〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euripid the Scripture of truth I am sure saith of all such that through fear of death they are all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 2. 15. And if life as you use to say be sweet it can be no lesse then the bitternesse of death 1 Sam. 15. 32. How bitter is the bare Ecclus. 41. 1. remembrance of it to him that is at ease but the approach of it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bitter bitterness as the case was then with him even to an Hezekiah Isa 38. 17. and if the message of it made him weep v. 3. then 1 Sam. 28. 20. wonder not if Saul at it swooned quite away It is a bitter sting that with the So Socrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apud Justin Mart. ad Graeces adhortat 1. prick of it letteth out the life-blood of the dying man if when it taketh away from him this life he hath no assurance of a better but dieth with Aristotles word in his mouth dubius morior quo vadam nescio be he never so wise a Philosopher or Adrians quos nunc abibis in locos should he be with him never so great an Emperor It is not death as death that even the godly desire or rejoice in for in that sense Paul would not be 2 Cor. 5. 4. Joh. 21. 18. unclothed and Peter is said in that respect to be carried whither he would not It is some greater good which God vouchsafeth to such at death and after it which whilest others then want and have no assurance of it must needs be a dolorous and deadly sting that thus first letteth out their dearest life 2. And therewith which is a second stinging wound all the comforts of life Which should they abide yet the man is gone whose very soul was wrapt up in them but now hath no benefit by them and then the stateliest room though never so richly hung and furnished is but a sad sight where's nothing else to be seen but the dead master in his coffin in the midst of it All dearest Relations are at once then snapt asunder The pleasantest childe now half fatherlesse turn's away his face as not being able to endure to see a dear Father die The dearest wife which was before the desire of thine eyes thou now Ezek. 24. 16. 21. Gen. 23. 4. desirest with Abraham to have buried out of thy sight Thy most loving friends may then stand by and weep over thee but cannot help thee and at last with a longum vale bid thee good night and so part and doth not this â—uth 1. 17 sting As for Honors and outward greatness 1 Sam. 4. 10. Phinehas his wife now dying calleth them Ichabod this sting prick's that swoln bladder and so his breath goe's forth and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all his thoughts all his goodly glistering thoughts as that Psal 146. 4 word seemeth to signifie perish Which words hold not forth a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Pope John the 22. would gather out of them as though after death his soul should sleep and think of nothing but to expresse that all his former great high thoughts in his life time then at death come to nothing For pleasures and former facetious and jovial merriments old Barzillaies 2 Sam. 19. 35. eyes grow dim in that evening when he was but now entred within the shadow of death but are quite closed up in this midnight in old Eccles 12. 5. age desire faileth but in death it is wholly extinct Death if nothing do it before will break many a knot of good fellows then adieu sworn fellow-drunkard well if you and I can now come to a good reckoning and adieu also you sweet Mistress and all that dalliance you wot of till you and I stand before our Judg and all that be brought to light which was done by us in secret And adieu to you too my more innocent merry companion nec ut soles dabis jocos the whole club of wits are now all amort and not one Jest more for now that God and Death are in good earnest it is past Jesting past Drinking Whoring yea rejoicing in wife or children or friends Or Riches which should they as with some Nations they are be buried with thee yet in that day of Prov. 11. 4 wrath they will not be able to profit thee for if in thy life time they do not as often they doe make themselves Prov. 23. 5 wings and flee away from thee yet in death thou wilt be taken from them thy close fist will be then open and all that dust which before thou gripedst in thy hand will then See Shickard in his Jus RegiuÌ„ cap. 6. Luke 12. 20. run through thy fingers and then thou fool whose shall all these things be Blessed Hezekiah who in this case could say of Gods Word and Promises and Providences In these things is the life of my spirit but Isa 38. 