perillous and calamitous time so that it will be a great mercy to be well gone out of it so as but to be and Dye in the Lord yea the sooner the better like that in Eccles 4.13 where the Wiseman considering the oppressions done under the Sun and beholding the tears of the oppressed and that they had no Comforter that on the oppressours side is Power but the oppressed have no Comforter He praised the Dead that were already dead more then the living which were yet alive This sense of the words suits well also with that reading or Translation of the word that some judge the righter here viz. that dye in the Lord speedily And this may also be so because of what results from those Calamities viz. 2. The great difficulty of holding fast the Faith and profession of it and danger of falling from it that will then be as our Saviour saith When the Son of man comes shall he find faith on the earth Luke 18.8 truely in a sense at other times men may dye in the Lord that is in an external Profession and acknowledgment of him according to truth crying Lord Lord and yet not be blessed not enter the Kingdom being not indeed and heartily doers of Gods will but it may be signified that Henceforth from the time of the Beasts sore Rage and the sad Persecutions thence ensuing none shall be able to make a right profession of the Faith so as to persevere to Death in it but such as be indeed Saints and persons indued with singular patience real and hearty keepers of Gods Commandments and therefore all that dye in the profession of the Faith then really Blessed and Happy Or else also 3 To signifie a more eminent degree of Blessedness to be the portion of those that then shall hold out so as to Dye in the Lord a blessedness proportionable to that very sad wo and misery threatened to to the Beast-worshippers vers 9 10 11. after the Preaching of the Everlasting Gospel and downfal of Babylon declared as those Beast-worshippers shall drink of the wine of the Wrath of God poured out without mixture into the Cup of his Indignation and shall be tormented with Fire and Brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever And they have no rest day nor night A most dreadful Sentence able to deter any one from Worshipping him On the other side here is a like excellent manner of Blessedness signified to be the portion of those that dye in the Lord to allure the Servants of God or any of the People to whom the Gospel is Preached to the worship of God and constancy to Christ against the Beast that they that dye in the Lord shall upon their Death be blessed with a witness more abundantly blessed as the word Blessed sometimes seems to signifie as in Rev. 20.6 for as it 's an aggravation of sin when it is against light and warning and brings the greater and severer judgment whereas the times of ignoranâ—â— God winks at Acts 17.30 31. Heb. 23 10.20 29. So it 's an augmentation of Virtue to be good in the worst of times and to cleave to God and Christ against the greatest discouragements and oppositions and they that so do shall receive the greater blessedness as their reward But we shall have occasion to Consider wherein they may be said to be more chiefly blessed in speaking to the other part of the Text viz. 2. The Confirmation of this truth asserted which is twofold 1. By Authority 2. By Argument and Evidence 1. By Authority The testimony of authentick Witnesses is a good evidence of any matter of fact asserted or of any matter whereof they have sufficient cognisance Now here we have the Authority and Testimony of one that is as good as yea better then ten thousand even the Spirit which is the Truth Yea saith the Spirit By the Spirit is meant the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Truth for He is Emphatically The Spirit and is divers times so called in this Book as in Rev. 2. and 3. He is so called seven times viz. in the close of every Epistle where it is said Let him that hath an ear hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches And in Chap 22.17 The Spirit and the Bride say Come And that he is a sufficient Witness to any thing he Saith and Testifies to is evident in that 1. He is perfect in understanding and knowledge being the Spirit of Wisdome Vnderstanding Counsel and Knowledge Isa 11.2 He that searcheth all things even the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 Therefore He cannot erre or mistake And then 2. He the Spirit of Truth Joh. 14.16 17. yea The truth and therefore it is He that beareth witness to Christ and the things of him 1 Joh. 5 6. therefore he neither will nor can lie for he is one with the Father and with the Son one God And God cannot lie deceive or falsifie wickedness and falshood are an abomination to him and to his lips Prov. 8.7 8. therefore every one that hath an ear may well hear as he is bid what he saith And he saith to this Assertion Yea did men onely say it it might be questioned and if they say otherwise now it is no matter All men are too prone to lie but the Holy Spirit is to be firmely believed because what ever he saith is pure and true Now he in testifying of Christ in the Gospel witnesses nothing but Life to be in Christ and to be the portion of those that believe in him that the believer in him shall not perish whatever death come upon him or whatever trouble but shall have everlasting life yea in a sort he hath it for he that hath the Son hath life saith the Record which God gives us of his Son 1 Joh. 5.11 12. and in testifying of such as are righteous men and merciful taken away and perishing from among men in such an evil day when all the Beasts come to devour he saith they enter into peace and rest in their beds each one walking in his uprighteousness Isa 56.9 57.1.2 that testimony the Holy Ghost that spake in the Prophets and particularlarly in Isaiah Acts 28.25 beareth 2. By Demonstration Argument and Evidence evidencing in what they are blessed viz. That they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Wherein are two particulars First that they may Rest from their Labours Secondly And their Works do follow them or follow with them Wherein is implied Note 1. That they that dye in the Lord and especially from the time of the Beasts rage and the great exercise of the Saints patience have Labours and Services that in the time of their life they are imployed in indeed all things are full of Labour man cannot utter it Eccles 1.8 and the Saints have their portion of Labours more especially in or
they repent of their deeds vers 22. so slow is God to anger and so lothe to exclude men from bliss and happiness and so ready to shew mercy and to forgive and so agreeable are Gods dealings to his Word and Oath wherein he saith and sweares to it that as He lives he hath no pleasure none at all secret or revealed in the Death of the wicked but rather that he turn and live Ezech. 33 11. To him that is joyned to all the living there is hope Eccles 9.4 And Christ Dyed for all that they that live while yet they live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him that Dyed for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5.15 But now when Death seizes on a man and cuts him off then the door is shut upon him and should he now stand without and knock it is too late the answer from within is I know you not Depart from me ye workers of iniquity No opening then nor any admission Luke 13.25 26 27. the Feast sleighted shall not then be tasted of for ever by them Luke 14.24 thence the Gulf is for ever fixed so that there is no coming of any from Heaven to help them nor no going from their state of Misery to a state of Salvation Luke 16.26 in the Grave whither we go there is no work nor device no knowledge or wisdom for the helpfulness of any that have here neglected Gods work and device declared to them and the knowledge and wisdom here offered them Eccles 9.10 Now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation now is the day for men to hear in and to work the works of God in but if this be sleighted and men harden their hearts now and will not hear Gods voice the night comes and will come upon them wherein no man can work after which there will be no more day except an everlasting Judgment upon them And therefore in the state of Death they that dye in their sins are so far from being happy and blessed that they are far more wretched then then before for though they are not blessed while here because their sins are not blotted out yet there is a possibility they may be so and there is yet such a mercy held forth to them as obtainable by them for if the wicked man will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all Gods statutes and do that which is lawful and right if he will listen to and believe on Christ Jesus and not walk any longer after the Flesh but after the Spirit there shall be no longer any Condemnation to him He stall surely live he shall not dye namely the second Death Rom. 8 1. Ezek. 18.21 all his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned to him c. vers 22. But when dead in his sins then there is no more hope or possibility of being happy He who