The Waters of Marah Sweetned A SERMON Preached at the FVNERAL OF Mrs. CLARE WITTEWRONGE Eldest Daughter to Joseph Alston Esq AND Late Wife to John Wittewronge Esq Who was Interred at Stantonbury in the County of Bucks Octob. 22. 1669. By Mr. John Mason Minister 1 Cor. 15. 56 57. The sting of death is sin c. But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Col. 3. 4. When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory LONDON Printed by John Macock 1671. Hebr. IX 27 28. And as it is appointed unto men once to die but after this the Judgment So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation MAN is born to die and he dies in order to his last Judgment This is an hard Sentence but the latter part of the Text mollifies it So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation The Proposition is terrible but the Reddition is comfortable The Scope of the Apostle in this Chapter is to prove that the Sacrifice of Christ exceeds in worth and merit all the Sacrifices of the Law And one Argument is this That the Sacrifice of Christ was so perfect that it needs not to be repeated But whereas the Sacrifices of the Law were offered by the High-Priest yearly our Lord Jesus by one single oblation of himself hath obtained eternal Redemption for us And this Argument is illustrated in the words of my Text As men die once so Christ died once for men for his death was equivalent to many deaths And as men after death must appear to be judged so Jesus Christ after his death shall appear to judge men He shall die no more but when-ever he appears again it shall be to judge the world and to save his Elect. This proves the vertue and merit of his death for if Christ by his death had not wholly discharged himself from the imputation of sin he must have been a Prisoner and not a Judge Now as the words shew us the sufficiency of Christs mediation so in the second place the suitableness thereof to those estates whereunto all mankind is ordained We must all die of necessity we must all come to Judgment but this we have for our comfort Jesus Christ is gone before us in Death and will meet us in the day of Judgment And from hence we raise this Observation Those last inevitable and dreadful estates of Death and Judgment are sanctified and sweetned to all true Believers by the precious Death and glorious Appearance of Jesus Christ. Death and Judgment are the terrors of mankind but they are consecrated into blessings and comforts by the death of Christ and the appearance of Christ. The Doctrine falls into two Parts 1. Jesus Christ hath sanctified to us a dying estate by his own Death 2. He will sweeten to us our day of Judgment by his own Appearance To begin with the first We are all subject to a state of death and that not by hap or chance but by the appointment of the living God It is appointed unto men once to die 1. In Gods secret and everlasting Decree 2. In that express Decree Gen. 3. 19. Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return God hath said it and hath performed his word in all ages So that we must needs dye and are as water spilt upon the ground Now seeing we cannot possibly avoid a dying condition let us see how we can digest it And truly if we look back upon its first Institution and the occasion of it we shall find it to be full of malignity and bitterness For what is death but the curse of the great God upon rebellious man the bitter fruit of sin a period to all earthly comforts and the beginning of an everlasting Hell Death destroys vital union dissolves the knot of natural Relations divorces the wife from her husband pulls the child out of his fathers bosom it marrs the greatest beauties stains the pride of earthly glory it degrades the Honourable binds the strong beggars the rich it casts us out of our houses and possessions disappoints our earthly expectations In a word it rends a man asunder and sends part of him into the prison of the Grave and the other part into the dungeon of Hell And now what will ye do in the day of Visitation How will you save your selves To whom will ye flee for help and where will you leave your glory Can your hearts endure or your hands be made strong in the day that the great God shall deal with you O unhappy Mortals that are born to such misery who have no sooner entred a single life but are liable to a double death And surely if the Son of God had not died in our Nature we should envy the condition of Toads and Serpents we should curse the day of our birth and tremble before the day of our death But Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many This offering hath mitigated our state of mortality For as it is appointed to men once to die so Jesus Christ was appointed to die once for men He died once that we might not die ever The blood of God was an acceptable sacrifice to the Justice of God Infinite blood hath satisfied infinite Justice So that wheresoever this blood is sprinkled it redeems the soul to God even from the hand of all her enemies Particularly death threatned us with Hell and Damnation But now the death of