is left behind Must he therefore plead against his Physician and say It will not be done because he knoweth not how it s done We feel that here we have our sinful imperfections we have for all that a promise that we shall be with Christ when death hath made its separation and we are assured that no sin doth enter there And is not this enough for us to know But yet I see not why the difficulty of the Objection should trouble us at all Death doth remove us from this sinful flesh and admits the soul into the sight of God And in the very instant of its remove it must needs be perfected even by that remove and by the first appearance of his blessed face If you bring a candle into a dark room the access of the light expelleth the darkness at the same instant And you cannot say that they consist together one moment of time So cold is expelled by the approach of heat And thus when death hath opened the door and let us into the immortal light neither before nor after but in that instant all the darkness and sinful imperfections of our souls are dissipated Throw an empty Bottle into the Sea and the emptiness ceaseth by the filling of the water neither before nor after but in that instant If this should not satisfie any let it satisfie them that the Holy Ghost in the instant of death can perfect his work So that we need not assert a perfection on earth which on their grounds must be the case of all that will escape Hell and Purgatory nor yet any Purgatory-torments after death for the deliverance of the soul from the relicts of sin seeing at the instant of death by the spirit or by the deposition of the flesh or by the sight of God or by the sight of our glorified Redeemer or by all this work will be easily and infallibly accomplished 5. The last degree and perfect conquest will be at the Resurrection And this is the victory that is mentioned in my Text. All that is fore-mentioned doth abate the enmity and conquer death in some degree But the enmity and the enemy it self is conquered at the Resurrection and not till then And therefore Death is the last enemy to be destroyed The Body lyeth under the penal effects of sin till the the Resurrection And it is penal to the soul to be in a state of separation from the Body though it be a state of glory that its in with Christ For it is deprived of the fulness of glory which it shall attain at the Resurrection when the whole man shall be perfected and glorified together Then it is that the Mediators work will be accomplished and all things shall be restored All that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth John 5. 28. For this is the Fathers will that sent him that of all that he hath given him he should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day John 6. 39 40. We have hope towards God that there shall be a Resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust Acts 25. 15. As by man came death so by man came also the Resurrection from the dead 1 Cor. 15. 21. Then shall there be no more death nor sorrow nor crying nor pain Rev. 21. 4. No more diseases or fears of death or grave or of corruption No terrible enemy shall stand betwixt us and our Lord to frighten our hearts from looking towards him O what a birth-day will that be when Graves shall bring forth so many millions of sons for Glory How joyfully will the soul and body meet that were separated so long Then sin hath done its worst and can do no more Then Christ hath done all and hath no more to do as our Redeemer but to justifie us in judgement and give us possession of the joy that he is preparing And then he will deliver up the Kingdom to the Father If you expect now that I should give you resons why Death is the last Enemy to be destroyed though much might be said from the nature of the matter the Wisdom and will of God shall be to me instead of all other Reasons being the fountain and the summ of all He knows best the Order that is agreeable to his Works and Ends to his honour and to our good and therefore to his Wisdom we submit in the patient expectance of the accomplishment of his promises SECT III. Use 1. I Now come to shew you the Usefulness of this Doctrine the for further Information of our understandings the well ordering of our hearts and the reforming of our lives And first you may hence be easily resolved Whether Death be truly penal to the godly which some have been pleased to make a Controversie of late though I am past doubt but the hearts of those men do apprehend it as a punishment whose tongues and pens do plead for the contrary Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return was part of the sentence past on Adam and all his posterity which then proved it a punishment and it was not remitted to Adam that at the same time had the promise of a Redeemer nor is it remitted to any of us all Were it not for sin God would not inflict it who hath sworn that he takes no pleasure in the death of sinners And that he afflicts not willingly nor grieves the sons of men But my text it self decides the controversie Sin and punishment are the evils that Christ removeth And if death were no punishment as it is no sin how could it be an Enemy and the last enemy to be destroyed by the Redeemer When we feel the Enmity before described against our souls and also know its Enmity to our bodies we cannot think that God would do all this were it not for sin especially when we read that death passeth upon all for that all have sinned Rom. 5. 11 12. and that death is the wages of sin Rom. 6. 23. Though Christ do us good by it that proveth it not to be no punishment For castigatory punishments are purposely to do good to the chastised Indeed we may say O Death Where is thy sting because that the mortal evil to the Soul is taken out and because we foresee the Resurrection by faith when we shall have the victory by Christ But thence to conclude that Death hath no sting now to a believer is not only besides but against the text which telling us that the sting of death is sin and that the strength of sin is the Law doth inform us that Death could not kill us and be Death to us if sin gave it not a sting to do it with as sin could not oblige us to this punishment if the threatning of the Law were not its strength But Christ hath begun the Conquest and will finish it SECT IV. Use 2. FROM all this Enmity in Death we may see
