nor Barzillai of his lamenesse There are five Properties of the glorified bodies 1. They shall be agil and nimble the bodies of the Saints on earth are heavy in their motion and subject to wearinesse but in Heaven there shal be no elementary gravity hindering but our bodies being refined shall be swift and facile in their motion and made fit to ascend as the body of Elias In this life the body is a great hindrance to the soule in its operation The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak The soul may bring its action against the body when the soul would flie up to Christ the body as a leaden lump keeps it down 't is vivum sepulchrum but there is a time coming when it shall be otherwise the bodies of the Saints shall be agil and lively they shall be made fully subject to the soul and so no way impede or hinder the soul in its motion 2. The bodies of the Saints shall be transparent full of clarity and brightnesse as Christs body when it was transfigured Matth. 17.2 our bodies shall have a divine lustre put upon them here they are as iron when it is rusty there they shall be as iron when it is filed and made bright they shall shine tanquam Sol in fulgore saith Augustine as the Sun in its splendour nay seven times brighter saith Chrysostome here our bodies are as the gold in the oar drossy and impure in heaven they shall be as gold when it spangles and glisters so cleare shall they be that the soule may sally out at every part and sparkle through the body as the wine through the glasse 3. They shall be amiable beauty consists in two things 1. Symmetry and proportion when all the parts are drawn out in their exact lineaments 2. Complexion when there is a mixture and variety in the colours white and sanguine thus the bodies of the Saints shall have a transcendency of beauty put upon them Here the body is call'd a vile body Vile ortu in its birth and production de limo terrae of the dust of the earth The earth is the most ignoble element And vile officio in the use that it is put to the soul oft useth the body as a weapon to fight against God but this vile body shall be ennobled and beautified with glory it shall be made like Christs body How beautiful was Christs body upon earth in it there was the Purple and the Lily it was a mirrour beauty For all deformities of body issue immediately from sinne but Christ being conceived by the holy Ghost and so refined and clarified from all lees and dregs of sin he must needs have a beautiful body and in this sence he was fairer then the children of men Christs body as some Writers aver was so fair by reason of the beauty and grace which did shine in it that no limner could ever draw it exactly and if it was so glorious a body on earth how great is the lustre of it now in heaven That light which shone upon Saint Paul surpassing the glory of the sunne was no other then the beauty of Christs body in heaven O then what beauty and replendency will be put upon the bodies of the Saints they shall be made like Christs glorious body 4. The bodies of the Saints shall be impassible free from suffering We read that Iob's body was smitten with biles and Paul did beare in his body the marks of the Lord Iesus but ere long our bodies shall be impassible not but that the body when it is glorified shall have such a passion as is delightful for the body is capable of joy but no passion that is hurtful as cold or famine it shall not be capable of any noxious impression 5. They shall be immortall here our bodies are still dying quotidiè en im dempta est aliqua pars vitae cúm crescit vita tum decrescit It is improper to ask when we shall die but rather when we shall make an end of dying first the infancy dies then the childhood then youth then old age and then we make an end of dying it is not only the running out of the last sand in the glass that spends it but all the sands that run out before Death is a worm that is ever feeding at the root of our gourds but in Heaven our mortal shall put on immortality As it was with Adam in innocency if he had not sinned such was the excellent temperature and harmony in all the qualities of his body that it is probable he had not died but had been translated from Paradise to Heaven Indeed Bellarmine saith that Adam had died though he had not sinned but I know no ground for that assertion for sinne is made the formal cause of death however there 's no such thing disputable in Heaven the bodies there are immortal Luke 20.36 Neither can they die any more If God made Manna which is in it selfe corruptible to last many hundred years in the golden pot much more is he able by a divine power so to consolidate the bodies of the Saints that they shall be preserved to eternity Rev. 21.4 And there shall be no more death our bodies shall run parallel with eternity CHAP. XIV The Ninth Prerogative Royal. THE next Priviledge is we shall be as the Angels in Heaven Matth. 