fall as a peace-offering or as a burnt-offering he is still in a happy condition To dye in the Lord may relate either to the cause for which or to the state wherein or to the manner how we dye 1 The cause for which we dye So the Martyrs dye in the Lord or for the Lords sake and are blessed of God though it may be cursed of men The Text relates to the time of Antichristian persecution when usually they dyed excommunicate or accursed by the Roman Synagogue God hath a special regard to his Champions that love not their lives to the death 2 The state wherein we dye so to dye in the Lord is to dye in the favour of God in a state of peace with him as members of Christs mystical body they dye in the bosom of Christ sleep in Jesus 1 Cor. 15.18 are reconciled to God in and through him There are two notable expressions which I shall commend to you upon this occasion One is in the 2 Pet. 3.14 That we may be found of him in peace To dye before the quarrel be taken up between us and God that is sad When a Town is surprized by force they that are taken with their weapons in their hands dye without mercy but blessed are they that dye in peace The other is in the 2 Cor. 5.3 that I may not be found naked To be summoned to come before God and to have nothing to cover our nakedness that is sad it should be our care to be wrapt in Christs righteousness that is the best shroud for a dying Christian 3 As to the manner they are said to dye in the Lord who dye in a gracious manner it much concerneth us and the glory of God that we dye well a Christian is not onely to live to the glory of God but to dye to the glory of God for living and dying we are the Lords Rom. 14.7 8. As to the manner to dye in the Lord signifyeth 1 Our perseverance in communion with him to continue our blessed fellowship with Christ to the death and in the death Into the Vineyard Mat. 20. Some were called sooner some later but all continued to the end Elisha would not leave his master till he was taken from him into heaven So till all be finished we should follow our work close Let us take heed saith the Apostle lest we seem to come short Heb. 4.1 As we should not come short we should not seem to come short Enoch lived a long while but all that while he walked with God 365 yeers a long age but spent in communion with God! Gen. 5.22 2 It implies the solemn actings of grace at death the Scripture takes notice of the last words of Saints 2 Sam. 23.1 the last words of David Death is a special season wherein to make use of Grace of faith love zeal and obedience 1 Faith Heb. 11.13 All these dyed in Faith it is not enough to live by Faith but we must also dye by Faith This is a Grace always of use on this side the Grave in the other world there is no need of it when we come to injoyment Faith ceaseth at death it doth us the last office we see what it is then to put the soul into Gods keeping 2 Tim. 1.12 Luke 23.46 Act. 7.59 Then do we dye in faith when we can resiâ—n our souls to God and send our bodies to the Grave in hope While we are alive we finde it harder to depend upon God for daily bread then for eternal life for herein faith is put upon a present tryal but when we come to dye the strength of our confidence is tryed about the blessed recompences This then is to dye in the Lord when we can look beyond the grave and within the veil into the glory of the world to come 2 Love In our readiness and willingness to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and be with Christ The Spirit and the Bride say come now God takes you at your word and you draw back Let him be afraid to dye that would not go to Christ 3 Zeal for Gods glory It is the last time you can do any thing for God in the world put in a word for him commend him to those about you as Jacob doth the Mediator or the Angel of the Covenant of whom he had such experience in the course of his pilgrimage Gen. 48.16 and Joshua 23. Josh. 14. I am going the way of all the earth and you know in all your hearts and all your souls not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God hath spoken all is come to pass not one thing hath failed thereof Words of dying men are of most efficacy and authority as being spoken out of all their former experience with most simplicity without self-seeking or sinister ends with most seriousness for men entring upon the confines of Eternity are wiser and more serious it is no time to dally and dissemble at the last gasp speeches of living men are suspected of partiality to their present interests or neglected as having no weight in them but the speeches of dying men are solemnly observed therefore Josephs brethren to ingage him the more urge him with his fathers dying charge Gen. 50.16 Thy father when he dyed said c. Men as they are returning {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to the original Divinity as Plotinus speaks are supposed to be more divine and therefore their dying words are much regarded Put in then a word for God an Amen to the Promises Carnal men cannot honor their Principles when they dye the world fails them when there is most need Job 27 8. what