poise and all stands still or draws the pins and all the frame doth fall to pieces We shall breath no more nor speak nor think nor walk no more Our pulse will beat no more Our eyes shall sâ—e the light no more Our ears shall hear the voice of man delightful sounds and melodie no more we shall taste no more our meat or drink Our appetite is gone Our strength is gone Our natural warmth is turned into an earthly cold Our comelyness and beauty is turned into a ghastly loathsome deformity Our white and red doth soon turn into horrid blackness Our tender flesh hath lost its feeling and is become a sâ—nseless lump that feeleth not whithâ—r it is carryed nor how it is useâ— that must be hidden in the earth lest it annoy the living that quickly turns to loathsome putrefaction and after that to common earth Were all the once-comely bodies that now are rotting in one Church-yard uncovered and here presented to your view the sight would tell you more effectually then my words do what an enemy Death is to our Nature When corruption hath finished its work you see the earth that once was flesh you see the bones you see the skuls you see the holes where once were brains and eyes and mouth This change Death makes And that universally and unavoidably The Prince cannot resist it by his Majesty for he hath sin'd against the highest Majesty The strong cannot resist it by their strength For it is the Messenger of the Allmighty The commanders must obey it The Conquerours must be conquered by it The Rich cannot bribe it The Learned Orator cannot perswade it to pass him by The skilful Physician cannot save himself from the mortal stroak Neither fields nor gardens earth or sea affordeth any medicine to prevent it All have sinned and all must die Dust we are and to dust we must return Gen 3.19 And thus should we remain if the Lord of life should not revive us 2. And it is not only to the Body but to the Soul also that Death is naturally an Enemy The Soul hath naturally a Love and Inclination to its Body and therefore it feareth a separation before and desireth a Restauration afterward Abstracting Joy and Torment Heaven and Hell in our consideration the state of Separation as such is a natural evil even to the humane Soul of Christ it was so while his Body remained in the grave which separated state is the Hades that our English calleth Hell that Christ is said to have gone into And though the Soul of Christ and the souls of those that die in him do pass into a far more happy state then they had in flesh yet that is accidentally from Rewarding Justice and the Bounty of the Lord and not at all from Death as Death the separation as such is still an evil And therefore the Soul is still desirous of the Bodies Resurrection and knoweth that its felicity will then be greater when the re-union and glorification hath perfected the whole man So that Death as Death is unwelcome to the soul it self though Death as accidentally gainfull may be desired 3. And to the unpardoned unrenewed soul Death is the passage to everlasting misery and in this regard is far more terrible then in all that hitherto hath been spoken O could the guilty soul be sure that there is no Justice to take hold on it after death and no more pain and sorrow to be felt but that man dyeth as a beast that hath no more to feel or lose then Death would seem a tolerable evil But it s the Living death the dying life the endless woe to which death leads the guilty soul that makes it to be unspeakably terrible The utter darkness the unquenchable fire the worm that dyeth not the everlasting flames of the wrath of God these are the chief horror and sting of death to the ungodly O were it but to be turned into Trees or Stones or earth or nothing it were nothing in comparison of this But I pass by this because it is not directly intended in my Text. 4. The Saints themselves being sanctified but in part are but imperfectly assured of their Salvation And therefore in that measure as they remain in doubt or unassured Death may be a double terror to them They believe the threatenings and know more then unbelievers do what an unsufferable loss it is to be deprived of the celelestial glory and what an unspeakable misery it is to bear the endless wrath of God And therefore so far as they have such fears it must needs make death a terror to them 5. But if there were nothing but Death it self to be our Enemy the foreknowledge of it would increase the misery A Beast that knoweth not that he must die is not tormented with the fears of death though nature hath possessed them with a self-preserving fear for the avoiding of an invading evil But man foreknoweth that he must die He hath still occasion to anticipate his terrors that which will be and certainly and shortly will be is in a manner as if it were already And therefore fore-knowledge makes us as if we were alway dying We see our Graves our weeping Friends our fore-described corruption and dismal state and so our life is a continual Death And thus Death is an enemy to Nature 2. But this is not all nor the greatest enmity that Death hath to the godly It is a lamentable hinderance to the work of Grace as I shall shew you next in ten particulars I. The fears of Death do much abate our Desires after God as he is to be enjoyed by the separated soul Though every believing holy soul do love God above all and take heaven for his home and therefore sincerely longeth after it yet when we know that Death stands in the way and that there is no coming thither but through this dreadfull narrow passage this stoppeth and lamentably dulleth our desires And so the Natural enmity turneth to a Spiritual sorer enmity For let a man be never so much a Saint he will be still a Man and therefore as Death will still be death so nature will still be nature And therefore death as death will be abhorred And we are such timerous Sluggards that we are easily discouraged by this Lyon in the way The ugly Porter affrighteth us from those grateful thoughts of the New Jerusalem the City of God the heavenly inheritance which otherwise the blessed object would produce Our sanctified affections would be mounting upwards and holy Love would be working towards its blessed object but Death standing in the way suppresseth our desires and turns us back and frighteneth us from our Fathers presence We look up to Christ and the Holy City as to a precious Pearl in the bottom of the Sea or as to a dear and faithfull Friend that is beyond some dreadfull gulf Fain we would enjoy him but we dare not venture we fear this dismal enemy in the way
Mortality as it signifyeth a posse mori a natural capacity of dying was naturall to us in our innocency or else Death could not be threatened as a penalty And if I grant as much of a naturall disposition in the Body to a dissolution if not prevented by a Glorifying change it will no whit advantage their impious cause But withall man was then so far Immortall as that he had a posse non mori a naturall capacity of not dying and the morietur vel non morietur the actuall event of Life or Death was laid by the Lord of Life and Death upon his obedience or disobedience And man having sinned Justice must be done and so we came under a non posse non mori an impossibility of escaping death ordinarily because of the peremptory sentence of our Judge But the day of our deliverance is at hand when we shall attain a non posse mori a certain consummate Immortality when the last Enemy Death shall be destroyed And how that is done I shall next enquire SECT II. YOU have seen the ugly face of Death you are next to see a little of the Love of our great Redeemer You have heard what sin hath done you are next to hear what Grace hath done and what it will do You have seen the strength of the Enemy you are now to take notice of the victory of the Redeemer and see how he conquereth all this strength 1. The Beginning of the conquest is in this world 2. The perfection will not be till the day of Resurrection when this Last Enemy shall be destroyed 1. Meritoriously Death is conquered by Death The Death of sinners by the Mediators Death Not that he intended in his Meritorious work to save us from the stroke of death by a prevention but to deliver us from it after by a Resurrection For since by man came death by man also came the Resurrection from the dead I Cor. 15.21 Forasmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood he also himsâ—lf likewise took part with them that he might destroy him through death that had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject unto bondage Heb. 2.14 15. Satan as Gods Executioner and as the prosperous tempter is said to have had the power of death The fears of this dreadfull Executioner are a continuall bondage which we are lyable to through all our lives till we perceive the deliverance Which the Death of the Lord of Life hath purchased us 1. By Death Christ hath satisfied the Justice that was armed by sin against us 2. By Death he hath shewed us that Death is a tolerable Evil and to be yielded to in hope of following life 2. Actually he conquered Death by his Resurrection This was the day of Grace's triumph This day he shewed to Heaven to Hell and to Earth that Death was conquerable yea that his personal Death was actually overcome The blessed souls beheld it to their Joy beholding in the Resurrection of their Head a virtual resurrection of their own Bodies The Devils saw it and therefore saw that they had no hopes of holding the Bodies of the Saints in the power of the grave The damned souls were acquainted with it and therefore knew that their sinfull bodies must be restored to bear their part in suffering The Believing Saints on earth perceive it and therefore see that their bonds are broken and that to the righteous there is hope in death and that our Head being actually risen assureth us that we shall also Rise For if we believe that Jesus dyed and Rose again even so them also which steep in Jesus will God bring with him 1 Thes 4.14 And as Christ being raised from the dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him So shall we Rise and die no more This was the beginning of the Churches Triumph This is the day that the Lord hath made even the day which the Church on Earth must celebrate with joy and praise till the day of our Resurrection We will be glad and rejoyce therein Psam 118.24 The Resurrection of our Lord hath 1. Assured us of the consummation of his satisfaction 2. Of the truth of all his Word and so of his promises of our Resurrection 3. That Death is actually conquered and a Resurrection possible 4. That believers shall certainly Rise when their Head and Saviour is Risen to prepare them an everlasting Kingdom and to assure them that thus he will Raise them at the last A bare promise would not have been so strong a help to faith as the actual Rising of Christ as a pledge of the performance But now Christ is Risen and become the first fruits of them that sleep 1. Cor. 15.20 For because he Liveth we shall live also John 14.19 3. The next degree of destruction to this Enemy was by the gift of his Justifying and Sanctifying grace Four special benefits were then bestowed on us which are Antidotes against the Enmity of Death 1. One is the gift of Saving Faith by which we look beyond the grave as far as to eternity And this doth most powerfully disable Death to terrifie and discourage us and raiseth us above our Natural fears and sheweth us though but in a glass the exceeding eternal weight of glory which churlish Death shall help us to So that when the eye of the unbâ—liever looketh no further then the grave believing souls can enter into Heaven and see their glorified Lord and thence fetch Love and Hope and Joy notwithstanding the terrors of interposing death The eye of Faith foreseeth the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time and causeth us therein greatly to rejoyce though now for a season if need be we are in heaviness through manifold temptations And so vicâ—orious is this Faith against all the storms that do assault us that the tryal of it though with fire doth but discover that it is much more precious then Gold that perisheth and it shall be found unto praise and hoour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ whom having never seen in the flesh we Love and though now we see him not yet believing we rejoyce with unspeakable glorious joy 1 Pet. 1.5 6 7 8 9. and shall shortly receive the end of our Faith the salvation of our souls Thus Faith though it destroy not Death it self destroyeth the malignity and enmity of death while it seeth the things that are beyond it and the time when death shall be destroyed and the Life where death shall be no more Faith is like Davids three mighty men that brake through the host of the Philistines to fetch him the waters of Bethlehem for which he longed 2 Sam. 23.15 16. When the thirsty soul saith 0 that one would give me drink of the waters of Salvation Faith breaks through death which standeth in the way and fetcheth these living waters to the soul We may say
