even by such as are not the Children and lovers of the truth Let us veiw them briefly and in order Point 1. Death is common to the righteous and the wicked and both of them have their latter end There be two branches of this proposition Death common to good and bad and both branches are implyed fairly Balaam being an unrighteous man a Diviner and Enchanter sees and acknowledges he must dye and have a latter end or an after part else no ground for his wishing so to die as or that his latter end might be like that of the righteous and it is clearly implyed and taken for granted by him that the righteous hath his death and his latter end or after part Both have them therefore though it is implyed that they are not the same to both nor indeed the one like to the other for if they were there was no ground for wishing or desiring a likeness of them This is common to both they shall dye and they shall come to an end or after part that 's the substance of the first point or proposition the inequality and unlikeness between them belongs to the second Consider we first the former in both Branches and so first That they must both dye Death is common to all men Bran. 1. Good and bad must dye yea it is the way of all flesh and the Grave the house appointed for all living Josh 23.14 Job 30.25 The way of all the earth we see saith the Psalmist wise men dye likewise the fool and the brutish man perish Psal 49.10 Abraham is dead and the Prophets are dead and so be the Apostles and all generally that have been before us and now are not except Enoch and Elias one of which was translated and the other taken alive into heaven but all else generally have dyed and all that come after us shall dye in like manner except those believers that shall survive to the coming of the Lord Jesus who shall not dye as others so as to sleep or rest in death as the Apostle witnesses saying Behold I shew you a mysterie we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last Trump for the Trump shall sound and the Dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed so also 1 Thess 4.16 17. though in the change shall be something exceeding suddainly answering to Death and Resurrection in a moment but for all others they do and must look to dye that is to have their breath and spirit taken from them their Souls and Bodies separated each from other and that necessarily as in 1 Sam. 14.14 Reasons why Dâ—â—th iâ— commoâ— Reâ— we must needs all dye and we are as water spilt upon the ground that cannot be gathered up again neither doth God respect any persons c. For righteous and wicked be both men partakers of the same humane nature one as other and this Death we now speak of the bodily Death which the proposition is intended of is that that pertains to men as they are partakers of the nature of man and that neither the righteous put off by being righteous though they partake also of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 2.4 Nor the wicked by his being wicked though he therein become also of the wicked one 1 Joh. 3.12 Righteousness and wickedness make a difference of the state of men toward God and of the frame of heart and the way of conversation and life but makes not an alteration of the common nature or humanity so as to cause it to cease in either party It is appointed to men once to dye Heb. 9.27 to men namely in the capacity and consideration of men not to the righteous only nor to the wicked only as such but to men and that also because Reas 2 Both righteous and wicked sinned against God in the first man for by one man sin entred into the world and Death by sin and so death passed over all men because all sinned Rom. 5.12 and that was the Original cause of Death the wages oâ— sin is death Rom. 6.23 now not only they that â—â—w are wicked and ungodly sinned in Adam but all men eveâ—â—ich also as are now made and become righteous in and by Jesus Christ for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Heb. 2. â—â— Rom. 3.23 where all is expressed none is excluded from it The Prophet putting in himself with all his Brethren saith We all like sheep have gone astray we have turned every man to his own way Isa 53.6 And the Apostle If we say we have not sinned we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us 1 Joh. 1.10 And because of this sin Reas 3 Both those that are righteous and those that are wicked were condemned to dye the judgment that passed upon Adam in the day he sinned passed upon him not only as a single particular person but also as the root of all Mankind and their inclusive Father in whose loyns seminally all were and so when it was said to him Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return death in and by vertue of that Sentence was denounced and passed upon all men Gen. 2.17 with 3.18 Rom. 5.12 16. only by special favour and prerogative through Christ God exempted one or two as instances of immortallity and of such a change as in which he will exempt those that are alive at Christs appearing in the faith of him as we said before This is included in what the Apostle speaks of when he saith The judgment was of one offence to condemnation and through the offence of one judgment came upon all to condemnation Rom. 5.16.18 in which it was appointed of God to men once to dye whereupon Reas 4 Man all men generally is become flesh Flesh and blood infirm weak like other earthly creatures even like the bruit beasts that perish as is said Psal 49.12 Man in honour abideth not he is like the Beasts that perish in respect of the frailty and diseasedness of his body and outward man and lyableness to be penetrated pierced wounded killed dye of hunger thirst cold or the like whence that of Solomon Eccles 3.18.19.20 I said in my heart concerning the state of the sons of men that God might manifest them or that they might clear God and see that they themselves are beasts For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts even one thing befalleth them As the one dieth so dieth the other yea they have all one breath their breath in all of them is in their nostrils now so that a man hath no preheminence that is in respect of the temper of his body and its mortality and lyableness to death above a beast for all is vanity Both man and beast of a vanishing momentany continuance in this life all go unto one place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again For all flesh is
