poise and all stands still or draws the pins and all the frame doth fall to pieces We shall breath no more nor speak nor think nor walk no more Our pulse will beat no more Our eyes shall sâ—e the light no more Our ears shall hear the voice of man delightful sounds and melodie no more we shall taste no more our meat or drink Our appetite is gone Our strength is gone Our natural warmth is turned into an earthly cold Our comelyness and beauty is turned into a ghastly loathsome deformity Our white and red doth soon turn into horrid blackness Our tender flesh hath lost its feeling and is become a sâ—nseless lump that feeleth not whithâ—r it is carryed nor how it is useâ— that must be hidden in the earth lest it annoy the living that quickly turns to loathsome putrefaction and after that to common earth Were all the once-comely bodies that now are rotting in one Church-yard uncovered and here presented to your view the sight would tell you more effectually then my words do what an enemy Death is to our Nature When corruption hath finished its work you see the earth that once was flesh you see the bones you see the skuls you see the holes where once were brains and eyes and mouth This change Death makes And that universally and unavoidably The Prince cannot resist it by his Majesty for he hath sin'd against the highest Majesty The strong cannot resist it by their strength For it is the Messenger of the Allmighty The commanders must obey it The Conquerours must be conquered by it The Rich cannot bribe it The Learned Orator cannot perswade it to pass him by The skilful Physician cannot save himself from the mortal stroak Neither fields nor gardens earth or sea affordeth any medicine to prevent it All have sinned and all must die Dust we are and to dust we must return Gen 3.19 And thus should we remain if the Lord of life should not revive us 2. And it is not only to the Body but to the Soul also that Death is naturally an Enemy The Soul hath naturally a Love and Inclination to its Body and therefore it feareth a separation before and desireth a Restauration afterward Abstracting Joy and Torment Heaven and Hell in our consideration the state of Separation as such is a natural evil even to the humane Soul of Christ it was so while his Body remained in the grave which separated state is the Hades that our English calleth Hell that Christ is said to have gone into And though the Soul of Christ and the souls of those that die in him do pass into a far more happy state then they had in flesh yet that is accidentally from Rewarding Justice and the Bounty of the Lord and not at all from Death as Death the separation as such is still an evil And therefore the Soul is still desirous of the Bodies Resurrection and knoweth that its felicity will then be greater when the re-union and glorification hath perfected the whole man So that Death as Death is unwelcome to the soul it self though Death as accidentally gainfull may be desired 3. And to the unpardoned unrenewed soul Death is the passage to everlasting misery and in this regard is far more terrible then in all that hitherto hath been spoken O could the guilty soul be sure that there is no Justice to take hold on it after death and no more pain and sorrow to be felt but that man dyeth as a beast that hath no more to feel or lose then Death would seem a tolerable evil But it s the Living death the dying life the endless woe to which death leads the guilty soul that makes it to be unspeakably terrible The utter darkness the unquenchable fire the worm that dyeth not the everlasting flames of the wrath of God these are the chief horror and sting of death to the ungodly O were it but to be turned into Trees or Stones or earth or nothing it were nothing in comparison of this But I pass by this because it is not directly intended in my Text. 4. The Saints themselves being sanctified but in part are but imperfectly assured of their Salvation And therefore in that measure as they remain in doubt or unassured Death may be a double terror to them They believe the threatenings and know more then unbelievers do what an unsufferable loss it is to be deprived of the celelestial glory and what an unspeakable misery it is to bear the endless wrath of God And therefore so far as they have such fears it must needs make death a terror to them 5. But if there were nothing but Death it self to be our Enemy the foreknowledge of it would increase the misery A Beast that knoweth not that he must die is not tormented with the fears of death though nature hath possessed them with a self-preserving fear for the avoiding of an invading evil But man foreknoweth that he must die He hath still occasion to anticipate his terrors that which will be and certainly and shortly will be is in a manner as if it were already And therefore fore-knowledge makes us as if we were alway dying We see our Graves our weeping Friends our fore-described corruption and dismal state and so our life is a continual Death And thus Death is an enemy to Nature 2. But this is not all nor the greatest enmity that Death hath to the godly It is a lamentable hinderance to the work of Grace as I shall shew you next in ten particulars I. The fears of Death do much abate our Desires after God as he is to be enjoyed by the separated soul Though every believing holy soul do love God above all and take heaven for his home and therefore sincerely longeth after it yet when we know that Death stands in the way and that there is no coming thither but through this dreadfull narrow passage this stoppeth and lamentably dulleth our desires And so the Natural enmity turneth to a Spiritual sorer enmity For let a man be never so much a Saint he will be still a Man and therefore as Death will still be death so nature will still be nature And therefore death as death will be abhorred And we are such timerous Sluggards that we are easily discouraged by this Lyon in the way The ugly Porter affrighteth us from those grateful thoughts of the New Jerusalem the City of God the heavenly inheritance which otherwise the blessed object would produce Our sanctified affections would be mounting upwards and holy Love would be working towards its blessed object but Death standing in the way suppresseth our desires and turns us back and frighteneth us from our Fathers presence We look up to Christ and the Holy City as to a precious Pearl in the bottom of the Sea or as to a dear and faithfull Friend that is beyond some dreadfull gulf Fain we would enjoy him but we dare not venture we fear this dismal enemy in the way
the patient understand not how blood letting cureth the infected blood that is left behind must he therefore plead against his Physitian and say It will not be done because he knoweth not how it s done We feel that here we have our sinfull imperfections we have for all that a promise that we shall be with Christ when death hath made its separation and we are assured that no sin doth enter there And is not this enough for us to know But yet I see not why the difficulty of the Objection should trouble us at all Death doth remove us from this sinfull flesh and admits the soul into the sight of God And in the very instant of its remove it must needs be perfected even by that remove and by the first appearance of his blessed face If you bring a candle into a dark room the access of the light expelleth the darkness at the same instant And you cannot say that they consist together one moment of time So cold is expelled by the approach of heat And thus when death hath opened the door and let us into the immortal light neither before nor after but in that instant all the darkness sinful imperfections of our souls are dissipated Throw an empty Bottle into the Sea and the emptiness ceaseth by the filling of the water neither before nor after but in that instant If this should not satisfie any let it satisfie them that the Holy Ghost in the instant of death can perfect his work So that we need not assert a perfection on earth which on their grounds must be the case of all that will escape Hell and Purgatory nor yet any Purgatory torments after death for the deliverance of the soul from the relicts of sin seeing at the instant of death by the the spirit or by the deposition of the flesh or by the sight of God or by the sight of our glorified Redeemer or by all this work will be easily and infallibly accomplished 5. The last degree and perfect conquest will be at the Resurrection And this is the victory that is mentioned in my Text. All that is fore-mentioned doth abate the enmity and conquer death in some degree But the enmity and the enemy it self is conquered at the Resurrection and not till then And therefore Death is the last enemy to be destroyed The Body lieth under the penal effects of sin till the Resurrection And it is penal to the soul to be in a state of separation from the Body though it be a state of glory that its in with Christ For it is deprived of the fulness of glory which it shall attain at the Resurrection when the whole man shall be perfected and glorified together Then it is that the Mediators work will be accomplished and all things shall be restored All that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth John 5.28 For this is the Fathers will that sent him that of all that he hath given him he should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day John 6.39 40. We have hope towards God that there shall be a Resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust Acts 24.15 As by man came death so by man came also the Resurrection from the dead I Cor. 15.21 Then shall there be no more death nor sorrow nor crying nor pain Rev. 21.4 No more diseases or fears of death or grave or of corruption No terrible enemy shall stand betwixt us and our Lord to frighten our hearts from looking towards him O what a birth-day will that be when Graves shall bring forth so many millions of sons for Glory How joyfully will the soul body meet that were separated so long Then sin hath done its worst and can do no more Then Christ hath done all and hath no more to do as our Redeemer but to justifie us in judgement and give us possession of the joy that he is preparing And then he will deliver up the Kingdom to the Father If you expect now that I should give you Reasons why Death is the last Enemy to be destroyed though much might be said from the nature of the matter