and Determine the Lawfulness of the striving as the Apostle says a Man is not Crowned except he strive Lawfully And it was expected from such a Person in that State of Honour that he should be Fair Equal and Just in all his Judgment and Determination and it assures the Judgment of the Lord to be in all things admirable for its greatest Equity Righteousness and Judgment For the Righteous Lord Loveth Righteousness Psal 11. 7. And thus in allusion to this in that so known Seat of allusion to these Games the Apostle says I keep under my Body and with the Austerest methods Bring it into subjection Least while I Preach to others I my self should become one Rejected to whom the Prize is not Judg'd one unworthy the Prize Because he who Determines is a Righteous Judge and will not be Imposed upon with outsides or Formalities But here the great doubt is where is the Saint to be found who can stand before a Judge a Righteous Judge such a Righteous Judge as the Lord is And the alone Answer is according to what hath been said already That it depends wholly upon what hath been done by the Captain of their salvation His Obedience and his Sacrifice the Author and Finisher of Faith What he hath done without them That in which he was wholly alone and none of his with him and that which he works in all his as their Head of Life and Influences making them strong in the Grace that Resides supremely and vitally in Himself and flows continually into them and that by way of inward Residence and Possession by his Dwelling in them John 6. 57. And they in him Even as the Living Father sent him and he Lives by the Father so all Believers live by Him and in Him This then being the Fundamental Meritorious Account Christ All and in All there is a Glorious Resplendent Justice and Equity in Gods Adjudication of the Prize to all Saints in Him Because there is an exact Ballance between what is Christs and the Glory of the Crown and of the Prize So that Scripture delights in the use of the Word Just Righteous Righteousness in the Admensuration to all in Christ at that Day Just and the Justifier of Him that believes in Jesus He is Just to forgive us our Sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousuess by way of Acquitance and Judiciary discharge because The Blood of Jesus Christ his Son hath by satisfaction and Sacrifice for sin first cleansed from all unrighteousness 1 John 1. 10. And there is an Illustrious Ensign of Justice and Righteousness in the Judgment of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And a Flag of Defyance against all Adversaries the Calumnies of Malicious Devils and enraged Spiof wicked Men 2 Thes 1. 5 c. Hung out we translate a manifest token in that Day a Day of Adjudging the Prizes That Day of the Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God Rom. 2. 5. And therefore the Crown is call'd as in some places a Crown of Glory 1 Pet. 5. 4. And a Crown of Life So here a Crown of Righteousness as due to Christ in his though to us as in our selves It is a Crown giveâ— the Gift of Free Grace as Eternal Life oâ—pos'd to Death the wages due demerit desert of Sin It is Free Gift in Jesus Chriâ—â— upholding the Glory of Justice and Rigteousness in that Gift 3. The Crown says the Apostle shall be given at that Day There are two Times eminently Styled in Scripture that Day 1. The Day of the first opening of the Glory of the Gospel and after a time of Eclipse by the Anti-christian Apostacy shining out again in Glory In which first and last the great Prophecies of Scripture are Fulfilled we find therefore often in the Prophet In those Days and In that Day as all Compriz'd under that great Point of time the Fulness of time the appearance of Christ in the Flesh Gal. 4. 4. And the time from thence running to his appearance 2. The that Day of the Appearance of Jesus Christ and of his Kingdom as they are joyn'd a little before the Text that Fulness of All Times when all shall be placed that is Happy and Blessed under their Head Eph. 1. 10. And so that Day is often used in the Epistles of the New Testament as here and continually that Great Day that Day wherein shall be so Glâ—â—â—us an Unveiling a Revelation of the things that have now been kept secret but shall then be sett out in the truest and most Glorious Light The Beauty of every thing in its own proper season to which God hath referr'd in that General Table of time God hath drawn and that Solomon gives in short the Heads off in that so wise Book the Book of Ecclesiastes or of the Preacher At the End of the several events there recorded saying God hath made every thing Beautiful in its season But because it does not or may not without wise References to that Eternal World be understood to be so He says God hath sett Eternity or the Eternal World in their Hearts Eccl. 3. 