was miserable before under a possibility of mercy is now endlesly and remedilesly miserable without that possibility Oh! therefore how doth it behove every one now to strive to enter in at the strait gate Luke 13.24 to do what his hands find him to do with all his might for seeking mercy and favour with God seeking the Lord while he may be found and calling upon him while he is nigh at hand Isa 55.6 Eccles 9.10 while it is yet said or called to day not hardning the heart but hearkening to Gods voice Psal 95.7.8 Heb. 3.7 8 15. making haste and not delaying to keep Gods Commandments Psal 119.59 60. hasting to escape as the Angels said to Lot when they brought him and his Family out of Sodom Gen. 19.17 as for our lives or souls not looking back staying or lingring in all the Plain of this World but escape to the mountain of the Lord left we be consumed giving diligence to know win and be found in Christ Jesus and being brought in to him to abide in him and be faithful to him to the Death and then no danger of being miserable for ever For Blessed are they that dye in the Lord from henceforth And so we come to the Substance of the Words and their plain and full import viz. That Note 3. All they that Dye in the Lord are Blessed from henceforth where we shall enquire and shew 1. Who is meant here by the Lord. 2. What it is to Dye in the Lord or who they are that may be said so to dye 3. Wherein they are blessed or what and whence that blessedness is that is asserted of them 4. What is the meaning of that additional word henceforth and what it may import 1. By the Lord here is without all doubt meant Jesus Christ for He is Lord of All Acts 10.36 for though there are that are called Lords many yet to us saith the Apostle there is but one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him 1 Cor. 8.6 and we find like phrases as this expresly mention him as He in whom the believers on him dye thus in 1 Cor. 15.18 they are fallen asleep in Christ. And in 1 Thes 4.14.16 Them that sleep is Jesus will God bring with him and the Dead in Christ shall rise first He then is here meant by the Lord yet not so as to exclude but include the Father and Holy Spirit who are in and upon him and He may well be stiled the Lord For 1. As God the Word with God in the beginning who was God so all things were made by him and He was and is by that right and stile as one with the Father who made all things by him and with the holy Spirit by whom or which he gave them their Formes Virtues and Beings the Lord of All Joh. 1.1 2. Col. 1.16 17. Heb. 1.2 3. 2. As man also taken into unity of person with the eternal word he must needs be and so was and is Lord the Manhood by that assumption into that personal union being advanced into interest in and communion with him in that his Dignity and Authority And so the Angel that came to declare to the Shepherds his Nativity called him while he lay in the Manger Christ the Lord Luke 2.10.11 so the Evangelists speak of him too in his state of Ministery and service very often as the Lord appointed seventy Luke 10.1 the Apostles said unto the Lord Lord incrase our Faith Luke 17.5 and himself bid the man out of whom he cast a Legion of Devils Go and shew how great things the Lord hath done for thee Mark 5.19 yea and even in his dead state as to his Body the Angels sent to declare his Resurrection call him Lord as to his Body laid in the Sepulchre saying Come see the place where the Lord lay Matth. 28.6 But especially 3. As Mediatour and Immanuel in his exalted and glorified state he is made of God the Father and so declared to be Lord and Christ as the fruit and reward of his
as of their possibility and danger of sinning and dishonouring Christ their being exposed to griefs pains temptations and the like from which they shall then be for ever freed that add a Preheminence to the state of their Death as also that they shall be so at home with the Lord as before they were not nor could be as is implied 2 Cor. 5.8 Philip. 1.23 indeed as to usefulness to others they are not in so good a state they perish from among the Children of men Psal 12.1 Isa 57.1 They have no more opportunity of doing good to or receiving good from them they they are as to that in a place and state of silence whence its wisdom to be doing good to all while alive and we have thereto opportunity and to let our hand do what is finds to do with all our diligence to that purpose because in the Grave whither we go there is no Work which we can doe nor nothing we can devise for them as for that cause Saint Paul was in a strait and knew not whether to choose Death or Life because for him to continue in the Flesh would be better for his Brethren Philip. 1.22 24. but yet in respect of the Saints state of freedom from evils both of Sin and Suffering and enjoyment of the Lord they are much better then in the state of this Life as much better as it 's better for a poor Pilgrim and Forreiner exposed to variety of vexations and hazzards to be at home in his own Countrey in some safe quiet possession of a settled comfortable condition or for a poor tossed weather-beaten Seaman to be safely harboured in the Port he is bound for and that may be also one reason of the addition of the other word Henceforth And so we come to the next Inquiry 4. What is this Henceforth or why is that added Were they not blessed before Surely yes Ye are the Blessed of the Lord saith the Holy Ghost to persons yet or then alive that feared the Lord you and your Children Psal 115.13 15. and blessed is the man whether alive or dead as to the body that trusteth in the Lord or that keepeth his Commandments Psal 34.8 and 112.1 But this word Henceforth may be two ways referred as was signified before namely either 1. To the word Blessed the thing asserted of those that dye in the Lord as if they that dye at any time in the Lord are thenceforth Blessed even from the time of their Death and then it is not said so to imply they were not in a blessed way before or in the way to Blessedness But to imply that blessedness may rather or more properly from that time be stiled theirs as more actually and absolutely the subjects of it they were rather but in the way to it before then injoyers of it though being upright and perfect in the way they had the Blessing of God with and upon them and were blessed therein but yet as we said before there was an If upon them If they continue to the end Col. 1.23 If ye continue in the Faith grounded and settled and not be moved away from the hope of the Gospel He that endures to the end shall be saved Matth. 24.13 be thou faithful to the death and I will give thee a crown of life Rev. 2.10 but if the righteous man how long soever he hath been righteous and how near soever to the prize he be come turn from his righteousness and commit iniquity he shall dye Ezek. 33.13 18. There were some of the Israelites that held out till they were close by the borders of Canaan till the Fortieth year of their March and till they had seen the Conquest over the Amorites and yet then committing Fornication with the Daughters of Moab and eating the Sacrifices of the Dead they perished and went not over Jordan To admonish us that though there is no fear or danger to the diligent and circumspect yet it 's dangerous at any time to grow remiss because a possibility at any time of a miscarriage till the field be wonne the warfare be accomplished And therefore our Saviour saith to his Disciples Take heed least at any time how near soever you be come to the Gaol your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life and that day come upon you unawares for as a snare shall it come upon all those that dwell upon the face of the earth watch ye therefore and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things and to stand before the Son of man Luke 21.34 35 36. Sometimes a Ship that hath escaped the dangers of the Sea may through carelesness sink and be lost at the entrance into the Harbour but when in the Harbour then it 's safe It is so however here after Death there is no miscarriage Henceforth saith the Apostle when ready to be offered up and his departure was at hand is laid up for me the crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.8 then their state is fixed no passing or falling from Paradise again when that 's attained no going thence to the place of Torment Luke 16.26 Yea they are thenceforth not onely more absolutely and assuredly blessed but also more fully as to attainment being then at home with Christ as we said before from the time of their Death and before the Resurrection Though the fulness of their Blessedness is not till then yet both a more full enjoyment is had from the time of their death then before they go not to Purgatory then surely for then after death their case would be sadder then before and also a certainty of the enjoyment of that fulness in the time thereof It is laid up in a sure and safe Custody to be given forth by a most faithful and righteous hand yea the word there in 2 Tim. 4.8 rendred laid up is the same that 's used of Death and Judgment in Heb. 9.27 and there translated Appointed so as we may say that it is not more certainly Decreed that men Dye once and come to Judgement then it is that they who finish their Course in the Lord and keep the Faith shall receive the full and final reward of the Crown of Righteousness 2. Or else the word Henceforth may have a peculiar respect to the times before mentioned and to the Subject those that Dye in the Lord with reference to the times in the rage of the Beast when the greatest exercise shall be of the Saints patience when their patience shall be admirable patience indeed and they that then abide will be eminently and to purpose keepers of Gods Commandments and of the Faith of Jesus from that time Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord not as if they that indeed Dye in the Lord before were not Blessed but to signifie either 1. The great miseries that will attend those times through the oppression of Antichrist that it will be a wonderful
