the venom of death Christs death hath swallowed up the bitterness of ours Christ hath taken away 1. The Sting 2. The Curse 3. The Shame 4. The Terrour 5. The Enmity of Death 1. Jesus Christ hath pulled out the fiery sting of death 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of death is sin Guilt is the vigour of death Guilt and sin makes death to be venomous and deadly But a Child of God dies not upon the account of sin neither in his sin nor for his sin Christ was offered up to bear our sins That was the business of Christs death to be a sacrifice for sin But our death is a service not a sacrifice This is enough to make our death tolerable 't is no punishment for our sins 2. Christ by his death hath taken away the Curse of our death Death at the first was threatned as a Curse and as an Instrument of Gods revenging Justice But Jesus Christ by suffering the cursed death of the Cross hath taken away the curse of our death Here is more comfort for us Christians death is not envenomed with the wrath of God It is no blow in anger no token of his displeasure no Curse but only a rougher sort of love 3. Jesus Christ hath taken off the shame of a dying condition Death was a shameful penalty inflicted upon ambitious man that would needs have been a God Death was sent to reproach him to stain the pride of his glory But our Lord cloathed himself with our shame you know how he was buffeted derided spit upon crowned with thorns arayed with mock-apparel Why was this but to take off the reproach of our sufferings and the shame of our death 4. Jesus Christ by his agonies and tremblings and terrible sufferings hath freed us from the terrour of death There is a fear of death arising from the natural constitution of man this is a guiltless infirmity which all are subject to But then there is a slavish fear of death as it is penal as it is an issue of the primitive Curse and as it is a dreadful entrance into a state of damnation Now true Believers are delivered from the spirit of bondage through the blood of Christ. This also enables them to check their natural fear as Hilarian did when he cryed Get thee out my soul get thee out thou hast served Christ these seventy years and art thou now afraid to die Lastly The Enmity of death is slain by the death of Christ. It intends us no mischief Though iâ— may seem to threaten us at a distance yet like Esau it is friendly in its address It is an enemy to our nature but it is no enemy to our happiness It divides us but it doth not destroy us Nay this last enemy is become one of our chiefest friends For when the world disquiets us pains torment us Friends and Physicians are of no value Death proves our Cure When sin besets us temptations assault us the Devils buffet us death proves our deliverance You see my Beloved what an innocent thing death is you may touch it handle it converse with it it will do you no hurt It is but a necessary Ceremony and Formality through which we must pass into everlasting glory As it is Innocent so it is Vseful For it is a blessing of God a blessing of the new Covenant Death is yours Dear Christians All are yours And as the Ministers of the Gospel are yours and the world is yours and life is yours so death is yours yours in Covenant yours to serve you If ye are Christs death is yours but if you are not Christs you are Deaths you are deaths prisoners but in Christ we are deaths Masters For all true Believers though they have not made a Covenant with death yet they have death in the Covenant We call death a Debt of Nature but to us it is the gift of God A Legacy rather than an Exaction A Priviledge rather than a Burden It is a conquered Enemy and is become Tributary to us 1. It gives us rest from all our labours Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours These are our working days our dies profesti the days of our toil and pilgrimage But there remains a rest for the people of God Heb. 4. 9. There remains a Sabbatism as it is in the Original And death is the evening of our everlasting Sabbath Here Gods people are labouring under sin and against sin under temptations and against temptations in their heavenly Callings and in their earthly Callings But then these weary Pilgrims shall be at rest when their souls shall be lodged in the bosom of Christ and their bodies shall rest in a bed of earth Our souls shall rest in Heaven and our flesh shall rest in Hope 2. Death enters us into our Masters joy into the presence of God where there is the fulness of joy Here the Children of the Bride-chamber are fasting and mourning for the absence of the Bridegroom Here they hang their Harps upon the Willows and how can they sing songs in a strange land But when once they come into their Lords presence they shall break forth into singing Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads sorrow and sighing shall flye away 3. To die is gain For it perfects our knowledge Grace and Communion with God Alas here we know but in part The The Apostle tells us We are but children we think as children we discourse as children but when we are grown up to a full stature in Christ when we are once got to Heaven we shall put away these childish things Then we shall see God as he is and know him as we are known and shall behold his face in righteousness and shall be satisfied with his likeness Then our Faith shall end in vision and our Hope in fruition and our Graces shall be perfected in glory Our love shall burn our zeal shall flame our holiness shall shine Then our peace shall be as a river and our righteousness as the waves of the Sea Then we shall have perfect immediate uninterrupted Communion with God This it is to die in the Lord. But after death comes Judgment There is a vain Argument that Lactantius confutes Epicurus slighted death upon this account because said he Whilst we are death is not and when death is we are not And therefore death is nothing to us But this man erred not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God For after death comes Judgment wherein the souls and bodies of men being re-united all Nations Tribes and Languages shall appear before the living God to give an account of their lives and to receive their final sentence Now it is the dreadfulness of the day of Judgment that makes the day of Death so terrible And the poor guilty soul was not more loth to part with her body in the day of Death than she shall be to re-enter it in