for that great destruction of the universal deluge Should men live now but to the age of three hundred or four hundred years I fear it would so tempt them to overvalue the world and so embolden them to delay repentance that one would be as Wolf to another and the weak but be a prey to the strong and wickedness would overwhelm the world despising the reins and bearing down Religious and civil opposition But when we stand over the grave and see our friends laid in the dust how mortified do we seem how do we even shake the head at the folly of ambitious and covetous worldlings and are ashamed to think of fleshly lusts So far are men from owning their vanities when that silent teacher standeth by It is Death that helps to humble the proud and abate the arroganâ—y and obstinacy of the wicked and make them regard the messengers of Christ that bâ—fore despised them and their message It is death that allayeth the ebullition of distracting thoughts and passions and helpeth to bring men to themselves and fixeth giddy discomposed minds and helps to settle the light and the unsettled and to restrain the worst As we are beholden to the Gallows for our purses and our lives so are we to the grave and hell for much of the order that is in the world and our peace and freedom procured thereby But it is a greater good that it procureth to believers If you ask How is all this to be ascribed to Christ I answer many wayes 1. It is he that hath now the Keyes or power of death and hell even he that liveth and was dead and that liveth for evermore Rev. 1.18 and therefore is to be feared by the world 2. It is he that hath by his Blood Covenant brought us the Hope of everlasting life which is it that gives the efficacy to death Without this men would be but desperate and think that it is better have a little pleasure then none at all and so would give up themselves to sin and desperately gratifie their flesh by all the wickedness they could devise 3. And it is Christ that teacheth men the right use of death by his holy doctrine having brought life and immortality to light by his Gospel 4. And it is Christ that sendeth forth the holy Spirit which only doth so illuminate the mind and quicken and dispose the heart that Death may be savingly improved The poyson is our own but it is his skill and love that hath made a Soveraign antidote of it And let our bodies die so our sin may die If the foresight of Death destroy our sin and further our sanctification and the hour of death doth end our fears and enter us into the state of glory though we will love death as death never the better for this much less the sin that caused it yet must we admire the love of our Redeemer And it is not only the Peril but also the Terrors of Death that we are in part delivered from Though Christ himself was in a bloody sweat in his agony before his death and cryed out on the Cross My God why hast thou forsaken me because he bore the sins of the world yet death is welcome to many of his followers that drink of his cup and are baptized with his baptism For they taste not of these dregs which he drunk up and they are strengthened by his supporting grace He that doth comfort them against sin and Hell doth also comfort them against Death So great is the glory that he hath promised them and so great is his comforting confirming grace that dreadfull â—eath is not great enough to prevail against them As it was too weak to conquer Christ so is it too weak to conquer his Spirit in his peoples souls Without Christ we could not live and we durst not die but through him we can do and suffer all things and can boldly pass through this dark and shady vale of death yea we can desire to depart and to be with Christ as best fâ—r us for to Live is Christ and to die is gain Phil. 1.21 23. For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we hâ—ve a building of God an house not made with hâ—nds eternal in the heavens And therefore sometimes we can earnestly groan dâ—siring to be clothed upâ—n with our house which is from heaven And we are alwayes confident knowing that whilest we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord and therefore labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him For we walk by faith and not by sight and it is God that hath wrought us for the self same thing who also hath given us the earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5.1 to 10. Though we long not to die yet we long to see the face of God And though we lay down our bodâ—â—s with natural unwillingness yet we lay down our sin and sorrows with gladness and spiritual delight And though our hearts are ready to faint as Peters when he walked to Christ upon the waters yet Christ puts forth his hand of love and soon recovereth us from our fear and danger Melancholly and impatience may make men weary of their lives and rush upon death with a false conceit that it will end their sorrows But this is not to conquer death but to be conquered by a lesser evil and it is not an effect of fortitude but of an imbecillity impotency of mind And if a Brutus a Cato or a Seneca be his own Executioner thâ—â— do but choose a lesser evil in their conceits even a death which they accounted honourable before a more ignominious death or a life of shame and scorn and misery But the true believer is raised above the fears of death by the love of God and the hopes of Glory and Death though ungratefull in it self is welcome to him as the way to his felicity Leâ— Tyrants and Souldiers take it for their glory that they can take away mens liver that is they have the power of a Serpent or of Rats-bane as if it were their honour to be their Countreys pestilence and a Ruler and a Dose of poyson were things of equal strength and use But it is the Glory of Christ to enable hâ—s Disciples to conquer Death bear the fury of the most cruel persecutors The Martyrs have been more joyfull in their sufferings then the Judges that condemned them in their Pomp and glory When we are pressed above strength and despair of life and have the sentence of death in our selves we are then taught to trust in the living God that raiseth the dead 2 Cor. 1.8 9 10. The Saints by faith have been tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection they have had tryall of cruel mockings scourgings yea moreover of bonds
and compassed with infirmities and racked by my own distempered passion so were the many Saints now glorified but the other day Elias was a man subject saith James to like passions as we are Jam. 5.17 Am I maliced by dissenting adversaries Do they privily lay snares for me and watch my halting and seek advantage against my name and liberty and life so did they by David and many other now with Christ But now these enemies are overcome Art thou under pains and consuming sicknesses are thine eyes held waking and doth trouble and sorrow waste thy spirit doth they flesh in thy heart fail thee and thy friends prove silly comforters to thee So was it with those thousands that are now in Heaven where the night of calamities is past and the just have dominion in the morning and glory hath banished all their griefs and joyes have made them forget their sorrows unless as the remembrance of them doth promote those joyes Are thy friends lamenting thee and grieved to see the signs of thy approaching death do they weep when they see thy pale face and consumed body and when they hear the sighs and groans Why thus it was once with the millions that are now triumphing with their Lord They lay in sickness and underwent the pains and were lamented by their friends as thou art now Even Christ himself was once in his agony and some shakt the head at him and other pittied him who should rather have wept for themselves then for him This is but the passage from the womb of mortality into the life of immortality which all the Saints have past before thee that are now with Christ Dost thou fear the dreadfull face of death Must thy tender flesh be turned tâ— rotness and dust and must thou lie in darkness till the Resurrection and thy body remain as the Common earth And is not this the case of all those millions whose souls now see face of Christ Did they not lie as thou dost and die as thou must and pass by death to the life which they have now attained O then commit thy soul to Christ and be quiet and comforted in his care and love Trust him as the Mid-wife of thy departing soul who will bring it safe into the light and life which thou art yet such a stranger to But it is not strange to him though it be strange to thee What was it that rejoyced thee all thy life in thy prayers and sufferings and labours was it not the hopes of heaven And was Heaven the spring and motive of thy obedience and the comfort of thy life and yet wilt thou pass into it with heaviness and shall thy approaches to it be thy sorrows Didst thou pray for that which thou wouldst not have Hast thou laboured for it and denyed thy self the pleasures of the world for it and now art thou afraid to enter in Fear not poor soul Thy Lord is there Thy husband and thy head and life is there Thou hast more there a thousand fold more then thou hast here Here thou must leave poor mourning friends that languish in their own infirmities and troubled thee as well as comforted thee while thou wast with them and that are hasting after thee and will shortly overtake thee But there thou shalt find the souls of all the blessed Saints that have lived since the Creation till this age that are all uncloathed of the rags of their mortality and have laid by their frailties with their flesh and are made up of holiness and prepared for joy and will be suitable companions for thee in thy joyes Wy shouldst thou be afraid to go the way that all the Saints have gone before thee Where there is one on earth how many are there in Heaven And one of them is worth many of us Art thou better then Noah and Abraham and David then Peter Paul and all the Saints Or dost thou not love their names and wouldst thou not be with them Art thou loath to leave thy friends on earth And hast thou not far better and more in heaven Why then art thou not as loth to stay from them Suppose that I and such as I were the friends that thou art loth to leave What if we had dyed long before thee If it be our company that thou lovest thou shouldst then be willing to die that thou maist be with us And if so why then shouldst thou not be more willing to die and be with Christ and all his holy ones that are so much more excellent then we Wouldst thou have our company Remove then willingly to that place where thou shalt have it to everlasting and be not so loth to go from hence where neither thou nor we can stay Hadst thou rather travail with us then dwell with us and rather here suffer with us then reign in heaven with Christ and us O what a brutish thing is flesh What an unreasonable thing is unbelief Shall we believe and fly from the end of our belief Shall we hope and be loth to enjoy our hopes Shall we desire and pray and be afraid of attaining our desires and lest our prayers should be heard Shall we spend our lives in labour and travail and be affraid of coming to our journeys end Do you love lâ—fe or do you not If not why are you afraid of death If you do why then are you loth to pass into everlasting life You know there is no hope of immortality on earth Hence you must pass whether you will or not as all your fathers have done before you It is therefore in heaven or nowhere that endless life is to be had If you can live here for ever do Hope for it if any have done so before you Go to some man of a thousand years old and ask him how he made shift to draw out his life so long But if you know that man walketh here in a vain shew and that his life is as a shadow a dream a post and that all these things shall be dâ—ssolved and the fashion of them passeth away is it not more reasonable that we should set our hearts on the place where there is hopes of our continuance then where there is none â—â— and where we must live for ever then where we must be but for so short a time Alas poor darkned troubled soul Is the presence of Christ less desirable in thy eyes then the presence of such sinfull worms as we whom thou art loth to part with Is it more grievous to thee to be absent from us then from thy Lord from earth then from heaven from sinners then from blessed Saints from trouble and frailty then from glory Hast thou any thing here that thou shalt want in Heaven Alas that we should thus draw back from Happiness and follow Christ so heavily and sadly into life But all this is long of the enemies that now molest our peace Indwelling sin and a flattering world and a brutish flesh and
