me into his Family that I am no more under the Dominion of Satan as one of his Houshold or Slaves And this is a Pledge and Earnest that he will receive me to himself into the Mansions of his Glory where I shall no more fear the Arrest of Death or be molested with any other natural Evils Now having seen the Sense of the Words there is something material to be observed if we look on them in their Mutual Aspect and Relation to each other And 1. The latter Part of the Words doth direct and confine our Apprehensions of the former There is a Resurrection both of the Just and Unjust Acts 24.15 These are specified by their different Ends One is a Resurrection unto Life the other unto Damnation John 5.9 And it is determined which Resurrection must be here meant by that which is added For He shall receive me All must be rais'd and though it is by the same Almighty Power yet not to the same ultimate Purpose and End Some are rais'd that they may be sent into the most remote and reimpassible Distance from God Others that they may be taken into the nearest Union with him 2. There is a Mutual Security inferred from the Expressions on each other But God will redeem my Soul from the Power of the Grave for he shall receive me He must first redeem me from out of the Hands of Death before he can receive me My final Blessedness consists in my Reception with him This Blessedness must reach to the Body which is an essential Part of the Man as well as the Soul otherwise it is not Compleat and Perfect And 't is his Word whereon he hath caused me to Hope that where he is his Servants shall also be John 12.26 This makes it necessary that the Body be raised Good Actions and whatsoever is a part of Divine Service or belongs to us to do as his Servants though designed by the Counsel and Resolution of the Spirit yet are performed by the Ministry of the Flesh And the Body is the Consort of the Soul in all its Obedience and Sufferings They must be both offered as one living sacrifice to God Rom. 12.1 They must both concur to render us his Servants therefore their Concourse is necessary that his Servants may be where he is And because it is a God one who is infinitely powerful and faithful that is to make me thus finally and perfectly Blessed I have no Reason to doubt But he will redeem my Soul from the Power of the Grave His rewarding Goodness as well as his revenging Justice must be made manifest And how can that be unless the Body be raised that the entire Person may be capable of a just Recompence If I am one of those whom he will receive it is impossible that I should be held under the Power of Death or remain its Captive any longer than for such a Season as the Method and Order of his working makes needful And there is an equal Necessity inferred also on the other side Because He will redeem my Soul from the Power of the Grave therefore He shall receive me to himself There is a Mutual Insurance because it is equally impossible for a Believer to be redeemed from the Power of the Grave and not be finally and perfectly Blessed as to be perfectly Blessed without being first redeemed 3. This Mutual Relation between the Words doth intimate a Manifestation of my belonging unto God Resurrection alone simply considered doth not prove me to be his but when he shall both raise me and receive me it is thereby manifestly determined whose I am Here it is still liable to Question both as to my self and others To whom I belong and though I find this weighty Question sometimes comsortably resolved yet at other times I cannot discern or take the Comfort of any such Answer But then it will be finally decided Redemption from the Grave is a demonstrative Argument of his Interest in us to which we cannot but Assent As the Jews professed a readiness to believe that Christ belonged to God and was his Son if as a Father he would deliver him from the power of Death on the Cross Matth. 27.43 The Honour of our Lords Relation to the Father was much eclipsed by his poor Life and ignominious Death And though his darkest Nights were enlightened with some discoveries of his Deity yet they were vanishing and transient But in his Resurrection he was declared to be the Son of God with Power Rom. 1.4 And the Father publickly owned him in the Face of a contradicting World The glorious Resurrection of Believers will be an illustrious and convincing Evidence that God is their God and that they are his People The Doctine or general Proposition from the words is this True believers tho they die yet shall not perpetually remain in a state of Death but be raised and received up into Glory That they die as well as others tho they are delivered from the Sting of Death is necessary for divers reasons * Bates of Death cap. 4. namely for the more Eminent Exercise of their Grace and Illustration of the Divine Glory for the preserving a due and just difference between the Militant and Triumphant State of the Church And that the sinful frailties which cleave to them here may be abolished and they prepared for the Caelestial life of which the Natural Body is uncapable And 't is likewise necessary that they remain under the power of Death for a time that the established Order of Providence might be preserved †Bates ut supra and that the Glory of our Redeemer at his second appearance might be greatned together with their own Glory by their simulraneous Resurrection and Glorification and Triumphant Entry with him into Heaven But it is not of this that we are to speak All are equally subject to the stroke of Death but all are not again redeem'd from its power Death and the Grave is not universally Overcome as to all It still remains a Conquerer over Multitudes and will be finally victorious over them But tho Death worketh in Believers and surronds them on every side and at last gains a temporal conquest over their bodily Life Yet hereafter that Vanquished Life shall revive and that more Noble Life which is hid with Christ in God shall be consummate and made perfect In this present State Christians may vanquish the fears of Death But 't is at their Resurrection when their corruption shall have put on Incorruption and their mortals shall have put on Immortality that the saying shall be brought to pass which is written Death is swallowed up in Victory O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory Thanks be to God who giveth us Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15.54 55 56 57. I shall briefly State the Grounds of the blessed Resurrection of true Believers and shew you its necessity and then make some Application of this
