shall but briesly note things and not bound up my discourse unto the unfolding of some one only proposition That no dignity or priviledge though very great will exempt us from dying Note 1. Death is a due debt to nature Omne quod generatur corrumpitur whatsoever hath a naturall generation is also subject to corruption death is in the present principles of every earthly living being and that as by mans sinne meritoriously so by Gods just sentence upon mans sinning judicially Heb. 9.27 Statutum est c. It s enacted resolved upon and ordained for man once to die and that once though for time uncertain to us yet that it shall finde a time nothing more sure yea many a time it seems very near us and we are in a tendency to it from our birth to our last gasp By many waies diseases infirmities or providentiall accidents we may and by some or other of them we are sure to arrive at death we reade of none exempted save Enoch and Elias the first changed the other assumed for as for the Virgin Mary we have not such authentick authority or warrant to beleeve it those two did God exempt from the common way of flesh to shew in them his power over all flesh over nature and naturall principles and inclinations and that we might the more readily be induced to believe the benefit of Christ in the resurrection of the dead when we hear that he preserved some from death and made them as pledges to us of the certainty of that glory and immortality that is the promised portion of all that believe in him through his death And yet surely even they underwent a change equivalent to death though they slept not in death as the Apostle saies 1 Cor. 15.51 We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed though we lie not in death yet we must passe through it we must put off this mortality these innate principles of death we shall not be as now we are when we come to inherit what now we believe for But for us and the rest of mankinde death in a more proper way is to be expected by us and will come upon us except the coming of Christ should suddenly prevent us and then such a change might be allotted us It 's not the being great or gracious that exempts from that event These all died many have lived many years yet as the longest day hath its night so this hath been the constant Catastrophe and winding up of them all in their genealogies They all died Jared lived nine hundred and sixty two years and then he died Methuselah lived nine hundred sixty and nine years but then it follows too he also died so Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob all gracious and holy men and found righteous in theâ— generations and yet these all died It 's that that David propounds to all Psa 49.1 2. high and low rich and poor one and other because its the lot of all that death will overtake them all none can shift from it None can give a ransome to God for his brother that he should live alwaies and never diâ— the price is too great and it ceaseth for ever We see wise men die as well as fools righteous men as well as sinners Magistrates as well as Subjects rich as well as poor one as well as another there is no escape of any in this battel nay men as well as the bruit beasts for as to this common condition of flesh there is one event to them both though not as to the spirits of both nor as to the supernaturall work of the resurrection of the body but as to death one thing happeneth to both both are of the dust and both go to the dust 2 Saâ—â— 14.14 Not only they but we also must needs all die and our strength is as Water spilt upon the ground neither is there any respect of persons with God Serius autâ—citius c. sooner or later we must all stoop to death in the flesh These all died A truth known to all and to be experimented by us all and yet a truth as little though of as almost any and as little made use of well might David cry out as he did when he was about to speak thereof Audite hoe omnes populi c. Psa 19.1 Hear this all ye people for though we all see it and shall feel it yet we minde it not few incline their ears to hear what God saies to us in it but hear this all ye people rich and poor high and low one and other All must die Ye that are rich and wealthy and have seraped much together and laid it up for posterity ye must die and leave all this that ye have gotten and ye know not who shall possesse it after you Hear this all ye gallants of the world that are fine and fashionable and delight to deck up your selves in costly apparell Quid ita colitis escam vermibus you must die and leave these bodies which you so dresse up for the worms to feed upon Hear this ye that addict your selves to pleasures and rejoice in a thing of nought and make your selves merry with meer vanities ye must all die and death will put an end to your mirth and jollity to your pleasure and voluptuousnesse chambering and wantonnesse and nothing but the guilt of these things shall descend with you Hear this ye that are poor and pincht with want and bitten with sorrow that fill your selves with cares and pine away with grief ye must die too and then your poverty and afflictions here shall have an end ye shall then have no more need of what now ye murmure or grieve or turmoil your selves for want of It 's but a momentany condition that you are here afflicted with ye must die and death will put an end to it yea death will put an end to all these things weal and woe sorrow and mirth riches and pleasures and whatever here we have as to us Surely man in his best estate here is altogether vanity Psal 39.6 like a bubble full of winde and emptiness easily broken and blown away with a blast and then that that was sweld up into a great appearing magnitude proves as nothing makes no further shew or appearance that we should look after it Oh! why then do ye pursue after vain things why sport ye your selves so eagerly in voluptuousnesse or spend so much cost on dust and ashes and pride your selves of that ye have no hold on or care so much for that that strangers or victors may devour up when you are gone why labour ye for that that perisheth and delight in that that will not endure Sure the very thought of death might instruct us all to sobriety in all conditions Sobriety in earthly delights for we must leave them Sobriety in honours and preferments for we must leave them Sobriety in apparell for we must leave it Sobriety in
