original corruption and preach unto him humiliation and repentance as weariness so sickness in the body is a fruit of sin It is a commotion and collision of those humors in the body which God restrained from breaking out one upon another so long as man by sin transgressed not the bounds set to him by God but when man passed his bounds then the humors of the body passed their bounds and like an impetuous flood after the bulwark is removed over-runs the whole body Sin made way to this inundation which in the estate of integrity was barred up in the body by the over-ruling providence of God who shutteth up and openeth the barrs even of the great ocean at his own pleasure Thirdly from sin is that tormenting fear of death 3 Tormenting fear of death which keepeth the heart of miserable man in straitness and bondage Heb. 2.15 Through the fear of death all their life time are subject to bondage In which words a sinner is compared to a Malefactor condemned shut up in prison and under a continual fear of the execution of the sentence It is the Apostles allusion also Gal. 3.22 The Scripture hath shut up all under sin that is it hath convinced all men of guiltiness and of obligation to eternal death Iob 18.14 Death is called the King of terrors Heathens called it the most fearful of all fearful things Caligula the fourth Roman Emperour hid himself under a bed when he heard the noise of thunder guiltiness in the conscience is the worm that breeds this gnawing and tormenting fear of death Cains guiltiness made him fear every one that met him would kill him This fear of death until it be qualified and tempered by Faith in the Merit of the death of our Lord doth exceedingly torment and disquiet the heart of man in the midst of all his pleasures even a glancing thought of death maketh his heart sorrowful Amidst all his plenty he is like unto Damocles who had not a heart to taste the dainties on Dionysius his table for fear of the drawn sword hanging over his head by an hair in like manner the fear of death in his adversity doth wonderfully disquiet him he taketh a very small cross though it were but a sore head to be a beginning of his endless woes to be a drop of that cloud of fierce wrath that is to be poured out upon him in vials at his death and judgement and to be a Messenger sent of God to arrest him Fourthly 4. Pain in dying Pain in dying is also a bitter fruit of sin This bitterness and Antipathy betwixt the living man and death is a part of the wages of original sin It is true some wicked men may have little or no pain at their death Psal 73.4 There are no bands in their death But all that calmeness is but a shore Sun-shine before a storm the fearful tempest of Gods wrath abideth them their day comes on apace wherein their worm dyeth not and their fire will not be quenched The rich Glutton no doubt at his death had store of all Lenitives that could give him any ease whereas Lazarus had none But that rich man afterward felt the pain to the uttermost he got not a drop of cold water to refresh him The death of some wicked men is like those Fishes going down with much facility through Jordan till they once fall into the dead Sea and there they die so the wicked man is driven away in his wickedness but the righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14.32 Fifthly 5. Separation of the soul and body In the first death is implyed the dissolution it self when the soul and body by their union making up one person are separated the one from the other This actual separation is also a punishment of sin Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death It is true Enoch and Elias were born in sin but had not this separation of soul and body yet it is certain when they were translated in the body to heaven they were separate from the society of men living on the earth they were changed from a state of corruption which was a separation not of the soul from the body but of all corruption from the body and of the remainders of sin dwelling in both Moreover God who is above all his penal Laws and Statutes might according to his good pleasure give an Indulgence and Immunity to his servants from that penal Ordinance of death as he did grant unto David an Indulgence to eat of the Shew-bread notwithstanding there was a positive Statute to the contrary The sixt and last evil of misery implyed in death threatned against man before his fall and deserved by his fall 6. The cuâ—â—â— of death is the curse of death when it serve has a darke dreadful passage into the second dâ—aâ—h and outer darkness This by the fall was deserved by all and herein stands the curse of death that not only it separateth the soul and the body but as Gods officer it openeth the prison door to the end the soul the prime malefactor may be first drawn forth and put under the execution of wrath and therefore the body which did second the soul in obeying the lusts of the flesh is put to the suffering of eternal wrath at the day of resurrection Death to the rich Glutton was a dark trance carrying him into hell As hell it self and the bottomless pit are the wages of sin deserved by all so is also the curse of death in being a passage unto hell due unto all sinners for as the Malefactor deserveth the execution of the sentence of death so in like manner to be carried in such a way that leads to the place of execution This Doctrine serveth for our humiliation Vse 1 seeing sin is the cause procuring death with all the alterations going before Sin is matter of humiliation in all bodily distempers the pain accompanying and the destructions following it It is our duty when ever any change seiseth on the body to humble our spirits before God and to acknowledge the sins of our souls Remember the distemper of the soul brought on all the distempers and indispositions upon the body There may be many new and strange diseases in this sinful age whereof it is hard for the most skilful Physitian to finde out and shew the true natural cause but it is most easie to find out the true spiritual cause both of our new and old diseases which is the corruption of our inward man as in the last and worst of times new and strange sins do abound foretold 2 Tim. 3. which our Ancestors and many honest Pagans having nothing but natures light would have abhorred and said as Hazael Am I a dead Dog to do such things so no wonder there be new diseases inflicted justly by God as new punishments of new and uncouth transgressions Therefore at what time soever thou findest any alteration in thy
the body ye cannot read one syllable in all the heathen writers Such Doctrine was mocked at by the Philosophers of heathens Act. 17. they could not give an assent to it And therefore Paul saith Act. 26.8 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead They measured Divine Mysteries by the short plummet of humane reason Likewise from this ground that of nothing there can be nothing produced they could not believe that Mysterie of the infinite power of God in the work of Creation in like manner having their understandings prejudiced with this received maxim that from a privation there cannot be any regress unto the habit they could not assent to the Doctrine of the resurrection of the body Humane reason cannot reach Divine Mysteries they are above its capacity 1 Cor. 2.14 the only ground whereon rests our assent to such a Divine Mysterie Augustine is the infallible testimony of God in holy Scripture Augustin saith well that a natural man requires a reason of evidence in the matter it self before he believe it intelligam saith such a man ut credam let me understand it that I may believe but the Disciple of Iesus Christ who hath captivated his thoughts unto the word of God saith credam ut intelligam let me once believe that God hath spoken it then shall I understand it to be true and evident from the testimony of God when we consider the goodness of our God in revealing to us this great Mysterie hid from many of the wise in the world let every one of us say with our blessed Lord Math. 11.25 26. I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight It serveth also for comfort to three sorts of persons Vse 2 1. To such of the children of God as are under any trouble and pain in the body Comfort to Saints under bodily pain though it were a painful languishing disease yet here is a sure ground of hope and comfort It is most certain thy bodie will be raised and in the bodie thou shalt have a comfortable rest from all labour and pain This was Iobs comfort in the day of his sore trouble that in the same body he should rise and see God Iob. 19.25 26. It was the Apostles comfort 1 Cor. 15.19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable because they suffered more in the body then other men did yet the hope and comfort of the resurrection upheld them It is some ease and comfort to one that is Sea-sick to look a far to the Land but their comfort and joy of heart is much greater when they come safely to it so in all our troubles in the body which are as a Sea-sickness in our passage towards our Country above let us look by Faith to the certainty of the resurrection of the body and if there be some comfort and joy as undoubtedly there is from Faith into the Promise and from hope of the promised resurrection What then will be the measure of thy comfort and joy when in a glorified body thou shalt see the Son of God manifesting his glory and transcendent beauty in his body It serveth for a ground of comfort to them that are on their death-bed Vse 3 Comfort to Saints against the apprehensions of death and have received in themselves the sentence of death be of good comfort the day is coming when thy body shall be raised out of the dust Consider for thy comfort 1. The mystical union of the bodies of Believers with Jesus Christ their head and thou mayst be confident our Lord and glorious head will not want any part of his Mystical body 1 Cor. 15.20 Christ is the first fruits of them that sleep as the first fruits were a sure evidence that the harvest was coming on a pace so the resurrection of Christ is a sure ground of hope and comfort for assuring us of the resurrection of our bodies 1 Cor. 15.16 If the dead be not raised then is not Christ raised 2. Consider the end of Christs death and of his second coming 2 Thes 1.7 It is a righteous thing with God to render to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels It is true in the grave thy body will have a kind of a negative rest then no pain in the body but in the day of resurrection thou shalt have a positive and refreshing rest in God himself like a man awakened and resting on a bed of Roses 3. Consider the endurance of the Kingdom of the Mediator in respect of the manner of the administration of it in this world 1 Cor. 15.25 He must reign until he have put all his enemies under his feet One of those enemies is the grave which our Lord before subdued and will also put under our feet when our bodies shall be raised out of the grave and we shall be above the power of corruption Therefore thou that believest in Christ mayest dye with great comfort and exult with Paul 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day Commend thy Spirit into his hands and thy dying body to his Fatherly care to be kept in the grave by him he is a Faithful Creator and Conservator of both at the day of resurrection he will render both Thou mayst be assured the Lord who requires men to be faithful in rendering again the pledge intrusted to them Deut. 24.13 he will in the day of restoring all things render again to thee thy soul and body with increase of glory beauty and strength Thirdly Comfort to Saints mourning for the death of their friends It serveth for comfort to those who mourn for the death of their dear friends I grant it is not only lawful to mourn but it were unnatural not to do so Our Lord wept over Lazarus Joseph mourned many days for his old Father The death of dear friends is one of Gods visitations and it becomes us well to take notice of Gods visiting us we must neither slight and despise the chastisement of the Lord nor be faint-hearted when we are rebuked of the Lord Heb. 12.5 The first is a brutish stupidity and Heathenish Apathie the other is a sillyness and pusillanimity proceeding from unbelief and repining of Spirit but let thy mourning be qualified and moderated with the comfort and hope of the resurrection 1 Thes 4.13 Sorrow not even as others which have no hope That Heathen Moralist could say We have not lost our friends but sent them before us what then should Christians say who believe not only the immortality of the soul but also the resurrection of the body
the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Augmentum Aquinas as if the Law were the encrease and augmentation of sin because by hearing the Law the desire of a man unrenewed is the more increased after sin Luther Luthers similitude is very apposite to this purpose as fire saith he in burnt lime-stone appeareth not until ye cast water on it and then immediately it smoaketh so the fire of concupiscence which should be quenched by the Law is from mans own latent corruption provoked by the Law There is no fault in the Law but in mans distempered will and appetite As when a sick patient longs after meat forbidden by the Physitian there is no fault in the Physitian but in the distempered appetite of the patient The other part of mans misery through sin How sin is a sting is the misery of death the sting of death is sin As by the sting of a venomous Serpent cometh an inflamation of the blood together with a great torment and pain in the body so by sin which is the sting of that old Serpent cometh pain and horror in the conscience and consumption in the body with dissolution and death at last And as the sting is the only weapon of a Serpent without which he can do no harm so sin only specially impenitency and unbelief are the strength and weapon of death which make it both fearful and hurtful to the children of men Sin which is the sting of the old Serpent Sin brings death when it came into the world and was tastened in our nature by a virtual consent in our first parents it brought death along with it Rom. 5.12 By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin 1 Cor. 15.21 By man came death By death the wages of sin we understand both all the alterations in the body preceding our death and also all the pains and evils that accompany death Thus then by death we understand those particular evils of misery 1. A subjection to the necessity of dying 2. Alterations and sickness in the body disposing it for death 3. Fear of death 4. Pain in death 5. The separation of soul and body 6. The curse of death First man by sinning became subject to a necessity of dying By death is understood 1. The necessity of dying Assoon as he sinned he became mortal No sooner sin entred into his soul but mortality and corruption immediately entred into his body then the parcels of dust that were bound together by the bond of innocency were shaken loose and as a glass of sand turned up the body became mortal and the life of man subject to a continual flux and decay for after he had sinned and not till then it was said by the Lord of life unto him Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return Gen. 3.19 It may be truly said of Adams body that in the state of innocency it was both Mortal and Immortal in respect of a capacity indifferent to dye or live and also it may be said to have been neither mortal nor immortal in respect it was created free from a necessary subjection to dying or an absolute appointment of God to live for ever It was the gross error of Pelagius a patron of corrupt nature and an enemy to free grace Pelagius confuted To affirm that Infants were not born in sin but that they had it only by imitation when he was pressed by force of argument taken from the death of Infants as a bitter fruit of original corruption in them his answer was that man would have dyed though he had never sinned because said he man had a mortal body composed of contrary elementary qualities which warring one against another would have made alteration in the body and in the end brought it to corruption and dissolution But for confutation of this error we should consider First as God created Adam with power of free will to stand or fall so he created him with a capacity to dye or not dye according to the right use or abuse of his free will Next as God did not create Adam with an inclination though he was of a mutable condition to sin for as an inclination to sin being the first step of turning from God is sinful and the most holy God is not the Author of sin so a subjection to the necessity of dying was not before man subjected himself willingly to sin for our most just God though by an act of soveraign power and dominion over his own creature as the Potter over his vessel he might annihilate the same yet would he not punish his innocent creature before it had sinned and was found guilty and lyable to punishment This was Abrahams argument for sparing the innocent in Sodom if there were any Shall not said he the Iudge of all the earth do right Gen. 18.25 As for the contrary Elementary qualities of heat and cold moystness and dryness created in the body I answer if man had persisted in his integrity keeping an harmony with God and his will then God would have kept these qualities in a right temper and just symmetry amongst themselves without destroying one another As by an over-ruling providence he preserved the Lyon and the Lamb the Woolf and the Kid together in one Ark of Noah without the destruction of the Lamb and Kid as he restrained the Lyon from destroying the living Ass or the dead body of the Prophet 1 King 13. As he restrained the fire Dan. 3. in the exercise of it that it did not so much as singe a hair of their heads though at the same time he did not destroy the fire in the heat and nature of it So the Lord would have preserved those elementary qualities in their nature and first act though in their second act and exercise he would have restrained them from destroying one another if man had stood in integrity And will not the Lord preserve our glorified bodies in heaven in a condition of an immutable immortality and incorruption though they will be raised as is very probable with the same Elementary qualities wherewith they were created in the state of integrity 2. Weakness and sickness Secondly as sin brought on man a necessary subjection to death and dissolution so it brought alterations upon the body by weakness and sickness Thus David acknowledged in the time he was under some distemper in body Psal 38.3 there is no rest in my bones because of my sin weakness and sickness of the body is a consequent of sin if man had continued in the state of innocency his labour exercise in the body should have been to him as a recreation with delight and continued strength in his Spirit whereas it is since the fall with toyl in the body and faintness in the Spirit Gen. 3.19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread Mans fainting and weariness of Spirit in the labour of his calling do convince him guilty of
dying man with an incurable wound unto eternal death As the sting of of the Scorpion inflameth and tormenteth the whole man that is stung so known sins unrepented of put soul and body in a flame of unquenchable fire thus it was with that miserable rich man Luke 16.24 Delay not thy repentance and the seeking of thy remission till thou art on thy death bed would ye not think that malefactor a careless fool and unnatural to himself who should delay to seek his remission unto the very day he were taken out of prison to the place of execution though God hath promised mercy to him that repenteth yet hath he not promised repentance to him that delayeth The sluggard foldeth his hands and saith yet a little sleep a little slumber and his poverty cometh as an armed man he cannot resist it Prov. 24.34 so it is with a careless Professor who sleepeth over his days and hath not a thought of death till it be at door then doth it surprize him as an enemy armed with the dart and sting of sin unrepented of and such a man not guarded by the shield of faith into the righteousness of Jesus Christ is confounded and overcome as a naked souldier with fear at the very sight of death Such debtors who delay to think on their debts and in time to speak for favour with their creditors when the term of reckoning and payment comes they are confounded with shame and fear therefore delay not but in time confess thy debts unto God seek thy discharge and acquittance in the blood of Christ who is the surety of the new Covenant Labour by faith in the charter and Covenant of grace for a sight of that great salvation purchased by the death of Jesus that at thy death with old Simeon thou mayst say and sing that Swan-like song Mine eyes have seen thy salvation now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Luke 2.29 2. As thou wouldst be well prepared for death Labour to keep a good conscience in thy life-time This is the chest wherein thy remission and peace is kept a man of good conscience in all things willing to live honestly as the Apostle describes Heb. 13.18 he liveth aad dieth in peace It was Hezekiah his great comfort in his sickness and apprehension of death 2 Kings 20 3. I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart It was Pauls comfort 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought a good fight henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness A good conscience is a continual feast it hath the sweetest relish at death when a man at that time is become like old Barzillai through age and debility 2 Sam. 19.35 his senses of seeing tasting and hearing fail him yet even at that time the relish of a good conscience will most refresh him 3. Be thou prepared as the wise virgins were to meet the bridegroom not only with light in their lamps as the foolish virgins were also but with oyl in their vessels Not only must thou have the light of a fair profession before the world but also thou must have in thy heart the oyl of charity toward God and man If thou have love toward God and his holy commandments and love unfained toward thy neighbour but specially toward those in whom thou seest most of the image of God then art thou prepared for death and life eternal is prepared for thee 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen ear hath not heard neither can it enter into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love him And 1 Joh. 3.14 By this we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the Brethren but thou who hatest thy neighbour art filled with bitterness and desire of revenge and wilt not commit thy cause to him who judgeth righteously thou art not yet prepared for death so long as thou art in the gall of bitterness for he that loveth not his brother abideth in death 1 Joh. 3.15 That rigid and merciless servant who had no pity on his fellow servant was cast into prison So saith our Lord our heavenly father will do unto us if we from our hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses Mat. 18.33.4 We should be prepared as good and faithful servants waiting for the return of their absent Lord. Luke 12.36 Having their loyns girded and watching In those Eastern countreys the servants for their better expediting business at home or their Journeys abroad did gird up their long cloaths that they should not entangle their feet and retard them in their course The Apostle Eph. 6. speaketh of the girdle of truth and sincerity when our affections are taken off from things earthly trussed up united together and set on God when our heart is in heaven where our treasure is Then and not till then is a man prepared for death When his minde is heavenly and his affections are not trailing on the things of the earth like long garments licking up the dust for a worldly minded man is not yet prepared for death A man that spendeth all his time and care upon repairing the house where he dwelleth for the present but speaketh not for another house nor sendeth away any of his furniture to it will ye say such a man hath any mind to remove so a worldly-minded man that spendeth his time and strength of spirit upon this present world who speaketh not to God in time by prayer for that eternal house in heaven that sendeth not his heart before him as a part of his heavenly furniture such a man is not prepared for removal out of this world Therefore let us obey our Lords warning Luke 21.34 Let not your hearts be oppressed with surfeiting or drunkenness and with the cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares A heart fixed on the world is taken away unwillingly at death the worldly man who had his full heaven in a full barn his soul was taken from him Luke 12.20 The worldly-minded man unless he repent and become heavenly-minded doth in some respect die a violent death he doth not as our Lord did commit his spirit into the hands of his Father but his soul is taken from him against his will he is drawn forth as a Malefactor from the prison of his earthly house to the place of execution But the spiritual man that hath his heart drawn off the world and set on God he hath his soul ready in his hand to put it over into Gods hand he knoweth whom he hath believed and that his faithful creator will keep the good thing committed to him against that day As thou must gird up thy loyns so thou must watch for thou knowest not how soon thy Lord may send his messenger for thee Watch over thy heart that it depart not from the living God by unbelief nor be drawn away by thy inordinate concupiscence and unruly affections watch over thy
ways that thou maist be found in thy Lords ways walking in his holy commandments blessed is the man whom his Master when he cometh sindeth so doing as thou watchest over thy own heart and ways so watch and long after the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and this longing for death out of a love to be with him is a sure evidence of a soul well prepared for death 2 Tim. 4.8 The Lord will give a Crown of righteousness not to me only but to them also who love his appearing To him with the Father and holy Ghost be all praise Amen Having spoken of the sting of death we proceed to speak the cure and of our deliverance from it Of the cure of death The Author of our deliverance and victory is the Lord Iesus Christ the Captain of our salvation The Apostle compareth death to a conquering and prevailing enemy which by its sting and weapon woundeth many with a mortal and incurable wound because such men as live to sin and die in their guiltiness go down by the first death to the second into that bottomless pit out of which there is no redemption Jesus Christ our Lord by the merit of his death alone hath overcome death Doct. Christ only hath overcome death for all that believe in him and of a bitter enemy hath made death a comfortable friend to all who believe in him for by him alone we get victory over death That we may understand this point the better we should consider in what respect Christ hath delivered us from death he hath not delivered us from our obligation and subjection to the necessity of dying for we see believers dye as well as unbelievers Neither hath he delivered us from being subject to sicknesses and alterations going before death David complains the pains of hell got hold upon him Psal 116.3 that is extream pains in his body and anxiety in his spirit Neither hath our Lord delivered from pain at the hour of death nor from the separation of soul and body by death But our Lord hath overcome death in these respects 1. In respect of 1. The sting of death In respect of the sting of death he hath taken away our sins and as an enemy is overcome when his deadly weapon is taken out of his hand so our Lord overcame death by taking away sin on his cross for sin is the sting of death Hos 13.14 O Death I will be thy plagues This the Apostle cites 1 Cor. 15.54 The Captain of our salvation upon the cross as in an open and pitched battel did spoyl principalities and powers Col. 2.15 One of these powers armed against us was death he took away our sins on the cross and so spoyled death of his weapon as a valiant Conquerour takes away the weapons from a subdued enemy 2. 2. The fear of death Jesus Christ our Lord hath freed us from the fear of death Heb. 2.15 he was partaker of flesh and blood he took upon him our nature that he might deliver them who through the fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Our Lord by taking away our sins the sting and weapon of death doth deliver us from the fear of death for that which maketh an enemy fearful is his deadly weapon It is true sometimes men may fear even a naked enemy but they have no cause seeing he cannot harm them so some of Gods dear children at a time may exceed in the fear of death but they have no such cause of fear neither would they be so afraid 3. The curse of death if they were strong in the faith of Jesus Christ who hath disarmed death 3. Our Lord hath delivered us from the curse of death that to us the first death is not a dreadful passage to the second Ioh. 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life Rev. 14.13 Blessed are they that die in the Lord that henceforth they may rest from their labours As for weakness sickness pain and alterations in the body though our Lord hath not delivered us from them yet by the merit of his death and the grace of his Spirit he sanctifieth them to us and in a gracious providence turneth them to a good and spiritual use Our Lords death is like to that salt that purged and sweetned the naughty waters of Jericho 2 Kings 2.21 and like the meal cast into the pot wherein was the bitter herb 2 Kings 4.41 The death of our Lord hath taken wrath and the curse from out of all our afflictions and maketh them useful and profitable unto us Our Lord in a gracious dispensation turneth the bodily sickness of his own children into a spiritual medicine for purging an humorous and distempered soul for bringing down the tympany and swelling pride of the heart such as glory and boast in the beauty or strength of the body do see in time of sickness the weakness and vileness of the body and so being humbled learn to glory onely in the Lord and in the beauty of his grace in the inward man A sanctified sickness purgeth out of the heart covetousness the hearts Dropsie thirsting for more of this present world when the sick man seeth the emptiness of things worldly which cannot give him any ease in the time of his greatest need A sanctified sickness purgeth out unruly lusts which are as a burning feaver to the soul sickness takes down the body and grace sanctifying it turns it into a temple to the holy Ghost The wise Master-builder useth sickness as a sharp edged tool for polishing the body for the inhabitation of the Spirit that it may be a temple prepared In like manner our wise and merciful Lord though he deliver not his own children from death yet he maketh their death to be of singular good use to them It is a putting off of corruption that they may be clothed upon with incorruption The death of wicked men dying in their guiltiness is like unto a thiefs putting off his cloaths to the end he may be scourged but the death of the godly is like unto a childs putting off the old garment that he may put on the new that is incorruptible and will not fade but ever have a beautiful lustre It is for this their soul doth groan and long 2 Cor. 5.2 In this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven 4. The dominon of death As for deaths dominion and power over our bodies in the grave our Lord did take it also away by the merit of his death and declared his victory over and our deliverance from it by raising his own body and by loosing the bonds of death when our Lord awoke from death and stretched out the strength of his Godhead like Sampson he broke asunder those bonds as cords of flax Our deliverance from the grave will