He that can recover his health by a pleasant medicine doth take it without any great reluctancy But if a leg or an arm must be cut off or a stone cut out by a painful dangerous Incision what a striving doth it cause between the contrary passions the love of life and the love of ease the fear of death and the fear of suffering Could we but come to Heaven as easily as innocent Adam might have done if he had conquered what wings would it add to our desires Might we be translated as Henoch or conveyed thither in the Chariot of Elias what Saint is there that would not long to see the face and glory of the Lord Were it but to go to the top of a Mountain and there see Christ with Moses and Elias in a glimpse of Glory as did the three Disciples who would not make haste and say It is good for us to be here Matth. 17.1 4. But to travell so chearfully with Abraham to the Mount of Mâ—riah to sacrifice an only Son or with a Martyr to the flames is a harder task This is the principal enmity of death it deterreth our desires and thoughts from heaven and maketh it a far harder matter to us to long after God then otherwise it would be Yea it causeth us to fly from him even when we truly love him And where Faith and Love do work so strongly as to overcome these fears yet do they meet with them as an enemy and must fight before they overcome 2. And as this Enemy dulleth our Desires so doth it consequently cool our Love as to the exercise and it hindereth our hope much abateth the complacency and Joy that we should have in the believing thoughts of Heaven when we should be rejoycing in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 the face of death appearing to our thoughts is naturally an enemy to our joy When we think of the grave and of dissolution and corruption and of our long abode in the places of darkness of our contemned dust and scattered bones this damps our joyfull thoughts of heaven if supernatural grace do not make us Conquerors But if we might pass from earth to heaven as from one room to another what haste should we make in our desires How joyfully should we think and speak of Heaven Then we might live in the joy of the Holy Ghost and easily delight our selves in God and Comfort would be our daily food 3. Moreover as our Natural Enemy doth thus occasion the abatement of Desire and Love and Joy so also of our Thankfulness for the Glory that is promised us God would have more praise from us if we had more pleasing joyfull thoughts of our inheritance We should magnifie him from day to day when we remember how we shall magnifie him for ever Our hearts would be turned into thankfulness and our tongues would be extolling our dear Redeemer sounding forth his praise whom we must praise for ever if dreadful Death did not draw a veil to hide the heavenly glory from us 4. And thus the dismall face of Death doth hinder the heavenliness of our Conversation Our Thoughts will be diverted when our complacency and desire is abated Our minds will be willinger to grow strange to Heaven when Death still mingleth terror in our meditations Whereas if we could have come to God in the way that was first appointed us and could be cloathed with glory without being stript of our present cloathing by this terrible hand how familiarly should we then converse above How readily would our Thoughts run out to Christ meditation of that Glory would not be then so hard a work Our hearts would not be so backward to it as now they are 5. Faith is much hindered and Infidelity much advantaged by Death Look either to the state of soul or body and you will easily perceive the truth of this The state of a Soul incorporated we know by long experience what kind of apprehensions volitions and affections belong to a soul while it acteth in the Body we feel or understand But what manner of knowledg will or Love what Joy what sorrow belong to souls that are separated from the Bodies it is not possible for us now distinctly and formally to conceive And when men find themselves at a loss about the manner they are tempted to doubt of the thing it self The swarms of irreligious Infidels that have denied the Immortality and separated existence of the soul are too full a proof of this And good men have been haunted with this horrible temptation Had there been no death we had not been liable to this dangerous assault The opinion of the sleeping of the soul till the Resurrection is but a step to flat Infidelity and both of them hence receive their Life because a soul in flesh when it cannot conceive to its satisfaction of the being state or action of a separated soul is the easier drawn to question or deny it And in regard of the Body the difficulty and tryal is as great That a corps resolved into dust and perhaps first devoured by some other body and turned into its substance should be reunited to its soul and so become a glorified body is a point not easie for unsanctified nature to believe When Paul preached of the Resurrection to the learned Athenians some mocked and others turn'd off that Discourse Acts 17.32 It is no easier to believe the Resurrection of the Body then the Immortality or separated Existence of the Soul Most of the world even Heathens and Infidels do confess the later but few of them comparatively believe the former And if sin had not let in Death upon our Nature this perillous difficulty had been prevented Then we should not have bin puzzled with the thoughts of either a corrupted Body or a separated Soul 6. And consequently by all this already mentioned our Endeavors meet with a great impediment If Death weaken Faith Desire and Hope it must needs dull our Endeavors The deterred discouraged soul moves slowly in the way of life Whereas if Death were not in our way how chearfully should we run towards Heaven Our thoughts of it would be still sweet and these would be a powerfull Spring to action When the Will goes with full Sails the commanded faculty will the more easily follow We should long so earnestly to be in Heaven if Death were not in the way that nothing could easily stop us in our course How earnestly should we pray How seriously should we meditate and conser of Heaven and part with any thing to attain it But that whâ—ch dulls our Desires of the End must needs be an Enemy to holy Diligence and dull us in the use of means 7. This Enemy also doth dangerously tempt us to fall in love with present things and to take up the miserable Portion of the worldling when it hath weakened faith and cooled our desires to the life to come we shall be tempted to think that
the patient understand not how blood letting cureth the infected blood that is left behind must he therefore plead against his Physitian and say It will not be done because he knoweth not how it s done We feel that here we have our sinfull imperfections we have for all that a promise that we shall be with Christ when death hath made its separation and we are assured that no sin doth enter there And is not this enough for us to know But yet I see not why the difficulty of the Objection should trouble us at all Death doth remove us from this sinfull flesh and admits the soul into the sight of God And in the very instant of its remove it must needs be perfected even by that remove and by the first appearance of his blessed face If you bring a candle into a dark room the access of the light expelleth the darkness at the same instant And you cannot say that they consist together one moment of time So cold is expelled by the approach of heat And thus when death hath opened the door and let us into the immortal light neither before nor after but in that instant all the darkness sinful imperfections of our souls are dissipated Throw an empty Bottle into the Sea and the emptiness ceaseth by the filling of the water neither before nor after but in that instant If this should not satisfie any let it satisfie them that the Holy Ghost in the instant of death can perfect his work So that we need not assert a perfection on earth which on their grounds must be the case of all that will escape Hell and Purgatory nor yet any Purgatory torments after death for the deliverance of the soul from the relicts of sin seeing at the instant of death by the the spirit or by the deposition of the flesh or by the sight of God or by the sight of our glorified Redeemer or by all this work will be easily and infallibly accomplished 5. The last degree and perfect conquest will be at the Resurrection And this is the victory that is mentioned in my Text. All that is fore-mentioned doth abate the enmity and conquer death in some degree But the enmity and the enemy it self is conquered at the Resurrection and not till then And therefore Death is the last enemy to be destroyed The Body lieth under the penal effects of sin till the Resurrection And it is penal to the soul to be in a state of separation from the Body though it be a state of glory that its in with Christ For it is deprived of the fulness of glory which it shall attain at the Resurrection when the whole man shall be perfected and glorified together Then it is that the Mediators work will be accomplished and all things shall be restored All that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth John 5.28 For this is the Fathers will that sent him that of all that he hath given him he should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day John 6.39 40. We have hope towards God that there shall be a Resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust Acts 24.15 As by man came death so by man came also the Resurrection from the dead I Cor. 15.21 Then shall there be no more death nor sorrow nor crying nor pain Rev. 21.4 No more diseases or fears of death or grave or of corruption No terrible enemy shall stand betwixt us and our Lord to frighten our hearts from looking towards him O what a birth-day will that be when Graves shall bring forth so many millions of sons for Glory How joyfully will the soul body meet that were separated so long Then sin hath done its worst and can do no more Then Christ hath done all and hath no more to do as our Redeemer but to justifie us in judgement and give us possession of the joy that he is preparing And then he will deliver up the Kingdom to the Father If you expect now that I should give you Reasons why Death is the last Enemy to be destroyed though much might be said from the nature of the matter the Wisdom and Will of God shall be to me instead of all other Reasons being the fountain and the sum of all He knows best the Order that is agreeable to his Works and Ends to his honour and to our good and therefore to his Wisdom we submit in the patient expectance of the accomplishment of his promises SECT III. Vse 1. I Now come to shew you the Usefulness of this Doctrine for the further Information of our understandings the well ordering of our hearts and the reforming of our lives And first you may hence be easily resolved Whether Death be truly penal to the godly which some have been pleased to make â— Controversie of late though I am past doubt but the hearts of those men do apprehend it as a punishment whose tongues and pens do plead for the contrary Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return was part of the sentence past on Adam and all his posterity which then proved it a punishment and it was not remitted to Adam that at the same time had the promise of a Redeemer nor is it remitted to any of us all Were it not for sin God would not inflict it who hath sworn that he takes no pleasure in the death of sinners And that he afflicts not willingly nor grieves the sons of men But my text it self decides the Controversie Sin and punishment are the evils that Christ removeth And if death were no punishment as it is no sin how could it be an Enemy and the last enemy to be destroyed by the Redeemer when we feel the Enmity before described against our souls and also know its Enmity to our bodies we cannot think that God would do all this were it not for sin espâ—cially when we read that death passeth upon all for that all have sinned Rom. 5.11 12. and that death is the wages of sin Rom. 6.23 Though Christ do us good by it that proveth it not to be no punishment For castigatory punishments are purposely to do good to the chastised Indeed we may say O Death where is thy sting because that the mortal evil to the Soul is taken out and because we foresee the Resurrection by faith when we shall have the victory by Christ But thence to conclude that Death hath no sting now to a believer is not only besides but against the text which telling us that the sting of death is sin and that the strength of sin is the Law doth inform us that Death could not kill us and be Death to us if sin gave it not a sting to do it with as sin could not oblige us to this punishment if the threatening of the Law were not its strength But Christ hath begun the conquest and will finish it SECT IV. Vse 2. FROM
