and made thee meet for it These Desires it is true are but faint and weak to what the promised salvation may Justly chalenge yet they are holy and sincere and have God and Christ and his blessed Presence above for their Object thou hast his Image and seal imprinted on thy Nature Mind and Will This Evidence and Experience in thy self shall no be deseated in its Tendency and Designt SECT II. Secondly In our Contemplation of this happy State which the saints desire beyond the Grave we ought to remember that though the Glorious Change of the Body be one part the Felicity of the Soul is the principal one Yea the Glory of departed Souls is one great Cause and Means of that happy Change which we expect for the Body To be with Christ and behold his Glory and partake of it does especially refer to the Soul We shall see him as he is and in that respect be made like him We are now the Children of God by free Grace and Adoption but his admirable Love will not desist till our Consormity to his Image be more compleat till we are brought to his Presence and partake of his Holiness to that degree as to be the objects of his eternal Complacence and Delight Father I will says Christ that those that thou hast given me should be with me to behold my Glory Then all our Sins and Failings all our Follies and Infirmities all our Wrinkles and Blemishes all our Transgressions and Imperfections shall be done away and our Souls shall be washed white in the Blood of the Lamb being conformed to our Divine Pattern The lesser Manifestations of the Spiritual Glory of Christ which we have sometimes here are highly valuable to a Saint but unspeakably short of that which we expect these hereafter will be more clear more transforming more satisfactory and more lasting We now see through a Glass but darkly but we shall know as we are known for we shall see him as he is We hope for an inlightened and inlarged Mind to behold the Excellency and Radiancy of the Divine Perfections shining in and through our glorified Redeemer This will oblige the most Improved Saint that ever left this Earth to cry out with the Queen of Sheba concerning Solomon that the one half was never told them was not known or believed before And if we are changed into his Image by beholding his Glory in the Gospel-glass the Vision hereafter will be more clear and so the Change will be greater and the Delight and Complacence resulting from it must needs be unspeakably more And this is our Comfort that it will be such as shall last for ever If we have any Glymps of him at present by the Light of Faith we quickly lose the sight again How soon does an interposing Cloud hide him from us But the Felicity of the Blessed Vision above will be permanent we shall dwell for ever in the joyful Light of his Countenance and abide with him continually in the Heavenly Mansions SECT III. Thirdly Let us then indeavour to confirm our Faith in the Expectation of this blessed State for Soul and Body after Death Let us keep the Grounds of Faith visible in our Eye let us imploy our Thoughts frequently and seriously upon the blessed Object Let us deeply and often consider the cogent Reasons upon which we believe and expect such things both the intrinsick Grounds of Faith and the Motives of Credibility that our Assent may be the more firm and lasting that our Christian Faith may influence us as present things are wont to do Did we not look upon the great things of the other Life as uncertain we could not but reckon them preferable to the best of our present Injoyments Did we believe them we could not but desire 〈…〉 for our not desiring that blessed State but our criminal Infidelity that we believe it not For were we but fully perswaded of the truth of the Promises we must needs imbrace them for their Goodness and Excellency and then we should long till Death did draw aside the Vail open the Gate of Heaven and bring us into the Divine Presence But we waver and doubt concerning the invisible future World and hence it is that we close with what is Present because we are not equally perswaded of the Truth and Cortainty of what is Future Let us then indeavour to strengthen and confirm our Faith SECT IV. Fourthly Let us regulate our Affections and Carriage in this Earthly Tabernacle as Persons who believe and expect such a glorious Change Let us pass the time of our Sojourning in this World as Pilgrims and Strangers Let us abstain from fleshly Lusts that War against our Souls Let us use both our Souls and Bodies answerable to the belief of such things Let us watch lest we are surprized into sin by our bodily Senses Appetites and Imagination Let us remember that the Soul and Body like two diseased Creatures bound together in one chain do now mutually infect corrupt and Poyson one another Let us take heed of sin by the inordinate Love of Bodily Pleasure or the undue fear of Bodily Suffering Let us imitate the Pattern of Christ while he dwelt in a Body and labour to have the same Mind which he had to be in this World as he was in it Lot the good and evil of this World have less powerful impression upon us Let us not be over fond of the Pleasures of the Animal Life may they every day be less considerable with us Let us not so love the Body