I doubt not be the better spared especially considering it is an Article of our faith universally received of the whole Church of God at all times and ages Deu. 29.18 notwithstanding if there be any here in whose wicked heart there is yet the root of Gall and Wormewood so that when hee heareth this hee blesseth himselfe in his froward and wicked course as though there were no such resurrection or further reckoning to bee expected Let such a one if the booke of God will not give him satisfaction looke abroad into the large volumne of Nature where questionlesse if his eye bee not too much dimmed with the fog and mist of Athisme and prophaines he shall be sure to finde the infinite wisedome and power of Almighty God in ordering and disposing by the hand of providence many other things not unlike in nature but altogether is impossible to the judgement of man as this is to their severall ends which according to his eternall decree at the first he had determined For instance there shall he finde the glorious Lampe of the World the Sunne I meane in the evening going downe having his beautifull eye closed with the shaddow of the night and himselfe quite covered over with the thicke and black mantle of the same as with his winding sheete and shrowded in darkenesse continuing for a time untill his Creator mindfull of his covenant the morning approaching raiseth him up againe in such a glorious manner that loe he commeth forth Psal 19.15 Psal 19.15 Like a Bridgroome out of his chamber and reioyceth like a strong man to runne a race There likewise shall he see the Moone wasting and wayning away untill at length shee seemeth quite lost and gone but within a few dayes after he shall see her againe filling her hornes with light and the Heavens with brightnesse There shall hee behold the infant buried certaine moneths in the wombe of his Mother but in the end comming forth upon the stage of the World a glorious Creature Cor. 15 and richly adorned with the Image of the Creator There lastly shall hee see the Corne not quickned except it dye nor the trees and plants of the earth flourishing untill first they have endured a Winters death But if neither the Booke of God nor yet of Nature can give such a cavelling and Athiesticall wretch as this is satisfaction I for mine owne part shall give him over to the seate of Justice to bee answered as they were Nehem. 13.2 rather verbere quam verbo Neh. 13.2 with the fist of the Magistrate then with any dispute or force of argument And so I come to the persons that shall arise in these words Thy dead men shall live FOr the further cleering of which words two questions must of necessity be answered The first is whether these words doe not crosse those in the 14 ver before going For there it is said Thy dead men shall not live And here it is said That they shall live and that They shall arise Now betweene live and not live not rise and arise a man would thinke were a plaine contradiction The second question is why the Spirit of God termeth them the Prophets dead men and not dead men in generall in these words Thy dead men shall live To answere both in order First we are to know that there is no contradiction no saying nor unsaying betweene the words of my Text and those formerly delivered in the 14. verse For whereas our Prophet saith in the 14 verse Thy dead men shall live or as some will have it They are dead shal they not live c or as others Hi mortuj non vivent such dead men as these shall not live He poynteth out questionlesse wicked and ungodly persons formely mentioned in this Chapter Such as our Saviour Christ aimeth at Mat. 8.22 Mat. 8 22. when hee willeth that officious Disciple to suffer The dead to bury their dead And on the other side by the word Thy a plaine note of difference and distinction in these words of my Text our Prophet doubtlesse notes out a special and chosen company differing from the rest Rev. 20.6 over whom death hath no power but they shall live eternally In a word First by those in the 14 verse Not living Not arising Rom. 6.21 our Prophet understandeth persons dying in their sinnes Secondly those in my Text Living and Arising Rev. 14.13 hee understandeth persons dying in the Lord. And verily wicked men dying in their sinnes neither are partakers of the first Resurrection neither doth their Resurrection deserve at all so honourable a denomination For as the Death of the righteous cannot properly be said to bee a death it being as one saith wel Occasio vitae non deletio a further living not an utter quenching of the Lampe thereof so on the other side the resurrection of the wicked cannot as I have said properly be called a Resurrection it being a meere precipitation and casting headlong of an unbeleeving catiffe into the devouring jawes of the second death and fatall gulfe of eternall destruction Both in deed good and bad him that serveth God and him that serveth him not shall be raised up at the latter day and yet their resurrection shall much differ Whether we consider 1. Either the manner of the Resurrection 2. The end of the same And first for the manner The Childe of God is raised up by the hand of mercy the wicked man and reprobate by the hand of Justice the one by the vertue