now Saints bodies are whilst in the grave really united to Christ which real union of their dust to Christ is a glorious security of their bodies blessed life which the former bare union of their souls and bodies together before death could never give them Seventhly That seeing Death and Devil was thus to be destroyed by Christ it behoved Christ to be a mortal man to dye as well as God-man thereby to conquer Death 2. From the verse immediately preceding together with my Text these two Doctrines First That as Christ by his Death conquered the Devil and Death So also by the same Death of his he delivered his children true Believers from the slavish fears of their own death Secondly That there is none but Christs children can have solid and true courage against Death Not a free man in the world but a true believer all the rest are bondslaves fearful the Devils prisoners Whatever fool-hardiness there may be in the world falsly called valour and contempt of death yet it is far exceeded in the same kind by the more sinewy strength and daring boldness of many brute beasts And in them rather it is valour in man madness The Brute dares to dye but man more void of strength and reason dares dye and be damned too But sure all such men in their natural condition are past feeling or Cowards only to themselves so unreasonably dastardly as to dare rather to look death in the face than their own awakened Consciences For they that seriously meditate and know both themselves and Death and Devil instead of pretending valour must needs yield themselves Captives to the fears of Death for stouter Creatures than sinful wicked unregenerate men even the Devils themselves under guilt do fear and Tremble 3. From my Text alone only these three Doctrines First That there is a natural fear of Death as well as of the Devil rooted in all mens hearts alwaies whilst they are out of Christ at least I say alwaies Though not alwaies felt yet easily awakened as by raging guilt a tempting Devil and sore judgments inflicted on them by an angry yet most righteous God visiting their Iniquities Secondly That this fear puts men in bondage So that they dare not by reason of sensible and evident danger of distraction meditate seriously upon death Gods judgements or Hell so clearly and confessedly deserved by themselves Thirdly That Christ is the great Deliverer of his People from the slavish fears of Death I shall God assisting as it concerns me duly eye all along the death of Christ by the which Death of his He doth deliver his People from the fears of their own death yet intending to speak as briefly and with what advantage I can from the Scriptures to this singularly comfortable Doctrine I shall take the latitude which the absolute consideration of the Text clearly gives me according to the Doctrine already laid down in these words Doctrine ☞ That Christ is the Great Deliverer of his people from their slavish fears of death It is the will of this great King of Saints and Prince of Peace that all his People should live up to their priviledge and his honour Not as sins much less as the Devils or Deaths slaves but as Children Christ is called the Everlasting Father and here before my Text he himself owns and answers to that name Behold I and the children which God hath given me Christs great design is to make his children children indeed free indeed from the servile fears of Death This Prince of life as he is called Acts 3.15 will not have his children slaves to death no nor to the Prince of Death the devi◠The Method in prosecuting this truth shall be by the Lords concurrence First To prove that the Lord Christ is such a Deliverer Secondly To shew how he actually manages this deliverance of his Saints from their fears of Death Thirdly To Apply First Then to prove that the Lord Christ is such a Deliverer For such a glory of our blessed Saviour is highly worth the beholding yea men and Angels displaying and therefore not a needless thing to prove It is never sufficiently seen and admired This considerable and comfortable part of the Saints deliverance by Christ is one of the fairest and rarest Jewels in the Diadem of this King of Saints He is the Deliverer of his people from the fears of Death Therefore as the Apostle saies a little below my Text Consider then the Apostle and High Priest of our Profession Christ Jesus Consider well your great Messiah O Saints behold your King See then First He hath power enough thus to deliver Is he not God man And indeed what is a Jesus a Saviour a Deliverer without Power But can his power conquer his peoples Enemies and their fears too With Jesus all this is possible and more too See the power of his Scepter Heb. 7.25 wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him Not only then from all enemies but from all fears in the way To the uttermost As from the misery of Death it self so from its killing fears Now consider a little will deliverance from the soul-disquieting fears of death be lookt upon and judged a proper real yea great Deliverance And shall not Jesus be the Author and finisher of it who can save to the uttermost This is not surely below or above his power that can deliver to the uttermost Nothing truly deserves the name of Deliverance but this expression to the uttermost comprehends it Luke 1.74 These you see deliverance out of the hand of enemies and serving without fear go naturally together and will Christ separate them Now can Christ thus deliver from the fears of death because to the uttermost those that come unto God by him and yet a soul that comes unto God by him never so delivered How is