fall as a peace-offering or as a burnt-offering he is still in a happy condition To dye in the Lord may relate either to the cause for which or to the state wherein or to the manner how we dye 1 The cause for which we dye So the Martyrs dye in the Lord or for the Lords sake and are blessed of God though it may be cursed of men The Text relates to the time of Antichristian persecution when usually they dyed excommunicate or accursed by the Roman Synagogue God hath a special regard to his Champions that love not their lives to the death 2 The state wherein we dye so to dye in the Lord is to dye in the favour of God in a state of peace with him as members of Christs mystical body they dye in the bosom of Christ sleep in Jesus 1 Cor. 15.18 are reconciled to God in and through him There are two notable expressions which I shall commend to you upon this occasion One is in the 2 Pet. 3.14 That we may be found of him in peace To dye before the quarrel be taken up between us and God that is sad When a Town is surprized by force they that are taken with their weapons in their hands dye without mercy but blessed are they that dye in peace The other is in the 2 Cor. 5.3 that I may not be found naked To be summoned to come before God and to have nothing to cover our nakedness that is sad it should be our care to be wrapt in Christs righteousness that is the best shroud for a dying Christian 3 As to the manner they are said to dye in the Lord who dye in a gracious manner it much concerneth us and the glory of God that we dye well a Christian is not onely to live to the glory of God but to dye to the glory of God for living and dying we are the Lords Rom. 14.7 8. As to the manner to dye in the Lord signifyeth 1 Our perseverance in communion with him to continue our blessed fellowship with Christ to the death and in the death Into the Vineyard Mat. 20. Some were called sooner some later but all continued to the end Elisha would not leave his master till he was taken from him into heaven So till all be finished we should follow our work close Let us take heed saith the Apostle lest we seem to come short Heb. 4.1 As we should not come short we should not seem to come short Enoch lived a long while but all that while he walked with God 365 yeers a long age but spent in communion with God! Gen. 5.22 2 It implies the solemn actings of grace at death the Scripture takes notice of the last words of Saints 2 Sam. 23.1 the last words of David Death is a special season wherein to make use of Grace of faith love zeal and obedience 1 Faith Heb. 11.13 All these dyed in Faith it is not enough to live by Faith but we must also dye by Faith This is a Grace always of use on this side the Grave in the other world there is no need of it when we come to injoyment Faith ceaseth at death it doth us the last office we see what it is then to put the soul into Gods keeping 2 Tim. 1.12 Luke 23.46 Act. 7.59 Then do we dye in faith when we can resiâ—n our souls to God and send our bodies to the Grave in hope While we are alive we finde it harder to depend upon God for daily bread then for eternal life for herein faith is put upon a present tryal but when we come to dye the strength of our confidence is tryed about the blessed recompences This then is to dye in the Lord when we can look beyond the grave and within the veil into the glory of the world to come 2 Love In our readiness and willingness to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and be with Christ The Spirit and the Bride say come now God takes you at your word and you draw back Let him be afraid to dye that would not go to Christ 3 Zeal for Gods glory It is the last time you can do any thing for God in the world put in a word for him commend him to those about you as Jacob doth the Mediator or the Angel of the Covenant of whom he had such experience in the course of his pilgrimage Gen. 48.16 and Joshua 23. Josh. 14. I am going the way of all the earth and you know in all your hearts and all your souls not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God hath spoken all is come to pass not one thing hath failed thereof Words of dying men are of most efficacy and authority as being spoken out of all their former experience with most simplicity without self-seeking or sinister ends with most seriousness for men entring upon the confines of Eternity are wiser and more serious it is no time to dally and dissemble at the last gasp speeches of living men are suspected of partiality to their present interests or neglected as having no weight in them but the speeches of dying men are solemnly observed therefore Josephs brethren to ingage him the more urge him with his fathers dying charge Gen. 50.16 Thy father when he dyed said c. Men as they are returning {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to the original Divinity as Plotinus speaks are supposed to be more divine and therefore their dying words are much regarded Put in then a word for God an Amen to the Promises Carnal men cannot honor their Principles when they dye the world fails them when there is most need Job 27 8. what hope hath a hypocrite when God comes to take away his soul When they are going out of the world then they fall a complaining how the world hath deceived them but a Christian when he dyes he may honor his Principles commend the Promises give an account of the faithfulness of the Mediator and plead for God at the last gasp 4 Obedience A Christian is not to dye like a beast to be meerly passive his soul is not taken away but yielded up there is a resignation and consent on his part A carnal man suffers death but a Christian gives up the Ghost The Scripture useth this distinctness of speech concerning them as concerning the wicked God takes away their souls Luke 12.19 Job 27.8 they would fain keep them longer but the Lord puts the Bond in suit and per-force they are dragged into his presence but now death to the godly it is a sweet dismission Luke 2.26 When they see the will of God they hold out no longer their souls are not taken away but yielded up to God Thus you see Grace stands by us when all things else fail it makes us live with comfort and dye with comfort When wealth fails Grace fails us not So much of the first question 2. How they are blessed They