22.30 Christ doth not say we shall be Angels but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Angels Qu. How is that R. Not only that we shall not die but in regard of our manner of worship The Angels fulfill the will of God 1. Swiftly 2. Perfectly 3. Chearfully 1. Swiftly When God sends the Angels upon a Commission they do not hesitate or dispute the case with God but presently obey The Angels are set out by the Cherubims which had wings this was not to represent their Persons for spirits have no wings but their Office to shew how swift they are in their obedience it is as if they had wings Dan. 9.21 The man Gabriel this was an Angel was caused to flie swiftly as soone as ever God speaks the word the Angels are ambitious to obey now in Heaven we shall be as the Angels This is a singular comfort to a weak Christian alas we are not as the Angels in this life when God commands us upon service to mourne for sinne to take up the Crosse O what a dispute is there how long is it sometimes ere we can get leave of our hearts to go to prayer Jesus Christ went more willingly to suffer then we do often to pray how hardly do we come off in duty God had as good almost be without it Oh but if this be our grief be of good comfort in Heaven we shall serve God swiftly we shall be winged in our obedience we shall be even as the Angels 2. The Angels serve God perfectly they fulfill God's whole will they leave nothing undone
Debt-book is crossed in his blood Quest. How is Death ours Answ. Two wayes 1. It is the Out-let to Sin 2. It is the In-let to happiness 1. Death to a Beleever is an Out-let to Sin we are in this life under a sinful necessity even the best Saint There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not Evill thoughts are continually arising out of our hearts as sparks out of a Furnace Sin keeps house with us whether we will or no the best Saint alive is troubled with In-mates though he forsakes his sinnes yet his sinnes will not forsake him 1. Sin doth indispose to good How to performe that which is good I finde not Rom. 7. ver 18. When we would pray the heart is as a Voyal out of tune When we would weepe we are as clouds without rain 2. Sin doth irritate to evil The Flesh lusts against the Spirit There needs no winde of Tentation we have Tide strong enough in our hearts to carry us to Hell Consider sinne under this threefold notion 1. Sin is a body of death and that not impertinently First It is a body for its weight The body is an heavy and weighty substance so is Sin a body it weighs us down When we should pray the weights of Sin are tied to our feet that we cannot ascend Anselm seeing a little Boy playing with a Bird he let her flie up and presently pulls the Bird down againe by a string So saith he it is with me as with this Bird when I would flie up to heaven upon the wings of meditation I finde a string tied to my leg I am over-powered with corruption but Death pulls off these weights of sin and le ts the Soul free Secondly Sin is a body of death for its annoyance It was a cruel torment that one used he tied a dead man to a living that the dead man might annoy and infest the living Thus it is with a childe of God he hath two men within him Flesh and Spirit Grace and Corruption here is the dead man tied to the living a proud sinful heart is worse to a childe of God then the smell of a dead Corps Indeed to a natural man sinne is not offensive for being dead in sinne he is not sensible of the body of death but where there is a vitall principle there is no greater annoyance then the body of Death Insomuch that the pious soule oft cries out as David Wo is me that I dwell in Mesek and sojourn in the tents of Kedar So saith he Wo is me that I am constrained to abide with sin How long shall I be troubled with inmates How long shall I offend that God whom I love When shall I leave these Tents of Kedar 2. Sinne is a Tyrant it carries in it the nature of a Law the Apostle calls it the law in his members There is the law of Pride the law of Unbelief it hath a kinde of jurisdiction as Caesar over the Senate perpetuam dictaturam What I hate that do I The Apostle was like a man carried down the streame and was not able to beare up against it Sinne takes us prisoners whence are our carnal fears whence our passions whence is it that a childe of God doth that which he allows not yea against knowledge only this he is for a time Sinnes Prisoner The Flesh oft prevailes though in coole blood the elder shall serve the younger whence is it that he who is borne of God should be so earthly The reason is he is captived under sin but be of good chear where grace makes a Combate death shall make a Conquest 3. Sin is a leprous spot It makes every thing we touch uncleane We reade when the Leprosie did spread in the walls of the house the Priests commanded them to take away the stones in the wall in which the Plague was and take other stones and put in the place of those stones and take other morter Levit. 