continued Dependance and Subjection In a Word Is our closure with him sincere and truly Unitive and do we accordingly live to him and with him and carefully abide in him while we are in this Earthly Tabernacle If so we may commend our departing Spirits into his Hands and our Flesh may rest in Hope and we shall have Confidence and not be ashamed at his Coming The infallible Word hath given us this as the only Ground of our Hope 1 John 5.12 He that hath the Son hath Life And He that hath not the Son hath not Life John 11.25 26. I am the Resurrection and the Life He that believeth in me though he were Dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never Die. Every true Believer hath a Life in him by Vertue of his Union with Christ which is Immortal and not liable to the touch of Death a Life that shall not End in the rottenness and darkness of the Grave or in a Horrid Hell but run on through the Territories of Death and the Grave into Everlasting Life And besides this His bodily Life in the Reunion of Soul and Body shall be revived the Pains or as some rather read it the Bands of Death shall be loosed and it shall be impossible for him any more then the Prince of Life himself to whom he is United to be holden by it Acts 2.24 Now having made this Vse of the Doctrine in General I shall make some further Improvement of it as it refers Particularly to the Case at Present before our View That which is spoken of Believers indefinitely that they shall not be left under the Power of Death and the Grave but be raised and glorified may I doubt not without one disagreeing Judgment or Voice be truly spoken of the Person whose Decease hath given this special occasion and additional to the usual Business of this Day Therefore Let this Point assisted by this unquestionable Instance work some correspondent Effects and leave some suitable Impressions upon us And what can those be but of Imitation and Peaceful Submission or Satisfaction of Mind 1. Let this Doctrine assisted by this known Instance impress us to Endeavours of Imitation When a Man Prospers in the World and increases in the Favour of his Fellow-Creatures we presently enquire into the Methods and Rules of such a ones Conduct and are ready to govern our Selves as near as our Circumstances will admit by the same How much more studiously should we imitate one that in the the truest Sense is Prosperous and Happy and being entituled to the Divine Favour both in Life and Death is therefore Interested in his full and final Redemption Tho such an one is now gone from our lower World and hath left us yet Her Example remains We have known what manner of entring in She had among us 1 Thess 1.9 2 Tim. 3.10 and Her manner of Life Purpose Faith Long-Suffering Charity and Patience Her Temper was Rare and Excellent and truly deserving of Emulation Her natural Patience and Fortitude of Mind Great and Uncommon Her Prudence and Discretion obvious as well as useful in the Sphere wherein She acted Her Contempt of the Vanity and deluding Greatness of the World Her Holy Indifference of Life and Resignation to the Will of God are more especially to be imitated because they depend more upon our own Endeavours than the former The natural chearfulness and pleasantness of Her Spirit was Great and Delightful yet Grave and Solid But considering She was not only under but had received the Sentence of Death in Her Self it must be ascribed in great Part to Supernatural Reasons and a Pre-assurance of Future Blessedness This is evident by the Fears She often expressed least others knowing Her outward and bodily better than Her inward State might make censorious and prejudicial Constructions and believe Her rather insensible of than Resigned to the Divine Will Her Death was no less Serene and Calm than Her Life With Her wonted Composure of Mind She bore Her last bodily Disorder and without Sigh or Motion expired in a Moment as if it had been designed She should Experience a Victory over Death almost without conflicting with it or tasting its bitterness With that tenderness did Her Gracious Redeemer Govern and Over-rule the Stroak of Death having before disarmed it of its Sting So gently were the Bands of Life untwisted The sighing Part She hath left to us who are yet in the Vale of Tears and have the Valley of the Shadow of Death yet before us to pass through And how can a Communion of Saints do less than Sigh when there is one Hand and Heart the less to be lifted up in its Prayers and one Instrument or well tuned String the less in its Consort of Praises How can a Family do less than Sigh when deprived of so amiable and useful a Relative Such Stroaks cannot but be lamented But let our principal Care be that the Person hereby removed be Imitated in Her Humble and Truly Charitable Temper and in Her Holy Inoffensive Life and Deportment whereby She adorned the Doctrine of Christ and recommended Religion as an amiable and acceptable Institution to all that Conversed with Her Let us be followers of Her in all Things wherein She was a Follower of Christ 1 Cor. 11.1 And shew the same Diligence to the full Assurance of Hope to the End and be Followers of Her who through Faith and Patience do now inherit the Promises Heb. 6.11 12. And it is reasonable that all Relatives according to the Degree of their Relation should account themselves more obliged to this Use May Her Example therefore with Her Name live in their Remembrance Particularly may Children remember and not forsake the Law of their Mother Prov. 1.8 Prov. 20.3 but so attend to it as that they may be blessed after Her May Servants also Remember Her that had the Rule over them and spoke to them by an Exemplary Conversatition