come to us the Cowards trick indeed who never fighteth but when he thinks his enemy fears to resist him So I may to be sure say on the contrary that as to fear the Devil draws him upon us so not to fear him keeps him off on 's Courage in resistance will put him to flight for he is an absolute Coward to Christ and stout Christians If this be not done I mean if the Devil be not fully resisted all is in vain that man will scarce ever keep his Conscience quiet that tamely suffers the Devil to play the merciless Souldier Sophister Goaler or Executioner with it Master the Devil and then having made thy peace with God thou hast only thy Conscience still to pacifie from time to time with that bloud that hath pacified God Well then take this course do as Christ did in his fighting and you will without doubt fight a good fight of faith and finish your course with joy Thirdly Love not the world or any thing in it that is of it Love not your life too much exercise self denial Did we love God and our selves aright we should not fear Death Perfect love casteth out the fear of Death But imperfect love love divided the love of God and of the world too I mean the comforts pleasures of this life sweet Relations or the like oh this imperfect love instead of casting out doth but hatch and harbour the fears of Death Fear then to love much any thing of this world though never so lawful an enjoyment would you not fear Death There is more in this than Christians will be aware of But doubtless the inordinate love of worldly comforts and the imperfect love of God makes men affraid to dye To this I may add Prize spiritual things above worldly place your sensible dayly yea hourly happiness in spiritual things count them not only your food but feast yea recreation too alwaies reckoning thus to be merry My Meditation of God shall be sweet saies David and I will be glad in the Lord. Let the comfort of your lives your choice constant delight and treasure be heavenly things then you will never fear death For as it is a comfort when an house is on fire to save all the goods especially all the treasure So though the Plague or any death fire the body this our tabernacle of clay yet will it not be a quering comfort that our Treasure is safe And that we have a better house to go to not made with hands in the highest heavens Fourthly Watch. It is Christs direction The uncertainty of the time of death and judgment hath this Use of Exhortation annexed to it by a greater Ecclesiastes then Solomon Christ himself who preached as never man did and spake as never man spake saies he What I say unto you I say unto all watch Mar. 13.37 Job knowing his Redeemer lived knew both his protection and his duty waited all the daies of his appointed time till his change came He was every day at watch looking for his last enemy Death and therefore little feared what he could do therefore he had not so much fear of Death as hope in God though he should slay him Oh! watch watch For you know those that watch in an Army are less affrighted at the approach of an enemy then those that are alarum'd out of their sleep So it is as to the fears of Death we therefore fear it so much because we so little think of it or expect it putting the evil day far from us and so suspecting it not to be near fall to sleep keep no watch and then if on a sudden this last enemy Death approach and seem to be very near us we being alarum'd out of our foolish sleep are affrighted Therefore Solomon deals wisely with the young man Eccles 12. who thinks death farthest off I say he presents the young man with a most lively and unparallel'd description of his latter end puts him in mind betimes of his latter daies that so meditating and expecting such an end of his daies he might not be affrighted at death nor unprepared for judgment Oh! watch watch for certainly Christians familiar thoughts of death if according to Gods Word would breed in us the contempt of Death Fifthly Be faithful in celebrating all Gospel Ordinances of Gods Worship Communion with Christ in them raises a mans ambition above his Cowardice and makes him covet to be with Christ though it be by Death Remember that of David Psal 24.4 Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no ill for thou art with me In the next verse but one he shews where God and he met ver 6. I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever Communion with his shepherd especially in holy Worship made him fear no evil that death could affront him with Two Ordinances of the Worship of God and for Communion with him I only hint as expedient to this present purpose because one of them I must speak more to in the Conclusion they are Prayer and the Lords Supper First Prayer The end of all things is at hand be sober and watch unto Prayer 1 Pet. 4.7 Thy end to be sure is at hand watch and pray Watching is of little avail without Prayer If you be wise pray much in faith O Saints have you never found in prayer heavens gate opened to your knocking Do but prevail once in prayer with God himself as Princes and Israelites indeed and you will easily overcome his Serjeant death it self much more its fears They that use in Prayer to enter into the holiest by the bloud of Jesus cannot much fear that Death should at last make them miss their good old way to heaven Secondly Receive the Lords Supper as oft and as worthily as you can Many quiet their Consciences by receiving that Sacrament upon the point of Death But truly solid joyes and the best preparations for death are the result of a godly remembrance of Christs death all along in our life time What quiet can any have from such a practice That is to neglect the Ordinance and duty of remembring Christs death all their life and to remember it only at their death Oh! seeing fears of death are sad associates and Companions of our life even all your daies remember Christs death by vertue whereof you are to be delivered from such troublesome Company as it is clear in the preceding verse to my Text That through DEATH saies the Apostle he might destroy him that had the power of Death and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage This is a deliverance you see wrought through Christs death O Saint study it eye it in faith till thou feelest the vertue of it in thy heart easing thee of thy fears of Death Thus Christ undertook thy Deliverance even by his own Death Thus then do thou manage this thy deliverance by due remembrance of
but hope he would trust in him for he knew his Redeemer lived David though he walked in the valley of the shadow of death would fear no ill for God was with him even Christ his great shepherd The three Children feared Death neither before they were cast into the fiery furnace nor after because a fourth was with them in form like the Son of God The Apostle Paul was perswaded that neither Death nor life no not death could separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus and thereupon manifested such freedom from fear that he saies of himself and many others In all these things amongst which were manifold deaths we are more than Conquerours through him that loved us yea and for this purpose gave Christ for us Rom. 8.37 even we though killed all the day long and accounted as sheep for the slaughter v. 36. yet we in this condition that multiplies other mens fears are more than Conquerours Therefore O Saints see the valour of your fellow souldiers who have no other Captain or weapons than you have Christ is no respecter of persons but able and willing to save you as well as them from the fears of Death But to come to the second part of my Method Secondly I am now to proceed to another most pleasing and satisfactory account and to discover how Christ doth so dwell raign and rule in the Saints hearts as to eject thence these potent enslaving fears the fears of Death how he works them out of his childrens hearts and rids them of such troublesome Guests that when they are found in unregenerate men do as it were lay violent hands on them For the fears of Death in many are one sort of Deaths executioners or at least as Serjeants to arrest them for the Grave and that with such a clap and damp that makes uncontrolable way for death and quite overthrows them Now how doth Christ cast and bar out these killing fears of death Many waies First By Faith a gift flowing as all other grace from Christs fulness of which we receive grace for grace Christians see your strength 1 Joh. 5.4 This is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith The world comprehending the miseries arising from a dying life and from death it self yea Devil too for these are the enemies and forces the world breeds maintains and fights us with whilst we are in it But faith is our victory and surely if it makes us Conquerours it makes us not to fear This excellent grace of Faith hath so great a stroke in the Saints conquering that it is called the conquest and victory it self Nay farther Saints in this life are said to be kept by the power of God through FAITH unto Salvation because what ever is done by Gods and Christs power for our Salvation or Redemption from any or all our miseries first and last is accomplished not without our faith Thus Christ applies and conveys to us the merit vertue and power of his conquering death Christ hath shed his bloud but by faith he warms our hearts with it against the cold fears of death This was that which made the Apostle Paul so crow over Death He was perswaded that as not life so neither death could separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus This perswasion was his faith that made him triumph over death without fears of it come when it would Thus is Christ the Author and finisher of our faith unto this particular conquest and victory over Death and over all its horrid fears For Christ is not contented himself thus to conquer unless he makes all his Servants not only that eminent Apostle Paul but also all Believers his Seconds in the encounter that they should conquer as well as he Nay in respect of any expected Death be more than Conquerours Oh! Faith in Christs bloud gives Saints a noble courage against Death I shall urge this with the citation of a truly Heroick and spiritual expression dictated by a most learned and pious Divine of our Protestant Religion which is this Siquis animum pacare non possit mortis contemptu is sciat parum se adhuc profecisse in Christi fide that is saies he If a man cannot quiet his soul or still that turbulent passion of fear with the contempt of Death Let that man know he hath made but little proficiency in the faith of Christ Thus he concerning a Professour too fearful of Death To such an one I think also it may be truly and justly said with a smart rebuke O thou of little faith To this purpose I shall propose a Scripture-passage most worthy of special notice It is that of Christ himself concerning the Apostle Peter Luk. 22.31 32. Simon Satan hath desired saies Christ to have you that he may fift you as wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not How did Satan sift and shake him Truly with fears of suffering death of faring like his Master so that for fear he denied him and swore to boot Thus Satan shook him with strong blasts of Temptations to fear death he blew him like a shaking leafe with his fears Well how did he recover I have prayed saies the Lord that thy faith fail not That was his Case this his cure fear of death cured by faith in him whom he forsook when Death was near Saies Luther Quantò major fides est tantò mors est imbecillior Quanto autem fides minor tantò mors est acerbior That is The greater Faith is the weaker is Death The less Faith is the bitterer is Death Have then a strong faith in Christ and your hearts shall not be troubled with any disquieting fears of Death for these will certainly be too weak to hold your spirits in bondage if your hearts be kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation Secondly Christ by putting into and maintaining in our hearts that divine and mighty principle of love a love in our souls for himself doth thereby banish the fears of Death and garrison them out Perfect love saies the Apostle John casteth out fear Joh. 4.18 There is a very eminent Divine of our English Nation that gives us a very rational and remarkable account of the occasion upon which this Apostle writ this whole Epistle or at least that Expression yet truly I conceive the former not hard to imagine inasmuch as the Gnosticks whom that Person saies this Apostle here confuted did hold that Christians in danger to save their lives might under fears of Death deny Christ outwardly so they owned him in their hearts a devillish Notion like that Ye shall not surely dye Therefore the Apostle most pertinently deals with these Gnosticks in many close touches and therefore he speaks so highly of believing in Christ that is professing or confessing openly that Jesus is the Son of God and particularly that whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God Joh. 5.1 Now we are apt
honour to suffer for Christs name stocks stripes and imprisonments yea miserable Deaths Their noble eye piercing into Eternity immortality and glory could read a meaning in that Text Count it all joy when ye fall into divers Temptations yea when into the Grave and Pit it self Heb. 10.34 And ye took joyfully the spoyling of your goods as knowing in your selves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance Into a full possession of which Death at worst could but put them So that the Saints spiritual courage will quickly swallow up their natural fears The Case is evident enough in those Worthies recorded in that Gospel-Chronicle or rather little book of Martyrs Heb. 11. whose natures abhorred Death as much as any of ours yet whose spirits would not ACCEPT of deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection Thirdly The Saints may be and are more than others wisely sensible of Gods hand do humble themselves under it mourn and grieve and yet fear not this slavish fear Were the Saints as stocks and stones without sence they would not only be wanting to their duty of fearing God but truly in such a case would there be no spiritual courage or valour in enduring To say they are Stoicks and unsensible of misery were to deny the power of Christ in upholding his Saints and Martyrs of all Ages in their suffering great evils The Lord Jesus the greatest Sufferer and Conflicter with Death had his sence of evil or acute pain in crying out My God! but he feared none of this fear the distracting fear that divides or alienates the soul from God For he said My God my God that twice but once only Why hast thou forsaken me Which evidently shews his fear was no other than filial upon confidence of his sure interest in Gods love as his God and Father and also that it was less than his pain For his pain was excessive his fear not so but moderated with the highest fortitude and courage And so Christ in that he himself suffered being Tempted is able to succour them that are tempted True Saints are anointed with the very same Unction wherewith Christ was anointed And as he had some of their sence of Pain so they likewise have some of his Courage under it Fourthly Saints may fear God in an affliction though not an affliction it self God at or in death but not death it self Be it known to the worst and greatest enemies of Christ and Christians it is not the