these had faith and kept it to the death and yet as the Apostle here witnesseth they all notwithstanding that died how is it then that Christ saith If any man keep my sayings he shall never see death Oh how mysterious is the word of God Answ and what a riddle to fleshly wisedom and humane â—nse It 's to be believed and held for true by faith not to be judged of as true or false by the verdict of our sense certainly both Christ and his Apostles said the truth he that keeps his sayings shall not see death and yet these that kept his sayings for before Aâ—â—ahâ—m was Christ was and his sayings they were that he received did all die yea the Apostle here hints a solution to that doubt of the appearing contradiction in them when he saies these all dâ—d in faith for in this very thing that they died in faith they were so preseryed that they did not see death for this very faâ—h in which they died carried them above sense and took their eye off from death and set it upon life so that they saw souâ—d felt experimented life in death even when they dâ—ed according to the flâ—â—h yet the then lived in their spirits their bodies did but sleep in death while their spâ—its lived above death being made partakers of Jesus Christ as he word of God to be made flesh who is the resurrection and the life and the very death of death putting it to death they passed through the shadow of it but they saw not felt not found 〈…〉 of it they saw God in their death and the sight of him â—o â—ook up and filled their eye that they could not see death Or 2. they saw not that death that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for ever for indeed that is death and worthy the name of death the second death the other the first death Rom 3.12 the condemnation that came by the first man upon all men that spent it sell upon Christ being by the wise and mercifull God â—a slated upon him 2 Tim. 1.10 and he hath abolished it so in and by himself that nothing but the carcasse and shadow of it abideth for us to see or grapple with so that he that sees but it sees not death properly but only the shadow and shell of it Its life power and proper vigour is by the death of Christ swallowed up abolished and gone he then that never sees the second death sees not death for there is no other death by way of punishment of man for his sinne that 's propeâ—y death but it remaming and that hath no power upon Christ or any in him the just shall live by faith in the midst of the shadow of the other death and he shall live out of the way and danger of this second death he shall never be hurt of it either by the bearing it or fearing it his faith shall keep him from the first and being exercised carry him through and above the second and he shall never be overcome or over-powred by it thence blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection Rev. 20.6 that hath part in Christ the first begotten from the dead the resurrection and the life that in their spirits are raised with him and shall have their bodies raised with the just at his glorious appearing Seeing then that we must all needs die Appliâ— and that 's our portion in the flesh and there is a way by which we may so die as not to see death viz. to die in faith what wisedom is it to take that course that we may so die that we may see no death when we die feel no sting in death finde it but a shadow that hath no deadly substance in it nay rather finde it lighted with the glory of eternall life seen and tasted through it that we may see life in death a life beyond above and without death Oh how terrible is death to men when they see death in it when they experiment and feel a sting in it the sting of a self-condemning conscience and the pricks of the second death in the first death When they see death and nothing but death when life is hid from their eyes and so their hearts and thoughts die within them together with or before their bodies when they die full of despair strangers from and hopelesse of ever finding the life of God that will be a black griesly day to a soul that sees not life in it what need then to cry to God here so to teach us to number our daies that we may apply our hearts to Wisedom the wisedom of God in its sayings reproofs counsels cals that it powring out its spirit upon us and opening its precious words to us we may be filled with faith and courage and be in such a state as in which to see no death that we may so believe and live in and by faith in the power and exercise of it that in all our dying conditions yea when we come to breath out our souls we may die in faith die according to faith and not according to sense Even some believers not living and dying in an exercise of faith are many times filled with sorrow fears faintings especially in their dying cases because they judge not and so die not according to faith they judge according to sense they feeling pain and feeling