what it is that sin hath done and consequently how vile and odious it is and how we should esteem and use it Sin hath not only forfeited our Happiness but laid those impediments in the way of our recovery which will find us work and cause our danger and sorrow while we live And Death is not the least of these impediments O foolish man that still will love such a mortal Enemy If another would rob them but of a groat or defame them or deprive them of any accommodation how easily can they hate them and how hardly are they reconciled to them But sin depriveth them of their lives and separates the soul and body asunder and forfeiteth their everlasting happiness and sets death betwixt them and the Glory that is purchased by Christ and yet they love it and will not leave it Though God have made them and do sustain them and provide for them and all their hope and help is in him they are not so easily drawn to love him And yet they can love the sin that would undo them Though Christ would deliver them and bring them to everlasting blessedness and hath assumed flesh and laid down his life to testifie his Love to them yet are they not easily brought to love him but the sin that made them enemies to God and hath brought them so near to everlasting misery this they can love that deserves no love A Minister or other friend that would draw them from their sin to God and help to save them they quarrel against as if he were their enemy but their foolish companions that can laugh and jest with them at the door of Hell and clap them on the back and drive away the care of their salvation and harden them against the fear of God these are the only acceptable men to them O Christians leave this folly to the world and do you judge of sin by its sad effects You feel if you have any feeling in you in some measure what it hath done against your Souls The weakness of your faith and love the distance of your hearts from God your doubts and troubles tell you that it is not your friend You must shortly know what it will do to your bodies As it keeps them in pain and weariness and weakness so it will ere long deliver them up to the jaws of death which will spare them no more then the beasts that perish Had it not been for sin we should have had no cause to fear a dissolution nor have we had any use for a coffin or a winding-sheet nor been beholden to a grave to hide our carkasses from the sight and smell of the living But as Henoch and Elias were translated when they had walked with God even so should we as those shall that are alive and remain at the coming of Christ shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall they ever be with the Lord 1 Thes 4. 17. Use sin therefore as it will use you Spare it not for it will not spare you It is your murderer and the murderer of the world Use it therefore as a Murderer should be used Kill it before it kills you and then though it kill your bodies it shall not be able to kill your souls and though it bring you to the grave as it did your Head it shall not be able to keep you there If the thoughts of death and the grave and rottenness be not pleasant to you let not the thoughts of sin be pleasant Hearken to every temptation to sin as you would hearken to a temptation to self-murder And as you would do if the Devil brought you a knife and tempted you to cut your throat with it so do when he offereth you the bait of sin You love not Death Love not the cause of Death Be ashamed to stand weeping over a buried friend and never to weep over a sinning or ungodly friend nor once to give them a compassionate earnest exhortation to save their Souls Is it nothing to be dead in sins and trespasses Ephes 2. 1 5. Col. 2. 13. Yea it is a worse Death than this that is the wages of sin and the fruit which it brings forth Rom. 6. 21 23. and 7. 5. Surely God would never thus use mens bodies and forsake them soul and body for ever if sin were not a most odious thing What a poyson is this that kills so many millions and damneth so many millions and cannot be cured but by the blood of Christ that killed our Physician that never tasted it because he came so near to us O unbelieving stupid souls that smart and sin and groan and sin and weep and lament our bodily sufferings and yet sin still that fear a grave and fear not sin that have heard and seen and felt so much of the sad effects and yet sin still Psal 78. 32. Alas that murderers should be so common and that we should be no wiser when we have paid so dear a price for wisdom SECT V. Use 3. FROM the Enmity of Death we may further learn that Man hath now a need of Grace for such exceeding difficulties which were not before him in his state of innocency Though Adam was able to have obeyed perfectly without sin and had Grace sufficient to have upheld him and conquered temptations if he had done his part which by that Grace he might have done yet whether that Grace was sufficient to the works that we are called to is a doubt that many have been much troubled with It is certain that he was able to have done any thing that was suitable to his present state if it were commanded him And it is certain that much that is now our duty would have been unsuitable to his state But whether it belonged to his perfection to be able and fit for such duties that were then unsuitable to him on supposition they had been suitable and duties this is the difficulty which some make use of to prove that such works cannot now be required of us without suitable help because we lost no such grace in Adam But this need not trouble us For 1 Though Adam was put on no such difficulty in particular as to encounter death yet the perfect obedience to the whole Law required a great degree of internal Habitual holiness and to determine the case Whether our particular difficulties or his sinless perfect obedience required greater strength and help is a matter of more difficulty then use For 2. It is but about the Degrees of Holiness in him and us and not about the Kind that the difficulty lyeth For it is the same End that he was created for and disposed to by Nature and that we are redeemed for and disposed to supernaturally But yet it is worthy our observation what a difficulty sin hath cast before us in the way of life which Adam was unacquainted with that so we may see the nature of our works
Heaven to us and turn back our desires how easily should we get above these triftes and perceive the vanity of all below and how unworthy they are to be once regarded 8. Moreover it is much long of this last Enemy that God is so dishonoured by the Fears and droopings of believers They are but imperfectly yet freed from this bondage and accordingly they walk Whereas if the King of terrours were removed we should have less of Fear and more of Love as living more in the sight and sense of Love And then we should glorifie the God of Love and appear to the world as men of another world and shew them the faith and hope of Saints in the heavenly chearfulness of our lives and no more dishonour the Lord and our Profession by our uncomfortable despondencies as we do 9. Moreover it is much long of this last Enemy that many true Christians cannot perceive their own sincerity but are overwholm'd with doubts and troublesome fears lest they have not the faith and hope of Saints and lest the Love of God abide not in them and lest their hearts are more on Earth than Heaven When they find themselves afraid of dying and to have dark amazing thoughts about eternity and to think with less trouble and fear of earth than of the life to come this makes them think that they are yet but worldlings and have not placed their happiness with God when perhaps it is but the fear of death that causeth these unjust conclusions Christian I shall tell thee more anon that God may be truly loved and desired by thee and Heaven may be much more valued than Earth and yet the natural fears of death that standeth in thy way may much perplex thee and make thee think that thou art averse from God when indeed thou art but averse from Death because yet this Enemy is not overcome 10. Lastly this Enemy is not the smallest cause of many of our particular sins and of the apostacy of many hypocrites Indeed it is one of the strongest of our temptations Before man sinned none could take away his life but God and God would not have done it for any thing but sin So that man had no temptation from the malice of enemies or the pride of Conquerours or the sury of the passionate or the power of Tyrants to be afraid of death and to use any unlawful means to scape it An avoidable death from the hand of God he was obliged moderately to fear that is to be afraid of sinning lest he die else God would not have threatned him if he would not have had him make use of a preventing fear But now we have an unavoidable death to fear and also an untimely death from the hand of man by Gods permission And the fear of these is a powerful temptation Otherwise Abraham would not have distructively equivocated as he did to save his life Gen. 20. 