1 c. Then also are all the Great Misteries of the Gospel shall be clearly unfolded and laid open All the various dealings of God with his own and with the Men of his present Hand and might the Men of this World shall be unriddled and disengaged from all their Darks and Intricacies and the Crown sett with Glory and the Glory of Righteousness on all his Saints And this because it is the Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God And then as the wicked shall be all in Horror Tribulation Anguish and Amazement So Christ will be Glorified in the Saints and Admired in all them who believe who have Fought the Good Fight so as not to beat the Air They have run not as Incertainly and as in Naval Contests have not Shipwrack'd but held fast the Faith And so the Crown Adjudg'd to them by the Righteous Judge of the Combatants and their Activities in and through their great Agonothetes Jesus Christ and the suprme Agonistes Master of All and cheif Combatant 4. The Apostle joyns with himself all those who Love the appearing of Jesus Christ as those whom the Righteous Judge will give the Crown of Righteousness unto And this expression offers two considerations to us 1. That seeing the Apostle gives this short Character of Saints in General and not so particularly as Fighting the good Fight Finishing all their course and keeping the Faith but Loving the appearance of Jesus Christ It shews there may be and there is a different eminency of Saints But as they all meet in the Head Root Corner Stone So whatever their different measures are in making up the full stâ—ture in Christ yet they are all alike in the Glory the Crown of Righteousness Because it is all given by grace in Christ and so the Least as well as the greateâ—t are Crown'd in Him He gives the same Crown
Judgement which he is Author of and yet most Just and Righteous â—ur 2dly by way of affirmation in these three things First when God doth judicially blind Persons and give them over to believe Lies c. he doth undoubtedly withdraw those means which should enlighten their Minds and keep them effectually from the reigning Power of their Lusts God doth not harden and blind by imparting Malice or putting Hardness into the Heart but by withholding or withdrawing that means and grace that should soften and enlighten Now is God unrighteous in this surely no for as Christ saith he may do what he will with his own Matt. 20. 15. Had not God withheld his Grace from the Angels and from our first Parents saith a learned Man the first had not fallen from their glorious state nor the second from their state of Innocency by which says he D. E. on Providence it appears that this is no more than God might have done if man had not sinned c. To say the contrary is to make God a debtor to the Creature which he is not who can say God owed him any thing We are debtors to him but he is not to us he gives or withholds his grace when and to whom he pleases and none must nor dare say to him what dost thou All the Inhabitants of the Earth are reputed as nothing Dan. 4. 35. and he doth according to his Will in the Army of Heaven and among the Inhabitants Job 9. 12. Isa 45. 9. Jer. 18. 6. 7. of the Earth and none can stay his Hand or say to him what dost thou Behold he taketh away who can hinder him who will say unto him what dost thou But 2dly When God judicially blinds Persons he delivers them up to the power of the Devil to be more blinded seduced and hardened he suffers them to be led away captive by the devil at his will The Lord thus blinds many by giving them up to the power of Satan for him to work upon thus wicked Saul and Ahab were harden'd and those mentioned in 2 Thes 2. 10. 11. Satan seduceth Souls by command from the holy God as appeareth in the story of wicked Ahab the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the month of all these thy Prophets c. The God 2 Kings 22. 22. 23. 2 Cor. 4. 5. 6. of this World saith Paul hath blinded the minds of them that believe not c. But 3dly When God blinds and hardens Persons judicially he leaves them to the Impetus and force of their Lusts and Corruptions Thus God hardens them by themselves giving them up to the power of their own Lusts He gave the Heathens up to vile Affections Rom. 1. 26. and permitted them to sin yet more and more proud Pharoah by his sin and own free-will hardened his heart and God hardened Exo 1. 4. 21 22. it by his Judgements giving him up to his Lusts This Beloved is a general way of God in this dispensation for all that perish are thus left to themselves to act according to the Impetus of that original Corruption and Lust that is in their hearts Now none can deny but this is consistent with the Justice and Kindness of God For if Gods leaving and suffering men to walk in their own ways not quenching the original Lust that is in their Hearts but suffering them to put it forth in actual Wickedness I say if Gods doing this would make him the Author of sin then he must be concluded to be the Author of all sin that is committed in the World But that he is not for Wickedness proceedeth from the Wicked as saith 1 Sam. 24. 