A Comfortable Corroborative Cordial OR A Sovereign Antidote against And Preservative from the Horrours Harms of DEATH Affording a Direction how to Live and Die so as to be fortified and fenced against the grearest fears and sharpest sense of that KING of TERROURS Represented in some Observations made upon Rev. 14.13 Upon occasion of the late Death and Burial of Mrs. REBECCAH JACKLER Late Wife of Mr. John Jackler of Kings-Lynn in Norfolk Woollen-Draper who deceased Octob. 5. and was buried Octob. 7. 1671. By John Horn Sometime Preacher of Gods Word in Lynn-Alhallows in the same Town Useful to be considered by all men living in this state of Mortality Because there is no man living but must certainly Die Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like to his Numb 23.10 For The righteous hath hope in his Death Prov. 14.32 Quanta est felicitaes eorum quam immensa latitia qui nimirum tripl ei gaudie De recerdatione transacta virtutis De exhibitione pro entis quieâ—â—s De certa expectatione sutura consummationis exultant Bern Serm. 2. in festo omnium Sanctorum LONDON Printed by Tho. Ratcliffe and N. Thompson for B. Southwood at the Star next to Serjeants-Inn in Chancery-lane 1672. To the READER Reader SEeing it is a thing generally known acknowledged whereof none can plead ignorance that it is appointed for men once to die for the living know that they must die Eccles 9.5 And seeing the time of death is generally to men most uncertain and the Word of God assures that after Death there will be a Judgment in which every man must give an account of himself to God and receive according to the things done in the Body whether good or evil Heb. 9.27 2 Cor. 5.10 Seeing also further that the same infallible word of the living God who hath given us life and breath and all things and hath us and our breath in his hands declares to us that He of his great mercy hath devised and made a way though not to escape this bodily Death yet whereby we may stand in the Judgment and receive the doom and Sentence of an everlasting and most blessed life which way if it be neglected there will insue an everlasting state of wo and misery It must needs follow that it is of greatest moment and concernment to All to enquire after and set their heart to that way and device making it their greatest work and business whatever else is neglected that they may lay hold on that eternal life and avoid that misery Yea and forasmuch as the time of this uncertain life is the whole of the time allotted for our preparing for the Judgment it behoves every man to take heed of mispending it and to be careful to redeem it and diligently improve it to make sure of Happiness in Eternity not procrastinating to seek after God nor presuming upon Gods patience and longer continuance in the Land of the living Which things being considered it must needs be by all thought and acknowledged that Discourses of this nature are always seasonable and if any thing well done worthy acceptance Discourses I say upon such a Subject as I here propound to present thee with namely such as shew the Happiness to be enjoyed notwithstanding Death and the way how we may be brought to the enjoyment thereof and to be secured against the Fears of Death or what harms or mischiefs will otherwise be occasioned by it to us I cannot I confess commend the worthiness of my performance upon so serious and weighty a Subject which deserves a far larger and more pressing Treatise and hath also obtained it by some more Reverend and Learned hands What I here present was not in the least intended in my first consideration of it or writing upon it for the Press onely to satisfie the desire of a loving Friend concerned mainly in the occasion of its consideration I have indeavoured to make it publick And such as it is commend it to Gods blessing and thy perusal Praying it may be both for my own and thy future and eternal benefit and resting a servant to thee and all men for Jesus sake John Horn. February 8. 1671 2. A Comfortable Corroborative Cordial Or A Sovereign Antidote against and Preservative from the Horrours and Harms of DEATH Rev. 14.13 And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the Dead that die in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them OUr Lord Jesus Christ having after many other things of great concernment to his Churches shewed by his Angel to his servant John in the twelfth Chapter the oppositions of the Dragon or Devil and Sathan first in the Roman Pagan Empire against Christ and his Church and his dejection or casting down from Heaven from his state of being worshipped as a Deity and after that in his stirring up a flood of errours and heresies to carry away the Church with and how God preserved her against them And in the thirteenth Chapter the troubles and persecutions that Sathan would further raise against his Church by a two-fold Antichristian persecuting power called Beasts setting up and managing a corrupt Worship and persecuting its refusers In this Chapter shews him divers things tending to animate his servants in their constancy against them As to say 1. Vers 1. He shewed him the Lamb Christ himself standing safe and unmoved for all his enemies upon mount Sion where God had set him as King Psal 2.5 a place which cannot be moved but stands fast for ever Psal 125.1 and 11.4 and with him in the same sure state an hundred fourty four thousand the number of the sealed in Chap. 7. having his Fathers name not the Beasts either Authority or Doctrine written in their foreheads as openly and boldly avowed yet by them 2. Vers 2. And made him hear a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters as loud evident and certain as if many peoples nations and languages compared to many waters Isa 17 12. and Rev. 17.15 had attested the things spoken as eye-witnesses thereof and as the voice of a great thunder signifying their boldness in Christ and dreadfulness to their enemies and a voice of harpers harping with harps as rejoycing in their victory over their enemies as was the custome in Israel to solemnize their Victories with musical instruments as in Exod. 15.20 1 Sam. 18 6. 2 Chron. 20.28 3. Vers 3. And they sung a new song as such songs of praises upon escapes of dangers and upon victories are stiled Psal 40.3 and 98.1 before the Throne and before the four living creatures was badly translated Beasts that is in short before God and his Church And no man could learn that song but the hundred fourty and four thousand which were redeemed from the earth either from the love of earthly things through the efficacy of Gods grace
forsake them not for the Beast Worship but then to hearten unto those sufferings though to death he addes in the Text. Ver. 14. And I heard a voice from heaven saying Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord c. from the following whereof so immediately upon the former intimation we may note Christs great care of his Church as when he formerly told his Disciples of weeping and mourning he presently tells them too of what might support them and bear up their sorrowful hearts from sinking When he tells them he must leave them he tells them also that he would see them again and not leave them comfortless or as Orphans and that upon his seeing them again their hearts should rejoyce and their joy should no man take from them and that in him they should have peace who had also overcome the world Joh. 14.18 16.20 21 22 23. And when the Lord speaks of the like sad things with these by the Prophet Isaiah That all the beasts would come to devour his watchmen being blind and the shepherds void of understanding so that the righteous perish no man regarding it and merciful men are taken away from the evil Yet then also for encouraging the hearts of his suffering servants he proclaims like things with these here even the sweet and excellent state of those righteous merciful men when so taken away and perished from among men that is when Dead He shall enter into peace they shall lie in their beds each one walking in his uprightness while he threatens judgment to the seed of the sorceress the seed of the adulterer and of the whore Isa 56.9 10. 