predestinated to be conform'd to the Image of God's Son who trac'd out the way to Heaven in his own Blood and by the Cross ascended to the Throne Sometimes more immediately Divine Providence afflicts them to preserve their Spirits from the tainted pleasures of the World and other Holy Ends but there is a rest for the People of God in Heaven Besides there are Reliques of Sin in the best of the Saints here Indeed Sin is depos'd from sovereignty and rule the imperious Lusts are crucified but not quite expir'd As those that were nail'd to the Cross in their hands and feet the parts least vital and most sensible died a painful lingring death Still the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh As there is a complexion of Humours in humane Bodies always jarring when they are in the soundest health and where there is not this active contrariety either the Body is without a Soul a mere Carcass or a glorified Body in Heaven So where there is not this internal Combat between Grace and Sin either the Man is wholly Carnal dead in sins and trespases or wholly spiritual reigning in Heaven And there is nothing more works on the tender affections of a Saint than to find in himself what is displeasing to God that still he is under a sad necessity of sinning What is said concerning an old Man wasted and decayed in his drooping Years that the Grashopper is a burden to him is true of the new Man in a Christian the sins that are counted light in the valuation of the World are a heavy weight to him Vain Thoughts idle Words irregular Passions unprofitable Actions are motives of heart-breaking sorrow Now Death is to a Believer a universal Remedy against all the Evils of this Life it frees him from all Injuries and Sufferings and from Sin in all its degrees from all inclinations and temptations to it He that is dead ceaseth from Sin Death is the passage from this Wilderness to the true Canaan the rest Above that flows with better Milk and Hony with Innocence and Happiness for ever There nothing can disturb the Peace or corrupt the purity of the blessed 3. Besides the privative advantage the freedom from all the effects of God's displeasure and the resentments of it there is the highest positive Good obtained by Death The Spirits of just Men are made perfect in Heaven The Soul is the Glory of Man and Grace is the Glory of the Soul and both are then in their exaltation All the Faculties of the Soul are rais'd to the highest degrees of Natural and Divine Perfection In this Life Grace renews the Faculties but does not elevate them to their highest pitch it does not make a mean Understanding pregnant nor a frail Memory strong nor a slow Tongue eloquent but sanctifies them as they are But when the Soul is releas'd from this dark Body of Earth the Understanding is clear and quick the Memory firm the Will and Affections ardent and vigorous And they are enrich'd with divine Light and Love and Power that makes them fit for the most noble and heavenly Operations The lineaments of God's Image on the Soul are first drawn here but then it receives his last hand All the Celestial Colours are added to give the utmost life and lustre to it Here we are advancing but by Death we arrive at Perfection We shall in Heaven be join'd to the Assembly of Saints and Angels our best Friends Love is the Law of that Kingdom and Perfectly obeyed there Now how charming is the Conversation of one that is wise and holy especially if the sweetness of affability be in his temper How pleasantly does time slide away in the company of our beloved Friends We are not sensible of its flight But what dear satisfaction is it to be united to that chosen consecrated Society Above who love one another as themselves Tho' the Angels and Saints have different degrees of Glory yet every one is perfectly happy and pleased As the strings of an Instrument differ in the size and sound some are sharp and high some grave and deep others a mean and from that variety results the Harmony and Musick so that if every string had Judgment and Election it would chuse to be what it is so from the different degrees of Glory in Heaven the most amiable and equal Order of the Divine Wisdom appears that satisfies every one We shall be in the glorious presence of God and Christ where is fulness of joy and infinite pleasures for ever 'T is said of Abraham He rejoic'd to see the day of Christ two thousand Years before his coming When by Faith he saw the incarnation of the Son of God in order to the redemption of Men it put him into an extasy Yet then our Saviour was born to Sorrows and Miseries But how ravishing is the sight of our Redeemer set down on the right hand of the Majesty on high having purged our Sins by himself and accomplish'd our Salvation Now we are absent from God yet in believing his infallible Promises we rejoice with a Joy unspeakable and glorious But how much more joyful is the fruition of them Here the Divine Goodness is derived to us through secondary means that weaken its efficacy but in Heaven the consolations of the Creator are most purely dispensed and his immediate Excellencies are made known This Blessedness exceeds all our thoughts and explicit desires and requires the eloquence and experience of an Angel to set it forth The bright sum of it is this We shall see God in his Glory face to face in the most perfect