2 Cor. 4.4.17 18. Rom. 8.18 6. To moderate their affections to and endeavors after these earthy worldly things that so they may be the more given up to seek and serve the Lord seeing the time is but short and uncertain that we shall or can be here to enjoy them or want them 1 Cor. 79.2 30. 1 Joh 2.16 17. The world passeth away the lust of it 3. He orders it to give us more abundant sence and perception of the odiousness of sin to him and so to admonish us not to sin against him but to stand in awe of him while we see and find that notwithstanding all that Christ hath done for our Reconciliation and Restauration into his favour yet he will have such things pass upon us still in our persons and be sustained by us for Death is the wages of Sin Rom. 6.23 and if for our sinning once in Adam God will have such a punishment lye upon us all in all generations though Christ also hath interposed between God and us what may we not fear will befall us if we dare still in our persons to sin again and again against him 4. He orders it to occasion in us a deeper sense of the love of God and Christ to us of God in abasing Christ and of Christ in abasing himself for us so low as to dye for us while we have the experiments of it and of the things that tend to it in our selves though without the curse and sting in it which our Lord by suffering them took away we are aptly minded to consider what it was to him that endured it as the curse of the Law and so with its sting and venom in it and so how great love that was that led him so to do for us 5. He orders it to be an end or put an end to our sorrows labours temptations and exercises here that we may rest from them all and be at quiet from molestations from men and Devils for there the wicked cease to trouble and there the weary be at rest they hear not the voice of the Oppressors Job 3.17.18 they enter into peace and rest in their beds c. Isa 57.1 2. 6. To conform us to his blessed Son in sufferings and death and so in exercising such faith in God and submission to him in resigning our selves to his merciful dispose as he also exercised in resigning up his spirit to him depending upon him to dispose of it and in due time to raise him Rom. 8.29 30. Luc. 23.46 with Psal 31.5 7. To give them advantage of their more abundantly testifying their love and obedience to God and Christ in laying down their lives for him as he may call any of them thereto and so to magnifie him in their deaths as Philip. 1.20 It is the desire of Lovers to have some advantages or occasions given them to shew the greatness and reallity of their love to them they love whence that What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits Psal 116.112 and it s some satisfaction and rejoycing when such advantages are given them Now herein Christ gives us a possibility of such advantage of that desireable satisfaction of love to him that we may sometimes shew it in dying or exposing our lives to dangers of it for him Rev. 12.11 8. To shew forth more abundantly the excellency of his power and glory in the Resurrection in raising them up again from the dead For his power is made manifest in weakness and is perfected in infirmities how much more when we are so altogether under the power of death and the grave that it may seem impossible to be revived or brought up again If the greatness of the power of God was seen in raising up Christ from the dead sure the greatness of the power and glory of Christ will be seen in raising up his people again and making them therein conformable to himself Eph. 1.19 20. Philip. 3.20 21. this will be such an evidence of his power as shall make them indeed to know how infinitely great he is and how true and faithful in his promises Thence it s said I will open your graves oh my people and cause you to come out of your graves and ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves O my people and brought you out of your graves and put my spirit into you and ye shall live then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it and have performed it c. Ezek. 37.12 13 14. To such purposes and for such like good holy and gracious and glorious ends doth God order death upon the righteous also and indeed in all this chiefly to magnify the greatness and glory of the Lord Jesus and his own in him and for the benefit and profit of us Whence it s said that death also is ours the believers not they its but it theirs their advantage mercy and priviledge 1 Cor. 3.21 22. and according to these several considerations might we apply it And especially To provoke us to consider our mortallity that we must die and Vse 1 therefore submitting our selves to the will and appointment of God therein through Jesus Christ which we may the better do because it s ordered through Christ as the Mediator of God and us and so in love and faithfulness to us for our profit and commodity to live and pass our times here as those that know and believe that we must die So little setting our hearts and affections upon this life and world either to seek or delight in the enjoyment or grieve for the want and loss of the things thereof as they that know that they and our enjoyments or wants of them are but very momentany and as having better things in Christ prepared for us to be the more earnest and diligent in seeking after them in seeking his face and favour and serving him in our generation being so much the more earnest therein as we know our times here are short and uncertain and not giving way to our hearts to wander after vanity and iniquity lest he putting an end suddenly to our lives we be found wandered from him out of the way of understanding and so miss of his salvation 2 And seeing we must die and death will put an end to our present sufferings temptations and afflictions stablish we our hearts in the way of God to hold fast the profession of our faith and the practice of godliness firm without wavering to the end as knowing that our sufferings here will not nor can be everlasting Yet a little while and Christ will put us to bed in the grave where we shall rest from all our labours and sorrows and be out of the reach either of Satan to tempt us or of the world to persecute or oppress us The worst that men can do against us is but to kill our Bodies and our Bodies must die though we do not yeild them up to the Lord