16. the very spirit of the worldlings life is wrapt up in this bundle of outward contentments so that if that threed be once cut and so all these be scattered and lost then as Micah said What have I more the man is Judg. 18. â—4 utterly undone and to whom in time of his life it was death to part with a penny it will be an hell at death to part with all as it was once said by one to a great Lord upon his shewing him his stately house and pleasant Gardens Sir You had need make sure of Heaven or else when you die you will be a very great loser Nor is this all for were it onely the losse of life and outward comforts of it that sting death fastneth even in the heirs of life 3. Thirdly therefore there is a deeper sting in it which the godly are freed from of which we read in the following Verse in these words The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law ie sin Rom. 5. 12. Puncturâ peccati morimur P. Martyr armeth death with its sting which otherwise could never have had power to hurt or touch us whatever the Socinian saith to the contrary and the law now broken doth ex accidente irritate and per se declare and manifest and aggravate sin and so giveth it its strength and death its warrant thus to arrest and execute us and hinc illae lachrymae hence is the deepest sting of death and deadliest groan of the dying sinner for that with death the weight both of sin and the law fall on him together which presseth him yet lower and woundeth him deeper even to the soul and conscience whilest he is hereby made sensible that his death is the wages of his sin so that he dieth not as a Rom. 6. 23 Martyr or barely as a Man but as a Malefactor under the guilt of sin and sense of Gods wrath and if there was a
painful sting of death in the two former particulars then in this third is the very poison of it That as the sting of a Bee may be very painful but This is the Hornet and Scorpion This Scorpions sting in the tail as those Rev. 9. 10. in the end of our life is most deadly as they use to say Maximè mortiferi morsus bestiarum morientium the biting of a dying beast is most deadly the sting of death if dipt in the venome of Gods wrath is both intolerable and incurable That facies Hypocratica which Physicians speak of of a spent dying man looks very ghastly but no sight in all the world more dreadful than to see an awakened dying sinner as a Saul Judas Francis Spira c. conflicting with death and sin and the law and Gods curse and wrath altogether If in a dying houre in stead of Gods reviving smile the sinner meeteth with his deadly frown so that when death hath made his grave his sin like a massie grave-stone Isa 24. 20. lie heavy upon him how miserably is that poor wretch pressed to death and how deadly is that groan when you may hear him sighing out his soul with this saddest mone Oh! I am so sick that I cannot live and yet woful wretch that I am Dr. Harris so sinful that I dare not die Oh that I might live Oh that I might die O that I might doe neither At non sic abibunt odia Friend you shall doe both because you are a sinner you must die but because you die in your sin you shall live in torment to eternity 4. For that is the last and worst sting of death which thrusts the sword in to the hilts that it is such a sting quo mortales ex hac vitâ Del-Rio Adag pag. 250. expellens ad mortem secundam exstimulat that this first death when come if better care be not before taken will prick us on and thrust us into a second for so was the tenor of the first sentence In dying thou shalt die So that one death Gen. 2. 17. leadeth on to another the first to the second that whatever it be which the unpardoned sinner suffereth in the first death it is but the beginning Matth. 24. 8. Deut. 32. 22. of sorrowes the fire now kindled will burn to the lowest hell for so we read of death mounted on his pale horse and hell following him Rev. 6 8. and that was in the time of the See C. à Lapide in Hos 13. 14 Gospel and not onely of the Law that after death cometh judgement Heb. 7. 29. and that when the body returneth to the dust the spirit shall return unto God who gave it Eccles 12. 7. if not to him as a Father to be received into his bosome then as to a Judge to receive its everlasting doom and if as the Apostle saith the Devil hath the power of death Heb. 2. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Targum habet imperium mortis Grotius you may easily gather that with some death and hell are not farre asunder and although he helped the Heathen to put out of their mindes the dreadfulnesse of it by the dream of their Elysian fields as he doth the Turks now by that of their Paradise yet to an awakened sinner now at the point of death to bee but in danger of it as not knowing whither he shall go leaveth him at a woful losse but if as they say of the Molle he hath then first his eyes open and so cometh to see himself now on the brow of the the hill and from that precipice now certainly falling into the lake of fire and brimstone he giveth himself utterly lost for ever And thus in all these four respects we see that death hath his sting 2. And Hades or the grave hath 2. Prov. 30. 15. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 5. 24. 2 Kings 2. 11. 1 Cor. 15. 51. Immutatio illa species mortis erit Beza in Heb. 9. 27. or will have the victory it being that open Sepulchre which still crieth Give Give till it have swallowed up all for it is appointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all men once to die Heb. 9. 27. even Enochs and Elijahs assumption and the change of those who shall be found alive at the last day being a kinde of death and an analogicall dissolution so that death having one age after another as it were mowed down the whole field of the world and as a last enemy having conquered all the great Conquerors of the earth and with them vanquished all else and still keeping the field will have thereby obtained a complete victorie 1. In thus bringing down all 2. So as never to have risen more as some conceive had it not been for Christ who as he is the Resurrection and the Life John 11. 25. so by him onely either as Head or Judge is the resurrection from the dead 1 Cor. 15. 21. 3. And yet further so as that the most of them that rise again shall presently sink down again into eternal death and so this sting prove's that worm which never dieth where the fire never goeth out Mark 9. 48. Igne quasi salietur vide Brugensem in locum Myrothec in John 3. 36. but where the sacrifice is salted with fire ver 49. burn's but consume's not fire being of a burning but salt of a preserving nature Perdit sed non disperdit cruciat ita ut nunquam perimat as Camero somewhere expresseth it So that to them the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will answer the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it will be both in victoriam and in perpetuum and so a signal and a final victory Now confider this ye that forget Vse Psa 50. 22. 1 King 14. 6. God for as the Prophet said to Jeroboams wife I am sent to you with heavy tidings this day if there be such a four-forked sting in death as we have seen in the former particulars then to you who are not as yet made partakers of the grace of 1 Pet. 3. 7. life here is matter of 1. Fear 2 Care First of Fear and O that the Vse 1 consideration of this sting might now prick your hearts kindly that the sting it self may not at last mortally wound them Seneca according to his surly Stoical Principle would perswade himself and others that it is ill to desire death but worse to fear it But the Word of God teacheth us that such as they have no cause to desire it but great cause heartily to fear it and that by reason of their fear of it they are all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 1. 15. Whence it is that 1. In their health and life they cannot endure their thoughts being fears seriously to think of it Like them who put far away the evil Amos 6. 3 4 5. 6. day and for that purpose chaunted to the sound of
never any more trouble nor the Devil tempt 3. Nor which is a far greater word God frown which yet in the time of our life he seeth just cause sometimes to doe and to vail his face from us but then we come to live not by faith which admits of doubting but by 1 Cor. 13. 12. Rev. 22. 4. vision and that face to face that morning will be as 2 Sam. 23. 4. without clouds because we shall be above them and in nearest conjunction with the Jam. 1. 17. Father of Lights with whom there is no over shadowing whatever the loansom estrangments be that we meet with here yet when Lazarus is once dead he who was kept out of the rich mans Luke 16. 32. gates is then found in Abrahams bosome the place of warmest love And that most lively warmth most lively felt in this chill and dark evening of death in it there is light Zech. 14. 7. in grace as well as in nature the afternoon Sun is oftentimes very warm and the setting Sun shines out sometimes most gloriously So Oecolampadius making good the splendor of his own name now dying and that of an uncomfortable death viz. the plague could lay his hand upon his breast say hic abundè lucis est here here in this dark evening is abundant light then then in that gloomy shadow of death have humble Beleevers and oftentimes none more then they who before had been most sad and broken-hearted met with divinest raptures ravishments of Gods love with gloriousest shines and most pleasing smiles of his countenance and sweetest kisses of his mouth as the loving mother kisseth the sweet babe and so layeth it down to sleep So the Maimonid More Nevoch parte tertia cap. 51. ad finem Buxtorf Lexic Râ—bin ad vocem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem in Florileg Hebr. pag. 205. Jewish Masters expound that Deut. 34. 