frown of a Tyrant or the black visage of Death that chils and damps a Saints heart but rather his doubtful and dark apprehensions of God in afflictions are they that weaken his heart Oh! that is a sad Sob Psal 90.7 We are consumed by thine anger and by thy wrath are we troubled If God smile the Saints fear not Prisons Stocks spoyling of goods Death it self occasions little fear If Gods favour set them a singing and his countenance glad their hearts what can sadden It is Gods anger in judgments that makes the Saints fear whilst others reckon only on Gods hatred the Saints not daring to do so do yet judge that it is but rational and safe to conclude of Gods anger and displeasure in judgments which seldom proclaim any thing more How often have you in the Scriptures this proved Sometimes that the wrath of the Lord was enkindled as naturally evident in Plagues and judgments and at the end of many sad descriptions of Gods judgments by the Prophets the sum of each dreadful visitation is this For all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still Now though the Saints through faith in Christ do not suffer their hearts to be troubled with fears of Gods hatred yet they are troubled at his anger and displeasure A Child when his Fathers anger is legible indeed in stripes concludes not that his Father hates him yet trembles at his anger And indeed it is no valour in the world not to fear Gods consuming anger To this I might add That Saints may fear some sin visited by a mortal sickness and the like which they might never sufficiently know was a sin or themselves guilty of it if indeed they did know it to be a sin or that they have not duly repented of it or fully forsaken it Or they may fear their own unpreparedness for weakness and insufficiency to grapple with affliction pain and Death it self And all this is not to fear the power of any mortal calamity or of Death it self But I dare scarce take any occasion though of pertinent enlargements hoping that God will supply all my defect in your serious Meditations Fifthly Will you have a distinction betwixt the wicked hypocrites and the Saints fears Be pleased to take it Saints fear not with an utter despair at the worst but so doth every wicked man The wicked either altogether presume in Prosperity or in great adversity altogether despair Just as it was with Nabal his heart over night was huge merry within him at a Kingly Feast but the next morning when his wine was gone out of him saies the Scripture and but at the report of a past danger his heart died within him as a stone So many men in their Cups have a courage springing from the Tap who drown their cares and fears in the Hogshead whilst Saints drown theirs in Christs bloud Alas what spirit have wicked men when their Wine is gone out of them The Saints hearts may quake and be shaken a little but yet they are at Anchor when as the very first evil tydings of vengeance from God and of a dreadful mortality drive the wicked's fearful hearts as Chaff before the wind or as a poor tattered Ship without Anchor before a Tempest Bring the Saints to their worst fears so that they sin to escape and make a supply of weak faith with a foolish carnal stratagem yet still their fears are not the fears of the wicked for First Saints have even then some hope in God which laies real hold on God though but little and God accepts yea fails not that little Therefore God was good to David and delivered him from Achish and made him not ashamed though his hope in God was little and his sin great Saies David at that very time Psal 34.4 I sought the Lord there is some hope necessarily implied and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears Many fears little hope yet some he had for he sought God But yet it is very remarkable in Scripture how God hath in the utmost extremity of his people even eminently prospered their sins of little hope and great fears for their escape though afterward he punished them forely for both Secondly Whereas the wickeds fears encrease with their dangers and calamities and the nearer approach of their unavoydable ruine yet the grace of Gods Children in such extremities recovers it self again and their fears decrease the more their miseries multiply Wicked
Faith Heb. 10.22 And truly to comfort Saints Consciences with their attaining less then this except in singular cases and conditions of great relapses and sore desertions is to comfort them with their reproach O ye of little faith Is this to lead sad Saints into paths of pleasantness and peace Or rather to hoodwinck them and so leave them in the dark unto the Devil to fright them Is this to comfort and cure Saints weak hearts Or rather to keep them weak and valetudinary Or is it not to play the Mountebanks with them And by indulging their fears and doubts to take a course to have them alwaies visiting us for our weak Physick when as Christ hath left us and all his mighty strong Consolations and Cordials and that with a Probatum est thereupon the probation and experience of every New-Testament Saint But I will shew you Scripture Divinity and not sparingly neither for what I plead 1 Joh. 1.3 And truly our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ Vers 4. And these things write we to you that your joy might be full Chap. 2.5 Hereby know we that we are in him Chap. 3.2 Beloved now we are the Sons of God Vers 14. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the Brethren Vers 19. And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him Vers 24. And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us Chap. 4.13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit Vers 16. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us Chap. 5.13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have Eternal life Vers 14. And this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us Vers 15. And if we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the Petitions that we desired of him Vers 19. And we know that we are of God and the whole world lyeth in wickedness Vers 20. And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true And we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and Eternal life Here is the right description of a New Testament Gospel-Saint and the nature of his confidence which he holds to the end maugre all the terrours of Death or Devil Upon all which let me say thus much for I am labouring to have the Axe laid at the root of all horrid fears of Death do but consider it seriously and then judg whether to comfort souls with puny lazy and easie reflections on that which is sadly short of what those Scriptures speak to be the attainment of Gods Children whether I say it be not to keep souls fully as unholy as truly comfortless for so it is if Eph. 3.17 18.19 do hold out these Doctrines which you will find they do as first That great faith is necessary to the working of a great and an awakened affection in our hearts for God and Christ Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith roots us and grounds us in a sincere and powerful love of God Secondly That such a mighty affection in us for God is necessary to the begetting in us a larger assurance of his love to us For love thinks no ill but expects much good especially from God That ye saies the Apostle being rooted and grounded in love might even thereby be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and know the love of Christ even as all eminent Saints have known it that is his love to us in particular as the Apostle Paul phrases it Gal. 2.20 I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Thirdly That great assurance of Gods love to us is needful unto our perfecting of holiness if so be we would be filled with all the fulness of God Now who that have any fear of God or pity to souls dare use any other method of comforting then God uses Oh let none comfort others or themselves with poor weak tokens of being in a good state and by never urging home an absolute necessity of the full assurance of faith even leave them under perpetual guilt and so unto those fears which make them walk unworthy of the state hope or name of Christians Surely he that delivers from the fears of Death leaves not poor souls to be torn and tost with extream doubtings of his love to them Well I leave this particular Information Behold the possibility of attaining this freedom from the fears of Death with all that appertains to it being clear from the necessity of our duty it being required of us and from the many examples of Saints so freed to encourage us For with Christ the great Deliverer this is possible and it is every childs portion ready purchased and it may be had for going for to him He is both able willing and ready to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him Use 2 Now I come to the second Use and that is of Exhortation in two words First Let every poor soul look to it to get grace to be in the number of real Saints for whom Christ intercedes as before my Text saying Behold I and the children which thou hast given me This Text speaks no comfort to any carnal wicked persons In the time of Pestilence and an hour of sudden Death they have no fence against the Devils fiery darts and the flashes of hell no Antidote against the killing fears of Death But let them flee penitently and believingly to Christ for refuge yea to Christ first for grace for repentance unto life and for faith in his bloud and then for safety and if the Son make you Sons and so free ye shall be free indeed Secondly I beseech you that are Saints Gods children though but a little flock little children yet do not you dread Death I do not say Do not think of Death Alas who can but think of it I do not say neither Be not seriously sensible of it But I beseech you for the sake of Jesus Christ for his honour sake who is your King and your own who are his Souldiers I say quit your selves like men stand to it stoutly sink not under the fears of Death Alas you are not to fear your last encounter if God hath given you any victory over your greatest and truly mortal enemies the World Flesh and Devil Saints at last should be like experienced Souldiers used to encounters and warrisht with spiritual Combates so that they should rather scorn then fear the last and harmlessest enemy Death But
thy Saviours death which remembrance in the use of the Lords Supper if it be the highest Gospel Ordinance as none doubt it so to be is the most effectual means to subdue as all sin so all fears of death The death of Christ kills sin guilt death and Devil and will it not by faith destroy the fears of Death Surely it will Only take heed to thy self in receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper for else thy remedy may prove thy poyson An unbecoming remembrance at that Ordinance of Christs death may cost thee thy life and bring the Plague to thy body as many good Divines are of the opinion that the Plague raged amongst those unworthy Communicants of the Corinthians that were even many of them weak and sickly yea many faln asleep A Plague sure because many fick and many dead Sixthly Maintain a very exact and holy Conversation walk with God in thy Closet and in thy house in a perfect way Who was it that had a desire to be dissolved Who was it That by all means laboured to attain to the resurrection of the dead To enjoy by death the perfection of glory and that without the least fears of Death Was it not that holy man the Apostle Paul who as you find in the same place Phil. 3.13 counted not himself to be already perfect forgetting those things which were behind reaching forth to those things which were before and pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus He prest forward yea would have prest too through Death gladly that he might attain to the Resurrection of the Dead He that hath a Conversation in heaven will least fear his passage thither by Death having in his life time been much used to be above Those that set their minds on things above can look much beyond death and see all clear A holy conversation in heaven is a conversation beyond Death Certainly none fear death more than wicked men whose Consciences are somewhat awakened and none next to them fear death more than careless Saints Strict livers are not only fearless of Death but desirous of it The Apostle Peter speaking of sufferings counsels thus 1 Pet. 4.19 Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator Truly for Saints not only to suffer but to dye as well as others is the appointed will of God Let them then commit the keeping of their souls to God in death or under the expectation of it in well doing as unto a faithful Creator for then they can no more fear Death reasonably then they can Gods faithfulness Seventhly Make a good improvement of all afflictions Conquer them by faith and patience and you will better deal with Death The Apostle Paul triumph't over Death as you have heard because more then Conquerour over tribulations persecutions and the like sorrows Truly overcoming these afflictions he bids a defiance to Death it self let it do its worst he is perswaded that neither life nor death neither the troubles of life nor the pains of Death if not the first sure not the later can separate him from his happiness the love of God in Christ Jesus Therefore you find a remarkable passage in Phil. 1.13 23. near together in the same Chapter first he mentions his bonds in Christ or for his sake in Caesars Palace then quickly mentions his desire to dye to depart this miserable world This is the unspeakable happiness of afflictions when improved they make us not only weary of this life and desirous of the Saints everlasting rest but they harden us and animate us to go on to conquer the remains of death at the last hour None live or dye more couragiously then the most exercised Saints trained up in great afflictions and sufferings for righteousness sake Eighthly Study the great Examples of this Deliverance Scripture Saints and others that have not feared death though subject to the like passions and infirmities that we are as Job David the Apostle Paul and others Example is cogent and their courage as well as patience was recorded for our imitation Now this is the great advantage we have by such examples A poor soul is encouraged to expect the same deliverance by Christ that such Saints before obtained freely seeing as God so Christ is no respecter of persons especially no partial Father to his own children who have all an equal interest in the Common Saviour and Deliverer Consider that seriously and take courage Remember once and again that Heb. 7.25 He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him them that is whosoever come them as well as the Apostle Paul himself Stephen and Apollo's as well as the great Apostles Peter and Paul and the Apostle John's little children as well as himself so long as they be children of God and come to God by Christ As the Apostle Peter speaks God saies he making no difference between them and us even all one in Christ as to the benefits of his death I beseech you consider also your living and dying Saints whose eminent lives are fresh in your memories confider and trace in them the evident footsteps of this glorious deliverance from the fears of Death The great instruction that the life and death of truly Christian friends do teach us is to dye well and comfortably And their evident victory over Death should animate the following files of Christian Souldiers to fall on and that with more courage upon death then death can upon them Ninthly Trust in God Believe in God believe also in Christ we find in Scripture that nothing we can do is a more present remedy against disquiets and fears then a present exercising this heavenly grace of trusting in and cleaving closer to God even when trouble is nigh very nigh Why art thou disquieted O my soul hope in God Again What time I am affraid I will trust in thee and many such instances Well the Devil fights thy soul with the fears of Death Do thou charge him again with thy hope in God Take this armour of God Hope is a proper weapon to fight against fear and the longer weapon too I will assure you It is a proper match for fear and much more valiant through Christ then the fears of Death can pretend to be for and through the Devil Therefore to promote this grace so highly conducing to the design of Christ in delivering his people from the fears of Death or of any dismal misery that can usher in Death to us I shall conclude with a discovery of some things that make for us all many waies as well as for the due Complexion of this needful grace of hope which I confess may blush but never grow pale and wan upon the nearest approach or roughest touch of Death we will leave that dull complexion to the lumpish fears of Death Well to get this