will he not have all his members with him Remember then Christian when thou lookest on thy grave that Christ was buried and hath made the grave a bed of rest that shall give up her trust when his Trumpet sounds And that his Resurrection is the pledge of ours Keep therefore thy rising and glorified Lord continually in the eye If Christ were not risen our preaching were vain and your faith were vain and all men were miserable but we most miserable that suffer so much for a life which we had no ground to hope for 1 Cor. 15.14 17 19. But now we have an Argument that infidelity it self is ashamed to encounter with that hath been the means of the conversion of the Nations unto Christ by which we may put even death it self to a defiance as knowing it is now a conquered thing If it could have held Christ captive it might also have held us But he being Risen we shall surely rise Write it therefore Christians upon your hearts mention it more in your conference for the encouragement of your faith Write it on the grave-stones of your friends that CHRIST IS RISEN and that BECAUSE HE LIVETH WE SHALL LIVE ALSO and that OUR LIFE IS HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD though we are dead and when he shall appear who is our Life we shall also appear with him in glory John 14.19 Col. 3.3 4. Though we must be sown in corruption in weakness and dishonour we shall be raised in incorruption strength and honour 1 Cor. 15.42 43. While our souls behold the Lord in glory we may bear with the winter that befalls our flesh till the spring of Resurrection come Knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall also raise us up by Jesus For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inner man is renewed day by day while we look not at the things whic are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternall 2 Cor 4.14 15 16 17 18. As we are risen with Christ to newness of life so well shall rise with him to glory Vse 10. LAstly if Death be the last enemy to be destroyed at the Resurrection we may learn hence how earnestly believers should long and pray for the second coming of Christ when this full and finall conquest shall be made Death shall do much for us but the Resurrection shall do more Death sends the separated soul to Christ but at his coming both soul and body shall be glorified There is somewhat in death that is penal even to believers but in the coming of Christ and their Resurrection there is nothing but glorifying grace Death is the effect of sin and of the first sentence passed upon sinners but the Resurrection of the just is the finall destruction of the effects of sin And therefore though the fears of Death may perplex us me thinks we should long for the coming of Christ there being nothing in that but what tends to the deliverance and glory of the Saints Whether he will come before the general Resurrection and reign on earth a thousand years which some expect I shall not presume to pass my determination But sure I am it is the work of faith and Character of his people to love his appearance 2 Tim. 4.8 and to wait for the Son of God from Heaven whom be raised from the dead even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come 1 Thes 1.10 and to wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 1.7 and tâ— wait for the adoption the redemption of our bodies with inward grâ—anings Rom. 8.23 O therefore let us pray more earnestly for the coming of our Lord and that the Lord would direct our hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ 2 Thes 3.5 O blessed day when the glorious appearing of our Lord shall put away all his servants shame and shall communicate Glory to his members even to the bodies that had lain so long in dust that to the eye of flesh there seemed to be no hope Though the Majesty and glory will cause our Reverence yet it will not be our terror to the diminution of our joy It is his enemies that would not have him rule over them whom he cometh to destroy Luke 19.27 Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him as Henoch the seventh from Noah prophesied Jud. 14.15 But the precious faith of the Saints shall be found to praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.7 When the chief Shepherd shall appear we shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth â—ot away 1. Pet. 5.4 He that was once â—ffered to bear the sins of many and nâ—w appeareth for us in the presence of God shall unto them that look for him appear the second time without sin to salvation Heb. 9.24 28. And when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Col. 3.4 The Lord shall then come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe in that day 2 Thes 1.10 This is the day that all believers should long and hope and wait for as being the accomplishment of all the work of their redemption and all the desires and endeavours of their souls It is the hope of this day that animateth the holy diligence of our lives and makes us turn from the carelesness and sensuality of the world For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Tit. 2.11 12 13. The heavens and the earth that are now are kept in store by the word of God reserved unto fire against the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men And though the Lord seem to delay he is not slack of his promise as some men count slackness for a day is with him as a thousand years and a thousand years but aâ— a day But the day of the Lord will come as a Thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt wth fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then all these things shall be dissâ—lved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements melt with
Catholick Church is One and containeth all that heartily and practically believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost the Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier and live a holy heavenly life Leave off your siding and keep this blessed simple Unity and you will then be wiser then in a passion to cast your selves into Hell because some fall out in the way to Heaven Nor will it serve your turn at the bar of God to talk of the miscarriages or scandalls of some that took on them to be godly no more then to run out of the Ark for the sake of Cham or out of Christs family for the sake of Judas What ever men are God is just and will do you no wrong and you are called to believe in God and to serve him and not to believe in men Nothing but wickedness could so far blind men as to make them think they may cast off their love and service to the Lord because some others have dishonoured him Or that they may cast away their souls by carelesness because some others have wounded their souls by particular sins Do you dislike the sins of the Professors af Godliness So much the better We desire you not to agree with them in sinning Joyn with them in a Holy life and imitate them so far as they obey the Lord and go as far beyond them in avoiding the sins that you are offended at as you can and this is it that we desire Suppose they were Covetous or Lyars or Schismaticall Imitate them in holy duties and fly as far from Covetousness Lying and Schism as you will You have had Learned and Godly Bishops of this City Search the writings of those of them that have left any of their labours to posterity and see whether they speak not for the same substantials of faith and godliness which are now preacht to you by those that you set so light by Bishop Latimer Parrey Babington c. while they were Bishops and Rob. Abbot Hall c. â—efore they were Bishops all Excellent Learned Godly â—en have here been Preachers â—o your Ancestors Read their â—ooks and you will find that â—hey call men to that strictness â—nd holiness of life which you cannot abide Read your Biâ—hop Babington on the Commandments and see there how zealously he condemneth the Prophaners of the Lords day and those that make it a day of idleness or sports And what if one man think that one Bishop should have hundreds of Churches under his sole jurisdiction and another man think that every full Parish Church should have a Bishop of their own and that one Parish will find him work enough be he what he will be which is the difference now among us is this so heinous a disagreement as should frighten you from a holy life which all agree for To conclude remember this is the day of your salvation Ministers are your Helpers Christ and Holiness are your way Scripture is your Rule the Godly must be your company and the Communion of Saints must be your desire If now any scandals divisions displeasures or any seducements of secret or open adversaries of the truth or temptations of Satan the world or flesh whatsoever shall prevail with you to lose your day to refuse your mercies and to neglect Christ and your immortal souls you are conquered and undone and your enemy hath his will and the more confidently and fearlesly you brave it out the more is your misery for the harder are your hearts and the harder is your cure and the sureâ— and sorer will be your damnation I have purposely avoided the enticing words of worldly wisdom and a stile that tends to claw your ears and gain applause with aery wits and have chosen these familiar words and dealt thus plainly and freely with you because the greatness of the cause perswaded me I could not be too serious Whether many of you will read it or how those that read it will take it and what success it shall have upon them I cannot tell but I know that I intended it for your good and that whether you will hear or whether you will forbear the Ministers of Christ must not forbear to do their duty nor be rebellious themselves but our Labours shall be acceptable with our Lord and you shall know that his Ministers were among you Ezek. 2.3 4 5 6 7 8. Yet a little while is the Light with you Walk while ye have the Light lest darkness come upon you for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth John 12.35 O take this warning from Christ and from An earnest desirer of your everlasting Peace Rich. Baxter The Contents THE Introduction p. 1 What is meant by an Enemy and how death is an Enemy to Nature p. 6 7 How Death is an Enemy to Grace and to our salvation discovered in ten particulars p. 15 How Christ conquereth this Enemy p. 35 Four Antidotes given us against the Enmity of Death at our Conversion p. 39. How Death is made a destruction of it self p. 56 The full destruction at the Resurrection p. 60 The first Use to resolve the doubt Whether Death be a punisâ—ment to believers p. 63 Use 2. To shew us the malignity of sin and how we should esteem and use it p. 66 Use 3. To teach us that man hath now a need of Grace for difficulties which were not before him in his state of innocency p. 72 Use 4. To inform us of the Reasons of the sufferings and death of Christ p. 77 Use 5. To rectifie the mistakes of some true believers that think they have no saving grace because the fears of death deter them from desiring to be with Christ p. 83 â—se 6. To teach us to study and magnifiâ— our Redeemers conquering grace that overcometh death and makes it our advantage p. 96 Use 7. To direct us how to prepare for Death and overcome the enâ—ity and fear of it p. 110 Direct 1. Make sure that conversion be sound p. 115 Direct 2. Live by faith on Christ the Conquerour p. 116 Direct 3. Live also by faith on the Heavenly Glory p. 120 Direct 4. Labour to encrease and exercise Divine Love p. 124 Direct 5. Keep conscience clear or if it be wounded preseâ—tly seek the cure p. 127 Direct 6. Redeem and improve your pretious time p. 130 Direct 7. Crucifie the flesh and die to the world p. 132 Direct 8. A conformity to God in the hatred of sin and love of holiness and especially in the point of justice p. 134 Direct 9. The due consideration of the restlesness and troubles of this life and of the manifold â—vils that end at death p. 13 Direct 10. Resign your wills entirely to the will of God and acquiesce in it as your safety felicity and Rest p. 159 Use 8. Great comfort to believers that they have no enemy bâ—t what they are sure shall be conquered at last p. 165 Object But what comfort is all this to me that
know not whether I have part in Christ or no Answered to satisfie the doubts and further the assurance of the trâ—ubled Christian p. 173 Use 9. What a mercy the Resurrection of Christ was to the world and how we should use it to strengthen our faith p. 199 The Lords day honourable p. 201 Use 10. How earnestly we should pray for the second coming of Christ though Death be terrible p. 207 SOME imitable passages of the Life of Elizabeth late Wife of Mr. Joseph Baker whose Funerals occasioned this discourse p. 225 ERRATA 1 Cor. 15.26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death DEATH is the occasion of this dayes meeting and Death must be the Subject of our present meditations I must speak of that which will shortly silence me and you must hear of that which speedily will stop your eares and we must spend this hour on that which waits to cut our thred and take down our glass and end our time and tell us we have spent our last But as it hath now done good by doing hurt so are we co consider of the accidental benefits as well as of the natural evil from which the heavenly wisdom doth extract them Death hath now bereaved a Body of its Soul but thereby it hath sent that Soul to Christ where it hath now experience how good it is to be absent from the body and present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 It hath separated a faithful wife from a beloved husband but it hath sent her to a husband dearlyer beloved and taught her now by experience to say that to be with Christ is best of all Phil 1.23 It hath deprived a sorrowful husband of a wife and deprived us all of a faithful friend but it hath thereby brought us to the house of mourning which is better for us then the house of feasting a Paradox to the flesh but an undoubted truth for hâ—re we may see the end of all men and we that are yet living may lay it to our hearts Eccl. 7.2 3. Yea it hath brough us to the house of God and occasioned this serious address unto his Holiness that we may be instructed by his Word as we are warned by his works and that we may be wise to understand and to consider our latter end Deut. 32.29 It s like you 'l think that to tell men of the evil or enmity of Death is as needless a â—iscourse as any could be chosen For who is there that is not naturally too sensible of this and who doth not dread the name or at least the face of Death But there is accidentally a greater evil in it then that which nature teacheth men to fear And while it is the King of terrors to the world the most are ignorant of the greatâ—st hurt that it doth them or can do them or at least it is but little thought on which hath made me think it a needfull work to tell you yet of much more evil in that which you abhor as the greatest evil But so as withall to magnifie our Redeemer that overshooteth death in its own bow and causeth it when it hits the mark to miss it and that causeth health by loathsome medicines and by the dung of our bodily corruption manureth his Church to the greater felicity Such excellent skil of our wise Physician we find exprest and exercised in this Chapter where an unhappy error against the Resurrection hath happily occasioned an excellent discouâ—se on that weighty Subject which may stablish many a thousand souls and serve to shame and destroy such heresies â—ill the Resurrection come and