the Wisdom and Will of God shall be to me instead of all other Reasons being the fountain and the sum of all He knows best the Order that is agreeable to his Works and Ends to his honour and to our good and therefore to his Wisdom we submit in the patient expectance of the accomplishment of his promises SECT III. Vse 1. I Now come to shew you the Usefulness of this Doctrine for the further Information of our understandings the well ordering of our hearts and the reforming of our lives And first you may hence be easily resolved Whether Death be truly penal to the godly which some have been pleased to make â— Controversie of late though I am past doubt but the hearts of those men do apprehend it as a punishment whose tongues and pens do plead for the contrary Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return was part of the sentence past on Adam and all his posterity which then proved it a punishment and it was not remitted to Adam that at the same time had the promise of a Redeemer nor is it remitted to any of us all Were it not for sin God would not inflict it who hath sworn that he takes no pleasure in the death of sinners And that he afflicts not willingly nor grieves the sons of men But my text it self decides the Controversie Sin and punishment are the evils that Christ removeth And if death were no punishment as it is no sin how could it be an Enemy and the last enemy to be destroyed by the Redeemer when we feel the Enmity before described against our souls and also know its Enmity to our bodies we cannot think that God would do all this were it not for sin espâ—cially when we read that death passeth upon all for that all have sinned Rom. 5.11 12. and that death is the wages of sin Rom. 6.23 Though Christ do us good by it that proveth it not to be no punishment For castigatory punishments are purposely to do good to the chastised Indeed we may say O Death where is thy sting because that the mortal evil to the Soul is taken out and because we foresee the Resurrection by faith when we shall have the victory by Christ But thence to conclude that Death hath no sting now to a believer is not only besides but against the text which telling us that the sting of death is sin and that the strength of sin is the Law doth inform us that Death could not kill us and be Death to us if sin gave it not a sting to do it with as sin could not oblige us to this punishment if the threatening of the Law were not its strength But Christ hath begun the conquest and will finish it SECT IV. Vse 2. FROM
be foiled and non-plust if we must be found in no other righteousness but what we have received from the first Adam and have wrought by the strength received from him But being gathered under the wings of Christ as the chickens under the wings of the hen Mat. 23.37 and being found then in him having the righteousness which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith we may boldly answer to all that can be charged on us to our terrour If we know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and are made conformallâ— to his death Phil. 3.9 10. if â—e are dead with him to the world and risen with him to a holy life if we have believingly traced him in his sufferings and conquest and perceive by faith how we participate in his victories we shall then be able to grapple with the hands of death and though we know the grave must be for a while the prison of our flesh we can by faith foresee the opening of our prison doors and the loosing of our bonds and the day of our last and full Redemption It strengtheneth us exceedingly to look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God When we consider what he endured against himself we shall not be weary nor faint in our minds Heb. 12.2 3. DIRECTION III. LIve also by faith on the Heavenly Glâ—ry As one eye of faith must be on an humbled crucified Christ so must the other be on heaven on a glorified Christ and on the glory and everlasting Love of God which we shall there enâ—oy This is it that conquereth the fears of death when we believe that we shall pass through it into everlasting life If a man for health will take the most ungratefull potion the bitterness being short and the benefit long and if he will suffer the Surgeon to let out his blood and in case of necessity to out off a member how light should we make of death that have the assured hopes of glory to encourage us what door so streight that we would not pass through if we could to our dearest friend What way so â—owl that we would not travail to our beloved home And shall death seem intolerable to us that letteth in our souls to Christ Well might Paul say To die is gain Phil. 1.21 When we gain deliverance from all those sins that did here beset us and all those sorrows that sin had bred We gain the accomplishment of our desires and the end of our faith the salvatiâ—n of our souls We gain the Crown that fadeth not away a place before the Throne of Christ in the Temple of God in the City of God the New Jerusalem to eat of the hidden Manna and of the Tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2. 3. We gain the place prepared for us by Christ in his Fathers house John 14.1 2. For we shall be with him where he is that we may behold his glory John 17.24 We shall gain the sight of the glory of God and the feeling of his most precious love and the fulness of joy that is in his presence and the everlasting pleasures at his right hand Psal 16.11 And shall we think much to die for such a gain we will put off our cloaths and welcome sleep which is the Image of death that our bodies may have rest and refuse not thus to die every night that we may rise more refreshed for our employments in the morning And shall we stick at the uncloathing of our souls in order to their everlasting Rest Set but the eye of faith to the Prospective of the promise and take a serious frequent view of the promised Land and this if any thing will make death more welcome then Physick to the sick then uncloathing to a beggar that puts on new or better cloaths Shall a poor man cheerfully ply his labour all day in hope of a little wages at night and shall not a believer cheerfully yieâ—d to death in hope of everlasting glory so far as heaven is foundly beâ—ieved and our conversations and hearts are there the fears of Death will be asswaged and nothing else will well asswage them DIRECTION IV. MOreover if you will conquer the enmity of death do all that you can to encrease and exercise the love of God in you For love will so incline you to the blessed object of it that Death will not be able to keep down the flame Were God set as a seal upon our hearts we should find that Love is as strong as death and the coals thereof are coals of fire â—nd the flame is vehement many waters cannot quench it nor can the flâ—ods drown it Cant. 8.6 7. If carnal Love have made the amorous to choose death that they might passionately express it especially when they have heard of the death of their beloved and if naturall fortitude and love to their Countrey have made many valient men though Heathens to contemn death and readily lay down their lives and if the love of fame and vain glory in a surviving name have caused many to die through pride how much more will the powerfull love of God put on the soul to leave this flesh and pass through death that we may see his face and fully enjoy the object of our love So much as you love God so much will you be above the terrors of the grave and pass through death for the enjoyment of your beloved Perfâ—ct Love casteth out fear and hâ—â—hâ—t feareth is not made perfect in lâ—ve in death and judgement we shall have boldness if our love be perfect 1 John 4.17 18. This makeeth the Martyrs cheerfully lay down their lives for Christ and love is glad of so precious an opportunity for its exercise and manifestation Love is a restless working thing that will give you no rest till your desires are attained and you be with God Nothing is so valiant as Love It rejoyceth when it meeteth with difficulties which it may encounter for the sake of our beloved It contemneth dangers It glorieth in sufferings Though it be humble and layeth by all thoughts of merit yet it rejoyceth in sufferings for Christ and glorieth in the Cross and in the participation of his sufferings and in the honourable wounds and scars which we receive for him that died for us DIRECTION V. TO overcome the terrors and enmity of death it is necessary that we keep the Conscience clear from the guilt of wilfull sin and of impenitency If it may be see that you wound it not If you have wounded it presently seek a cure and live not in a wounded state The face of death will waken conscience and cause it to speak much lowder then it did in health and in
and compassed with infirmities and racked by my own distempered passion so were the many Saints now glorified but the other day Elias was a man subject saith James to like passions as we are Jam. 5.17 Am I maliced by dissenting adversaries Do they privily lay snares for me and watch my halting and seek advantage against my name and liberty and life so did they by David and many other now with Christ But now these enemies are overcome Art thou under pains and consuming sicknesses are thine eyes held waking and doth trouble and sorrow waste thy spirit doth they flesh in thy heart fail thee and thy friends prove silly comforters to thee So was it with those thousands that are now in Heaven where the night of calamities is past and the just have dominion in the morning and glory hath banished all their griefs and joyes have made them forget their sorrows unless as the remembrance of them doth promote those joyes Are thy friends lamenting thee and grieved to see the signs of thy approaching death do they weep when they see thy pale face and consumed body and when they hear the sighs and groans Why thus it was once with the millions that are now triumphing with their Lord They lay in sickness and underwent the pains and were lamented by their friends as thou art now Even Christ himself was once in his agony and some shakt the head at him and other pittied him who should rather have wept for themselves then for him This is but the passage from the womb of mortality into the life of immortality which all the Saints have past before thee that are now with Christ Dost thou fear the dreadfull face of death Must thy tender flesh be turned