far better to suffer affliction in a weak and sickly body then to act sin in a strong and healthful body It is much better to have the strength of grace made manifest in thy weak body then to have a weak and unruly spirit in a strong body It is much better to be under a sickly and suffering condition then to be like those yong widows rambling up and down in their licentious health such are not only soul-sick but dead while they live in that base element of noysome lusts 1 Tim. 5.6 but the children of God living to him in their sickness have healthful souls in sick bodyes they have freedom of spirit under bodily restraint It serveth for a ground of comfort and encouragement to the children of God against the fear of death Vse 3 Comforts against the fear of death and for the better establishing of our hearts I propound these consideraons 1 Consider Death is a naked and spoyled enemy Our Lord hath taken the sting from it so that it cannot harm thee It is true the dear children of God have their own fits of natural fear when they look to deaths pale and gastly face but when in their second and better thoughts they consider death hath no power nor weapon wherewith to hurt them this doth raise and comfort their drooping spirits and upon this account I may say to the child of God as the two faithful spies said to the Children of Israel affrighted with apprehensions of strong and mighty enemies in the way unto their promised rest Num. 14.9 Their defence is departed from them and the Lord is with us fear them not 2. Consider Thy Lord and Captain of salvation is with thee at thy death and will lead thee through that dark trance This was Davids comfort Psal 23 4. I will not fear although I walk through the valley of the shadow of death because the Lord is with me This valley is like that of Achor to the child of God a door of hope Hos 2.15 As the children of Israel were much encouraged and comforted by the first tasts of plenty in Achor at their entrance into the promised land so the children of God at their entring into the valley of death and border of eternity receive of the first fruits of eternal life peace in their consciences and joy of the holy Ghost in their hearts by faith and hope they see some light before them at the further end of this dark valley like a light on the shoar towards which their will doth steer the course of their affections Psal 48.14 He will be our guide even unto death Think not thy God who hath been thy guide through the wilderness will leave thee when thou comest to Jordan and to the border Thou art both unthankful and unbelieving to entertain such unkind thoughts of thy kinde God upon whom thou hast been cast from the womb make better use of tried love then to distrust him in the end of the day who hath been with thee since the morning of thy life but rather learn as David to make good use of former kindness first to praise him Psal 71.6 By thee have I been holden up from the womb my praise shall be continually of thee Next to hope and confide in him vers 14.16 I will hope continually I will go in the strength of the Lord God And last to pray to him for continuing his loving kindness ver 17 18. O God thou hast taught me from my youth Now also when I am old and gray-headed O God forsake me not 3. Consider thy union with Christ This is a main ground of comfort at death he is the saviour of his body all his members will be brought where himself their head is he will be compleat in his body he will not want the weakest or poorest believer that did on earth cleave to him with purpose of heart 4. Consider he prayed for thee that thou mightest be where he is Joh. 17.24 Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me and he prayed also that the father would keep them in his name and power by the way until they came unto the end of their faith the salvation of their souls Thou who in thy sick bed prayest for the same thing our Lord sought in prayer for thee and before thee thou mayst be assured to be heard when thy prayer is founded on his merit and on the efficacy and example of his prayer 5. Consider the godly man is a great gainer by death It is best to be with Christ Phil. 3.23 The man who liveth to Christ and dieth in Christ doth not loose the good things of this world but exchangeth them for far better A man returning from a strange and poor countrey to his own home and in place of base mettal which he leaves behind him receiving a bill of exchange to be answered in gold and ten thousand for one that man looseth nothing by leaving that poor countrey and base coyn but gaineth much so the believer at death upon the account of Gods true and faithful promise made to him in place of empty and perishing riches receiveth in heaven solid and durable riches in place of honour worldly that is like the inconstant wind he gets his adoption manifested to him when he is put in possession of eternal glory when he is made a sure pillar in that new Jerusalem whereupon holiness and glory is engraven with indeleble characters The new Jerusalem is wholly founded upon Jasper stones Rev. 21.19 All such precious things so much esteemed in this world are far below our contentment and happiness in heaven as the foundation of a house is far below the plenishing and precious furniture of it God himself infinite in greatness goodness beauty and all perfection will replenish our house there with his own presence wherein is fulness of joy and pleasures for ever Psal 16.11 Compare I pray you our happy being with Christ after death and our being in the miseries of this life Then canst thou not but assent to that of Paul It is best to be dissolved and to be with Christ at the best here we are but Pilgrims and is it not best for a Pilgrim to be at home in his fathers house we may and should as Pilgrims resolve for hard and unkindly entertainment in this strange world yea entertain a pilgrim never so well yet his heart is homeward so though the child of God were every way in a prosperous condition here on earth yet his heavenly mind is far above those empty husks his heart is in heaven here not only are we in a course of pilgrimage being absent in the body from the Lord but also in a daily warfare not only against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers against Satan the world our own rebellious corruption by which as a domestick traitor Satan and the world do deceive assail and overcome us now and then
38. but desire of life should be well qualified 1. It must be ever with submission to the good will of thy heavenly father thou must say as our Lord did Father if it be thy will let this cup pass away from me yet not my will but thine be done 2. It must be out of a serious intention and resolution to honour the God of thy life by bringing forth the fruits of righteousness after thy sickness that all who know thee may praise thy God not only in his power manifested in thy bodily recovery but in his mercy for healing thy soul and making thee to grow in grace after thy sickness 3. It must be with an earnest desire to glorifie God in thy calling As Paul Phil. 1.24 It is best for you that I abide in the flesh As Parents being sick may lawfully desire to live that they may bring up their children in the knowledge and nurture of the Lord but all this must be done with a submission to the will of God Object Object May a man out of discontentment for troubles worldly desire to be dissolved Answ That was Jonahs sinful fit of impatience Answ but it lasted not It is not lawful our of discontent to desire death we should be much displeased and discontent with our sins but in no wise with the good and blameless providence of God in afflicting us for our sins It were evil for us if death should take us away in such a fit It were with the silly fish but a leaping out of the lukewarm water into the hot fire It is a weakness of spirit to fret and faint under crosses but the strong spirit beareth them with resolution To this purpose Augustine doth argue well Augustine that Cato and Lucretia were both of weak spirits in so far as they could not bear those disgraces wherein they were innocent sufferers but out of their weakness of spirit and a desperate discontentment they became Agents in their own perpetual shame and confusion by self-murder and leaving their station without any order from God who had placed them therein It is most certain that crosses through Gods grace sanctifying them are means to wean the heart of the child of God from the world as babes are weaned from the brest after it is crossed with wormwood But the main ground wherein riseth and standeth the desire of Gods children to be dissolved is this that they may be delivered from the burthen and bondage of indwelling corruption and be with Christ which is best of all Therefore whatsoever thy present condition be labour thou to be content therewith This is a sure ground of comfort after thou art once in a state of grace and favour with God through Christ Thy present estate be it what it will prosperity or adversity it is ever the best Reverence his wise and holy providence God hath placed thee in this world Submit thou to his will for the time of thy abode or removal As God put Noah in the Ark so the holy man stayed there till God commanded him to come forth Joseph and Mary stayed in Aegypt till God sent them word to depart out of it So must we with patience abide in a miserable world until the time God sendeth for us and when death cometh as a messenger from God then should we answer as Rebekkah did to her nearest friends when they said Gen. 24. Wilt thou go with this man She answered readily and resolutely I will go She leaveth parents friends and all So at death should we be willing to leave all in this present world for it is best to be with Christ the prince of life and Lord of Glory To whom with the Father and Holy Ghost be all Praise Honour and Glory for now and ever Amen The glorious resurrection of the body by CHRIST JOH 5.28 29. Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice And shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation THe great priviledge of the glorious resurrection of our bodies The resurrection of the body a fruit of Christs Merit is also a sweet refreshing stream flowing out from the fulness of Christ his love merit and power 1 Cor. 15.22 Since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead we get a right and claim to this priviledge by Faith in Jesus Christ the purchaser of it Ioh. 5.24 Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into damnation but is passed from death into life It is spoken of the whole person and supposeth man made up of soul body also in the praeterit time he is passed from death unto life because his interest and claim to Christ doth ensure unto him all the benefits purchased by the death of Christ As the purchase is by the merit and satisfaction of Christ The application and appropriation of the right and claim by Faith in Jesus Christ so we are put in the possession of it by our Lord at his second coming Philip. 3.21 he shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned according to his glorious body In the words we have these four points considerable 1. In the words 4. points 1. The certainty of the resurrection of the body The hour is coming Our Lords Disciples and hearers marvelled when they heard of the Mysterie of the first resurrection whereof our Lord was speaking that those who were yet dead in their sins and trespasses should be quickned by the word and Spirit in these words he saith marvel not at that for not only is there a first resurrection in this world to a new life but also a second resurrection in the other world into eternal life 2. The universality of the resurrection All in the graves 3. The powerful means of the resurrection They shall hear his voice and shall come forth 4. The different ends of the resurrection according to the difference of the persons that will be raised They that have done good unto life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation From the first point we observe this Doctrine and Conclusion Doctrine There shall be a resurrection of the body It is most certain there will be a resurrection of the body The hour and time appointed for it in Gods purpose is coming saith our Lord in whose lips was never found guil There is a certainty of infallibility in respect of divine prediction for heaven and earth will pass away before one of his words fall to the ground and there is also a certainty of immutability in respect of Gods Decree and eternal purpose for the counsel of the Lord shall stand and he shall do all his pleasure Isa 46.10 The resurrection of the body is
