and active to prevent a threatning Evil or to sustain it in the best manner 'T is observable in the brute Creatures that the Weak and Fearful are most subtile and ingenious to secure themselves and supply the want of Strength with Artifice But when Fear is inordinate 't is a tyrannous Master that vexes the weary Soul and hinders its free and noble Operations Cesar chose rather to be expos'd to sudden death than to be continually harrass'd with fears how to avoid it The Greek word implies the binding of the Spirit that causes an inward Slavery And in the Apostle's Writings the Spirit of Fear and the Spirit of Bondage are equivalent Ishbosheth when Abner provok'd by the Charge about Saul's Concubine imperiously threatned to translate the Kingdom to David was struck with such a fear that he could not answer Abner a word 2 Sam. 3.10 11. The sudden Passion stifled his Reply and reduc'd him to a defenceless Silence Now the fear of Death as 't is remiss or vehement such are the degrees of Bondage from it 1. It embitters the enjoyments of the present Life and makes the most prosperous in the World even in the fulness of their sufficiency to be in straits Though the Senses are pleased with the quick sweetness of Change from one Object to another yet the Soul cannot have a delightful undisturbed Fruition foreseeing that the stream of Pleasure will issue into the dead Sea Truly Light is sweet and 't is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun But how short is this Life with all its Pleasures in comparison of the Days of Darkness that follow Now though 't is our best Wisdom and truest Liberty to rejoice in this World as if we rejoiced not and frequently to meditate on the cooling Doctrines of Death and Judgment to repress the transports of the voluptuous Appetite yet since the Comforts of this Life are liberally indulged to us by the Love of God to be the Motives of our grateful and affectionate Obedience to sweeten our passage to Heaven we may with tranquillity of Spirit make a pure and chearful use of them in his Service and 't is an oppressing bondage when the disquieting anxious Fears of Death hinder our temperate enjoyment of his Favours and Blessings 2. The fear of Death oppresses the Souls of Men under a miserable Bondage to the Devil for his Dominion is maintain'd by the Allurements and Terrors of the World Though Men do not explicitly acknowledg his Soveraignty yet by voluntary yielding to his pleasing Temptations they are really his Slaves And the apprehension of temporal Evils especially of Death dress'd up in a frightful representation with its bloody Pomp is the strongest snare to the Soul The Faint-hearted prove false-hearted in the time of trial For the timerous Spirit being wholly intent how to avoid the incursion of a present Evil forgets or neglects what is indispensably to be done and thinks to find an excuse in the pretended necessity How many have been terrified from their clearest Duty and resolved Constancy To escape Death they have been guilty of the most insufferable Impieties by renouncing God their Maker and Saviour and worshipping the Devils for Deities Every Age presents sad Spectacles of many that choose Iniquity rather than Affliction that relinquish their Duty and by wicked Compliances save their Lives and lose their Souls Carnal Desires and carnal Fears are the Chains of Hell that retain Men Satan's Captives But what folly what madness is it for the avoiding the impotent fury of the Creature to venture on the powerful Wrath of God that exceeds all the Terrors that can be conceived by Fear This renders them more brutish than the Horse that starting at his Shadow springs over a desperate Precipice The Fearful are excluded from Heaven and cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone for ever 3. The extream fear of Death and Judgment dejects and discourages the Soul from the use of means to prevent eternal Misery and induces a most woful Bondage Fear anticipates and exasperates future Evils for as Knowledg excites Fear so Fear encreases Knowledg by the uncessant working of the Thoughts upon terrible Objects The fearful Mind aggravates the foreseen Evil and distils the Poison from all the Circumstances and Consequences of it And when the Evil is apprehended as insuperable and indeclinable all endeavours to escape are cut off What a Philosopher observes of an Earthquake compared with other destructive Evils is true in this case There may be a safe retreat from Fire from Inundations from Storms from War from Pestilence but an Earthquake astonishes with so violent a perturbation that stops our flight from the imminent Danger So the vehement impressions of Fear from the approaches of Death and the severe executions upon the Sinner after it distracts the Mind and disables from flying from the Wrath to come These Fears are more heavy by the suggestions of Satan who represents God so terrible in his Majesty inexorable in his Justice and unchangeable in his Threatnings that all Hopes of obtaining his Favour are lost As the Egyptian Darkness