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
most zealous and active to accomplish his pleasure But the Son is God not by Analogy and Deputation as Princes are nor with a limitation and diminution as Moses was made a God to Pharaoh but absolutely and really as subsisting in the Divine Nature And consequently he is the Supreme King and to him the Ensigns of Majesty divinely Royal are ascribed But unto the Son he saith Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever a Scepter of Righteousness is the Scepter of thy Kingdom Whereas the Scepters of Earthly Kings are often unrighteously manag'd and their Thrones ruinously fall There is a further Confirmation from his Works that are divinely great and glorious wherein no Creature has any share of Efficiency The making of the World is ascrib'd to him Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the Works of thy Hands The Divine Attributes the peculiar Character of the Deity belong to him Eternity and Immutability The most solid parts of the visible Creation shall perish and be changed but thou remainest and art the same His Life is an intire uniform unchangable Perfection His Glory and Felicity are in the same invariable Tenor for ever possest by him Lastly The Son sits in that quality at the right Hand of the Father in the Society of Empire as equal to him in Power and Honour commanding all in the visible and invisible World most easily and irresistibly tho' gradually subduing his Enemies to a consummate Victory But the Angels so numerous and powerful are ministring Spirits employed for the defence and benefit of the Church From this summary account we may understand how firmly the Divinity of Christ is establish'd in the Scripture For those Passages of the Prophets that speak of the God of Israel as Creator and the sole object of Adoration are directly referr'd to Jesus Christ. And the Name Jehovah the Majesty of which consists in its being incommunicable is attributed to him This is the Foundation upon which that whole Fabrick of the Gospel is built The Office of Mediator in the prophetical priestly and regal administration is necessarily join'd with the Divinity of his Person And the revelation of it from Heaven is as clear as the Sun is visible in the Firmament All the Difficulties in our conceiving this great Mystery of Godliness are but like the shadows that attend the Light And all the heretial subtilties to pervert the sence of such plain and positive Texts are as impertinent as impious This being establish'd the Apople proceeds to give an account of the Son of God's assuming the Humane Nature and submitting to Sufferings and Death This is a Divine Secret so miraculously strange that the Contrivance was without the Compass of the Angelical Minds and the discovery of it is only by supernatural Revelation but when revealed the account of it is so open and consentaneous to reason as being the most congruous Means for the illustration of God's Glory in the saving lost Men that the humane Mind if not deeply corrupted with the tincture of Prejudice must consent to it as worthy of all acceptation The substance of his reasoning is this That it was the product of the most wise merciful and righteous Counsel of God that the Saviour of Men should have communion with them in their Nature that he might have a right to redeem them by his Alliance and Propinquity for he that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all one and that he should undergo sufferings even to death for the price of their Redemption and the remedy of their Infirmities Forasmuch as the Children are partakers of Flesh and Blood he also likewise took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil And deliver them who through fear of Death were all their Lives subject to Bondage The Devil is said to have the Power of Death 1. Because he induces men to commit sin that meritoriously renders them liable to Death He tempted the first Man cum effectu and was a Murderer from the beginning 2. In that he inspires them with furious thoughts and inflames their Passions from whence proceed Strifes and Wars that efficiently cause Death He is supreme in all the Arts of Mischief and always intent upon Evil 'T is by his instigation that Men become like raging Beasts animated and bent on mutual slaughter 3. Because he is many times the Executioner of God's Wrath and inflicts Death upon rebellious and incorrigible Sinners 'T is recorded by the Psalmist That God cast upon the Egyptians the fierceness of his anger wrath indignation and trouble by sending evil Angels those Princes of the Air the Instruments of the Thunder and fiery storm of Hail that destroyed them 4. Because he makes Death more formidable to sinners by heightning their guilty Fears of God's TribunaI