an agony of conscience * this made the Prophet Jonah call the Whales belly the belly of hell because he was deserted there Jonah 2. 2 4. Out of the belly of hell cryed I then I said I am cast out of thy sight Heman grew distracted upon the suspension of Gods favour Psal. 88. 16. While I suffer thy terrors I am distracted but death will free from desertion a believer after death shall never see any more Eclipses God will draw aside the Curtain and pull off his vail and the soul shall be for ever sunning it self in the light of Gods countenance 8. Death will put an end to the imperfections of nature Our natural knowledge is very imperfect the most perceptive intelligent person may say as Agur Prov. 30. 2. I have not the understanding of a man Since the fall the lamp of reason burns dimme there are many arcana naturae knots in nature that we cannot untie Why Nilus should overflow in summer when by the course of nature waters are lowest why the Load-Stone should incline to the pole starre why the Sea should be higher than the earth yet not drown it How the bones grow in the womb Eccles. 11. 5. Many of these things are riddles and paradoxes by eating of the Tree of knowledge we have lost the key of knowledge * how are we maim'd in our intellectuals by the fall we have lost our head-piece there are some diseases which would make Galens head ake to finde out The River Euripus was too deep for Aristotle the Poet could say Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas * Socrates said on his death-bed there were many things which he had yet to learn our knowledge is like the twilight dim and duskish the greatest part of our knowledge is not so much as the least part of our ignorance all which considered no wonder to hear this language from a Saint cupio dissolvi I have a desire to depart death crowns a Christian with fulnesse of knowledge when he is snuffed by death the candle of his understanding will burn brighter at death a child of God doth perfectly recover the use of his reason 9. Death will put an end to the imperfections of grace our graces are our best jewels but here they are in their infancy and minority therefore the Saints are said to receive but primitias Spiritus the first fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8. 23. The best Christian is like a childe put out to Nurse he is very weak in grace faith is feeble love luke-warm grace though it be not dead it is sickly Rev. 3. 2. Strengthen the things which are ready to dye grace is like gold in the oare drossy and impure the most refined soul hath some dregs this Motto may be written upon a Christians graces plurima desunt he that shoots furthest in holinesse comes short of the mark of perfection * well then may a believer desire to be dissolved death will free him from all the imperfections of his holinesse it will make him pure as the Angels not having spot or wrinckle Ephes. 5. 27. 10. Death will put an end to a weary Pilgrimage we are here in a pilgrim condition 1 Pet. 2. 11. A Christian walks with his Pilgrims staffe in his hand the staffe of the promise in the hand of faith * now death will put an end to this Pilgrimage it takes away the Pilgrims staff and sets a crown upon his head no wonder that the gratious soul cries out with Saint Paul having a desire to depart Object But against this it may be objected some of the Saints have prayed against death Hezekiah when the message of death was brought pray'd against it and wept sore Isa. 38. 2 3. so that Hezekiah had not a desire to depart Answ 1. Hezekiah did not pray simply against death but in a limited sense at that time there might be several reasons assigned why at that time death was not welcome to him As 1. Hezekiah desired to live awhile longer that he might do more work for God ver. 38. The dead cannot praise thee intimating that if he had been then taken off by death he was capable of doing God no more service he was loth to be cut down till he had borne more fruit Besides had he then died in the infancy of Reformation the adversaries of God would have insulted and made songs of triumph at his Funeral 2. Hezekiah was unwilling to dye at that time because he wanted issue God had promis'd to David 1 King 8. 25. That those of his line which were godly should not want some of their seed to succeed them in the Throne now in this respect it was a great discomfort to Hezekiah to dye childlesse for he might have thought himself no better than an hypocrite inasmuch as God had promised issue to the Kings of Davids line that feared him Upon these and other considerations Hezekiah might pray against death at that juncture of time And whereas it may be said that many of Gods children are unwilling to dye I answer a Christian is a compounded creature flesh and spirit and from this composition there may be a conflict between the fear of death and the desire of death but at last the spiritual part prevails and as faith grows stronger fears grow weaker thus it was with Paul having a desire to depart So much for the first branch of the doctrine that it