11. and Isaac after him do the same when he sojourned in the same place Gen. 26. 7. If the fear of Death were not a strong temptation Peter would not have thrice denyed Christ and that after so late a warning and engagement nor would all his Disciples have forsaken him and fled Matth. 26. 56. Nor would Martyrs have a special reward nor would Christ have been put to call upon his Disciples that they Fear not them that can kill the body Luke 12. 4. and to declare to men the necessity of self-denyal in this point of Life and that none can be his Disciple that loves his Life before him Matth. 16. 39. Luke 14. 26. He is a Christian indeed that so Loveth God that he will not sin to save his Life But what is it that an hypocrite will not do to escape Death He will equivocate and forswear himself with the Jesuite and Familist He will forsake not only his dearest friend but Christ also and his Conscience What a multitude of the most hainous sins are daily committed through the fears of death Thousands where the Inquisition ruleth are kept in Popery by it And thousands are kept in Mahometanism by it Thousands are drawn by it to betray their Countries to deny the truth to betray the Church and Cause of Christ and finally to betray their souls unto perdition some of them presume to deny Christ wilfully because that Peter had pardon that denied him through surprize and through infirmity But they will not Repent with Peter and die for him after their repentance He that hath the power of an Hypocrites life may prescribe him what he shall believe and do may write him down the Rule of his Religion and tell him what changes he shall make what oaths he shall take what party he shall side with and command him so many sins a day as you make your horse go so many miles Satan no doubt had much experience of the power of this temptation when he boasted so confidently of it against Job 2. 4. Skin for skin and all that a man hath he will give for his life And its true no doubt of those that love nothing better than their lives Satan thought that the fear of Death would make a man do any thing And of too many he may boldly make this boast Let me but have power of their Lives and I will make them say any thing and swear any thing and be for any Cause or Party and do any thing against God or man When lesser matters can do so much as common sad experience sheweth us no wonder if the fear of death can do it In brief you may see by what is said that Death is become an Enemy to our Souls by being first the Enemy of our Natures The Interest of our Bodies works much on our Souls much more the Interest of the whole man The principle of self-love was planted in Nature in order to self-preservation and the government of the world Nature doth necessarily abhor its own destruction And therefore this destruction standing in the way is become an exceeding great hinderance to our affections which takes them off from the life to come 1. It is a very great hinderance to the Conversion of those that are yet carnal imprisoned in their unbelief It is hard to win their hearts to such a state of Happiness that cannot be obtained but by yielding unto Death 2. And to the truly godly it is naturally an impediment a great temptation in the points before expressed And though it prevail not against them it exceedingly hindereth them And thus I have shewed you that Death is an Enemy further than I doubt the most consider of If the unbeliever shall here tell me that Death is not the fruit of sin but natural to man though he had never sinned and therefore that I lay all this on God I answer him that Mortality as it signifieth a posse mori a natural capacity of dying was natural to us in our innocency or else Death could not be threatned as a
and the excellency of the Redeemers grace Adam was but to seek the continuance of his life and a translation to Glory without the terrors of interposing death He was never called to prepare to die nor to think of the state of a separated Soul nor to mind and love and seek a glory to which there is no ordinary passage but by death This is the difficulty that sin hath caused against which we have need of the special assistance of the example and doctrine and promse and Spirit of the Redeemer Adam was never put to study how to get over this dreadful gulf The threatning of death was to raise such a fear in him as was necessary to prevent it But those fears did rather hold him closer to the way of life then stand between him and life to his discouragement But we have a death to fear that must be suffered that cannot be avoided The strange condition of a separated soul so unlike to its state while resident in the body doth require in us a special Faith to apprehend it and a special revelation to discover it To desire and love and long for and labour after such a time as this when one part of us must lie rotting in the grave and the separated Soul must be with Christ alone till the Resurrection and to believe and hope for that Resurrection and to deny our selves and forsake all the world and lay down our lives when Christ requireth it by the power of this faith and hope this is a work that innocent Adam never knew This is the high employment of a Christian To have our hearts and conversations in Heaven Matth. 6. 21. Phil. 3. 20 when Death must first dissolve us before we can possess it here is the noble work of faith SECT VI. Use 4. MOreover this Enmity of Death may help us to understand the reason of the sufferings and Death of Christ That he gave his life a Ransome for us and a Sacrifice for sin and so to make satisfaction to the offended Majesty is a truth that every Christian doth believe But there was another reason of his death that all of us do not duly consider of and improve to the promoting of our Sanctification as we ought Death is so great an Enemy as you have heard and so powerful to deter our hearts from God and dull our desires to the heavenly felicity that Christ was fain to go before us to embolden the hearts of believers to follow him He suffered Death with the rest of his afflictions to shew us that it is a tolerable evil Had he not gone before and overcome it it would have detained us its Captives Had he not merited and purchased us a blessed Resurrection and opened heaven to all believers and by Death overcome him that had the power of death as Gods executioner that is the Devil we should all our life time have been still subjected unto bondage by the fears of Death Heb. 2. 