original corruption and preach unto him humiliation and repentance as weariness so sickness in the body is a fruit of sin It is a commotion and collision of those humors in the body which God restrained from breaking out one upon another so long as man by sin transgressed not the bounds set to him by God but when man passed his bounds then the humors of the body passed their bounds and like an impetuous flood after the bulwark is removed over-runs the whole body Sin made way to this inundation which in the estate of integrity was barred up in the body by the over-ruling providence of God who shutteth up and openeth the barrs even of the great ocean at his own pleasure Thirdly from sin is that tormenting fear of death 3 Tormenting fear of death which keepeth the heart of miserable man in straitness and bondage Heb. 2.15 Through the fear of death all their life time are subject to bondage In which words a sinner is compared to a Malefactor condemned shut up in prison and under a continual fear of the execution of the sentence It is the Apostles allusion also Gal. 3.22 The Scripture hath shut up all under sin that is it hath convinced all men of guiltiness and of obligation to eternal death Iob 18.14 Death is called the King of terrors Heathens called it the most fearful of all fearful things Caligula the fourth Roman Emperour hid himself under a bed when he heard the noise of thunder guiltiness in the conscience is the worm that breeds this gnawing and tormenting fear of death Cains guiltiness made him fear every one that met him would kill him This fear of death until it be qualified and tempered by Faith in the Merit of the death of our Lord doth exceedingly torment and disquiet the heart of man in the midst of all his pleasures even a glancing thought of death maketh his heart sorrowful Amidst all his plenty he is like unto Damocles who had not a heart to taste the dainties on Dionysius his table for fear of the drawn sword hanging over his head by an hair in like manner the fear of death in his adversity doth wonderfully disquiet him he taketh a very small cross though it were but a sore head to be a beginning of his endless woes to be a drop of that cloud of fierce wrath that is to be poured out upon him in vials at his death and judgement and to be a Messenger sent of God to arrest him Fourthly 4. Pain in dying Pain in dying is also a bitter fruit of sin This bitterness and Antipathy betwixt the living man and death is a part of the wages of original sin It is true some wicked men may have little or no pain at their death Psal 73.4 There are no bands in their death But all that calmeness is but a shore Sun-shine before a storm the fearful tempest of Gods wrath abideth them their day comes on apace wherein their worm dyeth not and their fire will not be quenched The rich Glutton no doubt at his death had store of all Lenitives that could give him any ease whereas Lazarus had none But that rich man afterward felt the pain to the uttermost he got not a drop of cold water to refresh him The death of some wicked men is like those Fishes going down with much facility through Jordan till they once fall into the dead Sea and there they die so the wicked man is driven away in his wickedness but the righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14.32 Fifthly 5. Separation of the soul and body In the first death is implyed the dissolution it self when the soul and body by their union making up one person are separated the one from the other This actual separation is also a punishment of sin Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death It is true Enoch and Elias were born in sin but had not this separation of soul and body yet it is certain when they were translated in the body to heaven they were separate from the society of men living on the earth they were changed from a state of corruption which was a separation not of the soul from the body but of all corruption from the body and of the remainders of sin dwelling in both Moreover God who is above all his penal Laws and Statutes might according to his good pleasure give an Indulgence and Immunity to his servants from that penal Ordinance of death as he did grant unto David an Indulgence to eat of the Shew-bread notwithstanding there was a positive Statute to the contrary The sixt and last evil of misery implyed in death threatned against man before his fall and deserved by his fall 6. The cuâ—â—â— of death is the curse of death when it serve has a darke dreadful passage into the second dâ—aâ—h and outer darkness This by the fall was deserved by all and herein stands the curse of death that not only it separateth the soul and the body but as Gods officer it openeth the prison door to the end the soul the prime malefactor may be first drawn forth and put under the execution of wrath and therefore the body which did second the soul in obeying the lusts of the flesh is put to the suffering of eternal wrath at the day of resurrection Death to the rich Glutton was a dark trance carrying him into hell As hell it self and the bottomless pit are the wages of sin deserved by all so is also the curse of death in being a passage unto hell due unto all sinners for as the Malefactor deserveth the execution of the sentence of death so in like manner to be carried in such a way that leads to the place of execution This Doctrine serveth for our humiliation Vse 1 seeing sin is the cause procuring death with all the alterations going before Sin is matter of humiliation in all bodily distempers the pain accompanying and the destructions following it It is our duty when ever any change seiseth on the body to humble our spirits before God and to acknowledge the sins of our souls Remember the distemper of the soul brought on all the distempers and indispositions upon the body There may be many new and strange diseases in this sinful age whereof it is hard for the most skilful Physitian to finde out and shew the true natural cause but it is most easie to find out the true spiritual cause both of our new and old diseases which is the corruption of our inward man as in the last and worst of times new and strange sins do abound foretold 2 Tim. 3. which our Ancestors and many honest Pagans having nothing but natures light would have abhorred and said as Hazael Am I a dead Dog to do such things so no wonder there be new diseases inflicted justly by God as new punishments of new and uncouth transgressions Therefore at what time soever thou findest any alteration in thy
ways that thou maist be found in thy Lords ways walking in his holy commandments blessed is the man whom his Master when he cometh sindeth so doing as thou watchest over thy own heart and ways so watch and long after the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and this longing for death out of a love to be with him is a sure evidence of a soul well prepared for death 2 Tim. 4.8 The Lord will give a Crown of righteousness not to me only but to them also who love his appearing To him with the Father and holy Ghost be all praise Amen Having spoken of the sting of death we proceed to speak the cure and of our deliverance from it Of the cure of death The Author of our deliverance and victory is the Lord Iesus Christ the Captain of our salvation The Apostle compareth death to a conquering and prevailing enemy which by its sting and weapon woundeth many with a mortal and incurable wound because such men as live to sin and die in their guiltiness go down by the first death to the second into that bottomless pit out of which there is no redemption Jesus Christ our Lord by the merit of his death alone hath overcome death Doct. Christ only hath overcome death for all that believe in him and of a bitter enemy hath made death a comfortable friend to all who believe in him for by him alone we get victory over death That we may understand this point the better we should consider in what respect Christ hath delivered us from death he hath not delivered us from our obligation and subjection to the necessity of dying for we see believers dye as well as unbelievers Neither hath he delivered us from being subject to sicknesses and alterations going before death David complains the pains of hell got hold upon him Psal 116.3 that is extream pains in his body and anxiety in his spirit Neither hath our Lord delivered from pain at the hour of death nor from the separation of soul and body by death But our Lord hath overcome death in these respects 1. In respect of 1. The sting of death In respect of the sting of death he hath taken away our sins and as an enemy is overcome when his deadly weapon is taken out of his hand so our Lord overcame death by taking away sin on his cross for sin is the sting of death Hos 13.14 O Death I will be thy plagues This the Apostle cites 1 Cor. 15.54 The Captain of our salvation upon the cross as in an open and pitched battel did spoyl principalities and powers Col. 2.15 One of these powers armed against us was death he took away our sins on the cross and so spoyled death of his weapon as a valiant Conquerour takes away the weapons from a subdued enemy 2. 2. The fear of death Jesus Christ our Lord hath freed us from the fear of death Heb. 2.15 he was partaker of flesh and blood he took upon him our nature that he might deliver them who through the fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Our Lord by taking away our sins the sting and weapon of death doth deliver us from the fear of death for that which maketh an enemy fearful is his deadly weapon It is true sometimes men may fear even a naked enemy but they have no cause seeing he cannot harm them so some of Gods dear children at a time may exceed in the fear of death but they have no such cause of fear neither would they be so afraid 3. The curse of death if they were strong in the faith of Jesus Christ who hath disarmed death 3. Our Lord hath delivered us from the curse of death that to us the first death is not a dreadful passage to the second Ioh. 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life Rev. 14.13 Blessed are they that die in the Lord that henceforth they may rest from their labours As for weakness sickness pain and alterations in the body though our Lord hath not delivered us from them yet by the merit of his death and the grace of his Spirit he sanctifieth them to us and in a gracious providence turneth them to a good and spiritual use Our Lords death is like to that salt that purged and sweetned the naughty waters of Jericho 2 Kings 2.21 and like the meal cast into the pot wherein was the bitter herb 2 Kings 4.41 The death of our Lord hath taken wrath and the curse from out of all our afflictions and maketh them useful and profitable unto us Our Lord in a gracious dispensation turneth the bodily sickness of his own children into a spiritual medicine for purging an humorous and distempered soul for bringing down the tympany and swelling pride of the heart such as glory and boast in the beauty or strength of the body do see in time of sickness the weakness and vileness of the body and so being humbled learn to glory onely in the Lord and in the beauty of his grace in the inward man A sanctified sickness purgeth out of the heart covetousness the hearts Dropsie thirsting for more of this present world when the sick man seeth the emptiness of things worldly which cannot give him any ease in the time of his greatest need A sanctified sickness purgeth out unruly lusts which are as a burning feaver to the soul sickness takes down the body and grace sanctifying it turns it into a temple to the holy Ghost The wise Master-builder useth sickness as a sharp edged tool for polishing the body for the inhabitation of the Spirit that it may be a temple prepared In like manner our wise and merciful Lord though he deliver not his own children from death yet he maketh their death to be of singular good use to them It is a putting off of corruption that they may be clothed upon with incorruption The death of wicked men dying in their guiltiness is like unto a thiefs putting off his cloaths to the end he may be scourged but the death of the godly is like unto a childs putting off the old garment that he may put on the new that is incorruptible and will not fade but ever have a beautiful lustre It is for this their soul doth groan and long 2 Cor. 5.2 In this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven 4. The dominon of death As for deaths dominion and power over our bodies in the grave our Lord did take it also away by the merit of his death and declared his victory over and our deliverance from it by raising his own body and by loosing the bonds of death when our Lord awoke from death and stretched out the strength of his Godhead like Sampson he broke asunder those bonds as cords of flax Our deliverance from the grave will