which the Church of God corrects in the next verse But he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him 2. Observe Christs deaths was an Offering He was offered in Sacrifice to God upon the Altar of the Cross. He did not fall as a Sacrifice to the Rage of the Jews for he could easily have rescued himself out of their hands but he was offered up to the Justice of his Father Eph. 5. 2 Christ hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour 3. In respect of sin Christs death was not only Penal but also Expiatory He bore the sins of many i. e. the punishment due to them even what was equivalent to a thousand Hells There are not such Torments to be found in Hell as he suffered upon the Cross where he bore the sins of his people And yet he did so fully discharge himself of sin that at his second Coming he shall appear without sin 4. In respect of his Enemies the Death of Christ was Victorious Once he was devoted for his people Cursed Tortured by a bitter death But in death he overcame Death and all the Powers of Hell And therefore Death could not hold him the Grave could not detain him the wicked One could not touch him Heaven could not refuse him He died once for sin but he shall die no more for his death was Triumphant over sin And he shall shortly appear without sin to the terror of his Enemies and the Salvation of his dear People We should treasure up such sweet Notions of a dying Jesus to prepare us against our dying day To die my Friends is a solemn Work it is a loud Summons that calls the Soul to appear before her Judge We go from Funeral to Funeral and may see death riding through our Towns but little do we think what it is to have Death come home to our selves O what strange thoughts of heart what hurrying of passions will the sight of death beget when it layes close Siege to a man and begins to make its breaches upon the Body Then the Soul views and reviews her self As all the Virgins looked into their vessels when they were awakned by the loud Cry at midnight to see if they had Oyl for their Lamps Then all the signs of Grace and grounds of Hope must be brought to tryal then she examines whether her matters be right and good whether her condition be safe But be it safe or perillous death comes in haste as Martha to her Sister The Master is come and calls for thee and thou must away Then all the world could not redeem one hour for Repentance Now how if thou shouldst be surprised and taken away by a sudden stroke and arrested by death before thou hast well thought of it what a sad blow would that be O therefore now be wise be wise for thy self It is a great point of wisdom to consider our latter end As the Lord saith O that they were wise to consider their latter end I beseech you therefore familiarize death in your thoughts make it near What thinkest thou Durst thou dye this night Durst thou meet thy Judge this night Thy heart it may be trembles at the thoughts of this O spare me a little But then ask thy self why thou wouldst not dye what art afraid of Let me offer some consolatory Meditations to a poor Soul that is trembling under the fears of death Art thou afraid of the wrath of God Then meditate But Christ died as a propitiatory Sacrifice to satisfie the Justice of God He drank off the very dregs of Gods wrath in the Cup of his Death Art thou afraid of losing thy Soul for ever O but Jesus Christ died for the Redemption of poor Souls His Soul went for our Souls and his life for our life He gave his life a ransom for many Mat. 20. 28. The price of Christs Blood is a Souls Ransom Art thou afraid of falling short of Heaven But the Death of Christ opened our passage to Heaven The renting of the vail of his blessed Body made an open passage into the Holy of Holies Art thou afraid thy sins should find thee out in another world Then meditate The Lamb of God that great Sacrifice takes away the sin of the world Sin was condemned in the Death of Christ and receives its final execution in the death of a Christian. Art thou afraid the Law should condemn thee Then remember the Death of Christ hath rebated the edge of the Law and hath abolished the Curse of the Law Art thou afraid the Devils should fetch away thy soul at death But the Lord Jesus hath destroyed him that had the power of death and hath bruised the Serpents head by the power of his death Thus you should anoint your heads against your Funeral with the precious Oyntment of the Name of Christ and bathe your souls in such heavenly comfortable Meditations 2. It is not enough for us to meditate on the Death of Christ but we must apply it to our selves by a lively Faith that it may have an influence upon our death Have Faith in the Blood of Christ. The Blood of Christ is the Wine and Marrow of the Gospel-feast the strength of our Sacraments the foundation of an everlasting Covenant This Blood seasons all the mercies of a Believer sanctifies all his offerings It makes his heart chearful his life comfortable his death precious his grave sweet his soul fit to enter into the Holy of Holies O derive the stream of it upon thy soul. Thou canst not instantly believe that Christ died for thee yet labour to stay thy heart upon the satisfaction sufficiency and worthiness of the Death of Christ. Hide thy self in the clefts of the Rock the Wounds of thy Saviour Embrace a crucified Christ and lay him in thy heart as Joseph did in his Garden Why hath the Righteous hope in his death but because he hath Faith in the Death of Christ A living Faith in a dying Christ is a soveraign remedy against the plagues of death and an infallible prevention of the pains of Hell Joh. 11. 