the Word of God whose Faith follow considering the End of Her Conversation Heb. 13.7 The concluding Part of a Christians Life does not only bear a Testimony to His or Her preceding Course but demonstrate the singular Advantage of Faith and Holiness and therefore being observed is mightily Assistant to our Imitation 2. Let this Doctrine attended with this Instance impress us to a Peaceful Submission of Mind and Satisfaction in the Divine Pleasure It becomes Christians to attain a submissive and satisfied Temper through the Power of their Faith and Hope How absur'd is it for such to expect and find more Cure of their Grief and Sorrow from Time than from Reason and Grace Though there be a smartness in the Dispensation yet receive it with submissive Silence considering it is God who hath done it Psalm 39.9 This sad Event is not the Fruit of Blind Chance but both as to Time and Manner the Act of Infinite Wisdom that cannot err and of Infinite Power that cannot be resisted and which is more Consolatory of Infinite Goodness and Kindness to his Departed Servant Can we imagine that a glorified Soul does wish to be again embodied for a Residence in this our lower World Or prefer a painful afflicted and tempted Life before the Blessedness of Her Coelestial State and the hopeful Rest of Her Dear Associate Can we imagine that a Glorified Soul is in the least dissatisfied with Her Translation or leaving the Body when the Body as She knows is not left in Hell nor suffer'd to see Corruption Was not this Her Habitual Sense while remaining among us that to Depart and be with Christ was best And was not this the Ultimate and Highest End of our Solemn and Renewed Addresses to God in Days of Prayer on Her Behalf while we professed to ask Her Continuance in the Flesh with a sincere and most absolute Resignation to the Divine Will If then not only the Will of God be done but Her Will accomplished and also our Prayers answered it is reasonable that Our Wills should be abundantly satisfied And it cannot be otherwise than unreasonable that Our Wills should be repugnant either to God's or Her 's which with a most joyful Concurrence have taken Place and are now to remain the same for ever To be thus Self-willed in such a Case as it carries much of Unreasonableness and Irreligion in it so likewise an Inconsistency with a pure Rational and Christian Love towards our departed Relatives Our Saviour tells his Disciples whose loss of him and of his Bodily Presence was much greater than any of ours If ye loved me ye would rejoice because I said I go to my Father John 14.28 A true and pure Affection does directly and chiefly Terminate in the Happiness and Exaltation of the Person loved Now Death is a sure Advantage to Believers and their Descent into the Grave is an infallible step to their Glorious Preferment To look upon the Case before us with an Eye of Sense it is all over black and sad Death hath killed and taken Possession of one of us it hath turned a living Creature into a dead Clod it is laid among such and Buried in the Grave and our Eye of Sense carries us no further But when by an infallible Word we are assured that the Power of Death shall be abolished and this Mortality put on Immortality and this Corruption put on Incorruption we must no more Mourn as those that are without Hope To Consider and Believe that God will redeem his own from the Power of the Grave and receive them takes away all Causes of an unremitting and reliefless Sorrow at his taking away any of ours of whom we are perswaded that they belonged to him FINIS
A Funeral Sermon ON THE DEATH OF Mrs. Mary Paice Late Wife of Mr. Joseph Paice Merchant OF CLAPHAM Who Died April 8th 1700. By Edmund Batson LONDON Printed by Samuel Bridge in Austin-Fryers 1700. Academiae Tantabrigiensis Liber To His much Respected Friend Mr. Joseph Paice Merchant SIR THO' no Man can put asunder whom God hath joyned together yet if He who makes the Union will make a Separation Who durst say what doest thou The absolute Soveraignty of God and his irresistable Power considered hath repressed the Exorbitant Passions of Heathens under Temporal Evils Though the Gospel assists us with divers more special and consolatory Arguments yet we often come short of their Sedate Temper and Self-Government Your Affliction must be confessed Great in the loss you sustain And though the Advances of Death were from Time to Time apprehended yet its Arrest was sudden and this gives no small Accent to the Calamity But the Subject of the ensuing Discourse is capable of affording Relief Great and Suitable The Doctrine of a Glorious Resurrection is propounded by the Apostle as a particular Lenitive to moderate Sorrow upon the Departure of our dearest Friends who die in the Lord 1 Thess 4.13 14. It s Efficacy and our Advantage by that Article depends upon our believing it If ye believe that Christ died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him There is great Reason to believe your departed Relative among the number that sleep in Jesus so that your Peace and Comfort will be according to the Degree of your Faith in his Death and Resurrection I confess it owing to your Self that I insisted on this Subject or rather a Particular Interposure of Divine Providence which without praevious Thoughts or Inspection fixed both your Eye and Mind together on this Text. I cannot omit to mention it as a thing which deserves a thankful Remark that in so dark and sad a Season you should be led to so bright and Joyful an Argument What could have been suggested more Great and Supporting The direct Influence this Truth hath upon the Life of Man in General renders it useful to all As there is no Man liveth and shall not see Death Psalm 89.48 So no Man that dieth and shall not be raised And since the kind of our Resurrection will be answerable to our Manner of Living and Dying this necessarily claims our best Circumspection and Diligence Our natural State is that of Apostates or Revolters from God The Great Business of such Creatures is Conversion or Re-union with God through Christ When we thus return and enter our Selves into the number