it leaves those dregs in thee which will in time procure the same. O how unavoidable must this evil day of death be, when that very staffe knocks us down to the: grave at last, which our life leans on, and is preserved by! God owes a debt both to the first Adam and second; to the first he owes the wages of his sin: to the second, the reward of his sufferings. The place for full payment of both is the other world, so that except death comes to convey man thither, the wicked who are the posterity of the first Adam, will misse of that