Apostle by its various and doubtful senses hath afforded a large field to the Criticks to shew their Reading and Judgement in is here to be understood neither the Prison of the damned nor the state of the dead but the Mansion of our Carkasses till the Resurrection And though Death and the Grave are here distinguished by the Apostle yet in effect being the same to us we shall in the sequele of this discourse for the most part speak of them as but One. This is the enemy then we have to deal with and how Dreadful it is to the Children of Corruption needs no other proof than a bare appeal to the Universal sense and suffrage of mankind Job 18.14 which Job hath roundly summ'd up in his description of Death by the King of terrours and after him Aristotle much to the same purpose in styling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There 's nothing in the World can beget a greater dread or create a more exquisite horrour in the minds of men than the black and Melancholly apprehension of descending into the dismal state of everlasting darkness and solitude oblivion and senslesness There 's nothing we are not willing to do to suffer or to part with rather than be brought under its power We are ready to undergo all labours and pains fasting and Physick shame and tortures nay I had almost said death it self to avoid it So much of truth is there in That of the Father of lies Skin for Skin and all that a man hath Job 2.4 will be give for his Life And this is so well grounded a passion that it seizes and shakes the mind and shrivels up the Spirits of the stoutest the wisest and most virtuous men Our natures are agast and recoil at the very thoughts of death and our countenances wax wan at the sight of the Grave We are so unfit to enter the lists with these Combatants that we are scarce able to support our selves under the bare prospect or mention of them These Basilisks dis-spirit us at their approach and kill us with their very looks The sound of their names like that of Hunniades to the Turks strikes a dread into our Soul and shoots a chilness through our Veins which Lewis the 11th was so apprehensive of that he would not endure the mention of them either in health or sickness but charged his Servants when ever they should see him weak and languishing to exhort him to confess his Sins but in no wise to name death to him least that alone should kill him before the time The reason of all which must be sought for in our Inbred Antipathy to Annihilation The fear of Death lies as close to our essence as the Love of Life and to offer to reconcile a man to the thoughts of his dissolution is as contradictory an attempt as to perswade him to fall out with his nature and renounce his being And if it be a Natural it must also be a Necessary and unavoidable passion and consequently 't is as impossible to throw off the Fear as the Fate of dying This Enemy is not only Formidable and operative meerly upon the fancy but it s really Hurtful and Mischievous Death smites us in all our Capacities in our Relations and our Persons It turns us out of our Stateliest Houses and Palaces and Sequesters us from our greatest possessions and Empires It blasts our fairest Hopes and dashes in pieces our finest Models Breaking our purposes and the thoughts of our heart It snatches our tender Children out of our Arms and tears away the dearest Guest of our bosom from us It plunders us of our beauty and our strength of our honours and our pleasures It not only deprives us of our liberty and the light by shutting us up in a close dark prison but it layeth us in a bed of dishonour and loathsomness among worms and serpents It throws us into a Pit of stench and rottenness where it preys upon our bodies putrefies our flesh and consumes our bones It not only lops off some of our choicest comforts but lays the Ax to the root of all our Enjoyments in making a divorce betwixt the dearest Couple in nature our Body and Soul and drawing after it if not timely prevented an utter destruction of both eternally Add hereunto that this is an inveterate and implacable Enemy with whom there can no league be struck no amity purchased no reconciliation had It gives quarter to none but shews the like mercy of the Sword to all Indeed beaten captivated destroy'd it may be so it hath been by Christ but appeased reconciled never The Devil who is General and Parent of this Enemy being the Father of Sin who is the Mother of Death hath like an infernal Hannibal sworn all his Offspring to have no peace with the Posterity of Adam Nevertheless Death could do us no great mischief if he came not armed with his Sting which is The second particular the weapon with which this Enemy assaults us The meaning and reason of which Title is next to be examined The Apostle declares the former briefly and plainly in the next words The sting of death is sin A dangerous and deadly weapon The congruity of their names might be deduced from their common relation to a