AN ANTIDOTE Against the Sinfull Palpitation of the Heart OR Fear of Death Humbly offered to mens serious Thoughts because sadly occasioned by That Dreadfull PLAGUE And those horrid Fears of Death that have seized This present Generation in England whom either greater Sins or weaker Graces or both together have rendred more then ever Timorous MADE UP OF That Singular and Soveraign Scripture Hebrews 2.15 And deliver them who through fear of Death were all their life time subject to Bondage By Robert Tatnall M. A. Sometimes Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge and lately Minister of the Gospel at St. John Evangelist's LONDON Isa 9.14 15 16 17. For all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still Rev. 1.17 18. I am the first and the last I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of Death Psal 68.20 He that is our God is the God of salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from Death London Printed by J. Hayes and are to be sold by S. Gellibrand at the gilded Ball and S. Thomson at the Bishops Head in St. Pauls Church-yard 1665. Perlegi hunc Libellum cui Titulus An Antidote against the fears of Death in quo nihil reperio Doctrinae Disciplinaeve Ecclesiae Anglicanae aut bonis Moribus contrarium Joh. Hall R. P. D. Episc Lond. Ã Sac. Domest July 6. 1665. TO THE TRULY CHRISTIAN READER IT is not a time now if ever to complement with dying men and women that poor aid which any serious Christian can endeavour to give in such a publick Calamity as we all now do or should deeply lament The unworthy Labourer in this small Piece of Service must acknowledge so much concerning himself only for his Apology That having been some time till of late imployed in London as a Minister He cannot but weep over it in some Conformity to his Great President 's weeping over Jerusalem And lisp that tender Affection which he cannot express to so great a City For it is belov'd of all and a City once much in and 't is hop't not now out of God's favour To be sure not left out of the hearts of some few who as formerly do still most affectionately pray for her though they can do little else The Plague rages amongst us Good men as well though I hope not as much as bad men are obnoxious to this visitation The latter understand little of the Duty or Comforts manifested in Scripture Spiritually knowing nothing at all Such if they will may hear the sounding of Gods Bowels and tender Mercies to them as in some other instances so not least of all in those Comprehensive though SHORT INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE SICK with some other very lately made publick by an Eminent Labourer in the Gospel which with his leave may be stil'd His repeated Call to the Unconverted in Epitome or their Now or Never indeed The Lord make those Instructions as effectual as they are most opportune and importunate too with mens souls Surely the endeavouring of sinners conversion especially at the brink of the Grave must needs be a work of Sage Prudence and an Apostolick Spirit But who is sufficient as for that so for the rest of the Labour viz. The Edification and Building up of Souls in their most holy Faith when their bodies are near ruine Truly be that now questions who is must answer for himself that he of all men is not Who yet counts it his great Duty to deplore it as well as to confess it And whilst he laments his own evident insufficiency to rely upon that sufficiency which is of God both to Direct Assist and Bless the meanest of all his Labourers As for good men and women who are so though they can scarce themselves think so yet they are Christs flock And the Sheep and Shepherds too cannot but chiefly tender their good Now 't is clear that Death is near them as well as others Yea some of Gods most pretious Children have been sick of the Plague none that I know do much doubt it to be King Hezekiahs sickness unto death Nay some have dy'd of it as a most Eminent Minister of this City not long ago And 't is not question'd by some considerable Divines but that many of the converted Corinthians dyed of the Plague as well as others of them were much visited with it so that many were sick and many weak Whereupon some may say there may be no peremptorily asserted ground for a good mans looking on himself as unconcern'd and exempted in a common danger and calamity But however it must be remembred that a good man hath no reason to fear the fear of the wicked whilst he hopes not their hope He having more reason then any wicked persons have to wait upon God for a special Protection if the ninty first Psalm be a part of his Charter as no doubt it is Yet notwithstanding I find a great Terrour upon this Plague even possessing Good as well as Bad men Which I am the more troubled at because as good people have less cause to sink and faint away so Christ by their dispondency hath the less Honour Which two inconveniencies much sadder then a Plague O that I could as a poor Instrument if not remove yet abate at least in some O let Saints bear up and stand in the Gap or Breach Aaron you know ran into the midst of the visited Congregation and stood between the Dead and the Living making atonement for them till the Plague was stayed Numb 16.47 48. Hath Christ made his people a Royal Priesthood to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices acceptable by Jesus Christ and shall such run from the Congregation I mean from their Duty their Calling their Charge their own people yea God and all in vain O let Christ be honoured for the increase of whose Kingdom by the consciencious labours of Gods Children in their places The world both doth and shall stand through Gods mercy remembred in all his Judgments even till the great and general day of the Lords Tribunal There are indeed no greater Motives to any good Action or endeavour then the advance of Christs Honour and of the Holiness and Happiness of poor souls who may if they be wise become with Abraham strong in Faith and so rewarded with strong Consolation that believing so with him they might rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory not only after but also before their death All which is plainly intended in the Subject or Scripture here presented to such as would be serious and safe Which Design of God and interest of man if it be sincerely espoused in the ensuing Discourse God will I hope in mercy pardon and every good person pity his infirmities who in pity prayes for a blessing of God upon this and all other means to be used by such as are sick of the fears of Death before they are
visited Who therefore will not surely when a Cordial is brought them from the God of Heaven fling Glasse and all in contempt at the poor Messenger who is Christian Reader Thine in the LORD heartily R. T. An Antidote against the Fears of Death Heb. 2.15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage WHen the serious thoughts of Mortality and Eternity do awaken our spirits to look about us whose Bodies when once God is angry are but dust and ashes under a consuming fire When Pestilence War and Famine are at the doors and look in yea enter in at the Windows closely following Poor men and women as Phinehas did Zimri and Cozbi into their very Tent to slay them When Gods Prisoners are shut up from all comfort and Company of this life Then surely then no fellowship like the fellowship of Christs sufferings No Sanctuary like his Sepulchre No Physician like him whose bloud is of infinite value and vertue too No Deliverer from the miseries and fears of death but this Jesus this Christ that dyed For his Death affords bread broken and ready prepared to refresh and revive both the living and dying His bloud shed is the best Weapon salve or Plague-water the only Preservative of all those that have received the Arrows of the Almighty and the Messengers of Death whether we consider Famine Wounds or Plague of mens own hearts or bodies But it is comfort against Death in general and the fears of it that I design for the benefit of the Saints timorous souls partakers with me of flesh and bloud who must certainly and may suddenly dye And blessed Eternally be the Lord Jesus it is his Grand and special design who because the children did partake of flesh and bloud and too much communicate in its fears of Death did himself take part of the same he lived and died That so feeling the bitterness both of the life and death of flesh he might as comfort his people in all their tribulations so especially deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage I need not tell you a thing so obvious How that Christ in his highest preheminence is the theame of this Epistle to the Hebrews which after a glorious and singular manner displaies the honour and excellency of Christ before the eyes of all both Jew and Gentile who are too too prone to have very base and low thoughts of his Incarnation and Humanity much more of his Death and Passion I shall therefore more narrowly acquaint you with the import of this Text The which with the preceding verse is enough by Gods light to give us a soul animating and transforming view of Christ Where we may see him triumphing with all his elect Souldiers some worthies especially over Death and Hell and the Devil too For asmuch then as the Children are partakers of flesh and bloud he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Wherein you have as in the Coherence not only Christs and the Saints death but also their victory over it In the Text it self you have these two parts 1. The Saints misery by nature not only to dye but before hand to labour under the fears of death their subjection to bondage with the continuance thereof All their life time 2. Their deliverance by Christ And deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Where you see their deliverance is very comprehensive And deliver them Their persons are gloriously delivered whether you respect death it self the power and sting of Death or the fears of Death or that bondage upon the account of those fears which renders their life most uncomfortable The deliverance by Christ bates none of these Now there are some words and passages in my Text to be opened that I may clear my way to the Doctrines which are to be found in this blessed Scripture Being all such as highly concern all mortal men especially in a time of great mortality 1. Then what Death is this Which is brought in here as a King of fears so terrible that the Devil seems to be but its Vice-Roy who would never be so dreaded were it not for death from which he receives power to Captivate and tyrannize over the poor Consciences of men that are cow'd with guilt and enfeebled with the hand-writing against them in their own breasts who when most carnally asleep do notwithstanding now and then sadly dream of some sudden reckoning and dreadful execution 2. What are these fears Seeing fear of Death is so natural to and common amongst the Saints 3. What is meant by being subject to bondage Are not all Saints more or less subject to many sad fears of death Even those that sometimes can vaunt over it with the Apostle Paul may sometimes also fear least at death they suffer shipwrack and become Castawaies 4. What is meant by all their life time What deliverance if all their life time so subject 5. What is this deliverance wrought thus for the people of God by the power of Christ and the transactions of his death To these reasonable demands briefly First What Death is this here meant It is unquestionably natural death the dissolution or departure of the soul from the body The body one way to the dust and grave the soul another way even to God that gave it This is the Death here spoken of The more terrible for the certain judgment of all and Eternal damnation of most immediately consequent thereupon Now inasmuch as a little before the Text flesh and bloud is mentioned which most shrinks from death as that part of a good mans nature that suffers by death the only damage And in as much as Christ therefore took part of the same flesh and bloud and so therein tasted death for every man it is but plainly absurd to doubt that natural death is here meant Secondly What are the fears of Death here spoken of Seeing fear of Death is so natural to and common amongst the Saints The Text will answer for me the latter expression in the words resolves you They are slavish fears not natural or filial Such fears as when in any measure in the Saints have a certain tang of the spirit of bondage Fears which do debase the ingenuity and confidence of children As Saints are called just before the Text For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and bloud And so thereupon indeed are naturally subject to great fears and by sin to much bondage too in their sence and apprehension of Death therefore Christ took part of their flesh that he might deliver those who by reason of their flesh and bloud were subject to great fears of death That so he might recover