manner the sight of his Glory shall transform us into his Likeness we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is This shall produce in us the most pure and ardent Love and Love shall be attended with inexpressible joy and that with the highest praises of the blessed God whose influxive presence is the Heaven of Heaven And that which crowns all is that the Life above is Eternal This satisfies all our Desires and excludes all our Fears for unchangeableness is an inseparable Attribute of perfect felicity The Blessed are in full communion with God the Fountain of Life and Christ the Prince of Life Because I live saith our Saviour ye shall live also What can interrupt much less put an end to the happiness of the Saints The Love of God is immutably fix'd upon them and their Love upon him Here their love is subject to decays and gradual alienations as the Needle in the Compass tho' it always has a tendency to the North Pole yet sometimes it declines and has its variations But in Heaven the love of the Saints is directly and constantly set upon God The light of his Countenance governs all their Affections 'T is as impossible to divert their desires from him as to cause one that is inflam'd with thirst to leave a clear flowing Spring for a
noisom Puddle In short Heaven is filled with eternal Halelujahs for there is no appearance of Sin no shadow of Death there all miseries are vanish'd and all that is desireable is possess'd by the Saints the Circle of their Employment is to enjoy and praise the Divine Goodness for ever Now is not the blessed exchange a Christian makes of the present Life for that which is infinitely better sufficient to make Death not fearful nay desirable to him And this Happiness was purchas'd for us by the everlasting Treasure of our Saviour's Blood The satisfaction of his Sufferings was meritorious as the Merits of his active Obedience was satisfying Before I proceed to the third Head I shall resolve a Question How it comes to pass since Believers are freed from the sting of Death that they die and remain in the state of Death for a time For this there are several Reasons 1. By this means all the sinful Frailties that cleave to the Saints in this Life are abolish'd The Body is dead because of Sin And what is more becoming the wise and holy Providence of God than that as by Sin Man was at first made subject to Death so by Death Sin dies entirely for ever Thus as in Sampson's Riddle Out of the Devourer comes Meat and our worst Enemy is conquer'd by his own Weapons 2. Death is continued to the Saints for the more eminent exercise and illustration of their Graces for the Glory of God and in order to their future reward Faith and Love and Patience are declared in their most powerful Operations in our encounter with Death If every Saint were visibly and entirely translated to Heaven after a short course of holy Obedience if the Wicked did visibly drop down quick into Hell Faith would be resigned to sight here This would confound the Militant state of the Church with the Triumphant Therefore now Death happens to the Good as well as to the Wicked In the next state they shall be separated by a vast Gulph and an amazing Difference Now Faith what-ever the kind of Death be that a Christian suffers sees through the thickest Clouds of Disgrace and Misery the glorious Issue As the illustrious Confessor who was crucified with our Saviour proclaim'd his Eternal Kingdom in the midst of insulting Infidels And our love to God then appears in its radiancy and vigour when we are ready for the testimony of his Truth and advancing his Glory to suffer a violent Death or when it comes in a gentler manner for 't is even then terrible to Nature we are willingly subject to dissolution that we may be united to God in Heaven And our patience has never its perfect work and is truly victorious till this last Enemy be subdued Death is the Seal of our Constancy Perseverance Now the Righteous Rewarder will crown none but those that strive lawfully and are compleat Conquerors And how wise and sweet is the Oeconomy of the Divine Providence in this that the frailty of our Nature should afford us a means of glorifying God and of entitling our selves by his most gracious Promises to a blessed Reward 3. Our Saviour by his unvaluable Obedience and Sufferings has procur'd for Believers a Celestial Divine Life of which the natural Body is not capable The Apostle saith Flesh and Blood cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The exigencies and decays of the sensitive Nature require a continual relief by food and sleep and other material supplies but the Life above is wholly spiritual and equal to that of the Angels Therefore till this earthly animal Body be reformed and purified 't is not capable of the Glory reserv'd in Heaven This is so absolutely requisite that those Believers who are found alive at the last Day shall in the twinckling of an Eye be changed that they may be qualified for it Now herein the Wisdom of God is wonderful that Death which by the Covenant of Works was the deserved penalty of Sin by the Covenant of Grace should be the Instrument of Immortality That as Joseph by a surprising Circuit was brought from the Prison to the Principality so a Believer by the Grave ascends to Heaven This the Apostle in his Divine Disputation against Infidels