A Christians duty and safety in evil times Delivered in several sermons, upon four…A Christians duty and safety in evill times Delivered in severall sermons, upon four…

Use 1 If the death of Gods children be nothing else but a falling asleep, then let this comfort us against the deaths of our godly friends, though they die unnatural and violent deaths, though they be stoned to death, though they be burnt to ashes, though they be sawn asunder, &c. Here is a message of rich consolation, which as a Minister of Christ I hold out unto you this day, viz. That the death of a child of God, let it be after what manner soever it will, it is nothing ⟨p. 204⟩else but a falling a sleep, he goes to his grave as to his bed; and therefore our burying places are called [Greek or Hebrew], dormitoria, our sleeping houses. A child of God, when he dies, he lies down in peace, and enters into his rest. And, as a man, when he is asleep, is free from all the cares and troubles that he hath in the day time; So the people of God, when they are fallen asleep, they are free from all the miseries, crosses, losses and afflictions that we are troubled withal; There fore give me leave to say to you, as Christ did to the women that followed him to the Cross, bewailing and lamenting of him, O daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for your selves, and for your children. So say I, O weep not for those that are dead in the Lord, that are fallen asleep in Jesus Christ, they are at their rests, they do not know the troubles that we are troubled withal, Abraham remembers us not; they are not sensible of our miseries and afflictions ⟨p. 205⟩let us weep for our selves, and for the miseries that are coming upon us; and let us know, that when Gods children die, they do but lie in their beds until the morning of the resurrection, and then they shall put on Stolam immortalitatis, the garment of immortality, and their bodies shall be made like unto the glorious body of Jesus Christ. And know one thing more, which is all in all, viz. That when the body of a child of God falls asleep, his soul immediately goes into the arms of Christ, and there lives for ever in the embraces of Jesus Christ; though the body falls asleep, yet the soul is received into Abraham's bosom. I beseech you, comfort one another with these words.

Ʋse 1 If the death of Gods children bee nothing else but a falling asleep, then let this comfort us against the deaths of our godly friends, though they die unnatural and violent deaths, though they be stoned to death, though they be burnt to ashes, though they bee sawn asunder, &c. Here is a message of rich consolation, which as a Minister of Christ I hold out unto you this day, viz. That the death of a child of God, let it bee after what manner soever it will, it is nothing