of the dust to glory at the last day And as the death of a Saint is pretious to God so 't is very gainful and advantagious to the Saint himself for 1. It separates him from all his sins corruptions impurities imperfections from his body of death 2. From this vile and wicked world as the Angels separated Lot from Sodom 3. From all failings and weakness from all afflictions and temptations from all Crosses and grief whatever This is a pretious separation but it never separates him from the love of God in Christ Jesus so far is it from this that it brings him to the immediate and full fruition of God and his love to see him face to face and so to be satisfied with his love and likeness Why then should a believer fear death let death be their fear and dread who are out of Gods favour and have no interest in the love of God in Christ Jesus but let not the beloved of the Lord fear it which is so much their friend because God loves them as to bring them into the bosome of his love and to a present and perfect Union with himself which was the reason why Job so little feared it and St. Paul so Job 3 14 15. Phil. 1. 23. much dâ—â—ired it having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better yea best of all Use 2. This doctrine speaks terror to the wicked You may think it strange that I should draw terror out of so comfortable a truth but consider this comfort belongs only to those that are in Christ Jesus as for those that are out of Christ they are out of the love and favour of God both in life and in death For the present the case of a wicked man is sad in death it will be worse 1. 'T is sad in this life because they live without God out of the love and favour of God in a state of enmity and wrath and all outward blessings they injoy are no signs of Gods special love 2. In death 't is worse 't is bad and sad enough to live out of Gods favour but worse and more sad to dye out of it for then they dye eternally and death to them will be a sad separation for it separates them 1. From their presumptuous conceit hopes and belief of their interest in the love and favour of God What is the hope of the Hypocrite when God taketh away his Soul Now he hopes he is in the love of God but when God by death separates his Soul from his body he separates him also from all his hopes these dye with him and he and his hopes of being in the love of God perish together Prov. 11. 7. Prov. 11. 7. 2. Death separates the wicked from that common and general love of God wherewith he loveth all his creatures especially mankind manifested by his patience and long sufferings by many blessings and comforts of life by his ordinances and many Church priviledges yea and common gifts and graces now death separates them from this common and general love of God and all the forenamed fruits of it Death puts an end to Gods patience separates them from Gods protection from all things that were good and comfortable to them here in this life from all Gods ordinances and from those common graces they have the oyl which they had in their Lamps goeth out when death comes 3. It separates them not only from this general love of God and all that good that is in it but it separates them to everlasting punishment from the presence of the Lord God will say to them then depart from me I never knew you I never loved you Go ye cursed that never had any interest in my everlasting love into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and for his Angels Use 3. If death it self cannot separate the faithful from the love of God in Christ Jesus then as you desire comfort at death labour to get an interest in and an assurance of this love If the arms of Gods love have once embraced thee neither death nor Hell can get the thence for ever the Sanctuary to which thou art fled is inviolate the rock impregnable the City invincible and thou art safe layed up to all eternity This assurance will make thee triumph over death as an enemy that cannot hurt thee a Serpent that cannot sting thee a privation that cannot deprive thee of Gods love O death thou maist say where is thy sting O Grave where is thy Victory for neither the one nor the other can separate thee from Gods love O this will sweeten death which is a bitter thing make death a sweet sleep and the Grave an easy Bed to rest in when we know that it shall not feparate us from but bring us to the full injoyment of him who hath loved us and whom we have loved and longed for O then strive after this assurance in the diligent use of all means search for it seek for it hear it pray for it and wait for it its worth seeking for if once attained you will be so far from fearing death that you will say with old Simeon Lord mine eyes have seen thy Luk. 2. 29 30. salvation my Soul is assured of thy love therefore now let thy Servant depart in peace And here I may set before you as an example to follow this pretious Saint whose sad funerals we now celebrate who by the use of means servent prayer self examination search of the Scriptures meditation on the promises and long patience had attained this assurance this full and certain perswasion of Gods love for when death approched she could say I know in whom I have believed and I go to my God and Father that the time of her redemption was at hand redemption from pain and sickness from sorrow and fin It is not indeed my manner often in this place to make Encomiums of the dead and the Jews have a saying that non facienda sunt monumenta justis monuments are not to be made for the righteous whose words and works are their best monuments and which praise as the righteous man so the vertuous woman in the Gates Prov. 31. 31. In this respect our deceased Pro. 31. 31. friend needs no monument to perpetuate the memory of her worth Her own works will Publish her praise to posterity Yet that I may not seem by silence to bury her vertues with her Ashes give me leave for a few words and that for these two reasons 1. That God may have the glory whilst we shew forth the praises of this Saint whom he long since called from darkness to light in his Kingdom of grace and hath now translated into his Kingdom of Glory 2. That the world may have the benefit of so worthy a pattern and example And though I might inlarge much on this subject yet take what I shall say of her in a few words 1. More generally She was richly
