is free from his Master so Job describes the state of the dead Job 3.17 18 19. Thus doth God our heavenly Father make use of this as his Handkerchief to wipe away all tears from the eyes of his Children as we have it Rev. 7. last After death there shall be to them no more death nor crying neither shall there be any more pain as that other Text hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ae chylus Rev. 21.4 Death lets out the Christian as it doth all men from the sense and fear of all temporall Evils 2. Yea it freeth him from what is far worse from Spiritual Evils Spirituall giving a Quietus est as to the Body so to the Soul Freeing him 1. From Sin He that is dead is freed from sin Rom. From sin 6.7 So it is indeed with a mortified soul a regenerate person that is spiritually dead dead to sin which the Apostle there chiefly aymeth at he is freed from it viz. from the guilt and power of it But this is but a partiall freedome which is compleated and perfected in and by naturall death by which the Believer obtaineth a perfect freedome Being hereby so freed from sin as in this life he cannot be Freed from the committing of it From the inbeing of it From the beholding of it From the committing of it 1. From the committing of it which while he is here he is not cannot be However as the Apostle hath it in the verse there foregoing Rom. 6.6 the old man being crucified with Christ the Body of sin is so far destroyed that henceforth the regenerate person doth not serve sin he having thus suffered in the flesh ceaseth from sin as St. Peter hath it 1 Pet. 4.1 Corruption being in measure mortified he doth not now sin as before he did so as to make a custome and practise of it yet through weaknesse he doth commit some acts of sin and that daily There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not Eccl. 7.20 But Death giveth the Believer a perfect discharge so as thenceforth he sinneth no more He that hath entred into his rest saith the Apostle he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his Heb. 4.10 God upon the seventh day kept a Sabbath resting from his works of Creation such as he had wrought upon the six dayes before So doth the Believer in death he entereth into his rest that Eternall Sabbatisme where he ceaseth from his own works such works as he here wrought in the flesh specially from the works of the flesh sinfull works Opera nostra vocantur labores curas vocationis nostrae tùm opera carnis noturae vitiosae peccatae quae vere sunt nestra quia â nobis fiunt nec probantur Dec c. Pareus Com. ad loc which as Pareus there noteth upon it may most properly be called a mans own works inasmuch as he doth them of himself without any approbation or allowance from God From these works the Godly man after death wholly ceaseth Which the wicked man doth not who being in Hell ceaseth not to blaspheme God Like as the followers of the Beast are said to doe upon the powring out of the Vials They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains c. Rev. 16.9 11 21. so doe the damned in hell because of their torments they blaspheme God and commit other sins such as that their state is capable of Which whether they be formally and properly sins in them not lying under a Law as here they did I shall not dispute but Materially I am sure they are being the same sinfull acts which here they committed But from such acts shall the believer now cease so as never more to commit any sin Noe nor yet to be in any possibility of committing it Such a state doth death bring Gods Children to a state in this respect far more happy then that wherein our first Parents were in Paradise There they were free from sin but not from a possibility of sinning which the event shewed But Gods Saints by death are freed from this being hereby put into an impeccable state and so confirmed as that they shall never more have any will or inclination to that which is evill Thus are they freed from the acting the Committing of sin 2. From the inbeing of it And so Secondly from the Inbeing the Indwelling of it So it is that the best of Saints while they are here they have sin dwelling in them It is no more I that do it saith Paul but sin that dwelleth in me Rom. 7.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thereby meaning Innolita illa pridem peccandi consuetndo Grot. Annot. ad loc not that Habit and Custome of sin which is in an unregenerate person as Grotius expounds it but that Naturall Corruption which still cleaveth to the Regenerate This he found still dwelling in him And so it will in the most sanctyfied soul upon earth And there dwelling it will also be warring seeming sometimes to Conquer So also that Apostle there out of his own experience complaines v. 23. I find another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of sin which is in my members Such a conflict there is and will be in the best of Saints Corruption striving against Grace Yea and sometimes prevailing against it Even as a strong tide carrieth the ship against the stroke of the Rowers Which cannot but create a great deal of trouble to the Soul So it did to that blessed Apostle who upon this account looked upon himself as a miserable man crying out in the next verse verse 24. O wretched man that I am who shal deliver me from the Body of this death That Body of sin as he elswere calleth it Rom. 6.6 which he found living in him was to him a Body of death making his life miserable to him So would it be to a Child-bearing woman to have the Child lye dead within her rotting and putrifying in her womb whereof notwithstanding all indeavours used she cannot be delivered Or to a living man to be tyed to a dead karkesse Even so is it with a regenerate person whilest he is here the living and the dead are tyed together Grace and Gorruption And so tyed together as nothing can part them but death Like as it was with that fretting leprosie of which we read Lev. 14.45 which having eaten into the Wals there was no cure for it but by pulling down the house Even so is it with this Leprosie of sin having seized upon the soul and eaten into all the powers and faculties of Soul and Body there is no way to be freed from it but by death And this will do it The house being pulled down the Leprosie ceased And so doth sin in death The dissolution of the Body is the Absolution of the Soul freeing it from this
off from it For this a threefold Reason may be assigned Answ This he did upon a threefold ground 1. Reas 1 The first and principal whereof is that which we meet with in the Text. His obedience to his Father His Father had given this Cup to him to drink and therefore he will drink it The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it God his Father had decreed willed that he should suffer and dye and this his will he had made known unto him And therefore in obedience to his command he thus willingly yieldeth hereunto I lay down my life of my self saith he but wherefore Why This Commandement I have received from my Father so himself there giveth the Reason of it Joh. 10.18 Even as Isaac herein a type of him in obedience to his Father yields himself to be bound and layed upon the Wood to be sacrificed Gen. 22. which he did willingly without the least reluctancy or resistance that we read of So did the Lord Jesus in obedience to his Father he willingly yielded up himself to the death He humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse Phil. 2.8 Such an absolute and universal complyance there was betwixt Christ and his Father What his Father willed that he willed So himself declares it Joh. 5.30 I seek not mine own will but the will of him that sent me And again in the Chapter following v. 38. I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me Thus did he as God perfectly comply with the will of his Father Being one God with him there was but one will betwixt them What the Father willed the Son willed And as Man he was in every thing subordinate to him Not doing his own will I seek not myne own will As Man if it had been consistent with the will of God his Father he could have wished that this Cup might have passed from him which he doth Matth. 26.39 Father if it be possible let this Cup passe from me There was the will of his humane iâ—firmity Nature being desirous to preserve it self which it might doe without sin But this will he submits and resolves into the will of his Father Neverthelesse not as I will but as thou wilt so he there limits his desire And again vers 42. O my Father if this Cup may not passe from me except I drink it thy will be done Thus was there a perfect conformity of his will as God and subordination as Man to the will of his Father And from hence flowed this willing submission of his in drinking of this Cup. This he did in obedience to his Father Which I shall God willing make some Application of hereafter for the present passing it by 2. Reas 2 As herein he had an eye to his Father willing this so also to his Elect people needing it His good wil to his Elect people Their redemption their salvation depended upon it As for what he had already done in his Active Obedience in fulfilling the Law this alone could have been no wayes available unto them The Justice of God required further satisfaction even the suffering of death This was that which the Law had threatned In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye saith the Lord to Adam Gen. 2.17 thou shalt die the death be subject and bound over unto death not only temporall but eternall And under this sentence do all the Sons of Adam by nature lye being bound over unto death not only in their Bodies but in their Souls bound over unto eternall death Now this Law must be satisfied before the Elect of God could be redeemed And how should this be without shedding of blood Without shedding of blood there is no Remission Heb. 9.22 And upon this account again it was that our blessed Saviour was so willing to drink this Cup to subject himself to this accursed death not only to a naturall but to that which was equivalent to an eternall death to suffer the wrath of God due unto the sins of the World that so he might free his Elect people from that Curse Which he did out of an unspeakable love to them This it was that induced God the Father to give this Gup to his Son God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. Joh. 3.16 And this it was which also induced him so willingly to drink it in this way to give himself for them Who loved me and gave himself for me saith Paul Gal. 2.20 Christ hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God Eph. 5.2 Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it v. 25. This it was which next to the will of God his Father put him forward upon this service with such resolution and willingnesse even that ardent affection which he bare to his Elect people This will love doe The power of intense Love It beareth all things as the Apostle saith of it 1 Cor. 13.7 Where it is intense it will make a heavy burden light Jacob loving Rachel he served a Seven-years Apprentiship for her And saith the Text they seemed to him but a few dayes for the love he had to her Gen. 29.20 And thus would men serve their God did they but love him as they ought though it were for many years their service would not be tedious unto them So was it here with our blessed Saviour Loving his Elect people with such an intense affection as he did he thinks nothing too much that either he could doe or suffer for them Applic. Where before we passe any further Applic. This Love of Christ to be admited make we a stand a little suffering our thoughts to be taken up with an holy Contemplation and high admiration of this matchlesse love which our blessed Saviour doth herein expresse in shewing himself so willing to drink this Cup. A Bitter Cup So he had found it already Yet behold he not only submits to the drinking of it but will not indure that it should be taken from his mouth till he had drunk it off The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it As if he had thirsted after it no lesse then a thirsty man doth after a Cup of drink to quench his thirst withall Thus was he carryed on to this his Passion with an earnest desire Even as he was to the drinking of that mystical Cup concerning which he tells his Disciples Luk. 22.15 With desire I have desired that is Earnestly desired to eat this Passeover with you before I suffer meaning the Sacrament of the Lords Supper so was he to the drinking of this metaphoricall Cup whereof that was a forerunner and a sign his Death and Passion this was a thing which he was carryed to with the like earnest desire This is that which he tells his Disciples Luk. 12.50 I have a
Apostle himself who tells his Corinthians 2 Cor. 1.8 that by the trouble which hapned to him in Asia he was pressed out of measure beyond strength 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so falleth it out sometimes with other of the Saints There is a great disproportion betwixt their burden and their strength the one great the other small Now how shall a Christian be able to bear up in such a case so to fortifie and strengthen his spirit as that he may not faint in the day of Adversity A. A great and difficult work I confesse A. Some soveraign Cordials prescribed yet through the help of Grace attainable To help you therein let me prescribe unto you some Soveraign Cordials some spiritual Consolations which may be and being taken into the soul will be very usefull for this purpose for the supporting and bearing up the spirit under whatever affliction this poor life of ours upon earth is subject to These Consolations are many as also our Afflictions are I shall single out some of the choisest Which I shall desire you carefully to lay up Happily at the present you may have no great need of them but how soon you may you know not And therefore lay them up in the Closet of your hearts They are not like the Apothecaries Drugs some of which being long kept lose their vertue The day may come when some one of them may requite all your care and pains In the First place then look at Afflictions themselves Direct 1 Loâ—k at Afflictions themselves wherein consider The Israelites in the Wildernesse were cured of the stinging of the Serpents by looking upon the Serpent And so may a Christian by looking upon Afflictions strengthen his heart against them The Hony of the Bee is a medicine for the Sting Afflictions though never so bitter yet will afford somewhat that may serve to allay that bitternesse In them cast we an eye upon 4 or 5 particulars which may be usefull this way The Quality Quantity Continuance Commonnesse Issue of them 1. Consid 1 The Quality of them Here we shall finde that in themselves they are a Curse The Quality of them as qualified by Christ Such are all Afflictions all fruits and consequents of sin and punishments of it every one being an Appendix to that first Curse The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death surely die Gen. 2.17 that is be subject to manifold evils as in soul so in body tending to death to the destruction of both But by through Christ their nature is now altered the Curse is taken away That was one and the chief of those Ingredients which was put into this Cup which was given to Christ to drink and which he did drink upon the Crosse He being there made subject to that accursed death that he might free us from the Curse of death and of all its retinue Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3.13 So that what the Apostle saith of Death it self 1 Cor. 15.55 O Death where is thy sting We may say the same of whatever afflictions and crosses can befall the children of God upon earth their Sting is gone Surely the bitternesse of death is past saith Agag having as he thought armed himself against the fear of it which is the greatest part of Deaths bitternesse 1 Sam. 15.32 And the like may all true Believers say concerning all their Afflictions and sufferings The bitternesse of them is past as to them the Curse being taken away from them by Christ which is indeed the chief part of their bitternesse Even as Moses altered the quality of those waters of Marah took away the bitternesse of them by casting into them that Tree which the Lord had shewed him so hath Christ taken away the bitternesse of all the waters of Affliction by the Tree of his Crosse