called us into his eternal Glory by Christ Jesus and who after we have suffered a while will make us perfect stablish strengthen and settle us 1 Pet. 5.10 He is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulation 2 Cor. 1.3 And therefore this especial comfort that ariseth from victory over death is to be owned with thankfulness as his gift Secondly it is a gift which none but himself can bestow Human reason and manly courage may in part support us under the thoughts of leaving the World and sleeping in the Grave by telling us that the World is vanity and vexation of spirit and helping us to consider that we are every way as well at ease wâ—en we are a-sleep and forget the World as when we are awake to enjoy it But what strength or courage of a mortal man can bear up without fainting under weakning decays of bodily vigour and endure without complaining that tedious pain and anguish with which it pleaseth God sometimes to afflict our bodies except he that lays on his hand to afflict do also put underneath his everlasting arms to support Thou even thou art to bâ— feared and who may stand in thy sight when on â—â—th 〈◊〉 wâ—â—â—â— Psal 76.7 Can thy heart endure or thy hand be strong in the day when God shall visit thee Ezek. 22.14 Especially who can bear up under the dreadful apprehension of appearing before almighty God as the judg of all the world except he hath comfortable apprehensions of God being reconciled and the judg become his friend They were no cowards nor sorry mean spirited persons but the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty man and every freeman as well as every bondman that sought to hide themsâ—lves in dens and in the rocks of the mountains that courted the mountains and rocks to fall on them and to hide them from the face of him that sat on the throne and from â—he face of the Lamb for when the great day of his wealâ—h should come who say they shall be able to stand before him Revel 6 15.16.17 Thirdly this enemy Death is in perfect subjection to God as his servant and therefore he is able to bless us with victory and to command deliverance to Jacob. No man can enter the house of a strong man armed and spoil his goods except he fiâ—st bind the strong man Mar 3.27 Now this can God do not only in respect of his infinite power to which all creatures in heaven and earth do bow and obey whereby he can stop the mouths of Lions suspend the natural influence of fiâ—e appease the rage and swelling of the sea But also because Death is his servant the minister of his wrath the executioner of his justice And therefore he that saith to the raging sea peace and be still yea that hath placed the friable body of sand to be a rampart against its fury by a perpetual decree which it cannot pass nor return again to cover the earth Jer. 5.22 He also gives laws to death and sets bounds to its rage giving victory over it to them that fear him Fourthly the conferring of this victory is a favour that will eminently shew the great love and kindness of God to his people for naturally we are under the power and dominion of death by reason of sin it being as due as the wages to the workman when he ended hath his business And it was the meer mercy and undeserved good will of God toward the workmanship of his own hand now degenerated and become miserable through their own wilfulness that helped them to overcome that enemy which themselves had formed to be a thorn in their sides and a prick in their eyes Yea it was a peculiar favour to mankind not vouchsafed to the superior order of reasonable creatures to be able to vanquish that death that misery which there ungrateful revolting from their maker had brought upon themselves for verily the Son of God took not on him the nature of Angels nor helped them up but he took on him and relieved the seed of Adam and for them did by death overcome him that had power over death even the devil and delivered them who otherwise through fear of death must all their life time have been subject to bondage Heb. 2.14 15 16. Yea it is a mercy not vouchsafed to all mankind as to the actual enjoyment of it but to those only that beleeve in him To as many as received him he gave power to become the sons of God John 1.12 to have part in the first resurrection so that the second death should have no power over them Rev. 20.6 Fifthly consequently this Garland of Victory doth greatly oblige the hearts of Gods people unto himself It being the fruit of that preventing love that remembred us in our low and lost estate even because his mercy endureth for ever Psal 136.23 the manifestation of the kindness and bounty of God to procure for us so great a priviledge as this victory hath appeared to be and that at so dear a rate as the most precious blood of his own Son that Lamb without spot and blemish 1 Pet. 1.19 So God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3.16 This tends to draw us with the cords of a man with cords of love Hos 11.4 It sets us upon our legs to run the way of Gods commandments it renders us subjects capable of ingenuous service by setting us free with the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.21 And withall it layeth the strongest engagements