it possible The Philosopher will laugh at this doubt or denial with his Frustra est potentia quae non producitur in actum That power is in vain that is never exercised Can the Sun withhold the force of its power to heat from any thing it shines upon Can a Mother forget her Child So can the Everlasting Father forget his Can Christ withhold or deny the effectual influence of his power to deliver to the uttermost them that come unto God by him When once this Sun of Righteousness is risen with healing under his wings upon any poor soul the warmth of his continual beams ever and anon breaking through all clouds and overcasts cannot but dispel and work out of that soul all the chil fears of Death Secondly As Christ hath power to deliver his people from the slavish fears of death so also an indispensable obligation thereunto lying upon him as Mediator This is an invincible argument with the former And if you consider well in whom this power resides you cannot have the least scruple or darkness in this Point Who is it then
fruits of the Spirit and of Heaven which do render Death to those that taste them more desirable than formidable The first is First Communion with Christ That of it which Saints have in this world is very sensible and sweet Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ You know it is the holy boast of a holy man the Apostle John concerning himself and other real Saints and it is sweet Communion as in the next words These things write we unto you that your joy might be full Thus true joy comes into the heart even unparallel'd gladness by Gods lifting up the light of his Countenance The wicked whore cries Let us take our fills of love in unclean Communion but Christs Spouse's design is that her joy might be full in holy Communion with God and Christ The first misses joy altogether meets with only vanity and vexation of Spirit but the other loses her dumpish sorrow and never enjoys that Communion with Christ much but she meets also with joy unspeakable and full of glory and yet in this world never enough Therefore they that taste it most do most earnestly long to be dissolved and to be with Christ as the Apostle Paul Phil. 1.23 Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ He professes indeed that he had his Conversation in heaven as to real foretasts thereof which were enough to set him a longing not fully to satisfie and therefore he confesses that whilst in the body he was in great measure absent from the Lord. And would he not be present Yes even with all his heart and farewell body till the Resurrection that he might kiss his sweet Jesus his feet that he might be ever with the Lord. This this was the Apostle Pauls holy passion Oh! Then sincere Christians for two or three of you to be with Christ and he with you in prayer according to his promise and in other Ordinances yea in any divine exercises of grace This this must needs make your souls long to depart and to be with Christ This notion you must know flows not from a doubtful or pretended experience but from positive express Gospel Doctrine 1 Thes 4.17 18. And so shall we be ever with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words It is mighty comfort against death and judgment there spoken of to consider the happiness of being ever with the Lord. If it was the joy and boast of the enamoured Spouse Cant. 2.9 to view Christ shewing himself through the Lattess how can she but long to see him with open face to see him as he is in glory Surely that soul that by faith and love cleaves to Christ can never much fear death which it knows will never separate such lovers as Christ and a believing soul are but rather indeed bring it into heaven and force it only to be more happy in a more intimate close yea constant Vision and fruition of Christ Secondly Freedom from sin though but in some tolerable manner attained gives us a sweet foretaste of heaven where all just mens souls do enter but no unclean thing with them So much freedom from sin is so much heaven upon earth but the reliques of sin still pestering us till death make us if true Saints the more eagerly long for perfect freedom from it in heaven which huge longing is an holy extasie I confess and found only I think in those whose Consciences do not reproach them whilst they live They of all men even they that labour to the utmost to subdue sin do long to get rid of it altogether though it be by death Therefore the Apostle Paul expresses himself after this manner And not only they Rem 8.23 but we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of the body reckoning upon not much mattering yea quite overlooking death having the eye on a sweet deliverance of soul and body from sin at the Resurrection sith in this life both of them are most sadly infected therewith Therefore saies he we groan but how Even as the Creature to be delivered from the bondage of Corruption And which is very remarkable We our selves who have the first fruits of the Spirit c. What are they The thirteenth verse a little before will clear that in these words If ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Blessed souls are they and they shall be blessed who have received the first fruits of the Spirit in the mortification of sin for they groan within themselves till that happy time come after death when soul and body shall no more sin They that have tasted how sweet the life-bloud of one sturdy lusty sin is can never be satiated till they have the bloud of all the rest the dam and all original sin insatiably crying out O when shall we be delivered from the body of this Death which indeed