tâ— rotness and dust and must thou lie in darkness till the Resurrection and thy body remain as the Common earth And is not this the case of all those millions whose souls now see face of Christ Did they not lie as thou dost and die as thou must and pass by death to the life which they have now attained O then commit thy soul to Christ and be quiet and comforted in his care and love Trust him as the Mid-wife of thy departing soul who will bring it safe into the light and life which thou art yet such a stranger to But it is not strange to him though it be strange to thee What was it that rejoyced thee all thy life in thy prayers and sufferings and labours was it not the hopes of heaven And was Heaven the spring and motive of thy obedience and the comfort of thy life and yet wilt thou pass into it with heaviness and shall thy approaches to it be thy sorrows Didst thou pray for that which thou wouldst not have Hast thou laboured for it and denyed thy self the pleasures of the world for it and now art thou afraid to enter in Fear not poor soul Thy Lord is there Thy husband and thy head and life is there Thou hast more there a thousand fold more then thou hast here Here thou must leave poor mourning friends that languish in their own infirmities and troubled thee as well as comforted thee while thou wast with them and that are hasting after thee and will shortly overtake thee But there thou shalt find the souls of all the blessed Saints that have lived since the Creation till this age that are all uncloathed of the rags of their mortality and have laid by their frailties with their flesh and are made up of holiness and prepared for joy and will be suitable companions for thee in thy joyes Wy shouldst thou be afraid to go the way that all the Saints have gone before thee Where there is one on earth how many are there in Heaven And one of them is worth many of us Art thou better then Noah and Abraham and David then Peter Paul and all the Saints Or dost thou not love their names and wouldst thou not be with them Art thou loath to leave thy friends on earth And hast thou not far better and more in heaven Why then art thou not as loth to stay from them Suppose that I and such as I were the friends that thou art loth to leave What if we had dyed long before thee If it be our company that thou lovest thou shouldst then be willing to die that thou maist be with us And if so why then shouldst thou not be more willing to die and be with Christ and all his holy ones that are so much more excellent then we Wouldst thou have our company Remove then willingly to that place where thou shalt have it to everlasting and be not so loth to go from hence where neither thou nor we can stay Hadst thou rather travail with us then dwell with us and rather here suffer with us then reign in heaven with Christ and us O what a brutish thing is flesh What an unreasonable thing is unbelief Shall we believe and fly from the end of our belief Shall we hope and be loth to enjoy our hopes Shall we desire and pray and be afraid of attaining our desires and lest our prayers should be heard Shall we spend our lives in labour and travail and be affraid of coming to our journeys end Do you love lâ—fe or do you not If not why are you afraid of death If you do why then are you loth to pass into everlasting life You know there is no hope of immortality on earth Hence you must pass whether you will or not as all your fathers have done before you It is therefore in heaven or nowhere that endless life is to be had If you can live here for ever do Hope for it if any have done so before you Go to some man of a thousand years old and ask him how he made shift to draw out his life so long But if you know that man walketh here in a vain shew and that his life is as a shadow a dream a post and that all these things shall be dâ—ssolved and the fashion of them passeth away is it not more reasonable that we should set our hearts on the place where there is hopes of our continuance then where there is none â—â— and where we must live for ever then where we must be but for so short a time Alas poor darkned troubled soul Is the presence of Christ less desirable in thy eyes then the presence of such sinfull worms as we whom thou art loth to part with Is it more grievous to thee to be absent from us then from thy Lord from earth then from heaven from sinners then from blessed Saints from trouble and frailty then from glory Hast thou any thing here that thou shalt want in Heaven Alas that we should thus draw back from Happiness and follow Christ so heavily and sadly into life But all this is long of the enemies that now molest our peace Indwelling sin and a flattering world and a brutish flesh and
know not whether I have part in Christ or no Answered to satisfie the doubts and further the assurance of the trâ—ubled Christian p. 173 Use 9. What a mercy the Resurrection of Christ was to the world and how we should use it to strengthen our faith p. 199 The Lords day honourable p. 201 Use 10. How earnestly we should pray for the second coming of Christ though Death be terrible p. 207 SOME imitable passages of the Life of Elizabeth late Wife of Mr. Joseph Baker whose Funerals occasioned this discourse p. 225 ERRATA 1 Cor. 15.26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death DEATH is the occasion of this dayes meeting and Death must be the Subject of our present meditations I must speak of that which will shortly silence me and you must hear of that which speedily will stop your eares and we must spend this hour on that which waits to cut our thred and take down our glass and end our time and tell us we have spent our last But as it hath now done good by doing hurt so are we co consider of the accidental benefits as well as of the natural evil from which the heavenly wisdom doth extract them Death hath now bereaved a Body of its Soul but thereby it hath sent that Soul to Christ where it hath now experience how good it is to be absent from the body and present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 It hath separated a faithful wife from a beloved husband but it hath sent her to a husband dearlyer beloved and taught her now by experience to say that to be with Christ is best of all Phil 1.23 It hath deprived a sorrowful husband of a wife and deprived us all of a faithful friend but it hath thereby brought us to the house of mourning which is better for us then the house of feasting a Paradox to the flesh but an undoubted truth for hâ—re we may see the end of all men and we that are yet living may lay it to our hearts Eccl. 7.2 3. Yea it hath brough us to the house of God and occasioned this serious address unto his Holiness that we may be instructed by his Word as we are warned by his works and that we may be wise to understand and to consider our latter end Deut. 32.29 It s like you 'l think that to tell men of the evil or enmity of Death is as needless a â—iscourse as any could be chosen For who is there that is not naturally too sensible of this and who doth not dread the name or at least the face of Death But there is accidentally a greater evil in it then that which nature teacheth men to fear And while it is the King of terrors to the world the most are ignorant of the greatâ—st hurt that it doth them or can do them or at least it is but little thought on which hath made me think it a needfull work to tell you yet of much more evil in that which you abhor as the greatest evil But so as withall to magnifie our Redeemer that overshooteth death in its own bow and causeth it when it hits the mark to miss it and that causeth health by loathsome medicines and by the dung of our bodily corruption manureth his Church to the greater felicity Such excellent skil of our wise Physician we find exprest and exercised in this Chapter where an unhappy error against the Resurrection hath happily occasioned an excellent discouâ—se on that weighty Subject which may stablish many a thousand souls and serve to shame and destroy such heresies â—ill the Resurrection come and prove it self The great Argument which the Apostle most insisteth on to prove the Resurrection is Christs own Resurrection where he entereth into a comparison between Christ and Adam shewing that as Adam first brought death upon himself and then upon his posterity so Christ that was made a quickening spirit did first Rise himself as the first-fruits and thâ—n at his coming will raise his own And as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive And this Christ will do as our victorious King and the Captain of our salvation who when he hath subdued every enemy will then deliver up the Kingdom to the Father And the last enemy which he will subdue is Death and therefore our Resurrection is his final conquest The terms of the Text have no difficulty in them The Dâ—ctrinâ— which they express must be thus unfolded 1. I must shew you that Death is an Enemy and what is meant by this Expression and wherein its Enemy doth consist 2. I shall shew you that it is an Enemy to be dâ—stroyed though lâ—st and how and by what degrees it is destroyed And then we shall make application of it to your further Instruction and Edification 1. That you may know what is meant by an Enâ—my here you must observe that man being fallen into sin and misery and Christ having undertaken the work of our Redemption the Scripture oft speaketh of our misery and recovery Metaphorically in military terms And so Satan is said to take us captive and we to be his slaves and Christ to be the Captain of our Salvation and to redeem us from our bondage And thus our sin and misery and all that hindereth the blessed Ends of his undertaking are called Enemies Death therefore is called an Enemy to be destrâ—yed that is a penal evil to be removed by the Redeemer in order to our recovery and the glory of his grace 1. It is an Evil. 2. A punishment procured by our sin and executed by Gods Justice 3. It is an evil that hindereth our felicity These three things are included in the Enmity That Death is an Enemy to Nature is a thing that all understand but all consider not how it is an Enemy to our Souls to the exercise of grace and consequently to the attainment of glory I shall therefore having first spoken briefly of the former insist a little longer upon the latter 1. How great an Enemy Death is unto Nature doth easily appear in that 1. It is the Dissolution of the Man It maketh a Man to become No man by separating the Soul from the Body and dissolving the Body into its principles It puls down in a moment a curious frame that Nature was long building and tenderly cherishing and preserving The mother long nourisheth it in her bowels and painfully brings it forth and carefully brings it up what labour doth it cost our Parents and our selves to make provision for this Life And death in a moment cuts it off How carefull are we to keep in these lamps and to maintain the oyl and Death extinguisheth thâ—m at a blast How noble a creature doth it destroy To day our parts are all in order and busie about their several tasks our Hearts are moving our Lungs are breathing our Stomacks are digesting our Blood and Spirits by assimilation making more and to morrow death takes off the
He that can recover his health by a pleasant medicine doth take it without any great reluctancy But if a leg or an arm must be cut off or a stone cut out by a painful dangerous Incision what a striving doth it cause between the contrary passions the love of life and the love of ease the fear of death and the fear of suffering Could we but come to Heaven as easily as innocent Adam might have done if he had conquered what wings would it add to our desires Might we be translated as Henoch or conveyed thither in the Chariot of Elias what Saint is there that would not long to see the face and glory of the Lord Were it but to go to the top of a Mountain and there see Christ with Moses and Elias in a glimpse of Glory as did the three Disciples who would not make haste and say It is good for us to be here Matth. 17.1 4. But to travell so chearfully with Abraham to the Mount of Mâ—riah to sacrifice an only Son or with a Martyr to the flames is a harder task This is the principal enmity of death it deterreth our desires and thoughts from heaven and maketh it a far harder matter to us to long after God then otherwise it would be Yea it causeth us to fly from him even when we truly love him And where Faith and Love do work so strongly as to overcome these fears yet do they meet with them as an enemy and must fight before they overcome 2. And as this Enemy dulleth our Desires so doth it consequently cool our Love as to the exercise and it hindereth our hope much abateth the complacency and Joy that we should have in the believing thoughts of Heaven when we should be rejoycing in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 the face of death appearing to our thoughts is naturally an enemy to our joy When we think of the grave and of dissolution and corruption and of our long abode in the places of darkness of our contemned dust and scattered bones this damps our joyfull thoughts of heaven if supernatural grace do not make us Conquerors But if we might pass from earth to heaven as from one room to another what haste should we make in our desires How joyfully should we think and speak of Heaven Then we might live in the joy of the Holy Ghost and easily delight our selves in God and Comfort would be our daily food 3. Moreover as our Natural Enemy doth thus occasion the abatement of Desire and Love and Joy so also of our Thankfulness for the Glory that is promised us God would have more praise from us if we had more pleasing joyfull thoughts of our inheritance We should magnifie him from day to day when we remember how we shall magnifie him for ever Our hearts would be turned into thankfulness and our tongues would be extolling our dear Redeemer sounding forth his praise whom we must praise for ever if dreadful Death did not draw a veil to hide the heavenly glory from us 4. And thus the dismall face of Death doth hinder the heavenliness of our Conversation Our Thoughts will be diverted when our complacency and desire is abated Our minds will be willinger to grow strange to Heaven when Death still mingleth terror in our meditations Whereas if we could have come to God in the way that was first appointed us and could be cloathed with glory without being stript of our present cloathing by this terrible hand how familiarly should we then converse above How readily would our Thoughts run out to Christ meditation of that Glory would not be then so hard a work Our hearts would not be so backward to it as now they are 5. Faith is much hindered and Infidelity much advantaged by Death Look either to the state of soul or body and you will easily perceive the truth of this The state of a Soul incorporated we know by long experience what kind of apprehensions volitions and affections belong to a soul while it acteth in the Body we feel or understand But what manner of knowledg will or Love what Joy what sorrow belong to souls that are separated from the Bodies it is not possible for us now distinctly and formally to conceive And when men find themselves at a loss about the manner they are tempted to doubt of the thing it self The swarms of irreligious Infidels that have denied the Immortality and separated existence of the soul are too full a proof of this And good men have been haunted with this horrible temptation Had there been no death we had not been liable to this dangerous assault The opinion of the sleeping of the soul till the Resurrection is but a step to flat Infidelity and both of them hence receive their Life because a soul in flesh when it cannot conceive to its satisfaction of the being state or action of a separated soul is the easier drawn to question or deny it And in regard of the Body the difficulty and tryal is as great That a corps resolved into dust and perhaps first devoured by some other body and turned into its substance should be reunited to its soul and so become a glorified body is a point not easie for unsanctified nature to believe When Paul preached of the Resurrection to the learned Athenians some mocked and others turn'd off that Discourse Acts 17.32 It is no easier to believe the Resurrection of the Body then the Immortality or separated Existence of the Soul Most of the world even Heathens and Infidels do confess the later but few of them comparatively believe the former And if sin had not let in Death upon our Nature this perillous difficulty had been prevented Then we should not have bin puzzled with the thoughts of either a corrupted Body or a separated Soul 6. And consequently by all this already mentioned our Endeavors meet with a great impediment If Death weaken Faith Desire and Hope it must needs dull our Endeavors The deterred discouraged soul moves slowly in the way of life Whereas if Death were not in our way how chearfully should we run towards Heaven Our thoughts of it would be still sweet and these would be a powerfull Spring to action When the Will goes with full Sails the commanded faculty will the more easily follow We should long so earnestly to be in Heaven if Death were not in the way that nothing could easily stop us in our course How earnestly should we pray How seriously should we meditate and conser of Heaven and part with any thing to attain it But that whâ—ch dulls our Desires of the End must needs be an Enemy to holy Diligence and dull us in the use of means 7. This Enemy also doth dangerously tempt us to fall in love with present things and to take up the miserable Portion of the worldling when it hath weakened faith and cooled our desires to the life to come we shall be tempted to think that
its best take such pleasure as may here be had and feed on that where a sensual mind hath less discouragement Whereas if Death did not stand in the way and darken Heaven to us and turn back our desires how easily should we get above thesâ— trifles and perceive the vanity of all below and how unworthy they are to be once regarded 8. Moreover it is much long of this last Enemy that God is so dishonoured by the Fears and droopings of believers They are but imperfectly yet freed from this bondage and accordingly they walk Whereas if the King of terrors were removed we should have less of Fear and more of Love as living more in the sight and sense of Love And then we should glorifie the God of Love and appear to the world as men of another world and shew them the faith and hope of Saints in the heavenly chearfulness of our lives and no more dishonour the Lord and our profession by our uncomfortable despondencies as we do 9. Moreover it is much long of this last Enemy that many true Christians cannot perceive their own sincerity but are overwhelmd with doubts and troublesome fears lest they have not the faith and hope of Saints and lest the Love of God abide not in them and lest their hearts are more on earth then Heaven When they find themselves afraid of dying and to have dark amazing thoughts about eternity and to think with less trouble and fear of earth then of the life to come this makes them think that they are yet but worldlings and have not placed their happiness with God when perhaps it is but the fear of death that causeth these unjust conclusions Christian I shall tell thee more anon that God may be truly loved and desired by thee and Heaven may be much more valued then Earth and yet the natural fears of death that standeth in thy way may much perplex thee make thee think that thou art averse from God when indeed thou art but averse from Death because yet this Enemy is not overcome 10. Lastly this Enemy is not the smallest cause of many of our particular sins and of the apostacie of many hypocritâ—s Indeeed it is one of the strongest of our temptations Before man sinned none could take away his life but God and God would not have done it for any thing but sin So that man had no temptation from the malice of enemies or the pride of Conquerours or the fury of the passionate or the power of Tyrants to be afraid of death and to use any unlawfull means to scape it An avoidable dâ—ath from the hand of God he was obliged moderately to fear that is to be afraid of sinning lest he die else God would not have threatened him if he would not have had him make use of a preventing fear But now we have an unavoidable death to fear and also an untimely death from the hand of man by Gods permission And the fear of these is a powerfull temptation Otherwise Abraham would not have distrustfully equivocated as he did to save his life Gen. 20.11 and Isaac after him do the same when he sojourned in the same place Gen. 26.7 If the fear of Death were not a strong temptation Peter would not have thrice denyed Christ and that after so late a warning and engagement nor would all his Disciples have forsaken him and fled Matth. 