the Triumphs of this Victory be over the Grand Apostate And how unsupposeable is it that he should have occasion left him to glory in an Eternal Conquest And 2. It is not a light thing to him whose nature is Love That without this final victory the felicity of the Redeemed should never be fully accomplisht Ante-cedently to the Gospel-Revelation it would seem more agreeable to the Nature of God that some should be rescu'd from the Power of Death than that all should lye under it for ever But we to whom that Revelation is vouchsaf't cannot now but think it the most unlikely thing in the World that the design of Almighty Love should finally be defeated and that such as are in Vital Union with the Redeemer should either be overcome at last by Death or remain in an eternal struggle with it Whence nothing can be conceived in this case but that as to them death must be swallowed up in this glorious Everlasting Victory Whereupon how admirable a display will there herein be of sundry the most known Attributes and Excellencies of the Divine Nature as his Wisdom Power Goodness Holiness Justice and Truth in the whole Conduct and in this final issue of things as might be distinctly shown of each if we were not within limits He at first dealt with them very sutably to their natures At length he deals with them according to his own That it may be the Theme of Eternal Contemplation to themselves and the whole intelligent World How far his ways are above their ways and his thoughts above their thoughts Isa. 55. And that as at first he thought it not fit to hinder them from doing as too little became such Creatures nothing should at last hinder him from doing as became a God But come we now to the Use. And 1. Do we find this saying in the Sacred Word of God that Death is to be swallow'd up in victory Then we are not to doubt but so it shall be A plenary assent is to be given to it But what sort of assent not that which arises from the sight of our Eye If that were to be our only Informer we see no such thing but quite the contrary That represents Death to us as the only Conquerour It visibly swallows up all in Victory wheresoever it makes a seizure Nothing stands before it We behold it turning every where living Men and Women like our selves into breathless lumps of Earth It irresistibly introduces it self and Life is fled and gone Such as convers't with us walk't to and fro amongst us reason'd discourst with us manag'd business pursu'd designs delighted themselves with us and gave us delight become Deaths Captives before our Eyes are bound in its bands and we cannot redeem them nor save our selves Where then is this swallowing up of Death in Victory which is it self so constantly Victorious Our Reason may tell us it shall not be always and universally so but it flutters and hallucinates 'T is the Divine Word that must at last put the matter out of doubt and our Faith therein which is the substance of what we hope for and the evidence of what we do not see If Faith is to assure our hearts in this matter it must be as it relies upon his Word who can do this and hath said he will If we believe his Power that renders it possible to us If his Word that makes it certain Hath he said it who then shall gainsay it 'T is one of the true and faithful sayings of God 2. If this be a Credible saying 't is certainly a very comfortable One If we can but make that first step and perceive this not to be a hard or incredible saying it is very obvious to make a second and acknowledge it to be a very Consolatory saying and that both in reference to The past Death of our Friends and Relatives even such as were nearest and most dear to us And in reference to our own most certainly future and expected Death In the one Case and the other we are to look upon it as a comfortable saying That this Mighty raging Enemy shall have all his power lost and swallowed up in so glorious a Victory one day 1. It is surely a very comfortable saying in the former of these Cases the Case of our losing Friends and Relations very dear unto us And there only needs this to make it most deliciously pleasant that is to have a comfortable perswasion concerning such That they are part of Christs Seed they are some of them in reference to whom Christ is in the most peculiar Sense the first-fruits so as that they have a pre-assurance of Victory in his Conquest and Victory over Death and the Grave And we have great reason to be so perswaded concerning that Worthy Gentlewoman whose late Decease is the more special occasion of this solemn Assembly at this time She was one who as such as had most opportunity to observe and best ability to judge did reckon had given abundant evidence of the work of Gods Saving Grace upon her own Spirit and who thereupon did long walk with God in a very continued Course so indeed as that tho' her Comforts were observed not to be Rapturous yet they were steady and even so as that she was rarely troubled with doubts to give obstruction or hinderance to her in her Christian Course If any such doubt did arise it soon vanished and she quickly through the Mercy of God received Satisfaction and so went chearfully on in her way She was abundant in reading especially of the Holy Book that was her business and delight She very little cared to concern her self in reading Writings that were merely Notional or Polemical and disputative But the most practical ones she was most of all taken with such as treated of the other state and of the duties of Christians in the mean time in reference thereto future felicity and present spiritual-mindedness that has so certain connexion therewith and so direct a tendency thereto were with her the delightful Subjects which she chose to read of and meditate upon Her Temper was observed to be even betwixt a freeness and reservedness She was not Melancholy though much inclined to solitariness and would frequently lament that so much of her precious time was past away either in necessary business or Civil Conversation that was not to be avoided It was observed that her disposition was most highly charitable very apt to give even to her uttermost as occasions did occur In reference to her Children her care was most tender Much of her time was spent in instructing them while under her Instruction and within her reach teaching them their Catechism with the Proofs at large and how to apply the Proofs to the Answer so as to bring them to a distinct understanding thereof And in this way and course she past through the World Her last Sickness did very little alter the temper of her Spirit it was calm
