is the light of the Spirit Now we have all this freedome because the Son hath made us free by bearing those burthens for us and what Christ hath borne for a believer that a believer is fully redeemed from Thirdly Christ hath borne the punishment due to sinne for us See this in Isa Isa 35 4 5.8.10 11. 35.4 5.8.10 11. Observe the Text. Surely he borne our griefes and carried our sorrowes Hee was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed For the transgressions of my people was he smitten It pleased the Lord to bruise him and to put him to griefe to make his soule an offering for sinne and he shall see of the travell of his soule and be satisfied I know not how fuller expressions should be made to set out this thing That Christ hath borne the punishment due to sin for the believer as fully as he hath the sinnes themselves With his stripes we are healed that is the punishment of our sins which he did beare for us so that as the wrath of God due to sinne we shall never beare them again for what Christ hath borne for us he hath delivered us from the bearing of it in our owne persons otherwise Christ dyed in vaine and this Text is not made good if we be not healed by his stripes Now if the punishment be not taken from the believer as well as the sinne how is the wounds of that soule healed by the stripes that Christ bore for it And if any shall say God made Christ to beare the believers sinnes but the believer must beare the punishment due to those sins though Christ was wounded bruised and chastised for them Such an affirmation will beare very hard upon the justice of God and question that truth of our Saviour upon the crosse that he had finished the worke of redemption part of which is the punishment as well as the sinne I verily believe when Christ bore the curse of the law he did beare the punishment due to all the sinnes of all his people and though I doe believe that God chastiseth every child whom hee loveth yet those chastnings are the fruits of his love and not of his wrath Christ hath borne all that in being made a curse for us Lastly Christ hath borne death for us as it is the wages of sinne 1 Cor. 15.53 to the end By which meanes death is swallowed up of victory The sting of death which is sinne and the strength of sinne which is the law have lost themselves their strength when they entered into Christ so that now a believer can blesse God that through Christ he hath victory over death sin hell law and grave and why so Why because Christ hath gone through he hath borne and overcome all these for us and wee are more then conquerours through Christ that strengthens us We are more because none of these can conquer Christ but he hath to all eternity overcome them for us This sting of death is swallowed up of victory for it is buried in the wounds of Christ but Christ is risen and is at the right hand of God and because he lives we live also John 14.19 Joh. 14.19 The second observation is this Observ 2 What-ever the free grace of God hath taken off from his Elect and laid upon Jesus Christ that his divine justice neither can nor will at any time to all eternity lay upon the elect soule againe This is justice sutable to his covenant of grace in the 31. of Jer. 34. For I will forgive their iniquities Jer. 31.34 remember their sinnes no more The faithfull God engages himselfe to remember his peoples sins no more and to make it good he layes them upon Christ which satisfieth his justice and carryeth our sins into the land of Forgetfulnesse Doe but observe how Gods justice as well as his mercy is engaged to make good this his owne covenant of grace For the law of creation that was doe and live self could not doe therefore selfe must dye Now surely the law of grace is not stricter then the law of creation so that Christ having fulfilled the whole law and performed every tittle of his Fathers will for us the justice of God is engaged to acquit Christ who hath paid the utmost farthing in him to acquit us for whom he hath made this full satisfaction As it was free grace in God to make us one with Christ so it is compleate justice that wee live in Christ who hath dyed for us And what ever Christ as the gift of free grace hath borne for us God in justice will never lay upon his elect in Christ again Whoever will deny this must deny God to be just and his covenant of lesse value then the covenant of a faithfull man his grace neither free nor full grace Christ not a compleat Saviour and then his death of no effect Now looke backe upon this truth and you shall behold sin the curse of the law punishment due to sin from the law of creation and death with its sting in it all borne by Christ for his elect body so that they shall never beare any of them more in their owne persons then glory in the free grace of God and the full redemption of Jesus Christ Thirdly Observ 3 Observe here the exceeding love that Christ shewes to those poore soules which his Father hath given him That hee would take upon himselfe the curse of the law the punishment of sinne due to fallen man and all this to redeeme them which his Father had given him though they lay under sin law punishment and death It had been great love and condiscention in Christ being God only to have taken our nature though he had never taken any thing else But then what love is this to take our sins and all that followed sin upon him Hee hath borne that weight for us which would have pressed us to hell if we had lain under it in our owne strength Rom. 5.8 These are heighths and breadths and depths and lengths of love Rom. 5.8 This commends love indeed to choose to beare all evill to deliver the sinner from it and by the same act to involve the sinner into all good Fourthly Observ 4 Observe from hence the glorious condition of a soule in union with Christ hee is taken up into the glory of God the bosome of his love he lives because Christ lives and as Christ lives above sin above a condemning reigning law above the punishment of sin and above death as it is the wages of sin above all that is below God Our fellowship saith the Text is with the Father and the Sonne and these things we write unto you that your joy may be full It is a life in the spirit above the flesh a feasting upon the fat things in Gods house and a resting upon the full
that toucheth you saith Christ toucheth the Apple of my eye so deare are Saints to Christ and Christ so tender of them And in another place our Saviour saith who ever offends one of these little ones his Saints it were better that a mal-stone were hanged about their necks and that they were cast into the Sea So dangerous is it to wounde Christ in his people O that this present age could spiritually receive this truth that when they wouâ—â—de Christ in his people they wounde their owne lives the sad experience of persons and nations which have died of these woundes might be enough to warne this present age from wounding the children of God if God would give them spirituall understanding Shew me any example where the spirituall peâ—ple of God were made the Butt for any Nation or person to shoot at but that the arrowes flew backe and wounded the heart that shot them even unto death These sad undertakings hath ruined so many Kings and Kingdomes this Mountaine will overturne all the World for worldlings will be alwayes engaging against spiritual Saints the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent will be at variance till they be parted as fare asunder as heaven and hell but the seed of the woman shal prevaile As Christ for a saint so Christ in a saint shal be a conquerer and though thou maist wounde Christ in a saint yet if free-grace make not a cure that wounde will be thy death thou art in staken poore soule if thou thinkest thou layest all thy blowes upon the Saint thou ami'st at No Christ he bâ—ares the blowe and thou must reckon with him for them This truth makes the present age to have a sad and a pale countenance in my eye I cannot thinke they will live long that hath so many of these wounds in their soules there is not a more deadly path that sinfull man travels in than this when he woundes deepest he kills himself sure 't is weightie worke Saints should be doublely careful that Satan lead not them into it upon any pretences whatsoever Christ will let such know it is ill requitall for his woundes that they wounde their brethren and so him in them A Fift and Last observation shall be this If Christ be only a Saints life then here wee may observe the sad condition of a Christlesse soule It is a dead soul dead in sinnes and trespasses walking according to the course of the world and the Prince of the power of the aire and by nature the child of wrath as it is in Ephes 2.1 2 3. If Christ be not made sinne for thee thou bearest thy owne sinne and must also beare the sting of sinne which is eternall death and then thou art a dead soule indeed Joh. 10 9. Christ speakes in these words I am the doore by me if any man enter in he shall be saved Now that soule which comes not in at this Doore never comes into the bosome of God where onely is salvation and therefore a Christlesse soule must needs be in a miserable condition for farther proofe to this take that Job 3. last And be that believeth not the Sonne shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him If this makes not up a condition fully miserable to have the wrath of God abiding on a soule I know not what doth and this is the state of every Christlesse soule though it may have a name to live yet in the account of God such a soule is certainly dead for as God is the fountaine of life so he hath made Christ the way to this fountaine and if God looke upon any soule out of Christ he lookes on it as a dead soul and when we come to see things as they are we shall see them as God sees them a Christlesse soule to be a dead soule This may be useful to Saints First to exhort Saints to eye Christ as their life Joh. 6.15 I am the living bread which came downe from heaven if any man eate of this bread he shall live for ever So our Saviour againe in Joh. 14.19 Because I live yee shall live also In both