14. But when we see that Christ hath led the way as the victorious Captain of our Salvation and that he is made perfect by sufferings in his advancement unto glory and that for the sufferings of death which by the grace of God he tasted for every man he is crowned with glory and honour Heb. 2. 9 10. this puts a holy valour into the soul and causeth us chearfully to follow him Had we gone first and the task of conquering Death been ours we had been overcome But he that hath led us on hath hew'd down the enemy before him and first prepared us the way and then called us to follow him and to pass the way that he hath first made safe and also shewed us by his example that it is now made passable For it was one in our Nature that calleth us his Brethren that took not the nature of Angels but of the seed of Abraham that is one with us as the Sanctifier and the sanctified are and to whom as children we are given Who hath passed through Death and the Grave before us and therefre we may the boldlier follow him Heb. 2. 11 12 13 16. Being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross and therefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name Phil. 2. 8 9. Hereby he hath shewed us that Death is not so dreadful a thing but that voluntary obedience may and must submit unto it As Abraham's faith and obedience was tryed in the offering up his Son to death at Gods command so the children of Abraham and the heirs of the promise must follow him in offering up themselves if God require it and in submitting to our natural death for that he doth require of all Examples work more then bare precepts and the Experiments of others do take more with us than meer directions It satisfieth a sick man more to read a Book of Medicinal Observations where he meets with many that were in his own case and finds what cured them then to read the Praxis or medicinal Receipts alone It encourageth the Patient much when the Physitian tells him I have cured many of your disease by such a Medicine nay I was cured thus of the same my self So doth it embolden a believer to lay down his Life when he hath not only a promise of a better life but seeth that the promiser went that way to Heaven before him O therefore let us learn and use this choise remedy against the immoderate fear of Death Let Faith take a view of him that was dead and is alive that was buried and is risen and was humbled and is now exalted Think with your selves when you must think of dying that you are but following your Conquering Lord and going the way that he hath gone before you and suffering what he underwent and conquered And therefore though you walk through the valley of the shaddow of death resolve that you will fear no evil Psal 23. 4. And if he call you after him follow him with a Christian boldness As Peter cast hinself into the Sea and walkt on the waters when he saw Christ walk there and had his command so let us venture on the jaws of death while we trace his steps and hear his encouraging commands and promises John 21. 7. Mat. 14. 28 29. SECT VII Use 5. MOreover from this Doctrine we may be informed of the mistakes of many Christians that think they have no saving grace because they are afraid of dying and because these fears deterr their souls from desiring to be with Christ And hence they may perceive that there is another cause of these Distempers even the ENMIMY of Death that standeth in the way You think that if you had any Love to Christ you should more desire to be with him and that if your treasure were in heaven your hearts would be more there and that if you truly took it for your felicity you
they have had tryal of cruel mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword Heb. 11. 35 36 37. Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15. 57. They overcome by the blood of the Lamb and love not their lives unto the death Rev. 12. 11. They fear not them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do Luke 124. They trust upon his promise that hath said I will ransome them from the power of the grave I will redeem them from Death O Death I will be thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction Hos 13. 14. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the Death of his Saints Psal 116. 15. Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Rev. 14. 13. SECT IX Use 7. MOreover from the Enmity of Death we may be directed which way to bend our cares and seeing where our difficulty most lyeth we may see which way our most diligent preparations must be turned Death cannot be prevented but the malignant influence of it on our souls may be much abated If you let it work without an Antidote it will make you live like unbelieving worldlings It will deterr your hearts from Heaven and dull your love to God himself and make your meditations of him and of your Everlasting Rest to be seldom and ungrateful to you And it will make you say It s good to be here and have sweeter thoughts of this present life than of your inheritance It will rob you of much of your heavenly delights and fill you with slavish fears of Death and subject you unto bondage all your lives and make you dye with agony and horrour so that your lives and deaths will be dishonourable to your holy faith and to your Lord. If it were meerly our own suffering by fears and horrours or meerly our loss of spiritual delights the matter were great but not so great But it is more than this For when our joyes are overwhelmed with the fears of Death and turned into sorrows our love to God will be abated and we shall deny him the thanks and cheerful praises which should be much of the employment of our lives and we shall be much discomposed and unfitted for his service and shall much dishonour him in the world and shall strengthen our temptations to the overvaluing of earthly things Think it not therefore a small or an indifferent matter to fortifie your souls against these malignant fears of death Make this your daily care and work your peace your safety your innocency and usefulness and the honour of God do much lie on it And it is a work of such exceeding difficulty that it requireth the best of your skill and diligence and when all is done it must be the illuminating quickning beams of grace and the shining face of the Eternal Love that must dothe work though yet your diligence is necessary to attend the spirit and use the means in subservience to grace and in expectation of these oelestiall rayes And above all take heed lest you should think that carnall mirth or meer security and casting away the thoughts of Death will serve to overcome these fears or that it is enough that you resolve against them For it is your safety that must be lookt to as well as your present ease and peace and fear must be so overcome as that a greater misery may not follow Presumption and security will be of very short continuance To dye without fear and pass into into endless desperation which fear should have wakened you to prevent is no desirable kind of dying And besides resolving against