57.1 2 3. Though our Lord leads his followers inâ—o afflictions because he sees them needful and useful for them yet he would not have them faint under their afflictions to deprive themselves of the good intended by them His Word and Gospel occasion troubles to them from the world while they are thereby drawn out of the world and are led to testifie of him to and against the wickedness of the world but he provides comforts and supports for them by the same word by and for which they suffer that they might be inabled patiently to endure the things which they must suffer Yea and we may further note from this Voice and Proclamation of the blessed state of the dead that die in the Lord following so immediately after that acclamation Here is the patience of the Saints That the consideration of the happy state of the dead in Christ is an excellent motive to a patient continuance in well-doing though suffering for it unto death Rejoycing in hope first we may be patient in tribulation Rom. 12.12 Did we expect still a continuance of evils in Death and that it would make us still unhappy and miserable and that Death is the end and recompence of an holy life from the world it would exceedingly damp and take off the courage of men from exercising patience and continuing to keep the Commandments of God and the faith of Jesus But being rooted and grounded in the Faith and not moved from the hope of the Gospel we may be there through strengthned to all long suffering and patience with joyfulness Col. 1.11.23 The words themselves are a commandment and we have thereabout 1. The person acquainted with it I the holy Apostle or Pen-man of these Visions Surely the Lord God will do nothing but he reveals his secret unto his servants the Prophets Amos 3.7 The secret of the Lord is with those that fear him c. Psal 25.14 2. The way of his perceiving or receiving it and that was by the ear at least the ear of his Spirit I heard God speaks once and twice and man regards it not or perceives it not Job 33.14 But blessed are the ears of his Disciples for they hear c. Matth. 13.16 3. The way of its being conveyed to him and that was by a voice Sound or voice are the proper ways of conveying things to the ear and by the ear to the mind and a voice is but an articulate sound There may be voice where there is no hearing as above is signified in Job 33.14 c. And as is said of the Levites wife when dead Judg. 19.25 and of the Shunammits son 2 King 4.31 But there can be no hearing without some sound or voice 4. We have the place whence it came from heaven Which being the place of Gods most glorious Residence and Manifestation of himself and where our Lord Jesus Christ the holy and just one is on the Throne of Majesty and where only holy Angels and the spirits of just men have place But no evil Angel Satan being cast out thence nor no unclean thing may be admitted to enter We may be sure no voice comes from thence but what is holy and true and such as is worthy to be received with all acceptation being supremely and originally the voice of God and of our Lord Jesus though it might be instrumentally uttered by some holy Angel And so the Command here was a Command of God and Christ 5. We have the person to whom it was directed and that was to the Apostle himself I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me He heard divers voices in and from heaven not directed to him as may be seen Chap. 5.2 9 10 11 12 13. Voices directed to Christ some to God as Chap. 16.5 7. Chap. 19.1.5 6 7. Some to the people of God Chap 18.4 but this was directed to this Saint John himself wherein we have 6. The matter of the Voice the Command it self and therein 1. The Act commanded him and that was to write Saying to me Write And this was an exercise that God employed divers of his holy Servants in but is not universally the work and business of all his Servants or of those that are accepted of him as all are not Apostles nor all Prophets nor all Teachers c. 1 Cor. 12 28 29 30. so neither are or have all his Servants been either Pen-men of Holy Scriptures or of other Divine Matters but as the same Spirit distributes his sundry Gifts variously so hath he given commands to some to speak to others to write the heavenly Truths But neither the one nor the other so generally as the hearing of them this was an honour put upon his Servants according as he pleased for others usefulness Jeremiah was employed to speak and Baruch to write the words from his mouth Jer. 36.17 18 Moses did both write and speak to the people the words of the Law and Commands of God and of the Song he was to put into the peoples mouths Deut. 31.9 19 22 24 30. Yea this Gift of Writing is an excellent Gift of God a way of conveying his Truths and of his great works and doings which he himself hath made use of as he wrote the Ten Commandments with his own hand or finger Exod. 31.18 32.16 34.1 Deut.
10 1 2 4. and many of his holy Prophets and the Evangelists and Apostles divers of them were employed in this Exercise whose Writing he owns also as his own and therefore saith Have not I written to thee excellent things Prov. 22.20 And I have written to them the great things of my Law Hos 8.12 And it may be minded yea and must be acknowledged that in some respects this way of conveying over knowledge unto men hath the preheminence in divers respects above that of speech both as 1. It may be preserved a longer time what is this way imparted when as the voice of words pass away into the air after they are uttered and so knowledge may be and hath been transmitted this way to after ages and generations long after those that have uttered those truths by words of mouth are dead and gone And this use of Writing or end of Gods making use of it or commanding it to be used is expresly signified by himself for not onely did Moses write the Law and deliver it to the Priests as a means to acquaint with it and with the works of God therein mentioned those that had not known them even the children to be born commanding them to that purpose at the end of every seven years to read it to all the people men women and children and the strangers within their gates Deut. 31.10 11 12 13. but also God ordered Moses to write the Song mentioned in the same Chapter that it might be a witness for him against the children of Israel that it might not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed vers 19.21 And the Lord bade Isaiah go write it on a Table and note it in a Book that it might be for the time to come or for the latter day even for ever and ever that this is a rebellious people c. Isa 30.8.9 See also Psal 102.18 2. This way the knowledge of things and of Gods Works and Words may be made known to many more then they can by any ones audible voice be declared to as in all these Nations we have this way the declarations of those things brought to us that were done in Israel and Judah and the words spoken in those places are this way brought to our cognizance yea by this way things spoken in secret yea or when we can have no opportunity to speak our minds to any body what we would speak may be conveyed abroad and made publick and things spoken in the ear as divers of our Saviours Parables may be published all over the World Yea and 3. This is a more safe and certain way of conveyance of knowledge Words may be mistaken and misrelated by those that hear and would relate them many things in that way may be and often have been added omitted or altered But what it written remains fixed and may without addition omission or alteration be read and transcribed Thence it is said I have written to thee excellent things that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth and that thou mayest answer the words of truth to those that send to thee Prov. 22.20 21. Bless we God for so excellent and useful a gift and for the great good things made known to us thereby and take we heed of abusing or being harmed by it for as God ordered it for great good and profit to men so Sathan who can create nothing himself but lyes abuses and leads his followers to abuse this as all other gifts of God to Gods dishonour and mens destruction and scarce any so much as this while it is made use of to propagate and keep on foot all manner of lyes and mischievous devices as is too evident But now as every Act must have its object or matter about which it is exercised so this writing must be of something to be written And indeed the thing that God commanded to be written is generally something both true as it is said That which was written was upright even words of truth Eccles 12.10 As also the Lord ordering the things concerning the New Jerusalem to be written addes this as a reason For these words are faithful and true Rev. 21.5 And also of weight and usefulness for the generations and people to whom they are ordered and for whose sake written and so it is said Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our instruction that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 and they were written for our admonition 1 Cor. 10.11 and write the