earnestly call for a Bible with these words come come death approcheth let us gather some flowers to comfort this heart in this hour and turning with his own hand to the 8. Chapt. to the Romans he gave it to a Minister present and bad him read and at the end of every Verse Mr. Holland made a Pause gave the sense of it and so continued his meditation and exposition for two hours On the suddain he said to the Minister that was reading to him O stay your reading what brightness is that I see have you lighted any Candles to whom was answered no it is the Sun shine Sun shine saith he nay my Saviours shine now farewel world welcome Heaven the Day-star from on high hath visited my heart O speak it when I am gone and Preach it at my funeral God dealeth familiarly with men I see his mercy I see his Majesty whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell but God knows I see things unutterable And a little before he dyed ravished in Spirit he raised himself up and shut up his blessed life with these blessed words Oh what an happy change shall I make from darkness to light from night to day from death to life from sorrow to sollace from a sinful world to an heavenly Being O my dear Brethren Sisters and Friends iâ— pittys me to leave you behind yet remember my death when I am gone and what I now feel I hope you shall feel ere you dye that God doth and will deal familiarly with men And now ye blessed Angels bear me O bear me into the bosome of my best beloved Amen Amen come Lord Jesus come quickly and so fell asleep in the Lord. So Mr. Bolton boasted at his death to a friend what he felt in his Soul I am said he by the wonderful mercies of God as full of comfort as my heart can hold and feel nothing in my Soul but Christ with whom I heartily desire to be So Mrs. Catherine Britterge a Holly woman said at her death O my sweet Saviour dost thou so love me who am but dust and ashes O how wonderful how wonderful is thy love O thee joyes the joyes that I feel in my Soul they be wonderful they be wonderful Many like examples might be given of Saints dying as full of the sense of Gods love as heart could hold and more then their tongues could express I shall instance but in one more and it is in this pretious servant of Jesus Christ whose funerals we solemnize this day her death did not separate her from the sense and feeling of Gods love how sweetly did shee apply the promises for her comfort and in her greatest weakness by the shength of her faith drow those brests of consolation which are then sweetest when death is nearest How comfortably did she speak to her Relations and friends weeping about her desiring them not to mourn for her but to rejoyce rather because the time of her redemption was at hand redemption from sin from sorrow from sickness and pain which she had long suffered What a plerophory and full perswasion she had of her salvation and future happiness appears by her words to my self which were these I know in whom I have believed and will not cast away my confidence And also by her last and remarkable words to her dear and disconsolate Husband which she uttered a little before she breathed out her Soul into the bosom of her best beloved alluding to the words of her Saviour she said I goe to my Father and thy Father to my God and thy God By all these instances you may see death cannot separate a believer from the sense of Gods love much less from his love Thus you have the doctrinal part a few words by way of Application Use 1. If death cannot separate the faithful from the love of God thâ—s then is a sweet comfort to Gods Children against the fear of death of what sort soever in what manner soever Though there be many separaâ—â—ons in death terrible to flesh and blood dreadful to nature as 1. It is a separation from our dear friends and relations from husband wife and children from Father and Mother death plucks us from all these at once this is dreadful to nature but yet no separation from Gods love It only takes us from friends on Earth to friends in Heaven it brings us to the general assembly of the first born to Jesus the mediaâ—our to Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect So that by this separation we doe but change our place not our company and our faithful friends which we leave behind us shall shortly follow after us co 〈…〉 to us and we and them shall ever be with the Lord. 2. The death of the body is a separation from all our Earthly comforts from all our worldly injoyments and accommodations and this is uncomfortable to nature too He that hath House and Land Money and Stock flocks and heards riches and honours high dignities and great preferments in the world must take a final farewel of all these when death comes The