of His Covenanting Renewed ones we becomes entituled to Redeeming Grace in all its Parts And who is there that would not be redeemed That would not how slight soever his Present Thoughts are when it comes to the utmost Point give the whole World were it his to be saved from Wrath and Hell That would not rather with the assured Christian commit his departing Spirit into the Hands of God and his Flesh to a hopeful Rest in the Grave than to fall under the Seizure of the Devil and the Arrest of Death together The great Danger is least Men deceive themselves by separating between the Effects and Benefits of Renewing and Redeeming Grace and therefore I have taken some Care to Guard against this as the limits of the Time and Discourse would allow I know Men are secretly dissatisfied with the Terms of God they would be Redeemed but not subject to the Redeemer they would live to themselves and when they can live no longer would Die in the Lord But this is so Gross they dare not utter it and so full of Guilt as that it will effectually consign them to an irreversible State of Dissatisfaction and Torment for ever I am Glad that while I comply with your Request in the Publication of this I can also testifie the great Respect I bore to the Person whose Decease occasioned it and contribute in this way to the Embalming Her Precious Name I shall not fail to direct my best Desires to God that He who alone can would fill up every Relation vacated by Her removal by more plentiful Communications of Himself that Her Humble and Pious Example may live in your Memory that Her hopeful Descendants may tread in Her steps that you may all attain to the same full Assurance of Hope that God will be your God and Guide unto Death and afterwards Redeem You from the Power of the Grave and receive You that you may all together with Her be for ever with the Lord In whom I am Dear Sir Your most Affectionate Servant Edmund Batson A Funeral Sermon Psalm 49.15 But God will redeem my Soul from the power of the Grave for he shall receive me Selah IT is generally known on whose and what account we are now to divert from our usual Course and Subject If the Determination of Events had been in our Judgments and Wills our present assembling had been rather to have adored and praised Divine Goodness for the Recovery of our Deceased Sister than as now mournfully to solemnize Her Funeral But our Exit no more depends on our Judgments or Wills than our Entrance into this World which is not at all but the Keys of Life and Death are in the Hands of One who worketh all things according to the Counsel of his own Will and whose Judgment and will is as much more kind and beneficial to us as more true and Impartial than ours can be And tho we should suppose as we are too apt to do our Understandings and Desires altogether free from Irregularity and Mistake Yet our Impotency keeps us unfit for such a Province as determining events especially the Grand and comprehensive events of Life and Death to which Omnipotency is equally necessary with Unerring Wisdom No less a power can continue Life than that which can create or give it By all our Thoughts and Labour and Substance we can no more add a Year or a Day to our Time than a Cubit to our Stature the bounds of both being immutably fixed Who can stop the Conquests of Death Notwithstanding the summoned Advice of Man the Use of all things which Wisdom or Skill may direct and Wealth procure and sanctified too by incessant Supplications to the supreme Being Death is still Victorious It irresistable introduces it self whether we are willing or unwilling ready and prepared or not Such as conversed with us took sweet Counsel together with us in the House of God delighted themselves with us and gave us delight become Death's Captives before our Eyes are bound in its Bonds And we can no more save our selves than rescue or redeem them And this indeed would be a most Mournful Case if either 1. There was no one that could redeem them if there was no power Superior to their own that could effectually break the Gates of Death and lose them
from its Bonds if there could be none found that might be par negotio competent for such a work Or if 2. They were such as were not to be redeemed but to be left under the power of Death so that their dying out of this World should be a certain introduction of the second Death which is Eternal if they were found without those qualifications that might Rank them among that number to whom the Almighty Redeemer hath appropriated and confined his Care and Power In either of these cases Christians cannot without inexpressible Grief behold the Conquest Death makes over Apostate Creatures and Lament the Exit of a Sinner because it is his Entrance into a place of Torment from whence there is no Redemption In either of these Cases Relatives may with some colour of Reason abandon themselves to sorrow and Mourn as those without hope because they really are such But this is not the case here Death and the Grave in our present View is not so mournful a Spectacle Their aspect which is always various according to the State of the Person related to is not so Frightful and Horrid Inexorable Death its true hath suddenly snatched away one from us and the Grave hath swallowed Her up But Help is laid on one that is mighty to save There is one that hath destroy'd him that hath the power of Death that is the Devil Heb. 2.14 And therefore can redeem a soul from the power of the Grave and swallow up Death and the Grave in Victory As he hath absolute Power over this Visible World of ours and doth measure out the time which each of its Inhabitants is to spend here So Death and the Grave are also within the limits of his Dominion and an Authority of emitting thence is conjunct with his Authority and Power of commanding our Entrance into it Neither is it to be questioned but that Person on whom Death hath now laid its hand and transmitted to the Grave is interested in and under the custody of that Benign Power which will in a seasonable time bring her up from thence The supporting Vertue of this and such like Truths to the Deceased under her