daily experience the body is sown in dishonour a little before death the face becomes pale earthlike and the body of one dying doth smell of the earth like wine neer run out smelling of the dreg after the soul and breath is gone the body corrupteth and beginneth to stink like an empty earthen house without fire in it at such a time the body is loathsome even to the nearest friends Sarah had a fair and comely body yet after her death Abraham desired a place to bury her out of his sight But in the day of resurrection the bodies of the godly will be raised in honour in great comeliness and splendor though they be sown in dishonour and thrust into the dust yet like the root of a Lilly shut up under the ground in time of Winter they shall spring up again and be cloathed with beauty by the power of God who cloaths the Lilly 3. In respect of constitution and healthfull disposition the body is now sown in weakness saith the Apostle but will be raised in power Our constitution of body in this life at the best is weak though all bodies be not alike weak a fit of the burning Ague or of the Stone will lay the strongest man on his back and though the bodies of sonne be strong for bodily imployments yet through frequent labour and exercise they languish and become weary Sampson though of matchless strength yet did waste his spirits in the labour of the fight and became weary and thirsty the strongest bow will slug thorow too much bending and shooting and the strongest body will become weary with too much exercise on a death bed the strongest man is not able to hold the drink to his own head or to turn himself in his bed But in the day of resurrection the body will be raised in a strong constitution then will there be no weariness in the body nor faintness in the spirits This weakness of body now is one of the Symptoms of original corruption but death as a Catholicon will purge out that bitter peccant humour which maketh our bodies weak and after that purgation our bodies will be preserved and raised to a strong and confirmed health for ever in the heavens where the body will be kept from all corruption from within or alteration from without 4. In respect of exercise and operation it is sown a natural body saith the Apostle but it is raised a spiritual body not of a spiritual substance but with spiritual qualities for if it were raised an Aerial body as some erroneously have asserted then should not the same body which died be raised for it is sown an earthly body but it is called a spiritual body in respect of the exercise and use of the body after the resurrection it is here on earth a natural body having necessity of natural means and helps for preserving the species by procreation and for conserving the person by nutrition but after the resurrection the body will be abstract and retired from all such natural operations and employments the glorified Saints will be like angels neither giving nor taking in marriage Mat. 22.30 The number of the elect and triumphant Church wil be then compleat and their whole delights will be in an immediate communion with God which will drown both the remembrance and the desire of all creature-delights neither will the body then have need or use of meat and drink because the body will be of a fixed and durable constitution without any possibility of alteration or decay They will be filled with God and this will fully satisfie and delight both the soul and the body they will not hunger nor thirst because they will be ever full of the bread of life and of the water of life It will be a spiritual body in respect of Agility for Spirits are Agile The Angel Gabriel in a very short time came from the heaven to the earth Dan. 9. And the Angel Act. 8. carried Philips body in a very short time from one place to another so shall our spirits carry our bodies in a very short time through a large space and intervall Augustine Augustine in his book of the City of God lib. 22. ch 30. saith That certainly whereever the Spirit and soul would be straight wayes the body will follow the desire of the heart and be in that place Neither will the soul desire any thing which is unbeseeming for it self or the body as the helm turneth the Ship in a very short time wheresoever the Steersman will so our bodies will turn instantly at every motion of our Spirits our body will be caught up by our Spirits into the third heaven in a short time as Philips body was caught up and carried from one place to another Act. 8.39 where the same word is used which ye have 1 Thes 4.17 As for those members of our bodies which served to natural uses and employments in the time of our sojourning here they will remain in the body for ornament and integrity as the brests in women come to old age though they do not serve them for giving suck as sometime they did yet are they for the ornament of their bodies Augustine in the place above cited saith well Augustine all those members and bowels of the incorruptible body which in the time of mortality served for divers uses now they will serve for matter of praise to God This Doctrine serveth for admonition Vse 1 seeing there are different ends of the resurrections Be careful in this life to do well some will be raised to life and glory others to damnation Let it be thy desire and endeavour to be of their number in this life who do well because glory is appointed for such how earnest should we be to know that our resurrection will be unto life If many prisoners were shut up in one common prison and it were told to them all that some of them should be taken forth unto liberty and honour and others unto shame and pain in such a case how earnest would each of those prisoners be to enquire if himself were one of those appointed for liberty and honour It is certain death as a Jaylor will shut up all mankinde in the common prison of the grave and corruption how solicitous then should we be to know if we be appointed of God unto life and glory in this text our Lord giveth unto us a sure evidence of a glorious resurrection unto life to wit if thou hast done good in the body They that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life It is true good works have no place or interest in the work of our salvation by way of merit Christ our Mediator only hath Merited it by the work of his righteousness by him alone we have boldness to enter into the holiest Heb. 10.19 Neither have good Works any efficacy on our salvation It is the free gift of God Rom. 6.23 Yet it is
most true that good Works are necessary by way of concomitancy in him who is to be saved for without holiness none shall see the face of God Heb. 12.14 Although thou canst not be justified in this life by thy good Works yet in the day of resurrection thou shalt be judged according to thy Works Math. 25. 2 Cor. 5.10 Therefore as in the day of resurrection thou wouldest differ from evil doers who will be raised unto damnation see thou differ from them in thy living and dying Godly differ from the wicken in living 1. The wicked man in his life-time employeth his desires endeavours and time to serve his own lusts but the care of a Godly man and sound believer will be to serve his Lord Rom. 13.14 Put on the Lord Iesus and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof 2. The wicked man walketh in the broad way that leadeth to destruction he taketh unto himself ease and pleasure in sin as one having room in a broad way he doth not afflict or grieve his own heart at any time by refusing the unlawful desires of it But thou who wouldst rise to life must walk in the strait way that leadeth unto life thou must straiten and hem up thy desires and afflict thy unrenewed part and flesh by refusing and rejecting unruly desires and if at any time thy heart look back unto sin thou must afflict thy Spirit with Godly sorrow for any step thou hast made toward the broad way The Godly man and sound believer differeth also from the wicked in his dying Godly differ from the wicked in dying The wicked man at his death layeth not hold on Christ and dyeth unwillingly but thou that wouldst rise unto life thou must with old Simeon an old expectant of glory embrace Christ and hug him and the Promise of life made in him in the arms of thy faith as a dying man holdeth fast his gripe so shalt thou keep thy gripe of Christ in the day of resurrection thou shalt be found in him The Godly man dieth willingly commending his Spirit unto God as a faithful Creator he goeth unto death as his bed out of the which he will rise in that morning of eternity with refreshment but the ungodly and impenitent go to death unwillingly as unto a prison out of which they know they will be carried unto Judgement This is the heavenly posture of a Godly man on his death-bed he resteth by Faith on the only merit and satisfaction of Jesus Christ as a sick man doth upon a soft Mat underneath him he hath the lively hope of a glorious rest to his soul after its parting from the body and of a glorious resurrection of the body as a Pillow to hold up his head and heart that in all his pain he fainteth not and he hath good Works as a coverlet to adorn him in the sight of all that behold him The Believer at his death resteth not on them they are his coverlet but not his mat he is adorned and covered with them before the world who seeth them in him and should both glorifie God in his rich and free love for his graces bestowed on him and should labour to imitate him in his good life and happy death If thus thou differ from wicked men in thy life and death and be not an evil doer as they are in the purpose of their heart and course of their life The Lord who by his grace maketh thee to differ from them in this life shall in eternal mercy make thee to differ from them in thy resurrection for thy resurrection shall be unto eternal life if thou live to Christ thou shalt dye in Christ and in that day thou shalt be found in him and go with him to the third heaven and remain in glory for ever with him It serveth for a ground of terrour and awakening to the ungodly Vse 2 Terror to ungodly men who rush into sin as the horse into the Battle go on in their sins like the Ox unto the slaughter and will not know the evil of their wayes till the deadly dart of Gods wrath strike through their souls Remember O foolish man if thou live and dye in thy sins and as Zophar speaketh Iob 20.11 If thy bones be full of the sins of thy youth and they lie down with thee in the dust thou shalt rise unto damnation what thou wouldest not believe in this thy day thou shalt be forced from sense of pain to believe in that day of the Lord and then shall the faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ say as Paul did to his fellow-Passengers in the Ship Act. 27.21 If ye had hearkened unto me ye should not have gained this harm and loss The remembrance of neglected opportunities will encrease the fretting torment of their souls It may be thou hast pain and sickness in thy body with great agony at thy death but consider all that is but as a flea-bite in comparison of that worm that dyeth not and the fire which cannot be quenched Thou mayest be assured unless thou repent while thou art in the body thy pained and deformed body shall be raised up in greater pain and deformity An ugly and hideous spectacle will thy face and body be so that if it were possible in that day thou wouldest flye from thy self Then soul and body at their reunion and uniting will in a manner curse one another and live or rather languish together as it were in mutual imprecations for ever This will be a part of their hell like two Mastiffs chained together and tearing one another the soul will curse the body and all the Members of it for ministering temptations by the eyes and ears and for being too ready to bring forth and act sin conceived in the heart then soul and body that sinned together shall be tormented together as they were bound together in sin so also in punishment therefore let the sad forethought of pain in the body in that day calm thy impetuous affections Remember as thou sowest in the body so shalt thou reap in the body Gal. 6.8 thou shalt receive according to that thou hast done in the body 2 Cor. 5.10 The serious forethought of this will be an awful means to suppress thy tumultuary affections The Town-clerk Act. 19.40 composed the tumult with one word we are in danger said he to be called in question for this dayes uproar so consider thou art in danger to be called in question in that day of resurrection for the insurrection and rebellion of thy heart against thy Lord in this thy day The Royal preacher soundeth forth this sad but profitable Note into the ears of young men who are dit-times violent like Jehu in their sinful courses Eccles 11.9 Rejoyce O young man in thy youth c. but know thou that for all those things God will bring thee unto Judgement This Doctrine serveth for a solid ground of comfort to the Godly who
endeavour to glorify God in the body Vse 3 Sound comfort to the Godly let the meditation on these glorious qualities of the body in the day of resurrection comfort thy heart under all the pains and troubles in the body Thy vile body will be changed now thy body is decaying and dying daily thou art troubled in underpropping thy ruinous house of clay and do what thou canst one time it will fall down but there is thy comfort it will be raised in incorruption This was the ground of the Apostles comfort against the decay and dissolution of the body 2 Cor. 5.1 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 there we will get a Mansion John 14.2 In my Fathers house are many Mansions then our condition will not be subject to alterations like men dwelling in a Tabernacle and removing from place to place but it will be fixed and permanent without any change it will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an abiding of glory and joy 2. Though now possibly there be some deformity in thy body yet in that day thy body shall be compleat and comely though at thy death thy body were full of fores and ulcers yet if thou dye in the Lord thy body shall be raised in honor and comely beauty in that day Lazarus will have no sores as the body will be fully purged in that day from all contagion of sin so will it be freed from all deformity which was only a Symptom of indwelling corruption 3. Whereas thy body is now weak and frail a little thing doth soon distemper thy Spirit and little labour makes thy body weary This is thy comfort that in the day of resurrection thy body will be raised in strength though now thou canst not go up a little hill without some weariness in the body yet in that day thou shalt go up in the body to the third heaven and shalt not be weary 4. Now thou art much troubled about the natural operations and imployments of the body for food and rayment and other things pertaining to this decaying life but in that day thou wilt have appetite after nothing but God himself and all thy appetite will be fully satisfied by a perpetual delight in thy God infinite all-sufficient unchangeable and eternal in glory goodness and bounty towards thee Thou who art vexed disquieted in this life with the relicks of inordinate concupiscence remaining in the body thou hast cause to be humbled in the sight of God for that body of death yet there is thy comfort thou shalt be freed in that day from all such molestation in the body and thou shalt be like unto the spotless Angels without all inclination to delight in any thing but in the knowledge and love of God◠In that day great will be thy joy at the meeting of the soul and the body Though at parting here by death there was much pain and trouble like the parting of Iacob and Benjamin yet their meeting will be with great joy like the meeting of Iacob and Ioseph the soul will bring down good news from heaven to the body like the report of the faithful spies Numb 14. to encourage the body to go with it unto the heavens where they shal rejoyce together for ever in the presence of God then shall their joy be encreased at their meeting with Christ and perpetuated in their abode with Christ in the third heaven and following with praise and triumph the Lamb where-ever he goeth To him with the Father and holy Spirit be all praise honour