with the First Character I would consider the Apostles Expression of himself I have Fought I have Finished I have Kept Now it is certain the Apostle who acknowledges himself chief of Snners and least of Saints would not speak of himself as in or of or by himself but is to be interpreted by 1 Cor. 15. 10. c. By the Grace of God I am what I am and not I but the Grace of God that was with me And Gal. 2. 10. I Live yet not I but Christ Liveth in me Altho' therefore at the first view the Apostle may appear as a self-Subsisting a self-Confident Person in that three fold I Yet when we duly weigh what he says in those places Not I It shews when he speaks thus he considers himself as in Christ the Head and Saviour of the Body who represented his in all he Did and Suffered But further He is in all his united to him by Faith He doth all their Works in them and for them and thus in him by the Power they receive from him by being strong in the Grace that is in Jesus Christ They do all They do so that the Apostle when he saith I does not mean himself by I as single solitary divided from Christ but as in him by him as to the Strength Life Principle he acted from He did all in Christ and not only so but as the Power and the Action flowing from it was in Christ So the acceptance the making up the Imperfections the taking away the Guilt the Corruption The setting him free from the Law of Sin and Death In regard of condemnation falling upon Sin dwelling in him In all this he looks wholly to Christ and so his Fighting Finishing his Course keeping the Faith Are to be limited Not I but Christ alone did all in me and was accepted for me This is therefore the not only Encouragement but the very support nay more the subsistnce of Saints in all their holy Action and Motion All is in Christ And this is their consolation in the midst of so many Clouds of Guilt and Imperfection that they have a faithful and merciful high Priest who makes Reconciliation and perfumes their Persons and services with his much Incense And tho' many are ignorant of this great Gospel Doctrin this was the consolation of our Friend in her Dying Hours Now this Explication of the Apostles as it shuts out on one side all the Pharisaie Boasts in our selves all the Self-righteousness and Self-sufficiency of Legalists so it utterly condemns all the Licentious pretensions of Carnalists to live as they please or to be Slothful Negligent Careless Unactive in these great Transactions For though they live all in Christ depend wholly on Him for acceptance yet all His are under the Holy Constraints of Love and the Obligations of Filial Obedience and Christ in them is a Principle of Spiritual Life and Highest Activity So that they can neither be loose or plead Liberty as a Cloak of Wickedness nor be dull and stupid in the ways of Christ And herein our Deceased Friend had learned Christ In all things sensible of Duty but Living as to Justification and Acceptance with God above With those who are the Circumcision Worshipping God in the Spirit rejoicing in Christ Jesus and having no confidence in the Flesh and so she was able though so young a Person to sing the Song of Victory O Death Where is thy Sting Oh Grave Where is thy Victory I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord who hath given me the Victory This made Her earnestly desire a remove out of the Body and to be with Christ Thus I have given the True Evangelical sense of the Apostle placing so much upon himself I have Fought and Finished and Kept 'T is but as if he had said I have I can do all things through Christ strengthneing me and I can look look upon all with Joy and Triumph because all my Impurities and Imperfections are answered for and my Person is washed with the pure Water of his Sacrificing Blood Let us then consider the great sence of the Apostle I have faught a good Fight Wherein he comes forth in the strength of Jehovah Jesus Christ the Lord of Hosts As David the Warrior of the Lord under the Captain of Salvation Resolved and arm'd at all Points and that had with Courage and Fidelity almost now to the very last carried on so far as his Station reach'd the full Conquest and Victory of Jesus Christ he is now triumphing over all Enemies For the Explaining of this warfare in the warrs of the Lord as they are stil'd Numb 21. 