is the desire of a true Saint to be gone from hence having a desire to depart 2. I proceed now to the second branch of the doctrine that it is a Saints desire to be with Christ Saint Paul long'd to lie on that soft pillow where John the beloved Disciple did viz. the bosome of Jesus * There had been little comfort in departing if the Apostle had not put in this word to be with Christ Death will make a glorious change to a believer 't is but crossing the mare mortuum the dead Sea and he shall be with Christ Death to a childe of God is like the Whirl-wind to the Prophet Eliah it blew off his mantle but carried the Prophet up to heaven So death is a boisterous wind which blowes off the mantle fo the flesh for the body is but the mantle the soul is wrapped in but it carries the soul up to Christ the day of a believers dissolution is the day of his coronation Though death be a bitter cup here is sugar at the bottome it translates the soul of a believer to Christ though the flesh calls death the last enemy * yet faith calls it the best friend it brings a man to Christ which is far better This word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to be with Christ implies three things Intuition Fruition Duration 1. To be with Christ implies Intuition 1 Joh. 3. 2. We shall see him as he is here we see him as he is not he is not mutable he is
be with Christ The Apostle had three great desires and they were all centred upon Christ One was to be found in Christ * the other was to magnifie Christ * the third was to be with Christ * Here observe two things 1. Paul doth not say I desire to depart and be in heaven but to be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with Christ it is Christs presence makes heaven * as the Kings presence makes the Court 'T is not the Cherubims or Seraphims which make Paradise the Lamb is the light thereof Rev. 21. 23. 2. From the connexion of the words having a desire to depart and to be with Christ we clearly see that the soul of a believer doth not sleep in the body after death a drowsie opinion but goes immediately to Christ * Upon the divorce of the soul from the body there follows an Espousal of the soul to Christ 2 Cor. 5. 8. Absent from the body present with the Lord * It were better for believers to stay here if they did not presently go to Christ after death For here the Saints are daily improving their graces here they have many praelibamina sweet tasts of Gods love so that it were better to stay here and Paul wished that which would be to his losse if the soul should sleep in the body and not go immediately after death to Christ * Which is farre better {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a believer is no looser by death His change is for the better a science that is grafted into a better stock and planted in a better soil is no wayes damnified A believer after death is set into a better STOCK Christ and is planted in a better soile Heaven this can be no losse but an advantage Well therefore may the Apostle say to be with Christ is far better In the words there are these three parts 1. Saint Pauls choice to be with Christ 2. The excellency of his choice it is farre better 3. The nodus or the strait he was in coarctor I am in a strait betwixt two this holy man was in a great dilemma he was straitned between service and reward * He was desirous of glory yet willing to adjourn his own happinesse and stay out of heaven a while that he might be a means to bring others thither * From the words thus opened there are three observations 1. It is the desire of a true Saint to remove from hence and be with Christ 2. To be with Christ is far better how much better it is we shall better understand when we are in heaven some Angel is best able to speak to this point 3. That which stayes a Saint here in the World is a desire of doing service This did cast the ballance with the Apostle and was the only tempting motive to keep him here awhile he looked upon his abode in the flesh as an opportunity of service Paul was willing to dye yet content to live that he might be a Factor for Christ upon earth I shall at this time insist upon the first proposition That it is the desire of a true Saint to remove from hence and to be with Christ this proposition hath two branches of each distinctly 1. It is the desire of a true Saint to be gone from hence having a desire to depart What a wicked man fears that a godly man hopes for I desire saith Paul to depart a sinner cries loth to depart he doth not say come Lord Jesus but Stay Lord Jesus he would live alwayes here he knows no other heaven but this and 't is death to him to be turned out of his heaven It was the speech of Axiochus the Philosopher when he was to dye Shall I be deprived of this light shall I leave all my sweet delights * David calls death a going out of the World Psal. 39. 13. A wicked man doth not go out but is drag'd out he is like a Tenant who hath gotten possession and will not out of the house till the Serjeants pull him out If a wicked man were put to his choice he would never come where God is he would choose the Serpents curse to eat dust Gen. 3. 