places Christ speakes our life to be in interest with him and that we should eye this interest and feed on this bread of life in 2 Cor. 5. last For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that wee might be made the righteousnesse of God in him So in 1. Cor. 1.30 But of him are yee in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdome and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption Mark it how the holy Ghost sets out all our life in Christ that wee might looke on it by faith our interest in Christ as he was made sin for us and we the righteousnesse of God in him and as he is made of God wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption to us what is the end of God in this thus to hold out our interest in Christ as our life in the parts and whole of the it But that we should glorifie that grace which hath made Christ thus to be all to us by looking upon Christ as he is our life The Prophet Isaiah in Chap. 53.5.10 11. verses beares witnesse to this truth and carries on the same designe in shewing Saints the originall love of God in making Christ to be our interest of life Hee holds forth Christ as hee was wounded for our transgressions bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace laid on him so that with his stripes we are healed God making Christs soule an offering for sinne and in the beholding of the travell of Christs soule is fully satisfied I say Christ is thus held forth in his word that we should so looke upon him in the Spirit In Gal. 3.13 it is thus written Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us This is a precious and safe object thus to looke on Christ what a life of heavenly joy will come into our soules in beholding Christ thus as our life Christ hath borne the curse himselfe and layes nothing but the blessing upon us He beares all the stripes and cloaths us with his owne righteousnesse hee leaves not a tittle of wrath for an elect soule to beare for he bears every stripe and all the curse himselfe till God acknowledge himselfe fully satisfied with the travell of his soule Ephes 2.13 But now in Christ Jesus yee who sometimes were afarre off are made nigh by the blood of Christ Christ so beares all the curse and takes away all the wrath of God that he by his blood brings the soule neere to God into the bosome of God so that such a soule is a happy soule In every condition if it be Christ to live 't is gain to dye Phil. 1.21 This is an object fit for precious Saints eternall soules to look on we are too earthly in our object when we look below the
and Christ is in the Spirit now to enjoy God in his originall love with Christ in all hee is as the fruits of this love this is our life and this can only be in the Spirit Oh then it concerns us to plead our interest as children for the spirit of Adoption as it is in Rom. 8.14 15 16. It is the breathings of the Spirit which makes dead bones to live Ordinances and soules will be both dead without Christ in the Spirit it is expedient to goe sayes Christ to send the comforter and it is as needfull that he give the Spirit without it we can never have fellowship with the Father nor the Sonne in whom only our joy our life and our glory will be full In this Spirit only can wee live upon Christ as hee is the bread of life and our bread of life CHAP. VI. Christs reigne by his Spirit is the Saints liberty from bondage Gal. 4.5 6. To redeeme them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sonnes And because yee are sonnes God hath sent forth the spirit of his Sonne into your hearts crying Abba-Father THE Apostle Paul in almost this whole Epistle makes it his businesse and designe to discover to Saints their liberty in Christ and as it appeares by the Apostles writing to them in the foregoing chapter and in this These Saints to which he did more particularly write lay under legall principles and moved with legal spirits now for a remedy of this to them and all Saints after them in these two verses the Apostle holds forth Christ under a double capacity namely Justification and Sanctification to the Believer And in both a perfect freedome from the law so far as it is freedome to be delivered from it The first of these two verses holds out Christ justifying of his people in the redemption of his blood from what ever the law could accuse them of or charge upon them The latter verse holds forth the fruits of this redemption or indeede a part of this redemption it selfe Namely this That because we are sonnes God hath sent forth the spirit of his Sonne into our hearts crying Abba Father Either of these two parts are worthy a Saints study and admiring for ever I shall lay the foundation of what shall follow in this Point Namely that it is part of the Redemption of the bloud of Christ to a believer that no law should command or rule in the conscience or spirit of a believer but the Law of love the spirit of Adoption is here given forth to that very end that in it the soule may keep its communion close with God and Christ and be alwayes able to cry Abba Father In the proofe of this we must consider the first and second Adam as wee were in the first Adam we lay under a law of Creation and a Covenant of workes as creatures to obey our Creator and in obeying to have life doe and live but transgresse and die In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death But in the second Adam the Lord Christ the Covenant we are under is not of workes but of grace the law is not in the letter but in the spirit not written in Tables of stone but in the hearts of his people by his Spirit as appeares clearely where the Covenant of Free-Grace is recorded as in Jer. 31.33 34. and in Heb. 8.10 In both places God doth not only covenant to be our God reconciled to us not imputing sin and iniquity to his people any more but also to put his Law in our inward parts and to write it in our hearts so that this way he will teach and rule in the hearts of his people under that covenant of which Christ is the Mediator God is a Spirit and when he promiseth to write his law in our hearts wee must understand him thus the workings of his spirit in the hearts of his people Letter shall be turned into spirit Christ shall be a King as well as a Saviour and as a spirituall King so his law and his government spirituall that the Lord Christ and his Father may appeare one in this great engagement of teaching and ruling in the hearts of his people by the Spirit let us looke into Christs promise Joh. 14.15 16 17.26 Jo. 16.13 14. Here the Lord Christ promiseth to performe that Office of his intercession to God for us that he would make good his owne covenant and give his spirit to comfort lead and guâ—de the soules of his people Now the making good of Gods covenant and the efficacy of Christs intercession for this spirit to rule in the hearts of his people every soule in its owne particular can best cleare up the faithfulnesse of God and Christ But the Apostle Paul in the power of the spirit sets it out at large in Rom. 8.2 3 4 5.9 10 11.14 15.26 27. Observe the exprestious of the holy Ghost in the second verse For the law of the â—pirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and 〈…〉 is mention of a double law and as distinct each from other as life and death the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus and the law of sin and death I looke on these two as that which depends on the two Covenants that of Workes and that of Grace or as it is else-where expressed the Law of the first and second husband which is the first and second Adam Now whilst the first Adam is alive in the conscience the conscience is kept under his law which is thus the law of sin and death as it makes known sin and the wages of sin which is death but sin saith the Text is not imputed where there is no law Rom. 5.13 and in Rom. 6.23 the wages of sin is death And then in Rom. 7. beginning the Apostle saith this law hath dominion over the conscience so long as the first husband lives From these places I judge I am not mistaken in the interpreting the law of sin and death but that the holy Ghost clearly meanes that law of Creation doe and live or the bare Letter of command in the conscience Only let us consider what is meant by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus which I understand thus That through that union the soule of a believer hath with Christ it is made spirituall Christ in his Kingly Office in throned in the conscience and the the soule resting in the bosome of Christ as a dutifull Spouse in the bosome of her beloved husband and his law is the law of the spirit of life that law which is life it selfe and turnes letter into spirit One thing more I would explaine my self in that is how I understand the holy Ghost in this freedome that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made to a believer from the law of sin and death by the spirit of life I understand Christ