hope hath a hypocrite when God comes to take away his soul When they are going out of the world then they fall a complaining how the world hath deceived them but a Christian when he dyes he may honor his Principles commend the Promises give an account of the faithfulness of the Mediator and plead for God at the last gasp 4 Obedience A Christian is not to dye like a beast to be meerly passive his soul is not taken away but yielded up there is a resignation and consent on his part A carnal man suffers death but a Christian gives up the Ghost The Scripture useth this distinctness of speech concerning them as concerning the wicked God takes away their souls Luke 12.19 Job 27.8 they would fain keep them longer but the Lord puts the Bond in suit and per-force they are dragged into his presence but now death to the godly it is a sweet dismission Luke 2.26 When they see the will of God they hold out no longer their souls are not taken away but yielded up to God Thus you see Grace stands by us when all things else fail it makes us live with comfort and dye with comfort When wealth fails Grace fails us not So much of the first question 2. How they are blessed They
are presently blessed upon the departure of the soul out of the body but more blessed at the general Resurrection of the just 1 Presently the soul is where Christ is carryed by Angels to Christ and by Christ presented to God as the fruit of his purchase That the soul is where Christ is appears by that of Phil. 1.2 3. I desire to be dissolved and be with Christ to be with him in glory otherwise it were a loss not a happiness for St. Paul to be dissolved it is a sorry blessedness to lye rotting in the Grave and onely to be eased of present labours for Gods people are wont to reckon much of their present service and enjoyment of God though it be accompanyed with troubles and afflictions Paul was in a straight and he saith it was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} much more better to be with Christ A stupid sleep without the injoyment of God is not much more better then our present condition but far worse what happiness were that to be in such a condition wherein we do nothing for God injoy nothing from God Surely Paul would never be in such a straight if this drousie Doctrine were true that the soul lyes in such an unactive state of sleep and rest till the Resurrection This is to be no more blessed then stones and inanimate creatures that feel nothing Again Luke 23 43. This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise saith Christ to the good thief Some to evade that place refer {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as if it were I say to them this day but the pointing in the Greek Copies contradicts it as also the sense of the place {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} this day answers to the Thieves when thou shalt come into thy kingdom Christ promiseth more then he asks as God doth usually abundantly for us above what we can ask or think He hath reference to Christs words to the High-Priest the Son of man shall come in his glory now saith Christ I will not defer thy desire so long for presently shall heavenly joys attend thy soul Others seek to evade it by the word Paradise it is a Persicke word but used by the Hebrews for Gardens and Orchards and by allusion for heavenly joys and possibly the allusion might be taken not from the delights of an ordinary Garden but from Eden or that Garden in which Adam was placed in innocency That by Paradise is meant heaven and not those secreta animarum receptacula beatae sedes some secret places for the repose of souls departed which some of the Fathers fancyed appeared by Pauls expression in the 2 Cor. 12.4 speaking of his rapture I was saith he caught up into the third heaven which he presently calls Paradise Well then out of the whole we may conclude that the souls immediately upon their departure out of their bodies are with Christ Again it is said Luke 16.22 The beggar dyed and was carryed into Abrahams bosom presently in the twinckling of an eye or turning of a thought Thus it is with the Saints which is a great comfort when we come to dye in a moment Angels will bring you to Christ Agonies of death are terrible but there are joys just ready and as soon as you are loosed from the prison of your body you enter into your eternal rest the soul flyeth hence to Christ Once more as the wicked are in their final estate as soon as they dye and therefore they are called the Spirits now in prison 1 Pet 3.19 so do the godly injoy their glorifyed estate as soon as they dye the spirits of just men are made perfect Heb. 12.24 How can their spirits be said to be perfect if they lye onely in a dull sleep without any light life joy delight or act of love to God 2 They are compleatly blest at the Resurrection what their blessedness shall be then we cannot now know to the full we shall understand it best when the great voice calls us to come up and see Onely because our ear hath received a little thereof let me endevor to lay it before you In blessedness there must be 1 A removal