to which he was designed by his Father The bitternesse of Afflictions as I said was the Curse going along with them they being in themselves all tokens of wrath But now that bitternesse that Curse is taken away So as to true Believers they are no longer tokens of wrath but rather Love-tokens Whom the Lord loveth he correcteth Prov. 3.12 chasteneth Heb. 12.6 Yea Pledges of Adoption So it there followeth Heb. 12.6 7. He scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth If ye endure chastenings God dealeth with you as with Sons Not to know what Chastisements mean it is no good sign If ye be without Chastisement whereof all all Gods children are partakers then are ye bastards and not sons so it there followeth v. 8. For God to exercise his Children with afflictions it is a sign that he owns them for his Children and a demonstration of his fatherly love to them and care of them Thus do these Cups which Gods people drink of they come from the hand of a Father not of a Judge being to them not satisfactory but castigatory punishments Not properly punishments but Chastisements Not tokens of wrath but Love-tokens A usefull and comfortable meditation for the soul of a Believer to feed upon in the midst of whatever distresse What is it that maketh these Cups so bitter unto the soul Why when it looketh upon them as they are in themselves as Cups of divine wrath and fury Now no wonder if it shake and tremble at the drinking of them So long as a man apprehends these Arrowes which he feeleth to stick fast in him to be poysoned Arrowes shot at him by the hand of a revenging God now no wonder if the soul have no peace no quiet But look upon them as they are changed and altered by Christ having the Curse taken away and as they are tokens and pledges of Adoption which being sanctified they certainly are the soul being perswaded of this this will be as a soveraign Cordial to it to keep it from fainting Q. Q. Yea but you will say how shall a man know this How Chastisements may be known from Punishments that they are so to him that they are only Chastisements and not Punishments and that they are tokens of love and pledges of Adoption When as they are tokens of wrath to some how shall I know that they are not so to me A. A. To this I have in part hinted an Answere already Take it a little more fully yet briefly 1. How do you drink this Cup how doe ye suffer these afflictions Doe you quietly patiently By the manner of suffering them contentedly submit to the hand of God in them If so now hear what the Apostle saith to you in that Text even now cited Heb. 12.7 If ye indure chastning God dealeth with you as with Sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not if you suffer afflictions for so do the worst of men But if ye endure chastening receive Afflictions from the hands of God as Chastisements kissing the Rod humbling your selves under the hand of God as dutifull Children under
all is gone Hope the Christians sheat-anchor This is the sheate anchor which Christ is to ride by in whatever stormes or stresses come down upon him It is the Apostles own similitude in that known text Heb 6.19 Which Hope we have as an Anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast If the Anchor be let slip or come home the Ship is exposed to the hazard of Rocks and Shelves from which before she was safe And so is the Soul of a Christian if once his Hope his Faith and confidence in God through Jesus Christ faile now it is in eminent danger which before it was not And therefore having once cast this Auchor within the vaile fixed our faith in heaven now whatever stormes come down upon the outward or inward man upon Body or soul still ride by it holding fast this our confidence and hope unto the end as the Apostle minds us once and again Heb. 3.6.14 Thus however the Lord pleaseth to deal with us let us only turn unto him and then hope in him Even as the Ship in a stress turns to the Anchor and rides by it So do we in these soul-stresses Turn to the Lord and trust in him That is the advise which the Prophet Hosea giveth to the people of the Jewes when God had a Controversie with them and was turned enemy to them Hos 12.6 Turn thou to thy God saith he Keep Mercy and Judgment and wait on thy God continually Fide deo tuo wait on him by faith trusting in him And so let it be said to the distressed soul that labours under this saddest of tryals Only turn thou to thy God indeavouring to walk closesly with him and then wait upon him trust in him That is Davids counsell which out of his own experience he giveth to others Psal 27.13.14 I had fainted saith he unless I had believed to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the Land of the living Wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thy heart wait I say on the Lord Many and sweet are the promises which God hath made to those who thus wait They that wait upon the Lord saith the Prophet Isai Shall renew their strength through a secret supply of the spirit of grace the inward man shall be strengthened they shall mount up with wings as Eagles their souls being carried up aloft above all difficulties and discouragements they shall run and not be wearied they shall walk and not faint Noe such way to keep the soul from fainting as this to wait upon God in all Estates Which who so do the same Prophet speaks them blessed Blessed are they that wait for him Isai 30.18 Whilest they wait for their God he waiteth that he may be gratious unto them as the former part of that verse hath it only expecting a seasonable time to shew himself unto them in a way of mercy And therefore to close up this Direction however the Lord please to deal with us though he seeme to withdraw himself from us yet with patience wait for him by faith resting upon the word of promise staying our souls upon him That is the advice which the same Prophet holdeth forth in that obvious but excellent Text Isai 50.10 Who is among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darknesse and hath no light let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay himself upon his God And this let the Lords people doe such as unfeignedly fear God yeilding obedience to his word as in all other distresses so in this let them trust in the name of the Lord and stay themselves upon their God by faith resting upon him that so their souls may be kept from fainting Thus much for the former of these tryals Soul-suffering Passe we to the second The suffering of death This is the other Ingredient which we find in the bottome of this Cup The Suffering of death the last Act in this Tragedie the last thing that Christ was to suffer his pouring forth his soul unto death A bitter potion The bitterness of death is past saith Agag 1 Sam. 15.32 The fear of death which of all other things he looked upon as most bitter More bitter then death saith the Preacher of the wherish woman Eccles 7.26 Intimating death of all things which can befall the outward man to be the bitterest And yet see with what Patience with what Resolution our blessed Saviour here submits hereunto This was the Gup which his Father had given him He had appointed him to dye to dye that painfull shamefull accursed death upon the Crosse And this our Saviour was privy to having before acquainted his Disciples with it Mat. 20.18.19 Yet see how he submitteth to the will of his Father herein as Obediently he was obedient to the death Phil. 2.8 So willingly The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it And herein again let all his Disciples follow his steps Which Christians are to do Patiently and willingly shewing themselves in like manner Obedient to and in death submitting to the will of their heavenly Father in drinking this Cup. when he shall give it them and that not only Patiently but Willingly A great and a difficult work my brethren A work above the strength of nature A work passing the strength of Nature which of it self is not able to look this enemy in the face noe more then the Isralites were Goliah who when he shewed himself and made that challenge of a single combate to whomsoever should dare to incounter him it is said that when Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine they were dismayed and greatly afraid 1 Sam. 17.11 And again v. 24. And all the men of Israel when they saw the man fled from him and were sore afraid Such an enemy is death being as Bildad calleth it The King of terrours Job 18.14 So it is to flesh and bloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher saith of it of all terribles the most terrible And great Reason for it being so unconquerable an enemy that never was there any that encountred with it but have beene overcome by it save only this our David the Lord Jesus And how shall nature ever work the heart to such a resolution to embrace that which is so destructive to it self Nature cannot do it Noe Yeâ— above an ordinary measure of gâ—race nor yet an ordinary measure of grace How have some of the stourest cedars in Lebanon been shaken with this gust Some of the most eminent Saints of God how have their hearts even fainted when they have seen this Cup comming towards them David a man after Gods own heart then whom none more daring in battell yet in his cold bloud he tels us of the sorrows and terrours of death which took hold upon him The sorrows of death compassed me about Psa 18.4 The sorrows of Hell of the
Curse which in it own nature it is being the issue and wages of sin and the very Gate of Hell But look we upon it in the glasse of the Gospell that we shall find representing it unto the believer under another shape as being much changed and alterd by Christ Newe names put upon Death Whereupon it puts new names upon it Calling it sometimes a sleep Our friend Lazarus sleepeth Joh. 11.11 Them which sleep in Jesus 1 Thes 4.14 Such is the grave to the true believer Not a Prison but a Bed sor the Body to rest in for a time They shall rest in their beds Isai 57.2 Elsewhere we find it called a Departure Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace saith old Simeon Luke Vid-Leigh Critica Saâ—ra 2.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dimittiâ— thou loosest dismissâ—st me lettest me out of Prison So the Syriack there renders the word Now thou openest the Prison And so we find it properly used Act 5.40 Where it is said that the Councell let the Apostles goe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. out of prison Such is this life to the believer noe better then a Prison death is his dismission A like word is that which we find used by the Apostle Phil. 1.23 Where expressing his willingnesse to dye I desire saith he to be dissolved or to depart as the new translation hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to return home So the same word is used in his proper sense Luk 12.36 Where servants are said to wait for their Lord till he return to his home 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such is this World to gods people a strange Country where they live as strangers and pilgrims being from home Ad remigrationem Beza Now death is to them a Remigratio as Beza there renders the word a removing a returning to their own Country their home The Soul leaving the Body where it lodged for a time returns to God that gave it Eccles 12.7 Elsewhere the same Apostle calls it the dissolving of a Tabernacle If our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved 2 Cor. 5.1 Not destroyed So is a house when it is pulled down the materials of it being so broken as they can never be put together again But not so a Tabernacle or Tent where the parts are only taken asunder for a time but afterwards put together and set up in another place Such is death only a dissolution of the parts whereof man is composed a severing of the soul and Body for a time which shall afterwards be reunited And so St Peter making use of the same Allusion he calleth it a putting off or laying down of a Tabernacle 2 Pet. 1.14 Knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 depositio tabernaculi mei as the vulgar Latine renders it properly The laying down of my Tabernacle is at hand Such is the Body to the Soul like a Tent to him that carrieth it about with him a burden which being layed down he is eased And so is the Soul by the deposition the laying down of the Body in death Which in the next verse that Apostle there sets forth under another name calling it his Exodus after my decease v. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Exodus A word with the sound whereof you have been well acquainted it being the Title given to the second book of Moses which is so called from the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt which is there fully described Such an Exodus is death to the believer a Translation of him from an Egypt an house of bondage into the Celestial Canaan the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Thus hath death now new names put upon it The Gospell representing it after another manner with another face then the Law holdeth it forth And well may it have new names The nature of death changed by Christ when as the Nature of it is so changed and altered as by Christ it is Who hath taken away the maliguity of it that which was hurtfull in it Having pulled the sting out of this Serpent O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory so the Apostle triumpheth over this conquered Enemy 1 Cor. 15.55 Bot the sting and strength of it are now gone The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ so the Apostle there goeth on This hath Christ done for all that are in him having made satisfaction for sin and fulfilled the Law So as now though death may threaten as the Serpent having lost the sting may hiss yet it cannot hurt And why then should we fear a conquered enemy Which is not only disarmed but lyeth as it were dead before us lâ—ke that Philistine when his head was off In Christi morte mors obiit In Christs death Death died Being thereby abolished as the Apostle hath it 2 Tim. 1.10 Who hath abolished death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made it of none effect So is naturall death the fear and sting of it being taken away it is now as a shadow without a substance Thus is Death now qualified by Christ as to all true Believers Which being seriously considered will be of speciall use to free them from the inordinate fear of it and make them not unwilling to submit to God in the suffering of it To passe on In the Fourth place thus looking upon death Look beyond Death look beyond it Even as the timorous Passenger in ferrying over a River where the water is rough by fixing his eye on the bank of the other side settles his brain which otherwise might be troubled thus let the timorous Christian whose nature inclines him to fear death look beyond it look to the issues the fruits and consequents of it Here taking notice of two things The Evils which it freeth the Believer from and the Good which it bringeth him to Considering 1 1. The Evils which it freeth him from Which are of two sorts The Evils which it freeth the Believer from Temporall and Spirituall 1. Temporall which I have touched upon already Such are bodily Infirmities sicknesses Temporall some of them very dolorous and painfull and such are losses and Crosses in Estate with Reproaches and Ignominies and many Vexations and Disquietments with wearisome labours and Imployments All these is the life of a Christian here infested with this world being to him as I said a troublesome Sea But Death is the Havens mouth which letteth him into a quiet Harbour where he is at rest from all these Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord c. that they may rest from their labours Rev. 14.13 There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest There the Prisoneâ—s rest together they hear not the voice of the Oppressor The small and great are there and there the servant