as on that account to decline any present Duty much less so over-love it as to prefer the Comforts of the present Life to a future Felicity Let us not regret over much that such an earthly Tabernacle must fall into dust that such a perishing Body must dissolve and lye in the Grave We are sensible how weak and useless it was for a good while at first before the Body was fitted for the service of the Soul and we cannot but be sensible what a Trouble and Temptation it has been since Let the burdens and inconveniences of the bodily Life be more tolerable let us not be impatient under them let us be willing that the outward Man decay so that the inward Man be renewed let our Judgment and Esteem our Desires and Indeavours our Joys and Sorrows be rectified and moderated as to all that refers to the Body and this Present Life Let our Eyes and Hearts be fixed on the Heavenly State let us remember we are a sort of Creatures related to the other World though we dwell at present in an earthly Tabernacle In the midst of our earthly Comforts let us think of the Heavenly State and Lise as infinitely better Let us keep alive the Desires of the Presence of Christ and fuller Conformity to him in the height of our Temporal Prosperity Let the believing Thoughts of the Caelestial State be unspeakably sweeter to us than the best of all this
follow He desires not so much the end of this Life whatever he now suffered as the blessedness of the next Life which he hoped for It was not an Annihilation to put a period to his present sufferings but a happy Change which he groan'd for Not a Ruin but a temporary dissolution of this earthly House in order to an Eternal Advantage Not a bare privation of this Life but a passage to a better He doth not groan so much from the Sense of present Evil as by reason of the Absence of his most desired Good He was not so much burdened by what he felt and could not avoid or remove as by what he foresaw and expected and could not yet Enjoy He must dye first and have the old House pull'd down before he could reach that compleat Felicity which he so earnestly aspires after SECT VI. 2. It is therefore further exprest as that which he groaned and longed for viz. to be Cloathed upon To lay aside this mean and little troublesome Garment for a more beautiful and commodious one To have this earthly House dissolved and moulder into dust with the Expectation of reassuming Another or the Same with a glorious Change And in that sense the Expression verse 3. may be understood That being thus cloathed that is with such a glorified Body we may not be found Naked or without any Body at all Though * A. B. Cant. 3. Vol. Serm. 6th some carry the expression Desiring to be cloathed upon as wishing not to put off this Body at all but to be in the number of those who shall be found alive at the coming of Christ to Judgment which some of the Disciples of Christ expected by a mistake of what he said concerning St. John If I will that he tarry till I come And so the words may be read If so be that we shall be found cloathed and not naked That is if at Christ's coming we shall be found Alive and not Dead and so have this mortal corruptible Body changed into a Spiritual Glorious and Immortal one without Dying Whether that was the sense of the Apostle or not I shall discourse of these words as the common Sentiment of real Christians who have no hope of Living till the end of the World but expect to dye e're it be long and carnestly desire a future Blessedness for Soul and Body in another Life and therefore when they lay down this Body in the Dust they groan to be cloathed upon to have these vile Bodies made like the glorious Body of Christ or as the Apostle himself expresses it 1 Cor. 15.53 To have this Corruptible put on Incorruption and this Mortal put on Immortality The putting off there is the same with the being cloathed upon here That is they groan to have this present State changed for the Felicity and Glory of that future State which Christ hath given them to expect both for Soul and Body in another Life SECT VII 3. There is yet another Expression which riseth higher That Mortality may be swallowed up of Life That which is Mortal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This our mortal Life which is subject to Dangers Afflictions and Death it self That this may be Swallowed up of Life as is that which is Imperfect by that which is Perfect as Infancy and Childhood by Maturity and Manhood or as Darkness is swallowed up in Light The meaning is that our low Animal Life may be changed into an Heavenly one that our frail short and transitory Life may be changed into an Immortal Eternal one that the Corruption and Mortality which our Bodies are liable to and which remain in them while they are in the Grave may be removed Or according to the Apostles Phrase That Death may be swallowed up in Victory may be finally perfectly and for ever Destroyed For so the expression does import and is often rendered in other places * See Dr. Hammond 1 Cor. 15.54 g. for ever And that includes the Resurrection of the Body to an happy State as one part of this Desire For if by Dying we are more miserable than before Death is not swallowed up in Victory it rather is