be fully manifested in the day of the glorious resurrection of our bodies Object Object But is not the punishment of sin as well as the fault taken away in our Justification by the blood of Jesus how comes it to pass that the children of God notwithstanding the forgiveness of their sins are yet punished by temporal death Answ I answer Answer Death is not inflicted on Believers in wrath that death temporal is formally and properly a punishment when it is inflicted by God as a Judge in his wrath and when it is a door and passage to the second death and to a perpetual separation from the face of God But the death of the godly is not inflicted by God in wrath for these reasons 1. Because in the remission of their sins and reconciliation with God in their justification all wrath is taken away God forgiveth and forgetteth their sins Isa 43.25 I blot out thy transgressions for my own names sake and will not remember thy sins But where wrath remaineth sin is not forgotten 2. That which is sent and turned by God into a blessing is not inflicted in wrath but death is turned into a blessing to the children of God Rev. 14.13 it is a passage unto their eternal rest in their countrey that is above It is as a speedy passage by sea to a traveller returning home to his Fathers house 3. That which which is precious in the eyes of the Lord is not inflicted in wrath for precious things are testimonies of love and not evidences of wrath but the death of the Saints is precious in the eyes of God Psal 116.15 Next I answer death to the godly is not a door of fear and condemnation but of hope and salvation Rom 8.1 There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus There may be in a great Princes house a common door and gate at which Malefactors do enter and go down into the dark dungeon at which also the children may enter and go up to the rooms above that are full of light The door is one and the same but the use of it is far diverse in the respect to the one and the other So dissolution at death is common both to the godly and wicked but the relation that death hath to them is diverse to the one it is a passage for glory and to the other for eternal pain from whence it appeareth that the punishment standeth not so much in the dissolution of the person which is common both to the godly and wicked As in that ordination of the first death to be a passage unto eternal death which in Gods purpose is ordained and in justice executed on the wicked It is true death wil be bitter in the pains of it even to the godly but this bitterness of death is not properly a punishment to the godly as a bitter potion given out of the hand of a loving father to his weak child is not given as a punishment but as a medicine that though it be painful for a time yet he may have stronger health in time to come So after the bitterness of death is passed the children of God get confirmed health and salvation in the kingdom of heaven Object Object But hath not Christ by dying once fully satisfied for us how is it then that Believers are not freed from that debt of death for the which their surety hath given satisfaction Answ I answer true it is Our Lord died Answ Believers dy not to satisfie divine justice that by his death he might satisfie divine justice fully but to this end we dy not that we may satisfie divine justice for a finite creature cannot satisfie infinite justice yea the wicked in hell do not by their sufferings fully satisfie they will be ever in satisfying but never able to make out the satisfaction The end of the death of the Godly is not as was the end of Christs death to satisfie the justice of God as a Judge but to subject themselves to his fatherly pleasure and wisdom that by death they may be purged from the dross of inbred corruption and thus enter into the glory and Joy of their father for corruption cannot inherit incorruption did not our Lord fulfill all righteousness for us in his active obedience and yet we stand obliged to the mandatory power of the Law as we have endeavoured to prove elsewhere in Serm. 4. on Ezek 36 6.27 though we be not bound to obey the Law for the same end our Lord obeyed it to wit for our justification yet we are bound thereto for this end that by our obedience we may testifie our thankfulness to the Lord our creator and redeemer likewise in our Lords passive obedience his end was to satisfie for our guiltiness and obligation to punishment but a special end in all our sufferings is that we may be conformable to the Lord our head Rom 8.29 not by satisfying with him but by our patient submission to the will of our heavenly father like as our Lord in all things submitted to the will of his father Object Object But many of the dear children of God are not freed from the fear of death as David and Ezechias had their own fears in a large measure Psal 116. Isa 38. How then say ye that Christ hath delivered us from the fear of death Answ Answ Believers have a natural fear of death I answer it is no wonder the godly have a natural fear because they have as all creatures a natural desire of self-preservation and this natural fear being concreated with man in the state of integrity was not sinful But sometime this natural fear exceeds in the godly when faith and hope is weak This excess of natural fear is in them a sinful infirmity not to be defended by any but to be pitied by others and mourned for by themselves and prayed against by all weakness of faith at such times makes their fears great and strong when the children of God have deep apprehensions of death and but weak apprehensions of Iesus Christ and of eternal life by him then is their eye fixed on the bitter potion which breeds astonishment until the time they gather their thoughts and by faith and hope look to that eternal health which will follow upon this bitter potion Our Lord said to Peter Mat. 14 Why art thou so fearful O thou of little faith little faith makes much fear but a vigorous faith into Gods special presence though it do not altogether expel yet will it moderate and regulate our natural fear of death Psal 23.4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff comfort me They are as children in their loving Fathers hand and fear not to pass through that dark trance to their eternal Mansions of light and glory This doctrine serves to rouse raise our hearts unto the duty of Thankfulness
the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Augmentum Aquinas as if the Law were the encrease and augmentation of sin because by hearing the Law the desire of a man unrenewed is the more increased after sin Luther Luthers similitude is very apposite to this purpose as fire saith he in burnt lime-stone appeareth not until ye cast water on it and then immediately it smoaketh so the fire of concupiscence which should be quenched by the Law is from mans own latent corruption provoked by the Law There is no fault in the Law but in mans distempered will and appetite As when a sick patient longs after meat forbidden by the Physitian there is no fault in the Physitian but in the distempered appetite of the patient The other part of mans misery through sin How sin is a sting is the misery of death the sting of death is sin As by the sting of a venomous Serpent cometh an inflamation of the blood together with a great torment and pain in the body so by sin which is the sting of that old Serpent cometh pain and horror in the conscience and consumption in the body with dissolution and death at last And as the sting is the only weapon of a Serpent without which he can do no harm so sin only specially impenitency and unbelief are the strength and weapon of death which make it both fearful and hurtful to the children of men Sin which is the sting of the old Serpent Sin brings death when it came into the world and was tastened in our nature by a virtual consent in our first parents it brought death along with it Rom. 5.12 By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin 1 Cor. 15.21 By man came death By death the wages of sin we understand both all the alterations in the body preceding our death and also all the pains and evils that accompany death Thus then by death we understand those particular evils of misery 1. A subjection to the necessity of dying 2. Alterations and sickness in the body disposing it for death 3. Fear of death 4. Pain in death 5. The separation of soul and body 6. The curse of death First man by sinning became subject to a necessity of dying By death is understood 1. The necessity of dying Assoon as he sinned he became mortal No sooner sin entred into his soul but mortality and corruption immediately entred into his body then the parcels of dust that were bound together by the bond of innocency were shaken loose and as a glass of sand turned up the body became mortal and the life of man subject to a continual flux and decay for after he had sinned and not till then it was said by the Lord of life unto him Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return Gen. 3.19 It may be truly said of Adams body that in the state of innocency it was both Mortal and Immortal in respect of a capacity indifferent to dye or live and also it may be said to have been neither mortal nor immortal in respect it was created free from a necessary subjection to dying or an absolute appointment of God to live for ever It was the gross error of Pelagius a patron of corrupt nature and an enemy to free grace Pelagius confuted To affirm that Infants were not born in sin but that they had it only by imitation when he was pressed by force of argument taken from the death of Infants as a bitter fruit of original corruption in them his answer was that man would have dyed though he had never sinned because said he man had a mortal body composed of contrary elementary qualities which warring one against another would have made alteration in the body and in the end brought it to corruption and dissolution But for confutation of this error we should consider First as God created Adam with power of free will to stand or fall so he created him with a capacity to dye or not dye according to the right use or abuse of his free will Next as God did not create Adam with an inclination though he was of a mutable condition to sin for as an inclination to sin being the first step of turning from God is sinful and the most holy God is not the Author of sin so a subjection to the necessity of dying was not before man subjected himself willingly to sin for our most just God though by an act of soveraign power and dominion over his own creature as the Potter over his vessel he might annihilate the same yet would he not punish his innocent creature before it had sinned and was found guilty and lyable to punishment This was Abrahams argument for sparing the innocent in Sodom if there were any Shall not said he the Iudge of all the earth do right Gen. 18.25 As for the contrary Elementary qualities of heat and cold moystness and dryness created in the body I answer if man had persisted in his integrity keeping an harmony with God and his will then God would have kept these qualities in a right temper and just symmetry amongst themselves without destroying one another As by an over-ruling providence he preserved the Lyon and the Lamb the Woolf and the Kid together in one Ark of Noah without the destruction of the Lamb and Kid as he restrained the Lyon from destroying the living Ass or the dead body of the Prophet 1 King 13. As he restrained the fire Dan. 3. in the exercise of it that it did not so much as singe a hair of their heads though at the same time he did not destroy the fire in the heat and nature of it So the Lord would have preserved those elementary qualities in their nature and first act though in their second act and exercise he would have restrained them from destroying one another if man had stood in integrity And will not the Lord preserve our glorified bodies in heaven in a condition of an immutable immortality and incorruption though they will be raised as is very probable with the same Elementary qualities wherewith they were created in the state of integrity 2. Weakness and sickness Secondly as sin brought on man a necessary subjection to death and dissolution so it brought alterations upon the body by weakness and sickness Thus David acknowledged in the time he was under some distemper in body Psal 38.3 there is no rest in my bones because of my sin weakness and sickness of the body is a consequent of sin if man had continued in the state of innocency his labour exercise in the body should have been to him as a recreation with delight and continued strength in his Spirit whereas it is since the fall with toyl in the body and faintness in the Spirit Gen. 3.19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread Mans fainting and weariness of Spirit in the labour of his calling do convince him guilty of