5. of Moses his dying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad â—s Jehovae as though God did take away his soul with a kisse and so of their 903 kindes of death which they use to reckon up this their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the death which commeth by such a kisse they say is omnium placidissima of all most pleasant and comfortable which they say also Moses and Aaron and Miriam only dyed of but many besides them through Gods mercy have at that time known what the kisses of Christs mouth mean And yet this both in Moses and Aarons deaths is to this purpose singularly remarkable that whereas you read of Gods bidding Moses to goe up to Deut. 32. 49. 50. Numb 20. 25 26. Heinsii exercit sacrae in Matth. cap. 16. mount Nebo and there die and of Aaron to go up to mount Hor and strip him of his garments die there you shall not finde in either places that ut capistrati ad mortem mali trahebantur that as Malefactours they were dragged to it as to an execution but on the contrary without the least reluctance they did as they were bid like me thinks well natured children although others of the Family sit up latter and it may be have greater provisions preparing for them yet without crying or the least whimpering make themselves ready and go up to bed when their Father bids them and well they might although others staid behinde and were to be entertained with Canaans milk and hony which they were cut short of seeing they were thus sent to bed with a kisse never to have the least appearance of a frown more 4. But might we here adde and never Ezek. 28. 12. sin more you may say this would seal up the summe complete all and leave of this sting neither mark nor remembrance Nor will this be wanting and therefore in the last place I shall be bold to add this too For as sin in this life had as to the Beleever lost its condemning guilt and dominion so in death it will be deprived of its beeing or inexistence indeed as long we shal here continue to dwell in these houses of clay it will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which will keep possession and have its dwelling in us Rom. 7. 17. but when our souls shall then be dislodged of our bodies this incroaching and troublesome Inmate shall once for ever be thrust out of doors from both bodies and souls together the death of our body delivering us perfectly from this body of death by which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it s controverted whether be meant this our mortal body or the body of sin which Rom. 7. 24. Docet non finiri hos conflictus quandiu mortale corpus circumgestamus quando corpus peccati aliquando exuemus Paraeus in locum is more deadly I grant the latter but would not exclude the former because both of them are put together as when Samson died the Philistines died also together with Judg. 16. 30. Vide Annotat in V. T. incerti Autoris Canta brig 1653. In Lev. 11. 25. See Mr. Cotton on Eccles 7. 1. him This some think was typed out by that in the Law where it is so often spoken of mens being unclean until the evening but more fully and plainly asserted in the New Testament where the souls of just men once got to Heaven are said to be made perfect Heb. 12. 23. Other places are brought by some to the same purpose as that Rom. 6. 7. He he that is dead is freed from sin which though meant of a death to sin in mortification yet alludes to what is in natural death as Interpreters agree upon the place and those expressions of Christs presenting us to himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faultlesse Jude 24. not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing Eph. 5. 27. which to our particular persons is done in death Ecles 12. 7. and that also 1 Cor. 15. 26. where death is said to be the last enemy which is to be destroyed which they conceive it could not be if sin should remain in us undestroyed after death but because these places may seem to be capable of a satisfying answer I wave them and content my self with that one before mentioned I Confesse some * See Mr. B. his vindiciae legis pag. 118. Divines of very great worth conceive it is not death but Cinerefaction that wholy rids us of sin i. e. that we are not wholy freed from it as soon as the soul is departed and the body is now dead but when it is turned into dust and ashes and this they would inferre from the instance of Lazarus who after he had been John 11. dead four dayes was raised up to life yet so as he died again which yet he should not have done if the Image of God had in his first death been perfected in him and so he wholly freed from sin To which I briefly answer 1. That it is no good way to prove that to be the ordinary and general course which God takes
