shall see the light no more Our ears shall hear the voice of man delightful sounds and melody no more we shall taste no more our meat or drink Our appetite is gone Our strength is gone Our natural warmth is turned into an earthly cold Our comeliness and beauty is turned into a ghastly loathsome deformity Our white and red doth soon turn into horrid blackness Our tender flesh hath lost its feeling and is become a senseless lump that feeleth not whether it is carried nor how it is used that must be hidden in the earth lest it annoy the living that quickly turns to loathsome putresaction and after that to common earth Were all the once-comely bodies that now are rotting in one Church-yard uncovered and here presented to your view the fight would tell you more effectually than my words do what an Enemy Death is to our Nature When corruption hath finished its work you see the earth that once was flesh you see the bones you see the skulls you see the holes where once were brains and eyes and mouth This change Death makes And that universally and unavoidably The Prince cannot resist it by his Majesty for he hath sinned against the highest Majesty The strong cannot resist it by their strength For it is the Messenger of the Almighty The Commanders must obey it The Conquerours must be conquered by it The Rich cannot bribe it The Learned Orator cannot perswade it to pass him by The skilful Physician cannot save himself from the mortal stroke Neither fields nor gardens earth or sea affordeth any medicine to prevent it All have sinned and all must die Dust we are and to dust we must return Gen. 3. 19. And thus should we remain if the Lord of Life should not revive us 2. And it is not only to the Body but to the Soul also that Death is naturally an Enemy The Soul hath naturally a Love and Inclination to its Body and therefore it feareth a Separation before and desireth a Restauration afterward Abstracting Joy and Torment Heaven and Hell in our consideration the state of Separation as such is a natural evil even to the humane Soul of Christ it was so while his Body remained in the grave which separated state is the Hades that our English calleth Hell that Christ is said to have gone into And though the Soul of Christ and the souls of those that die in him do passe into a far more happy state than they had in flesh yet that is accidentally from Rewarding Justice and the Bounty of the Lord and not at all from Death as Death the separation as such is still an evil And therefore the Soul is still desirous of the Bodies Resurrection and knoweth that its felicity will then be greater when the re-union and glorification hath perfected the whole man So that Death as Death is unwelcome to the soul it self though Death as accidentally gainful may be desired 3. And to the unpardoned unrenewed soul Death is the passage to everlasting misery and in this regard is far more terrible than in all that hitherto hath been spoken Oh could the guilty soul be sure that there is no Justice to to take hold on it after death and no more pain and sorrow to be felt but that man dieth as a beast that hath no more to feel or lose then Death would seem a tolerable evil But it s the living Death the dying Life the endless woe to which death leads the guilty soul that makes it to be unspeakably terrible The utter darkness the unquenchable fire the worm that dieth not the everlasting flames of the wrath of God these are the chief horrour and sting of death to the ungodly O were it but to be turned into Trees or Stones or Earth or nothing it were nothing in comparison of this But I pass by this because it is not directly intended in my Text. 4. The Saints themselves being sanctified but in part are but imperfectly assured of their Salvation And therefore in that measure as they remain in doubt or unassured Death may be a double terror to them They believe the threatenings and know more than unbelievers do what an â—sufferable 〈◊〉 it is to be deprived of the celestial glory and what an unspeakable misery it is to bear the endless wrath of God! And therefore so far as they have such fears it must needs make death a terrour to them 5. But if there were nothing but Death it self to be our Enemy foreknowledge of it would increase the misery A Beast that knoweth not that he must die is not tormented with the fears of death though nature hath possessed them with a self preserving fear for the avoiding of an invading evil But man foreknoweth that he must die He hath still occasion to anticipate his terrors that which will be and certainly and shortly will be is in a manner as if it were already And therefore fore-knowledge makes us as if we were alway dying We see our Graves our weeping Friends our sore-described corruption and dismal state and so our life is a continual Death And thus Death is an enemy to Nature 2. But this is not all nor the greatest Enmity that Death hath to the godly It is a lamentable hinderance to the work of Grace as I shall shew you next in ten particulars 1â— The fears of Death do much abate our Desires after God as he is to be enjoyed by the separated soul Though every believing holy soul do love God above all and take Heaven for his home and therefore sincerely longeth after it yet when we know that Death stands in the way and that there is no coming thither but through this dreadful narrow passage this stoppeth and lamentably dulleth our desires And so the Natural Enmity turneth to a Spiritual sorer enmity For let a man be never so much a Saint be will be still a Man and therefore as Death will still be death so nature will still be nature And therefore death as death will be abhorred And we are such timerous sluggards that we are easily discouraged by this Lyon in the way The ugly Pâ—â—er affrighted us from those grateful thougâ—â— of the New Jerusalem the City of God the heavenly Inheritance which otherwise the blessed object would produce Our sanctified affections would be mounting upwards and holy Love would be working towards its blessed object but Death standing in the way suppresseth our desires and turns us back and frighteneth us from our Fathers presence We look up to Christ and the Holy City as to a precious Pearl in the bottom of the Sea or as to a dear and faithful Friend that is beyond some dreadful gulf Fain we would enjoy him but we dare not venture we fear this dismal enemy in the way He that can recover his health by a pleasant medicine doth take it without any great reluctancy But if a Leg or an Arm must be out off or a stone cut out by a painful
dangerous Incision what a striving doth it cause between the contrary passions the love of life and the love of ease the fear of death and the fear of suffering Could we but come to Heaven as easily as innocent Adam might have done if he had conquered what wings would it add to our desires Might we be translated as Henoch or conveyed thither in the Chariot of Elâ—â—â— what Saint is there that would not long to see the face and glory of the Lord Were it but to go to the top of a Mountain and there see Christ with Moses and Elias in a glimpse of Glory as he did the three Disciples Who would not make haste and say It is good for us to be here Matth 17. 1 4 But to travel so chearfully with Abraham to the Mount of Moriah to sacrifice an only Son or with a Martyr to the flames is a harder task This is the principal enmity of death it deterreth our desires and thoughts from Heaven and maketh it a far harder matter to us to long after God than otherwise it would be Yea it causeth us to flie from him even when we truly love him And where Faith and Love do work so strongly as to overcome these fears yet do they meet with them as an enemy and must fight before they overcome 2. And as this Enemy dulleth our Desires so doth it consequently cool our Love as to the exercise and it hindereth our hope and much abateth the complacency and Joy that we should have in the believing thoughts of Heaven when we should be rejoycing in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5. 