Fool and his full Barns rich stores and goods for many years must suddenly and ever lastingly part when death aproacheth and this is sad to him that hath nothing in store in another world But such a separation is not terrible or uncomfortable to a Child of God because he is assured though these things leave him yet God loves him which is better to him then all the comforts of life and will bring him ever by death to better comforts to a building an house in Heaven to inherit all things to a rich and glorious purchase to an everlasting Kingdom to joyes unspeakable felicity inconcevable and to Rivers of pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore 3. The death of the body is the separation of the Soul from thee body which is most terrible to nature that the body and Soul these old friends must now part the body to return to the dust as it was and the Soul to God that gave it and Oh with what bitterness with what throbs and groans with what sighs and tears with what pangs and pains do these long and intimate acquaintance usually part But though death part Soul and body yet neither the Soul nor the body of a Saint from the love of God Psal 116. 15. Pretious Psal 116. 15. in the sight of the Lord is the death of all his Saints A poor Child of God lying upon his death bed bemoans himself his friends also grieve and mourn for him and in the sight of the world he is in a grievous and miserable Estate but in the sight and estimation of God his death is very pretious and dear the Lord loves him loves his Soul in its separation from the body and receives it as a pretious Jewel into the very besome of his love He loves his dead body yea his very dust and will raise it again out
a follower of Christ to endeavour after a further and greater knowledge of God and of his Son whom to know is Life Eternal All knowledge and all Sciences invented and revealed by the wise men of the world without the knowledge of Jesus Christ by whom remission of Sins and Eternal happiness is obtained are vain and unprofitable What doth it avail a man to know the height of the Heavens the bredth of the Earth the depth of the Sea and the course and influence of the Stars if in the mean time he is ignorant of God and the weighty concernments of Eternity and his Conscience tells him he is unworthy of the Earth and without a right to Heaven Suppose a man could Compose and take a view and have perfect knowledge of this Terrestial Globe and all things in it and after that as the Devil proffered our Saviour enjoy it and all the Kingdoms and Glory of it for the time of his Life if yet he were ignorant of heavenly things and had not by Christ a title to a more enduring substance he were of all men most miserable and in truth knew Si Christum nescis nihil est si caetera ai ces Si Christum disces nihil est si caetera nescis nothing enjoyed nothing The knowledge of Christ therefore is to be prized and preferred which only can make the souls of men truly happy for the excellency of this knowledge St. Paul counted all things but loss and dung The like esteem I hope Phil. 3 7 8. you have of all things here below in comparison of this divine and saving knowledge You go down into the Sea in Ships and see the wonders of the Lord in the deep O! Let the wonderful Visions which you behold and the wonderful deliverances which you often receive augment your awe of his dreadful Majesty and cause you to walk humbly and thankfully before him undertake all in his name and for his glory jo may you be assured of success and inriching returns Forget not when you are in the depth of the Sea with Jonah to make your prayers to him accomplish and fullfil all your Vows and Promises made to the Almighty in times of danger and extremity that so he may be your deliverer again in time of need And when by his providence he Calls you Swit Christ mans Call 2. p. 477. forth to your Lawful employments then do you and all that Embark with you take faith for your guide Scripture for your Compass an holy fear for your sounding line the Son of Righteousness for your Loadstar Hope for your Anchor the white linnen of the Saints imputed Righteousness with a Red Cross in it of precious blood for your Flagg with this Motto Save us Master or we Perish And I beseech the God of the Sea and Dry Land to be your continual Convoy his Spirit to be your Pilate in all your Courses that so at last after all your tumblings and tossings hazzards and hardshaps in the toublesome Sea of this world You may arrive with top and top gallant richly laden with Spiritual good things at the blessed harbour of everlasting rest Heaven and receive for your reward Love Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen So prayeth Your obliged Loving Friend Samuel Peck August 18. 1671. The Inseparable Union between Christ and a Believer c. Opened from that Text ROM 8. 38 39. For I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor Height nor Depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. AS among Pearls which are all excellent some excell others So in Books of Holy Scripture as in the Old Testament the Book of the Psalms containing an Anotamy of the Soul in the New Testament after the divine History of our Saviour the Epistles among the Epistles St. Pauls among St. Pauls this to the Romans is most excellent which contains a methodical Catechise wherein the grounds of Theology are laid down in most excellent order As 1. The misery of man by nature 2. The means of delivery by Christ 3. How man comes to be partaker of Christ viz by faith whereby he is justified in the sight of God 4. He shews that this man that is thus justified is also sanctified Chap. 6. 