Serpent whose natural weapon is a sting as Sin is the proper hurtful Instrument of that old Serpent the Devil But the dreadfulness of this Weapon and its analogy to a Sting will more fully appear from a distinct consideration of the Pungent and Poisonous nature of Sin. 1. Sin is of a Pungent and Painful nature It usually approaches us indeed with a courtly address and a fawning salutation like Solomons strange Woman her lips drop as an hony comb and her mouth is smoother than oil but the end is bitter as wormwood sharp as a two edged sword A prosperous and harden'd Sinner who resolves to go on in the way of his heart and in the sight of his eyes knowing what smart and anguish the reflection upon his guilt and the very thoughts of the Divine Vengeance will necessarily give him industriously beats out of his mind all notices and remembrances of these things and bears down the first essays of Conscience either to inform or restrain him The Voluptuary indeavours to drown its voice with the louder noise of his Tabret and Harp. The Mammonist tries to hide if not smother this Vice-God as Rachel did her false ones among his Worldly Stuff and Furniture The Atheist and Hypocrite strive to over-rule its Plea with Erroneous Principles and Specious Pretences But at last when the Conscience hath thrown off her chains and servitude and asserted her rightful authority and dominion over the Sinner be it in old age or sickness when he is smitten of God or Man she will change the whole scene of affairs she will set up a true light in his soul and give him a juster apprehension of things and another sense of his own
THE CHRISTIANS Triumph over Death A SERMON AT THE FUNERAL OF RICHARD LEGH of Lime IN THE County Palatine of CHESTER Esq AT WINWICK IN THE County Palatine of LANCASTER Sept. 6. 1687. By W. Shippen D.D. Rector of Stockport in Cheshire Sometimes Fellow of Vnivers Coll. Oxon. OXFORD Printed at the THEATER 1688. Imprimatur GILB IRONSIDE Vice-Can OXON Sept. 12. 1688. To the much Honoured and most Accomplished Mrs. Elizabeth Legh the Vertuous Relict of Richard Legh of Lime Esq MADAM HAD my abilities to perform been equal to my propension to undertake your commands these Papers had presented you with somthing more worthy the memory of that half of your self which is in Heaven and less unfit for the perusal of the other with which we are still honoured upon Earth But the greatest ambition as well as the most proper disposal of them as they are was to have heen buried in the same dark Vault with their subject Yet seeing you would not be prevailed with to lay aside your authority over me nor be denied a sight of that which your circumstances would not permit you to hear I committed this Discourse into your hands in confidence you would have confined it to your Closet where I could have rested secure of a pardon for all its failures upon your own native goodness but could never have admitted the least thought of suffering it to be more publick had it not been for your irresistible commands and invincible resolutions to have it so notwithstanding the greatest and justest importunities of my self and friends to the contrary so that your Ladyship must be accountable to the world for the many imperfections it labours under The Pictures of our absent friends though they express no more then their outward and visible features are very desireable and delightful monuments but the Character of their minds and their inward and invisible beauties are far more excellent and valuable Fine spirits like elegant faces are difficult to be drawn to an exactness even by the greatest Masters And this worthy person hath been equally unhappy both under the Pencil and the Pen. How little I have succeeded and how short this rude draught falls of the Original your first reading I doubt will testify with trouble if not with tears and now when 't is too late force you to take up my first wish that this Province had been allotted to a more skilful hand that might have done him more right and given you more satisfaction Better parts might not only have set a greater lustre on so noble a Theme but have reflected an honour upon themselves and together with his consecrated their own names to Eternity while my humble Talent only sues for an excuse and may not unreasonably expect it too if either extremity of Passion through this surprizing blow or distraction of thought from a like intervenient Occasion and Office I was called to at the same time which throws the mind into confusion and darkness may pass for indispositions to such composures But what ever Entertainment this discourse may meet with from its deficiencies of form and poverty of art in this nice and censorions age yet the richness of the matter and the excellence of the argument are sufficient I know to recommend it to a place among your choicest Cimelia But as the greatness of his worth inhances the estimate of your loss so the displaying of that doth but open and revive