impetuous inmate which otherwise will not out whatever warnings are given it The death of nature is the death of sin making that true Filia devoravit matrem The daughter devours the Mother Sin which at the first brought forth death is destroyed by it And were there no other Argument Noe perfect freedome from sin but by death how should this work upon the soul of a Christian to make him not averse to the drinking of this Cup it being the only Remedy for the perfect cure of this Malady We see how it is in bodily diseases having been long and painful and all meanes having been tryed for cure but proving ineffectuall this continuall conflict maketh the sick man weary of his life so long for death and to be glad when he can find the grave as Job describeth his condition Job 3.21 22. And such is sin to the Soul an inveterate an uncurable malady being an hereditary disease which man brought into the world with him and use what meanes he may yet he cannot be freed from it a continuall Affliction And so it will be so long as life it self continueth How willing then should this make a Christian to imbrace death So did this Consideration work upon the Apostle who upon this account cryeth out as even now you heard O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me As if he had said O that I were out of this miserable mortall life during which doe what I can sin will still dwell in me and from the molestation whereof I cannot be freed but by death So long as a Christian carrieth this mortall Body about with him he shall never be freed from this Body of sin O how willing should this make us to lay down the one that we might be rid of the other Which the believe shall be by death Hereby he shall be freed as from the acting so from the indwelling of sin 3. From the beâ—â—lding of it Yea in the third place from the Beholding of it As he shall henceforth have no more experimenatll knowledge of it in himself so he shall be no longer a be holder of it in others Which is no small eye sore to a sanctyfied soul So it was to righteous Lot of whom St. Peter tels us 2 Pet. 2.7 That being a just person he was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked viz. Of those wicked Sodomites among whom he lived So the next verse explaines it For that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his Soul from day to day with their unlawfull deeds To see God so highly dishoured his Lawes so shamefully violated as by all kinds of abhominations they were this was a continuall corrasive and heart-breaking unto him And so was it to David who was in like manner affected with the sins of the times wherein he lived as he sets it forth Psal 119. v. 136. Rivers of waters run down mine eys because they keep not thy Law And again verse 158. I beheld the transgressours and was grieved because they kept not thy word And it cannot be otherwise with a gratious spirit to see the Abhominations of the times and places wherein he liveth to hear the name of his God blasphemed to see his Ordinances profaned his worship sleighted his messengers scorned his truths affronted his waies evil spoken of c. this cannot but affect it This it was that made David crye out in his Banishment as he doth Psal 120.5 Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesheck that I dwell in the tents of Kedar that is amongst a savage and barbarous people who had no knowledge nor fear of God whose lives and conversations were wicked and abominable And truly such is this world in a great measure wherein a Christian shall meet with two many of this rank The consideration whereof should make him the more willing to leave it to embrace Death when it cometh which is Gods Fan whereby he severeth his Wheat from the Worlds Chaffe the precious from the vile his own people from others so as they shall no longer be in danger of being seduced by evill doers or yet be infested by them The Goats being separated from the Sheep they shall be no longer an annoyance to them as here by the stinch of their unclean and filthy conversation they were In that New Jerusalem into which Death letteth all true Believers there shall in no wise enter any thing that defileth neither whatever worketh abomination Rev. 21. last Thus doth Death free them from this worst of Evils sin both from the committing and inbeing and beholding of it To which may be added that it freeth them also from the Temptations and molestations of Satan Death freeth the Believer from Satanicall temptations Which in this life the best of Saints are subject to Paul complains of the buffetings of Satan which himself felt 2 Cor. 12.7 And who but hath experience of his assaults some way or other He being an unwearied Adversary making it his work to goe to and fro in the earth and to walk up and down in it as himself giveth account of it to God Job 1.7 As a roaring Lyon walking about seeking whom he may devour as St. Peter hath it 1 Pet. 5.8 So as none can be secure from his attempts He that spared not to set upon our Saviour as he did in the Wildernesse plying him with Temptations one after another will not spare to do the like to his Disciples Simon Simon saith our Saviour to Peter behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as Wheat Luk. 22.31 to shake him and the rest by tempting or troubling them seeking by all possible wayes and means to subvert and destroy them in their bodies or souls And the like he doth to the best of Saints having a speciall evill eye upon them being ambitious to cast them down whom he seeth standing He maketh it his work either to draw them into evill or to draw evill upon them either to turn them out of the wayes of God or to make them as rough and troublesome to them as he may But Death sets the Believer out of his reach The God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly saith Paul to his Romans Rom. 16.20 This God doth partly in this life sometimes giving unto his people great victories over this their enemy but he will do it fully in Death By which they shall be carryed in their Souls where Satan cometh not This Old Serpent being once cast out of heaven shall never enter there again Thirdly as it freeth them from Satanicall Also from divine tentations so also from divine temptations such as God is pleased sometimes to exercise his people with those Soul-conflicts of which I spake before where God hiding his face from his people and letting in some apprehensions of wrath into their souls maketh their condition for the present very sad and uncomfortable Now from all these shall
see all in him see all things after another manner then here it doth When that which is perfect is come then that which is imperfect shall be done away 1 Cor. 13.10 And as perfect knowledge so perfect Love Love Seeing God as he is it cannot be but the soul must be inflamed with Love to him And so perfect Holinesse This Christians are here called upon to endeavour after Holinesse Having therefore these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holynesse in the fear of God so the Apostle exhorts 2 Cor. 7.1 But this while we are here we shall never attain unto But comming to see God now shall we be like him holy as he is holy being perfectly restored to that Image of God wherein man at the first was created consisting in Knowledge Holinesse and Righteousnesse Such is the perfection of Grace which the soul attaines by this beatificall vision 2. And as Grace so of Glory Like as silver or gold being set against the Sun Of glory by the beames thereof cast upon it it becommeth radiant and shining So shall it be with the soul by beholding the glory of God it shall it self be made glorious Such a glory had Moses put upon his face when he beheld the glory of the Lord having so near a communion with him upon Mount Sina the skin of his face did shine saith the story so as Aaron and the rest of the Children of Israel were not able to behold him Exod. 34.29.30 Such shall be the glory of the glorified soul having communion with God in Heaven and there beholding his glory it shall be made glorious This office doth death perform unto the believer it letteth in his soul into the presence of God whereby it becommeth perfect with perfection of Grace and Glory 2. The believer by death brought into the presence of Jesus Christ to have a full communion with him To this add It brings him also into the presence of Jesus Christ from whom while he is here he is absent While we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord. 2 Cor. 5.6 But now death brings the soul into his presence to have a sweet communion with him A consideration which made the Apostle not only averse to death but desirous of it I desire to depart and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 This it was that made him so confident and resolute as he was not to regard life or fear death as he there telleth his Corinthians 2 Cor. 5 6.8 Therefore we are alwaies 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 to be present with the Lord Which elswhere he concludes to be far better for him then to live here Phil 1.23 To see Christ to be with him to injoy him to have a full communion with him what happinesse shall this be to the soul And this doth death bring the believer to 3. As also to Communion and Fellowship with blessed Saints and Angels Also to Communion with Saints and Angels With them the believer hath Vnion whilest here upon earth Ye are come unto mount Sion saith the Apostle to his believing Hebâ—ews and unto the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the generall Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.22 23. Being true believers they were now made members of the Mystical body the Church whereof the one part is upon earth the other in heaven they had union with Saints and Angels being united to them by faith and Love which all Believers are But now by death they come to have a full Communion with them to see them to injoy them to have converse and society with them joyning with that heavenly Quire in singing Halelujahs to him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb for Ever and Ever Here is now the good which death bringeth the believer to and putteth him in possession of The thought whereof being seriously set on upon the soul it cannot but work it to a willing receiving and imbracing of such a messenger as bringeth tidings of so great good unto it Anticonsiderations or Objections answered I but it may be said though it be thus with the Soul yet in the mean time what becomes of the poor Body Obj. 1 Though the soul gain by death yet the body looseth Though the soul he a gainer by death yet the Body is a looser by it Though that return to God that gave it yet this goeth to the grave where it is subject to Corruption Which maketh our Saviours case and ours far different As for him he knew that though his Body being severed from his Soul for a time should lye under the power of death yet it should not see corruption So David had foretold it Psal 16.10 Where personating of Christ as Peter expounds it Act. 2.31 He foretelleth what manner of death his should be Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor suffer thine Holy one to see corruption And this our Saviour himself well knew who foretold his Disciples how though he were killed yet he should rise again the third day Mat. 16.21 And upon this account he might be more willing to dye But it is otherwise with other of the sons of men That which Paul saith of David that he saw Corruption Act. 13.36 is noe less true of others Be their Bodies never so richly embalmed yet will not that preserve them from putrefaction So much the Psalmist willeth the great men of the world to take notice of Psal 49.6 7. They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches None of them saith he can by any meanes redeeme his brother and so not themselves that he should still live for ever and not see corruption Such is the common fate None but must expect to have their bodies lye rotting in the grave in that land of forgetfulnesse as the Psalmist calleth it Psal 88.12 Where as they forget all that was done upon earth so they are forgotten by those they leave behind them Being laid up in the earth there the worm feedeth sweetly on them and they shall be no more remembred as Job faith of the cruell Oppressours Job 24.20 Now this is a thing which flesh and bloud cannot but look upon with great reluctancy the thought whereof may well make it loath to lay down the body upon such tearms To return an answer to this and some other Anticonsiderations or Objections of like nature which men are ready to take up and make use of in this way as discouragements hindring them that they cannot so willingly drink this Cup submit to the stroake of death as
our Saviour here did 1. Suppose this to be the condition of the body The Soul the kernell the Body but the shell that it suffereth after this manner in and by death yet what of that so long as it reacheth not unto the Soul So long as the kernell is safe what matters it what becomes of the Shell So long as the soul the better part is a gainer by death so great a gainer as you have heard what matters it what becometh of the Body being so vile as it is That is the Epithite which St. Paul giveth it Phil. 3.21 Our vile Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Body of vilenesse Corpus humilitatis nostrae saith the vulgar Latin he Body of our humbling And it is noe other then it deserveth The Body being no other but a Lump of clay which is little worth and carrying that in it or about with it which may serve to humble the owner of it and make him not to dote upon it as the greatest part do Now being so vile as it is why should men be so affected with what befalleth it 2. But Secondly the Body shall not ever continue in this estate The bodies of Gods Saints shal be changed Whilest it lyeth in the grave it is but a grain of Corn sowen in the earth as our Saviour maketh the comparison Joh. 12.24 As also the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.36 Which though it lye rotting there for a time yet after a few months it springs forth And so shall the Body in due time it shal arise and then it shal come forth after another manner then when it was laid down It is sown in corruption it is raysed in incorruption it is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory c. so the Apostle describeth the resurrection of the Bodies of Gods Saints at the Last day 1 Cor. 15.42 c Thus shall the Body also be a gainer by death as well as the Soul 3. In the mean time consider that inseparable union that is between Christ and the Believer The union betwixt Christ and the Bodies of his Saints Death may separate his Soul and Body the one from the other but separate either from Christ that it cannot As it was with Christ himself when his Body lay in the grave it was separated from his Soul but stil the God-head was united to both Such is the union betwixt Christ and the believer an indissoluble union death doth not dissolve it That Body which was a member of Christ whilest living which the Bodies of all Gods Saints are Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 6 15 it still retaineth the same relation when dead And being thus united unto Christ it shal by his power be preserved and by his vertue raised up again at the last day Even as the branches of a tree which seem to be dead in the winter yet having union with the root by a vertue springing from it they revive in the spring time So shal it be with the bodies of Gods Saints Though they be uncloathed by death as the tree is of his leaves by the winters cold yet shall they be cloathed upon having a vest a Robe of eternall glory also put upon them being changed by Christ and made like unto his glorious body as the Apostle tels us Col. 3.21 Thus is that first Objection readily answered And so may most of the rest which are made use of to this purpose Of which let me take notice of those which are most considerable As for those carnall ones which sway much with the men of this World viz their parting with their Riches Carnal allegations not worth the answering their Pleasures their Honours and such other contentments as this world affords which maketh them so loath to leave it I look upon them as not worth the answering all these being but shadows the substance whereof is to be found in that other world to which death bringeth the soul that is weaned from this The Considerations which I shall take notice of shall be only such as may lay hold upon a sanctyfied soul all which we shall find the text in hand meeting with Such is that of parting with near and dear Relations Wife Children Friends Obj. 2 Parting with near and dear Relations and leaving them in an unsetled condition Loath I am may one say to leave them behind me specially to leave them in such a condition as I am like to do not well knowing how they shal subsist when I am gone But was it not so with our blessed Saviour here When he was to leave the world So did our blessed Saviour his Disciples and mother did he not leave his beloved Disciples and dear Mother and left them in a low and unsetled estate therein not unlike himself scarse having a house of their own to hide their heads in As for his dear Mother the story tels us how when he was hanging upon the Crosse he committed her to the care and custody of his beloved Disciple Saint John Joh. 19.27 not having of his own any subsistance to leave her And for his Apostles he well knew in what condition he was to leave them even as Sheep among Wolves as he told them when he sent them forth Matth. 10.16 in a wretched World where they should meet with Tribulation enough of which he had forewarned them Joh. 16. Last Yet doth not the thought hereof take him off from this act of obedience to his Father in being willing to dye when he will have him Repl Repl. I but may some say his case was herein different from ours But he did not leave them Comfortlesse Though he did thus leave his Relations yet he did not leave them comfortlesse That is his promise to his Disciples when he had told them of his leaving them I will not leave you comfortlesse Joh. 14.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greek I will not leave you Orphanes Noe he promiseth that himself would have a care of them and that after a time he would come to them so it there followeth I will come to you Which he made good after his Resurrection And though himself were gone yet he sent his Proxie the Comforter to them according as he promised them Joh. 16.7 If I depart I will send him unto you viz. the Comforter the Holy Ghost who as he assures them should abide with them for ever Joh. 14.16 performing all needful offices unto them as the 26 verse there hath it But so cannot we do may some say to our Relations if we be gone all is gone with them What all gone Is your God gone too A. Surely not so Being your God he will be theirs God a Comforter to the Widow and Fatherless I will be thy God and the God of thy seed Gen. 17.7 And being so a God in Covenant with them he both can and will take care of them Many are