The false Spirit in tempting Men to sin puts on blandishments but afterward he is a severe accuser of them to God and to themselves Lastly This Title may signify his tormenting sinners with unrelenting cruelty in Hell which is the second Death Now these Evils being the penal Consequence of sin our Saviour by his Death appeas'd the injur'd Justice of God and thereby destroyed the cruel tyranny of the Devil As the Lamb of God in the Notion of a Sacrifice he overcomes our spiritual Enemies Sin Satan and Death lie vanquisht at the foot of his Cross. Besides our Saviour having felt such sorrows and infirmities as are usual to his People by that correspondence and resemblance between them is compassionately inclin'd to relieve them I shall now insist upon the blessed Privilege of Believers set down in the Text viz. That Jesus Christ by his Death frees his People from the servile tormenting fear of Death In prosecuting the Point I shall 1. consider the account the Scripture gives of Death's entrance into the World 2. Shew what the fear of Death includes and the Bondage consequent to it 3. How the Death of Christ frees us from the thraldom of that fear 4. Who are partakers of this blessed Privilege And then apply it I. The Scripture gives an account of Death's entrance into the World in a three-fold respect 1. As the desertt of Sin 2. As the Effect of the divine Decree 3. As the Sentence of the Law 1. As the Desert of Sin The first design of the Creator was his own Glory in conjunction with the happiness of Man He was made accordingly Holy in perfection placed in Paradise and his state contained all the Ingredients of Felicity proper to his Nature He was capable of dying as sad experience proves yet no Accident from without no Distemper from within had impair'd his vigour and made him actually subject to Death without sin Whilst innocent he was immortal not from everlasting Principles of Nature but by Divine Preservation of which the Tree of Life was the
Death the Soul is strongly excited by the Call of God to review its state and make solemn preparation to be found of him in Peace But 't is not in a strict sence the malediction of the Law and divine Revenge upon them The Serpent is turn'd into a Rod of Correction in the hands of our Heavenly Father for their good As the Apostle speaking of some that for their profaning the Lord's Table were fallen asleep adds that when we are judg'd we are chastened of the Lord that we way not be condemned with the World A Believer shall not be hurt of the second Death From hence it is that in the Book of Life the Scriptures the death of the Saints is called a sleep St. Paul argues If we believed that Jesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him 'T is observable how the Apostle varies the expression Jesus died and the Saints sleep in him for he sustained death with all its terrors that it might be a calm sleep to his People They enjoy as perfect a rest in the Beds of Dust as ever in the softest Down Stephen in the midst of a showr of stones fell asleep Believers die in peace The Righteous is taken from the Evil to come he enters into peace Being reconciled to God through the Blood of Christ they are not terrified at his Call but with sweet tranquillity resign their Souls unto him Lord now let thy Servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation There is a vast difference in God's account between the Death of Righteous and the Wicked As the Tabernacle in the Wilderness was taken down with care upon their change of station and delivered to the Levites Charge in order to the raising of it again with honour but the House incurably infected was pluck'd down with violence and thrown into an unclean place with execration thus the death of the Saints is precious in the sight of the Lord their Bodies are kept in the bosom of the Earth to be raised in Glory and the death of the Wicked is accurst In short as the Wood that Moses cast into the Waters of Mara by a miraculous virtue sweetned them so the Cross of Christ has taken away the malignity and bitterness of Death 2. Death is a blessed advantage and enriching Gain to a Believer it brings him to the possession of that Good that incomparably exceeds the Evil that remains in it For the Death of a Saint is not total but as in the Ceremony of Purification from Leprosy one Bird was killed and the other let fly in the open Air the mysterious shadow of the Lepers being restored to a state of Liberty thus when the Body dies and returns to the Earth the Spirit returns to God the Father of Spirits and Fountain of Life Our Saviour told the Jews I am the living Bread that came down from Heaven if any Man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever and the Bread that I will give is my Flesh that