ordained Means and sacramental Pledg For God unchangably loves his own Image and tho' by his Sovereignty and absolute Power he may resume the Being he gives yet his Goodness and Covenant were a sacred assurance that Man's happy Life should run parallel with his perseverance in his Duty This Immortality was not the singular privilege of Adam's Person but had been the Inheritance of all his Progeny But he soon revolting from his just Obedience of Immortal became Mortal and according to the original establishment of Propagation transmitted his Nature with the guilt and poison of Sin to all his Posterity Thus by one Man Sin entered into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned As his Obedience had been rewarded so his Rebellion is punisht in all that naturally descend from him From hence it is that so numerous a part of Man-kind are cut off before the commission of actual Sin Death enters into the Forge of Life and destroys the Conception that newly began to live And what is more righteous than that Man when he disobeyed the Author of Life should forfeit his Life and Blessedness The Soul voluntarily lost the spiritual Life by forsaking God therefore unwillingly loses the natural Life by expulsion from the Body The Apostle declares the Wages of Sin is Death not only that of the Body but the Death of the Soul which is a dreadful Concomitant of it And from hence we may discover the false Philosophy of the wisest Heathens in their Opinion of Death They judged it to be the primary necessity and condition of Nature fixt by irresistible Fate and not understanding the true and just reason of its coming into the World they could not apply a sufficient Remedy against its Evil. 2. As the Effect of the divine Decree respecting Sin This is discovered by revelation in the Word of God and by the real execution of it It is appointed to Men once to die This Decree is universal and unrepealable One Generation passeth away and another Generation cometh like the ebbing and flowing of the Sea in its stated Periods Nothing can interrupt or frustrate this appointment There are divers Conditions of Men and various ways of living in the World some are high in Dignity others are level with the Earth some walk in a Carpet-way smooth and easy others in a thorny and troublesom some walk on the golden Sands others on the Mire but the same uncontroulable necessity of dying involves all And what-ever the way be whether pleasant or doleful yet every one passes in it with equal steps measured by the same invariable spaces of Hours and Days and arrive at the same common end of Life Those who are regarded as visible Deities amongst Men that can by their Breath raise the Low and depress the Lofty that have the Lives of millions in their Power yet when the ordained time is come as they cannot bribe the accusing Conscience for a minutes silence so neither delay Death I have said ye are Gods but ye shall die like Men. 3. Death is to be considered as the Sentence of the Law The reasonable Creature was made under a Law the Rule of his Actions The moral Law directed him how to continue in his holy and blessed State To which was annext the Precept of not eating of the Tree of Knowledg of Good and Evil only as a mark of his Subjection and for the trial of his Obedience This Precept had an infallible sanction by the most high Law-giver In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death Man did not keep this Command of so easy observation and justly incurr'd its doom As Sin is the violation of the Law so Death is the violation of the Sinner in his Nature and Felicity retorted from the Law The deaths of Men are very different in their kinds and are comprised in the words of David concerning Saul The Lord shall smite him or his Day shall come to die or he shall descend into the Battel and perish Sometimes they are cut off by the immediate flaming hand of God for the more exemplary revenge of Sin sometimes by surprising Accidents sometimes by bloody Contentions sometimes consuming Diseases But tho' Death be not uniform yet 't is always the execution of the Law upon Offenders As of those who are condemned by Humane Justice some suffer a more easy and honourable Death others a more disgraceful and torturing some are Beheaded others are Crucified yet all die as Malefactors Thus some die a natural Death others a violent some by a gentle preparing sickness without reluctation others die upon the Rack by sharp pains some die attended with their Friends and all supplies to sweeten their Passage others forsaken of all Comforters yet Death is the same Sentence of the Law upon all Men. And this if duly considered makes it terrible in whatever shape it appears II. The next thing to be considered is What the fear of Death includes and the bondage that is consequent to it This I shall explain and amplify by considering four things 1. The nature of Fear in general as applicable to the present Subject 2. The particular Causes that render Death so fearful 3. The degree of this Fear exprest by Bondage 4. How it comes to pass that men are not always