the terrours of Death will not prevent them When Death draws near it will amaze you in despight of all your resolutions if you are not furnished with a better Antidote The more jocund you have been in carnal mirth and the more you have presumptuously slighted Death it is likely your horrour will be the greater when it comes And therefore see that you make a wise and safe preparation and that you groundedly and methodically cure these fears and not securely cast them away Though I have given you to this end some Directions in other writings in the Saints Rest and in the Treatise of Self-denyal and that of Crucifying the world yet I shall add here these following helps which faithfully observed and practised will much promote your victory over Death which conquereth all the strength of flesh and glory of this world DIRECTION I. IF you would overcome the danger and the fears of Death Make sure of your Conversion that it is sound and see that you be absolutely devoted unto God without Reserves Should you be deceived in your foundations your life and hopes and joyes would all be delusory things Till sin be mortified and your souls reconciled to God in Christ you are still in danger of worse than Death and it is but the senselesness of your dead condition that keepeth you from the terrours of damnation But if you are sure that you are quickened by renewing grace and possessed by the sanctifying spirit and made partakers of the Divine nature you have then the Earnest of your inheritance Ephes 1. 14. 2 Cor. 1. 22. 5. 5. and the fire is kindled in your breast that in despight of Death will mount you up to God DIRECTION II. TO Conquer the Enmity of Death you must live by faith in Jesus Christ as men that are emptied of themselves and ransomed from his hands that had the power of Death and as men that are redeemed from the curse and are now made heirs of the grace of life being made his members who is the Lord of Life even the second Adam who is a quickning spirit The serious believing study of his design and office to destroy sin and death and to bring many Sons to glory and also of his voluntary suffering and his obedience to the death of the Cross may raise us above the fears of Death When we live by faith as branches of this blessed Vine and are righteous with his righteousness justified by his blood and merits and sanctified by his Word and Spirit and find that we are united to him we may then be sure that Death cannot conquer us and nothing can take us out of his hands For our life being hid with Christ in God we know that we shall live because he liveth Col. 3. 3. Joh. 14. 19. and that when Christ who is our life appeareth we shall also appear with him in glory Col. 3. 4. And that he will change our vile bodies and make them like to his glorious body by his mighty power by which he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. 3. 20 21. In our own strength we
was to the world and how we should use it to strengthen our faith p. 129 The Lords day honourable p. 130. Use 10. How earnestly we should pray for the second coming of Christ though Death be terrible p. 134 Some imitable passages of the Life of Elizabeth late Wife of Mr. Joseph Baker whose Funerals occasioned this discourse p. 144. 1 Cor. 15. 26. The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death DEATH is the occasion of this days meeting and Death may be the Subject of our present Meditations I must speak of that which will shortly silence me and you must hear of that which will speedily stop your ears and we must spend this hour on that which waits to cut our thred and take down our glasse and end our time and tell us we have spent our last But as it hath now done good by doing hurt so are we to consider of the accidental benefits as well as of the natural evil from which the heavenly wisdome doth 〈…〉 them Death-hath now bereaved a body of its Soul but thereby it hath sent that 〈◊〉 to Christ where it hath now experience how good it is to be absent from the body and present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 8. It hath separated a faithful wife from a beloved husband but it hath sent her to a husband dearlier beloved and taught her now by experience to say That to be with Christ is best of all Phil. 1. 23. It hath deprived a sorrowful husband of a wife deprived us all of a faithful friend but it hath thereby brought us to the house of mourning which is better for us than the house of teasting a Paradox to the flesh but an undoubted truth for here we may see the end of all men and we that are yet living may lay it to our hearts Eceles 7. 2 3. Yes it hath brought us to the house of God and occasioned this serious address to his Holiness that we may be instructed by his Word as we are warned by his Works and that we may be wise to understand and to consider our latter end Deut. 32. 29. It s like you 'l think to tell men of the evil or enmity of Death is as needlesse a discourse as any could be chosen For who is there that is not naturally too sensible of this and who doth not dread the name or at least the face of Death But there is accidentally a greater evil in it than that which nature teacheth men to fear And while it is the King of terrours to the world the most are ignorant of the greatest hurt that it doth them or can do them or at least it is but little thought on which hath made me think it a needful work to tell you yet of much more evil in that which you abhor as the greatest evil But so as withall to magnifie our Redeemer that overshooteth death in its own bow and causeth it when it hits the mark to miss it and that causeth health by loathsome medicines and by the dung of our bodily corruption manureth his Church to the greater felicity Such excellent skill of our wise Physician we find exprest and exercised in this Chapter where an unhappy errour against the Resurrection hath happily occasioned an excellent discourse on that weighty Subject which may stablish many a thousand souls and serve to shame and destroy such heresies till the Resurrection come and prove it self The great Argument which the Apostle most insisteth on to prove the Resurrection is Christs own Resurrection where he entereth into a comparison between Christ and Adam shewing that as Adam first brought death upon himself and then upon his posterity so Christ that was made a quickening 〈◊〉 did first Rise himself as the first-fruits and their at his coming will raise his own And as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive And this Christ will do as our victorious King and the Captain of our salvation who when he hath subdued every enemy will then deliver up the Kingdom to the Father And the last enemy which he wil subdue is Death therefore our Resurrection is his final conquest The terms of the Text have no difficulty in them The Doctrine which they expresse must be thus unfolded 1 I must shew you that Death is an Enemy and what is meant by this expression and wherein its Enmity doth consist 2 I shall shew you that it is an Enemy to be destroyed though last and how and by what degrees it is destroyed And then we shall make application of it to your further Instruction and Edification 1. That you may know what is