13. the Proverb of the Antients The word of God telleth us that he will have Mercy on whom he will and his Grace could not be Grace were it not free Now pray consider Man being by the Fall a sinner and full of Corruption and so justly worthy of eternal Death for by one mans Sin Judgement hath passed upon all men to Condemnation and the Wages of Sin is death I say it being thus c. God is not unjust in saving some and leaving others to the Force of their own Lusts when for sin he might have damned all I hope there is none will doubt but that if a Traytor justly deserved to die and to be starved to death tho' the Prince had it in his Power to Pardon or supply him with Bread to keep him from dying in this manner Yet the Prince were just if he did neither but suffered him to perish according to his deserts Surely then God is not unjust in so doing since all men are Traytors and deserve to die eternally This as I think is denied by none but that which is greatly disputed and controverted by learned Men is whether God in blinding Sinners doth not act something positively Bellarmine and the Arminians deny this in opposition to whom our Divines not without good ground say this viz. That tho' God doth not positively blind or harden any Sinners yet he doth some positive Acts that relate to the hardning of them 't is true God doth not positively harden any i. e. he doth not make their soft Hearts hard nor shut their Eyes and of seeing maketh them blind This I say God doth not yet he is not a meer Spectator or an idle Looker on upon the Works of his Providence In all Acts of Punishments God doth something positively The Scripture speaks of him as giving up some men to vile Affections and to a reprobate Mind as Acts of Punishment therefore God as to them doth something positively tho' he positively hardens none The Sum of all then in short is this God may judicially give many up to their Lusts and to Satan to be seduced at his Pleasure and be righteous in it But he cannot punish the former sins of any by putting any Lust or Malice into their hearts by which they become more evil and vile This I say God cannot do any otherwise than accidentally stirring up that Lust and Malice that is in their hearts This is the Sum as far as I know of what our Divines say as to Gods Acts in the Punishments of Sin c. Blindness then in short is caused 1st By the Word occasionally 2dly By his own Malice meritoriously 3dly By the Devil efficiently And lastly by God judicially So that Satan is the Tormentor sinful Man the guilty Person and the holy God the Judge Thus far we have seen so far as we are able to comprehend of what God doth by Christ in this Act of punishing Sin with Sin and how just and righteous he is in it We shall now 2dly Consider the Circumstances those 2 Bron. of the Answer are under whom God bringeth under such a severe dispensation 1st These Persons whom God in a way of Justice thus deals with are not only sinners Rom. 3. 23. 1 Pet. 2. 9. for God doth not deal
with the First Character I would consider the Apostles Expression of himself I have Fought I have Finished I have Kept Now it is certain the Apostle who acknowledges himself chief of Snners and least of Saints would not speak of himself as in or of or by himself but is to be interpreted by 1 Cor. 15. 10. c. By the Grace of God I am what I am and not I but the Grace of God that was with me And Gal. 2. 10. I Live yet not I but Christ Liveth in me Altho' therefore at the first view the Apostle may appear as a self-Subsisting a self-Confident Person in that three fold I Yet when we duly weigh what he says in those places Not I It shews when he speaks thus he considers himself as in Christ the Head and Saviour of the Body who represented his in all he Did and Suffered But further He is in all his united to him by Faith He doth all their Works in them and for them and thus in him by the Power they receive from him by being strong in the Grace that is in Jesus Christ They do all They do so that the Apostle when he saith I does not mean himself by I as single solitary divided from Christ but as in him by him as to the Strength Life Principle he acted from He did all in Christ and not only so but as the Power and the Action flowing from it was in Christ So the acceptance the making up the Imperfections the taking away the Guilt the Corruption The setting him free from the Law of Sin and Death In regard of condemnation falling upon Sin dwelling in him In all this he looks wholly to Christ and so his Fighting Finishing his Course keeping the Faith Are to be limited Not I but Christ alone did all in me and was accepted for me This is therefore the not only Encouragement but the very support nay more the subsistnce of Saints in all their holy Action and Motion All is in Christ And this is their consolation in the midst of so many Clouds of Guilt and Imperfection that they have a faithful and merciful high Priest who makes Reconciliation and perfumes their Persons and services with his much Incense And tho' many are ignorant of this great Gospel Doctrin this was the consolation of our Friend in her Dying Hours Now this Explication of the Apostles as it shuts out on one side all the Pharisaie Boasts in our selves all the Self-righteousness and Self-sufficiency of Legalists so it utterly condemns all the Licentious pretensions of Carnalists to live as they please or to be Slothful Negligent Careless Unactive in these great Transactions For though they live all in Christ depend wholly on Him for acceptance yet all His are under the Holy Constraints of Love and the Obligations of Filial