I will give for the Life of the World The Heavenly Divine Life that is communicated by the Spirit of Christ to Believers remains entire when the sensitive life is lost The natural order is There is a time to be born and a time to die the supernatural is there is a time to die and a time to be born The death of a Saint is a new Birth the pains of the dying Body are as Throws whereby the ripen'd Soul is delivered into the Land of the Living The happiness of a Saint after Death more particularly will appear by considering 1. The place to which he ascends the highest Heaven This inferiour World is fram'd with exquisite Order the Earth is full of the Glory of the Lord yet 't is but the sediment of the Creation the habitation of Birds and Beasts nay of rebellious Sinners and by this we may raise our thoughts to conceive something of the seat of Life and Blessedness Above 'T is for its amplitude and excellency called the Heaven of Heavens which is the highest comparison to instruct and astonish us with the Glory of the place The shining Firmament with all the Luminaries that adorn it are but the Frontice-piece to it All the lustre of Diamonds the fire of Carbuncles and Rubies the brightness of Pearls are dead in comparison of its Glory 'T is called by our Saviour his Fathers House and he is the God of Glory 't is his Temple wherein his sacred Presence is fully exhibited His Throne wherein his Majesty is revealed in the most illustrious manner For pleasantness 't is called Paradise in allusion to the delicious Garden planted by the hands of God himself for Adam his Favorite whilst innocent There is the Tree of Life indeed and Rivers of Pleasure ever springing from the Divine Presence 'T is the Inheritance of the Saints in Light to signify literally and allegorically the glory and joy of the Place For Light gives splendor to things and conciliates chearfulness and is a fit Emblem of both As on the contrary Hell is described by the blackness of darkness for ever to signify the sadness and despair of the Damned and because in that centre of misery a perpetual night and invincible darkness increases the horror of lost Souls Heaven for stability is called a City that has Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God The present World is like a Tent or Tabernacle set up for a time and with all its perishing Idols shall shortly fall all this beautiful Scene shall be dissolved But the supreme Heaven is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Our Saviour tells us In my Father's House are many Mansions to signify the amplitude and durableness of it 2. In that blessed Place there is a freedom from all afflicting Evils that are numberless here The present World is a labyrinth of Thorns in every state we meet with something to vex us You may as well count the Waves of the Sea when inraged by a Tempest as the troubles to which in this mortal open state we are expos'd Man that is born of a Woman is of few days and full of trouble A short life and many miseries O our unhappy capacity the Body is liable to as many Diseases as there are Members and the Soul to as many perplexities as passions How often are the scenes and habits chang'd in the time of one Man He that lives in pleasures must act the Mourner's part Our sweetest comforts have hidden stings and whatever is most pleasing may occasion bitter grief And usually holy Men have a greater portion of afflictions here sometimes by the malignity and violence of the wicked as under the Law the Lamb and the Dove were Sacrifices the Emblems of Innocence and Purity and Meekness whilst the Vulture and the Lion the greedy devourers escap'd This the Apostle declares of the Elect They are
noisom Puddle In short Heaven is filled with eternal Halelujahs for there is no appearance of Sin no shadow of Death there all miseries are vanish'd and all that is desireable is possess'd by the Saints the Circle of their Employment is to enjoy and praise the Divine Goodness for ever Now is not the blessed exchange a Christian makes of the present Life for that which is infinitely better sufficient to make Death not fearful nay desirable to him And this Happiness was purchas'd for us by the everlasting Treasure of our Saviour's Blood The satisfaction of his Sufferings was meritorious as the Merits of his active Obedience was satisfying Before I proceed to the third Head I shall resolve a Question How it comes to pass since Believers are freed from the sting of Death that they die and remain in the state of Death for a time For this there are several Reasons 1. By this means all the sinful Frailties that cleave to the Saints in this Life are abolish'd The Body is dead because of Sin And what is more becoming the wise and holy Providence of God than that as by Sin Man was