2. the face of death appearing to our thoughts is naturally an enemy to our joy When we think of the grave and of dissolution and corruption and of our long abode in the places of darkness of our contemned dust and scattered bones this damps our joyful thoughts of Heaven if supernatural grace do not make us Conquerours But if we might pass from Earth to Heaven as from one room to another what haste should we make in our desires How joyfully should we think and speak of Heaven Then we might live in the Joy of the Holy Ghost and easily delight our selves in God and Comfort would be our daily food 3. Moreover as our Natural Enemy doth thus occasion the abatement of Desire and Love and Joy so also of our Thankfulnesse for the Glory that is promised us God would have more praise from us if we had more pleasing joyful thoughts of our Inheritance We should magnifie him from day to day when we remember how we shall magnifie him for ever Our hearts would be turned into thankfulnesse and our tongues would be extolling our dear Redeemer and sounding forth his praise whom we must praise for ever if dreadful Death did not draw a veil to hide the heavenly glory from us 4. And thus the dismal face of Death doth hinder the heavenlinesse of our Conversation Our Thoughts will be diverted when our complacency and desire is abated Our minds be willinger to grow strange to Heaven when Death still mingleth terrour in our meditations Whereas if we could have come to God in the way that was first appointed us and could be cloathed with glory without being stript of our present cloathing by this terrible hand how familiarly should we then converse above How readily would our Thoughts run out to Christ Meditation of that glory would not be then so hard a work Our hearts would not be so backward to it as now they are 5. Faith is much hindered and Infidelity much advantaged by Death Look either to the state of soul or body and you will easily perceive the truth of this The state of a Soul incorporated we know by long experience what kind of apprehensions volitions and affections belong to a soul while it acteth in the Body we feel or understand But what manner of Knowledge Will or Love what Joy what sorrow belong to souls that are separated from the Bodies it is not possible for us now distinctly and formally to conceive And when men find themselves at a loss about the manner they are tempted to doubt of the thing it self The swarms of irreligious Infidels that have denied the Immortality and separated existence of the Soul are too full a proof of this And good men have been haunted with this horrible temptation Had there been no death we had not been liable to this dangerous assault The opinion of the sleeping of the soul till the Resurrection is but a step to flat Infidelity and both of them hence receive their life because a soul in flesh when it cannot conceive to its satisfaction of the being state or action of a separated soul is the easier drawn to question or deny it And in regard of the Body the difficulty and tryal is as great That a corps resolved into dust and perhaps first devoured by some other body and turned into its substance should be re-united to its soul and so become a glorified body is a point not easie for unsanctified nature to believe When Paul preached of the Resurrection to the learned Athenians some mocked and others turned off that discourse Acts 17. 32. It is no easier to believe the Resurrection of the Body than the Immortality or separated Existence of the Soul Most of the world even Heathens and Infidels do confess the latter but few of them comparatively believe the former And if sin had not let in Death upon our Nature thâ—â— perilous difficulty had been prevented Then we should not have been puzled with the thoughts of either a corrupted Body or a separated Soul 6. And consequently by all this already mentioned our Endeavors meet with a great impediment If Death weaken Faith Desire and Hope it must needs dull our Endeavors The deterred discouraged soul moves slowly in the way of life Whereas if Death were not in our way how chearfully should we run towards Heaven our thoughts of it would be still sweet and these would be a powerful Spring to action When the Will goes with full Sails the commanded faculty will the more easily follow We should long so earnestly to be in Heaven if Death were not in the way that nothing could easily stop us in our course How earnestly we should pray How seriously should we meditate and confer of Heaven and part with any thing to attain it But that which dulls our Desires of the End must needs be an Enemy to holy Diligence and dull us in the use of means 7. This Enemy also doth dangerously tempt us to fall in love with present things and to take up the miserable Portion of the worldling when it hath weakened faith and cooled our desires to the life to come we shall be tempted to think that its best take such pleasure as may here be had and feed on that where a sensual mind hath less discouragement Whereas if Death did not stand in the way and darken
penalty And if I grant as much of a natural disposition in the Body to a dissolution if not prevented by a Glorifying Change it will no whit advantage their impious cause But withall man was then so far Immortal as that he had a posse non mori a natural capacity of not dying and the mo ietur vel non morietur the actual event of Life or Death was laid by the Lord of Life and Death upon his obedience or disobedience And man having sinned Justice must be done and so we came under a non posse non mori an impossibility of escaping death ordinarily because of the peremptory sentence of our Judge But the day of our deliverance is at hand when we shall attain a non posse mori a certain consummate Immortality when the last Enemy Death shall be destroyed and how that is done I shall next enquire SECT II. YOu have seen the ugly face of Death you are next to see a little of the Love of our great Redeemer You have heard what sin hath done you are next to hear what Grace hath done and what it will do You have seen the strength of the Enemy you are now to take notice of the Victory of the Redeemer and see how he conquereth all this strength 1. The Beginning of the Conquest is in this world 2. The Perfection will not be till the day of Resurrection when this Last Enemy shall be destroyed 1. Meritoriously Death is conquered by Death The Death of sinners by the Mediators Death Not that he intended in his Meritorious work to save us from the stroke of death by a prevention but to deliver us from it after by a Resurrection For since by man came death by man also came the Resurrection from the dead 1 Cor. 15. 21. For as much as the children were partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part with them that he might destroy him through death that had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject unto bondage Heb. 2. 14 15. Satan as Gods Executioner and as the prosperous tempter is said to have had the power of death The fears of this dreadful Executioner are a continual bondage which we are liable to through all our lives till we perceive the deliverance which the Death of the Lord of Life hath purchased us 1. By Death Christ hath stisfied the Justice that was armed by sin against us 2. By Death he hath shewed us that Death is a tolerable Evil and to be yielded to in hope of following life 2. Actually he conquered Death by his Resurrection This was the day of Grace's triumph This day he shewed to Heaven to Hell and to earth that death was conquerable yea that his personal Death was actually overcome The blessed souls beheld it to their Joy beholding in the Resurrection of their Head a virtual Resurrection of their own Bodies The Devils saw it and therefore saw that they had no hopes of holding the Bodies of the Saints in the power of the grave The damned souls were acquainted with it and therefore knew that their sinful bodies must be restored to bear their part in suffering The Believing Saints on earth perceive it and therefore see that their bonds are broken and that to the righteous there is hope in death and that our Head being actually risen assureth us that we shall also Rise For if we believe that Jesus died and Rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him 1 Thes 4. 14. And as Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him So shall we Rsie and die no more This was the beginning of the Churches Triumph This is the day that the Lord hath made even the day which the Church on Earth must celebrate with joy and praise till the day of our Resurrection We will be glad and rejoyce therein Psal 118. 24. The Resurrection of our Lord hath 1. Assured us of the consummation of his satisfacttion 2. Of the truth of all his Word and so of his promises of our Resurrection 3. That Death is actually conquered and a Resurrection possible 4. That believers shall certainly Rise when their Head and Saviour is Risen to prepare them an everlasting Kingdome and to assure them that thus he will Raise them at the last A bare promise would not have been so strong a help to Faith as to the actual Rising of Christ as a pledge of the performance But now Christ is risen and become the first fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15. 20. For because he Liveth we shall live also John 14. 19. 3. The next degree of destruction to this Enemy was by the gift of his Justifying and Sanctifying Grace Four special benefits were then bestowed on us which are Antidotes against the Enmity of Death 1. One is the gift of saving Faith by which we look beyond the grave as far as to eternity And this doth most powerfully disable Death to terrifie and discourage us and raiseth us above our Natural fears and sheweth us though but in a glass the exceeding eternal weight of glory which churlish Death shall help us to So that when the eye of the unbeliever looketh no further than the grave believing souls can enter into Heaven and see their glorified Lord and thence fetch Love and Hope and Joy notwithstanding the terrours of interposing death The eye of Faith foreseeth the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time and causeth us therein greatly to rejoyce though now for a season if need be we are in heaviness through manifold temptations And so victorious is this Faith against all the storms that do assault us that the tryal of it though with fire doth but discover that â—t is much more precious than Gold that peâ—isheth and it shall be found unto praise and â—onour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ whom having never seen in the flesh we â—ove and though now we see him not yet believing we rejoyce with unspeakable glorious joy 1 Pet. 1. 5 6 7 8 9. and shall shortly receive the end of our Faith the Salvation of our Souls Thus Faith though it destroy not Death it self destroyeth the Malignity and enmity of DEATH while it seeth the hings that are beyond it and the time when â—eath shall be destroyed and the Life where death shall be no more Faith is like David's three mighty men that brake thorow the Host of the Philistines to fetch him the waters of Bethlehem for which he longed 2 Sam. 23. 15 16. When the thirsty soul saith O that â—ne would give me drink of the waters of Salvation Faith breaks thorow death which standeth in the way and fetcheth these living waters to the soul We may say of Death as it is said of the World 1 John 5. 4 5. Whatsoever is born of God overcometh