to glorifie him in the life and death of them And if men do oppress and afflict us till we die yet then have they no more that they can do against us in which they may afflict or trouble us Math. 10.28 Jam. 5.8 Reasons of Death in respect of the wicked As for the wickeds dying they living in their sins and wickedness and not repenting thereof they must needs die as being 1. Not justified from their sins the wages whereof is death Rom. 6.23 2. Yea they besides the sin of Adam upon the account whereof the first Death was pronounced and passes upon all by their personal sins and wickednesses oftentimes provoke God to cut them off signally insuch times and wayes as else they might not have died in For though Pharaoh Saul Haman Judas c. as men and as sinners must have dyed yet they needed not nor might haved dyed at such times and in such wayes as they did had they not been guilty of such hainous personal wickednesses as they were otherwise such their deaths should not have been punishments to them for such their sins as it is certain they were * See Psal 55 23. Yea sometimes Gods people also by some sinful wayes or acts pull upon themselves untimely and exemplary deaths God chastening them and making them examples and admonitions to others in such wayes in which he also may prevent the perishing of their souls as is evident in 1 Cor. 11.29 30. For this cause many are sick and weak and some are fallen asleep But 3. Besides God in mercy to men even such as are wicked hath ordered Death to them that the consideration of it might awake them to repentance while a day of grace is vouchsafed to them that ceasing to be wicked they might not die for ever Isa 55.7 Ezek. 33.12 4. And for the sake of the righteous and in mercy to them that they persisting in their wickedness and not turning therefrom the world might not be alwayes pestered with them nor they be alwayes a vexation and mischief to them that walk with God and fear him But that the yoke may be broken sometimes off their necks and Gods anger against his people cease in their destruction as Iâ—a 10.25 and as we have instances in the Deaths of Pharoah Haman Ahitophel Saul and divers others from whose wrath malice and mischeivous madness God gave his servants deliverance by cutting them off by Death in his due time Yea 5. For the benefit of the world too and such as yet are ignorant of and opposite to God and his truth Partly that they might be delivered from such teachers of and provokers to wickedness by their evil examples counsels compulsions and withholding from them the wayes and means of life And partly that they might by Gods exemplary judgments upon them in their deaths and destructions be awakened and made to see the evil of wickedness and the truth of Gods words and goodness of the wayes of righteousness as Psal 58.11 Psal 9 16. Seeing the wicked also shall die it may instruct us 1. Not to be afraid of the fury of the oppressor so as to turn Vse 1 aside from God to avoid that For besides that the arms of Christ do judge the people and he can by his strong arm put by the most stout hearted cruel Tyrants and oppressors from their desires and purposes of oppressing and harming his followers and can gather his Children with them and keep them safe from those that would hurt them their time also will come to die as David said of Saul in his persecuting him 1 Sam. 26.10 and then he shall cease from all power of troubling and molesting us in the day that the wickeds breath goeth out of his nostrils all his thoughts purposes or intentions for evil against us shall perish With this the Lord Jesus comforts his followers and people the Nation that knows his righteousness and have his Law in their hearts in Isa 51.7 8.12 13. Fear ye not saith he the reproach of the people neither be ye afraid of their revilings for the Moth shall eat them up like a Garment and the Worm shall eat them like wooll But my righteousness shall be for ever and my salvation to all generations And again Who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die and of the son of man that shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy maker and hast feared all the day â—ing because of the fury of the oppressor And where is the fury of the oppressor when God doth but take away his breath and life from him as he will at some time or other and may at any time when he will what becomes then of all his rage and wrath his Cruel Threatnings Bloody Laws and Decrees Unjust Oppressions or the like Surely they shall all vanish with him 2. It may instruct us also not to envy their prosperity and reprove such as so do To that purpose is that in Prov. 23.17 18. Let not thine heart envy sinners but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long Upon this account for there shall be an end namely to thy suffering from them and of their lives and power to put thee to suffering as also of their enjoying those their enjoyments for which thou art apt to envy them As it is more evident in that parallel Counsel Psal 37.1 2. Envy thou not because of evil doers for they shall soon be cut off as the Grass and wither as the green Herb c. 3. It may also admonish the wicked to cease from his wickedness and from his priding in himself in or pursuing after those things for and by which he is made wicked and hardened in his wickedness Seeing he must die and then all his glory and what he prefers before God and his ways must be at an end with him yea he also must give an account and be judged after that for all his wickedness too But that leads us to consider Bran. 2. Both have a latter end The second Branch of this point viz. That both righteous and wicked have or shall have their end We have this asserted of both in Psal 37.37 38. Mark the perfect man and consider the upright for the End of that man is Peace But transgressors shall be destroyed together the End of the wicked shall be be cut off There is the End both of the upright and of the wicked But Object it is said in 1. Joh. 2.17 That he that doth the will of God shall abide for ever How is it then that he hath an end how shall we understand it Again it is said of both righteous and wicked That these the wicked shall go into everlasting punishment and the righteous into everlasting life Math. 25.46 How then can either of them be said to have an end seeing the one is everlastingly punished and the other lives everlastingly Yea it would be an happiness