5. That his Sanctification though it be throughout yet it is not so perfect but there is a remain of Corruption in him which doth much perplex and disquiet a Child of God as the Apostle sheweth in his own person Chap. 7. 6. Here in this Chapter he makes an end of the point of Justification and shews that though there remain Corruption in Gods Children yet seeing they walk not after it but after the Spirit it shall not prejudice their salvation verse 1. there is therefore now no Condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus who walk not aftr the flesh but after the Spirit This eighth Chapter placed in the midst of the Epistle is called by some Divines a pleasant knot of the Garden or Paradice of God for the faithful to delight themselves in a breast full of the milk of Consolation for such as are born again to suck and be satisfied with It consists of three parts 1. The First part contains matter of Consolation against the remainders of Sin and Corruption in us from 1. to 17. verse 2. The Second affords true Consolation against the manifold afflictions to be endured in this Life to the 29. and 30. verse 3. The Third part is a Conclusion full of all Comfort drawn from the immutable love of God in Christ to all the faithful causing them to triumph like conquerours in the midst of their tryalls ver 28 29. I am perswaded that neither death shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. He whom God loves is happy though he knows it not he that knows God loves him knows himself to be happy this happy knowledge our blessed Apostle had which made him in his own name and in the name of all the beloved of God to make this glorious insultation over all the enemies of his and their happiness that they could not separate him or them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus In the Words you have 1. His and their Assurance 2. The ground of it 1. The assurance is of the immutability of Gods love to the faithful from whose affection nothing can make separation I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life c. 2. The ground of this assurance because the free love of God to the faithful is founded upon Christ Jesus whose merits are infinite and whose efficacy is omnipotent therefore Gods love is immutable and can never fail In the first you have 1. An enumeration of some particulars nine in number which if any thing could separate us from Gods love it
were likely to be some of these which he nameth either Death or Life or Principallities c. 2. Because the Apostle could not insist in the induction or bringing in of all particulars he useth a general comprehensive expression of all things that nothing might be excepted Nor any other Creature 3. The certainty or fulness of St. Pauls perswasion or assurance of faith concerning all these that not any one of them can nor all of them together shall be able to separate us from the love of God I am persswaded i. e. I am fully perswaded of it certainly certain of it and insallibly sure of it and I here make it known to all the world O Paul saith one great is thy faith In the second you have 1. The persons that are said to be in Gods love St. Paul and all believers 2. The ground and foundation of all Gods love which he bears and manifests to believers Christ Jesus 3. The special interest that the faithful have in Christ Jesus set forth by a note of relation betwixt Christ and them Our Lord. I am perswaded i. e. I am fully The meaning of the words certain by what I have heard out of Gods Word I do not go by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S il ex verbi predicatione effecaci ut indicat tacitè hos Verbo Beza thinkings and guessings I am upon a sure ground it is not a morral Conjecture but my faith and confidence yea my full assurance of faith That 1. Neither Death nor Life i. e. of the body also all extreams of prosperity and adversity whereby we may be either allured or terrified 2. Nor Angels good and bad spirits if it were possible they should concurr to separate us from Christ Jesus 3. Nor Principallities nor Powers the power of Kings Emperours Popes Tyrants throughout the whole world 4. Nor things present nor things to Come all events good or bad which now or hereafter may befall us 5. Nor any other Creature not any other thing Created of what sort soever how great soever or how terrible soever it may seem to us 6. Shall be able to separate us from the love of God the love of God is to be taken here as before passively for the love wherewith he Verse 35. loveth us 7. Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord which God the father bears to us and which comes to us in and through Christ Jesus Thus you have the meaning of the words Now I come to the particular points in the Text which are too many to be taken notice of at present it would be too much work for the short time alloted for this Exercise I shall therefore select from the words two or three observations which may best suit with the sad occasion of our present meeting and speak to them as time shall give leave and they are these Prop. 1. That a Christian in this life may be perswaded or assured that he shall be saved I am perswaded c. Prop. 2. That there is nothing in Heaven Earth or Hell nothing that is now or shall be hereafter can possibly separate the faithful from the love and favour of God which he bears to them in Christ Jesus their Lord. Prop. 3. That Death it self shall not be able to separate a Believer from Gods love in Christ Jesus I begin with the first of these viz. That a Christian in this life may be perswaded or assured that he shall be saved And here I must speak somewhat for 1. Explication 2. Probation 1. For Explication This assurance hath several denominations in Scripture I. It is called knowledge very often 1 Joh 3. 