of all evils 2 A coacervation and compleat presence of all goods 1 A removal of evil as long as the least evil continues a man is not blessed onely less miserable Haman had all things that a carnal heart could wish for he guided the affairs of 127 Provinces onely he wanted Mordecals knee therefore he saith all this avails me nothing Ahab had the kingdom of Israel and yet falls sick for want of Naboth's Vineyard In engines of war if one peg be missing or out of order all stops In the body of man if one humour be out of order or joynt broken it is enough to make us ill at ease though all the rest be sound and whole so if if there be the least evil a man cannot be a compleat happy man Well then from this blessed estate of the dead in the Lord All evil is removed Now evil is twofold either of Sin or Punishment In heaven there is neither 1 To begin with Sin that is the worst evil affliction is evil but it is not evil in it self but onely in our sense and feeling but sin is evil whether we feel it or no it is worst when we feel it not 2 That is evil which separates from the chiefest good Affliction doth not separate from God it is a means and occasion to make us draw neer to him many had never been acquainted with God but for their afflictions but sin separates from God Isa. 59.2 Your iniquities have separated c. Let a man be never so loathsom yet if he be in a state of grace he is dear to God the Lord takes pleasure in him though he should be roughcast with Ulcers and sores in a prison yet God will kiss him with the kisses of his mouth there is nothing loathsome and odious to God but sin This grieves the Saints most Rom. 7.23 Oh wretched man that I am c. if any man had cause to complain of afflictions Paul had in perils often in perils by Land in perils by Sea in perils by enemies in perils by false brethren whipped imprisoned stoned but he doth not cry out when shall I be delivered from these afflictions but this body of death Lust troubled him more then scourges and his captivity to the Law of sin more then chains and prisons This is the disposition of the Saints they are weary of the world because they are sinning here whilst others are glorifying God not onely that they are suffering here whilst others are injoying God A beast will forsake the place where he hath neither meat nor rest Carnal men when they are beaten out of the word have a fancy to heaven as a place of retreat but that which troubles godly men is their sin well
away all tears from their eys and there is no more death nor sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for former things are passed away there is quite another change new dispensations no distraction of business our whole imployment will be to think of God and study God but without weariness satietie or distraction 2 In blessedness there is a confluence of all good necessary to the happiness of the creature our blessedness is full for parts full for the degrees and manner of injoyment and all this continues for ever without fear of losing it our Crown of Glory is a Garland that will never wither it is an eterâ—â—l state of actual delights we are blessed in our bodies blessed in our souls blessed in our company man is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a sociable creature and therefore to his compleat happiness it is necessary that he should not be onely blest in his person but in his company and relations we are brought into the presence of God who is blessedness it self and to the sight and blessed fellowship of his blessed son and into the company of blessed Angels and Saints 1 Let me speak of the happiness of his person and then both of his body and soul 1 For his body it is now a Temple of the Holy-Ghost he cannot leave his mansion and ancient dwelling-place and therefore he raiseth it up and formeth it again into a compleat fashion like Christs glorious body Phil. 3.21 for clarity agility strength incorruption Solomons Temple when it was destroyed the latter house was nothing so glorious as the former men wept when they saw it Ezr 2. but it is not so here it is raised quite another body for the present there is to be seen a beautiful fabrick wherein God hath shown his workmanship every member if it were not so common would be a miracle all is ordered for the service and comeliness of the whole but now it is a vile body subject to diseases fed with meat humbled with wants many times mangled with violence dissolved by death and crumbled to dust in the grave like a dry clod of earth this is the body we carry about us a mass of flesh drest up to be a dish for the worms but this vile body shall rise in another manner like Christs glorious body when the Sun appears the stars vanish their lustre is eclipsed and darkned but the Sun of Righteousness when he appears at the last day doth not obscure but perfect our glory More particularly If you inquire wherein our bodies shall be like Christs glorious body the Apostle will tell us that in another place 1 Cor. 15.40 41 42 43 44. Let me single out three expressions it is raised in incorruption it is raised in glory it is raised