we read that Amasa was removed out of the High way into the Field and a Cloth cast upon him And what then why the Holy Text tells us All the People went on after Joab So is it with us if we behold a Person lying upon a death-bed gasping and bleeding and with dying groans ready to expire his last breath here we make a stop and pause with some astonishment at so sad a sight but let a Cloth be thrown over the Dead and the Corps drawn aside into the Grave and covered with Earth presently we go to our employments and trading and possibly some to their sinful Practices again as if the last Man that should die were now buried Now the Reasons of this stupidity and carelessness may be such as these First The great Love and Affection Men have to the World and the things thereof These take up all the thoughts and time of some Men so that they have no leasure nor desires to think of Death or to make Preparations for another Life The Pleasures Honours and Profits of the World are fine things in their Eyes they please their Fancies and so possess their Minds with a fond desire of long Life that they may delight their senses in these earthly things and these ardent earnest desires of theirs will let them think of nothing less than many days to satisfie their sensual part in these delightful enjoyments If we should look abroad into the World we may easily perceive which way the Inclinations of most Men carry them How eagerly do some pursue the Pleasures of the World How unweariedly do others follow the Profits of the World And how impatiently do others thirst after the Honours and Preferments of the World as if their Happiness were wrapp'd up in these outward Accommodations Whereas our Lord tells us that a Man's Life consists not in the abundance of the things that he enjoys here in this World And by these things the thoughts of Death are not suffered to come into Men's Minds and if they will crowd in upon them sometimes they are soon cast out again as unwelcome Guests that come to disturb their Peace Secondly Men put off the thoughts of Death and Preparation for it because they generally look upon it as that which is afar off And this is the greatest sottishness in the World If you go to those that are young and tell them that they must die it is true say they and Old Men ought to consider it and prepare themselves for it but surely for us there is no such hast yet Alas they think they must of right and course live till they are Aged If you go to Old Men and tell them that they must die alas their Age tells them so they cannot deny it but though God visit them with weakness and infirmities the Companions of Old Age which impair their Health and waste their strength continually yet they Hope these decays are not so great nor so violent but that they may yet weather out a few years more those that are healthful and strong think they need not prepare for Death till they have warning given them of its approach by Sickness And those that God doth summon to the Grave by Sickness and Diseases they have a secret hope that because they have formerly escaped from other distempers therefore they may do so again Thus now most Men thrust Death from them and put the evil Day afar off And it is a true saying that usually the hopes of a long life is the cause of an evil life for because Men hope they shall live long therefore they are careless how they live at present presuming they may have time enough to repent and amend all hereafter Thirdly Men put off the thoughts of Death because such apprehensions bring a great deal of Fear and Terrour with them Death is that which Nature abhors to think of it cannot endure the thoughts of Separation between those near and dear Companions of Soul and Body Oh to think that this Body that is here pamper'd and made so much of should become vile and loathsome in the Grave laid in a Bed of stench and rotteness covered with Worms mouldring away into the dust of Oblivion This is a sad and melancholy subject for our thoughts to muse upon O this King of Terrours Death How unâ—â— come is he unto the thoughts of most men especially considering him as having his sting in him which is Sin O then it is no wonder that those whâ— are Conscious to themselves of 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—ing guilâ— dare not think of standing before the dreadful Tribunal of God whither Death God's Serjeant will bring them but cry out with Horrour Who among us can dwell with devouring Fire Who among us can dwell with everlasting Burning 〈◊〉 it is no wonder that such put far from them thâ— thoughts of Death because they know that day whensoever it comes will be to them â—n evil day But if Men would seriously consider how shouâ—â— their time in this World is the hazard and dangerâ— they run by their delays would be prevented Surely they that have a lively sense of the things of Eternity upon their Hearts that know their time herâ— to be but short and believe that upon the improvement of this short time their misery or happiness for Eternity doth depend will not be so foolish as to put off their Preparations for Death and Eternity till hereafter when they have no assurance of their lives no not for a moment This is so weighty a consideration that if it were laid to Heart would prevail with all Men that have the right use of their Reason and Vnderstanding Our time in this World is short and uncertain yet is our work very great We are but of yesterday and possibly before to Morrow we may not be and the Great God hath suspended