2. We know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scientia 1 Joh. 3. 2. 14 19 24 when he shall appear we shall be like him So we know that we are translated from Death to Life ver 14. We know we are of the Truth ver 19. And we know that we are of God ver 24. So 1 Joh. 5. 19. and so 2 Cor. 5. 1. We know that if our Earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God c. Now this knowledge is not a speculative knowledge but an experimental knowledge A man cannot know he shall be saved as he knows what Faith is and what Repentance is but it is obtained by long experience by reflection of Conscience and Faith upon our selves whereby we evidently see that we are in a good and gracious estate experimentally descerning what God hath done for us and that upon such grounds as these Being new creatures walking in the light walking after the Spirit not after the Flesh loving the Brethren and the like II. It is called a perspicuous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 manifestation when Christ manifests himself to the soul that loves him as not unto the world Joh 14. 21 22 23. He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will Joh. 14. 21 22 23. manifest my self unto him and 22. ver Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self unto us and not unto the world Now this manifestation is Christs act who being a free Agent may suspend his own act and withdraw himself therefore this assurance may be interrupted may be overclouded and a child of God of Light may walk in darkness and see no light Esa 5. 10. III. It is called boldness so t is usually translated Heb. 4. 16. Let us come boldly to the Throne of grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fiducia Heb. 4. 16. Eph. 3. 12. and Ephes 3. 12. In whom we have boldness and access with Confidence Now this boldness is the boldness of faith not of presumption it is an holy boldness not an impudent boldness it is a child-like boldness an undaunted yet an humble dutyful looking God in the face there was this boldness of faith in the Woman in the Gospel in touching Christ though She did not presumptuously croud upon him as others did in the throng IV. It is called full assurance noting to us that it is gradual not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prena certioratio Heb. 10. 22. given all at once but there is a growth in it or a growing to it by degrees There may be assurance and a good measure of assurance though there be not full assurance All assurance is not of the highest degree neither doth assurance in the highest degree exclude all doubting Most think as long as they have doubts they have so assurance but they must know that while they are here they shall know but in part they shall be imperfect in the knowledge of Scripture which is their rule of trying imperfect in the knowledge of their own obscure and deceitful hearts some strangeness to God and themselves there will still remain some darkness will overspread the face of their souls Obj. But why doth St. Paul call it a fulness of faith or a full assurance Answ St. Paul calls it so â—n comparison of lower degrees â—nd
assured of Gods love thou art assured to be saved for nothing can separate thee from this love nor deprive thee of this salvation And so I pass to the second doctrine where I must be more brief The doctrine is this Doct. 2. There is nothing in Heaven Earth or Hell nothing that now is or shall be hereafter can possibly seperate the faithful from the love and favour of God which he bears to them in Christ Jesus their Lord. Having loved his own he loves them to the end Joh. 13. 1. but with Joh. 13. 1. what love with an everlasting love Jer. 31. 3. with a love of antiquity Jer. 31 3. and perpetuity to eternity my love is the same And it must needs be that nothing can devide betwixt God and the faithful or separate them from his love because he hath made a covenat with them to be their God Jer. 31. 33. Jer. 31. 33. which he hath promised shall not fail He hath betrothed and married them to himself as his spouse and that not for a day or for years and Ages but for ever Hos 2. 19. Hos 2. 19. now God is not a man that he should lye he is not subject to change no change in the world can make a change in him Mal. 3. 6. I am Mal. 3. 6. the Lord I change not He cannot be unfaithful in his promise now he hath promised love to his Children he will never take it from them the mountains shall depart and the Hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee Isa 54. 10. Nor is there any imbecility Isa 54. 10. or weakness in God his power is infinite therefore no creature in Heaven Earth or Hell can pluck us from the love of God Joh. 10. 29. Joh. 10. 29. The freeness of Gods love speaks the perpetuity of it he loves not upon external motives not for any thing in the creature but freely and as nothing could move him to love so nothing in the creature can move him to break off his love His love is free when we were enemies he loved us and 't is fervent a vehement flame love as strong as death many waters cannot quench it nor floods of water drown it invincible love Cant. 8 Cant. 8. 6 7. 