14. We are to consider the Great Lord mighty in Battle who arms all his even the Lord Jesus who appoints them who are therefore stiled Good Soldiers of Jesus Christ who hath Redeemed them from being slaves of Justice of Wrath of Satan and they therefore are said to overcome by the Blood of the Lamb. So their very setting out is by his Blood They are Arm'd by him with Courage Spirit and Might within He teaches their hands to War and their Fingers to Fight by him they run through a Troop by him they leape over a Wall it is he that Girdeth them with strength to the Battel that they may help the Lord against the mighty and that all Enemies may be subdued to him and trherefore the Fight is called a good Fight with great Reason 1. The Apostle had to Fight with himself his carnal Reason to Throw down the strong holds of that to bring every thought into Captivity to Christ all those high Thoughts of self-Righteousuess to slight all conferences with Flesh and Blood and to repel them when tempted to such disloyal Treaties to bring under the Law of his Members that warred against the Law of his Mind and would bring him into Captivity to the Law of Sin and Death to bring under subjection that carnal Mind that is enmity to God not subject to the Law of God nither indeed can be that in dwelling Sin All those Willings and Lustings against the Spirit In regard of which the Apostle Expresses himself in the Language of a Combatant in those Games that deals the most subduing and mortifying Strokes and Blows so he upon all Bodily Inclinations and Lusts And this is one great Point of the good Fight the Apostle reviews with so much comfort But it is in Christ and through Christ by whom in whom as Crucified with him the Flesh with its Lusts and Affections are Crucified and not in or by himself 2. The Apostle had to Fight with the World in all both its inticements and blandishments and in regard of its Threats Rages and Persecutions In both regards saith He I am Crucified to the World and the World to me Gal. 6. 14. But it is in Christ and his Cross alone enabled Him 3. He had to Fight with all the Enemies of the Gospel of Christ in resistance to the Grace of Christ in
the Hearts of all to whom He Preached For speaking of the Preaching of the Gospel He saith The Weapons of our Warfare are mighty So with the open professed Oppositions to the Truth of Christ in his Redemption To the Jews a Scandal as it it was contrary to all the Revelation of God in the Old Testament and to the Gentiles Foolishness as if it had no Agreement with the Reason Learning and Wit of Men of Understanding and Accomplishment 1 Cor. 1. 23. 4. He had to Fight with the Powers of Darkness Spiritual Wickednesses in high Places as every Christian hath For as He says we War not That is not principally against Flesh and Blood but against Principalities and Powers the Rulers of the Darkness of this World And for the maintaining this Fight He had the same necessity with all Saints To take to himself the whole Armor of God that he might stand in the evil day and having drne all to stand Eph. 6. 10. 5. All the Persecutors and their cruelty like the Beasts of Ephesus in what Sense soever taken He had to Fight with wherein He suffered as an evil doer and was Killed all the Day long But in all He was more than a conqueror through him who Loved him 6. He had to Fight with Guilt Death and the Grave the Wrath to come and with all the unbelief of his own Heart But he over came by the continual Application He made to the Death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus who Loved him and gave himself for him in whom he desired to be Found So that he Ran up to that assurance to make that challenge who shall lay any thing to my â—harge as one of Gods Elect to be assured â—hat neither Life nor Death Things present nor Things to come should be able to separate him from the Love of Christ and so he could Sing that Triumphant Song Oh Death where is thy Sting Oh Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin the Strength of Sin is the Law but thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord as in the case of the Body of Sin and Death All he places still in Christ and thus we see on all accounts The Apostle Fought a good Fight and through Christ had the Prospect of a High and Noble End of the VVar that is of Victory Head 2. I come then to the Second Point of the Apostles Triumphing Declaration of his own State in Christ I have finished my course That we may rightly apprehend Here are two things to be understood by it I. The General course of a Christian State in its own Motion Action Conversation from the Time of Conversion unto the very Hour of Death This was one thing the Apostle understood by his course for God having drawn out the Line of Life as he hath seen fit for every one of his Servants Their course of Christian Action is by him drawn out proportionable So