Obedience and Christ in them is a Principle of Spiritual Life and Highest Activity So that they can neither be loose or plead Liberty as a Cloak of Wickedness nor be dull and stupid in the ways of Christ And herein our Deceased Friend had learned Christ In all things sensible of Duty but Living as to Justification and Acceptance with God above With those who are the Circumcision Worshipping God in the Spirit rejoicing in Christ Jesus and having no confidence in the Flesh and so she was able though so young a Person to sing the Song of Victory O Death Where is thy Sting Oh Grave Where is thy Victory I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord who hath given me the Victory This made Her earnestly desire a remove out of the Body and to be with Christ Thus I have given the True Evangelical sense of the Apostle placing so much upon himself I have Fought and Finished and Kept 'T is but as if he had said I have I can do all things through Christ strengthneing me and I can look look upon all with Joy and Triumph because all my Impurities and Imperfections are answered for and my Person is washed with the pure Water of his Sacrificing Blood Let us then consider the great sence of the Apostle I have faught a good Fight Wherein he comes forth in the strength of Jehovah Jesus Christ the Lord of Hosts As David the Warrior of the Lord under the Captain of Salvation Resolved and arm'd at all Points and that had with Courage and Fidelity almost now to the very last carried on so far as his Station reach'd the full Conquest and Victory of Jesus Christ he is now triumphing over all Enemies For the Explaining of this warfare in the warrs of the Lord as they are stil'd Numb 21. 14. We are to consider the Great Lord mighty in Battle who arms all his even the Lord Jesus who appoints them who are therefore stiled Good Soldiers of Jesus Christ who hath Redeemed them from being slaves of Justice of Wrath of Satan and they therefore are said to overcome by the Blood of the Lamb. So their very setting out is by his Blood They are Arm'd by him with Courage Spirit and Might within He teaches their hands to War and their Fingers to Fight by him they run through a Troop by him they leape over a Wall it is he that Girdeth them with strength to the Battel that they may help the Lord against the mighty and that all Enemies may be subdued to him and trherefore the Fight is called a good Fight with great Reason 1. The Apostle had to Fight with himself his carnal Reason to Throw down the strong holds of that to bring every thought into Captivity to Christ all those high Thoughts of self-Righteousuess to slight all conferences with Flesh and Blood and to repel them when tempted to such disloyal Treaties to bring under the Law of his Members that warred against the Law of his Mind and would bring him into Captivity to the Law of Sin and Death to bring under subjection that carnal Mind that is enmity to God not subject to the Law of God nither indeed can be that in dwelling Sin All those Willings and Lustings against the Spirit In regard of which the Apostle Expresses himself in the Language of a Combatant in those Games that deals the most subduing and mortifying Strokes and Blows so he upon all Bodily Inclinations and Lusts And this is one great Point of the good Fight the Apostle reviews with so much comfort But it is in Christ and through Christ by whom in whom as Crucified with him the Flesh with its Lusts and Affections are Crucified and not in or by himself 2. The Apostle had to Fight with the World in all both its inticements and blandishments and in regard of its Threats Rages and Persecutions In both regards saith He I am Crucified to the World and the World to me Gal. 6. 14. But it is in Christ and his Cross alone enabled Him 3. He had to Fight with all the Enemies of the Gospel of Christ in resistance to the Grace of Christ in
Israel over Jordan but to come up to Mount Nebo and to Dye Deut. 33. God plainly sent to Hezekiah to set His House in Order and to Dye against which Prohibition that it might be under as it were an Arrest of Judgment He so earnestly Prayed It is therefore to be duly considered That for the Display of the Judgment and Indignation of God against sin and because of the present State of the Saints under a Remaining Body of Sin and so of Death and in the present State of this World full of Sin and Evil and of so many of the Children of Adam Children of Death even of the Second Death In the Wisdom and Holiness of God It was by the Counsel of the Father and the Son that Death should continue and have the Face of a Judgment and of a Legal Prohibition to continue in the Service of God any longer on Earth Till the Kingdom of Christ the Kingdom of Redemption should bring in a State of the Living Saints then Remaining being chang'd and not to Dye 2. Jesus Christ our Lord Because the Children were Partakers of Flesh and Blood He took part of the same that through Death He might subdue Him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil and Deliver them who all their Life were subject to Bondage by reason of the Fear of Death and now therefore Death came upon Him with the Violence and Terror of a Judgment from which He was taken and from Prison Esa 53. 