6 7. Se what our Saviour saith of the fervency of Gods love to the faithful Joh. 17. 23. and hast loved Joh. 17. 23. them as thou hast loved me God loves the faithful his Children by adoption as he loves Christ his Son by Eternal generation with the same love though not with the same degrees of love now nothing can hinder or break of Gods love from Christ his Son he and his Father being one Joh. 10. 30. and Joh. 10. 30. if not from Him then not from them for they also are one in him Joh. 17. 21. and thou hast loved them Joh. 17. 21. as thou hast loved me saith our Saviour This may serve for the proof of the point now let me improve it briefly Use 1. If there be nothing in Heaven Earth or Hell that can possibly separate the faithful c. then this Doctrine affords matter of consutation of those who hold that a Child of God may utterly fall away from Gods love may to day be loved of God and to morrow out of his love and favour a most uncomfortable Doctrine directly opposite to Gods word and the truth now delivered It is granted that true believers may fall from or loose the sense of Gods love as the spouse did Cant. 5. and Cant. 5. David oft complains of Gods hideing his face and the Church of Gods forsaking her Psal 77. 9. Psal Psal 77. 9. Psal 88. 14. Psal 60. 1. 88. 14. and Psal 60. 1. but they were not separated from the love of God though the sense and feeling of Gods love was separated from them Gods love is an everlasting unchangable invincible love it is founded upon Christ in Christ you are Elected in Christ you are beloved and in Christ all Gods promises are yea and amen and 't is Christ that makes intercession for you continually Can any thing separate Christ from his Fathers love then something may separate Gods Children from the love of their Father no God must cease to be himself if he cease to love his Children Object 1. Though persons cannot though things cannot though creatures cannot seperate c. yet Sin may and doth Isa 59. 2. Your iniquities Isa 59. 2. have separated between you and your God Answ What separation is there meant the following words declare your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear this as I said before is only a separation from the sense of Gods love not from his love it self If raigning sins could not hinder Gods love at first Ezek 16. 8. when thou Ezek. 16. 8. layest in thy blood I looked upon thee and said behold thy time is a time of love then the sins and failings and infirmities of Gods Children when they are in the Estate of Gods love and favour cannot break of Gods love and favour from them as we may see in the spouse David St. Peter so Rom. 5. 10. Rom. 5. 10. Object 2. This doctrine breeds presumption leaves no place for fear for this doctrine being true there is no cause of fear at all Answ 1. whom God loves thus with an immutable love them he makes fearful to offend him and this fear is a principal means to preserve them from falling into sin Jer. 32. 40. Jer. 32. 40. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me 2. The belief and assurance of this that nothing can separate us from Gods love breeds in a Child of God love to God again we love him for loving us first and an high esteem of his love that is so sure and certain and this causeth fear in the heart a filial fear to offend so loving and so everloving a Father which fear in Scripture is opposed to Carnal security and presumption 3. It is false that such as are beloved of God and know it have no cause of fear for though those whom God loves he loves to the end and will never disinherit them or utterly cast them of yet if they be not fearful to offend him though he love them yet because he loves them he will chasten them as the Apostle speaks Heb. 12. 6. and in Heb. 12. 6. what kind he will scourge them and how long his rod shall lye upon them and how deeply he will wound them with lashes that the Lord only knows therefore one beloved of God and assured of his love hath somewhat to fear besides eternal damnation he hath
cause to fear with an Holy fear lest by sin he displease God his loving Father and so provoke him to scourge him not only in his body but in his Soul and conscience as he did David whose sin put him to more grief and anguish in his Soul than ever man felt that was wracked in his body to the breaking of his bones it put him to such a torture terror and anguish that he would have given his Kingdom to have been eased of it Psal 51. 8. Psal 51. 8. Object 3. But doth not the Scripture say Prov. 8. 17. I love them Prov. 8. 17. that love me God continues his love to us if we continue our love to him but if we cease to love him he may cease to love us Answ 1. For answer to this place the meaning is this It is Gods love to us that makes us love him and doubtless he that loves us so as to make us love him cannot but love us when we doe love him 2. It is denyed that a Child of God can cease to love God he may fall from some degrees of this love he may loose his first love and loose the exercise of this grace of love but he cannot fall totally or finally from his love to God much water cannot quench his love to God nor can floods drown it therefore some Interpreters make the words of my text to bear this sense nothing shall separate us from the love we bear to God in Christ Jesus as well as the former 3. It is an idle dream that Gods love to us doth depend upon our love to him and the continuance of it upon the constancy of our love to him for so the love of God should be variable and changable according to the change and alteration that is in us which is contrary to the Scripture 1 Jam. 17. 