that there is no part to be unadorn'd Something of Publick Private Secret Unholy Action is to be applyed to every part of it There must be a Running to obtain It is called therefore Running the Race that is set before us Looking to Jesus to shew in whose strength the whole Race is run So It is expressed concerning David by his serving his Generation according to the will of God and of Johns fulfilling his course as a Servant of God in a Holy Conversation besides his Ministerial service How many great concernments hath every Christian to look to His Implantation into Christ Renovation New Creation The In-dwelling of the Spirit the Graces and Fruits of it His Living walking in the Spirit The work of Faith with Power Sorrow after God working Repentance to Salvation never to be Repented of The constraining Love of Christ the living to him the dying Dayly Converse with the Word of God Hearing Reading Meditation Holy Discourse Prayer Thanksgiving Self-denyal Sufferings being made meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light All these with much more set before us in Scripture shew us what the Race of a Christian is what his course is Now to find our Heart engag'd herein with all earnestness Pressing forward to reach the mark by the utmost stretch and extending our selves to it is what the Apostle speaks of himself He had run on in this Christian course on this Line to very near the End of his Line of Life and it is a Glorious Review of a sincere much more of an Eminent Christian while he can behold Christ the Alpha and Omega the Beginning and End of All All the Haltings the Falls False-steps the many Lingerings made up Answered and Attoned for by the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the Joy sett before Him ran the whole course the Father Lin'd out to Him Doing always the things pleasing in his sight Who set every step according to his Obediential Love to the Father and thefore went forth to his Death with highest Resolution Let us Arise saith he and John 14. 31. Go hence He endured the Cross despised the shame and is set down on the right hand of the Majesty on High And thus his servants follow his steps and so we have reason to hope of this his Servant that she was swift she Finished her course she Finished the course she was sett in though a more private and retired one before she was Prohibited as the true sense of that word we Translate Not suffered signifies Heb. 7. 21. To continue any longer therein 2. There is yet a higher and more exalted sense of the Apostle Finishing his course not a more substantial or Fundamental sense For that is indeed the Fundamental All the redeemed of Christ in and by him running their course and so entring into their Masters Joy but there was also in all times a more Publick and high sphere of Action Into which God hath been pleased to raise some of his servants and there hath not been a higher then the Ministry of the Gospel and most particularly the Apostolick and to this undoubtedly the Apostle had regard when he here saith I have Finished my course For herein the Apostle had a Line given to him and a measure the measure of the Line which he would not stretch himself nor into other Mens Labours but according the Rule or Line prescribed him by God 2 Cor. 10. 13 c. And this was so abundant that he Laboured more abundanily then any other 1 Cor. 15. 10. He was the Apostle of the Gentiles Ministring the Gospel of God so to them that the offering up of the Gentiles might be a Sacrifice Acceptable to God by Jesus Christ being sanctified by the Holy Spirit which was indeed a high sphere of Christian Gospel-Activity and whereof he saith He might Glory And the Line was so every way enlarged that he Preached the Gospel round about from Jerusalem to Illyricum Rom. 15. 16 c. He did fully or Fulfil to
Israel over Jordan but to come up to Mount Nebo and to Dye Deut. 33. God plainly sent to Hezekiah to set His House in Order and to Dye against which Prohibition that it might be under as it were an Arrest of Judgment He so earnestly Prayed It is therefore to be duly considered That for the Display of the Judgment and Indignation of God against sin and because of the present State of the Saints under a Remaining Body of Sin and so of Death and in the present State of this World full of Sin and Evil and of so many of the Children of Adam Children of Death even of the Second Death In the Wisdom and Holiness of God It was by the Counsel of the Father and the Son that Death should continue and have the Face of a Judgment and of a Legal Prohibition to continue in the Service of God any longer on Earth Till the Kingdom of Christ the Kingdom of Redemption should bring in a State of the Living Saints then Remaining being chang'd and not to Dye 2. Jesus Christ our Lord Because the Children were Partakers of Flesh and Blood He took part of the same that through Death He might subdue Him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil and Deliver them who all their Life were subject to Bondage by reason of the Fear of Death and now therefore Death came upon Him with the Violence and Terror of a Judgment from which He was taken and from Prison Esa 53. 