is eternall power and his wisdome eternall wisdome Now tell me if the first Scripture be not a weighty exhortation He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. Take this as a foundation and carry it all along in your eye That purely what God is in himselfe is the onely matter and subject of his peoples glory For that is the exhortation Hee that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. And I desire to carry soules home to God himself that our soules may drinke the water of life at the fountain of life there it is eternally the same A soule that doth truly and purely glory in God himselfe will tell you that it findes God to be a God of originall eternall love and free grace And therefore sayes this soule Blessed be this God I beleeve all my iniquities are pardoned and my sinnes blotted out by the blood of Christ so they shall never more be remembred or charged against me for the originall love and free grace of God hath laid them all on Christ and he hath given exact satisfaction to the Divine Justice of God so that through eternall love and free grace I am acquitted and just fied in the fight of the eternall holy righteous and pure God and in this eternall love and free grace of God I am united to Christ so that Christ the Wisdome Sanctification and Redemption of God is mine and I am his Christ made sinne for me and I made the righteousnesse of God in him so that when I glory in my redemption I glory in God in his originall love and free grace When I say the Law of God cannot condemne me I doe not affirme that I have kept the Law in my selfe and so glory in the righteousnesse of the Law which is of workes but I glory in the original eternal love of God his free grace that hath made Christ my righteousnesse who hath fulfilled the Law for me and is daily doing it in me by the power of his grace Rom. 6.14 And give me leave to glory then sayes this soule though it bee great things that I glory of so long as God himselfe is the subject of my glory no Legalist can hinder God of the Soveraignty of his original love and free grace so that when God assures any soul of this his salvation and the soule glories in it this soule glories in the Lord. Come and see sayes this soule the glory of the Lord I am saved meerly by the free grace of God his original and eternal love hath plucked me out of sinne self eternal death hell law grav the power of Satan and eternal condemnation and made me one with Christ and heire of himselfe a joynt heire with Christ in eternall glory This is my God sayes the soule all this is the fruits of his love and free grace riches of mercy and faithfulnesse in his covenant and promises the exactnesse of his justice upon Christ is perfection of justification to my soule in union with Christ the perfection of his holinesse righteousnesse and purity is the glory of my soule whose life is hid with Christ in God the baptizing of his holy Spirit in which the elect in Christ are buried with him to sinne makes the resurrection of Christ and the new creature in me sayes this soule And all this is God meerly what God is in himselfe saving justifying and sanctifying glorifying grace all is Gods grace all this is free grace and all this free grace is my God sayes the beleeving soule therefore sayes this soule come O man and taste how good the Lord is Here is Milk and hony freely without price and without money Isai Chap. 55.1 If this soule meets with a beleeving heart it presently holds forth a bleeding Christ and if a soule that argues against its own salvation why sayes this soule consider grace is free your salvation hath no other foundation but the original love and free grace of God God concluded all under sinne that salvation might he of grace No soule since the fall of Adam could ever plead it selfe before God the whole frame of salvation stands upon the free grace of God now you have nothing to argue against but free grace your not being worthy can neuer make God not to be gracious you see nothing lovely in your selves that cannot hinder for God is the original of love you can in no measure keep the Law the Law it was to convince of sinne not to justifie any soule but Christ the gift of free grace he hath satisfied and fulfilled the Law for all his elect say what you can I will answer you sayes this soule with God that is with eternal love and free grace If God should suffer Selfe sayes this soule to have share in salvation I were as miserable as any soule alive for I am as much under sinne in my selfe as any other soule but the glory of my salvation is my God this I beleeve by his Spirit that himselfe is my salvation his own eternal Being is my eternal life his original love and his free grace which is of himselfe is the everlasting salvation of my eternall soule And sayes this soule upon this assurance I am able to goe to God himselfe through Christ by his Spirit to plead my interest in him to plead my salvation to be eternal because it is the salvation of his own originall love and free grace so that it can never faile and come to nothing because in the eternall God and when Satan would shake me out of my assurance I carry him to my God and let Satan know that my salvation standeth not upon my own legges but is the worke of the eternal original love and free grace of my God which is above the reach of Satan because in the very Being of God for God is love and free grace Thus a beleeving soule makes God the onely subject of his glory and from this foundation such a soule can never want a proper subject to glory in Saints would be glad to finde loving kindnesse mercy faithfulnesse justice holinesse righteousnesse and purity amongst men and truly these beames of God in his people makes them very glorious and the want of these is not onely a shame but the misery of this our present age These sparks of God make men truly Noble and the going out of these is the innobility of the times we live in but neverthelesse Gods people are not at a losse for a subject of glory For God is this all this and eternally this in the infinite fulnesse and glory of it Therefore what remaines but to presse home and to take up the Apostles exhortation He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord in the God of Grace and that our names are written in the book of life with the blood of Christ the gift of his grace that we have our inheritance in the New Jerusalem so that if these earthly tabernacles were dissolved we have a building with God an house
shall be as high as heaven and filled with God where no troubles can ever reach you nor no power be able to unrest you this is the true nature of death to Saints Christ having taken sin from them which is the sting of death so that in all this and exceedingly more may believing Saints glory in the very nature of death Secondly a Saint through Christ may glory over Death in the time of it though it be uncertain in the time of its comming yet that hinders not a Saints glory For a beleeving Saint knowes when ever death comes it shal be without a sting and this made the Apostle to glory in Phil. 1.21 For me to live is Christ and to dye is gaine If death stay longer before it comes yet I can glory in the length of time For to me to live is Christ and in the strength of Christ I can wait patiently all the dayes of my appointed time till in the wil of God my change shal come And if death be at hand and settle it selfe in my bosome the next moment yet herein I have glory For to die is gain A beleeving Saint can tell Death he hath his time as wel as his work appointed him you have both your time and your power given you by my Father and though to me it is a secret when your time shal be yet in the Spirit of God this is revealed to me when ever you come the love of God my Father comes with you and your work shal be to have me home that I may feed upon the bankets of love for ever Therefore sayes such a soule I feare not the time of your comming but wait patiently for it in the wil and Spirit of God yet in all that time thirst earnestly to be dissolved and to be with Christ The uncertain time of death may justly be sad and amazing to such as have their good things and their portion of good onely in this world and that by terme of life for here Death crops all in a moment and they are left empty though their barnes be full as the foole in the Gospel But to such a foule whose lise is hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is its life shall appeare wee shall then appeare with him in glory Here the uncertain time of death can be no disadvantage because Christ to this soule is eternal life so that it lives certainly and eternally with Christ in God Gol. 2.3 4. it hath a certain life and therefore can glory in it and over the uncertain time of death 2 Cor. 5.1 For wee know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved wee have a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the Heavens Though we know not the time of dissolution to this earthly Tabernacle yet this we know when it shall be it will be a time of advantage for wee leave a tabernacle that may and must be dissolved to possesse a building of God an eternal Mansion house in heaven Therefore sayes a beleeving soule Death I can glory in thy time Christ hath made thee my friend by taking my sins which was thy sting away from thee and now I long and earnestly desire to see thy face O death my friend If I must waite yet a few dayes or yeares before the appointed time shall come for thee to lay my weary body asleep in the dust yet I doe see the beauty of my Fathers will in that but if thou beest at hand thou art truly welcome if the next moment bee thine for me it is a blessed moment the moment of my first entrance into the full fruition of blessednesse this thy time is the time of wiping all teares from my eyes and revealing all glory to my soule of putting an end to all misery and the beginning of joyes without end thy time is my triumphing my waited hoped longed for moment I did tell the World that scorned me that I was an heire of glory had mansions and a crowne prepared and waited for me in my Fathers glory and art thou now come O death to fetch me home to bring me to Christ my head with whom I shall for ever possesse that glorious inheritance which I have gloried in this is a blessed time and moment in which I be held thy face thou art not come before thou art welcome I have nothing to stay me here I have waited long for thee my God and Father is in Heaven so is Christ my beloved there perfection purity is onely there my treasure is there so is my heart also and art thou now come to set mee cleere of this corrupt empty perishing World that I may bee onely there and for ever there O blessed be the Lord that thou art come thy time is a welcome time a time of deliverance from sinning in the body and the body of sinne thy moment puts an end to all howers of temptation and though the men of the World may trample over my clay yet my soule shall tryumph in reall glory above this imaginary glory thus may a beleeving soule glory over death in the time of it Thirdly A beleeving Saint through Christ may glory over the feares of death What ever feares there be in death they are onely to Christlesse soules for soules in Christ may glory over them all because to them death hath no sting as first the grand feare in death is this that it may prove eternall the haling of soule and body out of the World to come before the righteous Judge of quicke and dead where it shall receive this sentence Goe you cursed into eternall fire prepared for the Devill and his Angels for ever This is more then a feare for it is really so to Christ lesse soules where death comes with his sting in him but when the sting is gone this feare is gone too and the beleeving soule in Christ may glory over death as it is bereaved of his sting and so over death in this great feare the Scripture tels us It is appointed for all men once to dye and after death to come to judgement That is to come before the righteous Judge but the description which the Word of Gâ—d giveth us of that day is that there shall be a right hand and a left to distinguish betweene the Sheepe and the Goates on his left hand Depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his Angels so to the Sheep on his right hand he will say Come you blessed of my Father inherite the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the World 25. Mat. latter end The feare in death is a seare of judgement but the judgement day is a blessed day to all the members of Christ 't is that day when soule and body shall meet againe to be blessed for ever in inheriting of the kingdome prepared for them it is the day of the bodies full redemption and eternall nuptiall with the