14. but not return to dust If a wicked man might be voti compos have his wish he would serve no other God but his belly and to this he would ever liberally poure drink offerings But a soul enlivened and ennobled with a principle of grace looks upon the World as a Wildernesse wherein are fiery Serpents and he desires to get out of this Wildernesse Simeon having taken Christ in his armes cries out Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Luke 2. 29. He that hath taken Christ in the armes of his faith will sing Simeons song Lord let thy servant depart David prayed to know the measure of his dayes Psal. 39. 4. because saith Theodoret he desired to hear the good news of deaths approach * The Saints of God have looked upon themselves as imprisoned in the body and have longed for a Jayle delivery * The bird desires to go out of the Cage though it be made of gold * Hiliaron chides himself that he was no more willing to die Go forth my soul what fearest thou * Ignatius was desirous of Martyrdom that he might gain the presence of Christ in glory * A Christian of the right breed is ambitiously desirous to put off the earthly cloaths of his body make his bed in the grave * how is this bed perfum'd with Christs lying in it a pillow of down is not so sweet as a pillow of dust a regenerate person looking upon himself as held with the earthen fetter of the flesh and his soul put into a movable Sepulchre * cries out with David O that I had wings like a Dove that I might flie away and be at rest Psal. 55. 6. And indeed no wonder a true Saint doth desire a dismisse and is so earnest to have his Passe to be gone from hence * if we consider how beneficial death is to a child of God it puts a period to all his evils in particular there are ten evils that death will put an end to 1. Death will put an end to a believers sinnes Sinne is the great incendiary it doth us all the mischief Sinne may be compared to the Planet Saturn which hath a malignant influence it is the wombe of our sorrows and the grave of our comforts * Sinne is the sinners bond Acts 8. 23. and the Saints burden Psal. 38. 3. How is a believer tyred out with his corruptions I am weary of my life saith Rebecca because of the daughters of Heth Gen. 27. 46. That which makes a child of God weary of his life is his proud unbelieving heart Saint Paul could better carry his iron Chain than his sinnes O wretched man that I
am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Rom. 7. 24. When grace spurs the soul forward the curben bit of sinne checks it and pulls it back again There is much of the Old man in the new man * There is a party in every regenerate heart that is true to the Devil a party that will not pray that will not believe A Christian is like a bowle with a double byas he hath an earthly byas upon his will and a spiritual byas and these draw him several wayes the evil I would not that do I Rom. 7. 19. Sinne mingles it self with our holy things we cannot act either our duties or our graces without sin we are like children who cannot write without blotting the sweet Rose of grace doth not grow without its prickles * No wonder then a believer desires to depart death will free him from his spiritual distempers when he hath done breathing he shall have done sinning {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 2. Death will put an end to a believers tentations Our whole life saith Austin is nothing but a tentation * we tread upon snares Satan is ever casting in the Angle of a tentation to see whether we will bite he knowes how to suit his tentations he tempted Achan with a wedge of gold he tempted David with beauty we cannot lock the door of our heart so fast by prayer but a tentation will enter * Sometimes Satan comes more furiously as a Red Dragon sometimes more slily as a Serpent sometimes he baits his hook with Scripture and tempts to sinne under a mask of Religion as when he tempts to evil that good may come of it * Thus can he transform himself into an Angel of light Is it not a grievous thing for a Virgin to have her chastity daily assaulted Is it not sad to have the Devils bullets continually flying about our ears No wonder then a believer is willing to depart death will set him out of gun-shot he shall never be troubled with Satans fiery darts any more though grace puts a child of God out of the Devils possession it is death onely frees him from the Divels tentation 3. Death will put an end to a believers fears Fear is the souls palsie there is torment in feare 1 John 4. 18. Cicero calls fear one of the three plagues of Mankinde and the best of the Saints {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} are haunted with this evil spirit they cannot rejoyce without trembling the believer fears lest his heart should put a cheat upon him he fears God doth not love him he fears lest he should tire in his march to heaven the best faith may sometimes have its fears as the best stars have their twinckling These fears as Socrates saith arme a man against himself they are very afflictive leaving sad impressions of melancholy behind No wonder then a believer longs to depart out of this life why should he fear that which frees him from fear the King of terrour makes all fear vanish 4. Death will dry up a believers tears Rev. 7. 17. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes weeping is nothing but a cloud of sorrow gathered in the heart dropping into water A Christian often hath none to keep him company but his own griefs and sorrows he sits as Israel by the Rivers weeping as soon as the child is born it weeps when Moses was born he was laid in an Ark of bulrushes where he did as it were baptize himself with his own tears Exod. 2. 6. And behold the babe wept ever since we looked upon the Tree of knowledge our eyes have watered there are many things to occasion weeping quidque facis lachrymis opus est 1. Our sinnes who can look into his own heart with dry eyes 2. Losse of relations which is like the pulling a limb from the body Joseph wept over his dead father Gen. 50. 1. Well then 't is not to be admired that a believer desires to depart from hence he shall leave the valley of tears the bottle of tears shall be stop'd his water shall be turned into wine his mourning into musick his lamentations into Hallelujahs death is the handkerchief to wipe off all tears 5. Death will put an end to a believers molestations man is born to trouble Job 5. 7. he is the natural heir to it This life is subject to injury * we do not as Seneca saith finish our troubles while we live here but change them Quisque suos patimur manes Every one hath his crosse to carry sometimes poverty pincheth sometimes sicknesse tortures sometimes Law-suits vex man is like a Tennis-ball bandied up and down by providence while wicked men are in the world never look for rest These troubled Seas as the Prophet calls them * will be casting forth their foam and mire upon the godly and well then may a believer say his Nunc dimittis Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart Death gives a child of God his quietus est * it sends him a Writ of ease Job 3. 17. There that is in the grave the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest 6. Death puts an end to a believers cares Care is vexatious and anxious it eats out the comfort of life the Greek word for care {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} comes from a primitive that signifies to cut the heart in pieces care doth fret as a canker it discruciates the minde it breaks the sleep it wasts the spirits this is the wrack which the soul is stretched upon 'T is hard I had almost said impossible to shake off this viper of care while we live all our comforts are careful comforts care is to the minde as a burden to the back it loads the spirits and with over-loading sinks them care is a fruit of the curse Adams want of care hath brought us to care have you not sometimes seen the bryar growing by the honey-suckle so that you cannot well gather the honey-suckle but you are scratched with the bryar Thus in gathering riches how is the head and heart prick'd with care and is there not great reason why a child of God should desire to depart is it good being among the briars death is the cure of care we are thoughtful and solicitous how to get such an estate how to provide for such a childe now death comes to a believer as a friend and saith Never perplex and distract thy mind thus I will free thee from all these heart-killing cares I will strike but once and that stroak shall relieve thee 7. Death will put an end to the night of desertion thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Psal. 30. 7. The soul in desertion is within an inch of despair in affliction the world is against a man in tentation Satan is against a man in desertion God is against a man Alstead calls desertion
not mortal in heaven we shall see him as he is When Socrates was to die he comforted himself with this that he should go to the place where he should see Homer and Musaeus and other Worthies who lived in the Age before him A believer may comfort himself with this that he shall see Christ here we see him but through a glass darkly but what will it be when he shall be bespangled in all his Embroidery and shall shew forth himself in his full glory to his Saints * He in Lucian said to his friend I will shew thee all the glory of Greece when thou hast seen Solon thou hast seen all So he that sees Jesus Christ sees all the glory of Paradise Christ being the mirrour of beauty the quintessence of happinesse Some ask the question how and in what manner we shall see Christ whether we shall see his God-head with bodily eyes it is not good to be wise above what is written thus far I think may with modesty be asserted that we shall with our bodily eyes behold Christs humane nature His glory as a Mediatour shall be visible to the Saints and shall be beheld by glorified eyes in this sense that Scripture is to be understood Job 19. 