while alive Eph. 4.18 and 2.1 to be dead in an evill sense void of the life of God dead in sins and trespasses but of this this place cannot be understood neither they that are so dead are not righteous men but as yet unrighteous and ungodly But 3. Death is sometime taken in a good sense for a spirituall death not in sin but to a mans self and sin as when the Apostle saies Gal. 2.20 I am crucified with Christ yet I live c. Rom. 6.4 We are planted with him into the similitude of his death And 7.9 When the law came sin revived and I died That is When a man formerly alive to his wisdome parts priviledges righteousnesse after the Law c. comes to be taken off from all life in them confidence springing from them expectation of favour from God because of them findes no support comfort or encouragement from them sees them all to be nothing in the account of God and so looses and departs with them all in that regard to enjoy the full grace of God in Christ Unrighteous men oft times finde life in their own hands power and works endeavours parts c. but the man that doth righteousnesse dies to all that he may live to God and Christ may be his life And so he dies also to the world riches gloâ—â— pleasures treasures of it and whatsoever is therein so as not to love cleave to and have his life therein or suck his soul sweetnesse and satisfaction there-from It is crucified to him and he to it as Gal. 6.14 He is condemned and cast out by it and he again condemns and reproves it and findes no goodnesse or life in the customs approbation or excellencies of it So Paul saies of himself he died daily 1 Cor. 15. and saies to the Colossians chap. 3.3 Ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God And this death in these severall particulars the righteous man dieth to and in these dyings also he hath hope so that this acceptation of the word death we may understand to he included in this expression in the Text. 4. The word death signifies also dangers of death to the body heavy afflictions and distresses such as bring into eminent dangers of the dissolution of the body and soul each from other as when Paul said that God delivered him from so great a death 2 Cor. 8.9 and that he was in deaths often 2 Cor. 11.23 Fifthly and lastly It is used most ordinarily to signifie the death of the body the separation made between it and the soul the laying down of this earthly tabernacle so Christ was put to death in the flesh and Abraham and the Prophets died c. And in this and the next foregoing sense joined with it shall I here especially eye and speak to it It being a clear truth that the righteous come into many tribulations and deaths or dangers and at last also lay down their earthly tabernacles and die in the flesh 2 Cor. 5.1 and 4.12 Let us now view some reason of this why they are subjected to or how they come to yeeld up to such deaths The question is Quest. Why and whence it is that the righteous come into dangers and into death The answer is Answ That though they are in their conditions and spirits above death yet their bodies are subject thereto from sundry causes as If we look upon secundary causes It is because 1. They have the same frail natures and infirm constitutions as other men have they have and carry about them the seeds and principles of mortality righteousnesse leads to peace in them and to hopes under them but doth not keep death from them Yea 2. They have more cause then other men inasmuch as they have more enemies Satan stirring up instruments against them yea and if God permit working upon the principles of mortality in them more forceably and violently as in Job if by any means he might destroy them he stirs up the world to hate reproach and persecute them so that considering the worlds hating of them and plots against them it 's a greater wonder and more to be admired that they die no sooner then that they die at all that they meet not with many more deaths then that they meet with so many If we look upon the first and higher causes then we finde 1. Sinne in them as well as in others and that exposeth to death the body being corrupted with sin must die that it may be made new and incorrupt and that springs from an higher cause yet 2. The appointment of God It 's an ordinance of his making that mankinde should be subject to death It 's appointed to men once to die Heb. 9.27 And this ordinance includes and reaches to beleevers as well as others they being men also and God would have it so for divers good ends and purposes as to instance 1. That they might have something to humble them and keep them low in themselves while they are minded of their sin and sinfulnesse that let in death and experiment themselves in mortality frailty and weaknesse like other men and so are led also to see that they as well as any other have daily need of help from above that they need a Saviour out of death 2. That they seeing their own nothingnesse and need of a Saviour might be more earnestly stirred up to accept thankfully and diligently seek after and have recourse unto and exercise faith in the Saviour that God hath freely given to remedy and help them Deut. 32.29 Psal 9â— 11. for the consideration of their later end and the right numbering of their daies is a means to make them apply their hearts more heedfully to wisdom in minding the grace of God and comforting themselves therein against their straits and sufferings and breathing after the experiments of the power of God in supporting and bearing them up in deaths and in due season delivering them out of them Were we not subjected to death and misery in ourselves we should never so much prize and look out after salvation and help given us in another 3. That God in Christ might be the more abundantly glorified in supporting and carrying them through deaths and sufferings and raising them out of them for his strength is perfected in weaknesse and his power in infirmities 2 Cor. 12. as thereby it is most eminently put forth so therethrough also it 's most fully and clearly seen and known and being seen is most acknowledged as Christ said of Lazarus his death Joh. 1â— so we may say of the death of all his people it is that the son of man might be glorified for it 's greater glory to uphold in deaths and raise dry bones out of death then to preserve from it As the resurrection of the dead when mens bodies are wasted consumed and the reliques thereof scattered and dispersed doth more appose reason and seems more absurd to mans conception
