even by such as are not the Children and lovers of the truth Let us veiw them briefly and in order Point 1. Death is common to the righteous and the wicked and both of them have their latter end There be two branches of this proposition Death common to good and bad and both branches are implyed fairly Balaam being an unrighteous man a Diviner and Enchanter sees and acknowledges he must dye and have a latter end or an after part else no ground for his wishing so to die as or that his latter end might be like that of the righteous and it is clearly implyed and taken for granted by him that the righteous hath his death and his latter end or after part Both have them therefore though it is implyed that they are not the same to both nor indeed the one like to the other for if they were there was no ground for wishing or desiring a likeness of them This is common to both they shall dye and they shall come to an end or after part that 's the substance of the first point or proposition the inequality and unlikeness between them belongs to the second Consider we first the former in both Branches and so first That they must both dye Death is common to all men Bran. 1. Good and bad must dye yea it is the way of all flesh and the Grave the house appointed for all living Josh 23.14 Job 30.25 The way of all the earth we see saith the Psalmist wise men dye likewise the fool and the brutish man perish Psal 49.10 Abraham is dead and the Prophets are dead and so be the Apostles and all generally that have been before us and now are not except Enoch and Elias one of which was translated and the other taken alive into heaven but all else generally have dyed and all that come after us shall dye in like manner except those believers that shall survive to the coming of the Lord Jesus who shall not dye as others so as to sleep or rest in death as the Apostle witnesses saying Behold I shew you a mysterie we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last Trump for the Trump shall sound and the Dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed so also 1 Thess 4.16 17. though in the change shall be something exceeding suddainly answering to Death and Resurrection in a moment but for all others they do and must look to dye that is to have their breath and spirit taken from them their Souls and Bodies separated each from other and that necessarily as in 1 Sam. 14.14 Reasons why Dâ—â—th iâ— commoâ— Reâ— we must needs all dye and we are as water spilt upon the ground that cannot be gathered up again neither doth God respect any persons c. For righteous and wicked be both men partakers of the same humane nature one as other and this Death we now speak of the bodily Death which the proposition is intended of is that that pertains to men as they are partakers of the nature of man and that neither the righteous put off by being righteous though they partake also of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 2.4 Nor the wicked by his being wicked though he therein become also of the wicked one 1 Joh. 3.12 Righteousness and wickedness make a difference of the state of men toward God and of the frame of heart and the way of conversation and life but makes not an alteration of the common nature or humanity so as to cause it to cease in either party It is appointed to men once to dye Heb. 9.27 to men namely in the capacity and consideration of men not to the righteous only nor to the wicked only as such but to men and that also because Reas 2 Both righteous and wicked sinned against God in the first man for by one man sin entred into the world and Death by sin and so death passed over all men because all sinned Rom. 5.12 and that was the Original cause of Death the wages oâ— sin is death Rom. 6.23 now not only they that â—â—w are wicked and ungodly sinned in Adam but all men eveâ—â—ich also as are now made and become righteous in and by Jesus Christ for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Heb. 2. â—â— Rom. 3.23 where all is expressed none is excluded from it The Prophet putting in himself with all his Brethren saith We all like sheep have gone astray we have turned every man to his own way Isa 53.6 And the Apostle If we say we have not sinned we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us 1 Joh. 1.10 And because of this sin Reas 3 Both those that are righteous and those that are wicked were condemned to dye the judgment that passed upon Adam in the day he sinned passed upon him not only as a single particular person but also as the root of all Mankind and their inclusive Father in whose loyns seminally all were and so when it was said to him Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return death in and by vertue of that Sentence was denounced and passed upon all men Gen. 2.17 with 3.18 Rom. 5.12 16. only by special favour and prerogative through Christ God exempted one or two as instances of immortallity and of such a change as in which he will exempt those that are alive at Christs appearing in the faith of him as we said before This is included in what the Apostle speaks of when he saith The judgment was of one offence to condemnation and through the offence of one judgment came upon all to condemnation Rom. 5.16.18 in which it was appointed of God to men once to dye whereupon Reas 4 Man all men generally is become flesh Flesh and blood infirm weak like other earthly creatures even like the bruit beasts that perish as is said Psal 49.12 Man in honour abideth not he is like the Beasts that perish in respect of the frailty and diseasedness of his body and outward man and lyableness to be penetrated pierced wounded killed dye of hunger thirst cold or the like whence that of Solomon Eccles 3.18.19.20 I said in my heart concerning the state of the sons of men that God might manifest them or that they might clear God and see that they themselves are beasts For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts even one thing befalleth them As the one dieth so dieth the other yea they have all one breath their breath in all of them is in their nostrils now so that a man hath no preheminence that is in respect of the temper of his body and its mortality and lyableness to death above a beast for all is vanity Both man and beast of a vanishing momentany continuance in this life all go unto one place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again For all flesh is
2 Cor. 4.4.17 18. Rom. 8.18 6. To moderate their affections to and endeavors after these earthy worldly things that so they may be the more given up to seek and serve the Lord seeing the time is but short and uncertain that we shall or can be here to enjoy them or want them 1 Cor. 79.2 30. 1 Joh 2.16 17. The world passeth away the lust of it 3. He orders it to give us more abundant sence and perception of the odiousness of sin to him and so to admonish us not to sin against him but to stand in awe of him while we see and find that notwithstanding all that Christ hath done for our Reconciliation and Restauration into his favour yet he will have such things pass upon us still in our persons and be sustained by us for Death is the wages of Sin Rom. 6.23 and if for our sinning once in Adam God will have such a punishment lye upon us all in all generations though Christ also hath interposed between God and us what may we not fear will befall us if we dare still in our persons to sin again and again against him 4. He orders it to occasion in us a deeper sense of the love of God and Christ to us of God in abasing Christ and of Christ in abasing himself for us so low as to dye for us while we have the experiments of it and of the things that tend to it in our selves though without the curse and sting in it which our Lord by suffering them took away we are aptly minded to consider what it was to him that endured it as the curse of the Law and so with its sting and venom in it and so how great love that was that led him so to do for us 5. He orders it to be an end or put an end to our sorrows labours temptations and exercises here that we may rest from them all and be at quiet from molestations from men and Devils for there the wicked cease to trouble and there the weary be at rest they hear not the voice of the Oppressors Job 3.17.18 they enter into peace and rest in their beds c. Isa 57.1 2. 6. To conform us to his blessed Son in sufferings and death and so in exercising such faith in God and submission to him in resigning our selves to his merciful dispose as he also exercised in resigning up his spirit to him depending upon him to dispose of it and in due time to raise him Rom. 8.29 30. Luc. 23.46 with Psal 31.5 7. To give them advantage of their more abundantly testifying their love and obedience to God and Christ in laying down their lives for him as he may call any of them thereto and so to magnifie him in their deaths as Philip. 1.20 It is the desire of Lovers to have some advantages or occasions given them to shew the greatness and reallity of their love to them they love whence that What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits Psal 116.112 and it s some satisfaction and rejoycing when such advantages are given them Now herein Christ gives us a possibility of such advantage of that desireable satisfaction of love to him that we may sometimes shew it in dying or exposing our lives to dangers of it for him Rev. 12.11 8. To shew forth more abundantly the excellency of his power and glory in the Resurrection in raising them up again from the dead For his power is made manifest in weakness and is perfected in infirmities how much more when we are so altogether under the power of death and the grave that it may seem impossible to be revived or brought up again If the greatness of the power of God was seen in raising up Christ from the dead sure the greatness of the power and glory of Christ will be seen in raising up his people again and making them therein conformable to himself Eph. 1.19 20. Philip. 3.20 21. this will be such an evidence of his power as shall make them indeed to know how infinitely great he is and how true and faithful in his promises Thence it s said I will open your graves oh my people and cause you to come out of your graves and ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves O my people and brought you out of your graves and put my spirit into you and ye shall live then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it and have performed it c. Ezek. 37.12 13 14. To such purposes and for such like good holy and gracious and glorious ends doth God order death upon the righteous also and indeed in all this chiefly to magnify the greatness and glory of the Lord Jesus and his own in him and for the benefit and profit of us Whence it s said that death also is ours the believers not they its but it theirs their advantage mercy and priviledge 1 Cor. 3.21 22. and according to these several considerations might we apply it And especially To provoke us to consider our mortallity that we must die and Vse 1 therefore submitting our selves to the will and appointment of God therein through Jesus Christ which we may the better do because it s ordered through Christ as the Mediator of God and us and so in love and faithfulness to us for our profit and commodity to live and pass our times here as those that know and believe that we must die So little setting our hearts and affections upon this life and world either to seek or delight in the enjoyment or grieve for the want and loss of the things thereof as they that know that they and our enjoyments or wants of them are but very momentany and as having better things in Christ prepared for us to be the more earnest and diligent in seeking after them in seeking his face and favour and serving him in our generation being so much the more earnest therein as we know our times here are short and uncertain and not giving way to our hearts to wander after vanity and iniquity lest he putting an end suddenly to our lives we be found wandered from him out of the way of understanding and so miss of his salvation 2 And seeing we must die and death will put an end to our present sufferings temptations and afflictions stablish we our hearts in the way of God to hold fast the profession of our faith and the practice of godliness firm without wavering to the end as knowing that our sufferings here will not nor can be everlasting Yet a little while and Christ will put us to bed in the grave where we shall rest from all our labours and sorrows and be out of the reach either of Satan to tempt us or of the world to persecute or oppress us The worst that men can do against us is but to kill our Bodies and our Bodies must die though we do not yeild them up to the Lord
to glorifie him in the life and death of them And if men do oppress and afflict us till we die yet then have they no more that they can do against us in which they may afflict or trouble us Math. 10.28 Jam. 5.8 Reasons of Death in respect of the wicked As for the wickeds dying they living in their sins and wickedness and not repenting thereof they must needs die as being 1. Not justified from their sins the wages whereof is death Rom. 6.23 2. Yea they besides the sin of Adam upon the account whereof the first Death was pronounced and passes upon all by their personal sins and wickednesses oftentimes provoke God to cut them off signally insuch times and wayes as else they might not have died in For though Pharaoh Saul Haman Judas c. as men and as sinners must have dyed yet they needed not nor might haved dyed at such times and in such wayes as they did had they not been guilty of such hainous personal wickednesses as they were otherwise such their deaths should not have been punishments to them for such their sins as it is certain they were * See Psal 55 23. Yea sometimes Gods people also by some sinful wayes or acts pull upon themselves untimely and exemplary deaths God chastening them and making them examples and admonitions to others in such wayes in which he also may prevent the perishing of their souls as is evident in 1 Cor. 11.29 30. For this cause many are sick and weak and some are fallen asleep But 3. Besides God in mercy to men even such as are wicked hath ordered Death to them that the consideration of it might awake them to repentance while a day of grace is vouchsafed to them that ceasing to be wicked they might not die for ever Isa 55.7 Ezek. 33.12 4. And for the sake of the righteous and in mercy to them that they persisting in their wickedness and not turning therefrom the world might not be alwayes pestered with them nor they be alwayes a vexation and mischief to them that walk with God and fear him But that the yoke may be broken sometimes off their necks and Gods anger against his people cease in their destruction as Iâ—a 10.25 and as we have instances in the Deaths of Pharoah Haman Ahitophel Saul and divers others from whose wrath malice and mischeivous madness God gave his servants deliverance by cutting them off by Death in his due time Yea 5. For the benefit of the world too and such as yet are ignorant of and opposite to God and his truth Partly that they might be delivered from such teachers of and provokers to wickedness by their evil examples counsels compulsions and withholding from them the wayes and means of life And partly that they might by Gods exemplary judgments upon them in their deaths and destructions be awakened and made to see the evil of wickedness and the truth of Gods words and goodness of the wayes of righteousness as Psal 58.11 Psal 9 16. Seeing the wicked also shall die it may instruct us 1. Not to be afraid of the fury of the oppressor so as to turn Vse 1 aside from God to avoid that For besides that the arms of Christ do judge the people and he can by his strong arm put by the most stout hearted cruel Tyrants and oppressors from their desires and purposes of oppressing and harming his followers and can gather his Children with them and keep them safe from those that would hurt them their time also will come to die as David said of Saul in his persecuting him 1 Sam. 26.10 and then he shall cease from all power of troubling and molesting us in the day that the wickeds breath goeth out of his nostrils all his thoughts purposes or intentions for evil against us shall perish With this the Lord Jesus comforts his followers and people the Nation that knows his righteousness and have his Law in their hearts in Isa 51.7 8.12 13. Fear ye not saith he the reproach of the people neither be ye afraid of their revilings for the Moth shall eat them up like a Garment and the Worm shall eat them like wooll But my righteousness shall be for ever and my salvation to all generations And again Who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die and of the son of man that shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy maker and hast feared all the day â—ing because of the fury of the oppressor And where is the fury of the oppressor when God doth but take away his breath and life from him as he will at some time or other and may at any time when he will what becomes then of all his rage and wrath his Cruel Threatnings Bloody Laws and Decrees Unjust Oppressions or the like Surely they shall all vanish with him 2. It may instruct us also not to envy their prosperity and reprove such as so do To that purpose is that in Prov. 23.17 18. Let not thine heart envy sinners but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long Upon this account for there shall be an end namely to thy suffering from them and of their lives and power to put thee to suffering as also of their enjoying those their enjoyments for which thou art apt to envy them As it is more evident in that parallel Counsel Psal 37.1 2. Envy thou not because of evil doers for they shall soon be cut off as the Grass and wither as the green Herb c. 3. It may also admonish the wicked to cease from his wickedness and from his priding in himself in or pursuing after those things for and by which he is made wicked and hardened in his wickedness Seeing he must die and then all his glory and what he prefers before God and his ways must be at an end with him yea he also must give an account and be judged after that for all his wickedness too But that leads us to consider Bran. 2. Both have a latter end The second Branch of this point viz. That both righteous and wicked have or shall have their end We have this asserted of both in Psal 37.37 38. Mark the perfect man and consider the upright for the End of that man is Peace But transgressors shall be destroyed together the End of the wicked shall be be cut off There is the End both of the upright and of the wicked But Object it is said in 1. Joh. 2.17 That he that doth the will of God shall abide for ever How is it then that he hath an end how shall we understand it Again it is said of both righteous and wicked That these the wicked shall go into everlasting punishment and the righteous into everlasting life Math. 25.46 How then can either of them be said to have an end seeing the one is everlastingly punished and the other lives everlastingly Yea it would be an happiness