was not meerly from the absence of the Sun but from feculent Vapours condensing the Air that it might be felt So these dark and fearful expectations of the Divine Wrath are not only from the withdrawing the Light of God's Countenance but from the Prince of Darkness that foul Spirit And as we read of the Egyptians that no Man arose from his place for three days as if they had been buried in that Darkness and deprived of all active Power and Motion so the despairing Soul sits down mourning at the Gates of Death totally disabled from prosecuting the Things that belong to its Peace 'T is Hope inspires and warms us with alacrity encourages our Endeavours Despair blunts our edg and industry The Soul suffers the hardest Bondage and the Condition is unexpressibly sad under the tyranny of this Fear O how enthralled how desolately miserable Despair does meritoriously and effectually ruin the Soul For whereas there is no Attribute more Divine no clearer Notion of the Deity than Love and Mercy this Passion disparages his Mercy as if Sin were more omnipotent than his Power to pardon and all the Tears that flow from it are so far from expiating that they encrease Guilt and whereas the believing view of Christ would as compleatly and presently recover the Soul-wounded Sinner as the Israelites were by looking to the ordained visible Sign of their Salvation Despair turns away the Eye from our Deliverer and fixes it upon Misery as remediless and final 4. How comes it to pass that Men are not always under the actual fear of Death but subject to the revolutions of it all their Lives The Seeds of this Fear are hid in the guilty Breasts of Men and at times especially in their Calamities break forth and kindle upon them In their Leisure and Retirement intercurrent thoughts of
2. Death considered in the strictest propriety as destructive of the natural Being that is our first and most valuable Good in the order of Nature is the just object of Fear The Union between Soul and Body is very intimate and dear and like David and Jonathan they part unwillingly Nature has a share in the best Men and works as Nature St. Paul declares we would not be unclothed not finally put off the Body but have it glorified in conjunction with the Soul Our blessed Saviour without the least impeachment of the Rectitude and Perfection of his Nature express'd an averseness from Death and with submission to the divine Will desired a freedom from it His Affections were holy and humane and moved according to the quality of their Objects 3. The natural Consequents of Death render it fearful Life is the foundation of all natural Enjoyments and the Loss of it induces the loss of all for ever 'T is from hence that such Evils that are consistent with Life and deprive us only of some particular Content and Pleasure are willingly chosen rather than Death The forfeiture of Estate the degrading from Honour the confinement to a perpetual Prison the banishing from our native Country are less Penalties than Death There is a natural love of Society in Man and Death removes from all The Grave is a frightful Solitude There is no Conversation in the Territories of Darkness This also Hezekiah in his apprehensions of Death speaks of with Tears I shall see Man no more in the Land of the Living As in the Night the World is an universal Grave all Things are in a dead Silence Palaces Courts of Justice Temples Theaters Schools and all Places of publick Conversation are shut up the Noise and Rumour that keeps Men in continual Observation and Action ceases Thus when the Sun of this present Life is set all the Affairs and Business all the vain Joys of Company Feasting Dancing Musick Gaming ceases Every one among the Dead is confined to his sealed obscure Cell and is alone an entertainment for the Worms The Psalmist saith of Princes Their Breath goeth forth they return to the Earth in that very day their Thoughts their glorious compassing Thoughts perish This the Historian observes was verified in Julius Cesar After his assuming the Imperial Dignity he thought to reduce the numerous Laws of the Romans into a few Volumes comprising the Substance and Reason of all to enrich and adorn the City of Rome as was becoming the Regent of the World to epitomise the Works of the most learned Grecians and Romans for the publick Benefit And whilst he was designing and pursuing these and other vast and noble Things Death surprised him and broke off all his Enterprises At the terrible Gate that opens into Eternity Men are stripp'd of all their Honours and Treasures and as naked as they come into the World go out of it Be not thou afraid when one is made rich when the Glory of his House is increased For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away his Glory shall not descend after him Death equally vilifies makes loathsom and ghastly the Bodies of Men and reduces them to sordid Dust. In the Grave the Dust is as precious and powerful of one as of another Civil Distinctions are limited to the present time The prodigious Statue in Nebuhadnezzar's Vision Dan. 2.32 33 