them into the just temper ingenuity and liberty of the children of God Thirdly What is meant by being subject to bondage Are not all Saints more or less subject to very great and slavish fears of death Yea such as can sometimes vauat over it with the Apostle Paul do yet sometimes also even fear least at death they suffer shipwrack and become Castawaies I answer It is not to be understood that any are so delivered as to be quite rid of these fears or of all proneness to and possibility of them that they see and hear of these enemies no more For according to such a kind of meaning the deliverance could not be wrought till after death after which Saints shall neither sin nor sorrow nor fear nor be in bondage any more If such were the sence then the words of the Text should not run as they do thus Who were all their life time subject to bondage but who were and still are and shall be till death subject to bondage yet who indeed shall after death be perfectly delivered from the fears of Death Truly as the Text can by no means admit or bear such a reading so no reason can make clear sence of it For to be freed from the fears of death declares death not past but to come and so notes a deliverance wrought in this life What great purchase were it should a man undertake to deliver me from the fears of that evil which I have already quite past through So absurd is it to imagine that Christs actual delivering of Saints from the fears of Death commences not or begins not till both Death it self and the fears of it too are all naturally together with it first past and quite gone Nay truly the wickedest man dying in his sins may be as properly said to be delivered from the fears of his natural death a moment or two after he is dead for how can he fear what he is sure is irrecoverably past Job 1.14 If a man dies shall he live again Nay shall he dye again So that if this be all Christs death doth for the Saints that when they be dead they should not fear dying or a past death it then doth but actum agere doth but what is done to hand by every ones death it self Well then certainly Christs delivering Saints from the fears of death must denote death not past but to come unto the delivered And thereupon Subjection to bondage cannot signifie any proneness to or possibility of some evil fears of death as that from which the Saints are in this life delivered But somewhat more concerning and indeed more miserable plainly and Emphatically given out in that very significant word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we find rendered in the Text subject signifies such as are bound held fast some rendering it obnoxii some obstricti some qui tenentur all agree in the same notion of its importing as much as bound held fast manicled or fettered Held fast as a bird taken in a snare or a Malefactor arrested by a Serjeant or as a condemned man manacled and fettered against the day of Execution and so held fast as to be in hourly or frequent fears of death which whether it be the constant condition of all or any of Gods people all their daies comes next to be considered 4. What is meant by all their life time What deliverance if all their life time so subject I answer it is plain that by all their life time must be meant all that part of their life time before they come to enjoy the benefit of this deliverance by Christ and is equivalent to All their former life time looking backwards to their first not forwards to their last breath That the time past of their life is only here intended as the time of this their bondage is clear in the very Text Who all their life time were not still are or shall be But only who could never otherwise all their life time or before get any true freedom from these fears and this bondage but by Jesus Christ and that upon the most serious meditation and due application of the merit and designs of his Death So then the Saints are not all their life time enslaved bound and as it were manacled and fettered in prison but coming to a right understanding of Christs death they are wonderfully set loose and at liberty by Christ So as not to be held fast in the clutches of Satan although all their life time before Conscience and the Devil held them fast by the fears of Death and Judgment After which Liberty so obtained none of Gods people are quite taken prisoners held and bound hand and foot as we say with these fears though alas many times sorely assaulted The Devil may be so bold as to arrest them with these fears but can never altogether captivate and enslave them much less carry them away as it were to the strong Hold and detain them under the power thereof Where ever he finds Gods children arresting them with these fears of death he finds them in privtledged places as I may say his Arrest is against the Law of God the Gospel Charter And there is one especially if fled to and called upon that will take off the Arrest even Jesus Christ the Captain of their Salvation and powerfully deliver them from the Devils black frightful suggestions and all those astonishing fears having destroyed him himself and already put him to his fearing and trembling That through death he might destroy him that had the Power of death that is the Devil and So deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Fifthly What deliverance is this Wrought for the people of God by the power of Christ and the transactions of his Death It is a deliverance so described here to observe the Logick of the Text as that it directly carries our eyes to behold First The Deliverer himself Jesus Christ Secondly The misery he delivers from First The Deliverer himself Jesus Christ And therefore we are to consider 1. That it is a deliverance designed and intended by him That he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil and also that he might deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bendage By taking unto himself flesh and bloud By living and dying this was his great Design to deliver poor mortal men from the fears of Death Great Comfort surely He he will not fail of his end How great is he who disappoints the devices of the crafty so that their hands cannot perform their enterprize And there is none that can controule him or hinder him in his design who ran down the Devil himself that stood in his way He was so set on this design of delivering his children from the fears of Death that he destroyed the Devil
death not only from the domineering prevalency but the disquieting presence of them Now the words lying open to view you have a most fair prospect of great and sweet variety which naturally springs up out of this most fruitful field that if digged and searched will yield very holy meditation and discourse Concerning this Scripture I may say truly in the words of the Apostle Paul when he was comforting timorous souls under their fears of Judgment and so very pertinently to my business in hand Behold here how our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father who hath loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace do here comfort your hearts by the most warm breathings of the Holy Ghost the Comforter who indeed is then a Comforter when all else are but miserable ones His Cordial here is very singular and soveraign the Ingredients very precious and various and not a little conspicuous in these following Doctrines some of which are raised from the fourteenth verse immediately preceding my Text some from both verses together and some from the Text it self only 1. The fourteenth verse exhibits to you these seven Doctrines First That the unconceivable love of the Son of God to his dear children made him come down on earth and become man Secondly That Christ in his humane nature is as very man as any of the Elect his flesh and bloud not only being like ours but part of our substance He also himself likewise took part of the same So that he himself is of the same stock of Adam and Eve as surely and verily as any of us Thirdly That sinners out of Christ are under the sentence of Death such as are not Gods Children are under the Devil their fathers cruel severity that is under the power of Death or That Satan hath the power of Death over all such as are not delivered by Christ from his Power Fourthly That Christ hath destroyed this his power for the sole benefit of his children true believers Fifthly That the way how Christ overcame Satan and destroyed his power was by his own death Or Christ by his own death conquered that Tyrant the Devil Which destruction of the Devil by the Death of Christ because alledged here by the Apostle as Christs intermediate end in subserviency to his Grand design of delivering his children from the fears of Death I shall only a little pause upon The Devil was no sooner our enemy but Christ was his The Devil said to our first Parents Ye shall not surely dye but Christ only made it good Though the Devil meant nothing less yet Christ nothing more see the Devil in his colours First he tempts to sin with a surely thou shalt not dye and yet presently upon the Commission of sin he torments with a surely thou shalt dye He speaks his own plainly when he tempts to sin but he speaks in appearance Gods words when he tempts to despair How much harder then is it to resist his temptations to despair of pardon than it is to resist those his temptations by which he would bring us into a sad need of it But he is a Lyar in both For he spake in his first temptation to sin against his own judgment who verily thought man by sin would most irrecoverably dye and that for ever And when he tempts all men to despair with a surely ye shall dye he knows he lies For Christ in all Ages effectually delivers all his Children Whether Satan say thou shalt not surely dye before sin committed or thou shalt surely dye after sin committed he knows he lyes in the one he lyes against the truth of the Law in the other he lyes against the true meaning of an Enacted Law in the other he lyes against the truth of the repeale or in the one he lyes against the truth of Gods threats and the condemning power of the Law in the other against the truth of Gods promises and of his incomparably glorious Act of Indempnity He thought indeed seeing he could not be exalted above God he would become a petty Tyrant as his ambition thirsted over poor mankind and thereupon laboured to bring man by sin under his power the power of death but wherein he dealt proudly Christ was above him Christ in mans nature dyed for man so that though in as much as Christ dyed the Devil bruised his heel yet Christ by his own death defeated his design and bruised his Serpent-head which he will not be able to get healed for ever whereas Christ only was dead but is alive and lives for evermore as before by death to vanquish him so eternally by the power of his Life and Raign to keep him under in chains of darkness and also to deliver his children from his power of Death who though they sleep yet shall wake again Eternally Sixthly That Christs death conquered the Saints death even the power of it lying much in the hand of the Devil was destroyed with him Death is our enemy Christ encountred it for us in our stead verse 9. the Apostle speaking of Jesus saies thus That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man for him He conquered our enemy death by dying by bearing and so breaking off from us all its malignant force that it cannot reach us therewith when it ruffles most It is our last enemy but already conquered by Christ Christs death it is the Saints life in Death Christ hath given death its deaths wound and though at its last gasp it would lift up its self and grin upon a dying Saint yet behold all its venome-teeth are dasht out by the power of Christ and its sting to seek It laies only upon him a cold and feeble hand but cannot break a bone as I may say not do the least hurt It only rocks the body asleep and makes way for the soul to enter into its Masters Joy unspeakable indeed and full of glory As the Devil whom Christ rebuked in the possessed tare and rent the body it is true yet durst not but come forth and depart and though the body was left on the ground as dead yet it quickly appeared to be alive So death may teare and shake a Saints body at its dissolution and leave it for dead on the ground yet it hath no more to do to touch it the very body as the grain sown in the earth is a springing up though at first flowly with a new life I say the body shall in spight of death live again gloriously at the Resurrection and never dye because death is conquered and destroyed for ever by Christs death who was dead but is alive for evermore Amen Neither is the Saints sleeping at their dissolution a bare piece of Rhetorick but a most real notion Wicked mens bodies may be said indeed most properly to suffer death for though they also shall rise again yet it is to lead a life in those raised bodies worse than death But
now Saints bodies are whilst in the grave really united to Christ which real union of their dust to Christ is a glorious security of their bodies blessed life which the former bare union of their souls and bodies together before death could never give them Seventhly That seeing Death and Devil was thus to be destroyed by Christ it behoved Christ to be a mortal man to dye as well as God-man thereby to conquer Death 2. From the verse immediately preceding together with my Text these two Doctrines First That as Christ by his Death conquered the Devil and Death So also by the same Death of his he delivered his children true Believers from the slavish fears of their own death Secondly That there is none but Christs children can have solid and true courage against Death Not a free man in the world but a true believer all the rest are bondslaves fearful the Devils prisoners Whatever fool-hardiness there may be in the world falsly called valour and contempt of death yet it is far exceeded in the same kind by the more sinewy strength and daring boldness of many brute beasts And in them rather it is valour in man madness The Brute dares to dye but man more void of strength and reason dares dye and be damned too But sure all such men in their natural condition are past feeling or Cowards only to themselves so unreasonably dastardly as to dare rather to look death in the face than their own awakened Consciences For they that seriously meditate and know both themselves and Death and Devil instead of pretending valour must needs yield themselves Captives to the fears of Death for stouter Creatures than sinful wicked unregenerate men even the Devils themselves under guilt do fear and Tremble 3. From my Text alone only these three Doctrines First That there is a natural fear of Death as well as of the Devil rooted in all mens hearts alwaies whilst they are out of Christ at least I say alwaies Though not alwaies felt yet easily awakened as by raging guilt a tempting Devil and sore judgments inflicted on them by an angry yet most righteous God visiting their Iniquities Secondly That this fear puts men in bondage So that they dare not by reason of sensible and evident danger of distraction meditate seriously upon death Gods judgements or Hell so clearly and confessedly deserved by themselves Thirdly That Christ is the great Deliverer of his People from the slavish fears of Death I shall God assisting as it concerns me duly eye all along the death of Christ by the which Death of his He doth deliver his People from the fears of their own death yet intending to speak as briefly and with what advantage I can from the Scriptures to this singularly comfortable Doctrine I shall take the latitude which the absolute consideration of the Text clearly gives me according to the Doctrine already laid down in these words Doctrine ☞ That Christ is the Great Deliverer of his people from their slavish fears of death It is the will of this great King of Saints and Prince of Peace that all his People should live up to their priviledge and his honour Not as sins much less as the Devils or Deaths slaves but as Children Christ is called the Everlasting Father and here before my Text he himself owns and answers to that name Behold I and the children which God hath given me Christs great design is to make his children children indeed free indeed from the servile fears of Death This Prince of life as he is called Acts 3.15 will not have his children slaves to death no nor to the Prince of Death the devi◠The Method in prosecuting this truth shall be by the Lords concurrence First