is far more dreadful than natural death But O how sweet is it for a Saint to see Necis artificem arte perire suâ sin killing it self with its own murthering-piece killing its enemy and it self with one blow How joyfully do Saints see the death of all their sins approach full as fast as the death of their bodies Well then the Saints with Sampson would gladly dye that so all their sins and therefore to be sure more might be utterly destroyed at their death than ever they could slay all their life time A true and thorough Saint fears to sin more than to dye therefore he feares not so much to dye and sin no more as to live yet and sin O thou that hast faithfully mortified any lust and art sure of it Death cannot wound nor astonish thee for certainly more comfort arises to the Saints from the mortality of sin then terrour from the mortality of the body Thirdly The blessed graces of the Spirit of God the possession of which is our participation of the Divine nature the exercise of which is our Conversation in heaven These Graces of the Spirit of God are indeed the very first fruits of heaven and cannot well be at rest till they have carried the soul into their own Element Heaven it self for from above it is whence every good and perfect gift doth descend and would as naturally carry the soul endued therewith up thither as the fire mounts upwards So that those Divine souls whose vigorous graces do make them hunger and thirst after righteousness will not stick to venture at Gods call a bodily life to satisfie that thirst in heaven The Apostle Paul was very desirous to attain to the Resurrection of the Dead Phil. 3.11 compared with ver 21. Oh! how he longed to be more holy here in this world to be quickly in the number of the dead in the Lord He cared not how soon Perfect he saies he was not yet nor likely to be perfect here below but yet he contended hard running to
the Grave as I may say if that he might be perfect indeed and attain to the Resurrection of the Dead Perfect holiness is so desirable to holy men that they desire death for its sake aiming more at the compleat holiness of soul and body after death at the Resurrection then the continuance of an unsatisfactory life of flesh and bloud in a state of imperfection Certainly the Paths of wisdom are such pleasantness and peace that men who walk therein are not affraid to meet death in those waies everlasting they press forward towards death upon it through it to attain to the Resurrection of the Dead Thus Christ giving his people his own fellowship Mortification of sin by his own Spirit and the graces and fruits of righteousness which are by himself derived to us as so many foretastes of heavens bliss Thus I say doth Christ render death far more desirable than terrible to the Saints To all which I might well refer the inward joyes and comforts of the holy Spirit of Christ which are special and palpable foretastes of heaven and the chief of the first fruits of the Spirit But it is plain that these swallow up the fears of Death and make men groan within themselves rather fearing they shall not dye then that they shall When a Saint with Reverens Mr Bolton can say he is as full of Christ as ever he can hold there is not a crevess for one poor small fear of death to enter in at I might but shall not discourse to you more particulars to demonstrate how Christ destroys in his childrens hearts the slavish fears of death as by his giving to them the Spirit of Adoption by convincing them of the great gain by death as the Apostle expresses of himself For me to live is Christ and to dye gain and having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better When Saints cast up their accounts and consider what they shall get by living even more remptations to sin more advantages and opportunities to express the naughtiness of their hearts more thorns in the flesh and messengers of Satan to buffet more fore chastisements and sad desertions of the Almighty and more of the evil which is to come upon a wicked world Then then they truly judge it their advantage to dye As that Father Cyprian strangely yet truly Nihil utilius Christiano quans mori velocissime Nothing more advantagious to a Christian then to dye very betimes Good men indeed therefore have dreaded more the sad Consequents of a preserved life than the worst Concomitants of Death it self which to the Saints hath no other Consequence but the souls happy entrance into the Masters joy For before their bodies can be well laid in the Grave their souls are laid in Abrahams besome or which is all one their souls are taken from an acquitting Bench to the blessed Mansions or Palaces that Christ hath prepared for them in his Fathers Court of Heaven But I leave you to that preaching whereby men preach to themselves even according to the further enlargement of their own sweet Meditations on such Theams as these partly treated on and partly hinted unto you Now that I may more boldly and effectually apply this great Doctrine which is alwaies seasonable whilst Death is to come But then especially when it is near I shall only speak to an Objection levelled particularly at an Argument that I well used to prove Christ a deliverer of his people from the fears of Death which was this Such and such Scripture Saints and no doubt many others Christ hath so delivered therefore he is such a Deliveter Against which this is the Objection Do not we read of Hezekiah an eminent and great Saint that he chattered at the Tidings of Death And of David that he played the Mad man in jeopardy of his life How can Christ be such a Captain of Salvation