and teaching them his way they that then wink not with the eye stop not the eare nor harden their heart against his discoveries calls and operations but listen and look to him in the power and grace preventing them and so turn at his reproofs and be converted they come to Christ and to God in and by him and are translated from a state of sin to a state of righteousness and from the power of Satan unto God to receive remission of sins and inheritance among the sanctified by faith in him Isa 42.18 19 and 45.22 23. Math. 13.16 16. Prov. 1.23 Joh. 6.44 45. Acts 3.19 and 26.18 Joh. 5.28 29. and these are all justified from all things from which they could not be justifyed otherwise and abiding in that grace into which they are called they shall have their portion among the Saints and righteous ones Act. 13.38 39. 1 Cor. 6.9.11 1 Joh. 2.24 25. 5. And for as much as this grace in Christ is prepared for all men and is in the Gospel declared and tendred to all he being the propitiation for the sins of the whole world and all invited and called to attend and listen to him that they might in the receit of this grace be saved there is a Doore opened and during the day of grace held open unto all so as by the grace afforded through Christ any man yeilding up to the calls of God and seeking and following on to know him may be brought into Christ and be justified and saved Isa 25.6 Rom. 3.22 23 24. and 5.18 1 Joh. 2.1 2. Isa 45.22 and 55. 1 2 6 7. Rev. 22.17 In a word 6. There is in Christ through his pretious Death and Sacrifice such plenteousness of redemption even forgiveness of sins and he so liveth for ever and makes such powerful intercession for transgressors and is so loving to man and patient toward sinners and God so loath any should perish having no delight in the Death of the wicked that as he calls such also and extend by and through Christ his holy Spirit to enable them to obey his calls so any wicked man obeying his call is by the blood of Christ washed from his sins and by his powerful intercession with God for him in coming to God by him who will in no wise cast out him that comes to him is accepted of God and saved Psal 130.4 7. Col. 1.14 Heb. 7.25 Isa 53.12 Ezek. 33.11 2 Pet. 3.9 15. Joh. 6.37 1 Cor. 6.11 These things considered it is not a vain thing for men even wicked men to wish desire seek and endeavour so as they submit to seek in the right way and in good earnest striving to enter the strait gate while it is yet open and not shut against them Luc. 13.24 25. to attain this end Deut. 3â— 46 47. But for men to wish and would desire and crave and yet be slothful and refuse to strive or to strive and labour in a wrong way rejecting the grace of God and his truth in the evidences and operations thereof or to wish to have the portion end and reward of the righteous and yet continue and keep on in the ways of errour and sin this is foolish absurd and bootless Such as Balaams wishing was who therefore notwithstanding this wish was slain by Israel and dyed the Death of and among the wicked Numb 31.8 The fluggard wishes and desires but hath not because his hands refuse to labour Prov. 13.4 and 21.25 and many in such ways as are wrong or when too late seek to enter and shall not be able Luc. 13.24 25. Rom. 9 30 31 32. But Seeing the wicked sometimes seeing the goodness of the death and latter end of the righteous in some measure desire them Que. Why do any wicked not endeavour it whence is it they become not righteous or walke not in the way to them To this many things might Ans Reasons of it be said I shall but touch upon some of them As to say 1. They see something of their end but not so fully and prevailingly as to make them love and like the way they walk in thereto because they wink with the eye and follow not on to know light comes upon them sometimes more than they desire but they desire not to minde much the light that comes upon them that they might get a further light into what it shews them They see and hate Joh. 15.24 and that because 2. They are sensual and love to please and satisfie their senses in present injoyments indeed because they apprehend sweetness and pleasure in the latter end of the righteous they desire them but because they feel and finde sweetness in the world and present ways of sin they love them and retaine them and being more affected with present sweets then futures the ways to which also would deprive them of much of what 's present they hold fast what they have or endeavour so to do though with hazzarding the loss of the other Nay because the light that discovers the end of the righteous reproves their ways and would deprive them of the pleasures of sin they therefore hate the light and put it from them or turn from it and so come not so to see as to be converted by it Joh. 3.19 20. Job 24.13 14 17. Math. 13.15 3. Winking with the eye and not abiding in or following the light Satan gets more power upon them to blind and harden them as 2 Cor. 4.4 stealing out the light or seed of life from their hearts Luk. 8.12 and so moving them to doubt of or disbelieve again what they have seen Gen. 3.1 3 4. or also filling them with strong delusions to believe lies 2 Thess 2.10.11 12. as perswading them 1. That they may have their present pleasures of sin and the future good things prepared for the just and righteous ones too Deut. 29.19 2. That they may repent soon enough hereafter Pro. 6.10 3. That God is gracious and will forgive their sins though they live in them upon the account of some outwardly religious injoyments or services or priviledges Jer. 7.4 5. Isa 28.14 15. and 66.1 3. Math. 3.7 8 9. Joh. 8.33 34. Math. 7.21 22. 4. Sometimes that there is no hope for them and that therefore they had as good sit still as strive to enter to no purpose Jer. 18.11 12. Or 5. That they are in the way already to that good end when they are not but quite out of it Pro. 30.12 Rom. 9.31 32. Rev. 3.14 15. and many such like deceits which God justly leaves them to for their having pleasure in unrighteousness and not receiving the love of the truth that they might be saved 2 Thes 2.10 12. 4. Their pride oftimes hinders them from seeking after God or accepting of his salvation and submitting to the simplicity of his ways as Hos 5.5 and 7.10 Psal 10.4 Joh. 9.25 26 40. they love the praise of men more than the praise of God Job 5.44 and 12.43
the Press PAge 16. line 1. for dying men reaâ— mens dying p. 17. l. 18. r. taken p. 21. l. 36. put a stop at us p 22. l. 25. put out the first â—in p. 25. l. 26. 1. â—apt p. 30. in the Margin 1. penitentiam p. 33. l. 18. 1. in ther. p. 34. l. 2. for c. 1. and. p. 35. l. 33. 1. exers â— 40. l. 31. 1. that appear to come p. 41. l. 15. put out and p. 147. l. 21. put â—ut it l. 40. r. the cross of Christ p. 48. In the Margin for câ—me 1. lioâ— p. 60. l. 11. r. Rev. 22. p. 65. l. 38. for this 1. his p. 70. in the Margin â— adâ—ciant l. 40. r. dainty p. 72. l. 22 there is a whole line left out it should be Deâ—â—â— from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil c. p. 73. l. 12. for 10. r. with p. 74 Marg. for die r. have p. 78 l. 29. r. Deut. 3â— p. â—0 Marg. r. recusandus p 87. l. 17. for of r. in p. 80. in the six last lines the first letters are placed too low p. 89. l. 13. r. 31. l 20. r. to p. 91. l. 11. r. wish p. 92. l. 35. for 68. r. 86. p. 94. l. 31. r. 1 Cor. 1.13 p. 97 l. 22. for there r. their p. 102. l. 14. a whole line is omitted it should be Christ onely to be beâ— righteousness having her hope in him and therefore doing righteousness in her generation c. l. 37. put a stop at indulgence In the Verses The last Anagram should be thus printed and pointed 6 What if a robber eat p. 105. l. 11. and 22. and 34. Whitescote shâ—'d have been in two words Whitescote in the Epitaph v. 2. for beate r. beate also the Ablative Faeminine terrâ tumbâ aetheriâ should have had a circumflex accent and v. 7. for intens â—tens BALAAM'S WISH OR The Happiness of the Righteous in and after Death NUMBERS 23.14 Let me my soul die the Death of the Righteous or upright ones and let my latter end be like to his WHatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our instruction that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures may have hope Rom. 15.4 Now not onely the words sayings and doings of God and good men be there recorded but also many of evil Angels and evil men in which though we cannot say of them properly Hear the words of the Lord but rather as our Savior saith in the Parable of the unjust Judge Luke 18.6 Hear what the unjust Judge saith hear what this or that evil man or evil spirit saith yet in as much as they are recorded of God and by his Spirit it is certain that they may not be only lawful to be considered by us but also useful too for therefore hath the holy Ghost there recorded them that we might receive instruction by them For as there is no weed so stinking but the Bee may gather honey therefrom as they use proverbially to say so neither is there any saying or doing of evil men or devils so bad but a good and wise heart by the guidance of that Spirit that lead his servants to record them may get instruction and profit by them as our Savior observes from the Parables of the unjust Judge and unjust Steward Luke 16. 18. And Solomon from the vineyard of the slothful man from the field of him that was void of understanding Prov. 24 30 31 32. Even as no saying or doing of God is so good but an evil minde may abuse it to its own ruine turning his grace into wantonness and that that is for a welfare into a snare In the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what he gives as a Table into a trap as Jud. 4 Psal 69.22 destroying it self because there is help in God Hos 13.9 Though then what I have proposed to be considered be the words of Balaam and he was a bad man a false prophet Diviner or Sooth-sayer as appears in 2 Pet. 2.15 16. Jude 11. Rev. 2.14 Numb 24.1 Deut. 23.4 5. Numb 31.16 and divers other places yet for as much as To the pure all things are pure and the holy Ghost hath recorded them by Moses for our usefulness we may consider them and see what instruction is afforded in them The occasion of them was this Israel travelling towards the Land of Canaan to take possession thereof by Gods guidance and conduct of them they pass by the borders of Moah thereupon Balak King of Moah is troubled and that he might be confident to fight them though giving him no cause he sends for Balaam famous in the East Countreys it seems for Divinations to come and curse them perswading himself that whom he cursed should be accursed and he might then prevail against them Num. 22.6 Balaam at first refuses to go God forbidding him Balak sends to him again more Messengers and more honorable with greater proffers Balaam though he had a minde to the wages of unrighteousness durst not go with them without leave from God God knowing how to answer him according to his idol and yet glorifie himself and magnifie his people in over-ruling his attempts against them lets him go yet sets his Angel in the way to resist him and opens the dumb Asses mouth he rode on upon its sight of the Angel to reprove his folly and charges him by his Angel to say nothing to Balak but what he bid him and so lets him go on Being come to Balak they prepare Altars and offer Sacrifices as proving if God might be moved by them to put a curse into his mouth against them and goes to meet with God who puts these words into his mouth that follow Balak King of Moab hath brought me from Aram from the mountains of the East saying Come curse me Jacob and come defie Israel How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed And how shall I defie whom the Lord hath not defied For from the top of the Rocks I see him from the bills I behold him Lo the people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations Who can count the dust of Jacob and the number of the fourth part of Israel To which he adds as admiring and implying their happiness especially as to his Death and after state Let me die the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his Where we may note That these were the words that God put into his mouth ver 5. and so divine words and full of truth and rightness in themselves and the truth of divers passages herein are evident to be true as that they are a people dwelling alone and not accounted or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Hebrew and the Latine hath it (a) Scipsum non annumeâ—at numbers not himself among the Nations which the truth of all Histories to this day witnesseth For though they are dispersed among all
nations for their sins yet they ever dwell as it were by themselves as a distinct people or nation from all those among whom they dwell not reckoning themselves with them and their dispersions all over notwithstanding the (b) Bishop Usher reckons up in his Annals as slain of them in sundry places in the wars under Titus and Vespasian 254490 besides in the siege of Jerusalem 1100000 in all 1354490 and Nâ—cephorus tells of millions of them destroyed in Adrians time yea 53 wyriads in one dey besides what were slain in the tumults in Traâ—ans time numerous multitudes of them that have at sundry times been in divers places slaughtered testifie their number to be exceeding great and such as Balaam might well say of them here Who can count their dust In the words of the Text we may consider 1. Who he was that spake the words Not Israel but Balaam It s he that 's meant of in the word me or my soul 2. The matter spoken And that is considerable 1. In general A good Wish or Desire 2. In particular That he might die the death of the righteous c. 1. From the first of these The person wishing Balaam a bad man we may briefly note Note 1. That good words may sometimes be in bad mens mouâ—hs As the Greek Proverb is Oftimes (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fool may speak seasonable sayings God is the Lord of Hosts All creatures are his And as in the former Chapter he put a mans voice into an Asses mouth as if she had had a mans understanding in her bruitish heart and a mans wit in her dull head So in this and the following Chapter he put divine words words of truth into the mouth of a wicked man As Satan can transform himself into an Angel of light so his ministers may be sometimes transformed into ministers of righteousness not onely through evil design of their own but also sometime by Gods over-ruling power and providence So the Spirit of God came upon Saul and he prophesied even when he was in his persecutions of David 1 Sam. 19.20 23. and Caiaphas spake by the instinct of the Holy Ghost in saving It behoved one man to die for the Nation c. John 11.50 51. Yea as sometime Satan may insinuate his words into good mens mouths as when Peter bid Christ favor himself So also God sometimes puts good words into evil mens mouthes And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Origen in Gels lib. 7. This is God bieng a lover of mankinde hath made known the truth and what is to be known of him not eâ—lâ—y to those that are addicted to him but also to such 〈◊〉 are without his sincere worship or godlinâ—ss towards him though sâ—me doing things nâ—w â—hy of that knowledge live ungodlily 1. Because God is good to all and Christ the true Light that lighteth every one coming into the world and his Spirit judging or striving in man that they might be turned in to God and be saved As it is said God would have all men saved and come to the knowledge of the truth for there is one God and one Mediator of God and man the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all a testimony in due time 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6. Whence it is said Doth not wisdom cry and understanding lift up her voice As if he would say Can that be denyed or doubted of Prov. 8.1 2 4 5 c. Thence it is said That the heathen with-held the truth in unrighteousness for what was to be known of God was manifest in them for God shewed it them Though when they knew God they glorified him not as God nor were thankful but became vain in their imaginations letting in something of Gods light though rejecting the life and power of it and obeyed it nor Thence we finde good speeches in the Heathen though they liked not to be made good by Gods light and goodness discovered We may instance one in Juvenal to this purpose Permittes ipsis expendere numinibus quid Conveniat nobis rebusque sit utile nostris Nam pro jâ—cundis aptissima quaeque dubunt Dii Charior est illis homo quam sibi c. Leave 't to the Powers above to judge what 's meet They 'l give what 's good in stead of what seems sweet They love man better than man himself loves But this was still more evident in the Jews as is to be seen in Rom. 2.17 18 19 20 21 c. They knew and could speak of many excellent things though they that so spake abode still wicked and so the Gospel is as a Draw-net that being cast into the sea catches fishes good and bad Whence many receiving its light may speak well though not receiving its life and power they live ill Math. 13.47 48. and fail of the grace that God afforded them receiving it in vain Heb. 12.15 2 Cor. 6.1 2. For a testimony to others that they might have means of understanding and help in the way of God And so as Balaams Ass spake with a mans voice for his Masters sake so might Balaam have those divine Raptures and speak the language of Gods true Prophets for Moabs sake That they knowing who was the true God and seeing his great goodness to and the good condition of his people and who they were might have opportunity of joyning themselves to them and enjoying their happiness with them And it is thought by many Vident Chaldaei in Coelis qued Balaam reliquit in Scripturis orietur Stella ex Jacob c. Bern. in Concep B. Mariae Ipsa veritas cogente naturaetiam ab invilis pecteribus erampâ—t Laâ— lib. 2. cap. 1. that the Prophecies of this man out of the mountaines of the East preserved amongst the children of those Eastern Countreys gave that understanding to the Wise-men out of the East that are said upon the Birth of Christ to have seen his star and to come and worship him Mat. 2.1 2. 3. For the greater testimony to God and his truth while they have such force and evidence as to gain a confession from those that love them not but are their enemies As its an evidence of the strength of a mans Cause when the adversary cannot but acknowledge it An evidence of the righteousness of Gods Cause when he appeals to mens Consciences to be Judges in it Isa 5.3 4 Their Rock is not as our Rock saith Moses of the Nations our Adversaries themselves being Judges Deut. 32.31 4. In extraordinary Cases such as this was it is for the good and advantage of Gods choice people And so it is affirmed in Deut. 23.4 5. The Lord would not hearken unto Balaam but turned the Curse into a Blessing Because the Lord their God loved his people And in Josh 24.10 I would not hearken unto Balaam but he altogether blessed you and I delivered you out of his hand Whence also the Prophet Micah bids Israel remember what Balaam