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theophylact upon the Text. He endured the conflict and in and by him gained the victory or as Chrysostome expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ille pugnaâ—â— sustinuit nos coronis triumphis suis ornavit P. Martyr Rev. 4. 10 11. Ezek. 21. 26 27. He got the victory and let us wear the Crown But shall not then humble and thankful ingenuity cast down our Crowns at his feet or rather set them on his head whose right it is and say thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created all is by him and from him and therefore let the praise of all be to him for ever It was 1. His death which gave death its deadly wound and by death be destroyed him who had the power of death Heb. â— 14. which is the Devil And this As most gloriously whilest thus in his greatest weaknesse he foileth Satan in his greatest strength vincit dum 2 Cor. 13. 4 vincitur when as a weak man he is overcome of death as the mighty Almighty God hee overcometh both death and him that had the power of it and on the very Crosse made a shew Coloss 2. 15. Musculus Rom. 6. 23. of him openly when he himself was there made a spectacle So most justly for seeing death is the wages onely of sinne he most righteously forfeited that his power and authority by inflicting death on him who 2 Cor 5. 21 knew no sin and thus Jeroboams arm 1 Kin. 13. 4 In Epitaph Nepot Vt Hydrus Crocodilum interficit P. Dammian li. 2. ep 18. Dentes infringes in nimis solido concoquere non poteris sed sicut Danielis bolo Babylonius draco eruciaberis crepabis Del Rio Adagial pag. 250. drieth up when stretched out to lay hold on Gods Prophet and the waspish angry Bee fastening her sting where shee should not hath lost both it and her life together This made Hierom insult over death illius morte tu mortua es devorasti deâ—orata es but withall he blesseth Christ for it Gratias tibi Christe Salvator quod tam potentem adversarium nostrum dum occideris occidisti its most just that death should die for seising on the Lord of Life who never deserved it and although we did yet just too that we should be delivered seeing our Surety hath satisfied And thus our blessed Redeemer by being lifted up on the Crosse fought with these our enemies from the higher ground and so mortally wounded their head and that spear which pierced his heart brake this string which else would have wounded ours in hoc signâ— vinces so that however other Souldiers are wont to be dismaied at the death of their Captains yet we are delivered and so animated by the death of ours his death is our life therefore let him have that praise which he purchased at so dear a price 2. His Resurrection is both the cause and pledge of ours 1 Cor. 15. 20 21. hath a speciall influence into our justification Rom. 4. 25. 8. 34. affording faith by which we are justified Rom. 5. 1. a sure handhold in that it clearly manifesteth that he had paid the debt when the prisoner was set free satisfied Gods Justice when the arrest of death was taken off and then O death where iâ— thy sting and by opening his own grave had done as much for ours and then O grave Ezek. 37. 12. where is thy victory 3. The imputation of his sufferings death and unrighteousnesse is that which in our justification takes off Gods revenging wrath and the condemning guilt of sin which our Apostle saith is the sting of death and so he saveth us from going down into the pit or at least bringeth us up out of it because he hath found a ransome Job 33. 24. 4. It is the grace of his Spirit by which we are enabled to mortifie the the deeds and lusts of the flesh Rom. 8. 13. which was another sting of sin and so of death which the finger of the Spirit of Christ only take's out It is not our strongest purposes or resolutions that will be able to over-master these enemies a foul sore til it be indeed healed will run though we say it shall not Nor will the Heathens and Philosophers Purgative virtues cleanse this sink in which the best of them so foully wallowed Nor the Papists Purgatories penances watchings whippings lousie shirts or S. Francis his kissing Bonavent in ejus vita cap. 2. or licking of Lepers sores which will cleanse this fretting leprosie The poor woman in the gospel after she had spent all she had on other miserable Physicians could not get her Mark 5. 25. 26 27. issue of blood stopped till she got a touch of Christs garment Porphyric himself confesseth that nothing else can effect this cleansing sola principia Morn de veritat Rel. cap. 27 hanc purgationâ— perficere possuÌ„t By which Principia some conceive were meant the 3 Persons in the blessed Trinity but whatsoever he meant by them I am sure it was the blood of the sacrifice Lev. 14. 