now feare of death is no lesse then diffidence of that Redemption therefore Saints should be very watchful that they harbour no sad nor hard thoughts of death because in so doing wee dishonour a true friend nay Christ that made death thus to be our friend In the next place this cals upon Saints that when death comes to sit in our bosomes wee should bid him truly welcome and give him the entertainement of a friend that is be truly joyful to see him let him finde by the joy of our hearts that he is welcome to our besomes let his countenance be pleasing to us for though hee be pale death to our flesh yet that flesh shall be a gainer by its palenesse and finde nothing in death but a quiet rest til it shal put on incorruption But to the spirit death is a messenger from God and Christ of glad tydings and the feet of those which bring glad tidings should be beatiful to us let death when he comes finde he is a long looked for friend that he is not come before he is welcome but should have beene welcome if hee had come much sooner that thou takest him for so good and so real a friende that thou art heartily willing to goe with him and to leave all thy friends in the flesh that thou hast kept them company but til he comes and now art willing to leave them all to goe with him Saints may wel bid death welcome as a friende for Christ is in him and the love of Christ when Christ tooke sinne from Saints which was the sting of death he gave them love in the roome of sinne so as before we had sinne in all now we have love in all and though death to Saints have not the sting of sinne yet it hath the love of Christ and is worthy to bee bidd welcome and entertained with gladnesse when hee commeth But in the next place This calleth loude to Saints that they beleeve strongly in that love of Christ who hath taken away the sting of death which is sinne and thereby made death that was an original enemy to be a true and constant friend the Scripture teleth us 1 Cor. 15.26 The last enemie that shall be destroyed is death Now death as an enemy to Saints is destroyed in the death of Christ for his sting which is his enmity is taken away by Christ that I inferre is this Saints have much cause to beleeve strongly in that love the strength of which hath overcome all enemies for us Christ hath overcome death the last of enemies why should we ever then feare the fading of that love which hath left no enemies to make us afraide Saints feares are of their owne creating for what ever might have beene a true cause of feare hath beene under Christs destroying for he hath destroyed all enemies and where no enemy is there is no true ground of feare what remaines then Why nothing but a firme and lasting foundation of faith the love of Christ is a strong foundation for a Saint to beleeve strongly in what should we feare death is our friend the love of Christ hath made him so the breakings forth of this love is ground sufficient to banish all feares if death be no enemy then there is no enmity betweene death and us for death is the last destroyed enemy and the love of Christ hath destroyed that enmity Saints have many that hate them but none that can hurt them take this for proofe death is a Saints friend there can bee no greater testimony of love then the destroying of enemies for no man will destroy the enemies of him that he is an enemy to himselfe enmitie would make enemies it is onely love that destroyes them and this love is Christ to his people his love is so great that he will leave us no enemy that is no person persons or things shall ever be able to destroy a Saint then surely Saints may and ought to beleeve strongly in the love of Christ let worldlings know their nailes are too short to scratch out this love their strength too weake to shake this eternall foundation if they suck our bloods they may choak themselves but doe us no hurt for through the love of Christ Saints are conquerers over death Saints may believe strongly on the love of Christ for a worse enemy then the World shall never be able to destroy them even sinne for Christ hath destroyed sin and in that death for all that believe in him so as a Saint triumphs over death in the want of its sting is in the love of Christ which hath taken away sin and this is that love which the soules of Saints should believe in and rest strongly upon Saints need not fear they cannot lay more upon this love then Christ is able and willing to beare nay then he hath born already for he hath borne all the transgressions iniquities sinnes griefes sorrowes stripes and chastisements of his people Isâ— 53. So that hee hath redeemed his from the whole of sin and believing Saints may not feare to venture their soules in all upon the love of Christ nay doubtlesse it is the duty of Saints to live believing strongly in the love of Christ which hath put Death to death and overcome all enemies for them But in the fourth place Saints should make this improvement of these truths to waite upon God patiently in believing Death will assuredly come and deliver them from all their troubles in the flesh Faith made Job to waite patiently all the dayes of his appointed time till his change did come There is an appointed time in which the change shall come and beyond that time it shall not stay There can be no loss of faith in this thing for death waits upon our Fathers will and shall certainly come at his appointed time I confesse it is hard for Saints that are heires of heaven and know it willingly to stay longer out of heaven and their Fathers imbracings and in that time to be in a body of sin and a sinful world to beare the infirmities of the body with the scornes slanders persecutions of the World yet remember that this is the fulfilling of the will of our God and all this time death our friend is a comming every moment bringeth this longed for blessing nearer and nearer and we cannot tell but it may be at the doore that death may be in the next moment is the worlds feare let it be a Saints joy and serve to quench immoderate thirst here is this to answer all feares it will certainly come and cannot be farre off Christ longeth more for us then we doe or can doe for him and though we thinke him long yet he that shall come will come and will not tarry Remember the body is made of brittle earth it will be soone cracked or moulder away it cannot by its constitution last long the word of truth calleth him a foole that counted upon many yeares when
David had great glimmerings of this glory when he called upon his soule to blesse the Lord Psalm 103. Blesse the Lord O my soule and all that is within mee blesse his holy Name And so all the Psalme through Hee had discerned God in the glory of his love and he could doe nothing but blesse and praise God because he loved God When a soule once tasts God in his love it can relish no love besides Gods love If this soule have any blessing and praise in its heart and lips he layes them all upon God David spends severall Psalmes upon this subject of blessing and praising God about the 103d Psalm and so forward now the ground of all this is he was in love with God Wee know by the temper of our owne hearts how apt man is to praise that hee loveth love takes delight to spend it selfe in setting forth that it loves So doth David here he summons up all the strength of his soul to set forth the beauty and the glorious excellency of that God whom he loved love it makes the strongest of all motions it will not only say much for God but it will doe and suffer much for God and truely me-thinkes Gods love may justly chalenge love from his people in all the properties of it for God hath put forth his love to his people in all its properties as it is the full and free love of God Secondly O love Christ that hath redeemed us out of the hands of all our enemies that wee might serve him without feare hee that hath taken away all ground of feare may justly command all love Though Christ hath not left feare to bring soules to serve him yet love hath such a commission from the hands of Christ If you love mee keepe my Commandements the love of Christ constrained him to dye for us Oh how should that love constraine us to live to him there is nothing but God and Christ worthy of our love and if they have all our affections our actions will soone follow My people saith God is a willing people in the day of my power that is when his love over-powers the heart it soone commands all the actions That soule which loves Christ makes no dispute who shall command it Love is cords to draw and legges to carry the soule to all the revealed will of Christ It is Christs way to deliver his people from all their enemies and to leade them