1 Jam. 17. and to the text when the Apostle speaks not conditionally but possitively and Absolutely that nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus 4. Such is the nature of Gods love that as it is constant to his Children so it is effectual in them to keep them continually in their love to him so as it cannot be quite extinct shaken out of their hearts or quenched in them Cant. 8. 6 7. Cant. 8. 6 7. Object 4. But why are the faithful exhorted to continue in the love of God Joh. 15. 9. Joh. 15. 9. Jude 21. so Jude 21. keep your selves in the love of God if there were no possibility of falling from the love of God Answ Some understand these places of Scripture to speak of the love of God and Christ to us then they are exhortations to us to take heed of doing any thing whereby we provoke God to hide his face to withold the sense of his love from and to frown upon us for if we fall into sin as negligence and security 't is the high way to loose the sense and fealing of the love of God and to feel his anger and displeasure against us in so much that we may be brought to question his love towards us Or if you understand them of our love to God and Christ then they are only incitations to quicken us to a growth and perseverance in that grace of love Thus much for this first use Use 2. Is it so that nothing can separate the faithful from the love which God bears to them in Christ Jesus their Lord this then is ground of abundant comfort of firm lasting and everlasting consolation to all the faithful who are interested in the special love of God in Christ Jesus that are in the Estate of Gods love in the state of grace as divines call it I call it the Estates of Gods love in opposition to the Estate of Gods wrath wherein we are all by nature I say this is matter of unspeakable comfort to all such and that first 1. Against the fear of all enemies and evils whatever none of them can separate from Gods love Poverty may take away thy wealth sickness thy health disgrace thy good name death thy life but none of these can take away Gods love from thee that is unchangable inseparable love 2. It affords you comfort against the mutability of mens love the love of great men of Princes is mutable Joseph and Haman are east out of the Kings favour The love of friends is changable they may love to day and hate to morrow yea more friends and familiars who were wont to shew much love may shew much hatred of which David complaines Psal 38. 11. and Psal 38. 11. Psal 55. 12 13. Psal 55. 12 13. that his equal his Guide and acquaintance with whom he took sweet council he did reproach him and magnifie himself against him And Job saith that his former friends did abhor him and did not spare to spit in his face Job 30. 10. And Job 30. 10. have not we seen this in our days friends not only ceasing to be friends but turning mortal killing enemies now that which hath befallen others may befal us and if it doth if thou art a Child of God one whom God loves thou hast this to comfort thee Gods love is not mutable as mans is Though thou mayst be cast out of the love and favour of men yet thou canst not be cast out of the love and favour of God though they separate their love from thee and hate thee yet they cannot separate the love of God from thee nor cause him to hate thee his love to thee as it was from everlasting so it is to everlasting Psalm 103. 17. So that it is better to love Psal 103 17. the love of God than the love of all the world for the worlds love is mutable but Gods love is Eternal 3. It affords you comfort against the separability of all beloved and desired comforts here below 1. Happily thou hast a pleasant habitation and with it many desirable accommodations this is a comfort but thou maist be separated from it thou maist be driven from house and home as those worthys were in Heb. 11. who were driven in Heb. 11. to dens and desarts and caves of the Earth But yet you cannot be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus when thou hast not an house to put thy head in thou hast this love of God to warm thy heart in thou canst not be put out of Gods love wherein thou dwellest Psal 90. 1. Lord saith Psal 90. 1. the Church thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations that is in all our sojournings and wandrings thy love and favour hath been our Harbour shelter and protection 1 Joh. 4. 16. We have 1 Joh. 4 16. known and believed the love that God hath to us God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him No matter where our dwelling be in a Wood in a Wilderness in a Cave in
the Prison in red in the fire in white in the Kingdom of Heaven Thus you see what comfort this doctrine affords to the faithful in all conditions and Estates Oh how should this make you prize and esteem the love of God above all things in the world above riches friends favour of men life it self which are all uncertain Oh how should this unchangable and eternal love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord make us grow out of love yea into a loathing of all other things in comparison of it as St. Paul did Phil. 3. 8. Phil. 3. 