the son of Beor answered unto Balak That they might know the righteousness of the Lord. That is his faithfulness to his people Mich. 6.5 So Sauls prophecying was that David might escape him Vse And this commends the goodness of the Lord both as he is the Savior of all men and as especially of those that believe though it condemn the badness of men that abuse his goodness who could not abuse his goodness were he not so good to them and would not abuse it and rest short of his gracious good end in extending it if they were not so bad 2. It instructs us as not to receive every word that good men may say for sin and corruption in them and Satan getting advantage thereby may sometime mis-lead them to speak amiss as Peter to our Lord in Math. 16.23 〈…〉 Whence the Apostle next to his direction Not to despise prophecying adds Try all things and hold fast that that is good And thence also good men sometime un-say what they have foresaid and vary from it as Austin had his Book of Retractations So also not to reject all that may be said by evil men because evil men at least not to reject Gods savings and good counsels from them though no body would wisely go to seek the Lord or enquire after his minde by them when better means are afforded The Scribes and Pharisees saith our Saviour sit in Moses Chair all therefore whatsoever they bid you do namely as holding forth and setting forward Moses Law that observe and do Math. 23.2 3. And its observable that after our Savior had testified against Judas John 13.19 he immediately adds Verily verily I say unto you he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me As implying that what Judas had preached by his Mission of him was never the less to be regarded by others though he himself miscarryed Gods words are Gods words and in themselves have the same truth and holiness though in a wicked mans mouth nor doth he disown his Statutes though an evil man declare them but onely the evil man that declares them Psal 50.16 17. Even as Christ saith not he never knew his Name when evil men prophesied in it and thereby cast out devils but he knew not the men though doing such things therein that wrought iniquity and abode in evil Math. 7.22.23 St. Paul cites sometimes the sayings of Heathen Poets and hath made them Canonical Scripture by his citing them and it cost a good man his life that he neglected to hear counsel from God by a heathen 2 Chron. 35.22 Josuâ—h was slain in battel not hearing or hearkning to the words of Necho King of Egypt from the mouth of God Bern. de 206 Disâ— 3. Audivit Balaam sermones Dei visâ—â—â—s omnipotentis intuiâ—â— est sed cadebâ—t opertis coeulis sic multos videtis had estudentes Seâ—s â—atâ— c Again let no man lift up himself in having knowlegde and ability to preach and speak Gods word and give good language to or of Gods people seeing that 's a gift a bad man may have and be never the better but the worse for it Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall inherit the Kingdom but he that doth the will of God that hears the word of God and keeps it Better to be but a hearer and a doer than a Preacher and no doer of the word of God As many might help to build Noahs Ark that not entring it perisht in the Flood So it is here Mat. 7.21 22. 2. As to the matter of the words in general They are a wish a good wish or desire such a wish as a good man may wish Thence note 1. Gods dispensations to men may beget good things in them that yet are not made good by them So here what God said and shewed to Balaam produced in him an enlightned understanding an apprehension and perswasion that Israel was a righteous and a good people and that continuing so they should have a good Death and a desirable End and therefore he also commends and blesses them as a happy people and had good desires that his soul might dye their death and his latter end be like to his Yea this note is further confirmed if we view other expressions of what was begot in him as a resolution to obey God and an actual obedience too in many things when God said Thou shalt not go with them the Messengers of Balak thou shalt not curse the people for they are blessed though it made him not good yet he was so far obedient that he did not go with them nor do the evil God forbad him Numb 22.12 13. and when Balak sent more and more honourable Messengers with proffers of greater honours and rewards he had such an awe of God upon his spirit that he tells them Though Balak would give him his house full of Silver and Gold he could not go beyond the word of the Lord his God both calling God his God and protesting his adâ—aering to his word And when he see the Angel standing in the way against him because his way was perverse before God yet he so far submits himself as to say if it displeased him he would go back again and God permitting him to go on he told Balak the word that God put in his mouth that should he speak vers 38. and Chap. 23.12 Must I not take heed to speak that which the Lord hath put into my mouth and justifying himself against Balak angry with and faulting him for not curring but blessing Israel he saith Told I not thee that all that the Lord speaketh that I must do all that and nothing but that What obedience and constancy in his obedience is here and Chap. 24.12 13. Spake I not to thy Messengers which thou sent est to me saying if Balak would give me his house full of Silver and Gold I cannot go beyond the Commandement of the Lord to do good or evil of mine own mind but what the Lord saith that I will speak as resolving and holding fast his resolution to obey God whatever honour and preferment he thereby lost though a house full yea Balak's house full of Silver and Gold and Balak being a King his house sure was a great house a Palace I fear a few handfuls of such metal would tempt many now adays to revile the fearers of God and to turn Men-pleasers therein especially if such men as Balak was Yet Balaam stood so to his tackling that he will not be tempted by a house full of Gold and Silver Yea he makes Balak stamp and clap his hands at him and bad him flee to his place he thought to have promoted him to great honour but now the Lord had kept him back from honour Chap. 24 10 11. How far may a man go and yet be a bad man a false Prophet for all that Balaam seemed here to outstrip St. Peter at some
time Balaam through fear of God displeases and angers Balak because he will not disobey God and curse his people And Peter at the voice of a soâ—râ— Damsel denies his Master Christ yea with swearing and cursing himself disowns him yet both being overborn by fear neither of their actings are reckoned to them Not Balaamâ— for good because it was not out of love to God and his people that he blest them but out of fear and constraint he durst do no otherwise Nor Peter's for evil for it was not out of hatred or ill will to his Master but meerly as one overborn by fear and therefore also they both repented them as it appears for he that acts but out of fear when that fear is over will recoyle and not endure to the end Balaam it seems looking back to that honour he deprived himself of though he durst not curse Israel yet gave bad counsel against them and therein spake and did beyond what God bade him as is evident in Numb 31.16 Rev. 2.14 having an eye therein to the reward or wages of unrighteousness as is said 2 Pet. 2.15 16. Jud. 11. and Peter when Christ looked back upon him looking back upon the disservice done his Master went out and wept bitterly and afterwards boldly confessed him Act. 4.10 11 12. Luc. 22.62 so that it s not good to be hasty to judge good or evil of men by some present actings but the end is to be attended But besides those effects in and upon Balaam before mentioned what excellent rapture had he and what excellent things speaks he of Israel whereas many an honest heart can speak little of or for God and Christ or the priviledges of his people and may never meet with a trance or rapture all their dayes but go mourning and are afflicted from their youth up as Heman saith of himself Psal 88.15 How various herein are Gods dealings with men how unsearchable his judgments and his wayes are past finding out But why this surely 1. To instruct us not to rest in desires wishes fear of offending God and incurring his displeasure resolutions and such like operations as sure evidences of our good estates or conditions with God or as things that so accompany salvation as that we perswade our selves we cannot therefore miss of it because such things be found in us for these are insufficient to justifie us or declare us to be righteous Men may have these and not be in Christ out of whom we have not life whatever we may have by and through him either dispensed to us or wrought in us Balaam had these and yet was a wicked man and perished in his wickedness Had he indeed followed on through this desire to seek to know the God of Israel and to be made one with Israel and so to have been brought in to Christ that he might have had his hope and rejoycing in him and been renewed by him he might have done well and become a good man He had advantage given him for that and something effected of tendency to that but not heartily yeilding up to it but looking back to the wages of unrighteousness that were in his eye all his fruit was blasted and withered like grass upon the house top his desires languished and brought not forth an hearty effectual endeavour after what was desired and his resolutions were lost while his subtlety undermined what his fear had led him to namely his blessing of Israel And all his raptures and visions were but like to flashes of lightning in a dark Night which though at present they make all things in the Room visible yet are presently gone again and leave the Room as dark or darker than they found it not like the morning light that abides and encreases more and more unto the perfect day as the way of the the upright is Prov. 4.18 It s the being in Christ and so of the Circumcision and Israel of God the worshipping God in spirit and truth rejoycing in Christ Jesus and having no confidence or glorying in the flesh which renders us of the blessed people and in a happy condition Philip. 3.3 not the being inlightned into and having abilities to discourse of them and their excellencies nor our having bare desires and some languid wishes and endeavours to dye like them and have share with them 2. To instruct us not to take up in raptures revelations Aliqui donâ—… Spiâ—…tu Sancti â—…er meritâ—…m sed peâ—…fâ—…us fortiâ—…tur sicut sunt prophetiâ— cuâ—t â—…es c. â—…nc est quod Balaam pâ—pulo Dei beneâ—… c. Beâ—n in â—oen Dom. excellency of knowledge expressions c. seeing these may be where the heart is not right not subdued to be of the Israel of God It is not every one that hath such visions raptures trances much less none but they that shall inherit the Kingdom and enjoy the blessing but every one that hears the Word of God and doth it though he never meet with any such things all his dayes Men may have such things and be hurt by them thence the Apostle tells us it was doubtless not expedient for him to glory in such things yea that God was pleased to give him a Thorn in the flesh a Messenger of Satan to buffet him to prevent the hurt he was in danger to fall into by them 2 Cor. 12.7.8 Lest I should saith he be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given me a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan to buffet me left I should be exalted above measure He goes twice over with it to signifie the certainty and greatness of the danger of it and the great care and faithfulness of Christ to prevent it these therefore are not the things to be so much gloryed in much less rested and relyed upon but rather and only the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ even the knowledge of Christ and of him Crucifyed Gal. 6.14 1 Cor. 22. But I pass on and come 2. To consider the matter of the Text in particular the thing desired Let me or my soul dye the death of the Righteous or upright ones and let my latter end be like his Wherein These truths are contained seen and confessed by Balaam That Obs 1 death is common both to righteous and wicked ones and they have both a latter end an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or after part Let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my latter end be like His. That Obs 2 there is a very desirable excellency in the Death and latter end of the righteous above that of other men especially the wicked such as even wicked men that care not to live their life and to have their beginning and progress yet desire to have their death and latter end like theirs These are both of them truths and never the less truths for coming out of Balaams mouth but rather the more evident and observeable truths because confessed by Balaam also
grass as well that of men as that of beasts or birds or fishes and all the goodliness of man is as the flower of the field The grass withereth the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bleweth upon it that is his anger whence the Sentence of Death proceeded surely the people is grass Isa 40.6 7. Now then in as much as the righteous as men are flesh as well as the wicked they are also both subject and lyable to death True it is that Christ hath died for all Reason 5 and given himself a ransom for all to ransom and redeem all from under that sentence of death and condemnation deserved by us and due to us but that was not to this end that the bodily death should not come upon us or any of us but to redeem us from under the state of obligation upon the account of that our sin and fall to eternal death or a perishing from Gods presence and also from being left under the power and tyranny of Satan and his absolute dispose of us and doing his will with us upon the account aforesaid that we might be under the hand power and dispose of a man even of the Lord Jesus Christ who died rose and revived that he might be Lord Ruler and Disposer of both quick and dead and that we might being under him be in a possibility and capacity of salvation and so in coming to him at his Heavenly Call and yielding up our selves to him to hope in his grace and to obey and follow him we might receive forgiveness of our sins and be justified and acquitted of all things from which we could not be acquitted by the Law of Moses and consequently no other way and so that we might by him be brought back again to God and be made partakers of eternal life And that he having power as Lord and Judge over all men even over those also that obey not his Calls or believe not in him might raise and judge them according to his good pleasure Of which further by and by Now these being the ends of Christs dying for men his death is no hinderance to dying men For God pronounced the sentence of Death upon men after the interposure of the Mediator as appears Gen. 3.15.18 He first provided and promised that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the head of the Serpent and then afterward notwithstanding that sentenced both the man and the woman and in them all of us to die and return to dust out of which we were taken Now that sentence that was pronounced after the promise of Christs coming and dying for us is not letted and prevented by his dying onely as the promise of Christ to die laid a foundation of our hoping in him to have this Death abolished so as that we might not be hurt of it or kept out from obtaining and receiving the blessing of God by it so accordingly his actual dying was the bringing forth that foundation and ground of hope in him into act that we might die in hope also of that better life that he hath promised us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Reason 6 Nor doth the justifying the Believer through the faith of Christ or the giving him divine life in his Spirit making him alive to God hinder the bodily death as experience shews The body is still dead or under Death because of sin though the Spirit be life for righteousness sake Rom. 8.10 The justification received in believing on Christ being but as to his state toward God to the freeing him from his wrath and from lyableness to the eternal Death in the second Judgement that shall be in the end of the world the wrath to come and to the admitting him into fellowship with him and with the Saints and Holy Ones in his Spirit and inward man as to his being accepted and accounted as righteous with God in Christ and an Heir of the Promises of God here and hereafter but it exempts not from the bearing the sentence of the bodily Death through which he also must pass as well as Christ Reasons of Gods ordering Death to the Righteous that he may enter into glory with and through him Yea there be divers reasons why God orders that his people shall lye under the Sentence of Death though righteous and pass in their due times through it As to say 1. To shew that he is the Lord and disposes of his creature as he pleases And seeing he hath in his great and infinite wisdom and by his righteous will pleased so to order it that both the righteous and sinners shall submit to that Sentence we being the clay and he as the Potter over us it s meet that we be all silent before him and subject to him practising obedience even in so suffering 2. That we might have the thought and remembrance of it as a spur to stir us up and provoke us to many excellent and profitable duties and exercises As for instance 1. To seek him more earnestly and apply our hearts to wisdom in the knowledge of him in Christ Jesus seeing our times for that are not always Whence that Prayer Psalm 90.11 Teach us so to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom 2. To quicken us to serve him in our generations in doing good knowing that our time is but short to be plying our business for glorifying him here and laying up for our selves a good foundation against the time to come That we might do what our hand findes to do with all diligence because in the Grave whither we go there is no work no praising God c. Eccles 9.10 Psalm 115.17 3. To make us alwayes more watchful and fearful to offend God seeing our time is limited here and is in his hand and if we take liberty to wander from him we may in the mean while be taked hence and so it may go ill with us To this purpose are those sayings of our Savior Watch for you know not what hour your Lord comes Math. 24.42 44. Luke 21.34.36 4. To exercise Faith in the truth power and faithfulness of God in Christ for the bringing us to glory notwithstanding Death and Grave John 11.25 26 40. 2 Cor. 4.13 14 15 16. 1 Thes 4.14 15. 1 Cor. 15.2 3 4 12.58 5. To comfort us and perswade us to patience under our sufferings here and make us the willinger to chuse to under go them rather than to sin agaiast him and turn from him Seeing Death will come and put an end to them and give us as it were a discharge from them all we may the better hold out to the end because it will not be long to it this life being but a vapor that appears a little while and then vanishes Jam. 4 13 14. The Apostlâ—s thus comforted themselves in their sufferings partly in the consideration of the momentaniness of them they being but the sufferings of this present time which Death will finish
to the wicked to have an End for then he should not be everlastingly punished And a loss and exceeding dammage to the righteous to have an End for then should not he be in a state of Eternal life or Endless happiness Those sayings have reference to the state of the good and bad Ans as to the favour or displeasure of God towards them and the effects and products thereof especially in the life or world to come And so he that doth the will of God in believing the Gospel and so in Christ Jesus and obeying him and his holy Spirit in his heavenly instructions and counsels abides for ever That is is evermore in the favour of God and hath therein and therefrom a state of happiness that is not terminated by Death or ends not with this present world and the enjoyments lusts or desires thereof But even in the time and state of Death they are blessed and shall be raised up from death and shall enter into an eternal life or everlasting state of happiness with Jesus Christ And that because Jesus Christ himself the great Doer of the will of God in what he appointed him to in his incarnate state as made man for us abides for ever Though he did once die for our sins yet he is alive for evermore and lives to intercede for and help and bless those that in and through him do the will of God in an hearty believing on him and obeying his heavenly doctrine Because I live saith he ye shall live also Joh. 14.20 That is ye shall abide and enjoy the favour of God and therein live for-ever But those that are disobedient to God and Christ evil and wicked and so persist they are under the wrath of God and that abides upon them in life and death And though they also by vertue of Christs having died for them as men being risen again and his being Lord and Judge of them What meant by their latter end and all men shall be also raised again from death and grave yet it shall be to an eternal state of wrath and misery But now the End here spoken of 1. May be meant of their latter end as to this life and their being here in this world And so both the good and the bad have an end here neither of them shall be here in this world and mortal state alwayes but as to that shall have an end an Exitus or going away hence so as to be no more here seen Psal 39.13 Their place shall know them no more neither shall they either the one or the other of them return to it again Job 7.10 10.21 16.22 Neither shall the wicked live here always to sin and do mischief oppress and grieve the righteous c. Neither shall the righteous live here always to do good or to suffer evil among an untoward crooked and wicked generation And so death and the day of it is the latter end to them both and the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a double expression of the same thing Or else the word rendred latter end 2. May signifie otherwise In the Hebrew it hath its derivation from a word that signifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after and so may be rightly rendred after-part or after-state And indeed because the end is after the beginning and middle of a thing therefore the word is sometime translated the latter end As also because our posterity succeed and be after us and are sometimes called them that come after therefore speaking of them it is sometime rendred posterity And because the reward is after the work and usually at the end of it therefore it is sometime understood to signifie and so is rendred the reward and in any of these three senses it may be here translated either Let my end or latter end in the sense above given the end of my life or days here be like his Or else Let my posterity be like his for the seed of the righteous are in the blessing Psa 37.26 They are the blessed of the Lord their offspring with them Isa 65.23 Psal 115.14 5. and exceeding great happiness is promised to the posterity of Israel in the latter days when God will save them and they shall bud and blossom and fill the earth with increase Isa 27.5 6 7. Or else and that I rather pitch upon and think to be the sense Let my reward my after-part namely that that follows the thing last before mentioned that is my death let that that follows that or is after it be like his And so it signifies that both the wicked and the righteous have a state or part after death a state in which shall be their rewards and recompence for what they have done here in this life And that agrees well enough with the Scriptures above objected and is an evident truth Not therefore to be judged a truth upon Balaams authority because he saith it but because they were the words of God in his mouth and that which thence issued forth and because the sayings of Gods testimony every where do attest or assert it And so we may say it was a truth manifest also to Balaam though he was wicked For the Scriptures frequently tell us that 1. As there is a state of Grave after Death to the body in which that returns to the earth whence it was taken so the Spirit also hath its state in which it shall go to God Eccles 12.7 which the Wise-man speaks of man indefinitely not of either the righteous onely nor the wicked onely but of man whose dust goeth to the earth his spirit shall go up to God to receive its doom and disposal by and from him As the like is also implyed Eccles 3. 21. where Solomon having said that man dies as the beast dies all are of the dust and all go to the dust again in respect of the body and the mortality come upon all by sin both are alike immediately adds as an exception as to the spirit or inward part of the man or beast that there is great difference Who knows that is or may be considers mindes or takes notice of the spirit of the sons of men that it geeth upward and the spirit of the beast that it descends or goes down to the earth The spirit or breath of the beast goes out with the body and goes to the earth as the body doth in a sort it survives not the body But it is not so with the spirit of the sons of Adam or man That goeth upward or ascends to God that gave it as the other Proof saith that so it might be judged or disposed of by him as Heb. 9.27 The Judgement is appointed unto men indefinitely after death so as the soul or spirit is placed either in Paradise or in a state of Rest as our Lord said to the Malefactor that confessed him To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise which could not be said of the body
