very dismal unto the minds of sinners yet is there far worse behind then all this still and that which carries in it far greater terrour and amazement and that is the sin that deserves Death and the Hell that follows it for as the Apostle says 1 Cor. 15.56 the sting of Death is sin And it s no wonder that Men who are conscious to themselves of condemning guilt dare not think of standing before the dreadful Tribunal of God and Death now is God's Serjeant to Arrest them and to bring them thither they cannot bear the thoughts of Eternal Vengeance and prepared Torments to be for ever inflicted on them by the Almighty Power of an incensed God and therefore it is no wonder that they put far from them the thoughts of Death because their Consciences tell them that that Day whensoever it comes will be to them an Evil Day Many more Reasons might be given of this brutishness of men in putting off the thoughts of Death and preparations for it but these shall suffice The next thing that I shall do shall be to lay down some Considerations that may fore-arm Christians against the Fears and Terrours of Death Considerations to arm men against the fears of Death and make them willing to submit unto this law of Dying unto which God hath subjected all men And First The soul is immortal and parting with this it enters into a better life If the Soul be immortal as certainly it is and that parting from this it enters upon a better Life than this we may well then be contented to Die upon that account No man says a Roman Author thinks Death is much to be avoided since Immortality follows Death I am very sensible how hard a task it is to perswade men to be willing to Die but yet let me ask you if you are believers for in this I speak only unto such what is there in Death that is so terrible to you I know it is monstrous and full of horrour if we consider nothing but the Corruption of the Flesh the gastly paleness the stiff cold and grim visage the distorted Eyes and trembling Limbs of Dying Persons And afterwards think of the stench and filthiness of the Grave and lastly the dissipation of the visible part of Man All these Considerations make Death very terrible and full of horrour to us But now he that shall consider after all this his spiritual invisible part what can he see in Death that is not very desirable to him the Body rests from its labours and the Soul enjoys its reward in Heaven If you are hereby taken away from conversing with men yet the Soul is elevated to an acquaintance with Angels that is still alive in its own Nature the Soul lives for ever being placed above the common Arrests of Death We find to this purpose after that God had tryed the patience of Job by the loss of all his substance and afterwards of all his Children also he restores to him double whatever he had taken from him Job 42. â—0 so we read in the Holy Story the Lord gave unto Job twice as much as he had before Now whereas at first Job had three thousand Camels God restores to him six thousand whereas before he had seven thousand Sheep God restores to him fourteen thousand and so of all the rest double the number of what he lost But when God comes to recompence to him the loss of his Children which doubtless were of far greater value than all the rest whereas he had seven Sons and three Daughters God restores to him the same number again not double in these as he did in all the rest And wherefore did God double his Camels his Sheep and his Oxen and not his Children why the Reason was because his Children were not so dead as were his Camels and the rest of his brute Creatures their Souls remain'd Immortal and Entire still after Death So that God in giving Job seven Sons and three Daughters did double them notwithstanding though he gave him no more than he had at first So here though we Die yet Death doth us no injury our better part survives and if we are Believers it survives in such unconceivable Joys as that all the pleasures of the World are but Misery and Wretchedness compared to them A Christian's Hope cannot be accomplished but by dying Secondly The whole Life of a Christian is founded upon a Hope that cannot be accomplished but by dying And if so that Mans Mistake must needs be inexcusable who abhors that which alone can bring him to the possession of his Hopes and Desires Christians what is it that you hope for Is it not to arrive at Glory with an innumerable Host of Angels and the Spirits of just Men made perfect to see God and to rejoyce in him at a nearer hand than you now do here below to be for ever blessed in the close Embraces of the sovereign Good And what other way is there of obtaining this but only by dying Death is now made to us an In-let to Glory the very Gate to Heaven It is therefore unreasonable to fear that which is the only way to obtain that we hope for Death is a quiet sleep Thirdly This Death though so much dreaded is no other than a quiet Sleep So the Scripture often represents it to us under the Notion of Sleep Them that sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him Sleep is the natural resemblance of Death Sleep and Death are very near a-kin When we are asleep we see not we hear not all our Senses are lock'd up from the enjoyment of any worldly Delights we take no comfort in our Friends in our Riches or Estates all these are cancell'd out of our Minds and what more doth Death do than cancel these things out of Men's Memories And yet the weary Labourer lays himself down with contentment to take his Sleep until the Morning and why may not we also lay down our selves with the same peace and contentment in our Graves to take our Rest and Sleep until the Morning of the Resurrection Indeed the Sleep of Death is different from natural Sleep since that deprives us of natural Light but this Sleep of Death brings us to the vision of true inaccessible Light What then is there in death that we should stand in dread of it Why should that be feared by those for whom the sting of it is already taken out Such may safely take this Serpent into their bosoms for though it hiss at them yet it cannot wound or hurt them nay instead of wounding them it is reconciled to them and become one of their party The Apostle therefore reckoning up the Inventory of a Christian reckons this among them 1 Cor. 3.22 Whether Life or Death all is yours And in another place he tells us Phil. 1.21 That to him to live was Christ and to die was Gain And well may a