your sense of this which I finding it more reasonable to appease then aggravate and observing how much you resemble the famous Lady Paulina in S. Jerom not only in the eminence of her Vertues but in the tenderness of her passions shall rather recommend to you those few familier considerations in the close hereof directed to the stopping of the stream of nature or allaying the bitterness of your grief if not the turning it into the sweeter passion of Joy. To the making all which advices of reason and succours of faith there offered effectual to that purpose 't is requisite that you bring along with you a serious attention and a greatness of Spirit The former of which you have in your power the latter in your nature For the awakening of which I know nothing more prevalent then to mind you of the original Stock from whence you Sprung and of those personal qualifications and that elevated Genius wherewith you are blessed Your paternal family hath furnished out persons of that eminence both for parts and virtues as have adorned the highest stations in Church and State. A deliberate reflection whereupon will hardly suffer you to stoop to so weak a passion or entertain so mean a thought as must sink you below the dignity of your Line or to be dejected with any thing save what is degenerous or inglorious Your own excellent endowments which have sufficiently appeared on other occasions as the serenity of your understanding the soundness of your Judgment and constancy of mind if duly touched and excited with these meditations can hardly fail of raising the desired effects But though envy it self cannot but give place to a reverence for the dead yet it will not so patiently brook the commendations of the living And though his modesty who is gone cannot be wounded by his Just Character yet yours is so tender that it would be oppressed with your own So that I know not how to do right to the rest of your Vertues without offering an injury to this I shall therefore indeavour to supply the omission of your deserved praises and the weakness of my other performances with the sincerity and fervency of my prayers to him who can wipe all tears from your Eyes and make the bones that he hath broken to rejoyce for your support and improvement under this severe Visitation that what you have lost in temporal comforts may be abundantly repayed you in Spiritual in this life and with eternal glory in the next which shall be the constant Intercession of Most Honoured Madam Your most Obedient Faithful Humble servant W. S. Octob. 3. 1687. 1 Cor. XV. 55. O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory THESE words at the first view may seem but an improper subject for this sad and solemn occasion For what greater soloecism can well be imagined than a Text of rejoycing for a Funeral Sermon than the celebrating a Day of mourning and lamentation with a song of Triumph and the drawing the bright scene of Mirth and Jubilee before the clouded minds of the disconsolate and afflicted What an incongruity to ask where are the weapons of Death and where 's the Victory of the Grave when every place and object proclaims their puissance and atchievements Every Church yard and Charnel-house being stuffd with their spoils and the whole earth but one Mackpelah where they bestow their prisoners and bury their slain The cries of the Mourners that go about the streets and the tears of them that weep within doors do sufficiently
confess the wounds and acknowledge the conquests of these powerful enemies And the sad spectacle before us being already the Triumph of the one and suddenly to become the Captive of the other seems at once to answer the Question and defeat the Insultation of the Text. So that might it not have been better said O Death where is not thy Sting O Grave where is not thy Victory But notwithstanding all this he that looks upon the words with senses duely exercised may discerne a great propriety in them for the present Solemnity and by Faith as through a Telescope discover a Rich and pleasant Country beyond the Gloomy region of the Grave and a fresh Blooming Life springing out of the Dust of Death Which though it bears the name of an Enemy yet to a good Christian performs the Office of a Friend in letting him out of this vain and wretched State of Mortality into a life of unmixt and unchangeable Glory This contemplation hath force enough not only to Justify the suitableness of the Text but to reform our common Sentiments and practices upon such occasions by making us exchange our Cypress for Laurel and our tears of Sorrow for those of Joy which will farther appear upon a due examination of these words This Text I have taken at the second hand it being not Originally the Apostles as himself confesses in the verse preceding but a Quotation of his out of the Prophet Hosea c. 13. v. 14. which place though our Translation reading thus O Death I will be thy Plagues O Grave I will be thy Destruction gives but a