under the actual fear of Death but subject to the Revolutions of it all their lives 1. I will consider the nature of Fear in general as applicable to the present Subject Fear is a passion implanted in Nature that causes a flight from an approaching Eye Three things are requisite to qualify the Object and make it fearful 1. The Evil must be apprehended Knowledg or at least suspicion excites Fear by representing an Evil that is likely to seize upon us Till the mind discern the danger the passions are unmoved and imaginary Evils by the mere apprehension are as strongly fear'd as real 2. The Evil must be future For the naked theory of the most pernicious Evil does not wound the Soul but the apprehension of falling under it If reason can open an expedient to prevent an Evil this Passion is quiet And Fear precisely regards its Object as to come Present Evils induce grief and sorrow past Evils by reflection affect with joy and give a quicker relish to present felicity Approaching Evils alarm us with fear 3. The Evil must be apprehended as prevalent to make it fearful For if by comparison we find our strength superior we either neglect the Evil for its levity or determine to encounter it and resistance is the proper effect of Anger not of Fear But when an impendent Evil is too hard for us the Soul shrinks and recoils from it Now all these Qualifications that make an Object fearful concur in Death 1. 'T is an Evil universally known The frequent Funerals are a real demonstration that speaks sensibly to our Eyes that
inexorable in his Justice and dreadful to Death 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 is without edg and industry The Soul suffers the hardest Bondage and the condition is inexpressibly sad under the tyranny of this Fear O how enthralled how desolately miserable for despair doth 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 Death and Judgment sting them by fits and make them uneasy The flashes of Conscience like moments of Lightning startle them but they relapse into their habitual stupidity And the account of it will be clear by considering the following Particulars 1. Men are apt to flatter themselves with the hopes of long Life and look upon Death at a great distance Tho' there be a dying disposition in the youngest and strongest Persons tho' we live in a world of Casualties and Death lie in ambush to surprize us every day yet we are secure because Evils affect us according to their apprehended nearness A Petty Constable that is troublesom and vexatious is more fear'd by his Neighbours than the Grand Signior with all his Executioners As remote Objects though of vast bigness are lessen'd to our sight so through the supposed interval of many years Death is lookt on with a diminution of its Terror But when Death presents it self before Men ready to dispatch them how formidable is its appearance Saul tho renouned for his Valour yet when he understood by Revelation that to morrow he and his Sons should be in the state of the dead there was no strength in him but he fell straight-way all along on the Earth struck through with fear before he was wounded by the Arrows of the Philistins Belshazzar in the midst of his luxury and jolity attended with a thousand Lords and his herd of Concubines inflam'd with Wine and therefore less capable of fear yet upon the sight of the fatal Hand writing on the Wall a few unknown Characters which his guilty Conscience before the Prophet Daniel came interpreted to be the sentence of present Death How fearfully was his Countenance changed pale as a Carcass How suddainly did his Blood congeal and his warmest quickest Spirits die in his Heart His whole Body was seized by such a vehement trembling that his joints were loosed and his knees smote one against another This is a representation of those who bid defiance to Death at a distance but when the fatal Hour is come and they hear the Sentence decreed against them God has numbred thy days and finish'd them thou art weighed in the ballance all thy words and Actions thy Thoughts and Affections and art found wanting and thy Soul shall be divided from thy Body the one sent to Hell to suffer the undying Worm of Conscience the other to the Grave to be a prey to the Worms of Corruption how are they overcome with horror 2. The continual succession of the Pleasures and Business of the World divert the mind from the attentive strong contemplation of Death and the consequences of it Pensive thoughts are unwelcome and we studiously endeavour to cancel the memory of such things as afflict us 'T is said of the Wicked that God is not in all their thoughts The consideration of the Holy Inspector and Judg of their Actions is tormenting therefore they fill their minds with earthly Imaginations to exclude the Divine Presence We read of those who to put far away the evil day chaunted to the sound of the Viol and drank Wine in Bowls They are rock'd asleep with the motion of phantastick Vanities And sleep takes away Fear but gives no safety 'T is recorded of Marius that after his overthrow by Scylla he was always in consternation