by his owne love And truly these are speaking arguments to Saints to love Christ And indeed these Gospel-truths afford much consolation to all the people of God why should wee not now be alwayes looking upon the originall love of God and Christ the rocke of Ages who is the great gift of his love and so rejoyce for ever Though selfe be nothing yet Christ is all though the Law condemne us yet Christ made under the Law saves and acquits us Now we may looke upon sinne and all our enemies drowned in the red Sea of Christs blood and lying upon the shoare of his flesh dead for an eye of faith to behold Now wee may see death swallowed up of victory and triumph with the Apostle in Rom. 8. latter end What shall separate 1 Cor. 1.31 'T is the word of truth Hee that glorieth should glory in the Lord. We may now glory in all God his justice as wel as his grace There is nothing in God but what a believing soule may glory in it may through Christ come with as much rejoycing to Gods barre of Justice as to his Throne of grace for Christ is our compleatnesse at both Hee presents the soule to God as that soule which God gave to him and for whom hee hath given himsele John 17.10.6.23 and so presents the soule perfect in himselfe If Christ be enough Saints have enough to rejoyce in If his blood satisfie Gods Justice to the full as doubtlesse it doth God is well pleased when he sees the travaile of his soule Isa 53.10 then it should quiet our consciences If Christs righteousnesse be perfect in Gods eye it should be so in ours and we should rest and rejoyce in it If Christ be the way to his and our Fathers bosome of love we should blesse that love which made him our surer way and seeke no other way but Christ If Christ be Gods way to convey all his loving kindnesse and glory to our poore soules surely then wee should rest in Gods wisdome and rejoyce in his love This is eternall love it had no beginning with time nor can it have any time to end it is what God is the same yesterday to day and for ever No soule can out-live his love or dye that is in his love therefore there is a foundation to that exhortation in Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord alway and againe I say rejoyce The end of Christs bearing our sorrowes was that we might be made partakers of his joy he therefore tooke our flesh our sinnes and was made under the Law and the curse of the law for us that we might be taken up into the fulnesse of God and himselfe to all eternity to be heirs of God and joynt-heires with Christ Ephes 2.6 7. And hath raised us up together with Christ and made us to sit together in beavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come hee might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindnesse towards us through Christ Jesus Mark it therefore hath he made us one with Christ that to all eternity we might be filled with the exceeding riches of his grace and kindnesse to us that is that he might fill us with himselfe Oh what a glorious life is a Saints when by faith he eyes his interest in God and Christ he may then rejoyce indeed A perishing world can neither give to nor take from this more exceeding and eternall weight of glory All our dying dayes are in this life and shall soone have an end In heaven it will be alwayes day there is nor can be neither night nor death where God Christ is Heaven is that home where every one is an heir and every heir in full possession God is all to all with all and in all to all Eternity CHAP. III. Gods children have his Spirit to walke and worke in Rom. 8.14 15 16. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sonnes of God For yee have not received the spirit of bondage againe to feare but yee have received the spirit of adoption whereby wee crie Abba Father The Spirit it selfe bearing witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God IN this whole Chapter we find the Apostle full of assurance of the love of God in Christ to him that hee is above all condemnation as he is one with Christ and from hence he is full of joy and holy boasting and as full of exhortation to holy walking with God in the Spirit And I conceive these
not made with hands but eternal in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 This wil be lasting glory when as the longest day the worldlings glory lives is but till the earthly tabernacles bee dissolved their joy and glory amounts to no more then the crackling of thornes under a pot it is certainly perishing because it is not God himselfe It were well if Saints did not suck in too much of this perishing glory But there is another glory which Saints too often sit down in and too much make their boasts of which is short of the true subject of glory even GOD himselfe And that is Circumcision and Uncircumcision Paul Apollo and Cephas externals formes outsides somethings in the way of God when they should only glory in the end God himselfe a soule that truly lives in God submits to all the will of God and walkes in all the wayes of God revealed to it by the Spirit but lookes upon them all as below his rest Hee can fixe and glory in none but God himselfe it pleaseth God through meane things to make known himselfe to his people and to have communion with his people in but hee contrives and makes up the salvation the life rest and glory of his people in his owne eternal love and free-grace and would not have his people lye downe in the streames but passe through them into the Ocean of his owne bosome of love and free-grace it wil be a smal advantage when Christ comes to make up his jewels for any soule to say I was of this Church or of that known by this name or the other Circumcised or not circumcised availes not at that day Christ lookes for the new creature his owne image the worke of the eternal love and free grace of God in every soule The glory of that day will be God is mine and I am his His free-grace is my salvation and my salvation is the worke and fruits of his owne eternal love and free-grace Therefore sayes the Apostle in 1 Cor. 3.22 23. Let no man glory in man for all things are Gods whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are Gods and yee are Christs and Christ is Gods Glory not in man nor any thing comes by man all these are yours in that great gift the Lord Jesus Christ glory in him then you have a right subject for your glory namely God Paul and Apollo is yours to use but not to glory in Christ and God in Christ is the only centre for a Saint to rest and glory in Oh then away with any lower glory then the Lord himselfe hee is a never failing glory at his right hand are glories for evermore In the 21. of Revel 23. The glory of God is the light of the new Jerusalem and the Lamb is the light thereof It is only God in Christ that is the glory of heavenly soules therefore let such soules glory in nothing else It is very unbecoming the heires of Canaan to take up their glory in the Wildernesse provision much lesse to hunger after the Onyons of Aegypt It is not huskes with Swine but bread in our Fathers house that is our portion as children then surely our glory should be in God and in Christ the bread of life all lower glories are the sin and shame of Saints and when Gods people doe take up lower glories it pleaseth the Lord in much mercy to take away those dung glories that his people may be ashamed to glory in any thing but himselfe who is the everlasting God in as much as the riches of the eternal love and free-grace of God hath made himselfe the inheritance of his people and their glory It is not presumption but true interest and duty for every Saint in point of glory to overlooke al of this side God himselfe and not to rest but in the eternal original love and free-grace of God I shall conclude with this cordial truth to all the people of God Your real and proper glory can never be taken from you because 't is God himselfe the World may hate and persecute Saints because of this but they shall never be able to strippe us of our glory it may be they thinke to doe it when they shal scatter Churches and Saints from one another but this is their darkenesse they know not Saints proper glory God himselfe is their glory he is the glory of all Church-fellowship and communion with Saints Worldlings are mistaken if thy thinke to put out this glory though God doth many times make use of meanâ—s in which hee makes knowne himselfe yet hee is not bound up to meanes If the men of the World could so scatter Saints as they should never see the faces one of another more yet by this they cannot hinder them from seeing the face of God in Christ and this is Saints glory It is an unexpressable glory that our glory is in God and that God himselfe is his peoples glory though the malice of men seems to be boundlesse yet certainly their power is bounded they are in fetters and chaines before they come to their owne home though they may perfectly envy yet they cannot in the least disappoint or destroy Saints in their glory God can in a moment unpower and destroy them but they can never un-God him they cannot diminish his original eternal love and free-grace and rich mercy they cannot make him unjust or unfaithful nay they shal feele that he is both They cannot strip God of his holinesse righteousnesse purity power perfection infinitenesse and eternity therefore they cannot strippe Saints of their glory because God in all this and all he is is his peoples glory Saints have this glory above a dying World therefore above the reach of dying men Oh then Saints rejoyce in the Lord alwayes glory in God who is fulnesse of glory let the World see we have meate to eate which they know not of and a God to glory in which they can never hinder us of Let them see that wee are already risen with Christ into his glory and do know that if these earthly Tabernacles were dissolved nothing could hinder us of the ful enjoyment of our God in glory who is our God and our glory so that the Spirit of God hath imprinted in our hearts and lives this precious exhortation He that gloryeth let him glory in the Lord. CHAP. XIIII Saints have victory through Christ over Death and by faith glory in it 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. verses 55. O Death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 56. The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sin is the Law 57. But thankes be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ THE subject-matter of this whole Chapter is Death and the Resurrection from the Dead The generall scope of these three verses is Death and that under a two-fold consideration Death in its strength with its