faint resemblance to it Yet the Septuagint comes nearer to it especially if we allow the Words Sting and Victory to have been transposed through the transcribers negligence which is favoured by considerable a Beza â—â—iorum Copies and b Vulgar Aethiopic Versions retaining the Prophets order of the words in this passage of the Apostle For then they would be found to differ only in one word and not at all in sense it being to the same effect whether we say O Grave where is thy Victory or where is thy Cause wherein thou hast so long prevailed Or where is thy Plea which thou used to put in at the Bar of Divine Justice as for the word which we here render I will c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be it also signifies the same with that which is commonly translated d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where in the Judgment of several Eminent Christian e Jun. and Tremel c. Interpreters and of some learned Jews as well as of the Septuagint which here and generally where not corrupted is our best Guide to the true sense of the Original and for that reason alone doubtless was so often followed by the Inspired Pen-men of the New Testament even when it seemingly departs from the present reading of the Hebrew Code so that f Capell Critic Sacr. their conjecture is as needless as 't is groundless who conceive the latter Hebrew word was read by the LXX in this place instead of the former But the Hebrew it self hath the greatest affinity of all with the Text according to some and those most g Dr. Pocock on this place eminently learned in the Oriental Tongues by whose assistance they have undertaken to reconcile and adjust all the rest of the words both as to their Signification and Order of place and so completed the agreement betwixt the Prophet and the Apostle But however that be 't is sufficient for our purpose that the sense of the two clauses in this sentence is not much different and the scope of the whole even in our version is exactly the same O Death where are thy fatal Plagues or poisonons Sting O Grave where is thy destruction of or Victory gained over them Which Words though in the Prophet they might literally denote Gods deliverance of his people from the greatest temporal Dangers and Enemies even Death and the Grave and which by some h Grotius in loc are applyed to Gods destruction of Sennacheribs Army yet by the Apostle they are raised to an higher sense and adapted to the general Resurrection when Death and the Grave shall be swallowed up in Victory i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. for ever when they shall be quite Abolished and Vanish not only so as to be no more but so as no Footsteps shall remain of their having ever been when there shall not be seen so much as the least Marks or Scars upon those who have layn under their utmost Force and Cruelty not a Blemish on their Bodies nor a Hair of their heads Singed And as this Scripture will then have its Consummation so it certainly had its Beginning at Christs Resurrection when the groundwork was laid of this our Rejoycing Whereupon these words are conceived by some to have been a proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Captain of our Salvation when having foiled his Enemies wrested their Weapons out of their hands given them their Deaths-wound and seeing them ly grovelling upon the ground he might draw near and Insult them saying where 's now thy Sting O! Death wherewith thou hast so often wounded and poisoned mankind Where 's now thy Victory O Grave which thou hast so long carried and boasted of over the Children of men And the Apostle here under the certain hope and sweet contemplation of that glorious day of Universal Triumph cannot for bear to anticipate that joy of the Resurrection but looking upon these baffled enemies a stingless Death and a powerless Grave as hurtless and despicable things breaks out into this Triumphant song this holy Exaltation and Insultation of the Text. O Death c. These words imply a Complete Victory and express a Joyful Triumph The better to represent the reasonableness of which Triumph and to lay bare the Foundations of this Rejoycing we must enquire what Victory this is and by whom obtained but before we can learn its just value and greatness we must be acquainted with the nature and quality of the Adversary so that we have three parts or steps cut out for the progress of our Discourse 1. The Nature and Dreadfulness of the Enemies 2. The Author and Absoluteness of the Victory over them 3. The Reasonableness of Triumphing and Rejoycing for the same In speaking to the first part we shall shew 1. Who and what kind of Enemies these are 2. With what Weapon they assail us 3. What Success they have formerly had 1. The Enemies are Death and the Grave That by the former is here meant the death of the Body is manifest from the whole bent and scope of this Chapter which is to demonstrate the Resurrection of the dead both of Christ the first fruits and of all Christians as the entire harvest through him at his coming And it is thence also no less evident that by Grave though the Original Word both in the Prophet and the
