Christ and the holy Angels and all the company of heaven and though our body and soul part yet the mysticall union betwixt us and Christ the Head continues firme and indissoluble and we are still members of his body that death is a sleep after our labour and travell here and who feares to put off his clothes to goe to sleep in his bed that Christ our Lord dyed to free us from the slavish feare of death I say if we consider all these things we shall not need to be alway way in bondage through feare of death Though death was odious and accounted an enemy to the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods of the Heathen yet it hath been welcomed and entertained as a friend by godly Christians I have heard or read of a godly man who rejoyced exceedingly when he saw the plague spots upon his arme looking on them as certain signes of his approching dissolution and of a gracious Gentlewoman who being told by a friend that her change probably was not far off brake out after such a manner saying Now blesse the Lord O my soul and all that is within me blesse His Holy Name I would not goe back again for a world or to the like effect And 4ly that we may not feare the approach of Death le ts prepare and provide daily for his comming put on the whole armour of God especially the shield of Faith and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God Cant. 4.4 this is like the Armory of Solomon wherein hung a thousand shields even the shields of the mighty Keep close to our Captaine Christ who leads us and loves us and laid down his life for us and ever lives in heaven to make intercession for us through him we shall doe valiantly through him we shall tread down our enemies and be more then Conquerors over Sin Death and the Divel Le ts take heed of every Sin get and grow in and act as we have opportunity every grace labour to be abundantly fruitfull in every good thought word and worke and be sure to be found upon our watch and upon our guard when death comes And now Sir to return unto you having never preached to you from the Pulpit accept I pray this Sermon from the Presse You who feare God do not you feare Death Let not such a man as you seek to flee but rather stand in your tent door ready to meet him when he comes To this end be rich in Faith and rich in good Works let your own eyes be your Overseers and your own hands in some good measure your Executors Be eyes to the blind feet to the lame deale your bread to the hungry cloath the naked shew your faith by your works Thus whilst others may be compared to Dives or to the rich fool in the Gospell we shall behold you as the wise Merchant in the Parable who though you have indeed a great portion in the things of the world yet are not contented to have the world for your portion and though you have had your share of the treasures hid in the sands yet not satisfied therewith lay up for your selfe treasures in Heaven Thus returning you hearty thanks for the favours and respects you have been pleased to doe me hoping since you are reputed a lover of Ministers you will give a Minister leave still to love and honour you I shall conclude praying for you that when you shall have served your Generation according to the will of God and fall asleepe your soule may be received up into Heaven and your body rest in the Lord so that when you shall awake in the morning of the resurrection and your body and soule be reunited you may be still and ever with the Lord which is best of all Sir This is and shall be the Prayer of your Humble Servant in the Gospell of Christ THOMAS HODGES Souldern Decemb. 23. 1658. Heb 2.15 And deliver them who through feare of Death were all their life time subject to bondage IN this and the verse immediately foregoing we have a rationall account of the Incarnation of the Son of the God why it was expedient that the Messiah should be Emanuel the Word should be made Flesh wherefore the Son of God should become the Son of Man an everliving and all-quickening Spirit partake of flesh and blood like unto us his brethren onely without sin i. e. be of a nature passible and mortall or obnoxious to sufferings and Death namely it was for these two ends 1. That by his death he might destroy our great enemy there named the Divel and described to be him that had the power of Death And 2ly That he might deliver us his own brethren and friends out of the hands of this cruel tyrant and out of the mouth of this roaring Lyon of whom by reason of our sins we either were or had just cause to be all our life time afraid lest we should by him be punished both with temporall and eternall Death There are three observations which I desire to speak to and which I suppose contain the very marrow of these words 1. That t is a grievous bondage to be all our life time in continuall feare of Death 2. Unbelievers or those who are out of Christ either are or have just cause to be through feare of Death all their life time subject unto bondage 3. Believers or they who have part in Christ and they onely are delivered and freed by his death from this intollerable bondage Of the 1. I shall proceed by these steps 1. To shew that feare is a bondage 2. That to fear all on s life time aggravates the bondage 3. That to feare Death all our life time consummates the bondage 1. Feare is a passion which speaks a man a servant t is the badge and cognizance of a Servant whereas Love is the principle and character of a Child to feare our Lords or our Masters anger is servile servile est ac servum arguit saith Rolloc in loc And t is very observable that Rom. 8.15 the spirit of fear is cal'd a Spirit of bondage but the spirit of Adoption or the spirit of Sons is in the Scripture cal'd a spirit of love and distinguished from that spirit of feare or that principle of fear whereby servants commonly do act or are acted rather 2 Tim. 1.7 Feare hath torment sayth the Holy Ghost 1 Joh. 4.18 This foul fiend this torturing Affection was worshipped by the Lacedemonians as a God I suppose for the same cause that the Romans and Indians worshipped the Divel viz. that it should not torment them And truely they say Fear was commonly adored and painted in their Temples with a Lyons head and so very terrible not unlike the Devill that roaring Lyon who goeth about continually seeking whom he may devoure and truly if it be not like the Devill yet some have said Cardan that feare