of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ piercing into his grave even as you see the Sun and showers in the spring sweetly soaking and sinking downe into the roote of the plant causing in it immediately to bud and blossome forth The other by the arme and power of Almighty God who shall then judge both the quicke and the dead and who shall quoit him out of his grave like a raging and horrible tempest that casteth up both stones and dirt Secondly the one ariseth like a miserable Captive in the fetters of the second death the other like a Free-man in the garments of Glory the one commeth forth like a condemned person having the wrath of God like a cruell Goaler hanging on his arme and hayling him from his grave as from a stinking Dungeon unto the place of execution the other commeth forth like a Bridgroome richly apparelled to meete his beloved spouse or like a banished man who is now arrived upon his native soile Secondly as they differ in the manner so likewise doe they differ in the end of their resurrection the one to bee graciously rewarded the other to bee grievously tormented the one to receive the reward of the righteous the other to receive the doome of the wicked the one to be received into their Masters joy the other to bee clapt up in the prison of woe the one lastly to make good that dreadfull sentence passed upon
comfort Mat. 10.40 that at the last he should not loose the reward of a Prophet Mat. 10.40 Againe what was the reward of them of whom we have such honourable mention a Heb. 11.38 whose names deserve golden letters persons of whom the world was not worthy surely after all their fruites of a lively faith their love their zeale their constant confession of the name of Christ was it not to be tryed with cruell mockings and scourgings to be tortured and horribly tormented to be sawne assunder slaine with the Sword Only here was their comfort that in the end they should obtaine a ioyfull resurrection What lastly was that reward of that good Emperour Hen. 7. after hee had with a deale of care and trouble not onely reformed many disorders and abuses in the Church and publicke state but also had mightily daunted and brought under the haughty courage of the Guelph's faction But at last to be poysoned at the receiving of the blessed Sacrament with an invenomed Host which a traiterous detestable monke of the order of St. Dominicke gave unto him the which Fact of this bloody Monster as it ought of every Loyall heart to bee abhorred and detested so ought the Patience and assured confidence of this most Christian Emperour to be highly Magnified and to the Heavens extolled who as the story saith finding the poyson immediately uppon the receite thereof working in his bowels and thereupon death approaching commanded instantly the Villaine to bee brought before him and thus without all passion spake unto him Tu calicem vitae invertisti mihi in mortem quare o Domine fuge celeriter nam si inimici c. O fayth hee thou hast turned to me the cup of Life into the cup of Death Wherefore flye for if our Friends lay hold on you you are sure to dye a most miserable death and repent you Ego enim moriar secundum voluntatem Domini tu vas ira fuisti c. It is the will of God that I should die this kinde of death but thou hast beene the Vessel of his wrath unto me c. By all which examples omitting thousands it appeareth plainely that the principall reward is reserved till afterward and hitherto serve these and the like comfortable promises Rev. 2.10 Be faithfull unto Death and I will give thee a Crowne of Life And againe To him that overcommeth will I grant to fit with mee in my throne even as I overcame and sit with my Father in his throne And Chap. 22.12 Behold I come shortly and my Reward is with me Rom. 2.6 And Who will render to every man according to his workes The trueth of all which apprehended by a lively Faith maketh the blessed Apostle Paul to cry out with that plerophory and full assurance that he doth 2 Tim. 4.7 2 Tim. 4.7.8 8 Certamen illud praeclarū decertavi cursum consūmavi fidem servavi Hactenus c. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Hence forth there is laid up for me a Crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall give mee at that day And not to mee onely but to them that love his appearance And to that end our blessed and gratious father dayly giveth to all those that are his chosen sonnes and servants not onely the eye and hand of faith whereby they both see and also apprehend the pretious promises of blisse and happinesse made to them but withall he giveth them the sure Anchor of hope by which it being fastned upon that mighty rocke the Lord Jesus Christ they stay themselves with an assured expectation of the fulfilling and fruition of them either heere or in heaven in this life or that to come And for the further clearing the truth of this I shal not offend I trust if I shew unto you how neare the Heathens come to us in this poynt by relating unto you a story which I have formerly read in one of their writers who though a Heathen Plutarch cōsolat ad Apolonium yet of honourable esteeme to this day amongst us The story then in a word is this Upon a time saith hee a complaint was sent from the Ilands of the Blessed to the