your Redeemer when he shall lead us to God in a full troop and goodly company and say Behold I and the little ones which thou hast given me Heb. 2.13 What a blessed sight will that be Then the Angels what welcom will there be between you and them when Christ entered into heaven Psal. 24. they entertained him with applauses and acclamations stand open you doors stand open here is the King of glory the Lord strong and mighty in battail So will they welcom the Saints to heaven with acclamations They delight in the good of men when man was created the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy Job 38.7 that is the Angels rejoyced and praised God when Christ came to Redeem man an heavenly hoast fell a praising of God Luke 2.13 14. When man is converted the Scripture tells there is joy in heaven Luke 15.7 So when we come to be glorifyed Christ shall come with troops of them to conduct us into those everlasting Mansions The Saints your acquaintance with whom you prayed suffered familiarly conversed memory is not abolished in heaven but perfected those whom we knew here we shall know agaâ—n A Minister shall see his Crown and the fruâ—t of his labours 1 Thes 2.19 you are our crown c. And those that have been relieved by us shall wellcom us into heaven who therefore are said to receive us into everlasting habitations Luke 16 9. Yea we shall know those whom we never saw why else is it made a part of our priviledge to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob Mat. 8.11 As Adam knew Eve and in the transfiguration Peter knew Moses and Elias dead many hundred yeers before so shall we know one another we shall not go to a strange people where we know no body As men at a Feast are social and familiar one with another we shall be discoursing of Gods wisdom mercy justice in the work of Redemption So did Moses and Eâ—ias with Christ Luke 9.31 of the wonderful Providence of God in conducting us to glory as travellers in their Inn take pleasure to discourse with one another of the dyrtiness and dangers of the way And these Saints are cloathed with Majesty and Glory more lovely objects then ever they were upon earth and there is an innumerable company of them they were rapt for joy when they saw but two Prophets Moses and Elias Mat. 17.4 but heaven is not onely called a Palace but a City a world to come there is a multitude which none can number 3 Whence it is that they who dye in the Lord are sure to be thus blessed 1 From their union with Christ 2 From the Covenant of God with them First From their union with Christ which can never be dissolved death severeth body and soul but not Christ and the soul From this union there result two things Conformity with Christ in every estate and the Communion of the Spirit both which do imply the blessedness of the Saints even after death They that are united with Christ do share with him in every estate in grace here and in glory hereafter as to both they are predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ Rom. 8.29 And where the Spirit once dwelleth there he dwelleth for ever and therefore from the indwelling of the Spirit of holiness doth the Apostle infer our Resurrection to a glorious estate Rom. 8.11 And that losing nothing which Christ speaketh of Joh. 6.39 I would interpret of his not losing one member or joynt of his mystical body Secondly From the Covenant of God with them Christ proves the Resurrection from Gods being the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Mat. 22.32 the Argument stands upon three feet 1 To be a God to any is to be a benefactor for the tenor of the Covenant on Gods part is I will be thy God as on our part you shall be my people 2 That God would be an everlasting benefactor it implyes an eternal communication of grace and glory as Christ proves from Exod. 3.6 that God assumed this Title after their death 3 This Covenant was made with the whole man not onely with the soul but the body and therefore they bore the mark and the sign of it which was Circumcision in their bodies And in Heb. 11.16 the Apostle saith that because God had a heavenly inheritance to bestow upon the Patriarchs therefore he was not ashamed to be called their God implying that if they had no other reward then what they injoyed in the present life God could not with honor such was the slenderness and contemptibleness of their present condition have owned such a glorious Title and Appellation as to be called the God of Abraham What needs further arguing the phrase it self imports what we assert When God promiseth to be a God to any he maketh over his whole self his eternity and infiniteness for their comfort and use and so in effect saith that he wil be an everlasting benefactor to their whole persons in the way of an infinite power Let us now apply all 1 Because this priviledge is exprest with a limitation it informeth us that the wicked are excluded they must expect a quite contrary estate as they that dye in the Lord are in a blessed so all others in a cursed condition It is a sweet close when the body and soul part but God and the soul meet when Conscience shall become our compurgator and bear us witness that we have spent our time well in fearing God and obeying God then may the body and soul take leave of one another with an expectation to meet again in Glory But it is a sad parting when Conscience falls a raving and the body and the soul accuse one another the body accuseth the soul as an ill guide and the soul the body as an unready instrument And at the day of their death which is the time of separation they curse the day of their birth which was the time of the first union between them both when they shall wish that they had been stifled in the womb and had never seen the light rather then to have lived together in such a fashion and to part in such manner Now this many times is the case of wicked men at their death death cometh to them as a double evil as a natural evil striking the body and dissolving the confederacy and union between it and the soul and as a penal evil or the curse of the first Covenant wounding the Conscience and reviving their bondage and fears of a worse judgement to ensue And then though Physitians and Ministers be sent for they may both prove of no value either to prevent the dissolution or to give ease to the Conscience 2 It presseth us to provide for this hour that when we come to dye we may dye in the Lord Get an interest in Christ that you may dye in the Lord as to your estate Security will not hold