3 He might feare lest his being taken away at such a time and by such a violent disease t is thought by some it was the plague might open the mouths of his enemies to triumph and say that this evill was therefore come upon him because he had broken down their Altars 4 Possibly he himselfe might upon the sudden look upon this message of death as a messenger bringing him tidings of Gods displeasure and for this cause he might weep at the newes of death And secondly as concerning other good men or women who have feared Death I answer 1 that of right they ought not to fear it Christ hath set open the prison doors and if they use the meanes they may be free from their feares t is their ignorance of their strength in Christ and deaths weaknesse which makes them fear death If the children of light be kept ever in darknesse and not see that there are more for them then can be against them they will be afraid of death and his followers or 2ly it may be they neglect to put on the whole armour of God when they grapple with principalities and powers and particularly with the power of death or they go out rashly in their own strength without seeking of auxiliary forces from heaven to help them or it may be they do not use their shield of faith in Christ who by death overcame death and therefore it is that they are overcome for a while of the fear of death Or lastly as t is said of Gad so I may say of these a troop may overcome them Gen. 49.19 but they shall overcome at the last and though their hearts faile them for fear in the beginning yet they shall be as David and as the Angel of the Lord strengthning him they shall be couragious and more than conquerors in the conclusion over death and hell and all their feares of them And now if on the other side we see any wicked men children of the Devill who seem to us undaunted at death Job 41.33 who seem to us like the great Leviathan concerning whom ye know t is said upon earth there is not his like who is made without feare I say either 1 that the Devill it may be hath blinded their eyes that so he might lead them into the bottomlesse pit before they so much as feare or fancy it He is so subtle that he will not torment them before the time that he may be more sure to torment them to all eternity Again they may oft-times perhaps have a hell in their consciences whilst they seem to us to be in a fools paradise If they feel no fear of death temporall or eternall t is surely because they are dead in their sins and trespasses and their consciences are seared with a hot iron I am perswaded the soule of the boldest wicked man on earth was never so fearlesse all the time that it was in the body but that when it sees it must go out of the body and goe into hell it feares and trembles to go forth how free and jolly would it deem it selfe might it but abide in the prison of the body for ever but to say no worse of such these dye desperately but the righteous hath hope in his death Use And now are these things so is fear so terrible a bondage and especially the fear of death and hell and are all out of Christ lyable and obnoxious to this horrid and hellish slavery and that all their life time oh that this truth might be to every one that hears it and is out of Christ like the handwriting upon the wall to Belshazzar that it might fill him with fear and that he might go home full of fear and that his feares like some ghost might haunt him and give him no rest whilst he continues in his naturall unregenerate condition I desire this Doctrine may scare them but not hurt them And you who are indeed and know it subject to this grievous bondage the feare of death and hell I desire you would go to the hart and hare and such like fearefull creatures that you would consider and learn their wayes and be wise 1 They are very cautelous and watchfull T is said of the hare that she sleeps with her eye-lids open Let us be vigilant and circumspect and keep a constant guard upon all the wayes and inlets of sin for sin fear death and hell all enter in at the same port or door 2 Fearfull creatures are very nimble to fly from danger Let us fly from sin as from the face of a serpent remembring alway that the sting of death is sin 3 Fearfull creatures get hiding places to which they run and are safe the Hart that is animal timidissimum a most fearfull creature hath a hiding place on the tops of mountains hence that expression Psalm 18.33 He maketh my feet like hindes feet and setteth me upon my high places and the stony rocks are a hiding place for the coneys Psal 104.18 Let us get a hiding place in that Rock that is higher then our selves in the Lord Christ and then we need not fear that mighty hunter the Devill when he pursues us Le ts hide our selves in the clefts of this rock now and then we shall not need one day to call for the rocks to fall on us and for the hills to cover us Be convinced that by nature we are dead in sins and trespasses come to Christ by a true and a lively faith this is the way to passe from death to life live in and to and for Christ much for the time to come and you need not fear temporall and eternall death for surely you have eternall life abiding in you Fear God with all your hearts with a filiall fear this will provoke you to diligence and obedience and watchfulnesse and then you shall not you ought not to fear with a slavish fear what death or the Devill can do unto you time at mortem qui Deum non timet Let him feare death who feareth not God What shall I say more get abundance of love to God and good evidences of Gods love to you and Love both this and that is as strong as death and then having two such strong and mighty champions with you and for you you need not fear death come when he will for you are more then his match And so I come to Apply the third and last observation Use Infor. Are Christians thus delivered from the slavish fear of death temporall and eternall then this may informe us 1 that Christians are the freest men in the world they are not in bondage no not unto death they were not borne free nor with a great summe of moneys obteined they this freedome but the Son of God hath made them free and therefore they are free indeed Againe 2ly hence we may be informed that Christians are the valiantest and most couragious champions in the world If thus they are not