Chronical Distempers and the Consolatory use of it to her Surviving Consort hath given him just Reasons for the Recommendation of this Text to be spoken to on this occasion But God will redeem my Soul from the Power of the Grave for he shall receive me Selah The Adversative Particle But refers us to something that was spoken before The Doctrine of the Resurrection is insinuated as a most effectual remedy against inordinate fears and dejection of mind in an evil time This hath an advantage above other remedies because it suits with the natural Disposition of Mankind to draw relief under trouble from a pre-apprehended Deliverance Those who erroneously built their hopes of a Resurrection upon their Wealth and the multitude of their Riches made it to serve for this purpose but the unservicableness of their Wealth and Wisdom and the vanity of their Trust thereon is detected by their daily subjection to Death who not only cuts them down as at verse 7.8 9 10. but afterwards feeds on them v. 14. And therefore tho the Doctrine be true and of soveraign and infallible use in such cases yet because the Foundation of their Hopes is false they can have no safe retreat hither from their forementioned guilty Fears But I build my Hope upon a truer bottom tho their fears in an evil Day or Hour of Death may reasonably remain yet I have no reason to fear for it is God one that can and one that will redeem my soul from the power of the Grave and receive me Selah This is the plain connexion of the words with the precedent part of the Psalm I shall enquire into the true Import of both Phrases and then look upon them in their Mutual respect and the light they cast upon each other But God will deliver my soul from the power of the Grave The word Soul must be taken in an accommodate Sense and without enumerating the various Expositions it seems most properly to signifie the Humane Life not the Soul or Body singly but the Union between both because this is that that suffers the Intercision by Death And this Metonymical Construction is justified by many Places of Scripture where the Circumstances of the Text do at first view determine this to be the true and only Sense of the Word Isa 53.12 He hath poured out his Soul unto Death compared with Matth. 20.28 And to give his Life a Ransom for many From the Power of the Grave The Original Word is comprehensive of the whole unseen World both in its Upper and Lower in its Happy and Miserable Regions The known Controversie in which this Word is concerned hath occasioned a fuller search into its Primitive and Ancient Signification And though it be of that Latitude yet its Sense is peculiar according to the Circumstances of the Place wherein it is used And here I conceive it is most properly understood of the State and Place of the Dead so that the import of the Expression God will redeem my Soul from the Power of the Grave is That he will not leave me in that State wherein Death lodges me Death will separate my Soul and Body and turn my Body to Dust but God will not suffer it to keep me always in that State He will not suffer it to Exercise a perpetual Dominion over me Tho' I am captivated by it yet He who is stronger than Death will break its Bars and give me a seasonable Release The Word Redeem seems to govern and direct us in Understanding the whole Phrase and leads us so to conceive of the Power of the Grave and our being in or under it as that with Reference to it the Word Redemption might be properly applicable and used And this Construction is confirmed by that Parallel Text Hosea 13.14 where the Captivity of the Jews is called a Death a being under the Power of the Grave But saith God I will ransom them from the Power of the Grave I will redeem from Death O Death I will be thy Plague O Grave I will be thy Destruction But more fully by that of the Psalmist Psalm 16.9 10. which though spoken by David concerning our Lord Christ as the Apostle Peter determines Acts 2.25 26 27. Yet may truly and properly be spoken of every sincere Christian that is his Member My Flesh shall rest in Hope for thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor suffer thine Holy one to see Corruption For He shall receive me i. e. He shall take me entirely to himself The Form of our Covenant between us is that I should give up both Body and Soul to him and that he should receive both that where he is I in my whole Person may be He hath received me into his Grace and Favour He hath accepted me in the Beloved He hath adopted
Believers by vertue of which union his Resurrection doth assure theirs Christ and Believers constitute but one Mystical Body it is the Spirit of Holiness which thus unites them of which they both must necessarily tho not equally Partake He is the Head they are the Members and therefore must have Communion with him in his Resurrection and Life Whatsoever Glorious or Inglorious Change the Head suffers the Members must feel something of the same in a proportionate Degree And this is so Infallible that the Apostle argues not only from the Negation of Christs Resurrection to the Negation of ours but from the Negation of our Resurrection to the Nullity of Christ's 1 Cor. 15.13 This Union is continued even while Believers are under the Power of the Grave The Relation of Christ to the Father did not cease when he was detained by Death in the Bowels of the Earth tho the Comforts of that Relation were suspended yet the Relation it self never brake of So in a State of Death the Union between Christ and Believers remains It is the Man who dies not the Christian Both parts of the Human Person are separated from each other but neither of them separated from Christ Hence it is that when their Spirits are returned to God their flesh doth rest in Hope and their Bodies take a joiful and quiet Repose in their Beds of Dust because He to whom they are so dearly and Indissolvably United will not leave them under the power of Death for ever But 2. The Spirit dwells in Believers not only as a bond of Vnion between Christ and them but as a Principle of Power for their Resurrection Rom. 8.11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you