is left behind Must he therefore plead against his Physician and say It will not be done because he knoweth not how it s done We feel that here we have our sinful imperfections we have for all that a promise that we shall be with Christ when death hath made its separation and we are assured that no sin doth enter there And is not this enough for us to know But yet I see not why the difficulty of the Objection should trouble us at all Death doth remove us from this sinful flesh and admits the soul into the sight of God And in the very instant of its remove it must needs be perfected even by that remove and by the first appearance of his blessed face If you bring a candle into a dark room the access of the light expelleth the darkness at the same instant And you cannot say that they consist together one moment of time So cold is expelled by the approach of heat And thus when death hath opened the door and let us into the immortal light neither before nor after but in that instant all the darkness and sinful imperfections of our souls are dissipated Throw an empty Bottle into the Sea and the emptiness ceaseth by the filling of the water neither before nor after but in that instant If this should not satisfie any let it satisfie them that the Holy Ghost in the instant of death can perfect his work So that we need not assert a perfection on earth which on their grounds must be the case of all that will escape Hell and Purgatory nor yet any Purgatory-torments after death for the deliverance of the soul from the relicts of sin seeing at the instant of death by the spirit or by the deposition of the flesh or by the sight of God or by the sight of our glorified Redeemer or by all this work will be easily and infallibly accomplished 5. The last degree and perfect conquest will be at the Resurrection And this is the victory that is mentioned in my Text. All that is fore-mentioned doth abate the enmity and conquer death in some degree But the enmity and the enemy it self is conquered at the Resurrection and not till then And therefore Death is the last enemy to be destroyed The Body lyeth under the penal effects of sin till the the Resurrection And it is penal to the soul to be in a state of separation from the Body though it be a state of glory that its in with Christ For it is deprived of the fulness of glory which it shall attain at the Resurrection when the whole man shall be perfected and glorified together Then it is that the Mediators work will be accomplished and all things shall be restored All that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth John 5. 28. For this is the Fathers will that sent him that of all that he hath given him he should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day John 6. 39 40. We have hope towards God that there shall be a Resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust Acts 25. 15. As by man came death so by man came also the Resurrection from the dead 1 Cor. 15. 21. Then shall there be no more death nor sorrow nor crying nor pain Rev. 21. 4. No more diseases or fears of death or grave or of corruption No terrible enemy shall stand betwixt us and our Lord to frighten our hearts from looking towards him O what a birth-day will that be when Graves shall bring forth so many millions of sons for Glory How joyfully will the soul and body meet that were separated so long Then sin hath done its worst and can do no more Then Christ hath done all and hath no more to do as our Redeemer but to justifie us in judgement and give us possession of the joy that he is preparing And then he will deliver up the Kingdom to the Father If you expect now that I should give you resons why Death is the last Enemy to be destroyed though much might be said from the nature of the matter the Wisdom and will of God shall be to me instead of all other Reasons being the fountain and the summ of all He knows best the Order that is agreeable to his Works and Ends to his honour and to our good and therefore to his Wisdom we submit in the patient expectance of the accomplishment of his promises SECT III. Use 1. I Now come to shew you the Usefulness of this Doctrine the for further Information of our understandings the well ordering of our hearts and the reforming of our lives And first you may hence be easily resolved Whether Death be truly penal to the godly which some have been pleased to make a Controversie of late though I am past doubt but the hearts of those men do apprehend it as a punishment whose tongues and pens do plead for the contrary Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return was part of the sentence past on Adam and all his posterity which then proved it a punishment and it was not remitted to Adam that at the same time had the promise of a Redeemer nor is it remitted to any of us all Were it not for sin God would not inflict it who hath sworn that he takes no pleasure in the death of sinners And that he afflicts not willingly nor grieves the sons of men But my text it self decides the controversie Sin and punishment are the evils that Christ removeth And if death were no punishment as it is no sin how could it be an Enemy and the last enemy to be destroyed by the Redeemer When we feel the Enmity before described against our souls and also know its Enmity to our bodies we cannot think that God would do all this were it not for sin especially when we read that death passeth upon all for that all have sinned Rom. 5. 11 12. and that death is the wages of sin Rom. 6. 23. Though Christ do us good by it that proveth it not to be no punishment For castigatory punishments are purposely to do good to the chastised Indeed we may say O Death Where is thy sting because that the mortal evil to the Soul is taken out and because we foresee the Resurrection by faith when we shall have the victory by Christ But thence to conclude that Death hath no sting now to a believer is not only besides but against the text which telling us that the sting of death is sin and that the strength of sin is the Law doth inform us that Death could not kill us and be Death to us if sin gave it not a sting to do it with as sin could not oblige us to this punishment if the threatning of the Law were not its strength But Christ hath begun the Conquest and will finish it SECT IV. Use 2. FROM all this Enmity in Death we may see
what it is that sin hath done and consequently how vile and odious it is and how we should esteem and use it Sin hath not only forfeited our Happiness but laid those impediments in the way of our recovery which will find us work and cause our danger and sorrow while we live And Death is not the least of these impediments O foolish man that still will love such a mortal Enemy If another would rob them but of a groat or defame them or deprive them of any accommodation how easily can they hate them and how hardly are they reconciled to them But sin depriveth them of their lives and separates the soul and body asunder and forfeiteth their everlasting happiness and sets death betwixt them and the Glory that is purchased by Christ and yet they love it and will not leave it Though God have made them and do sustain them and provide for them and all their hope and help is in him they are not so easily drawn to love him And yet they can love the sin that would undo them Though Christ would deliver them and bring them to everlasting blessedness and hath assumed flesh and laid down his life to testifie his Love to them yet are they not easily brought to love him but the sin that made them enemies to God and hath brought them so near to everlasting misery this they can love that deserves no love A Minister or other friend that would draw them from their sin to God and help to save them they quarrel against as if he were their enemy but their foolish companions that can laugh and jest with them at the door of Hell and clap them on the back and drive away the care of their salvation and harden them against the fear of God these are the only acceptable men to them O Christians leave this folly to the world and do you judge of sin by its sad effects You feel if you have any feeling in you in some measure what it hath done against your Souls The weakness of your faith and love the distance of your hearts from God your doubts and troubles tell you that it is not your friend You must shortly know what it will do to your bodies As it keeps them in pain and weariness and weakness so it will ere long deliver them up to the jaws of death which will spare them no more then the beasts that perish Had it not been for sin we should have had no cause to fear a dissolution nor have we had any use for a coffin or a winding-sheet nor been beholden to a grave to hide our carkasses from the sight and smell of the living But as Henoch and Elias were translated when they had walked with God even so should we as those shall that are alive and remain at the coming of Christ shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall they ever be with the Lord 1 Thes 4. 