meant by an Enemy here you must observe that man being fallen into sin and misery and Christ having undertaken the work of our Redemption the Scripture oft speaketh of our misery and recovery Metaphorically in military terms And so Satan is said to take us captive and we to be his slaves and Christ to be the Captain of our Salvation and to redeem us from our bondage and thus our sin and misery and all that hindereth the blessed Ends of his undertaking are called Enemies Death therefore is called an Enemy to be destroyed that is a â—â—â—al evil to be removed by the Redeemer in order to our recovery and the glory of his grace 1. It is an Evil. 2. A punishment procured by our sin and executed by Gods Justice 3. It is an Evil that hindereth our felicity These three things are included in the Enmity That Death is an Enemy to Nature is a thing that all understand but all consider not how it is an Enemy to our Souls to the exercise of grace and consequently to the attainment of glory I shall therefore having first spoken briefly of the sormer insist a little longer upon the latter â— How great an Enemy Death is unto Nature doth easily appear in that It is the Dissolution of the Man It maketh a Man to become No Man by separating the Soul from the Body and dissolving the Body into its principles It pulls down in a moment a curious frame that Nature was long building and tenderly cherishing and preserving The Mother long nourishes it in her bowels and painfully brings it forth and carefully brings it up What 〈◊〉 doth it cost our Parents and our selves to make provision for this Life and death in a moment cuts it off How careful are we to keep in these Lamps and to maintain the Oyl and Death extinguisheth them at a blast How noble a creature doth it destroy To day our parts are all in order and busie about their several tasks our Hearts are moving our Lungs are breathing our Stomacks are digesting our Blood and Spirits by assimilation making more and to morrow death takes off the poise and all stands still or draws the pins and all the frame doth fall to pieces We shall breath no more nor speak nor think nor walk no more Our pulse will beat no more Our eyes
shall see the light no more Our ears shall hear the voice of man delightful sounds and melody no more we shall taste no more our meat or drink Our appetite is gone Our strength is gone Our natural warmth is turned into an earthly cold Our comeliness and beauty is turned into a ghastly loathsome deformity Our white and red doth soon turn into horrid blackness Our tender flesh hath lost its feeling and is become a senseless lump that feeleth not whether it is carried nor how it is used that must be hidden in the earth lest it annoy the living that quickly turns to loathsome putresaction and after that to common earth Were all the once-comely bodies that now are rotting in one Church-yard uncovered and here presented to your view the fight would tell you more effectually than my words do what an Enemy Death is to our Nature When corruption hath finished its work you see the earth that once was flesh you see the bones you see the skulls you see the holes where once were brains and eyes and mouth This change Death makes And that universally and unavoidably The Prince cannot resist it by his Majesty for he hath sinned against the highest Majesty The strong cannot resist it by their strength For it is the Messenger of the Almighty The Commanders must obey it The Conquerours must be conquered by it The Rich cannot bribe it The Learned Orator cannot perswade it to pass him by The skilful Physician cannot save himself from the mortal stroke Neither fields nor gardens earth or sea affordeth any medicine to prevent it All have sinned and all must die Dust we are and to dust we must return Gen. 3. 19. And thus should we remain if the Lord of Life should not revive us 2. And it is not only to the Body but to the Soul also that Death is naturally an Enemy The Soul hath naturally a Love and Inclination to its Body and therefore it feareth a Separation before and desireth a Restauration afterward Abstracting Joy and Torment Heaven and Hell in our consideration the state of Separation as such is a natural evil even to the humane Soul of Christ it was so while his Body remained in the grave which separated state is the Hades that our English calleth Hell that Christ is said to have gone into And though the Soul of Christ and the souls of those that die in him do passe into a far more happy state than they had in flesh yet that is accidentally from Rewarding Justice and the Bounty of the Lord and not at all from Death as Death the separation as such is still an evil And therefore the Soul is still desirous of the Bodies Resurrection and knoweth that its felicity will then be greater when the re-union and glorification hath perfected the whole man So that Death as Death is unwelcome to the soul it self though Death as accidentally gainful may be desired 3. And to the unpardoned unrenewed soul Death is the passage to everlasting misery and in this regard is far more terrible than in all that hitherto hath been spoken Oh could the guilty soul be sure that there is no Justice to to take hold on it after death and no more pain and sorrow to be felt but that man dieth as a beast that hath no more to feel or lose then Death would seem a tolerable evil But it s the living Death the dying Life the endless woe to which death leads the guilty soul that makes it to be unspeakably terrible The utter darkness the unquenchable fire the worm that dieth not the everlasting flames of the wrath of God these are the chief horrour and sting of death to the ungodly O were it but to be turned into Trees or Stones or Earth or nothing it were nothing in comparison of this But I pass by this because it is not directly intended in my Text. 4. The Saints themselves being sanctified but in part are but imperfectly assured of their Salvation And therefore in that measure as they remain in doubt or unassured Death may be a double terror to them They believe the threatenings and know more than unbelievers do what an â—sufferable 〈◊〉 it is to be deprived of the celestial glory and what an unspeakable misery it is to bear the endless wrath of God! And therefore so far as they have such fears it must needs make death a terrour to them 5. But if there were nothing but Death it self to be our Enemy foreknowledge of it would increase the misery A Beast that knoweth not that he must die is not tormented with the fears of death though nature hath possessed them with a self preserving fear for the avoiding of an invading evil But man foreknoweth that he must die He hath still occasion to anticipate his terrors that which will be and certainly and shortly will be is in a manner as if it were already And therefore fore-knowledge makes us as if we were alway dying We see our Graves our weeping Friends our sore-described corruption and dismal state and so our life is a continual Death And thus Death is an enemy to Nature 2. But this is not all nor the greatest Enmity that Death hath to the godly It is a lamentable hinderance to the work of Grace as I shall shew you next in ten particulars 1â— The fears of Death do much