able to transmute a whole World in a moment into its Malignant nature Which unhappy Projection hath been actually made already by our first Parents who no sooner toucht it but its Rancorous Ferment impregnated the whole Mass of Humane Nature stream'd through all the Blood of their Posterity and so turn'd the happy Golden Age into this wretched one of Brass and Iron 3. Sin is of a deadly Influence it may make its entry as Ehud did to Eglon with a Present in its hand but will at last leave a secret Dagger in our Bowels In a day or less it brings forth death Judg. 3.17 21. In the day thou eats thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 For though Man did not then presently die yet in the same instant he became Mortal that deadly infusion was then let into his Veins and mixt with his Spirits which was sure to be his Bane in the conclusion Whereas without this nothing in the World could have been destructive to us neither Weapon nor Distemper Bliting nor Thunder 't is Sin alone that gives an edge to the Sword an infection to the Air and points to the flames of Fire 't is this that gives malignity to Feavers virulence to Poisons and arms every Creature with instruments of death against us so that had we not been so wretched as to be Sinners we had been so happy as to be Immortal Our naked Innocence would have been greater security to us and more impenetrable than a Coat of Mail. Had it not been for this Sting Death it self could never have reach'd us no nor so much as had any being in the World. For Sin brings forth Death James 1.15 And though our Saviour who knew no Sin tasted of it yet that was not of necessity but a voluntary undertaking that as the first Adam by Sin brought Death into the World so he the second by Death might cast Sin out of it This is the bitter Root from whence springs all the Misery both for degree and kind which ever befell Humane Nature All the steps and advances towards our greatest sorrow from the first indisposition and slightest pain to final Death and utter Damnation derive from hence We were once so hardy and firm in our uprightness that nothing could pierce or annoy us but that unhappy fall that Sin gave us so bruised and loosened our Constitution and made us ever since so feeble and tender that we are now brought under the power of the weakest and most Contemptible Creature The least Fly wants not a weapon to wound us and the smallest Kernel hath been the fatal Instrument of Death The Lamp of our Life is now easily blown out we being ready to expire with any extraordinary Passions even those soft and gayer ones of Mirth and Joy. 'T is this that often makes the ordinary means of our health the occasion of our sickness and not only fasting but food mortal To this the several kinds of Death whether Temporal Spiritual or Eternal owe their Original The wounds which this Weapon gives are so fatal as to destroy not only Nature but Grace also and Glory working such a Miracle of Mischief as to extinguish that Life which is everlasting It is so dreadful and ruinous that it kills the Soul as well as the Body and sends not only to the Grave but to Hell. It destroy'd the old World of Men by a Flood laying waste the Primitive Paradisial Earth and turning it into a great ruine It swept away at once a great part of the Inhabitants of Heaven arresting the faln Angels before the Throne of the Almighty and hurrying them headlong into the bottomless Pit and it will at last people the woful Kingdom of Darkness wich an unknown number of miserable deluded Wretches There is no sort of it whether Original if its poison be not washed out in the Laver of Regeneration or Actual how small soever if the Viper be not crushed by Contrition and Repentance but will prove mortal One single act of it if it were possible to stop there nay the least omission entitles to eternal Death That is the wages that will be sure to be paid us even for not doing our work A petty neglect of Charity will deprive us of the inexhaustible Treasures of the Divine Mercy and we may purchase to our selves a portion in the lake which burns with fire by denying a Cup of cold Water Not only an idle word but sometimes silence it self consigns to Damnation Thus deadly is this Sting in all its kinds and degrees which is the Weapon wherewith this Enemy assaults us 3. The success which this Enemy usually meets with in his Conflict with Mankind is Victory If this were not sufficiently implyed in the Question Where 's thy Victory As if he should say thy Victory hitherto hath been notoriously both known and felt but where is it now yet all Countries and Ages Histories and Observation shew how he hath gone on Conquering and to Conquer what spoils and devastations he hath made throughout the World what slaughters and massacres