temptations and seeing griesly things represented to them by Satan they are affrighted and rerrified at them though they be false illusions whereas exercising faith and so judging according to it they are carried above and get the victory over sense and temptation Let us therefore so follow on after wisedom that her words may dwell richly in us that her spirit may be a spirit of faith in us that we may live in faith and have a living exercise of faith in all conditions so shall we also dying have our hearts born up by faith and shall be enabled to lay down our tabernacle with peace and joy as that will leade us and not with trouble as sense would carry us and unbelief affright us while we judge of God and Christ life and death sinne and righteousnesse according to faith and not according to carnall sense and philosophicall speculations we shall be from seeing death when we die yea shall finde and feel life in the shadow of death according to that Joh. 5.24 He that heareth my Word and believeth on him that sent me hath eternall life and shall not come into judgement but is passed from death to life and that Joh. 11.25 26. I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and he that liveth and believeth shall never die Those all died in faith Faith Ay but what is faith and how may a man come by it Object The Apostle in this Chapter Heb. 11.1 tels us what it is Answ It 's 〈◊〉
caring for and getting in the things of this world 1 Tim. 6.7 for we must leave them As we brought nothing into this World With us so we are sure We can carry nothing out With us Sobriety in all things for we must die to them Sobriety in fears of growing enemies Psa 49.17 18. Be not thou afraid When one is made rich and the glory of his house is encreased yea though he be one that bâ—tes thee and so hath more power visibly to harm thee for his day will come he also is but mortall and death will overtake him and bring down his excellency and when he dies he shall not take any thing with him nor shall his glory and pomp descend after him Isa 57.12 who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die and of the Son of man that shall be made as grasse though here enemies be strong and potent and use their power wickedly to persecute the innocent and oppresse them yet this their state is but for a moment they also shall die and goe down to the dust and then where is their fury in the grave we shall be quiet and they have no power to harm us Job 3.17 18 19. There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary are at rest there the prisoners rest together and they hear not the voice of the oppressour the small and great are there and the servant is free from his master yea the thought of death might further us in taking of our Saviours counsell Joh. 6.29 Labour not for the meat that perisheth but for that that will endure to life eternall Set not we our hearts on these things whereof death will surely deprive us and we know not how near that is unto us but look we after those things that will abide with us after death and carry us through death which it hath no power over nor can take from us the favour of God the light of his countenance faith and a good conference assurance of eternal happinesse when thou hast these things thou must rejoice indeed and thy joy nor men nor death can take away from thee These all died But wherefore died they There might be many reasons given but I will not insist upon them they died that they might be removed from the evil of the world and not alwaies therewith burthened Isa 57 1. The righteous is taken away from the evil to come and they died that they might rest from their labour Rev. 14.13 that having done their work and served their generation as is said of David Act. 13.36 they might go to bed and sleep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall enter into rest or peace they shall rest in their beds each one walking in his uprightnesse Isa 57.2 thence death is usually in Scripture called a sleep such a one fell asleep and such a one slept with his fathers thence the heathen Poets have also called sleep Placidissima mortis imago and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the pleasant image resemblance and as it were the premeditation of death But I passe from these things and goe forward with the text for this is not the businesse that the Apostle here mainly propounds though very usefull for us to consider and at this time also very seasonable and sutable with our present occasion that we also might be stirred up with earnestnesse to pray as that good man of God Psa 90.12 So teach us O Lord to number our daies that we may apply our hearts unto wisedom but the Apostle adds These all died 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in or according to faith Secundum fidem after the faith What Did they die in faith Did their faith die Verily no they did not cast away their faith when they died but exercised it their act of dying too was done in faith and according to their faith they died in an exercise of faith that it might be further manifest according to the first proposition and prime intent of the Apostle here that they did live by faith as they did believe in God while they lived so when they came to die they yeelded up themselves to God in that belief and were not shaken from it no not by death they feared not in the valley of the shadow of death Psa 23.3 nor fainted in the hour of death Gen. 49.18 even then also they waited for Gods salvation though death ceised on their bodies yet they retained and let not goe their confidence though the day of their lives here was expired yet died