it becomes a servant not only to God but to Saints also Death is through Christ a servant to all Saints to waite on them till they have finished their worke on Earth in the will of God and then layes them to rest in the dust It waits till all the worke be done and then doth its worke in the appointment of God resting the weary body from its labours cracking the clay walls that the thirsting soule may meete its Beloved in perfection of glory so meet as never to part more but to be for ever with the Lord to behold the love of God in glory and be for ever swallowed up in the glory of that love Death which in it selfe is grim and frightfull is through Christ to a Saint welcome and pleasing because it comes without a sting and hath no other businesse but to serve Gods end in freeing both soule and body sets the foule free from the body of death and the body from a weary and toilesome life Death is but a sleep in which the body lyes till at the glorious appearance of Christ it riseth incorruptible the nature of death is through Christ but to be our Fathers messenger to bring us home that we may see his reconciled face in glory and enjoy the mansions prepared for us that wee may tast the love of his heart know him in himselfe reape the full harvest of all our hopes possessing glory above the life of faith our feasting in heaven will be fruitions not a crown of glory in promise only but in possession the joyes the hopes the desires of a gracious soule in all his life is by death brought in at once the joy of this soule is that the day drawes nigh in which the body shall be dissolved and it shall be with Christ It hopes to meete its beloved in perfect glory and never part more it desires to be absent from the body and present with the Lord and in all this death is through Christ a servant to a Saints death hath all its poyson in its sting and Christ taking away the sting from death hath quite changed the nature of it Death with its sting kils where it conquers but Death without its sting only changes the body of Saints from wormes to cold clay So Job hee waited all the dayes of his appointed time till his change came by death Saints change their place but not their company whereas before they lived in God now they live with God Saints on earth have communion with God and Christ in the Spirit and Saints in heaven have the same company but in greater glory Death changes our place of communion but not those wee have communion with Saints on Earth live upon love tokens from God and Christ sent to them by the Spirit but in Heaven upon the originall and fulnesse of all that love here by the Spirit we read the love and kindnesse of God and Christ in a Covenant of free-grace and many gracious promises but in heaven we taste of love in the fountaine in the very bosome of God and Christ to all eternity here wee glory that glory waits for us in heaven there our glory is to be swallowed up into glory and to be made glorious in the fulnesse of that glory In this Saints glory over the nature of death it doth not kill them but change them from a cloudy to a more exceeding and eternall weight of glory And as for the bodies of Saints it may be said of them as Christ did of the Rulers daughter shee is not dead but sleepeth Death changes them in this their sleep is something longer then at other times yet they are not dead but sleepe for Christ is the life of Saints And because Christ lives they live also John 14.19 Their clay is colder in this sleepe then in others and by degrees crumbles into dust here is a change indeed and it is no more for this corruptible must put on incorruptible and this mortality must put on immortality and then it will fully appeare that death is swallowed up in victory 1 Cor. 53 54. The nature of Death is changed by Christs taking the sting away from being the King of terrours it becomes the messenger of glad tidings Death is now so free from terrours that it brings tidings of the greatest joy to Saints it tels the Spouse of Christ she shall goe and be for ever in her beloveds armes Your wildernesse days are accomplished in which you went many times to the Watchmen to enquire for your Beloved and you found them in the darke as well as your selfe but now you shall finde your Beloved and be filled with his love and live in the light of the Lord for ever Death tels the children of God hee is come to fetch them home to their Fathers house yea to their Fathers Kingdome in which they shall all reign with him They shall be as children under-age no longer they shall now possesse the mansions prepared from eternity to eternity not only have all teares wiped from their eyes but to live for ever in the beholding and enjoying perfection of glory Death brings glad tidings both to body and soule it tels the body head you shall ake no more stomacke you shall be sicke no more heart you shall tremble and be affraid no more flesh you shall bleed and smart no more I am come to put an end to all these feares and troubles God will looke you up in the cabinet of the earth that you may there sleep in peace till Christ raise you incorruptible and carry you into glory And to the soule sayes Death you shall have no more time for sinne and vanity perfect holinesse to eternity shall now swallow you up I come only to put an end to sinning dayes you shall now groane under sinne no more that body which held you and was subject to temptations shall now goe to sleepe in the dust till the tempter be chained up in eternall darkenesse in stead of mourning under sin you shall now for ever glory over sin your feares shall end so shall your faith for in stead of the evidence of things not seene you shall both see enjoy the heighths breadths depths and lengths of the love grace kindnesse faithfulnesse and glory of that God you have believed in Feare not me sayes Death I come from your Father so as you mâ—y be sure I have no commission to hurt you Christ your beloved Huâ—band Brother Head and Redeemer tooke care that I should not be able to hurt you for he tooke my sting from me before I should come unto you I am come without a sting to tell you God and Christ loves you but that is not all my errand they love you so well that they can suffer you no longer to be out of the full enjoyment of their love and I am sent to cracke the clay walls which is your prison that you may flye home and be at rest there your rest
soule this day is so farre from administring feare in death to soules in Christ that it is the comfort in which those earthly tabernacles goe to the dust beleeving That what is sowne in corruption shall bee raised in incorruption what is sowne in dishonour shall be raised in glory and what in weaknesse shall be raised in power and though it be sowne a noturall body yet it shall bee raised a spirituall body 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. So that the feare of eternall death and judgement is wholy taken away from this naturall death where Christ hath taken away away the sting But secondly The men of the World will tell you they are afraid of death because it cuts them off from their Worldly delights they can finde no other fault with the World but that it perisheth coold they injoy it for ever though there be many bryers in this Wildernesse yet they could make their Canaan in it so that they might never be stripped of it but they know when death shall once close their eyes they must bid adue to all their Worldly delights never to see or enjoy them more and upon this consideration as well as the former death is the King of feares and 〈…〉 unto them But it is quite contrary with the soule in Christ he concludes if his hopes and comfort were onely in the World he were of all men most miserable hee blesseth God for every wildernesse mercy but he lives onely in God himselfe it is his joy to looke upon the World as perishing and his body a decaying for the top of his glory and the expectation of his soule is to be dissolved and to be with Christ he counts the worldlings choyce of mercy to be the greatest misery To be ever in the World would bee worse then ten thousand thousands of deaths to his body his pantings are to be absent from the body that he might be fully present with the Lord he doth acknowledge God to be glorious in his footstoole but as an heire of God he thirsts to be in the glory of his throne if you tell him of pleasure and delights in the World his answer is that communion with God is full of pleasure and delight where ever it be but sayes he the World cloudeth these joyes and eclipseth this communion therefore O that I were stript of this dying flesh that I might have full communion and fellowship with God in the spirit that I might drinke freely of the waters of life in the fountaine this soule reckons all the delights and pleasures of the world to be amongst the wise mans vanities and having tasted Christ the bread of life in his Fathers house and in him the love of his Fathers heart can neither feede upon nor delight in the empty buskes of this perishing World if any ambitious worldling telleth him it is very good to be honourable I sayes he If you meane that honour which floweth from being precious in the sight of God and having an interest in his love 43 Isay 4. He gives this one answer to the worldling in all his proposals of pleasure and beauty in this life sayes he God is the beauty of the whole creation as the originall fulnesse of it so that it wholy depends upon his will and that which is our glory is God himselfe who is the glory of Heaven and earth though the World withers yet he is for ever glorious and he is his peoples glory therefore the