26. Whosoever lives and believes in me he shall never die as we read it But yes he shall die once by Gods appointment but he shall not die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Original He shall not die ever he shall not die to eternity Death is cast into the lake of fire They that are thrown into the Lake of fire meet with death there In the Lake of fire they are ever dying But he that hath faith in the Blood of Christ passeth from death to life What was it that gave the Israelites safe passage through the Red Sea Read Heb. 11. 29. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land which the Egyptians through presumption assaying to do were drowned Even so death will drown us and sink us into Hell if we have not Faith to clear our passage for us Lastly Would you hold up your heads in the day of Judgment then look for the Coming of Christ. Wo be to those souls to whom Christ shall come unlooked for O how sadly shall the drowsie world be surprised by the sudden Appearance of Christ But Christ shall appear to the Salvation of those faithful Servants that are watching and waiting for his second Coming He shall come to them not as a Thief in the night but as a Friend in the day Faith and Love combine together in an earnest expectation of Christ and that is the reason that it is so kindly accepted and so richly rewarded And therefore good Christians keep watching if you have any affection for Christ. Cannot you watch one hour It is but yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry You have but two things to do and Christ will either meet you or send for you and that is to finish your work and to fill up the measure of your Graces God hath something to do for us and something to do by us and then he will take us to himself 1. We must be careful to dispatch our business and to finish our Task Herod might threaten death but our Saviour could not die till he had finished the work which God gave him to do So neither shall a Christian die till his work be done We read Act. 13. 36. David after he had served his own generation by the will of God fell on sleep Or as others read it When David had served the will of God in his age and generation c. Both are true He was serviceable to God and an useful Instrument in the Church and when all his work was ended he fell on sleep and sweetly rested in the Lord. 2. Again We must fill up the measure of our Graces There is a certain measure and proportion of Grace assigned to every Member of the Body of Christ. Some have more some less Every one shall have his proper sufficient measure A Christian shall not enter into Glory till he hath received his measure of Grace Read the Parable of the seed growing secretly Mark 4. 26 27 28 29. And observe that passage After that the full corn is in the ear and the fruit is ripe immediately he putteth in the sickle When our Grace is like full Corn in the ear when the fruit of Gods Spirit is ripe in us then immediately comes the sickle of Death then we are meet to be partakers of an inheritance with the Saints in light O then we shall come and appear before God Consider what hath been said For you see all flesh is grass and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass the grass withers the flower thereof falls away But the Word of the Lord endures for ever FINIS Doct. Acts 20. 28. Hos. 13. 14. 2 Pet. 1. 14. Gal. 3. 13. Heb. 2. 13. 1 Cor. 3. 22. 1 Cor. 13. 9 11. II. Part of the Doctr. 2 Thess. 1. 7 8. Psa. 22. 6 7. 1 Cor. 4. 3. 1 Cor. 6. 3. Vse 1. Joh. 8. 24. Joh. 8. 21. Isa. 63. 16. Job 7. 16. Vse 2. Mat. 25. Joh. 11. 29. Deut. 32. 28. Heb. 10. 19 20. Joh. 1. 19. Gal. 3. 13. Heb. 3. 14. Rev. 20. 14. Heb. 10. 37. Luke 13. 23. Eph. 4. 7. 1 Pet. 1. 24 25.
The Waters of Marah Sweetned A SERMON Preached at the FVNERAL OF Mrs. CLARE WITTEWRONGE Eldest Daughter to Joseph Alston Esq AND Late Wife to John Wittewronge Esq Who was Interred at Stantonbury in the County of Bucks Octob. 22. 1669. By Mr. John Mason Minister 1 Cor. 15. 56 57. The sting of death is sin c. But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Col. 3. 