vision and make it plain upon tables that he may run that reads it That he may be encouraged and strengthend to run with patience the race set before him Habak 2.2 And so here is 2. The matter to be written some faithful and useful matter to be preserved for the benefit of after ages Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord c. Wherein there is 1. A heavenly Oracle Doctrine or Assertion viz. That the Dead that dye in the Lord are henceforth blessed 2. A Confirmation of this Assertion or Doctrine And that both 1. By Authority or Testimony the highest greatest and most indisputable Yea saith the Spirit 2. By Proof or Demonstration or Reason alledged and that also is two-fold viz. 1. That they may rest from their labours 2. And their works do follow them or follow with them I shall endeavour to consider them briefly in this order with some Application 1. The Doctrine commanded to be written and accordingly written is That the Dead that dye in the Lord henceforth are blessed or are henceforth blessed Wherein we have 1. The subject of the Assertion or that whereabout it is and that is The Dead 2. A qualification of this Subject rendring it the proper Subject asserted of and that is That dye in the Lord. 3. The thing asserted or these and that is That they are blessed 4. The time from whence either the Subject asserted of or the thing asserted of them commenceth for it may be either way construed either the dead that dye in the Lord henceforth and so it 's a more special limitation of the Subject asserted of or the Dead that dye in the Lord generally or whensoever are henceforth blessed 1. The Subject is the Dead not the Living And this term the Dead is spoken of variously in the Scriptures according to a various way of dying as there are that are dead in sins and trespasses but they are not blessed therefore not here meant Eph. 2.1 4.18 And there are that are dead to sin and ought so to reckon themselves 1 Pet. 2.24 Rom. 6.11 And dead to the Law for seeking righteousness thereby and having their hope and confidence therefrom Gal. 2.19 20. And these are in a sense blessed or in the way to it And there are that are dead in the body and as to natural life as Abraham is dead and the Prophets be dead Joh. 8.52 And that is
accounted as our Lord was by the Pharisees Matth. 27.62 63 as Deceivers or as the Papists called divers of our English martyrs stinking martyrs mad men Hereticks c. Yet these latter they that dye in the Lord are far happier then the other We may compare those two mentioned in Luke 16.19 the Rich man and Lazarus they both dyed But oh how great a difference to appearance in their dying the one in a Rich state and therefore no doubt but had or might have Friends and Physicians about him and want no Attendance and after Death had a Burial which we find not said of the poor Lazarus he might dye of his Sores and in some ditch and his body might be exposed to the Birds or Beasts of prey as those Saints mentioned in Psal 79.2 3 4. But yet the differerce in the goodness of their state when dead was far more for the advantage on Lazarus side then the goodness of the way of their outward dying was on the Rich man's side For after Death the poor Lazarus was carried of Angels into Abraham's bosome and was comforted and refreshed with everlasting Consolations not to be lost again When the Rich man was in Hell tormented without ease or end not having either possibility of escape from thence or of enjoying there so much as one drop of Water to cool the tip of his tongue Who would choose to dye as the Rich man with such a state after death rather then as the poor man or any of the most cruelly Martyred good man having the poor man's after-state who would not rather go through any difficult and dirty way from a Prison to a Throne then to slide down from some stately Throne or off some pleasant Hill bestrawed with sweetest Flowers in his descent or attended also with the most melodious Musick into a dark Dungeon to lie and rot there in the midst of noisome stenches pinch'd and pin'd away with Famine or made a prey to venemous Snakes and Serpents The righteous hath hope his Death but the wicked is driven away in his wickedness Prov. 14.32 and the hope of the Hypocrite shall perish and be as the giving up of the ghost Job 18.13 14. and 11.20 but the hope of the righteous shall be gladness Prov. 10.28 2. Those that live in the greatest pomp and splendor in the world injoying the greatest fulness of Riches Honour and Glory or the most delightful continuing pleasures for these in the midst of their enjoyments are in a state of incertainty Their Riches are uncertain riches they may take them wings and fly away the Thief may steal them or the Moth and rust corrupt them Their Honours like Hamans may end upon a Gallows or as Ahithophels in a Halter and all their pleasures in a moment vanish and they may come with Craesus the Lydian King to learn the uncertainty of all things here by sad Experience falling into the hand and Power of their Enemies The pleasures of sin are but for a season and the reproches of Christ are far greater Riches than all the treasures of Egypt or of the World Heb. 11.25 26. The Wealthiest and most Honoured persons here must dye and then they shall carry nothing away with them nor their pomp and glory descend after them Psal 49.17 though while they live they bless their souls and men praise them as doing well for themselves yet when Death comes then all their felicity in these enjoyments vanish like pleasant dreams when one awaketh and ing out of Christ they go to the generation of their Fathers and shall never see light Psal 49.18 19. yea then how are they brought into desolation as in a moment and utterly consumed with terrours Psal 73.19 then begin their miseries never to end when the miseries of the others and all their griefs and sorrows are at an end never more to return and then end the worldlings Joys for ever when the dead in Christ have more increase of Joy or enter into those Joys that never shall end And though it 's true that the prosperous sinner living yet at ease and in fulness is in a possibility of Repentance and so in a far better state then he that dyes in his sins and is dead out of Christ Yet considering what snares there are in such injoyments and how hard it is for a Rich man to enter into Gods Kingdom and how usually the prosperity of fools that is evil men for all such are very fools in Gods reckoning whose judgment is according to truth destroy them that they are persons standing high but in slippery places and are in very great danger of being every hour cast from their heigth into destruction Psal 73.18 and considering on the other hand that the man dead in Christ is out of all danger of any miscarriage in present possession in their spirits of that presence of Christ where is that fulness of Joy which infinitely transcends all the injoyments of this world how great soever and that they are sure and certain of Eternal Happiness for ever their state must needs be concluded infinitely better then the others Yea on that account also Blessed 2. Comparatively to themselves while living in the world more blessed now than then as the Apostle implies when he saith that though living in the Flesh he had this fruit of his labour that he lived to Christ viz. to the magnifying of him Yet he had a desire to depart and to be with Christ as a thing to him far better Phil. 122 23. for now they are absolutely blessed and happy though not yet fully and superlatively in the highest and greatest possession of Happiness and Glory the Resurrection of the Body must be waited for for that when Body and Soul reunited shall be glorified and all the Saints compleatly brought together shall receive the full of the Glory promised and have to each ones particular injoyment the accession of the glory of all the rest with them And if Cicero an Heathen Orator could fancy a wonderful Happiness in the deceased Moralists enjoying the fellowship of each others Souls * O proeclarum illum diem c. so as to cry out O that gallant day When shall I go to the Council and Company of Souls c. What may the Christian judge of the revealed and assured Society of happy renewed and raised persons together with Christ for ever But now they are absolutely Blessed their happiness hangs no longer upon any Condition that may possibly fail in as before it did upon an If ye continue And though that If was of no great burthen so as to imply so much danger as to fill them with disquieting fears to hinder their rejoycing in assured hope having so many ingagements to abide and so great incouragements in Christ to trust in him for his delivering them from all evil preserving them to his heavenly kingdom Yet there is both a possibility yet remaining of their sailing and other Considerations also