then other things so will it be a brighter demonstration of the wisdom and power of God and that in which he shall be more admired then in other things When I have opened your graves and brought you out from them and put the spirit of life into you that looked upon your selves as dry ones past all hope of life saith God to the house of Israel Ezek. 7.11 12 then shall you know that I am the Lord then emphatically then more fully and clearly so as to acknowledge and to admire it and give glory to me c. 4. That they might not be alwaies under evill he orders this for their good as well as for his own glory for his glory in their good and great mercy and goodnesse it is to them to be taken away from the face of evill as the phrase is in Isa 57.1 2. Mipna baragna◠2 Pet. 2.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a facie mali here they live amongst an evill generation of wicked men that vex and disquiet their righteous souls as the Sodomites did righteous Lot men that oppose and blaspheme God in his way truth spirit c. and daily plot and conspire the ruine of the just and these evill men make the times evill and dangerous partly by corrupting the truth of God and bringing in dangerous errours and partly by their oppressions cruelties malice fraud and other enormities which provoke God to send plagues pestilences famine and sword and such like sore judgements for such things the godly mourn and sigh and their lives are full of bitternesse now though God see it good to try and exercise his people with these things as in a furnace yet these are not his peoples portion out of very love and faithfullnesse therefore he will take them from the face of these evils either before judgements come that they may not see and be perplexed with them as he intimates unto Hezekiah 2 King 2.28 2 when he threatned sore judgements upon the people he would first take him away and he should have peace in his daies or else out of them that they be not overburthened with them here they are tossed too and fro with troubles hated reproached persecuted wearied out almost with labours and sorrows in and for the Gospel and name of Christ and for their just conversations with men and therefore God out of compassion will take them away by death in due season and give them rest as it follows they shall enter into peace Isa 57. ◠they shall rest in their beds each one walking in his uprightnesse Should any man be here alwaies continued his life would be a very unsupportable burthen to him how much more the righteous who have usually a deeper share in troubles here then other men 5. He orders death to them that putting off this earthly mashy tabernacle they might be brought to a more full enjoyment of Jesus Christ and so of himself in him here their enjoyments of God are lower and more intermixt they are letted by this bodily grossenesse from seeing or receiving so much of him as their spirits in more spirituall bodies are capable of no man can see God and live and yet the happinesse of the soul stands in the sight and fruition of God which that they might have more fully he takes them out of these bodies to his Son 2 Cor. 5.6 while we sojourn in the body we are absent from the Lord we are here as strangers in a forraign countrey where we have no city to continue in Heb. 13.14 2 Cor. 5.8 but when we are taken out of the body we shall be at home we shall be nearer to Christ and have a greater enjoyment of him whence death is great advantage to the righteous and Paul desired it rather then life I desire saith he to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1.21 23. for that is far better for me c. For these and such like good and gracious ends God hath ordered death to the righteous which I have but briefly spoken to desiring to passe to the main thing in the text the second thing observed which is indeed the full expression of the text it self viz. That the righteous hath hope in his death Propos 2. That is he sinks not under it but lives in death his spirit lives when his body dies he is saved from the terrour of death by the hope he hath of a better life and so not only sees not the second death or comes not into it but misseth also the sting and bitterness that many through ignorance and unbelief meet with in the first death he feels a spirituall life in the midst of a spirituall and in the midst of a corporall death too When his spirit dies to himself and to the world so that it findes nothing in the one nor in the other to support comfort or chear him but sees all in himself polluted and sinfull his very works of righteousnesse too short and scanty to cover him from wrath and vengeance and all in the world vain yea vanity it self and full of bitternesse and vexation in both nothing but death yet even then in Christ he findes sweetnesse life and satisfaction he findes him living bread and feeds upon him as the most ample glorious witnesse and manifestation of Gods love and in feeding there he lives I am crucified with Christ saith the Apostle that is to himself and to his own best endeavours though after Law and to the world with all its excellencies and yet saith he I live and yet that was passively he not actively but Christ lives in me and the life that I live in the flesh is by the saith of the Son of God c. As for other men take away their comforts in the world and confidence they have in themselves and you undoe them they die despair and perish but the just shall live by faith and so it is with him in the midst of dangers and of bodily death he hath such a hope as saves supports him and bears him up in the worst times and conditions he hath hope in death and in that he hath hope he differs from two sorts of people as in the nature and quality of his hope he differs from others from these two 1. From those that are driven away in their wickednesse with wrath Pro. 14 3◠as in the former part of the verse such as the guilt of sin in their consciences and sence of vengeance hurries away to desperation and makes them like the chaff driven away with the winde Psal 1.4 so that they cannot stand in death when they apprehend Gods hand lifted up against them but sink down into hell unbelief and terrour 2. From those that though they are not so hurried away in a tempest as being past hope yet when they die they are like stones as was Nabal or as it 's to be ferred some do that the people use to say die