8. By the Mighty Power of his Resurrection It becomes all His to submit then to the Face of a Judgment in Dying that they may be conform'd to their Captain and from the First Born Heb. 2. 14. Obj. It may be Objected against this necessity of Dying How were those two Enoch and Elias exempted from that sentence of the Righteous and Holy Law that is stretched out so upon all seeing sin had extended it self on them as well as on others Answ The Death of Jesus Christ stood as a Full Ransom and Price of Redemption from the very first promise so that it is not indeed a Point of Justice or of the Truth of God That Believers in Jesus Christ are served as I may so speak with a Prohibition by Death but a Wise and Holy Dispensation of Government with Relation to the Servants of God in the present World where therefore in that wise Government God thinks fit there might be such an exemption from the General Statute of Dying or Prohibition by Death as of Enoch and Elijah and many more Examples of such Exemptions there might have been if He had seen Good having received such full satisfaction to his Law and to his Justice and He hath it in reserve an Universal Exemption at the Kingdom of Christ the Kingdom of Redemption when the Apostle says We shall not all dye but we shall all be changed and he prefaces before it Behold I shew you a mystery And I am much perswaded and even assured These two were Types of the Living Remaining caught up to meet the Lord in the Air 1 Cor. 15. He delivers up the Kingdom to God even the Father and hath put down all Rule Authority and the last Enemy and cast it into the Lake Rev. 20. ult When the Gentle Hand of Power shall Transpose the Saints as the Great Prophet Enoch of the Lord coming with Ten Thousand of his Saints and the Living Remaining changed and the Flames of Fire upon All Enemies shall convey them as in Elijahs Chariot to Heaven 3. The Judiciary part of Death is absolutely removed For the Sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law but thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15. 12. So that Death is to Saints a sleeping in Jesus a Resting from Labours an entring into Rest a becoming present with the Lord A being with Christ a being in Paradise a being clothed upon with our House from Heaven And to shew It was not a Deadly stroke Before the Pronunciation of that Universal Prohibition of continuing here Dust thou Art and to Dust thou shalt Return Death was more gently express'd and with assurance of Victory The Womans Seed shall break the Serpents Head but the Serpent shall only Bruise the Heel of the Womans Seed Applic. I will now by way of Applicatory Review close the whole How fit this Context of the Apostle is to a Discourse with Relation to the Death of one or more of the Servants of God appears by the Apostles Preface to it I am even now as it were already as in Conformity to my Great Lord Offered and Sacrificed as a Martyr and the Time of my Dissolution is at Hand and so He goes on I have Fought c. As if He Preached his own Funeral Sermon while Living and a Great one it is but it hath its Principal sense in Christ and in God as appears in the following Part of the Chapter v. 17. wherein we have this Great acknowledgment that in his Fighting the Good Fight and Finishing his Course the Lord stood with Him strengthened Him that by Him the Preaching might be Fully known and the Gentiles hear and the Lord Delivered Him out of the Mouth of the Lyon the Lord would deliver Him from every Evil Work and preserve Him unto His Heavenly Kingdom and to Him he ascribes the Glory of All for Ever And He Includes all Saints Even all who Love the appearing of Jesus Christ this High Elogium or Speech of Praise else I must acknowledge I have no Opinion of the Large Encomiums or Praisings used in Funeral Sermons observing the Grand Exemplar of them Gods Gracious Remembrance of Moses John 1. Moses my Servant is Dead and no more and yet that Fixed so Dashing a Character of Honour upon Him that He is remembred by it to the Last Rev. 15. They Sang the Song of Moses the Servant of God and of the Lamb But this of the Apostle Joyned with that of Heb. 7. 