in more especial manner of labours There is a man whose Labour is in Wisdom and in Knowledge and Equity Eccles 2.21 and in such things the Saints and holy men do labour too they labour in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 But here the word used signifies a toilsome labour yea as some note of it a painful wearisome spending labour Yea sometimes variety of Tribulations Calamities and Crosses so as sometimes to threaten Death And so we find the word Labour often joyned with Toil or words of Affliction as in Gen. 5.19 the Work and Toil of our hands are joyned together as Work and Labour here and toyl of the hands may well answer to labour here in Gen. 31.42 Jacob saith God hath seen my affliction and the labour of my hands when he speaks of that troublesome labour in which the Drought by day consumed him and the Frost by night and the sleep departed from his eyes vers 40. And the like is used of the rigorous and afflictive Service and Labour which the Israelites were put to in Egypt when they were made to grone under their Burthens so as their lives were bitter with hard bondage in morter and brick and in all manner of service in the field when all their Service that they served was with rigour Exod. 1.13 14. with 2.24 Of this Moses instructs them to say the Lord looked on our affliction and on our labour and oppression Deut. 26.7 and in Psal 90.10 it 's joyned with sorrows when it is said of men that if by reason of strength we attain to fourscore years yet then is our strength labour and sorrow where Labour cannot so properly signifie work and service for alas then men are past that but rather toil and exercise as Solomon joyns together Labour and vexation of heart Eccles 2.22 and Jeremiah complains Wherefore came I out of the womb to see Labour and sorrow Jer 20.18 And that which we read in the Text Trouble is in the Margin according to the Hebrew Labour Job 5.7 And surely especially in times of great Persecution there is labour and sorrow more abundantly to exercise them as both in Jeremiah's and the time here spoken of Yea labour and business is generally with exercise grief and trouble the portion here of them that will live godly in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 3.12 both in respect of civil and outward concerns for the body weaknesses infirmities sickness pain and in respect of the labours griefs and travails of the Soul for themselves and others temptations also from Sathan persecutions from men and much care and exercise of spirit that they might obtain the grace and favour of God with Christ and be found in him and serve their generation according to his will In which sense also 2. Labour first goes before and then Eating Rest or Reward follows after no injoyment of the blessed state of Rest but for the labourers 1 Cor. 9.10 The husbandman first labouring must be partaker of the fruits 2 Tim. 2.6 Six days shalt thou labour goes before the seventh is the Salbath of the Lord thy God the rest appointed by him namely for thee to rest in Exod. 20.9.10 there is Labour that we may be found in Christ or be accepted of him whether present or absent 2 Cor. 5.9 and labour in the Lord to be performed and undergone 1 Cor. 15.58 Through much affliction we must enter the Kingdom of God Acts 14.22 Service to God and sufferings to be undergone both for and from God and the will of God in all to be done before we receive the Promise the recompense of reward Heb. 10.35 36. yea and there must be faithfulness in this too to the Death else no blessedness they that endure temptation and patiently continue in well doing are the blessed that shall have Everlasting life receive the crown kingdom Luke 22.28 29 30. Jam. 1.12 Rom. 2.7 But then it is spoken out plainly that 3. They that endure and are faithful to the Death and especially in such sad times of tryal so as to dye in the Lord they are blessed in this that they Rest from their Labours God is a merciful righteous God and he hath prepared and there remains a rest for his people Heb. 4.9 He that would have a Sabbath or day of rest for Servants and Cattel now one in every seven days that they might rest Deut 5.14 He will certainly give rest to his wearied tired toild People Children and Servants that have laboured and had no rest here He calls us to himself to give us rest for our Souls and to give us rest too with himself from our Labours Matth. 11.28 29. and his rest is glorious Isa 11.10 Rest from their sorrow and fear and hard Bondage wherein they were made to serve saith Isaiah 14.3 Rest with the Apostles when they that are at rest and ease here shall be disquieted even the Inhabitants of Babylon and the Persecutors 2 Thes 1.5 6 7. with Jer. 50.34 then shall they receive their sad things in tribulation that now trouble Sion when the Beast-worshippers shall have no rest day nor night then shall Christs faithful worshippers have perfect and perpetual rest with Christ Rev. 14.11 13. yea they that dye in the Lord thenceforth shall be herein especially blessed as their labours and troubles thenceforth are greater and sharper their dangers fears and griefs more abundant now they shall be eased of them all and by how much their Sufferings were sharper and their Labour more toilsome and grievous by so much will their Rest be more sweet and welcome and the greater the blessing Death in general puts an end to the exercises of this life as well as to its enjoyments to men whether they be good or bad as they be properly the exercises of this life though not always as to the kind in general they that joy in God here shall joy much more then as to their spirits and they that fear and grieve in their consciences for fear of Hell here dying in their sins shall much more fear and feel horrour in their Consciences then But as to bodily Pains and the Fears and Labours of this Life and pertaining thereto Death puts an end to them both to good and bad but yet not so to the Wicked as to give them rest or make them therein blessed they being reserved by it as in a Prison unto far worse miseries afterward and tormented at the present with restlessness and fears or horror not having Christ to be their rest But they that dye in the Lord are generally at rest And as to be out of and at rest from greater sorrows and sufferings is more desirable welcome and beneficial then to be out of smaller so they that from that time dye in the Lord shall be in their resting from their labours more happy and blessed then others But all that dye in the Lord in the proper sense before explicated enter into this rest for they are at home
more full and proper sense redeemed from the Earth and from among men then any yet here living and as to those that suffer and dye in the Lord from henceforth from the time of the Beasts rage when there will be the most remarkable time of the Saints patience at the time probably when the Beast that ascends out of the bottomless Pit slays the Witnesses which is his last act his parting blow the ending part of his Rage Chap. 11.7 which Chapter takes in all the time from the first to the last that singing with Harps may denote their special triumphant Blessedness which agrees with what is said in Chap. 7. where there is the same number of the Sealed and where it is said that they that came out of great or as the words may be rendered the great tribulation were arayed in white robes having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb where the white Robes doubtless are emblems of some Great Priestly or Kingly dignity as is implied in Chap. 3.4.5 such as is mentioned Chap. 5.10 20.6 and as is implied in what follows when it is said Therefore are they before the Throne of God night and day in his Temple as the Beast-worshippers are tormented and have no rest day nor night Chap. 18.11 and he that sitteth on the Throne dwelleth among them they shall hunger no more nor thirst any more neither shall the Sun light on them or any heat for the Lamb who is in the midst of them shall feed them and shall lead them to the Fountains of living waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes Chap. 7.13 17. Let me add this upon this quotation that it may appear that those Learned and Reverend men that appointed that seventh Chapter or part of it to be read on the day dedicated to the Memory of All Saints surely understood those things to be applicable to the Deceased Saints that dyed in the Lord But yet their great and proper reward is 2. Fully at the day of the Appearing again of the Lord Jesus at that day the Crown of Righteousness henceforth from the time of Departure laid up shall be given to all that love and look for that his Appearance 2 Tim. 4.8 The Son of man our Lord Jesus shall then when he comes in the glory of his Father with all his holy Angels reward every man according to his works Matth. 16 27. Rev. 22.12 and then their Reward shall be great and glorious indeed and gloriously manifested for then them that sleep in him will God bring with him the Dead in Christ shall rise first 1 Thes 4.14 16. not in mortal bodies to labour and travail again but their mortal then shall put on immortality and their corruptible shall put on incorruption and what was sown in dishonour shall rise in glory and what in weakness shall rise in power and what was sown a natural body shall rise a spiritual body fashioned into the likeness of Christs glorious body 1 Cor. 15.43 44 53. Phil. 3.21 and then they shall have no more death neither sorrow nor crying nor pain for all those former things shall be wholly past Rev. 21.4 no nor shall they have any thing of errour ignorance or corruption nor of fear or grief in their mind or inward man but they shall then know as they are known and see face to face and be made like to Christ seeing him as he is 1 Cor. 13.9 12. 