17. Use sin therefore as it will use you Spare it not for it will not spare you It is your murderer and the murderer of the world Use it therefore as a Murderer should be used Kill it before it kills you and then though it kill your bodies it shall not be able to kill your souls and though it bring you to the grave as it did your Head it shall not be able to keep you there If the thoughts of death and the grave and rottenness be not pleasant to you let not the thoughts of sin be pleasant Hearken to every temptation to sin as you would hearken to a temptation to self-murder And as you would do if the Devil brought you a knife and tempted you to cut your throat with it so do when he offereth you the bait of sin You love not Death Love not the cause of Death Be ashamed to stand weeping over a buried friend and never to weep over a sinning or ungodly friend nor once to give them a compassionate earnest exhortation to save their Souls Is it nothing to be dead in sins and trespasses Ephes 2. 1 5. Col. 2. 13. Yea it is a worse Death than this that is the wages of sin and the fruit which it brings forth Rom. 6. 21 23. and 7. 5. Surely God would never thus use mens bodies and forsake them soul and body for ever if sin were not a most odious thing What a poyson is this that kills so many millions and damneth so many millions and cannot be cured but by the blood of Christ that killed our Physician that never tasted it because he came so near to us O unbelieving stupid souls that smart and sin and groan and sin and weep and lament our bodily sufferings and yet sin still that fear a grave and fear not sin that have heard and seen and felt so much of the sad effects and yet sin still Psal 78. 32. Alas that murderers should be so common and that we should be no wiser when we have paid so dear a price for wisdom SECT V. Use 3. FROM the Enmity of Death we may further learn that Man hath now a need of Grace for such exceeding difficulties which were not before him in his state of innocency Though Adam was able to have obeyed perfectly without sin and had Grace sufficient to have upheld him and conquered temptations if he had done his part which by that Grace he might have done yet whether that Grace was sufficient to the works that we are called to is a doubt that many have been much troubled with It is certain that he was able to have done any thing that was suitable to his present state if it were commanded him And it is certain that much that is now our duty would have been unsuitable to his state But whether it belonged to his perfection to be able and fit for such duties that were then unsuitable to him on supposition they had been suitable and duties this is the difficulty which some make use of to prove that such works cannot now be required of us without suitable help because we lost no such grace in Adam But this need not trouble us For 1 Though Adam was put on no such difficulty in particular as to encounter death yet the perfect obedience to the whole Law required a great degree of internal Habitual holiness and to determine the case Whether our particular difficulties or his sinless perfect obedience required greater strength and help is a matter of more difficulty then use For 2. It is but about the Degrees of Holiness in him and us and not about the Kind that the difficulty lyeth For it is the same End that he was created for and disposed to by Nature and that we are redeemed for and disposed to supernaturally But yet it is worthy our observation what a difficulty sin hath cast before us in the way of life which Adam was unacquainted with that so we may see the nature of our works
could not be so unwilling to be removed to it for no man is unwilling to be happy or to attain his end But stay a little and better consider of your Case Is it Christ that your heart is thus a verse to or is it only Death that standeth in the way You are not I hope unwilling to see the face of God nor unwilling to be translated from earth to heaven but unwilling to die It is not because you love the creature better then the Creator but because you are afraid of Death You may love God and long to be perfected in holiness and to see his Glory and to have the most near Communion with him and yet at the same time you may fear this Enemy that standeth in your way I mean not only the Pain of death but principally the dissolution of our natures and the separation of the soul from the body and its abode in a separated state and the bodies abode in dust and darkness Grace it self is not given us to reconcile us to corruption and make death as death to seem desirable but to cause us patiently to bear the evil because of the good that is beyond it It is not our duty to love death as death Had it not been naturally an evil to be dreaded and avoided God would not have made it the matter of his threatning nor would it have been a fit means to restrain men from transgression To threaten a man with a benefit as such is a contradiction Enquire therefore into your hearts whether there be not a belief of heaven a love to God a desire to enjoy and please him even while you draw back and seem to be a verse and whether it be not only a lothness to die and not a lothness to be with Christ For the fuller discovery of this because I find that our comfort much dependeth on it I shall try you by these following Questions Quest 1. What is it that is ungrateful to you in your meditations of your change Is it God and Heaven or is it Death If it be only Death it seems it is not the want of Love to God and Heaven that causeth your averseness If it be God himself that is ungrateful to your thoughts it is because you desire not his nearer presence or communion with him in the state of glory or is it only because you fear lest you have no interest in his Love and shall not attain the blessedness which you desire If it be the first I must confess it proves a graceless soul and signifieth the want of Love to God But if it be the latter only it may stand with grace For Desire is a true signification of Love though there be doubts and fears lest we shall miss the attainment of those desires Quest 2. Would you not gladly hear the news of your removal if you might be changed without Death and translated to heaven as Henoch and Elias were and as Christ at his Ascension Had you not far rather be thus changed then abide on earth If so then it seems it is not God and Heaven that you are against but death Nay if you could reach Heaven by travelling a thousand miles would you not gladly take the journey as soon as you had got assurance of your title to it and done the work of God on earth If it were but a Peter James and John to go with Christ into an exceeding high Mountain and there to see him in glory Mat. 17. 12. would you not gladly do it It seems that thou desirest to see the Lord and thy love is to him though thou be afraid of death Quest 3. Consider of the Nature of the Heavenly felicity and try whether thou love it in the several parts One part is our personal Perfection that oursouls shall be free from ignorance and error and sin and sorrow and enlarged for the perfect Love of God and our bodies at the Resurrection made like the glorious body of our Lord Phil. 3. 21. and wouldst thou not be thus perfected in soul and body Another part is that we shall live with the society of Angels and glorified Saints And wouldst thou not have such company of sinners and enemies and imperfect Saints on earth Another part is we shall see our glorified Head and be with him where he is that we may behold his glory And doth not thy heart desire this But the perfection of our Happiness is that we shall see the face of the glory of God which is the light of that world as truly as the Sun is the light of this and that we shall be filled up with the feeling of his Love and abound with Love to him again and perfectly delighted in this Communion of Love and express in the Praises of the LORD and thus make up the New Jerusalem where GOD will place his glorious presence and in which he will for evermore take pleasure And is there any thing in this that thy soul is against and which dost not value above this WORLD If thou find that all the parts are sweet and the Description of Heaven is most grateful to thee and that this is the state that thou wouldst be in it seems then it is not Heaven but Death that thou art averse from and that maketh thee so loth to hear the tydings of thy change Quest 4. Couldst thou not joyfully see the coming of Christ if it were this day if thou have done thy work and art assured of his love The Apostle hath told us by the word of the Lord that the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first and then they which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord 1 Thes 4. 15 16 17. And this is the doctrine that comforteth believers verse 18. Would it not rejoyce your hearts if you were sure to live to see the coming of the Lord and to see his glorious appearing and retinue If you were not to die but to be caught up thus to meet the Lord and to be changed immediately into an immortal incorruptible glorious state would you be averse to this would it not be the greatest joy that you could desire For my own part I must confess to you that death as death appeareth to me as an enemy and my nature doth abhor and fear it But the thoughts of the Coming of the Lord are most sweet and joyful to me so that if I were but sure that I should live to see it and that the Trumpet should sound and the dead should rise and the Lord appear before the period of my age it would be the joyfullest tydings to me in the world O that I might see his Kingdome come It is the Character of his Saints to love his appearing 2