as if he heard the sound of the Trumpets and the noise of the victorious Army pursuing him And his Fears were no longer quiet than whilst charm'd with Wine and Sleep He therefore was continually drunk that he might forget Himself his Enemy and his Danger Thus Men make a pittiful shift to forget their latter End and whilst they are following either secular Affairs or sensual Pleasures are unconcerned for what is to be hereafter But this diversion will shortly be at an end for in their languishing hours when the wasted Body fails the carnal Mind and sensual Desires fail the Man then Conscience that spoke with a low Voice before is loud and terrible and like the rigid Exactor in the Parable that took his Debtor by the throat requires them to pay what they owe. 3. Some are so hardned in Infidelity that the Powers of the World to come make no impression on their hearts They mind but little and are less affected with invisible things They fortify themselves with gross thoughts that the Spirit of Man vanishes with his Breath that Death is the end of this Life and not the beginning of another and feed without fear Place one in the midst of destructive Evils but unseen or not believed and he is as fearless as a blind Person walking on the brink of a deep Pit Indeed there are none less disturbed with the terrors of Death than the eminently good or the extremely bad for the one sort have a blessed hope that Death will be to them an entrance into Life and live like the Angels with a joy unspeakable and glorious The others are as sensual and secure as the Beasts that perish
and Conscience that were so long under unrighteous restraints break the Fetters and terribly charge the sinner Then innumerable Acts which they thought to be innocent appear to be sins and Sin that they made light of to be infinitely evil and in the highest degree hateful to God And sometimes by the suggestions of the enemy of Souls they are overwhelm'd with despair and their last Error is worse than the first 5. Others are deceived with things that are short of true repentance and mistake a false peace for a true and asswage the anguish of Conscience by palliating remedies Their sorrowful sense of Sin their Prayers their resolutions of Amendments are the product of servile Fear that is ineffectual to Salvation And as 't is with crafty Tradesmen that take up much upon trust when they are ready to breaking so they are very liberal of their promises of Reformation when in their own apprehension near dying But how often does Experience convince us of the inefficacy of a sick-bed Repentance How many that were very penitent and devout with one foot as it were in the Grave and another in Hell and were as a Brand pluck'd out of the Fire and the fear of Death being removed all the pangs of Conscience the religious Affections that were felt and exprest by them vanish as the morning dew Now converting Grace is distinguish'd by its radication and efficacy not only from the meer pretences of those who know their own insincerity but from the real workings of Conscience and the imperfect dispositions to good that are in the Unrenewed And those persons who with the return of Health have returned to their Sins again if they had died with their religious resolutions would have presum'd that their repentance was unto Life and of their interest in the divine Mercy The Heart is deceitful above all things and above all things deceitful to it self 6. But supposing in the last hours there be an unfeigned closing with Christ according to the Gospel-Covenant and a cordial change from the love of Sin to the love of Holiness this person shall certainly not miss of Heaven but Death will be less comfortable than if he had in the course of his Life declared the truth and power of Grace in such acts and fruits as are suitable to it The sum is this the vain hope of living long and being reconciled to God when they please is the fatal foundation of Mens Sins and Misery They apply the Word of God against the Mind of God and securely provoke him as if they could take Heaven by violence in contradiction to the Gospel But they usually dispose of that time they shal never injoy or presume upon that pardoning Mercy and assisting Grace they shall never obtain We are commanded to seek the Lord while he may be found a sad intimation that 't is not in our power to find him to our comfort when we please He spares long but abused Patience will deliver Sinners to revenging Justice Sampson was three times in the Chamber of his Lust exposed to Treachery and escap'd but the fourth time he said I will arise but was surpriz'd by his Enemies and lost his strength and sight and liberty I doubt not that some are wonderfully converted and saved at last but these special Mercies are like our Saviour's passing in the Way and by his miraculous Virtue healing the two blind persons when great numbers remain'd uncured We read a prodigious story in the Book of Kings that a Captain and his fifty went to Elias to command him to come to the King and immediately a tempest of Lightning destroyed them Now who