of love and gratitude upon us to give up our selves both souls and bodies as living sacrifices unto him Rom. 12.1 and being delivered from our enemies to serve him without slavish fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life Luk. 1.74 75. This period being reflected upon will be of use First to resolve that wonder that sometimes possesseth our minds when we behold the great courage and undaunted confidence of some persons in looking death in the face Many that could not look upon those instruments of violent death a sword or pistol in the hand of an enemy people that are of weak constitutions and mean spirits for encountring an adversary abroad have yet been able to entertain death when coming from Gods own hand with great composure and sedateness of spirit yea many whose education hath placed them under disadvantageous circumstances through want of due knowledg and clear notions as to other things have been able to grapple with death when clothed with all that terror which cruel men could hang on its back The reason is because God gave them that gift which is in his own power to bestow and this wind bloweth where it listeth these favours are many times conferred upon babes in
with the strangury or when it comes raging in a violent and masterless phrenzy In a word when it endeavours to appear more formidable than it self who ever could pretend to such strength as should not grow seeble or to such hardiness as should not be dismayed before it Its first encounter baffles the appetite and causeth it to languish it disturbeth and interrupteh the sleep weakens the joynts commands a cessation of the usual exercises spreads paleness and wanness upon the skin Its next proceedings subject a staff for the necessary support of the enfeebled structure call in the Druggist to supply the place of the Cook and Confectioner cast a man upon his bed as the retirement of his wearied and fainting limbs and by degrees invade the seats of the vital and animal spirits afflict the heart with faintings the head with pains obstruct the vessels serving for the passage of the blood and spirits cause the keepers of the house to tremble the strong men to bow themselves and those that look out of the windows to grow dim for want of the usual supply of animal spirits Till at last the cold sweat takes possession of the Hippocratical face the disturbed soul sits upon the trembling lip threatning to take its leave of that body where the enfeebled spirits will not prevail to fetch up that phlegm that lyes ratling and betokening suffocation And then is the dust prepared to return to the dust whence it was taken Eccl. 12.7 Then doth man set forward in his joyrney toward his long home and the mourners go about the streets Then comes a shrowd to be the modish apparel and a sepulcher the bed for repose then begins this proud aspiring Nimrod to know himself and to own his original saying to corruption thou art my father and to the worms ye are my brethren and sisters Job 17.14 Then he that so bustled above ground as to think the world too strait for him is content with six foot of earth for his patrimony A rare conquest the fruit of a signal conflict Thirdly victory as it is here applied supposeth Death accustomed to conquer That challenge or triumphant insultation v. 55. O death where is thy victory seems to suppose Death a tryed Champion fleshed in conquest And if First we look to its power over mans body we must confess it an irresistable enemy and a constant victor Pallida mors aequo c. It is not the robes and pallaces of Kings any more than the rags and cottages of beggars that exempt them from the arrest of this Sergeant neither are those so high as to affright death from attempting them nor these so low that it should scorn to meddle with them It is not the long delay and forbearance of Death in demanding its due that can make it forget the debt that is owing by the aged The short histories of the strangely long lives of those Antedeluvians that survived the elapsing of several hundreds of years are every-where closed up with and he dyed Gen. 5. Nor it is the pittiful cryings and pulings of the infant in swadling clothes that is loth to be snatched away form its beloved breast and seems to plead that it hath tasted nothing of the pleasures nor understood the design of its being set a-shore upon the earth that can move this Skeleton void of bowels to hold its hand and to draw back its envenomed darts But these things are done in the green tree yea in the tender plant as well as in the dry Luke 23.31 The wisdom of Solomon or of the seven Sages of Greece would in vain have attempted to out-wit Death The strength of Samson or of Davids worthies whose countenances were like the countenances of Lions 2 Sam. 17.10 could not daunt this Messenger of Gods justice or prevail in the last conflict with it but these also yeilded to be led in triumph by Death In Golgotha are skuls of all sorts and sizes as tokens of the impartial conquest that Death is making There lyes Absolom so perfect in beauty as well as Mephibosheth a deformed Cripple There lyes the wanton and amorous youngster as well as the old man that doted and leaned on his staff