34 35. while it was upright the Parts were really and visibly distinct The Head was of fine Gold the Breast and Arms of Silver the Belly and Thighs of Brass the Legs of Iron the Feet part of Iron and part of Clay but when the Stone cut out without hands smote the Image upon the Feet then was the Iron the Clay the Brass the Silver and the Gold broken to pieces together and became like the Chaff the Wind carries away Who can distinguish between Royal Dust taken out of magnificent Tombs and Plebean Dust from common Graves Who can know who were rich and who were poor who had Power and Command who were Vassals who were remarkable by Fame who by Infamy They shall not say this is Jezebel not know this was the Daughter and Wife of a King The King of Babylon stiled Lucifer the bright Star of the Morning that possess'd the first Empire in the World was degraded by Death humbled to the Grave and exchanged all his glorious State for Worms and Putrefaction The Worm is spread under thee and the Worms cover thee In short Death separates Men from all their admired charming Vanities Now considering Man merely in the Order of Nature what Reflection is more fearful and tormenting than the necessity that cannot be over-ruled of parting for ever with all the Delights of Life Those who have ascended to the Throne that are arrived at the height of Temporal Happiness what a melancholy Prospect is before them of Death and the dark Grave When all things conspire to make Men happy here the sensitive Faculties and their Fruitions are ebbing and declining till then sink into Death the Whirlpool that will shortly swallow them up for ever This renders the Thoughts of Mortality so frightful and checks the freest enjoyments of carnal Pleasures 2. Death is fearful in the apprehension of Conscience as 't is the most sensible mark of God's Wrath that is heavier than Death and a Summons to give an account of all Things done in this Life to the righteous Judg of the World 'T is appointed to all Men once to die and afterward the Judgment The Penal Fear is more wounding to the Spirit than the Natural When the awakened Sinner presently expects the Citation to appear before the Tribunal above where no Excuses no Supplications no Priviledges avail where the Cause of eternal Life or Death must be decided and the awards of Justice be immediately executed O the Convulsions and Agonies of Conscience in that hour when the diseased Body cannot live and the disconsolate Soul dare not die what Anxieties surround it This redoubles the Terrors of Death that the first transmits to the second that was figured by it O the dismal aspect of Death riding on a pale Horse with Hell the black Attendant following This Fear surprized the Sinners in Sion Who among us can dwell with devouring Fire who among us can remain with everlasting burnings This made a Heathen the Governor of a Province to tremble before a poor Prisoner While Paul discoursed of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come Felix trembled 'T is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the living God who lives for ever and can punish for ever None is so powerful as God nothing so fearful as the guilty Conscience 3. The Degrees of this Fear are express'd by Bondage This Passion when regular in its Object and Degree is excellently useful 't is a wise Counsellor and faithful Guardian that plucks off the Mask from our Enemies and keeps Reason vigilant
most solemnly publish'd to the World 'T is therefore said the God of Peace raised him from the Dead the Act is most congruously ascribed unto God invested with that Title because his Power was exerted in that glorious Work after he was reconciled by the Blood of the Covenant Briefly Our Saviour's Victory over Death was obtained by dying his Triumph by rising again He foil'd our common Enemy in his own Territories the Grave His Death was a Counter-poison to Death it self as a bruised Scorpion is a noble Antidote against its Venom Indeed his Death is incomparably a greater Wonder than his Resurrection For 't is apparently more difficult that the Son of God who originally possesses Immortality should die than that the humane Body united to him should be raised to a glorious Life It is more conceivable that God should communicate to the humane Nature some of his Divine Perfections Impassibility and Immortality than that he should submit to our lowest Infirmities Sufferings and Death Now the Resurrection of Christ is the argument and claim of our happy Resurrection For God chose and appointed him to be the Example and Principle from whom all Divine Blessings should be derived to us Accordingly he tells his Disciples in a fore-cited Scripture Because I live ye shall live also Our Nature was rais'd in his Person and in our Nature all Believers Therefore he is called the first-fruits of them that sleep because as the first Fruits were a pledg and assurance of the following Harvest and as from the condition of the first Fruits being offered to God the whole Harvest was entitled to a Consecration so our Saviour's