Eternity upon the improvement of this moment a few days or a few hours nay possibly a few minutes will determine our everlasting State and condition and according as we are in spending of them so shall our Doom be either to Eternal Happiness or to Eternal Misery and why Oh why should our precious and immortal Souls be so vile in our Eyes as to lose them by sloth and carelessness Why should any of us be such Fools and Mad-men to hearken to the sollicitations of the Flesh or to the allurements of a flattering deceitful World so as to put off and neglect our everlasting concerns Should we not rather say to the World or whatever it be that would hinder us in our great work Stand off for we are working for Eternity an Eternity that is but a few days it may be but a few hours hence a boundless a bottomless endless state and condition into which we know not how soon we may be cast and therefore we have no time to dally in or to trifle away But though our Time be short yet is it long enough for our great Work if diligently
2.23 That he was taken up in a siery Chariot by a Whirl-wind into Heaven So great was his Zeal for God and his Glory and so highly did God esteem it and him for it that he must not abide any longer on Earth but be taken up into Heaven and that in no other way but by a fiery Chariot a Passage to Heaven that did bear some Resemblance to his Zeal for God while he was here on Earth The Apostle also tells us 1 Cor. 15.51 That at the last Day we shall not all dye but we shall all be changed and 1 Thes 4.17 We that are alive and remain shall be caught up with him in the Clouds to meet the Lord and so shall we be ever with the Lord. These Exceptions of some few that have not dyed nor shall not dye do not at all make void this general Truth that all shall dye but rather make for the Confirmation of it The general Rule or Law saith all must dye none escape but by special Grace or Priviledge and though the Saints that shall be found on Earth at the Resurrection of the dead dye not yet they shall undergoe that which is equivalent unto Death for they shall be changed Death is call'd a Change so saith Job All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change shall come And they that are alive at the Last Day undergoe a Change also The Change of Death is a putting off of our Mortality but the Change at the Last Day is a putting on of our Immortality The one is a Change by being uncloathed the other is a Change by being cloathed upon but both is a Change And thus all dye or shall be changed By what hath been said it is very evident That Death befalls all men one time or other sooner or later But for the Manner how or the Time when any shall dye this is unknown unto any The Living may and do know that they shall dye but they know not when they shall dye What our Lord saith of the day of Judgment is true of the day of Man's Death of that day and hour knoweth no Man Many a Man hath been mistaken concerning the purpose of God I said says David in my prosperity that I shall never be moved but he was mistaken for he adds in the next words almost But thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Much more may we be mistaken concerning the Time of our Death I said says Hezekiah in the cutting off of my days I shall go to the gates of the Grave I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the Land of the Living I shall no more behold man with the Inhabitants of the World Good Hezekiah thought there was no way for him to escape Death but he was mistaken for afterwards he tells us God had in Love to his Soul delivered it from the Pit of Corruption and he Lived fifteen Years longer after he had given himself over for dead A Man may have the Sentence of Death in himself when as to that particular time God hath given out none against him So on the other hand the Rich Man in the Gospel reckons not of Death till many years hence and he is very liberal to his Soul because God had been bountiful to his Body he had got a great Stock of Riches and he gives himself a rich stock of Time even many years he resolves to make his Life larger as he had done his Barns and because they are full of Corn he also will be full of Days whereas the Word came out against him from God Thou Fool this night shall thy Soul be taken from thee and he that before resolved to Live many years could not now Live till the next Morning It is our Wisdom always to be prepared for Death but it s more than belongs to us peremptorily to determine the Time of our Death or the Length of our Days But though the Time of our Death be unknown to us yet is it known to and fixed by God he hath determined not only the Time when but also the Place where and the Manner how we shall dye with all the Circumstances relating thereunto It is God that turns up the Giass of our Time and puts such a Measure of Sand into it and no more such a Measure that it may and shall run so long and no more that it shall run no longer than his Appointment God speaking after the manner of Men is said in Scripture to have a Book wherein is written down not only the Number of our Sins but also the Number of our days and as we cannot commit a Sin but it is written down in some Leafe of his Book so can we not live a day or hour that hath not our Name written down upon it in Gods Book That some have the Time of Life confined only to the dark Cell of the Womb and never see the Light that others are strangled in the place of breaking forth of Children and are only Causes of Grief to them that bear them