There lyes Goliah a man of overgrown nature as well as David a ruddy youth There lyes Hector and Achilles so famous for manly valour as well as Thesites a cowardly and seditious brawler We may see there that wise men dye as well as the foolish and brutish persons Psal 49.10 There have Xerxes and all his vast army that threatned to level the mountains and to drink the Oceans dry laid down their skuls and owned deaths soveraignty Nor could those many million of millions that like piles of grass have stood before Death yet blunt the edge of its Scyth but hitherto it goes on conquering and to conquer Secondly if we take measure of its strength in arresting the Soul of man we must needs own it as an absolute victor It hath a sting put into it by sin which makes it assault the sinner with deadly strength and violence Man by his wilful and disingenuous transgression incurred the sentence of the Law which was Death in the comprehensive notion of it To bring men to that which the Scripture calls the second death Rev. 20.6 the former death hath commission And who is able to withstand a Messenger of the Almighty or refuse appearance when he summons us to that tribunal It is not mens hiding their sins like Adam nor covering them with the fig-leaves of trifling excuses it is not gilding over the potsherd of abomination with the silver dross of Pharisaical pretences or outside holiness It is no palliating colours no cunning conveyances no subtil evasions no critical subterfuges can deliver a man in that last encounter or stand him instead when Death summons him to appear before the judgment seat of Christ 2 Cor. 5.10 So that in every respect Death pleads custom for the victory it demands over mankind But yet Fourthly the term here used and applied to a Christian doth signifie that a good man may obtain a victory over this mortal enemy in the great conflict though so accustomed to conquer and so proud with success And the joining of the subject we with the adjunct victoriousness shews that it is the peculiar priviledg of true Christians so that strangers do not intermeddle with this joy Prov. 14.10 Not that a good man can expect to be exempt from the stroke of Death nor be secure as to any particular time or season of his life nor plead exemption from any sort of disease or circumstance of Death for what man is he that liveth and shall not see death shall he deliver his soul from the power of the grave Psal 89.48 And it is appointed for men indefinitely and without distinction once to dye Heb. 9.27 This being the passage through which we are to enter into another world But yet though it may seem a wonder even when good
Christ. Secondly to satisfie us on the contrary concerning the dejectedness and despondency wherewith some men do meet death from whom yet better things might have been expected Men of strong bodies athletick constitution happy education great parts much reading how fearful have they been to look death in the face yea a good man when God hides the light of his countenance from him doth tremble to think of death and judgment of this a reason is easily given from what hath been spoken the Author of so great a blessing with-holds it where it doth not seem good to his infinite wisdom to bestow it Thrirdly this directs us whether to apply our selves to obtain strength in the last encounter We must not trust to our selves to natural or acquired gifts but we must go forth in the strength of the Lord and make mention of his name even of his only Psal 71.16 On him let us call by prayer him let us sollicite by acting faith on him who giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he encreaseth strength Isa 40.29 Fourthly what thanks and obedienâ—e can be sufficient for a just acknowledgment to God from them to whom he hath vouchsafed this glorious triumph over death It is the greatest victory that can be imagined to conquer this king of terrors the greatest gift we can think of imploring the divine favour to bestow upon us in this world that he will furnish us with that strength and resolution that will make us not afraid to leave the world It is one of the blessed fruits of our Saviours meritorious sufferings and obedience And therefore what shall we return unto the Lord for this and all other his benefits What thanks offering can be of due value to present unto him what fruit of the lips what obedience of heart and life can be sufficient to express 〈◊〉 râ—sâ—â—ment of this favour O give thanks unto the Lord for he is God 〈◊〉 hâ—â— meâ—â—y â—â—duâ—â—eth for ever Let the redeemed of the Lâ—â—d 〈◊〉 whom he hâ—â—h redeemed from the hand of the enemy O 〈◊〉 would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wâ—nderful worâ—s towards the sons of men Psal 107.1 2 8. But from the Author of this victory which was proposed as the third thing considerable let us advance to the Fourth General to be considered in the Text the procuring cause of this victory by whom it was acquired and purchased for us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through our Lord Jesus Christ. The main argument whereby the Apostle had established that great Article of our Faith the resurrection of the body in the precedent part