groan under it and seek to God through Christ for his further increase of grace in it and conformity to God and his will thereby and in sight of aberrations and swarvings from the ways of God and his grace to seek diligently for pardon and healing in the blood of Jesus and that the heart and soul may be turned in to Gods testimonies waiting upon God in his word and ordinances and so cleansing the heart and washing the hands in innocency not approving themselves in any wickedness and way of iniquity Prov. 28.13 1. Joh. 1.7 8 9. and 2 1 2. Psal 119.59 60. and 73.13 2 Cor. 7.1 And they that so believe in Christ and walk after the Spirit of God are indeed upright men and righteous ones and such as Balaam wisht he might be like in his Death and latter end 2. What is meant by the Death of the Righteous here A proper Death of the righteous 1. There is a Death of the righteous that is so properly their Death as it is not common to any else with them and its a Death properly of their soul too and possibly Balaam might mean here of that though if he did he took nor the course to obtain it but only rested in the desire and wish of it and that is a Death unto sin and self and world through the knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ of which the Apostle speakes in 1. Pet. 2. 24. Mentioning it as 1. A Death unto sin as we translate or read it Christ himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin may live to righteousness Wicked men are dead in sin Eph. 2 1 5. and the righteous die to sin Thence in Rom. 6.2 How shall wee that are dead to sin live any longer therein And reckon your selves dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord ver 11. And this is effected by the discoveries of the grace of God in Christ towards the soul and the abundance of the grace brought unto it in him causing the soul so to love God and like the injoyment of his love and favour and so the ways leading to it and in which it is to be perfected and maintained as therefore to abandon and hate every false way every way of iniquity and sin either as to judgment or conversation as in Psal 119.104 and 97. 10 11. so as to be as dead to the allurements and inticements thereof and lively apt and ready to the Lord and his service and so to every good way and work for his sake 2. A Death to self as ceasing through the same grace discerned to have or look to have its rejoycing from its self its hope confidence or spiritual life in and from its own fleshly excellencies or priviledges that iâ—sometime in the state of ignorance of Christ it hath finding the life of its owne hand as is said Isa 57.10 This is that the Apostle saith Gal. 2.29.20 I through the Law am dead to the Law that I might live to God I am crucifyed with Christ yet I live yet not I but Christ that liveth in me c. And Philip. 3.3 We rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh When for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the soul parts with and yeilds up that confidence and rejoycing it had in its owne works frames righteousness after the Law or in any thing of the flesh as seeing an emptiness and insufficiency therein and lives upon Christ and the fulness in him And herein is a Death to the Law also 3. A Death to the world when through the perception of the same grace and hope of glory and reception of the same it is taken off from having its glorying or rejoycing in the Worlds injoyments love favour fellowship friendship riches honours approbation principles and rudiments as also from all indeavours with purpose of heart thereafter contenting it self with the approbation love and fellowship of God in Christ and with his care provision and protection being as a crucified thing or person to the world through the cross Gal. 6.14 1 Cor. 15. 31. And this Death in each of these branches is a desireable Death though not to the flesh and carnal minde yet to the illuminated understanding as Balaams was or might be at this time when he saw the visions of the Almighty and had his eyes open 〈◊〉 â—um est illud Euâ—â—â—ides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To 〈◊〉 is to dâ— and tâ— dy is to live in these things for this Death leads to a Divine and heavenly life to and in God and Christ and in the faith of his grace and love whence also the stable peace safety and satisfaction of the soul springs up it is kept in perfect peace stayd upon the Lord delighted in and satisfied with him for the great disturbances and dangers of the soul are from its love of and living to sin its love of and living in or desiring to have its life and peace and comfort in its self and in the injoyments of the world for all these things being either full of mutability and vanity in themselves as the life of a mans own hands or his fleshly self-righteousness and the things of the world or else being directly opposed by the law of God and the discoveries of wrath and curse there against as in all ways of sin the soule can there have no setledness or peace But now being dead in its affections to and dependences on such things and having the heart set upon and confiding in Christ and God in Christ it is established and fixed so as not to be moved and lives because Christ lives Joh. 14.20 Who cannot cease to live and who lives to obtain life for and maintaine life in the soul Psal 112. 6 7 8. And this living in and to the Lord here leads assuredly to the injoyment of eternal life for ever a most blessed and desirable state but yet The Death of the righteous as to the natural Death better then that of the unrighteous 2. Though this would stand well enough with the words and possibly might be in Balaams sense yet it s most usually otherwise understood and there is more certainty or probability at least that he rather desired to die as the righteous in respect of his departing hence by bodily Death and so we carryed it all along in the former pro position and cannot exclude but must include it here as being that which without peradventure Balaam and many a wicked man hath desired and yet do nor may the Hebrew word that signifies my soul let my soul die the Death of the righteous inforce us to understand it in the former sense at least not in that only for both the word Soul is diversly used in the Scripture and oftentimes is put for the person indued with a soul as when it s said Gen. 2.7 man became a