not their hopes and hearts within them but were supported by faith with the expectation of another day in which the promises should be enjoyed and here we may further note the excellency of faith They that live by faith die in faith the just by saith fiâ—de life through their faith even in the midst of death These all died in faith In this these righteous ones diffâ—r fâ—m others All die but die not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as becometh faâ—th or with an experiment of the power of faith all die passively they sâ—ffer the pains of death and have their lives feâ—â—hed from them but all are not active in death willingly and believingly to resign up their spirits to God and cast themselves into his arms with confidence that he will keep and restore them and notwithstanding death intervene their receit of his word and the performance of his promise yet he will not fail of his word but perform every jot and tittle of it to them This is the carriage and priviledge of those that have the word of God abiding in and united by faith with them These all died in faith these die in the Lord 1 Th. 4.16 Rev. 14.3 Through faith they close with and are enclosed in the power strength and vertue of the Lord Jesus Christ by which their souls are acted and carried with lively hope and expectation of good from God through him and as they live in him so they die in him too as they walk in his vertue and power while alive in the body so in the same vertue power putting forth it self in yea encompassing their souls through faith they depart out of the body unto God and depoâ—e themselves with God till the time in which he shall restore them These hold fast their faith to the death and in death that they mighthe examples and encouragem â—s to us also to hold â—sastâ— that we may have the like use and beneâ—â—â— of it in our deaths But may some object But how do these things stand together Object Faith and Death When Christ hath said that if a man keep his saying he shall never see death Joh. 8.51 What is it to keep his saying but to believe his sayings and hold fast that belief and did not Abraham keep his sayings and the Prophets keep his sayings might not we be offended at Christ as the Jews were and say with them All
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as the paraphrase hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the argument and demonstration of things not seen of invisible things that are not the objects of sense but that are declared in the word of God such is the vertue and power of faith that it gives as great a certainty of those unseen things to the soul or minde as can be made over by any scientificall demonstration for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a demonstration to the minde not a presentation to the bodily essence as the Greek Scholiast upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Faith presents invisible things as visible how to the minde and hope which hope also springeth from it and is upheld by it as it there follows it 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too the basis or subsistence of things hoped for It so presents divine things to the minde that it also draws in the soul to trust in God and hope for good from him and the good things it hopes for faith gives bottom to and enables the soul to act towards them as if they had a reall existence as was before noted Rom. 10.17 And for the way to come by this faith the Apostle tels us Fides ex auditu c. Faith is by hearing by that means God â—fiâ—ctâ—th it whence that in Isa 55.3 Hear and your souls shall live 〈◊〉 but it 's not every hearing that produces this faith but that which iâ— by the word of God the hearing of the Gospel or word of faith that 's both mother and nurse of it from that it springs and by that it 's nourished in listening to that God puts forth his mighty arm and enables the soul to believe as sometimes he did to the Israelites by the brazen Serpent and to Naaman in the waters of Jordan to heal them He that hears my Words and believes on him that sent me c. Joh. 5.24 Hearing the Word is the way to believe in God First God declareth the truth which is truth when declared by him not made truth by our believing this truth heard perswades the soul by the divine power and spirit which is therewith ministred to close with what it hears and closing with what it hears the same power and spirit doth therethrough further while therein are opened excellent things as the hatred and justice of God against sin and yet his love mercy and good will in Christ toward the sinfull soulâ— c. pâ—swade the soul to embrace and close with Christ himself of whom the truth witnesseth and unto whom as its proper body and fountain as God is in him and he is God it leadeth and so the soul is by thâ— Word heard and through the divine power of God therein brought unto Christ and in and through Christ unto God by the beam to the body of the Sun and in that to all that fountain fullnesse of glorious light that sils that body and makes it so glorious But indeed the nature of this saith in which these holy men of God died and which is of so glorious use in life and death is in the text it self by â—cts and operations notably laid forth and described I shall briesly and but briesly touch upon them These all died in faith not having received the promises faith stands not in mens having in possession oâ— actuall fruition the things promised for then faith and sense should be confounded but 1. they see them the promises afar off That 's the first act of this faith though alone of it self it is not faith for it 's said of