Christ is the plagues of our death and the peace of our souls And what is it now for us to die but to pass into the bosom of a reconciled God to leave the world and to go to our Father We die still yet it is upon a new account As good Josiah though he died in blood yet he went down into the grave in peace The sentence of death though it be still passed upon us yet its commission is altered through Christ. Before it was a Serjeant to carry us to the dark and dreadful prison of Hell but now it is as it were a Porter to set open Heaven-gates for us Death hath a new Commission and a new aspect by vertue of the death of Christ. It is 1. Innocent 2. Vseful 1. Innocent The death of a faithful Christian for I am speaking now of sincere Believers I say the death of a faithful Christian doth him no hurt What hurt is there in putting off a suit of old cloaths I must shortly put off this earthly Tabernacle says the Apostle Peter and it did not greatly trouble him What hurt is it for an imprisoned soul to be enlarged Or for a wearied body to take a short nap in the dust Jesus Christ hath sucked out all
for leave It was once the speech of a good man I have been seeking death these forty years and cannot find it I care not when nor where nor how I die And seeing our lives be so miserable it is our happiness that they be mortal Truly our condition would be very sad if we should have immortal sins immortal cares immortal miseries but death proves mortal to them all And whereas our bodies shall be recovered from a state of death in the Resurrection our sins and sorrows die and rise no more I must needs say 'T is an happiness to be Christs Souldier in the field of this World but O how happy are his Courtiers They are resting in their beds whiles we are toiling in the house of bondage They are singing on the Shore whiles we are floating on the Waves we are sowing in tears but they are reaping in joy and rejoycing as in the joy of harvest We are wrestling with Devils but they are conversing with Angels But when the Lord Jesus shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and the Trump of God then shall these blessed souls attend upon him and they shall immediately recover their proper bodies after their long separation and then soul and body shall mutually comfort and welcome one another and rejoyce together being both dressed up into a conformity to the glorious Image of God the King of Glory and arrayed suitably to the solemnity of that day Imagine we two Travellers sweetly and sociably walking together till night overtakes them one of them loses himself in the dark and being tired with his journey lies down and falls asleep The other being more vigorous and lively walks on till he spies a light in a stately Lodge there he knocks and finds good entertainment and is kindly invited to stay There he refreshes himself after his travel and enjoys himself yet he wishes for the company of his fellow-traveller to compleat his felicity When morning light appears he goes out and seeks his Companion that had been sleeping upon the cold earth all night there he renews his acquaintance with him and brings him into the presence of his new-found friend where they both share in his courtesie and bounty These two Travellers are the soul and body of a Christian. Their days journey is the twelve hours of their life the night is death Both walk friendly together till night parts them the weary body falls asleep the active soul keeps on her way till she comes to the light of Heaven where she is most kindly treated by the Lord and his Angels But yet in the midst of her entertainment she cannot forget her old mate but is ready to say Lord I have a body below which used to pray with me and to fast for me Well it is not long e're morning-light appears and then the soul looks abroad and takes acquaintance with her body and carries it into the presence of her noble and gracious Lord where both are welcomed with his Smiles and enriched with his Favours Such honour have all his Saints How happy is our Friend departed She is with her Father above with her Husband above and with her Children in Glory I shall not insist much on her praises for though Solomon saith A vertuous woman shall be praised yet he says in another place Her own works shall praise her in the gate They that knew her most loved her best Among several good things that were found in her there are four which I would not have buried with her in the Dust but shall publish them as worthy of your Imitation 1. Her private Conversings with God 2. Her affectionate Hearing of Gods Word 3. Her professed Esteem of the Merits of her Saviour 4. Her frequent savoury Discourses of her own Mortality Her Infirmities she oft bewailed and they served but to enhance the price of her Saviours Blood She professed she was willing to die that she might cease from sin And upon her Death-bed she rejoyced in hope of the Glory of God She hath left us such Evidences of her Holiness that we doubt not of her Happiness And how happy are the Saints departed Again Learn from hence how to die and how to