abate our Desires after God as he is to be enjoyed by the separated soul Though every believing holy soul do love God above all and take Heaven for his home and therefore sincerely longeth after it yet when we know that Death stands in the way and that there is no coming thither but through this dreadful narrow passage this stoppeth and lamentably dulleth our desires And so the Natural Enmity turneth to a Spiritual sorer enmity For let a man be never so much a Saint be will be still a Man and therefore as Death will still be death so nature will still be nature And therefore death as death will be abhorred And we are such timerous sluggards that we are easily discouraged by this Lyon in the way The ugly Pâ—â—er affrighted us from those grateful thougâ—â— of the New Jerusalem the City of God the heavenly Inheritance which otherwise the blessed object would produce Our sanctified affections would be mounting upwards and holy Love would be working towards its blessed object but Death standing in the way suppresseth our desires and turns us back and frighteneth us from our Fathers presence We look up to Christ and the Holy City as to a precious Pearl in the bottom of the Sea or as to a dear and faithful Friend that is beyond some dreadful gulf Fain we would enjoy him but we dare not venture we fear this dismal enemy in the way He that can recover his health by a pleasant medicine doth take it without any great reluctancy But if a Leg or an Arm must be out off or a stone cut out by a painful
penalty And if I grant as much of a natural disposition in the Body to a dissolution if not prevented by a Glorifying Change it will no whit advantage their impious cause But withall man was then so far Immortal as that he had a posse non mori a natural capacity of not dying and the mo ietur vel non morietur the actual event of Life or Death was laid by the Lord of Life and Death upon his obedience or disobedience And man having sinned Justice must be done and so we came under a non posse non mori an impossibility of escaping death ordinarily because of the peremptory sentence of our Judge But the day of our deliverance is at hand when we shall attain a non posse mori a certain consummate Immortality when the last Enemy Death shall be destroyed and how that is done I shall next enquire SECT II. YOu have seen the ugly face of Death you are next to see a little of the Love of our great Redeemer You have heard what sin hath done you are next to hear what Grace hath done and what it will do You have seen the strength of the Enemy you are now to take notice of the Victory of the Redeemer and see how he conquereth all this strength 1. The Beginning of the Conquest is in this world 2. The Perfection will not be till the day of Resurrection when this Last Enemy shall be destroyed 1. Meritoriously Death is conquered by Death The Death of sinners by the Mediators Death Not that he intended in his Meritorious work to save us from the stroke of death by a prevention but to deliver us from it after by a Resurrection For since by man came death by man also came the Resurrection from the dead 1 Cor. 15. 21. For as much as the children were partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part with them that he might destroy him through death that had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject unto bondage Heb. 2. 14 15. Satan as Gods Executioner and as the prosperous tempter is said to have had the power of death The fears of this dreadful Executioner are a continual bondage which we are liable to through all our lives till we perceive the deliverance which the Death of the Lord of Life hath purchased us 1. By Death Christ hath stisfied the Justice that was armed by sin against us 2. By Death he hath shewed us that Death is a tolerable Evil and to be yielded to in hope of following life 2. Actually he conquered Death by his Resurrection This was the day of Grace's triumph This day he shewed to Heaven to Hell and to earth that death was conquerable yea that his personal Death was actually overcome The blessed souls beheld it to their Joy beholding in the Resurrection of their Head a virtual Resurrection of their own Bodies The Devils saw it and therefore saw that they had no hopes of holding the Bodies of the Saints in the power of the grave The damned souls were acquainted with it and therefore knew that their sinful bodies must be restored to bear their part in suffering The Believing Saints on earth perceive it and therefore see that their bonds are broken and that to the righteous there is hope in death and that our Head being actually risen assureth us that we shall also Rise For if we believe that Jesus died and Rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him 1 Thes 4. 14. And as Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him So shall we Rsie and die no more This was the beginning of the Churches Triumph This is the day that the Lord hath made even the day which the Church on Earth must celebrate with joy and praise till the day of our Resurrection We will be glad and rejoyce therein Psal 118. 24. The Resurrection of our Lord hath 1. Assured us of the consummation of his satisfacttion 2. Of the truth of all his Word and so of his promises of our Resurrection 3. That Death is actually conquered and a Resurrection possible 4. That believers shall certainly Rise when their Head and Saviour is Risen to prepare them an everlasting Kingdome and to assure them that thus he will Raise them at the last A bare promise would not have been so strong a help to Faith as to the actual Rising of Christ as a pledge of the performance But now Christ is risen and become the first fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15. 20. For because he Liveth we shall live also John 14. 19. 3. The next degree of destruction to this Enemy was by the gift of his Justifying and Sanctifying Grace Four special benefits were then bestowed on us which are Antidotes against the Enmity of Death 1. One is the gift of saving Faith by which we look beyond the grave as far as to eternity And this doth most powerfully disable Death to terrifie and discourage us and raiseth us above our Natural fears and sheweth us though but in a glass the exceeding eternal weight of glory which churlish Death shall help us to So that when the eye of the unbeliever looketh no further than the grave believing souls can enter into Heaven and see their glorified Lord and thence fetch Love and Hope and Joy notwithstanding the terrours of interposing death The eye of Faith foreseeth the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time and causeth us therein greatly to rejoyce though now for a season if need be we are in heaviness through manifold temptations And so victorious is this Faith against all the storms that do assault us that the tryal of it though with fire doth but discover that â—t is much more precious than Gold that peâ—isheth and it shall be found unto praise and â—onour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ whom having never seen in the flesh we â—ove and though now we see him not yet believing we rejoyce with unspeakable glorious joy 1 Pet. 1. 5 6 7 8 9. and shall shortly receive the end of our Faith the Salvation of our Souls Thus Faith though it destroy not Death it self destroyeth the Malignity and enmity of DEATH while it seeth the hings that are beyond it and the time when â—eath shall be destroyed and the Life where death shall be no more Faith is like David's three mighty men that brake thorow the Host of the Philistines to fetch him the waters of Bethlehem for which he longed 2 Sam. 23. 15 16. When the thirsty soul saith O that â—ne would give me drink of the waters of Salvation Faith breaks thorow death which standeth in the way and fetcheth these living waters to the soul We may say of Death as it is said of the World 1 John 5. 4 5. Whatsoever is born of God overcometh