he hath committed upon the sons of Men. There was never any universal Monarch upon Earth besides this King of Terrors to whom all living Creatures sooner or later must bow and obey The mightiest Princes as well as the meanest Subjects are his Tributaries he neither favours the Scepter nor forgets the Spade but calls for them all in and piles them up in one confused heap to raise a triumphal Pyramid to his name Cyrus and Alexander Caesar and Tamberlane after all their glorious Conquests and Trophies their Temples and Statues have at last let fall their Victorious Arms at the feet of this great Conqueror and laid down their Heads on the cold Clod in homage and obeisance to his unbounded Empire Those Heroick flaming Spirits who were so fierce and keen for Victory and Honour and so unsatiable with All this World could give them that they were impatient even to the Effeminacy of tears that there was no more then this to Conquer and Triumph over have yet in fine had all their heat and vigour quenched and tamed by the cold hand of Death their Glory covered with Darkness and themselves led in triumph by this great Triumpher who might insult them too in the Prophetick Stile saying Is this the Man that made the Earth to tremble Isa 14. and shaked Kingdoms That made the World a Wilderness and destroyed the Cities thereof How art thou faln from Heaven O Lucifer Son of the morning O thou who didst weaken the Nations Art thou also become weak like other Men Ezek. 32. Dost thou lie among those that are slain with the Sword And bear the shame of them that go down to the Pit How come thy once glittering weapons of War to lie so quiet and rusty by thee while those Despicable Enemies the Worms assault and prevail over thee intrench within thy bosom and prey upon thy Vitals He was as great a Warriour as
a King who acknowledged the Absolute Soveraignty and general success of this Monarch in asking the question What Man is he that lives and shall not see death and shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of the Grave Psal 89.48 And not only David the Man after Gods own heart but the Son of David the Man to whose heart God himself was hypostatically joyn'd the Blessed Jesus was for some time his Subject and Captive Who then can expect an Exemption from walking in this way of all the Earth And yet we should the less envy him the glory and universality of this Victory if the effects of it fell not so ruinously upon us If the overthrow were no more than the greatest Temporal Destruction nay which is greater than an Eternal Annihilation so that as our hopes were only in this life our fears might be of no other Our Case were the less Deplorable We should then at worst be but Negatively Miserable But when the death of the Body is but a Prologue to the death of the Soul and when this second Death is so far from being nothing that it is an everlasting and unconceivable torment when it is such a forlorn state as that the greatest Evil the utmost Misfortune of this VVorld even Death it self would be the greatest Good and only Comfort and yet not only the hopes but the very Possibility of Dying is there extinct seeing it is an Immortal Death This advances our Misery not more above the Patience than the Imagination of Mankind These Considerations of the Dreadfulness of the Enemy of the Deadliness of the VVeapon of the generality of their Success and the necessary Consequent thereof our extream Desolation may give us just occasion to cry out Rom. 7.24 O wretched Men that we are who shall deliver us from the body of Sin and of this Death VVho shall rescue us from the All-devouring Mouth of this Grave Certainly neither Man nor Angel can deliver us from the force and fury of these Enemies yet from the fear of them we may be delivered by the happy tidings of a perfect Victory over them all which is brought us by 2. The second General The Author and Absoluteness of this Victory Sed quis nobis Hercules But alass who will venture to go forth and fight this Goliah for us that thus Dismaies and Defies the whole Host of Mankind and dares them to match him with an Equal Combatant Let no Mans heart fail for there is one who will undertake him and he though not a David Heb. 2.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet his Son according to the Flesh one who hath already gone out smitten and set his foot upon him 'T is Our great Champion Christ Jesus who came down from Heaven on purpose to fight this bloody Battle for us to enter the Lists with Death and the Grave and Sin and all the Black Legions of Darkness who had held us so long in fear and bondage And though his whole Life was but one continued Dispute with them yet the sharp and doubtful Encounter was at his Passion when he was not only sore thrust at bruised and wounded but slain Not only lost Blood but Life too and his Body closely Imprisoned in a Tomb. So that now one would think Death might be able to answer the Question of the Text to purpose