exulting Victors and Strength enough to hold them in its Dungeon till the Resurrection This Mouth of Infidelity is presently stopped Here follows A justifying Reason such as clears the Triumph from the Charge of Absurdity It is confessed if Death were but it self and not Pars minima sui it would be unworthy of the Honour of being insulted over it would be an Insect of an inconsiderable Sting if not a perfect Drone An Enemy too despicable to be triumphed over with Harp and Psaltery nor would Christians blow a Trumpet for the Overthrow of a Wasp But Death's Name is Legion and as it 's an Host of Enemies in one it is a formidable one The Sting of Death is Sin q. d. Sin is the whole Element of Evil it is all the Evil of Doing Nothing beside is Evil essentially or meritoriously This Hell of Sin being infused into Death makes it like it self even the whole Element of Misery and all the Evil of Suffering where then if not here shall be found a Trophy for Faith Here in Death envenomed by Sin By Sin whereof a Spark made Devils of the most blessed Creatures And no more than the imputed Guilt made the ever-living God to sweat Blood Seems this to be a Paradox Hear then The Strength of Sin is the Law q. d. No wonder that Sin is so pernicious a thing for the Curse of the Divine Law is on it And who can think what is God's Power or his Law 's Terror His Law must be like himself as in its Precepts and Promises so in its Threats The Punishments of so great a King must necessarily be great The Breach of his Law 's Duty can deserve no less than Extremity and Eternity of Misery and the Curse laid upon it is no less No marvel then that Sin 's Guilt maketh a Hell of Death being the Law 's Curse maketh Sin a worse thing than Death or Hell an Evil that Hell it self must have all Eternity to punish But over both Law and Sin God giveth us the Victory As fiery as this Law is Christ's Blood quencheth it As boiling a Furnace as it makes of Sin it cannot make Sin to be the Death of a Believer's Soul These the worst of Enemies are first slain For upon our first believing Christ's Righteousness is imputed and by that Imputation the Law 's Curse and Sin 's Condemnation are removed Over them we have Triumph sounded Rom. 7.4 Ye are dead to the Law by the Body of Christ And ver 24 25. Who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Death's Dominion is therefore at an end though its Power to kill the most holy Body and to detain the most sacred Dust for a time be not taken from it In short the Grace of Christ hath made Sin a broken Enemy the Law a kind Friend and Death a useful Servant Doth the Saints Triumph therefore precede or exceed Victory let the Wise judg When Israel was brought through the Red Sea what Songs of Praise were straitway sung though they had a howling Desart to be passed through and were not presently in Canaan Their Songs injected Terror to the Dukes of Edom and the mighty Men of Moab Yea the Greeks no sooner heard the Articles of Peace purchased for them by Titus Flaminius but they cried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour a Saviour Plutarch in vit T. Flam. And with such Shouts of Joy as made the Air to ring and the Birds to drop down astonished A deep Lethargy it is that maketh Christians Joy to be less while their Reason for it is infinitely more That restrains them from such Triumph as would make the Infidel World to tremble But O where shall Offerings and whole Burnt-offerings be found For this Victory this Inchoate one Lebanon is not sufficient or the Cattel upon a thousand Hills But as Jehoshaphat in Berachah the Saints throughout the Earth do bless the Captain of their Salvation and Conquest The next Verse and Breath is An holy Gratulation A lovely Heaven of it in a little Globe of Words Thanks be to God! To the Father Son and Spirit our One God be all holy Obedience Whereof Gratitude is the principal Part that which contains and animates all Laws bind to Obedience and Benefits unto Thankfulness But God our Law-giver is in all things our Benefactor His very Laws all are Benefits To him be therefore all Obedient Thankfulness and all Thankful Obedience To him Who giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Of his Saints Victory we publish the Truth We declare his Gift of Grace to be the Original We testify the Limitation of this Gift unto Believers only and the Extent of it unto all Believers As well to Babes in the Cradle of Christianity as the oldest Mnason's in God's Kingdom We proclaim the never to be forgotten Purchaser of it the Lord Jesus Christ Whose Death gave the Angel of Death his mortal Wound Whose Resurrection certified and exemplified Believers Whose Righteousness by Faith received instateth them in the Power of an endless Life Whose Sanctifying Spirit mortifieth sinful Lusts which be not the least Stings of Death Whose Comforting Spirit takes out the Pain and Anguish that Sin sticketh into our Souls And whose Glorious Appearing one day will fulfil his old Word to a tittle O Death I will be thy Plague O Grave I will be thy Destruction Waving all others the Argument I take hence is this Holy Believers on Christ do rejoice in their Victory over Death Truly Righteously and Holily