the strong comes sweetnes to them that are Christs the bitternes of death is past any child of God may now play upon the hole of this Aspe death t is now to them a sleep a change a gathering to their fathers Revel 20.6.14 v compared and it hath been observed that in the Revelations sometimes it doth not goe in account as worthy of the name of death for then the death of the Soul in hell which is cal'd the second death should have been cal'd the third death but if it be any thing we are assured 1 Cor. 15. that it shall be destroyed death is swallowed up of victory v. 54. and Revel 20.14 we read that death and hell were both cast into the lake of fire and brimstone so that those that are Christs need not feare either the one or the other 5 In that Christ by dying hath procured the keyes of hell and death to be laid upon his shoulders and none of his shall goe into the chambers of death till he open the door and that he will not doe untill he hath made and perfumed their beds for them and untill it is the best time for them to goe take their rest and as for hell ye may be sure he will bar and bolt the gates of hell so that Christians need not feare it they shall never goe thither Besides Christ will redeem them from death by a glorious Resurrection of their bodyes at the last day And now if any say in their hearts what then must Christians for ever cast of all feare and rejoyce in it as their portion purchased for them by the sufferings and death of Christ I answer 1 That Christians ought notwithstanding all that hath been said to feare God with an awfull reverentiall feare and to have Reverend thoughts of him and demean themselves reverently before him as becomes dust and ashes especially when he manifests himselfe to and before them either in his holy word and ordinances or in his extraordinary workes and Providences So Moses said Heb. 12.21 I exceedingly feare and quake when God came down on Mount Sinai Isa 66.2 Philip. 2.12 and to him will I look sayth God that trembles at my word 2 Christians ought notwithstanding all that hath been said to take heed lest they fall to worke out their Salvation with feare and trembling they ought to serve their Master in heaven with feare and trembling My flesh trembleth for feare of thee and I am afraid of thy judgments psal 119.120 i. e. they ought to haue a watchfull carefull heedfull feare that they doe not offend or displease God at any time we must not cast overboard such a Religious feare as made Noah build an Arke for the saving of himselfe and his house but as for such feares as like Ionah shall occasion such stormes and tempests that though we row hard and tugg hard yet we cannot bring the vessel safe to shoare let it be cast out 3 Yet I say that Christ hath freed them by his holy life and innocent Death from anxious distracting perplexing tormenting feare either of temporall or eternall death Such a feare as may make them fly to God as may consist with love to God and goodnes such a feare of his goodnes and mercy as consists with hope in his mercy such a feare they have and may and ought to have and yet be good Servants and no base spirited or base principled slaves and yet be loving Children and not bastards no unworthy base spirited Children Yea lastly So far as they are unregenerate the feare of sufferings may be a bridle to lust and a spur to duty yea they may make use of the threatnings in the word to deterre them from offending and as a Motive or meanes to keep close to the way which is called holy we find that God used a Commination even to Adam in Innocency in Case of disobedience In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Gen. 2.17 Again if any say further in their hearts how can this man save us he did not save himselfe from the feare of death and how can he save others and if we read Math. 26. from v. 38. to 42. and Heb. 5.7 we may haue cause to think that Christ himselfe feared death and then how could he deliver us from it I answer that Christ did feare death but that his feare was not inordinate that it was principally the wrath of God the terrors of the Almighty which made him pray with strong cryes and teares unto God He did conflict with death in its full strength with the Serpent with its sting and poyson in it Christ endured the paine of sense in the garden when he said my soule is exceeding sorrowfull even to the death the paine of losse when he was crucifyed on the tree and cryed out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me where though the grace of vision was for a time withdrawn from Christ yet the grace of union and unction still continued the same So that as Christ entred into the first degree of the first death his soul and body were really separated but not into the second i. e. his body did not see corruption so he enterd only into the first degree of the 2d death the light of Gods countenance was hid towards him for a while as it were under a cloud but God did not wholly forsake him nor was he totally separated from God And truely God heard the prayer of Christ that prayer of his upon the crosse Luk. 23.46 Father into thy hands I commend my spirit i.e. saith one Father if I dye yet deliver me from the power of death deliver me out of death preserve and restore my spirit again D. Hd. and accordingly he had within 3 daies a glorious Resurrection in answer to his prayer I know there are who take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie a reverentiall or religious feare and so make the sense of Heb. 5.7 where t is said that Christ was heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be he was heard for his great piety and devotion and not that he was saved from or out of the thing which he feared namely out of death implying that Christ feared death but therefore Christ feared it so much that we might not fear it so If any farther examine me what is the Reason then that good men oftentimes are so unwilling to dye and so fearfull of death we read of good Hezekiah that at the tidings of death he turned his face to the wall and wept sore I answer 1 concerning Hezekiah that he was at this time childlesse and that might seem a dismall thing for his Sun to set so long before night and to have no hope of rising againe in his posterity 2 That he had newly made a glorious Reformation and knew not but that after his decease the worship of dead Idols might revive againe to the great dishonour of the living God whom he served