and glory now and ever Amen Of Eternal Life by and with CHRIST PSAL. 17.15 As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness AS the glorious resurrection of the body is a refreshing stream from the fulness of Christ so is also eternal life Eternal life is in and from Christ which is the full and compleat happiness of soul and body in one person This is purchased by the Merit of the righteousness and obedience of Iesus Christ Rom. 5.20 21. Where sin abounded Grace did much more abound that as sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Iesus Christ our Lord by Faith in Iesus Christ we get a right and claim unto eternal life Ioh. 6.47 he that believeth on me hath everlasting life by him we shall be put in possession of eternal life Math. 2◠34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you After that the bodies of them that have done good are raised up and inlivened with the souls then shall the Saints go with the Lord unto the third heaven and there in soul and body enjoy eternal life The great blessing of eternal life is laid before us by the Psalmist The sense of the words in these words I know some Interpreters understand the words to be meant of the lively sense of Gods favour bestowed upon his children after they have been for a time under a night of trouble It is most true light is sown even in darkness for the upright in heart though the Lord hide his face in a little wrath for a moment yet with everlasting kindness will he have mercy Isa 54.8 But I conceive as many sound Interpreters do the Prophet speaketh of that confidence and hope the children of God have of rest happiness and satisfaction after this life when their bodies that sleep in the grave shall be awaked to the resurrection of life Because he opposeth the hope of after happiness as a strong prop to sustain the children of God in all their troubles and wants in this life against the temptations from the prosperity of wicked men in this present world to whom God giveth a large portion of things worldly The Prophet comforteth himself and all the Godly with the hope of that full and enduring portion in the other life some read the latter part of the verse thus I shall be satisfied when thy Image or likeness is awaked and the original will bear it as if the meaning were thus when I who was once created to thy Image shall rise again I shall be satisfied but I encline rather to the ordinary reading I shall be satisfied with thy Image when I awake by Image is understood the face of God which in the former part of this verse is called a beholding of Gods face in the immediate seeing whereof will stand our eternal happiness when we shall see him as he is 1 Ioh. 3.2 In the words we have The parts of the Text. 1. The time of his compleat and consummate happiness when I awake 2. The matter of his happiness and the manner of enjoying it the matter and object Gods face or likeness the manner
of enjoying I will behold thy face 3. His perfect disposition and condition in the state of happiness I shall behold in righteousness having my heart perfectly conformed to the will of God the perfect and adequate rule of righteousness 4. The measure of his happiness I shall be satisfied my happiness will be full in the measure without want of any thing that can make me happy all my desires shall be satisfied and my happiness in respect of duration shall be eternal without a shadow or fear of a change The time when his compleat happiness will begin is The time of full happiness at the day of resurrection when I awake This is no wayes to to be understood of the awaking of the soul as if the soul during the sequestration of it from the body were as in a sleep without all sense either of pain or joy until the day of resurrection This is contrary to the holy Scriptures that tell us the spirit returns to him that gave it Eccles 12.7 The soul of the rich man was tormented and the soul of Lazarus comforted Luk. 16. Our Lord said to the convert Thief This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise and therefore his soul went straight to heaven Rev. 14 13. Blessed are the dead who dye in the Lord from hence forth that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them This place as it overturns that invention of purgatory for it is said from henceforth that is after their death they rest from their labours and so go not to that labour in the fire of purgatory So it discovereth and confuteth that dotage of some in the former and present times concerning the sleeping of the soul Neither can the place be understood only of a meer privation of trouble or pain such as dead bodies may have but it is a rest from labour with comfort reflecting to the soul from point of pain 1. It is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comforting rest as the same word is used by our Lord Math. 11.28 2. The place speaks of this rest as a special benefit bestowed on them that dye in the Lord and therefore it is not as some have thought a rest from all pain or joy which they affirmed to be common for a time both to the souls of good and evil men 3. And withall it is said their Works follow them to tell us no sooner the evening of this their life is ended but immediately they get their reward of glory in beholding the face of their Father which is in heaven But this manner of speech is used to express the death and rising of the body for in the Scripture phrase the death of the body is compared unto a sleep Ioh 11.11 Our friend Lazarus is asleep saith our Lord but I go to awake him of Iairus daughter our Lord said the maid sleepeth Math. 9.24 1 Thes 4.15 We which are alive shall not prevent them that are asleep The death of the body is fitly compared to a sleep Death fitly compared to a sleep for those reasons following 1. In time of sleep the senses are bound up there is no exercise of them so after death the body cannot act nor exercise any natural operation 2. As some go sooner to bed for sleep and others later so some dye in their younger others in an older age 3. As in sleeping some lye longer in bed others but a short time so the bodies of the Patriarchs are a longer time in their graves then the bodies of those who dye in the later times 4. As after sleeping there is an awaking so after death there will be a raising of the body 5. As some after sleep are refreshed and rise up cheerful others awake sick and heavy so in that morning of eternity the day of resurrection the Godly at their awaking from death will be refreshed and made glad with the sight of Gods face but the wicked will be awaked and rise with an heavy and doleful heart at the sight of Gods angry countenance then shall they curse the day of their birth and wish they had perished with the beast what Iob said once in a fit wishing for his dissolution they shall say in an eternal impatience longing for an Annihilation but shall not obtain it Iob 3.20 Wherefore is light given unto him that is in misery and life unto the bitter in soul which long for death but it cometh not and dig for it more then for hid treasures Our compleat happiness is delayed until the time our bodies be awaked and raised out of the grave Doctrine Compleat happiness shall be after our resurrection for it is said here I shall be satisfied when I awake Our satisfaction will not be till then The children are first awaked and raised up in the morning before they be set down at Table so our bodies must be first raised before we can be set down at their common Table and Communion of glory with Abraham Isaac and Iacob for our happiness cannot be consummate until the person be glorified both in soul and body that our compleat happiness is delayed till that time is evident from Scripture Dan. 12.2 Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life 1. Cor. 15.54 When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption then death is swallowed up in victory so that the compleat happiness both in soul and body will not be until we get victory over death and the grave by the resurrection of the body Thus the Lord delayeth it in his wisdom for these reasons 1. To shew his truth and faithfulness Reasons 1 by inflicting death according to the Word of threatning Gen. 3.19 Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return And therefore to fulfil the Word of truth there must be a dissolution and returning of the body unto dust before there can be a resurrection 2. To confirm our faith of the resurrection when we hear the bodies of the Patriarchs do rest yet in their graves and are not raised up we are assured God will raise them and our selves with them If God had raised their bodies already Many would have doubted of any other resurrection yea when we see at any time the graves opened of those who dyed in the Lord their very bones and dust preach unto us and this a pious Necromancie the Doctrine of the resurrection that the bodies shall awake and rise unto life 3. The Lord delayeth it to shew his great power in quickening and raising the bodies that have been dead long ago for all things are alike possible to our God of infinite power he can raise them who are dead thousands of years since with no less facility then those who are lately dead with the same omnipotent facility he raised Lazarus stinking in the Grave and Jairus daughter but a few hours after her death his infinite power admits not a more and a less Gates of Brass and
in his servant David who made conscience to walk according to his knowledge Psal 119.100 I understand more then the Antients because I keep thy precepts 4. In an hour of tryal and temptation look to the promises of God who is both able and willing to sustain thee under thy greatest burthens and will not suffer thee to be tempted above that thou art able 1 Cor 10.13 we may look unto the strength of a temptation and then be humbled with a sense of our own weakness but withall let us look to God by Faith and rest upon his Almighty infinite and everlasting strength who hath promised to renew strength to all that wait upon him Isa 40.31 This Doctrine serveth for a ground of comfort to the children of God Vse 3 Comfort to the children of God discouraged with the sense of their daily out-breaking infirmities and with that want of the sensible comfort of the love of God in an hour of darkness and dissertion Here is ground of solid comfort seeing a person once accepted into favour through Christ is never therefore cast out of Gods favour daily infirmities daily bemoaned in secret before God and wrestled against may and do consist with a state of grace the Apostle speaking in the name of persons renewed saith In many things we fail all Jam. 3.2 It is true if we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we l ye The renewed man walketh not in sin as his way intended and delighted in but it is no less true If we lay we have no sin we deceive our selves 1 Ioh. 1.6 8. be thou humbled for thy daily infirmities wrestle against them shun all occasions of evil and the Lord will not cast thee off for disliked infirmities Mal. 3.17 I will spare them as a man that spareth his own Son that serveth him a loving Father accepteth in good part the endeavours of his willing child to serve him though there be weakness and much imperfection in the performance Our heavenly Father is full of pitty he did not reject Abraham for his distrustful fears nor Moses for his unadvised speech at Meribah nor Ionah for his bitter fit of impatience nor the Apostles for their ignorance and ambition yea consider that regenerate persons may fall into gross and scandalous sins as David and Peter therefore thou that art regenerate while thou standest look to the falls of others and work out thy salvation in fear and trembling thou who hast fallen look to their repentance and rise with them and therefore walk more circumspectly redeeming the time Obj. But how shall a soul in a time of dissertion Obj. be assured they are continued in favour and acceptance with God Answ As for dissertions we would consider 1. Answ The end of Gods disserting 2. The manner 3. The measure 4. What is our duty in that sad time of dissertion Dissertions in respect of the end are of three sorts Penal Medicinal and Probatory First God disserts wicked men out of wrath as a Judge Dissertions are either 1. Penal to punish them for their antecedent and wilful disserting of him and his holy commandments for this end God never doth dissert a justified and regenerate person because wrath was taken away in his Justification at which time God accepted him in the beloved God never hateth those he once Accepts in Jesus Christ as he ever loveth his Son so he ever loveth all the Mystical Members of his Son as he loveth the head so the Members also But God as a Judge in wrath doth dissert wicked and unrenewed men to correct them and to manifest his Justice against and hatred of them This he doth not by withdrawing saving or renewing grace from them for such they never had but by withdrawing a common restraining grace which formerly was as a strong rampant to keep their wickedness from overflowing Such was that Penal and Judicial dissertion of the Jews Act. 7.42 God turned and gave them up to worship the Host of heaven such was that dissertion of the Romans Rom. 1.24 God also gave them up to uncleanness the Lord also disserts wicked men by withdrawing a common though an eminent gift of their particular calling so Saul was disserted when the Spirit of government departed from him 1 Sam. 16.14 This is a Penal and Judicial dissertion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly 2. Medicinal God disserts sometimes his own children in an hour of temptation as a Father displeased with them by withdrawing strength and his upholding Grace to the end he may chastise and humble them for some corruption not perceived or not mourned for by themselves to this end the Lord disserted Peter and did not strengthen him by a special help of grace in that hour of temptation in the High Priests hall that he might chastise and humble him for self-confidence whereof Peter took no notice before his fall This may be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Fatherly or Medicinal dissertion to purge out some latent corrupt humor and to prevent other dangerous symptoms of the body of death that dwels in us Thirdly 3. Probatory Sometimes the Lord disserts his own children in respect of sense of any present comforts to this end that he may try the Faith and patience of his own children who in the cloudy and dark day must walk by Faith and not by sense This may be called a dissertion Probatory 1 Pet. 1.7 Now for a season ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations that the tryal of your Faith being much more precious then of Gold may be found unto praise c. As the Gold-smith puts the Gold into the fire not to consume but to purge and try the same To this end was David disserted and for a time had no sense of comfort Psal 30.7 Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled and Psal 10.1 to this end was Iob disserted in respect of comfort that his Faith and patience might be seen to the praise of Gods grace and to the good example of others Iob 7.3 and 13 14 15. and Iames will have us look to him as a pattern of patience Iam. 5.11 Ye have heard of the patience of Job Consider the manner of Gods disserting his own children The manner of Gods disserting It is not in respect of his love toward them This is founded on his eternal purpose of electing them in Christ and it is unchangeable yea it is out of love he chastiseth them Heb. 12.6.10 and also for our profit that we may be partakers of his holyness Neither is it a dissertion in respect of the life of grace for even when the children of God fail and do not act grace yet the seed remains in them 1 Ioh. 3.9 Peter fell foully yet at that time the Lord preserved the life of Faith in his soul Luc 22.32 Sathan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as Wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy Faith