for that went to the grave but of the spirit which Paul proved either out of the body or in the body he knew not whether to be wrapt up into the third Heavens or into Paradise while he was not yet taken away by death but survived many years after 2 Cor. 12.6 7. otherwise called Abrahams Bosom Luke 16.22 Or to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 Or else to be disposed of to prison or a state of hell and doleful misery 1 Pet. 3.20 Luke 16.23 Yea and beside this men after bodily death differ from the beasts also in that 2. There shall be a state of Resurrection unto them when the dead and deceased shall both in body and spirit reunited be brought to a living state in union together as the Scriptures abundantly testifie a Resurrection both of the just and unjust Act. 24.15 For all that are in the grave whether good or bad righteous or wicked shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth saith our Lord Jesus himself John 5.28 Yea the Sea shall give up her dead and Death and Hell shall give up the dead in them Rev. 20.13 And this in order to their being all brought before him as the Great and Soveraign Lord and Judge of all bath quick and dead For 3. There shall be a state of Judgement wherein all men being raised from the dead shall be brought to appear before the Tribunal or Judgement-seat of Christ to give account of themselves to him and receive of him rewards according to the things done in the body by them whether good or evil and then shall properly be the reward full recompence and end of every man good or bad according to his works 2 Cor. 5.10 Rom. 2.11.16 14.9 10. in which both they that have done good and they that have done evil shall be everlastingly disposed of by Jesus Christ in a way of infinite equity and righteousness therefore also it is called both The righteous Judgement of God Rom. 2.5 6. because of his righteousness in judging and disposing rewards and recompences and the eternal Judgement Heb. 6.2 because of the lastingness of that Judgement as to the rewards and recompences therein ordered and the state of man according to it that shall succeed and follow upon it And all these three may be included here in the latter end The grounds of this latter end Now that there shall be such a latter or after-part or end for men good and bad stands as upon the will and pleasure of God so upon that as manifested in Christ Jesus and his undertakings and performances I cannot say that if he had not come in the flesh and dyed for us there should have been nothing to man after death but an annihilation being made both in soul and body like the beasts that perish What manner of death or dying man must have sustained with the curse in it I cannot say but doubtless it would have been very miserable and what the state of the soul would have been after it is not expressed Something of it may be conjectured if not certainly known from the agonies in Death and the Hell into which Christ descended at or upon his Death in which his soul was not left in hell yet that it came into it is there implyed in that it is said it was not left in it as ours must have been had not his come into it or had it been left in it And what is writ in Psalm 18.4 5. 116.3 4. is applicable to Christ The sorrows of death compassed me about and the pains or pangs of hell took hold upon me I found wo and sorrow But sure it is that the after-state of man should not have been the same as now it will For as by Man came death so by Man also the resurrection of the dead for as in Adam all die so in Christ all shall be made alive 1 Cor. 15.21 22. It is by vertue of Christs having been made flesh for us and suffering in the flesh for us the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God therein giving himself a ransom or price of redemption for all and by Death destroying Death and him that had the power of Death the Devil and so buying us all into his own Lordship and dispose and being filled with the fulness of the Spirit and Power of God and so made a quickning Spirit able by his Word and Spirit both to quicken dead souls that listen to him and hear his voice and to quicken and raise up dead bodies too that he is become the Resurrection and the Life and so having abolished death will raise up and revive all men from under the Sentence and Judgement of it and present them before himself to be judged by him as their proper Lord and Savior to whom they owe their life and ought to have lived and by whom they should have sought for salvation looking to him for it as in whom alone there is righteousness strength and salvation for them 1 Pet. 3.18 1 Tim. 2.6 Heb. 2.9 14. 2 Tim. 1.10 1 Cor. 15.45 John 5.21 22 26 28. 11. 25 26. 2 Cor. 5.10.14 15. Isa 45.22 23 24. Acts 4.11 12. Yea the dispose of men by him both in the state of death and separation of soul from body and in the state of resurrection depend upon and springs from his being Lord and Judge both of quick and dead through his having died risen and revived Acts 10.40.42 43. Rom. 14.9 10 12. that he may be honored and glorified in all and so the Father in him and to that purpose that his power wisdom mercy justice holiness love and other glorious Attributes might be most brightly displayed and glorified and he be admired in all his Saints c. Philip. 1.10 11. Isa 49.4 5. 2 Thes 1.8 9 10. for the greatness of his power will be gloriously displayed in his raising all and bringing them before him and executing Judgment on them His wisdom justice mercy goodness love and holiness c. in the final sentencing and disposing of them and in all the vertuousness and preciousness of his cross blood and sacrifice with God for men As Lord and Judge of the Dead it appertains to him and he will dispose of the dead and take care of them that none of them be lost as to their bodies but that they be forth coming and raised up by him at the last day John 6.38 39. and of their spirits that they be disposed of to Paradise or prison to Heaven with Christ or to hell torments till the last day as is noted before And as Lord and Judge of the living it appertains to him to and he doth order and dispose of all here in this life as he sees good And when he pleases puts an end to the lives both of good and bad and being raised again give them their rewards according to their works in equity and righteousness For which that there
be an aftertime is requisite and necessary and that it shall be so is most certain For 1. The righteousness and stedfastness of his Law and Doctrine his love of righteousness and hatred of iniquity and his righteousness in rewarding vertue and punishing sin and wickedness must be declared 2 Thes 1.4 5 6. Heb. 6.10 11. He is the righteous Lord that loveth righteousness Psal 11.7 And He is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. pâ— Ajax Flag but hates all the workers of iniquity Psal 5.4 5 6. And therefore hath in his Law and Doctrine promised and proposed great rewards and blessings to the righteous and threatned great wrath and punishment to the wicked Levit. 26. Deut. 28. But 2. This Time is not the time in which these things are sufficiently manifested and fulfilled This is but the time of workings not of recompencing and rewarding All the time of this life is a time of work and labor and therefore there must be another time of reward For here neither are the righteous evidently rewarded with or enjoy the promised blessings Heb. 11.13 nor the wicked punished according to their wickedness so as may either sufficiently evidence Gods love and faithfulness to the one or his wrath and hatred against the other the truth of his threatnings True it is that God doth give some rewards or rather encouragements to goodness here in inward peace and comfort and oft-times in outward and signal preservations and deliverances from dangers and benefits conferred Especially to Societies and Companies of men as Cities and Nations doing righteously and cleaving to it For otherwise there would be no encouragements here to serve God and walk in his wayes that might induce the world thereto or such as are chiefly yet sensual But his service must needs be a sad and uncomfortable exercise and especially in communities or common bodies as Kingdoms Cities and Common-wealths as such which as one well observes shall never be restored into their publick capacities again to be as such rewarded Nor would it be known by experience or rationally thought that the giving such benefits here appertained to God or that he takes notice of mens righteous or evil doings if God should give such mercies to none that ask or desire them or that fear and serve him And again on the other hand true it is that some wicked men and especially Nations and Common-wealths for the reason above noted are punished here with severe and smart judgments for their wickedness as Egipt De civ Dei lib. 1 cap. 8. Si nulium peccatum nunc punires aperte diviniâ—as nulla esse divina providentia crederetur Babilon Jerusalem Pharaoh Saul Haman c. otherwise as St. Augustine also notes men would believe no Divine providence nor have sufficient evidence of Gods anger against wickedness to move them to beware of it and fear the judgements further threatned But yet neither are the encouragements here given to the righteous persons especially in their personal considerations such as either answer or evidence the greatness of Gods love to them or come up to such promises as The meek shall inherit the earth and delight themselves in the abundance of Peace Psal 37.11 that they are blessed of the Lord and shall endure before him for ever And many the like nor are they common or general to all of them as to such at least as are outwardly and visibly testifyed Many of them in the eye of the world and to their own sense as some of themselves oftimes complain being plagued all the day long and afflicted every morning Mala corporis bona sunt anim Lact lib. 5. cap 7. So as they are ready to say and others to think that they in vain cleanse their hearts and wash their hands in innocency Psal 73.13 14. being as the Scripture saith else where oftimes killed all the day long and made as Sheep for the slaughter Rom. 8.36 Yea seem to the world to die miserably and receive no reward here for their love to righteousness and to God and Christ testified in their death As on the other hand the wicked oftimes prosper all their lives become old and grow great in power have none or no remarkable wrath testified against them either in their life their houses being safe from fear and they prospering in the world or in their Death having no bonds therein as Psal 73.3 4 5-12 Job 21.6 7 8 c. Yea and they of them that are punished here are not punished beyond what some one of their innumerable sins may deserve nay little more than what lays upon all good and bad commonly befalls them For what had Pharoah more than Josiah in being Drowned or Saul in being killed in the Battel or Haman in being hanged more than ordinarily is felt in men dying except the suddainness the frightfulness publickness and shame therein or some such concomitant making their falls exemplary and testimonies of vengeance Many a man that dies on his bed of the Colick or Stone or Strangury endures more torment yea and many righteous persons endure as suddain violent and shameful Deaths even for righteousness as many Martyrs and those mentioned Heb. 11.35 36 37. St. Lawrence on the Gridiron endured as much for Christ as Ahab and Keliah for Idolatry and Adultery whom the King of Babylon roasted in the Fire Jer. 29.22 23. as to what was visible Here all things happen to the outward eye promiscuously and to all alike as to the evil so to the good as to him that feareth the Lord so to him that feareth him not God now causing his Sun to shine on good and bad and his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust Matth. 5.45 he desiring the Death of none no not of the wicked invites them by his goodness long-suffering and forbearance to repentance And some of them doubtless are led to repent thereby though others harden their hearts there-against and in their impenitency treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and revelations of the righteous judgment of God Matth. 11.21.23 and 12.41 Rom. 2.4 5. and on the other side God often corrects both good and bad that he might exercise the faith of the one and more purifie and prepare them for his glory making them therethrough partakers of his holiness and that he might admonish and awaken the other to repentance that his soul might be kept from going down to the pit c. Job 33.29 and some are awakened thereby to repentance though some when Gods hand is lifted up will not see Deus non exclusit mala ut ratio virtutis constare posset Lact. Isa 26 9 10. though indeed the righteous have the greatest share of troubles and evils here for the greater evidencing and adding worth and luster to their faith and obedience And also for the preparing them for and magnifying or inhancing their after-rewards Their light and momentany
sufferings here working for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 As also because they have all their punishment here none hereafter As the contrary may be some reason of the wickeds more prospering here Luc. 16.26 and so as Austin well observes * Tam patientia Dei ad poenitentia invitat males sicut flagellum Dei od patientiam erudit bones Itemâ— misericordia Dei fovendos amplectitur bones sicut severitas Dei pnniendos corripit malos c. Ang. de ci vit Dei lib. 1. cap. 8. the patience of God invites the wicked to repentance and the Rod of God nurtures the good to patience Sometime again the mercy of God embraces the good that are to be cherished and the severity of God chastens the wicked that are to be punished Again God would have these temporal matters common to both That good men might neither greedily covet what good things they see to be but the portion of the wicked here nor shamefully avoid such troubles as they see for the most part befall the good Here then evident it is is neither the time nor place of the full manifestation of Gods righteous judgment on either And therefore 3. It remains that seeing God hath said he will punish all the workers of iniquity and reward all that are righteous and patiently persevere in well doing that there must be another an aftertime and state in which his word that must not pass or fall to the ground shall be accomplished and his righteousness both to the one and the other and his love to righteousness and hatred of iniquity be fully manifested Rom. 2.5 which must therefore be after Death But then again 4. Seeing in the state of Death and separation of the Body and Soul though indeed there is a different dispose of their Souls as aforesaid and as will after appear and be more cleared yet what is done then to the Soul or Spirit by way of reward or punishment is neither of the whole guilty or praise-worthy subject The Body having sinned also and been active in the wickedness of the wicked and on the other hand hath wrought what is good and suffered injuries and wrongs for Christ and righteousness sake in the righteous and it s but right and reasonable that the whole that shared in the work should share too in the wages though the soul in both being the principal agent and mover of the body it s not unreasonable that both in the one and the other it have the precedency and so have what is allotted in the separated state while the body lies dead and sensless as also seeing what happens to the soul or spirit is not openly evident to the world if evident to those spirits that partake of like state and its meet that Gods righteousness be as openly and evidently seen in the world to men angels as mens works have been as his Law and Doctrine have which they therein kept or broke as also the Promises and Threatnings therein As also many things in the spirits and bodily actings too of men have been here hid as also much of the reason of Gods dealings here and he hath promised open-rewards therefore it follows that it is necessary that there be a resurrection and reviving both of good and bad from the dead and the bringing them to a publike visible open and manifest Judgement so as God and Christ may be openly and manifestly glorified And the good and bad receive open and manifest recompences for their works So as both the good may be openly honoured and rewarded in the veiw of those that have derided and reproach'd them and from and amongst whom they have suffered for and practiced righteousness And the wicked be openly judged amongst and by and punished in the veiw of those over whom they have here gloryed and triumphed and whom they here falsly judged and condemned Such the grounds and reasons for this after-state The Vse consideration of which as thus far carried on by us or rather as so to be carried on by Christ may put us upon a more serious consideration of our Mortallity and Death and seeing that our life here is so momentany and uncertain so as it is compared in the Scriptures to most flitting things as a shadow Job 8 9. and 14.2 a vapour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the shadow of smoke And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dream of a shadow in Sâ—pa and Pindar Jam. 4.14 a post swifter than a post Job 9.25 or a Weavers shuttle Job 7.6 and the like as some of the heathen have compared them to a shadow or smoke or a dream or the dream of a shadow and man himself to an image or shadow and so we know not how soon we may be at that after-part therefore to be more serious passing the time of our present so journing in the fear of God 1 Pet. 1.17 Remembring our Creator in the dayes of our youth or choise while yet Life and Death are before us and either of them may be chosen by us Not to live like because as to our Bodies we are mortal and must die as the Beasts or like the Epicures that say Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die as if there was nothing for us after death either to enjoy or suffer and as if the old Verse of the Epicures were true viz. Ede bibas ludas post mortem nulia voluptas Let us eat drink and play for in the Grave Or after Death no pleasure men shall have So making the consideration of our Death an argument to provoke us to mind and follow after the fading pleasures and enjoyments only of this fading life banishing the remembrances of God out of our hearts as those wicked ones in Job 21.13 14. and 22.16 17. that say to God Depart from us we desire not not the knowledge of thy wayes What can the Almighty do for us But seeing there is something after Death good or bad to be reaped by us according to our lives here it should stir us up to live as men endued with principles of understanding and reason and so capable of knowing and improving those truths concerning us minding and thinking on him who in creating and making us and all other creatures preferred us before and above them and prepared another and a further life for us beyond what he gave or gives them that in calling to mind what he hath done for and to us both in the first Adam and in our own persons as in and from him in making us men indued with his image and likeness and capable of higher happiness than the Beasts of the earth over which he also gave us dominion and also and especially in the second Adam our Lord Jesus in whom he hath ransomed us from the Death we fell into in the first Adam and bought us into his own merciful and righteous Lordship and dispose and given us eternal life a