and say Behold here 's my Sting fixed in the Body of the Lord of Life see the deep wound it hath made in his Side which hath let out his very Hearts Blood. The Grave might also vauntingly reply My Victory was in Golgotha and behold here 's my Prisoner whom I have in safe Custody in this Cave But stay a while and you shall see the salvation of the Lord Exod. 14.13 who though he fell to the ground rose up again and that Antoeus-like with renewed force and vertue when he charged his Enemies afresh broke all their strengths and gave them a final overthrow when he disarmed Death of his Sting and quenched its Poison in his Blood and by taking away the guilt thereof destroyed both the power and enmity of Death though he suffered the Enemy to continue till the General Resurrection He conquered the Grave also making his way through all its Guards and Rampiers it having no more power to detain him than the travelling Woman hath the struggling burden of her Womb when it comes to the Birth For how was it possible that a narrow Sepulchre should hold him whom neither the Temple of Solomon nor the Heaven of Heavens are able to contain It was a glorious Miracle for him to open the Graves to unlock those Chambers of Death for others when he was alive but infinitely more to break its Iron Bars asunder and throw open its Doors when he lay Dead and buried in it himself and to rise up and march out like the Sun in his full strength A Victory this sufficient to father it self and which visibly points to no less than a Divine Author and an Omnipotent Arm. It could be no other than our Spiritual Sampson the strength of our Salvation who when the Enemy thought him sure and sealed up even to an Impossibility of a Resurrection awoke thus out of the sleep of Death shook himself and carried away the gates of his Prison to the Heavenly Mount giving eminent proof of his ability and fitness for this mighty Enterprise by beating the Enemy at his own Weapon and in his own Strongest Holds the Grave and Hell and all this in the weakness of Humane Nature which had been so often foil'd by the Adversary And yet this Victory was not more Eminent for its Author nor more wonderful for its Manner than Compleat for its Effect It was so absolute that it not only presented us with our Capital Enemy in Chains but extended it self to all its Associates so as not to leave one Adversary behind to lift up his hand against us There 's no more Condemnation now from the Law Rom. 8.1 to them who are under Grace Sin hath no more Dominion over us ch 6.14 though it still keeps a Residence among us Death hath never an Instrument of Cruelty or Terror left him but being disarmed of his Sting he is a naked gentle and innocent Enemy He is destroyed also who had the power of Death that is the Devil And now the Serpents Head being thus broken though his Tail may still move and seem to threaten yet it cannot hurt us We may safely play with the Scorpion that hath lost its Sting for though we may find some loathing and abhorrence in our selves to it yet we shall receive no harm from it To die now for Christians is but to fall into a quiet and sound sleep to renew our vigour for the Actions of an Everlasting and Divine Life when we awake in the morning of the Resurrection The Grave likewise is so absolutely vanquished that it
will not withold one of its Prisoners but must at the appointed time surrender up all both good and bad Our Saviour hath so broken the Teeth and Jaws of this Devourer that it may swallow but it cannot grind us it may receive us into its Belly as the Whale did the Prophet but not being able to hold us must of necessity cast us up again upon the Land of Immortality The Righteous shall come forth of that close Cell of Darkness and Corruption into spacious Regions of Light and Glory The Wicked shall be brought forth too but it will be to a Bar that will doom them to a far more Dismal Place They shall rise out of one Pit only to fall into another more horrid and bottomless They shall be roused out of a state of Insensibility and still Silence to be driven into another of Sharpest Sense and most shrill and terrible Shriekings They shall enter upon Miseries which are no more possible to be undergone by them than understood by us We may now be able to make some Competent Estimate of the greatness both of the Victory and of the Mercy to us therein A Victory over the Enemies of this Life is valuable to those who have groaned under a Tyrannizing Conquerour or smarted in some Bloody Battle Those Israelites seem to have fully understood its price who having been long harassed by their Enemies offered to God whatsoever he pleased for one Do thou unto us say they Judg. 10.15 whatsoever seemeth good unto thee deliver us only we pray thee this day The Romans were not more satisfied with any Conquest than with those they had over the Germans because they were so near Neighbours and had been so long and vexatious an Enemy to them Surely a