To prove that the Lord Christ is such a Deliverer Secondly To shew how he actually manages this deliverance of his Saints from their fears of Death Thirdly To Apply First Then to prove that the Lord Christ is such a Deliverer For such a glory of our blessed Saviour is highly worth the beholding yea men and Angels displaying and therefore not a needless thing to prove It is never sufficiently seen and admired This considerable and comfortable part of the Saints deliverance by Christ is one of the fairest and rarest Jewels in the Diadem of this King of Saints He is the Deliverer of his people from the fears of Death Therefore as the Apostle saies a little below my Text Consider then the Apostle and High Priest of our Profession Christ Jesus Consider well your great Messiah O Saints behold your King See then First He hath power enough thus to deliver Is he not God man And indeed what is a Jesus a Saviour a Deliverer without Power But can his power conquer his peoples Enemies and their fears too With Jesus all this is possible and more too See the power of his Scepter Heb. 7.25 wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him Not only then from all enemies but from all fears in the way To the uttermost As from the misery of Death it self so from its killing fears Now consider a little will deliverance from the soul-disquieting fears of death be lookt upon and judged a proper real yea great Deliverance And shall not Jesus be the Author and finisher of it who can save to the uttermost This is not surely below or above his power that can deliver to the uttermost Nothing truly deserves the name of Deliverance but this expression to the uttermost comprehends it Luke 1.74 These you see deliverance out of the hand of enemies and serving without fear go naturally together and will Christ separate them Now can Christ thus deliver from the fears of death because to the uttermost those that come unto God by him and yet a soul that comes unto God by him never so delivered How is it possible The Philosopher will laugh at this doubt or denial with his Frustra est potentia quae non producitur in actum That power is in vain that is never exercised Can the Sun withhold the force of its power to heat from any thing it shines upon Can a Mother forget her Child So can the Everlasting Father forget his Can Christ withhold or deny the effectual influence of his power to deliver to the uttermost them that come unto God by him When once this Sun of Righteousness is risen with healing under his wings upon any poor soul the warmth of his continual beams ever and anon breaking through all clouds and overcasts cannot but dispel and work out of that soul all the chil fears of Death Secondly As Christ hath power to deliver his people from the slavish fears of death so also an indispensable obligation thereunto lying upon him as Mediator This is an invincible argument with the former And if you consider well in whom this power resides you cannot have the least scruple or darkness in this Point Who is it then
Truly God-man the Son of God and of man who is what he is as a Christ a Jesus a Saviour for the real and effectual good of all his people who cannot if they will but sooner or later in some measure as really partake of every vertue and benefit of Christs death which they stand in need of as ever Christ did partake with them of the same flesh and bloud For as Mediator he is obliged to save to the uttermost 1 Cor. 1.30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us as Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification so Redemption Christ cannot and will not deny any real Saints that universal and full Redemption and deliverance which God hath made over to them in and with his Son The world out of Christ cannot claim a comfortable interest in Gods power whom they have perfectly disobliged and can by no manner of proper merit oblige him again But now Saints may claim an interest in Christs power to save them to the uttermost because he is made of God to them Redemption without any exception of so considerable a Redemption as this is from the fears of death or indeed without possibility of any such exception For if Christ be made to the Saints Righteousness the Law is satisfied the sting of Death sin and the strength of sin the Law is all quite taken away by a pardon given us through Christs satisfactory and meritorious righteousness If Christ be made Sanctification to us the power of sin is also much subdued so that the hearts courage is no more so weakened by sin nor such an enmity against and thereupon such a suspicion of Gods wrath maintained as before nor in a word such a spirit of bondage again to fear as formerly And then if Christ be made wisdome to us he gives us light whereby to discover the truth and benefit of all this grand provision for our souls peace and rest What then can his being made Redemption to us be more over and above or less Then his rescuing our hearts and consciences from the slavish and foolish fears of any damage by Death that penalty of the Law the wages of sin the worst that can come Christ removing the guilt of sin as our Righteousness and the power of sin as our Sanctification and also removing our ignorance of deaths impotency in such a case to hurt us as our Wisdom hath left nothing to be done more or in the next place as our Redemption but the removing also the impotency of our hearts in such unreasonable fears of Death which he hath so disarmed not only of weapon but of power also to hurt us Now all this he is obliged to do for the Saints For how is he made all this to them if it reach not their souls Separate not what God hath conjoyned in your Saviour one and all in some measure is every Saints portion They cannot ask more of each than is prepared for them in the fulness of Christ Nay not more than they have clear title to as much now as ever any Saints had in any former ages because Christ is made of God to all Saints in full Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Poor souls power in God for your good you can hardly conceive sith by reason of sin he that made you by his power may refuse to save you by his power well yet power laid up in Christ for you may well encourage you God hath therefore lodged power in Christ God-man to let poor Saints believing in him see their interest in it and marriage claim to it to let them know he would have his power actually deliver and save them to the uttermost Go to God by him and he is not only able but obliged to carry you to God without fears in the way It being his very Office as Gods High Chamberlain one set over the house of God for this purpose Heb. 10.21 22. But to support this with another Consideration Thirdly As Christ is able and obliged so willing and faithful as willing as able and as faithful as obliged thus to deliver Truly this with the first I mean his willingness faithfulness and his ability which was first mentioned might easily be granted by any that consider the Person God-man here spoken of yet because it makes much to this present purpose I must shew you some Scripture that commands us to consider this in him as Heb. 2.17 Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest Merciful He took our nature our very flesh that he might be more tender of and merciful to us in our danger and fears of dying which by reason of flesh and bloud are incident to us And then faithful that is so sensible of every thing tender and pitiful as faithfully to improve his great Ability to save and deliver to the uttermost As his power is large to the uttermost of our misery and fear so his faithfulness is as large as his power He must then of necessity be an actual deliverer of his people in all points not only from their Enemies but from their servile fear of them As from Deaths misery so from the fear of it that they serve God without any such horrid fear in righteousness and holiness all their daies And the reason is cogent for in him concur sufficient ability to save and an indispensable obligation thereto from the immutable purpose and appointment mutual agreement and mercy both of his father and himself and also particularly a great obligation from the power of his Sympathy with those whose natures and flesh he took up and then as sufficient ability and indispensable obligation so infallible faithfulness meet gloriously in this blessed Jesus and speak him an Almighty Deliverer of his people from the fears of Death Doth not all this appear He dyed Who could who would so dye Before his death he cryed Let this cup pass that so no Saint might fear its approach He at his death cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me That so no Saint might at his own death cry out fearfully as forsaken of God Those his cries proceeded from mighty and meritorious pangs Thus each peculiar pain was appointed for our particular healing as these mentioned for the curing us of the painful fears of our death and they are also great demonstrations of Christs mercy and faithfulness unto us unto the last Who else might easily have had more than twelve Legions of Angels to have rescued him from the rest of his Passion but he was cruel to himself merciful and faithful to us Fourthly Christ is a Deliverer of his people from the fears of Death because he cannot but be faithful as to his childrens good so to his own glorious design Where Power and Resolution and unchangeableness meet what can hinder the accomplishment of a design Christs power of delivering from the fears
of death hath been evidently proved His design is manifest in the Text. He assumed humane nature THAT he might deliver his Saints from the fear of Death and whilst he bears about him that Humane Nature how can he but be constant to his design in taking it up He that lives for ever to make intercession for his people hath not in vain the Keyes of Hell and of Death Fifthly He hath accomplished and atchieved such things for his children that naturally bring about this their freedom from the fears of Death To suggest the most weighty First He died not only in their nature but in their stead He tasted death for them So that as to them it may be truly said Mankind died in him their representative That formidable death which men deserve Christ hath undergone it all What fear of death can then be reasonably yielded to it is Christ that died What reason to fear that which another hath felt for us on purpose that we to be sure should never feel any such thing What is truly formidable in Death is past and gone and no more to be feared than an escaped danger Secondly Christ hath by his death merited Saints freedom from the fears of their own He laid down his life as the price of this Priviledge What Saint then dares fear death that considers the unquestionable sufficiency of the value of Christs death for the purchasing this great priviledge for him that he should not fear death For a Saint to fear Death with a bondage servile fear is as much as to say Christ hath not bled enough to purchase this my freedom from these fears but I must bleed too to raise the price God forbid that any Saints doubts or fears should ever be found so palpably guilty of undervaluing the bloud of Christ and the price of their Redemption Thirdly Christ by his Death hath taken away the only true fundamental reason and occasion of the fear of Death and that is the condemning power of the Law The sting of that Death sales the Apostle which men so dread it is nothing else but sin Sin indeed unpardoned Well but that is pardoned in the bloud of Christ and therefore saies he Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory that is over death through our Lord Jesus Christ Well but how The foregoing words shew it 1 Cor. 15.56 57. The sting of death is sin True But the strength of sin is the Law Oh! there there is the bitterness The Law sharpens and strengthens the sting of Death sin Oh! This condemning power of a broken Law This this torments the sinners heart with the fears of Death Well but observe The strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God who giveth us the victory that is by weakening the strength of sin and blunting the sharpness of that sting of Death Christ hath satisfied every demand of the broken Law that sin or death can say or do nothing to fright one that is by faith become Christs child Though the Devil lye and so labour to terrifie a Saint saying Come come away thou hast broken the Law Its Sentence and doom is past upon thee Come to prison thou must surely and suddenly dye Yet all this time the Law saies no such thing and yet it flatters none being most true and just but it takes good notice that Christ died and it is fully satis fied I will assure you the Law will not suggest the least fear to any soul that hath the least faith in Christs bloud The Law acknowledges such full payment by Christs most Precious Death that it requires not the least farthing more Rom. 15.18 As by the offence of one judgment came upon all to Condemnation so by the righteousness of one saies the Apostle of Christ the free gift came upon all unto justification of life The broken Law instead of condemning a sinner that hath faith in Christ doth rather justifie him fully The Law saith to the sinner that believes in Christ Truly for all me thou shalt live and that eternally for Christ hath died I require no death of thee and that thou at thy dissolution seemest to die it is more to conform to thy Masters and Saviours death and indeed to comply with the necessity of a better and more curious fabrick of thy body and it s far sweeter life than to satisfie any of the Laws demands Thus Christ satisfying the killing demands of the Law hath indeed taken away the very ground of fear the very strength of sin which without that strength cannot afford Death the least sting to wound us Fourthly Christ hath taken away as the strength of sin so the strength also of the Devils Temptations to fear death So that when a Saint fears death upon the Devils temptations he fears a lye of the Devils and a fancy of his own For Christ hath really broken the force of all the devils temptations to fear death according to the clear meaning of that expression coupled with my Text That he might destroy him that had the power of Death But you will say who but God hath the power of life and Death Doth not Jesus Christ himself vindicate it as his Prerogative Royal Rev. 1.18 speaking of himself I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and Death What power of death then hath the Devil But little now blessed be Christ The Devil cannot bring death at his pleasure to our doors Jobs life was not committed to his cruel mercy he had no power to kill him Truly wicked men have power when God permits to kill the body and what hath the Devil more By the Power of Death here attributed to the Devil is meant only his forcible temptations by which he conveys many ugly forms and shapes of Death and so also many sad apprehensions and fears thereof into mens distressed Consciences the Devil hath leave of God to fright guilty sinners and he hath of himself malice power and wit enough to bring death near and to lay its rough hand upon the sore place of a sinners wounded Conscience Yea he hath besides even all that power and strength of Deaths sting in his hand which Death received from the Condemning Law But now though the wicked are often laid open to the Devils cruel mercy yet little it is that he can do against Christs People because Christ hath destroyed the Devil and this his Power Christs bloud hath cancelled his Commission or so contracted and lessened it that when ever he assaults a believer with the fears of Death he knows he must flee upon resistance Resist the Devil saies the Apostle and he will flee from you He knows he must having no Commission to stay after such resistance as Christ enables his people to make And then as to that strength of his Temptations which is derived and urged from a pretence of the Condemnation and penalty of the Law