of this Chapter was grounded upon the resurrection of Christ from the dead Who not only shewed that it was neither impossible nor yet incredible that God should raise the dead Acts 26.8 because he himself overcome the sharpness of death and broke its bonds but also by rising as a publick person the second Adam the first-fruits from the dead hath made way for us also to follow him in the resurrection of our bodies And this expression in the Text seems to be the Epiphonema or close of that discourse and arguing It is in Christ that God blesseth us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things Eph. 1.3 And particularly this blessed victory over death is derived unto us through Christ several ways hath Christ overcome death and made way for our being victorious over it First he hath destroyed the sting of death even sin by his merits and sufferings The sting is the most formidable part in those animals that are arm'd therewith And sin which rendred us obnoxious to the wrath of God and curse of the Law was the chief thing that made death dreadful to mankind as arresting us in order to bringing us before the Judg of all the earth who will render to every man according to his works Rom. 2.6 But this sting hath Christ plucked out from death by his voluntary and meritorious obedience answering the exaction of the Law and by his unparallel'd and meritorious sufferings enduring the malediction thereof So that there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 As a great High Priest he hath by one offering perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 As our surety he hath paid our debts and cancelled the hand-writing that was against us As our God he hath redeemed us not with corruptible things as silver and gold but with his own most pretious blood 1 Pet. 1.19 And in each respect God is just and yet the justifier of the ungodly when he believeth in Jesus Rom. 3.26 In him mercy and truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other Psal 85.10 Secondly he hath overcome the pains of death by his example and promises By his example who as the Captain of our Salvation was made perfect through sufferings Heb. 2.10 He suffered perfectly all that the Law of God could exact or the rage of his enemies inflict And he was perfect under his sufferings so as not to entrench the least upon the bounds of compleat patience Jam. 1.2 He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before the shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth Isa 53.7 When he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not 1 Pet. 2.23 Further by his sufferings he perfected the work of our Redemption and fully satisfied Divine Justice And hereby he hath engaged and encouraged us to arm our selves likewise with the same mind because Christ hath suffered in the flesh for us 1 Pet. 4.1 And by his promises he hath encouraged us telling us that this strait way leadeth to life that in the mean time he will never fail us nor forsake us Heb. 13.5 But when we pass through the fire and water he will be with us Isa 43.1 2 and that these light afflictions that endure but for a season do work for us a far more excellent and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 Thirdly he hath wiped away the scandal of death by his leading the way in suffering death and lying in the grave It is a great affront to this stately piece of well-formed earth to own kindred with corruption and worms Job 17.14 But Christ the best of men yea the Son of God hath led us on the way to Golgotha and we need not be ashamed to follow him in the steps he hath troden He suffered before he was glorified he endured the cross and digested the shame of that scandalous death before he set down at the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 12.3 And therefore it is no disgrace to us to die and be laid in the grave Yea it was a far bitterer cup that he drank off for us than what God useth to put into the hands of his people and therefore we should not scruple at drinking our own portion He hath perfumed the grave by laying
men are killed all the day long they are not only victors but more than conquerors Rom. 8.36 37. And even in dying they are troubled but not distressed they are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed 2 Cor. 4.9 More particularly First they are victors over the fear of Death That fear that ariseth from an apprehension of turning their backs upon the fruit of their labours they overcome by considering that in heaven they have a better and more enduring substance Heb. 10.34 Even an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for them 1 Pet. 1.4 That which springs from the thoughts of the dissolution of this beautiful and majestick piece of Gods workmanship which hath been so much adored and deified Phil. 3.19 is overcome by considering that if their earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved they have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 That which ariseth from the preapprehension of the pains of death in the violent ejecting of this old inhabitant the Soul from its beloved mansion the Body is overcome by considering both the necessity of this violence