right apprehension of the Enemies in the Text will recommend this Victory over them as far more glorious in it self so more Comfortable to us For of Enemies some are Noble and Generous aiming like Pyrrhus only at Glory and Triumph Others are Imperious and Tyrannical designing like Carthage Domination and Oppression yet the bitterest Feuds and Hostilities in this World all Bodily Servitudes and Temporal Sufferances whatsoever are perfect friendships freedoms and Entertainments in comparison of that Mortal shall I say Immortal Enmity that Spiritual Bondage that Eternal Misery which we are delivered from by this happy Victory 3. VVhich shews the Reasonableness of Triumphing and Rejoycing for the same It was one of the Fundamental Laws of the Roman Triumphs Val. Max. l. 2. c. 8. sect 1. that there should be five thousand Enemies slain in the Battle but that could not debar our Victorious Lord from a right to this Honour who had virtually slain infinitely more in destroying the whole Body of Sin and Death and in spoiling Legions of Principalities and Powers Wherefore as at his Resurrection he got the Victory so at his Ascension he Rode in Triumph when he went up towards the Heavenly City with a Shout Ps 47.5 and the sound of a Trumpet Eph. 4.8 having the Clouds for his Triumphal Chariots leading Captivity Captive Coll. 2.15 and making shew of the Spoils openly When he was doubtless met in the way to the upper Jerusalem by numberless Troops of Angels and Seraphims with Psalms in their Hands and Hosanna's in their Mouths as the Daughters of Israel met his Father David with Musick and Dancing in his return from slaying the Philistin and by them Conducted with the greatest Magnificence and Jubilation into the Holy of Holies 1 Sam. 1.8 6. And as he hath given us the benefit of his Victory so the honour of a Triumph too though at present in the Inferour Kind We may have our Christian Acclamations now proportionable to the Pagan Ovations and our Hosanna's to answer their Jo Paean's and that upon better ground then any they ever had seeing by it we are not only delivered from the power and malice of our Cruel Enemy but also from those mighty fears and insuperable Apprehensions we had of them He hath dispersed all those horrours and amazements that unavoidably sprung up in our Minds under the thoughts of our dropping into an Abyss of Darkness and of nothing if not of endless and Exquisite Misery He hath released us from that pepetual anguish and perplexity that formerly stuck to the Soul in spite of all Humane Relief That scorn'd all the powers of Reason and mocked at the attempts of Philosophy to remove it He hath freed us from two greater Evils than Death it self the precedent fear of it in this Life and the dismal Consequence in the next so that we may now lift up our heads and hearts with joy and behold those Insulting Egyptians our proud and inhumane Taskmasters lying dead on the Shore or their Carkasses floting on the Waves We may take a new Song in our Mouths or else that old one of Moses with a little variation Exod. 15.1.21 The Lord hath Triumphed Gloriously the Pale Horse and the Rider hath he thrown into the Sea even into the Red Sea of his Blood. Or else resume this Apostolical Hymn of the Text in a holy defiance of those Enemies upbraiding and boldly challenging them now to do their worst and chearfully singing O Death Where is thy Sting Come bring forth all thy Instruments of Mischief let loose all thy Plagues and Poisons exert thy destructive Victorious Power to the utmost and hurt me now if thou canst but alass thy Weapon is wrested out of thy Hand thy Sinews are Cut and thy Meager Paleness is now not more the symptom of thy Envy and Malice than of thy fainting and languishing Spirits O thou great Destroyer of Mankind thou art now utterly destroyed thy self O Grave Where is thy Victory Keep me in durance now if thou art able make fast all thy Prison-doors and throw thy strongest Chains and Fetters upon me yet these as in the case of St. Peter shall all fall off and the other fly open O thou Devourer of all Flesh thou art now swallowed up in Victory thy self by him whom thou hadst devour'd Who can forbear now not only to Sing but Dance for Joy who could not forbear before to Cry out and Tremble for fear under the sight or sense of these hideous Bugbears to the Heirs of Mortality seeing they are now so weaken'd and wounded that there 's little left for us save the honour and pleasure to stand upon and insult these Sons of Anak who lie thus prostrate before us Let us then bravely despise and deride Death with all his Associates and Seconds Let us not so far disparage this great performance of our Lord as to receive the Spirit of Bondage again to fear any of them This would be to blemish the glory of his Victory as if he had left it imperfect whereas he was not only an absolute Conqueror of them all himself Rom. 8.37 But hath made us also more than Conquerours through faith in him and