they rejoice in their Salvation by Christ They sing O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory c. The Plural Number in which he speaks may assure us that the Apostle sung in Consort Thanks be to God who giveth us the Victory And it shall be shown that this Text is all the Holy Catholick Church's Song Which while Militant is so far triumphant We may say of Death and of all Enemies in Combination with it as St. John saith of the World Whosoever is born of God overcometh them And this is the Victory that overcomes them even our Faith Consequently he that overcometh and shall not be hurt of the second Death must take it for his Duty and make it his Practice to joy in the Lord and rejoice in the God of his Salvation But lest with the Dogs I should shut Children out of the Church-Doors and wound any that have already the Arrows of the Almighty sticking in them I must premise two things Obstructions are allowed for It is not affirmed that all or any Believers do always rejoice Full oft they are hindred by Bodily Maladies by Mental Mistakes by Satan's Buffetings and by Divine Desertions Under which their Harp is turned to Mourning and their Organ into the Voice of them that weep And Secondly Degrees be wondrously different Of them that sing Triumph the Voice of some is as Thunder which all
Prayers cease not to Ascend for You your Pious Consort and eminently Hopeful Branches May You ever be more and more Honours to them and They be more and more Joys unto You. May neither of You now sleep in the Afternoon for to that Time of Day it is come in your Lives And may both of Them have their Noon and Evening answerable to their fair Morning May Self-denial be Your and their Business without which all Religion is but your Play May your Prosperity neither slay or so much as wound you in your Eye may the Paradises which have no Tree of Life in them be contemned though they are possessed May great Roots under Ground make you great Trees above it rich Truth in the inner-parts make you rich in good Works May you prefer Heaven above Earth as manifestly as others prefer it above Hell Not accounting your selves to have much profited in Christianity till you count that you have nothing else to profit much in And always remembring that if you take not the Kingdom of Heaven by force the Kingdom of Hell will take you by it May the Mercy of the Lord rest upon the Family of the Ashhursts and his Righteousness be to their Childrens Children Under many Obligations and in sweet Hopes thus prayeth SIR Your Honourer and Humble Servant DANIEL BURGESS BOOKS published by Mr. Robert Fleming 1. THe Fulfilling of the Scripture In three Parts 2. The Confirming Work of Religion 3. The Treatise of Earthquakes 4. The Epistolary Discourse Dedicated to the Queen's Majesty 5. The One thing Necessary 6. The Survey of Quakerism 7. The Present Aspect of the Times 8. The Healing Work written twelve Years ago upon the account of Divisions among Professors in Scotland A SERMON on the Death of Mr. Robert Fleming 1 COR. XV. 55 56 57. O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin and the Strength of Sin is the Law But Thanks be to God who giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ubi est Aculeus tuus O Mors Ubi est Victoria tua Inferne Syriac Ubi suprema Vis tua O Mors Arabic Ubi igitur Mortis Victoria Ubi igitur Mortis Stimulus Aethiopic UPON this mournful Occasion I present this Text as a Pearl-Cordial and the most Restorative that I could find in the Divine Dispensatory Wonderful Words it consists of such as seem too high to be uttered below Heaven and too soon-spoken before the Resurrection But what Heavenly Scribe wrote them you do all know and with how like a Boldness and Bravery of Faith our holy FLEMING did use to sing them all of you are not ignorant They are made the Theme of this Discourse for this end that they may also become our Song in the House of our Pilgrimage There are obvious in them A triumphant Song v. 55. A justifying Reason v. 56. A holy Gratulation v. 57. A triumphant Song wherein Rhetorick hath even exhausted it self such is the Melody of its Prosopopaeia speaking to Death and the Grave as Persons and not Things Such is the Pungency of its Interrogation which doth not here doubt but upbraid and insult Such the Elegancy of the Meiosis covering the biggest part of its meaning asking no more than what is become of their Power to hurt though meaning that both are made to work for Good Such is the Glory of the Celeusma and Shout wherein Victory Faith and Joy as above Expression are published in Form of Admiration O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory O Death O Grave our one Enemy bearing these two Names once so strong as to conquer all and so cruel as to spare none once a Dragon that swallowed up the World an Abaddon and Apolluon of Jewish World and Gentile Christian Faith now dares look thee in the Face and ask in Zebul's Words to Gaal Where is now thy Mouth It proclaims thee to be as the Beast in the Revelation which was and is not yea as a corrected Viper of an horrid Poison to be made a sovereign Medicine of a King of Terrors to be made a gracious Prince of Peace the loathsom Prison of thy