He that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your Mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you The Resurrection of Christ is ascribed in the Scripture to all the Persons in the Trinity It is ascribed to God the the Father because he is the Fountain of action in the Deity as at Acts 3.15 and it is ascribed to him as he is the God of Peace as invested with that Title because he was the Person to whom satisfaction was made as at Heb. 13.20 And it is ascribed to the Son himself because all that he did as Mediator was to be his own Joh. 2.19 and chap. 10.18 But the efficiency is ascribed to the Holy Spirit Whether we consider him as given by the Father or giving himself a Sacrifice for our Sins he is said by the Eternal Spirit to offer up himself Heb. 9.14 so whether the act of his Resurrection be spoken of as done by the Father or by himself yet it is by the Spirit which proceeds from both 1 Pet. 3.18 Now the Spirit that dwelleth in Jesus dwelleth in Believers And as it abode in him and acted in him to the offering up himself to the Death of the Cross and afterwards presided over his Body in the Grave and put forth its Power in raising him So far doth it act in Believers while here and preside over their dead Bodies to the same purposes And thus to ascribe the Resurrection of Believers to the Spirit of Christ is but congruous with other acts of Divine Goodness and the precedent workings of the Spirit For as he quickens the Souls of Believers and raises them from Death in Sin and conforms 'em to the Image of Christ so 't is requisite that He should be the Author of their Corporeal Resurrection and likeness to Christ also Now the Resurrection of Believers being fixed on these Grounds We shall next briefly consider its Necessity When Death which was introduc'd by Sin hath been reigning and acting the part of a Conqueror over Mankind and bringing all both just and unjust under its Dominion it is necessary that sooner or later it be overcome and swallowed up of victory 't is necessary that some of its Captives be released that some Souls be Redeemed from its Power Otherwise 1. The Glory of Christ Redeemer would suffer a great and perpetual Eclipse And 2. The Felicity of Believers would never be Compleat and Perfect 1. The Glory of Christ Redeemer would suffer a great and perpetual Eclipse The Perfection of Beings in their several Kinds was the Glory of the Creator To be redeemed from the Power of Sin and be left under the Power of the Grave were it supposeable would be such an imperfect Redemption as we cannot but apprehend to be inconsistent with the Wisdom and Power and Love and absolute Perfection of the Redeemer That Creatures capable of Immortality should be left in a State of Discipline and Probation here and that their Future State should be according to their present Behaviour and Deportment carries nothing of inconsistency in it But that these Creatures capable of Immortality when they have demeaned themselves aright and gone through their State of Tryal with Approbation should be left under the Power of Death and not entred into their Masters Joy is such a dealing as we cannot conceive worthy of God That Death and He who hath the Power of Death that is the Devil should perpetuate their Authority over the sincere Servants of Christ and take their Reward from them How Inglorious a Person would this bespeak our Redeemer to be Moreover as he is the Head of the Mystical Body his Honour suffers a visible Diminution by the Absence of any Member There is so much lost of his Praises as should belong to those that are thus kept back For who can declare his Righteousness in the Grave Or Praise him in the House of Silence Psalm 88.11 12. Psalm 115.17 We are not to imagine our Lord so careless of his own Glory when he hath already done so much for that end and when it is still in his own Power as he is absolute Lord of the whole unseen World to perfect his own Praise As surely as he hath triumphed over Death and all Principalities so surely will he make all his Members to Triumph over them and that for his own Glory And none shall be detained under their Dominion unless such as by their own choice while here remained in an inviolable Union with Death and the Prince of Darkness that is the Devil 2. The Felicity of Believers would never be Compleat and Perfect The Perfection of their Personal Felicity necessarily requires the Concourse or Union of all that is essential to or constitutive of the Person The Body and the Soul from their first setting out in the World to the Grave run the same Race therefore they must enjoy the same Reward There is 't is true a great inequality in their Operations as respecting Holiness so there will be a great inequality in their Enjoyments but both must have their proper share And it would not be beseeming the Divine Goodness to deal so differently as that the Soul should be Everlastingly Happy and the Body lost in forgetfulness
number but such as Voluntarily put themselves into it and wilfully continue notwithstanding the means which the great Redeemer uses to educe and recover them Death is no where perpetual but where it is self-procured None lie under it and abide under it but they that loved it and refused to to take hold of the Paths of Life None die unintrested in the Redeemer and his Power but such as rejected him while they lived Therefore 2. Vse Let this admonish us to take care and provide that we be of that number to whom this blessed priviledge belongs Since it is not common to all but proper only to some with what solicitude should we concern our selves and follow on the Enquiry till we arrive at a certainty in this matter Since the enquiry is of highest importance and admits of a plain and true solution it can never be justified as rational to continue in a dubious uncertainty Who would not covet to be in a special Relation to the Almighty and Gracions Redeemer and to be one of those whom he will Redeem from the Power of the Grave The knowledge of this alone can preserve the true comfort of our lives and fill us in Death with Joy Vnspeakable