at first made subject to Death so by Death Sin dies entirely for ever Thus as in Sampson's Riddle Out of the Devourer comes Meat and our worst Enemy is conquer'd by his own Weapons 2. Death is continued to the Saints for the more eminent exercise and illustration of their Graces for the Glory of God and in order to their future reward Faith and Love and Patience are declared in their most powerful Operations in our encounter with Death If every Saint were visibly and entirely translated to Heaven after a short course of holy Obedience if the Wicked did visibly drop down quick into Hell Faith would be resigned to sight here This would confound the Militant state of the Church with the Triumphant Therefore now Death happens to the Good as well as to the Wicked In the next state they shall be separated by a vast Gulph and an amazing Difference Now Faith what-ever the kind of Death be that a Christian suffers sees through the thickest Clouds of Disgrace and Misery the glorious Issue As the illustrious Confessor who was crucified with our Saviour proclaim'd his Eternal Kingdom in the midst of insulting Infidels And our love to God then appears in its radiancy and vigour when we are ready for the testimony of his Truth and advancing his Glory to suffer a violent Death or when it comes in a gentler manner for 't is even then terrible to Nature we are willingly subject to dissolution that we may be united to God in Heaven And our patience has never its perfect work and is truly victorious till this last Enemy be subdued Death is the Seal of our Constancy Perseverance Now the Righteous Rewarder will crown none but those that strive lawfully and are compleat Conquerors And how wise and sweet is the Oeconomy of the Divine Providence in this that the frailty of our Nature should afford us a means of glorifying God and of entitling our selves by his most gracious Promises to a blessed Reward 3. Our Saviour by his unvaluable Obedience and Sufferings has procur'd for Believers a Celestial Divine Life of which the natural Body is not capable The Apostle saith Flesh and Blood cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The exigencies and decays of the sensitive Nature require a continual relief by food and sleep and other material supplies but the Life above is wholly spiritual and equal to that of the Angels Therefore till this earthly animal Body be reformed and purified 't is not capable of the Glory reserv'd in Heaven This is so absolutely requisite that those Believers who are found alive at the last Day shall in the twinckling of an Eye be changed that they may be qualified for it Now herein the Wisdom of God is wonderful that Death which by the Covenant of Works was the deserved penalty of Sin by the Covenant of Grace should be the Instrument of Immortality That as Joseph by a surprising Circuit was brought from the Prison to the Principality so a Believer by the Grave ascends to Heaven This the Apostle in his Divine Disputation against Infidels proves in a most convincing manner Thou Fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die As the rotting of the Corn in the Earth is necessary to the reviving and springing of it up so we must die and the Image of the Earthly Adam be abolish'd that we may be transformed into the Image of the Heavenly One And to the other part of the Question Why the Saints remain in the state of Death for a time there is a clear Answer The Resurrection of the Saints is delayed till Christ's coming to Judgment partly for the Glory of his Appearance For what an admirable sight will it be that the Saints of all Ages shall at once arise glorified and immortalized to attend upon our Saviour in the last act of his Regal Office and then to make a triumphant entry with him into Heaven And partly that the establish'd order of Providence may not be disturbed for the changing of our Nature into Glory in a suddain and inexplicable manner cannot be without miraculous Power and if every Believer presently after Death were in his glorified Body translated to Heaven the World would be always filled with Miracles which were to cease after the sufficient Confirmation of the Gospel by them But how long soever the Interval be to the Resurrection it shall be with them that sleep in Jesus as 't is with those that awake out of a quiet natural sleep to whom the longest night seems but as a moment so when the Saints first awake from Death in the great Morning of the World a thousand Years will seem no more to them than to God himself but as one day I now come to prove the third Thing That our Saviour will abolish the Dominion of Death over the Saints Whilst the Bodies of the Saints remain in the Grave they seem to be absolutely under the power of Death The World is a Golgotha fill'd