Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
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A26805
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Sermons upon death and eternal judgment by William Bates.
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Bates, William, 1625-1699.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing B1123; ESTC R29022
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96,846
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349
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most zealous and active to accomplish his pleasure But the Son is God not by Analogy and Deputation as Princes are nor with a limitation and diminution as Moses was made a God to Pharaoh but absolutely and really as subsisting in the Divine Nature And consequently he is the Supreme King and to him the Ensigns of Majesty divinely Royal are ascribed But unto the Son he saith Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever a Scepter of Righteousness is the Scepter of thy Kingdom Whereas the Scepters of Earthly Kings are often unrighteously manag'd and their Thrones ruinously fall There is a further Confirmation from his Works that are divinely great and glorious wherein no Creature has any share of Efficiency The making of the World is ascrib'd to him Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the Works of thy Hands The Divine Attributes the peculiar Character of the Deity belong to him Eternity and Immutability The most solid parts of the visible Creation shall perish and be changed but thou remainest and art the same His Life is an intire uniform unchangable Perfection His Glory and Felicity are in the same invariable Tenor for ever possest by him Lastly The Son sits in that quality at the right Hand of the Father in the Society of Empire as equal to him in Power and Honour commanding all in the visible and invisible World most easily and irresistibly tho' gradually subduing his Enemies to a consummate Victory But the Angels so numerous and powerful are ministring Spirits employed for the defence and benefit of the Church From this summary account we may understand how firmly the Divinity of Christ is establish'd in the Scripture For those Passages of the Prophets that speak of the God of Israel as Creator and the sole object of Adoration are directly referr'd to Jesus Christ. And the Name Jehovah the Majesty of which consists in its being incommunicable is attributed to him This is the Foundation upon which that whole Fabrick of the Gospel is built The Office of Mediator in the prophetical priestly and regal administration is necessarily join'd with the Divinity of his Person And the revelation of it from Heaven is as clear as the Sun is visible in the Firmament All the Difficulties in our conceiving this great Mystery of Godliness are but like the shadows that attend the Light And all the heretial subtilties to pervert the sence of such plain and positive Texts are as impertinent as impious This being establish'd the Apople proceeds to give an account of the Son of God's assuming the Humane Nature and submitting to Sufferings and Death This is a Divine Secret so miraculously strange that the Contrivance was without the Compass of the Angelical Minds and the discovery of it is only by supernatural Revelation but when revealed the account of it is so open and consentaneous to reason as being the most congruous Means for the illustration of God's Glory in the saving lost Men that the humane Mind if not deeply corrupted with the tincture of Prejudice must consent to it as worthy of all acceptation The substance of his reasoning is this That it was the product of the most wise merciful and righteous Counsel of God that the Saviour of Men should have communion with them in their Nature that he might have a right to redeem them by his Alliance and Propinquity for he that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all one and that he should undergo sufferings even to death for the price of their Redemption and the remedy of their Infirmities Forasmuch as the Children are partakers of Flesh and Blood he also likewise took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil And deliver them who through fear of Death were all their Lives subject to Bondage The Devil is said to have the Power of Death 1. Because he induces men to commit sin that meritoriously renders them liable to Death He tempted the first Man cum effectu and was a Murderer from the beginning 2. In that he inspires them with furious thoughts and inflames their Passions from whence proceed Strifes and Wars that efficiently cause Death He is supreme in all the Arts of Mischief and always intent upon Evil 'T is by his instigation that Men become like raging Beasts animated and bent on mutual slaughter 3. Because he is many times the Executioner of God's Wrath and inflicts Death upon rebellious and incorrigible Sinners 'T is recorded by the Psalmist That God cast upon the Egyptians the fierceness of his anger wrath indignation and trouble by sending evil Angels those Princes of the Air the Instruments of the Thunder and fiery storm of Hail that destroyed them 4. Because he makes Death more formidable to sinners by heightning their guilty Fears of God's TribunaI The false Spirit in tempting Men to sin puts on blandishments but afterward he is a severe accuser of them to God and to themselves Lastly This Title may signify his tormenting sinners with unrelenting cruelty in Hell which is the second Death Now these Evils being the penal Consequence of sin our Saviour by his Death appeas'd the injur'd Justice of God and thereby destroyed the cruel tyranny of the Devil As the Lamb of God in the Notion of a Sacrifice he overcomes our spiritual Enemies Sin Satan and Death lie vanquisht at the foot of his Cross. Besides our Saviour having felt such sorrows and infirmities as are usual to his People by that correspondence and resemblance between them is compassionately inclin'd to relieve them I shall now insist upon the blessed Privilege of Believers set down in the Text viz. That Jesus Christ by his Death frees his People from the servile tormenting fear of Death In prosecuting the Point I shall 1. consider the account the Scripture gives of Death's entrance into the World 2. Shew what the fear of Death includes and the Bondage consequent to it 3. How the Death of Christ frees us from the thraldom of that fear 4. Who are partakers of this blessed Privilege And then apply it I. The Scripture gives an account of Death's entrance into the World in a three-fold respect 1. As the desertt of Sin 2. As the Effect of the divine Decree 3. As the Sentence of the Law 1. As the Desert of Sin The first design of the Creator was his own Glory in conjunction with the happiness of Man He was made accordingly Holy in perfection placed in Paradise and his state contained all the Ingredients of Felicity proper to his Nature He was capable of dying as sad experience proves yet no Accident from without no Distemper from within had impair'd his vigour and made him actually subject to Death without sin Whilst innocent he was immortal not from everlasting Principles of Nature but by Divine Preservation of which the Tree of Life was the