grass as well that of men as that of beasts or birds or fishes and all the goodliness of man is as the flower of the field The grass withereth the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bleweth upon it that is his anger whence the Sentence of Death proceeded surely the people is grass Isa 40.6 7. Now then in as much as the righteous as men are flesh as well as the wicked they are also both subject and lyable to death True it is that Christ hath died for all Reason 5 and given himself a ransom for all to ransom and redeem all from under that sentence of death and condemnation deserved by us and due to us but that was not to this end that the bodily death should not come upon us or any of us but to redeem us from under the state of obligation upon the account of that our sin and fall to eternal death or a perishing from Gods presence and also from being left under the power and tyranny of Satan and his absolute dispose of us and doing his will with us upon the account aforesaid that we might be under the hand power and dispose of a man even of the Lord Jesus Christ who died rose and revived that he might be Lord Ruler and Disposer of both quick and dead and that we might being under him be in a possibility and capacity of salvation and so in coming to him at his Heavenly Call and yielding up our selves to him to hope in his grace and to obey and follow him we might receive forgiveness of our sins and be justified and acquitted of all things from which we could not be acquitted by the Law of Moses and consequently no other way and so that we might by him be brought back again to God and be made partakers of eternal life And that he having power as Lord and Judge over all men even over those also that obey not his Calls or believe not in him might raise and judge them according to his good pleasure Of which further by and by Now these being the ends of Christs dying for men his death is no hinderance to dying men For God pronounced the sentence of Death upon men after the interposure of the Mediator as appears Gen. 3.15.18 He first provided and promised that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the head of the Serpent and then afterward notwithstanding that sentenced both the man and the woman and in them all of us to die and return to dust out of which we were taken Now that sentence that was pronounced after the promise of Christs coming and dying for us is not letted and prevented by his dying onely as the promise of Christ to die laid a foundation of our hoping in him to have this Death abolished so as that we might not be hurt of it or kept out from obtaining and receiving the blessing of God by it so accordingly his actual dying was the bringing forth that foundation and ground of hope in him into act that we might die in hope also of that better life that he hath promised us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Reason 6 Nor doth the justifying the Believer through the faith of Christ or the giving him divine life in his Spirit making him alive to God hinder the bodily death as experience shews The body is still dead or under Death because of sin though the Spirit be life for righteousness sake Rom. 8.10 The justification received in believing on Christ being but as to his state toward God to the freeing him from his wrath and from lyableness to the eternal Death in the second Judgement that shall be in the end of the world the wrath to come and to the admitting him into fellowship with him and with the Saints and Holy Ones in his Spirit and inward man as to his being accepted and accounted as righteous with God in Christ and an Heir of the Promises of God here and hereafter but it exempts not from the bearing the sentence of the bodily Death through which he also must pass as well as Christ Reasons of Gods ordering Death to the Righteous that he may enter into glory with and through him Yea there be divers reasons why God orders that his people shall lye under the Sentence of Death though righteous and pass in their due times through it As to say 1. To shew that he is the Lord and disposes of his creature as he pleases And seeing he hath in his great and infinite wisdom and by his righteous will pleased so to order it that both the righteous and sinners shall submit to that Sentence we being the clay and he as the Potter over us it s meet that we be all silent before him and subject to him practising obedience even in so suffering 2. That we might have the thought and remembrance of it as a spur to stir us up and provoke us to many excellent and profitable duties and exercises As for instance 1. To seek him more earnestly and apply our hearts to wisdom in the knowledge of him in Christ Jesus seeing our times for that are not always Whence that Prayer Psalm 90.11 Teach us so to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom 2. To quicken us to serve him in our generations in doing good knowing that our time is but short to be plying our business for glorifying him here and laying up for our selves a good foundation against the time to come That we might do what our hand findes to do with all diligence because in the Grave whither we go there is no work no praising God c. Eccles 9.10 Psalm 115.17 3. To make us alwayes more watchful and fearful to offend God seeing our time is limited here and is in his hand and if we take liberty to wander from him we may in the mean while be taked hence and so it may go ill with us To this purpose are those sayings of our Savior Watch for you know not what hour your Lord comes Math. 24.42 44. Luke 21.34.36 4. To exercise Faith in the truth power and faithfulness of God in Christ for the bringing us to glory notwithstanding Death and Grave John 11.25 26 40. 2 Cor. 4.13 14 15 16. 1 Thes 4.14 15. 1 Cor. 15.2 3 4 12.58 5. To comfort us and perswade us to patience under our sufferings here and make us the willinger to chuse to under go them rather than to sin agaiast him and turn from him Seeing Death will come and put an end to them and give us as it were a discharge from them all we may the better hold out to the end because it will not be long to it this life being but a vapor that appears a little while and then vanishes Jam. 4 13 14. The Apostlâ—s thus comforted themselves in their sufferings partly in the consideration of the momentaniness of them they being but the sufferings of this present time which Death will finish