proves in a most convincing manner Thou Fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die As the rotting of the Corn in the Earth is necessary to the reviving and springing of it up so we must die and the Image of the Earthly Adam be abolish'd that we may be transformed into the Image of the Heavenly One And to the other part of the Question Why the Saints remain in the state of Death for a time there is a clear Answer The Resurrection of the Saints is delayed till Christ's coming to Judgment partly for the Glory of his Appearance For what an admirable sight will it be that the Saints of all Ages shall at once arise glorified and immortalized to attend upon our Saviour in the last act of his Regal Office and then to make a triumphant entry with him into Heaven And partly that the establish'd order of Providence may not be disturbed for the changing of our Nature into Glory in a suddain and inexplicable manner cannot be without miraculous Power and if every Believer presently after Death were in his glorified Body translated to Heaven the World would be always filled with Miracles which were to cease after the sufficient Confirmation of the Gospel by them But how long soever the Interval be to the Resurrection it shall be with them that sleep in Jesus as 't is with those that awake out of a quiet natural sleep to whom the longest night seems but as a moment so when the Saints first awake from Death in the great Morning of the World a thousand Years will seem no more to them than to God himself but as one day I now come to prove the third Thing That our Saviour will abolish the Dominion of Death over the Saints Whilst the Bodies of the Saints remain in the Grave they seem to be absolutely under the power of Death The World is a Golgotha fill'd with the Monuments of its Victories And it may be said to this our last Enemy in the words of the Prophet to the bloody King Hast thou killed and taken possession But we are assur'd by an infallible Word that the power of Death shal be abolish'd and the Bodies of the Saints be reviv'd incorruptible and immortal The Resurrection is a Terra incognita to the wisest Heathens a Doctrine peculiar to the Gospel some glimmerings they had of the Soul's Immortality without which all Vertue had been extinguish'd in the World but no conjecture of the reviving of the Body But reason assists Faith in this point both as to the Will of God and his power for the performing it I will glance upon the natural Reasons that induce the considering Mind to receive this Doctrine and more largely shew how
SERMONS UPON DEATH AND Eternal Judgment BY WILLIAM BATES D. D. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1683. To the Right Honourable RACHEL Lady RUSSEL MADAM OF all Affairs for the compassing whereof Men are so diligent and sollicitous there is none of that absolute necessity and high importance as the Preparation for Death and Judgment This requires the whole Man in his best vigour and should be the Work of the Day but 't is usually delayed till the melancholy Evening of Age or the twilight of Death The Trifles of this World divert them from that main business to which all other things should be subordinate It equally deserves Wonder and Compassion that Death which is so constantly in Mens view should be so seldom the matter of their application when all are of the same Glass made of the same frail natural Principles and no Argument is more frequently and pathetically urged upon them 'T is not strange that deep Truths that by the strength and exercise of the mind are drawn like Gold out of the Mines have no efficacy upon those that are not capable of understanding them but the Doctrins of Death and Judgment after it are plain Truths by Natural Moral and Divine Evidence known to all yet no more affect Men than a Paradox of incredible Novelty If the Doctrine of Eternal Judgment were but a probable Opinion controverted with equal Arguments yet 't is a matter of such vast concernment that Reason requires all our possible diligence to avoid an eternal evil that may be the loss of coelestial Glory and the Torments of Hell But since 't is an infallible Truth as certain as the Word of God 't is a Miracle to astonish Heaven and Earth that Men live as carelesly as if they should never die and die as securely as if they should not live in the next state to receive the just punishment of their Sins They are fearless whilst Death is far off in their thoughts and when Age has snowed upon their heads that no Marks of decaying Nature should appear make their own Winter to flourish with another Spring But 't is in vain for Death knows them under their disguise and will not stay beyond the appointed time And in that decisive hour Infidelity or Presumption hardens Men to pass as quietly and boldly in appearance into another world as unfeigned Faith and a regular lively Hope in the Promises of the Gospel But as deceitful Physick stops the Fit for the present that will return more violently and fatally afterwards So a counterfeit short Peace transmits them to everlasting Sorrows The design of the following SERMONS is to awaken Men that they may be wise and consider their latter end to secure an interest in our Redeemer who has disarmed Death of its Sting and made that Enemy our Friend and to practise dying every day by withdrawing their hearts