some they have seen and hated Joh. 15.24 yet this is I say the first act of this faith or the first act tending to this faith through which the following acts are also generated where this is rightly seated and the abiding in this and of this is that in and through which the other acts are carried on too and perpetuated this act being the first product of the Word heard and that which most immediatly springeth from it for while God speaketh he presents in his speakings truth to the soul and the soul hearing and receiving in the word spoken findes therein and therewith a divine power illuminating and giving light to it and power of discerning that light as if the light of the Sun coming to a blinde man in a dungeon should both present light to him and in the same moment give him a faculty and power of seeing thus in Psa 119.130 the entrance of thy word giveth light and giveth understanding to the simple the soul receiving or looking upon divine word sees things set before it that it never so saw before as his own vilenesse and filthinesse and Gods goodnesse and compassions and the great and glorious things in his way his Son to be met with and enjoied But these are said to have seen them afarre of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa 46.10 God shews the end from the beginning things to be done never so long time hence yet being revealed in the word and there presented are by faith seen indeed men not hearkning to the word misse of much light and knowledge therein held forth and see not many things which in wist viewing or diligent attention they might come to see things afar off the things promised which were not of a long time to be performed whence neither had they so full and clear a sight of them as those that see them in nearer times as things seen afar off at a great distance are not so fully and clearly seen as when they are seen nearer hand Now they are brought near to us these being the last times yea some of these promises that they saw through the word at a distance are already in part performed and are become Gospel declarations to us as the coming and resurrection of Christ of the former whereof Mary could in her time say much more may we now He hath holpen his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spake to our forefathers to Abraham and to his seed for ever Luk. 1.25 And the Apostle Paul declares the latter as another step of the performance of these promises saying we declare unto you good tidings how that the promise that was made unto the fathers God hath fullfilled the same unto us their children in that he hath raised up Jesus from the dead We believing see them by faith as things already done and they are the grounds of our believing in him for those further things contained in those promises which are yet unfullfilled and which we are to expect the performance of in his season but then there must be with this seeing a further act even that that follows in the next place of them viz. 2. They were perswaded That 's the second act in this divine faith it 's not a bare speculation of truths in the proposition without a perswasion that they are truths and worthy to be heeded
to their own countrey which they came out of at Gods commandment as the former sort of men deny the word of faith and discover their defect of faith by opposition to the word so these by their works declare the vanity of their words neither of these faiths faith upon works and not grounded on and springing from the word nor faith or rather a saying a man hath faith without works inward operations and outward testimonies through the power of the word feeding it will suffice to make a man just or cause him to live nor will either of them be sufficient for dying to keep a man that he see not death But there 's one thing more yet they received not the promises though they beleeved and saw them afar off they died in faith but yet enjoyed them not how may we understand that and what shall we note from it The promises metonymically for the things promised which are either for this life or the life that is to come for this life such as these to be a shield to them to protect them provide for them give them children c. for the life to come such as the countrey or city that hath foundations the full enjoyment of himself and his glory and as the way to that the Messias to be born of their seed to die and rise c. as also to blesse all nations in him Again the word promise sometimes in Scripture signifies the word of promise or the promise it self made in words to us and by these distinctions and considerations we may resolve a doubt for whereas it 's said here these all died in faith not having received the promises it 's said as we reade it in ver 17. that Abraham had received the promise He that had received the promises offered up his only begotten Son and so chap. 6.15 after he had patiently endured he obtained the promise The solution that the word of a promise he had received from God God made his promise with and to him and that promise as a thing made in word he had received it he heard it and beleeved it but he had not received the things spoken of in that promise or in those promises as the word promises in the text signifies the things promised 2. He did before he died obtain and receive the promise in some things but not in all the promises for this life of having God a shield to him to protect him and be his God and own him and give him a Sonne these he had obtained and received before the died yea before he offered up his son Isaac but not all the promises nor the main things promised as neither the land of Canaan nor