prepare for Judgment We all know we must die but who knows how to die Death is the way of all the Earth but an happy death is a way that few find out Now seeing we cannot make a Covenant with Death let us labour to have Death in the Covenant Wouldst thou die and go to the Grave in peace Then 1. Meditate on the Death of Christ. Some harden themselves against the fear of death because 't is the general Lot of Mankind All must die say they It is appointed for all men once to die But alas what Comfort can it be to them to be bound up in a Bundle of Tares and to be cast into unquenchable fire But poor Christian let this be thy Comfort that death was the Lot of Jesus Christ that he hath consecrated a dying state for us in his own Body and that he poured forth his Soul unto death that our Souls might be bound up in the Bundle of Life The Life of our Souls lies in the Blood of Christ. O my Beloved take heed of slighting a crucified Christ. They that are against Christ either in their Judgments or Hearts that dispute against him or live against him seem to hate their own Souls and to be in love with Damnation as it is in Prov. 8. ult How can such ever look death in the face that hide their faces from Christ and esteem him not Where will they find such another Saviour In vain do you run from Mountain to Hill Christ Christ alone can secure you from the Plagues and Hellish terrors of death He is the Foundation of an Holy life and Happy death The readiest way to learn this long Art of dying well is to study the Death of Christ. Now the Intendment of the Death of Christ was not meerly to teach us to die Patiently but to enable us to die Comfortably And if thou wouldst depart this Life in peace then first possess thy Soul with a right apprehension of the Death of Christ. Study the words of the Apostle Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and to them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation In these words you have four things touching the Death of Christ very considerable 1. The Death and Blood of Christ was Vicarious instead of many Many deaths were summed up in his one death He was offered upon the Cross to bear the sins of many The Jews thought he died worthily for his own sins for Blasphemy and Treason No but it was our Blasphemies and Treasons our sins against God and Man that he died for Isa. 53. 4. We did esteem him striken smitten of God and afflicted viz. for his own sins that was their great mistake
the day of Judgment When the Lord Jesus shall appear from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire to take vengeance on all those that know not God and obey not the Gospel of Christ where then will guilty sinners appear Or where will you hide your selves from the presence of the Lamb Alas there will be no possibility of escaping his terrible presence you shall see him coming in the Clouds you shall hear him pronouncing your dreadful Doom you shall feel him pressing down your souls with the power of his wrath But fear not little flock for your Enemies shall not sit in Judgment when you shall come upon tryal for your lives to have your everlasting estate determined It is your Friend your Brother your Advocate that shall be your Judge 'T is he that led you by the hand through the valley of death that shall meet you in the day of Judgment Then you shall say Lo this is our God our Jesus we have waited for him and he will save us Then the object of our Faith shall be the object of our Sight Him whom our souls have loved and longed for we shall see with these eyes of ours in that day We shall see him coming in the clouds with power and great glory we shall see him not with scorn but with admiration not with trembling but with rejoycing Christs first Appearance was very mean He appeared as the Son of man or rather as a worm a reproach of men all that saw him laughed him to scorn But hereafter he shall appear as the God of all glory and the Judge of quick and dead In the days of his flesh he appeared as a Prisoner at Pilates Bar and as a Malefactor on the Cross then indeed he stood charged with the sins of all his people but in the day of Judgment he shall appear without sin unto their salvation The glorious presence of the Lord that shall be as a devouring Fire to consume his Enemies shall be a warm Sun to refresh his Saints And that day that shall be a day of terrour to guilty sinners shall be to us a day of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. It 's wonderful to think what infinite honours and priviledges shall be conferred upon us poor dust and ashes in that day How we shall be caught up in a Chariot of clouds and shall meet the Lord in the air where we shall receive kind salutations from him and smiles and blessings and acknowledgments of service and Crowns of glory and shall be made his Assessors whiles he is judging the world and after all this shall attend him into his glorious Palace where we shall ever be with the Lord Let us comfort one another with these words The very thought of Christs last Appearance how sweet is it to a believing soul This day of Life is a day of Trouble but the day of Judgment is a day of Redemption This is a day of Confession but that is a day of Absolution Here we are slain all the day long but that is our Coronation-day Here in Mans day we are judged by the world but in the Lords day we shall judge the world Angels and men O most blessed day that ever shone being thus enlightned by the bright and glorious Appearance of the Sun of Righteousness Now if Death and Judgment are thus sweetned and blessedly altered through Christ as you have heard then O how happy are the Saints departed Rev. 1413. Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth They are Blessed from henceforth Here their Blessedness commences even in this same point which puts a period to their sins and sorrows And the Spirit of God bid his Amanuensis write it down as a remarkable note that a Christians Blessedness takes date from the time of his death Till then he was a wretched sufferer under a body of death and a mass of corruption but now he is a blessed Triumpher His sins have left him his good works follow him and Heaven affords him Rest. I confess 't is a common Errour among the worst of men that when they die they shall be at rest and in their pains they will wish to die that they may go to rest But alas 't is only those that die in the Lord that shall rest from their labours Cursed are they that die out of the Lord that die in the old Adam only and upon the old score I have spoke nothing all this while in favour of the unregenerate Let them not boast with Agag surely the bitterness of death is past for death will hew them in pieces as the unmerciful Executioner of Divine Justice They that die out of Christ die in all the sins that ever they have committed Those dreadful words which our Saviour spoke to the Pharisees will reach them Ye shall die in your sins and whither I go ye cannot come Their dying alas what is it but a going to Hell As the rich Glutton when he died the next news that we hear of him is that he is in Hell The Devil did not make him roar till he had him there Death stings a wicked man and leaves its sting in him and casts all its venom upon him A wicked man is a great loser by his death he loses all he is worth he loses his Heaven here his Paradise and his hearts delight Death sends him into another world begging And he that had his Cups of Wine here would there be glad of Drops of Water He is a great sufferer by his death for it is the Devils Trap wherein he takes his soul it is the Door of Hell which lets him into that abhorred place of everlasting Torments But O how safe and quiet are those that are fallen asleep in Jesus They are resting securely they are unconcerned in the troublesom affairs and changes of this life nothing disturbs their rest Abraham is ignorant of us saith the Church but he is Acquainted with God and Christ and that is sufficient He is ignorant of us and our Calamities but he is sensible of his own Mercies Alas here can be no perfect happiness on this side death for whiles we are present with the body we are absent from the Lord. It was excellently spoke of Queen Elizabeth Whiles I call things past to mind behold things present and expect things to come I hold them happiest that go hence soonest Surely all the Faithful have cause to bless the Lord for a state of mortality Job loathed to think of a state of immortality upon earth Chap. 7. 16. I loath it I would not live always The soul of this righteous man was like a bird caged or pinioned and if she had her freedom she would soon flie away and be at rest What delight could she take in such an unclean cage in such a rotten ulcerous body in such a base treacherous world she would fain be gone and is waiting and requesting
the venom of death Christs death hath swallowed up the bitterness of ours Christ hath taken away 1. The Sting 2. The Curse 3. The Shame 4. The Terrour 5. The Enmity of Death 1. Jesus Christ hath pulled out the fiery sting of death 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of death is sin Guilt is the vigour of death Guilt and sin makes death to be venomous and deadly But a Child of God dies not upon the account of sin neither in his sin nor for his sin Christ was offered up to bear our sins That was the business of Christs death to be a sacrifice for sin But our death is a service not a sacrifice This is enough to make our death tolerable 't is no punishment for our sins 2. Christ by his death hath taken away the Curse of our death Death at the first was threatned as a Curse and as an Instrument of Gods revenging Justice But Jesus Christ by suffering the cursed death of the Cross hath taken away the curse of our death Here is more comfort for us Christians death is not envenomed with the wrath of God It is no blow in anger no token of his displeasure no Curse but only a rougher sort of love 3. Jesus Christ hath taken off the shame of a dying condition Death was a shameful penalty inflicted upon ambitious man that would needs have been a God Death was sent to reproach him to stain the pride of his glory But