worldlings feare in death upon this account is not a Saints feare for his glory is out of the World even in God and his delight and affections are in things above not in things on the earth and that because He is risen with Christ his affections are risen before his body is dead the delight of his heart is in Heaven though the flesh of it be in his body 3 Col. 1 2. this soule is crucified with Christ to the World and the World to him 6 Gal. 14. so that neither his joyes nor his feares are with the worldling if death can onely strip him of the World he hath no cause to feare death nay death commeth too late in that for hee through Christ is dead to the World whilst he liveth and is above all the feares of death because his life is hid with Christ in God I but sayes the worldling I am afraid of death because it takes me from all my sweet relations here on earth I must dye to them and they to me it is true indeed but herein the beleeving soule is no looser he leaveth the drops of corrupted creatures love to be swallowed up into the Ocean of Gods power and eternall love he leaveth those broken Cisterns of love which in a little time would leave him and is taken up into the Father and fountaine of love in the glory of love and free grace for ever he now comes to taste love in the originall and readeth it as it was in the heart of God to him from eternity and shall be to eternity in the fulnesse of Gods love so full that there will not be the want of any sweet or relation for all will be made up in God there is no complaining in the streets of the new Jerusalem no want of relations God will be a Father Christ will be a husband Saints glorified our brethren Sisters and asociates to all eternity we shall want no relations in Heaven nor shall any relations there want perfection for all there shall be compleat in Christ and filled with the fulnesse of God we leave a World of wants and it is to possesse a Heaven of fulnesse and glory I but sayes a tender hearted Father or Mother will not my Children my little babes want me Truly no for your worke in the decree of Heaven is done before God suffers death to cut your thread of life and t is our unbeliefe that telleth us it were better either for us or ours that we had more work in the World then God hath appointed us had we more dayes we could not in them make a haire black or white we could not in our selves add that little to our little ones Our Fathers kindnesse will bee our Childrens comfort and hee liveth when wee are dead to them and alive with him the presence of God with our children will be their blessed portion though we be absent to beleeve in this his love and faithfulnesse will be a blessed rest to us and ours we shall leave them well in leaving them with God and need not feare the leaving them when we are going to God death in taking us from our children to carry us home to our Father will advantage us and not disadvantage ours for though he filleth us with all fulnesse of love and glory in Heaven yet he is neverthelesse full but can also fill our children on earth and such as taste of his love and grace have no cause to doubt of the freenesse and fulnesse thereof I but
hath laid the bodies of Saints in the dust there is the end of his office and when the grave hath swallowed up the corruption of those bodies then its worke is done too but then Christ hath an eternall wo ke in his hands to raise it a spirituall body that the fulnesse of his redemption may be made up so as that soule and body both may be filled with the fulnesse of his redemption and in this worke Christ commands both death and grave to give up their dead bodies and then he spirits his owne sutable to that eternall life which they are to possesse The Scripture tels us That Christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. 15.20 That is Christ is first in the resurrection but so as hee is the first fruits a testimony of resurrection to all that sleepe and in Rom. 8.11 the Apostle telleth us That the same power which raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortall bodies by his Spirit So in 1 Thes 4.16 For the Lord himselfe shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voyce of the Arch-Angel and with the trumpe of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first I mention these Scriptures to shew the victory that Saints have in Christ over death and grave and to me they give full satisfaction and ample proofe in them to the thing in hand that neither death can hurt nor grave hold so much as the body of a Saint in Christ but on the contrary that the very bodies of Saints have victory over death in dying and that Saints have exceeding cause to glory over death under this consideration as well as all or any of the former I shall next take into consideration in some few particulars the benefits and advantages that believing Saints through Christ have by death both in our soules and bodies I will begin with the bodies First Death freeth us from all the naturall infirmities and diseases of our bodies One complaines that winde makes a torturing tumult all his body over the bowels and the body full and they fill the head so that there is no free part Another he complains that fluxe of water hath filled his veins chil'd his bloud and num'd his joynts so that aches are in all his bones A third complains that gravell lyeth in his reines teares his kidneyes and stops his bladder so that his whole life is as it were upon the torturing racke there be many more complainers besides these which goe from man to man to make their moane and begge their help for a little ease though but for a little time which sometimes they finde but often returne from fellow-creatures as miserable as they came but when Death comes without his sting he makes a perfect cure of all sorrowes and paine for ever among creatures wee seeke ease with teares but death hee brings full and lasting ease and wipes away all teares from our eyes Death puts an end to hunger and thirst to cold and nakednesse to labour and wearinesse in short to all wants and to all woes the grave is quiet it is the only piece of quiet earth that man can meete withall though a little above the grave on the earth there be cryings out and complainings yet the grave is quiet nothing can disturb the rest and quiet of that bed it is not capable of disturbance therefore exceeding usefull to rest in this I assure you is a greater benefit then all the living World enjoyes beside Crownes have their crosses States their crackes all persons and things their wants every person state condition and thing under the sinne wrapped up in vanity all wants are buried no where but in the grave of death The body of man never bids adiew to all want til it be embraced in the arms of death and laid to rest in that quiet center of the earth but when death comes without its sting it brings this certaine benefit and advantage with it A second benefit and advantage of the body of Saints in death without its sting is this It takes from the worlds scorne and cruelty When the bodies of Saints are in the grave Worldlings must seeke some other object for their slander scorn or cruelty they will finde no sap or moisture in the dust of Saints to feede these lusts withall the derision and persecution of Gods deare Saints on Earth is the pastime and practise of sinning soules like the flye that sports it selfe about the candle till shee have burnt her wings but God hath his time to ease his people of this burthen and if not before yet certainly and fully when death comes is this worke effected Saints whilst they live in the bodie are with their spirits above the worlds scornes and cruelties but when death comes then the body gets beyond them too so that here is another benefit in death it freeth them from the scorns of fools and the cruelty of cruell men The wicked worldlings counts a Saint to be the only troubler of the people and place wherein hee lives but when death comes to a Saint he is very willing to leave the world their portion and their elbow-roome hee is not desirous to trouble them any longer all he desires is a little earth to lye downe to sleepe in and that the world is content withall wishing that al the rest were there too this is a benefit which a Saint with submission to the wil of God desires many an houre before it comes he is as willing to be at home in his owne inheritance as the worldling is to have him out of his now death crownes these longing in Saints and brings in the harvest of many prayers which the spirit hath made for this very thing so that in these and many more particulers is death beneficial and advantageous to the body of Saints But I shal mention two generals in which death without its sting is through Christ exceeding advantagious and benificous to the soules of beleeving Saints First It delivers them from a body of sinne a place of temptations and darknesse which is the whole complaint of Saints whilst they are in the flesh the Apostle Paul complaines of the Law in his members which rebelled against the Law of his minde and of the body of death how often doth the Prophet David pray to be kept from temptations and to be inlightned in his darknesse that God would shew him the way he should walke in and make his pathes straight Saints desire to be uncloathed of the body of flesh because they are capable of sinning in that body any it is a body which tempts to sinne and in which the soule is under much darknesse And therefore groanes within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body 8. Rom. 23. It is very sweet to bee delivered from temptations that they get not the upper hand so as to lead the soule captive at their will
