make Christs fear of death only natural and say therefore he was more sadly affected with it than any of the Prophets or Martyrs because of the exquisite and tender constitution of his body do greatly derogate from that work of mediation for us and satisfaction which was done by his blood to the justice of God From these examples you see that though grace can subdue sinne conquer lusts overcome the Devil yet it cannot totally take away the anxiety and fear of death which is altogether natural though the sinfulness of it may be mortified But to this it may be objected How could Paul be so sollicitous about death when Phil. 1. 23. he saith He had a desire to depart and to be with Christ Yea he did not know what to choose whether life or death He was in a straight betwixt two a desire to be with Christ and a desire to live that he might be serviceable to the Church That this may be answered it is good to take more exact notice of that place for it is an admirable demonstration of the gracious frame of Paul's heart lest the Philippians should think that he desired their prayers for himself now in bonds for the Gospel as being too inordinately affected to the desire of life he sheweth what a blessed frame of heart he had obtained unto even that if it were put to his choice whether he should live or die he should be straightned what to do The desire to be with Christ on one side did so affect him and the desire of the Churches good by his labours on the other side did so much work upon him where we may observe that his desire to depart was not because he had troubles and calamities here it was not because of the miseries and afflictions he met with but want of love to Christ That I may be with Christ saith he he doth not say that I may have glory that I may reign in Heaven but be with Christ Christs presence maketh Heaven to be Heaven Though Paul in this life was in Christ yet he was not with Christ Further he doth not say meerly I desire but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having a desire it was a constant setled permanent desire in him and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cut the rope as it were and to set fail to Heaven to return to him from whom he had his spiritual being The Apostle then did not only desire to be with Christ but he judged it the farre better condition for him Therefore we must distinguish of a two-fold desire there is a Natural Desire and an Elicite Desire A Natural Desire is that which floweth from the meer principles of Nature desiring to preserve it self and this Paul could not but have as he was a man Even as our Saviour told Peter He should be bound and should be carried whether he would not Joh. 21. 18. that is according to his natural will otherwise according to his will as sanctified did with readiness and joy go to the place of his Martyrdom An Elicite Desire is that which a man putteth forth according to the principles of reason and grace so that we may desire one thing with a natural desire another thing with an elicite A man that hath a putrified arm doth with a natural desire will to continue his arm still in his body but with an elicite desire following reason so he willeth to cut it off And thus Paul did with an elicite desire so he willed Heaven and being with Christ rather than to continue in the flesh To amplifie this Consider First That death is not according to mans creation at first he was not made mortal or corruptible But as the sentence of God doth witness In the day Adam did eat of the forbidden fruit he fell into a dying condition It is true The Question is of a large dispute Whether Adam was made immortal or no The Papists say he was made mortal and the Socinians they do more frowardly oppose this truth affirming Adam would have died though there had not been any eating of the forbidden fruit So that with them actual death was necessary before Adams sinne only it became a punishment after But Rom. 5. the Apostle at large sheweth That by one mans sinne death came into the world And Rom. 6. 23. The wages of sinne is death Death then being wholly against the natural institution At first Adam had an implanted love of his life in him And although his estate was so blessed that there could not be place for any fear yet had he been capable of losing his life his love to it would have made him afraid of being deprived of it This then is the great mystery that the natural wise men of the world were ignorant of Death they would not deny they called it The tribute of Nature which all must pay only they did not know the cause of it they understood not how it came to seâ—se upon all mankind Secondly Seeing that death is thus connatural and the effect of sinne and the Devil Hence it is that which maketh Death farre more terrible than otherwise it would be is sinne Whatsoever bitterness and gall is in death it doth chiefly come from sinne 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of death is sinne So many sinnes as thou committest thou puttest so many stings into death to make it more dreadfull Could a man die and have not any sinne laid to his charge though it would be pain yet it would not be terrour When Aristotle calleth death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The terrible of terribles He speaketh of death as now it is Now in death as ordinarily men die there is not a bare apprehension of the dissolution of soul and body but there is the guilt of sinne likewise interposing whereby a dying man is usually terrified with the thoughts of what he hath done and in Christians what will become of them when they are dead Animula blandula quae nunc abibis in loca Die I dare not live I cannot and thus his soul is miserably in agonies and grievous tormenting fears and all because sinne is the sting of death Oh it were easie to die were it not for sinne for hell for judgement were it not for conscience accusing and condemning But this is it which maketh the thoughts of it so grievous and terrible Therefore in the third place The Lord Christ came into the world to destroy and remove this sting of death To change the nature of death that it should not be matter of terror but of joy and comfort being like Joseph's Chariot to carry us to the place of our hope and desire Thus we have the Apostle insulting over death 1 Cor. 15. 54 55. Death is swallowed up in victory Death doth not swallow the godly man but he doth swallow that up O death where is thy sting Thanks be to God which giveth us victory by our Lord Jesus Christ Were it not then for