the multiplying his seed as the stars of heaven nor the Messias coming and blessing all nations nor which is the main the full thing aimed at the heavenly countrey or kingdome the enjoyment of God and Christ in glory with his seed and yet these they were heirs of these fell to them by lot from God Heb. 6.12 yea these they received in semine in Isaac and Isaac in Iacob c. they had them in pignore but not in plenitudine in the first fruits or pledge but not in the full enjoyment They all died in faith not having received the promises the greatest part the glory and the inheritance promised they received not and yet though they had them not till their death yet they left not off believing and hoping for them nay in their very death they held fast that faith and hope of them and that upheld them in death they knew themselves heirs of them and judged God faithfull not to deprive them But how could that be seeing now they died without them Sure then they looked for another day and time in which they should enjoy them and in which we also that now believe should enjoy them with them as is said ver 39 40. These all being Wiâ—nessed of by faith or having received a good report or testimony by saith received not the promises God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect God hath provided another time and day in which they and we together shall receive and enjoy them Mâ—nde we here then a little these dying beleeved still the receit of the promises though even at the time of their death they had not received them how did they then believe wrong or right was the thing they believed true or false Surely their faith was good for the holy Ghost here commends it and God therefore vouchsafed to be called their God having prepared a city for them vers 16. and if so then surely they must yet have the promises performed to them though now dead What shall we say then Verily we must needs hence further note That there shall be a resurrection from the dead Note 5. death shall not frustrate the promises of God and make void their faith There shall be a time when they shall be brought out of the power of death and grave and then shall receive the promises that they died short of then shall the word of God be performed to them and indeed here was the triumph of their faith that though God kill them and take their lives from them and they never see the fulfilling of the prime things promised yet they beleeved that they should receive them death it self wherein according to sense there was an end put to them and all further hope and expectation could not make their faith to fail them for they beleeve in God that raised the dead and calleth things that are not as if they were Rom. 4 17. and so above hope beleeved in hope according not to sense but to what was spoken of God so shall thy seed be O the power and vertue of divine faith supported by the power of God in the belief of the resurrection from the dead Surely if they believed not in vain as without doubt they did not then it undeniably follows that they shall have and so that there is a day of Resurrection when the promised countrey and glory shall be made good unto them Verily if this doctrine were not true our faith were vain and the Gospel preaching with its promises vain we could have no ground for faith in death but faith and hope and all must die with us but now they died all in faith though they had not yet received the promises verily there shall be a reward for the righteous for all their faith and patience verily there shall then be a resurrection of them that they may be rewarded the time of the resurrection of the just is the time of their remuneration as in Luk. 14.14 Thou shalt be rewarded in the resurrection of the just deny the resurrection of the just and thou takest away the hope of their reward and thou makest them of all men most miserable because here they have a time of deeper sufferings and sorrowings
then others and thou tellest them that they must never rise more to receive a reward for them here they die and have not received the promises and if death swallow them up and they never rise they must never receive them Look to this you that deny the resurrection I know your evasion you say they have it already they are in Christ and risen with him and he is the resurrection and the life and so they have their reward but hearken thou vain man though they be risen with Christ in their spirits risen from earth to heaven yet this is not all their resurrection nor have they herein their reward their full reward for thus Abraham was raised in his spirit to look after the heavenly countrey even before he died as they that are raised with Christ in their spirits are exhorted to seek the things above Col. 3.1 2. but yet even after that he died in saith and had not received the promises he neither was raised above faith to live without any further exercise of faith as some vainly prate nor had he or any of them received all the reward of faith but they all died in faith not having received the promises and therefore must have yet another resurrection or a compleating of that resurrection in the redemption of their bodies that they may receive those promises according to that Rom. 8.23 We that have received the first-fruits of the spirit yet wait for the adoption the redemption of our bodies for indeed the promises are to the man the whole man now a man is not a man without his body too Hominem proprte carnem diet quâ—a vocabulum bominis occupavit the soul is but part of the man nay as Tertullian hath well noted the body is rather called the man because it first had the denomination of