26.56 Nor would Martyrs have a special reward nor would Christ have been put to call upon his Disciples that they Fear not them that can kill the body Luke 12.4 and to declare to men the necessity of self-deniall in this point of Life and that none can be his Disciple that loves his Life before him Matth. 16.39 Luke 14.26 He is a Christian indeed that so Loveth God that he will not sin to save his Life But what is it that an hypocrite will not do to escape Death He will equivocate and forswear himself with the Jesuite and Familist He will forsake not only his dearest friend but Christ also and his Conscience What a multitude of the most haynous sins are daily committed through the fears of death Thousands where the Inquisition ruleth are kept in Popery by it And thousands are kept in Mahometanism by it Thousands are drawn by it to betray their Countries to deny the truth to betray the Church and cause of Christ and finally to betray their souls unto perdition some of them presume to deny Christ wilfully because that Peter had pardon that denyed him through surprize and through infirmity But they will not Repent with Peter and die for him after their repentance He that hath the power of an Hypocrites life may prescribe him what he shall bâ—lieve and do may write him down the Rule of his Religion and tell him what changes he shall make what oaths he shall take what party he shall side with and command hâ—m so many sins a day as you make your horse go so many miles Satan no doubt had much experience of the power of this temptation when he boasted so confidently of it against Job 2.4 Skin for skin and all that a man hath he will give for his life And its true no doubt of those that love nothing better then their lives Satan thought that the fear of Death would make a man do any thing And of too many he may boldly make this boast Let me but have power of their Lives and I will make them say any thing and swear any thing and be for any cause or party and do any thing against God or man When lessâ—r matters can do so much as common sad experience sheweth us no wonder if the fear of death can do it In brief you may see by what is said that Death is become an Enemy to our Souls by being first the Enemy of our Natures The Interest of our Bodies works much on our Souls much more the Interest of the whole man The principle of self-love was planted in Nature in order to self-preservation and the government of the world Nature doth necessarily abhor its own destruction And therefore this destruction standing in the way is become an exceeding great hindrance to our affections which takâ—s them off from the life to come 1. It is a very great hindrance to the Conversion of those that are yet carnal imprisoned in their unbelief It is hard to win their hearts to such a state of Hapâ—inâ—ss that cannot be obtained but by yielding unto death 2. And to the truly godly it is naturally an impediment and a great temptation in the points before expressed And though it prevail not against them it exceedingly hindereth them And thus I have shewed you that Death is an Enemy further then I doubt the most consider of If the unbeliever shall here tell me that Death is not the fruit of sin but natural to man though he had never sinned and therefore that I lay all this on God I answer him that
Mortality as it signifyeth a posse mori a natural capacity of dying was naturall to us in our innocency or else Death could not be threatened as a penalty And if I grant as much of a naturall disposition in the Body to a dissolution if not prevented by a Glorifying change it will no whit advantage their impious cause But withall man was then so far Immortall as that he had a posse non mori a naturall capacity of not dying and the morietur vel non morietur the actuall event of Life or Death was laid by the Lord of Life and Death upon his obedience or disobedience And man having sinned Justice must be done and so we came under a non posse non mori an impossibility of escaping death ordinarily because of the peremptory sentence of our Judge But the day of our deliverance is at hand when we shall attain a non posse mori a certain consummate Immortality when the last Enemy Death shall be destroyed And how that is done I shall next enquire SECT II. YOU have seen the ugly face of Death you are next to see a little of the Love of our great Redeemer You have heard what sin hath done you are next to hear what Grace hath done and what it will do You have seen the strength of the Enemy you are now to take notice of the victory of the Redeemer and see how he conquereth all this strength 1. The Beginning of the conquest is in this world 2. The perfection will not be till the day of Resurrection when this Last Enemy shall be destroyed 1. Meritoriously Death is conquered by Death The Death of sinners by the Mediators Death Not that he intended in his Meritorious work to save us from the stroke of death by a prevention but to deliver us from it after by a Resurrection For since by man came death by man also came the Resurrection from the dead I Cor. 15.21 Forasmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood he also himsâ—lf likewise took part with them that he might destroy him through death that had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject unto bondage Heb. 2.14 15. Satan as Gods Executioner and as the prosperous tempter is said to have had the power of death The fears of this dreadfull Executioner are a continuall bondage which we are lyable to through all our lives till we perceive the deliverance Which the Death of the Lord of Life hath purchased us 1. By Death Christ hath satisfied the Justice that was armed by sin against us 2. By Death he hath shewed us that Death is a tolerable Evil and to be yielded to in hope of following life 2. Actually he conquered Death by his Resurrection This was the day of Grace's triumph This day he shewed to Heaven to Hell and to Earth that Death was conquerable yea that his personal Death was actually overcome The blessed souls beheld it to their Joy beholding in the Resurrection of their Head a virtual resurrection of their own Bodies The Devils saw it and therefore saw that they had no hopes of holding the Bodies of the Saints in the power of the grave The damned souls were acquainted with it and therefore knew that their sinfull bodies must be restored to bear their part in suffering The Believing Saints on earth perceive it and therefore see that their bonds are broken and that to the righteous there is hope in death and that our Head being actually risen assureth us that we shall also Rise For if we believe that Jesus dyed and Rose again even so them also which steep in Jesus will God bring with him 1 Thes 4.14 And as Christ being raised from the dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him So shall we Rise and die no more This was the beginning of the Churches Triumph This is the day that the Lord hath made even the day which the Church on Earth must celebrate with joy and praise till the day of our Resurrection We will be glad and rejoyce therein Psam 118.24 The Resurrection of our Lord hath 1. Assured us of the consummation of his satisfaction 2. Of the truth of all his Word and so of his promises of our Resurrection 3. That Death is actually conquered and a Resurrection possible 4. That believers shall certainly Rise when their Head and Saviour is Risen to prepare them an everlasting Kingdom and to assure them that thus he will Raise them at the last A bare promise would not have been so strong a help to faith as the actual Rising of Christ as a pledge of the performance But now Christ is Risen and become the first fruits of them that sleep 1. Cor. 15.20 For because he Liveth we shall live also John 14.19 3. The next degree of destruction to this Enemy was by the gift of his Justifying and Sanctifying grace Four special benefits were then bestowed on us which are Antidotes against the Enmity of Death 1. One is the gift of Saving Faith by which we look beyond the grave as far as to eternity And this doth most powerfully disable Death to terrifie and discourage us and raiseth us above our Natural fears and sheweth us though but in a glass the exceeding eternal weight of glory which churlish Death shall help us to So that when the eye of the unbâ—liever looketh no further then the grave believing souls can enter into Heaven and see their glorified Lord and thence fetch Love and Hope and Joy notwithstanding the terrors of interposing death The eye of Faith foreseeth the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time and causeth us therein greatly to rejoyce though now for a season if need be we are in heaviness through manifold temptations And so vicâ—orious is this Faith against all the storms that do assault us that the tryal of it though with fire doth but discover that it is much more precious then Gold that perisheth and it shall be found unto praise and hoour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ whom having never seen in the flesh we Love and though now we see him not yet believing we rejoyce with unspeakable glorious joy 1 Pet. 1.5 6 7 8 9. and shall shortly receive the end of our Faith the salvation of our souls Thus Faith though it destroy not Death it self destroyeth the malignity and enmity of death while it seeth the things that are beyond it and the time when death shall be destroyed and the Life where death shall be no more Faith is like Davids three mighty men that brake through the host of the Philistines to fetch him the waters of Bethlehem for which he longed 2 Sam. 23.15 16. When the thirsty soul saith 0 that one would give me drink of the waters of Salvation Faith breaks through death which standeth in the way and fetcheth these living waters to the soul We may say