1 Joh. 3.2 Then they shall appear in glory with Christ Col. 3. 3 4. having fellowship with him and him ever amongst and with them and God iâ— and with him 1 Cor. 1.9 2 Thes 2.14 1 Thes 4.16 Rev. 21.3 injoying the new Heavens and the new Earth whereiâ— dwells righteousness 2 Pet. 3.14 and the new Jerusalems glory which comes down from out of heaven having the glory of God and her light like to a stone most precious like a Jasper stone clear as Chrystal Rev. 21.10 11. eating and drinking with Christ at his Table in his Kingdom Luke 22.29 30. injoying the incorruptible Inheritance that is undefiled and fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1â— 4. and the incorruptible Crown of Life Righteousness and Glory which he hath promised to them that love him 1 Cor. 9.25 2 Tim. 4.8 James 1.12 even the Kingdome and glory of God and of Christ wherein they shall have the fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore at his right hand and see his face and have his Name in their foreheads and have an everlasting happy day without any night the Lord himself and the Lamb being their everlasting Light and they shall reign for ever and ever Matth. 25.35 Dan. 7.27 1 Pet. 5.10 Psal 16.11 36.8 9 10. Isa 60.19 20. Rev. 22.3 4 5. Which thing I onely here mention having more particularly spoken something to them in my Book called Balaam's wish O Happy happy and thrice happy portion of those that be so dead So much for the Explication and opening of the words Let us now Apply it briefly Application 1. ANd first it tends wonderfully to commend and magnifie the Lord Jesus to us who makes those that are in him even so happy in Death He being the Root and well-spring of all the Happiness and Blessedness injoyed or injoyable by the Saints and holy ones either in this Life or in and after Death or at and after the Resurrection of the Dead Well may we then joyn our assent to that Song of or in the kingdom that Song of the Elders mentioned by our Deceased Sister on her Death-bed and say Thou art worthy to open the Book and unloose the Seals of it for thou wast slain and hast Redeemed us to God by thy Blood c as also to that of the Angels that follows Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdome and strength and honour and glory and blessing Rev. 5.9 12. magnifying also the Riches of the love and grace of God even the Father in appointing and giving him forth to us and so filling him through Death and Sufferings with all his own unspeakable fulness that he might be the Authour of such Blessedness to us and so we may also joyn our assent to that of every Creature in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth and such as are in the Sea and all that is in them saying Blessing Honour Glory and Power be to him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Rev. 5.13 and to that of the innumerable number out of all Nations Kindreds Peoples and Tongues standing before the Throne and before the Lamb clothed with white Robes and having Palms in their hands viz. Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb Chap. 7.9.10 2. To commend and set forth the excellency and desireableness of the state of those that are in Christ Jesus and abide in him that they however despised and abused
Heaven and that are in Earth Col. 1.20 so will he reconcile all things to us and make them ours and for us destroying that in all things and all those things and persons that are inflexibly against us Thence the Apostle saith We know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them that are his called according to purpose Rom. 8.28 and all things are yours for your use service or benefit whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or World or Life or Death or things present or things to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3.21 22 23. Death is in the Believers Inventory as a parcel of his Goods as one of his Servants or Friends yea and all things too that shall follow after it For all the ways or paths of the Lord are mercy and truth to them that keep his testimonies and his Covenants Psal 25.10 There shall no evil happen to the just Prov. 12.21 He that keepeth the Commandments shall feel no evil thing Eccles 8.5 O infinitely precious Jewel and Pearl of great price the Bread which came down from heaven which whoso eats of shall live for ever Joh. 6.50 51. But yet the being of this Refuge doth not of it self simply secure us against the hurts of Death they that neglect it shall perish without escape however good safe and sure a Defence it is and affords Heb. 2.3 Death will do them this hurt as we have forenoted that it will shut them out from all ways and passages to the after-life it will cut off all further opportunities of seeking for safety in or injoying safety by or from this refuge This Antidote will not preserve from fears or harms of Death unless both taken and kept within our hearts This Elixir will not turn all to gold or good unless injoyed by us or duly applyed This Sun will not shine on us to expel our darkness and refresh and chear us unless we be and walk in the light and virtue of it nor this Shield defend and secure us against Deaths harmful darts no nor from what is indeed the Dreadful thing the second Death unless it be about us and we as it were within its compass no nor will any thing or person else do it besides him For God the Father is in him and not to be approched to or his favour injoyed but in and by him Joh. 14.6 7. Nor is the Spirit but upon him or any other ways to be injoyed then by turning at his Reproofs to believe in and obey him Prov. 1.23 Joh. 14.15 16 17. Acts 5.32 neither is there Salvation in any other Name beside his that was Crucified for us and Dyed for our sins and Rose again for our justification under heaven whereby we may be saved Acts 4.11.12 The Law and its deeds cannot justifie and save us for by it is the knowledge not the forgiveness of sins Rom. 3.20 Riches profit not in the day of wrath it is onely righteousness delivers from death Prov. 11.4 nor will our works or righteousness that are not of the Faith of him profit us Isa 57.12 Philip. 3.8 9. for they that are of the works of the Law are also under the curse Gal. 3.10 11 12. and works of our own devising are of no worth with God Matth. 15 9.10 Nay Paul or Apollos or Cephas cannot save us because not Crucified for us nor have they that Name into which we may be Baptized for the Remission of our sins and receipt of the Holy Ghost to renew and regenerate us and so by consequence not any other man 1 Cor. 1.12 13. the wise Virgins Oyl will not relieve the foolish Virgins that have none of their own Matth. 25.8 9. The just shall live by his not another mans faith Hab. 2.4 and therefore there is as we have also shewed before an absolure necessity of our being in Christ that we may have this blessedness by him in and after Death Unless we be in Christ Jesus He is not made to us of God as to our enjoyment thereof wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 The Ark saved none from perishing by the Flood but those that were in it nor will Christ save from the second Death or give blessing in this to any out of him He that hath not the Son hath not Life though that Life be given us in him that it might in receiving him be received with him 1 Joh 5.11 12. The Feast though prepared and invited to satisfied not its refusers but they were excluded and cut off from all they had beside for refusing it Luke 14.24 Matth. 22.4 7. yea and being come into he must be abide in too so as to Death and in Death else we yet perish He that draws back Gods Soul will have no pleasure in him Heb. 10.38 A Castle though never so strong will not secure from the potent and vigilant enemy him that either comes not into it or after he hath been in it upon any terms forsakes it And this is useful further 6. To invite and provoke us all with all earnestness and diligence to betake our selves to Christ this refuge and being in him to abide in him to live and dye in him and by no means neglect or forsake him Enter into this rock and hide our selves in the dust of the earth even in the dust of his Death for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty Isa 2.10 Psal 22.14 Death will come upon us sooner or later that cannot be avoided nothing more certain yea it may come suddenly upon the youngest and strongest of us for nothing more uncertain then the time of its coming for surely every man in his best state is altogether vanity Psal 39.5 and though of it self it will not hurt us nor shall we perish in it but be raised up again from thence Yet our retaining our sins and refusing or neglecting to be washed and renewed and so to be partakers of Gods Salvation that will expose us to and pull upon as a second Death yea and this Death will put an end to all possibility of escaping that and be an entrance into that dreadful Prison in which the Debter and Malefactor will be kept safe till the great Assises and then the Execution of the Eternal Judgment will succeed Now is the accepted time now the time of escape and this the way to escape to be found in Christ O then how doth it behove and concern every man to look about him and give diligence with the Apostle to win Christ and be found in him not having our own righteousness but that which is by the Faith of him Object But may some say Can we make our selves in Christ can we enter into him as we will can any come to Christ except the Father that sent him draw him Is it not of God that any man is in Christ Jesus and not of himself why then do you call