14. 15 16. and the oil that cleanseth the Leper in the Law and that by them was meant the blood of Christ and the grace of his Spirit which alone hath power to cleanse and heal both them then and us now under the Gospel 5. They are also the consolations and comforts of the same Spirit of Christ which are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Lenitives which actually formally take away all that pain and anguish which the sting of sin and death make Gal. 5. 22. Rom. 14. 17. in our consciences such joy and peace are fruits of this spirit and spring from no other root It is the Lord Joh. 10. 11. See Ainsworth on Gen. 25. 2. Jesus who is our good Shepherd and as it is the good Shepherds work and office first to feed his sheep and then secondly to make them lie down and rest so he onely doeth both these to our souls feedeth us in green pastures Psal 23. 2. and makes us lie down at noon yea and at night too Cant. 1. 7. the first in our life time and the other event in death and thence no sting in death to a good Christian 6. Finally it will be his last glorious appearing at the bright lustre whereof the shadow of death will then quite vanish and death it self which till then had continued and prevailed and just then having cut down all before it had as it were completed its conquest shall then for ever be swallowed up in victory And thus we see our Christ who is our all from first to last in this Col. 3. 11. great atchievement of our victory over death put down all and therefore to him most deservedly let be all the praise and if the Philistims when
for Gods Audit and when we have disposed of our goods to others we might be at more leisure and vacant the more safely to bequeath our souls to God so enter upon our heavenly inheritance but it is but our sin and misery that we lay this double burden on the tired horse-back that the ending of our reckonings with the world and the beginning of our accounts with God are both put off to be made on a death-bed and hence commeth many mens fear of death the man would not die till his Will be made and so he then setteth about it but it usually beginning with his bequeathing of his soul to God and then this sad thought commeth in but upon what acquaintance or grounded assurance which puts the poor man to a stop the wil is for the present laid aside and the sealing of his pardon he then thinks needeth first to be looked after and so it may be at the last neither of them is effected with comfort such men being like those who have neglected to do their work on the weelday and so cannot rest when the Sabbath com's but Heaven sets us a better copy to write after God having finished his works in six dayes Gen. 2. 2. Exod. 31. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rested and was refreshed on the seventh and our Saviour when he had said it is finished then he quietly gave up the ghost and so rested in the grave John 17. 4. 19 20. which was typified by the Jewish Sabbath Happy we if in this working day of our life we could dispatch our greatest businesse first but yet all our other worldly occasions also in time that the day of our death may be our Sabbath in which we may rest from our labours and feriari Rev. 14. 13 Deo even keep a true holy day indeed to God that then with our Saviour we may say it is finished and with Paul we have finished our course and in running our race have outgone all 2 Tim. 4. 7. 8. our griefs and fears and then may have nothing else to do but onely quietly to take our rest and receive the Crown 6. But because our apostle telleth V. 56. us that the sting of death is sin and this as was before expressed both in the guilt and defilement of it they both make death terrible and us then fearful 1. The guilt of sin if then unpardoned or but so apprehended much terrifieth the conscience and so rendreth death very formidable whilest it is looked at as the wages of sin or Rom. 6. 13 Gods arrest and so the fore-runner or beginning of a more terrible execution and as its death to a malefactor to go even out of prison if to be brought So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred let him be condemned before his Judge so to such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a guilty condemned sinner his death is phrased to be a bringing him to the King of terrors Job 18. 5. with 14. and well it may when even a beloved child is afraid to come into his loving Fathers presence when he is angry some such trouble of spirit some Isa 38. 3. Divines conceive Hezekiah lay under when he wept so sore at the message of death and David also when he desired that respite Psal 39. 13. And therefore our cure here is faith's timely and effectual application of the blood and death of Jesus Christ the only tried cure of this tremor cordis for so it s expresly said that he by death hath delivered us Heb. 2. 