would think it possible that another Captain and his fifty should be so desperate that having the Ashes and Reliques of these miserable Carcases smoking before their Eyes as to make the same Citation to the Prophet yet they did and provok'd the Justice of Heaven to consume them And this is verified in thousands every day for notwithstanding they see sinners like themselves suddenly cut off in their evil ways they persist unreformed as if they were fearless of Hell nay as if resolved to secure their own Damnation I have insisted the longer on this because 't is so universally useful 2. The careful preserving our selves from wilful presumptuous Sins is an happy means to render Death comfortable to us The Spirit seals our Pardon and title to Heaven as the holy Spirit his Testimony that we are the Children of God and Heirs of Glory is concurrent with the renewed Conscience and distinguish'd from the ignorant presumptions blind conjectures and carnal security of the unholy As the sanctifying Spirit he distinguishes true Christians from the lost World appropriates them to God confirms their present interest in the Promises of the Gospel and their future hopes Briefly Grace is the most sensible effect and sign of God's special Favour the fruit of Election and the earnest of Glory and the truth of Grace is most clearly and certainly made evident by the continual efficacy of it in the Conversation The observation of our Hearts to suppress unholy affections and of our senses to prevent them a constant course of Holiness in our lives tho many frailties will cleave to the best is usually rewarded with greate peace here God has establish't a connexion between our Obedience and his Comforts Those that keep themselves pure from the defilements of the World have the white Stone promised the bright Jewel of Assurance of God's pardoning and rewarding Mercy We read of Enoch that the walk't with God was a Star shining in a corrupt Age the tenour of his Life was holy and he was translated to Heaven without seeing Death Tho this was an extraordinary Dispensation yet there is a peculiar reward analogical to it for those who walk circumspectly they shall not see Death with its terrors but usually have a holy Chearfulness a peaceful Joy in their passage through the dark Valley to Heaven But presumptuous Sins against external and internal restraints the convincing Law of God and the directions of Conscience grieve the Holy Spirit and wound our Spirits and if continued sequester us from the comfortable priviledges of the Gospel and render us unfit for the Kingdom of Heaven And when they are retracted by Repentance yet there often remains a bitter remembrance of them as deep Wounds tho cur'd yet are felt in change of weather And somtimes a spring-tide of doubts and fears breaks into humble penitent Souls in the last hours tho Death brings them safely yet not comfortably to Heaven 3. The zealous discharge of the Duties of our place and calling the conjunction of our resolutions and endeavours to glorify God and do good according to our abilities and opportunities of service sweetens the thoughts of Death to us For the true end and perfection of Life is the Glory of God and when with fidelity it is employed in order to it Death brings us to the blessed Rest from
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 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 quietly expects the Citation to appear before the Tribunal above where no excuses no supplications no privileges avail where his 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 surprised 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 Foelix 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 is exprest 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 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 Caesar chose rather to be expos'd to suddain death than to be continually harrast with fears how to avoid it The Greek word implies the binding of the Spirit that causes an inward slavery And in the Apostles 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 suddain passion stifled his replie 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 Tho' 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 tho' '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 hinders 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 Tho 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 drest 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 indispensibly 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 chuse 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 bruitish 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