all this Enmity in Death we may see what it is that sin hath done and consequently how vile and odious it is and how we should esteem and use it Sin hath not only forfeited our Happiness but laid those impediments in the way of our recovery which will find us work and cause our danger and sorrow while we live And Death is not the least of these impediments O foolish man that still will love such a mortal Enemy If another would rob them but of a groat or defame them or deprive them of any accommodation how easily can they hate them and how hardly are they reconciled to them But sin depriveth them of their lives and separates the soul and body asunder and forfeiteth their everlasting happiness and sets death betwixt them and the Glory that is purchased by Christ and yet they love it and will not leave it Though God have made them and do sustain them and provide for them and all their hope and help is in him they are not so easily drawn to love him And yet they can love the sin that would undo them Though Christ would deliver them and bring them to everlasting blessedness and hath assumed flesh and laid down his life to testifie his Love to them yet are they not easily brought to love him but the sin that made them enemies to God and hath brought them so near to everlasting misery this they can love that deserves no love A Minister or other friend that would draw them from their sin to God and help to save them they quarrell against as if he were their enemy but their foolish companions that can laugh and jest with them at the door of Hell and clap them on the back and drive away the care of their salvation and harden them against the fear of God these are the only acceptable men to them O Christians leave this folly to the world and do you judge of sin by its sad effects You feel if you have any feeling in you in some measure what it hath done against your Souls the weakness of your faith and love the distance of your hearts from God your doubts and troubles tell you that it is not your friend You must shortly know what it will do to your bodies As it keeps them in pain and weariness and weakness so it will ere long deliver them up to the jaws of death which will spare them no more then the beasts that perish Had it not been for sin we should have had no cause to fear a dissolution nor have had any use for a coffin or a winding-sheet nor been beholden to a grave to hide our carkesses from the sight and smell of the living But as Henoch and Elias were translated when they had walked with God even so should we as those shall that are alive and remain at the coming of Christ shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall they ever be with the Lord 1 Thes 4.17 Use sin therefore as it will use you Spare it not for it will not spare you It is your murderer and the murderer of the world Use it therefore as a murderer should be used Kill it before it kills you and then though it kill your bodies it shall not be able to kill your souls and though it bring you to the grave as it did your Head it shall not be able to keep you there If the thoughts of death and the grave and rottenness be not pleasant to you let not the thoughts of sin be pleasant Hearken to every temptation to sin as you would hearken to a temptation to self-murder And as you would do if the Devill brought you a knife and tempted you to cut your throat with it so do when he offereth you the bait of sin You love not Death Love not the cause of Death Be ashamed to stand weeping over a buried friend and never to weep over a sinning or ungodly friend nor once to give them a compassionate earnest exhortation to save their Souls Is it nothing to be dead in sins and trespasses Ephes 2.1 5. Col. 2.13 Yea it is a worse Death then this that is the wages of sin and the fruit which it brings forth Rom. 6.21 23. 7.5 Surely God would never thus use mens bodies and forsake them soul and body for ever if sin were not a most odious thing what a poyson is this that kils so many millions and damneth so many millions and cannot be cured but by the blood of Christ that killed our Physitian that never casted it because he came so near to us 〈◊〉 O unbelieving stupid soâ—ls that smart and sin and groan and sin and weep and lament our bodily sufferings and yet sin still that fear a grave and fear not sin that have heard and seen and felt so much of the sad effects and yet sin still Psalm 78.32 Alas that murderers should be so common and that we should be no wiser when we have paid so dear a price for wisdom SECT V. Vse 3. FROM the Enmity of Death we may further learn that Man hath now a need of Grace for such exceeding difficulties which were not before him in his state of innocency Though Adam was able to have obeyed perfectly without sin and had Grace sufficient to have upheld him and conquered temptations if he had done his part which by that Grace he might have done yet whether that Grace was sufficient to the works that we are called to is a doubt that many have been much troubled with It is certain that he was able to have done any thing that was suitable to his present state if it were commanded him And it is certain thaâ— much that is now our duty would have been unsuitable to his state But whether it belonged to his perfection to be able and fit for such duties that were then unsuitable to him or supposition they had been suitable and duties this is the difficulty which some make use of to prove that such works cannot now be required of us without suitable help because we lost no such grace in Adam But this need not trouble us For 1. Though Adam was put on no such difficulty in particular as to encounter death yet the perfect obedience to the whole Law required a great degree of internall Habituall holiness and to determine the case whether our particular difficulties or his sinless perfect obâ—dience required greater sâ—rength and help is a matter of more difficulty then use For 2. It is but about the Degrees of Holiness in him and us and not about the Kind that the difficulty lieth For it is the same End that he was created for and disposed to by Nature and that we are redeemed for and disposed to supernaturally But yet it is worthy our observation what a difficulty sin hath cast before us in the way of life which Adam was unacquainted with that so we may see the nature
of our works and the excellency of the Redeemers grace Adam was but to seek the continuance of his life and a translation to Glory without the terrors of interposing death He was never called to prepare to die nor to think of the state of a separated Soul nor to mind and love and seek a glory to which there is no ordinary passage but by death This is the difficulty that sin hath caused against which we have need of the special assistance of the example and doctrine and promise and Spirit of the Redeemer Adam was never put to study how to get over this dreadfull gulf The threatning of death was to raise such a fear in him as was necessary to prevent it But those fears did rather hold him closer to the way of life then stand between him and life to his discouragement But we have a death to fear that must be suffered that cannot be avoided The strange condition of a separated soul so unlike to its state while resident in the body doth require in us a special Faith to apprehend it and a special revelation to discover it To desire and love and long for and labour after such a time as this when one part of us must lie rotting in the grave and the separated Soul must be with Christ alone till the Resurrection and to believe and hope for that Resurrection and to deny our selves and forsake all the world and lay down our lives when Christ requireth it by the power of this faith and hope this is a work that innocent Adam never knew This is the high employment of a Christian To have our hearts and conversations in Heaven Matth. 6.21 Phil. 3.20 when Death must first dissolve us before we can possess it here is the noble work of faith SECT VI. Vse 4. MOreover this Enmity of Death may help us to understand the reaâ—on of the sufferings and Death of Christ That he gave his life a Ransome for us and a Sacrifice for sin and so to make satisfaction to the offended Majesty is a truth that every Christian doth believe But there was another reason of his death that all of us do not duely consider of and improve to the promoting of our Sanctification as we ought Death is so great an Enemy as you have heard and so powerfull to deter our hearts from God and dull our desires to the heavenly felicity that Christ was fain to go before us to embolden the hearts of believers to follow him He suffered Death with the rest of his afflictions to shew us that it is a tolerable evil Had he not gone before and overcome it it would have detained us its Captives Had he not meâ—ited and purchased us a blessed Resurrection and opened heaven to all belâ—evers and by Death overcome him that had the power of death as Gods executioner â—hat is the Devil we should all our life time have been still subjected unto bondage by the fears of Death Heb. 2.14 But when we see that Christ hath led the way as the victorious Captain of our Salvation and that he is made perfect by sufferings in his advancement unto glory and that for the sufferings of death which by the grace of God he tasted for every man he is crowned with glory ad honour Heb. 2.9 10. this puts a holy valour into the soul and causeth us cheerfully to follow him Had we gone first and the task of conquering Deaâ—h been ours we had been overcome But he that hath led us on hath hew'd down the enemy before him and first prepared us the way and then called us to follow him to pass the way that he hath first made safe and also shewed us by his example that it is now made passable For it was one in our Nature that calleth us his Brethren that took not the nature of Angels but of the seed of Abrahâ—m that is one with us as the Sanctifier and the sanctified are and to whom as children we are given Who hath passed through Death and the Grave before us and therefore we may the boldlier follow him Heb. 2.11 12 13.16 Being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross and therefore God hâ—th highly exalted him and given him a name above every name Phil. 2. 