man God formed man of the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life he was called man before the breath of life was breathed into him Gen. 2.7 therefore the resurrection is of that also that must be raised and united to the soul that so the man may inherite the promise made to him yea what is resurrection but a raising to life that that died but the spirits of just men die not with their bodies they were raised up and enlivened before and live by faith even when the body dies therefore it s the body must be raised He shall change our vile body and make it like his own glorious body Phil. 3.21 yea not the righteous only but the wicked too must rise Act 24.15 There shall be a resurrection of the dead both of the just and of the unjust Heark you Allegoriarum nimium amantes nimium amentes you that dote on All gories where will you finde ground of Allegory for this will ye say the unjust and wicked too have Christ and are risen with Christ perhaps you will say they shall rise from sinne to righteousnesse and so into and with Christ but beside that this crosseth the Scripture all shall not so rise you make that the resurrection of the just and if that shall be the unjusts resurrection then I pray what is that that 's further spoken of of the just seeing that they have already and yet speaking in the future tense he saith they shall arise but what need we many words when our Saviour is so expresse in Joh. 5 29. All that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man and come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of condemnation not from sinne to righteousnesse in this life but to condemnation for their unrighteousnesse acted in this life But we need not go so far from the text to prove that there shall be a resurrection of the body Seeing by that that here follows that God is not ashamed to be called their God ver 16. our Saviour hath to our hands confuted that opinion of the Sadduces and proved that there shall be a resurrection even of them that are dead in the body for that was the thing that the Sadduces oppugned and not the quickning up of mens spirits to God as we may see by their way of arguing Mar. 12.18 27. Then it is at that glorious resurrection that all things shall be made new when the bodies that are dead shall by the power of God be raised new heavens and new earth prepared and given unto the Saints in which dwels righteousnesse that is then shall they have and enjoy remainingly the righteousnesse of God in the full accomplishment of all his former promises in the faith of which they died but had not received Dear friends hold fast this doctrine of the resurrection Applic. for as Tertullian well begins his book upon this subject Fiducia Christianorum resurrectio mortuorum the resurrection of the dead is the hope and expectation of Christians there is no doctrine more properly Christian then it none more comfortable none now in greater danger to be let slip these being those shaking times of the most fundamentall doctrines of Christian truth which the Apostle Peter long since warned us of 2 Pet. 3.2 3 13. There shall saies he come mockers Walking after their own ungodly lusts that shall mock at the performance of Gods promises in the coming of Christ and restitution of all things saying where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fâ—ll asleep all things continue in their state As if they should say they are like to receive no more then they had before they died but let not this doctrine be shaken from you for what then will follow but a rotall falling off from the faith a denying of the resurrection of Christ 1 Cor. 11.17 18. and of the kingdom of Christ yea then faith and preaching and all is vain yea then the reins are given to all licentiousnesse Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die and when we are dead there is a sinall end with us and that 's indeed the issue of that wickednesse they that say Where is the promise of his coming Will not fear to walk after their own ungodly lusts It 's true one principle upon which they lean in denying it and way to insinuate the slieghting of it unto others as Tertullian hath long since observed and as experience of their words yet teacheth us is a disrespect they seem to bear to the flesh so our spirits enjoy God say they and go up to God what 's matter for this flesh it's but dust and to dust let it go and no matter whether ever it rise or not but as he also well observes Sunt tamen â—arnis amicessimi nemo enim tam carnaliter vivit quam qui resurrectionem mortuorum negat though they seem to slieght the flesh none love better to please the flesh none live more after the flesh praiers and ordinance and discipline
weeping for her and yet it is observable that the Jews write the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies to weep very small 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to intimate the practice of Abraham to have been sutable to what the Apostle Paul expresly wishes that beleevers in the like cases should be 1 Thes 4 13. a moderate mourning for their dead in the Lord as those that believing the doctrine of the resurrection are not without hope for them I might point you likewise to Jacobs buriall of his wife Rachel and his and Esaus buriall of their father Isaac Gen. 35.19 20 29. and to Joseph and his brethren with many of the Egyptians making a very great lamentation for old Israel when they buried him insomuch that the place where they staied lamenting him got from thence a new denomination being afterward called Abel Mizraim Gen. 50.10 11. or the Egyptians mourning because of the excessive