was great upon the earth and if it prepared for that great destruction of the universal deluge Should men live now but to the age of three hundred or four hundred years I fear it would so tempt them to over-value the world and so embolden them to delay repentance that one would be as a Wolf to another and the weak but be a prey to the strong and wickedness would overwhelm the world despising the reins and bearing down Religious and Civil opposition But when we stand over the grave and see our friends laid in the dust how mortified do we seem how do we even shake the head at the folly of ambitious and covetous worldlings and are ashamed to think of fleshly lusts So far are men from owning their vanities when that silent teacher standeth by It is Death that helps to humble the proud and abate the arrogancy and obstinacy of the wicked and make them regard the messengers of Christ that before despised them and their message It is Death that allayeth the ebullition of destracting thoughts and passions and helpeth to bring men to themselves and fixeth giddy discomposed minds and helps to settle the light and the unsettled and to restrain the worst As we are beholden to the Gallows for our purses and our lives so are we to the grave and hell for much of the order that is in the world and our peace and freedom procured thereby But it is a greater good that it procureth to believers If you ask How is all this to be ascribed to Christ I answer many wayes 1. It is he that hath now the Keys or power of Death and Hell even he that liveth and was dead and that liveth for evermore Rev. 1. 18. and therefore is to be feared by the world 2. It is he that hath by his Blood and Covenant brought us the Hope of Everlasting life which is it that gives the efficacy to Death Without this men would be but desperate and think that it is better have a little pleasure than none at all and so would give up themselves to sin and desperately gratifie their flesh by all the wickedness they could devise 3. And it ls Christ that teacheth men the right use of Death by his holy Doctrine having brought life and immortality to light by his Gospel 4. And it is Christ that sendeth forth the holy Spirit which only doth so illuminate the mind and quicken and dispose the heart that Death may be savingly improved The poyson is our own but it is his skill and love that hath made a Soveraign Antidote of it And let our bodies dye so our sin may dye If the foresight of Death destroy our sin and further our sanctification and the hour of Death doth end our fears and enter us into the state of glory though we will love Death as Death never the better for this much less the sin that caused it yet must we admire the love of our Redeemer And it is not only the Peril but also the Terrous of Death that we are in part delivered from Though Christ himself was in a bloody sweat in his Agony before his death and cryed out on the Cross My God why hast thou forsaken me because he bore the sins of the world yet Death is welcome to many of his followers that drink of his cup and are baptized with his Baptism For they taste not of these dreggs which he drunk up and they are strengthned by his supporting grace He that doth comfort them against sin and Hell doth also comfort them against Death So great is the glory that he hath promised them and so great is his comforting confirming grace that dreadful Death is not great enough to prevail against them As it was too weak to conquer Christ so is it too weak to conquer his Spirit in his peoples souls Without Christ we could not live and we durst not die but through him we can do and suffer all things and can boldly pass through this dark and shady vail of death yea we can desire to depart and to be with Christ as best for us for to Live is Christ and to die is gain Phil. 1. 21 23. For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens And therefore sometimes we can earnestly groan desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven And we are alwayes confident knowing that whilest we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord and therefore labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him For we walk by faith and not by sight and it is God that hath wrought us for the self same thing who also hath given us the earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5. 1 to 10. Though we long not to dye yet we long to see the face of God And though we lay down our bodies with natural unwillingness yet we lay down our sin and sorrows with gladness and spiritual delight And though our hearts are ready to faint as Peter's when he walked to Christ upon the waters yet Christ puts forth his hand of love and soon recovereth us from our fear and danger Melancholy and Impatience may make men weary of their lives and rush upon Death with a false conceit that it will end their sorrows But this is not to conquer Death but to be conquered by a lesser evil and it is not an effect of fortitude but of an imbecillity and impotency of mind And if a Brutus a Cato or a Seneca be his own Executioner they do but chuse a lesser evil in their conceits even a Death which they accounted honourable before a more ignominious Death or a Life of shame and scorn and misery But the true believer is raised above the fears of Death by the love of God and the hopes of Glory and Death though ungrateful in it self is welcome to him as the way to his felicity Let Tyrants and Souldiers take it for their glory that they can take away mens lives that is they have the power of a Serpent or of Rats-bane as if it were their honour to be their Countries pestilence and a Ruler and a Dose of Poyson were things of equal strength and use But it is the Glory of Christ to enable his Disciples to conquer Death and bear the fury of the most cruel persecutors The Martyrs have been more joyful in their sufferings than the Judges that condemned them in their Pomp and Glory When we are pressed above strength and despair of life and have the sentence of Death in our selves we are then taught to trust in the Living God that raiseth the dead 2 Cor. 1. 8 9 10. the saints by faith have been tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection
they have had tryal of cruel mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword Heb. 11. 35 36 37. Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15. 57. They overcome by the blood of the Lamb and love not their lives unto the death Rev. 12. 11. They fear not them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do Luke 124. They trust upon his promise that hath said I will ransome them from the power of the grave I will redeem them from Death O Death I will be thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction Hos 13. 14. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the Death of his Saints Psal 116. 15. Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Rev. 14. 13. SECT IX Use 7. MOreover from the Enmity of Death we may be directed which way to bend our cares and seeing where our difficulty most lyeth we may see which way our most diligent preparations must be turned Death cannot be prevented but the malignant influence of it on our souls may be much abated If you let it work without an Antidote it will make you live like unbelieving worldlings It will deterr your hearts from Heaven and dull your love to God himself and make your meditations of him and of your Everlasting Rest to be seldom and ungrateful to you And it will make you say It s good to be here and have sweeter thoughts of this present life than of your inheritance It will rob you of much of your heavenly delights and fill you with slavish fears of Death and subject you unto bondage all your lives and make you dye with agony and horrour so that your lives and deaths will be dishonourable to your holy faith and to your Lord. If it were meerly our own suffering by fears and horrours or meerly our loss of spiritual delights the matter were great but not so great But it is more than this For when our joyes are overwhelmed with the fears of Death and turned into sorrows our love to God will be abated and we shall deny him the thanks and cheerful praises which should be much of the employment of our lives and we shall be much discomposed and unfitted for his service and shall much dishonour him in the world and shall strengthen our temptations to the overvaluing of earthly things Think it not therefore a small or an indifferent matter to fortifie your souls against these malignant fears of death Make this your daily care and work your peace your safety your innocency and usefulness and the honour of God do much lie on it And it is a work of such exceeding difficulty that it requireth the best of your skill and diligence and when all is done it must be the illuminating quickning beams of grace and the shining face of the Eternal Love that must dothe work