of them and of all life and blessing for all other men for his name is called The Lord our Righteousnesse Jer. 23.6 1 Cor. 1.30 But no man I think would wish to die such a death as he dyed so as to be a curse in dying no it cannot be understood of him as to that clause the word Righteous or Vpright being of the plural number also and including more though as to the latter end or reward rendred in the singular number like his it may be meant of him as to the infinite portion of life and happiness he hath received in the nature of man for us upon the account of his Death and sufferings or it may signifie like the latter end or after-part of him that is Israel or any one of them righteous or right ones whom we must find also plurally That we may make our Doctrine come up to the language of the Text and so find that there are other persons diverse or many persons righteous and so there are but all in him the righteous and just One the righteousness of God for us and root of righteousness to us And so we find that by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous Rom. 5.19 And I say unto you Many righteous men and Prophets have desired to see the things ye see c. Math. 13.17 To shew how this comes about and wherein they are righteous observe 4. That God having provided such a righteousness as his Son and that in his Son for us even for the justification and salvation of us sinful men in general now it is his will that we close with come to and believe in the name of this his Son the righteous One seeking in him and in the faith of him as evidenced and made known to us remission of all our sins justification and acceptation of our persons the holy Spirit of God and his heavenly gifts and blessings wisedome righteousness holiness redemption and in a word all things pertaining to life and goddness To which purpose he declares and proclaimes him to men in the Gospel teaches the knowledge of him and therein draws to him so as every one that hears and learns of him the Father comes to him and believes in him 1. Joh. 3.23 Joh. 6.29 This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent And this is his commandement that ye believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another Therefore also he calls Behold my servant whom I uphold mine Elect in whom my soul delighteth I have put my holy Spirit upon him and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles Isa 42.1 And this is my well-beloved Son hear ye him Math. 3.17 and 17.5 And Christ also calls us to himself Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest and if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink He that believeth on me as the Scriptures have said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters Math. 11.28 Joh. 7.37 38. and many the like In which he inclusively promises the gift of righteousness that he will make such righteous with God there being no rest or satisfaction to any without that Now then all they that by the gracious call of God and Christ are overcome or prevailed with to come to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Saviore being righteousness it self is pertook of by the righteous Oâ—ig in Câ—ls lib. 6 look to and believe in him upon the account of what he hath done and suffered for them in himself and of the fulness of that provision made ready in him and his readiness and faithfulness as he hath also promised to communicate it to them and in a word through the grace discovered in the call to them to them Christ is made righteousness and they are justified and acquitted of their sins in him and accepted as righteous persons and Christ also is faithfull to wash sanctifie and frame them to his minde leading them from all their Idols former evils and abominations unto God in himself to behold his glory and glorious grace love him depend on him yeild up to him to worship serve and obey him and to love one another and to seek the good of all to their capacities and so to write his law in them these I say as looked upon in Christ in whom and for whose sake they are accepted even in his spotless and perfect righteousness are righteous in the sight of God and doers of righteousness in as much as they are led by and follow the Spirit of God who makes it his business to glorifie Christ to them and lead them into him and after him and so to confirm them in him and conform them to him In a word they are righteous that are in Christ Jesus and walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 that are the Israel of God the Circumcision cut off from all hope and confidence in themselves their fleshly birth breeding wisdom righteousness or conceits of holiness as seeing an emptiness and insufficiency in them all and as seeing an excellency in the knowledge of Christ and of the grace of God in and through him and so they come off from all carnal Mosaical or much more devised worships and much more as to seeking life or putting righteousness life or holiness in them to worship God in the Spirit rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh in which their being made in Christ and brought to have their dependance upon and rejoycing in him they are of the seed of Abraham and heires according to promise such as Isaac was and not as Ishmael who was born after the flesh as those be that trust they are Christs because of their fleshly birth or indeavours or priviledges that from such things conjecture and hope they are of those that Christ dyed for and are the children of God And yet as Isaac also had two sons Jacob and Esau the one a simple-hearted man the other a cunning hunter that sold his birthright for a mess of pottage so of those that come to God by Jesus Christ and rejoyce in his goodness and graciousness to sinners there are some that abuse this grace and turn it into wantonness saying Let us do evil that good may come thereof sin that grace may abound or because we are not under law but under grace and so in some eager pursuit of some worldly lust honour riches or fleshly lust after wine women c. sell their birthright in the Gospel These as Esau are rejected too as well as those that are of works like Ishmael and are not righteous though they may be sons of the Church and in a sort of God as to repute But those that being brought into Christ baptised into his name and made the Sons of God by faith in him do also mind the grace of God and so effectually receive
groan under it and seek to God through Christ for his further increase of grace in it and conformity to God and his will thereby and in sight of aberrations and swarvings from the ways of God and his grace to seek diligently for pardon and healing in the blood of Jesus and that the heart and soul may be turned in to Gods testimonies waiting upon God in his word and ordinances and so cleansing the heart and washing the hands in innocency not approving themselves in any wickedness and way of iniquity Prov. 28.13 1. Joh. 1.7 8 9. and 2 1 2. Psal 119.59 60. and 73.13 2 Cor. 7.1 And they that so believe in Christ and walk after the Spirit of God are indeed upright men and righteous ones and such as Balaam wisht he might be like in his Death and latter end 2. What is meant by the Death of the Righteous here A proper Death of the righteous 1. There is a Death of the righteous that is so properly their Death as it is not common to any else with them and its a Death properly of their soul too and possibly Balaam might mean here of that though if he did he took nor the course to obtain it but only rested in the desire and wish of it and that is a Death unto sin and self and world through the knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ of which the Apostle speakes in 1. Pet. 2. 24. Mentioning it as 1. A Death unto sin as we translate or read it Christ himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin may live to righteousness Wicked men are dead in sin Eph. 2 1 5. and the righteous die to sin Thence in Rom. 6.2 How shall wee that are dead to sin live any longer therein And reckon your selves dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord ver 11. And this is effected by the discoveries of the grace of God in Christ towards the soul and the abundance of the grace brought unto it in him causing the soul so to love God and like the injoyment of his love and favour and so the ways leading to it and in which it is to be perfected and maintained as therefore to abandon and hate every false way every way of iniquity and sin either as to judgment or conversation as in Psal 119.104 and 97. 10 11. so as to be as dead to the allurements and inticements thereof and lively apt and ready to the Lord and his service and so to every good way and work for his sake 2. A Death to self as ceasing through the same grace discerned to have or look to have its rejoycing from its self its hope confidence or spiritual life in and from its own fleshly excellencies or priviledges that iâ—sometime in the state of ignorance of Christ it hath finding the life of its owne hand as is said Isa 57.10 This is that the Apostle saith Gal. 2.29.20 I through the Law am dead to the Law that I might live to God I am crucifyed with Christ yet I live yet not I but Christ that liveth in me c. And Philip. 3.3 We rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh When for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the soul parts with and yeilds up that confidence and rejoycing it had in its owne works frames righteousness after the Law or in any thing of the flesh as seeing an emptiness and insufficiency therein and lives upon Christ and the fulness in him And herein is a Death to the Law also 3. A Death to the world when through the perception of the same grace and hope of glory and reception of the same it is taken off from having its glorying or rejoycing in the Worlds injoyments love favour fellowship friendship riches honours approbation principles and rudiments as also from all indeavours with purpose of heart thereafter contenting it self with the approbation love and fellowship of God in Christ and with his care provision and protection being as a crucified thing or person to the world through the cross Gal. 6.14 1 Cor. 15. 31. And this Death in each of these branches is a desireable Death though not to the flesh and carnal minde yet to the illuminated understanding as Balaams was or might be at this time when he saw the visions of the Almighty and had his eyes open 〈◊〉 â—um est illud Euâ—â—â—ides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To 〈◊〉 is to dâ— and tâ— dy is to live in these things for this Death leads to a Divine and heavenly life to and in God and Christ and in the faith of his grace and love whence also the stable peace safety and satisfaction of the soul springs up it is kept in perfect peace stayd upon the Lord delighted in and satisfied with him for the great disturbances and dangers of the soul are from its love of and living to sin its love of and living in or desiring to have its life and peace and comfort in its self and in the injoyments of the world for all these things being either full of mutability and vanity in themselves as the life of a mans own hands or his fleshly self-righteousness and the things of the world or else being directly opposed by the law of God and the discoveries of wrath and curse there against as in all ways of sin the soule can there have no setledness or peace But now being dead in its affections to and dependences on such things and having the heart set upon and confiding in Christ and God in Christ it is established and fixed so as not to be moved and lives because Christ lives Joh. 14.20 Who cannot cease to live and who lives to obtain life for and maintaine life in the soul Psal 112. 6 7 8. And this living in and to the Lord here leads assuredly to the injoyment of eternal life for ever a most blessed and desirable state but yet The Death of the righteous as to the natural Death better then that of the unrighteous 2. Though this would stand well enough with the words and possibly might be in Balaams sense yet it s most usually otherwise understood and there is more certainty or probability at least that he rather desired to die as the righteous in respect of his departing hence by bodily Death and so we carryed it all along in the former pro position and cannot exclude but must include it here as being that which without peradventure Balaam and many a wicked man hath desired and yet do nor may the Hebrew word that signifies my soul let my soul die the Death of the righteous inforce us to understand it in the former sense at least not in that only for both the word Soul is diversly used in the Scripture and oftentimes is put for the person indued with a soul as when it s said Gen. 2.7 man became a
living soul it s all one as a living man or person And so it s evidently meant when it s said So many souls came out of the loines of Jacob as in Gen. 46. 15 18 22. and 12.5 Exod. 1.5 and 12 4. and many other places yea sometimes it s used to signify the body as a dead soule according to the Hebrew reading is used to signify a dead body in Levit. 19.28 Numb 5.2 and so it s rightly enough read here Let me die c. But then 3. Wherein is the death of the righteous in this sense Desirable that any wicked man should desire to die it Wherein its better negâ—lively answered Surely 1. Not as to the outside the sensible part of it as to the way of the separation of soule and body and what is sustained by them therein for the Scriptures imply that the Death of the wicked is more desirable in that respect then the Death of the righteous And therefore we find a good man envious at the wicked upon that account because they have no bands in their Death nor are in plagues as other men Psal 73.3 4. And at the best all things happen alike to all Eccles 9.12 so that it befalleth to them that feare God as to them that feare him not sometimes God gives them that feare him a quiet peaceable and easie death as he did to Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph Moses and many others And so it often befals evil men too and sometimes the one and the other die with much pain and bitterness but more often the Death of the righteous is in this respect less desirable and chusable then other men because God judging them here for their sins that they may not perish hereafter with the world Either 1. Lays his hand often more heavily upon them here filling them with paines aches yea the multitude of their bones with strong paines Job 33.16 17 18. as Lazarus Luk. 16.21 22. Yea sometimes with pestilence famine and the like as many of those that fell in the wilderness or rather those in the seige of Jerusalem in which there were some righteous judged with the wicked as is implyed Ezek. 21.3 4. Yea some Interpreters think those mentioned as fallen asleep in 1 Cor. 11.29 30. dyed of the pestilence 2. But more especially he often gives them into the hand of sinners to whip and scourge them by bodily and bloody persecutions so as they dy greivous deaths in the sight of men being put to sorrow shame reproach and manifold abuses as may be seen in the Lord himself who was taken with the wicked hands of the Jewes crucified and slain after many scornes and scourges and abusive carriages towards him so as with reproach to break his heart Psal 69.20 besides the hiding of Gods face from him and many bitter agonies in his soule for our sins sake in which God sometimes for tryal and exercise of his servants faith and patience and for correction for their sins may conform some of his servants to him as also is seen in what befel diverse of the Saints of God put to cruel sufferings by blood-thirsty men as both the Histories of the Scriptures and of the primitive times of the Churches after the Apostles testify To this purpose is what we read Heb. 11.35 36 37. Others were tortured not accepting deliverance others had tryals of cruel mockings and scourgings yea of bonds and imprisonments in which also we find by reading that many Martyrs have dyed they were slaine with the sword they wandred about in sheep-skins and goats-skins being destitute tormented and afflicted Many such persons good and upright men both in the primitive and later persecutions suffered such things they were stoned they were sawn asunder they were tempted or as some read it were burnt with hot irons some dyed in the waters some in the fire some rosted on grid-irons some pulled in pieces devoured by wild-beasts and sustained any cruelty the wit or malice of men and Devils could devise Daniel prophesied also that many such should fall that is die or be slain by the sword and by flame and by captivity and by spoile Dan. 11.33 And surely these are in themselves no desirable ways of dying nor the thing Baalam wished for or desired Men generally both good and bad desire rather if God see it good to die easier Deaths and indeed the wicked do ordinarily die as the righteous or better in this respect some of them too die by the sword some by famine some by flame some by pestilence some by the halter or gibbet c. and multitudes of them of a natural and quiet Death even as also many of the righteous do so that this could not be the meaning of Balaam nor doth the preciousness of the Death of the righteous stand therein But affirmatively 2. In that which is less visible that that appeares in the sight of God as is said Psal 116.15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the Death of his Saints Psal 72.14 And so as to the soul in his dying or departing this life its leaving the body and ceasing therein to reside and live and give life to it and that is it that Balaam respected Not that his body simply might die as the righteous mens bodies but that his soul might die or depart this life or body so as the righteous or upright ones And that is desireable both in respect of 1. The state of the soul and so of the person in dying or in Death 2. The advantages accrewing to them by their Death 1. The death of the righteous or the dying of their soul as it signifieth its departing this life or body is very excellent and precious in regard of their state in their death or dying For 1. They die in the Lord the Lord Jesus Christ who is Lord of all Rev. 14.13 Act. 10.36 and so they are said to die because 1. In the faith of him as it is said of the Patriaks all these dyed in the faith Heb. 11.13 and also because 2. Inclosed in and compassed about as it were with the vertues of his death sacrifice and mediation which gives infinite safety and security against what might harm and powerful title to what he hath thereby purchased and obtained 3 In his favour also beloved of him as he was of his Father as he saith himself in Job 15.9 And 4. In him as united with standing and abiding in him as a Root in the soyl Col. 2.6 7. or as a Branch in the vine Joh. 15.1 14. or as a Member in the body 2 Cor. 12.27 and so interested in the fatness of the soyl or stock the good things that are Christs and so in all the safety honour and welfare of the Head And by vertue hereof 2. They die in a state of choice and peculiar favour with God Christ in whom they are being his beloved one owned accepted and justified however otherwise accused and condemned here of men and