23. Gives me such a History of the Life and Death of Saints That I cannot but Recommend it to all the Servants of Christ as the most excellent Rule of Life and as the Ground of the most Consolatory Hope in Death and that the very Discourse of it may be upon the Deceased Christian Friend a Memorial of Honour And so I most Humbly Recommend it to the Relations of all the Friends of the so many lately Removed Servants of God and of this Particular one the occasion of whose Death it is Published through Him who though the Eternal Liver as the Son of God without Beginning or End of Days yet in our Nature Became Dead for our sakes but behold He is Alive for Evermore Even so have all his Servants Reason to say Even so Amen And He hath the. Keys of Hell and Death Let Him Lay His Hand on his Servants of God in this Discourse and Bless it to Them and to his Servants of all States and Conditions saying unto them Fear not And to Him be Glory for Ever FINIS
heavy Judgement the more it is upon a man the less he feels it and the further he is from a possibility of repenting truly and believing in Christ for Salvation he must needs run head-long to evil and to Hell whom the Devil drives But Some may ask me what they must do Quest to escape this Judgement of being blinded and hardned by the Word Answer First When ever you hear the Word preached hear it with Reverence and Attention Keep thy Foot when thou goest to Eccles. 5. 1 2. Psal 119. 11. the house of God be reverent in his Presence and hear the word with due Attention as it is the word of God Let it not go in at one Ear and out of the other but hide it in your hearts that you may not sin against God 2dly Meditate upon the Grace of God in Christ to poor sinners think dayly on the freeness fulness and riches of it If the serious Thoughts of Grace and Love to undone Sinners will not melt you and constrain you to leave your sins and love Christ who have loved you to the Death I know not what will The prodigal Son when he thought of the fulness of Bread that was in his Fathers House then he resolved to return home and fell down at his Fathers Feet and said Father I have sinned Luk. 15. 18 19. against Heaven and before thee and am not worthy to be called thy Son Nothing like Grace and Love to constrain melt and humble the Sinner Oh! Think much on God's Love and Grace But lastly For I must not enlarge pray earnestly to God for a soft and tender heart plead his Covenant Promise who hath said That he will take away the Heart of Stone and Ezek 36. 26. give a heart of Flesh Oh! Pray that every Sermon may soften your Heart and melt it Gal. 4. 2. down into godly Sorrow Many cry God damn me but there 's few in good earnest Pray for Grace and for a tender Heart Oh! 1. Thes. 5. 17. Luk. 18. 1. 6. Turn the word preached into Prayer and say Lord make this and every word of 〈◊〉 a good word unto my Soul I shall add do more but leave what hath been said to the Blessing of the GREAT GOD. SOLIDEO GLORIA FINIS ERRATA Pray Courteous Reader mend with your Pen these following Faults PAge 7. line 32. for Sword read Fear In the same Page for Temption read Temptation Page 13. line 23. for Means read Meant Page 9. line 3. for Judiciously read Judicially Page 15. line 32. for Promulging read Promulgation Page 38. line 3. for Ways read Voice Page 39. line 10. for Pleasures read Pleasure In the same for To read Into A FUNERAL SERMON 2 Tim. iv Verse vii viii I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that Day And not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing SOlomon the Wise tells us To every thing there is a Season and a Time a Time to be Born and a Time to Die a Time to Mourn and a Time to Rejoyce Eccles 3. 1. c. I doubt not All the Godly and the Serious and Sensible here present will readily acknowledge with me That this is a Time to Mourn But will it not look like the adventuring on a Paradox to affirm to you That it is also a Time to Rejoyce A Time it is indeed to Mourn for the loss of so dear a Relation and so Pious and Christian a Friend But are we not Christians as well as Men And while Nature seeles sighs nay sinks at the dismal Loss of Friends or Relations Grace should triumph over Nature and Faith over Sense While we are bemoaning their loss we should be Rejoycing in the Crown and Glory of Saints of which number she was we have so great Reason to be assured Our Deceased Friend was one of their Number who by their Holy Conversation give a plain and sensible demonstration