endeavour to glorify God in the body Vse 3 Sound comfort to the Godly let the meditation on these glorious qualities of the body in the day of resurrection comfort thy heart under all the pains and troubles in the body Thy vile body will be changed now thy body is decaying and dying daily thou art troubled in underpropping thy ruinous house of clay and do what thou canst one time it will fall down but there is thy comfort it will be raised in incorruption This was the ground of the Apostles comfort against the decay and dissolution of the body 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens there we will get a Mansion John 14.2 In my Fathers house are many Mansions then our condition will not be subject to alterations like men dwelling in a Tabernacle and removing from place to place but it will be fixed and permanent without any change it will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an abiding of glory and joy 2. Though now possibly there be some deformity in thy body yet in that day thy body shall be compleat and comely though at thy death thy body were full of fores and ulcers yet if thou dye in the Lord thy body shall be raised in honor and comely beauty in that day Lazarus will have no sores as the body will be fully purged in that day from all contagion of sin so will it be freed from all deformity which was only a Symptom of indwelling corruption 3. Whereas thy body is now weak and frail a little thing doth soon distemper thy Spirit and little labour makes thy body weary This is thy comfort that in the day of resurrection thy body will be raised in strength though now thou canst not go up a little hill without some weariness in the body yet in that day thou shalt go up in the body to the third heaven and shalt not be weary 4. Now thou art much troubled about the natural operations and imployments of the body for food and rayment and other things pertaining to this decaying life but in that day thou wilt have appetite after nothing but God himself and all thy appetite will be fully satisfied by a perpetual delight in thy God infinite all-sufficient unchangeable and eternal in glory goodness and bounty towards thee Thou who art vexed disquieted in this life with the relicks of inordinate concupiscence remaining in the body thou hast cause to be humbled in the sight of God for that body of death yet there is thy comfort thou shalt be freed in that day from all such molestation in the body and thou shalt be like unto the spotless Angels without all inclination to delight in any thing but in the knowledge and love of God◠In that day great will be thy joy at the meeting of the soul and the body Though at parting here by death there was much pain and trouble like the parting of Iacob and Benjamin yet their meeting will be with great joy like the meeting of Iacob and Ioseph the soul will bring down good news from heaven to the body like the report of the faithful spies Numb 14. to encourage the body to go with it unto the heavens where they shal rejoyce together for ever in the presence of God then shall their joy be encreased at their meeting with Christ and perpetuated in their abode with Christ in the third heaven and following with praise and triumph the Lamb where-ever he goeth To him with the Father and holy Spirit be all praise honour and glory now and ever Amen Of Eternal Life by and with CHRIST PSAL. 17.15 As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness AS the glorious resurrection of the body is a refreshing stream from the fulness of Christ so is also eternal life Eternal life is in and from Christ which is the full and compleat happiness of soul and body in one person This is purchased by the Merit of the righteousness and obedience of Iesus Christ Rom. 5.20 21. Where sin abounded Grace did much more abound that as sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Iesus Christ our Lord by Faith in Iesus Christ we get a right and claim unto eternal life Ioh. 6.47 he that believeth on me hath everlasting life by him we shall be put in possession of eternal life Math. 2◠34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you After that the bodies of them that have done good are raised up and inlivened with the souls then shall the Saints go with the Lord unto the third heaven and there in soul and body enjoy eternal life The great blessing of eternal life is laid before us by the Psalmist The sense of the words in these words I know some Interpreters understand the words to be meant of the lively sense of Gods favour bestowed upon his children after they have been for a time under a night of trouble It is most true light is sown even in darkness for the upright in heart though the Lord hide his face in a little wrath for a moment yet with everlasting kindness will he have mercy Isa 54.8 But I conceive as many sound Interpreters do the Prophet speaketh of that confidence and hope the children of God have of rest happiness and satisfaction after this life when their bodies that sleep in the grave shall be awaked to the resurrection of life Because he opposeth the hope of after happiness as a strong prop to sustain the children of God in all their troubles and wants in this life against the temptations from the prosperity of wicked men in this present world to whom God giveth a large portion of things worldly The Prophet comforteth himself and all the Godly with the hope of that full and enduring portion in the other life some read the latter part of the verse thus I shall be satisfied when thy Image or likeness is awaked and the original will bear it as if the meaning were thus when I who was once created to thy Image shall rise again I shall be satisfied but I encline rather to the ordinary reading I shall be satisfied with thy Image when I awake by Image is understood the face of God which in the former part of this verse is called a beholding of Gods face in the immediate seeing whereof will stand our eternal happiness when we shall see him as he is 1 Ioh. 3.2 In the words we have The parts of the Text. 1. The time of his compleat and consummate happiness when I awake 2. The matter of his happiness and the manner of enjoying it the matter and object Gods face or likeness the manner
he saw Vzza smitten this made him change his note we can look cheerful in a day of prosperity rejoycing in our Lords presence but in our adversity we question the Lords presence and say with Gideon Iudg. 6.13 If the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us we can at a time when God reveals himself to us in some special testimony of his love with Peter in the Mount exult at a glance of his glory but at the time of our Lords suffering in his Mystical body our hearts become drousie and careless as Peters was in the Garden 3. In respect of the degree and measure of Faith at one time the renewed children of God will be like a Ship with all her sailes full they will have a plerophorie of Faith at another time like a Ship in a great storm with a peice of cross sail their Faith is but little and weak under some great tryal ye see it in David Psal 27.10 When my Father and my Mother did forsake me then the Lord did take me up and Psal 46.2 We will not fear though the earth be removed there was great Faith but ye see a slacking of his Faith Psal 31.22 I said in my hast I am cut off from before thine eyes and 1 Sam. 27.1 David said in his heart I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul notwithstanding he had from God a special Promise to be King of Israel 4. In respect of their continuance in duties at one time the children of God will continue in some bensal of Spirit with delight in their secret devotion at another time they have not well begun but they become weary their untimous and impertinent thoughts puls them away to some other business It is thus also in their hearing reading and meditation on the good word of God at one time they will continue in hearing with much reverence and attention though the Minister be a man of weak gifts at another time though the Minister were like Paul they fall drousie like Eutychus and if God did not prevent with mercy they would fall from this drousiness into a deadness of Spirit but our God rich in mercy and long suffering waits upon his children and recovers them from these fits and faintings unto their former soule health As to the second What 〈◊〉 is that causeth the abatements in Grace consider what maketh this change in the children of God and procureth the abatement and decay of the degrees and strength of Grace in them 1. A careless neglect of the means of salvation or an overly and superficial performance of holy duties if such be thy care no wonder thy strength of Grace decay as children who altogether abstain from meat or make but a fashion of eating do decay in the vigour and strength of their body The Apostle will have us as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that we may grow thereby 1 Pet. 2.2 in which words he insinuates this also that want of desire to the Word is a main impediment to our growth in Sanctification and a cause of the decay and consumption of the inner man 2. Spiritual pride and vain confidence in our own strength for the imploying and improving of any Grace or Gift received of God brings with it a decay of the vigor of Grace as the swelling bigness of the Spleen makes the other noble parts of the body to decay so the swelling pride of our Spirit makes the Graces of the innerman to abate of their strength Pride goeth before a fall It is ever followed in the children of God with a fall either into some cross or into some sin to humble them Ezekias was lifted up in the pride of his heart and therefore was wrath threatned against him and all Judah 2 Chron 32.25 Peter in the pride and presumption of his own strength boasted though all the world should be offended yet should not he be offended in Christ whereupon followed a great abatement of the strength of Grace when he denyed the Lord of Life 3. Sloathfulness in not improving the stock of Grace or Gifts God hath bestowed upon thee brings on a decay Strong bodies through laziness and want of exercise become weak and feeble It is no wonder the Merchant becomes poor who improves not his little stock to some advantage and it is no wonder a Christian decay in the measure of grace if he improve not his talent to the glory of his Lord to the good example of his neighbor and to his own comfort in laying up a sure foundation against the time to come that he may lay hold on eternal life 4. When our eye and heart is too much fixed on visible and sensible objects of sorrow or fear then our graces begin to abate somewhat of their former vigour great and long troubles oft-times weaken our Faith when Peter looked too much to the wind that was against him and not to the Lord who called him to come on the waters his Faith began to fail and his body that before was elevated by a believing soul did now begin to sink weak Faith made a heavy body As to the third how to prevent this decay of Grace it is evident by knowing and shunning the evils that procure it Means to prevent decay in grace Therefore 1. make conscience to use the means whereby grace is begun preserved and encreased in the soul as faith comes by hearing the word of God so is it thereby encreased The more thou knowest and seest of God in his Word thou wilt be the more conformed to him in holyness by knowing him in the Gospel we are transformed into his image 2 Cor. 3.18 by frequent hearing reading meditation and prayer we become heavenly and spiritual as Moses coming down from the Mount did shine in his countenance so this communion with God in his Ordinances will make our hearts to burn with love to God and our faces to shine in all manner of holy conversation before the world The conscionable and careful using the means of our spiritual food and life will prevent the decay of the inner man 2. Walk humbly in the remembrance of thy former sins in the sense of thy present infirmities in a jealousie of thy best endeavours and in a solicitous fear of manifold temptations men recovered out of a dangerous disease shun every morsel that may distemper them or may procure a recidivation so the humble man shuns every thing that may bring a change on his inward condition Remembrance of former sins and of mercy in pardoning of them doth much strengthen his graces It increaseth his zeal against sin and augments his love to God and his holy commandments 3. Improve thy grace and gift to thy Lords advantage To him that hath shall be given he that improved his five talents and the other that improved his two received much more from their Lord then they got at first Math. 25. God encreased knowledge