25. with these eyes shall I see God great and amazing will that glory be which shall sparkle from the humane nature of Christ if his transfiguration was so glorious * what will his inauguration be Austin wished that he might have seen three things before he died Paul in the Pulpit Rome in its glory and Christ in the flesh but what were that to this sight of Christ in heaven we shall behold not a crucifyed body but a glorifyed body 2. To be with Christ implies Fruition we shall not only see him but enjoy him therefore in Scripture the Saints are said not only to behold him but to be glorified with him Rom. 8. 17. and glory is said not only to be revealed to us but in us Rom. 8. 18. And enter thou into the joy of thy Lord Mat. 25. 21. not only see it but enter into it A man may see a fair Arbour drawn upon the Wall but he cannot enter into it this glory of heaven may be entred into as the spunge sucks in the wine so there shall be a libation and sucking in of glory from this fruition of Christ a torrent of divine joy will flow into the soul 3. To be with Christ implies Duration 1 Thes. 4. 17. So shall we ever be with the Lord the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the fashion of the world passeth away 1 Cor. 7. 31. Earthly comforts though they may be sweet they are swift Plutarch reports of Alexander that he caused to be painted on a Table a Sword within a Wheele implying that what he had gotten by his Sword was subject to be turned about with the Wheele of providence if we had the longest Lease of these things it would soon be run out but this priviledg of being with Christ runs parallel with eternity so shall we be ever with the Lord Use 1. See from hence the difference between a believers departing and a wicked mans departing to a believer it is an happy departing to a wicked man it is a sad departing there 's nothing but departing he departs out of this life and he departs from Christ depart from me ye cursed he departs from beams of glory into flames of fire he departs from the society of Angels into the fellowship of Divels Mat. 25. 41. He hath never done departing 't is mors sine morte the wicked shall be ever consuming yet never consumed they may tremble to think of departing well may the mourners go about the street when a wicked man dies hell may rightly be called bochim the place of weepers * See how little cause a child of God hath to fear death when it carries him to Christ This is a death-bed cordial we are naturally possessed with a strange kind of palpitation and trembling at the thoughts of death as if we were in a shaking palsie * whereas there is nothing more really advantagious to a Christian death is a bridge that leads to the Paradise of God all the hurt that death doth to a believer is to carry him to Christ and is not that farre better death pulls off the rags of the body and puts Christs Robes upon the soul The serious consideration of this would make a believer above the desire of life and the fear of death Object But may a childe of God say I could rejoyce at the gain of death but I fear the pain of death I desire the Haven but I tremble at the voyage Answ 1. In other cases we do not refuse pain there is pain in the setting of a bone in the launcing of a sore yet we endure the pain contentedly because it is in ordine ad sanitatem in order to a cure Death is an healing thing it will cure a Christian of all his wounds by making one issue it cures all the rest 2. Do we endure no pain at all in our life Job felt so many miseries that he did choose rather to die than live Job 7. 5. 15. My flesh is cloathed with wormes my skin is broken and become loathsome so that my soul chooseth strangling and death rather than life the life of man is a continual catastrophe and is interwoven with miseries * some have felt more pain in their life then others have at their death 3. What are a few pangs of death compar'd with the pangs of a guilty conscience or with the flames of hell which God hath freed a believer from How light is death compar'd with the weight of glory 1 Cor. 4. 17. how short in respect of eternity the present suffering is not worthy of the glory which shall be revealed in the children of God Rom. 8. 18. 4. We make death more than it is as the Moabites thought the waters had been blood when they received only a colour and tincture from the Sun-beams 2 King 3. 23. we fancy death worse than it is we look upon it through a multiplying glasse fear makes a Christian see double shut the eye of sense and open the eye of faith and death will appear lesse formidable Use 2. Let us then put our selves upon a scrutiny and trial whether we are persons that shall go to Christ when we dye 't is certain we shall depart but the question is whether shall we go to Christ Quest How may that be known Answ. If we are in Christ while we live we shall go to Christ when we dye union is the ground of priviledge we must be in Christ before we can be with Christ * many hope to go to Christ when they dye but they are not in Christ are they in Christ that do not know him are they in Christ that hate him in his Ministers in