31.9 and is to all within the pale of the visible Church but by Adoption that he hath by a speciall grace adopted us into the dignity of his children Which we may be assured of when once we have received that Spirit of Adoption which the Apostle speaketh of Rom. 8.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy Spirit of God regenerating of us and working effectually in us working in us a childe-like disposition filiall affections towards this our heavenly Father a filial fear a filial love a filial affiance causing us to fear him as a Father to love him as a Father to trust in him and depend upon him as a Father Finding such a disposition such affections in our hearts now may we be assured that God is our Father And being our Father let us now call him so Vse 3 Call God our Father This is that which the Lord saith of his servant David Psal 89.26 He shall cry unto me thou art my Father And it is that which he requireth from his people the Jewes Jer. 3.4 Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me My Father viz. from the time that he had admonished them of their duty and corrected them for their sins And so again vers 19. of the same Chapter I said thou shalt call me My Father that is so own and acknowledge me And this let all the Lords people do This is the language which the Spirit of Adoption teacheth all Gods children to call God their Father Ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father saith Paul to his Romans Rom. 8.15 And the like to his Galathians Gal. 4.6 Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father And this do we call God our Father and that not only with our tongues but our hearts so looking upon him so owning and acknowledging of him Which do we at all times in all estates and conditions God to be looked upon by his Children as a Father in Adversity as well as Prosperity in whatever God doth to us or we to him still look upon him under the notion of a Father 1. As first in receiving of mercies and blessings from him In receiving of mercies take them as from the hand of a Father as pledges and tokens of his love therein acknowledging his Fatherly affection 2. So also in confessing of sins and begging pardon for them In confessing of sins come unto God as unto a Father So doth the Prodigall Son in the Parable Luk. 15.18 I will arise saith he and go to my Father and will say unto him Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee 3. So again in deploring of wants spirituall or temporall In deploring of Wants and making suit for a supply of them come unto God as a Father So our Saviour teacheth us to do in that Pattern and Form of Prayer which he hath left us When ye pray say Our Father which art in heaven Luk. 11.6 directing Christians to make all their addresses unto God under that notion as a Father When thou pray st pray to thy Father Math. 6.6 4. And so again in Deprecations of evils feared when God seemeth to be coming against us In deprecating of evils feared yet call him Father So did David his Father-in-law King Saul when he was coming out against him hunting his soul to take it as he speaks yet even then he calls out to him My Father 1 Sam. 24.11 And the like do we to our heavenly Father Though he come against us as an enemy yet still call him Father So doth our blessed Saviour when he saw this bitter Cup coming towards him apprehended his Passion at hand He fell on his face saith the Text and prayed saying O my Father if it be possible let this Cup passe from me Matth. 26.39 5. And the like also in Evils felt When the hand of God lyeth heavy upon us In present sufferings pressing us sore yet still call him Father So doth the Church in those Texts forecited when God hid himself from her dealt most severely with her yet still she challengeth her Relation calling him her Father Doubtlesse thou art our Father Isa 63.16 But now O Lord thou art our Father Cap. 64.7 And so doth our blessed Saviour in the Paroxisme of his Passion hanging upon the Crosse still he retains his former language calling God his Father Father forgive them Luk. 23.34 And when the pangs of death were upon him he breatheth out his soul with those words Father into thy hand I commend my Spirit vers 46. of that Chap. And the like do we stirring up our hearts to a holy imitation of this our heavenly Pattern In all our afflictions and sufferings of what knide soever they be yet still call God Father so look we upon him so apprehend and acknowledge him A good sign of a gracious spirit so to doe To call God Father when he frowns a sign of a gracious spirit I scarce know a better then to call God Father when he frowns upon us is angry with us hath a rod in his hand when he is correcting us An easie matter it is so to do whilest he is smiling upon us whilest we receive or expect blessings and favours from him Blesse me my Father saith Esau to Isaac Gen. 27.34 But when he hath as I said a rod in his hand and we feel the smart of it when his hand lyeth heavy upon us when he writeth bitter things against us when he is turned to be our enemy fighting against us by his Judgements then to call him Father so to look upon him so to apprehend and acknowledge him surely this is no other but a fruit of that Spirit the Spirit of Adoption And this let all Gods children stir up their hearts to doe To look upon God as a Father of great use in Afflictions thus to look upon God in all their afflictions A thing which will be of great use to us for the quieting and comforting and supporting our spirits under whatever sufferings So long as a man looketh upon God as an Enemy to him or as a severe Judge coming against him he can have no comfort being conscious to himself of his own demerits but when once he cometh to look upon him as a Father this sweetneth the bitterest Cup making a man drink it the more willingly whilest it giveth him a comfortable hope and assurance of a wise and mercifull moderation of his Affliction a gracious support under it and a seasonable issue out of it all which it doth Q. How this may be attained But how shall we attain to this thus to look upon God in our suffering condition A. Learn to live by faith For this learn to live by Faith So lives the Righteous person as the Prophet Habakuk tells us Hab. 2.4 The just shall live by his Faith Live by it in all estates and
denominated from his Divine nature God shed his blood that is that Person who was ruely God as well as Man shed his blood not as God but as Man Deus sed non qua Deus God but not as God Deus sed non Deitas God in the Concrete not the Godhead in the Abstract The Lord of glory was crucifyed the Author of life was killed that Person who was so in respect of his divine nature was crucified killed in his humane nature That which is proper to one nature is attributed to the person So is it with man in whom soul and body are united that which is proper to one of these is attributed to the Person As when the Body is sick wounded buryed we say the man is so So in the sufferings of Christ it was his Manhood which suffered not the Godhead yet it is attributed to the person Which is as I say sometimes denominated from the one nature sometimes from the other It was the humane nature of Christ or the Person of Christ in and according to his humane nature which properly suffered And this he did in his whole man Christ suffering in his whole man In his Body both in his Body and Soul 1. In his Body This it was which was bound scourged spit upon Crowned with thorns which first bare the Crosse and then was born of it which was pierced by the Nayls and the Spear which shed its blood Thus did he bear our sins in his own body on the Tree as St. Peter hath it 1 Pet. 2.4 And we are said to be sanctified that is freed from the guilt of sin and consecrated to the service of God through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ Heb. 10.10 2. But not his Body only but his Soul also In his Soul That also did bear a part in this suffering which it did not only by way of sympathy with the Body but immediately in and by it self So it did in that Agony of his in the Garden where he made that sad complaint to his Disciples My soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death Matth. 26.38 And afterwards upon the Crosse where being under a sad Eclipse the light of his Fathers countenance being hid from him by that black Cloud the sins of the World in that conflict he cryeth out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matth. 27.46 Thus did he then suffer in soul His soul being made an offering for sin as well as his Body as the Prophet Isai hath it Isa 53.10 Thus did he suffer in his humane nature in his whole man both Body and soul Q. But it may be said what then did not the Godhead also act a part in this Tragedy Was that only a Spectator a Looker on whilest the Manhood suffered A. The Godhead acting in the suffering of the Manhood Not so the Godhead at this time was not idle though it did not bear yet it acted a part in this Passion Though it did not suffer with the humane nature yet it concurred with it in sufsuffering Which it did in divers particulars Take we notice of Four or Five of them 1. Voluit It willed that suffering Christ as God willed that his suffering as Man Willing that it should suffer So much he intimates unto his Disciples Joh. 10.17 18. where he tells them I lay down my life that I may take it again No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self He layed down his life how why by the same power by which he took it up again by the power of his divine nature according to which he is properly called the Prince or Author of life Act. 3.15 By this power it was that he raised up his body from the death and by this power it was that he gave it up to death It was not the power of his humane nature that could doe this to lay down his life and take it up again at pleasure This was an act of his divine nature as well as his humane 2. Quievit As the Godhead willed that the Manhood should suffer Resting that it 〈…〉 suffer so it rested that it might suffer The divine nature was not withdrawn and severed from the humane in the time of its passion the union betwixt them being indissoluble but it rested not putting forth its power in any way of resistance which if it had done it was not all the Powers of Hell all the Men and Devils in the World that could have brought him to the Crosse The Godhead rested slept as it were even as Sampson did whilest his locks were cut off which it did for those three dayes during which time Christ seemed to be wholly left in the hands under the power of those his bloudy enemies for them to execute their rage and malice upon him Thus the Godhead though as I said not separated from the Manhood which it never was even then when Soul and Body were separated the one from the other the Godhead was severed from neither yet it rested Even as when a man is asleep his soul is not departed from his body yet it seemeth to have left it inasmuch as it doth not exercise those operations which before it did not looking out by the Eye not speaking by the Tongue not working by the Hand c. So was it here The Godhead being still with the Manhood dwelling in it and that as the soul doth in the body Bodily In ipso inâ—â—hitat plenitudo divinitatis corporaliter quià in Templo habitaverat umbâ—aliteâ— Grot. Annâ—t ex August in loc that is Pauls word Col. 2.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non umbraliter as Augustine explains it not in the shadow as it dwelt in the Temple but Corporaliter Bodily that is Personally substantially yet it rested for a time not shewing it self not exercising its wonted operations The Godhead rested that the humane nature might suffer 3. Sustentavit Though the Godhead thus rested that it might suffer Supporting it in suffering yet it secretly supported and bare it up in suffering inabling it to drink this Cup to suffer that which otherwise of it self it could never have been able to have done viz. the wrath of God due unto the sins of the World An insupportable burden Such is the least drop of it Who knoweth the power of thine anger Psal 90.11 What is then such a full Viall of it as was poured out upon Christ in his sufferings This could his humane nature of it self never have borne But it was secretly supported by the divine nature As it is in Man where as the Wise man hath it Prov. 18.14 his spirit sustaineth his infirmities the soul being of a cheerfull temper beareth him up under his bodily ailments So here that Eternall spirit which dwelt in the humane nature of Christ sustained and bore it up under those otherwise unsufferable sufferings 4. And not only bare it up under those sufferings And making