too hard for us and gains a Victory over us But if our state be bettered by Death not only as to our Souls but our very Bodies are also to be raised again to a glorious Life if when Death hath done its utmost our Souls pass into a State of Rest and Bliss to be compleated in a glorious Resurrection of the Body and to be continued and increased to all Eternity we are then Victorious over Death Death may be said to be swallowed up in Victory or Mortality swallowed up of Everlasting Life CHAP. II. The Method and Design of the following Discourse Good men in the present state are burdened with their Sins and Sufferings so as to groan for Deliverance SECT I. After this Paraphrase and Explication of the words that which I design as the Ground of my following discourse is this That it becomes the State and Frame of real Christians while they are burdened in these mortal Bodies earnestly to desire a better an Immortal Life wherein the Body as well as the Soul shall be gloriously Changed In discoursing of this I shall first show That such is the present State of good men in these Bodies that they groan under manifold Burdens that may well make them long for Deliverance II. That they have the certain Expectation of a better State and Life after the dissolution of this earthly Tabernacle by Death III. That it is agreeable to the Temper of a Christian Spirit so far as renewed and sanctified to long for that better State and Life beyond the Grave IV. That it is not such a State and Life wherein they expect to be without any Body at all but to have their Bodies raised and changed and glorified To be cloathed upon with an House from Heaven and to have mortality swallowed up in Life The consideration of these particulars will make way for the practical Application suitable to this solemn Occasion on which I am desired to preach on this Text. SECT II. First That such is the present state of good Men in these Bodies that they groan under manifold Burdens which may well make them long for Deliverance I need not run far into the common Theme of the Miseries of humane Life which every one feels or knows of those that do Our Sufferings and our Sins while in this earthly Tabernacle will be sufficient to be considered under this head 1. Our Sorrows and Sufferings while in the Body Our early Tears when we come into the World prognosticate a good share of these to be expected Not to mention the Vexation of disappointment in our Temporal Injoyments as a great part of this Burden the actual Sorrows and Afflictions which all partake of are very many and great heavy and afflictive they are such as extort the Cries and Tears and
Nature will do much to manifest that such a difference there will be hereafter between a Man and a Beast between the Good and Bad between the final State of those that love and please and serve God and of those that disobey his known will For who can acknowledg and own a God as Maker and Governour of the World the Wise and Righteous Judge of all and think he will turn Men promiscuously into Heaven or Hell at random without distinguishing between Friends and Enemies Righteous and wicked or that he 'l neither Reward or Punish that there shall be no state of Happiness for the one sort or of Misery for the other Besides the Testimony of Conscience as to the Hopes and Fears of these things in another World is of weight in this case But I hope I need not here be large when I speak to such as profess to believe the Bible and there it is as certain as that God is true who hath declared it or that Christ was sent of God who has taught it as true as that he died and rose again and ascended to Heaven and that all his Apostles and Followers have lived and died in the Expectation of such a State The Resurrection of the body I grant was not so plain an Article before the coming of Christ but a general state of Happiness for Holy Persons in another World no Christians will deny And our Lord has proved the personal Capacity of future Rewards by the Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the body and by an account of the manner of the Administration of these Rewards as more inchoate and particular at Death more universal and consummate at Judgment in the great day of Retribution All the Doctrines of the Gospel concerning Christ do suppose or ascertain this He came into the World to purchase our Right and Title to such a blessed State and went to Heaven again to plead and prosecute and apply and bestow it So that such a thing is Certain and may be expected by all the Followers of Christ It is as certain and unquestionable as the Word and Oath of God can make it much more Certain than if a Messenger from the Dead did come and tell you so For the manifold witnesses of the Holy Ghost to the Divine Commission of Christ and the truth of the Gospel is a much greater thing and more credible than any such transient Testimony could be But I shall not insist on this the Devils themselves believe it and prove it for if there be no Heaven there is no Hell SECT II. Secondly Particular Christians may have a certain Expectation of this happy State beyond the Grave We know says the Apostle that we have a Building in Heaven when this earthly Tabernacle shall be