with the Monuments of its Victories And it may be said to this our last Enemy in the words of the Prophet to the bloody King Hast thou killed and taken possession But we are assur'd by an infallible Word that the power of Death shal be abolish'd and the Bodies of the Saints be reviv'd incorruptible and immortal The Resurrection is a Terra incognita to the wisest Heathens a Doctrine peculiar to the Gospel some glimmerings they had of the Soul's Immortality without which all Vertue had been extinguish'd in the World but no conjecture of the reviving of the Body But reason assists Faith in this point both as to the Will of God and his power for the performing it I will glance upon the natural Reasons that induce the considering Mind to receive this Doctrine and more largely shew how
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
respect to Eternity as Ahab was the Prophet Michaiah who always foretold evil things to him 'T was the chief design of the Philosophers by Principles of Reason to fortify themselves against all frightful Accidents and with a masculine Mind and an Heart ardent with generous Spirits to encounter this inevitable Evil. When one of them was threatned by the Emperor Antigonus with present Death he boldly replied Threaten this to your dissolute Courtiers that are softned and melted by sensual pleasures and easily receptive of terrible impressions not to a Philosopher to whom Death is contemptible in any appearance This was a piece of affected Bravery for Pagan Philosophy could never furnish them with Armor of Proof against the Dart of our last Enemy But the Gospel assuring us that Death is an entrance into Immortality makes that to be the reality of a Christian that was a vain boast of the Philosophers Now that we may be establish'd in that blessed Tranquillity that Death cannot discompose the following Directions are infinitely useful 1. We must give all diligence to be in a state of Reconciliation with God The things requisit to that are as the Apostle declares Repentance towards God and Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance includes a Godly sorrow for Sins past with a detestation and forsaking them sincerely without hypocrisy and entirely without partiality in the heart and conversation 'T is call'd Repentence from dead works the proper name of our Sins that deserve eternal Death By repentance we return to Obedience that is due to God our Maker and Lawgiver Faith respects the Redeemer who by his Blood shed on the Cross and pleaded in Heaven reconciles God to penitent Sinners The belief of his merciful and powerful Mediation for our acceptance and Pardon works by Love and constrains us to dedicate our selves in a devoted propriety to his Glory and Service and to live according to that Dedication These two are absolutely necessary to the vital and salvifical state of a Christian. And as soon as a person sincerely repents and believes he is justified before God and if he dies will certainly obtain eternal Glory This should be the early and most speedy work of our Lives for the delay of Repentance and neglect of securing the Favour of God arms Death with more stings and terrors 1. 'T is direct Rebellion against God who commands us to hear his Voice to day obediently and immediately upon no less penalty than being excluded from his blessed Rest for ever Yet the self-flattering Sinner preaches another Gospel to himself and runs in hazard of Damnation and the eternal Curse every hour 2. 'T is the most provoking Abuse of his Mercy and Patience that should lead Men to Repentance He can in the twinkling of an Eye in the beating of a Pulse cut off the Sinner 't is as easy to his power as to will it And there 's no consideration should be so meltting and moving as his Clemency We reade of David that he had more than once in his power Saul his unjust and implacable enemy and spared him the effect of it was that Saul became so softned and under such compunction of spirit that he wept confest his guilt and desisted from persecuting him overcome by that unexampled Love If a Man find his Enemy will he let him go And yet Men take advantage from the goodness of God securely to despise his Laws 3. How justly will this render divine Mercy inexorable to their Prayers and Tears in their extremity When a Roman Gentleman that had wasted a great Estate by Luxury and was wont to revel in the Night and sleep in the Day petitioned the Emperor Tiberius to relieve his poverty he was dismist with this upbraiding Answer Sero experrectus es You are risen too late He never opened his Eyes to see his Condition till it was past remedy This is the sad case of many Souls that waste the seasons of Grace and are careless of their Duty till they are upon the point of perishing and then address