8. By the Mighty Power of his Resurrection It becomes all His to submit then to the Face of a Judgment in Dying that they may be conform'd to their Captain and from the First Born Heb. 2. 14. Obj. It may be Objected against this necessity of Dying How were those two Enoch and Elias exempted from that sentence of the Righteous and Holy Law that is stretched out so upon all seeing sin had extended it self on them as well as on others Answ The Death of Jesus Christ stood as a Full Ransom and Price of Redemption from the very first promise so that it is not indeed a Point of Justice or of the Truth of God That Believers in Jesus Christ are served as I may so speak with a Prohibition by Death but a Wise and Holy Dispensation of Government with Relation to the Servants of God in the present World where therefore in that wise Government God thinks fit there might be such an exemption from the General Statute of Dying or Prohibition by Death as of Enoch and Elijah and many more Examples of such Exemptions there might have been if He had seen Good having received such full satisfaction to his Law and to his Justice and He hath it in reserve an Universal Exemption at the Kingdom of Christ the Kingdom of Redemption when the Apostle says We shall not all dye but we shall all be changed and he prefaces before it Behold I shew you a mystery And I am much perswaded and even assured These two were Types of the Living Remaining caught up to meet the Lord in the Air 1 Cor. 15. He delivers up the Kingdom to God even the Father and hath put down all Rule Authority and the last Enemy and cast it into the Lake Rev. 20. ult When the Gentle Hand of Power shall Transpose the Saints as the Great Prophet Enoch of the Lord coming with Ten Thousand of his Saints and the Living Remaining changed and the Flames of Fire upon All Enemies shall convey them as in Elijahs Chariot to Heaven 3. The Judiciary part of Death is absolutely removed For the Sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law but thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15. 12. So that Death is to Saints a sleeping in Jesus a Resting from Labours an entring into Rest a becoming present with the Lord A being with Christ a being in Paradise a being clothed upon with our House from Heaven And to shew It was not a Deadly stroke Before the Pronunciation of that Universal Prohibition of continuing here Dust thou Art and to Dust thou shalt Return Death was more gently express'd and with assurance of Victory The Womans Seed shall break the Serpents Head but the Serpent shall only Bruise the Heel of the Womans Seed Applic. I will now by way of Applicatory Review close the whole How fit this Context of the Apostle is to a Discourse with Relation to the Death of one or more of the Servants of God appears by the Apostles Preface to it I am even now as it were already as in Conformity to my Great Lord Offered and Sacrificed as a Martyr and the Time of my Dissolution is at Hand and so He goes on I have Fought c. As if He Preached his own Funeral Sermon while Living and a Great one it is but it hath its Principal sense in Christ and in God as appears in the following Part of the Chapter v. 17. wherein we have this Great acknowledgment that in his Fighting the Good Fight and Finishing his Course the Lord stood with Him strengthened Him that by Him the Preaching might be Fully known and the Gentiles hear and the Lord Delivered Him out of the Mouth of the Lyon the Lord would deliver Him from every Evil Work and preserve Him unto His Heavenly Kingdom and to Him he ascribes the Glory of All for Ever And He Includes all Saints Even all who Love the appearing of Jesus Christ this High Elogium or Speech of Praise else I must acknowledge I have no Opinion of the Large Encomiums or Praisings used in Funeral Sermons observing the Grand Exemplar of them Gods Gracious Remembrance of Moses John 1. Moses my Servant is Dead and no more and yet that Fixed so Dashing a Character of Honour upon Him that He is remembred by it to the Last Rev. 15. They Sang the Song of Moses the Servant of God and of the Lamb But this of the Apostle Joyned with that of Heb. 7. 23. Gives me such a History of the Life and Death of Saints That I cannot but Recommend it to all the Servants of Christ as the most excellent Rule of Life and as the Ground of the most Consolatory Hope in Death and that the very Discourse of it may be upon the Deceased Christian Friend a Memorial of Honour And so I most Humbly Recommend it to the Relations of all the Friends of the so many lately Removed Servants of God and of this Particular one the occasion of whose Death it is Published through Him who though the Eternal Liver as the Son of God without Beginning or End of Days yet in our Nature Became Dead for our sakes but behold He is Alive for Evermore Even so have all his Servants Reason to say Even so Amen And He hath the. Keys of Hell and Death Let Him Lay His Hand on his Servants of God in this Discourse and Bless it to Them and to his Servants of all States and Conditions saying unto them Fear not And to Him be Glory for Ever FINIS