from the vanities of this transient World that have such a pernicious influence to excite the carnal appetites and stupify the Conscience which are the true causes of their sin and misery And what can be more powerful to render them temperate and sober in the use of present things vigilant and serious in their preparations for their great and final Change than the remembrance that Death is immediately attended with Judgment and Judgment with Blessedness or Misery for ever I know this Argument is naturally displeasing but the usefulness should recommend it to our most solemn and composed thoughts before all the vain entertainments of the Fancy and sensual Affections As Herbs of Medicinal virtue that are not pleasing to the sight or smell yet are valued by the Skilful as treasures of Health and preferr'd before the fairest Flowers that are perfum'd and painted by Nature so as to excel the richest lustre of Solomon's Glory The Body is in a continual Consumption and no Art can long preserve it but whilst the outward Man is irrecoverably declining and wasting if the Inward Man be ascending and renewing to perfection the advantage is incomparable O how comfortable is it to a holy Believer in the parting hour to commit his Spirit into the hands of his Heavenly Father for thus he is authorized and encouraged by our Saviour's Example and lay down the Flesh to rest in Hope for Christ is the Guardian of the Grave has the Keys of Death and will revive the Bodies of his Saints incorruptible and immortal the Copies of his own glorious Body Madam I shall not attempt the celebrating your Ladiships Vertues that render you a bright Ornament of your Sex and more truly Honourable than your Noble Descent and Alliance but direct my best Desires to God that your Family may be a singular and eminent Example of the Divine Favour that the fading Gloss of this World may not deceive you but your Heart may be above where your Treasure is that you may live to God and your Soul for Heaven and Eternity I am Madam Your Honours very humble and faithful Servant WILLIAM BATES SERMONS UPON DEATH HEB. 2. 15. And deliver them who through fear of Death were all their life-time subject to Bondage IN the first Chapter of this Epistle the Proofs of the Eternal Deity of Christ are produced with that evidence of Scripture-Light that only a vailed Heart obstinate Infidelity can resist The Medium which the inspired Pen-man makes use of is the comparing him with the Angels the most noble Flower of the Creation and shewing that he is infinitely dignified above them This he does by a strong connexion of Arguments First By his Title that is divinely high and peculiar to himself He is declared by the Testimony of the Eternal Father to be his Son in the most proper and sublime sence begotten of him and therefore having the same essential Perfections of the God-head in their uncreated Glory But the Angels are not dignified with this Name in any places of Scripture where the Excellency of the Angels is in the fullest terms expressed And that this Name is taken from his Nature is clearly proved because Adoration is due to him upon this account even from the Angels of the highest Order When he bringeth in the first-begotten into the World he saith And let all the Angels of God worship him Divine Worship is a Prerogative inseparably annext to the Deity both upon the account of the supream Excellencies of the Nature of God and his Relation to Angels and Men as Creator and Preserver the Fountain of their Being and Happiness This without the most open defiance of his Authority cannot be given to a mere Creature and by the Command of God himself is to be performed as a respect due to the filial God-head The Argument proceeds from the Name to the Offices Of the Angels he saith Who maketh the Angels Spirits and his Ministers a flame of Fire They are the prime Instruments of his Providence
Grave and exchanged all his glorious State for Worms and Putrefaction The Worm is spread under thee and the Worms cover thee In short Death separates Men from all their admired charming Vanities 2. Death is fearful in the apprehension of Conscience as 't is the most sensible mark of God's Wrath that is heavier than Death and a summons to give an account of all things done in this Life to the righteous Judg of the World 'T is appointed to all Men once to die and afterward the Judgment The Penal Fear is more wounding to the Spirit than the Natural When the awakened Sinner quietly expects the Citation to appear before the Tribunal above where no excuses no supplications no privileges avail where his cause of Eternal Life or Death must be decided and the awards of Justice be immediately executed O the Convulsions and Agonies of Conscience in that hour when the diseased Body cannot live and the disconsolate Soul dare not die what Anxieties surround it This redoubles the terrors of Death that the first transmits to the second that was figured by it O the dismal aspect of Death riding on a pale Horse with Hell the black Attendant following This Fear surprised the Sinners in Sion Who among us can dwell with devouring Fire who among us can remain with everlasting burnings This made a Heathen the Governor of a Province to tremble before a poor Prisoner While Paul discoursed of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come Foelix