now in Heaven there is no sin there is neither spot nor wrinckle upon the face of glorifyed Saints Eph. 5.27 They were once as black as you but now Christ presents them to God as a proof of the cleansing vertue of his blood there they are freed from all sin here with much adoe we mortifie our lust and yet nature will be ever recoyling as the Ivy in the wall cut it never so much it will be breaking out again it is much here if the Dominion of sin be taken away there the being of it is abolished the glorifyed Saints displease God no more and are freed from all the immediate and inseparable consequences of original sin from distractions in duty here love is not perfect and therefore the soul cannot be fixed in the contemplation of God and that is the reason of wandring thoughts but there the heart cleaves to him without stragling from pride which lasts as long as life and therefore called pride of life 1 Joh. 2.16 we cannot have a revelation now but we grow proud of it nor an influence of grace but it lifts us up 2 Cor. 12.2 there is a worm in Manna but there when we are most high we are most humâ—le Christians is not this a blessed hope that tells you of a sinless state of being like Christ for purity and holiness 1 Joh. 3.2 We shall see him as he is for we shall be like unto him What is it that you have struggled with and groaned under all your lives but sin Now that is blotted out when the days of refreshing come And as there is no sin so there are no temptations In Paradise there was a tempter but not in heaven Satan was long since cast out thence and the Saints fill up the vacant rooms of the Apostate Angels the world is a place of snares a valley of temptations it is the devils circuit where did he walk to and fro but in the earth But into heaven nothing enters that defiles Rev. 21.27 No Serpent can creep in there Christians lift up your heads you will get rid of sin and displease God no more here we cry Lord deliver us from evil and there our cries are heard at the full Grace weakneth sin but Glory abolisheth it and old Adam is left in the Grave never to rise more 2 The next evil is the evil of affliction whatever is painful and burthensom to nature is a fruit of the fall a brand and mark of our Rebellion against God therefore affliction must be done away as well as sin if we be compleatly happy As in hell there is an evil an onely evil a cup of wrath unmixed without the least temperament of mercy so in heaven there is happiness and onely happiness sorrow is done away as well as sin it is said he will wipe all tears from their eys The afflictions of the soul are gone there are no more doubtings of Gods love nor sense of his displeasure here though we are pardoned and the wound be cured yet the scarrs remain As Absolom could not see the Kings face when he was restored in wise dispensation God sometimes hides his face from us we need to be dyeted and to taste the vinegar and the gall sometimes as well as the honey and sweetness The world is a middle place standing between heaven and hell and therefore hath something of both a mixture of pleasures and sorrows both good and evil are to be received from the hand of God but there there is fulness of joy for evermore Psal. 16.11 here we complain that the candle of the Lord doth not shine over us with a like brightness but there our Sun remains in an eternal high-noon without clowds and the shadows of this night The afflictions of the body are done away heaven is a happy ayr where none are sick there is no such thing there as Gowts and Agues and the grinding pains of the stone The body here is called a vile body Phil. 3.21 as it is the instrument of sin and the subject of diseases we have the root of diseases in the soul and the matter and fewel of diseases in the body peccant humors and principles of corruption as wood is eaten out with worms that breed within it self so are there in our bodies principles of corruption that do at lengâ—h destroy them but there we are wholly incorruptible Yea because deformity in the body is a monument of Gods displeasure one of the inconveniences introduced by Adams fall it is done away the bodies rise in due proportion whatever was monstrous or mishapen in the first edition is corrected in the second And for violence without heaven is a quiet place when there are tumults in the world God is introduced Psal. 2. as sitting in the heavens a quâ—et posture There is nothing to discompose those blessed spirits the company of wicked men is a burthen Lots righteous soul was vexed with it 2 Pet. 2.7 but there they are bound hand and foot and cast into utter darkness as when men will not be ruled they are sent to prison here the children of God are subject to a number of infirmities hunger thirst nakedness cold want but there we have a rich inheritance as well as a glorious Eph. 18. the distinctions of poor and rich as understood in the world do not outlive time we have enough of true riches which is eternal glory and the full fruition of God Labour ceaseth though there be a continual exercise of grace all things rest when they come to their proper place so do those which dye in the Lord we still serve God but without weariness yea we are freed from the necessities of nature eating drinking and sleeping to which the greatest Potentates are subject though they are exempted from hard bodily labour they are not exempted from the necessities of nature meat is for the belly and the belly for meats but God shall destroy both it and them 1 Cor. 6.12 The use of meats and of the stomach and of the belly is abolished it is a piece of our misery that our life is patcht up of so many creatures as a torn Garment is pieced and patcht up with supplies from abroad here the sheep or the silk-worm afford us cloathing the beasts of the earth and fish of the Sea serve for food and all to support a ruinous fabrick ever ready to drop about our eares but then we are above meat and drink and apparel nakedness will be no shame for glory will serve instead of a robe and it will be meat and drink enough to do our fathers will the body will not be a clog to the soul but a help that mass of flesh we carry about us is but the prison of the soul where it looks out by the windows of the senses but then it is no longer the prison of the soul but the Temple In short all that I have said upon this branch is comprised in Rev. 21.4 and God will wipe