to day may befall us to morrow And therefore pardon me if I shall here take a little more then usuall liberty to dilate and inlarge my meditations upon so usefull and needfull a subject as this the Passive Obedience of a Christian it being that which was chiefly in my eye when I first took this Text in hand The Cup which my Father hath given me Obs An exemplary Resolution to be taken up by every Christian willing to suffer what God will have him shall I not drink it Behold here an exemplary resolution fit to be taken up by every Christian concerning whatever Cups God at the present doth or hereafter may present unto him whatever tryals afflictions sufferings he is or shall be pleased to exercise him with be it in body in soul in Relations in Estate in good Name in Liberty in life whatever they be still in the purpose and resolution of his heart to say of all and every of them in like manner The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it So submitting unto his will and pleasure and that not only patiently but willingly A duty held forth by Pattern For this we have a Pattern here in him whose practise for the most part is a Rule And it is no other then what we finde in some other of the Saints of God This is that which Saint James saith of the Prophets Jam. 5.10 whom he there propounds fot an ensample of suffering affliction In particular the holy man Job whom he there in the next verse instanceth in how patiently how willingly did he drink this Cup submit to the will of God in his many and great afflictions When his Wife gave him that pernicious counsell to make a speedy riddance of his trouble one way or other What saith he shall we receive good at the hands of God and not evill Job 2.10 A resolution not unlike unto this of our Saviours in the Text. Jobs Cup which he had tasted and drunk of already was a bitter Cup his sufferings many and those sharp In his Estate in his Children in his Body Behold him bleeding as I may say in every vein already And what greater tryals might be yet behinde he knew not Yet whatever for the present they were or for the future might be this is his resolution he will receive evil at Gods hand as well as good He had received blessings from him joyfully thankfully and he will with the same hand take Crosses from him not only patiently but willingly Thus should a Christian be ad utrumque paratus ready to take a bitter Cup from Gods hand as well as a sweet one Adversity as well as Prosperity Crosses as Blessings As he receiveth the one joyfully so the other willingly both thankfully By Precept And what we have thus held forth by Pattern we shall finde also seconded by Precept and that by our Saviour himself in that obvious Text Math. 16.24 where having given Peter that tart check for the counsell which he gave him to decline his sufferings he presently subjoyns as a Lesson for him and all other his Disciples to take notice of If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Crosse and follow me If any man will come after me that is take upon him to be a Disciple of mine a Professor of the Gospell or follow me to Heaven whither I am going Let him deny himself lay aside all carnall Interests all worldly respects as to any inordinate affection towards them And let him take up his Crosse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The phrase is emphaticall Attollat crucem suam i. e. Onere quantumvis duro gravi in humeros alacriter sublato c. Bez. Gr. Annot. ad loc not only bear the Crosse when it is layed upon him but take it up Not only suffer what he cannot shift as the beast beareth the burden which is layed upon it and it cannot shake off But willingly and chearfully submitting to Gods dispensations in suffering what he by his Providence shall call him to Thus we see the Duty held forth both by Pattern and Precept Christians must subject themselves to their heavenly Father in drinking whatever Cups he presents to them and that willingly chearfully Obj. Why but it may be said Obs Christ seemingly unwilling to drink this up did our Saviour so do we not finde him deprecating this Cup praying against it and that earnestly wishing that it might passe from him how then did he drink it willingly And do we not finde him telling Peter in that Text even now cited Joh. 21.18 that when he should goe to his Martyrdome another should carry him whither he would not And is it not so with the best of Gods Saints doe not they suffer without or against their wills A. A. For answer to this briefly There is a two-fold will A twofold will Natural and Spiritual A naturall and a spirituall will or two motions of the same will the one from Nature the other from Grace Now it is true the former of these is averse to suffering flyeth from death and all other like evils which are destructive to it self But the other in a regenerate person it over-rules this carrying the soul contrary to the inclinations of nature to yield obedience to the will of God and that willingly So it was with our blessed Saviour in whom we finde these two wills or two motions A natural motion inclining him to wish that this Cup might passe from him as there we have it But then a spiritual motion over-ruling that naturall will of his bringing it off to a willing obedience to the will of his heavenly Father Neverthelesse not as I will but as thou wilt And so it is with other of the Saints However the stream of nature runneth one way yet the winde of the Spirit carryeth them another Nature seeking the preservation of it self declines sufferings but Grace submits to them Reas 1 and that willingly This stone being thus removed To suffer is part of a Christians obedience to God which must be willing I might now go on and shew you why Christians are thus to suffer Great reason for it This is part of their Obedience unto God their suffering work which must be performed willingly without which it deserves not the name of Obedience If ye be willing and obedient saith the Lord to his people Isa 1.19 And it is part of their Conformity to Christ Reason 2 whom they are to imitate as in his Active Part of his conformity to Christ so in his Passive Obedience suffering as he suffered But it is not my purpose to insist upon the Doctrinall part That which I aim at is the working of this Duty upon the heart by way of Application That I shall direct only two wayes Applic. By way of Reprehension And Exhortation 1. By way of Reprehension Vse 1 Reprehension of 3 sorts under
thou wilt Matth. 26.39 Which he again insists upon v. 42. O my Father if this Cup may not passe from me except I drink it thy will be done Thus doth he resolve his will into the will of his heavenly Father And the like are we to do However we may desire freedome from these evils which lye upon us or threaten us and may pray against them yet let it be with submission of our wils to the will of our heavenly Father Which in all our petitions and requests is still eyther to be expressed or implied So much our Saviour teacheth us in that form of prayer which he hath set us where he directs us before we pray for any blessings for our selves first to desire that the will of God may be done Thy will be done This are we to pray for Absolutely resolving all our requests into it Which whilest we doe we may pray against Evils incumbent or impendent felt or feared A 2. And so also use meanes to be preserved or delivered from them Q. Thus Christians as you have heard not only may do but ought to do That Law which saith unto us Whether they may use means for preventing or removing them Thou shalt not kill doth therein require us to use meanes for the preserving and maintaining of Life and Livelyhood Neither doth our Saviours practise here in the text make any thing to the contrary A. True he refuseth meanes offered for his rescue This they both may and ought so doe but this he did as being acquainted with the Councell and purpose of God concerning himself Being of Counsell with his Father of his privie Councell he took notice what was decreed in heaven and was now to be executed upon earth He knew that his bour was come as St John hath it Job 13.1 and he himself tels his Disciples Matth. 26.45 Mark 14.41 the time precisly determined by his Father wherein he was to be offered up And thereupon it was that he resused al means of rescue And the like might we do yea ought to doe were we in like manner acquainted with Gods secret will as he was 〈◊〉 But this being hidden from us we must walke by the Rule of his revealed will which not only permits and allows but requires and commands that we should make use of meanes for the diverting or removing of evils present or imminent Only here again take we a Proviso or two With these Provisoes 1. Provided that these meanes as I said before be lawfull meanes Ahaziah in his sicknesse is not blamed for advising with what Physitians or Surgeons he pleased That they be lawfull but that he should send to Baalzâ—bub the God of Ekron to aske Counsell of that Idol this was his sin which proved fatall to him Therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art going up but shalt surely die so the Prophet Eliah sends him his doome 2. King 1.2.6 And never let them looke for a better issue who in cases of sicknesse or any other distress shall consult with Satan or his Instruments with witches or wizards or make use of spels or Charmes or any other unwarrantable meanes 2. And Secondly being lawfull meanes see that they be used lawfully Used lawfully 1 Not being sought to alone This was Asahs sin In his disease he sought not to the Lord Not sought to alone but to the Physitian 2. Chron. 16.12 Whilest we use meanes see that we take God along with them who must either blesse or blaste 2. Nor yet sought to in the first place This is an honour due unto God still to begin with him Not in the first place to seeke to him in the first place And this do we as in all our undertakings and businesses so in seeking deliverance from any evill make our first address unto God begging from him that he would direct to the use of meanes 3. Use meanes but trust not in them Thus David used his sword and his Bowe Not trâ—sted in but not trusting in them I will not trust in my Bowe neither shall my sword save me Psal 44.6 This honour he gave to his God whom he made his sole trust and confidence as he often tels us Thus look at Meanes we may but neither in the first nor yet in the last place Make we God our Alpha and Omega our first and last First seeking to him to direct unto meanes and then seeking to him to bless those meanes Thus look at meanes but not so as to terminate our light in them Look through them look beyond them resting only upon him whose word of command must make them effectuall to us for good But of this heretofore With these Cautions a Christian may use means for the diverting of evils Still Gods will to be submitted to and in obedience to God he is to make use of them when providence offers them Yet still so as in the use of them he so submits his will to Gods will as to be willing with what he willeth And thus let every of us indeavour in imitation of this our blessed Paterne to submit to the drinking of whatever Cups shall be given to us to suffer what afflictions and tryals God shall please to exercise us with as not despising of them so not murmuring at them nor fainting under them but submitting to them Patiently Obediently Willingly Here is the Generall Lesson which all Christs Disciples are to learn and practise Which I might now prosecute in particulars by shewing you the several Cups which God giveth to his people the sundry sorts of Afflictions wherewith he is pleased to exercise them As sufferings in their estates by losses and Crosses in their good names by reproaches and ignominies in their Relations by parting with near and dear friends Parents Husband Wife Children in their Bodies by sickness and weakness As also how they ought to submit to God in every of these and upon what grounds they are to do it But this I foresee would be a long work And I conceive that those Generals which have been already held forth are fitly applicable to every of these or whatever other Particular cases And therefore shall I not enter into that so large a field Only looking into this Cup which our blessed Saviour was now to drinke Two bitter ingredients in our Saviours Cup. His suffering in soul and suffering of death I find in the bottom of it two most bitter Ingredients which were the two chiefest parts of his suffering viz. His suffering in soul and his suffering of Death Other things there were which he also suffered As that Reproach and Contempt which was cast upon him He indured the Contradictions of Sinners Heb 12.3 He was reviled 1. Pet. 2.23 He was set at naught as he himself foretold it Mark 9.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sleighted as nothing worth So he was as by the chief Priests and Rulers so by the vulgar
who preferred Barrabas before him Not this man but Barrabas now Barrabas saith the Text was a Robber Joh 18.41 Thus was he despised and rejected of men as the Prophet Isai foretold it Isai 53.3 Made a scorn and laughing stock having a scarlet or Purple Robe put upon him a Rod put into his hand instead of a Scepter a Crown of Thornes set upon his head instead of a Crown of Gold as the story sets it forth Mat. 27. v. 28.29 all to make him a scorn to the people who in defiance spit upon him as it there followeth Thus did he suffer in his Name And so in his Body being buffeâ—ed and caned as we find it Matth. 26 67. and 27.30 as also scourged v. 26. Now all these were ingredients in this Cup parts of his suffering But the two principals which made this his Cup so exceedingly bitter were these his suffering in Soule and his suffering of death Yet doth he thus submit to both these And the like are Christians to doe if ever God shall call them to the like tryals Christians to imitate him in suffering of both The latter of which they are all sure to meet with what man liveth and shall not see death Psal 89.48 And for the former none are sure of being exempted from it Now as to these two particulars being of so great importance and having so just an occasion offered from the Text give me leave to speak to them severally Begin with the former Suffering in Soul Thus did our blessed Saviour suffer Suffering in Soul not only in the outward man but also in the inward not only in his Body but in his Soul When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin Isai 53.10 that is the whole person of Christ not bis body only but his soul also which suffered in this his passion And that not only by way of Sympathie and fellow feeling with the Body as Socinions would have it but immediately As man afflicted the one so did God the other It pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief saith the Prophet in the text last named Afflicting him as in his Body so in his Soul Which he did by inflicting on him a double Punishment such as the damned in Hell lye under a Punishment of Losse and a Punishment of Sense Of Losse hiding and withdrawing himself from him as to his sense and feeling Which he did fully upon the Crosse where being left under a cloud of spirituall desertion he cryeth out in the anguish of his soul My God My God why hast thou forsaken me Of sense pouring a viall of wrath into his soul such as was due unto those sins which he had undertaken So as now even The sorrows of Hell compassed him about as David in another sense speaks of himself Psal 18.8 This Cup did he drink upon the Crosse a Cup of divine wrath Which he had before tasted of even here in the Garden Where we find him in a strange and unparrallelled agonie sweating as it were drops of bloud falling to the ground as before we heard And what could it be that should thus affect his Body but the anguish of his soul then conflicting with the apprehension of that wrath which he was now to feele the wrath of God due unto sinners in whose room he was now to stand as a surety and Redeemer Thus were these waters even come into his soul as David in a different sense speaks it of himself Psal 69.1 And that as I said in an Immediate way Hence is it that he complaines unto his Disciples that his soul was exceeding sorrowfull Matth. 26.38 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beset and surrounded with grief and anguish And St Mark reporting the same story tels us that he began to be sore amaz'd and very heavy Mark 14.33 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Expavescere gravissime angâ— to be in great horrour and anguish Now what could it be that should thus affect him surely not barely the apprehension of those Corporall punishments which he was to suffer This were a thing very dishonourable to imagine that whereas many of the Martyrs have gone triumphing to the stake or gibbet going singing to the induring of far greater torments more cruell deaths then this was that he who was their Leader the Captain of their salvation should fall so far below them in resolution and courage as thus to tremble at the thought of his Crosse Surely there was somewhat more in this Cup which made it so bitter to him And what should that be But his suffering in soul And yet see how having recollected his spirits he here submitteth to the drinking of this Cup the suffering whatever his Father should please to inflict upon him The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it And thus are Gods Children to submit to the will of their heavenly Father if he shall call them to the tasting of this Cup. The tasting of it I say As for the drinking it off that they never shall Christ having drunk off this Cup hath freed those who are his from drinking in the like way that he did They being justified by his bloud shall be saved from wrath through him Rom. 5.9 This Cup is reserved for wicked and ungodly men who being Children of disobedience are also Children of wrath as the Apostle calls them Ephes 2.23 having wrath for their Portion The wrath of God commeth upon the Children of disobedience Eph. 5.6 This shall be the portion of their Cup which they shall drink and drink it off even wringing out the dregs thereof But so shall not those that are Christs They being Gods Children and Children by Grace the Grace of Adoption they are freed and delivered from wrath Yet not so but that they also may taste of this Cup which sometimes some of them doe Even the best of Saints being subject to spirituall desertions soul sufferings wherein God hiding his face with-holding from them the sweet sense and feeling of his love and favour writes bitter things against them setting their sins in order before them and letting some drops of his wrath as it were fall upon their souls filling them with inward horrour and terrour A bitter Cup of all Cups the bitterest of all tryals the sharpest There being two things principally which make it so 1. Because it seizeth immediately upon the soul Suffering in soul the greatest suffering upon the spirit Those wounds in the body which come nearest the heart are looked upon as most deadly Reas 1 And so is it with those sufferings which come nearest the soul It seizeth upon the spirit The Sword reacheth unto the Soul saith Jeremy Jer. 4.10 It is bitter because it reacheth unto thine heart saith the 18. v. there explaining the former And so doth this Tryall it seizeth upon the soul and that immediately As Hectick Feavers and some other diseases in the body which seize more immediately upon