14.42 But when the Plague spread againe in the wall then he must break downe the house with the stones and timber thereof Vers. 45. Thus in every man naturally there is a fretting leprosie of sinne pride impenitency c. These are leprous spots now in conversion here God doth as it were take away the old stones and timber and put new in the roome he makes a change in the heart of a sinner but still the leprousie of sinne spreads then at last death comes and pulls down the stones and timber of the house and the soule is quite freed from the leprousie Sinne is a defiling thing it makes us red with guilt and black with filth 'T is compared to a menstruous cloath we need carry it no higher Pliny tells us that the Trees with touching of it would become barren and Hierom saith Nihil in lege menstruato immundius there was nothing in the Law more uncleane then the menstruous cloath this is sinne Sinne drawes the Devils picture in a man malice is the Devils eye oppression is his hand hypocrisie is his cloven foot but behold death will give us our discharge death is the last and best Physician which cures all diseases the aking head and the unbelieving heart Peccatum erat obstetrix mortis mors erit sepulchrum peccati Sinne was the Mid-wife that brought Death into the World and Death shall be the Grave to bury Sinne O the Priviledge of a Beleever he is not taken away in his sinnes but he is taken away from his sinnes The Persians had a certaine day in the yeare which they called vitiorum interitum wherein they used to kill all Serpents and venemous creatures Such a day as that will the day of death be to a man in Christ. This day the old Serpent dies in a Beleever that hath so often stung him with his temptations this day the sinnes of the godly these venemous creatures shall all be destroyed they shall never be proud more they shall never grieve the Spirit of God more the Death of the body shall quite destroy the Body of death 2. Death to a Believer is an Inlet to happinesse Sampson found an honey-combe in the Lions carcase so may a childe of God suck much sweetnesse from death Death is the gate of life death pulls off our rags and gives us change of rayment all the hurt it doth us is to put us into a better condition Death is called in Scripture a sleepe 1 Thes. 4.14 Those that sleepe in Iesus as after sleep the spirits are exhilarated and refreshed so after Death the times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord. Death is yours Death opens the portal into Heaven as Tertullian speakes The day of a Christian's death is the birth-day of his heavenly life it is his Ascension-day to glory it is his Marriage-day with Jesus Christ. After our Funerall begins our Marriage Well then
might Solomon say Better is the day of a mans death then the day of his birth Death is the spiritual man's preferment why then should he fear it Death I confesse hath a grimme visage to an impenitent sinner so it is ghastly to look upon it is a pursuivant to carry him to hell but to such as are in Christ Death is yours It is a part of the Joincture Death is like the Pillar of cloud it hath a dark-side to a sinner but it hath a light-side to a believer Deaths pale face looks ruddy when the blood of sprinkling is upon it in short Faith gives us a propriety in Heaven Death gives us a possession Feare not your priviledge the thoughts of death should be delightfull Iacob when he saw the Chariots his spirits revived Death is a Waggon or Chariot to carry us to our Fathers house What were the Martyrs flames but a fiery Chariot to carry them up to Heaven How should we long for Death This world is but a Desart we live in Shall we not be willing to leave it for Paradise We say It is good to be here we affect an earthly eternity but grace must curb nature Think of the priviledges of Death The Planets have a proper motion and a violent by their proper motion they are carried from the West to the East but by a violent motion they are over-ruled by the Primum Mobile and are carried from the East to the West So though naturally we desire to live here as we are made up of flesh yet grace should be as the primum mobile or master-wheele that swayes our will and carries us in a violent motion making us long for death Saint Paul desired to be dissolved and 2 Corinth 5.2 In this we groane earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven we would put off the earthly cloathes of our body and put on the bright robe of immortality we groane 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is a Metaphor taken from a mother who being pregnant groanes and cries out for delivery Austine longed to die that he might see that head which was once crowned with thornes We pray Thy Kingdome come and when God is leading us into his Kingdome shall we be afraid to go The times we live in should me thinks make us long for death we live in dying times we may heare as it were Gods passing Bell ringing over these Nations Foelix Nepotianus qui haec non videt as Hierome said in his time Nepotian is an happy man that doth not see the evils which befall us they are wel that are out of the storm and are gotten already to the haven To me to die is gaine Quest. But who shall have this priviledge Answ. death is certaine but there are only two sorts of Persons to whom we may say Death is yours 'T is your preferment 1. Such as die daily We are not borne Angels die we must Therefore we had need carry alwayes a deaths-head about us The Basilisk if it see a man first it kills him but if he see it first it doth him no hurt The Basilisk death if it sees us first before we see it 't is dangerous but if we see it first by meditating upon it it doth us no hurt study death often walke among the Tombs It is the thoughts of death before-hand that must do us good In a dark night one Torch carried before a man is worth many Torches carried after him one serious thought of