the Resurrection of the Just is assured by our Redeemer 1. The Divine Laws are the Rule of Duty to the entire Man and not to the Soul only and they are obeyed or violated by the Soul and Body in conjunction Therefore there must be a resurrection of the Body that the entire Person may be capable of Recompences in Judgment The Soul designs the Body executes the Senses are the open Ports to admit Temptations Carnal Affections deprave the Soul corrupt the Mind and mislead it The love of Sin is sounded in bono jucundo in sensible pleasures and the Members are the Servants of Iniquity The Heart is the Fountain of Prophaneness and the Tongue expresses it And the Body is obsequious to the holy Soul in doing or suffering for God and denies its sensual appetites and satisfactions in compliance with Reason and Grace The Members are the Instruments of Righteousness It follows then there will be an universal Resurrection that the rewarding goodness of God may appear in making the Bodies of his Servants gloriously happy with their Souls and their Souls compleatly happy in union with their Bodies to which they have a natural inclination and his revenging Justice be manifest in punishing the Bodies of the Wicked with eternal torments answerable to their guilt And of the possibility of the Resurrection the circular and continual production of things in the World is a clear demonstration of the Power of God for that effect There is a pregnant Instance that our Saviour and the Apostle made use of as an Image of the Resurrection A grain of Corn sowed in the Earth corrupts and dies and after springs up entire its death is a disposition to life The essays of God's Power in the Works of returning Nature Flowers and Fruits in their season instruct us how easily he can make those that are in the dust to awake to life If the Art of Man whose power and skill 〈…〉 â—â—rrow and limited can refine Gold and Silver to such a luster as if their matter were not Earth digged out of the Mines If from black Cinders it can form Chrystal Glasses so clear and shining how much more can Omnipotency recompact our dust and reanimate it with a glorious life Death that dissolves our vital frame does not abolish the matter of our Bodies and tho' 't is corrupted and chang'd by a thousand accidents yet 't is unperishing and under whatsoever Colours and Figures it appears God perfectly discerns and will seperate it for its proper use More particularly I will shew how the Resurrection of Christ is an assurance of the Resurrection of Believers to Glory As our Surety he was under the arrest of Death it becoming the holy Majesty of God and conducing to the ends of his Government not to derogate from the dignity of his Law but to lay the penalty upon his Son who interposed for us Now having finish'd the work of our Redemption by his sufferings his Resurrection was the just consequent of his Passion And 't is observable that his Resurrection tho one entire act is ascribed as to himself so to his Father by whose consent and concurrence he rose again Therefore 't is said Whom God raised up having loosed the pains of Death since it was impossible he should be holden by it 'T was naturally impossible upon the account of the Divine Power inherent in his Person and legally impossible because divine Justice required that he should be raised to Life partly to vindicate his innocence for he was reputed and suffered as a Malefactor and principally because he had fully satisfied God Accordingly the Apostle declares he died for our Sins and rose again for our Justification Having paid our Debt he was releas'd from the Grave and the Discharge was 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 Impossibility 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 pledge 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't 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 displaid 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
to it and may have Regal power over our wills and affections that our lives may be ordered according to its Rules 2. The Consideration of Eternal Judgment will vindicate the Proceedings of Divine Providence and the honour of God's governing this World from the imputations of Unrighteousness God is provoked every day yet spares the Wicked and heaps an abundance of Favours on them His Patience and Goodness they prophanely abuse and become more obdurate and inflexible They are apt to blaspheme the Excellency of his Nature in their Hearts thinking that he is ignorant or careless impotent or unjust They implicitly deny his Providence and Judgment that he does not observe their Sins and will not require an account for them Or else they interpret his Permission to be an Approbation of their Sins These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest I was such an one as thy self Thus the Heathens transplanted the Vices of Earth to Heaven and represented their Gods to be sensual jealous furious as Men and accordingly expected an easy Absolution for their Sins Or else the distance of Judgment to come so hardens them that they hear God's Thunder with less fear than Boys do their Squibs and Crackers Because Sentence against an evil Work is not speedily executed therefore the hearts of the Sons of Men are fully set in them to do evil But how desperate is the madness of Sinners God now seems to wink at their Sins but hath appointed a day of Accounts He suffers them to live in prosperity but they are reserved to the day of Judgment to be punish'd and possibly