Grave to be turned to a quiet Bed-chamber and thy Sepulchers to be no more Hell's Gates Camero in Myrothec in Mat. 16.18 but Heaven's Porches It is true thou retainest Power to kill the Bodies of Saints but having so done thou canst do no more and what is it that thou dost therein Thou killest but makest not an end of them Thou curest them of Sin their loathsom Disease and art a real Saviour and but a seeming Destroyer Power indeed thou hast sometimes to affrighten Souls Abraham our Father was affrighted by thee Gen. 12. David the valiant was also scared 1 Sam. 21. Miserably thou didst terrify upright Hezekiah Isa 38. And Peter's Magnanimity vanished at a Shadow of thee Mat. 26. But egregiam laudem spolia ampla Is this thy Praise To affrighten is no more than every Shadow can do and what is more inglorious than a Bugbear that is harmless Thy affrightning Believers speaks much Weakness in them but not any Strength in thee It is confessed as for thy Appearance it is as of a Curse and not a Blessing Thou comest with a Warrant in thy Hand from the supreme King and irresistably turnest all Flesh into Destruction Upon thy devouring Sword Christians do read Sin 's terrible Mark though Socinian Eyes see nothing but mere Nature's Puncturâ peccati morimur is the Saints Motto They believe thee sent from their God to execute Wrath on their Sins and full often do fear thee sent to inflict it on their Souls so much do thy cruel Hands look like God's vindictive ones but simillimum non est idem And what art thou O Death but as the End of Plants and Brutes and the Ruine of Sinners so the Gain of Believers such a Gain as passeth Understanding and maketh their holy Faith to proclaim thee more than a spoiled Spoiler even a good and faithful Servant become unto them a Servant unto thy old Servants who were all their days subject to Bondage through fear of thee all the days of their Christless Estate subject to Bondage But now that they are Christ's thou O Death art theirs Thy Name hath a Place in the Inventory of their Goods 1 Cor. 3. Feed on then upon thy Egyptians Psal 49.14 But know O Pharaoh and thy Princes O Death and thy Harbingers the Heads of Leviathan are broken in pieces they are given to be Meat to Israelites inhabiting the Wilderness Psal 74.14 If it be insolently said that this Triumph is too loud that Death is the great Fear of none but little Souls and deserves not so lofty a Song or that it is not yet so dead but that it has Sting enough left to pinch and pain and poison its most
Gift so suted to a Creature 's Need as Believer's Victory is Herein being in themselves dead in Christ they are made alive Being blind they receive their sight Being weak they are made strong Being miserable they are made blessed Being mutable they are eternally established Joh. 6.57 As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me shall live by me They must therefore die for Joy who joy too much for their Victory And scarcely could that it self be called too much Fourthly So Sumptuous an One All the World rates high what is bought dear But was there ever such a Purchase as the Believer's Conquest It astonished the Angels Our Saviour mentions it not without Wonder Joh. 3.16 The Price was the very Blood of God And only the Mind of God can comprehend the Worth of the Blood of God Wherefore of the most triumphant Joy herein it is boldly to be asked Is there not a Cause Fifthly So Rare a Blessing Rarity doth extremely enhanse Value Diamonds would be no Idols if they were no Rarities Yea what would Crowns be if every Head wore one It is what few attain that all do admire Now of Believers Victory who knows not how little there is of Commonness to take away from the Comfort Alas of the Many called to it how Few are chosen how Few will come to Christ for it And of the lapsed Angels not so much as One recovered his Fall Believers highest Joy is then surely unblamable if Rarity makes good things delectable and adds Sweetness to Hony it self Sixthly So Present an One It is most true absent Good is the Object but of Desire it must be present before it can be embraced with Delight Infidels ask therefore of Believers Are they not mad Mad to pretend their Souls filled with the Marrow and Fatness of things far from them But they are to be told Believers are not drunken as they suppose It is in things present that they exult Present though to the World invisible And real though every where spoken against as very Chimera's The Glories of their Victory are present in the Eye of Faith seeing them in the Hand of Faith receiving them in the Mouth of Faith tasting them Or to speak more to the Capacities of Infidel Objectors it must be said that the Blessing wherein they rejoice is in their Minds in daily Contemplation is in their Hearts in constant Expectation is in their whole-Man in sweet Fruition And how are the things in which they themselves do triumph any more or otherways present to them Do natural things incur their natural Senses As truly do spiritual Ones incur the spiritual Senses of Believers Whose spiritual Sight and Taste do therefore make their Exultations as just No more Candles shall be lighted in this Sun I proceed to evince that the Souls so joyful and thankful are holy that §. 