a spiritual body 1 It is an incorruptible body now it yields to the decays of nature and is exercised with pains and aches till at length it droppeth down like ripe fruit into the Grave but hereafter it shall be cloathed with immortality wholly impassible what a comfort is this to those that are racked with the Stone or Gout broken with Diseases or withered with age to think that they shall have a body without aches without decays that shall always be in the spring of youth the Trees of Paradise are always green 2 It shall be a glorious body here it is many times deformed at least beauty like a flower is lost in sickness daver'd or withered with age defaced by several accidents but then we shall be glorious like to Christs body the naked body of man was so beautiful in innocency that the beasts of the field admired it and thereupon did homage to Adam but we shall not be conformed to the first Adam but the second Christ in the Mount when he was transfigured they could not indure the shining of his garments it astonished the Disciples Mat. 17. His Garments could not vail nor their eys indure those strong emissions of the beams of glory Paul could not indure the light that shined to him when Christ appeared to him from heaven Act. 9. but was utterly confounded and struck blinde by this you may guess a little at the glory of the body when it is likened to Christs glorious body Moses by conversing with God forty days the complexion of his face was altered so that they were glad to put a vail upon it In this low estate in which we are we must make use of these hints 3 A spiritual body either for agility we shall not be clogged as now we shall be caught up in the air to meet the Lord or rather a spiritual body because more disposed for spiritual uses for the injoyments and the imployments of Grace Here it is a natural body an unready instrument for the soul we are not in a capacity to bear the new wine of glory but there we are made more capacious and stronger vessels to contain all that God will give out The Disciples fainted at Christs transfiguration Mat. 17.6 we cannot receive such large diffusions and overflowings of glory as we shall then have every strong affection and raised thought doth overset us and cause extasie and ravishment but there it is otherwise God maketh out himself to us in a greater latitude and we are more able to bear it 2 For the blessedness of the soul which is the heaven of heaven our happiness is called the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1.12 for which we must be prepared it is not for them that know no other heaven but to eat drink and sleep and wallow in filthy and gross pleasures It is an inheritance in light and for Saints that know how to value intellectual and spiritual delights Wherein you will say lyes the happiness of the soul in knowledge or love Ans. Divines are divided certainly in both our happiness consists in the love of God and knowledge of God from whence results union with God and fruition of God it is hard to say which is to be preferred to know God or love God in one place the Scripture tells us this is life eternal to know the onely true God Joh. 17. so that it seems to be the heaven of heaven to have the understanding satisfyed with the knowledge of God Psal. 17.15 When I awake I shall be satisfyed with thine image and likeness On the otherside 1 Joh. 4.16 he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him the imbrace of the soul is by love the possession of God is by acts of love one saith it may be not modestly enough libentius sine aspectu te diligerem quam te videndo non amarem That he had rather not see God then not love him here in the world the hatred of God is worse then ignorance of him and therefore it should seem love should have the pre-eminence but we need not make a faction between the Graces by knowing we come to
love and by loving we come to know as light is so is love and so is injoyment here we love little because we know little if thou knowest the gift c. Joh. 4.10 and the more we love the more we know this is a fire that casts light But to speak more distinctly 1 There is the perfection of knowledge all the faculties must be satisfyed before we can be happy especially so noble a faculty as the minde is there is a natural inclination to knowledge the soul takes a great deal of contentment in the contemplation of any truth the knowledge of wisdom to thy soul saith Solomon shall be as the hony-comb when thou hast found it Prov. 24 13 14. right and cleer thoughts of God breed a rejoycing Psal. 19.10 Well then this is no small part of our happiness to have more light and knowledge of God and of his ways we shall know many mysteries of salvation that we are now ignorant of as the nature of God Psal. 17.15 I shall be satisfyed with thy image and likeness the union of the two natures in the person of Christ Joh. 17.24 they shall behold my glory our union with Christ and by Christ with God Joh. 14.20 In that day they shall know that I am in the Father c. the course of Gods Decrees and Providences for our good 1 Cor. 13.12 We shall know