such a Lord General over his People and Souldiers as to deliver them from the fears of Death If most sad fears of Death be found prevailing over two such Worthies two such eminent godly Kings and the later of them mentioned one of the stoutest warriours recorded in Sacred Story that was in the world for prophane partial Historians relate an Alexander's a Caesar's prowess But the God of truth affirms of David That he was as a man after Gods heart so a valiant man also who got the highest preferment that ever was in the world even to be the first and best fully allowed King of Gods own people I say who got this singular preferment through Gods Blessing by his valour Yet he even he in danger did what a mean Saint would scarce do in the greatest fears of Death even played the fool and mad-man to save his life Where was Davids Lord then who as you say delivers from the fears of Death To Answer 1. I say not That Christ delivers all Saints so exceeding remarkably 2. No. nor the same person alwaies at every nick and point of time whom he may deliver most And yet neither one or the other to be reflected upon him but upon themselves that leave him not he them And yet for all this what is more obvious Then that his Ability in delivering some yea many yea most more or less may well and clearly denominate him such a Deliverer First then 1. I will give you and oppose to the Objection as great an Instance nay unparallel'd for the proof of Christs power in delivering his Saints from the fears of Death Moses yea Aaron also both in the same condition as to Death But Moses only I set before your eyes as enough to fill them for he was the greatest Captain or Lord General that ever had the Conduct of an Army and whole Nation For it is not the Title but usefulness of a man and the Presence of God with a Person that makes him truly renowned and famous Of Moses it is said Deut. 34.10 There arose not a Prophet since in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knew face to face Well God himself brought to this man the message of Death and told him he should dye and not lead his Conquering Army into the Land of Canaan No though it was never so desirable to him And God moreover dreadfully spake on and told him oh sad and bitter that his very death at that time was a punishment for such a sin mentioned Deut. 32.51 Well Moses hath not a word but dies Nay Moses died in an hour when his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated Deut. 34.7 So that he who buried him the Lord himself took him away in his full strength as a punishment of his great Sin and and yet behold no fear but after that God told him peremptorily he should dye he presently with a most sweet sedate mind blessed the people his dear charge went from them and died His case might be in some measure thus illustrated to you take an eminent
death not only from the domineering prevalency but the disquieting presence of them Now the words lying open to view you have a most fair prospect of great and sweet variety which naturally springs up out of this most fruitful field that if digged and searched will yield very holy meditation and discourse Concerning this Scripture I may say truly in the words of the Apostle Paul when he was comforting timorous souls under their fears of Judgment and so very pertinently to my business in hand Behold here how our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father who hath loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace do here comfort your hearts by the most warm breathings of the Holy Ghost the Comforter who indeed is then a Comforter when all else are but miserable ones His Cordial here is very singular and soveraign the Ingredients very precious and various and not a little conspicuous in these following Doctrines some of which are raised from the fourteenth verse immediately preceding my Text some from both verses together and some from the Text it self only 1. The fourteenth verse exhibits to you these seven Doctrines First That the unconceivable love of the Son of God to his dear children made him come down on earth and become man Secondly That Christ in his humane nature is as very man as any of the Elect his flesh and bloud not only being like ours but part of our substance He also himself likewise took part of the same So that he himself is of the same stock of Adam and Eve as surely and verily as any of us Thirdly That sinners out of Christ are under the sentence of Death such as are not Gods Children are under the Devil their fathers cruel severity that is under the power of Death or That Satan hath the power of Death over all such as are not delivered by Christ from his Power Fourthly That Christ hath destroyed this his power for the sole benefit of his children true believers Fifthly That the way how Christ overcame Satan and destroyed his power was by his own death Or Christ by his own death conquered that Tyrant the Devil Which destruction of the Devil by the Death of Christ because alledged here by the Apostle as Christs intermediate end in subserviency to his Grand design of delivering his children from the fears of Death I shall only a little pause upon The Devil was no sooner our enemy but Christ was his The Devil said to our first Parents Ye shall not surely dye but Christ only made it good Though the Devil meant nothing less yet Christ nothing more see the Devil in his colours First he tempts to sin with a surely thou shalt not dye and yet presently upon the Commission of sin he torments with a surely thou shalt dye He speaks his own plainly when he tempts to sin but he speaks