8 9. Hereby â—e hath shewed us that Death is not so dreadfull a thing but that voluntary obedience may and must submit unto it As Abrahams faith and obedience was tryed in the offering up his Son to death at Gods command so the children of Abraham and the heirs of the promise must follow him in offering up themselves if God require it and in submitting to our natural death for that he doth require of all Examples work more then bare precepts and the Experiments of others do take more with us then meer directions It satisfieth a sâ—ck man more to read a Book of Medicinal Observations where he meets with many that were in his own case and finds what cured them then to read the Praxis of medicinall receipts alone It encourageth the patient much when the Physitian tells him I have cured many of your disease by such a medicine nay I was cured thus of the same my sâ—lf So doth it embolden a believer to lay down his Life when he hath not only a promise of a better life but seeth that the promiser went that way to Heaven before him O therefore let us learn and use this choice remedy against the immoderate fear of Death Let Faith take a view of him that was dead and is alive that was buried and is risen that was humbled and is now exalted Think with your selves when you must think of dying that you are but following your Conquering Lord and going the way that he hath gone before you and suffering what he underwent and conquered And therefore though you walk through the valley of the shaddow of death resolve that you will fear no evil Psal 23.4 And if he call you after him follow him with a Christian boldness As Peter cast himself into the Sea and walkt on the waters when he saw Christ walk there and had his command so let us venture on the jawes of death while we trace his steps and hear his encouraging commands and promises John 21.7 Mat. 14.28 29. SECT VII Vse 5. MOreover from this Doctrine we may be informed of the mistakes of many Christians that think they have no saving grace because they are afraid of dying and because these fears deterr their soulâ— from desiring to be with Christ And hence they may perceive that there is another cause of these distempers even the Enmity of Death that standeth in the way You think that if you had any Love to Christ you should more desire to be with him and that if your treasure were in heaven your hearts wouâ—d be more there and that if you truly took it for your felicity you could not
be so unwilling to be removed to it for no man is unwilling to be happy or to attain his end But stay a little and better consider of your Case Is it Christ that your heart is thus averse to or is it only Death that standeth in the way You are not I hope unwilling to see the face of God nor unwilling to be translated from earth to heaven but unwilling to die It is not because you love the creature better then the Creator but because you are afraid of Death You may love God and long to be perfected in holiness and to see his Glory and to have the most near Communion with him and yet at the same time you may fear this Enemy that standeth in your way I mean not only the Pain of death but principally the dissolution of our natures and the separation of the soul from the body and its abode in a separated state and the bodies abode in dust and darkness Grace it self is not given us to reconcile us to corruption and make death as death to seem desirable but to cause us patiently to bear the evil because of the good that is beyond it It is not our duty to love death as death Had it not been naturally an evil to be dreaded and avoided God would not have made it the matter of his threatning nor would it have been a fit means to restrain men from transgression To threaten a man with a benefit as such is a contradiction Enquire therefore into your hearts whether there be not a belief of heaven a love to God a desire to enjoy and please him even while you draw back and seem to be averse and whether it be not only lothness to die and not a lothness to be with Christ For the fuller discovery of this because I find that our comfort much dependeth on it I shall try you by these following Questions Quest 1. What is it that is ungrateful to you in your meditations of your change Is it God and heaven or is it Death If it be only Death it seems it is not the want of Love to God and heaven that causeth your aversness If it be God himself that is ungratefull to your thoughts is it because you desire not his nearer presence or communion with him in the state of glory or is it only because you fear lest you have no interest in his Love and shall not attain the blessedness which you desire If it be the first I must confess it proves a graceless soul and signifieth the want of Love to God But if it be the latter only it may stand with grace For Desire is a true signification of Love though there be doubts and fears lest we shall miss the attainment of those desires Quest 2. Would you not gladly hear the news of your removal if you might be changed without Death and translated to heaven as Henoch and Elias were and as Christ at his Ascension Had you not far rather be thus changed then abide on earth If so then it seems it is not God and Heaven that you are against but death Nay if you could reach Heaven by travelling a thousand miles would you not gladly take tâ—e journey as soon as you had got assurance of your title to it and done the work of God on earth If it were but as Peter James and John to go with Christ into an exceeding high Mountain and there to see him in glory Mat. 17.12 would you not gadly do it It seems then that thou desirest to see the Lord and thy love is to him though thou be afraid of death Quest 3. Consider of the Nature of the Heavenly felicity and try whether thou love it in the several parts One part is our personal perfection that our souls shall be free from ignorance and error and sin and sorrow and enlarged for the perfect Love of God and our bodies at the Resurrection made like the glorious body of our Lord Phil. 3.21 and wouldst thou not be thus perfected in soul and body Another part is that we shall live with the heavenly society of Angels and glorified Saints And wouldst thou not have such company rather then the company of sinners and enemies and imperfect Saints on earth Another part is that we shall see our glorified Head and be with him where he is that we may behold his glory And doth not thy heart desire this But the perfection of our Happiness is that we shall see the face of the glory of God which is the light of that world as truly as the Sun is the light of this and that we shall be filled up with the feeling of his Love and abound with Love to him again and perfectly delighted in this Communion of Love and express it in the Praises of the Lord and thus make up the New Jerusalem where God will place his glorious presence and in which he will for evermore take pleasure And is there any thing in this that thy soul is against and which thou dost not value above this worâ—d If thou find that all the parts are sweet and the Description of Heaven is most gratefull to thee and that this is the state that thou wouldst be in it seems then it is not Heaven but Death that thou art averse from and that maketh thee so loth to hear the tydings of thy change Quest 4. Couldst thou not joyfully see the coming of Christ if it were this day if thou have done thy work and art assured of his love The Apostle hath told us by the word of the Lord that the Lord himself shall desâ—end from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first and then they which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord 1 Thes 4. 15 16 17. And this is the doctrine that comforteth believers verse 18. Would it not rejoyce your hearts if you were sure to live to see the coming of the Lord and to see his glorious appearing and retinue If you were not to die but to be caught up thus to meet the Lord and to be changed immediately into an immortal incorruptible glorious state would you be averse to this would it not be the greatest joy that you could desire For my own part I must confess to you that death as death appeareth to me as an enemy and my nature doth abhor and fear it But the thoughts of the Coming of the Lord are most sweâ—t and joyfull to me so that if I were but sure that I should live to see it and that the Trumpet should sound and the dead should rise and the Lord appear before the period of my age it would be the joyfullest tidings to me in the world O that I might see his Kingdom come It is the Character of his Saints
prosperity And then sin will seem another thing and wrath more terrible then it did in your security Conscience will do much to make your burden light or heavy If Conscience groundedly speak peace and all be sound and well at home death will be less terrible the heart being fortified against its enmity But to have a pained body and a pained soul a dying body and a scorched Conscience that is afraid of everlasting death this is a terrible case indeed Speedily therefore get rid of sin and get your Consciences throughly cleansed by sound repentance and the blood of Christ For so much sin as you bring to your death-bed so much bitterness will there be in death Away then with that sin that Conscience tells you of and touch the forbidden fruit 〈◊〉 more and kindle not the sparâ—s of Hell in your souls to make the sting of death more venemous As it will quiet a believing soul through Chrâ—st when he can say with Hezekiah Isa 38.3 Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight and it will be our rejoycing if we have the testimony of our Consciences that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world 2 Cor. 1.12 So will it be most terrible to die in the fears of unpardoned sin and to have Conscience scourging us with the remembrance of our folly when God is afflicting us and we have need of a well composed mind to bear the troubles of our flâ—sh A little from without is grievous when any thing is amiss within Get home therefore to Christ without delay and cease not till you have peace in him that death may find your consciences whole DIRECTION VI. REdeeming time is another means to prevent the hurtfull fears of death When we foreknow that it will shortly end our time let us make the best of time while we have it And then when we find that our work is done and that we did not loyter nor lose the time that God vouchsafed us the end of it will be less grievous to us A man that studieth his duty and spareth for no cost or pains and is as loath to lose an hours time as a covetous man is to lose an hundred pound will look back on his life and look before him to his death with greater peace and less perplexity then another man But the thoughts of death must needs be terrible to a man that hath trifled away his life and been an unthrift of his time To think when you must die that now you are at your last day or hour and withall to think how many hours you vainly lost and that you knew not the worth of time till it was