beleeve and close with his sayings that they being intertained Christ himself to whom they bear witnesse and whom they set forth may be beleeved on come to and received into the heart he may be entertained into the fouls affection desire delight confidence c. that so he that is Gods righteousnesse provided for us and given unto us being received and entertained thou mai'st in him be presented righteous to God and filled with the fruits of righteousnesse both toward God and men that so thou having of the spirit of Christ within thee it may lead teach support and comfort thee and in the midst of dangers yea and of death it self fill thee with a lively hope of life and glory Friends do righteously in beleeving the word of God and looking to Christ by faith be not enemies to your selves by heeding lying vanites put not away from you your own mercies run not desperately through a spirit of envy or malice or through worldlinesse pride presumption Atheisme loosenesse into your own destruction What good will you get to your selves in the issue by being wicked by being envious against the Gospel and grace of God by quarrelling against and resisting the truth by scorning contemning hating and reproaching them that out of love and good will preach and hold it forth to you by rejecting the testimony of God and closing with every vain phantasie by which you think your selves strengthened against it whom do you fight against in opposing the word of God is it not against God himself and is it not against your own good Do you not endeavour thereby to pervert your own waies to make his grace and goodnesse questionable as concerning your selves and so put your selves from having the word of God the ground of your faith to fetch the ground of it from some blinde conjectures and good conceits of your selves Oh stand not in your own light neglect not so great salvation as is set before you nor rest in such a notion all profession of truth as leaves the soul destitute of the power of truth such a consent to it and profession of it as yet leaves the soul unrighteous brings it not into Christ nor receives not the power and Spirit of Christ into it Let not love of the world and worldly vanities keep you out either from attending to and receiving truth nor from submitting to and walking out in the power of truth perhaps you are rich some of you and injoy much in the world you can fill and satiate your selves with the profits advantages and delights of it you finde a great deal of satisfaction in your own waies some in coveteousnes others in pride and others in voluptuousnes c. But oh consider the emptinesse and vanity of all these satisfactions will the world and the things thereof last for ever is not God even now powring out whole vials of his wrath upon it and is he not staining the pride of all glory and bringing to contempt all that 's honourable in the earth Is he not marring the form of it and casting bitternesse into all the comforts of the earth and what will your riches profit you if God come to plead with you with sword famine and his sore judgements do you think to bribe his wrath or make an agreement with hell and death do you think that his hand will not finde you out or do you think your riches honours pleasures accomodations in the world will then fill your souls with hope O no beloved these things will then prove more empty vanties you may live as richly and sumptuously and in as great pleasure as the rich man in the Gospel Luk. 16. yea and perhaps to have as honourable a buriall and yet the next news may be that that was his unhappy portion that you are in hell tormented what then will all these things you here set your hearts upon advantage you what will it profit you could you get and enjoy the whole world and to lose your souls in the getting it die like stocks or blocks without God and without Christ and without hope or to die howling out with vexation and despair Alas what good would all his riches and places or great funerall c. have done this gentleman if he had died without faith in God and without the hope of his glory and so before his body had been interred his soul had been in hell Be you willing to follow his steps in owning the truth of God and the grace of God therein declared and in so laying down your selves to the Crosse of Christ and cordially desiring the knowledge and enjoyment of Christ that so your end may be as hopefull as his you may not be afraid of death and faint under it but hope in it and rejoice over it for the righteous man is he that hath hope in his death 3. To conclude let me speak one word to you that do follow after righteousnesse even the righteousnesse of God you that have received the record of God concerning his Son beleeved his love and therethrough are brought to appreach unto him to have good thoughts of him and have cast your souls upon him and set your hope in him what hath been said may be usefull unto you for your encouragement and consolation I shall say this to you my brethren hold fast your integrity follow on yet after righteousnesse Rev. 22.11 be not weary of well doing nor saint in the way he that is righteous let him be righteous still and be that is holy let him be holy still let him continue and increase in holinesse and righteousnesse serving God in them all the daies of his life abide in Christ and in his way attending to the grace of God and submitting thereto to be acted and led thereby to deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts Tit. 2.11 12. Heb. 13 1â— 16 and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking diligently that none fail of the grace of God that none be prophane as Esau to sell the hope set before him the birthright given you for a messe of pottage for any worldly carnall transitory vanities take heed of consulting with flesh and bloud lest you be turned aside from the word of God to other doctrines or to be corrupted to worldly waies and evils take heed that the cares of this life and the deceitfullnesse of riches or love of other things in this world do not by little and little steal in upon your spirits to cheak the good seed of the word of God and so to make you content your selves with a barren profession of Christ without power and fruitfullnesse Hold fast your hope and confidence in Christ Heb. 10.35 and hold fast your good conversation according to Christ knowing that your confidence hath a great recompense of reward 1 Cor. 15 18. Gal. 6 7. and your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord in due time ye shall reap if ye faint