themselves to God for his Favour and Pardon but are justly rejected with the reproaches of their obstinate neglect of Salvation in the time of their lives 4. Repentance that is indispensibly required to qualify us for Mercy is far more difficult and hazardous by Mens deferring of it The last guilty disposition that seals up the Damnation of the Sinner is Impenitence Now he that delays the returning to his Duty shall have more cause to repent hereafter but less will and power For the continuance in Sin hardens the heart and that which is indisposition will become averseness and obstinacy The heart with difficulty changes its last end Actions may be suddenly changed when there is a disability to perform them but the inward inclination to Sin without supernatural Grace remains And is it reasonable to expect the least breathings of the Spirit any divine Assistance after long resisting his holy Excitations God threatens My Spirit shall not alwayes strive with Man And to the forsaken Sinner the seasons of Grace are as irrevocable as his wasted mis-spent time The Delayer does not trust but tempt divine Mercy 5. The numerous Examples of those who have deferred Repentance and Reconciliation with God and at last died in their sins should terrify Men if they are not wrought on in a more excellent way 1. Some presume upon the vigour of their Youth or Complexion and think when they have satiated themselves with the pleasures of Sin when they have the freest vacancy and are retir'd from the affairs of the World there will be a convenient season for making their peace with God And how often are they suddenly cut off the first symptom of their sickness is Death and what the Angel with such solemnity declared that time should be no more is verified concerning them by an unexpected dissolution 2. Some that continue a while in sickness and languishings do not apply themselves seriously to God upon the hopes of recovery And this hope is cherish'd by the mortal love the cruel deceit of friends who are unwilling to let them see their danger lest their spirits should sink under it And thus many die in an unprepared state 3. Others that are guilty and graceless tho distant from Death and Hell but a few hours are secure as Jonah who slept in the midst of a Tempest at Sea The tenour of their lives discovers this to be divine Vengeance they are seiz'd with a spirit of slumber and pass without fear into the state of everlasting desperation 4. Others who have lived in careless security as if they had made a Covenant with Death yet upon the near approaches of it when they see Death before them attended with Judgment and Judgment Hell as we read of Sisera who from extream Fear past to extream Security so on the contrary these self-deceivers from extream Security have fallen into extream Fear Then Truth
words of a dying St. changes his Room but not his Company God was always with him on Earth and he shall be ever with God in Heaven But cold and seldom converse begets strangeness and that makes us shy of God When Religious Duties are performed as a complemental Visit without zealous Affections or used only in times of Affliction and Exigency as Cordial Waters in swooning Fits the Divine Presence is uncomfortable to us They who prefer carnal sweets before acquaintance with God cannot with Peace and Joy think of appearing before him O how unwelcome is Death to such for then the Spirit returns to God that gave it 6. Let us strengthen our belief of the blessed state after Death Divine Truths lose their influence and efficacy when they are not stedfastly believed Faith is the substance of things not seen and the evidence or conviction of things hoped for The Spirit confirms our Faith not by a pure Physical Act but by convincing Reasons of the truth of the Gospel The Life of Christ so glorious in holiness his Doctrine so becoming the Wisdom and other excellent Attributes of the Deity his Miracles so great numerous open and beneficial not meerly to surprize the Spectators with astonishment but to touch their Hearts his Death foretold by the Prophets and exactly agreeing in all the circumstances of the Predictions his Resurrection the most noble operation of the Divine Power are the strongâ—st Proofs that what he has reveal'd as the Counsel of God for our Redemption and the Preparations of Glory for the Saints in Heaven are divine Truths And the efficacy of the Spirit of Christ in sanctifying his Disciples in all Ages is a continual and as satisfying an Argument that the Gospel is derived from God the fountain of Truth as extraordinary Miracles For Holiness is as â—â—â—parable a property of the Divine Natu◠〈…〉 the sancti◠〈…〉 divine an efâ—ect 〈…〉 of the Body Now 〈…〉 God enters into Covenant with obedient Believers to be their God a title