far better portion and happiness than either what we may have in this life and world or might have had in and from Adam considering also that he hath appointed a Day of Death for us and after that a Judgment by him that died for us and rose again whereof also he hath given assurance * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or faith to all men that he hath raised him from the dead Act. 17.31 we may set our selves to seek him the knowledge of him and of his will which we may find in his revelations of them to us by Jesus Christ that so knowing and yeilding up our selves to him to the obeying and doing his will wherein we shall be reputed righteous we may be well mercifully and comfortably disposed of by him in the after-state avoiding and abandoning all those things that might withdraw us from him and from the obedience of his will and following after or yeilding up our selves to what may further us therein But the further opening and improvement of this Use will better fall in after and upon our consideration of the second point viz. Point 2. The excellency of the Death and end of the righteous That there is a very desirable excellency in the Death of the Righteous and in his latter end above that of other men especially of such as are wicked So as even the wicked that care not to live their life and to have their beginning and progress yet understanding it desire to be like them therein Tartus est pietatis â—ructus tanta justitiae merces ut ne ab ipsis â— quid â—nin desâ—rari quâ—at impiis injustis It is in a manner St. Bernaca's observation upon the words For saith he such or so great is the fruit of piety and such the reward of righteousness that it cannot but he desired of the wicked and unrighteous Bern. in Ps 91. Ser. 7. This doth suppose and imply the second Branch of what we noted in our entrance to discourse of the former Proposition viz. That the Death and end of the righteous Hâ—â—e the Scriptures mâ—â—n 〈◊〉 the woâ—d wicked are very different from those of the wicked c. of any that are not righteous which I only distinguish from the wicked as the Scriptures usually by the wicked understand men not only ignorant of and out of Christ unjustified persons but also evilly affected towards and opposite to Christ and the truth of God and his grace in the discoveries and teachings of it so as to act contrary and in opposition to it against light and knowledge and that with stubbornness and wilfulness and often to the endevouring the mischief of the righteous and suppression of the truth of God Now that the righteous mans Death and after-end or part differs from that of the unrighteous and wicked so as to be far better we shall make evident through Gods help and assistance in what we shall speak thereof 1. Positively as considered in themselves and then also a little 2. Comparatively as comparing them with the sinners and wickeds 1. In speaking positively of them we shall consider 1. Who are the Righteous whose Death and latter end are so commendably excellent and how they come to be so or wherein their righteousness standeth 2. What is the Death of the Righteous that is so desireable And 3. Wherein or upon what accounts it is desirable 4. What the after-part or latter end of the Righteous and the desirableness thereof VVhâ—â—e the Righteouâ— 1. Who be these righteous ones and upon what account or wherein any is so To which let us mind 1. That the righteous are denominated from righteousness so as they are righteous in whom righteousness is found or they in it and by whom it is practised Now righteousness is in it self an exact and perfect straightness or rightness so as to be without blame fault or crookedness in every thing or respect and so it s absolutely in God in the first place and he both Father Word and Holy Spirit is called the Just God or the righteous Lord Psal 119.137 Jer. 12.1 Job 17.27 Zeph. 3.5 Deut. 32.4 yea the most just or upright Job 34.17 Isa 26.7 because righteousness is essential to him and he and his will the most perfect rule of righteousness but he liveth and dieth not nor of him can we understand the words who is eternal and without beginning end or reward 2. That we have to speak of righteous men and righteousness as found in or upon man and so we may say generally that Righteousness is a conformity in man to the wiil and minde of God and they are righteous that are so and so are right and straight according to Gods minde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And such is the signification of the word here translated Righteous Vpright or Right And so 1. God made man Jashir upright suitable to his minde not crooked or perverse bending from him or faulty before him Eccles 7.29 And that was mans primitive original created state called also His likeness or similitude but according to this righteousness or uprightness there is no man found while here living upright in himself man having found out many inventions Eccles 7.29 For all have sinned and swerved from that first creered uprightness and integrity and have failed of the glory of God Rom. 3 23. But God still abides just and righteous though man be fallen from him and that rightness and uprightness that he gave or made us in his acts doings ways words and works are all righteous and there is no iniquity in him And 2. He gave a righteous just and holy Law as a perfect Rule of righteousness according to which he that should do should live and enjoy his favor and blessing but he that swerves therefrom and continues not in all things contained therein is crooked and unjust unrighteous and condemned by it to die yea accursed and blasted of God in his most holy and righteous Sentence But this coming in upon fallen man and being proposed to him as a Rule to measure himself by and square his heart and actions after findes him so desperately crooked and distorred by his fall that it altogether pronounces against man and condemns him And while man would set himself to conform himself to it in heart and way he is thereby convinced that he is wrong and unrighteous For by the Law is the knowledge of sin yea sin taking occasion by it it is more awakened and stirred up to exert and act forth it self when it findes the Law its enemy to forbid restrain and curb it and strives to bear it down before it or else secretly to elude it And so man in stead of being made just and righteous by it is discovered to be more vile and sinful yea occasionally is made so as the Apostle saith Rom. 5.20 the Law entred that sin might abound And in Chap. 7.5 8 9. The motions or passions of sin that were