that others dyâ— in their Infancy without the Knowledge of good or evil and leave only sad Remembrances to their Parents that once they were that others grow up to years of Discretion but are cut off in the prime of their days and in their full strength and that others live to extream old Age till Nature is wholly spent and consumed in them All this is from the Appointment of God they all fill up the Number of those Days and the measure of that Time that God hath allotted to them and then they depart according to his Will How many have we seen cast upon sick beds whom God hath there visited with strong pains bringing them so low that their Lives seem'd to be brought unto the Grave and themselves numbred with them that go down into the Pit free among the dead and as the slain that lye in the Grave given over by themselves and all others for such and yet even these God hath raised up again shewing Wonders as it were to the dead as the Psalmist speaks causing them to arise and praise his Name What 's the Reason of all this Why God's appointed Time was not come and so Diseases could have no further Power over them And what is true of Sickness is as true of Men who are but like Diseases Executioners of God's Decree upon Man even they have no Power to lengthen Life or to hasten Death but what is given them from above God hath not only set us the bounds of our Habitations but the bounds of our Living also Job speaks much to the stating and determining of this Case Job 7.1 Is there not an appointed Time to Man upon Earth Now in an Appointment of God there must be a Certainty or else we make him like unto a mortal Man that is changeable which cannot be Therefore Man having an appointed Time by God upon Earth he must reach to it
presumptuous as if thou hadst the Lease thereof in thine own hands and at thine own dispose Indeed we read of good Hezekiah that upon his recovery from a fit of Sickness God gave him a Lease of his Life for fifteen years but who ever had the like Scripture and Experience speak of nothing more plainly than the Frailty and uncertainty of Man's Life It is therefore compared to the Wind to a Leaf to a Flower to a Shadow to a Vapour by all which the Spirit of God sets forth to us the Frailty Brevity and uncertainty of Man's Life endeavouring hereby to take us off from all foolish conceits and vain hopes of long life for what is our Life but a Vapour that appeareth for a while and then vanisheth away a little breath turned in and out by the Nostrils a narrow passage that is soon stopt and we are gone We have no Assurance of our Life no not for a moment Death lies in Ambush every where for us We have a Proverb that the young Man may die but the old Man must die whereas Observation will inform us that incomparably more die young than old And did we but seriously consider by what small pins this Frame of Man is held together it would appear no less than a Miracle that we live one day or hour to an end so many dangers so many Casualties do we pass through every moment and are the thoughts of Death and thy preparation for Death and that Eternity that follows it to be put off to such uncertainties Are not all thy days on Earth few and thou hast spent some of them already and possibly those few days of thine that are already past and gone are all the days thou hast to pass say not then to God to thy Conscience or to others that put thee upon a present preparation for Death and Eternity I will do it to morrow or hereafter boast not thy self O vain Man of to morrow for thou knowest not even what this day may bring forth to thee possibly this day may bring forth thy death and where then will be thy to morrows preparation for it But suppose Death should not cut us off suddenly but give us warning of its approach by Sickness and Distempers of Body yet how unfit a time is that to prepare for dying for Diseases sometimes come with that Violence that they quickly take away Mens Senses and Vnderstandings and having lost the use of their Reason they are fit for nothing And hast thou O presumptuous sinner that trustest to a Sick-bed preparation for Death and Eternity and Assurance that this shall not be thy State and Condition then nay thou hast just cause to fear that thus it shall be because in the time of thy Health and Strength when God called after thee to look towards himself and to mind thy Everlasting Concernments thou wou'dit not therefore now that thou art come to lie upon a Death bed and thy Conscience is awakened with horrour because of thy former negligence and the prospect of thy future Misery that now the Violence of thy Distempers should be so great as to render thee uncapable of such a Work Or if God should be so merciful to thee which thou hast no reason to expect as to continue to thee the use of thy Reason and Vnderstanding so that being apprehensive of the approach of Death and Conscience also be awakened and terrifying thee with the fears of a strict account that thou art going to give unto the Great God of all that thou hast done in the Body whether it be good or evil dreading also what the Consequences thereof may be by reason of thy negligence and carelessness in the time of thy Health and Strength to make preparation for thy Eternal State It being thus with thee and thine Eyes being opened to see whither thou art going thou art very desirous it may be now to set thy Soul in order because thou fearest thou shalt die and not live Yet thy Sickness may be so sharp and pains may come upon thee with that Extremity