prove it self The great Argument which the Apostle most insisteth on to prove the Resurrection is Christs own Resurrection where he entereth into a comparison between Christ and Adam shewing that as Adam first brought death upon himself and then upon his posterity so Christ that was made a quickening spirit did first Rise himself as the first-fruits and thâ—n at his coming will raise his own And as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive And this Christ will do as our victorious King and the Captain of our salvation who when he hath subdued every enemy will then deliver up the Kingdom to the Father And the last enemy which he will subdue is Death and therefore our Resurrection is his final conquest The terms of the Text have no difficulty in them The Dâ—ctrinâ— which they express must be thus unfolded 1. I must shew you that Death is an Enemy and what is meant by this Expression and wherein its Enemy doth consist 2. I shall shew you that it is an Enemy to be dâ—stroyed though lâ—st and how and by what degrees it is destroyed And then we shall make application of it to your further Instruction and Edification 1. That you may know what is meant by an Enâ—my here you must observe that man being fallen into sin and misery and Christ having undertaken the work of our Redemption the Scripture oft speaketh of our misery and recovery Metaphorically in military terms And so Satan is said to take us captive and we to be his slaves and Christ to be the Captain of our Salvation and to redeem us from our bondage And thus our sin and misery and all that hindereth the blessed Ends of his undertaking are called Enemies Death therefore is called an Enemy to be destrâ—yed that is a penal evil to be removed by the Redeemer in order to our recovery and the glory of his grace 1. It is an Evil. 2. A punishment procured by our sin and executed by Gods Justice 3. It is an evil that hindereth our felicity These three things are included in the Enmity That Death is an Enemy to Nature is a thing that all understand but all consider not how it is an Enemy to our Souls to the exercise of grace and consequently to the attainment of glory I shall therefore having first spoken briefly of the former insist a little longer upon the latter 1. How great an Enemy Death is unto Nature doth easily appear in that 1. It is the Dissolution of the Man It maketh a Man to become No man by separating the Soul from the Body and dissolving the Body into its principles It puls down in a moment a curious frame that Nature was long building and tenderly cherishing and preserving The mother long nourisheth it in her bowels and painfully brings it forth and carefully brings it up what labour doth it cost our Parents and our selves to make provision for this Life And death in a moment cuts it off How carefull are we to keep in these lamps and to maintain the oyl and Death extinguisheth thâ—m at a blast How noble a creature doth it destroy To day our parts are all in order and busie about their several tasks our Hearts are moving our Lungs are breathing our Stomacks are digesting our Blood and Spirits by assimilation making more and to morrow death takes off the
come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Chrâ—st Jesus our Lord. You see here what it is that conquereth the enmity of death in our sanctification even that powerfull love of God that is then given us which will go to him through the most cruel death 4. A fourth Antidote that is given us by Christ against the Enmity of Death is the Holy Ghost as he is the Comforter of the Saints He made it his work to corroborate and confirm them As sin hath woven calamities into our lives and filled us with troubles and griefs and fears so Christ doth send his spirit to undo these works of Satan and to be a Comforter as well as a Sanctifier to his members As the Sanctifying Spirit striveth against the enticing sinfull flesh so the Comforting Spirit striveth against the troubling flesh as also against the persecuting as well as the tempting world and the vexing as well as the tempting Devil And greater is he that is in us then he that is in the world 1 John 4.4 The Spirit of Christ overcomes the disquieting as well as the tempting Spirit But with some difference because our comforts are not in this life so necessary to us as our Holiness Joy being part of our Reward is not to be expected certainly or constantly in any high degree till we come to the state of our Reward And therefore though the Holy Ghost will carry on the work of Sanctification universally constantly and certainly in the Elect yet in many of them his Comforting work is more obscure and interrupted And yet he is a Conquerour here For his works must be judged of in reference to their ends And our comfort on earth is given us for our encouragement in holy wayes that we be not stopt or diverted by the fear of enemies and also to help on ouâ— love to God and to quicken us in thanks and praise and draw up our hearts to the life to come and make us more serviceable to others And such a measure of comfort we shall have as conduceth to these ends and is suitable to our present state and the employment God hath for us in the world if we do not wilfully grieve our Comforter and quench our joyes So that when Death and the Grave appear before and our flesh is terrified with the sight of these Anakims and saith We are not able to overcome them and so brings up an evil report upon the promised Land and casts us sometime into murmuring lamentation and weakning-discouragements yet doth the Holy Ghost cause Faith and Hope as Caleb and Joshua to still the soul Numb 13. and causeth us to contemn these Gyants and say Let us go up and possess it for we are well able to overcome it Ver. 30. The Comforting Spirit sheweth us his death that conquered death Heb. 2.14 15. even the Cross on which he triumphed openly when he seemed to be conquered Col. 2.15 He sheweth us the glorious Resurrection of our Head and his promise of our own Resurrection He sheweth us our glorified Lord to whom we may boldly and confidently commend our departing souls Acts 7.59 And he sheweth us the Angels that are ready to be their Convoy And he maketh all these Considerations effectual and inwardly exciteth our Love and heavenly desires and giveth us a triumphing Courage and Consolation So that Death doth not encounter us alone and in our own strength but finds us armed and led on by the Lord of life who helps us by a sling and stone to conquer this Goliah If a draught of Wine or some spiritfull reviving liquor can take off fears and make men bold what then may the Spirit of Christ do by his powerfull encouragements and comforts on the soul Did we but see Christ or an Angel standing by our sick-beds and saying Fear not I will convey thy soul to God this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise What an unspeakable comfort would this be to a dying man Why the Spirit is Christs Agent here on earth and what the Spirit speaks Christ speaks And therefore we may take its comforting words as spoken to us by Christ himself who spoke the like to the penitent Thief to shew believers the virtue of his Cross and what they also may expect from him in their extremity And our Phisitian is most wise and keeps his Cordials for a fainting time The Spirit useth to sustain and comfort us most in our greatest necessities We need not comforts against death so much in the time of prosperity and health as when Death draws near In health we have ordinarily more need of quickning then of comforting and more need to be awakened from security to a due preparation for death then to be freed from the terrible fore-thoughts of it though inordinate fears of Death be hurtfull to us security and deadness hurt us more And therefore the spirit worketh according to our necessities And when Death is neerest and like to be most dreadfull he usually giveth the liveliest sense of the Joyes beyond it to abate the enmity and encourage the departing soul And if the comfort be but small it is precious because it is most pure as being then mixed with no carnal joyes and because it is most seasonable in so great a strait If we have no more but meer support it will be yet a pretious mercy And thus I have done with the third degree of the destruction of Deaths Enmity by these four Antidotes which we receive at our Conversion and the Consequents thereof 4. The fourth degree of this Enemies destruction is by it self or rather by Christ at the time and by the means of death which contrary to its nature shall advantage our felicity When Death hath done its worst it hath half killed it self in killing us It hath then dismissed our imprisoned souls and ended even our fears of death and our fears of all the evils of this life It hath ended our cares and griefs and groans It hath finished our work and ended all our weariness and trouble And more then this it ends our sinning and so destroyeth that which caused it and that which the inordinate fears of it self had caused in us It is the time when sin shall gasp its last and so far our Physitian will perfect the cure and our greatest enemy shall follow us no further It is the door by which the soul must pass to Christ in Paradise If any Papist shall hence plead that therefore all men must be perfect without sin before death or else go to Purgatory to be cleansed because as we die so Christ will find us or if they ask How death can perfect us I answer them It is Christ our Physitian that finisheth the cure and Death is the time in which he doth it And if he undertake then to do it it concerns not us to be too inquisitive how he doth it What if
all this Enmity in Death we may see what it is that sin hath done and consequently how vile and odious it is and how we should esteem and use it Sin hath not only forfeited our Happiness but laid those impediments in the way of our recovery which will find us work and cause our danger and sorrow while we live And Death is not the least of these impediments O foolish man that still will love such a mortal Enemy If another would rob them but of a groat or defame them or deprive them of any accommodation how easily can they hate them and how hardly are they reconciled to them But sin depriveth them of their lives and separates the soul and body asunder and forfeiteth their everlasting happiness and sets death betwixt them and the Glory that is purchased by Christ and yet they love it and will not leave it Though God have made them and do sustain them and provide for them and all their hope and help is in him they are not so easily drawn to love him And yet they can love the sin that would undo them Though Christ would deliver them and bring them to everlasting blessedness and hath assumed flesh and laid down his life to testifie his Love to them yet are they not easily brought to love him but the sin that made them enemies to God and hath brought them so near to everlasting misery this they can love that deserves no love A Minister or other friend that would draw them from their sin to God and help to save them they quarrell against as if he were their enemy but their foolish companions that can laugh and jest with them at the door of Hell and clap them on the back and drive away the care of their salvation and harden them against the fear of God these are the only acceptable men to them O Christians leave this folly to the world and do you judge of sin by its sad effects You feel if you have any feeling in you in some measure what it hath done against your Souls the weakness of your faith and love the distance of your hearts from God your doubts and troubles tell you that it is not your friend You must shortly know what it will do to your bodies As it keeps them in pain and weariness and weakness so it will ere long deliver them up to the jaws of death which will spare them no more then the beasts that perish Had it not been for sin we should have had no cause to fear a dissolution nor have had any use for a coffin or a winding-sheet nor been beholden to a grave to hide our carkesses from the sight and smell of the living But as Henoch and Elias were translated when they had walked with God even so should we as those shall that are alive and remain at the coming of Christ shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall they ever be with the Lord 1 Thes 4.17 Use sin therefore as it will use you Spare it not for it will not spare you It is your murderer and the murderer of the world Use it therefore as a murderer should be used Kill it before it kills you and then though it kill your bodies it shall not be able to kill your souls and though it bring you to the grave as it did your Head it shall not be able to keep you there If the thoughts of death and the grave and rottenness be not pleasant to you let not the thoughts of sin be pleasant Hearken to every temptation to sin as you would hearken to a temptation to self-murder And as you would do if the Devill brought you a knife and tempted you to cut your throat with it so do when he offereth you the bait of sin You love not Death Love not the cause of Death Be ashamed to stand weeping over a buried friend and never to weep over a sinning or ungodly friend nor once to give them a compassionate earnest exhortation to save their Souls Is it nothing to be dead in sins and trespasses Ephes 2.1 5. Col. 2.13 Yea it is a worse Death then this that is the wages of sin and the fruit which it brings forth Rom. 6.21 23. 