dissolved We know and are assured of it It is a thing so evident and manifest it is capable of being demonstrated It is not my bare Opinion but the common sense of all the Followers of Christ built on such grounds that we are ready to venture our Lives and all that is dear to us upon this believing Expectation And because we know we have another better Building reserved in Heaven for us we therefore groan and long to be there we have a Building in Heaven though we are yet on Earth As he that hath an Estate in another Kingdom or Country may call both his own though he cannot dwell in both at once nay though it may be he must travel a great way and cross the Seas before he can reach to one of them Particular Christians may be certain The Apostle often declares it as to himself and all the Children of God have a Title to the Inheritance they have Deeds and Evidences to show for it they have the Will and Testament of their Lord and Master to produce and they have the Seal of his Spirit as a witness in their Hearts which is the Earnest of the Inheritance whereby they are sealed to the day of Redemption Sanctifying Grace is called an Immortal Incorruptible Seed 1 Pet. 1.13 and they that are partakers of it have Eternal Life abiding in them 1 John 3.13 because this present Life begun shall be perfected in Glory This Seal of the Holy Spirit on the Soul is the Earnest of the heavenly Inheritance to manifest how sure and certain it is as well as a foretaste to prove how good We have an House in Heaven a Building not made with hands We have it as our own we are so certain of it as we reckon our selves in some sense already in Possession We abide it is true for a while in this earthly Dwelling but we have another and a better House a Building of God not made with Hands and we long to be there SECT III. They that can make out the unfeignedness of their Faith in Christ and the sincerity of their Love to him who can discern the truth of their Sanctification who can perceive the Image of God upon their Souls his Impress Character and Seal having turned their Hearts from the World and Sin to God and Holiness and Heaven with an answerable Conversation in Simplicity and Godly Sincerity they may have a subjective Certainty of this by the Testimony of Conscience and the concurrent Witness of the Spirit enabling them to discern the Truth of their Grace they may know their own interest in the Promise and argue it to their Comfort from the qualifications of such to whom the Promise is made I do not say that All do reach to an actual Certainty and full perswasion the generality we find do not but such a thing is attainable and all should Labour after it And did we seek it in the right way endeavouring by the exercise and increase of Grace to know the truth of it more would reach this than commonly do And then more would long and groan and desire to be uncloathed of this Earthly Tabernacle that they may be cloathed upon with an House from Heaven and Mortality be swallowed up of Life Which brings me to consider the Third thing I proposed to speak to CHAP. IV. To desire and long for a blessed State and Life beyond the Grave proved to be suitable to the Temper of a Christian Spirit SECT I. III. THat it is suitable to the Temper of a Christian Spirit so far as renewed and sanctified to desire and long for that better State and Life beyond the Grave I know there may be an impatient Sense of present troubles or an inordinate Fear of threatning Dangers and Calamities that may make some sinfully desire to be uncloathed make them long for Death and be glad to find the Grave O Lord I beseech thee says Jonah 4. Jonah 3. take away my Life from me for it is better for me to die than to live And my Soul chuseth strangling rather than Life says Job 7. Job 15. But that is not the case here the Apostle goes
the End of their Faith and Hope and so attained their desire in the present Salvation of their Souls and they have Assurance too as to their Bodies That hereafter they shall be raised and changed and made like the glorious Body of Christ SECT II. Let us thus think in particular of our Good Friend Mrs. Doolittle who hath put off this Earthly Tabernacle and is entered into the glorious Assembly of the Friends af Christ above What I shall say of her is not meerly to comply with Custom concerning the Dead but in hopes to edifie and Instruct the Living I Know there be some who disgust the publishing of any particular Passages of our departed Friends how Imitable an Praile worthy soever But it is the Fluttery and Falshood often used on such Occasions concerning those whose Character will not bear a Commendation that is the Cause But I fear no such Censube as to what I shall now say concoming Her whose Death and Funeral brings me here and gives another Place this day to my Reverend Brother than this where he is wont to be God will not be displeased that we should Honour those whom he hath Honoured with eminent Grace The Memory of the Righteous shall be blessed And how shall others be perswaded to follow the most Laudable Patterns if we conceal particulars At least the Surviving Relations Friends and Acquaintance may be edified and assisted by it in their Duty upon such Providences