must needs reflect upon their profession What doth the Christian profess which he doth to look upon this World as a troublesome and tempestuous Sea and upon Heaven as his harbour which he is continually bending his course to and shall he yet be unwilling to leave the one and put in for the other when providence cals him to it Such practise doth not answer the Christians Profession 2. A disparagement to Gods Religion Neither is it a small disparagement to Gods Religion What shall Pagans and Heathens who have nothing but false principles to ground their resolution upon viz. that there is no life after death or some airye fances as that by dying in an honourable cause for their Country or the like they shall merit eternall honour to themselves so living when they are dead or some vain dreames such as those Poeticall fictions of the Elysian fields or of Mahomets Paradise an imaginary happiness after death shall these I say upon such grounds be able to incounter this Enemy to look death in the face nay to make a mock and a scorn of it as some of them have done And shall Christians tremble at the thoughts of it What a dishonour is this to Gods Religion As also unto Jesus Christ the Captain of their salvation whose Souldiers they professe themselves to be Which taking notice of let all those who professe themselves the Disciples of Christ labour to work their hearts to such a well grounded Resolution that they may be not unwilling to lay down their body and yeild up their Soules when God shall call for them Q I but you will say how shall a Christian attain hereunto Q. How shall a Christian attain hereunto It is a thing indeed to be much desired that the heart might be thus setled and stablished against the fear of death I but how shall it be brought to this frame this temper thus to look this last enemy in the face with such an unapalled countenance thus to drink this bitter Cup as our blessed Saviour here did with such Resolution such Willingnesse A. A point of great importance A. being of a general an universal concernment Helps prescribâ—d well worthy of my paines in speaking and your attention in hearing Were it so that the heart of a Christian were once brought to such a frame that he might stand upon such tearms with death as not to be afraid of it how happy should he be both in life and in death Life would be sweet to him and death would not be bitter To help you therefore and my self therein give me leave to present unto you some brief directions which may be usefull in this way Of these we may meet with many there being no one there more copious then this I shall only gleane as Ruth is said to have done among the sheaves which others have gathered taking up some of those handfuls which they have let fall selecting some which are obvious and usefull These for the help of your memories I shall as in the former point reduce to those two heads of Contemplation By way of contemplation and Practise and Practise Begin with the former 1. Contemplation Where we shall find many useful truths Contemplations which being wrought upon the heart Seriously pondered and considered may serve as so many Antidotes for the preventing or expelling of that slavish and inordinate fear which hinders this resolution Of these some are Morall others Divine 1. Morall Morall or Naturall Considerations such as Sense and Reason hold forth Of this kind are those two obvious ones touching the Commonness of death and the Inevitablenesse of it 1. The Commonnesse of it This is a Common Cup which all our Fore-Fathers have drunk of Death a common Cup. A suffering which daily experience tels us that all sorts and conditions of persons are alike subject unto Be they young or old rich or poore Prince or Peasant Wise or simple How dieth the Wiseman Even as the fool Eccle. 2.16 In this no difference Do not all go to one place Eccles 6.6 And shal we see such crouds going before us and yet be afraid to follow after them Have those who have been before us gone off from the stage of this world to make room for us And shall we be unwilling to do the like for those that are to come after us 2. The Inevitablenesse unavoidablenesse of it Al must drink of it As this is a common Cup so all must drink it As all sorts so all individuals every particular person What man is he that liveth and shall not see death and shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of the grave Psa 89.48 I know that thou wilt bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living Job 30.23 Now as the Moralist reasoneth Stultum est timere quod vitari non potest A vain and foolish thing it is to fear what we cannot shun Whereunto may be added two other of the like kind viz. The Vanity and Misery of Life 3. The Vanity of this life there being nothing upon earth that can give any true contentment to the Soul Vanity of Vanities saith the Preacher The Vanity of life Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity that is the Tekel which the wisest of men out of his own experience sets upon the world and all things in it Eccl. 1.2 He had tryed all things as he there telleth us what ever might promise any contentment but he could never find what he sought for But the contrary So he informs us verse 14. I have seen all the works that are done under the Sun and behold all is vanity and vexation of Spirit Not only not giving any true contentment but creating a great deal of trouble and disquietment to the Soul which is inordinately addicted to them or afflicted with them So as there is nothing which this life affords which being weighed in a right ballance should make a man so in love with it as not to be willing to part with it 4. Nay there is enough in it to wean the soul from it The misery of it viz. the misery of it This Job renders as a Reason why he himself was not desirous to live but rather to dye I am made saith he to possesse months of Vanity and wearisome nights are appointed to me Job 7.3 He found not only no delight and contentment in his condition but a great deal of trouble and misery which made him even weary of his life And the like troubles in some kind or other are all men here subject to Man is born to trouble as the sparks flye upward saith Eliphaz Job 5.7 Man that is born of a woman is of few dayes and full of trouble saith Job Job 14.1 Few and evill have the dayes of the years of my life been saith the Patriarch Jacob Gen. 47.9 Few in comparison with many of his fore-fathers and evill in regard of the manifold
crosses which he met with And the like more or less must every one make account to meet with upon earth even a succession of troubles like waves of the Sea where depth calleth unto deep one Crosse following upon the neck of another So as the more daies the more sorrows All which serve to wean the heart from this world as the infant is from the brest by laying bitter things upon it 2. Divine But I shall not any longer insist upon these or any other Arguments of the like nature The Resolution of a Christian must be built upon better grounds then these If God shall please to open the eyes of a naturall man to see death as it is it is not any or all of these or whatever other Arguments Reason can suggest that will bear up the soul against the terrors of it They must be Cordials of a higher extraction that will strengthen the heart in this last conflict divine Considerations such as the word holdeth forth Of these take a few among many 1. In the First place Look upon God who hath appointed and determined Let our eye be upon God our Father whose Cup this is So was our Saviours here The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it And so must theirs who would drink this Cup as he did submit unto the stroke of death patiently and willingly they must see God in the ordering and disposing of it looking upon it as his appointment Which it is he having 1. Appointed that men shall die It is appointed to men once to die Heb. 9.27 Appointed viz. That men shall dye by God who as he is the Lord of life so he is the appointer of death Having passed a generall law for it Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Gen. 3. Which Law also he executeth upon particular persons bringing them to death I know that thou wilt bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living Job 30 23. So it is however secondary Causes concur in bringing men to their Graves yet God himself hath the principall stroke in it Death being his Messenger sent by him He hath appointed that men shall dye Which taking notice of look we upon it as our duty to submit hereunto when he calleth us to it 2. As he hath appointed that men shall dye so when they shall dye The time when Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth viz. how long he shall-live Job 7.1 His dayes are determined the number of his Moneths are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot passe Job 14.5 So certain are Gods decrees concerning the time of mans life that he cannot go beyond the term limited the Year the Moneth the Day the Hour set down Father the hour is come saith our Saviour speaking of the time appointed for his suffering of death Joh. 17.1 3. As the time so the place As the time when so the place where The place where that is also determined by God Goe up into Mount Nebo and die there saith the Lord to Moses Deut. 32.50 Our Saviour must goe up to Jerusalem and there suffer many things and be killed so he tells his Disciples Matth. 16.21 4. And appointing the time and place he also appointeth the manner The manner how how men shall dye what kinde of death whether naturall or violent So it was determined concerning our Saviour that he should die upon the Crosse be crucified which he acquaints his Disciples with Math. 20.19 And so concerning Peter to whom our Saviour foretells by what death he should glorifie God Joh. 21.19 And so is it determined concerning every of the sons of men as when and where so how they shall dye None of these are left to Chance and Fortune Time place manner all appointed by God Which being seriously considered and believed it will be of great use to bring the heart to a quiet and willing submission to the will of God in suffering what he hath so appointed Thus look at God In the Second place look we upon Jesus Christ Look upon Jesus the Captain of our Salvation as the Apostle calleth him Heb. 2.10 Where behold we him 1. Drinking of this Cup before us Suffering death And shall not we then pledge him Shall the Captain goe before and shall not the Souldiers follow after Malus miles qui Imperatorem gemens sequitur He is but an ill Souldier that weeps when he is to march after his Generall Shall our Joshua go before us over this Jordan and shall not we go after him It was a good Resolution in that man that Scribe had he held to it who said to our Saviour Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest Mat. 8.19 Such should be the Resolution of every Christian to follow Christ when he cals him to go after him though it be to Mount Calvary or Golgotha the place of a skull as both those words signifie and the latter of them is expounded Joh. 19 17. and Mat. 27.33 the Caemeterie or Church-yard as we call it 2. And whilest we behold him suffering of death behold we also the issues of this his suffering Conquering it as St James saith of Job Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord Jam. 5.11 What Issue God was pleased to give him which was very joyfull and comfortable So here looking upon Christ submitting to his Father in suffering of death behold we the end of the Lord the issue of this his suffering which was victorious and glorious Victorious Even as David cut off the head of the Philistine with his own sword so did this our David by dying he conquered death which he manifested in his Resurrection Where he brake the bands of death rising again by his own power and so became the first born from the dead as the Apostle calleth him Col. 1.18 Now the first born openeth the womb for those that come after him And so hath Christ opened the grave for all true believers so as it shall be no more able to hold them then it was him Thus was the issue of this his conflict with this his last enemy victorious And as victorious so Glorious we see Jesus who was made a little lower then the Angels for or through 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour He. 2.9 In this way he entred into his glory Luk. 24.26 Through this dark entry he went into his heavenly palace And so shall they who do herein follow his steps being obedient as he was Obedient to the death 3. Look we upon death it self But here look upon it in Look upon death it self Not in the glass of the Lawe but gospell and through a right glass Not that of the Law but of the Gospell The glasse of the Lawe presents the face of it as ghastly and terrible holding it forth as a