7.5 Surely God would never thus use mens bodies and forsake them soul and body for ever if sin were not a most odious thing what a poyson is this that kils so many millions and damneth so many millions and cannot be cured but by the blood of Christ that killed our Physitian that never casted it because he came so near to us 〈◊〉 O unbelieving stupid soâ—ls that smart and sin and groan and sin and weep and lament our bodily sufferings and yet sin still that fear a grave and fear not sin that have heard and seen and felt so much of the sad effects and yet sin still Psalm 78.32 Alas that murderers should be so common and that we should be no wiser when we have paid so dear a price for wisdom SECT V. Vse 3. FROM the Enmity of Death we may further learn that Man hath now a need of Grace for such exceeding difficulties which were not before him in his state of innocency Though Adam was able to have obeyed perfectly without sin and had Grace sufficient to have upheld him and conquered temptations if he had done his part which by that Grace he might have done yet whether that Grace was sufficient to the works that we are called to is a doubt that many have been much troubled with It is certain that he was able to have done any thing that was suitable to his present state if it were commanded him And it is certain thaâ— much that is now our duty would have been unsuitable to his state But whether it belonged to his perfection to be able and fit for such duties that were then unsuitable to him or supposition they had been suitable and duties this is the difficulty which some make use of to prove that such works cannot now be required of us without suitable help because we lost no such grace in Adam But this need not trouble us For 1. Though Adam was put on no such difficulty in particular as to encounter death yet the perfect obedience to the whole Law required a great degree of internall Habituall holiness and to determine the case whether our particular difficulties or his sinless perfect obâ—dience required greater sâ—rength and help is a matter of more difficulty then use For 2. It is but about the Degrees of Holiness in him and us and not about the Kind that the difficulty lieth For it is the same End that he was created for and disposed to by Nature and that we are redeemed for and disposed to supernaturally But yet it is worthy our observation what a difficulty sin hath cast before us in the way of life which Adam was unacquainted with that so we may see the nature
of our works and the excellency of the Redeemers grace Adam was but to seek the continuance of his life and a translation to Glory without the terrors of interposing death He was never called to prepare to die nor to think of the state of a separated Soul nor to mind and love and seek a glory to which there is no ordinary passage but by death This is the difficulty that sin hath caused against which we have need of the special assistance of the example and doctrine and promise and Spirit of the Redeemer Adam was never put to study how to get over this dreadfull gulf The threatning of death was to raise such a fear in him as was necessary to prevent it But those fears did rather hold him closer to the way of life then stand between him and life to his discouragement But we have a death to fear that must be suffered that cannot be avoided The strange condition of a separated soul so unlike to its state while resident in the body doth require in us a special Faith to apprehend it and a special revelation to discover it To desire and love and long for and labour after such a time as this when one part of us must lie rotting in the grave and the separated Soul must be with Christ alone till the Resurrection and to believe and hope for that Resurrection and to deny our selves and forsake all the world and lay down our lives when Christ requireth it by the power of this faith and hope this is a work that innocent Adam never knew This is the high employment of a Christian To have our hearts and conversations in Heaven Matth. 6.21 Phil. 3.20 when Death must first dissolve us before we can possess it here is the noble work of faith SECT VI. Vse 4. MOreover this Enmity of Death may help us to understand the reaâ—on of the sufferings and Death of Christ That he gave his life a Ransome for us and a Sacrifice for sin and so to make satisfaction to the offended Majesty is a truth that every Christian doth believe But there was another reason of his death that all of us do not duely consider of and improve to the promoting of our Sanctification as we ought Death is so great an Enemy as you have heard and so powerfull to deter our hearts from God and dull our desires to the heavenly felicity that Christ was fain to go before us to embolden the hearts of believers to follow him He suffered Death with the rest of his afflictions to shew us that it is a tolerable evil Had he not gone before and overcome it it would have detained us its Captives Had he not meâ—ited and purchased us a blessed Resurrection and opened heaven to all belâ—evers and by Death overcome him that had the power of death as Gods executioner â—hat is the Devil we should all our life time have been still subjected unto bondage by the fears of Death Heb. 2.14 But when we see that Christ hath led the way as the victorious Captain of our Salvation and that he is made perfect by sufferings in his advancement unto glory and that for the sufferings of death which by the grace of God he tasted for every man he is crowned with glory ad honour Heb. 2.9 10. this puts a holy valour into the soul and causeth us cheerfully to follow him Had we gone first and the task of conquering Deaâ—h been ours we had been overcome But he that hath led us on hath hew'd down the enemy before him and first prepared us the way and then called us to follow him to pass the way that he hath first made safe and also shewed us by his example that it is now made passable For it was one in our Nature that calleth us his Brethren that took not the nature of Angels but of the seed of Abrahâ—m that is one with us as the Sanctifier and the sanctified are and to whom as children we are given Who hath passed through Death and the Grave before us and therefore we may the boldlier follow him Heb. 2.11 12 13.16 Being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross and therefore God hâ—th highly exalted him and given him a name above every name Phil. 2. 8 9. Hereby â—e hath shewed us that Death is not so dreadfull a thing but that voluntary obedience may and must submit unto it As Abrahams faith and obedience was tryed in the offering up his Son to death at Gods command so the children of Abraham and the heirs of the promise must follow him in offering up themselves if God require it and in submitting to our natural death for that he doth require of all Examples work more then bare precepts and the Experiments of others do take more with us then meer directions It satisfieth a sâ—ck man more to read a Book of Medicinal Observations where he meets with many that were in his own case and finds what cured them then to read the Praxis of medicinall receipts alone It encourageth the patient much when the Physitian tells him I have cured many of your disease by such a medicine nay I was cured thus of the same my sâ—lf So doth it embolden a believer to lay down his Life when he hath not only a promise of a better life but seeth that the promiser went that way to Heaven before him O therefore let us learn and use this choice remedy against the immoderate fear of Death Let Faith take a view of him that was dead and is alive that was buried and is risen that was humbled and is now exalted Think with your selves when you must think of dying that you are but following your Conquering Lord and going the way that he hath gone before you and suffering what he underwent and conquered And therefore though you walk through the valley of the shaddow of death resolve that you will fear no evil Psal 23.4 And if he call you after him follow him with a Christian boldness As Peter cast himself into the Sea and walkt on the waters when he saw Christ walk there and had his command so let us venture on the jawes of death while we trace his steps and hear his encouraging commands and promises John 21.7 Mat. 14.28 29. SECT VII Vse 5. MOreover from this Doctrine we may be informed of the mistakes of many Christians that think they have no saving grace because they are afraid of dying and because these fears deterr their soulâ— from desiring to be with Christ And hence they may perceive that there is another cause of these distempers even the Enmity of Death that standeth in the way You think that if you had any Love to Christ you should more desire to be with him and that if your treasure were in heaven your hearts wouâ—d be more there and that if you truly took it for your felicity you could not
be so unwilling to be removed to it for no man is unwilling to be happy or to attain his end But stay a little and better consider of your Case Is it Christ that your heart is thus averse to or is it only Death that standeth in the way You are not I hope unwilling to see the face of God nor unwilling to be translated from earth to heaven but unwilling to die It is not because you love the creature better then the Creator but because you are afraid of Death You may love God and long to be perfected in holiness and to see his Glory and to have the most near Communion with him and yet at the same time you may fear this Enemy that standeth in your way I mean not only the Pain of death but principally the dissolution of our natures and the separation of the soul from the body and its abode in a separated state and the bodies abode in dust and darkness Grace it self is not given us to reconcile us to corruption and make death as death to seem desirable but to cause us patiently to bear the evil because of the good that is beyond it It is not our duty to love death as death Had it not been naturally an evil to be dreaded and avoided God would not have made it the matter of his threatning nor would it have been a fit means to restrain men from transgression To threaten a man with a benefit as such is a contradiction Enquire therefore into your hearts whether there be not a belief of heaven a love to God a desire to enjoy and please him even while you draw back and seem to be averse and whether it be not only lothness to die and not a lothness to be with Christ For the fuller discovery of this because I find that our comfort much dependeth on it I shall try you by these following Questions Quest 1. What is it that is ungrateful to you in your meditations of your change Is it God and heaven or is it Death If it be only Death it seems it is not the want of Love to God and heaven that causeth your aversness If it be God himself that is ungratefull to your thoughts is it because you desire not his nearer presence or communion with him in the state of glory or is it only because you fear lest you have no interest in his Love and shall not attain the blessedness which you desire If it be the first I must confess it proves a graceless soul and signifieth the want of Love to God But if it be the latter only it may stand with grace For Desire is a true signification of Love though there be doubts and fears lest we shall miss the attainment of those desires Quest 2. Would you not gladly hear the news of your removal if you might be changed without Death and translated to heaven as Henoch and Elias were and as Christ at his Ascension Had you not far rather be thus changed then abide on earth If so then it seems it is not God and Heaven that you are against but death Nay if you could reach Heaven by travelling a thousand miles would you not gladly take tâ—e journey as soon as you had got assurance of your title to it and done the work of God on earth If it were but as Peter James and John to go with Christ into an exceeding high Mountain and there to see him in glory Mat. 17.12 would you not gadly do it It seems then that thou desirest to see the Lord and thy love is to him though thou be afraid of death Quest 3. Consider of the Nature of the Heavenly felicity and try whether thou love it in the several parts One part is our personal perfection that our souls shall be free from ignorance and error and sin and sorrow and enlarged for the perfect Love of God and our bodies at the Resurrection made like the glorious body of our Lord Phil. 3.21 and wouldst thou not be thus perfected in soul and body Another part is that we shall live with the heavenly society of Angels and glorified Saints And wouldst thou not have such company rather then the company of sinners and enemies and imperfect Saints on earth Another part is that we shall see our glorified Head and be with him where he is that we may behold his glory And doth not thy heart desire this But the perfection of our Happiness is that we shall see the face of the glory of God which is the light of that world as truly as the Sun is the light of this and that we shall be filled up with the feeling of his Love and abound with Love to him again and perfectly delighted in this Communion of Love and express it in the Praises of the Lord and thus make up the New Jerusalem where God will place his glorious presence and in which he will for evermore take pleasure And is there any thing in this that thy soul is against and which thou dost not value above this worâ—d If thou find that all the parts are sweet and the Description of Heaven is most gratefull to thee and that this is the state that thou wouldst be in it seems then it is not Heaven but Death that thou art averse from and that maketh thee so loth to hear the tydings of thy change Quest 4. Couldst thou not joyfully see the coming of Christ if it were this day if thou have done thy work and art assured of his love The Apostle hath told us by the word of the Lord that the Lord himself shall desâ—end from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first and then they which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord 1 Thes 4. 15 16 17. And this is the doctrine that comforteth believers verse 18. Would it not rejoyce your hearts if you were sure to live to see the coming of the Lord and to see his glorious appearing and retinue If you were not to die but to be caught up thus to meet the Lord and to be changed immediately into an immortal incorruptible glorious state would you be averse to this would it not be the greatest joy that you could desire For my own part I must confess to you that death as death appeareth to me as an enemy and my nature doth abhor and fear it But the thoughts of the Coming of the Lord are most sweâ—t and joyfull to me so that if I were but sure that I should live to see it and that the Trumpet should sound and the dead should rise and the Lord appear before the period of my age it would be the joyfullest tidings to me in the world O that I might see his Kingdom come It is the Character of his Saints