constitution bodily humble thy self in the sight of God acknowledge thy indwelling corruption thy original and actual sins for our sinful corruption is the peccant and malignant humor from which proceed all the distempers and out-breakings in the body It was Davids practise in the time of bodily sickness to be humbled for his sins and his greatest desire was to be healed of them Psal 39.8 Deliver me from all my transgressions and if all men should make this humbling use of bodily indisposition how much more such men in whom sins have not only been a meritorious cause of their sickness and weakness but some particular sins have been an active and efficient cause of their great distemper of body as some persons weakned through incontinency or intemperance do pine away in the punishment of their own iniquities how should such be humbed before God when they may read in great letters imprinted on their bodies their particular sins If any such belong to God they will pine away with grief of heart for their sins they never turn their bodies in the bed of sickness but their sins return to their memory and they cry with Ezechias I am oppressed 2. Seek earnestly the health of thy soul Lord undertake for me 2. After thou hast in time of sickness humbled thy self before God in acknowledging thy sins seek first and most earnestly thy souls health So did David in a time of sickness Psal 41.4 Heal my soul for I have sinned against thee Our first and chief care should be to have that which is most precious healed first Men are more careful to heal Apostems in the noble parts then scratches in the skin to heal a wound in the face then one in the back No man is so sensless and soul-less as to deny that the soul is more noble and precious then the body and therefore soul-health is most to be sought after and to be preserved 3. 3. Use lawful means to recover the body Having acknowledged thy sins and sought first soul-health and Remission of sins thereafter in the name of God use all lawful means for recovery of thy bodily health To this effect thou mayest and shouldest use the help of the Physitian his calling is the good Ordinance of God but beware thou put thy trust in the lawful means for as small means through Gods blessing giving vertue to them will do much good so without it all consultations operations and applications of the most probable means cannot profit thee in thy sickness Therefore in using lawful means though never so weak be earnest with God by prayer for a blessing Beware on any terms to use unlawful means as Ahaziah did 2 King 1. He consulted with the Divel for recovering his health 〈◊〉 such means will not cure thee or if they do they may possibly cure thy body but withal they give a deadly wound to thy soul for it is certain the Divel doth more evil this way by healing then by inflicting diseases Those who are called by the ignorant multitude good witches do far more evil then those who are called evil because the first do wound the souls of those whose bodies they cure by their consulting and wicked compliance with such unlawful means and as the soul is far better then the body so the destruction of the soul is worâ—e then that of the body It serveth for instruction to teach us patience under sickness and bodily indispositions be patient O man Vse 2 Learn and exercise patience in sickness the Lord doth thee no wrong thy way and thy doings have procured those things unto thee Ier. 4.18 Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Lament 3.39 It is a mercy thou art yet a living man and hast any time allowed to thee for thy repentance at such a time say thou with the Church Micah 7.9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him It is true the dear children of God in time of sore and long continuing sickness will have some paroxysms and fits of impatience Patient Iob cursed the day of his birth Iob 3.1 Ionah was very impatient at the time he had pain in his head and faintness in his heart Ionah 4 8 9. good Ezechias had his own fit also Isa 38.13 as a Lyon he will break all my bones But such fits abide not with them They recollect themselves they mourn and chatter for their impatience they pray for patience resolve in the strength of the Lord to submit to his holy will for the measure of their sickness both in the degree and endurance of it Iob saith after the fit is gone though he should kill me yet will I trust in him Iob 13.15 and Ezechias prayeth to God and resolveth on patience and submission for time coming Isa 38.14.15 What shall I say he hath both spoken unto me and himself hath done it Our heavenly Father spareth us in our fits of impatience and beareth with us as a tender-hearted Father beareth with his cankered childe in time of sickness he considereth wisely his sick child speaketh frowardly from a distemper in his body and not from any disaffection in his heart Our wise Lord careth not for the flashes and flatterings of hypocrites and wicked men when his heavy hand is upon them Psal 78.38 They did flatter him with their mouth then it may be God will get many fair words and large promises Neither is he provoked to wrath by the sudden fits and unadvised out-breaking infirmities of his own dear children in time of heavy diseases Psal 103.13 Like as a Father pittieth his children so the Lord pittieth them that fear him The Spirit of God sets before us the patience of Iob Iam. 5.11 Ye have heard of the patience of Job but there is not one word of his impatience Our gracious God remembers and rewards for his Sons sake the purpose of their will and the affection of their heart but he forgiveth and forgetteth their infirmities imperfections The child of God recovered out of his sickness calls to mind his own impatience the riches of Gods bounty in bearing with him and pardoning him this makes him to walk the more humbly with his God all his life time this wonderfully engageth his heart towards God As Patients recovered of a dangerous disease should be very thankful to the Physitian who did diligently and kindly attend them notwithstanding their untowardness in the time so the children of God that have been waited on in time of sickness with much patience and loving kindness of their heavenly Father when they look back to their recovery both from bodily sickness and soul distempers Vse 3 they will cry out with David Be moderate in the use of worldly things Psal 116.12.13 What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. It serveth for
far better to suffer affliction in a weak and sickly body then to act sin in a strong and healthful body It is much better to have the strength of grace made manifest in thy weak body then to have a weak and unruly spirit in a strong body It is much better to be under a sickly and suffering condition then to be like those yong widows rambling up and down in their licentious health such are not only soul-sick but dead while they live in that base element of noysome lusts 1 Tim. 5.6 but the children of God living to him in their sickness have healthful souls in sick bodyes they have freedom of spirit under bodily restraint It serveth for a ground of comfort and encouragement to the children of God against the fear of death Vse 3 Comforts against the fear of death and for the better establishing of our hearts I propound these consideraons 1 Consider Death is a naked and spoyled enemy Our Lord hath taken the sting from it so that it cannot harm thee It is true the dear children of God have their own fits of natural fear when they look to deaths pale and gastly face but when in their second and better thoughts they consider death hath no power nor weapon wherewith to hurt them this doth raise and comfort their drooping spirits and upon this account I may say to the child of God as the two faithful spies said to the Children of Israel affrighted with apprehensions of strong and mighty enemies in the way unto their promised rest Num. 14.9 Their defence is departed from them and the Lord is with us fear them not 2. Consider Thy Lord and Captain of salvation is with thee at thy death and will lead thee through that dark trance This was Davids comfort Psal 23 4. I will not fear although I walk through the valley of the shadow of death because the Lord is with me This valley is like that of Achor to the child of God a door of hope Hos 2.15 As the children of Israel were much encouraged and comforted by the first tasts of plenty in Achor at their entrance into the promised land so the children of God at their entring into the valley of death and border of eternity receive of the first fruits of eternal life peace in their consciences and joy of the holy Ghost in their hearts by faith and hope they see some light before them at the further end of this dark valley like a light on the shoar towards which their will doth steer the course of their affections Psal 48.14 He will be our guide even unto death Think not thy God who hath been thy guide through the wilderness will leave thee when thou comest to Jordan and to the border Thou art both unthankful and unbelieving to entertain such unkind thoughts of thy kinde God upon whom thou hast been cast from the womb make better use of tried love then to distrust him in the end of the day who hath been with thee since the morning of thy life but rather learn as David to make good use of former kindness first to praise him Psal 71.6 By thee have I been holden up from the womb my praise shall be continually of thee Next to hope and confide in him vers 14.16 I will hope continually I will go in the strength of the Lord God And last to pray to him for continuing his loving kindness ver 17 18. O God thou hast taught me from my youth Now also when I am old and gray-headed O God forsake me not 3. Consider thy union with Christ This is a main ground of comfort at death he is the saviour of his body all his members will be brought where himself their head is he will be compleat in his body he will not want the weakest or poorest believer that did on earth cleave to him with purpose of heart 4. Consider he prayed for thee that thou mightest be where he is Joh. 17.24 Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me and he prayed also that the father would keep them in his name and power by the way until they came unto the end of their faith the salvation of their souls Thou who in thy sick bed prayest for the same thing our Lord sought in prayer for thee and before thee thou mayst be assured to be heard when thy prayer is founded on his merit and on the efficacy and example of his prayer 5. Consider the godly man is a great gainer by death It is best to be with Christ Phil. 3.23 The man who liveth to Christ and dieth in Christ doth not loose the good things of this world but exchangeth them for far better A man returning from a strange and poor countrey to his own home and in place of base mettal which he leaves behind him receiving a bill of exchange to be answered in gold and ten thousand for one that man looseth nothing by leaving that poor countrey and base coyn but gaineth much so the believer at death upon the account of Gods true and faithful promise made to him in place of empty and perishing riches receiveth in heaven solid and durable riches in place of honour worldly that is like the inconstant wind he gets his adoption manifested to him when he is put in possession of eternal glory when he is made a sure pillar in that new Jerusalem whereupon holiness and glory is engraven with indeleble characters The new Jerusalem is wholly founded upon Jasper stones Rev. 21.19 All such precious things so much esteemed in this world are far below our contentment and happiness in heaven as the foundation of a house is far below the plenishing and precious furniture of it God himself infinite in greatness goodness beauty and all perfection will replenish our house there with his own presence wherein is fulness of joy and pleasures for ever Psal 16.11 Compare I pray you our happy being with Christ after death and our being in the miseries of this life Then canst thou not but assent to that of Paul It is best to be dissolved and to be with Christ at the best here we are but Pilgrims and is it not best for a Pilgrim to be at home in his fathers house we may and should as Pilgrims resolve for hard and unkindly entertainment in this strange world yea entertain a pilgrim never so well yet his heart is homeward so though the child of God were every way in a prosperous condition here on earth yet his heavenly mind is far above those empty husks his heart is in heaven here not only are we in a course of pilgrimage being absent in the body from the Lord but also in a daily warfare not only against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers against Satan the world our own rebellious corruption by which as a domestick traitor Satan and the world do deceive assail and overcome us now and then