this is signifyed by the white robes to be given them Rev. 6.11 whether they die a natural death and quietly in their beds or a violent sharp or shameful death all is one dying in Christ they die in Gods love and favour even as he did Thence it was the great desire of the Apostle Paul to win Christ and be found in him Philip. 3 8 9. knowing that otherwise it could not be well with him but in him he should be found of God in peace and without blame before him 2 Cor. 5.9 2 Pet. 3.14 15. Coll. 1.22 23. 3. They die in Covenant with God for Christ is given for a Covenant to the people an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure Isa 42.6 7. and 49.8 and 55.3 2 Sam. 23.5 and so he is still their God even in death Psal 48.14 God having ingaged himself to Christ and to all in him to be their God and to own them for his peculiar ones and to do good to all in Christ according to the greatness of his love and mercy for Christs sake They that are Christs are Abrahams seed and heirs according to promise or to the Covenant made with Abraham the summe whereof was that he would be his God and the God of his seed after him Gal. 3.29 Gen. 17.7 Covenant and promise signifying one and the same thing with the Apostle Gal. 3.15.16.29 and the being Christs is a consequent of being in the faith of Christ and of having thereby put on Christ Ver. 26 27 28 29. So as that dying in Christ or in the faith of him they must needs be in the Covenant of God 4. They die in hope or have hope in their death Prov. 14.32 the righteous hath hope in his death by vertue of Christ Jesus who is our hope the heir of all the promises and blessings of God and the Covenant of them to us dying in him heires of God and his promises there must needs be great hope for them even of the injoyment of all the good that is promised and by Christs death and mediation assured and secured which respect the state after death and in the life or world to come for also in Christ 5. They are holy to God he being made holiness to them 1 Cor. 1.30 they are Gods portion as well in death as in life his Saints Psal 116.15 and God is not ashamed to be called their God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob in their dying as well as in their living and therefore from and in all these 6. They are blessed in their Death Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord Rev. 14.13 that is they are happy they are delivered from their sins for blessed the man whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin Psal 32.1 2. they have nothing to be charged further upon them nay all blessing is theirs a happy and most desireable state 2. Exceeding great too are their advantages thereby as to say 1. Their fight is fought their labour and work finished and their race run they have now no more to do that may be looked upon as any condition to be performed by them upon which the promises of God and their injoyment of happiness is in any wise suspended while we live here there is yet an If upon us some thing to be done by us upon which our happiness is in a sort suspended so as in failing therein we may pull judgment upon our selves as in Coll. 1.22 23. Christ will present you blameless if you continue in the faith rooted and grounded and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel Heb. 3.6 whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm to the end 1 Cor. 9.24 So run that ye may obtain If we die with him we shall live with him if we suffer with him we shall reign with him 2 Tim. 2.11 12. But now when death comes and passes upon the righteous they may say with Christ it is finished or as Joh. 17.4 I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do or as the Apostle Paul I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth no more work to do but only to go to God and the Crown is reserved and laid up for them to be given them at the day of Christ 2 Tim. 4.8 their labour is at an end their warfare accomplished and they go to rest And so 2. Their sufferings and sorrows are at an end too here they have laboured and suffered reproach and many afflictions are while they are here endured by them through much affliction and tribulation we must enter the Kingdom Act. 14.22 Ye shall weep and lament saith our Saviour to his Disciples and ye shall have tribulation Joh. 16.20 21 22 33. This is their seed-time when they go forth weeping bearing forth their precious seed Psal 126.6 now they are in heaviness through manifold temptations if need be 1 Pet. 1.7 grapling sometimes with their own corruptions Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this Death the Law in their members warring against the Law of their mind Rom. 7.23 24. they have lusts warring against their souls that they must abstain from and strive against 1 Pet. 2.11 Heb. 12. 3 4 sometimes with Satan winnowing tempting buffetting and every way playing their adversary 1 Pet. 5 8. Eph. 6.12 13 14. Luc. 22.31 2 Cor. 12.7 8. Sometimes with the world frowning threatning opposing persecuting them in sundry and divers sorts Joh. 15.16.19 1 Joh. 3.2 2 Tim. 3.12 13. Sometimes under the righteous and merciful hand of God afflicting and rebuking and sometimes more sharply scourging and filling with bitterness Heb. 12.6 7. Pro. 3.11 12. Job 19.21 Many are the afflictions of the righteous here Psal 34.19 But now in their death all these are at an end they then are delivered from the evil so as no more to be under the grief or vexation thereof Isa 57.1 neither evil men nor evil spirits shall any more afflict or exercise them nor will Gods hand go any further upon them to afflict them They rest from their labours in both senses even from their labouring under pains taking and sorrows too and hear the voice of the Oppressor no more Job 3.17 18. 3. Their dangers are now all past they are past the danger of sinning offending and provoking God to displeasure which they are in so long as they live there is need of watching and praying alwayes till that day be come Luc. 21.36 but in their yeilding up their spirits to God they are past those snares that before they were among then the Devil hath no more power to tempt them nor are they any more in danger to be tempted by him or overcome of him or of any of the flatteries or threats of the world the persons or things therein their
race is run their goal is obtained no further danger now of fainting failing or starting aside the Devil or world can no more now come at them to touch them for their spirits go to God and are in his hand and dispose and their state from henceforth fixed so as they are in no danger of going to hell now being therefrom exempted and otherwise disposed of for ever Luc. 16.27 And surely this is a most desirable condition to be out of all labour sorrows and danger which this world is full of perpetually Yea 4. Now they go home to be with Christ in his presence and sure protection as at home with him and in the enjoyment of him in their spirits where it is better to be than any where here Philip. 1.23 2 Cor. 5.8 But that leads us to the next particular viz. The latter end of the righteous 4. The after-state or latter end of the righteous what that is and what its excellency The very discovery of it will shew its excellency abundantly and its considerable in three Branches Bran. 1. In the seperate or dead state 1. As to body In the state of separation of soul and body after Death and that 1. In respect of their body indeed as to its visible appearing condition it differs nothing from the state of the body of the wicked for they both are of the dust and both go to the dust even Christ himself made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death Isa 53.9 yea many times in that respect the wicked have the advantage they get honorable Burials when the bodies of the Saints sometimes get none at all or very mean ones We read that the wicked rich man whose soul went to hell yet as to his body it after death had a burial Luc. 16.22 which in many wicked rich men is very honorable but as for poor Lazarus though after his death carried into Abrahams bosome yet we read of no burial afforded him Nay we read of many of the Saints that their dead bodies have been given for meat to the sowls of heaven and their flesh to the beasts of the earth Psal 79. 2 3 But yet for all this the bodies of the righteous are in a better state after death than the bodies of the wicked let the wicked do what they can or will to and with them for not an hair of their heads shall perish Luc. 21.18 Yea their bodies be happy because they be their bodies who are in Covenant with God and in his favour in their death and their death puts not an end to their being so whence God is called the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob after they were dead and buried and long before the time of their resurrection Exod. 3. and that pertains not to their spirits only but to their bodies also for by that our Saviour proves the resurrection of the dead which is properly of the body as the Apostle shews clearly in 1 Cor. 15.57 This corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality and he shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned to the likeness of his glorious body Philip. 3.21 I say our Saviour proves by that his being the God of Abraham c. that the dead shall rise as implying that he is God of their bodies also Mat. 22. 32 33. So that the bodies of the righteous even when in the grave are Gods to take care of and in Covenant with him to bring in his due time as the members of Christ to the enjoyment of his blessing even as the body of our Lord Jesus Christ when dead had the denomination of the Lord 1 Cor. 6.16 17 because his body that was and is the Lord and in union with the Deity though then dead Mat. 28.6 Come see the place where the Lord lay So also the bodies of the Saints have the denomination of the Saints whose bodies they were and are and so have interest in the Covenant and Christ in which and in whom they are though dead So Davids body and Abrahams and Isaacs and Jacobs are called by their names in the Scriptures These were the dayes of the years of the life of Abraham and he dyed and his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him that is his body Gen. 25.8 the like is said of Sarah Abraham buried Sarah his wife Gen. 23.19 and so it s said of Isaac Gen. 35.28 and of Jacob Gen. 50 1.13 and this relation of their bodies as being their bodies intitles them in and through Christ to all the future happiness of them But 2. In repect of the spirit departed 2. As to Spirit their state is exceeding good and desirable for 1. It is and abides in its separated state in Christ and in and through him in a state of bless for so it is said Blessed are the Dead that die in the Lord not only blessed in their death but when dead also all those things said before of their state in death being and continuing to be their portion even to the Resurrection also Rev. 14.13 being clearly and for ever delivered and at rest from all their labours griefs fears dangers and in a state of quiet repose and safe rest whence it is said They rest from their labours and their works follow them and that they must rest for a little season Rev. 6.11 and they shall enter into peace into a quiet setled perfect state so as they may be capable of it in their state of separation they shall rest in their beds each one walking in his uprightness Isa 57.2 being clearly and fully discharged of all their sins and arrayed in the perfect righteousness of Christ as in white robes in the presence of God all that time of their rest Rev. 6. 11 12. 2. In an impossibility of failing of the reward promised to and prepared for them there being no passing now from them and their state to a state of misery as was noted before nay their works do follow them not only shall they are in possession of some and that no inconsiderable fruit and recompence of their good works in this state being so at rest and at home as no more any trouble to pass upon them no other Purgatory no not so much as for the Malefactor that died with Christ on a Cross for his offences he was that day to be in a better place For 3. The spirit of the righteous goeth forthwith upward to God and is disposed by him in a state of welfare exprest by Abraham's bosome as being under the enjoyment of the Covenant and the promises made with him as it is capable in that separated state Luc. 16.21 and is said to be as the Malefactor above-mentioned in Paradise This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luc. 23. 43. which signifies a state or place of exceeding delight or pleasure its Notion in the Greek being that of a delightful
after-state when raised 3. Branch The raised state and that shall be exceeding excellent and most desireable both in respect of the body and of the soul or spirit and so of the whole person yea their whole company society or fellowship 1. In respect of their body raised In respect of the body It shall be in a very happy and glorious state fashioned saith the Apostle Philip. 3.21 to the likeness of Christ glorious body whose body was so glorious in its appearing to Paul for he was last of all seen of him in his raised state after he was ascended and glorifyed 1 Cor. 9.1 and 15.8 that he tells us the light that shone about him from him was brighter than the Sun in brightness above the Sun though at midday Act. 26.13 freed from all its former bondage to corruption either of sin or mortallity yea from all its former infirmity in the living state of it in the flesh and much more from all the putrefaction and rottenness that it lay under in its dead state in the grave or dust All those things shall he totally shaken off from it and the contrary most heavenly and glorious properties and endowments shall then cloth it it shall not be flesh and blood as now it is for flesh and blood a natural body shall not nor can inherit the Kingdom of God though it be the same body that is now flesh and blood as to its essence or substance yet it shall not be then flesh and blood as now a body so nourished and kept up by the continual supply or maintenance of its blood in which is now its life Neither shall corruption that now is inseparable from its natural state inherit incorruption 1 Cor. 15.50 but though sown in corruption it shall be raised in incorruption though sown in dishonour it shall be raised in glory though sown in weakness it shall be raised in power though sown a natural body it shall be raised a spiritual body such as in which we shall bear the image of the heavenly even as now while natural we bear in it the image of the earthy Adam 1 Cor 15.42 43 44 45. an exceeding happy state of the body possessed of incorruption and immortallity so as to be incapable of corrupting putrifying or decaying any more or of dying or turning again to dust or of any thing tending thereto Ver. 53 54. Yea on the contrary clothed with unchangeable and most excellent beauty and glory In respect of their Spirit 2. The Spirit or soul also then shall be possest of this glorious body and have it a companion in all its glory and an instrument or organ of all its spiritual and heavenly service of God and the Lamb in the Kingdom for his servants shall serve him Rev. 23.3 as here it was a companion in its sufferings and labours in this mortal state of corruption and it shall also be perfect in its spiritual capacities its knowledge and perception of things and its injoyment and love of God and Christ and one another therein as the Apostle says 1 Cor. 13.10 12. when that which is perfect is come that which is in part shall be done away now we see darkly as through a glass but then face to face now know I in part but then shall I know even as also I am known and then that shall be perfectly fulfilled that they shall no more need to prophesie and to say one to another as teaching one another know the Lord for they shall all know that is discern acknowledge like worship me from the least of them to the greatest of them Heb. 8.11 And so In respect of the whole man 3. In their whole person they shall be made compleat and perfect perfectly conformed to the Lord Jesus it doth not yet appeare what we shall be that exceeds all that we can know and understand now fully and distinctly yea the Apostles in mortal bodies though exceedingly gifted and filled with the Spirit knew it not which is an intimate commendation and magnifying the glory and happiness of that state but we know that when he appeares we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is he saith not only we shall be like the Angels of God though that our Savior tells us we shall be equal unto them the children of God and children of the Resurrection so as neither to need marrying nor giving in marriage nor in a capacity to die or to have soul and body separated any more as now they are by death and so in a state as far above the necessities and refreshments of this life as the Angels of God Luc. 20.35 36. but that 's not all but we shall be like him even like to Christ and so both in the resurrection put into an immediate capacity of the heavenly and eternal glory and being raised be actually put into and possessed of it 1 Joh. 3.2 4. As to the whole Body and Society of the Church of God and members of Christ in that raised and changed state In respect of the whoâ—e Church they shall be 1. Perfectly united being freed from all sin ignorance and enmity in every individual and so of all that might tend to disunite and divide the hearts and affections of one from another any more as now we are too apt to be disunited no more envyings and swellings no more grudgings and prejudices one against another then no more judgings and despisings of one another The envy of Ephraim shall cease and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off Ephraim shall not envy Judah and Judah shall not oppress Ephraim any more Isa 11.13 2. They shall be ever with Christ their Head 1 Thes 4.16 being al I caught up into the ayr to meet the Lord we shall be ever with the Lord and so in and with him as a city compacted and at unity in it self the holy city the new Jerusalem and so represented in Rev. 21.2 10. with Psal 122.3 no rent or breach therein no cord to be loosed or stake to be pulled up or taken down for ever Isa 33.20 and the portion of them all together in and from Christs presence with them exceeding happy for there he the glorious Lord will be to them a place of broad rivers and streames wherein shall go no Gally with oares nor shall gallant ship pass thereby for the Lord is their Judge the Lord shall be their Law-giver the Lord is their King and he will save them Isa 33.22 Thence also 3. They shall be for ever quiet and free from all external molestation from men or devils or from any hand or stroke of God upon or against them for all their enemies shall be cut off and consumed all that watch for iniquity c. Isa 29.20 and they shall dwell safely then when Gods everlasting armes shall have raised them up from under all adversities or sufferings and thrust out the enemy and shall say Destroy Deut. 33.27 28.