of the Power of the Principles of our Holy Profession both by their Life and their Death For Words have not that Energy and Force that Action and Conversation hath a shining Life and a triumphant Death perswade beyond all the Power of Argument or charms of Rethoric And concerning the not only unblameableness but Piousness of her Life for whose Death we now Mourn it was so well known to all that knew her that she hath therein a better Character than I can give her for modesty of Stile and Reserves of Expression become me when I consider the Modesty and Humility of her Deportment through the whole of her Life I come therefore now to the Text I have proposed to Discourse upon The whole Text is drawn in Figures borowed from the Olimpic Games well known in the Times and Places in which the Apostle wrote Games appointed for all the activities of Persons prepared by Frame and Constitution of Body Vigour of Mind and Inclination and strictly Disciplined Dieted and Exercised thereunto Such an allusion is at other times made use of by the Apostle as 1 Cor. 9. 24. And being Sanctified by the Divine Spirit is most elegant and expressive of holy Senses In this Place The Apostle of the Gentiles gives us under these Emblems a threefold Character of himself and then sets out the Prize 1. His Encountring and Combating all the Temptations of Satan within and of the World without wherein he Fought not as one that beateth the Air but at sharps as they say with great effect for Offence and Defence as those Combatants alluded to used to do 2. He who received the Prize Finished his Course Therein he alludes to those who Run in a Race that they might Obtain He Ran not as in certainly He Ran the whole Course of Doing and Suffering and of his Ministry and Apostleship the whole Race set before him to the very Mark 3. He kept the Faith the great Faith of the Gospel in union to the Crucified Jesus which was the scandal of the Jews and Gentiles even the Cross of Christ and the Obedience of Faith in all the Holiness Mortification to the World and the Lusts of it within and without and doth extend to all kinds of Suffering Heavenlyness of Mind and Conversation Hereby he behaved himself as a mighty Champion that by no means would let go his Hold or Deposium the Pearl of great Prize or surrender it to the violence against it And so he leads us to the second Part of this great Text under the same allusion The Crown or the Prize not the Corruptible Crown of those Games but the Incorruptible to which the Apostle refers a Man is not Crowned except he strive Lawfully and herein he thus expresses himself Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Righteous Lord shall give me Before I begin
made like Him was under no Limitation of Service in the History we have of Him Jacobs Patriarchal Line reach'd even to Moses and there ceased Moses Faithful in All his House Run that whole and very Great Line of Service in the Wilderness but was so Limited He must by no means enter into Canaan but must Dye in the Borders And Joshuah must enter upon his Course and having settled the People of Israel in Canaan and after the Lord had given them rest round about He Finished his course Then came on the Days of the Judges and their course with Samuel reached with the Intervention of Saul unto David who served his Generation according to the Will of God And so the Line came down to John Baptist Fulfilfilling his course as a Forerunner and so to our Lord Jesus who walked as He said in his course here on Earth though as the Son an Eternal Priest this Day and to Morrow and the Third Day should be perfected Then the course of the Apostles and the Witnesses under a most Definitive Line as hath been said This therefore gives great satisfaction in the Term of Life Calls for Great self-Resignation and to have our Eye Fixed on the Great End of Life the Line of Faith and Service It is true There is a Line allowed to Evil Men in their Wickedness and in their Enjoyments of their Lusts and Pleasures of this World and they cannot exceed it But this is not of the present consideration But it is most necessary here to remember That the Lowest and Meanest even the Infant Servants of God have their Line and Service and the Just Times of it Fixed by God even as their Reward because it is wholly the Reward of Free Grace It is in the essence of the Reward equal as hath been argued 2. The Time of the Servants of God is therefore Defined and Limited That it may be seen God hath no need of this or that Servant or Generation of Servants but that He hath successive Servants or Generations of Servants