It is but little or indeed nothing he can say to a believer Here the Saint hath advantage of ground given him against the Devil For never was the Law more broken than Christs life fulfilled it and never can the penalty thereof be so fully suffered as it was by Christs Death that paid the uttermost farthing which the damned's torments shall never be able to do Sixthly Christ is the Deliverer of his People from the fears of Death in as much as he works mightily in them as well as for them and so wonderfully strengthens them in the inner man against those servile fears of Death But in what manner and by what graces or comforts I have determined to shew in the second part of my Method I shall therefore now only add That Christ administers a mighty vertue and power to the spirits of his people by his gracious Pardons encouraging Commands and comfortable yea sutable Promises All which wonderfully serve to animate Believers against the fears of Death First By Gracious Pardons The Son of man had power on earth to forgive sin sure he hath not lost that power now he is exalted in heaven You know he exercised that power on earth and so he doth still For whilst on earth how oft said he Thy sins are forgiven thee Upon his departure from the earth near his dying Peace I leave with you my Peace I give unto you not as the world giveth give I unto you let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid Joh. 14.27 After his Resurrection Peace be unto you Joh. 20.21 After his Ascension into heaven you know the Salutations in his Letters Credential by his Ambassadors and Ministers I mean the Salutations you find in the front to many of the Epistles in the New Testament Grace Mercy and Peace from God our Father first and then from our Lord Jesus Christ as the very next hand This Prince of Peace speaks Peace to his Saints and what enemy first or last as death is dare or can speak War As Christ by his own mouth spake peace on earth to his people so now as verily and really by his own spirit by his infallible Word and true Ministers he sares to the poor Consciences of his Saints Your sins are forgiven you and if Sin sting not Death cannot Guilt 's fears are blasted with that sweet peace which Christ gives and which the world by a thousand Deaths cannot take away fears cannot dwell where Christs words of eternal life take place So that a pardoned Conscience sings before this enemy Death O Death where is thy sting Secondly By encouraging Commands doth his Excellency the Lord Jesus hearten his People and Souldiers that they fear neither Death nor Devil which expressions of Christ are not to be considered only as beseeching perswasions but rather as most rouzing and Authoritative incitements unto courage and valour as these are Fear not little Flock it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom Luk. 12.32 which indeed is won and fully possest by Death And Be of good chear and let not your heart be troubled neither let it be affraid c. So still doth Christ as a Lord of Hosts go on speaking couragiously to us by his Word by his Spirit and by his field Officers Isa 35.4 I mean his Apostles and Ministers and that in such words as these prest and charged home Let your Conversation be as BECOMES the GOSPEL and that especially in your being nothing TERRIFIED by your adversaries Phil. 2.27 28. And put on the whole Armour of God c. That ye may be able to stand in the evil day and having done all to stand Christ as a good Captain and great General heartens his people not to fear their last encounter in the evil day the hour of danger or of sudden Death he secretly whispers such courage into his peoples hearts And for him to say fear not who by a word created all things in heaven and earth it is enough to embolden the faintest Christian Souldier unto Conquest What a Captain of Salvation is this That at once saies be of good courage and makes of good courage Oh labour to hear the voice of the Son of God and thou shalt live in spight of Death and truly there is no such difficulty to hear him for he uses to speak Peace to his Saints that diligently seek him Thirdly By comfortable and sutable Promises doth the Lord Jesus animate his people against all evil fear of Death to instance in some I will not leave you comfortless I will send you the Comforter Verily verily I say unto you ye shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be turned into joy Joh. 16.20 22. Your heart shall rejoyce and your joy no man taketh from you no not Devil nor Death for if these could it would be all one as if man could for then they should not keep it But although one of Christs Apostles confest of himself that he was in deaths often yet that Promise bore him our and all the rest too of Christs Disciples even so as that they sang in prison and made ready not to be bound only but to dye at Jerusalem or any where else for the name of the Lord Jesus It is very remarkable that when Jesus Christ had given his Disciples many comfortable Promises Joh. 16. to hearten them up he summed up all in the end of the Chapter thus These things have I spoken unto you that is these Promises that in me ye might have peace in the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good chear I have overcome the world yea whatsoever is the worlds properly as misery and death are All the Promises of God are in Christ yea and in him Amen Promises are Gods and Christs words upon which they cause their people to hope according to that of David Remember thy word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope And the Apostle teaches that through patience and comfort of the Scriptures Saints have hope which hope in the Promises prevails against nothing more than sin 2 Cor. 7.1 and 1 Joh 3.3 and particularly against sinful fears of death For what can more naturally destroy fear than that which mightily enlivens hope Such are Christs Promises which words of eternal life therefore are most powerful against Death Shall Saints then fear though a little flock when those young Lions wicked men and those old Lions the Devil and Death set upon them when as they have such a Promise as this to bear them up That it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom Death may be dreadful to those that by it lose Crowns but certainly desirable to those that by it are sure to win Crowns Seventhly I produce the great Examples and instances which testifie of Christ that he is such a deliverer of his people from the fears of Death as first Job Though God should slay him yet no fear
to think that many who do so much and cry Lord Lord Lord have mercy on us yet are not thereupon to be judged in so good a condition and in an unquestionable state of Salvation Therefore I conceive a right understanding of such expressions may be got by taking notice of holy John's palpable intent and the drift of his speech upon the forementioned occasion the Apostle therefore for the better understanding of such mistaken spirits asserts in summe thus much that indeed those only that confess Jesus to be the Son of God and will not deny him in fear of Death or Torment are to be taken for true Christians and happy souls indeed Upon the same account he asserts also That Perfect love casteth out fear that is the tormenting fear of death or danger as Tertullian evinces in his Scorpiacum or Antidote against the Gnosticks speaking thus Johannes negat timorem esse in dilectione quem timorem intelligi praestat nisi negationiâ— authorem i.e. John denies fear to be in love what fear can be better understood then such as is the Author and cause of denying Christ even as the Apostle Peter did for fear of death or suffering He that loves Christ but tolerably aright will not be loath to dye for Christ or to dye and go to Christ That Spouse who is truly sick of love for Christ thinks no Cure of that sickness like Death even to depart and to be with Christ to be ever with the Lord her blessed Bridegroom Thirdly Christ by giving his people that excellent grace of hope kills the fear of death 2 Thes 2.16 There it is plain that good hope through his grace is not only his gift but therewith also or thereby everlasting Consolation which therefore is neither to be interrupted by the fears of Death or discontinued by Death it self yea the same Consolation springing from this grace of hope Heb. 6.18 19. is there called strong Consolation Indeed stronger then Death or the terriblest fears of Death For Christ giving this hope is there said to comfort and establish Saints so that no fear of death as in that place of judgment day can either sadden whom he so comforts or shake and disturb the minds he so establishes for their hearts thus become fixed trusting in the Lord. The Saints grace of hope gets beyond Death before hand and enters into heaven As this Apostle to the Hebrews represents it as entring into that within the vail and by it Saints on earth fit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Now you know hope 's nature is contrary to fear He who hopes for eternal life and for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of the body as it is spoken of Saints hope Rom. 8 23 24 25. He that hath such a saving hope whereby as an Anchor sure and stedfast he hopes for life can never be tost like a wave with any slavish fears of Death Oh then still thy soul by hope in God The Apostle Peter calls the Saints the childrens hope a lively hope Who hath saies he begotten us unto a lively hope Lively hope destroys the exanimating killing fears of Death Puts us beyond death as to fear before it come at us as to feeling for he that hath this lively hope as an Anchor sure and stedfast cannot much fear that he shall at death become a Castaway though he be careful with the Apostle Paul It is Hells pit that is bottomless or fathomless so that the despairing Damned are alwaies tormented with Eternal pains and frights But alas Come the worst of it to the Saints of God this they know that the Graves pit is not bottomless there is enough for their hope to bottom and anchor upon surely and stedfastly The Grave to the wicked is indeed bottomless and though it detains a while the body yet it lets the soul slip into Hell and the body too not long after But Christs Death burial hath so sanctified every of the Saints Graves that at worst their graves will be by so much happier to them then that Grave was to the dead man whom Elisha's buried bones revived even by how much Lazarus his second was or will be better than his first Resurrection Christs Death and Burial hath left somewhat in every Saints grave sufficient at the lowest for his hope to bottom on so that his body when there may be truly said to rest in hope and therefore having this grace of hope he need not unless he will be disquieted with fears before Death Fourthly Christ by giving his people on earth some real foretasts of heaven and of eternal life doth thereby effectually destroy their fears of Death And therefore the Apostle Paul who was next to his Lord and Master the greatest conquerour and triumpher over Death we read of after that he had been Rapt up into the third heaven as he stories it himself in the second Epistle to the Corinthians was ever after most undaunted under the seriousest thoughts of death as is most evident in his other Epistles which were written after those to the Corinthians particularly in that to the Romans where he tells us how little he fears death or a thousand deaths though killed as it were all the day long yet more then Conquerour He had before so sweet a sight of heaven that Death could not fright him so sweet a taste of heavens pleasures that he could never after taste any bitterness in death And thereupon justly longing to be there again he feared not death the only passage into so much bliss Let every true Saint consider this I say every soul that conscionably walks with God and labours to have Communion with God in his holy waies and Ordinances that walks in some measure as that blessed Apostle Paul who lived in all good conscience before God that with holy David tastes and sees that the Lord is gracious that tastes in deed and truth savingly of the heavenly gift the good Word of God and the powers of the World to come O precious Saint dost thou so live How is it possible but thou must long to be filled with these heavenly joyes How canst thou fear that Death that will put thee into actual possession of thy Masters Joy According to that in Rom. 8.28 And not only they viz. the Creatures but we our selves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit do groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our body See here that a taste of the first fruits of the heavenly Canaan which Gods Spirit from above fetches for and feeds a Saint with makes him not to groan under the fears of dying but rather under fears of not dying O you that taste and rellish heavenly things in Divine Ordinances and have much of the presence of Christ with you in them are you affraid to dye and to be with Christ for ever Is not this better then to live There are three things deservedly to be called first