judges of the Superiour Courts about certaine persons sent thither who formerly had lived impiously humbly intreating that this abuse thus offered to them might speedily be redressed whereupon these unpertiall judges taking the businesse into their serious considerations found not only the complaint to be true but withall the reason and cause thereof which was that judgment and sentence was passed upon men heere below in their life time Whereupon it oft fell out that many persons cloathed with honourable carkasses riches nobility and other like dignities and advancements brought many witnesses with them who solemnely swore in their behalfe that they deserved to bee sent into the Ilands of the Blessed when the trueth was they deserved the contrary to avoide which inconveniency it was decreed by an eternal doome that for time to come no judgement should bee passed untill after death and that by Spirits only who alone doe see and plainely perceive the spirits and naked soules of such upon whom their Sentence and Uerdict was to passe That so of what estate and condition soever they were they might receive according unto their workes By all which it plainely appeareth how farre the Divine eye of this naturall man led him surely unto the true finding out of a Divine and heavenly truth which is that neither definitive sentence is to bee passed upon any heere below nor that any whatsoever shall receive his full reward of that hee hath done whether it bee good or bad till after this Life And so much in way of answer to the Objection And now a word or two of his Life and Death Neither must it be imagined that intreating of the same I intend any large Discourse of him as of one going to his grave in a full age Iob. 5.26 as a ricke of corne comming in due season into the Barne and the glasse of his life being fully runne but I must measure my selfe by that short life of his a minute a shaddow yea the dreame of a shaddow quite vanished and gone before one can scarce tell twenty For if the holy Prophet David living the age of threescore yeares and ten compareth his life unto a shaddow Psal 108.28 Psalme one hundred and eight verse twenty eight I am gone like a shaddow sayth he that declineth and am tossed up and downe like a Grashopper Then surely the Life of this young Gentleman scarce attayning to one of the three cannot bee so much as a shaddow but must needs be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the meere dreame of a shaddow of no long continuance According to which my purpose is to abreviate and shorten my Discourse without multiplying many words or telling you wonders and strange miracles
Adam Genesis 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely Gen. 2.17 dye the death The other to fulfill that blessed promise made by Christ to the faithfull Ioh. 11.15 Iohn the eleventh verse fifteenth I am the Resurrection and the life For till then wee shall not cleerely see the fruite either of that undoing sinne of Adam or of that eternall sacrifice which Christ the righteous presented to the Father when hee was pleased in his infinite mercy to dye for our sinnes and rise againe for our justification then it plainely appeares First what the second death meaneth and who they are that are truely cursed Secondly what eternall life is and who they are that are truely blessed Thirdly what Christ did for us and that he dyed not in vaine where with these eyes of ours we shall see millions cloathed with glory and immortality and of poore men made rich of beggers Princes By all which it is most cleere and evident that godlesse persons sonnes of Belial have no reason at all to looke for the Resurrection day but with Faelix Acts twenty foure verse the second Acts 24.2 to tremble at it sith to them it will bee a day of Darknesse and not light yea very darknesse and no brightnesse in it For however they shall escape the pound of the Grave yet the second death shall like a cruell Wolfe eagerly pursue them overtake them and quite master them so that their freedome from death shall bee no other benefit to them then if a man fled from a Lyon and a Beare met him or entring the house and leaning his hand on the Wall and a Serpent bit him To the children of God onely it wil bee a joyfull day their marriage day a day of great solemnity A day wherein their redemption draweth neere A day wherein their vild bodies shal be made like the glorious body of the Sonne of God as wee shall see afterward more plainely The second question is why the spirit of God calleth these dead men the Prophets dead men in saying Thy dead men shall live To which I answere diversly As first for that these persons formerly were his proper and peculiar charge and he set over them not onely as a watchman to informe them Eze. 3.17 Isa 40.11 Jer. 33.5 Ioh. 21.15 but a shepheard to feed them And therefore his people his flocke for severall congregations are so many Ministers flockes and all the soules therein their speciall charge to them they are in trust committed and at their hands one day they will be certainely required Eze. 3.18.19 33.8 Hence was it that the Apostle Paul in his farewell Sermon so earnestly exhorteth the Elders of Ephesus Act. 26.28 Act. 26.28 to feede the flocke of Christ Over which saith he the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers And the Apostle Peter all ministers in generall 1. Pet. 5.13 assuring them withall that in doing so When the great shepheard doth appeare they shall receive a Crowne of Glory 1 Pet. 5.13 that fadeth not away Secondly they are said to be his dead for that he was formerly a principal instrument and meanes for the conversion of their soules freedome from their naturall bondage Act. 26.18 Rom 8.22 and bringing of them into that blessed liberty of the sonnes of God So that now they are his dead who formerly obtained life by his helpe For this is an high priviledge and prerogative which onely belongeth to the Ministers of the Word lawfully called as was Aaron not onely to be the Embassadors of the sonne of God Cor 3.9 but his fellow-workers also yea Saviours instrumentally of the soules of men the which doth plainely appeare not onely by that wee read in the Prophesie of Obadiah ver 21. where he fore-telleth Obad. v. 21 That in the latter dayes Saviours shall come up upon Mount Syon Tim. 14.16 But by the exhortation that Saint Paul giveth his beloved Timothy willing him to have a care both to himselfe and to his doctrine for in doing so saith hee thou shalt save thy selfe and those that heare thee The consideration whereof ought not onely to be as pretious Wine warming of our breasts but a spurre and goad in our sides that are the Ministers of the Word putting us on cheerefully to passe through the miery waies of scorne and contempt which we dayly meete withall as wee walke along carefully performing the duties of our calling remembring First though it bee heere in this World a calling much contemned yet is it in heaven highly honoured Secondly though it bee a calling full of paines yet it bringeth in the end unspeakable comfort Let us therefore not so much eye the labour as the wages the present worke as the future reward Lastly they are said to be his dead for that he had not yet given up a perfect account for them And no marvaile for the Audit day was not yet come when both hee and his people must appeare face to face before that glorious Tribunall of that dreadful Judge who with an unpartiall eare will heare all things passed betwixt them and give sentence accordingly For death sealeth not a Minister his Quietus est neither is he fully discharged of his flocke and cure untill that day wherein the Sonne of God holding his general Assizes shall require at his hands a particular account both for himselfe and also for all those who were formerly his flocke and people Heb. 13.19 Heb. 13.19 The due consideration whereof made the Apostle Paul and the rest of the Apostles to preach the Gospell with that assiduity and diligence as they did Col. 1.28 For that saith he Colos 1.28 our desire is to present every man perfect in Iesus Christ which being so first of all happy and blessed is that man whom when his Master commeth shall finde so doing yea happy and blessed is that minister Luk 12.36 and painefull labourer in the Lord who having worne out his Age and strength in the service of the Church and like a pretious lampe consumed himselfe to give light to others is now laid up in peace in the midst of a number of his neighbours and familiar acquaintance it may bee by his meanes brought to the true knowledge and understanding both of God and themselves what a blessed sight wil it be when that day is come and that dreadfull voyce Surgite mortui shall shake Heaven and earth to behold both him and al those ancient friends of his lively leaping out of their graves clothed all in pure robes shining and glistering as the light Oh who can expresse the joy that wil be then at this their meeting againe But above all the joyfullest sight will be to behold that welcome which the Son of God will then give him with that Enge serve bone fidelis Wel done good servant and faithfull When hee upon his bended knee and al his company kneeling round about him shall then
he thus speaketh Psalme 89.48 What man is he that liveth and shall not see Death shall he deliver his soule from the power of the grave Secondly and more particularly the reason is three fold Heb. 9.17 First for that it was the eternall decree and counsell of Almighty God appoynted to man upon his fall Heb. 9.17 that hee should once dye and after Death should come to judgement Secondly for that the whole seede of Adam hath Death mixed with it yea the tender infant sucketh and draweth it in with the milke of the mother Thirdly for that man hath a certaine inclination to Death as the flower hath to fade or the tree to fall Secondly in a more particular and speciall manner they are called the inhabitants of the dust First to teach every man that to be an inhabitant of the Dust is an honourable thing when namely the dead corpes of Man or Woman lyeth not as dung upon the earth but obtayneth a comely a decent and Christian buriall A blessing promised to Ezechiah Iosiah and other the like noble Princes and the contrary againe threatned as a sore judgement agaynst wicked and godlesse persons Iezabel Zedechiah Heb. 9.17 Ier. 3.4 and other of the like sowre Leaven and therefore to take it as a speciall favour of God to have not onely ours but the bodies