and He is so Far off being in want of them That He can allow them no longer Time how Eminent how Excellent soever then He hath appointed and resolved with Himself and of Free Grace as their Honour and Priviledge chosen them unto 3. The Servants of God are many That they may reach through and unto the Time of his Kingdom And each must have His Time and each must therefore of those who go before give way to those who are to follow after and so every one is Limited to his own Time For though it may be thought They might be together The Wise God having appointed Times more Dark and more Glorious How many of his Servants are proportion'd to each He sees and knows and so Limits accordingly There was one Noah and no more in the Old World One Elijah only in view in that so Fowl Apostacy of the Ten Tribes And when the Light is clearest and most High It must not be clear Light till his Kingdom The General Assembly cannot be before so each Time hath such and such Numbers of Stars which He telleth the Number of and calleth them All by their Names and knoweth what Lustre of Rays and Beams each and together shall cast There is a Counterpoizing consideration of Wicked Men in the World and the Darkness and Fire of Hell they spread But that is not within the present purpose 4. There is a Gracious Pleasure of God There should such Numbers of his Servants be all along from Age to Age with Jesus Christ their Lord Philip. 1. Dissolved from Body and with Him in Spirit Absent from the Body and present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 1 c. And in their House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens And that our God may come and All His Saints with Him Zech. 14. He cometh with Ten Thousand of his Saints as the Armies of Heaven on white Horses Bodys of the Resurrection washed in the Blood of Jesus in fine Linnen clean and white Rev. 19. 14. To shew This hath been all along from the former Times of the World There is a Reception in Heaven Styled Abrahams Bosome A Jerusalem above the Mother of us All that shall come down from Heaven Gal. 4. With all its Children Rev. 21. There is the State of the Spirits of Just Men Heb. 12. Who shall be made perfect in Bodys made like to his Glorious Body Phil. 3. ult There must be therefore a Limitation of their Time of Service here below That they may be taken within the Veil and made acquainted with the Glory that is to be Revealed And the Apostle Intimates These Dead in Christ shall have some precedency For the Dead in Christ shall not be prevented by the Living Remaining as we Translate but shall not be so much as overtaken according to the true force of the Original we shall not attain or come equal with those asleep 1 Thes c. 4. v. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nullo Modo Assequemur Now in all such Particularities God is pleas'd to be at Liberty in dealing with His own Servants The essential Glory the Crown of Righteousness the Crown of Life the Crown of Glory being alike sure to all And so I have open'd the second Point propos'd The Limitation of the Time of the Servants of God continuing in His Service here on Earth I come to the Point 3d. 3. That the Limitation of their Time is made known to them in the manner of a severe and angry Process in the way of what we Call a Prohibition the proper sense of what we Translate not saffered Heb. 7. 23. And this is a Point worthy to be enquired into for the removing the fears of Death and for the Consolation of Saints in Death 1. It must then be Acknowledg'd that the outward Face and appearance of Death bears the Resemblance of a Judgment and of that Denunciation In the Day thou Eatest thou shalt Dye Dust thou Art and to Dust thou shalt return It comes as a King of Terrors Flesh and Blood is ready to be affrighted at it Life is naturally Dear even to the Servants of God who desire not to be uncloathed They desire to continue in the Service of God here but when they are raised by Higher Considerations of being present with the Lord Clothed upon with their House from Heaven they even desire to be Dissolved And it cannot be denyed That God doth in the Dying of his Servants bear a Regard to that Justice and Truth of His Word That when Sin came in Death came in and passed upon All because All have sinned Rom. 5. 12. Wheu the Servants of God therefore are warm and zealous and lively in His Service Often there comes a Prohibition Thou mayest no longer continue in my Service here like the command to Moses to anoint Eleazar and to strip Aaron of his Priestly Garments who was presently to Dye A Prohibition to Moses to carry