Death free the Believer This gust shall blow away all those dark and gloomy Clouds which here intercepted the light of Gods countenance so as from thenceforth he shall never know what doubtings or fears mean but shall enjoy a constant Sunshine of Gods grace and favour to all Eternity Thus you see what evils Death freeth the Believer from Generally Universally from the sense and fear of all Evils both Temporall and Spirituall And thus freeing them from Evils Consid 2 it bringeth great Good to them The great good which Death brings the Believer to letting him into Paradise or them to it Letting them into Paradise This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise saith our dying Saviour to that penitent Thief Luk. 23.43 meaning the Celestial Paradise Heaven whereof the earthly Paradise was a Type and shadow so called from those transcendent pleasures delights and contentments which are there to be found Paul being caught up into this Paradise he heard as he tells his Corinthians unspeakable words such as himself could not utter 2 Cor. 12.4 And so shall the soul ascending thither see and enjoy unspeakable things such as the tongue of man cannot expresse Eye hath not seen ear hath not heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 What things are layed up in heaven for them And these shall Death let the regenerate soul into the possession of letting it into life Mors Janua Vitae Temporall death is the dore which letteth into everlasting life Of this Tree shall he eat who hath overcome this his last Enemy To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2.7 to partake of eternall life of those everlasting Joyes to which Death is the Entry Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord saith the Master having reckoned with his good and faithfull servant Matth. 25.23 Thus doth Christ reckon with all his servants at the day of death then giving to them according to their works This is the Evening wherein those who have laboured in his vineyard shall every one receive their Penny Matth. 20.9 The reward of all the service which here they have done unto him a superabundant recompense infinitely exceeding whatever they have deserved Even that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that eternall weight of glory as the Apostle calleth it 2 Cor. 4.17 Then shall the Crown be set upon the heads of all Gods Saints I have finished my course saith St Paul henceforth is layed up for me the Crown of righteousnesse 2 Tim. 4.8 All true believers they are Kings while here upon earth made so by Christ who hath obtained that honour and dignity for them He hath made us Kings unto God and his Father Rev. 1.6 Spiritual Kings But they are as yet but Kings Elect heirs apparent to the Crown having a right to it but Crowned they cannot be til death Now what Prince would be unwilling to hear of his Coronation daies And such is the day of death to the true believer his Coronation day At which time being divested of his rags he shall have a Robe put upon him A white Robe He that overcommeth shall be cloathed in white rayment Rev. 3.4 Thus was Christ himself cloathed in his transfiguration on the Mount His rayment was white as the light Matth. 17.2 And so shall his Saints be cloathed after their departure hence having white rayment a garment of glory put upon them Then shall they be cloathed upon with that their house which is from Heaven when once they have laid down this earthly Tabernacle The consideration whereof made the blessed Apostle to groan so earnestly as he said he did 2 Cor. 5.1 2. desiring his dissolution upon that account Then shall they enter into their Glory So did our blessed Saviour by suffering of death he entred into his Glory Luk. 24.26 And so shall all they who follow his steps imitate his obedience death shall be to them Porta Gloriae The gate of glory letting in the soul to the beholding and injoying of that glory and happinesse which now cannot enter into it Letting it into the presence of God where it shall see him Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Matth. 5.8 And see him as he is as Saint John tels us 1 Joh. 3.2 Have a full sight of him see him after another manner then here it doth Now we see through a glasse darkly saith the Apostle but then face to face 1 Cor. 13.12 Now we see God only in the glass of his word and works which do but darkly represent him But after death believers shall have a clear and full view of him The beholding of God a beatifical vision Then shall their Faith be turned into Vision Which shall be to them as the Schools call it a truely Beatificall vision making the beholders happy Happy in as much as hereby they shall be transformed into the Image of God made like him we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is saith St John there 1 Joh. 3.2 This Believers in part are here upon earth Whilest they behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord they are changed into the same Image from glory to glory As the Apostle hath it 2 Cor. 3.18 Beholding God in the glass of his word thereby they come by degrees to be transformed into his Image to be made like him in holinesse But when they shall come to see him face to face then shall they be made perfectly like unto him Death brings the Soul to perfection so far as their finite natures are capable of partaking of his infinite perfections Then shal they be perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect Perfect with a perfection both of Grace and Glory 1. Of Grace Which is here imperfect Such is Knowledge and Love Of Grace and all other graces in the most sanctyfied soul But upon the dissolution of the Body the soul comming into the presence of God it shal attain a full perfection A perfection of Knowledge Now I know in part saith the Apostle but then I shall know even as I am known 1 Cor. 13.12 Of knowledg Many things there are which the most knowing men upon earth are ignorant of Many mysteries in Nature which by all their search they cannot find out the reason of Much more Celestiall Mysteries concerning God and Jesus Christ As the Trinity of Persons in the unity of Essence The Hypostaticall union of the two Natures The Godhead and Manhood in the person of Christ Mysteries too sublime for any of this side heaven to pry into so as to comprehend or yet apprehend them otherwise then by faith But these with whatever else may any waies conduce to the happinesse of the soul to know it shal have a clear knowledg of after death Seeing God as he is it shall
of life and the gain that would come thereby I am not unwilling with it But the bitternesse of it which I fear deters me from imbracing it And was not thy Saviours such A. was not his Cup a bitter Cup Christs death a bitter death his death a painfull yea a shamefull and accursed death And this he knew that it would be And yet behold him not unwilling to drink it to submit to it But as for thee thou knowest not what thy death may be Happily it may be easie and gentle However The paines of death misapprehended not so bitter as thou apprehendest it Few there be but indure more and greater paines in their life then they shall do at their death Neither is it properly death it self which is so painfull but the forerunners of it But suppose it bitter yet shall this deter thee from the drinking of this Cup which is so profitable unto thee I Obj 7 but I know not what conflicts I may there meet with Fear of soul Conflicts in death I must expect that Satan will be then busie And was it not so with thy Saviour The prince of this world commeth Answ The Case of our Saviour saith he foretelling his death Joh. 14.30 What conflicts had he as in the Garden here so upon the Crosse And did not the powers of Hell then surround and assault him Now is your hour and the power of darknesse saith he to the Jewes Luke 22.53 Repl I Repl. but he had strength to grapple with this Enemy and to overcome him He had strength which others want but my strength is weaknesse A. Be it so A. yet is not his power made perfect in weaknesse as the Apostle telleth thee 2 Cor. He is able â—o strengthen others 12.9 He that was able to bear up himself in these conflicts is he not able to do the like for thee Thou being his one of his members his Spirit is thine in thee and with thee and will be ready to succour and strengthen thee in this combate Remember what Paul said of himself When all forsook me the Lord stood by me and strengthened me 2 Tim. 4.17 He that prayed for Peter hath done the like for thee that thy faith shall not fail I Obj. 8 But I want Assurance assurance of Gods love and favour to me Want of assurance of Gods Love and favour how then can I willingly submit to death Not being assured how it standeth with me in reference to my future state and condition Of all arguments I confess this is the strongest A. But stil was it not so also with thy blessed Saviour The case of our Saviour in the Garden and upon the Cross Did not he in his Passion as also before it lye under a spiritual desertion God his Father for a time hiding his face from him and seeming to have forsaken him Yet in obedience to him he submits to what his will was And the like do thou However it standeth with thee as to Assurance yet acting thy faith trusting in the mercies of God through the merits of this thy Saviour shew thy self obedient to the will of thy heavenly father even obedient to the death But in the mean time labour for Assurance Directions by way of practise Let that be the first of those directions by way of Practise which having met with those Anticonsiderations opposing the former Motives I shall now come to propound unto you In the first place Dir. 1 I say that we may not fear death Labour for Assurance but be willing to submit thereunto when God shall give this Cup to us labour for Assurance 1. Assurance First that God is our Father This it was which sweetned this bitter Cup to our blessed Saviour here That God is our Father by Regeneration and Adoption that it was given him by his Father The Cup which my Father hath given me And this it was which made him so willing to set upon this journey to walk through the valley of the shadow of death because he was to go to his Father as he tels his Apostles Joh. 14.12 and elswhere O let every of us labour to make sure to our selves this blessed Relation that God is our Father And that as before was said not only by Creation which he is to all his Creatures but by Regeneration and Adoption that he hath begotten us again unto a lively Hope which St. Peter saith all true believers are 1 Pet. 1.3 and that he hath Adopted us into the dignity of his Children Both which we may rest assured of when we find our selves made partakers of that divine nature of which St. Peter speakes 2 Pet. 1.4 transformed into the Image of God made like unto him in those divine qualities of Holinesse and Righteousnesse wherein as the Apostle telleth us his Image doth chiefly consist Eph. 4.24 And made partakers of that Spirit of Adoption whereof the same Apostle speaketh Rom. 8.15 Whereby we cry Abba Father Owning God for our Father and that not in word only but in deed and in truth As by making our addresses unto him upon all occasions flying to him as Children to their Father so by yielding unto him all such respects as are due to a Father loving him as a Father fearing him as a Father honouring him as a Father trusting in him and depending upon him as a Father and in all things obeying him as a Father Being thus affected towards him now may we lay claim to this Relation being assured that God is our Father Which whilest we are what is it that should make us afraid of death Which is but our Fathers Messenger sent by him to bring us into his presence So our blessed Saviour looked upon it who speaking of his death cals it as you heard a going to his Father And may we but once come so to look upon it that death is our Fathers Messenger Not a Serjeant to arrest us at the suit of an offended God and to bring us before him as a severe Judg to be sentenced by him and to receive according to our demerits Such is death to all wicked and ungodly men and so no wonder if the apprehension of it be terrible unto them as the Officer is to the guilty Malefactor But a messenger our Fathers messenger such as Joab was to Absalom 2 Sam. 14. to bring us to our Fathers house into his presence to see him and to be with him to all eternity this would make it not unwelcome to us Every of us then labour to make this sure to our selves that we have such an interest in God that he is our Father 2. To which end labour to make sure our interest in Christ That Christ is our Saviour that he is our Saviour never resting till we have got him in our armes This when Simeon had done in a literall sense then he cryeth out Now Lord lettest thou thy servant depart in
peace Luk. 2.29 And the like do we in a spirituall sense receive we the Lord Jesus being held forth unto us in the promise of the Gospell and take hold upon him clasping and imbracing him in the armes of our faith receiving him as our Saviour and Lord. As our Saviour believing on him for the pardon and remission of all our sins As our Lord yielding up our selves to be guided and governed by him by his word and Spirit Which whilest we do now shall we have no just cause to fear this Enemy which is by this Captain of our Salvation conquered and disarmed so as now it cannot hurt any of those that are his O then let every of us make sure our interest in him Upon which depends all our hope and comfort both in life and death Christ being once ours now we may hear the Apostle telling us that all things are ours 1 Cor. 3.21 All things among which he reckons Life and Death with things present and things to come All ours so is Life even temporall life so as it shall be continued to us whilest it is expedient And so is Death which when it comes shall not be hurtful but advantagious and beneficial To me to live is Christ and to dye is gain Phil. 1.21 So are things present the concernments of this present life as Crosses so Comforts both serving for our good And things to come Eternal glory and happinesse Which whilest a Christian is assured of why should not he be as willing to dye as live 3. Only in the third place look out also for the seal of the Spirit Look out for the seal of the Spirit Thus are Assurances made among men by setting seals to writings to bonds and bils and other conveyances And such Assurance labour we for to get the promises sealed unto us and that by this seal the seal of the Spirit which the Apostle calleth the earnest of our inheritance Eph. 1.13 14. An earnest confirms the bargain and assures the payment of the whole summe And so doth the earnest of the Spirit as he elswhere calleth it 2 Cor. 1.22 the work of Regeneration and Sanctification begun in the soul this is as Gods seal which confirmeth his promises to his people and giveth them assurance of their heavenly inheritance Which being assured off what should make them unwilling to depart hence when God calleth for them Having now another house to receive them when they are turned out of this and that infinitely better as the Apostle telleth them 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building not made with hands eternal in the heavens Now what man would be unwilling to leave a poor ruinous Cottage which he holdeth only at the pleasure of the Land-lord being subject to be turned out of it every day when as he may have posession of a Royal palace whereof also he shal have the fee-simple estate And such is that heavenly house that celestial glory and happinesse which Christ having purchased for those that are his is gone before to take posession of and to prepare for them I go to prepare a place for you Joh. 14.2 it infinitely excelleth all earthly glory far more then the most princely palace doth the meanest cottage O labour we but to make sure this our Inheritance in that other world this will make us not unwilling to leave this Here is a first Direction Seek after Assurance that we have an interest in God and Jesus Christ and so a right to eternal life And being thus assured of Life Dir. 2 now Prepare for death Prepare for death by dying daily So did the blessed Apostle who tels his Corinthians that he dyed daily 1 Cor. 15.31 I protest by your rejoycing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord I dye daily Apprehending death continually hanging over his head he was daily preparing for it And the like do we that we may be willing to dye once when God calleth us to it dye daily Q. But how shall we do this A. Take the answer in three or four particulars 1. Dye daily to sin This the Apostle telleth us Christ once did for us To sin In that he dyed he dyed unto sin once Rom. 6.10 This he did not for himself for he knew no sin but for us for the expiating of our sins the taking away the guilt of them And what he did once doe we daily daily dye to sin for the taking away the power of it in our selves A work which will not be done at once as that of our Saviour was True the Apostle speaking of believers saith they are dead to sin Rom. 6.2.11 in as much as they are not now under the power of it as sometimes they were But this is but an imperfect work not done at once Though sin hath received its mortal wound in them yet it is stil alive Though they be dead to it yet it liveth in them And therefore they must make this their daily their continual work to be dying to it mortifying the body of sin that it may dye before them The life of sin is the life of death So long as a man liveth in any one sin he will never be willing to dye And therefore set we upon the mortification of all our sinful Lusts Specially our beloved Lusts those which have been most near and dear to us most strong and prevalent in us Never resting until we find our hearts brought to an utter abhorrence and detestation of them and of all other sinful waies and courses so as we can say with the Psalmist that we hate every false way Psa 119.104 Thus Sin being dead death will not be so terrible As we get ground of the one we shal get strength against the other Secondly Dye daily to the world To the world So did the Apostle who telleth us of himself that he was crucified to the world and the world to him Gal. 6.14 He had as little affection to the world as the world had to him he was dead to that and that to him And it is the counsel which he giveth to others 1 Cor. 7.31 that they should so use this world as not abusing it Not doting upon any thing here below whether riches oâ— pleasures or honours Not setting the heart upon them If riches increase set not your hearts upon them Psal 62.10 And so for the rest Not being inordinately affected with any contentments which this world can afford but looking overly upon them so using them as if they used them not So run those foregoing directions of the Apostle there 1 Cor. 7.29 30. This I say brethren the time is short It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not And this let every of us strive to