and imprisonment they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword Heb. 11.35 36 37. Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15.57 They overcome by the blood of the Lamb and love not their lives unto the death Rev. 12.11 They fear not them that kill the body and after thâ—t have no more that they can do Luke 12.4 They trust upon his promise that haâ—h said I will ransome them from the power of the grave I will redeem them from death O death I will be thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction Hos 13.14 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Psal 116.15 Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Rev. 14.13 SECT IX Vse 7. MOreover from the Enmity of Death we may be directed which way to bend our cares and seeing where our difficulty most lieth we may see which way our most diligent preparations must be turned Death cannot be prevented but the malignant influence of it on our souls may be much abated If you let it work without an Antidote it will make you live like unbelieving worldlings It will deter your hearts from heaven and dull your love to God himself and make your meditations of him and of your Everlasting Rest to be seldom and ungratefull to you And it will make you say It s good to be here and have sweeter thoughts of this present life then of your inheritance It will rob you of much of your heavenly delights and fill you with slavish fears of death and subject you unto bondage all your lives and make you die with agony and horror so that your lives and deaths will be dishonourable to your holy faith and to your Lord. If it were meerly our own suffering by fears and horrors or meerly our loss of spiritual delights the matter were great but not so great But it is more then this For when our joyes are overwhelmed with the fears of death and turned into sorrows our love to God will be abated and we shall deny him the thanks and cheerfull praises which should be much of the employment of our lives and we shall be much discomposed and unfitted for his service and shall much dishonour him in the world and shall strengthen our temptations to the overvaluing of earthly things Think it not therefore a small or an indifferent matter to fortifie your souls against these malignant fears of death Make this your daily care and work your peace your safety your innocency and usefulness and the honour of God do much lie on it And it is a work of such exceeding difficulty that it requireth the best of your skill and diligence and when all is done it must be the illuminating quickning beams of grace and the shining face of the Eternal Love that must do the work though yet your diligence is necessary to attend the spirit and use the means in subserviency to grace and in expectation of these celestiall rayes And above all take heed lest you should think that carnal mirth or meer security and casting away the thoughts of death will serve to overcome these fears or that it is enough that you resolve against them For it is your safety that must be lookt to as well as your present ease and peace and fear must be so overcome as that a greater misery may not follow Presumption and security will be of very short continuance To die without fear and pass into endless desperation which fear should have wakened you to prevent is no desirable kind of dying And besides resolving against the Terrors of death will not prevent them When Death draws neer it will amaze you in despight of all your resolutions if you are not furnished with a better Antidote The more jocund you have been in carnal mirth and the more you have presumptuously slighted death its likely your horror will be the greater when it comes And therefore see that you make a wise and safe preparation and that you groundedly and methodically cure these fears and not securely cast them away Though I have given you to this end some Directions in other writings in the Saints Rest and in the Treatise of Self-denyal and that of Crucifying the world yet I shall add here these following helps which faithfully observed and practised will much promote your victory over death which conquereth all the strength of flesh and glory of this world DIRECTION I. IF you would overcome the danger and the fears of Death Make sure of your Conversion that it is sound and see that you be absolutely devoted unto God without reserves Should you be deceived in your foundations your life and hopes and joyes would all be delusory things Till sin be mortified and your souls reconciled to God in Christ you are still in danger of worse then death and it is but the senslesness of your dead condition that keepeth you from the terrors of damnation But if you are sure that you are quickâ—ed by renewing grace and possessed by the sanctifying spirit and made partakers of the Divine nature you have then the earnest of your inheritance Eph. 1.14 2 Cor. 1.22 5.5 and the fire is kindled in your breast that in despight of Death will mount you up to God DIRECTION II. TO Conquer the Enmity of Death you must live by faith in Jesus Christ as men that are emptied of themselves and ransomed from his hands that had the power of death and as men that are redeemed from the curse and are now made heirs of the grace of life being made his members who is â—he Lord of life even the second Adam who is a quickning spirit The serious believing study of his design and office to destroy sin and death and to bring many sons to glory and also of his voluntary suffering and his obedience to the death of the Cross may raise us above the fears of death When we live by faith as branches of this blessed Vine are righteous with his righteousness justified by his blood and merits sanctified by his Word and Spirit and find that we are united to him we may then be sure that death cannot conquer us nothing can take us out of his hands For our life being hid with Christ in God we know that we shall live because he liveth Col. 3.3 John 14.19 and that when Christ who is our life appeareth we shall also appear with him in glory Col. 3.4 And that he will change our vile bodies and make them like to his glorious body by his mighty power by which he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. 3.20 21. In our own strenâ—th we dare not stand the charge of death and with it the charge of the Law and of our Consciences How dreadfully should we then
prosperity And then sin will seem another thing and wrath more terrible then it did in your security Conscience will do much to make your burden light or heavy If Conscience groundedly speak peace and all be sound and well at home death will be less terrible the heart being fortified against its enmity But to have a pained body and a pained soul a dying body and a scorched Conscience that is afraid of everlasting death this is a terrible case indeed Speedily therefore get rid of sin and get your Consciences throughly cleansed by sound repentance and the blood of Christ For so much sin as you bring to your death-bed so much bitterness will there be in death Away then with that sin that Conscience tells you of and touch the forbidden fruit 〈◊〉 more and kindle not the sparâ—s of Hell in your souls to make the sting of death more venemous As it will quiet a believing soul through Chrâ—st when he can say with Hezekiah Isa 38.3 Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight and it will be our rejoycing if we have the testimony of our Consciences that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world 2 Cor. 1.12 So will it be most terrible to die in the fears of unpardoned sin and to have Conscience scourging us with the remembrance of our folly when God is afflicting us and we have need of a well composed mind to bear the troubles of our flâ—sh A little from without is grievous when any thing is amiss within Get home therefore to Christ without delay and cease not till you have peace in him that death may find your consciences whole DIRECTION VI. REdeeming time is another means to prevent the hurtfull fears of death When we foreknow that it will shortly end our time let us make the best of time while we have it And then when we find that our work is done and that we did not loyter nor lose the time that God vouchsafed us the end of it will be less grievous to us A man that studieth his duty and spareth for no cost or pains and is as loath to lose an hours time as a covetous man is to lose an hundred pound will look back on his life and look before him to his death with greater peace and less perplexity then another man But the thoughts of death must needs be terrible to a man that hath trifled away his life and been an unthrift of his time To think when you must die that now you are at your last day or hour and withall to think how many hours you vainly lost and that you knew not the worth of time till it was gone will make death more bitter then now you can imagine What else is Death but the ending of our Time and what can be more necessary to a comfortable end then faithfully to use it while we have it DIRECTION VII ANother help against the Enmity of Death is the Crucifying of the flesh with its affections and lusts and the conquest of the world by the life of faith and crucifying it by the Cross of Christ and dying daily by the patient suffering of the Cross our selves When we are loose from all things under the Sun and there is nothing that entangleth our affections on earth a great part of the difficulty is then removed But death will tear the heart that is glued to any thing in this world Possess therefore as if you possessed not and rejoyce as if you rejoyced not and use the world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world doth pass away I Cor. 7.29 30 31. It is much for the sake of our flesh that must perish that death doth seem so bitter to us If therefore we can throughly sudue the flesh and live above its pleasure and desires we shall the more esily bear its dissolution Shut up your senses then a little more and let your hearts grow stranger to this world and if you have known any persons relations accomodations after the flesh from henceforth know them so no more How terrible is death to an earthly-minded man that had neglected his soul for a treasure here which must then be dissipated in a moment How easie is death to a heavenly-mind that is throughly weaned from this world and taketh it but for his pilgrimage or passage unto life and hath made it the business of his dayes to lay up for himself a treasure in heaven He that hath unfeignedly made heaven his end in the course of his life will most readily pass to it on the hardest terms For every man is willing to attain his end DIRECTION VIII IT will much help us against the Enmity of death to be duly conformed to the Image of God in the hatred of sin and love of holiness and in special in the point of Justice When we hate sin throughly and find it so incorporated into our flesh that they must live and die together it will make death the more easie to us because it will be the death of sin even of that sin which we most hate and that God hateth and that hath cost us so dear as it hath done When we are in love with holiness and know that we shall never be perfect in it till after death it will make death the more welcome as the passage to our desired life When the Justice even the castigatory and vindictive Justice of God is more amiable in our eyes and we are not blinded by self-love to judge of God and of his wayes according to the interest of our flesh we shall then consent to his dissolving stroke and see that the bitterness of death proceedeth from that which is good in God though from that which is evil in our selves Doubtless as Justice is one of the blessed Attributes of God so should it be amiable to man there being nothing in God but what is lovely It is the prevalency of self-love that makes men so insensible of the excellency of Divine Justice while they speak so respectfully of his mercy So far as men are carnall and selfish they cannot love that by which they smart or of which they are in danger But the soul that is got above it self and is united unto God in Christ and hath that Image of God which containeth the impress and effect of all his Attributes hath such an habit of impartial justice in himself and such a hatred of sin and such a desire that the honour of God should be vindicateed and maintained and such an approbation of the Justice of God that he can the more easily consent or submit to the dissolving stroke of death He hateth his own sin and loatheth himself for all his abominations and is possessed with that Justice that provoketh him to self-revenge in an ordinate sort and therefore doth love and honour