admonition to put us in mind to be moderate and sober in spirit in the use of things worldly Man is subject to a necessity of dying therefore set not your hearts too much upon those things ye must sometimes leave 1 Cor. 7.31 Vse the world as not abusing it we abuse it and it abuseth and abaseth us when we make it Master of our affections then make we the earth our heaven and happiness and by so doing the world draweth away the heart from true happiness The Apostle telleth us the fashion of this world passeth away like a Stage-play as the word imports within the space of an 100. years if the world endure so long new Actors and Players will come upon the Stage One generation goeth and another cometh like some going to the common market others who have made either a good or evil bargain coming from it you would think that Son foolish and evil-advised who being sent by his Father to travel for a short time in a strange countrey should marry there without his Fathers consent in a place which he must leave and he knoweth not how soon his father may send for him and reckon with him for misdemeanors abroad and shall we be so foolish and unadvised as to espouse our hearts to the world For who can tell how soon the Lord may send his messenger death for us and sentence us with an eternal divorce because our hearts went a whoring from him after strange lovers 2. Be not proud of any thing enjoyed Let us not be proud of any thing we enjoy in this present world Thou canst not tell how short a time thou maist enjoy it It is both vanity and folly to be proud of a borrowed cloak thou canst not tell how soon it may be sent for and thou divested of it The Romans of old did put a Sergeant in the triumphal Chariot to keep the triumphing Conqueror amidst all his triumph within the bounds of moderation and sobriety of spirit by crying to him Memento te esse mortalem Remember thou art a mortal man Philip of Macedon directed his Page every morning to call at his chamber door with this morning salutation Memento mori Remember death Thoughts of mortality in the morning keeps our spirits sober all day long Tamberlane that great captain and conqueror caused a winding sheet to be carried in his march before him the displaying of deaths banner made him sober minded amidst all his warlike and victorious banners it is well known some Jews of the greater and better sort had their sepulchers in their gardens that in the midst of their pleasures they might be mindful of death The thoughts of it were as water to their wine for preserving them from surfeit and drunkenness with worldly cares and pleasures This doctrine serveth for exhortation Vse 4 seeing sin hath brought on man a necessary subjection unto death Be preparing for our change it is the wisdom and duty of every person to be preparing for their change this is a duty required both of young and old The Preacher giveth the same counsel to young men Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth and his reason is taken from deaths insensible and yet most certain approach because the time is coming when the marrow of the back-bone which joyns all the members to the head and one to another as a silver cord will be loosed The heart that is like a golden bowl from which all the parts of the body drink in the vital spirits will be broken And the head that is like a wheel eminent and conspicuous above other members as the wheel is above the cistern it will be broken and laid in the dust Although thou be young yet remember the day of death comes on apace No sooner begin we to live but so soon begin we to die Our life is in a continual flux and sometime it will run out The serious fore-thought of this change will be a mean to mortifie youthful lusts This will make sin die in thee before thy self die and thy life will be most comfortable after thy dying to sin from thenceforth Christ liveth in thee Gal. 2.20 and he comforteth and reviveth the heart where he dwelleth and liveth Isa 57.15 If the young should prepare for their change what should those do who are of riper years and by course of nature neerer to the end of their journey should not such prepare for their removal as Job did Job 14.14 All the days of my appointed time will I wait Motives till my change come Consider 1. The necessity of death is inevitable it is appointed for all to die Heb. 9.27 Nothing earthy can exempt thee not thy riches the rich Glutton died Not thy honour Kings are laid in the dust Not thy wisdom Solomon died against it nor might nor strength wil guard thee Great Commanders have been arrested and hurried to deaths prison in the head of their armies yea grace will not exempt thee Abraham the believing Patriarchs died 2. Consider the circumstances of time place and manner are all most uncertain One said truly we all come into the world one way but we go out of it a thousand divers ways Therefore thou shouldst be preparing at all times for thou knowest not at what hour of the day or watch of the night death may come upon thee as a thief Did not death and destruction come upon the old world when they were most secure Mat. 24.38 And upon the rich man at the time he had most rest and plenty of provision for many days Luke 12.18 Therefore number to thy self not years but days and count every day as thy last day Psal 90.12 So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom and is not this a special point of wisdom to foresee the plague and hide our selves under the shadow of Christ and the merit of his death from the curse of death Prov. 22.3 A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself but the simple pass on and are punished yea the Heathen Poet could say Think every day thy last day in all places guard thy heart and be preparing for death at home and abroad thou mayst go out of thy house in good health in the morning but return home sick and die before the evening 2 King 4.18 Old Eli went out in good health in the morning but dyed before the evening 1 Sam 4.18 How to prepare for death Object But how shall I be prepared for death Answ 1. Labour for repentance and reconciliation with God be reconciled with thine adversary while thou art in the way Mat. 5. which place Augustin applieth to this same purpose Augustine for if thou dyest in thy impenitency having God thy adversary consider in time what will be thy fear and confusion in the day of thy appearing before his tribunal Sin unrepented of is the sting whereby the first death woundeth a
be fully manifested in the day of the glorious resurrection of our bodies Object Object But is not the punishment of sin as well as the fault taken away in our Justification by the blood of Jesus how comes it to pass that the children of God notwithstanding the forgiveness of their sins are yet punished by temporal death Answ I answer Answer Death is not inflicted on Believers in wrath that death temporal is formally and properly a punishment when it is inflicted by God as a Judge in his wrath and when it is a door and passage to the second death and to a perpetual separation from the face of God But the death of the godly is not inflicted by God in wrath for these reasons 1. Because in the remission of their sins and reconciliation with God in their justification all wrath is taken away God forgiveth and forgetteth their sins Isa 43.25 I blot out thy transgressions for my own names sake and will not remember thy sins But where wrath remaineth sin is not forgotten 2. That which is sent and turned by God into a blessing is not inflicted in wrath but death is turned into a blessing to the children of God Rev. 14.13 it is a passage unto their eternal rest in their countrey that is above It is as a speedy passage by sea to a traveller returning home to his Fathers house 3. That which which is precious in the eyes of the Lord is not inflicted in wrath for precious things are testimonies of love and not evidences of wrath but the death of the Saints is precious in the eyes of God Psal 116.15 Next I answer death to the godly is not a door of fear and condemnation but of hope and salvation Rom 8.1 There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus There may be in a great Princes house a common door and gate at which Malefactors do enter and go down into the dark dungeon at which also the children may enter and go up to the rooms above that are full of light The door is one and the same but the use of it is far diverse in the respect to the one and the other So dissolution at death is common both to the godly and wicked but the relation that death hath to them is diverse to the one it is a passage for glory and to the other for eternal pain from whence it appeareth that the punishment standeth not so much in the dissolution of the person which is common both to the godly and wicked As in that ordination of the first death to be a passage unto eternal death which in Gods purpose is ordained and in justice executed on the wicked It is true death wil be bitter in the pains of it even to the godly but this bitterness of death is not properly a punishment to the godly as a bitter potion given out of the hand of a loving father to his weak child is not given as a punishment but as a medicine that though it be painful for a time yet he may have stronger health in time to come So after the bitterness of death is passed the children of God get confirmed health and salvation in the kingdom of heaven Object Object But hath not Christ by dying once fully satisfied for us how is it then that Believers are not freed from that debt of death for the which their surety hath given satisfaction Answ I answer true it is Our Lord died Answ Believers dy not to satisfie divine justice that by his death he might satisfie divine justice fully but to this end we dy not that we may satisfie divine justice for a finite creature cannot satisfie infinite justice yea the wicked in hell do not by their sufferings fully satisfie they will be ever in satisfying but never able to make out the satisfaction The end of the death of the Godly is not as was the end of Christs death to satisfie the justice of God as a Judge but to subject themselves to his fatherly pleasure and wisdom that by death they may be purged from the dross of inbred corruption and thus enter into the glory and Joy of their father for corruption cannot inherit incorruption did not our Lord fulfill all righteousness for us in his active obedience and yet we stand obliged to the mandatory power of the Law as we have endeavoured to prove elsewhere in Serm. 4. on Ezek 36 6.27 though we be not bound to obey the Law for the same end our Lord obeyed it to wit for our justification yet we are bound thereto for this end that by our obedience we may testifie our thankfulness to the Lord our creator and redeemer likewise in our Lords passive obedience his end was to satisfie for our guiltiness and obligation to punishment but a special end in all our sufferings is that we may be conformable to the Lord our head Rom 8.29 not by satisfying with him but by our patient submission to the will of our heavenly father like as our Lord in all things submitted to the will of his father Object Object But many of the dear children of God are not freed from the fear of death as David and Ezechias had their own fears in a large measure Psal 116. Isa 38. How then say ye that Christ hath delivered us from the fear of death Answ Answ Believers have a natural fear of death I answer it is no wonder the godly have a natural fear because they have as all creatures a natural desire of self-preservation and this natural fear being concreated with man in the state of integrity was not sinful But sometime this natural fear exceeds in the godly when faith and hope is weak This excess of natural fear is in them a sinful infirmity not to be defended by any but to be pitied by others and mourned for by themselves and prayed against by all weakness of faith at such times makes their fears great and strong when the children of God have deep apprehensions of death and but weak apprehensions of Iesus Christ and of eternal life by him then is their eye fixed on the bitter potion which breeds astonishment until the time they gather their thoughts and by faith and hope look to that eternal health which will follow upon this bitter potion Our Lord said to Peter Mat. 14 Why art thou so fearful O thou of little faith little faith makes much fear but a vigorous faith into Gods special presence though it do not altogether expel yet will it moderate and regulate our natural fear of death Psal 23.4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff comfort me They are as children in their loving Fathers hand and fear not to pass through that dark trance to their eternal Mansions of light and glory This doctrine serves to rouse raise our hearts unto the duty of Thankfulness