trembled 'T is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God who lives for ever and can punish for ever None is so powerful as God nothing so fearful as the guilty Conscience 3. The degrees of this Fear is exprest by Bondage This Passion when regular in its Object and Degree is excellently useful 't is a wise Counsellor and faithful Guardian that plucks off the Mask from our Enemies and keeps Reason vigilant and active to prevent a threatning Evil or to sustain it in the best manner 'T is observable in the brute Creatures that the weak and fearful are most subtile and ingenious to secure themselves and supply the want of strength with artifice But when Fear is inordinate 't is a tyrannous Master that vexes the weary Soul and hinders its free and noble Operations Caesar chose rather to be expos'd to suddain death than to be continually harrast with fears how to avoid it The Greek word implies the binding of the Spirit that causes an inward slavery And in the Apostles Writings the Spirit of Fear and the Spirit of Bondage are equivalent Ishbosheth when Abner provok'd by the Charge about Saul's Concubine imperiously threatned to translate the Kingdom to David was struck with such a fear that he could not answer Abner a word 2 Sam. 3. 10 11. The suddain passion stifled his replie and reduc'd him to a defenceless silence Now the fear of Death as 't is remiss or vehement such are the degrees of bondage from it 1. It embitters the enjoyments of the present Life and makes the most prosperous in the World even in the fulness of their sufficiency to be in straits Tho' the senses are pleased with the quick sweetness of Change from one Object to another yet the Soul cannot have a delightful undisturbed fruition foreseeing that the stream of Pleasure will issue into the dead Sea Truly Light is sweet and 't is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun But how short is this Life with all its pleasures in comparison of the days of darkness that follow Now tho' 't is our best wisdom and truest liberty to rejoice in this World as if we rejoiced not and frequently to meditate on the cooling Doctrines of Death and Judgment to repress the transports of the voluptuous appetite yet since the Comforts of this Life are liberally indulged to us by the Love of God to be the motives of our grateful and affectionate Obedience to sweeten our passage to Heaven we may with tranquillity of Spirit make a pure and chearful use of them in his service and 't is an oppressing bondage when the disquieting anxious fears of Death hinders our temperate enjoyment of his Favours and Blessings 2. The fear of Death oppresses the Souls of Men under a miserable Bondage to the Devil for his Dominion is maintain'd by the Allurements and Terrors of the World Tho Men do not explicitly acknowledg his Soveraignty yet by voluntary yielding to his pleasing temptations they are really his Slaves And the apprehension of temporal Evils especially of Death drest up in a frightful representation with its bloody pomp is the strongest snare to the Soul The faint-hearted prove false-hearted in the time of trial For the timerous Spirit being wholly intent how to avoid the incursion of a present Evil forgets or neglects what is indispensibly to be done and thinks to find an excuse in the pretended necessity How many have been terrified from their clearest Duty and resolved Constancy To escape Death they have been guilty of the most insufferable impieties by renouncing God their Maker and Saviour and worshipping the Devils for Deities Every Age presents sad spectacles of many that chuse iniquity rather than affliction that relinquish their duty and by wicked compliances save their Lives and lose their Souls Carnal Desires and Carnal Fears are the Chains of Hell that retain Men Satan's Captives But what folly what madness is it for the avoiding the impotent fury of the Creature to venture on the powerful wrath of God that exceeds all the terrors that can be conceived by fear This renders them more bruitish than the Horse that starting at his Shadow springs over a desperate Precipice The fearful are excluded from Heaven and cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone for ever 3. The extream fear of Death and Judgment dejects and discourages the Soul from the use of means to prevent eternal misery and induces a most woful Bondage Fear anticipates and exasperates future Evils for as knowledg excites fear so fear encreases knowledg by the uncessant working of the thoughts upon terrible Objects The fearful mind aggravates the foreseen Evil and distils the Poison from all the circumstances and consequences of it And when the Evil is apprehended as insuperable and indeclinable all endeavours to escape are cut off What a Philosopher observes of an Earthquake compared with other destructive Evils is true in this case There may be a safe retreat from Fire from Inundations from Storms from War from Pestilence but an Earthquake astonishes with so violent a perturbation that stops our flight from the imminent danger So the vehement impressions of fear from the approaches of death and the severe executions upon the Sinner after it distracts the mind and disables from flying from the Wrath to come These Fears are more heavy by the suggestions of Satan who represents God so terrible in his Majesty