14 15. from the bondage of the fear of it So that the more or lesse that we are able to apply Christ and his death the more or lesse we are afraid of our own and hence it is that 1. Believers by the clearer discoveries of Christ and his death under the brighter light of the Gospel are lesse in the dark in the gloomy shadow of death then the faithful under the See Calvin in John 19. 40. Rom. 8. 15 Law Their darker vails and shadows had lesse of the spirit of Adoption and confidence and more of the spirit of bondage and fear as the Apostle hinteth in the fore-mentioned place to the Hebrewes where he sheweth that Christ by taking part with the children of flesh and blood in his Incarnation did free us from that bondage and so whereas Moses the giver of the law desired to live Deu. 3. 24 25. Paul a Preacher of the Gospel desireth to be dissolved Phil. 1. 23. when once the Sun of righteousnesse was now more up yea Simeon crave's leave to depart Luke 2. 29. as its first rising 2. Hence also it is that among severall Believers now under the Gospel such use to be more joyful and lesse fearful of death who by faith have more fully applyed Christ and to whom he hath been most manifested and of all such none more then they that have been most humbled their hearts most broken with sense of sin and afterwards have had them more soundly healed and more feelingly comforted and enlarged with the assurance of Gods favour in Christ the bone broken and well set again proves stronger and the Lute broken if well put together makes not the worse but rather the better musick Of all the Apostles Paul at his conversion and in after-sufferings was most humbled and none of them expresse more none so much cheerful readinesse and desire to die in Christ yea to die for him And therefore as our Saviour said Mar. 11. 22 have we faith in God oh that we had more and then could act more faith in God! Could the sting of a fiery serpent make us daily look more up to the brazen Serpent sense of sin drive us more to Christ to get more assurance of part in his death wee should thereby even when we receive the sentence of death be more able to trust in him who quickeneth the dead 2 Cor. 1. 9. then should we not be pinioned as condemned Malefactors are wont to be but have an hand of Faith free and at liberty to lay hold on Christ the Lord of Life yea and gladly reach it it out to receive death it self as that which will more fully unite us to him when the babe is in its mothers arms or laid down with a kisse it then sleep's quietly 2. But Secondly the defilement of sin although faith can see it pardoned will make a child-like shamefacednesse blush and fear so to come into a Fathers presence My little 1 John 2. 28. children saith the Apostle abide in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his comming and although the most loving wife heartily desireth her husbands coming home yet she could be content that he would stay out so long til he have righted things in the house if for the present they lie unhandsomely and out of order With Vzziah to be lepers
it and say that God promiseth to his meek servants that their hearts shall Psa 22. 26. live for ever and if for ever then in death it self and thence it is that such generous blood indeed commeth then to such hearts which enableth many to end their lives not in mournfull Elegies but in most joyfull songs of praise and thanksgiving or without any dolorous sense or mournful complaint of the sting of death and where is it then when it is thus earnestly desired and so welcomly entertained I grant that this is not so with all believers Hezekiah in this case did not sing like the Swan but chattered Isa 38. 14. as the Crane and mourned as the Dove And many may bee the reasons why God in wisdome and faithfulnesse may let some Believers setting Sun at least for a time be muffled up in a cloud the fault is in themselves that wheras Satan useth then most fiercely to cast his fiery darts they then are not carefull Ephes 6. 