death before-hand one teare shed for sinne before death is worth a thousand shed after when it is too late 'T is good to make Death our familiar and in this sense to be in Deaths oft that if God should presently seal a lease of ejectment if he should send us a Letter of Summons this night to surrender we might have nothing to do but to die Alas how do we adjourne the thoughts of death 'T is almost death to think of it There are some that are in the very threshold of the grave who have one legge in the earth and another legge in hell yet put farre from them the evil day I have read of our Lysicrates who in his old age dyed his gray hairs black that he might seeme young againe When we should be building our Tombes we are building our Tabernacles die daily lest you die eternally The holy Patriarchs in purchasing for themselves a burying place shewed us what thoughts they still had of Death Ioseph of Arimathea erected his Sepulchre in his Garden we have many that set up the Trophies of their victories others that set up their Scutchions that they may blaze their honour but how few that set up their Sepulchres who erect in their hearts the serious thoughts of death Oh remember when you are in your gardens in places most delicious and fragrant to keep a place for your Tomb-stone die daily There is no better way to bring sinne into a Consumption then by oft looking on the pale horse and him that sits thereon By thinking on death we begin to repent of an evil life and so we disarme death before it comes and cut the lock where its strength lies 2. Such as are in Heaven before they die death is yours If we will needs be high-minded let it be in setting our minde upon heavenly things Heaven must come down into us before we go up thither A childe of God breaths his faith in Heaven his thoughts are there When I awake I am still with thee Psal. 139.17 David awaked in Heaven his conversation is there Philip. 3.20 For our conversation is in Heaven The Believer often ascends Mount Tabor and takes a prospect of glory O that we had this celestial frame of heart When Zacheus was in the croud he was too low to see Christ therefore he climbed up into the Sycomore-Tree When we are in a croud of worldly businesse we cannot see Christ Climb up into the tree by divine contemplation If thou wouldest get Christ into thy heart let Heaven be in thy eye Set your affections upon things above Colos. 3.2 There needs no exhortation to set our hearts upon things below How is the curse of the Serpent upon most men Upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou eat all the dayes of thy life Those that feed onely upon dust Golden dust will be unwilling to returne to dust Death will be terrible The tribes of Reuben and Gad desired Moses that they might stay on this side Iordan and have their portion there it being a place convenient for their Cattel It seems they minded their Cattel more then their passage into the holy Land so many Christians if they may have but a little grazing here in the world in their Shops and in their Farms they art content to live on this side the River and minde not their passage into the Land of Promise you that are in heaven
felt no paine Time was when conscience was tender but by often sinning he is like the Ostrich that can digest iron or as it is said of Mithridates that by often accustoming his body to poyson it never hurt him but he could live upon it as his food That sinne which was before as the wounding of the eye now is no more then the cutting of the naile Well there is a time coming when this sleepy conscience shall be awakened Belshazzar was drinking wine in bowls but there came out fingers on the wall and his countenance changed there conscience began to be awakened Conscience is like a looking-glasse if it be foul and dusty you can see nothing in it but wipe away the dust and you may see your face in it clearly there 's a time coming when God will wipe off the dust from the glasse of a mans conscience and he shall see his sins clearly represented Conscience is like a Lion asleep when he awakes he roars and tears his prey when conscience awakes then it roars upon a sinner and tears him as the devil did the man into which he entred Mark 9.22 he â—ent him and threw him into the fire When Moses rod was turned into a Serpent he was afraid and fled from it oh what is it when conscience is turned into a Serpent Conscience is like the Bee if a man doth well then conscience gives honey it speaks comfort if he do ill it puts forth a sting it is called a worm Mark 9.44 Where the worm never dies It is like Prometheus's Vulture it lies ever gnawing it is Gods blood-hound that pursues a man When the Jaylour saw the prison-doors open and as he thought the prisoners were missing he drew his sword and would have killed himselfe when the eye of conscience is opened and the sinner begins to look about him for his evidences Faith Repentance c. and sees they are missing he will be ready to kill himselfe a troubled conscience is the first-fruits of hell and indeed it is a lesser hell That it is so appears two wayes 1. By the suffrage of Scripture Prov. 18.14 A wounded spirit who can bear a wound in the Name in the estate in the body is sad but a wound in the conscience who can