in the hour of temptation we get rest in time of our life from divers temptations which Satan as a crafty fowler useth thereby as so many calls and whistlings to allure into his Net divers kinds of silly fools in our yonger years we are tempted to untowardness and frowardness in riper years to riot and sensuality after that to pride and ambition and in our declining age to covetousness and worldly mindedness To have our hearts even then fixed in the world when one of our feet is already in the grave a most untimely temptation and yet prevails with too many Is it not therefore best to be dissolved and to be with Christ There and then will be perfect peace and freedom from this body of sin and inordinate concupiscence which like a troubled sea raised up with the winds of temptations doth cast up mire and dirt but in heaven with Christ our Lord there is a perpetual calm all the stormy winds are in the inferior region of the air so all the winds of temptations are here below but none there where our Sun of righteousness shineth for ever Man here is subject to one cross after another like Paul no sooner out of the danger of the raging sea but a Viper leapeth upon his hand Act. 28. No sooner do our eyes dry but we are put to weeping again The breathing times and respite God in his goodness giveth to us at one time are to prepare us for a new onset at another time is it not therefore best to be there where all tears will be wiped from our eyes Rev. 21.4 2. It is best to be in heaven with Christ if we compare the small beginnings of glory here with that cempleat glory and hapiness there here the children of God receive the earnest of the spirit and the first fruits of eternal life but what is the earnest penny in comparison of that full sum of glory which cannot be conceived or numbred by the heart of man here And what is the handful of the first fruits in comparison of the full harvest of Joy in heaven I grant the earnest should comfort and encourage us in the assured expectation of the full bargain of happiness for faithful is he who hath promised And the first fruits some grains of peace and joy bestowed on us here should comfort us in the hope of that full joy there that shall never be taken from us The same was a ground of the Apostle his willingness to be dissolved and of his confidence to be eternally happy after his dissolution 2 Cor. 5.6 8. He hath given unto us the earnest of the spirit we are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord 6. Consider to what society and company we go at our death we remove not to a strange countrey but to our fathers house to the immediate fruition of God Father Son and Holy Ghost to the soc ety of holy Angels and to the souls of just men made perfect what ravishment and contentment of spirit had Peter upon the Mount in the society of our Lord at his transfiguration and of those two witnesses Moses and Elias It is good to be here said he what then wilt thou think and say when thou shalt have an immediate communion with thy Lord and a comfortable but unspeakable communion with all the Angels and Saints in heaven Old Jacob was much encouraged to go down unto Egypt when he considered Joseph was there before him to receive and welcome him when he looked beside to the waggons and provision sent to him for his journey and when he looked behinde him to a land of famine from which he was to depart So at the hour of death we have matter of encouragement when by faith we look before us Our Joseph the Lord Jesus Christ the great Steward and dispenser of grace and glory is before us to welcome us when we look with the eye of sense and experience beside us Our Ioseph sendeth some provision of faith and hope to hold in the life of grace by the way And when we look behinde us we leave a world abounding in sin and misery That divine Philosopher Socrates said death would be a hard matter to me if I thought not I were going to men departed this life and those far better then many who stay behind them Therefore in this respect also it is best to be dissolved and to be with Christ 7. Consider our happy condition is a thing certain and sure already prepared for us by the merit of Christ and reserved for us in heaven 1 Pet. 1.4 It is not with us blessed be God as with the Emperour Hadrian he knew not whether his soul went at death when he said O my silly wandering soul into what places wilt thou now go But a Believer saith with Paul 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed Our Lord hath told us Joh. 14.12 I go to prepare a place for you As a man espousing a wife in a strange countrey returneth to his own countrey maketh all ready for her coming home and in his convenient time sendeth his special friends for her to convoy her home so our Lord by his word hath suited us and by faith wrought in us by his Spirit hath espoused us unto himself he hath gone before us prepared all happiness for us and in his own good time doth send his holy Angels to convoy our souls at death unto that eternal house in heaven not made with hands The sight and knowledge of this made the Apostle to groan in his spirit and long for it 2 Cor. 5.1 2. As one dwelling for a time in a strait dark and rainy house compassed about with naughty and wicked neighbours such a man after he hath gotten a promise of a large lightsome and close house that hath the society of good and comfortable neighbours how much will he long for the term of removal Such is our condition in the body Much straitness and suppression of spirit through many grievous troubles much ignorance and darkness in our understanding Many temptations like rain dropping in through the open and ill-guarded organs of our senses And also many wicked men do compass us like Bees to sting us but in that house and happy condition above there is largeness of spirit and freedom from all molestation full light and knowledge stability perpetual in grace and glory above the rain and wind of temptations And there is the blessed society of God Angels and perfect souls Therefore from all these considerations we must and should conclude it is best to be dissolved and to be with Christ with whom our life is hid in God Object Object But may not the child of God in a time of sickness desire to live and pray to God for recovery Answ I answer no doubt he may so did David Psal 39.13 Answ A believer may in time of sickness pray to live and Ezekias Is
most certain in both respects 1. 1. It is foretold It is foretold and revealed by the holy Spirit in the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first Gospel preached by God himself in Paradise Gen. 3.15 the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the Serpent that is destroy all his works when the head is bruised and crushed forthwith all the operations and actings proceeding from it are crushed and destroyed So the power and dominion of death over the body in the grave one of his works brought upon us by his tempting and our own virtual consent in our first Parents is destroyed in the seed of the woman as was foretold in that first and fundamental Gospel-Promise Exod. 3.6 I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob which place our Lord cites against the Sadduces to prove the certainty of the resurrection Math. 22.32 Because God is the God of the whole man and man is not whole without the body Iob 19.25 I know my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth And though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another Iob is confident of his resurrection in the same individual body Psal 17.15 I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness which place sound Interpreters both antient and modern do expound of the awakening of the body from the sleep of death in the day of resurrection To this purpose speak also the holy Prophets Isa 25.8 He will swallow death into victory And this is by delivering our bodies from the captivity of the grave wherein death and corruption for a time had power over them Isa 66.14 Your bones shall flourish like an herb at the day of resurrection the bodies that were hid in the graves and secret receptacles of the earth like a herb hid under the ground in time of Winter The Son of righteousness at his return will revive them and make them spring forth in fresh and lively colours by the effectual influence of his mighty power Dan. 12.2 Many of them that sleep in the dust shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt It is certain also from the divine Oracles of the New Testament Math. 12.41 The Ninevites shall rise in Iudgement Ioh. 11.24 I am the resurrection and the life saith our Lord Act. 24.25 Paul preacheth before Foelix of the Iudgement to come and if there will be a Judgement certainly the resurrection of the body must precede that the persons to be judged may give appearance before the Judgement Seat And Paul preaching to the same purpose Act. 26.9 saith Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God shall raise the dead As the resurrection of the body is infallibly certain 2. It is appointed by God in respect it is revealed and foretold in holy Scriptures so it is immutably certain in respect it is so appointed by God in his eternal counsel and decree which cannot be altered Act. 10 42. God hath commanded us to preach that Jesus Christ is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead If God ordained him to be Judge then certainly he ordained that there should be a resurrection that men might be brought before this Judge for without a resurrection there could be no persons to be Judged Rom. 14 10. We shall stand before the Iudgement seat of Christ There cannot be a standing till first there be a raising from the dead Act. 17.31 He hath appointed a day wherein he will Iudge the world in righteousness The Apostle proveth the certainty of the resurrection from the certainty of a day of Judgement set and appointed of God Iob 6.40 This is the will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day In which words our Lord sheweth us that eternal life is appointed and ordained of God for all that believe on him and that the resurrection of the body is a means also appointed of God for executing the Decree of their compleat glory That the resurrection of the body is possible and probable 3. It is possible and probable the Apostle Paul proveth at large 1 Cor. 15. from Gods power seen in things natural and obvious to sense as in raising out of the grain of corn sown and dying under the clod a fair stalk of corn with many grains The day saith Tertullian is buried in the night and yet riseth in the morning we see also in vegetables the herb that is withered in the Winter doth in the Spring time revert and flourish again the Lillie puts on again those pleasant colours in the Spring time that were laid aside in the Winter Do we not see that Alchymists out of divers herbs cast into one common Limbick do extract those simple principles of which at first they were composed And what is our sleeping in the night time but a shadow and resemblance of death then are our senses bound up from exercise and our awaking in the morning is a rising to the use and exercise of our senses such like arguments prove only the possibility of a resurrection for with God nothing is impossible and all things are alike possible to him who is of infinite power but the certainty of it is proved only from holy Scriptures for God is able to do many things which he will not as to raise up children to Abraham of stones This possibility of the resurrection is well inferred from his infinite power but the certainty of it is concluded from his will and purpose revealed in holy Scriptures which are infallibly true This Doctrine serveth for admonition to all Vse 1 Be thankful for the revelation of this Mysterie who live within the verge of the Church of Christ to be thankful to God who of his good pleasure hath revealed to us this great mysterie hid from the wise men and great Philosophers in former ages who in their conjectures about the estate of the dead became vain in their own imaginations It is true they had some glimpses of the immortality of the soul Plato in his Dialogue entituled Phaedo saith by deaths coming to a man that which is in him immortal departeth freed from corruption and giveth way to death Cicero in his Tusculan questions lib. 1. saith it was a maxim inbred in the Antients that man at death is not so taken away that by it he is altogether destroyed and annihilated The Poet Lucan lib. 1. rendreth the reason why the old Gauls were so hardie in all their encounters at â—â—ght because their Pagan Priests called Druides did teach them that their souls immediately after death would be in a happy condition but concerning the resurrection of
As in thy mourning thou makest conscience of natural affection to thy dear friend so at the same time make conscience also of thy supernatural affection and submission to the will of thy heavenly Father this consideration will regulate thy sorrow 2. Consider It is best for thy dear Christian friend to be with Christ and thou hast great cause to bless God that thou knowest where he is he is now at his rest from all his labours Rev. 14.13 A loving wife parting from her husband on the shore when he is going to another Country though her heart be sad at parting yet doth she rejoyce to hear of his safe and happy arrival at his wished Port bless God and rejoyce in this thou knowest from the good Word of God thy friend is come safe to his Port where the salvation of God will be a perpetual Bulwark against all troubles and storms 3. Consider The Lord our God keepeth the very dust and rude materials of their bodies Rizpah watched over the bodies of the Sons of Saul and guarded them against the ravenous fouls of the ayr 2 Sam. 21. And shall not the Lord who is love it self preserve the bodies of his own dear children against that day the Lord had a care of the Prophets dead body 1 King 13.24 when a ruinous house is taken down by the owner he carefully layeth aside the stones and timber and keepeth them till afterward out of them he raiseth it up in a new frame So the Lord doth keep the materials of the body until he raise it up in a new frame of beauty 4. Consider as the body of thy deceased friend is carefully kept so will it be powerfully raised and we shall all meet together in that assembly of the first born Peter James and Iohn met with Moses and Elias at the transfiguration of our Lord which was a prelude of his second coming in visible glory so in that day thou shalt see and know thy dear friends but all in Christ That superlative relation of being glorified fellow Members of his Mystical body will swallow up all relations according to the flesh As a woman marrying one that is her neer kinsman though she know such a relation yet her love to him as her husband surpasseth far her former respects she carried to him only as her kinsman The second point considerable 2 Point The universality is the universality of the resurrection All that are in the Graves The word rendred graves signifieth monuments or remembrances because graves are memorials of the dead and should be of good use for the living to be Monitors and remembrancers of their mortalitie by Graves we understand not only the lower places of the earth wherein the bodies have been interred for the bodies of many will be raised that were never buried but by graves we understand the receptacles of the dead such as the Ayr Water and Earth they must and will render up their dead Revel 20.13 As for the bodies of those who will be living upon the earth at our Lords second coming though their bodies will not be in graves and therefore cannot be said properly to be raised out of their graves yet they will be changed from an estate of corruption unto incorruption There will be a raising and elevating of the condition of their body from mortality unto immortality This change will be in the twinkling of an eye 1 Cor. 15.51 as some falling asleep do sleep for a long time whereas others no sooner have their eyes shut but incontinent they awake so the change of such as are living at our Lords coming will be in a very short and insensible time As Adam in an instant after he had sinned became mortal so all who are sound living at Christs second coming in an instant will become immortal and incorruptible in the body There will be an universal resurrection of all the dead Doctrine 2 Cor. 5.10 There shall be an universal resurrection of the dead We must all appear before the Iudgement seat of Christ Therefore all must be raised that all may appear Rev. 20.12 And I saw the dead small and great stand before God as in a seed-plot though the seeds be mixed there together in one place yet the Sun in Spring time maketh several herbs to rise from thence distinct one from another in stalk flower and fruits So though many dead bodies be sown in one