down our resolutions and endeavours to walk with God but waiting upon him he will strengthen our hearts Psal 27.14 31.24 Yea and is faithful and will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able but will with the temptation give an issue that we may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10.13 but also from this here proposed after the mention of the patience and constancy of the Saints in faith and obedience viz. The Blessed state of the dead that dye in the Lord that they then rest from their Labours and shall receive a good Reward Hold we fast therefore the profession of the Faith without wavering knowing that we shall have such a Rest and Recompence and that we have need of patience that after we have done the will of God we may receive the Promise And yet a little while and He that shall come will come and will not tarry Heb. 10.23 35 36 37. let us not for want of a little longer holding on our way and induring Affliction loose so sweet a Rest and so wondrous a Blessedness as is in Christ Jesus set before us Remember we and be warned by Sauls example who for want of a little more patience an hour or two longer tarrying for Samuel lost his Kingdom 1 Sam. 10 8. 13.8 9 10 12 13. Behold we and learn of the Husbandman who waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth and hath long patience for it until be receive the former and the latter rain and be we also patient in seeking and waiting for the blessing of Heaven stablish we our hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh James 5.7 8. O that our eye may be so upon the blessed and glorious Rest to be injoyed by us at Night as that we may indure the heat and burthen of the Day or of that little small part of it that yet remains 8. And then here is a motive and Incouragement too to diligence in the work and service of the Lord and an Admonition to take heed of loytering and idleness or of doing badly because our works follow us Our Wealth will not follow us nor any Places or Dignities mens Honours shall not descend with them onely their Works that they may be disposed of and in the great day receive Rewards fully according thereunto let us then give diligence in good works to the full assurance of hope to the end and not be slothful but followers of those who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises seeing God is not unrighteous to forget any work or labour of love shewed unto his Name Heb 6.9 10 11 12. The sleep of the labouring man is sweet whether he eat little or much Eccles 5.12 let us labour and be industrious in the work of the Lord and then whether we have much or little in this world we shall have a sweet comfortable rest and sleep when we go out of it unto God for he will so satiate the weary Soul and replenish every sorrowful Soul as that when it awakes it shall be able to say with Jeremiah My sleep was sweet unto me Jer. 31.25 26. to this end let us look diligently to our Lord Jesus cleave closely to him and abide in the believing views and remembrance of him who as He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 so he also is the root from whence we may derive all grace and virtue to make us fruitful Rev 22.16 Avoid we the counsel of the ungodly the way of sinners and the seat of the scornes and exercise our selves diligently day and night in the Law of the Lord the Gospel of our Salvation that so we may be as the Trees of the Lord full of Sap even filled with the fruits of Righteousness that are by him Psal 1.2 3. 104.16 Be we always stedfast unmovable from the hope of the Gospel and ways of Righteousness abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as we know that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord our works shall follow us to be gloriously rewarded by him when we shall Rest from the pain labour and exercise attending them 1 Cor. 15.58 9. Lastly it affords Comfort also to us in behalf of such as Dye in the Lord that we may not immoderately Mourn for them as those that have no hope 1 Thes 4.16 17. Death takes them not away so as they perish from their Hope they shall Rise again yea God will bring them with Christ and they shall Rise First as is there said in the mean time they are at Rest and their good works are not lost but follow with them and they are Blessed Comfort we our selves and one another with these words yea Comfort we our selves in behalf of this our Sister deceased with them whose Decease occasioned as She also before it requested it our Consideration of these words Truely though she had here Weaknesses and Infirmities common to humane fallen nature and was not without all such defilements as spring from Passions and lesser sins for which God was pleased also to chasten her for ours and others admonition yet we may through the grace of God afforded to and received by her not doubt to say That she was a good Woman and God humbling her by his corrections and chastisements did her much good in the latter end and she shewed good proof of her profiting thereby her heart being much taken with and set for the knowledge of God and Christ in his Gospel as we might in some good measure perceive in that she was very attentive to it and desirous to have her Children though but Mother in-law to them mindful thereof also walking soberly and harmlesly as also in both her former Lying-in when she had a very weak time so as there was little hope of recovery for a great while she gave very good proof and evidence of her Faith and Patience so as to sing in her very great Weakness to God and his praises And in this last Lying-in whereof she dyed as in all her languishings and great weaknesses before it she behaved herself with so good hope in God and desires of being dissolved and being with him and with divers such Christian and gracious speeches and demeanours as gives us good hope comfortably to judge her one of those Dead that have dyed in the Lord and therefore to be Blessed as being at Rest from all her Labours Weaknesses Languishings and whatever Toyls Troubles or Temptations she here encountred with and that what good fruits are Works she brought forth and acted as she was not without such follow with her into Gods presence so as that through Christ and his Blood washing both her and them she shall receive for them a good Reward in the Kingdom and Inheritance to be revealed Bless we God That there is such a way made for us to be made good and to obtain through Christ so good hope for our selves and others that we may live and dye in the Lord and be ever Blessed And Bless we him for the good wrought in her and the good hope she expressed in Christ and God and that we have concerning her And let it be our great care so to believe on and abide in Christ that we living in and unto him while we are here may also Dye in him and injoy the Blessing here pronounced by this Voice from Heaven that said Write Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them Blessed be God Epitaphium in Amicam suam D am REBECCAM JACKLER IMbecille fuit corpus quod terra repostum Jam tenet in gremio non temeranda suo Mens fuit variis curis obnoxia quare Hospitio fragili fessa domum petiit Quam proprio nostrum miserescens sanguine Christus Omnibus aptavit constituitq bonis Et nunc quam foelix cui nec jam corpus onustum Morbis nec curis mens agitata suis Mens etenim athereas per Christum ascensa cathedras Omnibus impetibus libera tuta manet Gaudia percipiens ibi talia qualia nullus Quantumcunque sciens hic habitans capiat Queis ei everso Christo veniente sepulchro Aeterno socius foedere corpus erit An Epitaph Upon his Deceased Friend Mrs. R. J. WEak was the Body which within its womb The consecrated ground doth now intomb Her mind expos'd to cares lothing at last So bad a lodging to that Home made hast Which Christ through his own Blood of grace prepared And gives to all good men as their reward And now how well in mind and body she This from Diseases That from cares being free Her mind the heavenly Seats through Christ her guide Ascended free from passions doth abide Such joys injoying as none here below However knowing perfectly can know Wherein when Christ hath quite or'e-turn'd the Grave It shall its Body partner ever have