the Grave as I may say if that he might be perfect indeed and attain to the Resurrection of the Dead Perfect holiness is so desirable to holy men that they desire death for its sake aiming more at the compleat holiness of soul and body after death at the Resurrection then the continuance of an unsatisfactory life of flesh and bloud in a state of imperfection Certainly the Paths of wisdom are such pleasantness and peace that men who walk therein are not affraid to meet death in those waies everlasting they press forward towards death upon it through it to attain to the Resurrection of the Dead Thus Christ giving his people his own fellowship Mortification of sin by his own Spirit and the graces and fruits of righteousness which are by himself derived to us as so many foretastes of heavens bliss Thus I say doth Christ render death far more desirable than terrible to the Saints To all which I might well refer the inward joyes and comforts of the holy Spirit of Christ which are special and palpable foretastes of heaven and the chief of the first fruits of the Spirit But it is plain that these swallow up the fears of Death and make men groan within themselves rather fearing they shall not dye then that they shall When a Saint with Reverens Mr Bolton can say he is as full of Christ as ever he can hold there is not a crevess for one poor small fear of death to enter in at I might but shall not discourse to you more particulars to demonstrate how Christ destroys in his childrens hearts the slavish fears of death as by his giving to them the Spirit of Adoption by convincing them of the great gain by death as the Apostle expresses of himself For me to live is Christ and to dye gain and having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better When Saints cast up their accounts and consider what they shall get by living even more remptations to sin more advantages and opportunities to express the naughtiness of their hearts more thorns in the flesh and messengers of Satan to buffet more fore chastisements and sad desertions of the Almighty and more of the evil which is to come upon a wicked world Then then they truly judge it their advantage to dye As that Father Cyprian strangely yet truly Nihil utilius Christiano quans mori velocissime Nothing more advantagious to a Christian then to dye very betimes Good men indeed therefore have dreaded more the sad Consequents of a preserved life than the worst Concomitants of Death it self which to the Saints hath no other Consequence but the souls happy entrance into the Masters joy For before their bodies can be well laid in the Grave their souls are laid in Abrahams besome or which is all one their souls are taken from an acquitting Bench to the blessed Mansions or Palaces that Christ hath prepared for them in his Fathers Court of Heaven But I leave you to that preaching whereby men preach to themselves even according to the further enlargement of their own sweet Meditations on such Theams as these partly treated on and partly hinted unto you Now that I may more boldly and effectually apply this great Doctrine which is alwaies seasonable whilst Death is to come But then especially when it is near I shall only speak to an Objection levelled particularly at an Argument that I well used to prove Christ a deliverer of his people from the fears of Death which was this Such and such Scripture Saints and no doubt many others Christ hath so delivered therefore he is such a Deliveter Against which this is the Objection Do not we read of Hezekiah an eminent and great Saint that he chattered at the Tidings of Death And of David that he played the Mad man in jeopardy of his life How can Christ be such a Captain of Salvation such a Lord General over his People and Souldiers as to deliver them from the fears of Death If most sad fears of Death be found prevailing over two such Worthies two such eminent godly Kings and the later of them mentioned one of the stoutest warriours recorded in Sacred Story that was in the world for prophane partial Historians relate an Alexander's a Caesar's prowess But the God of truth affirms of David That he was as a man after Gods heart so a valiant man also who got the highest preferment that ever was in the world even to be the first and best fully allowed King of Gods own people I say who got this singular preferment through Gods Blessing by his valour Yet he even he in danger did what a mean Saint would scarce do in the greatest fears of Death even played the fool and mad-man to save his life Where was Davids Lord then who as you say delivers from the fears of Death To Answer 1. I say not That Christ delivers all Saints so exceeding remarkably 2. No. nor the same person alwaies at every nick and point of time whom he may deliver most And yet neither one or the other to be reflected upon him but upon themselves that leave him not he them And yet for all this what is more obvious Then that his Ability in delivering some yea many yea most more or less may well and clearly denominate him such a Deliverer First then 1. I will give you and oppose to the Objection as great an Instance nay unparallel'd for the proof of Christs power in delivering his Saints from the fears of Death Moses yea Aaron also both in the same condition as to Death But Moses only I set before your eyes as enough to fill them for he was the greatest Captain or Lord General that ever had the Conduct of an Army and whole Nation For it is not the Title but usefulness of a man and the Presence of God with a Person that makes him truly renowned and famous Of Moses it is said Deut. 34.10 There arose not a Prophet since in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knew face to face Well God himself brought to this man the message of Death and told him he should dye and not lead his Conquering Army into the Land of Canaan No though it was never so desirable to him And God moreover dreadfully spake on and told him oh sad and bitter that his very death at that time was a punishment for such a sin mentioned Deut. 32.51 Well Moses hath not a word but dies Nay Moses died in an hour when his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated Deut. 34.7 So that he who buried him the Lord himself took him away in his full strength as a punishment of his great Sin and and yet behold no fear but after that God told him peremptorily he should dye he presently with a most sweet sedate mind blessed the people his dear charge went from them and died His case might be in some measure thus illustrated to you take an eminent
servant of Christ now in this City of London one that hath done God the most service an upright man none like him as it was said of Job one fearing God and eschewing evil that hath been much in prayer possibly and in preaching too one truly frequently nay continually rapt up into great and close Communion with God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ one highly instrumental in converting and edifying souls walking with God in his Closet and in his house in a perfect way and yet more one that hath been a great Conduct to reduce erring sheep Now suppose that for some sin God should bring the Plague to his body as once God did to a great and good King Hezekiah and of late to a right Eminent Pious Divine of our own of which Plague he died Now I say suppose that for some sin God should bring the Plague to such an one's body in his perfect health with an evident Symptom of Death and besides oh sad and bitter fully perswade him that he is visited with the Plague for such a particular sin that he hath committed and therefore that he shall not recover but dye suddenly Now if this 〈…〉 fears not is not dismayed upon hope in Gods mercy 〈◊〉 â—is sin is pardoned however thus 〈…〉 〈…〉 after life was but 〈…〉 or fifteen years And we find that fifteen years 〈…〉 past 〈◊〉 gives but little comfort when we have but five daies to live So what comfort against Death could Hezekiah's fifteen years administer to him when he committed such sins in the Prime of those years which at death he should leave behind him to ruine his Posterity and Kingdom withall when he quickly had but five daies to live of his fifteen years nay but five hours of them nay but five minutes could his past reprieve then Antidote his fears For no doubt when the message of his reprieve came by the Prophet Isaiah to him even that hour fifteen years exactly his life expired And no doubt also that not only God himself but Hezekiah too numbered his daies and kept good reckoning So that one might think if we measure him by our own foolish and melancholly yet usual musings he might be affrighting himself ever and anon with such sad reckonings as these Now oh now I have but one poor year of my fifteen to come and again but a little longer and it is now alas but one Month the next sad thought might be now my last Sabbath is gone by and by a sad sob and crying out now my last night or my last day is quite past and now my last hour yea as quick as thought now my last minute Which appaling thoughts one whose death is not precisely foretold cannot multiply to his own terrour though in the weakest condition because the weakest do oft recover And hereupon those who are to be executed at a sixt hour are more liable to be struck with fear because of the certain and sudden approach of Death and that in their perfect strength Yet though this be the truly aggravated Case of Hezekiah fourteen years and an half more or less after his great recovery And when Death comes with the experience of its former success in frighting him yea and comes effectually indeed to him yet heark No chattering So the Objection of Hezekiah a good man that had a good heart and a good life having done that which is good in Gods sight I say the objection of his fearing death is sufficiently answered with his not fearing death when he came to dye in good earnest which though it be not recorded is not to be scrupled because it must be concluded that all who dye in the Lord do dye though not so comfortably yet solidly not overcome by but overcoming their fears at last And that it was rather needful to record his chattering fears at the likely approach of his death in as much as that seemed a strange thing and a most unusual condition of eminent Saints when they come to dye Or put case instances may be produced of greater confidence in some Saints some considerable time before then at Death truly it would make but little appearance against the Doctrine For I discourse of the constant or most usual temper of Christs redeemed ones all along their life time who know indeed it is not long before they must certainly dye yet have no certain news told them when The courage of the Saints life is that which proves and honours our Redeemers effectual power of Redemption and him also that made him Redemption to the Saints Now if the Saints being redeemed by Christ do serve God without fear all the daies of their life though at the last hour there may be some little surprize of fear yet what is that to object against such a Doctrine Alas who knows not but that sharp sickness and tedious Death enfeebles the spirits so that whatever the patients heart be yet his trembling voice may but wrong his inward spiritual heartiness Alas then grace reason or sence it self have but little space room or breath to think or do much Yet I am confident that as great extraordinary joyes accompany but few Saints just at their departure out of this world so also am I as sure that great fears at that nick or point of Death do accompany none of them Fears may assault them but not possess them Saints dye at least resisting them which is even then to be actually delivered from their captivating power But because fear of Death after all that can be said seems to be the common temper of Gods children as well as the Devils slaves I shall labour to shew some sufficient difference in their fearing death or any Calamity in these following particulars First Saints may as sinful men fear but not as Saints When grace is low and corruption occasionally strengthened and advantaged either by security temptation or at length by the Commission of some more than ordinary sin then it is easie for an approaching evil much more death it self to run them down But observe it when a Saint lives as a Saint hath Communion with God exercises grace baffles a Temptation maintains a wise fear of God then let a thousand approaching miseries trumpet evil tydings or let death it self beat an Alarum to judgment the Saints fear not Psal 23.3 4. He restoreth my soul he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness then then though I walk in the valley of the shadow of Death I will fear no evil no evil punishment no evil tydings no Death I will fear no evil for thou art with me Secondly Saints may too as natural men fear that is as evil and misery crosseth natures inbred lawful rules of self preservation so flesh and bloud may fear and that without imputation of sin But as the worst evils conduce to and work together for the Saints good and Gods glory all is welcomed with joy as it was by those who counted it an
men are like the Amorites whose hearts melted the nearer Israels Host came neither was there spirit in them any more Josh 5.1 Their fear had quite consumed their spirits Hence it is that despair carries away so many of them at last But it is quite contrary with those that are in Christ following him in all the difficulties of the Regeneration and deadly troubles of this life their Courage encreases with their dangers At the first commonly some smart and some fear in greater pain none at all At the first they may be somewhat affraid of evil Tidings but not long or not long so much It may be there is upon further certainty and feeling of what they heard and feared before nay there is indeed frequently greater quiet and composure of mind under Gods fatherly hand A soul that hath true grace though but weak feeling it self almost quite gone in despair stirs up all its strength as its last gasp and stretch just as the spirit is failing before the Lord and behold it revives when as in such a case the wicked mans spirit like a Nabals sinks as a stone within him See how the Saints dying hope as I may call it revives in an utmost extremity For when the hypocrites hope perishes and is like the giving up of the Ghost The Saints hope is like the Resurrection from the Dead as you have it in a place of Scripture truly singular and notable Lam. 3.17 18 19 20 21. Thou hast removed my soul far off from peace I forgat prosperity Vers 18. And I said my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. Vers 19. Remembring mine affliction and my misery the wormwood and the gall Vers 20. My soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me Vers 21. This I recall to my mind therefore have I hope Oh! most wonderful It is first said My strength and my hope is perished then This I sadly think on what is next Therefore have I hope What saies learned Calvin that sagacious man in spiritual cases What Doth despair cause hope Saies he excellently Incomprehensi bili atque admirabili Dei beneficio spes ex Desperatione By an unconceivable and most admirable working of God the Saints hope springs out of despair So it was with David sometimes even at first encounter disquieted quite amort afterwards he rowzes himself and trusts in God Therefore he confesses the whole matter saying At what time I am affraid I will trust in thee Psal 56.3 This is a Saints most constant use and a certain Remedy is taken by this course nothing cures fear like hope Though a Saint be surprized at first with fear yet hope in God will recover him e're it be too late As it did that reverend Martyr who recanted for fear For he mastered his fears soon after and burnt them with the same hand that drew back before having in a greater pain least fear So it is in general or in common with Gods people it may be at first some fear but through Christ victory over it at last Thus did the terrible army of Martyrs win the field and Crown of glory and even so do all by Christ more or less conquer their fears of Death Take then a good man as a good man a child of God my Text speaking of such an one one that is gracious and serious that walks with God and there is no dispute no room for an objection If I say he be eminently righteous constant in holiness watchful and careful closely walking with God one whose soul Christ his great Shepherd hath restored and leads in the paths of Righteousness Christ still conducting him he is not affraid though he walk in the valley of the shadow of Death Thus it is with the Saints Christs Souldiers conflicting with their enemies from Deaths first Alarum in other Calamities to its last onset on the Graves brink The Saints may truly make Sampson's Riddle their Song Judges 14.14 Out of the eater comes forth meat and out of the strong comes forth sweetness even so at worst out of the fearfullest Death the liveliest Hope And now I think the Objection will not in the least disturb my Application or the USE And because I have no design to tire the Press or any ones patience but to make the Comforts of