that all thou canst do will be little enough to mind thy Body God may visit thee with such strong pains upon thy bed as may make thee cry and roar with such horrours as may make thee a terror to thy self and to all that come near thee so that all thou canst do for thy self or what others can do for thee may not be able to give thee any ease or relief And is this the time thou choosest to prepare thy self for Death and Eternity in What when thou canst hardly tell how to turn thy Body upon thy Bed for a little ease Dost thou think this a fit time to turn thy Soul fron Sin unto God in Suppose thou wert now cast upon a Sick-bed and thy Body full of pains if any one should come and put thee in mind of some Worldly Business wouldst thou not think it a good excuse to say Pray trouble me not now because I am Sick Speak to me of these things when I am Well again And dost thou think it Reasonable to be excused from Worldly Business because thou art Sick and yet dost thou Judge it the best time for thee to be employed about thy Spiritual concerns when thou art sick yea when thou art dying Surely desperate folly and madness is in the hearts of these Men who thus live and thus think to die Alas the time of Sickness is a time of spending not of getting it is not a time to gain Evidences for Heaven but to use them and to take the comfort that flows from them Alas poor Man thou shouldst now be solacing thy Soul in God as thy Father reconciled to thee in Christ and having made it the business of thy life to serve and please him sincerely though not without weaknesses and imperfections thou shouldst now be able to say thou hast through Jesus Christ received the Atonement and art continually rejoycing in hopes of the Glory of God the comfort whereof should be so great as to swallow up all thy Bodily pains and distempers and carry thee chearfully through the Pangs of Death so as that thou shouldst be able to say Blessed be God I am not sick for mine Iniquities are forgiven me This should be thy State and Condition upon a dying bed But if thou hast thy work to do thy Preparations for Heaven and Eternity to make when thou art upon thy Sick yea thy Death-Bed Oh how miserable I had almost said how desperate is thy Case How many Gracious Souls have found it work enough upon a Death-bed to attend the Pains and Distempers of their Bodies and believe it O Sinner who ever thou art thou wilt find it a great truth that to suffer and be sick is work enough for any Man at one time But suppose God should be so Gracious to thee as by some lingering and gentle sickness for many days yea months together give thee warning of thy
If upon Examination of thy Heart thou dost not find it thus with thee why then consider though this frame of Soul be Characteristical of a true Christian yet you must consider also that the same Character of a Christian that is a cause of joy and rejoicing to some yea to a Man 's own self sometimes at another time may be a cause of fear and doubting to him not but that that which distinguisheth a true Christian from a Hypocrite is the same at one time that it is at another only we cannot see nor discover so clearly the State of our Souls towards God by it at one time as at another And this is the Reason why some are so lifted up with joy yea with holy longing of Soul in hopes of the Glory of God when others are cast down under fears and doubts as if they had no hopes of or at least no present Interest in or title unto any such thing But farther Art thou fearful O Christian of thy self because thou canst not feel this ardency of desires in thee after thy dissolution and the Glorious appearing of Jesus Christ so as to look and long for the coming of these things Why know O troubled Soul that every Character of a Christian is not discernable by all Christians at all times and in all conditions Thou mayest have that in thee which is the cause of these longing desires in others though at present it doth not work so strongly in thee that thou mayest sensibly feel the power of its operations thus drawing forth thy Heart and Affections in this ardent and vehement manner Grace though weak and in the seed hath a tendency in it and is making out after this holy longing and rejoicing of Soul in hopes of the Glory of God though there may be the intervention of some time before there be an attaining to it If there be the remainders of the Spirit of Bondage in thee to fear in this case Grace in thee is not come to that perfection that it is in others but yet it will be growing and encreasing in thee and as thy Grace grows stronger and stronger so will thy fears of Death and Judgment grow weaker and weaker Furthermore O troubled Soul though thou canst not feel thy Soul breathing forth it self in these holy longings desires after thy Dissolution the beholding of the face of God and the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ yet dost thou believe that it will be incomparably better for thee to be with Christ than to abide here on Earth and therefore though Death be dreadful to think of in it self yet seeing it is the only passage through which God hath appointed our entrance into Heaven though thou canst not say that thou longest for it yet art thou willing to entertain it if God sends it and though the fears of Death sometimes discourage thee yet doth not thy belief of and hope in a future State of Happiness abate those fears considering the advantages that will follow it And though it be an amazing thing in thy thoughts to think of coming