into nothing Thus it is with the promises recorded in the Scripture they all move and act as it were in him They all live and worke in him were it nor for his merit and his Spirit they would be but as empty words or as a tinkling cymball Therefore In the fourth place The Covenant of Grace which is virtually all the promises of God it is not onely called a Covenant and a Promise but a Testament likewise And that for this end because it doth necessarily relate to the death of the Testatour So that Gods promise is not to be conceived as when one man maketh a promise to another absolutely and without any thing intervening For here we have God indeed promising from his meer absolute goodnesse and mercy but then the execution of this cannot be without the blood of Christ so that all the force of the promise ariseth from the death of Christ The Apostle therefore argueth the validity of this Covenant from that which is amongst men Galat. 3. 15. A mans testament when it is confirmed cannot be disanulled or added unto how much rather then must the testament of Christ be confirmed for ever The Apostle doth excellently consider this Heb. 9. 15. For this cause Christ is a Mediatour of the New Testament that by meanes of death they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance For where a testament is there also must of necessity be the death of the testatour By which it appeareth that the promises of God are established upon a sure and unchangeable foundation even the blood of Christ and therefore as sure as Christ died so sure will those promises of God be made effectual to thee Indeed if Gods promises were Yea and Amen according to thy workes to thy worth and dignity woe would be unto thee Yea though God doth require faith and repentance yet the promises are not setled upon these as a foundation but on Christ and therefore it is that our hopes our comforts can never be shaken The promises then of God have two Pillars to bear them up though one be enough The first is The immutability and verity of Gods Nature he cannot change he cannot lie The other is From the Merit and Efficacy of Christs death whereby the things promised are deserved and that at a dear rate even Christs blood Now then can any godly soule give way to unbeliefe to sinfull dejections seeing that God cannot lie and the blood of Christ cannot but obtaine God cannot deny himselfe neither can he deny his onely Sonne Therefore let the godly soule remember this Gods promise is not onely a bare promise but Christs Testament also Insomuch that all spirituall benefits are the fruit of his death and shall we thinke that blood will be shed in vain Shall we give no more to Christs Testament then we will to a mans But this Doctrine deserveth further enlarging SERM. CXXVII Of the usefulnesse and unchangeablenesse of the Promises of God 2 COR. 1. 20. For all the Promises of God in him are yea and in him amen ALl the promises of grace you have heard are established upon two immovable pillars Gods unchangablenesse and the bloud of Christ To proceed from this followeth First That Deus absolutus as Luther was wont to say or Deus in praedicamento substantiae is a consuming fire and we are nothing but stubble before him it must be God as in praedicamento relationis as he is a God promising mercy unto us in Christ that is the ground of all our commerce and fellowship with him We are not to appear before God in confidence of our obedience to his commands but by faith in his promises insomuch that the only foundation we have to build upon in all our approaches unto him is Gods promise alone in Christ The godly soul is to look with as much or more chearfulnesse on that than Rahab could do on the scarlet thread held out as a commemorative signe to preserve her life were it not for this promise in Christ who could who might who dare draw nigh to God the Father So that it is through Christ that the way is opened for us to come unto God We may see this notably prefigured as it were in Gods dispensation with the people of Israel Exo. 33. 2 3. for when they had by their sinnes greatly provoked God the Lord denied his presence to go along with them I will not go up with thee lest I consume thee in the way this sheweth that such was Gods anger against their iniquity that he could not bear it It 's a speech taken from the humour of men otherwise the anger of the Lord is subject to his own power only this is spoken to shew what distastefull objects they were to him But though his anger be thus against them yet see what he promiseth ver 2. I will send my Angel before thee Here God would not go but his Angel now this Angel is Christ as appeareth Exod. 22. 20 21 22. where he is described as one in whose power it is to pardon iniquities with this addition for my Name is in him Observe then here a sweet Oeconomy or dispensation of Gods dealing with the people of Israel as a President to inform us about all mankinde God would not look upon mankinde neither would he behold as it were if he did he should immediatly destroy them all but he sends an Angel he sendeth Christ into the world and so in and through him he becomes propitious to us Now how little is this understood by Christians who do go to the promises upon their own obedience they think they beleeve they repent and in the mean while Christ is not all in all as if in our graces in our performances The promises of God were yea and Amen and not in God himself It is a long while ere the ministery of the Law hath any efficacy upon mens hearts ere they are sensible of the weight and the heavinesse of sinne ere they go bowed down because of this burden and when that hath broken them it is many times longer ere they are directed to an Evangelicall life ere they can tell how to make use of the proper remedy which is the promise of God in Christ for all their disputes and doubts arise from this as if the fullfilling of the promises were established upon themselves and not upon Christs bloud Truly if the humbled sinner were well instructed in this principle it would be like the rising of the Sunne to dispell all darknesse for either the promises are made good because of thy faith and of thy repentance or because of Christs bloud and atonement through that if because of the former then no wonder thou art no more quieted in thy minde no wonder thy heart is so full of fears for how weak is thy faith how strong and heavy is thy heart if thou must be justified by their worth thou art undone But then if Christ be