though yet your diligence is necessary to attend the spirit and use the means in subservience to grace and in expectation of these oelestiall rayes And above all take heed lest you should think that carnall mirth or meer security and casting away the thoughts of Death will serve to overcome these fears or that it is enough that you resolve against them For it is your safety that must be lookt to as well as your present ease and peace and fear must be so overcome as that a greater misery may not follow Presumption and security will be of very short continuance To dye without fear and pass into into endless desperation which fear should have wakened you to prevent is no desirable kind of dying And besides resolving against the terrours of Death will not prevent them When Death draws near it will amaze you in despight of all your resolutions if you are not furnished with a better Antidote The more jocund you have been in carnal mirth and the more you have presumptuously slighted Death it is likely your horrour will be the greater when it comes And therefore see that you make a wise and safe preparation and that you groundedly and methodically cure these fears and not securely cast them away Though I have given you to this end some Directions in other writings in the Saints Rest and in the Treatise of Self-denyal and that of Crucifying the world yet I shall add here these following helps which faithfully observed and practised will much promote your victory over Death which conquereth all the strength of flesh and glory of this world DIRECTION I. IF you would overcome the danger and the fears of Death Make sure of your Conversion that it is sound and see that you be absolutely devoted unto God without Reserves Should you be deceived in your foundations your life and hopes and joyes would all be delusory things Till sin be mortified and your souls reconciled to God in Christ you are still in danger of worse than Death and it is but the senselesness of your dead condition that keepeth you from the terrours of damnation But if you are sure that you are quickened by renewing grace and possessed by the sanctifying spirit and made partakers of the Divine nature you have then the Earnest of your inheritance Ephes 1. 14. 2 Cor. 1. 22. 5. 5. and the fire is kindled in your breast that in despight of Death will mount you up to God DIRECTION II. TO Conquer the Enmity of Death you must live by faith in Jesus Christ as men that are emptied of themselves and ransomed from his hands that had the power of Death and as men that are redeemed from the curse and are now made heirs of the grace of life being made his members who is the Lord of Life even the second Adam who is a quickning spirit The serious believing study of his design and office to destroy sin and death and to bring many Sons to glory and also of his voluntary suffering and his obedience to the death of the Cross may raise us above the fears of Death When we live by faith as branches of this blessed Vine and are righteous with his righteousness justified by his blood and merits and sanctified by his Word and Spirit and find that we are united to him we may then be sure that Death cannot conquer us and nothing can take us out of his hands For our life being hid with Christ in God we know that we shall live because he liveth Col. 3. 3. Joh. 14. 19. and that when Christ who is our life appeareth we shall also appear with him in glory Col. 3. 4. And that he will change our vile bodies and make them like to his glorious body by his mighty power by which he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. 3. 20 21. In our own strength we
and live not in a wounded state The face of Death will waken conscience and cause it to speak much lowder than it did in health and in prosperity And then sin will seem another thing and wrath more terrible than it did in your security Conscience will do much to make your burden light or heavy If Conscience groundedly speak peace and all be sound and well at home Death will be less terrible the heart being fortified against its enmity But to have a pained body and a pained soul a dying body and a scorched Conscience that is afraid of everlasting Death this is a terrible case indeed Speedily therefore get rid of sin and get your Consciences throughly cleansed by sound repentance and the blood of Christ For so much sin as you bring to your death-bed so much bitterness will there be in Death Away then with that sin that Conscience tells you of and touch the forbidden fruit no more and kindle not the sparks of Hell in your souls to make the sting of Death more venemous As it will quiet a believing soul through Christ when he can say with Hezekiah Isa 38. 3. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight and it will be our rejoycing if we have the testimony of our Consciences that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world 2 Cor. 1. 12. So will it be most terrible to dye in the fears of unpardoned sin and to have Conscience scourging us with the remembrance of our folly when God is afflicting us and we have need of a well-composed mind to bear the troubles of our flesh A little from without is grievous when any thing is amiss within Get home therefore to Christ without delay and cease not till you have peace in him that Death may find your Consciences whole DIRECTION VI. REdeeming time is another means to prevent the hurtful fears of Death When we foreknow that it will shortly end our time let us make the best of time while we have it And then when we find that our work is done and that we did not loyter nor lose the time that God vouchsafed us the end of it will be less grievous to us A man that studieth his duty and spareth for no cost or pains and is as loath to lose an hours time as a covetous man is to lose an hundred pound will look back on his life and look before him to his Death with greater peace and less perplexity than another man But the thoughts of Death must needs be terrible to a man that hath trifled away his life and been an unthrift of his time To think when you must dye that now you are at your last day or hour and withall to think how many hours you vainly lost and that you knew not the worth of time till it was gone will make Death more bitter than now you can imagine What else is Deaah but the ending of our Time and what can be more necessary to a comfortable end then faithfully to use it while we have it DIRECTION VII ANother help against the Enmity of Death is the Crucifying of the flesh with its affections and lusts and the conquest of the world by the life of faith and crucifying it by the Cross of Christ and dying daily by the patient suffering of the Cross our selves When we are loose from all things under the Sun and there is nothing that entangleth our affections on earth a great part of the difficulty is then removed But Death will tear the heart that is glued to any thing in this world Possess therefore as if you possessed not and rejoyce as if you rejoyced not and use the world as not abusingit for the fashion of this world doth pass away 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. It is much for the sake of our flesh that must perish that Death doth seem so bitter to us If therefore we can throughly subdue the flesh and live above its pleasure and desires we shall the more easily bear its dissolution Shut up your senses then a little more and let your hearts grow stranger to this world and if you have known any persons relations accomodations after the flesh from henceforth know them so no more How terrible is Death to an earthly-minded man that had neglected his soul for a treasure here which must then be dissipated in a moment How easie is Death to a heavenly-mind that is throughly weaned from this world and taketh it but for his pilgrimage or passage unto life and it hath made it the business of his dayes to lay up for himself a treasure in Heaven He that hath unfeignedly made Heaven his end in the course of his life will most readily pass to it on the hardest terms For every man is willing to attain his end DIRECTION VI. IT will much help us against the enmity of Death to be duly conformed to the Image of God in the hatred of sin and love of holiness and in special in the point of Justice When we hate sin throughly and find it so incorporated into our flesh that they must live and dye together it will make Death the more easie to us because it will be the dath of sin even of that sin which we most hate and that God hateth and that hath cost us so dear as it hath done When we are in love with holiness and know that we shall never be perfect in it till after Death it will make Death the more welcome as the passage to our desired life When the Justice even the castigatory and vindictive Justice of God is more amiable in our eyes and we are not blinded by self-love to judge of God and of his wayes according to the interest of our flesh we shall then consent to his dissolving stroke and that see the bitterness of Death proceedeth from that which is good in God though from that which is evil in our selves Doubtless as Justice is one of the blessed Attributes of God so should it be amiable to man there being nothing in God but what is lovely It is the prevalency of self-love that makes men so insensible of the excellency of Divine Justice while they speak so respectfully of his mercy So far as men are carnal and selfish they cannot love that by which they smart or of which they are in danger But the soul that is got above it self and is united unto God in Christ and hath that Image of God which containeth the impress and effect of all his Attributes hath such an habit of impartial justice in himself and such a hatred of sin and such a desire that the honour of God should be vindicated and maintained and such an approbation of the Justice of God that he can the more easily consent or submit to the dissolving stroke of Death He hateth his own sin