in appearance Gods words when he tempts to despair How much harder then is it to resist his temptations to despair of pardon than it is to resist those his temptations by which he would bring us into a sad need of it But he is a Lyar in both For he spake in his first temptation to sin against his own judgment who verily thought man by sin would most irrecoverably dye and that for ever And when he tempts all men to despair with a surely ye shall dye he knows he lies For Christ in all Ages effectually delivers all his Children Whether Satan say thou shalt not surely dye before sin committed or thou shalt surely dye after sin committed he knows he lyes in the one he lyes against the truth of the Law in the other he lyes against the true meaning of an Enacted Law in the other he lyes against the truth of the repeale or in the one he lyes against the truth of Gods threats and the condemning power of the Law in the other against the truth of Gods promises and of his incomparably glorious Act of Indempnity He thought indeed seeing he could not be exalted above God he would become a petty Tyrant as his ambition thirsted over poor mankind and thereupon laboured to bring man by sin under his power the power of death but wherein he dealt proudly Christ was above him Christ in mans nature dyed for man so that though in as much as Christ dyed the Devil bruised his heel yet Christ by his own death defeated his design and bruised his Serpent-head which he will not be able to get healed for ever whereas Christ only was dead but is alive and lives for evermore as before by death to vanquish him so eternally by the power of his Life and Raign to keep him under in chains of darkness and also to deliver his children from his power of Death who though they sleep yet shall wake again Eternally Sixthly That Christs death conquered the Saints death even the power of it lying much in the hand of the Devil was destroyed with him Death is our enemy Christ encountred it for us in our stead verse 9. the Apostle speaking of Jesus saies thus That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man for him He conquered our enemy death by dying by bearing and so breaking off from us all its malignant force that it cannot reach us therewith when it ruffles most It is our last enemy but already conquered by Christ Christs death it is the Saints life in Death Christ hath given death its deaths wound and though at its last gasp it would lift up its self and grin upon a dying Saint yet behold all its venome-teeth are dasht out by the power of Christ and its sting to seek It laies only upon him a cold and feeble hand but cannot break a bone as I may say not do the least hurt It only rocks the body asleep and makes way for the soul to enter into its Masters Joy unspeakable indeed and full of glory As the Devil whom Christ rebuked in the possessed tare and rent the body it is true yet durst not but come forth and depart and though the body was left on the ground as dead yet it quickly appeared to be alive So death may teare and shake a Saints body at its dissolution and leave it for dead on the ground yet it hath no more to do to touch it the very body as the grain sown in the earth is a springing up though at first flowly with a new life I say the body shall in spight of death live again gloriously at the Resurrection and never dye because death is conquered and destroyed for ever by Christs death who was dead but is alive for evermore Amen Neither is the Saints sleeping at their dissolution a bare piece of Rhetorick but a most real notion Wicked mens bodies may be said indeed most properly to suffer death for though they also shall rise again yet it is to lead a life in those raised bodies worse than death But
of death hath been evidently proved His design is manifest in the Text. He assumed humane nature THAT he might deliver his Saints from the fear of Death and whilst he bears about him that Humane Nature how can he but be constant to his design in taking it up He that lives for ever to make intercession for his people hath not in vain the Keyes of Hell and of Death Fifthly He hath accomplished and atchieved such things for his children that naturally bring about this their freedom from the fears of Death To suggest the most weighty First He died not only in their nature but in their stead He tasted death for them So that as to them it may be truly said Mankind died in him their representative That formidable death which men deserve Christ hath undergone it all What fear of death can then be reasonably yielded to it is Christ that died What reason to fear that which another hath felt for us on purpose that we to be sure should never feel any such thing What is truly formidable in Death is past and gone and no more to be feared than an escaped danger Secondly Christ hath by his death merited Saints freedom from the fears of their own He laid down his life as the price of this Priviledge What Saint then dares fear death that considers the unquestionable sufficiency of the value of Christs death for the purchasing this great priviledge for him that he should not fear death For a Saint to fear Death with a bondage servile fear is as much as to say Christ hath not bled enough to purchase this my freedom from these fears but I must bleed too to raise the price God forbid that any Saints doubts or fears should ever be found so palpably guilty of undervaluing the bloud of Christ and the price of their Redemption Thirdly Christ by his Death hath taken away the only true fundamental reason and occasion of the fear of Death and that is the