the surety if he hath undertaken for thee and performed for thee what was required by the Law then thou maist pleade though not for my sake yet for Christs sake let thy promise be made good to me But the troubled soul will object very plausibly against this Though Gods promises are made good in Christ yet there is the duty of faith and repentance required of me so that if I do not beleeve if I do not repent there is no promise through Christs blood established that will do me any good what is it your meaning that though I am a sinner and while I abide in my sins I should pleade the promise of God in Christ Is not this to dash my soul at the Antinomian rock This deserveth a full answer And first It must be acknowledged that in this point it is hard to sail between the Scylla and Charybdis of the Arminian errour on one hand and Antinomian on the other side For the Arminians they indeed make Christ to be the atonement for our sins but so that we must beleeve and repent all which is true But then if it be asked how come we to beleeve and to repent here they fly in part at least to our own free will for they deny that faith is purchased by Christs death so that by their doctrine the whole fruit of Christs death standeth suspense and indeterminate till it be determined by our faith Christs death is made effectuall to us by our beleeving and this beleeving is not wrought in us by Christs Spirit nor is it bestowed on us as the fruit of his death but only we joyning with the grace of God do make the redimibility which was before faith by faith to be actual redemption And the Papist he erreth more grosly herein for he addeth further that our faith and repentance yea all holy works are causal conditions such as are meritorious and have an inward condignity and proportion to the reward Thus generally the Papists though some of them deny this merit and causality But the Antinomian falleth into another extremity for he doth so offer Christ and his promises to a man as if nothing at all were required on mans part and therefore tels a sinner that it is his duty while a sinner and abiding in that state to receive the promise yea one goeth so far as to say that Christ did beleeve for us Christ did repent for us and therefore that we are not bound to beleeve or repent but only to rest on Christ that he hath done these things for us Thus you see here are two extreme opinions and it is very hard for the soul in its first troubles and pangs to be guided out of this wildernesse how many have been seduced by Antinomian errours under the specious pretence of free grace and how many again have fallen into Armintan and Popish principles thinking that way to asswage their bleeding hearts but the Scripture truth doth lie between these two for Christ and so the promises are not applicable to sinners as sinners whether they beleeve or not beleeve whether they repent or not repent but do require indispensably of all grown persons faith and repentance but yet on the other side this faith and repentance of ours have no merit or dignity in them nor are they the effect and fruit of our own will and power but are the gifts of Gods grace and the consequent of Christs death so that Christ did not only die for our sins he did not only dye to confirm the promises to us but he died also to give us faith and repentance that by them we might be qualified subjects for such glorious mercies Hence the Scripture maketh faith and repentance to be the gifts of Gods grace as well as remission and pardon of sinne These duties then are necessarily required of us that the promises may be made good to us against the Antinomians yet these duties are Gods gift and the work of his spirit not the issues of our free-will against the Arminians Therefore in the second place when a Christian cometh to make use of a promise he must not oppose Christ and his duties but compose them together he must subordinate his duties to Christ We complain that the Popish doctrines oppose Christ and duties even as the Apostle argueth against the Galathians who by works of the Law made Christ of none effect and we cannot deny but the heart of man is so prone to put confidence in what we do and although we disclaim the merit of works yet to have a secret rest of the soul upon them that it is very difficult to keep within our bounds but yet we are also to know that every thing in Christianity is very hard to flesh and bloud Any thing graciously done is exact and accurately commensurated to the rule of God whereas such is the instability and unrulinesse of man naturally that he is apt to run from one extreme to another and while he seeketh to avoid one to fall into another our duty therefore is to rest upon Christ alone in the promises as the meritorious and fundamentall cause yet diligently to pursue after holinesse as that which qualifieth the subject for the glorious things promised God hath required these duties of thee therefore be thou as faithful and diligent in the performance of them as if there were no Christ no Mediatour And again be thou as wholly recumbent on Christ as if thou hadst no faith no repentance at all distinguish between the necessary presence of them and the causality of them Thus it ought to be the wisedome and skill of Ministers so to preach and exalt Christ as thereby no duties are to be omitted or neglected And again so powerfully and exactly to presse duties that Christ be not in the least manner disrobed of his glory for although Christ interposeth between the Fathers wrath and us yet you must not so understand it as if by our sins we could not provoke Christ as if through our unbeleef and impenitency we might not cause him of a lamb to be like a roaring lion We must not apprehend Christ to have only mercy in him and all wrath to be in God the Father only for observe that counsel given to the people of Israel concerning this Angel who was to guide them which is Christ Exod. 23. 21. Beware of him and obey his voice provoke him not for my Name is in him Though then the promises are established upon Christ yet take heed of provoking him by impenitency for even Christ will be a judge against thee because of thy disobedience Well let all this be granted yet still the tender and broken heart will object I dare not lay hold on the promises they do not belong to me I finde so much unworthinesse so much dulnesse and stupidity that though others may pleade the promise yet my heart is so full of fears and confusion that I dare not do it What