to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You see here what it is that conquereth the enmity of death in our sanctification even that powerful love of God that is then given us which will go to him through the most cruel death 4. A fourth Antidote that is given us by Christ against the Enmity of Death is the Holy Ghost as he is the Comforter of the Saints He makes it his work to corroborate and confirm them As sin hath woven calamities into our lives and filled us with troubles and griefs and fears so Christ doth send his spirit to undo these works of Satan and to be a Comforter as well as a Sanctifier to his members As the Sanctifying Spirit striveth against the entising sinful flesh so the Comforting Spirit striveth against the troubling flesh as also against the persecuting as well as the tempting world and the vexing as well as the tempting Devil And greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world 1 John 4. 4. The Spirit of Christ overcomes the disquieting as well as the tempting Spirit But with some difference because our comforts are not in this life so necessary to us as our Holiness Joy being part of our Reward is not to be expected certainly or constantly in any high degree till we come to the state of our Reward And therefore though the Holy Ghost will carry on the work of Sanctification universally constantly and certainly in the Elect yet in many of them his Comforting work is more obscure and interrupted And yet he is a Conquerour here For his works must be judged of in reference to their ends And our comfort on earth is given us for our encouragement in holy wayes that we be not stopt or diverted by the fear of enemies and also to help on our love to God and to quicken us in thanks and praise and draw up our hearts to the life to come and make us more serviceable to others And such a measure of comfort we shall have as conduceth to these ends and is suitable to our present state and the employment God hath for us in the world if we do not wilfully grieve our Comforter and quench our joyes So that when Death and the Grave appear before and our flesh is terrified with the sight of these Anakims and say We are not able to overcome them and so brings up an evil report upon the promised Land and casts us sometime into murmuring lamentation and weakning-discouragements yet doth the Ho-Ghost cause Faith and Hope as Caleb and Joshua to still the soul Numb 13. and causeth us to contemn these Gyants and say Let us go up and possess it for we are well able to overcome it Ver. 30. The Comforting Spirit sheweth us his death that conquered death Heb. 2. 14 15. even the Cross on which he triumphed openly when he seemed to be conquered Col. 2. 15. He sheweth us the glorious Resurrection of our Head and his promise of our own Resurrection He sheweth us our glorified Lord to whom we may boldly and confidently commend our departing souls Acts 7. 59. And he sheweth us the Angels that are ready to be their Convoy And he maketh all these Considerations effectual and inwardly exciteth our Love and heavenly desires and giveth us a triumphing Courage and Consolation So that Death doth not encounter us alone and in our own strength but finds us armed and led on by the Lord of life who helps us by a sling and stone to conquer this Goliah If a draught of Wine or some spiritful reviving liquor can take off fears and make men bold what then may the Spirit of Christ do by his powerful encouragements and comforts on the soul Did we but see Christ or an Angel standing by our sick-beds and saying Fear not I will convoy thy soul to God this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise What an unspeakable comfort would this be to a dying man Why the Spirit is Christ's Agent here on earth and what the Spirit speaks Christ speaks And therefore we may take its comforting words as spoken to us by Christ himself who spoke the like to the penitent Thief to shew bellevers the virtue of his Cross and what they also may expect from him in their extremity And our Physician is most wise and keeps his Cordials for a fainting time The Spirit useth so sustain and comfort us most in our greatest necessities We need not comforts against death so much in the time of prosperity and health as when death draws neer In health we have ordinarily more need of quickening than of comforting and more need to be awakened from security to a due preparation for death than to be freed from the terrible fore-thoughts of it though inordinate fears of death be hurtful to us security and deadness hurts us more And therefore the Spirit worketh according to our necessities And when Death is neerest and like to be most dreadful he usually giveth the liveliest sense of the joyes beyond it to abate the enmity and encourage the departing soul And if the comfort be but small it is precious because it is most pure as being then mixed with no carnal joyes and because it is most seasonable in so great a strait If we have no more but meer support it will be yet a precious mercy And thus I have done with the third degree of the destruction of Deaths Enmity by these four Antidotes which we receive at our Conversion and the Consequents thereof 4. The fourth degree of this Enemies destruction is by it self or rather by Christ at the time and by the means of death which contrary to its nature shall advantage our felicity When Death hath done its worst it hath half killed it self in killing us It hath then dismissed our imprisoned souls and ended even our fears of death and our fears of all the evils of this life It hath ended our cares and griefs and groans It hath finished our work and ended all our weariness and trouble And more then this it ends our sinning and so destroyeth that which caused it and that which the inordinate fears of it self had caused in us It is the time when sin shall gasp its last and so far our Physitian will perfect the cure and our greatest enemy shall follow us no further It is the door by which the soul must pass to Christ in Paradise If any Papist shall hence plead that therefore allmenmust be perfect without sin before death or else go to Purgatory to be cleansed because as we die so Christ will find us or if they ask How death can perfect us I answer them It is Christ our Physitian that finisheth the cure and Death is the time in which he doth it And if he undertake then do it it concerns not us to be too inquisitive how he doth it What if the patient understand not how blood-letting cureth the infected blood that