sooner for sometimes they are cut off by visible vengeance to convince the World that the supream Judg does not bear the Sword in vain But tho 't is delayed for a time yet he declares that their Sins are laid up in store with him and sealed up among his Treasures To him belongs Vengeance and Recompence He is a mild Judge now and his Clemency suspends their Punishment but Justice will not forget it He threatens the secure Sinner I will reprove thee and set thy Sins in order before thine eyes How will the scornful obstinate Sinner change complexion tremble when an Army of Sins more terrible than so many Furies shall be ranged in Battel and with fiery Darts wound his naked Soul How will the stubborn Atheist that pleases himself with vain imaginations of the Eternity of the World and the Mortality of the Soul be confounded when he feels the truth of Scripture-threatnings to his eternal sorrow then all their Ralleries will be turn'd into Lamentations 'T is not for want of power that God spares the Wicked but because they are alwayes in his hands and he can make them as miserable as they are sinful when he pleases 'T is not through the neglect of Justice but for most wise and holy Reasons as shall appear in the last day when a decisive irreversible Judgment shall be propronounc'd and immediately ininflicted upon them before the World When an Actor at Athens spoke with Admiration of Riches as the most valuable Acquisition and of the Felicity of Rich Men the People were in an Uproar at the immorality of the Speech and were ready to chase him from the Stage But the Poet himself appeared and desired them to stop their Fury till they saw the Catastrophe the wretched end of that sordid Miser Thus we are apt to accuse the ways of God when the Wicked flourish but we should stop our tumultuous thoughts for their end will absolve Divine Providence from all undue reflections upon the account of their temporal happiness And the sound belief of this will rectify all mistaking apprehensions and clear all perplexing appearances about the Sufferings of the Righteous here Indeed if we consider the holiest Men as they are Sinners their Afflictions are so far from blemishing the Justice of God that they are the signs of his Mercy for all is a Favour on this side Hell to those that deserve it David an excellent Saint acknowledges the righteousness of God's Judgments with respect to himself But when the Saints suffer for a righteous Cause and as the Psalmist expresses it for thy sake are we killed all the day long and are counted as Sheep for the slaughter there is not a visible correspondency between the Providence of God in his governing the World and the unchangeable Rules of Justice that those who do evil should suffer evil and those who do well should be happy As the Apostle speaks to the persecuted Christians It is a righteous thing with God to recompence Tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us Now there is a day coming when the Persecutors shall be punish'd and the Saints be rewarded for all their Sufferings and the distribution of Recompences shall be in the presence of the World for the glory of Divine Justice For the distinction that is made between Men at Death is private and particular and not sufficient for the honour of God's Government But at the last Day all Men that have lived in several successions of Ages shall appear and Justice have a solemn Process and Triumph before Angels and Men. As some excellent Piece that is to be expos'd to publick view is covered with a Traverse to prevent the disturbance in the working and the discovery of the Work till brought to such perfection as will surprise with wonder those that see it So God is pleased to cover his proceedings for a time but in the last day there will be such a Revelation of the righteous Judgment of God that those who now doubt or complain of his Justice shall admire and adore it 3. The belief of this Doctrine as it vindicates Divine Providence so 't is powerful to comfort the Saints under Persecutions for Righteousness sake especially when Innocence is wounded with slanderous Darts and Calumnies are joyned with Cruelties representing them as worthy of publick hatred It was one of the Subtile Artifices of Julian the Apostate to mingle the Images of the Heathen Gods with those of the Emperours that the doing reverence as the Christians were commanded to all together might imply a dereliction and renouncing of their Religion and their Simplicity seem Impiety or if jealous of slipping from their profession they refused to do it they might seem to deny the expressions of honour due to their Emperours and be reputed to suffer not as Christian Martyrs but as Rebels But the believing Consideration of God's righteous Judgment will make them despise the Censures Reproaches of malicious Adversaries With me saith the Apostle it is a very small thing that I should be judged by Man's Judgment he that judgeth me is the Lord. The severest Censure was of no more weight compar'd with the approbation of God than the lightest Feather that flies in the Air put in