the services and carry through all the sufferings he calls to Thence those frequent expressions of respect to the reward had and exercised by the Saints as the Patriarchs Heb. 11.9 10 13 14 15 16. Moses Vers 25.26 27. the Apostles 2 Cor. 4.12 14 16 17 18. and 5.1 Philip. 3.12 14. Yea Christ himself as man Heb. 12.2 and the frequent mention and proposal of it to others to animate and hearten them on as in 1 Cor. 15.58 2 Cor. 6.17 18. with 7.1 Heb. 6.10 11 12 13. and 10.35 36 37. Rev. 2. and 3. and God is just to perform his bargaine having given also an earnest of it to his servants Eph. 1 13 14. Such the grounds and reasons of this so happy a Death and after-state which yet we have hitherto considered only absolutely it will be yet more manifest contraries being set off and illustrated the more by their contraries to be desirable if we veiw the contrary condition of the Death and after-part of the unrighteous and wicked The after-part or latter end of the wicked and so veiw it Comparatively Comparing it with the portion of the wicked and see how it excels that But who can express either of them to the life either the excellency of the End of the righteous or the misery of the End of the ungodly and wicked the Psalmist tells us The End of the transgressors shall be cut off Psal 37.38 Eli tells his Sons it will be bitterness in the End 1 Sam. 2.26 Yea the Apostle Peter implies it to be inexpressible bitterness bitterer than wormwood as is said of the End of the whorish woman Prov. 5.3 4. when he saith what shall the End be of those that obey not the Gospel as wanting words to express the bitterness and badness of it 1 Pet. 4.17 18. We might shew it to be in all things contrary to the End of the righteous or upright both as to their state in dying and as to their after-state both in the time of their being dead and in and after their Resurrection But I shall but hint at it because I would not be too tedious And so In Death 1. Whereas Death to the righteous is an End to all their miseries sorrows and troubles on the contrary Death to the wicked is an End to all their good Thou in the life time saith Abraham to the rich man received'st thy good things Quis sâ—it an adjâ—nt hodicâ—nae crastina sumâ—ae Tempora Dii superiâ— Hor. Luc. 16.25 All in this life time nothing after and alas this life time is very short and uncertaine very momentany and hidden at all times as to the length and duration of it in continual dangers and jeopardies of being cut off It s so in Gods hand that he can cut it off as a weaver his thred when he will and that 's very easily So that their good is as Job saith not in their hand Isa 38.12 Job 21. 16. and that very consideration takes off exceedingly from the sweetness of their present portion that they know not how soon or suddenly they shall loose it all but loose it all it is certain and they cannot but know it they must for the living know that they must die and they see wise men even those that are wisest for this world die also and the bruitish and foolish persons perish and leave their wealth their houses and lands and so all the comforts they have here to others Psal 49.10 Yea and besides the knowledge of the uncertainty of the good things they have here there is a deal of mixture of vanity and vexation of spirit with them very frequently but what ever good or sweet they have with that mixture Death when it comes sweeps it all away their silver gold houses lands wives children pleasures honors gay cloths dainâ—y fare c. Yea though Crowns and Kingdoms all goes at Death and then they must have no more good for ever Were there nothing else to be said of their portion or after-part but that in their death they loose and part with all comfort for ever and have no more any good thing befal them it were enough to render their part and lot very inconsiderable and despicable Yea though it might be had in the amplest surest manner here and for many yeares continuance in comparison of that of the righteous But alas this is but the least piece of its worthlesness and wretchedness For 2. Death is the inlet to them to infinite and endless miseries for they die out of Christ and have no share in him or in the blessings in him and so they are accursed both in soul and body It s true the body as we said before may be more honorably interred than the righteous mans but yet it s the body of a wicked man that hath no part in Christ and therefore dies in his sins which are all chargeable upon him both soul and body and the punnishment hangs over him and begins now to seize upon him Being not in Christ he is not in Gods favor and acceptance nor under any promise of any good mercy or blessing but under all the threatnings of curse and misery his hope is perished what ever he had in the world it s gone with the world and if he had any hope in God upon account of his birth parentage profession works goodness in his own eyes it s blown all away with his breath which he breathed our when he gave up the ghost If he plead it in the resurrection it will not stand Math. 7.22 23. there is no hope for him of any good for ever his body is reserved in the grave against the day of evil and vengeance and shall then be brought forth from it there being no darkness or shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves from punishment Job 34.22 So that their bodies are in far worse case than the bodies of the beasts and his spirit is disposed of by God to a restless unquiet miserable case like that of the damned spirits or evil Angels that are as it were prisoners in chaines of perpetual darkness reserved to the Judgment of the great Day 1. Pet. 3.19 20. and 2 Pet. 2.4 And then 3. Their resurrection and raised state is still worse than their death and dead-state for as that is not in the first resurrection In and after the Resurrection the resurrection of the just on the raised wherein the second Death shall have no power Luc. 14.14 Rev. 20.5 6. so when it comes it s not as of Christs members and by his spirit in dwelling in them but by his terrible and powerful voice forcing them will they nill they out of their graves and several receptacles to appear before him as their dreadful angry and impartial Judge in bodies indeed immortal and uncapable of dying any more as to a dissolution of them and separation of them from their souls as before which will be their
exceeding misery for now they cannot be made senseless of pain and misery as they were while in their graves but everlastingly united with their spirits that both bodies and spirits that sinned together may be cast into destruction together and suffer together an everlasting punishment Math. 25.46 both body and soul being cast into hell fire Math. 10.28 To which purpose Christ whom they have sinned perpetually against despising his counsels slighting his instructions hating him and his reproofs and ways and truths and people and whose love and blood and all the grace thereby procured for and held forth to them they set at naught he shall come in flaming fire to render vengeance on them and gathering them before him the heavens shall reveal their iniquities and the earth shall rise up against them Job 20. 27. and all their sins and wickednesses shall be ript up in the sight and veiw of God and Angels and men with all their ugliness aggravations circumstances and then they shall by him be adjudged to and undergo that terrible sentence Depart devil and his Angels Math. 25.41 whereby they shall be for ever thrust out from God and Christ and from all his holy Ones with infinite shame reproach and ignominy never to taste of their happiness or felicity being everlastingly accursed of God and thrust away with most dreadful miserable and damned spirits whose company and counsel they here liked and followed after into a state of darkness or uncomfortableness distress and anguish in the sense and feeling of the most severe wrath and vengeance of God poured out like fire and burning for ever upon them without end Quanta satius est pro perpetuis bones maela brevia pensare quam pro brevibus ac caducis bonis mala perpetua sustinere Loct lib. 6. ease or intermission their worm never dying nor their fire ever quenched there shall be weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth Lo such is the portion of a wicked man from God and the heritage appointed of God for him Job 20.29 Oh dreadful heavy and infinitely wretched portion infinitely worse than the worst condition that any man is or can be here in and therefore how much more than that of the righteous in which are all things infinitely happy and glorious But I shall say no more to it this brief hint may suffice Why the unrighteous and wicked have so sad a death and latter end The reason of the sad end of the wicked divers reasons might be given reduceable to two heads I shall mention but a hint to either that is to say 1. It is of themselves only as to desert for though Satan tempt and the world allure and corruption move to disobedience and rebellion against God yet through the grace of God afforded they might resist and complying with the light truth and grace afforded might be helped but putting the fear of God from them they choose to walk after sin and Satan stubbornly persisting therein and refusing to turn at wisedoms reproofes or having begun to turn returned back again with the Dog to his vomit and to the Sow that is washed to wallow in the mire till death seized on them and therefore their sin being theirs their punnishment and destruction too is of themselves Prov. 1.20.24 25 26 c. Hos 13.9 Rom. 1.18 19 20 21. c. and their punnishment and misery is so great horrible and inexpressible 1. Because their sins are innumerable and every one of them exceeding great as there is therein a slighting or contempt of God and his authority power and goodness which is infinite a slighting also or contempt of Christ and all done and suffered by him for them and all his love therein testified and all the good there-through done and extended to them a grieving also and rejecting of the love and loving calls reproofs and strivings of the holy Spirit with them and withall making no account either of Gods favour to seek it or of his wrath to endeavour to avoid it an abuse of all his mercies and good things here bestowed and slighting all corrections used for their amendment and a careless despising all the glory and happiness by him tendered which things being against an infinite Deity and his infinite Attributes put an infiniteness into the demerits of their sins and so pull upon them an infinite punishment And then 2. Because they dying in their sins dye out of Christ and shall rise again our of him they have no forgiveness of their sins through him and so must answer for them and bear the punishment of them themselves which being not otherwise to be infinitely endured but in the infiniteness of their time of sufferings will occasion their endlesness to them 2. It is of God as to the decreeing sentencing and inflicting it as a most just and righteous Judge and the most unspeakably injured and provoked Majesty who will herein shew forth his righteous judgment Rom. 2.6.11 and therein 1. Testifie his infinite holiness and purity in his perfect hatred of sin and iniquity Isa 6.3 Apoc. 11.3 Prov. 1.24 25 26 29. 2. Avenge his own despised authority power love and goodness laws counsels c. slighted and contemned by them 3. Avenge the injuries done to Christ in their slighting all his love Psal 2.3 4. sorrows sufferings for them and Grace therein declared and tendered to them and therein also 1 Pet. 2 7 8 4. Magnify and glorify his Son and the infinite preciousness of his blood and sacrifice despised by them in taking such an unspeakable vengeance of their injuries to him upon them Zech. 7.11 12. 5. Avenge the abuses and slightings of all the addresses of the holy Spirit to them and gracious patient waiting upon them 6. Avenge the abuses of and unthankfulness for the Ministry and service of his holy Angels about them and of all other mercies in all his creatures afforded to them Rom. 2.4 5 6 11. 7. And in a word all their abuses of themselves and one another but chiefly of his Sion his people and servants sent to or living amongst them and deserving better use from them this last is particularly mentioned Math. 25.41 42 43 44. No marvail now if a wicked man enlightned to see any thing of these matters wisht to die the death of the righteous and to have his latter end like to his The latter part of the point considered in answer to two questions about which having spoken to the first and main business of the point about the excellency of the Death and latter end of the righteous or upright ones it remains that we speak a little as in the latter part of the Point we added that they be such as that even the wicked that care not to live their life or to have their beginning and progress yet understanding them desire to have their Deaths and latter ends like theirs Concerning which I shall only propound and speak to a Question or two
and so come to the Application And so 1. Whereas Balaam in wishing or desiring thus implies that he thought it possible though not certain that it would be so that he might dye the death of the righteous Whether a wicked man may die a righteous mans and that his latter end might be like his being in a manner a prayer and men use to pray for what they think possible Thence it may be queried Whether is it possible that a wicked man as Balaam was Quest 1 may obtain to dye the death of the righteous and to have his latter end like his To which I shall answer by distinction That a wicked man abiding a wicked man Ans 1. Not abiding wicked can by no means have such a death and after-part as the righteous and upright ones Except your righteousness saith our Saviour exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharasees ye can in no wise enter the Kingdom of God Math. 5.20 that is except men be truly righteous they cannot enjoy Gods Kingdome which is the end and portion of the righteous Reasons of it and the reason is because 1. It is against the purity and holinesse of God to admit wickedness and so wicked men abiding and continuing such into such nighness with himself and so into his favour and affection as the righteous be for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness Psal 11.8 and the righteous Psal 146.8 but he is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness evil may not dwell with him fools may not stand in his sight he hateth all the workers of iniquity Psal 5.4 5. He is of purer eyes than to behold evil and iniquity Hab. 1.13 and therefore cannot admit wicked men as and while such to come into his Kingdom and have part with the righteous 2. That would make void all the ends and intents of the Death of Christ and all the whole work and business of his undertakeing for if men might be saved and enjoy God in their sins then they might have been saved without Christs coming and suffering for them for why should Christ come to take away sins and wash and make us clean from them if God can endure them in his sight and presence unwashed away from men yea and why then was God angry with men for sinning yea and Christ should then fail of his undertaking if undertaking to bring men to God clean and pure from their sins he should bring them in their uncleanness to him in vain is a costly Bath prepared for washing and healing men if they may be well without it Christs coming therefore on purpose to take away our sins in order to our enjoyment of happiness is an evident demonstration that we may not be happy in them Thence our Saviour saith to St. Peter Except I wash thee thou hast no part with me Joh. 13.8 Yea 3. That stands cross to all the purposes declarations and threatnings of God in the Scripture which cannot be broken God cannot lye but he hath purposed said decreed and declared that no unclean or unrighteous thing shall inherit his Kingdome 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Ephes 5.3 4 5. either then we must cease to be wicked or else no part with the righteous for the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the just Psal 1.4 5. Yea 4. They being an abomination each to other the sinners to the righteous much more to the most holy and righteous God how shall they endure to live together and enjoy the same end reward and portion Prov. 29.27 Yea and lastly 5. God should not be just should he reward wickedness as he doth righteousness and God forbid that the Judge of all the earth should do unjustly Rom. 3.5 6. Gen. 18.25 But Answ 2. They may if they become righteous as they may It is very possible that wicked men may by the grace of God cease to be wicked and be converted to righteousness and so they maybe brought to enjoy the same end with the righteous And of the truth of this Manasses Mary Magdalen Paul the malefactor on the Cross that but there beginning to confess Christ found mercy and was that day with him in Paradise Luke 33.40.43 and many more are evident proofs and instances Yea this is clearly signified and held forth throughout the Scriptures that wicked men may be converted from their wickedness and being converted they become one in way and end with the righteous For Reasons of that answer 1. This was the end of Christs coming into the World and dying for all men even the ungodly and sinners suffering the just for the unjust or unrighteous that there-through he might both remove the curse from off the nature of man and obtain power and spirit into himself as man so as he might both by his power and spirit call and quicken men being ransomed from under the curse unto the knowledge of God and faith in himself and also when so to forgive and justifie them washing them in his own blood and renewing them also by his own Spirit into his own image and likeness from glory to glory To which end 2. God in and by him and he in the power of God hath ordered repentance and forgiveness of sins to be preached in his Name amongst all Nations for the obedience of faith Luke 24 47. in and by which he is calling commanding and encouraging all men the wickedest as well as others every where to repent because he hath appointed a day to judge the World c. Act. 17.30 31. Yea he is calling sinners to repentance and causing his servants whom he hath saved from their sins and reconciled to God to teach sinners the way that transgressors might be turned unto him while it is a day of Grace an accepted time Math. 9.13 Psal 51.14 15. 2 Cor. 6.1 2. with 5.19 20. In which time also 3. He is by his spirit accompanying his calls bringing his word nigh to men even to their hearts and mouths that they might receive it believe and be saved So as the Kingdom of God is therein and there-through made nigh to men which kingdome is righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 10.8 9. Luke 9.9 10. Rome 14.17 the holy Spirit in the means vouchesafed striving with or judging in men reproving and convincing them of sin righteousness and judgment opening the eyes that they might see and their eares that they might hear so that they might understand with their hearts and be converted and Christ might heal them Gen. 6.3 Joh. 16.9 10 11. Math. 13.15 Yea so nigh doth God bring his word to men that Satan is said to take it out of the hearts of those that are in their hearing and receiving it compared but to the way-side Math. 13.19 Luke 8.12 4. They that do in hearing hear and in seeing see that is when God by his Spirit is bringing light and salvation to them shewing them his truth