and relation that supposing them the most happy here all the enjoyments of this World cannot fulfil This Covenant is not dissolv'd by Death for he uses this stile after the death of his faithful Servants and from hence it follows they are partakers of his Glory and Joys in the next Life For the honour of his Veracity is most dear to him The Psalmist declares that he has magnified his Word above all his Name No perfections of his Nature are more sacred and inviolable than his Truth The foundations of Nature shall be overturn'd and the most solid parts of the Creation destroyed but his Promises shall be compleatly accomplish'd We are assured by his Infallible Authority that there remains a Rest for the People of God And he that receives this Testimony sets to his Seal that God is true honours the Truth of God's Word and binds himself more firmly to his Service and is encouraged to leave this sensible World for that which is infinitly better Our confidence and patience in well-doing and in suffering the utmost evil to Nature is from the pregnant apprehensions of the reality of eternal things We know saith the Apostle if our earthly tabernacle be dissolved we have a Building not made with hands eternal in the Heavens This fortified him against the terrors of Death When Stephen saw the Heavens open and the Son of God ready to receive him with what courage and constancy did he encounter the bloody Rage of his Murderers Faith supplies the want of Vision it pierces the Clouds opens a Window in Heaven sees the Crowns of Righteousness prepared for the Saints and sweetens the bitterest passage to it But if our Faith be weak and wavering our Courage will decline in the needful hour 'T is with Christians in their last passage from Earth to Heaven as with the Apostle walking upon the Waters to Christ whilst his Faith was firm in Christ he went upon the Waves as on the firm Land but upon the rising of a Storm his Faith sunk into Fear and he sunk in the Waters till our Saviour upon his earnest Prayer Lord save me took hold of him and rais'd him with that compassionate Reproof O thou of little Faith wherefore didst thou doubt The last Use is to excite the Saints to die with that courage and chearfulness as becomes the Gospel of Christ. The encouragement of Joshua to the Israelites against the Giants that terrified them from entring into the Land of Canaan the type of Heaven Be not afraid of them they are Bread for us we shall obtain an easy Conquest over them is applicable to this purpose do not fear Death the Enemy that interposes between us and the true Canaan for our Conflict shall be the means of our Victory and triumphant possession of the holy and blessed Land above This is very honourable to our Redeemer and recommends Godliness to the judgment affections and practice of others S. Basil tells of a custom to annoint the tops of Doves Wings with some fragrant liquor that mixing in company with other Doves they might by the scent allure them to follow to the Dove-houses Thus when holy Persons live and die with peaceful joy those that converse with them are drawn by that Fragrance of Paradise to apply them to serious Religion 'T is the Apostle's Consolatory Advice to Believers Not to be sorrowful for those that sleep in JESUS and those that are without hope When Jacob saw his Beloved Son's Coat rent and stain'd with Blood he abandoned himself to desperate Sorrow and mourned for his Death when Joseph was advanc'd in Authority and Dignity next to Pharoah in the Kingdom of Egypt Thus when we see the Garment of Mortality rent by Diseases we mourn for departed Saints as if Death had absolutely destroyed them when their Souls are reigning in Glory This immoderate Sorrow is an Heathenish Passion suitable to their ignorance of the future happy state but very unbecoming the plenary Assurance the Gospel affords us of it So for the Wicked to die with fears and palpitations of heart to be surrounded with impendent horrours when such a precipice and depth of misery is before them is very just and reasonable but for the Saints to die uncomfortably under inordinate fears is a disparagement to the Blessed Hope establish'd upon the revelation of Life and Immortality by the Gospel Now in three things I shall propound the duty of dying Christians 1. To submit to the Divine Pleasure with resigned spirits as to the means the manner and time of Death God has a Sovereign Right and Dominion over us The present Life is his most free Favour and he may justly resume it when he pleases His Will should be the first and last Rule of ours Whether he gently untwines the Band of Life or violently breaks it we must placidly without reluctation yield up our selves By what means soever Death comes all second causes are moved by an impression