3. Believers do triumph Holily over Death Their Laughter is not Madness If it be asked of their Mirth what doth it it must be answered It doth on Earth what Saints and Angels Mirth doth in Heaven It gives Praise and Thanks to God and to the Lamb For O Death where is thy Sting never goes before but Thanks be to God follows fast after Thankful Repentance thankful Faith Hope and Love thankful New-Obedience Blind Seers are the Romanists and others who teach otherwise And would bear us in hand that Assurance of Victory over Death is a Wine too strong for the Head of any Viator any living Believer Such whose Mirth would be Madness and the Joy of it turn the Grace of God into Wantonness Dispose us to nothing but Sloth and Security Pride and Presumption But what do the Arguings of Men so sensual and void of the Spirit of Faith avail It is true there are Wretches of slight and frothy Spirits who will be boasting of a false Gift a Cloud without Water Proclaim their wondrous Joy and speak swelling words though their Cloven-feet do manifestly confute their flaming Tongues And not walking in the Fear of the Lord it is sure they do not walk in the Joy of the Holy Ghost No small stumbling Block this hath been to Men of Senses not exercised to discern But these following Particulars will convince or confound all Gain-sayers First The Efficient Worker of the Joy and Triumph we speak of is the Holy Ghost Expresly it is named his Whose Operations no doubt are holy and make for Holiness His comforting Work tending as much to sanctify as his sanctifying Work tendeth to comfort us A contrary Thought would be Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost and plainly make him a Minister of Sin Secondly The Law of this Joy is the Holy Gospel Believers Joy is as surely by the Gospel's Warrant as by the Spirit 's Work For he never speaketh of his own never as a Judg speaks Life and Joy to any but those to whom the Gospel as the Law of Grace and Peace doth assign it There is a perfect Consent between Christ's Spirit and his Word The Joy given by one is given by both And to think that the Joy by them given is a Servant of Sin were fearfully to blaspheme both belying them with a Brow of Brass Thirdly The End of this Joy is holy Conversation Whereby is our heavenly Father glorified but by our bringing forth much Good Fruit Or what doth he either constitute in his Word or dispense by his Spirit but for the End that he may thereby be glorified If we imagine that this Joy of Believers so constituted and so dispensed for this End is no apt Means for it but for the contrary how foolishly must we charge him who is only wise Fourthly The Means whereby this Joy is wrought are holy Ordinances and vigorous Exercise of Grace therein The holy Spirit useth not to lift Souls out of the Hell of their Fears much less to lift them up to the Heaven of triumphant Joys but in this Way And is it likely that the Effect should be an Enemy to its Causes That the Believer's Joy like a Viper should be Death to its Parents That Communion with God should beget such a Delight in him as should make us by and by weary of him Fifthly The Subjects of this Joy are holy Souls others are uncapable of it nor need we say what Use they would make of it who make the worst use of all the Grace objective and subjective that they do receive Most sure it is the holy Spirit first worketh Grace then witnesseth it to be in a Man and so comforteth him and causeth him to triumph in his State of Grace Christ is formed in the Soul before the Soul rejoiceth in Christ and it is then a prepared Subject for Joy is it not And who can believe that then like a Dunghil it will be made the fuller of Stench and noisom Fumes by the Shines of Heaven on it and not like a Garden have its Spices flow forth the more
exalted to the glorious Joy that it promises Lazy Desires of Comfort on other Conditions will shame you much and profit you nothing Seventhly Ply all appointed Means for recovering your Loss Be much in the Ordinances wherein you first found Comfort Read much the Gospel which was written that Saints Joy might be full Hear it much as preached by Christ's Ministers who are given to be Helpers of your Joy Pray much our Saviour having said Ask and ye shall receive that your Joy may be full Look much to Christ in the Seals of the Covenant also until you are lightned Of all Ordinances they are the highest Restoratives Lastly Resolve to follow God though he never in this Life repair your Loss To follow him and persevere in his Service mournfully if you cannot comfortably Yea and labour to show all about you that you are so sensible of your Transgressions and of his punishing you less than they deserve that your Soul loves him and blesses him for his Essential Goodness and his Benignity even whilst he giveth you no Kid to make merry Thus Wait on the Lord and he shall renew your Strength He giveth Power to the Faint and to them that have no Might he increaseth Strength A few Words remain to be spoken §. 