before the Great and Holy GOD yet except when Temptations make thee fear that God will condemn thee for thy Sins hadst thou not rather come to God by Death than not come to him at all the enjoyment of whom is thy Soul 's utmost Happiness And though the sight of Christ's coming in the Clouds at the Day of Judgment in the Glory of his Father and of the Holy Angels will be very terrible to behold and the thoughts thereof strike thee with fear and trembling when thou considerest thine own sinfulness and therefore canst not think of that Day with so strong a Faith and Consolation with such earnestness of desires and holy longing as some Christians do yet be not discouraged though thou dost not long for yet dost thou love the appearance of Jesus Canst thou say thou wouldst not take all the pleasures of this World for thy hopes of the happiness of this Day And couldst thou attain to that full assurance that some of God's People have thou wouldst then with earnestness of desire and holy longing of Soul cry out as the Church doth Come Lord Jesus come quickly Is it thus with thee O Soul why then be not troubled nay be comforted for that which at present is Faith Hope Desire and Love may in a little time be vehement longing and assurance yea the riches of the full assurance of Faith Rest not therefore in any weak desires but labour for this holy longing of Soul after God and the Eternal Enjoyment of him in Glory that in Life and Death your Soul may part and breath after immediate and everlasting Communion with him This is that frame of Soul that the People of God ought to labour after and which many have attained unto the earnestness and vehemency of whose desires have been so great that they have been as it were under sweet and delightful agonies of pain and their Souls even breaking with longings after the presence of God and Christ in Glory Examples of this Nature that might be instanced in are many I shall mention one of which I was an Eye and Ear Witness the Person was one of a middle rank and quality in the World but of great eminency in Grace and Holiness while living and full of Joy and Peace when dying It pleased God who appoints us the bounds and place of our Habitations to cast my lot into a Religious Family where this Godly Person lived whose Memory to me is and ever shall be very precious after I had been there some time it pleased God to lay this Person upon a sick bed which proved a death-bed whose Mouth was always full of Holy and Heavenly Discourse and as Death approached nearer and nearer those Heavenly Expressions were with greater earnestness and frequency repeated the last Day of whose Life as long as speech continued was spent in uttering continual expressions full of holy longings and desires after the enjoyment of God and Christ in Glory Methinks the sweetness of the Melody revives my Spirit still when I call to remembrance in my serious thoughts what I then heard and saw Oh with what Joy and Desight of Soul was the thoughts of Death entertained Surely nothing was or could possibly be more welcome to such a Soul except it were the immediate fruition of God in Heaven whose Soul in the delightful much longed for and panted-after Happiness in the enjoyment of God breathed forth continually such expressions as these for many hours together Come Lord Jesus when shall I come and appear before thee Oh Lord when Lord when Oh come Lord Jesus come quickly And thus this Holy Person died changing a frail mortal Life on Earth for an immortal Life in Heaven where to be and to be most happy is all one I could fill up many sheets with wonderful expressions of the loves longings pantings and breathings that I have read of Holy
unto your Souls by frequent Meditation Dost thou dread this King of Terrours give not way to thy Fears but bring Death often into thy thoughts there is no such hurt in it as thou imaginest nothing that should terrifie a Christian Consider a little what it is that Death can do against thee and what it is Death shall do for thee and then tell me if thou hast any cause to fear it nay tell me what cause thou hast to rejoice in it What is it death can do against thee It may part thee and the World thee and thy Friends yea it will part between thy Soul and thy Body bringing it down into the dust for a time to become a Feast for Worms and this is the worst that Death can do against a Believer But then consider withal what Death shall do for thee why it shall bring thee to a Happiness so great in the enjoyment of God as is unutterable for thee to express and unconceivable for thee to imagine and this not for a time but for ever this death shall do for thee O Christian and surely if thou believest these things with a lively active Faith thou canst not any longer set death at a distance from thee as an Enemy that thou art afraid of but converse with it familiarly as a Friend yea as thy best Friend next unto Jesus Christ Job was thus familiar with death Job 17.14 I have said unto Corruption thou art my Father and to the Worms ye are my Mother and Sister and Brother Accustom thy self therefore O Christian unto the thoughts of death and often think what a happy change thou shalt thereby undergo even an entrance into Heaven and Glory And then though the thoughts of death be full of horrour unto others yet such thoughts unto thee will not only be profitable but exceeding delightful Fourthly If you would die with Courage and Joy then often meditate upon the Death of Christ It is a common Argument and in the Mouths of most Persons