Abstractly considered 't is but a notion As it actually hath taken place it must be the death of this or that Person And as it is finally to be overcome and have an end it must have a limited subject and not be understood of all absolutely and universally for then there would be no such thing as Eternal Death which hath no end And how the subject here supposed is to be limited the series of discourse thorough the Chapter shews they are such as are Christs ver 23. and to whom he is peculiarly the first fruits ibid. Such as shall bear his heavenly Image ver 49. and as elsewhere whose vile bodies shall be made like his glorious One Phil. 3. 21. Such as shall have spiritual incorruptible immortal bodies like his and with him inherit the Kingdom of God and through him obtain this victory ver 50 57. 2. This limitation of death to be overcome to such a subject only connotes the extent of it to the whole of that subject as that is compos'd of an inner and an Outer man 2 Cor. 4. 16. It were frigid and comfortless to suppose if it were supposeable that this glorious Conquest of death should extend no further than the giving us a fair specious outside and that our Mind and Spirit should not partake or be nothing the better for it 'T is plain the Apostles scope thro' this Chapter is more to assert the future subsistence of the Soul than the recomposure of the Body as his Arguments shew though what was necessary to be said concerning the future state of that also is not neglected But what he is now saying in this part of the Chapter concerns not what is common to men but what is peculiar to Good and Holy Men. And therefore as it respects their nobler part must intend More than its meer subsistence in another state which is common to good and bad and signify the perfection of the Holy Divine life which shall be at last entirely victorious and Swallow up Death in its utmost extent and specially as it was opposite to that life Death I mean as it was so heavily incumbent upon the Minds and Spirits of Good Men themselves and was their most intolerable burden extorting from them such groans as that Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Nor indeed is this death sensible or grievous or ever felt but where the opposite life hath some place Total death knows no grievances makes no complaints They that lye buried in the Earth are in their own Element where no such thing weighs upon them a terrene carnal Mind is no burthen to such Souls as are quite dead in Trespasses and Sins I hope I need not tell you that tho' the Souls of men are Universally immortal in the natural sense they are not so in the moral Morality comprehends the means and end Vertue and Felicity or in terms more agreeable to our Christian Ethicks or that are oftener heard by them that live under the Gospel Holiness and Blessedness These are signify'd by Spiritual Life or life in the spiritually-moral sense And so are Sin and Misery by the opposite death And no man hath reason to think it strange that Life and Death are estimated by such measures or that a temper of Spirit habitually and fixedly good or evil should be signify'd by being alive or dead if we consider how perfect an equivalency there is between them in the moral sense and being naturally alive or dead For wherein do we usually state the notion of Natural Life but in a self-moving power Now let any ordinary Understanding be appeal'd to in the Case and who would not say it were as good not to be able to move at all as to move in so perpetual disorder as never to attain any end such motion should serve for The Ends of a reasonable Creatures motions must be duty to its Maker and felicity to it self If all its motions be such as import constant hostility towards God infelicity and torment to it self this is to be dead not simply and naturally 't is true but respectively and not in some by and lessconsiderable respect but in respect of the principal and most important purposes of Life So that in full equivalency such a one is as dead to all valuable intents and purposes whatsoever Therefore such are only said to be alive in a true and the most proper sense that are alive to God through Jesus Christ Rom. 6. 11. Or that do yeild themselves to God as those that are alive from the dead ver 13. it being the proper business of their life to serve God and enjoy him Others that only live in sinful pleasure are dead while they live 1 Tim. 5. 6. Nor hath such a Notion of life and death been altogether strange even among Heathens when we find it said by One of no mean note That a wicked man is dead as a soul may be said to die and to it 't is a death when 't is too deeply plung'd immerst into the body so as to be sunk down into matter and replete with it Besides much more that might be produc't from others of like import and how agreeable is this passage to that Rom. 8. 6 To be carnally minded is death Upon the whole I cannot indeed conceive that since Death is often taken and that most reasonably in so great a latitude as to admit of comprehending this sense and since in these latter verses the Apostle is speaking of a final deliverance from it as the special priviledge of such as are in union with Christ not of what is common to all men but that victory over death in this respect as it imports aversion from God or indisposition towards him must be within his meaning and that he was far from confining it to bodily death only or from intending in reference to the Soul the meer natural immortality of that alone But that Death in its utmost latitude was now in reference to this sort of men whom his present discourse intends to be entirely swallow'd up in victory Or in a perfect plenitude of victorious life as 2 Cor. 5. 4. So much which was more requisite to be insisted on being clear we shall less need to inlarge upon what follows As that 3. This Victory supposes a War Or That Life and Death were before in a continual struggle So we find the Case is Even this Lower World is full of vitality Yet Death hath spread it self thorough it and cast over it a dark and dismal shadow every where according as Sin which introduc'd it is diffus'd and spread Death is therefore mention'd as an Enemy ver 26. And so we understand it Natural Death as an Enemy to Nature Spiritual to Grace In the Body numerous maladies and round about it multitudes of adverse rancounters are striving to infer Death In and about the Mind and Spirit worse diseases and Temptations