common burial place as a seminary of the resurrection yet the Lord will raise from thence the several bodies every one distinct from another in number and individual qualities No new Creation The same individual bodies that died will be raised for it is said All in the graves at that time there will not be any Creation of a new body 1. Because it is called a resurrection and a resurrection is the rising of the same thing that had fallen 2. Death is called a sleep and burial places are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sleeping places Such are raised which sometime slept but bodies created anew on that day cannot be said to have slept 3. The Sea is said to render up the dead Revel 20.13 but if the bodies were anew created there would be no rendering of the old 4. It is spoken in an Emphatick and Demonstrative manner 1 Cor. 15.53 This corruptible this mortal and therefore it must be the same body that sometime was subject to death and corruption Obj. Objection Will the ungodly be raised by vertue of Christs resurrection Answ No Answer because believers that are Members of his Mystical body are only said to rise with him Eph 2.6 and they are called the Children of the resurrection Luc. 20.36 but he will raise the wicked by force as their Judge by vertue of that â—enâ—ence Gen. 2.17 what day thou eatest of the forbidden fruit thou sh lt certainly dye and that the sentence of the second death may be executed on them they must be raised So that their resurrection is a curse and not a blessing to them But the Godly will be raised by Christ as their head drawing all his Members unto himself by a full redemption from all their enemies that he may be compleat in his body and they may be compleat in their head in whom and with whom both the soul and the body is fully glorified This Doctrine serveth for a seasonable wakening and warning unto secure sinners Vse 1 An awakening to secure sinners who dishonor God here in the condition of their mortality by many vile sins committed in and by the body Remember thou wilt be raised in the self same body and brought before him who is Judge of quick and dead It will be with thee that livest and dyest in thy impenitency as it was with the Baker in the prison Gen. 40. he was much disquieted in the morning with the remembrance of his sad dream in the night time his trouble was great in the night time greater in the morning when by
Joseph it was expounded of his shameful death but greatest when his dream was fulfilled and himself led from the prison to the place of a painful and shameful death so wicked and profane men are greatly disquieted when thoughts of a resurrection and Judgement are sometime born in upon them against their will then are they as with a violent gripe and stitch suddenly surprised and suppressed but all this disquietness and anguish of Spirit is like a dream in comparison of that horror will overtake them in that day of resurrection Then will their own consciences suggest unto them what shall be their doom They will be self-condemned before ever the Judge pronounce his Sentence I require the senseless sinner to consider in time if after thy yester-nights drunkenness or other wickedness thy conscience hath smitten thee soundly sometime after thy first sleep in such a manner that thou couldst get no rest for the lashings of it which were as pricks in thy eyes and thorns in thy sides how thinkest thou thy conscience will torment thee in that day wherein there will be no rest no not for a moment from extream and endless pains then shall all thy sins be set before thee in the light of thy countenance If Judas was so tormented with the sense of one horrid sin to wit his treachery in betraying the Innocent what will thy torment and desperate horrour be when all thy sins will be set before thee as a shameful fang in the eye of a condemned thief The black sight of thy sins and of Judgement will be the first thing thou shalt see after thou art raised in the body Therefore while it is called to day harden not your hearts but obey that Act. 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord for though sins be forgiven only in this life wherein there is place for repentance and for reconciliation with God And though sentence of absolution is now quietl pronounced in the conscience of the true penitent and believer yet at the day of resurrection the sentence of Absolution and Justification will be solemnly pronounced in that great Court of Jesus Christ wherein it will be made known to Angels and men when he will say to them on the right hand come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you Math. 25.24 And contrarily men self-condemned in this world and dying in their impenitency shall then be condemned before Angels and men It serveth for a ground of sol d comfort to the Godly Vse 2 who honour God in the body Solid comfort to the Godly fall thy body where it will at home or abroad by a natural or violent death yet it shall be raised again Some of the dear children of God have been devoured by wild beasts others in the fire consumed into ashes and their ashes scattered into the Ayr yet these bodies will be raised as many report of the Phoenix out of their ashes some have been drowned in the waters and others smothered under the earth yet the Lord in that day will gather all his Iewels as men do their Gold out of the ruines of a burnt house Revel 20.13 the Sea gave up the dead that were in it and hell and death gave up their dead by hell is meant the receptacles within the lower parts of the earth as Jaylours are countable to the Judge for the prisoners delivered into their keeping and must present them to the Judge at his command So all the prison houses of the bodies of the Saints will be opened and all the Jaylours must make open doors in that great day of our Lords glorious procession that the prisoners of hope may come forth and be made partakers of that full redemption from the grave and corruption Ob. But what say ye of those Anthropophagiâ—men eaters Objection doth not their flesh and blood consist of the bodies of men devoured by them and if the substance eaten up by them shall be restored to the first owner then they themselves will have no proper substance of a body to be raised Answ 1. Answer These Canibals will cast out the dead bodies devoured by them at the command of the Lords mighty power as the fish did cast out Ionah 2. All the parts of the body were not devoured as the bones and some other parts The Lord out of those remainders both can and will raise up the body whole and intire 3. Whatsoever the devourer wanteth by restoring the parts devoured to the first owner God in his wisdom and power both can and will supply the same It is enough for us to believe as it is revealed that the Lord will raise up the same individual body we believe the matter but as for the particular manner we leave that to the power and wisdom of God who can do above all that we can think Eph. 3.20 and in the hope of our glorious resurrection we give to God Father Son and Holy-Ghost all praise honour and glory for now and ever Amen The third point considerable 3. Point The powerful means of our resurrection is the powerful means of our resurrection they shall hear his voice and shall come forth of this speaketh the Apostle 1 Thes 4.16 The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trumpet of God By that voice and trump we understand some sensible manifestation of his power and glory at his second coming as the Audible voice doth express the conception of our minde and as the sound of a Trump is an ordinary sign of state and power so this visible appearing in glory and the great work of raising the dead will be a manifest expression of the glorious power of the Son of God in this sense the Word of God is taken Heb. 1.3 He upholdeth all things by the word of his power that is by his powerful providence conserving the being of his creatures This active providence is as it were the word and expression of his infinite power whereby he doth in heaven and earth what he will Thus it is said Ionah 2.10 The Lord spake unto the Fish and it vomited out Ionah This speaking was Gods doing and working by his mighty power in such a language will the Almighty Lord speak to all the graves of the dead and in an instant at the word of his power they will cast out their dead Thus he is said by his word to have created the world the work of Creation was the expression of his eternal purpose so to do and of his omnipotent facility in doing as a word is easily spoken and doth express the thought of our mind It is called his mighty power or efficacy of power as it is in the original according to which he will raise the dead Philip. 3.21 he rent the vale of the Temple he shattered the
good tidings from heaven and of joy to thee then all thy evil dayes will be over wherein thou hadst thy trembling fits and feavers of conscience but that will be thy good day without succession of an evil day then shalt thou have perpetual peace in thy soul and confirmed health in thy body for if thou be espoused here to Iesus Christ in holiness and righteousness thou shalt not be afraid at his glorious coming the glory of thy Lord and Husband will reflect upon thee and his spouse shall rejoyce at his coming The wise Virgins rejoyced at the voice and coming of the bridegroom in that day thou shalt rejoyce as Iacob did in hearing and seeing his Ioseph in the day of his great honor power in Egypt Our Lord with his white cloud at his coming will scatter and abolish all thy clouds of afflictions Though now it may be thou hast much weakness in the body yet in that day thy Lord will come with power to give unto thee a strong body It may be for a season thou sufferest much disgrace and trouble in the body for keeping a good conscience in an evil time yet be of good comfort thy righteous Lord will come in great glory and shall give unto thee a new name even glory and honour that none can take from thee Therefore in the sense of thy true conjugal affection unto him wrought in thy heart by his spirit and in the lively hope of the full manifestation of his love in that joyful day when there will be a perpetual cohabitation in glory let thy soul be looking and longing for his second appearing and as thou hearest him saying Rev. 22.12 Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me So let thy soul as an eccho answer with the spouse Even so Lord Iesus come 4. Point The fourth point considerable in the words Point 4 is the different ends of this universal resurrection They that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation both the godly and the wicked will come forth from their graves but as they differed in their life and death so shall they differ in the end of their resurrection The godly will come forth as the Butler out of Prison Gen. 40. to stand and live for ever in the favour of God but the ungodly as the Baker to be made spectacles of the Iustice and wrath of God for ever It is true the bodies of the wicked will be raised immortal and incorruptible to the end they may be everlasting subjects of everlasting pain as the body of a Malefactor is held up at a Pillory when he is scourged that by the extention of his body he may be rendred the more capable of the scourge and pains The resurrection of the bodies of Believers who live to the Lord and die in the Lord will be unto an happy condition Doct. Believers shall arise to happiness and freedom from all trouble pain and all the consequents of sin for the Resurrection of Life is opposed unto the Resurrection of Damnation as the ungodly in their bodies will be fastned like condemned slaves to eternal torments they will be ever dying and pining a way in torments but never dead so the godly will live in the body a life of happiness being absolved and freed from all pain and enjoying all satisfaction in the presence of an al-sufficient God Phil. 3.21 he will change our vile bodies and he will make them like unto his own glorious body Our bodies in this life are but weak and frail a little thing will distemper them even one nights unrest Our bodies in this vale of misery are but vilis saccus servorum The greatest amongst the children of men carry about with them such excrements as should be Monitors of frailty and documents of humility and that which maketh our bodies most vile is this that they are cages of unclean birds of many unruly lusts though they reign not in the godly yet they dwell in them as Hagar with Sarah and do molest them But at the resurrection there will be a change of our Bodies Our Lord will make them like unto his glorious body and it is said Mat. 17. at his transfiguration which was a prelude of the glorifying of his body his face did shine as the Sun As the Tabernacle under the Law was made according to the pattern shewn in the Mount so our earthly Tabernacles will be renewed according to that pattern shewn in the Mount where our Lord was transsigured great will be the brightness of their bodies in that day of resurrection there will be a most glorious sight when the bodies of the Saints will rise up together as so many Suns above the horizon of the grave and time that will be a lightsome and a glorious day This surpassing glory of their bodies is described more particularly 1 Cor. 15.42 in divers respects 1. Wherein the glory of the body consists In respect of endurance it is sown in corruption but raised in incorruption Our life here is in a continual flux as one part of running water thrusteth forward the other parts so some parts of our body decay daily the radical moystness is wasted by the natural hear and must be repaired by meat drink sleep and other helps as so many props to support our weak and ruinous Tabernacle of clay as a lamp that consumes the oyl must have a new supply But at the resurrection our bodies will be incorruptible their condition will be fixed without any decay in part or in whole Then the vital and animal spirits of the body will be as pure Wine without any mixture of dreg There will be no superfluous or excrementitious humor in the body it will be as the gold purified seven times in the furnace all dross and corruption will be fully purged out and the body will be made an everlasting vessel of honour There will be no alteration in the body nor declining to old age but the glorified Saints shall be like the Cedars in Lebanon Psal 9.14 they shall still bring forth fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing 2. In respect of the stature and beauty of the body it is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory there will be great glory in the bodies of the godly excellent comeliness in stature and a beautifull and equal proportion of all the members The Saints who had any deformity or defect of members in this life shall have none then Act. 3.19 It is called the day of restoring all things what ever their body wanteth now for comeliness shall then be restored and supplyed Our Lord restored Malchus his ear and by the same power he will restore the defect of any member as there will be comeliness in a just symmetry and proportion of the members so a surpassing comeliness in the colour and brightness of the body do we not see in our