8. Oh prize this love of God above ten thousand worlds Take heed that you doe not abuse it by carnal security and wantonness but let it make you more diligent in your work and more studious of his glory more careful to please him more fearful to offend him and let the frequent thoughts of it augment and increase your love to him whom you can never love enough nor fear enough nor serve nor honour enough for this great love of his to you which made him send his own Son to dye in thy stead to reconcile thee and bring thee into favour with himself and so into a better and surer Estate of happiness than Adam had in innocency from which wonderful invincible and eternal love nothing shall be able to separate thee no not death it self I am perswaded that neither death shall separate us so I pass to the third and last point which is this Doct. 3. The death of the body cannot separate believers from the love of God in Christ Jesus In the handling of this I shall be short also I say death it self cannot separate by death here understand not only death it self but also all those sicknesses and deseases that goe before it all the pains terrors and tortures that accompany it or what ever may befall Gods Children at their death cannot separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus 1. Nothing that goes before death 2. Nothing that accompanys death 1. Nothing that goes before death can separate them from Gods love 1. Sickness cannot those whom God loves have sickness yea mortal sickness as well as others but this doth not separate them from Gods love Joh. 11. 3. He whom thou Joh. 11. 3. lovest is sick Not their Souls for he knows their Soul in adversity Psal 31. 7. not their bodies Psalm Psal 31. 7. Psal 41. 3. 41. 3. for God will strengthen them upon their bed of languishing and make their bed in their sickness 2. Nothing that accompanies death can separate them from his love 1. The terrors and horrors of death cannot Psal 23. 4. thou art Psal 23 4. with me and thy rod and thy staffe comfort me so when David walked in the Valley of the shaddow of death he would not fear when he was upon the borders of death and walked side by side with this King of terrours yet David would not be daunted but be confident because thou Lord art with me Then terrours of death which are able to distract a man and separate him from himself could not separate David from his God thou art with me 2. The pains of death cannot the faithful who not only dyed but suffered painful deaths Heb. 11. were stoned to death sawn assunder were yet the Lords worthys dear and pretious in his sight Yea pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of all his Saints whether it be a natural or violent death an easy or a painful death 3. Death it self cannot which is a separation of the Soul and body yet neither of Soul or body from the Lords love as living so dying they are the Lords both in their Souls and bodys Rom. 14. 8. Rom. 14. 8. that death it self cannot separate the faithful from Gods love is evident 1 For first the death of the body cannot break Gods covenant with his people which is that he will not take away his love from them Isa Isa 54. 10. Psal 89. 33. 54. 10. Psal 89. 33. the reason is because the covenant is made with their whole persons God is in covenant with Soul and body too therefore when death severs these it separates neither the one nor the other from Gods love God is the God of Abraham of Abrahams dust of a believers dust God loves the very dust of his Saints By this argument Christ proves the resurrection of the body Mat. 22. 32. that God was the Mat. 22. 32. God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the ground of the argument is that God made his covenant not only with the Souls of the Partriarcks but with their whole persons 2. Death cannot separate the faithful from Gods love because they are in Christ Jesus loved in Christ knit unto Christ as members to the head and this union is an inseparable union it remains for ever nothing can violate it no not death therefore when they dye they are said to dye in the Lord. Rev. 14. 13. and when they are in their Rev. 14. 13. graves they are said to be dead in Christ and to rest and sleep in him 3. Death cannot do this for death is ours our friend on our side at our service for us not against us all the passages of it are ours 1 Cor. 1. 22. Nay death in so 1 Cor. 1. 22. far from separating the faithful from the Lord and his love that it brings them home to the Lord and to your full fruition of him and his love in Heaven it brings them to the injoyment of him who is love it self not only to kiss him through the lattice but to lye in the bosom of his love to be infolded in the everlasting armes of his love to be pertakers of all his love and to be filled will all the fulness of God Ephes 3. 19. Eph. 3. 19. Death is so far from casting a believing Soul out of Gods love that it lancheth him into the bottomless Sea of Gods love the bredth and depth whereof passeth knowledge and one drop whereof is more worth then all the Gold of Ophir yea surpasseth all the glory of the world 4. Death cannot separate the faithful from the sense and feeling of Gods love therefore much less from his love it self but usually they have then the greatest manifestations of his love to their Souls 't is then most stird abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost When they are to drink this bitter Cup God sweetens it with the Wine of his love which is better and sweeter then life Thus St. Stephen when he was dying saw Heaven open beheld the glory of God and Christ standing at Gods right hand Act. 7. 55 56. How fully Act. 7. 55 56. hath God manifested his love to some of his servants at their death of which I could give many instances Mr. John Holland a memorable Saint and a godly man an eminent Minister of Christ the day before he dyed did