be the Law wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto Death And sin taking occasion by the Commandment wrought in me saith he all manner of concupiscence or all lusting or coveting So that according to that Rule we are all pronounced unrighteous There is none righteous no not one Rom. 3.10 None that doth good no not one ver 12. All gave out of the way all together become unprofitable every mouth stopped and all the world guilty before God vers 13.19 What ever conceits men may have of themselves or one of another yet by the deeds of the Law no flesh living is or shall be justified in the sight of God ver 20. As many as are of the work◠of the Law and claim life and righteousness the promises and blessing to themselves that way are all deceived and are under the Curse the Law saying Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.18 And there is not a man found living here upon earth that doth so continue in all things to do them Not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not Eccles 7.20 The whole first Adam our natural Root with all of us even all the natural branches naturally springing out of him being all rotten and corrupt crooked and perverse bowed down from God to the creature and from loving one another to love our selves with a perverse love but neither God nor our selves nor one another as we ought and in a way manner and measure conformable to his will And all our blossoms or what proceeds from us goes up as dust all our thoughts words and works corrupt and abominable filthy and stinking Psal 14.1 2 3. Rom. 3.10 11 to 19. Such the unrighteousness and unrightness of mankinde and notwithstanding all the Law can do to rectifie and mend us the Law could not make us just the flesh in us prevailing against it and multiplying sin by occasion of it Rom. 8.3 with 7.8 What then be these righteous or upright ones whose death Balaam would die and whose latter end he would have like his What shall we take them to be Angels No sure They die not those especially that be righteous holy and good and for the damned ones they are far from being righteous or upright No we must finde them in the nature of men and amongst men To which purpose 3. God still being righteous holy and good and his Eternal Word and Almighty Spirit by whom he made and gave being to all things abiding still just and upright and eternally so pittying fallen miserable man being under the Sentence of a most dreadful Death by none to be desired for his unrightness and devising how to deliver him therefrom created a new thing in the earth such as was not found in all his first Creation a new Root of Righteousness and Plant of Renown a Righteous Seed out of the sinning woman by a wonderful and most glorious way even by ordaining and in due time sending forth his own Eternal Word his onely begotten Son made of a woman and so taking the seed of the woman the nature of a man into a perfect entire and personal union with himself did so sanctifie that Branch of mans nature in the conception of it and uniting it with himself that therein and so in him as become man Immanuel God with us there was no stain or pollution of sin He knew no sin 2 Cor. 5.21 nor did he any sin nor was any guile found in his mouth 1 Pet. 2.22 Him he made to be his Lamb for taking away the sin of the world a spotless Lamb and without blemish before him in heart and life doing ever and in all things what pleased his Father to his utmost content and satisfaction Job 8.29 1 Pet. 1.19 Math. 3.17 Isa 42.1 He only of all men or persons partaking of the humane nature was and is the holy and just One Act. 3.14 and 7.52 Jesus Christ the Righteous 1 Job 2.1 and he was just and righteous according to the Law which he was made under and was subject to Gal. 4.4 for our sakes never breaking it or doing any thing short of what was required of man in it So as that God testifies of him once and again that he was well pleased in or with him Math. 17.5 for he delighted to do his will his Law was in his heart his ear he opened and he was not rebellions nor turned back Psal 40.7 8 9. Isa 50.5 6. Heb. 10.7 and indeed in respect of his perfect obedience to God and conformity to his Law he was justified thereby and ought to have lived and to be blessed but yet though he had done so and those things were due to him God his Father willing him to lay down all that life and blessing and take upon himself as our nature and Law so now also our sin and curse and notwithstanding life and blessing was his due to die for us and be made a curse he willingly for our sake did so and so he suffered the just for the unjust and died for the ungodly that he might bring us unto God Rom. 5.6 and 1 Pet. 3.18 it happened to him the righteous One according to the work and desert of us wicked and ungodly ones that it might happen to us ungodly ones according to the work of him the just and righteous One for he that knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him and he hath redemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us that so the blessing of Abraham for or concerning or unto the Gentiles might be in Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith that is that he might be made the righteousness of God to us and we might be made righteous by and in him and inherit the life and blessing promised by the law to the righteous and so the righteousness of the law be fulfilled in us walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit given us in and through him Gal. 31 13.14 2 Cor. 5.21 and 1 Cor. 1.30 Rom. 8.4 So that this righteous One having dyed for all and therein given himself a ransome for all from under that sin and sentence of death upon all there is now in and by him wrought for us a compleat righteousness even the righteousness of God through the faith of him he saith not the faith in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but of him the Gospel unto or for all even for all men for the free gift is for or unto all men for the justification of life and upon all that believe Rom. 3.22 and 5.18 So then here we have found a righteous man a perfectly righteous and upright One in whom no crookedness or guile in the least and that not only in himself and for himself but for us too as a root and fountain