and so the retaining other lusts as covetousness slothfulness c. Applic. The consideration of all hitherto said upon this second point together with these Questions and Answers is diversly useful As Vse 1 Exhortation to all First to exhort and provoke all men to seek in the first place for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness as in Math. 6.33 as that that is infinitely worthy our seeking and endeavouring after not only to wish and desire with Balaam to die the Death of the righteous and to have our latter end or after-part like his but to seek it and seek it in the first place above all other things as counting all other things below it Nobis nullus labor est recu santeâ—quoad acquiraâ—tur quod nullo modo possit amitti Lact. lib. 6. cap. 4. and inferiour to it things momentany and vain in comparison of Gods Kingdom and the glorious performance of his precious promises and so the injoyment of his righteousness therein and what may give us right and title to it while we are made therein of the righteous seed or people of God Seek we these things as earnestly as Balaam and Balak did to get the people of Israel cursed as I once knew a good man that was much moved and stirred up to seek diligently after God partly upon this consideration Were Balak and Balaam would he often say so earnest to seek to have the people of God cursed and should not I be as earnest to seek to be blessed of God a very good improvement of so bad a matter Now the way to obtain this blessing and so to die the death of the righteous and have their end and reward is to be indeed righteous and do and practise righteousnes by the grace of God The way to which is 1. To mind and diligently attend to the word of righteousness as it is called Heb. 5.13 the Doctrine of the glorious Gospel of the Lord Jesus in which the power and arm of God is put forth for pulling us out of our unrighteousness and turning us unto righteousness Dan. 12.3 Act. 26.17 18. thats the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth yea and the word of faith by which heard and minded faith is begotten even the believing with the heart unto righteousness Rom. 10.9 10 17. and 1.16 this is the arm and engine wherewith God and Christ by the holy Spirit accompanying it and breathing therein and dispensed thereby worketh and accomplisheth his whole work in the heart that receiveth it Whence men are so much in the Scripture in order to their being made righteous called upon to come to Christ listen to him and his voice receive his sayings and the like Isa 55.1 2 3. and 18.3 and 42.18 19. Pro. 4.1 10 20 21 22. and 5.1 2. and 8.1 4 5 6 31 32 33. Jam. 1.18 19 21. And in this listening to the Gospel and seeking after it 2. Wink not with the eye but be willing to see and learn what it discovers to us whether of and concerning God and his grace and mercy to mankind and so to us all in Christ Jesus or what it discovers of us and our sinfulness the vanity and emptiness of all our wisdom works and endeavours for righteousness of our own or in our strength or ways as also of all fleshly priviledges and worldly injoyments for justifying us or making us happy and hate not but suffer such discoveries convincements or reproofs as are therein brought unto us Math. 13.15 Isa 42.18 and 45.22 and 65.1 and 40.10 15. and 41.27.29 and 42.1 2 c. Yea 3. In taking notice of what is in the light of Gods testimonies discovered to us turn we at Christs reproofs as knowing that they are the way to life rejecting and casting away whatsoever therein is discovered to be an Idol a vain and false object or matter of trust stay and confidence to our soules or what we seek for delight shelter and safety in that will not profit us and so generally putting away from us what ever evil in heart or hand way or work is discovered to us to be in and with us denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts so as to confess them to be such and no better than that divine light discovers them to be and looking to God to cleanse and deliver us from them and as he is helping and strengthening us laying them aside and renouncing them Prov. 1.23 and 6.23 Tit. 2.11 Jam. 1.21 1 Joh. 1.9 Prov. 28.13 And 4. In taking notice what that heavenly word and testimony and the holy Spirit therein and there-through discovers of Christ and the fulness richness and freeness of the grace in him and in God in and by him as that discovered affects and works upon our hearts and draws us unto Christ and raises us up to hope and trust in him approach to and seek more knowledge of and acquaintance with him and leads frames moves and strengthens us to look up to God in and by him seek him admire him hope and trust in him rejoyce in and obey him So yield we up to follow the holy Spirit therein and to be framed thereby not turning away therefrom or looking off from it to any other thing to work in us or frame us but only to such arguments and motives as that Doctrine presents us with in every case not greiving the holy Spirit or rebelling against it but in and by the light power and operation of it Be ye saved Isa 45.22 Be ye reconciled 2 Cor. 5.20 Be ye converted and turned in to God Act. 3.19 Be ye separated unto God Be ye inlarged 2 Cor. 6.14 17. Be ye wise and of an understanding heart c. Prov. 8.5 and the like 5 And as the same grace coming in making free leads and moves and strengthens so in obedience to its teachings yeild up our bodies powers and members weapons and instruments of righteousness to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world doing and walking in the Commandments of the Lord given to us by Jesus Christ looking to and depending on God for strength help and direction always therein Joh. 8. 32 33. Rom. 6.12 13. Tit 2.12 13. 1. Thes 4.1 2 4. 6. And in all this be not slothful nor give way to discouragements from within or from without but minding the grace of God and his truth set before us follow we on to know him and to seek him and provoke we one another and be we willing to be provoked one by another thereunto casting away the weights that press down and the sin that easily besets run we with patience the race set before us looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of the faith accepting all such helps therein and thereunto as God pleaseth to afford us Heb. 6.12 and 3.1 8 12 13. and 12.1 2 15. as in walking with wise men hearing their reproofs and counsels endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the
for him and shall then say with shouting Lo this is our God we have waited for him and he will save This is the Lord whom we have tarryed for we will rejoyce and be glad in his salvation Isa 25.9 And on the contrary the sad end of those that have not waited for him but hasted from him and turned aside to crooked paths they shall have sorrows multiplyed upon them then being led forth with the workers of iniquity Psal 16.4 and 125.5.6 whose doleful end we have before mentioned Let these things be considered and they may be useful through Gods blessing to perswade us to cleave to Christ and persevere to the end with him Vse 3 Disswades from envying the wicked A third use is to discover the causlesness that the righteous have to envy and fret at the prosperity and portion of the wicked surely they have no cause so to do if they consider either the happiness of their own estate as to the end or after-part thereof especially or the misery and wretchedness of the state and condition of the wicked especially as to their end that hastes apace See to that purpose Psalmes 33. and 73. throughout as also Prov. 3.31 and 23.17 18. Let not thine heart envy sinners but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long for there is an end Consider that both thine own and the goodness of it the end that death will put to thine afflictions and sufferings and the reward and recompence that will be after which is thine expectation that shall not be cut off as also the sad and calamitous end of the wicked thine enemies See also Prov. 24.1 2 19 20. Vse 4 Reproof to our feares of death It may also reprove and check any fearfulness of Death or loathness to die found and given way to in and by believers Why should we fear death seeing Christ hath abolished Death for us and made it to all in him without doubt better than the day in which they were born Eccles 7.1 2 Tim. 1.10 the out-let to sorrows and miseries and in-let to all happiness a passage to rest and peace and freedom from all evils and to the nearer and fuller injoyment of Christ and of the happiness given us in him The Apostle was not afraid but desirous to be dissolved and to be with Christ and sure if we knew and loved Christ as well as he and loved the world as little we should be so too and though David had some risings of fear in the veiw of it yet see how he checks them in Psal 49.5 Why should I fear in the days of adversity when the iniquities of my heels do compass me about seeing none can escape it and the Lord will redeem my soul from the power of the grave or of hell and will receive me saith he Vers 15. The consideration of the end or reward of the righteous which we have in some measure been veiwing as it should provoke us to diligence in seeking to be found in Christ as our righteousness so being so to incourage us to lay down our lives when he calls for them from us and especially in a way of suffering for him with as much readiness as a childe to leave some poor cottage where he did sojourn to go to his Fathers full and stately house or a wife to leave some place of pilgrimage and hardship to go to live with her loving rich and tender husband But how much do we generally both live and die more by or according to sense than by or according to faith and yet as it is a mercy to live out our days to be serviceable in them to God and men that fulfilling our work we may receive the fuller reward or having through wandring weakned our selves to live to recover strength and not be taken away in the midst of our days in wrath and Judgment so the Saints have been and we may be loath to die and submissively desire to be spared of God so as we may come to our graves as a Rick of Corn fully ripe Psal 39.13 and 102.24 Job 5.26 Phil. 1.24 Isa 38.3 4. It may also incite and provoke wicked men to consider with themselves the sad and doleful state and way they are in Vse 5 Exciting wicked man to repâ—â— and to awaken betimes while yet they may and there is yet a day of grace and mercy afforded them to repentance that so they may not know what the death of the wicked is and the after-part that will follow but that that sad and endess misery may be prevented from them it speakes aloud to all such in the language of the holy Ghost in Isa 55.7 not only to wish and desire and pray as Balaam here did Oh let me die the Death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his but to forsake their ways and let go their vain and evil thoughts and turn to the Lord who is gracious and to our God who will multiply to pardon and who hath said and sworn as he lives he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that he turn and live and therefore calls Turn ye turn ye why will ye die Ezek. 33.11 There is all the reason in the world that a wicked man should turn from his wickedness and not go on in it for if he go on there is a gulf before him into which he will fall and wherein he will certainly perish for ever all the word of God stands against him yea all the love and mercy of God and the sufferings blood and purchase of Christ thereby will come in and plead against him and ly upon him and aggravate his misery if he turn not in time his peace prosperity and comforts will all flee away and vanish ere long as smoke in the wind and his miseries and sorrows will come thick and threefold upon him and crush him in peices for ever And on the other side if he repent and turn the word and promise and oath of God the sufferings blood sacrifice and mediation of Christ and the holy Spirit in and with all are for him and assure him of a gracious intertainment with God of washing cleansing forgiveness and healing by Christ and of an everlasting happy portion his death than will be good and his resurrection better and his after-state best of all He shall have what Balaam here wisht to have his soul shall die the death of the righteous and his latter end shall be like his Vse 6 Reproof to the wicked not turning and to such as backslide It proclaims the desperate folly and madness of wicked men that will yet persist in their wickedness notwithstanding such a discovery of the end of those that so do but much more the desperate madness of such as having been through the grace of God brought into the way of righteousness do for any occasion or upon any account either of discontent with their owne way
and portion or coveting after the way and portion or injoyments of any other turn from the way of righteousness these do as those who being brought safely out of the dangers of the seas and of perishing there by some storm and being set safely on a rock on the shore should because the wind blows cold upon them or because they see some little fishes play or rather some perishing men float on the waves throw themselves headlong thereinto to their destruction but indeed far worse If I say to a righteous man saith God thou shalt surely live if that righteous man trusting in his righteousness commit iniquity he shall surely die Ezek. 33.13 If we turn from God we must needs go after vain things and things that profit not 1 Sam. 12.21 but that 's but an easie and soft expression in comparison of what the holy Ghost hath elsewhere as when he saith Thou wilt destroy all those that go a whoring from thee Psal 73.27 And they shall be destroyed with an everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power that obey not the Gospel 2 Thes 1.7 8. and they are said not to obey the truth that abide not in it Gal. 3.1 Vse 7 Instruction to moderation in mourning for deceased believers But lastly it may instruct us to moderation in our mourning for the death of such as are righteous and die in the Lord that we should not mourn for them as those that are without hope either of or for them or of our enjoyment again of them there is no cause of so mourning for them nay but as our Saviour said to his Non est lugendus qui ante cedit sed plane desiderandus profectio est quam putas mortem Ter. de patien 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Gâ—aec est mori Disciples mourning at their hearing of his leaving them If ye had loved me ye would have rejoiced because I said I go to my Father for my Father is greater then I Joh. 14.28 So in respect of such persons when taken away by death we have rather cause of joy and gladness than of lamentation and sadness for they are gone to a better place and state as to their spirits which is the main of them and their bodies too are more at ease than they were before they dying in the Lord as we have seen are blessed at the present and they shall come again in their personal and bodily capacities after a while with Christ to the enjoyment of his Kingdom yea so as the living Saints shall not prevent them as is said 1 Thess 4.13 14 15 16 17 which words we have to comfort one another with in this case left on record for our instruction indeed some cause of mourning and in some regard of great lamentation we may have sometime as Abraham is said to have sorrowed for Sarah Jacobs sons for him and the people of Israel for Moses and divers others but the Jews write the middle letter of the word used of Abrahams weeping very small to signifie they say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his moderation in respect of his belief of the resurrection but it s said Act. 8.2 That devout men carried Stephen to his burial and to have made great lamentation for him When persons are very useful among people and a great blow breach or loss comes to the Survivers by their removal then there is ground for great lamentation in respect thereof and especially upon those that it falls so heavy upon as for the loss of our society with them and their useful company or the loss others have of them but in regard of themselves there is cause of rejoycing singing and making merry for that theiâ— race is run their dangers past their cares and labours are at an end their goal obtained and their reward ascertained And it seems the Jews did apprehend the same truth as Balaam here that the death of the righteous was a desireable thing and matter of gladness for when they who accounted themselves the righteous nation died they had musick and melody upon their departing as appears by that passage of our Saviours finding Minstrils at the house of Jairus when his daughter was dead Math. 9.23 and sure by how much the more the grace of God is unfolded by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus and his Spirit opening the grounds ends and vertues of it in and by the Gospel to us so much the more gladness when righteous persons die in their righteousness It 's that that good men have desired before they attained it as the Apostle Paul Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and be with Christ which is â—etter And it 's that that bad men have wished they might have the happiness of obtaining as appears in the Text Let me die the death of the righteous and let my latter end c. Now when any attain that which is desireable on all hands and especially when they have lived to a good old age and have filled up the number of their days and served their generation by the will of God should we mourn for them without rejoycing or should we mourn so in respect of our own losses as not to qualifie and take up our selves with the consideration of their gain If a heathen man could comfort himself over the death of his deceased daughter Non a nissa sed praemissâ— Cic. with the consideration that she was not lost but only gone or sent away before how much more may we Christians when we may say it with this addition that they are gone before to heavenly and happy mansions to the bosome of Abraham nay to the presence and enjoyment of the Lord Jesus in their spirits and that they shall come again with him and though their bodies now lie covered up in earth and ashes or dust yet they also shall be raised up again in honour when Christ appears and then both body and soul shall appear in glory with him and enjoy so happy a portion as exceeds all expression And now I have finished what I had to say to my Text but yet not my discourse without a word of Application of it upon this last account to that which occasioned my thoughts of it which was the death and interment of a good and vertuous Gentlewoman Mrs. Barbara Whitefoote of Hapton in the County of Norfolke A woman well known in the Country not so much for her outward greatness as to estate in the world though God gave her a good sufficiency there too as for the good she did in the world and especially to the places and people near her Her profession and practice proclaimed her a Christian more then in name only a follower after righteousness and a seeker of the Lord one that we judge to have sought first Gods Kingdome and his righteousness and therefore we question not but she hath now obtained A woman of a good report
many years and of noted zeal and fervency in what she apprehended to be the truth and right way of God walking for diverse years with and of good note among some people called Independants amongst whom her love and liberality zeal and diligence in seeking after God according to their principles were conspicuous and her yet remaining works for them and their entertainment speak yet for her But it pleased God in process of time to open her understanding in the Scriptures of truth and righter way of the Lord in giving her to perceive his Grace in Christ to all mankind according to the received doctrine of the Church of England and freeness to impart it to all and interest any of all there-through in his everlasting Covenant in coming to him and to bring her into acquaintance with a people believing and walking therein Chiefly I think by means of her son in law Mr Jeremy Coleman Minister of Hethersest in Norfolke a man of a sweet and excellent spirit and usefully precious in his generation who some years before her though young was taken away as a chastisement to many yet surviving How readily she received the Testimony of the Grace of God in its extent and how well she relisht it and retained it and how blamelesly and uprightly she walked in it for divers years before her decease and untill her decease I suppose many can Testifie And so that she was so far as men may judge a truly righteous person because seeking and accepting of the Lord Jesus Christ only to be her righteousness in her generation to her capacities which were none of the meanest Her constancy in the faith of Christ her love to it her charity and liberality her blamelesness c. yet live in the memories of diverse though she be dead now some time since and long may they there live A woman she was that had a close therefore better than his that died unlamented and indeed worthy to be lamented in respect of others though to be rejoiced in in behalfe of her self The loss many have and will have of her is to be bewailed by us for as she was good and useful to many while she lived so now being dead that usefulness cannot but be missed Chiefly her onely son hath a loss of her whom she had a most motherly and affectionate care of being as yet in his minority and a little too much indulgence for his sake and to have seen him well disposed of and much more truly well disposed she could have been glad if God had pleased to have lived here yet a little longer otherwise for her self content to be dissolved and to be with Christ How gravely and graciously as I was informed I being then not there she did instruct and admonish him when her sickness began to seize on her and she thought death approached some yet can well rememberâ— and I pray God he himself may not forget it but may follow her good admonitions advise and practises as long aâ— he lives A loâ—â— the town and neighborhood had of her who may w◠〈◊〉 lament that one so useful to and among them 〈…〉 The good relief the poor had and the good 〈…〉 and matters of health the sick and 〈…〉 the good opportunities such as would had and more also might have had for receiving instructions in the Gospel and truth of God for their souls by her means as a countenancer and promoter thereof speak for lamentations upon her death her freinds and relations have the want and loss of her company and acquaintance (a) Chiefly her ouâ— Daughter 〈…〉 of Yaâ—moâ—h but she we trust is above the reach of loss and wants as to her self In many respects therefore her Death is greatly to be lamented but in respect of her death it self and in respect of her self in and by death cause of gladness and much rejoycing That she did well while she lived and lived so long as she did considering her weak body much craziness and often infirmities to do so much good as she did and that she dyed in the faith of Christ and hope of his glory to be revealed upon her and injoyed by her at the appearing again of the Lord Jesus these are matters to be rejoyced in and for Her righteous doing here is at and end but her righteousness in which she was righteous and which in that righteousness she did endureth for ever for she was righteous in that sense of righteousness too as it is taken for mercy and almsdeeds so that it might be said of her she dispersed and gave to the poor her righteouâ—ness endureth for ever and therefore her hâ—rn shall be exalted with honor Psal 112.7 The consideration of the goodness of her life but much more of the happiness of her death and of her state as dead put me in minde of what Balaam wisht and put me upon explicating it in order to the consideration of the desirableness of what he wished and desired Well she is gone and gone to the best place we trust that she could go to even to the presence of the Lord Jesus in whom and through whose grace she and what she did had allowance and acceptance and with whom she is above our wishing and praying for any thing more for her except that Gods Kingdom may come and therein the accomplishment of hers and all our happiness Being a woman that feared God and wrought righteousness as she was accepted of God so she may be praised of men for favour is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised and though I cannot say of her in all things as was said of that unparalel'd woman Prov. 31. yet we may say in her commendations she was doubtless among the daughters that did vertuously though I will not say that she eâ—â—elled all the rest Prov. 31 30 31. Let us also imitate whatsoever was truly praise-worthy in her giving diligence that we may die the death of the righteous by living their life that our latter end may be like hers ADieu adieu dear Friend that state possess Wherein the upright Souls have endless bless What others but desired thou hast gain'd What we yet pray for thou hast now obtain'd Freed from all earthly dross and worldly cares Thou hast that peace now which nothing impairs Thy righteousness which here thou followdst after Like Sarahs womb hath brought forth only laughter For nought but joy and happiness attends The Soul that on the Lord alone depends Who trusting in him doth what 's good how well He speeds at last no mortals tongue can tell But thou in part injoyst what we below Can see but glimmerings of not fully know Thy Race is run thy Goal's obtain'd and thou Art far above the reach of danger now Oh happy Soul But blest for ever be That precious Lamb of God that made thee free Free him to close with and believe on here Free now from sin