do to bring and keep our hearts in such a temper as that we may not be inordinately affected with any thing here below whether Crosses or Comforts Not but that a Christian may be affected with both He may both Weep and Rejoyce and that upon the account of temporal concernments But see that it be not in an inordinate manner And so may he buy and sell seek and indeavour to get an estate in the world to purchase and possess houses and lands But take we heed we do not make them our chief possession It is a good distinction which Augustine maketh use of betwixt Vti and Frui Vsing and injoying Which let all of us learn that so we may not be guilty of what he chargeth as a great impiety viz. Vti fruendis or frui utendis only to make use of what we ought to injoy or to injoy what we ought only to make use of As only to make use of heaven and heavenly things by thinking or speaking of them sometime which we ought to make our injoyment or to make the things of this world our injoyment which we ought only to make use of and that so using them as if we used them not Thus labour we so take of our hearts that they may sit loose to the world Which till a man do he will never be willing to leave it Surely this is it which maketh the men of this world so unwilling to hear of death much more to see it their hearts are glewed and fastned to the world to the profits or pleasures or honours of it Some thing or other there is to which they are wedded And no wonder then that this Apparatour Death which brings to them a Bil of divorce should be so unwelcome a messenger Get we our hearts then weaned and taken of from all these so as we may leave this world before it leaveth us leave it in Affection before we leave it in Person Which having done death will not be unwelcome Q. But how shall we get our hearts thus weaned from the world Q. How to get the heart weaned from the world A. Briefly 1. By a serious consideration of the vanity of it even all things upon earth The mutability uncertainty with the vacuity and emptinesse of them A. 1 Consider the vanity of earth how they are such things as a man can have to assurance of injoying them and whilest injoyed cannot afford any true contentment to the soul but oftimes breeding wormes in it cares and fears vexations and disquietments All which the wisest of men by his own experience found as he sets it forth at large in that his Book of Retractions Ecclesiastes 2. Consider the transcendency of those Riches The happinesse of heaven Honours and Pleasures which are to be found in that other world in Heaven Which being put into the ballance against these of this world doe infinitely outweigh them Those being as the Apostle calleth them Heb. 10.34 A better and an induring substance whereas these are only vain and vanishing shadows Look we rightly seriously and steadfastly upon the one our eies will be so dazled with the splendor and brightnesse of them that they will never after be much taken with the glimmering of the other 3. Have no unnecessary society or familiarity with the men of this world the worlds minions and Favourites men who mind nothing but earthly things But associate and acquaint our selves with such as are in their affections got above the earth and have learned to contemn and make light of all things in it 4. Single out the particulars which our hearts are most taken with and fastest linked to and make it our daily work to wean our soules from them But I hasten towards a conclusion Thus dye to the world daily And thirdly Dye daily as to the Death of nature Which do we Dye daily the death of nature 1. By inuring our selves to a quiet and patient bearing and suffering of lighter afflictions and Crosses Submitting to lesser Crosses which are as petty deaths Every of which is a kind of petty death all of them deaths retinue forerunners of it and making way for it Now inure we our selves to a quiet submission to the will of God in drinking of these lesser Cups in suffering of these lesser tryals with patience and holy contentation this will make us the more ready and willing to submit to this last stroak when it cometh to suffer death it self The new Cart in the Fable which never bare any burden before it made a noise at the first load whereas the old one having been accustomed thereunto was silent The soul which never inurd it self to bear the Crosse to suffer lighter Afflictions with patience in obedience to God will hardly be brought quietly to submit to his will in this last act It is good saith the Church for a man that he bare the yoke in his youth he sitteth alone and keepeth silence because he hath born it upon him Lam. 3.27 By being inured to the patient bearing of lighter afflictions he quietly submits to greater when they come and so to death it self 2. Seriously and frequently meditate of death And Secondly often acting this part with our selves in private before we come to do it upon the publike stage Dying daily by a frequent and serious meditation of death Setting it continually before our eyes often thinking of our latter end Which is a great piece of true Christian wisdome O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end saith the Lord of his people Israel Deut. 32.29 Consider that we must dye And here do not put far off from us this evil day Do not look upon death as they do who look through the Optick glass at the wrong end whereby things near at hand seem at a great distance from them Do not thus look upon death as a thing afar of but near hand A practise of great use as to other ends so to make death familiar and consepuently not so dreadful It is the forgetfulnesse of death saith one that maketh life sinful and death terrible And therefore as he had his deaths head every meal set upon his Table and the guize of mourners is to wear them in their rings so do we often set death before us frequently and seriously thinking of it And looking upon it as near hand so living every day as if it were our last day Continually standing upon our gard waiting all the dayes of our appointed time till our change shall come as Job saith he would doe Job 14.14 By this meanes having been made account of and looked for before it comes it will not be so terrible when it cometh Thus prepare for death by dying daily And then in the third place work while our day lasteth Dir. 3 Work whilest our day lasteth So did our blessed Saviour I must work the works of him that sent me while
it is day Joh. 9.4 And the like do we whilest the day of life lasteth be we working the works of God that so we may have finished our work before the night of death cometh The labourer having wrought hard in the day and finished his work this maketh the night welcome to him and his rest sweet and comfortable And so will the night of death be to the soul that hath been working for God it will now be to it a quiet rest This made our blessed Saviour so willing now to dye he had finished his Fathers work I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do Joh. 17.4 And this made the Apostle so confident as not to fear his departure when he apprehended it at hand I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith 2 Tim 4.7 He had been faithful to his Lord and Mâ—ster in doing the work which he had committed unto him And thence he concludes that he should now receive his Crown that Crown of righteousnesse as he there cals it an ample reward which the righteous God would give him for all his service Whereupon he is not unwilling to think of his departure O that every of us may indeavour thus to approve our selves to God and Jesus Christ thus to work his work whilest our day lasteth Then when the evening of death cometh we shall be sure to have our Peny Which being assured of it will make us not unwilling to go to receive it 4. Be frequent in casting up our accounts Dir. 4 Be frequent in casting up our accounts betwixt God and our souls The day of death is the reckoning day wherein every one must give up his account unto God Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou mayest be no longer Steward saith the Master ' in the parable to his Servant Luk. 16.2 In this life we are all Gods Stewards being betrusted by him with many Talents which we are to improve for him And hereof at the day of death we must give an account to him O that the thought of that day may not be terible to us make up our account aforehand And this do we often They who are frequent in casting up their accounts are not unwilling to be called to a general reckoning which they who have bin remiss careless herein would be Surely this is one thing which maketh men so unwilling to hear of death when it cometh they have then all their accounts to cast up Take heed it be not so with us Be we strict and constant observers of our own hearts and lives Often calling our selves to an account making it our daily work Every night reflecting upon the day past call we to mind according to that trite direction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. wherein we have transgressed what evil we have committed what good we have done or left undone So making even betwixt God and our souls by suing forth our discharge in the name and upon the account of Jesus Christ This exercise being conscientiously performed it will be of speciall use to make this great reckoning day not unwelcome to us when it shall come 5. Dir. 5 That we may not be unwilling to depart hence Lay up a stock in heaven and to leave this world send somewhat afore us into that other world Laying up a stock in heaven 1. A stock for our selves That is our Saviours counsel For our selves a flock of good works Matth. 6.2 Laye up for your selves treasures in Heaven This do we by doing of good works as works of Piety so of Charity Sell that you have and give almes provide for your selves bags which wax not old a treasure in the heavens that faileth not saith that parallel Text Luk. 12 33. A man that hath his chief estate in another Country which he hath made over by bils of exchange or put into the banck there he will not be unwilling upon a just occasion to follow it Now such are acts of charity and mercy being done for Gods sake they are as so many bils of exchange made over for heaven a stock put into the banck where he who hath so put it out shal at his coming thither receive it again with abundant increase He that hath pity on the poor lendeth to the Lord and that which he hath given he will pay him again Prov. 19.17 O that rich men to whom God hath given abundance of this worlds goods and whose care it is to make the best improvement of what they have would but take this Course thus to make themselves friends of their Mammon as our Saviour adviseth them Luk. 16.9 that so when they fail when they dye they may receive them into everlasting habitations This would make them not so unwilling to dye as for the most part they are and that upon this account because they must leave what they have in this world and have no stock layed up in another 2. For others a stock of prayers And thus laying up a stock in heaven for our selves do the like also for others laying up a Stock a Stock of prayer for them Which whilest we do for all Gods people whom we leave behind us do it in a special manner for our near and dear Relations So did our heavenly pattern here The Lord Jesus whom in the Chapter before the text we find upon his knees putting up a devout prayer unto God his Father as for his Church in general so for his Apostles in speciall I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me Joh. 17.9 And the like let them do who are to leave near and dear Relations behind them Wives Husbands Children kinred friends lay up a stock of prayers for them in Heaven whereof they may reap the benefit when themselves have left them This will make them the lesse unwilling to leave those whom they have thus provided for In the sixth place Dir. 6 having thus laid up our best treasure in heaven Set the house in order now set we our houses in order upon earth That is the Counsel and charge which the Lord giveth to Hezekiah when he sent him those tidings that he must dye he bids him set his house in order Isai 38.2 Set thine house in order for thou must dye and not live A thing of great use as in reference to the living who shal be left behind so also to him who is to depart hence who having thus setled his temporal concernments in this world will be more ready for his removal into another when God shall call him to it And therefore let not this be neglected by those who have ought to dispose of Let them be careful to make their Wills and Testaments before hand So also did this our heavenly pattern the Lord Jesus who at his last Supper having ordered other things before he then finished his Will and Testament setting his Seal to it Of such use was that Sacrament then and there instituted the Sacrament of the Lords Supper being as a seal set by Christ to his Testament for the confirming of all his former grants and assuring of whatever he had promised Now what he did as to Spirituals let those who would be ready to dye when God will have them doe as to Temporals Setling them aforehand Not putting off this work as too many do to the death bed which as it is attended with many other inconveniences so it often proves no small disquietment to the spirit of the dying person making him loath to leave this world in so unsetled a condition as through this his former neglect in reference to his own relations and concernments he is like to do Set thy house in order Which being done Dir. 7 now in the last place to close up all what remains but to commit the Soul unto God Commit the soul to God Which that we may do quietly and comfortably in death as our blessed Saviour did who breathed out his Soul in those words Father into thy hands I commend my spirit Luk. 23.46 do we it before do it in Life So did David Psal 31.4 Into thy hands I commit my spirit So did the Apostle who making a confession of his faith to his Son Timothy 2 Tim 1.12 there tels him I know saith he whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day His precious soul this was his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Depositum that which he had committed to the custody of God and Jesus Christ And the like do we that we may be willing to depart hence as he was commit we our souls unto God aforehand Which do we first by Faith believing on him which the Apostle there saith he did casting our selves into the armes of his free grace and mercy through Jesus Christ Then by obedience committing the keeping of our souls unto him in well doing as unto a faithful Creatour as St. Peter exhorts 1 Pet. 4. last indevouring carefully and conscientiously to walk before him in all wel-pleasing all the daies of our life So doing now as we shall have comfort in life so when death cometh we shall have no cause to be afraid of it And thus have I now through a gracious assistance preached this doctrine unto you which I look upon as the hardest lesson in Christs school Now what remaineth but that we all beg it of our great Lord Master that he would so effectually teach it us that as occasion is we may practise what we have heard shewing our selves conformable to this our heavenly Pattern as in his Active so in his Passive Obedience being obedient to our heavenly Father as in doing so in suffering his Will even Obedient to death For which let us now pray FINIS