gone will make death more bitter then now you can imagine What else is Death but the ending of our Time and what can be more necessary to a comfortable end then faithfully to use it while we have it DIRECTION VII ANother help against the Enmity of Death is the Crucifying of the flesh with its affections and lusts and the conquest of the world by the life of faith and crucifying it by the Cross of Christ and dying daily by the patient suffering of the Cross our selves When we are loose from all things under the Sun and there is nothing that entangleth our affections on earth a great part of the difficulty is then removed But death will tear the heart that is glued to any thing in this world Possess therefore as if you possessed not and rejoyce as if you rejoyced not and use the world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world doth pass away I Cor. 7.29 30 31. It is much for the sake of our flesh that must perish that death doth seem so bitter to us If therefore we can throughly sudue the flesh and live above its pleasure and desires we shall the more esily bear its dissolution Shut up your senses then a little more and let your hearts grow stranger to this world and if you have known any persons relations accomodations after the flesh from henceforth know them so no more How terrible is death to an earthly-minded man that had neglected his soul for a treasure here which must then be dissipated in a moment How easie is death to a heavenly-mind that is throughly weaned from this world and taketh it but for his pilgrimage or passage unto life and hath made it the business of his dayes to lay up for himself a treasure in heaven He that hath unfeignedly made heaven his end in the course of his life will most readily pass to it on the hardest terms For every man is willing to attain his end DIRECTION VIII IT will much help us against the Enmity of death to be duly conformed to the Image of God in the hatred of sin and love of holiness and in special in the point of Justice When we hate sin throughly and find it so incorporated into our flesh that they must live and die together it will make death the more easie to us because it will be the death of sin even of that sin which we most hate and that God hateth and that hath cost us so dear as it hath done When we are in love with holiness and know that we shall never be perfect in it till after death it will make death the more welcome as the passage to our desired life When the Justice even the castigatory and vindictive Justice of God is more amiable in our eyes and we are not blinded by self-love to judge of God and of his wayes according to the interest of our flesh we shall then consent to his dissolving stroke and see that the bitterness of death proceedeth from that which is good in God though from that which is evil in our selves Doubtless as Justice is one of the blessed Attributes of God so should it be amiable to man there being nothing in God but what is lovely It is the prevalency of self-love that makes men so insensible of the excellency of Divine Justice while they speak so respectfully of his mercy So far as men are carnall and selfish they cannot love that by which they smart or of which they are in danger But the soul that is got above it self and is united unto God in Christ and hath that Image of God which containeth the impress and effect of all his Attributes hath such an habit of impartial justice in himself and such a hatred of sin and such a desire that the honour of God should be vindicateed and maintained and such an approbation of the Justice of God that he can the more easily consent or submit to the dissolving stroke of death He hateth his own sin and loatheth himself for all his abominations and is possessed with that Justice that provoketh him to self-revenge in an ordinate sort and therefore doth love and honour
these miseries yea in every prayer what do we else but confess them and lament them and groan for help and for deliverance And yet shall we fear our day of freedom and be loth that death should bring us news that our prayers are heard and our groans have reached up to heaven and that the bonds of flesh and sin shall be dissolved and we shall have need to watch and strive and fear and complain and sigh and weep no more Shall the face of death discourage us from desiring such a bessed day When we have so full assurance that at last this enemy also shall be destroyed The Lord heal and pardon the Hypocrisie of our complaints together with the unbelief and cowardliness of our souls Do we speak so much and hear so much and seem to do so much against sin and yet had we rather keep it still then be stript of it together with the rags of our mortality and yet had we rather dwell with sin in tempting troubling corruptible flesh then lay them by and dwell with Christ O Lord how lamentably have we lost our wisdom and drowned our minds in flesh and folly by forsaking thee our light and life How come our reasonable souls to be so bewitched as after all our convictions complaints and prayers to be still more willing of our sickness then of the remedy and more afraid of this bitter Cup then of the poyson that lodgeth in our bowels which it would expell and that after all the labour we have usâ—d we had yet rather dwell with our greatest enemy then by a less to be transmitted to our dearest friend and had rather continue in a troublesome weary restless life then by the sleep of death to pass to Rest And this sin in others also is our trouble though not so much as in our selves It maketh those our bitter enemies whose good we most desire and endeavour and causeth the unthankfull world to requite us with malicious usage for telling them the ungratefull truth and seeking their salvation it makes our friends to be but half-friends and some of them too like our enemies It puts a sting into the sweetest friendship and mixeth smart with all our pleasures It worketh us grief from precious mercies and abateth the comfort of our near Relations So that our smart by the pricks is often greater then our pleasure in the sweetness of the Rose No friend is so smoothed and squared to the temper and interest of another but that some in equality and unevenness doth remain which makes the closure to be less near and stedfast Even family relations are usually so imperfectly jointed and cemented that when the winds of tryal are any thing high they shake the frame and though they are but low they find an entrance and cause such a coldness of affections as is contrary to the nature and duty of the relations Either a contrariety of opinions or of natural temperature and humours or else of the dispositions of the mind Sometime cross interests and sometime passions and cross words do cause such discontents and sowrness such frowns or jealousies or distances that our nearest friends are but as sackloth on our skins and as a shoo too strait for us or as a garment that is unmeet which pinch and trouble us in their use and those that should be to us as the Apple of our eyes are as the dust or smoak to them that vex or blind them And the more we Love them the more it greiveth us to be crossed in our love There is scarce any friend so wise so good so suitable to us or so near that we can alwayes please And the displeasure of a friend is as gravell in our shoos or as Nettles in our bed oft-times more grievous then the malice of an enemy There is no such doing as this in heaven because there is no such guest as sin We shall love each other far more then we do here and yet that Love shall never be inordinate nor in the least divert our love from God but every Saint and Angel in the Society shall be loved with most chaste and pure affections in a perfect subordination to the love of God and so as that God himself in them shall be the chiefest object of that love It is there that our friends being freed from all their imperfections do neither tempt us to a carnal Love nor have any thing in them to discourage the love that is spirituall and pure We have here our passionate friends our self-conceited friends our unkind unthankfull selfish friends our mutable and unfaithfull friends our contentious friends that are like to enemies and who have used us more hardly then our friends But when we come to God we shall have friends that are like God that are wholly good and are participatively turned into Love and haveing left behind them all that was unclean and noysome and troublesome to themselves they have also cast off all that could be troublesome to us Our love will be there without suspicions without interruptions unkindnesses and discontents without disappointments frustrations and dissatisfactions For God himself will fully satisfie us and we shall love his goodness and glory in his Saints as well as immediately in himself Our friends are now lost at the turning of a straw the change of their interest their company their opinions the slanders of back-biters and mis-representations of malicious men can cool their Love and kill their friendship But Heaven is a place of constant Love The Love of Saints as all things else is there eternal And yet it declineâ—h not with age It is a world of Love that we are hasting to It is a life of love that we must there live and a work of love and perfect love that we must be there employed in for ever If here we have a pure a dear a faithful friend that is without false-heartedness and deceit that loveth us as his own soul how quickly is he snatcht away by death and leaves us melted into tears and mourning over his earthly relicts and looking upward with grieved hearts as the Disciples did after their ascending Lord Acts 1. 9 10 11. We are left almost as lifeless by such friends as the body is left by the departed soul We have nothing but grief to tell us that we live and that our souls are not departed with them we are left in greater lamentation then if we had never known a faithfull friend And alas how quickly are they gone when once God sees them ripe for heaven when Droans and Dullards live much longer If we see a Saint that 's clear of judgement and low in humility and naked-hearted in sincerity and that abounds in love to God and man that 's faithfull and constant to their friend and is above the pride and vanities of this world and doth converse by a life of faith above and is usefull and exemplary in their generation alas how soon are they