as they Am I now in flesh in fears in griefs so was David and Paul and all the Saints a while ago yea and Christ himself Am I beset with sin and compassed with infirmities and racked by my own distempered passion so were the many saints now glorified but the other day Elias was a man subject saith James to like passions as we are James 5. 17. Am I maliced by dissenting adversaries Do they privily lay snares for me and watch my halting and seek advantage against my name and liberty and life so did they by David and many other now with Christ But now these enemies are overcome Art thou under pains and consuming sicknesses are thine eyes held waking and doth trouble and sorrow wast thy spirits doth thy flesh and thy heart fail thee and thy friends prove silly comforters to thee So was it with those thousands that are now in Heaven where the night of calamities is past and the just have dominion in the morning and glory hath banished all their griefs and joyes have made them forget their sorrows unless as the remembrance of them doth promote those joyes Are thy friends lamenting thee and grieved to see the signs of thy approaching death do they weep when they see thy pale face and consumed body and when they hear thy sighs and groans Why thus it was once with the millions that are now triumphing with their Lord They lay in sickness and underwent the pains and were lamented by their friends as as thou art now Even Christ himself was once in his agony and some shake the head at him and others pitied him who should rather have wept for themselves than for him This is but the passage from the womb of mortality into the life of immortality which all the Saints have past before thee that are now with Christ Dost thou fear the dreafdul face of death Must thy tender flesh be turned to rottenness and dust and must thou lie in darkness till the Resurrection and thy body remain as the Common earth And is not this the case of all those millions whose souls now see the face of Christ Did they not lie as thou dost and die as thou must and pass by death to the life which they have now attained O then commit thy soul to Christ and be quiet and comforted in his care and love Trust him as the Mid-wife of thy departing soul who will bring it safe into the light and life which thou are yet such a stranger to But it is not strange to him though it be strange to thee What was it that that rejoyced thee all thy life in thy prayers and sufferings and labours was it not the hopes of heaven And was Heaven the spring and motive of thy obedience and the comfort of thy life and yet wilt thou pass into it with heaviness and shall thy approaches to it be thy sorrows Didst thou pray for that which thou wouldst not have Hast thou laboured for it and denyed thy self the pleasures of the world for it and now art thou afraid to enter in Fear not poor soul Thy Lord is there Thy husband and thy head and life is there Thou hast more there a thousand fold more than thou hast here Here thou must leave poor mourning friends that languish in their own infimities and troubled thee as well as comforted thee while thou wast with them and that are hasting after thee and will shortly overtake thee But there thou shalt find the souls of all the blessed Saints that have lived since the Creation till this age that are all uncloathed of the rags of their mortality and have laid by their frailties with their flesh and are made up of holiness and prepard for joy and will be suitable companions for thee in thy joyes Why shouldst thou be afraid to go the way that all the Saints have gone before thee Where there is one on earth how many are there in Heaven and one of them is worth many of us Art thou better then Noah and Abraham and David then Peter and Paul and all the Saints Or dost thou not love their names and wouldst thou not be with them Art thou loath to leave thy friends on earth And hast thou not far better and more in heaven Why then art thou not as loath to stay from them Suppose that I and such as I were the friends that thou art loath to leave What if we had dyed long before thee If it be our company that thou lovest thou shouldst then be willing to die that thou mayst be with us And if so why then shouldst thou not be more willing to die and be with Christ and all his holy ones that are so much more excellent than we Wouldst thou have our company Remove then willingly to that place where thou shalt have it to everlasting and be not so loath to go from hence where neither thou nor we can stay Hadst thou rather travel with us than dwell with us And rather here suffer with us than reign in Heaven with Christ and us O What a brutish thing is flesh What an unreasonable thing is unbelief Shall we believe and fly from the end of our belief Shall we hope and be loath to enjoy our hopes Shall we desire and pray and be afraid of attaining our desires and lest our prayers should be heard Shall we spend our lives in labour and travel and be afraid of comming to our journeys end Do you love life or do you not If not why are you afraid of death If you do why then are you loath to pass into everlasting life You know there is no hope of immortality on earth Hence you must pass whether you will or not as all your Fathers have done before you it is therefore in Heaven or no where that endless life is to be had If you can live here for ever do Hope for it if any have done so before you Go to some man of a thousand years old and ask him how he made shift to draw out his life so long But if you know that man walketh here in a vain shew and that his life is a shadow a dream a post and that all these things shall be dissolved and the fashion of them passeth away is it not more reasonable that we should set our hearts on the place where there is hopes of our continuance than where there is none and where we must live for ever than where we must be but for so short a time Alas poor darkned troubled soul Is the presence of Christ less desirable in thy eyes than the presence of such sinful worms as we whom thou art loath to part with Is it more grievous to thee to be absent from us than from thy Lord from Earth than from Heaven from Sinners than from blessed Saints from trouble and frailty than from glory Hast thou any thing here that thou shalt want in Heaven Alas that we should thus draw back from Happiness
promise and leave us in the dust for ever It cannot be Hath he conquered Death for himself alone and not for us Hath he taken our Nature into Heaven to be there alone and will he not have all his members with him Remember then Christian when thou lookest on thy grave that Christ was buried and hath made the grave a bed of rest that shall give up her trust when his Trumpet sounds And that his Resurrection is the pledge of ours Keep therefore thy rising and glorified Lord continually in thy eye If Christ were not risen our preaching were vain and your faith were vain and all men were miserable but we most miserable that suffer so much for a life which we had no ground to hope for 1 Cor. 15 14 17 19. But now we have an Argument that Infidelity it self is ashamed to encounter with that hath been the means of the conversion of the Nations unto Christ by which we may put even Death it self to a defiance as knowing it is now a conquered thing If it could have held Christ captive it might also have held us But he being risen we shall surely rise Write it therefore Christians upon your hearts mention it more in your conference for the encouragement of your faith Write it on the grave-stones of your friends that CHRIST IS RISEN and that BECAUSE HE LIVETH WE SHALL LIVE ALSO and that OUR LIFE IS HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD though we are dead and when he shall appear who is our Life we shall also appear with him in glory John 14. 19. Col. 3. 3 4. Though we must be sown in corruption in weakness and dishonour we shall be raised in incorruption strength and honour 1 Cor. 1. 15. 42 43. While our souls behold the Lord in glory we may bear with the winter that befalls our flesh till the sping of Resurrection come Knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall also raise us up by Jesus For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inner man is renewed day by day while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal 2 Cor. 4. 