interposing death are our discouragments that drive us back But all these enemies shall shortly be overcome Fear not death then let it do its worst It can give thee but one deadly gripe that shall kill it self and prove thy life as the Wasp that leaves its sting behind and can sting no more It shall but snuff the Candle of thy life and make it shine brighter when it seems to be put out It is but an undressing and a gentle Sleep That which thou couldst not here attain by all our preaching and all thy prayers and cares and pains thou shalt speedily attain by the help of death It is but the messenger of thy gracious Lord and calleth thee to him to the place that he hath prepared Hearken not now to the great deceiver that would draw thee to unbelief and cause thee to stagger at the promises of God when thou hast followed him so far and they are near to the full performance Believe it as sure as thou believest that the Sun doth shine upon thee that God cannot lie he is no deceiver it was his meer love and bounty that caused him to make the promises when he had no need for himself to make them and shall he be then unfaithfull and not fulfill the promises which he hath freely made Believe it faith is no delusion It may be folly to trust man but it is worse then folly not to trust God Believe it Heaven is not a shadow nor the life of faith and holiness a dream These sensible things have least reality These grosser substances are most drossy delusory and base God is a Spirit who is the prime being and the cause of all created beings And the Angels amd other celestiall inhabitants that are nearest to him are furthest from corporeity and are spirits likest unto God The further any thing is from spirituality the further from that excellency and perfection which the creatures nearest God partake of The earth is baser then the air and fire The drossy flesh is baser then the soul And this lumpish dirty visible world is incomparably below that Spiritual world which we believe and wait for And though thy conceptions of spirits and the spiritual world are low and dark and much unsatisfying remember still that thy head is there and it belongeth to him to know what thou shalt be till thou art fit to know it which will not be till thou art fit to enjoy it Be satisfied that thy Father is in Heaven and that thy Lord is there and that the Spirit that hath been so long at work within thee preparing thee for it dwelleth there And let it suffice thee that Christ knoweth what he will do with thee and how he wilt employ thee to all eternity And thou shalt very shortly see his face and in his light thou shalt bâ—hold that light that shall fully satisfie thee and shame all thy present doubts and fears and if there were shame in heaven would shame thee for them Vse 9. FROM the Enmity of Death and the necessity of a Conquest we may see what a wonderfull mercy the Resurrection of Christ himself was to the Church and what use we should make of it for the strengthening of our faith It was not only impossible to man to conquer death by his own strength and therefore it must be conquered by Christ but it was also beyond our power to believe it that ever the dead should rise to life if Christ had not risen as the first fruits and convinced man by eye-sight or certain testimony that the thing is possible and already done But now what a pillar is here for faith What a word of Hope and Joy is this that Christ is risen With this we will answer a thousand Cavils of the tempter and stop the mouth of the enemies of our faith and profligate our infidelity As unlikely as it seems to flesh and blood shall we ever doubt whether we shall rise again when the Lord came down in flesh among us that he might die and rise again himself to shew us as to our faces that we shall rise This is the very Gospel which we preach and by which we must be saved that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and was buryed and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures and that he was seem of Cephas then of the twelve and after that he was seen of above five hundred Brethren at once of whâ—m the greater part remained alive when Paul wrote this who was the last that saw him 1 Cor. 15.1 2 3 4 5 6. Read over this Chapter again and again where our Resurection is proved by the Resurrection of Christ No wonder therefore that the Chruch in all ages ever since the very day of Christs Resurrection hath kept the first day of the week as a holy festivall in remembrance of it Wherein though they commemorated the whole work of our Redemption yet was it from the Resurrection as the most glorious part that the spirit of Christ did choose the day This hath been the joyfull day to the Church this 1625. years or thereabouts in which the ancicient Christians would assemble themselves together saluting one another with this joyfull word The Lord is risen And this is the day that the Lord hath blessed with the new birth and resurrection of millions of souls So that it is most probable that all the six dayes of the week have not begot half so many souls for heaven as this blessed day of the Lords Resurrection hath done Let Infidels then despise it that believe not Christs Resurrection but let it still be the Churches joyfull day This was the Lords doing and it is marvelous in our eyes This is the day which the Lord hath made we will be glad and rejoycâ— there in Psal 118.23 24. In it Let us sing unto the Lord let us make a joyfull noise to the Rock of our salvation Let us come before his presâ—nce with thanksgiving and make a joyfull noise to him with Psalms Psal 95.1 2. Every day let us remember the Lords Resurrection but on this day let the joyfull commemoration of it be our work We may see by the witness of the Apostles and their frequent preaching the Resurrection of Christ as if it were the sum of all the Gospell that this is a point that faith must especially build and feed upon and that we must make the matter of our most frequent meditations O what vigor it addeth to our faith when we are encountred by the sight of death and of a grave to remember seriously that Christ is risen Did he take flesh purposeâ—y that he might die and rise and shew us how he will raise his members and will he after all this break his promise and leave us in the dust for ever it cannot be Hath he conquered death for himself alone and not for us Hath he taken our Nature into Heaven to be there alone and
fervent heat But we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness 2 Pet. 3.7 8 9 10 11 12 13. Beza marvelleth at Tertulliaâ— for saying that the Christians in their holy assemblies prayed pro mora finis Apologet. c. 39. And so he might well enough if it were not that to Christians the Glory of God is dearer then their own felicity and the salvation of millions more precious then the meer hastening of their own and the glory of the Church more desirable then our personall glory and the hallowing of Gods name were not to be prayed for before the coming of his Kingdom and the Kingdom of grace must not necessarily go before the Kingdom of glory But as much as we long for the coming of our Lord we are content to wait till the Elect be gathered and can pray that he will delay it till the Universal Body be made up and all are called that shall be glorified But to our selves that are brought out of Aegypt into the Wilderness how desirable is the promised Land When we think on our own interest we cry Come Lord Jesus Come quickly The sooner the better Then shall our eyes behold him in whom we have believed Not as he was beheld on earth in his despised state but as the glorious King of Saints accompanied with the Celestial Host coming in flaming fire to render vengeance to the rebellious and Rest and Joy to believing souls that waited for this day of his appearance Then faith and patience shall give up their work and sight and fruition and perfect love shall everlastingly succeed them The rage of persecutors shall no more affright us the folly of the multitude shall no more annoy us the falseness of our seeming selfish friends shall no more betray us the pride of self-conceited men shall no more distuâ—b us the turbulency of men distracted by ambition shall cast us no more into confusions The Kingdom that we shall possess shall not be lyable to mutations nor be tossed with pride and faction as are these below There is no monethly or annual change of Governours and Laws as is in Lunatick Common-wealths but there will be the same Lord and King and the same Laws and Government and the same Subjects and obedience without any mutinies rebellions or discontents to all eternity The Church of which we shall then be members shall not be divided into parties and factions nor the members look strangely at each other because of difference of opinions or distance of affections as now we find it to our daily grief in the militant Church We shall then need no tedious debates to reconcile us Unity will be then quickly and easily procured There will be no falling out in the presence of our Lord. There will be none of that darkness uncharitableness selfishness or passion left that now causeth our dissentions When we have perfect Light and perfect Love the perfect Peace will be easily attained which here we labour for in vain Now there is no peace in Church or State in Cities or Countreys in families or scarce in our own souls But when the glorious King of peace hath put all his enemies under his feet what then is left to make disturbance Our enemies can injure us no more for it is then their portion to suffer for all their former injuries to Christ and us Our friends will not injure us as here they do because their corruption and weakness is put off and the relicts of sin that caused the trouble are left behind O that is the sight that saith prepareth for that is the day the blessed day that all our dayes are spent in seeking and waiting and praying for then shall the glory of holiness appear and the wisdom of the Saints be justified by all that now is justified by her childreâ— Then it shall be known Whether faith or unbelief whether a heavenly or earthly mind and life was the wiser and more justifiable course then shall all the world discern between the righteous and the wicked between them that serve God and them that serve him not Mal. 3.18 Then sin that is now so obstinately defended and justified by such foolish cuâ—ning shall never more find a tongue to plead for it or a Patron to defend it more Then where is the man that will stand forth and break a jest at godliness or make a scorn of the holy diligence of believers How pale then will those faces look that here were wont to jear at piety What terror will seize upon those hearts that here were wont to make themselves sport at the weaknesses of the upright servants of the Lord That is tâ—â— day that shall rectifie all judgements and cure the errors and contemptuous thoughts of an holy life which no perswasions now can cure that is the day that shall set all straight that now seems crooked and shall satisfie us to the full that God was just even when he prospered his enemies and afflicted the souls that loved him and walkt in their integrity before him We shall then see that which shall fully satisfie us of the reason and equity of all our sufferings which here we underwent we shall marvail no more that God lets us weep and groan and pray and turns away his face and seems not to regard us We shall then find that all our groans were heard all our tears and prayers did succeed which we suspectâ—d had been lost We shall then find that a duty performed in sincerity through all our lives was never lost no nor a holy thought nor a Cup of cold water that from holy love we gave to a Disciple We shall then see that our murmurings and discontents and jealous unbelieving thoughts of God which sickness or poverty or crosses did occasion were all injurious to the Lord and the fruit of infirmity and that when we questioned his Love on such accounts we knew not what we said We shall then see that Death and grave and Devils were all but matter for the glorifying of grace and for the triumph of our Lord and us Up then my soul and shake off thy unbelief and dulness Look up and long and meet thy Lord. The more thou art afraid of death the more desire that blessed day when mortality shall be swallowed up of life and the name of death shall be terrible no more Though death be thy enemy there is nothing but friendly in the coming of thy Lord. Though death dissolve thy nature the Resurrection shall restore it and make thee full reparation with advantage How glad would I have been to have seen Christ but with the Wise Men in the Manger or to have seen him disputing with the Doctors in his Child-hood in the Temple or to have seen him do his Miracles or heard him Preach much more to have seen him as the three Disciples in his transfiguration or to have seen him after his resurrection and when he ascended