our Lord cloathed himself with our shame you know how he was buffeted derided spit upon crowned with thorns arayed with mock-apparel Why was this but to take off the reproach of our sufferings and the shame of our death 4. Jesus Christ by his agonies and tremblings and terrible sufferings hath freed us from the terrour of death There is a fear of death arising from the natural constitution of man this is a guiltless infirmity which all are subject to But then there is a slavish fear of death as it is penal as it is an issue of the primitive Curse and as it is a dreadful entrance into a state of damnation Now true Believers are delivered from the spirit of bondage through the blood of Christ. This also enables them to check their natural fear as Hilarian did when he cryed Get thee out my soul get thee out thou hast served Christ these seventy years and art thou now afraid to die Lastly The Enmity of death is slain by the death of Christ. It intends us no mischief Though iâ— may seem to threaten us at a distance yet like Esau it is friendly in its address It is an enemy to our nature but it is no enemy to our happiness It divides us but it doth not destroy us Nay this last enemy is become one of our chiefest friends For when the world disquiets us pains torment us Friends and Physicians are of no value Death proves our Cure When sin besets us temptations assault us the Devils buffet us death proves our deliverance You see my Beloved what an innocent thing death is you may touch it handle it converse with it it will do you no hurt It is but a necessary Ceremony and Formality through which we must pass into everlasting glory As it is Innocent so it is Vseful For it is a blessing of God a blessing of the new Covenant Death is yours Dear Christians All are yours And as the Ministers of the Gospel are yours and the world is yours and life is yours so death is yours yours in Covenant yours to serve you If ye are Christs death is yours but if you are not Christs you are Deaths you are deaths prisoners but in Christ we are deaths Masters For all true Believers though they have not made a Covenant with death yet they have death in the Covenant We call death a Debt of Nature but to us it is the gift of God A Legacy rather than an Exaction A Priviledge rather than a Burden It is a conquered Enemy and is become Tributary to us 1. It gives us rest from all our labours Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours These are our working days our dies profesti the days of our toil and pilgrimage But there remains a rest for the people of God Heb. 4. 9. There remains a Sabbatism as it is in the Original And death is the evening of our everlasting Sabbath Here Gods people are labouring under sin and against sin under temptations and against temptations in their heavenly Callings and in their earthly Callings But then these weary Pilgrims shall be at rest when their souls shall be lodged in the bosom of Christ and their bodies shall rest in a bed of earth Our souls shall rest in Heaven and our flesh shall rest in Hope 2. Death enters us into our Masters joy into the presence of God where there is the fulness of joy Here the Children of the Bride-chamber are fasting and mourning for the absence of the Bridegroom Here they hang their Harps upon the Willows and how can they sing songs in a strange land But when once they come into their Lords presence they shall break forth into singing Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads sorrow and sighing shall flye away 3. To die is gain For it perfects our knowledge Grace and Communion with God Alas here we know but in part The The Apostle tells us We are but children we think as children we discourse as children but when we are grown up to a full stature in Christ when we are once got to Heaven we shall put away these childish things Then we shall see God as he is and know him as we are known and shall behold his face in righteousness and shall be satisfied with his likeness Then our Faith shall end in vision and our Hope in fruition and our Graces shall be perfected in glory Our love shall burn our zeal shall flame our holiness shall shine Then our peace shall be as a river and our righteousness as the waves of the Sea Then we shall have perfect immediate uninterrupted Communion with God This it is to die in the Lord. But after death comes Judgment There is a vain Argument that Lactantius confutes Epicurus slighted death upon this account because said he Whilst we are death is not and when death is we are not And therefore death is nothing to us But this man erred not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God For after death comes Judgment wherein the souls and bodies of men being re-united all Nations Tribes and Languages shall appear before the living God to give an account of their lives and to receive their final sentence Now it is the dreadfulness of the day of Judgment that makes the day of Death so terrible And the poor guilty soul was not more loth to part with her body in the day of Death than she shall be to re-enter it in