the Scriptures go down both as quickly and as pleasantly as may be I shall only add a few words of Information and then of Exhortation with Direction And first of Information in two things First See how Precious Christ is who is such a Deliverer as hath not only purchased heaven for us but given us the first fruits to taste He not only frees altogether from Eternal Death but from the fears of Temporal and bodily Death Therefore this being a great benefit we have by Christ is particularly extolled by the Apostle Paul who preached up the glory of his Dear Jesus with what singular advantage he could take as 1 Cor. 15.56 Thanks be to God saies he who hath given us the victory that is over Death and its power through our Lord Jesus Christ Oh there is the Emphasis there is his Selah as I may say Through our Lord Jesus Christ Oh! How dear should this Jesus this Deliverer be to us Who makes us poor Creatures so dear to himself as that sith we must dye yet the fears of Death should not molest and vex us the remaining part of our life Secondly See the Possibility of attaining this Temper of not fearing Death nay also the Necessity of it Be not prejudiced ignorantly against Christs design and your own duty yea attainable happiness Do not say you cannot attain it it requires assurance and assurance rarely if ever enjoyed by Saints in this life Do not jumble mistakes together you have seen what is required to it and how Christ works the fears of death out of his peoples hearts Come come say O Saint hereafter with the Apostle Paul I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Say with David Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of Death I will fear no ill for thou art with me Follow Job's and others their courage in the expectation of death Is God any respecter of persons Is not a childs portion a childs portion You expect heaven as well as those eminent Saints and the same Crown of glory And why should you not fight as manfully as they who could dare death it self But still this Information is clouded with some kind of exceptions And there are that say Indeed Christ hath delivered Scripture Saints and some others it may be from the fear of death and can do as much for us But yet is any thing in so great an attainment our duty Or to us possible Few or none attain a full assurance of faith without which can any attain to freedom from the fears of death What you answer is of Eminent Saints Paul Job David who had this rare thing assurance and
I shall only add That this freedom from the fears of Death is a priviledge Christ hath purchased for this present state for this life NOw what Saint can find in his heart to lose so great a Legacy left by Christ so great a purchase and benefit of his Death So great a Deliverance And foolishly multiply to himself self-willed fears or which is worse self-willed grounds of fear as lust passion worldly incumbrances or worldly mindedness idleness vain frothy foolish actions and carriage or if not so then it may be ignorant suspicions of Gods mercy All these things do but arm Death and thine own Conscience to wound thee oh look to thy self make haste for Death hastens apace O! what true Child of God but would so long to be rid of this disingenuous temper of fearing Death as to be even hourly on his knees begging of Christ this benefit of his gloriously conquering death which if a Child of God receives not in this short and now if ever uncertain life he will altogether miss that which is so goodly a part of the Saints Portion which is proper to and fitted for this present life even before Death comes to encounter us Well abandon these fears with the grounds of them and then though Death come quickly yet through Christ you will grapple well enough with it And oh that men were wise to get from Christ by all constant importunity some of this blessed deliverance from the fears of Death and oh that by a continual carelesness because not presently seized by the Plague or any other mortal sickness they would not desperately venture it and so sadly abandon themselves to the frights of the Devil in an hour of sudden death Now if any be awakened either by Gods Word or Providence to look after this great benefit of Christs death which is to be delivered from the servile fears of their own then let such consider this Counsel which the Scripture gives in the Case First Have a care of harbouring one moment any known or knowable guilt For it receives from the condemning Law strength to arm Death with I wonder not that those Saints who have at any time much guilt upon their spirits do then fear Death If sin be not examined and found out which is not done by many Saints who even justifie themselves in some sins not judging them to be sins nor much caring to examine lest they should prove sins and so to be parted with contrary to a dear humour and so calling good evil and evil good no wonder in such a case that the Woe belonging to such when executed as well as threatned frights them If Saints for want of due consideration and examining themselves do not only commit but continue in sin unrepented of as the Plagued Corinthians no wonder that they are surprized not only with the fears of death but with sudden death it self Oh! shake your Consciences rouze them up to discharge their office faithfully let your heart smite you for the least sin or evil thought and oh harbour not guilt let it not lodge with you one night no not an hour for so long you will be liable to horrid fears of dying It is so and the very truth of many Saints condition Therefore find out that which troubles your peace and provokes God to leave you to the fears of Death finding it out labour for the assistance of Christs Spirit for one look from Christ for one manifestation of Gods love that may break your hearts and make you weep bitterly repent and grieve throughly thus shall not sin come upon you with an afterclap with a repentance to be repented of Weep for sin according to the demand of the Gospel which requires not a little grief though less then sin deserves for it deserves hells weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Do this Believe and Repent Repent and Believe and then you will find in your hearts little or no fears of Death For peace of Conscience will thus become firm and will cast and keep them out yea defend the heart through Christ I say therefore dayly yea hourly exercise faith together with repentance that is to say a vigorous faith which is never forlorn or forsaken of good works and such a faith in Christ will be your victory over all base fears of Death Be not then O souls too hasty in your exercise of faith Believe again and again really and truly presenting to your selves the severity of the last and solemn judgment of God Believe not only till some ease come but till you be willing to dye if the Lord will presently For did you arraign your selves in bitter Confession of sin as before Gods Tribunal indeed No less faith would serve your turn then such as would carry you boldly from your knees through Death to Judgment for you may so examine and judge your selves as to be confident in Christ that you shall never be judged of the Lord. Secondly Resist the Devil I mean these his temptations to fear death resist both him and all his temptations as those to sin to despair of its pardon and to fear its wages Death Have an It is written for him if not to wound him yet to gag him If nothing be readier dart this Text into his foul mouth to stop it this Text managed with faith will fright the Devil more than he can fright you This Text is in this case like Goliahs Sword none like it Take Gods Word for it will wound him and make him run too by the power of the Spirit of Christ Well thus resist the Devil fear him not he is a conquered enemy Christ hath destroyed him that hath the power of death saies the Apostle And therefore I desire you to resist him for two reasons First Because your Captain hath done it It is fit for Souldiers to fight against such as their General Charges It is not fit for you to yield to the Devils temptations to fear Death when as Christ the Captain of your salvation hath overcome him as his and your Enemy destroying him that had the power of Death This were to raise arms with the Devil and to strengthen him against Christ and your own lives too But Secondly I advise this because it is the way of Christ his Method of ridding his children from fear He first destroyed him that had the power of Death that is the Devil and all this that he might deliver his people from fear of dying So do you follow Christs Methods of war Would you be delivered indeed by Christ from the bondage fears of Death Then do as Christ resist him that hath the power of Death The Promise you know encourages this stoutness Resist the Devil and he will flee from you which when he doth your fears of Death will flee after him because it is he only that hath this power of Death As one saies Timor attrahit ad se Daemonas Fear or Cowardize invites the Devil to
who had the greatest power of death to oppose him 2. As it is a Deliverance designed so purchased by him at the price of his Death He tasted death for every man that he might deliver c He purchased with his own bloud the deliverance of his people from the fears of death 3. As designed and purchased so really and actually vouchasafed he destroyed the Power of the Tyrant who detained them as slaves and set them at liberty As it was said of Herod He was dead that sought the Childs life so may it be said of the Devil He is destroyed that enslaved the poor Consciences of mortal men with the horrid fears of Death * Hoeprostratus est Diabolus ut pro nihilo hab ndus sit â—o si nullus fore Calv. And they that are in Christ are not under his power so it may be said of them only that they were subject to bondage closely held to it but now they are loose and at liberty to serve God without fear in righteousness and holiness all the daies of their life But now Secondly This Actual Deliverance is further described so as to lead us to the Consideration of the misery from which Christ delivers his people and that under those words Death Fears Bondage 1. From Death it self I mean the misery or curse of it It is true all Christs redeemed ones dye or are translated But Death is not death to them but rather a meer shadow and whilest it is a sad reality to others it is truly but as a sleep to the Saints It is said therefore of the best meer men 1 Kings 2.10 1 Kings 11.43 they slept with their Fathers But of the Best and Greatest God-Man Jesus Christ that he died He tasted of death for every man as you have it a little before my Text that is for the good and advantage of all the children He tasted for them it is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he drank up that Cup * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est mortem sentiret Metaphora sampta a Propinato calice ex scripturae more quem etiam servalt Christus in triplici illa sua oratione cum ad mortem properaret Vid. Joh. 8.51 Quibusdam etiam placet istud eò referre quod vere quidem mortuus sit Sed tamen mortem quasi degustarit duntaxat ut qui mox resurrexerit quâ ratione dicuntur etiam noâ—nulli bonum dei donum guflare quod mox evomant infra 6.4 Sed hoc non placet Beza He tasted so as they never do that they might not taste the bitterness of Death He tasted it for them they only as it were kiss the Cup. Christ dyed they sleep Now who will say that sleeping is dying indeed that it is a misery or imperfection to fall asleep Unless we can think Adam to be miserable in innocency and fallen before his wife tempted him or was yet made of him for he was asleep when Eve was formed of his Rib. Sleeping then is not a misery no more is the Saints death who fall asleep in the state of the best innocency by the righteousness of Christ There may indeed be some similitude in the Saints death unto the imperfection and which sweetens the matter unto the necessity and refreshment of sleep taking it at the worst after that the Fall had decayed mens Constitutions and Tempers There may be and often are tossings and wearisom tumblings on a death bed and sometimes anguish agonies terrible Convulsions but these are only like the difficulty which a weary Traveller meets with in falling to sleep whose sleep is nevertheless sweet to him Or like the terrible dreams a healthful man may have in his sleep which are more disturbance to his fancy than sences For usually the body is past sensation or but of a very dull sence and feeling in such gasping difficulties Such Convulsions frighting more the Beholder than the Patient and are but as I may say the sad dreams of a dying man upon his falling to a deep sleep when he awakes all is well for he did but dream it was ill with him But however that soul is but little concerned in all this which is delivered by Christ from the proper pains and terrours of Death 2. Christ delivers from the sting of Death Sin which is remarkably signified in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text which with a Genitive as it is here is used in good Greek Authors to signifie the Obligation of guilt to a due punishment of a broken Law And so consequents here to Death the wages of sin which terrifies at distance and enslaves the Conscience Subject to Bondage that is by the guilt of sin to the enthralling fears of its due punishment Death * Beza therefore renders that part of my Text thus Quotquot metu mortis pâ—r totam vitam Damnates erant servitatis But from this sting of Death are Christs children delivered witness the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 15.56 57. The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Victory by Christ or deliverance from the sting of Death made him sing O Death where is thy sting Death is but as a Serpent to be plaied with because the sting is taken out to be scorn'd therefore rather than feared So that you see the safety and sweetness of this deliverance by Christ consists in his disarming this enemy pulling out that only bitter and mortally wounding sting of Death Sin 3. Christ Delivers his children from the slavish fears of Death and the very sad bondage of them This indeed is the top and perfection of this deliverance The very express notion of the Text and must be made out in the sequel of the Discourse To all which resolves may be added That as this happy deliverance is the real portion and really enjoyed priviledge of real Saints Christ tasting death for every man who is of that blessed Fraternity the children of Christ as they are called by Christ himself a little before the Text v. 13 14. So also must this deliverance be acknowledged upon the first enjoyment at least to be not suddenly perfect through the weakness of believers faith yet notwithstanding it is sufficient through Christ to bear them out in all their encounters even at length unto Conquest yea Triumph too Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ and makes us without fear sing O Death where is thy sting For as God even so Christ gives all his benefits liberally and upbraids not and that without any difference or respect of persons to all that ask in faith without any wavering His blessed will is That his free born children should not only have life but have it more abundantly that is comprehending naturally this instance That they should be more and more abundantly freed from the servile fears of