in the hour of temptation we get rest in time of our life from divers temptations which Satan as a crafty fowler useth thereby as so many calls and whistlings to allure into his Net divers kinds of silly fools in our yonger years we are tempted to untowardness and frowardness in riper years to riot and sensuality after that to pride and ambition and in our declining age to covetousness and worldly mindedness To have our hearts even then fixed in the world when one of our feet is already in the grave a most untimely temptation and yet prevails with too many Is it not therefore best to be dissolved and to be with Christ There and then will be perfect peace and freedom from this body of sin and inordinate concupiscence which like a troubled sea raised up with the winds of temptations doth cast up mire and dirt but in heaven with Christ our Lord there is a perpetual calm all the stormy winds are in the inferior region of the air so all the winds of temptations are here below but none there where our Sun of righteousness shineth for ever Man here is subject to one cross after another like Paul no sooner out of the danger of the raging sea but a Viper leapeth upon his hand Act. 28. No sooner do our eyes dry but we are put to weeping again The breathing times and respite God in his goodness giveth to us at one time are to prepare us for a new onset at another time is it not therefore best to be there where all tears will be wiped from our eyes Rev. 21.4 2. It is best to be in heaven with Christ if we compare the small beginnings of glory here with that cempleat glory and hapiness there here the children of God receive the earnest of the spirit and the first fruits of eternal life but what is the earnest penny in comparison of that full sum of glory which cannot be conceived or numbred by the heart of man here And what is the handful of the first fruits in comparison of the full harvest of Joy in heaven I grant the earnest should comfort and encourage us in the assured expectation of the full bargain of happiness for faithful is he who hath promised And the first fruits some grains of peace and joy bestowed on us here should comfort us in the hope of that full joy there that shall never be taken from us The same was a ground of the Apostle his willingness to be dissolved and of his confidence to be eternally happy after his dissolution 2 Cor. 5.6 8. He hath given unto us the earnest of the spirit we are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord 6. Consider to what society and company we go at our death we remove not to a strange countrey but to our fathers house to the immediate fruition of God Father Son and Holy Ghost to the soc ety of holy Angels and to the souls of just men made perfect what ravishment and contentment of spirit had Peter upon the Mount in the society of our Lord at his transfiguration and of those two witnesses Moses and Elias It is good to be here said he what then wilt thou think and say when thou shalt have an immediate communion with thy Lord and a comfortable but unspeakable communion with all the Angels and Saints in heaven Old Jacob was much encouraged to go down unto Egypt when he considered Joseph was there before him to receive and welcome him when he looked beside to the waggons and provision sent to him for his journey and when he looked behinde him to a land of famine from which he was to depart So at the hour of death we have matter of encouragement when by faith we look before us Our Joseph the Lord Jesus Christ the great Steward and dispenser of grace and glory is before us to welcome us when we look with the eye of sense and experience beside us Our Ioseph sendeth some provision of faith and hope to hold in the life of grace by the way And when we look behinde us we leave a world abounding in sin and misery That divine Philosopher Socrates said death would be a hard matter to me if I thought not I were going to men departed this life and those far better then many who stay behind them Therefore in this respect also it is best to be dissolved and to be with Christ 7. Consider our happy condition is a thing certain and sure already prepared for us by the merit of Christ and reserved for us in heaven 1 Pet. 1.4 It is not with us blessed be God as with the Emperour Hadrian he knew not whether his soul went at death when he said O my silly wandering soul into what places wilt thou now go But a Believer saith with Paul 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed Our Lord hath told us Joh. 14.12 I go to prepare a place for you As a man espousing a wife in a strange countrey returneth to his own countrey maketh all ready for her coming home and in his convenient time sendeth his special friends for her to convoy her home so our Lord by his word hath suited us and by faith wrought in us by his Spirit hath espoused us unto himself he hath gone before us prepared all happiness for us and in his own good time doth send his holy Angels to convoy our souls at death unto that eternal house in heaven not made with hands The sight and knowledge of this made the Apostle to groan in his spirit and long for it 2 Cor. 5.1 2. As one dwelling for a time in a strait dark and rainy house compassed about with naughty and wicked neighbours such a man after he hath gotten a promise of a large lightsome and close house that hath the society of good and comfortable neighbours how much will he long for the term of removal Such is our condition in the body Much straitness and suppression of spirit through many grievous troubles much ignorance and darkness in our understanding Many temptations like rain dropping in through the open and ill-guarded organs of our senses And also many wicked men do compass us like Bees to sting us but in that house and happy condition above there is largeness of spirit and freedom from all molestation full light and knowledge stability perpetual in grace and glory above the rain and wind of temptations And there is the blessed society of God Angels and perfect souls Therefore from all these considerations we must and should conclude it is best to be dissolved and to be with Christ with whom our life is hid in God Object Object But may not the child of God in a time of sickness desire to live and pray to God for recovery Answ I answer no doubt he may so did David Psal 39.13 Answ A believer may in time of sickness pray to live and Ezekias Is
38. but desire of life should be well qualified 1. It must be ever with submission to the good will of thy heavenly father thou must say as our Lord did Father if it be thy will let this cup pass away from me yet not my will but thine be done 2. It must be out of a serious intention and resolution to honour the God of thy life by bringing forth the fruits of righteousness after thy sickness that all who know thee may praise thy God not only in his power manifested in thy bodily recovery but in his mercy for healing thy soul and making thee to grow in grace after thy sickness 3. It must be with an earnest desire to glorifie God in thy calling As Paul Phil. 1.24 It is best for you that I abide in the flesh As Parents being sick may lawfully desire to live that they may bring up their children in the knowledge and nurture of the Lord but all this must be done with a submission to the will of God Object Object May a man out of discontentment for troubles worldly desire to be dissolved Answ That was Jonahs sinful fit of impatience Answ but it lasted not It is not lawful our of discontent to desire death we should be much displeased and discontent with our sins but in no wise with the good and blameless providence of God in afflicting us for our sins It were evil for us if death should take us away in such a fit It were with the silly fish but a leaping out of the lukewarm water into the hot fire It is a weakness of spirit to fret and faint under crosses but the strong spirit beareth them with resolution To this purpose Augustine doth argue well Augustine that Cato and Lucretia were both of weak spirits in so far as they could not bear those disgraces wherein they were innocent sufferers but out of their weakness of spirit and a desperate discontentment they became Agents in their own perpetual shame and confusion by self-murder and leaving their station without any order from God who had placed them therein It is most certain that crosses through Gods grace sanctifying them are means to wean the heart of the child of God from the world as babes are weaned from the brest after it is crossed with wormwood But the main ground wherein riseth and standeth the desire of Gods children to be dissolved is this that they may be delivered from the burthen and bondage of indwelling corruption and be with Christ which is best of all Therefore whatsoever thy present condition be labour thou to be content therewith This is a sure ground of comfort after thou art once in a state of grace and favour with God through Christ Thy present estate be it what it will prosperity or adversity it is ever the best Reverence his wise and holy providence God hath placed thee in this world Submit thou to his will for the time of thy abode or removal As God put Noah in the Ark so the holy man stayed there till God commanded him to come forth Joseph and Mary stayed in Aegypt till God sent them word to depart out of it So must we with patience abide in a miserable world until the time God sendeth for us and when death cometh as a messenger from God then should we answer as Rebekkah did to her nearest friends when they said Gen. 24. Wilt thou go with this man She answered readily and resolutely I will go She leaveth parents friends and all So at death should we be willing to leave all in this present world for it is best to be with Christ the prince of life and Lord of Glory To whom with the Father and Holy Ghost be all Praise Honour and Glory for now and ever Amen The glorious resurrection of the body by CHRIST JOH 5.28 29. Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice And shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation THe great priviledge of the glorious resurrection of our bodies The resurrection of the body a fruit of Christs Merit is also a sweet refreshing stream flowing out from the fulness of Christ his love merit and power 1 Cor. 15.22 Since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead we get a right and claim to this priviledge by Faith in Jesus Christ the purchaser of it Ioh. 5.24 Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into damnation but is passed from death into life It is spoken of the whole person and supposeth man made up of soul body also in the praeterit time he is passed from death unto life because his interest and claim to Christ doth ensure unto him all the benefits purchased by the death of Christ As the purchase is by the merit and satisfaction of Christ The application and appropriation of the right and claim by Faith in Jesus Christ so we are put in the possession of it by our Lord at his second coming Philip. 3.21 he shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned according to his glorious body In the words we have these four points considerable 1. In the words 4. points 1. The certainty of the resurrection of the body The hour is coming Our Lords Disciples and hearers marvelled when they heard of the Mysterie of the first resurrection whereof our Lord was speaking that those who were yet dead in their sins and trespasses should be quickned by the word and Spirit in these words he saith marvel not at that for not only is there a first resurrection in this world to a new life but also a second resurrection in the other world into eternal life 2. The universality of the resurrection All in the graves 3. The powerful means of the resurrection They shall hear his voice and shall come forth 4. The different ends of the resurrection according to the difference of the persons that will be raised They that have done good unto life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation From the first point we observe this Doctrine and Conclusion Doctrine There shall be a resurrection of the body It is most certain there will be a resurrection of the body The hour and time appointed for it in Gods purpose is coming saith our Lord in whose lips was never found guil There is a certainty of infallibility in respect of divine prediction for heaven and earth will pass away before one of his words fall to the ground and there is also a certainty of immutability in respect of Gods Decree and eternal purpose for the counsel of the Lord shall stand and he shall do all his pleasure Isa 46.10 The resurrection of the body is