condemning power of the Law The sting of that Death sales the Apostle which men so dread it is nothing else but sin Sin indeed unpardoned Well but that is pardoned in the bloud of Christ and therefore saies he Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory that is over death through our Lord Jesus Christ Well but how The foregoing words shew it 1 Cor. 15.56 57. The sting of death is sin True But the strength of sin is the Law Oh! there there is the bitterness The Law sharpens and strengthens the sting of Death sin Oh! This condemning power of a broken Law This this torments the sinners heart with the fears of Death Well but observe The strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God who giveth us the victory that is by weakening the strength of sin and blunting the sharpness of that sting of Death Christ hath satisfied every demand of the broken Law that sin or death can say or do nothing to fright one that is by faith become Christs child Though the Devil lye and so labour to terrifie a Saint saying Come come away thou hast broken the Law Its Sentence and doom is past upon thee Come to prison thou must surely and suddenly dye Yet all this time the Law saies no such thing and yet it flatters none being most true and just but it takes good notice that Christ died and it is fully satis fied I will assure you the Law will not suggest the least fear to any soul that hath the least faith in Christs bloud The Law acknowledges such full payment by Christs most Precious Death that it requires not the least farthing more Rom. 15.18 As by the offence of one judgment came upon all to Condemnation so by the righteousness of one saies the Apostle of Christ the free gift came upon all unto justification of life The broken Law instead of condemning a sinner that hath faith in Christ doth rather justifie him fully The Law saith to the sinner that believes in Christ Truly for all me thou shalt live and that eternally for Christ hath died I require no death of thee and that thou at thy dissolution seemest to die it is more to conform to thy Masters and Saviours death and indeed to comply with the necessity of a better and more curious fabrick of thy body and it s far sweeter life than to satisfie any of the Laws demands Thus Christ satisfying the killing demands of the Law hath indeed taken away the very ground of fear the very strength of sin which without that strength cannot afford Death the least sting to wound us Fourthly Christ hath taken away as the strength of sin so the strength also of the Devils Temptations to fear death So that when a Saint fears death upon the Devils temptations he fears a lye of the Devils and a fancy of his own For Christ hath really broken the force of all the devils temptations to fear death according to the clear meaning of that expression coupled with my Text That he might destroy him that had the power of Death But you will say who but God hath the power of life and Death Doth not Jesus Christ himself vindicate it as his Prerogative Royal Rev. 1.18 speaking of himself I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and Death What power of death then hath the Devil But little now blessed be Christ The Devil cannot bring death at his pleasure to our doors Jobs life was not committed to his cruel mercy he had no power to kill him Truly wicked men have power when God permits to kill the body and what hath the Devil more By the Power of Death here attributed to the Devil is meant only his forcible temptations by which he conveys many ugly forms and shapes of Death and so also many sad apprehensions and fears thereof into mens distressed Consciences the Devil hath leave of God to fright guilty sinners and he hath of himself malice power and wit enough to bring death near and to lay its rough hand upon the sore place of a sinners wounded Conscience Yea he hath besides even all that power and strength of Deaths sting in his hand which Death received from the Condemning Law But now though the wicked are often laid open to the Devils cruel mercy yet little it is that he can do against Christs People because Christ hath destroyed the Devil and this his Power Christs bloud hath cancelled his Commission or so contracted and lessened it that when ever he assaults a believer with the fears of Death he knows he must flee upon resistance Resist the Devil saies the Apostle and he will flee from you He knows he must having no Commission to stay after such resistance as Christ enables his people to make And then as to that strength of his Temptations which is derived and urged from a pretence of the Condemnation and penalty of the Law
to think that many who do so much and cry Lord Lord Lord have mercy on us yet are not thereupon to be judged in so good a condition and in an unquestionable state of Salvation Therefore I conceive a right understanding of such expressions may be got by taking notice of holy John's palpable intent and the drift of his speech upon the forementioned occasion the Apostle therefore for the better understanding of such mistaken spirits asserts in summe thus much that indeed those only that confess Jesus to be the Son of God and will not deny him in fear of Death or Torment are to be taken for true Christians and happy souls indeed Upon the same account he asserts also That Perfect love casteth out fear that is the tormenting fear of death or danger as Tertullian evinces in his Scorpiacum or Antidote against the Gnosticks speaking thus Johannes negat timorem esse in dilectione quem timorem intelligi praestat nisi negationiâ— authorem i.e. John denies fear to be