but to be above the reach of all temptations where we can never possible be tempted more how exceeding precious and glorious is this a Saint would if it were in his power give the whole World so that he might never sinne more it must hten needs be of great advantage to him to be carryed above the reach of any temptation to sinne you shall never meet a Saint at the throne of grace but his breathings are Lord inlighten me in thy will make thy minde clearer and clearer out unto me by thy spirit leave me not in the darknesse of my owne flesh now then how precious must it needs be to this soule to be taken out of all clouds to have all clouds even the clouds of the flesh done away so that not the least shaddow of darknesse doth remaine Why all this and much more is the advantage of a Saints soul in the death of its body for this death without the sting of sinne is death to the body of sinne that it can be no more a body to sinne in it separates light and darknesse the soule and body that both might goe to their proper place and then the soule complaines no more of darknesse it is darke clay that hinders the soules light when it is quit of that it is perfect in light and this makes Saints so thirsting to shake off the rags of flesh their clouds of darknesse their places of temptation and their sinning body now when death comes he satisfies all these thirstings fils up all these desires and accomplisheth the present designe of God concerning the fleshly body in which the precious soules of beleeving Saints are through Christ aboundantly benifited and advantaged but this is not all the benefit and advantage which death without its sting through Christ bringeth to the soules of beleevers There is another generall which is this The soule ip now taken us into the perfection of Gods eternal love free grace full glory everlasting purity and thus to be for ever with the Lord. When I say this comes in with death I meane it is then so perfected as it could be never so before for the bodies of Saints must bee sowne in corruption before they can rise in incorruption and the soule is never perfect till it be quit of the corruptible body and this evill World but this being once accomplished Then the soule in God and God in the soule makes up perfection to all eternity the soule hath now no let to full injoyment of his Masters joy it is now a childe of full age nothing can hinder him in possessing his full inheritance in his Fathers love and glory The mansions prepared from all eternity are now possessed to all eternity the love which lay hidd in our Fathers heart and was too great to be revealed in the World is now spred open to the soule and the soule is bid eate my beloved O drinke abundantly and be satisfied this feast of love will hold out for ever eternity cannot exhaust it it is the love of God this is the supper of the Lambe slaine before the foundation of the World in the designe of Gods free grace this mystery is now revealed and the soules of Saints filled with the glory of it Saints in Heaven are in the light of the Lord and all filled with the Lord their Light perfection is there the portion of every soule Christ hath given up the Kingdome to his Father and God is the perfection and fulnesse of all his Children this perfection of glory is Gods end in redeeming his elect that we might be heires of God fellow-heires with Christ in his eternall love full glory and everlasting purity never to know sinne or sorrow more to be above the breathings of any defilement or the buddings of any vanity what we shall then possesse will bee nothing but all God it will be all God and alwayes God God will bee the light of our eyes the life of our soules the excellency of our glory the sweet of our sweets and the perfection of our purity in Heaven Heaven is the presence of God the full perfect glorious and the eternall presence of God will be our Heaven when death hath layd our dying bodies asleepe when the corruptible sleepes away its corruption the incorruptible soule possesseth a crowne incorruptible and full of glory so that the time of death without its sting is through Christ to a Beleever of great benefit and advantage both in soule and body Saints in Christ ought to improve the joyes and consolations which comes from the free grace of God to their soules amongst which I am sure this truth is very eminent and therefore ought to be well improved and first this calls upon beleeving Saints to whom through Christ death when ever it comes wil be without the sting of sinne that they should not have sadd or hard thoughts of death we should not make feare in our flesh or spirits to be the associate of the thoughts of death there is no cause for it the sting being taken away by this needlesse and unbeleeving feare of death in Saints we doe prejudice our selves and bring an evil report upon our friend First wee prejudice our selves for through a feareful fancy of evil and danger in death we many times doe what we should not and leave that undone which we ought to doe how many stretch their consciences to doe that which they have no rule for and otherwise would not doe but that they feare it may cost them their lives if they should not and how much duty is neglected upon this very consideration upon a feare in doing to lose or indanger life the feare indeed is to meet with death in doing therefore chuse rather to omit duty but it is safe and blessed through Christ to meet death in duty sad and hard thoughts of death I verily beleeve doe much prejudice Saints in their streight and even walking with God through this wildernesse it were happy if in reading wee could read our owne hearts But secondly These fleshly feares of Saints bring an evill report upon death which through Christ is our real friend it is very imbecomming Saints to scandalise any out that we should do this to death who is so real a friend to us and the messenger of such glad tidings as what hath gone before proveth him to be this is very disingenious if Saints looke upon him with a feareful eye he wil then be taken for an enemy to all the World for to others hee commeth with his sting so as they have just cause to feare but to Saints death is a reconciled friend in Christ and we doe him injury when ever we looke upon him as other nay truly we dishonour Christ to feare death after hee hath conquered him the redemption of Christ for his people is so ful that they may and ought to serve him without feare the victory over death is part of the redemption of Christ so that
he was in clay the flower soon fadeth the grasse is soone withered the shadow soone gone and the Weavers shuttle passeth swift away this is the time of our flesh in Scripture account Consider againe the waiting is but a moment compared with the time of enjoying the next moment may end the one but the other is eternall without end and the first entrance into our Fathers glory will take quite away the remembrance of all sorrowes and sufferings here below nay the very beholding of Death-without his sting will make ful amends for all our waiting Now surely Saints have great reason to wait for Gods time patiently and believingly though wee be at present in the Wildernesse yet Canaan cannot be farre off and Christ will goe with us all the Wildernesse way till he bring us into Canaan he is faithfull which hath promised never to leave not forsake his people the waiting time shall not be wholly without him but when that time is accomplished then we shall be fully and for ever with him therefore our waiting should be in faith and patience on the will of God all the dayes of his appointed time for us And lastly The whole life of Saints should be a life of holy joy in God and a glorying through Christ over Sin Death and Grave believing Saints should live up those joyes which accompany Death without the sting of sin they should glory in the grace of God and the God of grace They should glory in the redemption of Gods free-grace and as the Apostle here makes a holy triumph over Death without its sting of sinne and over the grave which hath no victory but must give up those bodies which are sowen in corruption to be raised in incorruption wee should let the World know how kind a God we have that will not leave any sting in death or victory in the grave but puts an end to sin and thereby an end to all sorrow which makes death the worldlings feare to be our friend and the time of stripping us from the worlds dying beauty to be the time of filling us with his own glory Saints may well glory over Death that have God and Christ for their life Saints may safely question with Death about his sting when Christ hath taken it away for us wee may safely glory in the times of Deaths approach and the hour of his comming when as Christ hath taken away his sting from him we may truly say there is no God like our God no beloved like our beloved for none but such as have an interest in the love of God and redemption of Christ can glory over Death for to all others Death hath his sting and when ever hee commeth comes with his sting the feare of such hearts to see the face of death speakes very much of the glory of Gods eternall love in Christ to all that believe on him in taking away the sting out of Death by which meanes they can glory in and over death look death in the face with joy and rejoycing where death comes with his sting there is a thousand deaths in one but to a Saint death is no death onely a change or a dissolving to be with Christ then let us proclaim this to the world and so glory in our God that they may know their perishing idols are no wayes to be compared with our reall interest in God the day of death that is at hand will fully prove the truth of this therefore we may boldly say thus we shall make it good both living and dying The glory of a believing Saints death doth abundantly exceed the Worldings life nay indeed his own life for though to him it be Christ to live yet it is gaine to dye It is more Christ to dye then live In life Saints glory in Christ as he dyed for them but in death they glory in Christ as they live with him the first is the glory of purchase but the latter of possession In the first wee glory that the inheritance is given but in the latter that it is received which maketh up perfection of glory And to Saints this is the next step to death without its sting so that they may herein glory and triumph as the Apostle O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the law But thankes be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ FINIS