As in thy mourning thou makest conscience of natural affection to thy dear friend so at the same time make conscience also of thy supernatural affection and submission to the will of thy heavenly Father this consideration will regulate thy sorrow 2. Consider It is best for thy dear Christian friend to be with Christ and thou hast great cause to bless God that thou knowest where he is he is now at his rest from all his labours Rev. 14.13 A loving wife parting from her husband on the shore when he is going to another Country though her heart be sad at parting yet doth she rejoyce to hear of his safe and happy arrival at his wished Port bless God and rejoyce in this thou knowest from the good Word of God thy friend is come safe to his Port where the salvation of God will be a perpetual Bulwark against all troubles and storms 3. Consider The Lord our God keepeth the very dust and rude materials of their bodies Rizpah watched over the bodies of the Sons of Saul and guarded them against the ravenous fouls of the ayr 2 Sam. 21. And shall not the Lord who is love it self preserve the bodies of his own dear children against that day the Lord had a care of the Prophets dead body 1 King 13.24 when a ruinous house is taken down by the owner he carefully layeth aside the stones and timber and keepeth them till afterward out of them he raiseth it up in a new frame So the Lord doth keep the materials of the body until he raise it up in a new frame of beauty 4. Consider as the body of thy deceased friend is carefully kept so will it be powerfully raised and we shall all meet together in that assembly of the first born Peter James and Iohn met with Moses and Elias at the transfiguration of our Lord which was a prelude of his second coming in visible glory so in that day thou shalt see and know thy dear friends but all in Christ That superlative relation of being glorified fellow Members of his Mystical body will swallow up all relations according to the flesh As a woman marrying one that is her neer kinsman though she know such a relation yet her love to him as her husband surpasseth far her former respects she carried to him only as her kinsman The second point considerable 2 Point The universality is the universality of the resurrection All that are in the Graves The word rendred graves signifieth monuments or remembrances because graves are memorials of the dead and should be of good use for the living to be Monitors and remembrancers of their mortalitie by Graves we understand not only the lower places of the earth wherein the bodies have been interred for the bodies of many will be raised that were never buried but by graves we understand the receptacles of the dead such as the Ayr Water and Earth they must and will render up their dead Revel 20.13 As for the bodies of those who will be living upon the earth at our Lords second coming though their bodies will not be in graves and therefore cannot be said properly to be raised out of their graves yet they will be changed from an estate of corruption unto incorruption There will be a raising and elevating of the condition of their body from mortality unto immortality This change will be in the twinkling of an eye 1 Cor. 15.51 as some falling asleep do sleep for a long time whereas others no sooner have their eyes shut but incontinent they awake so the change of such as are living at our Lords coming will be in a very short and insensible time As Adam in an instant after he had sinned became mortal so all who are sound living at Christs second coming in an instant will become immortal and incorruptible in the body There will be an universal resurrection of all the dead Doctrine 2 Cor. 5.10 There shall be an universal resurrection of the dead We must all appear before the Iudgement seat of Christ Therefore all must be raised that all may appear Rev. 20.12 And I saw the dead small and great stand before God as in a seed-plot though the seeds be mixed there together in one place yet the Sun in Spring time maketh several herbs to rise from thence distinct one from another in stalk flower and fruits So though many dead bodies be sown in one common burial place as a seminary of the resurrection yet the Lord will raise from thence the several bodies every one distinct from another in number and individual qualities No new Creation The same individual bodies that died will be raised for it is said All in the graves at that time there will not be any Creation of a new body 1. Because it is called a resurrection and a resurrection is the rising of the same thing that had fallen 2. Death is called a sleep and burial places are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sleeping places Such are raised which sometime slept but bodies created anew on that day cannot be said to have slept 3. The Sea is said to render up the dead Revel 20.13 but if the bodies were anew created there would be no rendering of the old 4. It is spoken in an Emphatick and Demonstrative manner 1 Cor. 15.53 This corruptible this mortal and therefore it must be the same body that sometime was subject to death and corruption Obj. Objection Will the ungodly be raised by vertue of Christs resurrection Answ No Answer because believers that are Members of his Mystical body are only said to rise with him Eph 2.6 and they are called the Children of the resurrection Luc. 20.36 but he will raise the wicked by force as their Judge by vertue of that â—enâ—ence Gen. 2.17 what day thou eatest of the forbidden fruit thou sh lt certainly dye and that the sentence of the second death may be executed on them they must be raised So that their resurrection is a curse and not a blessing to them But the Godly will be raised by Christ as their head drawing all his Members unto himself by a full redemption from all their enemies that he may be compleat in his body and they may be compleat in their head in whom and with whom both the soul and the body is fully glorified This Doctrine serveth for a seasonable wakening and warning unto secure sinners Vse 1 An awakening to secure sinners who dishonor God here in the condition of their mortality by many vile sins committed in and by the body Remember thou wilt be raised in the self same body and brought before him who is Judge of quick and dead It will be with thee that livest and dyest in thy impenitency as it was with the Baker in the prison Gen. 40. he was much disquieted in the morning with the remembrance of his sad dream in the night time his trouble was great in the night time greater in the morning when by
Joseph it was expounded of his shameful death but greatest when his dream was fulfilled and himself led from the prison to the place of a painful and shameful death so wicked and profane men are greatly disquieted when thoughts of a resurrection and Judgement are sometime born in upon them against their will then are they as with a violent gripe and stitch suddenly surprised and suppressed but all this disquietness and anguish of Spirit is like a dream in comparison of that horror will overtake them in that day of resurrection Then will their own consciences suggest unto them what shall be their doom They will be self-condemned before ever the Judge pronounce his Sentence I require the senseless sinner to consider in time if after thy yester-nights drunkenness or other wickedness thy conscience hath smitten thee soundly sometime after thy first sleep in such a manner that thou couldst get no rest for the lashings of it which were as pricks in thy eyes and thorns in thy sides how thinkest thou thy conscience will torment thee in that day wherein there will be no rest no not for a moment from extream and endless pains then shall all thy sins be set before thee in the light of thy countenance If Judas was so tormented with the sense of one horrid sin to wit his treachery in betraying the Innocent what will thy torment and desperate horrour be when all thy sins will be set before thee as a shameful fang in the eye of a condemned thief The black sight of thy sins and of Judgement will be the first thing thou shalt see after thou art raised in the body Therefore while it is called to day harden not your hearts but obey that Act. 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord for though sins be forgiven only in this life wherein there is place for repentance and for reconciliation with God And though sentence of absolution is now quietl pronounced in the conscience of the true penitent and believer yet at the day of resurrection the sentence of Absolution and Justification will be solemnly pronounced in that great Court of Jesus Christ wherein it will be made known to Angels and men when he will say to them on the right hand come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you Math. 25.24 And contrarily men self-condemned in this world and dying in their impenitency shall then be condemned before Angels and men It serveth for a ground of sol d comfort to the Godly Vse 2 who honour God in the body Solid comfort to the Godly fall thy body where it will at home or abroad by a natural or violent death yet it shall be raised again Some of the dear children of God have been devoured by wild beasts others in the fire consumed into ashes and their ashes scattered into the Ayr yet these bodies will be raised as many report of the Phoenix out of their ashes some have been drowned in the waters and others smothered under the earth yet the Lord in that day will gather all his Iewels as men do their Gold out of the ruines of a burnt house Revel 20.13 the Sea gave up the dead that were in it and hell and death gave up their dead by hell is meant the receptacles within the lower parts of the earth as Jaylours are countable to the Judge for the prisoners delivered into their keeping and must present them to the Judge at his command So all the prison houses of the bodies of the Saints will be opened and all the Jaylours must make open doors in that great day of our Lords glorious procession that the prisoners of hope may come forth and be made partakers of that full redemption from the grave and corruption Ob. But what say ye of those Anthropophagiâ—men eaters Objection doth not their flesh and blood consist of the bodies of men devoured by them and if the substance eaten up by them shall be restored to the first owner then they themselves will have no proper substance of a body to be raised Answ 1. Answer These Canibals will cast out the dead bodies devoured by them at the command of the Lords mighty power as the fish did cast out Ionah 2. All the parts of the body were not devoured as the bones and some other parts The Lord out of those remainders both can and will raise up the body whole and intire 3. Whatsoever the devourer wanteth by restoring the parts devoured to the first owner God in his wisdom and power both can and will supply the same It is enough for us to believe as it is revealed that the Lord will raise up the same individual body we believe the matter but as for the particular manner we leave that to the power and wisdom of God who can do above all that we can think Eph. 3.20 and in the hope of our glorious resurrection we give to God Father Son and Holy-Ghost all praise honour and glory for now and ever Amen The third point considerable 3. Point The powerful means of our resurrection is the powerful means of our resurrection they shall hear his voice and shall come forth of this speaketh the Apostle 1 Thes 4.16 The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trumpet of God By that voice and trump we understand some sensible manifestation of his power and glory at his second coming as the Audible voice doth express the conception of our minde and as the sound of a Trump is an ordinary sign of state and power so this visible appearing in glory and the great work of raising the dead will be a manifest expression of the glorious power of the Son of God in this sense the Word of God is taken Heb. 1.3 He upholdeth all things by the word of his power that is by his powerful providence conserving the being of his creatures This active providence is as it were the word and expression of his infinite power whereby he doth in heaven and earth what he will Thus it is said Ionah 2.10 The Lord spake unto the Fish and it vomited out Ionah This speaking was Gods doing and working by his mighty power in such a language will the Almighty Lord speak to all the graves of the dead and in an instant at the word of his power they will cast out their dead Thus he is said by his word to have created the world the work of Creation was the expression of his eternal purpose so to do and of his omnipotent facility in doing as a word is easily spoken and doth express the thought of our mind It is called his mighty power or efficacy of power as it is in the original according to which he will raise the dead Philip. 3.21 he rent the vale of the Temple he shattered the