4. When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory LONDON Printed by John Macock 1671. Hebr. IX 27 28. And as it is appointed unto men once to die but after this the Judgment So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation MAN is born to die and he dies in order to his last Judgment This is an hard Sentence but the latter part of the Text mollifies it So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation The Proposition is terrible but the Reddition is comfortable The Scope of the Apostle in this Chapter is to prove that the Sacrifice of Christ exceeds in worth and merit all the Sacrifices of the Law And one Argument is this That the Sacrifice of Christ was so perfect that it needs not to be repeated But whereas the Sacrifices of the Law were offered by the High-Priest yearly our Lord Jesus by one single oblation of himself hath obtained eternal Redemption for us And this Argument is illustrated in the words of my Text As men die once so Christ died once for men for his death was equivalent to many deaths And as men after death must appear to be judged so Jesus Christ after his death shall appear to judge men He shall die no more but when-ever he appears again it shall be to judge the world and to save his Elect. This proves the vertue and merit of his death for if Christ by his death had not wholly discharged himself from the imputation of sin he must have been a Prisoner and not a Judge Now as the words shew us the sufficiency of Christs mediation so in the second place the suitableness thereof to those estates whereunto all mankind is ordained We must all die of necessity we must all come to Judgment but this we have for our comfort Jesus Christ is gone before us in Death and will meet us in the day of Judgment And from hence we raise this Observation Those last inevitable and dreadful estates of Death and Judgment are sanctified and sweetned to all true Believers by the precious Death and glorious Appearance of Jesus Christ. Death and Judgment are the terrors of mankind but they are consecrated into blessings and comforts by the death of Christ and the appearance of Christ. The Doctrine falls into two Parts 1. Jesus Christ hath sanctified to us a dying estate by his own Death 2. He will sweeten to us our day of Judgment by his own Appearance To begin with the first We are all subject to a state of death and that not by hap or chance but by the appointment of the living God It is appointed unto men once to die 1. In Gods secret and everlasting Decree 2. In that express Decree Gen. 3. 19. Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return God hath said it and hath performed his word in all ages So that we must needs dye and are as water spilt upon the ground Now seeing we cannot possibly avoid a dying condition let us see how we can digest it And truly if we look back upon its first Institution and the occasion of it we shall find it to be full of malignity and bitterness For what is death but the curse of the great God upon rebellious man the bitter fruit of sin a period to all earthly comforts and the beginning of an everlasting Hell Death destroys vital union dissolves the knot of natural Relations divorces the wife from her husband pulls the child out of his fathers bosom it marrs the greatest beauties stains the pride of earthly glory it degrades the Honourable binds the strong beggars the rich it casts us out of our houses and possessions disappoints our earthly expectations In a word it rends a man asunder and sends part of him into the prison of the Grave and the other part into the dungeon of Hell And now what will ye do in the day of Visitation How will you save your selves To whom will ye flee for help and where will you leave your glory Can your hearts endure or your hands be made strong in the day that the great God shall deal with you O unhappy Mortals that are born to such misery who have no sooner entred a single life but are liable to a double death And surely if the Son of God had not died in our Nature we should envy the condition of Toads and Serpents we should curse the day of our birth and tremble before the day of our death But Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many This offering hath mitigated our state of mortality For as it is appointed to men once to die so Jesus Christ was appointed to die once for men He died once that we might not die ever The blood of God was an acceptable sacrifice to the Justice of God Infinite blood hath satisfied infinite Justice So that wheresoever this blood is sprinkled it redeems the soul to God even from the hand of all her enemies Particularly death threatned us with Hell and Damnation But now the death of Christ is the plagues of our death and the peace of our souls And what is it now for us to die but to pass into the bosom of a reconciled God to leave the world and to go to our Father We die still yet it is upon a new account As good Josiah though he died in blood yet he went down into the grave in peace The sentence of death though it be still passed upon us yet its commission is altered through Christ. Before it was a Serjeant to carry us to the dark and dreadful prison of Hell but now it is as it were a Porter to set open Heaven-gates for us Death hath a new Commission and a new aspect by vertue of the death of Christ. It is 1. Innocent 2. Vseful 1. Innocent The death of a faithful Christian for I am speaking now of sincere Believers I say the death of a faithful Christian doth him no hurt What hurt is there in putting off a suit of old cloaths I must shortly put off this earthly Tabernacle says the Apostle Peter and it did not greatly trouble him What hurt is it for an imprisoned soul to be enlarged Or for a wearied body to take a short nap in the dust Jesus Christ hath sucked out all