serious and pensive to think this is but the Pattern of what must befall themselves and that all this must shortly be acted upon them that they now see done unto others But since this Day presents us with no such Solemnity some perhaps may wonder that I have chosen this Text and Subject of Mortality to treat upon Indeed Custom hath made it almost improper to preach of Death without a Funeral and to speak to Men of their last End and Dissolution without setting before their Eyes an Example of it Look well therefore one upon another what are we all as it were but so many Corpses so many Spectacles of Mortality rather to be numbred among the Dead than among the Living every Day and Hour wears away part of our Lives and so much of them as is already spent so far are we already dead and buried This present moment is the longest measure of our Lives what is past is dead to us and what is to come is not yet born how soon God may put a final Period to our present state how few times more our Pulses may beat and this busie Breath in our Nostrils return to us again we know not so frail and so uncertain are our Lives that this may be truly a Funeral Sermon to some one of us before the close of it Since then we are all of us thus subject to the stroke of Death it can never be unseasonable to warn you that you be not surprized and taken by it unprovided In the Words now read you have the great Statute-Law of Heaven that Law that God hath passed upon all the Chil-of Men and that is That it is appointed to them once to die Now that I may make way to press upon you the serious consideration of your own Mortality let me briefly mark out some things that tend to the Explication of the Words And First In that the Proposition is laid down in the Text indefinitely It is appointed unto men it is that which is equivalent to an Universal and reacheth to all men It is appointed to all men once to die We read of two only in the whole Book of God that were exempted by an extraordinary Grace and peculiar Priviledge from this great Law of Dying and they were Enoch and Elias Of Enoch it is said Gen. 5.24 That he walked with God and he was not for God took him And of Elias it is said 2 Kin 2.11 That he went up by a Whirlwind into Heaven The great God after a strange and unusual manner tackt their temporal and eternal Life together making their Time run it self into Eternity without any period or interruption The Apostle also tells us 1 Cor. 15.51 52. That all shall not die to wit at the last Day at the last appearing of Jesus Christ there shall be a World full of Persons that shall not taste of Death All shall not die but all shall be changed in a moment in the twinckling of an Eye These are exempted and being excepted it is certain all the Generations of Men from the first Creation to the last Consummation of all things are all appointed by God unto Death Secondly All must die once All must die once but Believers do not die the second Death There is frequent mention made in Scripture of the first and second Death The first Death is the separation of the Soul from the Body The second Death is the separation of the Soul from God As the Union of the Soul and Body is the Life of Man so the Union of God with the Soul is the Life of the Soul Now Believers do not die this second Death Rev. 20.8 for on such as the Apostle speaks the second Death hath no power They are still united unto God after an unconceivable and ineffable manner As when Christ lay in the Grave though his Soul was truly separated from his Body yet both Soul and Body were hypostatically united to the Godhead so also though the natural Union between a Believer's Soul and Body be dissolved by Death yet both Soul and Body continue mystically united unto Christ even in their separation one from another It is not therefore this second but the first Death that all are appointed unto The Hand of Death must untie those secret and sweet Bands those vital Knots that fasten Soul and Body together must fall asunder one day in every Man All Men must die because Death is the punishment of Sin Thirdly It is appointed unto every Man to undergo this first Death It is decreed and ordained by God and that not upon the Account of any natural Necessity but for the Punishment of Sin The Apostle tells us plainly That by Sin Death entred into the World Death therefore is not so much a Debt due to Nature as a Debt due to the avenging Justice of God for though Man at first was created in pure Nature yet was he also created in a deathless State and Death siezeth upon us not as we are Men but as we are Sinners liable to the Curse of the Covenant of Works containing in it that Threatning In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die It is true Adam even before he sinned had in him the contemperation of the same contrary Qualities that we now have and so at least had also the remote Principles of Death but yet it is probable that he was created with such a Priviledge that he might by his own Will sway and over-rule the Jars and Discords of his elementary constitution and continue himself in Life as long as he should continue himself in Obedience however whether it was so or otherwise yet certain it is that Death came into the World as the punishment of Sin So then it is not primarily Man's Nature but Man's Sin and the Curse of the Law taking hold of him that brought in this necessity of dying Sin is not only the Sting but the Cause of Death and it gives it not only its Terrour but it s very Being also And therefore it is somewhat remarkable that among all the Creatures in the World Man only is termed Mortal most certain it is that other Creatures decay and perish as well as he yet among all perishing things Man only hath that wretched denomination of being Mortal and there is good reason for it since he alone of all perishing things being created immortal voluntarily subjected himself unto Death and by his own Fault brought upon himself that Name of Mortal as a Brand of perpetual Infamy And thus now I come to the Subject that I intend to insist upon and that is The Unavoidableness and Certainty of Death To go about to prove this were to lose so much time every one grants he must die All other Questions about Man are answered by Peradventures If it be demanded Whether such an Embryo shall see the Light What 's the Answer but perhaps it shall perhaps it shall not If it be