Rocks and opened the graves at his death in his lowest condition what then can resist his power in the day he cometh forth to Judge the world since he was so powerful in the day of man when he was Judged in this manner I take it with some sound Interpreters not so much literally of an audible voice and material Trump as to be spoken in an allusion to Kings who in solemn processions to their great and high Courts of Justice have their Heralds and Trumpeters going before them at whose proclamation and sounding as was the custom of Egypt Gen. 41.43 immediately all come out of their houses to behold the King in his state and glory and to do him the homage of the highest civil reverence so when our Lord and King of Saints shall come attended with Millions of Angels then shall he by his mighty power raiâ—e the dead they shall come forth immediately out of their earthen houses and do homage to him The Godly will acknowledge him for their Lord and Redeemer and delight themselves in the sight of his glorious pomp and power they shall meet him with acclamations of joy Revel 5.9 Thou hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and Nation But the wicked will be forced to acknowledge him for their Judge and shall be confounded at that sight And because the number of the wicked will exceed the number of the Godly therefore it is said Revel 1.7 All kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him Some think there will be an audible voice at our Lords coming for he can make his thundering voice to be heard over all the earth yet this is most certain and without all controversie that an act of infinite power will go along with that voice As in raising Lazarus from the dead our Lord cryed with a loud voice Ioh. 11.43 Lazarus come forth what he signified by this audible voice he did work and execute by his invisible and mighty power so together with that voice at his second coming arise ye dead and come to Iudgement he will express his mighty and irresistible power in raising the dead he will raise the Godly as their head but he will raise the wicked as their Judge Doctrine The second coming of our Lord to raise the dead The second coming of Christ shall be with great Majesty will be with great glory Majestie and power Luc. 21.27 Then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory It was the antient custom that the Conquerors were carried in triumphal Charriots drawn with white horses so shall our victorious King and Conqueror come riding on a white cloud What is meant by the sign of the Son of man Mat. 24.30 and this manner of his coming I conceive in the most simple sense to be the same which is called the sign of the Son of man Math. 24.30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven which is expressed more fully Luc. 21.27 By his coming in glory and power The Divines of the Roman Church in their superstitious conjecture think it will be the sign of the cross Others think it will be some sign immediately preceding the coming of our Lord to raise the dead which sign say they will be so manifest and extraordinary that all men seeing it will be convinced that the Lord is at hand and coming immediately to Judge the world Others take it to be that purging fire spoken of 2 Pet. 3.10 when the heaven like a garment infected from the contagion of the body of this inferiour world about which it was wrapped is purged from that vanity whereunto it is made subject through mans sin Rom. 8.22 But with sound Interpreters I take it to be the same with that glory and power wherewith Luke saith he will come which power and glory will be an evident and peculiar sign of his coming for Millions of Angels will attend him Many Angels were guarding Elijah 2 King 6. how many then will attend his Lord and ours and as by all the beholders a King is known to be there where his special servants are attending him with all reverence so in that day our Lords presence will be made manifest by the glorious attendance of Angels to whom for fitting them for the Ministery of that day he will give some outward visible and glorious representation for it is said Luc. 21.27 They shall see him coming with power and great glory and Math. 25.31 The Son of man shall come in his glory and all his holy Angels with him 2. 2. The second coming of Christ shall be with great power As his coming will be with great Glory and Majesty so will it be with great power at his first coming he subjected himself to the infirmities of our nature and unto the punishment due to our persons and upon this account he came to be Judged Isa 53.5 He was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him That was the day of his weakness but this will be a day of power wherein he will come to Judge the quick and the dead To this effect he hath received a Commission from the Father Ioh. 5.22 The Father hath committed all Iudgement to the Son he will Judge in the humane nature and pronounce the Sentence but by the power of his Divine nature execute the same because God alone in whom is infinite mercy and goodness can make some eternally happy and others in his infinite Justice and wrath eternally miserable and to this sense said our Lord Math. 20.23 To sit at my right hand is not mine to give but the Fathers he giveth it not as man but as the Son of God equal in power with the Father This Doctrine serveth for matter of terror Vse 1 and wakening unto all prophane and careless sinners Terrour to prophane persons that are not moved with the word of threatning thou who hearest all the threatnings with a deaf ear and takest no notice of them for cleansing thy heart and thy wayes from wickedness remember at this day of appearing before thy Judge thou shalt be forced to hear his voice on the deafest side of thy head Thou that wouldest not rise out of the grave of thy sins wherein thou wast rotting for many years thou that wouldst not Judge thy self that wouldest not obey him in this life as thy Lord and head Thou shalt by the force of his power and Iron Scepter be subjected to him as thy Judge in that day wherein all knees shall bow before him thou that wouldest not bow to thy Lord at the throne of Grace shalt be bruised and broken before thy Judge at the throne of Justice Oh how fearful will that voice be when he calls for thee to come out of thy grave to Judgement It will be as the imperious call of a severe Lord at the Gate returning home to
good tidings from heaven and of joy to thee then all thy evil dayes will be over wherein thou hadst thy trembling fits and feavers of conscience but that will be thy good day without succession of an evil day then shalt thou have perpetual peace in thy soul and confirmed health in thy body for if thou be espoused here to Iesus Christ in holiness and righteousness thou shalt not be afraid at his glorious coming the glory of thy Lord and Husband will reflect upon thee and his spouse shall rejoyce at his coming The wise Virgins rejoyced at the voice and coming of the bridegroom in that day thou shalt rejoyce as Iacob did in hearing and seeing his Ioseph in the day of his great honor power in Egypt Our Lord with his white cloud at his coming will scatter and abolish all thy clouds of afflictions Though now it may be thou hast much weakness in the body yet in that day thy Lord will come with power to give unto thee a strong body It may be for a season thou sufferest much disgrace and trouble in the body for keeping a good conscience in an evil time yet be of good comfort thy righteous Lord will come in great glory and shall give unto thee a new name even glory and honour that none can take from thee Therefore in the sense of thy true conjugal affection unto him wrought in thy heart by his spirit and in the lively hope of the full manifestation of his love in that joyful day when there will be a perpetual cohabitation in glory let thy soul be looking and longing for his second appearing and as thou hearest him saying Rev. 22.12 Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me So let thy soul as an eccho answer with the spouse Even so Lord Iesus come 4. Point The fourth point considerable in the words Point 4 is the different ends of this universal resurrection They that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation both the godly and the wicked will come forth from their graves but as they differed in their life and death so shall they differ in the end of their resurrection The godly will come forth as the Butler out of Prison Gen. 40. to stand and live for ever in the favour of God but the ungodly as the Baker to be made spectacles of the Iustice and wrath of God for ever It is true the bodies of the wicked will be raised immortal and incorruptible to the end they may be everlasting subjects of everlasting pain as the body of a Malefactor is held up at a Pillory when he is scourged that by the extention of his body he may be rendred the more capable of the scourge and pains The resurrection of the bodies of Believers who live to the Lord and die in the Lord will be unto an happy condition Doct. Believers shall arise to happiness and freedom from all trouble pain and all the consequents of sin for the Resurrection of Life is opposed unto the Resurrection of Damnation as the ungodly in their bodies will be fastned like condemned slaves to eternal torments they will be ever dying and pining a way in torments but never dead so the godly will live in the body a life of happiness being absolved and freed from all pain and enjoying all satisfaction in the presence of an al-sufficient God Phil. 3.21 he will change our vile bodies and he will make them like unto his own glorious body Our bodies in this life are but weak and frail a little thing will distemper them even one nights unrest Our bodies in this vale of misery are but vilis saccus servorum The greatest amongst the children of men carry about with them such excrements as should be Monitors of frailty and documents of humility and that which maketh our bodies most vile is this that they are cages of unclean birds of many unruly lusts though they reign not in the godly yet they dwell in them as Hagar with Sarah and do molest them But at the resurrection there will be a change of our Bodies Our Lord will make them like unto his glorious body and it is said Mat. 17. at his transfiguration which was a prelude of the glorifying of his body his face did shine as the Sun As the Tabernacle under the Law was made according to the pattern shewn in the Mount so our earthly Tabernacles will be renewed according to that pattern shewn in the Mount where our Lord was transsigured great will be the brightness of their bodies in that day of resurrection there will be a most glorious sight when the bodies of the Saints will rise up together as so many Suns above the horizon of the grave and time that will be a lightsome and a glorious day This surpassing glory of their bodies is described more particularly 1 Cor. 15.42 in divers respects 1. Wherein the glory of the body consists In respect of endurance it is sown in corruption but raised in incorruption Our life here is in a continual flux as one part of running water thrusteth forward the other parts so some parts of our body decay daily the radical moystness is wasted by the natural hear and must be repaired by meat drink sleep and other helps as so many props to support our weak and ruinous Tabernacle of clay as a lamp that consumes the oyl must have a new supply But at the resurrection our bodies will be incorruptible their condition will be fixed without any decay in part or in whole Then the vital and animal spirits of the body will be as pure Wine without any mixture of dreg There will be no superfluous or excrementitious humor in the body it will be as the gold purified seven times in the furnace all dross and corruption will be fully purged out and the body will be made an everlasting vessel of honour There will be no alteration in the body nor declining to old age but the glorified Saints shall be like the Cedars in Lebanon Psal 9.14 they shall still bring forth fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing 2. In respect of the stature and beauty of the body it is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory there will be great glory in the bodies of the godly excellent comeliness in stature and a beautifull and equal proportion of all the members The Saints who had any deformity or defect of members in this life shall have none then Act. 3.19 It is called the day of restoring all things what ever their body wanteth now for comeliness shall then be restored and supplyed Our Lord restored Malchus his ear and by the same power he will restore the defect of any member as there will be comeliness in a just symmetry and proportion of the members so a surpassing comeliness in the colour and brightness of the body do we not see in our