and full of Glory Let us therefore with assiduous diligence endeavour to make our Calling and Election and therewith our Glorious Resurrection sure This matter will quickly be brought to an Issue with every one of us either Death will Triumph over us and prey upon us as Eternal Trophies of its Conquest or through Divine Grace and Love we shall be delivered and Triumph over it There are Two or Three Things will ascertain our State and let us into the Knowledge of what our final Issue will be 1. Are we Regenerate Creatures We are naturally Apostates from God and in open defiance against his Soveraignty and Laws and there can be nothing but a fearful Expectation or looking for of Death and Vengeance which shall devour and consume such Adversaries until we cease to be Adversaries until the contrariety of our Natures against him be subdued and we become new Creatures Our Expectations cannot rationally be altered but upon a precedent Change of State The Resurrection of Christ is the Ground of this blessed Hope in Believers as hath been shewn but their Regeneration is the Evidence of it A Soul that passes out of this World unrenewed must never expect a Reunion with a raised Glorified Body The Body indeed shall be raised and reunited to the Soul but it will be in order to compleat the Misery of the Sinner Redemption from the Power of Sin and Redemption from the Power of Death are Coextensive and have both the same Subjects Rev. 20.6 Blessed and Holy is he who hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no Power There is the Priviledge and there is the Character of the Person to whom it belongs It is in vain to think of dissolving the Divine Order or separating what God hath joined together None ever was or shall be so blessed as to be exempt from the Power of the second Death but such as are Holy and have Part in the first Resurrection Though the Soul be the immediate Subject of Regeneration yet it respects the whole Person The Understanding and Conscience and Will and Affections are all changed in this Work And the bodily Members and Senses are destinated by the renewed Soul and employed in new Services and are no more the Members of Unrighteousness but Instruments of Service to Jesus Christ Rom. 6.19 The Laws of the great Redeemer are the Rule of Duty to the entire Man and are obeyed or violated by the Soul and Body in Conjunction Now where there hath been this entire Obedience yielded by a Man renewed in his whole Constitution it shall receive a just recompence of Reward and those that have followed Christ in the Regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the Throne of his Glory they shall sit with him judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel Mat. 19.28 2. Are we Dead with Christ If we be Dead with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him If we be planted together with him in the likeness of his Death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection If we suffer with him we shall reign with him Rom. 6.5 8. Our likeness to Christ must be begun in our present embodied State This is the fixed Order of Heaven The other World is the World of Perfection where the Image of Christ or of the Devil is compleated according to which of them was begun here upon Earth None can have Communion with the Redeemer in his glorious Resurrection but such as have Fellowship with him in his Sufferings and are conformable to his Death Phil. 3.10 A Man that continues to Live cannot while such be the subject of Resurrection He must first Die So our Self-denial and Mortification and Dying with Christ as necessarily precedes our Communion with him in his glorious Resurrection 3. Are our Hearts and Affections now with God and Christ in Heaven Nothing less than an Heavenly Conversation can justifie our looking for a Saviour who shall change our vile Bodies into the Image of his most glorious Body Phil. 3.20 21. A Terrene Temper of Mind and an Heart unlimitedly engaged in the World doth absolutely contradict the Hopes of a blessed Resurrection and Reception into Heaven It is the Nature of Hope as it is a Christian Grace to engage the Soul in a serious Pursuit of that which is hoped for And also to give it a deep Tincture of its Object before it is actually enjoyed Therefore if we don't savour heavenly Things above all carnal and worldly Delights and seek them with the greatest Diligence our Hopes are Fallacious The Wise and Holy God cannot act so Inconsistently with Himself How Inconsistent soever Mens Actions and Hopes may be as to bestow Heaven and Glory upon one that never desired or esteemed or sought it that would always prefer the Honours and Emoluments of the World before it This would be to violate the Rules of Discrimination which he himself hath fixed and such an Inglorious Amplification of that blessed Kingdom as would leave it almost undesirable and the Priviledges of Christians would cease to be Priviledges when others may have an equal share in them These Enquiries do in short recur to this Have we a sure Interest in Christ who is the Prince and Lord of Life Have we received him in all these Respects wherein he is to be received and absolutely resigned our selves to him as our Lord and Saviour Hath there passed such mutual Acts between us and him of giving and receiving as that thereupon He may be truly called ours and we as truly said to be his He will finally redeem none but his own Have we remaining Indications of this in our Hearts and Lives Have our Course in this World been ordered agreeably thereto in