Death reigns in the World 2. 'T is certainly future All the wretched Accidents of this Life such as concern us in our Persons Relations Estates and Interests a thousand Disasters that a jealous Fear and active Fancy will extend and amplify as they may so they may not happen to us And from this mixture of contrary possibilities from the uncertainty of event Hope that is an insinuating passion mixes with Fear and derives Comfort For as sometimes a suddain Evil surprises not fore-thought of so often the Evil that was sadly expected never comes to pass But what Man is he that lives and shall not see Death Who is so vain as to please himself with an imagination of Immortality here 3. 'T is a prevalent Evil from hence the proverbial Expression Strong as Death that subdues all cruel as the Grave that spares none 'T is in vain to struggle with the pangs of Death No Simples in Nature no Compositions of Art no Influence of the Stars no Power of Angels can support the dying Body or retain the flitting Soul There is no Man hath power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit neither hath he power in the day of Death and there is no discharge in that War The Body sinks in the Conflict and Death feeds on its prostrate prey in the Grave 2. I shall consider more particularly the Causes that render Death so fearful to Men. 1. In the apprehension of Nature 2. In the apprehension of Conscience 1. In the apprehension of Nature Death hath this Name engraven in its forehead Ultimum terribilium the supreme of terrible things upon several accounts 1. Because usually sickness and pains languishing or tormenting make the first changes in the Body and the natural Death is violent This Hezekiah complained of with a mournful accent He will cut me off with pining sickness from day even to night thou wilt make an end of me I reckoned till morning that as a Lion so will he break all my Bones A Troop of Diseases are the forerunners of this King of Terrors There is a preceding encounter and sometimes very fierce that Nature feels the cruel Victory before it yields to this Enemy As a Ship that is lost by a mighty tempest and by the concussion of the Winds and Waves loses its Rudder and Masts takes in water in every part and gradually sinks into the Ocean So in the shipwrack of Nature the Body is so shaken and weakened by the violence of a Disease that the senses the animal and vital Operations decline and at last are exstinguish'd in death 2. Death considered in the strictest propriety as destructive of the natural being that is our first and most valuable good in the order of Nature is the just object of Fear The union between Soul and Body is very intimate and dear and like David and Jonathan they part unwillingly Nature has a share in the best Men and works as Nature St. Paul declares we would not be uncloathed not finally put off the Body but have it glorified in conjunction with the Soul Our blessed Saviour without the least impeachment of the Rectitude and perfection of his Nature exprest an aversness from Death and with submission to the divine Will desired a freedom from it His Affections were holy and humane and moved according to the quality of their Objects 3. The natural consequents of Death render it fearful Life is the foundation of all natural enjoyments and the loss of it induces the loss of all for ever 'T is from hence that such Evils that are consistent with Life and deprive us only of some particular content and pleasure are willingly chosen rather than Death The forfeiture of Estate the degrading from honour the confinement to a perpetual Prison the banishing from our native Country are less Penalties than Death There is a natural love of Society in Man and Death removes from all The Grave is a frightful solitude There is no conversation in the territories of darkness This also Hezekiah in his apprehensions of death speaks of with tears I shall see Man no more in the Land of the Living As in the Night the World is an universal Grave all things are in a dead silence Palaces Courts of Justice Temples Theaters Schools and all places of publick Conversation are shut up the noise and rumour that keeps Men in continual observation and action ceases Thus when the Sun of this present Life is set all the Affairs and Business all the vain joys of Company Feasting Dancing Musick Gaming ceases Every one among the Dead is confined to his sealed obscure Cell and is alone an entertainment for the Worms The Psalmist saith of Princes Their breath goeth forth they return to the Earth in that very day their thoughts their glorious compassing thoughts perish This the Historian observes was verified in Julius Caesar After his assuming the Imperial Dignity he thought to reduce the numerous Laws of the Romans into a few Volumes comprising the substance and reason of all to enrich and adorn the City of Rome as was becoming the Regent of the World to epitomise the Works of the most learned Grecians and Romans for the publick Benefit And whilst he was designing and pursuing these and other vast and noble things Death surprised him and broke off all his Enterprises At the terrible Gate that opens into Eternity Men are stript of all their Honours and Treasures and as naked as they come into the World go out of it Be not thou afraid when one is made rich when the glory of his House is encreased For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away his glory shall not descend after him Death equally vilifies makes loathsom and ghastly the Bodies of Men and reduces them to sordid Dust. In the Grave the dust is as precious and powerful of one as of another Civil distinctions are limited to the present time The prodigious Statue in Nebuchadnezzar's Vision Dan. 2. 32 33 34 35. While it was upright the parts were really and visibly distinct The head was of fine gold the breast and arms of silver the belly and thighs of brass the legs of iron the feet part of iron and part of clay but when the stone cut out without hands smote the Image upon the feet then was the iron the clay the brass the silver and the gold broken to pieces together and became like the Chaff the wind carries away Who can distinguish between Royal Dust taken out of magnificent Tombs and Plebean Dust from common Graves Who can know who were Rich and who were Poor who had power and command who were Vassals who were remarkable by Fame who by Infamy They shall not say this is Jezebel not know this was the Daughter and Wife of King The King of Babylon stiled Lucifer the bright Star of the Morning that possest the first Empire in the World was degraded by Death humbled to the