most true that good Works are necessary by way of concomitancy in him who is to be saved for without holiness none shall see the face of God Heb. 12.14 Although thou canst not be justified in this life by thy good Works yet in the day of resurrection thou shalt be judged according to thy Works Math. 25. 2 Cor. 5.10 Therefore as in the day of resurrection thou wouldest differ from evil doers who will be raised unto damnation see thou differ from them in thy living and dying Godly differ from the wicken in living 1. The wicked man in his life-time employeth his desires endeavours and time to serve his own lusts but the care of a Godly man and sound believer will be to serve his Lord Rom. 13.14 Put on the Lord Iesus and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof 2. The wicked man walketh in the broad way that leadeth to destruction he taketh unto himself ease and pleasure in sin as one having room in a broad way he doth not afflict or grieve his own heart at any time by refusing the unlawful desires of it But thou who wouldst rise to life must walk in the strait way that leadeth unto life thou must straiten and hem up thy desires and afflict thy unrenewed part and flesh by refusing and rejecting unruly desires and if at any time thy heart look back unto sin thou must afflict thy Spirit with Godly sorrow for any step thou hast made toward the broad way The Godly man and sound believer differeth also from the wicked in his dying Godly differ from the wicked in dying The wicked man at his death layeth not hold on Christ and dyeth unwillingly but thou that wouldst rise unto life thou must with old Simeon an old expectant of glory embrace Christ and hug him and the Promise of life made in him in the arms of thy faith as a dying man holdeth fast his gripe so shalt thou keep thy gripe of Christ in the day of resurrection thou shalt be found in him The Godly man dieth willingly commending his Spirit unto God as a faithful Creator he goeth unto death as his bed out of the which he will rise in that morning of eternity with refreshment but the ungodly and impenitent go to death unwillingly as unto a prison out of which they know they will be carried unto Judgement This is the heavenly posture of a Godly man on his death-bed he resteth by Faith on the only merit and satisfaction of Jesus Christ as a sick man doth upon a soft Mat underneath him he hath the lively hope of a glorious rest to his soul after its parting from the body and of a glorious resurrection of the body as a Pillow to hold up his head and heart that in all his pain he fainteth not and he hath good Works as a coverlet to adorn him in the sight of all that behold him The Believer at his death resteth not on them they are his coverlet but not his mat he is adorned and covered with them before the world who seeth them in him and should both glorifie God in his rich and free love for his graces bestowed on him and should labour to imitate him in his good life and happy death If thus thou differ from wicked men in thy life and death and be not an evil doer as they are in the purpose of their heart and course of their life The Lord who by his grace maketh thee to differ from them in this life shall in eternal mercy make thee to differ from them in thy resurrection for thy resurrection shall be unto eternal life if thou live to Christ thou shalt dye in Christ and in that day thou shalt be found in him and go with him to the third heaven and remain in glory for ever with him It serveth for a ground of terrour and awakening to the ungodly Vse 2 Terror to ungodly men who rush into sin as the horse into the Battle go on in their sins like the Ox unto the slaughter and will not know the evil of their wayes till the deadly dart of Gods wrath strike through their souls Remember O foolish man if thou live and dye in thy sins and as Zophar speaketh Iob 20.11 If thy bones be full of the sins of thy youth and they lie down with thee in the dust thou shalt rise unto damnation what thou wouldest not believe in this thy day thou shalt be forced from sense of pain to believe in that day of the Lord and then shall the faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ say as Paul did to his fellow-Passengers in the Ship Act. 27.21 If ye had hearkened unto me ye should not have gained this harm and loss The remembrance of neglected opportunities will encrease the fretting torment of their souls It may be thou hast pain and sickness in thy body with great agony at thy death but consider all that is but as a flea-bite in comparison of that worm that dyeth not and the fire which cannot be quenched Thou mayest be assured unless thou repent while thou art in the body thy pained and deformed body shall be raised up in greater pain and deformity An ugly and hideous spectacle will thy face and body be so that if it were possible in that day thou wouldest flye from thy self Then soul and body at their reunion and uniting will in a manner curse one another and live or rather languish together as it were in mutual imprecations for ever This will be a part of their hell like two Mastiffs chained together and tearing one another the soul will curse the body and all the Members of it for ministering temptations by the eyes and ears and for being too ready to bring forth and act sin conceived in the heart then soul and body that sinned together shall be tormented together as they were bound together in sin so also in punishment therefore let the sad forethought of pain in the body in that day calm thy impetuous affections Remember as thou sowest in the body so shalt thou reap in the body Gal. 6.8 thou shalt receive according to that thou hast done in the body 2 Cor. 5.10 The serious forethought of this will be an awful means to suppress thy tumultuary affections The Town-clerk Act. 19.40 composed the tumult with one word we are in danger said he to be called in question for this dayes uproar so consider thou art in danger to be called in question in that day of resurrection for the insurrection and rebellion of thy heart against thy Lord in this thy day The Royal preacher soundeth forth this sad but profitable Note into the ears of young men who are dit-times violent like Jehu in their sinful courses Eccles 11.9 Rejoyce O young man in thy youth c. but know thou that for all those things God will bring thee unto Judgement This Doctrine serveth for a solid ground of comfort to the Godly who
Iron yield to him as soon as Doors of wood This Doctrine serveth for admonition Vse 1 as thou wouldest have thy awaking be joyful in that day of resurrection look well in this thy working day what is thy disposition when thou goest to thy bed of rest and layest down thy Tabernacle of clay for as a man lyeth down to rest so ordinarily doth he rise If he go sober to bed he riseth fresh and cheerful so 1. Thou must in this life have a sober minde emptied of the immoderate love of this present world because a man dying with his heart fixed on this world cannot awake with joy in the day of resurrection as a man going to bed in his surfeit is distempered in his body when he awaketh in the morning so will it be with such as dye in their surfeit with the love and care of this world 2 As thou wouldst awake and rise in peace and joy thou shouldest dye in a good conscience hating every known sin It is true many of the dear children of God may dye without repenting particularly of some sins which they know not to be sins as it was with the believing Patriarchs in the case of their Polygamie But if thou dye without repenting of thy known sins objected against thee by thy own conscience this will make a fearful wakening in that day of thy resurrection as a man eating at evening that which doth not agree with his stomach it troubleth him in the morning when he awakes so those who have swallowed down all sin with a wide conscience inlarged like hell and did not cast it up again by true repentance in that gloomie morning of that eternal dark day their awaking will be heavy and fearful Then shall they have a desperate repentance like unto that of Iudas and shall find that true to the utmost which is spoken Iob 20.12 Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth yet shall it be the gall of Aspes within him 3. As thou wouldest awake with joy and be found in Christ in that day thou shouldest dye laying thy self on Christ and fastening thy soul by Faith into him because the man who dyeth in Christ is found in Christ in that day as a man carried down with a torrent of water is found after his death with such a thing in his hand as he griped in the way while he was alive so a man dying and in his way toward the grave embracing and clasping Christ in that day will be found in the arms of Christ for he is a faithful Redeemer keeping that which is committed to him and will present thee in that day to the father faultless with exceeding joy It serveth for comfort to the godly man Vse 2 his happy and best condition though it be delayed for a time yet is abiding him Happiness though delayed waits for a Godly man The wicked with that rich wretch Luc. 16. receive their good things here but the Godly with Lazarus receive their evil things It is far better for a poor afflicted Christian at death to go to his bed of rest without their surfeit then together with it to have their fearful wakening The Pharisees and all such vain-glorious hypocrites have all their reward in this life they get applause here from men but they shall be disallowed of God in that day whereas the Godly man looketh before him to this compleat happiness when the Lord will come with a rich recompence of reward in his hand Rev. 22.12 I come quickly and my reward is with me To this Moses looked Heb. 11.26 and Paul 2 Cor. 4.16 the Godly man measureth not his happiness by any present difference in respect of his outward condition betwixt him and sensual worldlings but by that which is to come he knoweth well this is the time of his non-age and the heir while he is young differeth not from a servant Gal. 4.1 it may be he is beaten oftner with the rod of his Father then a servant because the Father loveth him better and will not suffer him to perish for want of correction but when the day for dividing the inheritance is come at the resurrection then shall it be known who are sons Therefore thou who art the child of God endure hardship for a time yea but a moment of time in comparison of that eternity before thee And I think from undenyable grounds of natural reason there is less proportion betwixt an hundred thousand of years and eternity then betwixt a moment and an hundred thousand years It is no small comfort to have our best before us from this our Lord comforted his Apostles and us in them Ioh. 16.20 Ye shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be turned into joy Now thou sowest in tears but thou shalt reap in joy the hope of a plentiful harvest is matter of comfort in a painful and laborious seed-time Now thou art betwixt wind and wave in this raging sea of an evil world but there is thy comfort thy body tossed here like a brittle bark shall in that day be brought to a condition of eternal rest Abrahams bosom is a bay without winds of temptations or afflictions there is perpetual tranquility Now is the time of thy fighting against the Devil who is the Tempter against the world which is the Magazine of his temptations and fiery darts and against the flesh and treacherous enticer and wilful consenter to temptations but be thou still wrestling in the strength of thy Lord and in the end thou shalt be more then a Conqueror through him and get a crown of immortal glory look to thy enemies and be watchful but look also to the promised victory and Crown and be of good courage for if God be with us in his strength who can be against us The second point considerable Second Point The matter and manner of our happiness is the matter of our eternal happiness the face and likeness of God And the manner of our enjoying it I will behold thy face Divines call the former our objective and the latter our formal happiness for understanding whereof it is necessary that we clear 1. What is meant by the face of God What is meant by the face or likeness of God 2. How we are said to behold the face of God As to the first by the face of God in holy Scripture is signified 1. His gracious presence and good Will Psal 51.11 Cast me not away from thy presence or from thy face as it is in the first language Psal 105.4 Seek his face evermore that is his gracious presence and favour Thus Gen. 4.15 It is said Cain went out from the face or presence of the Lord as men withdraw their countenance from those who have grievously offended them 2. An extraordinary manifestation and representation of the Majesty of God Deut. 5.4 the Lord talked with you face to face in the Mount out of the midst of the fire 3. It signifieth an extraordinary yet