and portion or coveting after the way and portion or injoyments of any other turn from the way of righteousness these do as those who being brought safely out of the dangers of the seas and of perishing there by some storm and being set safely on a rock on the shore should because the wind blows cold upon them or because they see some little fishes play or rather some perishing men float on the waves throw themselves headlong thereinto to their destruction but indeed far worse If I say to a righteous man saith God thou shalt surely live if that righteous man trusting in his righteousness commit iniquity he shall surely die Ezek. 33.13 If we turn from God we must needs go after vain things and things that profit not 1 Sam. 12.21 but that 's but an easie and soft expression in comparison of what the holy Ghost hath elsewhere as when he saith Thou wilt destroy all those that go a whoring from thee Psal 73.27 And they shall be destroyed with an everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power that obey not the Gospel 2 Thes 1.7 8. and they are said not to obey the truth that abide not in it Gal. 3.1 Vse 7 Instruction to moderation in mourning for deceased believers But lastly it may instruct us to moderation in our mourning for the death of such as are righteous and die in the Lord that we should not mourn for them as those that are without hope either of or for them or of our enjoyment again of them there is no cause of so mourning for them nay but as our Saviour said to his Non est lugendus qui ante cedit sed plane desiderandus profectio est quam putas mortem Ter. de patien 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Gâ—aec est mori Disciples mourning at their hearing of his leaving them If ye had loved me ye would have rejoiced because I said I go to my Father for my Father is greater then I Joh. 14.28 So in respect of such persons when taken away by death we have rather cause of joy and gladness than of lamentation and sadness for they are gone to a better place and state as to their spirits which is the main of them and their bodies too are more at ease than they were before they dying in the Lord as we have seen are blessed at the present and they shall come again in their personal and bodily capacities after a while with Christ to the enjoyment of his Kingdom yea so as the living Saints shall not prevent them as is said 1 Thess 4.13 14 15 16 17 which words we have to comfort one another with in this case left on record for our instruction indeed some cause of mourning and in some regard of great lamentation we may have sometime as Abraham is said to have sorrowed for Sarah Jacobs sons for him and the people of Israel for Moses and divers others but the Jews write the middle letter of the word used of Abrahams weeping very small to signifie they say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his moderation in respect of his belief of the resurrection but it s said Act. 8.2 That devout men carried Stephen to his burial and to have made great lamentation for him When persons are very useful among people and a great blow breach or loss comes to the Survivers by their removal then there is ground for great lamentation in respect thereof and especially upon those that it falls so heavy upon as for the loss of our society with them and their useful company or the loss others have of them but in regard of themselves there is cause of rejoycing singing and making merry for that theiâ— race is run their dangers past their cares and labours are at an end their goal obtained and their reward ascertained And it seems the Jews did apprehend the same truth as Balaam here that the death of the righteous was a desireable thing and matter of gladness for when they who accounted themselves the righteous nation died they had musick and melody upon their departing as appears by that passage of our Saviours finding Minstrils at the house of Jairus when his daughter was dead Math. 9.23 and sure by how much the more the grace of God is unfolded by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus and his Spirit opening the grounds ends and vertues of it in and by the Gospel to us so much the more gladness when righteous persons die in their righteousness It 's that that good men have desired before they attained it as the Apostle Paul Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and be with Christ which is â—etter And it 's that that bad men have wished they might have the happiness of obtaining as appears in the Text Let me die the death of the righteous and let my latter end c. Now when any attain that which is desireable on all hands and especially when they have lived to a good old age and have filled up the number of their days and served their generation by the will of God should we mourn for them without rejoycing or should we mourn so in respect of our own losses as not to qualifie and take up our selves with the consideration of their gain If a heathen man could comfort himself over the death of his deceased daughter Non a nissa sed praemissâ— Cic. with the consideration that she was not lost but only gone or sent away before how much more may we Christians when we may say it with this addition that they are gone before to heavenly and happy mansions to the bosome of Abraham nay to the presence and enjoyment of the Lord Jesus in their spirits and that they shall come again with him and though their bodies now lie covered up in earth and ashes or dust yet they also shall be raised up again in honour when Christ appears and then both body and soul shall appear in glory with him and enjoy so happy a portion as exceeds all expression And now I have finished what I had to say to my Text but yet not my discourse without a word of Application of it upon this last account to that which occasioned my thoughts of it which was the death and interment of a good and vertuous Gentlewoman Mrs. Barbara Whitefoote of Hapton in the County of Norfolke A woman well known in the Country not so much for her outward greatness as to estate in the world though God gave her a good sufficiency there too as for the good she did in the world and especially to the places and people near her Her profession and practice proclaimed her a Christian more then in name only a follower after righteousness and a seeker of the Lord one that we judge to have sought first Gods Kingdome and his righteousness and therefore we question not but she hath now obtained A woman of a good report