10. to hold up the shield of faith which might quench them but by their willing or wilfull unbelief take a course to thrust them in deeper The Bee Animasque in Vulnere ponunt Virg. Geor. 4. dieth when she hath left her sting in the wound but if the man who is stung carelesly let it alone he may come to more smart by it which by his care timely to get it out might be prevented like carelesnesse of a worse sting breedeth greater smart in the case wee now speak of What therefore hath bin said of a Believers security and comfort in this kinde is to be understood of him as such viz. as he approveth himself to be a true believer stirring up and acting his faith in Christ Otherwise although the second death shal have no power over him yet as he may be found carelesse and negligent the first death if it surprize him in that posture may very sorely sting and wound him for as it is said of mans laws so it is as true of Gods promises they favour not them that are asleep but such as are awake and watchfull and so to such a wakefull Christian death is but a sleep indeed not it self not death but an enterance Miseri infideles mortem appellant Fideles vero quid nisi pascham Bernard de natura dignit divini amoris into life as Bernard saith miserable unbelievers call it death but to faithful believers what is it but a passeover but a Jubile Though in it self it be an enemy yet by the death and life Christ it is so disarmed that his servants can earnestly desire it and gladly welcome it by reason of the great good it bringeth with it and as for all the evil it may seem to threaten or inflict can securely despise it and victoriously triumph over it and with Paul here say O death where is thy sting c. For the further clearing whereof that we more distinctly see in what sense the sting of death is taken out and the power of the grave abolished as to believers we are to take notice 1. Negatively that is not so to be understood as though they should never either die or meet with any anguish in death 1. That death should not so far sting them as not to take away their bodily life from them that was once given out of John should be true of them that they should never die for John 21. 23. so the longest lived of them have done Gen. 5. and the wisest shall Psal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 49. 10. and the best oftentimes soonest as sadly appeared in the untimely deaths of Judah's and our English Josiah for as for this death Gods sentence in dying thou shalt die or Gen. 2. 17. thou shalt surely die upon Adams sin both to himself and his whole posterity in ordinary course was and continueth irreversible so that it is appointed for men that is generally Heb. 9. 27. for all men once to die and because the best are sinfull whilest they live therefore they must die once that once at last they may sin no more Obj. And if it be replyed that that sentence upon the first Adam is taken off from the faithful by Christ the second Adam Answ I answere true but yet in Gods most wise order and method and that appeareth in two particulars 1. That although as to all curse and wrath and vindicative Justice that was at first in it all that is taken away by the imputation of Christs satisfaction in our justification yet the full freedom from it yea and from worse evils then death is that we might be kept more humble and dependant on God and Heaven at last more welcome is carried on and perfected by degrees As on the one side when the sentence of death was passed upon Adam and so he was a dead man yet he did not at that instant presently die as deadly poison taken doth not alwaies kill presently but some after a shorter and some after a longer time so here on the other side the most Soveraign medicine may not perfectly cure at the first but when it hath had its perfect work and although our Redemption by Christ be full and our recovery by him will be made compleate before he have done with us yea even at the first we are as I said in our justification freed from the state of death yet the guilty malefactor is not alwaies presently taken out of prison upon his first receiving of his pardon nor we at the first wholly quit from the miseries of this life nor from bodily death no nor from sin which to a godly heart is more bitter then death Did not our Heavenly Father know how both for the present and the future to improve them all to his own glory and our good he could would cut short his work in righteousnesse and at the first Rom. 9. 28 at once pardon guilt extinguish sin remove sorrow and abolish death simul semel omnia but a man and so sin and death in the godly may have his deaths wound before he be quite dead and a conquered captived enemy may for some time be kept alive and have much good use made of him before he be finally executed and so it is in this divine Oeconomy of Gods grace to his servants and in his processe against these our enemies he rescueth us orderly and by degrees from one enemy after another from one insult of the same enemy after another 2. And which is the second particular in this divine method of God observable he doth deliver us from the worst first first from that which is wholly inconsistent with his favour to us and our interest in him as First from his revenging wrath and the condemning guilt of sinne and so from the state of death in our justification Rom. 5. 1 2. and 8. 1 2 c. And therewith from the dominion of sin in our sanctification