the day of Judgment When the Lord Jesus shall appear from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire to take vengeance on all those that know not God and obey not the Gospel of Christ where then will guilty sinners appear Or where will you hide your selves from the presence of the Lamb Alas there will be no possibility of escaping his terrible presence you shall see him coming in the Clouds you shall hear him pronouncing your dreadful Doom you shall feel him pressing down your souls with the power of his wrath But fear not little flock for your Enemies shall not sit in Judgment when you shall come upon tryal for your lives to have your everlasting estate determined It is your Friend your Brother your Advocate that shall be your Judge 'T is he that led you by the hand through the valley of death that shall meet you in the day of Judgment Then you shall say Lo this is our God our Jesus we have waited for him and he will save us Then the object of our Faith shall be the object of our Sight Him whom our souls have loved and longed for we shall see with these eyes of ours in that day We shall see him coming in the clouds with power and great glory we shall see him not with scorn but with admiration not with trembling but with rejoycing Christs first Appearance was very mean He appeared as the Son of man or rather as a worm a reproach of men all that saw him laughed him to scorn But hereafter he shall appear as the God of all glory and the Judge of quick and dead In the days of his flesh he appeared as a Prisoner at Pilates Bar and as a Malefactor on the Cross then indeed he stood charged with the sins of all his people but in the day of Judgment he shall appear without sin unto their salvation The glorious presence of the Lord that shall be as a devouring Fire to consume his Enemies shall be a warm Sun to refresh his Saints And that day that shall be a day of terrour to guilty sinners shall be to us a day of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. It 's wonderful to think what infinite honours and priviledges shall be conferred upon us poor dust and ashes in that day How we shall be caught up in a Chariot of clouds and shall meet the Lord in the air where we shall receive kind salutations from him and smiles and blessings and acknowledgments of service and Crowns of glory and shall be made his Assessors whiles he is judging the world and after all this shall attend him into his glorious Palace where we shall ever be with the Lord Let us comfort one another with these words The very thought of Christs last Appearance how sweet is it to a believing soul This day of Life is a day of Trouble but the day of Judgment is a day of Redemption This is a day of Confession but that is a day of Absolution Here we are slain all the day long but that is our Coronation-day Here in Mans day we are judged by the world but in the Lords day we shall judge the world Angels and men O most blessed day that ever shone being thus enlightned by the bright and glorious Appearance of the Sun of Righteousness Now if Death and Judgment are thus sweetned and blessedly altered through Christ as you have heard then O how happy are the Saints departed Rev. 1413. Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth They are Blessed from henceforth Here their Blessedness commences even in this same point which puts a period to their sins and sorrows And the Spirit of God bid his Amanuensis write it down as a remarkable note that a Christians Blessedness takes date from the time of his death Till then he was a wretched sufferer under a body of death and a mass of corruption but now he is a blessed Triumpher His sins have left him his good works follow him and Heaven affords him Rest. I confess 't is a common Errour among the worst of men that when they die they shall be at rest and in their pains they will wish to die that they may go to rest But alas 't is only those that die in the Lord that shall rest from their labours Cursed are they that die out of the Lord that die in the old Adam only and upon the old score I have spoke nothing all this while in favour of the unregenerate Let them not boast with Agag surely the bitterness of death is past for death will hew them in pieces as the unmerciful Executioner of Divine Justice They that die out of Christ die in all the sins that ever they have committed Those dreadful words which our Saviour spoke to the Pharisees will reach them Ye shall die in your sins and whither I go ye cannot come Their dying alas what is it but a going to Hell As the rich Glutton when he died the next news that we hear of him is that he is in Hell The Devil did not make him roar till he had him there Death stings a wicked man and leaves its sting in him and casts all its venom upon him A wicked man is a great loser by his death he loses all he is worth he loses his Heaven here his Paradise and his hearts delight Death sends him into another world begging And he that had his Cups of Wine here would there be glad of Drops of Water He is a great sufferer by his death for it is the Devils Trap wherein he takes his soul it is the Door of Hell which lets him into that abhorred place of everlasting Torments But O how safe and quiet are those that are fallen asleep in Jesus They are resting securely they are unconcerned in the troublesom affairs and changes of this life nothing disturbs their rest Abraham is ignorant of us saith the Church but he is Acquainted with God and Christ and that is sufficient He is ignorant of us and our Calamities but he is sensible of his own Mercies Alas here can be no perfect happiness on this side death for whiles we are present with the body we are absent from the Lord. It was excellently spoke of Queen Elizabeth Whiles I call things past to mind behold things present and expect things to come I hold them happiest that go hence soonest Surely all the Faithful have cause to bless the Lord for a state of mortality Job loathed to think of a state of immortality upon earth Chap. 7. 16. I loath it I would not live always The soul of this righteous man was like a bird caged or pinioned and if she had her freedom she would soon flie away and be at rest What delight could she take in such an unclean cage in such a rotten ulcerous body in such a base treacherous world she would fain be gone and is waiting and requesting