3. To those of you that are Singing O Death where is thy Sting c. First Forget not your envious Enemy Satan envies none so much as you who are mounted on the highest Pinacle of the Temple If he casts you down the Greatness of your Fall gives an Eminence to his Conquest And he will spare no Pains for his Glory in your Shame Secondly Remember your undoubted Duty i. e. Of doing more than others Walking more Holily Righteously and Soberly than other Saints even Saints more aged and more richly gifted For it is to you of all Saints on the Earth that much is given and from whom much is required Much more than was required from you before you were taken up into this third Heaven Thirdly Consider the Difficulty of kindling again the Fire that is easily quenched Your Joy is a holy Flame but it is extinguishable by one Sin of Presumption And then where are you That Measure of Repentance that fitted you for your first Consolation will not fit you for its Renovation Fourthly Bind the Gospel-Covenant about your Neck Write it on the Table of your Heart It hath been said He who understands this is a good Divine Sure I am he that shall not keep it as the Apple of his Eye is not like to be a joyful Christian very long Let the Terms hereof slip out of our Minds we are strait-way like the Waves of the Sea at the Mercy of the next Wind that blows Fifthly Fear Motes as truly as Beams Gnats as Camels Your greatest Danger is of incurring the Guilt of Sins comparatively least And Fear of falling into them is a Means of keeping free from them Bear it ever in your Minds then though Rapes do not violate Wedlock yet a wanton Glance which is a wilful Wickedness strikes at the heart of it And Bodkins do stab as mortally as broad Swords Sixthly Defer not to pay your Vows Few I suppose do come to the Joy of Faith without this natural Worship of Vowing to God But surely none that perfidiously break their Vows do long hold their Joys Jacob stiled usually the Father of Vows paid dear for his Unmindfulness of them Seventhly Be Eyes to the Blind Feet to the Lame and make the Hearts of your disconsolate Brethren to sing for Joy As much as in you lies this do For this End among others are you comforted that you might comfort others by the Comfort wherewith you are comforted of God If you neglect this Duty no wonder if your Sun be turned into Darkness and your Joy into Mourning No wonder if God withdraw from you and Sin and Satan getting advantage against you do again plunge you into the Pit where there is no Water He that withholdeth Corn the People shall curse him He that withholdeth spiritual Bread from the Poor and Needy his God will chastise him But the liberal Soul shall be made and kept fat he that watereth shall be watered also himself His Heart shall rejoice and his Joy no Man shall take from him To conclude Would you not lose the Sense of God's Love Would you not bear anew his hot Displeasure Would you not be loaded with oppressing Appresions of his temporal Judgments Would you not be scorched with Fears of being eternally rejected by him Would you not be perfectly dispirited unto Duty and be made to cry as David I am not able to look up These things then do and the God of Peace shall be with you God your Maker shall give you Songs in every Night Your Redeemer shall be a Prince of Peace as well as of Righteousness to you The Holy Ghost your Sanctifier shall make you to know him by his glorious Attribute the Comforter Wherefore be ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the Work of the Lord for as much as ye know your Labour is not in vain in the Lord. Piety and Charity do require that somewhat be now said of the rare Servant of Christ whose Decease hath occasioned this Discourse Mr. ROBERT FLEMING a Name most worthy of precious and everlasting Memory A Saint in whose Life and Death the holy Triumph of my Text hath been admirably exemplified Piety I say requires it for Saints Characters are God's Praises more than theirs And Charity requires it for the Example of their Graces and Comforts more edifieth the Church than Doctrinal Arguments and Motives Very Sacrilege therefore it would be a Robbery of God and his Church to be silent of this Saint this One of a Thousand To cover his unexpressable Grace as Painters used to do Agamemnon's Grief with a Vail and to say nothing because the one half cannot be told would be but a proud Humility Panegyrick and Encomium indeed here needs not be any The Jews say true in this Just Men do find sufficient Stones for their Monuments All that is needed or intended is a plain Narrative what our FLEMING was and what he did What he was through the Grace of God and what he did or rather what the Grace of God did in him A copious Subject this is and lest the Multitude of things memorable overwhelm us in this Order they are presented His COUNTREY was Scotland Honoured by God the Fountain of Honour Honourable with Saints the next-best Judges of Honour And the more honourable for the Birth of this renowned Saint therein Which was An. 1630 at Bathens alias Easter the Seat of the Earls of Tweddale where his Reverend Father Mr. James Fleming was long a Minister of the Gospel Serpent's Hissings are despised if any thing less earthly stirs its Tongue against the Church of Scotland as sufficient to their Shame it is here told what is well known The most Learned Prince that ever