Resurrection to the Life of Glory is the earnest and assurance of ours He is called the first-born among the Dead and owns the Race of departed Believers as his Brethren who shall be restored to Life according to his Pattern He is the Head Believers are his Members and therefore shall have Communion with him in his Life The effect is so infallible that now they are said to be raised up together and made to sit in heavenly Places in Christ Jesus If his Victory over our Enemies had been imperfect and he had saved himself with difficulty and hazard as it were by Fire in the Apostle's expression our Redemption had not been accomplish'd But his Passion was triumphant and is it conceivable that he should leave the Saints his own by so many dear titles under the power of Death If Moses the Deliverer of Israel from the Tyranny of Pharaoh would not suffer any thing of theirs not an hoof to remain in the House of Bondage Will our great Redeemer be less perfect in his Work Shall our last Enemy always detain his Spoils our Bodies in the Grave This would reflect upon his Love and Power 'T is recorded to confirm our Hopes how early his Power was displayed in forcing the Grave to release its chained Captives And many Bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the Graves after his Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many What better Earnest can we have that the strength of Death is broken From what he has done to what he is able to do the Consequence is clear The Apostle tells us He will raise our vile Bodies and change them like unto his glorious Body by that Power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Our Redemption will then be compleat and all the bitterness of Death past The Redemption of the Soul is accomplish'd from Sin and Misery immediately after Death but the Redemption of the Body is the last in order and reserved to crown our Felicity at the Great Day Then Death shall be swallowed up in Victory abolish'd for ever And O the joyful reunion of those dear Relatives after such a Divorce when the Body that was so long detained in the loathsome Grave shall be reformed with all glorious Perfections and be a fit Instrument for the Soul and partaker with it in consummate Blessedness and Immortality 'T is said that those that wear rich Clothing are in Kings Houses but what are all the Robes of costly Folly wherein earthly Courtiers appear to the Brightness and Beauty of the Spiritual Body wherewith the Saints shall be clothed to qualify them for the Presence of the King of Kings and to be in his House for ever But O the miserable Condition of the Wicked in that Day Death now breaks their Bodies and Souls into an irreconcileable Enmity and how sad will their Conjunction be The Soul will accuse the Body to have been Sin 's Solicitor continually tempting to Sensualities and the Body will upbraid more than ever it allured the Soul for its wicked Compliance Then the Sinner shall be an entire Sacrifice burning but never consumed Now from the assurance of a blessed Resurrection by Christ the forementioned Fear of Death is conquered in Believers If the Doctrine of the Transmigration of Souls into Bodies the invention of Pythagoras inspired his Disciples with that fiery vigour as to encounter the most present and apparent Dangers being fearless to part with the Life that should be restored how much more should a Christian with a holy Confidence receive Death knowing that the Life of his Body shall not be finally lost but renewed in a blessed Eternity The fourth General to be considered is the Persons that have an Interest in this blessed Priviledg This Inquiry is of infinite moment both for the awakning of the Secure who vainly presume upon their Interest in the Salvation of the Gospel and for the confirming and encouraging the Saints And we have an infallible rule of trial declared by St. John He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life All the excellent and comfortable Benefits procur'd by our Saviour are communicated only to those who are united to him Particularly with respect to the present Subject Justification that great Blessing of the Gospel the compleat Pardon of Sins that disarms Death of its Sting is not common to all that are Christians in title but is a Priviledg with a limitation There is no Condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus vitally as their Head from whom are derived spiritual Influences and judicially as their Advocate in Judgment and such are described by this infallible Character who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit The Blessedness after Death that is assured by a Voice from Heaven is with this precise restriction exclusive of all others Blessed are the Dead that die in the Lord they rest from their Labours and their Works follow them The glorious Resurrection at the last Day when the Bodies of the Saints that now rest in Hope shall be incorruptible and immortal is the consequence of Union with him Thus the Apostle declares As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made