mourning of the Egyptians by which it seems that the Egyptians though least akinne to him yet made the greatest lamentation surely not because they loved him better then his children but because they were not so well instructed and therefore had neither so much knowledge nor so much hope of the resurrection which should have put more bounds unto their mourning except we shall say that the whole company coming out of Egypt had the common name of Egyptians put upon them because so adjudged to be by the people thereabout inhabiting I might tell you too of the interring of Aaron Miriam and the lamentations made for them as also for Moses Joshua Samuel and many others but then as the Apostle sales in this Heb. 11. in another case the time would fail me or my strength would fail me by exceeding the time I shall therefore content my self with what is said to that and turn from this discourse to my text and see what it will afford for our observation and usefullnesse before we make further application of our discourse to the present occasion All these died in or according to faith The Apostle in this Epistle had most sweetly opened the doctrine of Christ to the Hebrews that were partakers of the heavenly call and thereby brought to beleeve and thence called holy brethren ch 3.1 and from his natures offices sufferings and from the dignity of them all he had abundantly evinced and cleared it that they had good ground to hold fast the faith and profession of him firm without wavering and not be moved therefrom by any cause or reason In the 10th Chapter he had laid down many other arguments also to presse them thereunto as from the danger of willing backsliding If we sin willfully after the knowledge of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sin c. vers 25 26. and from the consideration of the excellency apprehended by them in Christ in their illumination and the effects of that apprehension in them c. vers 33 34. Remember the daies in which after ye were illuminated ye endured a great fight of affliction c. from the greatnesse of the reward promised and to be certainly enjoied by them in its season if they hold fast their faith and confidence and were not turned aside therefrom vers 35. Cast not away your confidence which hath great recompence of reward to which he adds an instruction about their need of patience ver 36. and usefullnesse and excellency of faith as that which most suiteth with the condition in which God useth to leade his and in which they should meet with preservation unto the enjoyment of the reward promised them vers 38. Now the just shall live by faith or the just by faith shall live without that the profession will be worthlesse the considence will vanish and patience will have no place but there will either be an open revolting or a secret withdrawing in a barren empty dead adhering to an outside profession Now in this Chapter he confirms what he had there said that faith is that in which God exerciseth his people and gives them life that God doth not use to keep them by sense in giving in an enjoyment of things promised so much as by faith in his word without sensible feelings and experiments but first of all he laies down a definition of this faith v. 1. It s the subsistance of things hoped for and the evidence or argument of things not seen that puts an end to vain empty disputations How do you know that God made the world or that the Scriptures are the word of God or are true c. Faith makes it evident to me God hath said thus and in his saying I am convinced and perswaded to believe though I see not the things of which he speaketh to me and in believing I am staied and satisfied about it and it s become to me as firm a principle as if I had seen It s an argument leaning upon Gods authority speaking and manifesting it self unto the conscience that gives a suâ—sistence to things hoped for as to my minde so that though we see not the things we hope for nor are they as yet in being yet they being beleeved have a kinde of subsistence in the heart and the soul acteth upon that subsistence towards them as really as if it saw them with the bodily sense as if they were already existent and had a being which also they shall have in their season From that the Apostle proceeds to give divers instances of the excellency usefullnesse and â—fficacy of this faith in the prime and choice Saints of God in all ages how they have lived by it and in the exercise of it without the enjoyment of the things set before them and beleeved and he begins at Abel v. 4. and so passes on to Enoch ver 5. Noah ver 7 aâ— thence to Abraham Isaac and Jacob ver 8 9. and Sarah ver 11. or whom he hâ—re saith in the text All these dieà in faith not having received the promises c. The words these all seem to referre to Abraham Isaac Jacob and Sarah both because of Enoch of whom its said vers 5. that he was translated that he should not see death who therefore cannot be here included except we take his change in his translation to be equivalent to death and also because that he tels us vers 15 of these forsaking their Countrey which we finde no where affirmed of those others mentioned before these But let us come to the words and note something from them that present themselves unto us for I shall not spend time about a curious supersluous cutting them in pieces Abraham Isaac and Jacob were worthy persons highly favoured of God chosen by him to peculiar dignity and priviledges Princes and Prophets and very famous in their proper seasons yet behold what the Apostle in the first words of the text affirmeth of them all These all died Whence let us note and I