have the like tendency Temptations I say the mention whereof was not to be omitted as pointing at the Tempter the wicked one who first brought Sin and Death into this World of ours And who is though the conceal'd the first and most proper seat of the Enmity which gives Death the Denomination of an Enemy which is so called indefinitely The last Enemy that we might not understand it to be our Enemy only but more an Enemy against God than us from whom the spiteful Apostate aim'd and glory'd to pluck away and bury in Death and Ruin the whole Race of humane Creatures In the mean time Nature in all and Grace in the Regenerate are Counter-striving In the former the self-preserving Principle is more sensibly vigorous but less successful but they who are born of God are better assisted by their Divine-keeper in sub-ordination to whom they are enabled effectually to keep themselves that the wicked one mortally touches them not 1 Joh. 5. 18. but as must be supposed not without continual watching and striving as in War is usual 4. Where such a War and striving ends not in victory on the one side they end in victory on the other This is consequent upon what hath been said of the limited Subject here spoken of Death is not universally overcome with some it is left to be conceived therefore as a Conquerour We see how it is with the two Hemispheres of our Globe When in the One the Light is chasing the Darkness of the foregoing Night and we behold the morning gradually spreading it self upon the mountains and it shines brighter and brighter unto perfect day So in the other a feebler light doth more and more retire and yeild till at length it be quite swallow'd up in the victorious darkness of a black and horrid midnight 'T is much after the same rate here with this difference that vicissitudes and alternations cease and whether darkness and the shadow of death or the light of life be finally Victorious they are so as hath been said for ever With the One sort i. e. with the righteous a vital light arises in the midst of darkness A Type of their Spiritual and a Prelude to their Eternal State They have a quickening light within under all Clouds of present ignominy and trouble and an Eternal day awaits them Now Death worketh in them and surrounds them on every side for a while and gains a temporary victory over their bodily Life which while it is doing and their outward man is perishing their inward man is renewed day by day But at length even that vanquished life revives and that more noble life which is hid with Christ in God Col. 3. 3. and of which he says that whosoever lives and believes in him shall never die Joh. 11. 26. becomes perfect for it is pure Life as that is said to be pure which is plenum sui minimum habet alieni full of it self without mixture of any thing alien from it having quite swallow'd up whatsoever was opposite or disagreeable So doth Life in the several kinds and degrees of it flourish with them in a permanent perpetual and most consistent State And as Regal Power is often founded in just Conquest they do even reign in life by Jesus Christ Rom. 5. 17 21. But for the other sort that sorry pitiful dying life they have wherein they are even dead while they live will be swallow'd up in a victorious eternal Death in which there remaines to them a perpetual Night and the blackness of darkness for ever We are next to consider 2. The Reasonableness of the Divine Determination which this saying imports And that is to be collected by reminding who it is that hath so determined He that can effect all his determinations and do all his pleasure The reason of his intendments and performances must be fetch 't from himself and the perfection of his own Nature unto which nothing can be more agreeable When Death let in by Sin hath been reigning doing the part of a King as Rom. 5. 17. over so great a part of Gods Creation it can be little sutable to him who doth all things after the Counsel of his will Eph. 1. 11. to let it reign for ever Sometime it must be swallow'd up in victory Otherwise 1. His own Glory would suffer a perpetual Eclipse 2. The Felicity of his Redeemed should never be compleat Neither of which as we are taught to apprehend the state of things can consist with the absolute perfection of his Being 1. Can we think it agreeable to him to suffer such a perpetual soloecisme or incongruity within his Dominion that when Death by means of a most Criminal Apostasie had made so great an inrode into the Nobler part of his Creation i. e. had broken in amongst Creatures capable of Immortality who indeed otherwise had not been capable of Sin and thereby darkened the Glory which shone more brightly in such an Order of Creatures it should be so alwayes i. e. that such a sort of Creatures should be perpetually continued to be born and sin and die Sometime we must think this course of things should have an end and not by yielding an everlasting conquest to an Enemy We can well conceive it most worthy of God when he had made such Creatures unto whom liberty was as agreeable as holiness and felicity to leave them to themselves a-while as Probationers and Candidates for that state of immortal Life whereof they were not incapable It well became a self-sufficient Being and an absolute Sovereign to let them understand dependance and subjection and that their state was precarious not his To let them feel the cost of ungovernableness and self-will and the disagreeableness thereof to their condition who were not self-subsistent and had not their good in their own hands If being put upon this trial they would transgress and open a way for Death to come in upon them the real loss could only be their own and none of his He had no reason therefore to prevent it by so unseasonable an interposition as should prevent the orderly connection between duty and felicity i. e. the precedency of the former to the other All this was a most unexceptionable procedure But then when being left to themselves they as Men or as Adam had transgrest Hos. 6. 7. and done like themselves i. e. like frail mutable Creatures in their lapse into Sin and Death How opportune was it for him now to do more illustriously like himself i. e. by so surprizing unthought of methods as the Gospel reveal to recover to himself this Glory out of the Cloud and make it shine more brightly than ever in this final Victory over Death and him that had the Power of it So that it shall at last retain no Dominion over any but such as by their own choice during a new state of trial remain'd in an inviolable union with that Prince of Darkness and Death How glorious will