in love what fear can be better understood then such as is the Author and cause of denying Christ even as the Apostle Peter did for fear of death or suffering He that loves Christ but tolerably aright will not be loath to dye for Christ or to dye and go to Christ That Spouse who is truly sick of love for Christ thinks no Cure of that sickness like Death even to depart and to be with Christ to be ever with the Lord her blessed Bridegroom Thirdly Christ by giving his people that excellent grace of hope kills the fear of death 2 Thes 2.16 There it is plain that good hope through his grace is not only his gift but therewith also or thereby everlasting Consolation which therefore is neither to be interrupted by the fears of Death or discontinued by Death it self yea the same Consolation springing from this grace of hope Heb. 6.18 19. is there called strong Consolation Indeed stronger then Death or the terriblest fears of Death For Christ giving this hope is there said to comfort and establish Saints so that no fear of death as in that place of judgment day can either sadden whom he so comforts or shake and disturb the minds he so establishes for their hearts thus become fixed trusting in the Lord. The Saints grace of hope gets beyond Death before hand and enters into heaven As this Apostle to the Hebrews represents it as entring into that within the vail and by it Saints on earth fit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Now you know hope 's nature is contrary to fear He who hopes for eternal life and for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of the body as it is spoken of Saints hope Rom. 8 23 24 25. He that hath such a saving hope whereby as an Anchor sure and stedfast he hopes for life can never be tost like a wave with any slavish fears of Death Oh then still thy soul by hope in God The Apostle Peter calls the Saints the childrens hope a lively hope Who hath saies he begotten us unto a lively hope Lively hope destroys the exanimating killing fears of Death Puts us beyond death as to fear before it come at us as to feeling for he that hath this lively hope as an Anchor sure and stedfast cannot much fear that he shall at death become a Castaway though he be careful with the Apostle Paul It is Hells pit that is bottomless or fathomless so that the despairing Damned are alwaies tormented with Eternal pains and frights But alas Come the worst of it to the Saints of God this they know that the Graves pit is not bottomless there is enough for their hope to bottom and anchor upon surely and stedfastly The Grave to the wicked is indeed bottomless and though it detains a while the body yet it lets the soul slip into Hell and the body too not long after But Christs Death burial hath so sanctified every of the Saints Graves that at worst their graves will be by so much happier to them then that Grave was to the dead man whom Elisha's buried bones revived even by how much Lazarus his second was or will be better than his first Resurrection Christs Death and Burial hath left somewhat in every Saints grave sufficient at the lowest for his hope to bottom on so that his body when there may be truly said to rest in hope and therefore having this grace of hope he need not unless he will be disquieted with fears before Death Fourthly Christ by giving his people on earth some real foretasts of heaven and of eternal life doth thereby effectually destroy their fears of Death And therefore the Apostle Paul who was next to his Lord and Master the greatest conquerour and triumpher over Death we read of after that he had been Rapt up into the third heaven as he stories it himself in the second Epistle to the Corinthians was ever after most undaunted under the seriousest thoughts of death as is most evident in his other Epistles which were written after those to the Corinthians particularly in that to the Romans where he tells us how little he fears death or a thousand deaths though killed as it were all the day long yet more then Conquerour He had before so sweet a sight of heaven that Death could not fright him so sweet a taste of heavens pleasures that he could never after taste any bitterness in death And thereupon justly longing to be there again he feared not death the only passage into so much bliss Let every true Saint consider this I say every soul that conscionably walks with God and labours to have Communion with God in his holy waies and Ordinances that walks in some measure as that blessed Apostle Paul who lived in all good conscience before God that with holy David tastes and sees that the Lord is gracious that tastes in deed and truth savingly of the heavenly gift the good Word of God and the powers of the World to come O precious Saint dost thou so live How is it possible but thou must long to be filled with these heavenly joyes How canst thou fear that Death that will put thee into actual possession of thy Masters Joy According to that in Rom. 8.28 And not only they viz. the Creatures but we our selves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit do groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our body See here that a taste of the first fruits of the heavenly Canaan which Gods Spirit from above fetches for and feeds a Saint with makes him not to groan under the fears of dying but rather under fears of not dying O you that taste and rellish heavenly things in Divine Ordinances and have much of the presence of Christ with you in them are you affraid to dye and to be with Christ for ever Is not this better then to live There are three things deservedly to be called first