of our Friends to bee layd up decently in their Graves velut preciosa Deo chara 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as choyce gifts deare and precious unto God Where dust may return to dust as the spirit formerly did to God that gave it Secondly to admonish all but principally the great Men and Princes of the earth not to looke too much with proud Haman uppon the glory of their Riches their trayne and followers their honors and high promotions their greatnesse and swelling titles which if they doe will so flash and glister in their eyes that they shall forget themselves as also the liberall hand from whence all these things did come But rather turning their backes uppon those inchanting gleames and lights let them with a serious looke daily view their original and birth being of the basest Element their flesh and blood common with the meanest servant their honourable carkasses wearing away to their first Element where all their pompe must leave them and they inhabite the sad and dusty valley Thirdly to be a caveat to us how wee scorne our poore brethren partakers with us of the same hope and of the same houshold of Faith Gal. 6.10 for that their houses are farre meaner then ours and their cloathing and attire much baser Act. 17.10 For as wee are come all of one blood the poore and the Rich the Lord the slave so are we travailing to the same Land where there is no remedy but we must dwell together and where our houses will not greatly differ the out-side of the Rich mans usually much gayer but the inside of the poore mans perhaps much sweeter There it is no disgrace for the Princes Pallace to be neere the Peasants Cottage or the lodging of the poore beggar to be neere unto the Misers chamber where the order against Cottages and Inmates is of no value sith new Cottages are there hourely erected hundreds dwell on heapes in base and silly Mansions when then thy heart doth begin to swel in pride and with the scornefull thoughts thou hast in regard of thy brothers poore estate then remember that it wil not be long ere thou and he shal be both alike and of the two he it may be acknowledged by Divine sentence the better man Remember Dives and Lazarus Secondly wee are to consider the severall things that they are fore-told to do and these are First Awake Secondly Sing For the first they shall awake but not of themselves or their owne power but by the dreadful voyce and Almighty breath of God willing them and us to Rise up from the dead Rom 14.12 and to give a strict account of what we in all our life time have done of which I intend not to speak this onely we may observe that Death is nothing else but a meere sleepe out of which wee shal bee one day awakened thus are all the blessed Patriarckes and holy Prophets and Confessors 1 Cor. 15.18 dying in eldertimes sayd 1 Cor. 15.18 to sleepe And the same Apostle writing unto the Thessalonians useth this as an argument to disswade them from over much sorowing as persons out of hope for them that were departed 1 Thes 4.13 for that they did but sleepe yea holy Stephen though his death were violent yet saith the Spirit of God Act. 7.60 soule and body were no soner parted but he fel a sleepe The which although it bee a truth yet wee must not fondly imagine First death properly to be asleepe or Secondly when the bodie is dead that the soule sleepeth For first of all death cannot properly bee asleepe seeing they two are so quite contrary the one a friend to man the other a mortall foe the one naturall the other accidentall the one a preserver of life the other a destroyer of the same Death therefore is called usually by the name of sleepe in regard onely of a kinde of similitude and proportion that is betwixt them For instance First when a man is falne asleepe all outward labour and businesse is laid aside hee thinketh not of them neither doth hee at all desire them So is it when a man is dead hee remembreth no more the worke and labour of his hands in all that Pilgrimage of his formerly passed Hee knoweth not what hee hath done and if you tell him hee will not regard Friend or foe are all one to him Iob. 14.21 neither doth he care whether his sonnes be honourable or of low degree Secondly when sleepe possesseth a man paine and passion feare and griefe doth not so molest and trouble him as when he is awake Such is the estate of man when once dead Is he a prisoner He feareth not saith Iob the voyce of the oppressor Iob. 13◠18 or is he a slave hee is instantly freed from his cruell master All the threatnings in the World cannot make him quake neither is he moved at all with the angry looke of the cruell Tyrant Thirdly when a man is once a sleepe then all his sences are retired into their proper places and all the members of his body cease from working not onely resting as formerly I said from those outward labours of his calling but even from working the workes of God Ioh. 6.28 Even so it is with him who is once dead his eye is no more lifted up to Heaven as to the fountaine head of life and goodnesse his knee bendeth it selfe no more at the throne of grace neither doth his tongue any more here below set forth the praises of that glorious God Set the blessed trumpet of the Word to his eare and hee heareth