14 15 16 17 18. As we are risen with Christ to newness of life so we shall rise with him to glory Use 10. LAstly If Death be the last Enemy to be destroyed at the Resurrection we may learn hence how earnestly believers should long and pray for the second coming of Christ when this full and final Conquest shall be made Death shall do much for us but the Resurrection shall do more Death sends the separated soul to Christ but at his coming both soul and body shall be glorified There is somewhat in Death that is penal even to believers but in the coming of Christ and their Resurrection there is nothing but glorifying grace Death is the effect of sin and of the first sentence passed upon sinners but the Resurrection of the Just is the final destruction of the effects of sin And therefore though the fears of Death may perplex us me-thinks we should long for the coming of Christ there being nothing in that but what tends to the deliverance and glory of the Saints Whether he will come before the general Resurrection and reign on earth a thousand years which some expect I shall not presume to pass my determination But sure I am it is the work of faith and Character of his people to love his appearance 2 Tim. 4. 8. and to wait for the Son of God from Heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come 1 Thes 1. 10. and to wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 1. 7. and to wait for the adoption the redemption of our bodies with inward groanings Rom. 8. 23. O therefore let us pray more earnestly for the coming of our Lord and that the Lord would direct our hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ 2 Thes 3. 5. O blessed day when the glorious appearing of our Lord shall put away all his servants shame and shall communicate Glory to his members even to the bodies that had laid so long in dust that to the eye of flesh there seemed to be no hope Though the Majesty and glory will cause our Reverence yet it will not be our terrour to the diminution of our joy It is his enemies that would not have him rule over them whom he cometh to destroy Lu. 19. 27. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute judgement upon all to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodlily committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him as Henoch the seventh from Noah prophesied Jud. 14. 15. But the precious faith of the Saints shall be found to praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. 7. When the chief Shepherd shall appear we shall receive a Crown of glory that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5. 4. He that was once offered to bear the sins of many and now appeareth for us in the presence of God shall unto them that look for him appear the second time without sin to salvation Heb. 9. 24. 28. And When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in Glory Col. 3. 4. The Lord shall then come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe in that day 2 Thes 1. 10. This is the day that all believers should long and hope and wait for as being the accomplishment of all the work of their redemption and all the desires and endeavours of their souls It is the hope of this day that animateth the holy diligence of our lives and makes us turn from the carelesness and sensuality of the world For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Tit. 2. 11 12 13. The heavens and the earth that are now are kept in store by the word of God reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men And though the Lord seem to delay he is not slack of his promise as some men count slackness for a day is with him as a thousand years and a thousand years but as a day But the day of the Lord will come as a Thiefin the night in the which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then all
dare not stand the charge of Death and with it the charge of the Law and of our Consciences How dreadfully should we then be foiled and nonplust if we must be found in no other righteousness but what we have received from the first Adam and have wrought by the strength received from him But being gathered under the wings of Christ as the chickens under the wings of the Hen Mat. 23. 37. and being found then in him having the righteousness which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith we may boldly answer to all that can be charged on us to our terrour If we know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and are made conformable to his death Phil. 3. 9 10. if we are dead with him to the world and risen with him to a holy life if we have believingly traced him in his sufferings and conquest and perceive by faith how we participate in his victories we shall then be able to grapple with the hands of Death and though we know the grave must be for a while the prison of our flesh we can by faith foresee the opening of our prison-doors and the loosing of our bonds and the day of our last and full Redemption It strengtheneth us exceedingly to look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God When we consider what he endured against himself we shall not be weary nor faint in our minds Heb. 12. 2 3. DIRECTION III. LIve also by faith on the Heavenly Glory As one eye of faith must be on an humbled crucified Christ so must the other be on Heaven on a glorified Christ and on the glory and everlasting Love of God which we shall there enjoy This is it that conquereth the fears of Death when we belive that we shall pass thorow it into everlasting life If a man for health will take the most ungrateful potion the bitterness being short and the benefit long and if he will suffer the Surgeon to let out his blood and in case of necessity to cut of a member how light should we make of Death that have the assured hopes of glory to encourage us What door so streight that we would not pass thorow if we could to our dearest friend What way so soul that we would not travel to our beloved home And shall Death seem intolerable to us that letteth in our souls to Christ Well might Paul say To dye is gain Phil. 1. 21. when we gain deliverance from all those sins that did here beset us all those sorows that sin had bred We gain the accomplishment of our desires the end of our faith the salvation of oursouls We gain the Crown that fadeth not away a place before the Throne of Christ in the Temple of God in the City of God the New Jerusalem to eat of the hidden Manna and of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2. 3. We gain the place prepared for us by Christ in his Fathers house Joqn 14. 1 2. For we shall be with him where he is that we may behold his glory Joh. 17. 24. We shall gain the sight of the glory of God and the feeling of his most precious love and the fulness of joy that is in his presence and the everlasting pleasures at his right hond Psal 16. 11. And shall we think much to dye for such a gain we will put off our cloaths and welcome sleep which is the Image of death that our bodies may have rest and refuse not thus to dye every night that we may rise more refreshed for our employments in the morning And shall we stick at the uncloathing of our souls in ordâ—â— to their everlasting Rest Set but the eye of Faith to the Prospective of the Promise and take a serious frequent view of the promised Land and this if any thing will make Death more welcome than Physick to the sick than uncloathing to a beggar that puts on new or better cloaths Shall a poor man chearfully ply his labour all day in hope of a little wages at night and shall not a believer chearfully yield to Death in hope of everlasting glory so far as Heaven is soundly believed and our conversations and hearts are there the fears of Death will be asswaged and nothing else will well asswage them DIRECTION IV. MOreover if you will conquer the enmity of Death do all that you can to encrease and exercise the love of God in you For love will so encline you to the blessed object of it that Death will not be able to keep down the flame Were God set as a seal upon our hearts we should find that Love is as strong as Death and the coals thereof are coals of fire and the flame is vehement many waters cannot quench it nor can the floods drown it Cant. 8. 6 7. If carnal Love have made the amorous to chuse Death that they might passionately express it especially when they have heard if the death of their beloved and if natural fortitude and love to their Country have made many valiant men though Heathens to contemn Death and readily lay down lives and if the love of fame and vain glory in a surviving name have caused many to dye through pride how much more will the powerful love of God put on the soul to leave this flesh and pass through Death that we may see his face and fully enjoy the object of our love So much as you love God so much will you be above the terrours of the grave and past through Death for the enjoyment of your beloved Perfect Love casteth out fear and he tqat feareth is not made perfect in love in Death and Judgement we shall have boldness if our love be perfect 1 John 4. 17 18. This maketh the Martyrs chearfully lay down their lives for Christ and love is glad of so precious an opportunity for its exercise and manifestation Love is a restless working thing that will give you no rest till your desires are attained and you be with God Nothing is so valiant as Love It rejoyceth when it meeteth with difficulties which it may encounter for the sake of our beloved It contemneth dangers It glorieth in sufferings Though it be humble and layeth by all thoughts of merit yet it rejoyceth in sufferings for Christ and glorieth in the Cross and in the participation of his sufferings and in the honourable wounds and fears which we receive for him that died for us DIRECTION V. TO overcome the terrours and enmity of Death it is necessary that we keep the Conscience clear from the guilt of wilful sin and of impenitency If it may be see that you wound it not if you have wounded it presently seek a cure