that all must die all that have lived before us have gone this way But who is there that takes courage to follow others into the Grave because multitudes are gone thither before them No it is but a poor encouragement to die because other Men like our selves have died before us But when a Christian shall believingly remember and consider that Jesus Christ died and was laid in the Grave not only before us but for us and that he hath there conquered the King of Terrours even upon his own ground this makes a Believer die with a holy courage and descend into the Grave with an undaunted boldness But because Christians so seldom meditate on the Death of Christ therefore are they so afraid of their own death He that hath often conversed with death in the Meditation of the death of Christ as Believers do or should do cannot be afraid to die if he knows what the death of Christ means which he hath meditated upon Savingly to know that Christ is gone before us in death is not only enough to make us cheerful but to make us alive in death He that by Faith contemplates that Christ is gone before him by dying and that in dying he died for him and that he also is alive and lives for him with what abundant joy and consolation may he depart out of this World CHAP. VI. Objections against Death and Vnwillingness to die answered Consolations against the Fear of Death in general Comforts against the Death of Friends and Relations in particular The Saints great Gain by Death propounded as a Motive and Encouragement unto Christians against the Fears of it THough it be the Duty of Christians to die willingly yea with Courage and Joy to commit their Souls into the hands of God yet are there many who cannot overcome their fears of death so as to be willing to die and the Reasons thereof are such as these First say some We could be content to die had we but attained unto sixty or seventy years as some Men do but alas we are young in the prime of our years and in the strength of our Days The Sun of our Life hath not been long up and must it go back and decline yea and set also already We are willing to die hereafter but O that God would spare us a little longer To this I answer these are foolish pityings of thy self For if it please the Great God in whose Hands thy life is thy breath and all thy ways that thou must die young hast thou any Injustice to charge him withal What wrong hath he done thee in cutting short the thread of thy life Thou hast forfeited thy life into his Hands long since and if sparing Mercy hath continued the Forfeiture and given thee a space and time of Repentance though not so long as thou desirest yet more than thou deservest yea and more than he owed thee Thou shouldst therefore rather be thankful for it and with all diligence improve it than repine that it is so short or be unwilling to part with it so soon For though long life may be a Blessing yea is promised so yet if thou art a Believer a short life shall be no Curse unto thee To a pardoned Soul all things are Blessings yea Death it self for the bitterness of it is taken away Righteous Abel though young dies and dies by Murder whilst wicked Cain the Murderer of him lives some hundreds of years after When God who is the great Lord of Time and measures out to every one what number of days they shall live hath appointed unto thee the day and hour of thy departure though the days of thy life be but as a span long compared with the lives of others yet is it in vain to contend with God thou may'st trouble thy self and make thy life uncomfortable but thou can'st not alter God's Decrees for he is of one Mind as Job speaks and who can turn him That is none can and therefore chearfully yield up thy self unto his Will But possibly thou wilt say I would live longer that I might serve and honour God more If thou art sincere in what thou sayest it is well but if God will take the Will for the Deed and accept of what thou hast done already and reward thee with the eternal Enjoyment of himself immediately hast thou any Cause to complain What if thou gettest to Heaven twenty or thirty years before thy Father or Brother or many other of thy Acquaintance that are travelling with their Faces Heaven-ward and have been so many years already Will it grieve thee that thou art got to Heaven too soon where if thou art a Christian thou always hast a desire to be I assure thee thy Friends and Relations though they may not envy thy Happiness yet if they had but once tasted the Sweetness thereof their longings after it would be so great that they would continually cry out Oh Time hasten and flee away that
it were not my pleasure to part with it all that Men or Devils could do they were not able to wrest it out of my hands Now though Christ by his death and sufferings accomplished several ends as the satisfaction of the Justice of God the procuring Pardon and Remission of Sin and the obtaining Heaven yet this also was one end of his death and a very comfortable one too and that is the overcoming of death for Believers Christ Jesus the Lord of Life and Glory hath by his death spoiled Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in his Cross By his death he hath not only destroyed death but him also that had the power of death that is the Devil and delivered them who through fear of death were all their lives-time subject unto that bondage The Blood of Jesus Christ hath slain death's Enmity not that death is so destroyed that Believers shall not die but it is unstung It still wears its Dart by which