and our being but once molested with it which are thoughts that offer themselves to all mens consideration and withall that Death is a passage though a strait one unto life a Porter though a rugged and surly one that lets us into the Palace of the great King And who will dread that which delivers him from so much sin and misery and puts him into possesion of so great good in another place though like the Angels to Lot it use some friendly violence in haling him hence Gen. 19.16 This makes a good man not only to submit to death and say the will of the Lord be done Act. 21.14 and it is the Lord let him do what seemeth good in his sight 1 Sam. 3.18 but further to be desirous to depart and to be with Christ as esteeming that to be far better Phil. 1.23 yea to groan being burdened desiring to be clothed upon with their house which is from heaven 2 Cor. 5.2 and to account Death as great gain Phil. 1.21 Secondly they are conquerors over the pains of Death which are a great evil and sorely pressing to humane nature These a good man overcomes not so as to be exempt from the same exquisite sense of pain which other persons feel yea God is ofttimes pleased for most wise and gracious ends to exercise the best of men under most tedious and exquisite pains But yet they are conquerors in the conflict though the encounter be sharp Partly through that great measure of Patience which God gives them under his hand which then hath the best opportunity for shewing its perfect work Jam. 1.3 And it is a glorious victory when patience holds out to the end and this strong man cannot be brought to bow under the greatest burden of extremity that can be laid upon it witness the case of Job whose invincible patience under the greatest sufferings was to the glory of God and to his own comfort and ease at present and future honour Partly through the strength of that other grace of Faith whereby they look unto that fatherly hand that lays these things upon them and thereby are not only drawn to a filial submission which gives ease to the mind under sufferings but also take the advantage of deriving comfort from him that smites and will also heal them So that when the outward man decayeth the inward is renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4.16 And withall this grace enables a good man to look up into Heaven in the midst of the pains of Death as St. Stephen did Act. 7.55 and to see his Saviour there standing ready to receive him to himself in glory And this makes him though not to hate his own body nor simply to desire to be unclothed yet willing and desirous to be clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life 2 Cor. 5.4 and comfortably to bear those difficult methods whereby the divine wisdom thinks it fit to bring this to pass Thirdly over the sting of Death There is a sharp and poysonous thing put into the tayl of this Serpent through our transgressing the Law of God and this is that which is most dreadful in Death to a considering person and that which even a Roman courage could not prevail to master But a Christian finds that in the word of God that fortifies him against this also Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Chirst that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God and maketh intercession for us who shall separate us from the love of Christ I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8.33 34 35 38 39. Here then is the strong man disarmed the Lions mouth shut the Serpents sting taken from him Fourthly over the Power of Death To reason not improved by the supplemental light of divine revelation it seemed incredible that God should raise the dead Acts 26.8 And to him that considers the severity of Gods justice it might seem that when the judg should have delivered us to the officer and he cast us into prison we must by no means come out thence till we should have paid the utmost farthing Math 5.25 26. That is never at all But when we consider that as Christ was delivered for our offences so he rose again for our justification Rom. 4.25 we may thence very reasonably conclude that he that raised up the Lord Jesus from the dead will also quicken our mortal bodies Rom. 8.11 And upon this account a good man hath confident hopes of victory over the power of Death and can say I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth And though after my skin worms destroy this flesh yet with mine eyes shall I see God Job 19.26 The precedent discourse being reflected upon may be useful First to shew us the excellency of the Christian faith above all other notions of a Deity that have been entertained in the world in that it enables us for the great conflict and gives us victory over the worst of our enemies Indeed the ancient Romans have shewed themselves sufficiently audacious in looking death in the face but their confidence was supported by slender props Amor patriae laudumque immensa cupido a desire to advance and enlarge the City whereof they were freemen and to erect a monument of their own praise to posterity this made them prodigal of their lives and fearless of death But a Christian hath a desire to depart hence that he may be near unto Christ and upon a full and