by shortning their lives and yet are there none of us that wish our lives were prolonged to a thousand years were it possible not that we might have a longer time and space to repent but that we might the longer enjoy our sins why if God should grant your wish and keep you alive till the day of Judgment would not that day become a thousand fold more gloomy and dreadful to us than if God had cut us off at the ordinary time and age and therefore it is a great favour that God vouchsafes both to the Elect and to Reprobates in that since the Flood he hath cut short the days of Man upon Earth for hereby the Elect come to enjoy the Glory and Happiness of Heaven the sooner and Reprobates feel the Torments and Punishments of Hell the lighter Providence by a speedy dispatch preventing those Sins that otherwise would sink them the deeper into Condemnation Providence prevents Sin in men by shortning of mens Power Secondly God providentially keeps Men from sinning if not by shortning their Lives yet by cutting short their Power whereby they should be enabled to commit Sin All that power that wicked men have to sin it is either from themselves or from their wicked Associates whom they make use of as instruments for the accomplishment of their Impieties but Providence can strike them in both and thereby give their Lusts a miscarrying Womb and dry Breasts Sometimes God by his Providence cuts off their evil Instruments and thereby disables them from sinning sometimes their instruments for Counsel thus Providence by over-ruling Absalom to reject the Counsel of Achitophel prevents all that Mischief that so wise and so wicked a Statesman might have contrived and thereupon he goes and hangs himself Sometimes he cuts off their Instruments of Execution and so God disappointed the hopes of blaspheming Rabshekah sent an Angel that in one night kills almost two hundred thousand of the Assyrians dead on the place Certainly it is great folly for men upon confidence of their wise and powerful Instruments to set themselves up against that God that can without or against all Means and Instruments confound their Designs and frustrate all their Enterprizes And as God thus strikes their Instruments so sometimes he strikes their Persons and takes from them the use of those natural Faculties by which they should be enabled to commit their Sins sometimes he hides their Wits from them and besots them so he did to the Jews John 7.30 They sought to apprehend Jesus Why who did hinder them Was he not there among them Was there not enough of them to do it Yes there was but yet they only stand gazing at him like men besotted till he escaped away from them Sometimes God hides away their hands from them and enfeebles them as in Psal 76.5 None of the mighty men have found their hands God had benumm'd them and laid their hands out of the way when they should have used them The Sodomites you know swarm'd thick about Lot's House intending Villainy to his Guests and God smites them with Blindness that they grope for the door even at Noon-day Jeroboam stretcheth out his hand against the Prophet and God suddenly withers it This is God's frequent course with wicked men when he doth not subdue their Wills yet he oftentimes subdues their power of sinning yea and possibly although we have not such frequent instances of it God may deal thus sometimes with his own Children Thus he hath threatned or promised rather to his Church that he will hedge up her way with Thorns that she should not be able to break through to her Idols as formerly she had done so you have it in Hos 2.6 And indeed it is a great Mercy that God doth take away that power from men that he sees they will only abuse to their own destruction It is not Cruelty but Compassion that chains up mad-men and takes from them those Swords Arrows and Fire-brands that else they would hurl up and down abroad both to their own and others Mischiefs and so it is God's common pity to Sinners that are very Mad-men that fetters and chains them up and lays such a powerful restraint upon them by his Providence that where their wills are not defective yet their power to execute Sin should be What would wicked men think if God should now suddenly strike them dumb or blind or lame or impotent would they not judge this a heavy Judgment inflicted upon them they would so and yet believe it it were better for them that God should strike them dumb upon the place than that they should ever open their Mouths more to blaspheme and rail at God and his People better they were struck blind than that the Devil and vile Lusts should enter into the Soul by those Casements better that God should maim them than that they should have strength to commit those Sins that if but will'd will damn them but if executed will sink their Souls seven-fold deeper into condemnation Now the Providence of God by taking away ther power prevents their wickedness and so mercifully mitigates their condemnation Providence raiseth up another Power to oppose sinners Thirdly Sometimes God keeps men from the commission of Sin by raising up another power against that by which the Sinner is to execute his Sin Thus when Saul would have put Jonathan to Death for breaking a rash Vow that himself had made God raiseth up the Spirits of the People to rescue him and they plainly tell him Jonathan shall not die The Jews hated Christ and would have killed him but that they feared the People whom his Miracles had obliged to him so that they durst not venture upon him till his Hour was come Providence sometimes prevents Sin by some seasonable diversion Fourthly Sometimes Providence casts in some seasonable diversion that turns them off from the Commission of that Sin that they intended When they are hotly pursuing their wickedness Providence starts some other Game for them and sets them upon some other Work Thus it fared with Antiochus in Dan. 11.30 He sets himself against the Holy Covenant but for all his Rage against it he shall return into his own Land says God for the Ships of Shittim shall come against him and the Ships of the Romans and instead of invading others Dominions he must return to defend his own thus God diverted him from his Design of ruining the Jews And sometimes where God doth not dry up the Spring of Corruption yet he turns the streams of it which way he pleaseth As a skilful Physician when one part of the Body is oppressed with ill humours he draws it to another part that is less dangerous so God by his Providence turns men from the commission of a greater to a lesser Sin Thus he over-ruled Joseph's Brethren they consulted to cast him into a Pit and there to let him starve unless he could feed upon his Dream of Wheat-sheaves