it strikes all Men but it hath lost its sting by which it hurts Is death therefore riding upon its pale Horse and making haste towards thee O Believer fear it not be not dismayed at it though there may be much of pain in it yet there is nothing of the Curse in it it is as a Serpent without a sting thou mayest take it into thy hand yea into thy bosom without danger Death poured out all its Poison upon Christ when he was made a Curse it fastned yea it lost its sting in his blessed Side And who would fear an Enemy that is conquered Death to a Believer is not only an innocent harmless thing but it is one of his best Friends death is yours says the Apostle speaking to Believers It is theirs as a special Privilege When Christ was upon the Cross there was a Contention between him and death and as it was prophesied of him he was then the plague of death and the destruction of the Grave for he swallowed them up in Victory So that now death drives but a poor Trade among Believers all that it can do is but to destroy the Body and to afright some that are weak in the Faith but it cannot hurt them Victory over death is as sure to them as if they had already overcome and therefore says the Apostle speaking of Death and the Grave Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Secondly Meditate upon the Resurrection of Christ This is a great Fundamental Article of the Christian Religion that upon which the Faith the Hope and Happiness of a Christian for Eternity is built for as Christ died for our Sins so he arose again for our Justification And if Christ had not risen the Faith and Hope of a Christian is but vain If Christ be not risen a Christian shall not rise and if there be no Resurrection there is no Life everlasting If Christians have hope only in this Life they are of all Men most miserable But blessed be God Christ is risen and therefore the Faith and Hope of a Christian stands firm for it is built upon the Rock of Ages against which as the Gates of Death did not so the Gates of Hell shall not prevail That Christ is risen the Scripture is clear an Angel declares it Matth. 28.6 He is not here he is risen as he said Come see the place where the Lord lay Holy Men who were Eye-witnesses hereof give their Testimony to this Truth when our Lord shewed himself alive to them by the space of Forty Days in nine several Apparitions and once was he seen of five hundred Brethren together 1 Cor. 15.6 And says the Apostle Acts 2.24 He was raised from the dead the pains or bands of death being loosed because it was not possible he should be holden of them It was possible Death should seize upon him and so it did he willingly yielding himself up unto it because as our Surety he owed a death by way of satisfaction to the Justice of God for our sins which he had taken upon him and accordingly he paid it otherwise Death could not have taken hold of him But though death did take hold of him yet could it not keep it though it had possession of him in the Grave yet it could not keep him there no that was impossible partly because he is life essentially life so himself tells us I am the Resurrection and the Life Now it is not possible for death to hold life it self longer under its power than he who is life it self pleaseth And then partly it was not possible Christ should be held under the power of death in â—espect of us for having undertaken the great work of restoring us unto life if his life had been subdued by death if he had been held down a Prisoner under the power of death and the grave we had been lost and undone for ever for as the Apostle argues if Christ be not risen then our Faith is vain we are yet in our sins But Christ being to carry on the work of our Redemption to perfection though he submitted himself to die yet was it impossible Death should have Dominion over him for ever Christ therefore is risen and he is risen as a publick Person in the behalf of all Believers who are therefore called the Children of the Resurrection and said to be risen with him Eph. 2.6 Christ's Resurrection is not only the Cause of a Believer's Resurrection but the security of his happy Resurrection therefore he is said to be the first fruits of them that sleep Now as the first fruits did both assure and sanctifie the whole Harvest so doth Christ do for Believers by his Resurrection he assures them of their Resurrection and sanctifies it also that it shall be a blessed Resurrection even unto an Eternity of Happiness And therefore it is with respect to Believers that Christ is called the First-born or the first begotten from the dead who are in their time and order to be born from the dead the Resurrection giving New Birth or Being unto those bodies which while they were in the Grave seemed to have none For as certainly as the whole Harvest follows the first Fruits so doth the general Resurrection of Believers at the last day follow the Resurrection of Christ For as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 15. and 12. If Christ be risen from the dead how can it be but that there must be a Resurrection from the dead If we acknowledge the Body of Christ is risen we cannot rationally deny the Resurrection of our own bodies because Christ's Resurrection is not only the Exemplar of our Resurrection but the Cause of it for because Christ and Believers are but one Mystical Body he the Head they the Members and the Head being risen the Members shall not always lie rotting in the Grave but shall in due time arise also For the Spirit of Life that is in Christ