bear especially when the wound can never be healed for I speak of such as awake in the night of death 2. By the experience both of good and bad 1. By the experience of good men when the storme hath risen in their conscience though afterwards it hath been allayed yet for the present they have been in the suburbs of hell David complaines of his broken bones he was like a man that had all his bones out of joynt What is the matter you may see wherein his pain lay Psal. 51.3 My sin is ever before me he was in a spiritual agony it was not the sword threatned it was not the death of the childe but it was the roarings of his conscience some of Gods arrows stuck fast there though God will not damn his children yet he may send them to hell in this life 2. By the experience of bad men who have been in the perpetual convulsions of conscience I have sinned saith Iudas before he was nibling upon the silver bait the thirty pieces but now the hook troubles him conscience wounds him such was Iudas his horror being now like a man upon the rack that he hangs himself to quiet his conscience This shews what the hell of conscience is that men account death easie to get rid of conscience but in vaine it is with them as with a sick man he removes out of one room into another and changeth the aire but still he carries his disease with him Thou mayest think O sinner to laugh thy sinnes out of countenance but what wilt thou do when conscience shall begin to flie upon thee and shall examine thee with scourgings it is a mercy when conscience is awakened in time but the misery is when the wound is too late there being then no balm in Gilead §. II. The second thing to come His appearing before the Judge For we must all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ Hierome thought he ever heard that sounding in his ears Surgite mortui Arise ye dead come to judgement What solemnity is there at an Assizes when the Judge comes to the Bench and the Trumpets are sounded Thus Christ the Judge shall be accompanied with Angels and Archangels and the Trumpets shall be blown 1 Thes. 4.16 For the Lord himselfe shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God This is the great and general Assizes Then shall Christ sit down upon the Throne of Judicature holding his sword in his hand and a flame coming out of his mouth Now the sinner being summoned before him as a prisoner at bar he hath his guilt written in his forehead he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemned before he comes I mean in his conscience which is the consistory or petty Sessions and appearing before Christ he begins to tremble and be amazed with horrour and not being covered with Christs righteousnesse for want of a better covering he cries to the mountains to cover him And the Kings and the great men said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Nothing so dreadfull as the sight of mercy abused Now the Lamb will be turned into a Lion and he who was once a Saviour will be a Judge §. III. The third thing to come is His Charge reade I will reprove thee and set thy sinnes in order before thee Psal. 50.21 As God hath a bottle for tears so he hath a book to register mens sins Rev. 20.12 The books were opened Oh what a black charge will be read against a sinner not only the sins which have damnation written in their forehead as drunkenness swearing blasphemy shall be brought into the charge but those sinnes which he slighted As 1. Secret sinnes such as the world never took notice of many a man doth not forsake his sins but grows more cunning with the Vintner he pulls down the bush but his heart gives as much vent to sinne as ever his care is rather that sinne should be covered then cured Not unlike to him that shuts up his shop-windows but follows his trade within doors he sits brooding upon sinne he doth with his sins as Rachel did with her fathers Idols she put them under her that he might not finde them so doth he put his sins in a secret place all these sinnes shall be set in order before him Luk. 12.2 For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed God hath a key for the heart 2. Little sinnes as the world calls them Though I know no such thing as little
a flinty is now become a fleshy heart The heart is fearful of sin the least haire makes the eye weepe so the least sin makes the heart smite Davids heart smote him when he cut off the lap of King Saul's garment what would it have done if he had cut off his head A tender heart is like melting wax to God he may set what seale he will upon it A tender heart is like adamant to the threatnings of men in this sense the more tender the heart is the more hard 2. A childe-like heart is a praying heart The Spirit of adoption is a Spirit of supplication Ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby ye cry Abba Father Before the childe is out of the womb it cannot crie While men lie in the womb of their natural estate they cannot pray so as to be heard but when they are born again of the seed of the Word then they crie Abba Father Prayer is nothing else but the souls breathing it selfe into the bosome of its Father Prayer is a sweet and familiar intercourse with God He comes down to us upon the wings of his Spirit and we go up to him upon the wings