And I have the less to apprehend of Cavil or Objection in the present Case because what I shall mention is from such Hands as there can be no Doubt of the Truth of what I shall say and very many of you here will readily yield a concurrent Testimony SECT III. It shall be under three Heads First her personal Piety or her general Character as a Christian Secondly her Relative Religion or concerning her in the several Relations wherein she stood as faithfully discharging the Duties of them Thirdly Her Christian Deportment under bodily Infirmities and Sickness with some more remarkable Passages in this her last Sickness before she put off this earthly Tabernacle First as to her Personal Piety and general Character as a Christian That she was truly Serious and Religious in her Youth and so esteemed and judged abone forty years agoe was the ground of her being chosen by her Husband as the Companion of his Life And God continued her to him in much Mercy for about nine and thirty years being pleased by her to build up his House to such a Degree as not many Instances in City or Country can be given of the like That out of his own Family there was not one Solemn Funeral in Thirty nine or forty years except of two Children in the Month and one newly wean'd and none at all in the space of five and twenty years Let God have the Glory and let Thankfulness to heaven be mixed with your mourning by this Reflection I have many witnesses amongst you who were acquainted with her serious Piety and they who knew her best had abundant proof of her secret Converse with God and dayly retirement for Meditation and Prayer and this very often early in the Morning Which is Imitable by all of us and one of the best Evidences of Unfeigned Real Living Religion in the Power of it I do not understand and I like it not the worse that she pretended to high flights of Confidence and Assurance which few attain or preserve very long and I fear many deceive themselves by somewhat that is not of God under that Name Yet when she had any Darkness as to her Spiritual State when she was sensible of the weakness of her Love to Christ and Lamented it He who on all accounts was fittest to assist her endeavoured to let her know the Truth of that Grace by distinguishing of a threefold Love to Christ a Delighting Love a Desiring Love and a Mourning Love telling her that tho she had not the former of these to her Comfort she could not deny or disown the two latter And this helped to give her Satisfaction and support concerning the Tryal of her State She added Judiciously the Night before she died I look to Sincerity and uprightness of Heart as a ground of Comfort but I do not put them in the room of Christ my only Saviour Several years agoe she read much in the practical Writings of Mr. Isaac Ambrose particularly concerning Eternity which made a very great Impression on her Mind so as that she trembled under the Apprehension lest she should come short of that Blessed Eternity there described However under her Doubts and Fears when the free Grace of God in Christ was discoursed of she could comfortably say why then may not such a one as I be accepted by free Grace in Christ and hope to be capable of Blessedness in Heaven as well as others this is a Faithful Saying worthy of all acceptation that Christ came into the World to save Sinners of whom I am Chief This she did and could say from her very Soul and appeal therein to the Omniscient Searcher of Hearts and this was her Encouragement and Joy that she could Say it I have resigned my self to God in Covenant again and again I Bless the Lord who hath enabled me to devote and give up my self to be his Lord I am thine Accept and Save me And at another Time she was able to say I have had that Converse with God and Communion with him that I would not part with for the whole World This is more than many who are Sincere attain unto For tho some real Christians have great Refreshments and support by Communication of Light and Strength and Joy upon a sick and Death Bed as if the Light of Glory shined into them and they had the beginning of Heaven here yet many others may want this when they come to die and Experience little of these exuberant Joys through their whole Course For God exercises Prerogative in the Dispensation of his Comforts at that and at other Times Therefore the Judgment we should make of Persons must rather be grounded on their general Course of Life than on their particular frame in Sickness or toward the approach of Death Some times by reason of the disorder of the Blood and Spirits the Holiest servants of God may be either Lumpish and Melancholy or else Feverish and Phrenetcal sometimes through the Temptations of the Devil they may be unsetled in their Minds or through Dissertion speak uncomfortably to those about them They may afflict themselves with dispairing Thoughts and leave the World under inward Darkness Their agonies in death may be without any sence of Comfort and yet they may be accepted with God and pass to eternal Glory because we shall not be Judged according to that particular Iustant of Death but according to the general Course of our Life However it is observed in most cases that God does speak peace to upright