as we are known that is we shall be able to see how the unchangeable counsels of God for our salvation have been carryed on through all the Passages of the present life to bring us safe to the heavenly state These are the deeps of God and now there is darkness upon the face of these deeps the Church is but a Grammer-School heaven is the Universitie we shall have other eys and other light prophesie is but in part now our intuition shall be then immediate Joh 1.3.2 We shall see him as he is now we see him not as he is but as he is pleased to reveal himself now we see what he is not not corruptible not mortal not changeable rather then what he is Now we see him as he is in us and as he is in other creatures we track him by the effects of his power and wisdom and goodness but then we shall see him as he is in himself we shall see him face to face 1 Cor. 13.12 In the creatures there is vestigium the track and foot-print of God in the Law there is umbra a shadow in the Gospel imago an image a fair draught of God as in a picture but in heaven face to face we have excellent books to study the large manifestations of his Glory the Majesty of Christs person we shall always sit about the Throne and behold God in the face of the Lamb there God makes out himself â—n the highest manifestation that we are capable of 2 Compleat love there is a constant cleaving of heaâ—t to God without change and weariness a love that never ceaseth working and yet God in communion is ever new and fresh to us if we delight in any thing here we soon grow weary and have a change of objects here are distractions and startings aside to the creature but there is an eternal solace and complacency in God a continual Sabboth that never grows burthensom all the heart and bowels run out after Christ we never want the actual breathings of the spirit The Spirit came upon Sampson at times so it doth upon us here motions are fleeting and vanishing but there Christ is a more Lovely object and the delights of the soul are carryed out to him without any satiety they are outward things that cloy the appetite as soon as we have them we despise them we sip as the Bee doth of the flower and then goeth to a new flower but there is an eternal complacency in Christ here we are troubled when we want outward comforts and cloyed when we have them because curiosity is soon satisfyed and fruition discovers the imperfections of the creature so that the more injoyd they are the less beloved as Amnon hated Tamar c. Imperfections that before lay hid are then laid open to view and so our affections are confuted by experince but there the more we injoy God the more his infinite perfections are manifested and the pleasure is augmented by injoyment 3 Compleat union with God and fruition of God See 2 Cor. 5.6 Phil. 1.93 Here we are united by Faith but that is nothing to sight and immediate tuition we lay hold upon Christ but have not such an absolute possession of him he is a head that gives out himself not by necessity but choice and pleasure therefore our communion with him is not so high and sweet as then The iron that lyeth long in the fire seems to be changed into the nature of it we are then more conformed and changed into the likeness of Christ All the comforts that we have in this life we injoy in Gods absence and by the Ministry of the creatures now the creatures are not vessels capacious enough to convey so much of God to us as we shall receive when he is all in all immediately 1 Cor. 15.24 There is no Temple nor Ordinances but God is instead of all without means or the intervention of such supplies we feed among the Lillyes but it is but till the day break and the shadows flye away 3 In our company we must be blessed there is God and Christ and Saints and Angels Heb. 12.26 we shall see God in Christ The bodily eye that cannot look upon the Sun shall be perfectly sanctifyed glorifyed though it cannot see the essence of God yet it shall see greater manifestations of Glory How will the father welcom us as he welcomed Christ Psal. 2.8 Ask of me and I will give thee c. So well done good and faithful servant we shall not come into his presence with shame sin causeth shame and maketh us shye of God as the eye cannot endure the light if it be wronged so wronged Conscience makes us afraid of the presence of God but when sin is done away we shall have boldness in that day As we shall have the company of God so of Christ he cannot be contented without your company you should not be satisfyed without his Joh. 14 3. I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am you may be also Oh what a joyful meeting will it be between us and our Redeemer much sweeter then the interview between Jacob and Joseph Christ longs for the blessed hour as much as you do The wise men came from far to see him in a manger Zacheus climed up into a Tree to see him in the days of his flesh he is another manner of Christ in heaven then he was in the days of his abasement When Joseph discovered himself to his brethren I am Joseph it revived their hearts when Christ shall say I am Jesus your brother your Saviour