of prayer It is reported in the life of Luther that when he prayed it was tanta reverentia ut si Deo tanta fiducia ut si amico it was with so much reverence as if he were praying to God and with so much boldnesse as if he had been speaking to his friend This prayer must have constancy and instancy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12.12 continuing constant The heart must boile over Prayer is compared to groanes unutterable it alludes to a woman that is in pangs we should be in pangs when we are travelling for mercy such prayer commands God himselfe 3. A childe-like heart is a loyall heart it is moulded into obedience 't is like the flower that opens and shuts with the Sun so it opens to God and shuts to tentation This is the language of obedience it is written in the volume of my heart I delight to do thy will O my God 4. A childe-like heart is a zealous heart 'T is impatient of Gods dishonour Moses was cool in his own cause but hot in Gods When the people of Israel had wrought folly in the golden calfe he breaks the Tables As we shall answer for idle words so for sinful silence It is dangerous in this sense to be possessed with a dumb devil David saith the zeale of Gods house had eaten him up Many Christians whose zeal once had almost eaten them up now they have eaten up their zeal Let men talk of bitternesse for my part I can never believe that he hath the heart of a childe in him that can be patient when Gods glory suffers Can an ingenuous childe endure to heare his father reproached Though we should be silent under Gods displeasure yet not under his dishonour When there is a fire of zeal kindled at the heart it will breake forth at the lips Zeale tempered with holinesse this white and sanguine is the best complexion of the soule Of all others let Ministers be impatient when Gods glory is eclipsed and impeached Let not them be either shaken with fear or seduced with flattery they are Gods ensign-bearers his warriours and therefore must discharge against sin God never made Ministers to be as false glasses to make bad faces look fair â—or want of this fire of zeale they are in danger of another fire even the burning lake Rev. 21.8 into which the fearfull shall be cast CHAP. V. Shewing that things to come are a Believers AND so I slide into the second part of the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things to come are yours here is portion enough It is a great comfort that when things present are taken away yet things to come are ours Me thinks the very naming this word Things to come should make the spirits of a Christian revive It is a sweet word our happinesse is in reversion the best is behinde all is not yet come that is promised Truly if we had nothing but what we have here we were miserable here are disgraces martyrdomes we must taste some of that Gall and Vineger which Jesus Christ drank upon the Crosse but O Christian be of good chear there is something to come The best part of your portion is yet unpaid All things to come are yours God deals with us as a Merchant that shews the worst piece of cloath first We meete sometimes with course usage in the world that piece which is of the finest spinning is kept till we come at heaven It is true God doth chequer his work in this life a white spot with a black he gives us something to sweeten our pilgrimage here the Praelibations and tastes of his love these are the earnest and first-fruits but what is this to that which is to come Now we are the sonnes of God 1 Iohn 3.2 But it doth not yet appear what we shall be expect that God should keep his best wine till last Things to come are yours CHAP. VI. The first Prerogative To Come BUt what are those things that are to come Answ. There are twelve things yet to come the which I call twelve Prerogatives Royal wherewith the Believer shall be invested The first is set down in the Text which I will begin with 1. Death is yours Death in Scripture is called an Enemy 1 Cor. 15.26 Yet here it is put in a Christians Inventory Death is yours 'T is an enemy to the mortal part but a friend to the spiritual It is one of our best friends next to Christ Death is a part of the joincture When Moses saw his rod turned into a serpent it did at the first affright him and he fled from it but when God bade him take hold of it he found by the miraculous effects which it wrought it did him and the people of Israel much good so death at the first sight is like the rod turned into a serpent it affrights but when by Faith we take hold of it then we finde much benefit and comfort in it As Moses rod divided the waters and made a passage for Israel into Canaan So death divides the Waters of Tribulation and makes a passage for us into the land of promise Death is called the King of Terrours but it can do a childe of God no hurt the sting is pull'd out The Bee by stinging loseth its sting While death did sting Christ upon the Crosse it hath quite lost its sting to a Believer It can hurt the soule no more then David did King Saul when he cut off the lap of his garment Death to a Believer is but like the Arresting of a man for a Debt after the Debt is paid Death as Gods Sergeant at Armes may Arrest us and carry us before Gods Justice but Christ will shew our discharge the