That the one should be glorified in Heaven and the other remain in the Dust Besides this we may justly conceive of a fixed innocent Inclination in the glorified Soul to her former Dear Associate and therefore the satisfying such an Inclination by their Re-union must contribute to the Felicity of the Person Their Relative of Mutual Happiness would be likewise impaired if any that truly belonged to their Number were wanting and still kept under the Power of Death For they are all inviolably United in Love which as it were transforms one into another and causes the Glory of every Saint to redound to the Joy of all And every one both adds to and shares in the Felicity of the whole Here there are many Vitious Allays of Love among true Christians and they do not duely sympathize with one another in their Conditions of Life But in Heaven they are of one Heart and one Soul there is an exact Agreement of Tempers and Inclinations so that could we suppose the Body of one detained as an Eternal Prisoner of the Grave and such a ones Happiness thereby impaired the whole would suffer therein But I come now to the Use Now as this Doctrine of the blessed Resurrection of Believers being fix'd on the fore-mentioned Grounds and Reasons must needs be acknowledged a great Truth and one of the true and faithful Sayings of God So upon strict Enquiry it will appear a very comfortable Truth And that 1. With respect to the present Afflictions and Sufferings of this Life and particularly the Frailties and Diseases and Weakness and Vileness of these Bodies The Dictates of Reason and the Prescriptions of Moralists are ineffectual to form the Soul to true Patience and Contentment under bodily Sufferings But Faith and Hope in a blessed Resurrection administers powerful Support And as this excels all natural Topicks so all the consolatory Points in Revealed Religion do ultimately center and terminate in this For if our Hope was only in this Life whatever may be propounded to us we were of all Creatures most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 To know that our Bodies shall be raised to an immortal incorruptible Glory and changed into the likeness of Christ's Body makes us more unconcerned about their Condition and more contented that God should have the entire Disposal of them here This sweetens the most bitter Cups alleviates the most heavy Burdens and renders all bodily Distempers and Pains supportable and easie And furthermore it directs us so to behold so to account of so to improve these present momentary Afflictions as that they might Work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 2. With respect to our own Personal Dissolution This is the thing which Nature so much abhors to come under the Power of Death to be divulsed from all the Enjoyments of Life to be confined to the dark solitude of the Grave to see Man no more in the Land of the Living this is a frightful and disquieting Thought And inasmuch as this is a thing universally known it is also universally feared There is a lawful fear of Death when this Passion is regular both as to its Object and Degree it is excellently Useful As a wise Counsellour or faithful Guardian it keeps Reason awake and active so as that it might sustain the Evil in the best manner which it could not prevent And there is an inordinate fear of Death which as a Tyrannous Master doth continually disquiet and torment the Soul and keep a Man all his Life time under Bondage The Philosophers attempted to moderate and govern these anxious Fears but in vain * Bates Har. of Attr. cap. 17.355 p. Octa. All that they could oppose against this cruel Enemy while they were without the Knowledge and Belief of a glorious Resurrection was ineffectual But the Gospel furnishes us with real Remedies Christians cannot be afraid to Die when they know they Die in the Lord and belong to one who will redeem them from the Power of the Grave and swallow up Death in Victory Were we to be Eternal Captives to Death and Prisoners of the Grave for ever there were some Reason to dread it But when God speaks to us as to Jacob descending into Egypt Fear not to go down into the Grave I will go down with thee and I will surely bring thee up again So that hereby we are as sure of overcoming Death as suffering it as sure of being Conquerors as of being Combatants how are all excruciating fears hereby expelled In our own Strength indeed and acting separately from God we cannot overcome No one can save himself from going down to the Grave or by Price or by Force procure his Releasement and Discharge from its Captivity any more than from its War But in Relation to God we are more than Conquerors To be more than Conquerors is to be Triumphants Christians may thus Triumph in this Perswasion that tho' they tast Death the common Lot of every Man yet they shall be redeemed from it so as not to be hurt by the second Death and neither Death nor Life c. shall be able to separate them from the Love of God in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.37 38 39. Neither is this Doctrine of a blessed Resurrection only an Argument of Support and Comfort under the Apprehensions of Death but also a Just and Rational Incentive to Desire our Dissolution How willingly did Elias let fall his Mantle that he might ascend to Heaven How willing was Paul to be dissolved that he might be with Christ How desirously and boldly did the valiant Martyrs encounter with Death that interposed between them and their glorified State This upbraids our backwardness who profess to be enlightened and perswaded of that blessed and perfect World A loathness to Die in Christians is directly repugnant to their Hopes and a reproach to their Christianity it self We are not to obtain Heaven by an immediate Translation to it Death is a necessary intermediate way and there is a natural bitterness in it which makes it unpleasant 'T is a dark Passage from this to the other World though under the Custody and Dominion of our gracious Redeemer * How 's Domin Redeem over the Invis World p. 49. Yet notwithstanding this Believers are still to reckon their Mortality their Advantage and to bless God that they are not to spend their Immortality in the present State But you will say We should not fear Dying if we did know our Interest in Christ if we were assured that we were of that number whom he will redeem from the Power of the Grave and receive to himself It must be confessed there are but some whom God will thus Redeem others are to be left under the conquest of Death and of him that hath the Power of Death for ever And these have reason to fear and Tremble at the thoughts of Death and much more at its approach but then consider none are among that